Page:Rowland--In the shadow.djvu/114

 yards from the house. This had previously been arranged by Giles, at the request of Dessalines. They were expecting some surprise, something unique, but were scarcely prepared for the charming innovation devised for their reception.

As they descended from the drag four Japanese, each with a jinrikisha, stepped from a leafy thicket and kotowed before the ladies. Lady Maltby uttered a little scream of delight.

"How awfully jolly! It has been the dream of my life to ride in a 'rikisha."

"What a lark!" cried Virginia. She eyed the smiling little jins doubtfully. "But surely we are too heavy on this turf road; it is quite soft in spots."

"What a duck of a perambulator!" cried Miss O'Connor. "But what if the horse should take fright and run away! How ever could you stop him? You remember, Kathleen, how Cousin Ned was forever talking about the 'rikishas when first he came back from India?"

"And is this a 'rikisha?" asked Miss Kathleen, who had always possessed a vague idea that the word signified some oriental dish.

The little Japanese, who, after their first objections to performing the menial duty had been overcome by the persuasive tongue of the valet, Jules, had quite entered into the spirit of the thing, continued to bow and smile and motion toward the vehicles. Leyden stepped to Lady Maltby's side. "Permit me," he said, and assisted her into the 'rikisha, then turned and said a few rapid words to the jin. The four men started, stared, looked incredulous, then glancing at one another, broke into an excited rattle of short, monosyllabic words; Leyden chattered 104