Page:Weird Tales Volume 9 Number 1 (1927-01).djvu/105

 "Since yon are here," he said impulsively, "any additional color would be wasted."

She blushed slightly but did not seem ill-pleased.

"Come, let us drink our tea."

As she spoke, she seated herself at the table, and taking a teapot as fragile as a wild-flower, she poured the jade-colored tea into two iridescent cups.

"Are you aware," she asked, "that tea never is as palatable when sipped from a cup that is not in harmony with its own alluring shade? For instance, could you enjoy tea out of a pink or yellow cup?"

"Immensely," he declared, "if you served it to me."

"I am serious," she pouted.

"How can one be serious," he asked, "when one is so supremely happy?"

"One should always be at least dignified when drinking tea," she said. "Of all beverages it is by far the most cultured and refined. Can you name another single drink which holds so lofty a position? The Japanese realize that drinking tea is a fine art and they try to keep it so. In the best tea-houses of 'The Land of Cherry Blossoms' no word is ever spoken, no discordant note is ever heard. There philosophers for ages have worked out lofty problems. Hence they have made Teaism a science. At first tea was used as a medicine to cure bodily ills, now It has become an elixir to cure moral ills."

Hugh looked at her in awe. Here was a girl as beautiful as the sun glimmering through the early mists of morning, yet she was talking as sagely as though she had lived in the marts of Eastern Asia for a hundred years.

He held out his cup. "A little more," he said, "not because I adore tea but for the sheer joy of watching you pour it, knowing that you are doing it for me." And then he added impulsively, "Do tell me more about tea. From now on I shall devote my life to it. I'll make Teaism my religion and listen to you always."

For a moment die seemed lost in thought. Then die said, "There is no more definite way of expressing a delightful compliment than to ask a friend to take tea with you. Over the teacups, souls seem very close together, friendship at that moment is more intimate than at any other point. It is the moment for the exchange of confidences. It is the time when peace steals into one's soul. Even now are you not conscious of a strange attraction that is drawing us together?"

"Yes," said Hugh softly.

She leaned toward him and her voice, almost inaudible, was like a caress. "It is the Spirit of the Tea," she murmured.

And so they sat and talked as though they had known each other always.

"Do you know," said she, "for ever so long I have made tea for two each day and yet I have always had to drink it alone."

"You were then expecting me?" said Hugh, greatly interested.

"Oh, yes," she answered quickly. "Even though you were long in coming, I knew that you would come. But this is our first meeting, so you must not stay too long. Good-bye for a while, but I shall wait patiently until you come back to me."

As she spoke, everything seemed to grow hazy and very far away. The next moment, Hugh awoke. He still lay upon the couch in the little atrociously furnished room, and the old Dream Peddler was bending over him.

"Come," he cried, "it is morning, and I have fried a steak for breakfast."

"But I have just had marmalade and tea," murmured Hugh.

It was very hard for him to come back to the material things of life