"Yes, he is," said Asako; "much too big for Japan." "Oh, I should like that," said the little Eurasian, "it must be nice." There was a warmth, a sincerity in the tone which made Asako stare at her companion. But the childish face was innocent and smiling. The languid curve of the smile and the opalescence of the green eyes betrayed none of their secrets to Asako's inexperience. Reggie sat down at the piano, and, still watching the two women, he began to play. "This is the Yaé Sonata," he explained to Geoffrey. It began with some bars from an old Scottish song: "Had we never loved so sadly, Had we never loved so madly, Never loved and never parted, We had ne'er been broken-hearted." Insensibly the pathetic melody faded away into the _staccato_ beat of a _geisha's_ song, with more rhythm than tune, which doubled and redoubled its pace, stumbling and leaping up again over strange syncopations. All of a sudden the musician stopped. "I can't describe your wife, now that I see her," he said. "I don't know any dignified old Japanese music, something like the _gavottes_ of Couperin only in a setting of Kyoto and gold screens; and then there must be a dash of something very English which she has acquired from you--'Home, Sweet Home' or 'Sally in our Alley.'" "Never mind, old chap!" said Geoffrey; "play 'Father's home again!'" Reggie shook himself; and then struck up the rolling chorus; but, as he interpreted it, his mood turned pensive again. The tone was hushed, the time slower. The vulgar tune expressed itself suddenly in deep melancholy, It brought back to the two young men more forcibly than the most inspired _concerto_, the memory of England, the sparkle of the theatres, the street din of London, and the warmth of good company--all that had seemed sweet to them in a time which was distant now. Reggie ceased playing. The two girls were sitting together now on the big black cushion in front of the fire. They were looking at a portfolio of Japanese prints, Reggie's embryo collection. The young diplomat said to his friend: "Geoffrey, you've not been in the East long enough to be exasperated by it. I have. So our ideas will not be in sympathy." "It's not what I thought it was going to be, I must admit. Everything is so much of a muchness. If you've seen one temple you've seen the lot, and the same with everything here." "That is the first stage, Disappointment. We have heard so much of the East and its splendours, the gorgeous East and the rest of it. The reality is small and sordid, and like so much that is ugly in our own country." "Yes, they wear shocking bad clothes, don't they, directly they get out of kimonos; and even the kimonos look dingy and dirty." "They are." said Reggie. "Yours would be, if you had to keep a wife and eight children on thirty shillings a month." Then he added: "The second stage in the observer's progress is Discovery. Have you read Lafcadio Hearn's books about Japan?"