He acquiesced in the fiction, but smiled at the way she hung her head and blushed; this was not the Japanese way of telling one's age (or any other gentle lie).
"You got a grandmother?" she proceeded.
"Two," alleged the consul.
"Tha' 's ver' splen-did. An' is she well in her healths also?"
"Which one?"
She passed the joke, if she saw it. No Japanese will make his parent the subject of one.
"The ole one—always the ole one firs'."
The consul felt queerly chidden.
"She was well at last accounts."
"Tha' 's nize. An' the young one?"
"The same. And now, about yours?"
"Alas! I have not that same happiness lig you. I got not ancestors whichever. They all angery account that Mr. B. F. Pikkerton, so they outcast me out the family. He don' lig that they live with him, account they bag nombers. He an' me go'n' be only bag nomber, he say. He big boss bag nomber, me jus' liddle boss bag nomber. Me? I don' got ancestors before me nor behine me now. Hence they don' show me the
