The tennis courts at Tokyo--which stand in a magnificent central position one day to be occupied by the Japanese Houses of Parliament--are every afternoon the meeting place for youth in exile with a sprinkling of Japanese, some of whom have acquired great skill at the game. Towards tea-time the ladies arrive to watch the evening efforts of their husbands and admirers, and to escort them home when the light begins to fail. So the tennis courts have become a little social oasis in the vast desert of oriental life. Brilliant it is not. Sparkle there is none. But there is a certain chirpiness, the forced gaiety of caged birds. The day was warm and bright. The snow had vanished as though by supernatural command. Geoffrey enjoyed his game thoroughly, although he was beaten, being out of practice and unused to gravel courts. But the exercise made him, in his own language, "sweat like a pig," and he felt better. He thought he would shelve the unpleasant subject for the time being; but it was Reggie himself who revived it. "About the Yoshiwara," he said, seating himself on one of the benches placed round the courts. "They are having a special show down there to-morrow. It will probably be worth seeing." "Look here," said Geoffrey, "is it the thing for ladies--English ladies--to go to a place like that?" "Of course," answered his friend, "it is one of the sights of Tokyo. Why, I went with Lady Cynthia not so long ago. She was quite fascinated." "By Jove!" Geoffrey ejaculated. "But for a young girl--? Did Miss Cairns go too?" "Not on that occasion; but I have no doubt she has been." "But isn't it much the same as taking a lady to a public brothel?" "Not in the least," was Reggie's answer, "it is like along Piccadilly after nightfall, looking in at the Empire, and returning via Regent Street; and in Paris, like a visit to the _Rat Mort_ and the _Bal Tabarin_. It is the local version of an old theme." "But is that a nice sight for a lady?" "It is what every lady wants to see." "Reggie, what rot! Any clean-minded girl--" "Geoffrey, old man, would _you_ like to see the place?" "Yes, but for a man it's different." "Why do you want to see it? You're not going there for business, I presume?" "Why? for curiosity, I suppose. One hears such a lot of people talk about the Yoshiwara--" "For curiosity, that's right: and do you really think that women, even clean-minded women, have less curiosity than men?" Geoffrey Barrington started to laugh at his own discomfiture. "Reggie, you were always a devil for arguing!" he said. "At home one would never talk about things like that."