"No--no," cried the other hastily. "I'm a little tired--that's all--and a little--excited. This warm dusk just suits me. It's fine to talk in." After saying this, he remained so long wordless that Mrs. Todd's curiosity urged the question. "Was it anything definite that you had to say?" "Definite! It's worse than definite. It's colossal!" "Say it quick, then. I'll be on pins and needles till you do." "Well, to put it briefly--our U. S. minister at Tokio, _Jap_-an,--Evans, you know,--Brunt Evans of Illinois,--well, Evans is on the point of resigning because of ill health,--and if I want the appointment--if I really try,--" "Yes--yes--don't stop!" "Mother, I _want_ it!" cried the man, in a tone she had not heard him use for years. "You know how I've always felt about that country! I want the appointment as I have never wanted anything since I got you!" His thin hands twitched, his eyes pleaded. He might have been a schoolboy begging for the treasure of a gun, a horse, a holiday. "To give up--Washington, and live in that strange land!" whispered Mrs. Todd, as though fear touched her. "It needn't be but for a matter of four years, mother." "Is there not talk of war with Russia?" "Yes, and that's my chief reason for wanting to go." "Do you realize that Gwendolen, our only child, is to graduate this June, and formally come out next season?" "Yes, and that's my chief reason for wanting to stay." Mrs. Todd pressed her lips together. A suspicious gleam came to her pale eyes. "This is the work of Yuki Onda! You both are infatuated about that girl." "My dear Susan, how utterly unjust! Yuki has no more political influence than our cook. She doesn't dream of this possibility, she or Gwendolen either. You are the only one besides myself to hear." "The girls will be wild when they are told. Gwendolen will be mad to go! Society, flattery, success, a great catch,--all I have worked for--will be nothing!" Todd wisely kept silence. Mrs. Todd rose unsteadily to her feet. "There is no doubt that you all will be frantic to go--all three of you--without a thought for me." Seizing each side of the parted curtain, she stood, as at a tent door, staring out into a blackening sky. "You'll be a big gun out there, Mrs. Cyrus Carton Todd," wheedled a low voice. "Bigger, in some ways, than you'll ever get to be over here. Those foreign embassies are bargain-counters of dukes and princes. The American globe-trotters will be so many kneeling pilgrims at your shrine."