Page "romance" Paragraph 1051

In Tokyo Richard took up a life similar to that which he had lived in New York, except that he had replaced his biwa with a friend.

An American student named Charlotte Adams had refused to take notice of his evident aversion to people and had at last succeeded in getting him to talk to her.

He had nothing much to say to her but that he said anything seemed to please her and he accompanied her on some of her unusually searching tours of Tokyo.

In Charlotte, Richard saw a frankness and a zest for doing things which, after a fashion, he envied.

In time, he grew to depend upon her occasional company and she at length was able to encourage him to participate in more social activity.

She convinced him that he ought to be a member of some of the small tea-drinking parties she held at her rooms and in the end he complied with her wishes, although it was only rarely that he added anything to the random conversations.