GARDEN OF THE MANSION. 
Chap. IV. 
the face of a foreigner ; but the Japanese, on the 
contrary, do not show the slightest diffidence or 
fear of us. In these tea-houses they come up with 
smiling faces, crowd around you, exa min e your 
clothes, and have even learnt to shake hands ! 
Although in manners they are much more free 
than the Chinese, I am not aware they are a whit 
less moral than their shy sisters on the other side 
of the water. 
In addition to tea, my fair waiting-maids brought 
a tray containing cakes, sweetmeats of various 
kinds, and a number of hard-boiled eggs, which 
one of them kept cracking and peeling, and pressing 
upon me. As I was seated in the midst of my 
good-humoured entertainers, the scene must have 
been highly amusing to a looker-on, and would, I 
doubt not, have made a capital photograph. 
My yakoneens were in a different room, and, 
apparently, had good appetites, and were making 
good use of their time. Leaving them to finish 
their meal, I took the opportunity of having a 
stroll through the large garden in front of the 
“ Mansion.” As its name implied, it contained a 
large number of flowering plum-trees, planted in 
groups and in avenues. Little lakes or ponds, of 
irregular and pleasing forms, were in the centre of 
the garden, in which gold fish and tortoises were 
swimming about in perfect harmony. These little 
lakes were spanned by rustic bridges, and sur- 
rounded with artificial rockwork, in which ferns 
and dwarf shrubs were planted. Altogether the 
