He was lavish with titles, considering that money and nobility in such people must be inseparable; besides, experience had taught him that the use of such honorifics never came amiss. "No; she left when she was quite a little baby." "Ladyship has Japanese name?" "Asako Fujinami. Do you know the name, Tanaka?" The Japanese set his head on one side to indicate an attitude of reflection. "Tokyo?" he suggested. "Yes, from Tokyo." "Does Lordship pay his _devoir_ to relatives of Ladyship?" "Yes, I suppose so, when we go to Tokyo." "Ladyship's relatives have noble residence?" asked Tanaka; it was his way of inquiring if they were rich. "I really don't know at all," answered Geoffrey. "Then I will detect for Lordship. It will be better. A man can do great foolishness if he does not detect." After this Geoffrey discouraged Tanaka. But Asako thought him a huge joke. He made himself very useful and agreeable, fetching and carrying for her, and amusing her with his wonderful English. He almost succeeded in dislodging Titine from her cares for her mistress's person. Geoffrey had once objected, on being expelled from his wife's bedroom during a change of raiment: "But Tanaka was there. You don't mind him seeing you apparently." Asako had burst out laughing. "Oh, he isn't a man. He isn't real at all. He says that I am like a flower, and that I am very beautiful in '_deshabeel_.'" "That sounds real enough," grunted Geoffrey, "and very like a man." Perhaps, innocent as she was, Asako enjoyed playing off Tanaka against her husband, just as it certainly amused her to watch the jealousy between Titine and the Japanese. It gave her a pleasant sense of power to see her big husband look so indignant. "How old do you think Tanaka is?" he asked her one day. "Oh, about eighteen or nineteen," she answered. She was not yet used to the deceptiveness of Japanese appearances. "He does not look more sometimes," said her husband; "but he has the ways and the experience of a very old hand. I wouldn't mind betting you that he is thirty." "All right," said Asako, "give me the jade Buddha if you are wrong." "And what will you give me if I am right?" said Geoffrey. "Kisses," replied his wife. Geoffrey went out to look for Tanaka. In a quarter of an hour he came back, triumphant. "My kisses, sweetheart," he demanded. "Wait," said Asako; "how old is he?" "I went out of the front door and there was Master Tanaka, telling the rickshaw-men the latest gossip about us. I said to him, 'Tanaka, are you married?' 'Yes, Lordship,' he answered, 'I am widower.' 'Any children?' I asked again. 'I have two progenies,' he said; 'they are soldiers of His Majesty the Emperor.' 'Why, how old are you?' I asked. 'Forty-three years,' he answered. 'You are very well preserved for a man of your age,' I said, and I have come back for my kisses." After this monstrous deception Geoffrey had declared that he would dismiss Tanaka.