"It can never be undone," I said soberly.
Well, that's the picture as nearly as I can draw it: a round table
with a low centerpiece of orchids in lavenders and pink, old silver
candlesticks with filigree shades against the somber wainscoting; nine
people, two of them unhappy--Jim and I; one of them complacent--Aunt
Selina; one puzzled--Mr. Harbison; and the rest hysterically mirthful.
Add one sick Japanese butler and grind in the mills of the gods.
Every one promptly forgot Takahiro in the excitement of the game we were
all playing. Finally, however, Aunt Selina, who seemed to have Takahiro
on her mind, looked up from her plate.
"That Jap was speckled," she asserted. "I wouldn't be surprised if it's
measles. Has he been sniffling, James?"
"Has he been sniffling?" Jim threw across at me.
"I hadn't noticed it," I said meekly, while the others choked.
Max came to the rescue. "She refused to eat it," he explained,
distinctly and to everybody, apropos absolutely of nothing. "It said on
the box,'ready cooked and predigested.' She declared she didn't care who
cooked it, but she wanted to know who predigested it."
As every one wanted to laugh, every one did it then, and under cover
of the noise I caught Anne's eye, and we left the dining room. The men
stayed, and by the very firmness with which the door closed behind us, I
knew that Dallas and Max were bringing out the bottles that Takahiro had
hidden. I was seething. When Aunt Selina indicated a desire to go over
the house (it was natural that she should want to; it was her house, in
a way) I excused myself for a minute and flew back to the dining room.
It was as I had expected. Jim hadn't cheered perceptibly, and the
rest were patting him on the back, and pouring things out for him, and
saying, "Poor old Jim" in the most maddening way. And the Harbison man
was looking more and more puzzled, and not at all hilarious.
I descended on them like a thunderbolt.
"That's it," I cried shrewishly, with my back against the door. "Leave
her to me, all of you, and pat each other on the back, and say it's gone
splendidly! Oh, I know you, every one!" Mr. Harbison got up and pulled
out a chair, but I couldn't sit; I folded my arms on the back. "After a
while, I suppose, you'll slip upstairs, the four of you, and have your
game." They looked guilty. "But I will block that right now. I am going
to stay--here. If Aunt Selina wants me, she can find me--here!"
The first indication those men had that Mr. Harbison didn't know the
state of affairs was when he turned and faced them.