"'Who has come ?' I asked.

"'The lady we came to see,' she said.

"'Then, who was the charming little lady who poured out tea for us?' I
asked. My friend smiled.

"'Oh, that was only the housemaid.'"

A man dealing with the same point remarks: "It is very important that a
Japanese upper servant should have good manners, for he is expected to have
sufficient knowledge of etiquette to entertain his master's guests if his
master is out. After rubbing his knees together and hissing and kowtowing
(bowing low), he will invite you to take a seat on the floor, or, more
correctly speaking, on your heels, with a flat cushion between your knees
and the floor to make the ordeal a little less painful. He will then offer
you five cups of tea (it is the number of cups that signifies, not the
number of callers), and dropping on his own heels with ease and grace,
enter into an affable conversation, humble to a degree, but perfectly
familiar, until his master arrives to relieve him. Even after his master
has arrived he may stay in the room, and is quite likely to cut into the
conversation, and dead certain to laugh at the smallest apology for a
joke!"




CHAPTER IX

A JAPANESE DAY (_continued_)