Produced by Al Haines. [Illustration: Cover art] [Illustration: "Watching the city lights ... waiting, listening—always listening." Page 352] *JAPONETTE* _*By*_* ROBERT W. CHAMBERS* WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHARLES DANA GIBSON D. APPLETON AND COMPANY NEW YORK AND LONDON :: MCMXII COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Copyright, 1911, 1912, by International Magazine Company under the title "The Turning Point" _Published March, 1912_ Printed in the United States of America TO ETHEL AND LUCILLE FOREMAN *CONTENTS* CHAPTER I.—In Forma Pauperis II.—Corpus Delicti III.—Sub Judice IV.—In Loco Parentis V.—De Motu Proprio VI.—Pacta Conventa VII.—Flos Veneris VIII.—Mille Modi Veneris IX.—Non Sequitur X.—Compos Mentis XI.—Quod Erat Faciendum XII.—Nunc Aut Nunquam XIII.—Cui Malo XIV.—Desunt Cætera *LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS* "Watching the city lights—watching, listening, always listening" . . . Frontispiece "A dainty, unreal shape, exquisite as a tinted phantom stealing through a fairy tale of Old Japan" "’We *had* to spend all our money on clothes’" "’My uncle’s port and sherry,’ he said" "’Is it because we are merely attractive that you mentioned the relationship?’" "’As far as I am concerned, the matter is settled’" "’I wonder just how innocent we really are?’ she said" "Mr. Rivett took in Diana, his son Silvette" "’Wouldn’t it be odd if Jim married that girl?’" "Presently she caught his eye and made him a pretty gesture" "’Diana!’ she exclaimed softly" "Glancing up, she beheld Jack Rivett" "She looked around, pen poised" "The colonel puffed his cigar in smiling silence" "’I want to gossip with you,’ he said abruptly" "’Oh, dear,’ she said, ’there’s somebody down there already’" "Dineen slowly revolved his thumbs and squinted at a sunbeam" "’Your loyalty to honor deceived a very gentle heart,’ he said" "That night at dinner she was very gay—a charming, sparkling, bewildering creature" "’So *this* is your apartment?’ he said" "’Health, happiness, prosperity to them’" *JAPONETTE* *CHAPTER I* *IN FORMA PAUPERIS* The failure of the old-time firm of Edgerton, Tennant & Co. was unusual only because it was an honest one—the bewildered creditors receiving a hundred cents on a dollar from property not legally involved.