Page:Madame Butterfly; Purple eyes; A gentleman of Japan and a lady; Kito; Glory (1904).djvu/177

 when its object is before you it is often insistent.

Kite's departures from the mood and habitude of his sprightly fellows were so many that he was quite alien among them. Mere physical differences you would probably have noticed first in your perambulatory acquaintance. As you drowsed along behind him, day after day, in the air that has always the languor of afternoon, you would be driven by the mere fact of having him constantly in your eye, and your eye constantly reacting upon an Eastern vacuity of mind (which you were surprised to find yourself acquiring in spite of yourself), to a comparison of your coolie with others you met, passed, and traveled with; for his kind are legion. These comparisons, even though your analytical edge were somewhat dulled by the lotus air, would inevitably be unfavorable to Kito. Perhaps you were on the lookout for the picturesque in Japan, where it is fondly fancied to be indigenous? Well, Kito was commonplace—repellent. You probably adored Truth? But—there were certain contradictions about your 'riki'-man which struck you with the disfavor of detected prevarication. Thus, if you regarded