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CHAPTER ONE
TIME AND CHANCE
A cat, and the Fates, brought it all to pass. In doing so they roamed a wide territory,—the privilege both of those grim gadabout humourists, the Parcae, and of harmless, necessary cats.
By chance, within the gates of a Japanese temple, a sudden shower caught Owen Scarlett idling, and drove him into the nearest shelter, which happened to be a tiny, dark aquarium. There, lounging pleasantly, listening to the raindrops on the roof, watching the purple and golden fish steer through cool bubbles green as jade, he found himself near a group of three women in the dusk. Europeans, therefore tourists, he thought. As the tank contained nothing but a few coral rocks and pink
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