Part 21 (2/2)

The dining-room seemed larger still than the reception room. Down each side of it were arranged two rows of red lacquer tables, each about eighteen inches high and eighteen inches square. Mysterious little dishes were placed on each side of these tables; the most conspicuous was a flat reddish fish with a large eye, artistically served in a rollicking att.i.tude, which in itself was an invitation to eat.

The English guests were escorted to two seats at the extreme end of the room, where two tables were laid in isolated glory. They were to sit there like king and queen, with two rows of their subjects in long aisles to the right and to the left of them.

The seats were cus.h.i.+ons merely; but those placed for Geoffrey and Asako were raised on low ha.s.socks. After them the files of the Fujinami streamed in and took up their appointed positions along the sides of the room. They were followed by the _geisha_, each girl carrying a little white china bottle shaped like a vegetable marrow, and a tiny cup like the bath which hygienic old maids provide for their canary birds.

”j.a.panese _sake_” said Sadako to her cousin, ”you do not like?”

”Oh, yes, I do,” replied Asako, who was intent on enjoying everything.

But on this occasion she had chosen the wrong answer; for real ladies in j.a.pan are not supposed to drink the warm rice wine.

The _geisha_ certainly looked most charming as they slowly advanced in a kind of ritualistic procession. Their feet like little white mice, the dragging skirts of their spotless kimonos, their exaggerated care and precision, and their stiff conventional att.i.tudes presented a picture from a Satsuma vase. Their dresses were of all shades, black, blue, purple, grey and mauve. The corner of the skirt folded back above the instep revealed a glimpse of gaudy underwear provoking to men's eyes, and displayed the intricate stenciled flower patterns, which in the case of the younger women seemed to be catching hold of the long sleeves and straying upwards. Little dancing girls, thirteen and fourteen years old--the so-called _hangyoku_ or half jewels--accompanied their elder sisters of the profession. They wore very bright dresses just like the dolls; and their ma.s.sive _coiffure_ was bedizened with silver spangles and elaborately artificial flowers.

”Oh!” gasped the admiring Asako, ”I must get one of those _geisha_ girls to show me how to wear my kimonos properly; they do look smart.”

”I do not think,” answered Sadako. ”These are vulgar women, bad style; I will teach you the n.o.ble way.”

But all the _geisha_ had a grave and dignified look, quite different from the sprightly b.u.t.terflies of musical comedy from whom Geoffrey had accepted his knowledge of j.a.pan.

They knelt down before the guests and poured a little of the _sake_ into the shallow saucer held out for their ministrations. Then they folded their hands in their laps and appeared to slumber.

A sucking sound ran round the room as the first cup was drained. Then a complete silence fell, broken only by the shuffle of the girls' feet on the matting as they went to fetch more bottles.

Mr. Fujinami Gentaro spoke to the guests a.s.sembled, bidding them commence their meal, and not to stand upon ceremony.

”It is like the one--two--three--go! at a race,” thought Geoffrey.

All the guests were manipulating their chop-sticks. Geoffrey raised his own pair. The two slender rods of wood were unparted at one end to show that they had never been used. It was therefore necessary to pull them in two. As he did so a tiny splinter of wood like a match fell from between them.

Asako laughed.

”That is the toothpick,” cousin Sadako explained. ”We call such chop-sticks _komochi-has.h.i.+_, chopstick with baby, because the toothpick inside the chopstick like the baby inside the mother. Very funny, I think.”

There were two kinds of soup--excellent; there was cooked fish and raw fish in red and white slices, chastely served with ice; there were vegetables known and unknown, such as sweet potatoes, French beans, lotus stems and bamboo shoots. These had to be eaten with the aid of the chop-sticks--a difficult task when it came to cutting up the wing of a chicken or balancing a soft poached egg.

The guests did not eat with gusto. They toyed with the food, sipping wine all the time, smoking cigarettes and picking their teeth.

Geoffrey, according to his own description, was just getting his eye in, when Mr. Fujinami Gentaro rose from his humble place at the far end of the room. In a speech full of poetical quotations, which must have cost his tame students considerable trouble in the composition, he welcomed Asako Barrington, who, he said, had been restored to j.a.pan like a family jewel which has been lost and is found. He compared her visit to the sudden flowering of an ancient tree. This did not seem very complimentary; however, it referred not to the lady's age but to the elder branch of the family which she represented. After many apologies for the tastelessness of the food and the stupidity of the entertainment, he proposed the health of Mr. and Mrs. Harrington, which was drunk by the whole company standing.

Ito produced from his pocket a translation of this oration.

”Now please say a few words in reply,” he directed.

Geoffrey, feeling acutely ridiculous, scrambled to his feet and thanked everybody for giving his wife and himself such a jolly good time. Ito translated.

”Now please command to drink health of the Fujinami family,” said the lawyer, consulting his _agenda_. So the health of Mr. and Mrs.

Fujinami Gentaro was drunk with relish by everybody, including the lady and gentleman honoured.

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