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diff --git a/old/63181-8.txt b/old/63181-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9176eb0..0000000 --- a/old/63181-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4630 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Japanese Nightingale, by Winnifred Eaton - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: A Japanese Nightingale - -Author: Winnifred Eaton - -Illustrator: Genjiro Yeto - -Release Date: September 11, 2020 [EBook #63181] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JAPANESE NIGHTINGALE *** - - - - -Produced by Mary Glenn Krause, Ernest Schaal, University -of Toronto: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - [Illustration: - [See p. 8] - THE STORM DANCE] - - - - - A JAPANESE - NIGHTINGALE - - _by_ - - ONOTO WATANNA - - ILLUSTRATED BY - GENJIRO YETO - - [Illustration] - - NEW YORK AND LONDON - HARPER & BROTHERS - PUBLISHERS M-C-M I-I - - - - - Copyright, 1901, by HARPER & BROTHERS. - - _All rights reserved._ - October, 1901. - - - - - CONTENTS - - CHAP. PAGE - - I. THE STORM DANCE 1 - - II. IN WHICH WOMAN PROPOSES AND MAN DISPOSES 16 - - III. AN APPOINTMENT 34 - - IV. IN WHICH MAN PROPOSES 46 - - V. IN WHICH THE EAST AND THE WEST ARE UNITED 57 - - VI. THE ADVENTURESS 66 - - VII. MY WIFE! 81 - - VIII. YUKI'S HOME 94 - - IX. THE MIKADO'S BIRTHDAY 107 - - X. A BAD OMEN 121 - - XI. THE NIGHTINGALE 131 - - XII. TARO BURTON 137 - - XIII. IN WHICH TWO MEN LEARN OF A SISTER'S SACRIFICE 148 - - XIV. A STRUGGLE IN THE NIGHT 165 - - XV. THE VOW 177 - - XVI. A PILGRIM OF LOVE 188 - - XVII. YUKI'S WANDERINGS 203 - - XVIII. THE SEASON OF THE CHERRY BLOSSOM 215 - - - - - ILLUSTRATIONS - - - THE STORM DANCE _Frontispiece_ - - THE NIGHTINGALE SONG _Facing p_. 134 - - "THE THOUSAND PETALS OF - CHERRY BLOSSOMS WERE - FALLING ABOUT THEM" " 224 - - - - - A JAPANESE NIGHTINGALE - - I - - THE STORM DANCE - - -The last rays of sunset were tingeing the land, lingering in splendor -above the bay. The waters had caught the golden glow, and, miser-like, -seemingly made effort to keep it with them; but, inexorably, the -lowering sun drew away its gilding light, leaving the waters a dark -green. The shadows began to darken, faint stars peeped out of the -heavens, and slowly, unwillingly, the day's last ray followed the sunken -sun to rest; and with its vanishment a pale moon stole overhead and -threw a seraphic light over all things. - -Out in the bay that the sun had left was a tiny island, and on this a -Japanese business man, who must also have been an artist, had built a -tea-house and laid out a garden. Such an island! In the sorcerous -moonlight, one might easily believe it the witch-work of an Oriental -Merlin. Running in every direction were narrow jinrikisha roads, which -crossed bewildering little creeks, spanned by entrancing bridges. These -were round and high, and curved in the centre, and clinging vines and -creeping, nameless flowers crawled up the sides and twined about the -tiny steps which ascended to the bridges. After crossing a bridge shaped -thus, a straight bridge is forever an outrage to the eye and sense. And -all along the beach of this island was pure white sand, which looked -weirdly whiter where the moonbeams loitered and played hide-and-seek -under the tree-shadows. - -The seekers of pleasure who made their way out to the little island on -this night moored their boats here in the shadows beneath the trees, and -drove in fairy vehicles, pulled by picturesque runners, clear around the -island, under the pine-trees, over miniature brooks, into the mysterious -dark of a forest. Suddenly they were in a blaze of swinging, dazzling -lights, laughter and music, chatter, the clattering of dishes, the twang - of the samisen, the ron-ton-ton of the biwa. They had reached the -garden and the tea-house. - -Some pleasure-loving Japanese were giving a banquet in honor of the full -moon, and the moon, just over their heads, clothed in glorious raiment, -and sitting on a sky-throne of luminous silver, was attending the -banquet in person, surrounded by myriad twinkling stars, who played at -being her courtiers. Each of the guests had his own little mat, table, -and waitress. They sat in a semicircle, and drank the sake hot, in tiny -cups that went thirty or more to the pint; or the Kyoto beer that had -been ordered for the foreigners who were the chief guests this evening. -This is the toast the Japanese made to the moon: "May she with us drink -a cup of immortality!" and then each wished the one nearest him ten -thousand years of joy. - -Now the moon-path widened on the bay, and the moon itself expanded and -grew more luminous as though in proud sympathy and understanding of the -thousand banquets held in her honor this night. All the music and noise -and clatter and revel had gradually ceased, and for a time an eloquent -silence was everywhere. Huge glowing fire-flies, flitting back and forth -like tiny twinkling stars, seemed to be the only things stirring. - -Some one snuffed the candles in the lanterns, and threw a large mat in -the centre of the garden, and dusted it extravagantly with rice flour. -Then a shaft of light, that might have been the combination of a -thousand moonbeams, was flashed on the mat from an opening in the upper -part of the house, and out of the shadows sprang on to the mat a wild, -vivid little figure, clad in scintillating robes that reflected every -ray of light thrown on them; and, with her coming, the air was filled -with the weird, wholly fascinating music of the koto and samisen. - -She pirouetted around on the tips of the toes of one little foot, -clapped her hands, and courtesied to the four corners of the earth. Her -dance was one of the body rather than of the feet, as back and forth she -swerved. There was a patter, patter, patter. Her garments seemed endowed -with life, and took on a sorrowing appearance; the lights changed to -accompany her; the music sobbed and quivered. It had begun to rain! -_She_ was raining! It seemed almost as if the pitter-patter of her feet -were the falling of tiny raindrops; the sadness of her garments had -increased, and now they seemed to be weeping, at first gradually, then -faster and still faster, until finally she was a storm--a dark, blowing, -lightning storm. From above the light shot down in quick, sharp flashes, -the drums clashed madly, the koto wept on, and the samisen shrieked -vindictively. - -Suddenly the storm quieted down and ceased. A blue light flung itself -against the now lightly swaying figure; then the seven colors of the -spectrum flashed on her at once. She spread her garments wide; they -fluttered about her in a large half-circle, and, underneath the rainbow -of the gown, a girl's face, of exquisite beauty, smiled and drooped. -Then the extinction of light--and she was gone. - -A common cry of admiration and wonder broke out from Japanese and -foreigners alike. They called for her, clapped, stamped, whistled, -cheered. One man's voice rose above the clatter of noises that had -broken loose all over the gardens. He was demanding excitedly of the -proprietor to tell him who she was. - -The proprietor, smirking and bowing and cringing, nevertheless would not -tell. - -The American theatrical manager lost his head a moment. He could make -that girl's fortune in America! He understood it was possible to -purchase a geisha for a certain term of years. He stood ready on the -spot to do this. He was ready to offer a good price for her. Who was -she, and where did she live? - -Meanwhile the nerve-scraping dzin, dzin, dzin of a samisen was -disturbing the air with teasing persistence. There is something -provoking and still alluring in the music of the samisen. It startles -the chills in the blood like the maddening scraping of a piece of metal -against stone, and still there is an indescribable fascination and -beauty about it. Now as it scratched and squealed intermittently and -gradually twittered down to a zoom, zoom, zoom, a voice rose softly, and -gently, insinuatingly, it entered into the music of the samisen. Only -one long note had broken loose, which neither trembled nor wavered. When -it had ended none could say, only that it had passed into other notes as -strangely beautiful, and a girl was singing. - -Again the light flashed down and showed her standing on the same mat on -which she had danced, her hands clasped, her face raised. She was -ethereal, divinely so. Her kimono was all white, save where the shaft of -moonbeams touched the silk to silvery brilliance. And her voice! All the -notes were minors, piercing, sweet, melancholy--terribly beautiful. She -was singing music unheard in any land save the Orient, and now for the -first time, perhaps, appreciated by the foreigners, because of that -voice--a voice meant for just such a medley of melody. And when she had -ceased, the last note had not died out, did not fall, but remained -raised, unfinished, giving to the Occidental ears a sense of -incompleteness. Her audience leaned forward, peering into the darkness, -waiting for the end. - -The American theatrical manager stalked towards the light, which -lingered a moment, and died out, as if by magic, as he reached it. But -the girl was gone. - -"By Jove! She's great!" he cried out, enthusiastically. Then he turned -on the proprietor. "Where is she? Where can I find her?" - -The man shook his head. - -"Oh, come, now," the American demanded, impatiently, "I'll pay you." - -"I don' know. She is gone." - -"But you know where she lives?" - -The proprietor again answered in the negative. - -"Now, wouldn't that make one of this country's squatty little gods -groan?" the exasperated manager demanded of a younger man who had -followed him forward. - -"She'd be a great card in vaudeville," the young man contented himself -with saying. - -"There's a fortune in her! I'm going to find her if she's on this -island. Come on with me, will you?" - -Nothing loath, Jack Bigelow fared forth behind the theatrical man, whom -he had never seen before that afternoon, and whom he never expected to -see again. They hurried down one of the narrow, shadowy roads that -almost made a labyrinth of the island. But fortune was with them. A turn -in the road, which showed the waters of the bay not fifty yards ahead, -revealed just in front of them two figures--two women--both small, but -one a trifle taller than her companion. - -"Hi there! You!" shouted the manager, who, though among a people whose -civilization was older than his own, considered them but heathen, and -gave them the scant courtesy deserved by all so benighted in matters -theatrical. The two figures suddenly stopped. - -"Are you the girl who sang?" - -"Yes," came the answer in a clear voice from the taller figure. - -The manager was not slow in coming to the point. - -"Would you like to be rich?" - -Again the positive monosyllable, uttered with much eagerness. - -"Good!" The manager's face could not be seen, but his satisfaction was -revealed in his voice. "Just come with me to America, and your fortune's -made!" - -She stood silent, her head down, so that the manager prompted her -impatiently: "Well?" - -"I stay ad Japan," she said. - -"Stay at Japan!" The manager barely controlled himself. "Why, you can -never get rich in this land. Now look-a-here--I'll call and see you -to-morrow. Where do you live?" - -"I don' want you call. I stay ad Japan." - -This time the manager, seeing a possible fortune escaping him, and -having in mind the courtesy due the heathen, delivered himself of a -large Christian oath. "If you stay here, you're a fool. You'll never--" - -The young man named Bigelow, who had watched the attempted bargaining in -silence, broke in with some indignation. "Oh, let her go! She's got a -right to do as she pleases, you know. Don't try to bully her into going -to America if she'd rather stay here." - -"Well, I suppose I can't use force to make her take a good thing," said -the manager, ungraciously. He drew out his card-case and handed the girl -his card. "Perhaps you'll change your mind after you think about this a -bit. If you do, my name and Tokyo address are on that card; just come -round and see me. I'm going down to Bombay to look out for some Indian -jugglers. I'll be gone about five months, and will be back in Tokyo -before I start out on another trip to China, Corea, and the Philippines, -and then off for home." - -The girl took the card and listened in silence; when he finished, she -courtesied, slipped a hand into that of her companion, and hurried down -the narrow road. - -After the two Americans had made their way back to the tea-garden, the -older one at once sought out the proprietor. - -"You know something about that girl. Come, tell us," he said, -imperiously. - -The proprietor was profusely courteous, but hesitated to speak of the -one who had danced and sung. Finally he unbent grudgingly. He told the -theatrical man and his companion that he knew next to nothing about her. -She had come to him a stranger, and had offered her services. She -refused to enter into the usual contract demanded of most geishas, and -in view of her talents he could not afford to lose her. She was -attracting large crowds to his gardens by her strange dances. Still he -disliked and mistrusted her. She came only when it suited her whim, and -on _fêtes_ and occasions of this kind he had no means of knowing where -she was. It was only by accident she had happened in this evening. Once -he had attempted to follow her, but she had discovered him, and made him -promise never to do such a thing again, threatening to stay away -altogether if he did so. He spoke disparagingly of her: - -"Beautiful, excellencies! Phow! You cannot see properly in the deceitful -light of this honorable moon. A cheap girl of Tokyo, with the blue-glass -eyes of the barbarian, the yellow skin of the lower Japanese, the hair -of mixed color, black and red, the form of a Japanese courtesan, and the -heart and nature of those honorably unreliable creatures, alien at this -country, alien at your honorable country, augustly despicable--a -half-caste!" - - - - - II - - IN WHICH WOMAN PROPOSES AND - MAN DISPOSES - - -Jack Bigelow was beset by the nakodas (professional match-makers). He -was known to be one of the richest foreigners in the city, and the -Nekoosa gave him no rest. Though he found them interesting, with the -little comedies and tragedies to relate of the matches they had made and -unmade, he had remained impregnable to their arts. He naturally shrank -from such a union, and in this position he was strengthened by a promise -he had made before leaving America to a college chum, his most intimate -friend, a young English-Japanese student, named Taro Burton, that during -his stay in Japan he would not append his name to the long list of -foreigners who for a short, happy, and convenient season cheerfully take -unto themselves Japanese wives, and with the same cheerfulness desert -them. - -Taro Burton was almost a monomaniac on this subject, and denounced both -the foreigners who took to themselves and deserted Japanese wives, and -the native Japanese, who made such a practice possible. He himself was a -half-caste, being the product of a marriage between an Englishman and a -Japanese woman. In this case, however, the husband had proved faithful -to his wife and children up to death; but then he had married a daughter -of the nobility, a descendant of the proud Jakichi family, and the -ceremony had been performed by an English missionary. Despite the -happiness of this marriage, Taro held that the Eurasian was born to a -sorrowful lot, and was bitterly opposed to the union of the women of his -country with men of other lands, particularly as he was Westernized -enough to appreciate how lightly such marriages were held by the -foreigners. It was true, of course, that after the desertion the wife -was divorced, according to the law, but that, in Taro's mind, only made -the matter more detestable. - -For five years, up to their graduation four months before this, the -young American and the young half-Japanese had been associated as -closely together as it is possible for two young men to be, and a strong -and deep affection existed between them. - -It had been originally decided that the friends would make this trip -together, which in Taro Burton's case was to be his return to the home -he had left, and, with Jack Bigelow, was to be the beginning of a year's -travel preliminary to entering the business of his father, who was a -rich shipbuilder. But for some reason, which he never clearly set forth -to his friend, Taro had backed out at almost the last minute; yet he had -urged Jack to undertake the trip alone, and, under promise to follow -shortly, finally had prevailed. So Jack Bigelow had made the long voyage -to Japan, and had taken a pretty house of his own a short distance from -Tokyo. - -It was unfortunate that Taro could not have accompanied his friend, for, -while the latter was not a weak character, he was easy-going, -good-natured, and easily manipulated through his feelings. - -The young Japanese, had he done nothing else, at least would have kept -the Nekoosa and their offerings of matrimonial happiness on the other -side of the American's doors. As it was, one of them in particular was -so picturesque in appearance, quaint in speech, and persistent in his -calls, that the young man had encouraged his visits, until a certain -jocular intimacy put their relations with each other on a pleasant and -familiar footing. - -It was this nakoda (Ido was his name, so he told Jack) who brought an -applicant for a husband to his house, one day, and besought him at least -to hold a look-at meeting with her. - -"She is beautiful like unto the sun-goddess," he declared, with the -extravagance of his class. - -"The last was like the moon," said the young man, laughing. "Have you -any stars to trot out?" - -"Stars!" echoed the other, for a moment puzzled, and then, beaming with -delighted enlightenment, "Ah, yes--her eyes, her feet, hair, hands, -twinkling like unto them same stars! She prays for just a look-at -meeting with your excellency." - -"Well, for the fun of the thing, then," said the other, laughing. "I'm -sure I don't mind having a look-at meeting with a pretty girl. Show her -into the zashishi (guest-room) and I'll be along in a moment. But, look -here," he continued, "you'd better understand that I'm only going -through this ceremony for the fun of the thing, mind you. I don't intend -to marry any one--at all events, not a girl of that class." - -"Nod for a leetle while whicheven?" persuaded the nakoda. - -"Nod for a leetle while whicheven," echoed the young man, but the agent -had disappeared. - -When Jack, curious to know what she was like, she who was seeking him -for a husband, entered the zashishi, he found the blinds high up and the -sunshine pouring into the room. His eyes fell upon her at once, for the -shoji at the back of the room was parted, and she stood in the opening, -her head drooping bewitchingly. He could not see her face. She was quite -small, though not so small as the average Japanese woman, and the two -little hands, clasped before her, were the whitest, most irresistible -and perfect hands he had ever seen. He had heard of the beauty of the -hands of the Japanese women, and was not surprised to find even a girl -of this class--she was a geisha, of course, he told himself--with such -exquisite, delicate hands. He knew she was holding them so that they -could be seen to advantage, and her little affected pose amused and -pleased him. - -After he had looked at her a moment, she subsided to the mats and made -her prostration. She was dressed very gayly in a red crêpe kimono, tied -about with a purple obi. Her hair was dressed after the fashion of the -geisha, with a flower ornament at top and long, pointed daggers at -either side; but as she bowed her head to the mats, some pin in her hair -escaped and slipped, and then a tawny, rebellious mass of hair, which -was never meant to be worn smoothly, had fallen all about her, tumbled -into her eyes and over her ears, and literally covered her little -crouching form. She shivered in shame at the mishap, and then knelt very -still at his feet. - -Bigelow was speechless. Never before in his life had he seen such hair. -It was black, though not densely so, for all over it, even where it had -been darkened with oil, there was a rich red tinge, and it was -luxuriously thick and long and wavy. - -"Good heavens!" he said, after the little figure had remained absolutely -motionless for a full minute; "she'll hurt or cramp herself in that -position." - -The girl did not rise at the sound of his voice, but crept nearer to -him, her hair still enshrouding her. It made him feel creepy, and -annoyed and pleased and amused him altogether. - -"Don't do that," he said. "Please stand up. Do!" - -The nakoda told him to lift her to her feet, and the young man did so, -entangling his hands in her hair. When she stood up, he saw her face, -which was oval and rosy, the lips very red. She still drooped her eyes, -so that her face was incomplete. - -"What's your name?" he asked her, gently. "And what do you want with -me?" - -Now she raised her head and he saw her eyes. They startled him. They -were large, though narrow, and intensely, vividly blue. Before, with her -hair neatly smoothed and dressed, he had noticed nothing extraordinary -about her; now, with that rich red-black hair enshrouding her, and the -long, blue eyes looking at him mistily, she was an eerie little creature -that made him marvel. A Japanese girl with such hair and eyes! And yet -the more he looked at her the more he saw that her clothes became her; -that she was Japanese despite the hair and eyes. He did not try to -explain the anomaly to himself, but he could not doubt her nationality. -There was no other country she could belong to. - -"You are Japanese?" he finally asked, to make sure. - -She nodded. - -"I thought so, and yet--" - -She smiled, and her eyes closed a trifle as she did so. She was all -Japanese in a moment, and prettier than ever. - -"You see--your eyes and hair--" he began again. She nodded and dimpled, -and he knew she understood. - -"What is it you want with me?" he asked, desiring rather to hear her -speak than to learn her object, for this he knew. - -She was solemn now. She flushed, and her eyes went down. To explain to -him why she had come to him in this wise was a painful task. He could -guess that, but she forced the words past her lips. - -"To be your wife, my lord," she said in English, and the queer quality -of her voice thrilled him strangely. - -This was the answer he knew was coming; nevertheless it stirred him in a -way he had not expected. To have this wonderfully pretty girl before -him, beseeching him to marry her--he who had as yet never dreamed of -marriage for himself--was disturbing to his balance of mind. Nay, -more--it was revolting. He shrank back involuntarily, wondering why she -had come to him, and this wonder he put into words. - -"But why do you want to marry me?" he asked. - -The expression of her face was enigmatical now. She had ceased to blush -and smile, and had become quite white. Suddenly she commenced to -laugh--thrilling, elfish laughter, that rang out through the room, -startling the echoes of the house. - -"Why?" he repeated, fascinated. - -She shrugged her shoulders. "I mus' make money," she said. - -Of course this was her reason; he knew that before she spoke; but -hearing her say so gave him pain. She was such a dainty little body. - -"Oh, you need not sell yourself for that," he said, earnestly. "Why, -I'll give you some--all you want. You're awfully young, aren't you? Just -a little girl. _I_ can't marry you. It wouldn't be fair to you." - -Again she shrugged her shoulders, and spoke in Japanese to the nakoda. - -"She says some one else will, then," he interpreted. - -"All right," said the young man, almost bitterly. - -She pretended to go towards the door, and then came back towards -Bigelow. - -"I seen you before," she announced, ingenuously. - -"Where?" He was curiously interested. He fancied that her face was -familiar. - -"Ad tea-house." - -"What tea-house?" - -"On liddle bit island. You 'member? I dance like this-a-way." She -performed a few steps. - -"What! you that girl?" He knew her in an instant now. "How could you -remember me?" - -"You following me after dance with 'nudder American gent, and before -thad some one point ad you--ole wooman thad always accompanying me." - -"How did _she_ know me?" - -"She din know you to speag ad, bud--she saying you mos' reech barbarian -ad all Japan." - -"Oh, I see," he said, coldly. - -"She tell me I bedder git marry with you." - -"Indeed! Why?" - -She hung her head a moment. "Because she know I luffing with you," she -said. - -"You loving with _me_!" He laughed outright. Her ingenuousness was -entrancing. - -"Yes," she said, and he, with masculine conceit, half believed her. - -"But wouldn't you rather stay at the tea-house than get married?" he -asked. - -"Not nuff money that businesses," she returned. - -"Do you do everything for money?" - -"How I goin' to live?" - -This question, answering a question, brought her back to the purpose of -her visit. She held her little hands out to him. - -"Ah, excellency, _pray_ marry with me," she begged. - -He took her hands quickly in his own. They were soft and so small. He -could enclose them with one of his. They were delightful. He knew they -were daintily perfumed, like everything else about her. He did not let -them go. - -"You ought not to marry, you know," he said to her, almost boyishly. -"How old are you, anyhow?" - -She ignored his question. - -"I will be true, good wife to you forever," she said, and then swiftly -corrected herself, as though frightened by her own words. "No, no, I -make ridigulous mistage--not forever--jus' for liddle bit while--as you -desire, augustness!" - -"But I don't desire," he laughed nervously. "I don't want to get -married. I won't be over a few months at most in Japan." - -"Oh, jus' for liddle bit while marry with me," she breathed, -entreatingly--"Pl-ease!" - -It hurt him strangely to have her plead so. She looked delicate and -refined and gentle. He put her hands quickly from him. She held them out -and put them back again into his. Her eyes clouded, and he thought she -was going to cry. - -He was seized with a desire to keep her from weeping, if he could, this -little creature, who seemed made for anything but tears. He spoke from -this impulse, without giving so much as a second's thought to the -seriousness of his words. - -"Don't cry. I'll marry you, of course, if you want me to." - -He felt the hands in his own tremble. - -"Thangs, excellency," she said, in a voice that was barely above a -whisper, but it was a voice which had in it no note of joy. - -There was pleasure, however, in the eyes of the nakoda. He had done a -good piece of business, a most excellent piece of business, for the -American gentleman was reputed to be able to buy hundreds and hundreds -of rice-fields if he so cared to do. The nakoda came forward with a -benignant smile to arrange the terms. - -"She will cost only three hundred yen per down and fifteen yen each end -per week. Soach a cheap price for a wife!" - -It was the grinning face of this matrimonial middleman that brought -Bigelow back to his senses. He had said he would marry this little -creature, whose limp hands he was holding. He dropped them as though -they were the hands of one dead, and drew back. - -"I won't do it!" he almost shouted. "Never!" Then he thought what must -be the feelings of the little girl whose yoke of marriage he was -refusing, and softened. "I wasn't thinking when I said I would. I don't -want to marry a Japanese girl. I don't want to marry any girl. I -wouldn't be doing right, and it wouldn't be fair to you." He paused, and -then added, lamely, "I think I'd like you awfully, though, if I only -knew you." - -"But--" spoke up the nakoda, anxiously, who found his dream of a large -fee fading into thin air. - -Jack turned upon him quickly and gave him a sharp look, whereat he -retired hurriedly. - -A look of relief had come over the girl's face when Jack had cried out -that he would not marry her, and at this he wondered much. This relief -in her face, however, was succeeded almost instantly by disappointment. -But she spoke no further word. She gave him a single hurried glance from -beneath fluttering eyelashes, courtesied until her head was almost on a -level with his knees, and left him. - - - - - III - - AN APPOINTMENT - - -Jack Bigelow regarded the attempt of the nakoda and little Miss ---- (he -had not even thought to ask her name) as an incident closed by the -retirement of the one aspiring to wifehood from his sight. But in -passing from his house she had not passed from his mind. This she -occupied in spite of him, though it must be said that Jack made no -effort to eject her. - -He had been approached by many nakodas, who had the disposal of some -most excellent wives, so they had told him, but never before had he -consented to see one of their offerings; so the sensation of being asked -in marriage by a girl whom he had only seen once before, and that under -circumstances which prevented his seeing her clearly, was altogether -new. That he, John Hampden Bigelow, A.B.--he was very proud of that -A.B., it had not cost him any particular labor--should be so sought out -was not at all displeasing to his vanity, a quality that he prided -himself on not possessing; this, notwithstanding the fact that he knew -he had been approached because he had money. - -He chuckled at the event several times during the day. He would keep -this incident in mind, with all its detail, and make use of it now and -then after he had returned home, when he was called upon to talk of his -experiences in other lands. Of course, he would exaggerate a bit here -and tone down a bit there, and would make the girl much prettier. No, -the girl was pretty enough. This part of the incident could not be -improved upon. - -Jack mused about the morning's episode during the entire day, and twice -exploded into such laughter at the idea of his being asked for a husband -that his little man hurried in to see if the gay-eyed barbarian was -taking leave of his senses. In the evening he grew restless, and, having -nothing else to do--so he told himself--he went out to the tea-garden on -the little island which he had visited a few nights before. For an hour -he waited for something--for something that did not appear. Finally, -when the proprietor chanced to pass him, he asked in the manner of one -casually interested: - -"The girl who danced and sang the other night--is she here?" - -She was not, for which the proprietor humbly asked pardon. She had not -visited his poor place since the night the American had seen her. - -For some reason Jack suddenly lost interest in the house and gardens, -and returned to his home. But the next night--again because he had -nothing else to do--found him once more a guest at the tea-garden. This -time he did not leave at the end of an hour; possibly because a weird -dance was performed and a weird song sung by a girl with vivid blue -eyes. He could not see their color from where he sat, but he knew they -were blue. - -After that he fell into the habit of visiting the gardens every -night--these were dull times in Tokyo--never anything else to do. Most -of the evenings so spent were intensely wearisome, but some few of them -were not. It may only have been a series of coincidences, but it so -happened that on the enjoyable evenings there was a weird dance and a -weird song, and on the others there were not the graceful swayings of a -little body, nor the wonderful music of a wonderful voice. - -One evening, immediately after the song had been ended, he found himself -striding down the same road he had taken with the excited theatrical -manager, and this without consciously having decided upon such a course. -But he came down to the beach without seeing man or woman, and, though -he would not acknowledge to himself that he was seeking any one, he -carried away with him a keen sense of disappointment. - -For two weeks the dulness of Tokyo remained unabated, so that the -evenings offered nothing else to do save to go to the tea-gardens. At -the end of that time, Jack, becoming honest with himself, admitted that -there was nothing else, because there was nothing else he wanted to do, -and while in this frank mood he let it become known to himself that -there was nothing else in all the land of the rising sun that held so -much of interest to him as did the girl who had offered herself to him -for wife--nothing, indeed, in all the other lands of the earth. Why this -was, he did not know, not being one given to searching his own soul or -the souls of others. - -While he reclined at his ease one afternoon in the little room in which -he lounged and smoked, he began to place her, in his imagination, here -and there in the house, to try the effect. - -He set her in one of his largest chairs, notwithstanding she would have -been much more comfortable on the floor, in this same room, and she -added wonderfully to the appearance of things. He stood her pensively by -the tokonona; he nodded his head--very good! He placed her out beneath a -cherry-tree in his garden; again he nodded approvingly. And a breakfast -with her sitting opposite him! That would be like unto the breakfasts -eaten by the angels in heaven--if angels partake of other than spiritual -nourishment. Yes, she would be wonderfully effective in his little -house, would harmonize with it greatly. - -But what an odd figure she would make in an American dress! He thought -of her in a golfing costume, and smiled at his fancy. Nevertheless, even -in the gowns worn by the women of his own country, she would be quaint -and charming, he felt sure. She would be awkward, of course, but would -be graceful even in her awkwardness. And she would transgress every -polite convention, and would make herself all the more delightful in so -doing. He compared her to the wives of some of the men he knew, to many -of the girls he had met since girls had begun to have interest for him, -and his admiration for her grew apace. He would be proud of her, he -knew, for she was pretty and would attract attention; men like their -wives to draw eyes towards them. She was unlike the wife of any of his -countrymen he was likely to meet, and this also was much. - -What would his parents think? They'd be angry at first, of course, but -they'd give in; they loved him, and couldn't resist her; no one could -resist her. Anyhow, this prospective trouble was so far ahead that there -was no use in wasting thought upon it now. - -Why the deuce hadn't he learned her name? It was very monotonous this -being compelled to think of her only as "she" and "her." - -But why had she come to him asking him to marry her? He shook his head -at that; he didn't quite like it. But--oh, well, you know, these Japs -have no end of queer customs. This incident just illustrated one of -them. She was clearly a superior kind of a girl. Not an ordinary geisha -as he had thought when his eyes first fell on her. He had seen enough of -the geishas at the tea-houses to know that she was of a different kind; -to his Occidental eyes these last were most pleasing creatures, but-- - -Just then his man straggled through the room and brought an end to his -musing. Marry her? He sat up straight. What had he been thinking about? -The idea was absurd. It was absurd for him to think about marrying any -one. He got to his feet, called back his man, and ordered a jinrikisha -to be brought to him. He rode off to Tokyo to forget all about it. - -But it would not be forgotten. After he had left the jinrikisha he -caught sight of her on the opposite side of the street, turning a -corner. He hurried after her, but when he reached the corner she was -nowhere to be seen. He looked into all the shops on either side of the -street for a distance of a hundred yards, but saw no one who bore the -least resemblance to her. Then he tramped about the immediate vicinity, -his sense of loss deepening with each minute, until he noticed that the -shop-keepers were eying him with suspicion. He gave up the search and -started back to his jinrikisha. - -As he was swinging along disconsolately, his eyes lighted upon another -person whom he knew--Ido, the nakoda--and him Jack did not let escape. -He pounced down upon him, and clapped a hand upon his shoulder. - -"Hallo there!" he called out. - -Ido started back as if he had been set upon by an enemy. He was unused -to such emphatic greetings. But when he saw who his assailant was he -slipped a smile upon his face, smirked and bowed, and hoped that the -august American's days were filled with joy. - -"They'll do," Jack answered. "And how are things with you? Business -good? Making many matches?" - -Ido had introduced four persons to incomparable happiness--which was to -say, he had brought about two marriages. Had his lordship come into like -happiness? - -No, his lordship had not. - -"You making gradest mistage you' whole lifetime," Ido assured him. "You -nod yit seen Japanese woman that please you for wife? No? I know nodder -girl you' excellency nod seen yit. Mos' beautiful in Japan. You like see -her?" - -"No, I've seen enough. By-the-way, Ido, what's become of the girl you -brought around to my place? Married yet?" Jack put on a look of -indifferent interest. - -"No, excellency." - -For one disinterested, Jack found much relief in this answer. - -"But I thing she going to be," Ido went on, calmly. "Two, three--no, two -odder gents--What you say?--consider--yes, consider her." - -These words drove relief from the disinterested Jack's heart, and -instantly set up in its place a raging jealousy. But he compelled -himself to remark, quite easily, "You don't say!" - -Ido confirmed his statement with a nod that was almost a bow. - -"A very pretty girl," Jack commented, loftily. - -Ido's reply was confined to a mere "Yes." There was no use going into -ecstasies when no bargain was in sight. - -"I think I'll go around to see her, and congratulate her," Jack went on. -"Where does she live?" - -"I regretfully cannot tell." - -"Ah, well, let it go then. But, say, I really would like to see her -again before she's married. Rather took a fancy to her, you know. -Couldn't you bring her to call on me to-morrow morning?" - -"I going to be very busy to-morrow." Seeing no chance of earning a -marriage-fee, he saw no reason for taking the trip. - -"I'll pay you for your trouble--needn't worry about that." - -Perhaps Ido could arrange to come; yes, now that he thought again, he -knew he could come. - -So it was settled that he and the girl should visit Jack at ten o'clock -the next day. - - - - - IV - - IN WHICH MAN PROPOSES - - -The announcement of his man that Ido and his charge had arrived -contained no news for Jack, for he had been watching the road from Tokyo -since nine o'clock, and had seen them while they were yet afar off. -Nevertheless, he did not enter the zashishi until his man came to him -with word that guests from the city were awaiting him, and then he had -no definite idea of what he intended to do. - -She was dressed exactly as she had been on her previous visit, and she -made obeisance almost to the floor, in greeting him, as she then had -done. He hastened her recovery from the deep courtesy by taking her -hands and raising her to an upright posture. - -"You have come to see me again? I am very glad to see you," he said, -with eager politeness. - -"Nakoda say you wish see me. Tha's why I come." There was not a trace of -her former coquetry in her manner. - -"Yes, I had to send Ido after you. I don't suppose you would ever have -let me see you again if I had not." - -She shrugged her shoulders imperceptibly. "Me you don' wish marrying -with. You send me 'way. What I do?" - -"We could be capital friends, even if we didn't care to marry, couldn't -we?" - -"Frien'? I don' wan' frien'," she returned, coldly. - -"But I'd like to have you for my friend, all the same, though I'm afraid -it's not possible. Ido"--he hesitated--"Ido says you're going to be -married, you know." - -She inclined her head. - -"You're not married yet, are you?" he asked in alarm, forgetting that he -had put this same question to the nakoda the day before. - -"Nod yit." - -"Do you--um--like him?" - -"Which one, my lord?" She looked up at him innocently. - -"Oh, both of them!" He was beginning to get angry. He would find -pleasure in laying violent hands upon the two, one at a time. - -"Jus' liddle bit, augustness." - -"Better than you do me?" he demanded, jealously. - -She shook her head decisively. "You nod so ole, an nod so--hairy-like." -She rubbed her little hands over her face, by which he understood that -the two wore beards. They were doubtless of his own country. - -He hardly knew what to say next, and the silence grew embarrassing to -him. She broke it by remarking, very quietly: - -"Nakoda inform me you wan' make liddle bit talk ad me." - -He turned to the match-maker, who was pretending deep interest in a -framed drawing on the wall. "Say, Ido, just step into the next room a -minute, will you?" - -He turned back to the girl, as soon as Ido had obeyed him, with -extravagant alacrity. - -"You have never even told me your name," he said. - -"Yuki." - -"That means 'Snowflake,' doesn't it? I like it. Well now, Yuki, mayn't I -visit you at your home, before you are married?" - -He was anxious to see what her people were like, and how she lived. - -"Mos' poor house in all Tokyo--so liddle bit house augustness nod lige -come." - -"But I don't care if it is. I want to come anyhow. I want to see you, -not the house. Won't you tell me where you live?" - -She shook her head. "No," She said with simple directness, and then -added as an after-thought, "House too small. You altogedder too big to -enter thad liddle bit insignificant hovel." - -Her answer gave him offence. He wondered why she should dissemble, -wondered whether she was laughing at him. A glance at her, however, and -his distrust vanished. She seemed such a simple little body, yet he knew -he did not understand her. - -Her eyes, which she had kept turned downward, slowly uplifted and looked -questioningly into his own. Such wonderful eyes! Such a simple, -exquisite face! He was suddenly suffused with a great wave of -tenderness, and he bent low, and gently made prisoners of her hands. -However indefinite his purpose had been up to this time, it was definite -enough now. - -"So you remember, Yuki, what you asked me when you were here before?" - -"Yes." She still gazed at him questioningly. - -"Would you like to--would you rather marry me than one of those other -fellows?" he said, softly. - -"Yes," again, in the smallest voice this time. - -He hesitated, and she asked, quickly, "You _wan_' me do so?" - -"That's just what I want, Yuki, dear," he whispered, drawing her hands -to his lips. - -"All ride." She trembled--perhaps shivered is the better word--as she -said this, but gave no other sign of emotion. - -Before Jack could so much as touch his lips to her forehead, Ido entered -smiling his professional blessing. It was evident that in the other room -he had found no drawing to distract his attention, and a large new -peephole in the immaculate shoji indicated where he had given all his -eyes and ears to what was going on, and he could wait no longer to press -his claim. - -Jack, seeing an unpleasant duty before him, and desiring to have done -with it at once, told Yuki that he would be back in a minute, and led -the nakoda into the room out of which he had just come. - -Ido immediately began to make terms. This part was loathsome to the -young man. - -"Why," he said, hotly, "if we're to be married, she can have all she -wants and needs." - -That wouldn't do at all, the nakoda told him, warily. There would have -to be a marriage settlement and a stated allowance agreed upon. He would -have to pay more, also, as she was a maid and not a widow. - -When the ugly terms of the agreement were completed, the nakoda bowed -himself out, and Jack went back to Yuki. He found her changed; her -simplicity had left her, and her coquetry had returned. She stood off -from him, and he felt constrained and awkward. After a time she demanded -of him, with a shrewd inflection in her voice: - -"You goin' to lige me, excellency?" - -"No question of that," he answered promptly, smiling. - -"No," she repeated, "tha's sure thing," and then she laughed at her own -assurance, and she was so pretty he wanted to kiss her, but she backed -from him in mock alarm. - -"Tha's nod ride," she declared, "till we marry." - -"God speed the day!" he said, with devout joyousness. Still approaching -her, as she backed from him, he questioned her boyishly: - -"And you? Will you like me?" - -She surveyed him critically. Then she nodded emphatically. They laughed -together this time, but when he approached her she grew fearful. He did -not want to frighten her. - -"You god nod anudder wife?" she asked. - -"No! Good heavens!" - -"I god nod anudder hosban'," she informed him, complacently. - -"I should hope not." - -"Perhaps," she said, "you marrying with girl in Japan thad god marry -before. Me? I _never_." - -"No, of course not." He didn't quite understand what she was driving at. - -Then she said: "You pay more money ad liddle girl lige me whad nod been -marry before?" - -He recoiled and frowned heavily at her. - -"I settled that matter with the nakoda," he said, coldly. - -Seeing he was displeased, she tried to conciliate him. She smiled at -him, engagingly, coaxingly. - -"You don' lige me any more whicheven." - -But his face did not clear up. She had hurt him deeply by her reference -to money. - -"Perhaps you don' want me even," she suggested, tentatively. "I bedder -go 'way. Leave you all 'lone." - -She turned and was making her way slowly out of the room, when he sprang -impetuously after her. - -"Don't, Yuki!" he cried, and caught her eagerly in his arms. She yielded -herself to his embrace, though she was trembling like a little -frightened child. For the first time he kissed her. - - * * * * * - -After she had left him, he stared with some wonder at the reflection of -himself in a mirror. So he was to be married, was he? Yes, there was no -getting out of it now. As for that, he didn't want to get out of it--of -this he was quite sure. He was very well content--nay, he was -enthusiastically happy with what the future promised. - -But his happiness might have been felt in less measure if his eyes, -instead of staring at his mirrored likeness, could have been fixed on -Yuki. She had borne herself with a joyous air to the jinrikisha, but -once within it, and practically secure from observation, the life had -seemingly gone out of her. The brown of her skin had paled to gray, and -all the way to Tokyo her eyes shifted neither to right nor left, but -stared straight ahead into nothingness, and once, when Ido looked down, -he found that they were filled with tears. - - - - - V - - IN WHICH THE EAST AND THE - WEST ARE UNITED - - -A few days later they were married. It was a very quiet little -tea-drinking ceremony, and, unlike the usual Japanese wedding, there was -not the painful crowd of relatives and friends attendant. In fact, no -one was present, besides themselves, save Jack's man and maid and the -nakoda, while Yuki herself sang the marriage song. - -They started housekeeping in an ideal spot. Their house, a bit of art in -itself, was built on the crest of a small hill. On all sides sloped and -leaned green highlands, rich in foliage and warm in color. Beyond these -smaller hillocks towered the jagged background of mountain-peaks, with -the halo of the skies bathing them in an eternal glow. A lazy, babbling -little stream dipped and threaded its way between the hillocks, -mirroring on its shining surface the beauty of the neighboring hills and -the inimitable landscapes pictured on the canvas of God--the skies--and -seeming like a twisted rainbow of ever-changing and brilliant colors. -But no surges disturbed its waters, even far beyond where it emptied -into the mellow Bay of Tokyo. - -From their elevation on the hill they could see below them the beautiful -city of Tokyo, with its many-colored lights and intricate maze of -streets. And all about them the hills, the meadows, the valleys and -forests bore eloquent testimony to the labor of the Color Queen. - -Pink, white, and blushy-red twigs of cherry and plum blossoms, idly -swaying, flung out their suave fragrance on the flattered breeze, the -volatile handmaid of young May, who had freed all the imprisoned -perfumes, unhindered by the cynic snarl of the jealous winter, and with -silent, pursuasive wooing had taught the dewy-tinctured air to please -all living nostrils. So from the glowing and thrilling thoughts that -tremble on the young tree of life is love distilled and, unmindful of -the assembling of the baffled powers of cold caution and warning fear, -the heart is filled with fountain tumults it cannot dissemble. - -Jack Bigelow was fascinated and bewildered at the turn events had taken. -He was very good and gentle to her, and for several days after the -ceremony she seemed quite happy and contented. Then she disappeared, and -for a week he saw nothing of her. - -He greatly missed her--his little bride of three or four days. He longed -ardently for her return, and her absence alarmed him. Her little arts -and witcheries had grown on him even in this short period of their -acquaintance. - -Towards the end of the week she slipped into the house quietly, and went -about her household duties as though nothing unusual had occurred. She -did not offer to tell him where she had been, and he felt strangely -unwilling to force her confidence. - -Instead of becoming better acquainted with her, each day found him more -puzzled and less capable of knowing or understanding her. Now she was -clinging, artless, confiding, and again shrewd and elfish. Now she was -laughing and singing and dancing as giddily as a little child, and again -he could have sworn she had been weeping, though she would deny it -stoutly, and pooh-pooh and laugh away such an idea. - -He asked her one day how she would like to be dressed in American -clothes. She mimicked him. She mimicked everything and every one, from -the warbling of the birds to the little man and maid who waited on them. - -"I loog lige this," she said, and humped a bustle under her ridiculously -tight omeshi, and slipped his large sun hat over her face. Then she -laughed out at him, and flung her arms tightly about his neck. - -"You wan' me be American girl?" - -"You are a witch, Yuki-san," he said. - -"I wan' new dress," she returned, promptly, and held a pink little palm -out. He frowned. He almost disliked her when she spoke of money. He -filled her hands, however, with change from his pockets, and when she -broke away from him, which she did as soon as she had obtained the -money, he wanted to take it back. Her pretty laughter sifted out to him -through the shoji at the other side, and he knew she was mocking him -again. - -"It is her natural love of dress and finery," he told himself. "It is -the eternal feminine in her, and it is bewitching." - -The next day, as she sat opposite to him, eating her infinitesimal bit -of a breakfast--a plum, a small fish, and a tiny cup of tea--all on a -little black lacquer tray, he announced mysteriously that he was going -"on business" to the city. - -She desired to accompany him, as became a dutiful wife. - -No, he told her, that was impossible. His mission was of a secret -nature, which could not be divulged until his return. - -Then she insisted that she would follow behind him after the manner of a -slave; and when he laughed at her, she begged quite humbly and gently -that he would condescend to honorably permit her to go with him, and -then he was for telling her his whole pretty story, and the surprise he -had concocted to please her, when she grew capricious and insisted that -she would not stir one little bit of an inch from the house, and that he -must go all alone to the city and attend to his great, magnificent -business! - -He went down to Tokyo, and in his boyish, blundering fashion he -purchased silk and crépe and linen sufficient for fifty gowns for her. - -She thanked him extravagantly. She could not imagine what she would do -with so much finery. Her honorable person was augustly insignificant, -and could not accommodate so much merchandise. - -"Now," he thought with inward satisfaction, "that ghost of a money -question will be laid. She has everything she wants and shall have. I -want to do for her, and give her things without being wheedled into it. -It is that which irritates me." - -But a few days later she came to him breathless and flustered. Lo! some -one had stolen all the beautiful goods he had bought her. It was neither -their man nor maid. No, no! that was altogether impossible. They were -honest, simple folk, who feared the gods. But they were all quite -gone--where she could not say. Who had taken them, she could not guess. -Perhaps she, her unworthy self, and he, his honorable augustness, had -been extremely wicked in their former state, and the gods were now -punishing them in their present life. It would be wicked and unavailing -to attempt to search for the missing goods. It was the will of the gods. -Maybe the gods had been offended at such ruthless extravagance. Ah, yes, -that was a better solution of the theft. Of course the gods were angry. -What gods would not be? It was sinful to buy so many things at once. - -She affected great distress over the loss, and her husband, somewhat -bewildered at her elaborate apologies for the thief who had stolen them, -tried to comfort her by saying he would buy her double the quantity -again, whereat she became very solemn. - -"No, no," she said. "Bedder give me money to buy. I will purchase jus' -liddle bit each time--to please the gods." - - - - - VI - - THE ADVENTURESS - - -The man in the hammock was not asleep, for in spite of the lazy, -lounging attitude, and the hat which hid the gray eyes beneath, he was -very much awake, and keenly interested in a certain small individual who -was sitting on a mat a short distance removed from him. He had invited -her several times to reduce that distance, but up to the present she had -paid no heed to his suggestions. She was amusing herself by blowing and -squeezing between her lower lip and teeth the berry of the winter -cherry, from which she had deftly extracted the pulp at the stem. She -continued this strange occupation in obstinate indifference to the -persuasive voice from the hammock. - -"I say, Yuki, there's room for two in this hammock. Had it made on -purpose." - -She continued her cherry-blowing without so much as making a reply, -though one of her blue eyes looked at him sideways, and then solemnly -blinked. - -"What's the matter, Yuki? Got the dumps again, eh?" - -No reply. - -"Look here, Mrs. Bigelow, I'll come over and elope forcibly with you if -you don't obey me." - -She dimpled scornfully. - -"Ah, that's right! Smile, Yuki. You're so pretty, so bewitching, so -irresistible when you smile." - -Yuki nodded her head coolly. - -"How you lige me smiling forever?" she suggested. - -"That wouldn't do," he said, grinning at her from beneath his tipped -hat. "That would be tiresome." "Tha's why I don' smiling to-day." - -"Why?" - -"All yistidy I giggling." - -He shouted with laughter at her. - -"Move your mat here, Yuki," indicating a spot close to his hammock. "I -want to talk to you." - -"My ears are--" - -"Too small to hear from that distance," finished her husband. "Come." - -"Thangs," with great dignity, "I am quide comfor'ble. I don' wan' sit so -near you, excellency." - -"Why, pray?" - -"Why? Hm! I un'erstan'. Tha's because I jus' your liddle bit slave." - -"You're my wife, you little bit fraud." - -"Wife? Oh, I dunno." She pretended to deliberate. - -"Then you've tricked me into a false marriage, madam," declared her -husband, with great wrath. - -"Tha's fault nakoda." - -"What is?" - -"Thad you god me for wife, and," slowly, "servant." - -"Fault! Come here, servant, then. Servants must obey." - -"Nod so bad master, making such grade big noises," she laughed back -daringly. "Besides, servant must sit long way off from thad same noisy -master." - -"And wife?" - -"Oh, jus' liddle bit nearer." She edged perhaps half an inch closer to -him. "Wife jus' liddle bit different from servant." - -"Look here, Mrs. Bigelow, you're not living up to your end of the -contract. You swore to honor and obey--" - -She laughed mockingly. - -"Yes, you did, madam!" - -"I din nod. Tha's jus' ole Kirishitan marriage." - -He sat up amazed. - -"What do you know of the Christian marriage service?" - -"Liddle bit." - -"Come over here, Yuki." - -"You like me sing ad you?" - -"Come over here." - -"How you like me danze?--liddle bit summer danze?" - -"Come over here. What's a summer dance, anyhow?" - -She ran lightly indoors, and was back so soon that she seemed scarcely -to have left him. She had slipped on a red-and-yellow flimsy kimono, and -had decked her hair and bosom with flaming poppies. - -"Tha's summer sunshine," she said, spreading her garment out on each -side with a joyous little twirl. "I am the Sun-goddess, and you?--you -jus' the col', dark earth. I will descend and warm you with my -sunshine." For a moment she stood still, her head thrown back, her face -shining, her lips parted and smiling, showing the straight little white -teeth within. Then she danced softly, ripplingly, back and forth. The -summer winds were sighing and laughing with her. Her face shone out -above her lightly swerving figure, her little hands and bare arms moved -with inimitable grace. - -"You are a genius," he said to her, when she had subsided, light as a -feather blown to his feet. - -"Tha's sure thing," she agreed, roguishly. - -Her assurance in herself always tickled him immensely. He threw his hat -at her with such good aim that it settled upon her head. She approved -his clever shot, laughed at him, and then, pulling it over her eyes, lay -down on the mats and imitated his favorite attitude to a nicety. He -laughed uproariously. He was in fine humor. They had been married over a -month now, and she had not left him save that first time. He was growing -pretty sure of her now. - -She perceived his good-humor, and immediately bethought herself to take -advantage. She put the rim of his hat between her teeth, imitated a -monkey, and crawled towards him, pretending to beg for her performance. -He stretched his long arms out and tried to reach her, but she was far -enough off to elude him. - -"You godder pay," she said, "for thad nize entertainments I giving you." - -He threw her a sen. She made a face. "That all?" she said, in a -dreadfully disappointed voice, but, despite her acting, he saw the -greedy eagerness of her eyes. All the good-humor vanished. - -"Look here, Yuki," he said, with a disagreeable glint in his eyes, -"you've had a trifle over fifty dollars this week. I don't begrudge you -money, but I'll be hanged if I'm going to have you dragging it out of me -on every occasion and upon every excuse you can make. You have no -expenses. I can't see what you want with so much money, anyhow." - -"I godder save," said Yuki, mysteriously, struck with this brilliant -excuse for her extravagance. - -"What for?" - -"Why, same's everybody else. Some day I nod have lods money. Whad I -goin' do then? Tha's bedder save, eh?" - -"I've married you. I'll never let you want for anything." - -"Oh, you jus' marry me for liddle bit while." - -"You've a fine opinion of me, Yuki." - -"Yes, fine opinion of you," she repeated after him. - -"There's enough money deposited in a bank in Tokyo to last you as long -as you live. If it's ever necessary for me to leave you for a time, you -will not want for anything, Yuki." - -"But," she said, argumentatively, "when you leaving me I henceforward a -widder. I nod marry with you any longer. Therefore I kin nod take your -money." This last with heroic pride. - -"Boo! Your qualms of conscience about using my money are, to say the -least, rather extraordinary." - -"When you leaving me--" she commenced again. - -"Why do you persist in that? I have no idea of leaving you." - -"What!" She was quite frightened. "You goin' stay with me forever!" -There was far more fear than joy in her voice. - -"Why not?" he demanded, sharply, watching her with keen, savage eyes. - -"My lord," she said, humbly, "I could nod hear of thad. It would be -wrong. Too grade sacrifice for you honorable self." - -He was not sure whether she was laughing at him or not. - -"You needn't be alarmed," he said, gruffly. "I'm not likely to stay here -forever." He turned his back on her. - -Suddenly he felt her light little hand on his face. She was standing -close by the hammock. He was still very angry and sulky with her. He -closed his eyes and frowned. He knew just how she was looking; knew if -he glanced at her he would relent ignominiously. She pried his eyes -gently open with her fingers, and then kissed them, as softly as a tiny -bird might have done. Gradually she crawled into the hammock with him, -regardless of non-assistance. - -"Augustness," she said, her arms about his neck now, though she was -sitting up and leaning over him. "Listen ad me." - -"I'm listening." - -"Look ad me." - -He looked, frowned, smiled, and then kissed her. She laughed under her -breath, such a queer, triumphant, mocking small laugh. It made him frown -again, but she kissed the frown into a smile once more. Then she sat up. - -"Pray excuse me. I wan' sit ad your feet and talk ad you." - -"Can't you talk here?" he demanded, jealously. - -"Nod so well. I gittin' dazzled. Permit me," she coaxed. He released her -grudgingly. She sat close to him on the floor. She sighed heavily, -hypocritically. - -"What is it now?" - -"Well, you know I telling you about those moneys." - -"Yes," he said, wearily. "Let's shut up on this money question. I'm sick -of it." - -"I lige make confession ad you." - -"Well?" - -"I god seventeen brudders and sisters!" she said, with slow and solemn -emphasis. - -"What!" He almost rolled out of the hammock in his amazement. - -"Seventeen!" She nodded with ominous tragedy in her face and voice. - -"Where do they live?" - -"Alas! in so poor part of Tokyo." - -"And your father and mother?" - -"Alas! Also thad fadder an' mudder so ole lige this." She illustrated, -bowing herself double and walking feebly across the floor, coughing -weakly. - -"Well?" he prompted sharply. - -"I god take all thad money thad ole fadder an mudder an' those seventeen -liddle brudders an sisters. Tha's all they god in all the whole worl'." - -"But don't any of them work? Aren't any of them married? What's the -matter with them all?" - -"Alas! No. All of them too young to worg or marry, excellency." - -"_All_ of them too young?" - -"Yes. Me--how ole _I_ am? Oldes' of all! I am twenty-eight--no, thirty -years ole," she declared, solemnly. - -He nearly collapsed. He knew she was a mere child; knew, moreover, that -she was lying to him. She had done so before. - -"Even if you are thirty, I fail to see how you can have seventeen -brothers and sisters younger than yourself." - -She lost herself a moment. Then she said, triumphantly, "My fadder have -two wives!" - -He surveyed her in studious silence a moment. Her attitude of trouble -and despair did not deceive him in the slightest. Nevertheless, he -wanted to laugh outright at her, she was such a ridiculous fraud. - -"Do you know what they'd call you in my country?" he said, gravely. - -She shook her head. - -"An adventuress!" - -"Ah, how _nize_!" She sighed with envious blissfulness. "I wish I live -ad your country--be adventuressesses." - -"How much do you want now, Yuki?" - -She pretended to calculate on his fingers. - -"Twenty-five dollar," she announced. - -He gave it to her, and she slipped it into the bosom of her kimono. He -watched her curiously, wondering what she did with all the money she -secured from him. - -All of a sudden she put this question to him. - -"Sa-ay, how much it taking go ad America?" - -"How much? Oh, not much. Depends how you go. Four hundred, or five -hundred dollars, possibly." - -She groaned. "How much come ad Japan?" - -"The same." - -She sighed. "Sa-ay, kind augustness, I wan' go ad America. Pray give me -money go there." - -"I'll take you some day, Yuki." - -She retreated before this offer. - -"Ah, thangs--yes, some day, of course." Then, after a meditative moment: -"Sa--ay, it taking more money than thad three-four hundled dollar -whicheven?" - -"Yes; about that much again for incidentals--possibly more." - -She sighed hugely this time, and he knew she was not affecting. - -A few days later, poking among her pretty belongings, as he so much -liked to do--she was out in the garden gathering flowers for their -dinner-table--he found her little jewel-box. Like everything else she -possessed, it was daintily perfumed. At the top lay the few pieces of -jewelry he had bought for her on different occasions when he had taken -her on trips to the city. He lifted the top tray, and then he saw -something that startled him. It was a roll of bank-bills. He took it out -and counted it. There was not quite one hundred and fifty dollars. He -calculated all he had given her. It amounted to a little over twice this -sum. She had been saving, after all! What was her object? - -And, his suspicions awakened by this discovery, he searched uneasily -further through her apartments, and discovered, rolled like a huge piece -of carpet and covered over by a large basket, the crépe and silks she -had protested were stolen. - - - - - VII - - MY WIFE! - - -The second time his wife left him, Jack Bigelow was very wretched. He -missed her exceedingly, though he would not have admitted it, for he was -also very angry with her. - -When she had gone away that first time, so soon after their marriage, he -had not felt her absence as he did now, for then she had not become a -necessity to him. But she had lived with him now two whole months, and -had become a part of his life. She was not a mere passing fancy, and he -knew it was folly to endeavor so to convince himself, as in his -resentment at her treatment he was trying to do. - -The house was desolate without her. Everywhere there were evidences of -his little girl. Here a pair of her tiny sandals, some piece of tawdry -kanzashi for her hair, her koto, samisen, and little drum; in the -zashishi, in her own little room, and all over the house lingered the -faint odor of her favorite perfume, so subtle it made the young man -weak. - -He grew to hate the silence of the rooms. Their household had always -been small, with just a man and maid to wait on them; and now only one -presence gone from it, and yet how painfully quiet the place had grown! -He realized what all her little movements had become to him. He stayed -out-doors as much as he could, only to return restlessly to the house, -with a faint hope that perhaps she was hiding somewhere in it, and -playing some prank on him, as she was fond of doing, bursting out from -some unexpected place of hiding. But there was no trace of her anywhere; -and when the second day actually passed, the realization that she was -indeed gone forced itself home to him, leaving him stupid with rage and -despair. - -He was bitterly angry with her. She had no right to leave him like this, -without a word of explanation. How was he to know where she had gone or -what might happen to her? And the thought of anything dire really -overtaking her nearly drove him distracted. He hung around the balconies -of the house, wandered down into the garden, and strayed restlessly -about. And all the time he knew he was waiting for her, and in the -waiting doubling his misery. - -She came back in four days, slipped into the house noiselessly and ran -up to her room. He heard her, knew she had returned, but checked his -first impulse to go to her, and threw himself back on a couch, where he -assumed a careless attitude, which he relentlessly changed to a stern, -unapproachable, forbidding one. - -Suddenly he heard her voice. It came floating down the stairs, every -weird minor note thrilling, mocking, fascinating him. "Toko-ton-yare -ron-ton-ton!" she sang. Then the voice ceased a moment. She was waiting -for him to call her. He did not move. He was certainly very angry with -her. He would not forgive her readily. - -She began beating on her drum. He heard her making a great noise in the -little room up-stairs, and understood her object. She was trying to -attract him. Suddenly she whirled down the stairs and burst in on him -with a merry peal of laughter. - -He ignored her sternly. She ceased her noise and laughter, and, -approaching him, studied him with her head tilted bewitchingly on one -side. - -"You angery ad me, excellency?" she inquired with solicitude. - -No reply. - -"You very _mad_ ad me, augustness?" - -Still no reply. - -"You very _cross_ ad me, my lord?" - -Jack regarded her in contemptuous silence. - -She shouted now, a high, mocking, joyous note in her laughter. - -"Hah! You very, very, very, very _affended_, Mister Bigelow?" - -"It seems to please you, apparently," said Jack, scathingly, wasting his -sarcasm, and turning his eyes from her. - -She laughed wickedly. - -"Ah, tha's so nize." - -"What is?" he demanded, sharply. - -"Thad you loog so angery. My! You loog like grade big--whad you call -thad?--toranadodo." She knew how to pronounce "tornado," but she wanted -to make him laugh. She failed in her purpose, however. She tried another -way. - -"_How_ you change!" She sighed with beatific delight. - -Jack growled. - -"Dear me! I thing you grown more nize-loogin," she said. - -Jack got up and walked across to the window, turning his back -deliberately on her, and whistling with forced gayety, his hands in his -pockets. She approached him with feigned timidity and stood at his -elbow. - -"You glad see me bag, excellency?" - -"No!" shortly. - -This emphatic answer frightened her. She was not so sure of herself, -after all. - -"You wan' me go 'way?" she asked, in the smallest voice. - -"Yes." - -She loitered only a moment, and then "Ah-bah" (good-bye) she said -softly. - -He felt, for he would not turn around to see, that she was crossing the -room slowly, reluctantly. He heard the shoji pushed aside, and then shut -to. He was alone! He sprang forward and called her name aloud. She came -running back to him and plunged into his arms. He held her close, almost -fiercely. The anger was all gone. His face was white and drawn. The -dread of losing her again had overpowered him. When she tried to -extricate herself from his arms, he would not let her go. He sat down on -one of the chairs, and held her on his knee. She was laughing now, -laughing and pouting at his white face. - -"My crashes!" she cried. "You loog lige ole Chinese priest ad the -temple." She pulled a long face, and drew her pretty eyes up high with -her finger tips; then she chanted some solemn words, mocking mirthfully -her ancestors' religion. - -But her husband was grave. He had not the heart to find mirth even in -her naughtiness. - -"Yuki," he said, "you must be serious for a moment and listen to me." - -"I listenin', Mr. Solemn-Angery-Patch!" She meant "Cross-patch." "You -loog lige--" - -"Where did you go?" - -"Oh, jus' liddle bit visit." - -"Where did you go?" he repeated, insistently. - -"Sa-ay, I forgitting." - -"Answer me." - -She pretended to think, and then suddenly to remember, sighing -hypocritically the while. - -"I lige forgitting," she said. - -"Forgetting what?" - -"Where I been." - -"Why?" - -"Tha's so sad. Alas! I visiting thad ole fadder an' mudder ninety-nine -and one hundled years ole, and those seventeen liddle brudders an' -sisters. You missing me very much?" she changed from the subject of her -whereabouts. - -"No!" he said, shortly, stung by her falsity. - -"I don' sing so!" - -"Where were you, Yuki?" - -"Now, whad you wan' know for, sinze you don' like me whicheven?" - -"Did I say so?" - -"You say you don' miss." - -"I lied," he said, bitterly. "Where were you?" - -"Jus' over cross street, see my ole friend ad tea-garden." - -"I thought you said you were visiting your people?" - -She was not at all abashed. - -"Sa-ay, firs' you saying you miss me; then thad you lie. Sa-ay, you big -lie, I jus' liddle bit lie." - -"Yuki, listen to me. If you leave me like this again, you need never -come back. Do you understand?" - -"Never?" - -"I mean that." - -"Whad you goin' do? Git you nudder wife?" - -He pushed her from him in savage disgust. She laughed with infinite -relish. - -He sat down a little distance from her, and put his face wearily between -his hands. Yuki regarded him a moment, and then she silently went to -him, pulled his hands down, and kissed his lips. - -"I have missed you terribly," he said, hoarsely. - -She was all compunction. - -"I very sawry. I din know you caring very much for poor liddle me, an -p'raps I bedder nod come bag ad you." - -"Why did you come, then?" he asked, gently. - -"I coon' help myself," she said, forlornly. "My feet aching run bag ad -you, my eyes ill to see you, my hands gone mad to touch you." - -She had grown in a moment serious, but also melancholy. - -After a pause she said, more brightly, "I bringin' you -something--something so nize, dear my lord." - -"What is it, Yuki, dear?" He was reluctant to let her go even for a -moment. - -"Flowers," she said--"summer flowers." - -He released her, and she brought them to him, a huge bunch of azaleas. -She buried her delightful little nose in them. "Ah," she said, "flowers -mos' sweetes' thing in all the worl', an' all them same flowers for you, -for you." - -"Where did you get them, dear?" he asked, taking her hands instead of the -flowers, and drawing her, flowers and all, into his arms. She faltered a -little, and then said, with the old daring smile flashing back in her -face: "Nize Japanese gents making me present those flowers." - -He caught her wrists in a grip of iron. "What do you mean?" he demanded, -fiercely, wild jealousy assailing him. - -She pulled herself from him, and regarded the little wrists ruefully. - -"Ain' you shamed?" she accused. - -"Yes!" He kissed the little wrists with an inward sob. "Tell me all, my -little one. Please do not hide anything from me. I can't bear it." - -"Thad Japanese gent wanter marry with me," she informed him, calmly -smiling, and dimpling as if it amused her, and then making a face to -show him her feelings in the matter. - -"My! How he _adore_ me!" she added, vividly. - -"Marry with you! What do you mean? You are my wife." - -"Yes, bud _he_ din know thad," she said, consolingly; "an' see, I bring -his same flowers unto you." - -He took them from her arms. They were all crushed now, and it distressed -her. No Japanese can bear to see a flower abused. She fingered some of -the petals sadly; then she sighed, looking up at him with tears in her -eyes. - -"Tha's mos' beautiful thing' in all the whole worl'," she said, -indicating the flowers--"so pure, so kind, so sweet." - -"I know something more beautiful and sweet, and--and pure." - -"Ah, whad?" she said, her face shining, the pupils of the blue eyes so -large as to make them look almost black. - -"My wife!" he breathed. - - - - - VIII - - YUKI'S HOME - - -Every day, all unknown to Yuki, her husband looked in her little -jewel-box. The pile of bills grew larger. He no longer refused her -requests for money. The fund was quite large now. The last time he had -counted it there were four hundred dollars. He took a whim to make it -five hundred, and that same day gave her a clear hundred dollars. - -She had given him a solemn promise never to leave him again without his -knowledge and consent, and for a whole month she had kept steadfastly at -home. It was the happiest month in his life, a month that spelled naught -else but joy and sunshine. - -But the day after he had given her the hundred dollars she came to him -and begged very humbly to be permitted to visit her old father and -mother and seventeen little brothers and sisters. She still kept up this -deception. He refused her almost gruffly. He had grown selfish and -spoiled under her care. All the day, however, he watched her -suspiciously, fearful lest she should slip away. And he was right. In -the evening, when she had left him for a moment, he saw her leaving the -house. He took his hat, and, keeping at a good distance from her, but -never losing sight of her for a moment, he followed her. - -Twilight was falling. Softly, tenderly, the darkness swept away the -exquisite rays of red and yellow that the departing sun had left behind, -for it was crossing the waters, until, far in the distance, it dipped -deep down as though swallowed up by the bay. - -Yuki was walking rapidly towards Tokyo. It was only a short distance, -but nevertheless the thought of her little tender feet treading it -alone, and at such an hour, unnerved her husband. Whatever her mission, -wherever she was going, he would follow her. She belonged to him -completely. She should never escape him now, he told himself. - -She seemed to know her way, and showed no hesitation or fear when once -in Tokyo, but bent her steps quickly and with assurance, until finally -they were before the great terminal station at Shimbashi. They had now -come a long distance. The girl looked tired: weary shadows were under -her eyes, as she passed into the railway enclosure and bought a ticket -for a town suburb a short distance from Tokyo. - -Her husband went to the window, inquired where the girl was going, and -bought a ticket for the same place. - -Then began the long journey in the uncomfortable train, where there were -no sleeping accommodations whatever. Yuki found a seat, and sat very -quietly staring out at the flying darkness. After a time she put her -head back against the seat and, despite the jolting of the train, fell -asleep. - -Her husband was close to her now--in the next seat, in fact. He could -have touched her, as he so longed to do, but would not for fear of -disturbing or frightening her. - -When they reached the little town, the banging of the doors, the blowing -of whistles, and shouts of the conductors awakened her. She came to life -with a start, gathered her little belongings together, and left the -train, her husband still following her. - -It was a refined and beautiful little town they had arrived at, -apparently the home of the exclusive and cultivated Japanese. Its -atmosphere was grateful and pleasing after the crowded city of Tokyo, -with its endless labyrinth of narrow streets and grotesque signboards, -and ceaseless noises. - -Yuki had not far to walk. Only a few steps from the little station, and -then she was before one of those old-fashioned, pretentious palaces once -affected by the nobles. There were signs of neglect about the house and -gardens, which had fallen out of repair. No coolies or servants were in -sight. At the garden gate Yuki paused a moment, leaning wearily against -it, ere she opened and passed through, up the garden walk, and -disappeared into the shadows of the palace. - -Her husband stood for a long time as though rooted to the spot. Then -very slowly he retraced his steps to the railway station, bought his -ticket, and returned to Tokyo. He felt sure she would come back to him. - -And she did, hardly two days later. He was very gentle to her this time. -There were no more questions asked, and she vouchsafed no explanation. - -But she came back to him strangely docile and submissive. All the old -mockery and folly had vanished. She was angelic in her sweet tenderness -and solicitude. But once he found her in tears. She protested they had -come there because she had laughed so hard. Another time, when he -offered her money, she refused passionately to accept it. It was the -first time since she had lived with him. Thereafter she refused to take -even the regular weekly allowance agreed upon. He looked in her little -jewel-box, and found the money all gone. - -Her docility and gentleness strengthened his confidence in her. He was -sure she would never leave him again. He even told her of this belief, -and she did not deny it. But her eyes were tearful. With boyish -insistence he teased her. - -"Tell me so--that you will never leave me again." - -"Never?" she said, but the word slipped her lips as a question. - -"Repeat it after me," he demanded. - -"Say: 'I--shall--never--never--leave you again.'" - -"Ah, you makin' fun ad me," she protested, begging the question. - -But he still persisted, and made her repeat slowly after him, word by -word, that she would remain with him till death should part them. - -One day he found her laboriously occupied at her small writing-desk. Her -little hand flew down the page, rapidly drawing the strange characters -of her country's letters. - -"What are you doing? You look as wise and solemn as a female Buddha." - -Yuki carefully blotted and covered her letter. She did not answer him. -Instead she held up her little stained fingers, to show him the ink on -them. He sat down beside her, kissing the tips of her fingers. - -"To whom were you writing, fairy-sage?" he said. - -"To whom? My brudder." - -"Your brother! Ah, you have a brother, have you? And where is he?" - -She still hesitated, and he watched her keenly. - -"He live ad Japan," she said, after a long moment. - -"Japan is quite a big place," remarked her husband, suggestively. "He -has rather large quarters for one fellow, don't you think?" - -"Japan liddle bit country," she argued, trying to change the subject. -"America, perhaps, grade big place, big as half the whole worl'--" - -"Not quite," interposed her husband, smiling. - -"Well, big's one-quarter of the worl', anyhow," she declared. "Bud -Japan! Mos' liddle bit insignificant spot on all the beautiful maps." - -"What part of Japan does your family live in?" - -"Liddle bit town two hundled miles north of Tokyo." - -"Indeed." - -She had spoken the truth, he knew. - -"Why doesn't your brother come to see you?" - -Now that he had commenced it, he stuck to his catechism doggedly. - -"He don't know where I live," she said. - -"Don't know! That's strange. Why doesn't he?" - -"I 'fraid tellin'." - -"Afraid of what?" - -"Afraid he disowning me forever." - -"Why should he do that?" - -He was getting interested. He disliked wringing her secrets from her in -this wise. He wanted her confidence unsolicited; but his curiosity had -the better of him. "Why should he disown you?" he repeated. - -"Because I marrying--" she paused, somewhat piteously, holding one of his -hands closely between her own small ones, and entreatingly pressing it -as though begging him not to pursue his questions. - -"Well?" he said--"because you married--" - -"You," she finished. - -"Oh!" His ejaculation was rueful. Then he laughed, and squared his -shoulders, and shook his finger at her. - -"What's the matter with me? Am I not good enough?" - -"Too honorably good," she declared, humbly. - -"Then why does your family object to receiving me into its bosom, eh?" - -"Because you jus' barbarian," she said, apologetically, and then swiftly -tried to make amends. "Barbarian mos' nize of all. Also _I_ am liddle -bit barbarian. I god them same barbarous eyes an' oogly hair--" - -"Loveliest hair in the world," he said, stroking it fondly. "But never -mind, dearie. Don't look so distressed. It's not your fault, of course, -that your people disapprove of me." - -"They don' dis'prove," she interrupted him, her distress deepening. -"They don' never seen you even." - -"But I thought you said--" - -"I jus' guess. Tha's why I don' tell thad brudder. Mebbe he dis'prove -you when he see you grade big barbarian. Tha's bedder nod tell unto -him." - -"But where does he think you are all the time?" - -"He?" She lost her head a moment. "Likewise," she continued, "he also -travel from home. Perhaps he also marrying with beautiful barbarian -leddy. Tha's whad I dunno." - -"I don't quite understand," said her husband. "But never mind. If you -don't like the subject, and it's plain you don't, you sha'n't be -bothered with it." - -"Thangs," she said, gratefully. - -On another day, as she sat opening his American mail with her small -paper-knife, a picture of a young American girl fell from the envelope. -Yuki picked it up, and regarded it with dilated eyes and lips that -quivered. It was the first shock of jealousy she had experienced. One of -his own country-women then must love him. No Japanese girl would send -her picture to any man save her lover. - -Her first impulse was to tear the picture across. She did not want him -to see it. Perhaps even the pictured face might win him back, she -thought jealously. But she did not destroy it. She hid it in the sleeve -of her kimono, and for a whole week she tortured herself with drawing it -forth from its hiding-place and studying the face whenever she was alone -a moment, comparing it with her own exquisite one in her small mirror. - -Then conscience, or perhaps natural feminine curiosity to know who her -rival was, prompted her to make humble confession to her husband of her -theft. - -He took the matter gayly, and seemed exuberantly happy at the idea of -her being jealous, for she could not well hide this fact from him. He -gloated over this apparent evidence of her love for him. - -"Isn't she lovely?" he asked, enthusiastically, pointing to the picture, -and then pretending to hug it to him. - -"No," said Yuki, proudly. "Mos' oogly girl in all the whole worl'. Soach -silliest things on her haed. I don' keer tha's hat or nod. Flowers, -birds, beas', perhaps, an' rollin' her eyes this-a-way--" - -"This is my sister," said Jack, gravely. "I am sorry you don't like her, -Yuki. She'd be just the sort of girl to love you." - -Her little spurt of temper flickered out pitifully. - -"Ah, _pray_ forgive me," she implored. "I mos' silliest _mousmè_ in all -Japan. She jus' _lovely_, mos' sweet beautiful girl in all the whole -worl'. Jus' like you, my lord." - - - - - IX - - THE MIKADO'S BIRTHDAY - - -The mellow summer was gone. With the dawn of the autumn the languor of -the country seemed to increase. Now that the weather was cooler, -however, they made frequent trips to the city, visiting the -chrysanthemum shows, loitering through Uyeno park, the Shiba temples, -and bazaars. And one day Jack shook gayly before her eyes a really -awe-inspiring document. It was, in fact, an invitation, written in fine -French, from a Japanese person of high rank, inviting him to attend a -very important function, which was to be given at the Hôtel Imperial on -the Mikado's birthday, which function was to be honored by the presence -of "les princes et les princesses." - -"We are going, of course," he told her. "It will be a change, and, -besides, I want to show you off to my friends. There'll be hosts of them -there, you know." - -But she protested. First she set forth as excuse the fact that she was -only an honorably rude and insignificant humble geisha girl, who would -be out of place in so great and extraordinary an assemblage. - -Then her husband quite seriously reproved her, and reminded her forcibly -that she was anything but an insignificant geisha girl. She was, in -fact, a very important person--his wife. - -Ah, yes, she admitted that she had indeed grown in caste since her -marriage with him; nevertheless, they had lived so honorably secluded -together that she had forgotten all the polite mannerisms of society, -which she had never been acquainted with at all, being only a crude girl -of humble parentage. She would surely disgrace not only both of them by -her behavior, but doubtless the whole assemblage. She would not know how -to act, how to look, and when to speak. - -Then Jack insisted, with affected selfishness, that she should look at -and speak to no one but himself. He would commit hari-kari, or joshi, or -any old kind of Japanese suicide, otherwise. And as for her manners, -they were lovely, perfect, just right. - -"Ah, bud you--" she deprecated. "You don' understan', you big barbarian. -Those same honorable monsters, Japanese princes, whad, before all the -gods, they goin' to thing of me?" - -"That you are absolutely adorable. How could they help thinking so, -unless they are stone blind. Besides, this isn't a Japanese affair at -all. It's at a European hotel, and there'll be all sorts and conditions -of people there. I was lucky to get the invitations. They aren't for -every one, you know. This is a big thing." - -"_You_ so big," she said, proudly. - -"Well, no. It had really nothing to do with my size. You see, I have a -half-Jap friend in America, and of course it's through him I'm favored." - -"Ah, thad half-Jap, he was very high-up man ad Japan, perhaps?" - -"Well, he was connected with some of the big families, though he was -quite poor." - -"Thad," said Yuki, with sudden vehemence, "is no madder ad Japan. Money! -Who has thad money? Nod the ole families, the flower of the country; -jus' the shop-keepers and the politicians." - -Her husband was startled at her outbreak. He was astonished at her -knowledge of existing conditions in her country. But she did not pursue -the subject, saying she disliked it. - -And the ball? What about that? - -Well, she would not go with him. He must go to that all alone, for the -million big reasons she had given him. Moreover, all the ladies would -wear Parisian toilettes. It would be a disgrace for his wife to go in a -kimono. - -Again he was astonished at her. How did she know that on such occasions -the ladies, Japanese included, dressed in European gowns? - -Apparently she knew more concerning such matters than he had imagined. -It was becoming plainer to him every day that his wife was of no -ordinary family. And then the memory of the old rambling palace, -doubtless her home, in the exquisite, aristocratic little town where he -had followed her, supported this idea. Who was his wife, after all? Who -were her people, and why had none of them come near her during all these -months? What was the meaning of the mystery in which she had surrounded -herself ever since he had known her. And now, when there was scarcely a -doubt left in his mind of her love for him, why had he failed to win her -confidence? - -"I want to know just who you are, my little wife," he suddenly said. "I -do not believe that tale about your people. I know you are not a geisha -girl. You are not, are you?" - -"No," she said, very softly. - -"Then tell me. Who are your people? It is only right I should know -this." - -She looked up at him with intense seriousness. Then her eyes fluttered, -and she went rambling into one of her fairy tales of nonsense. - -"My people? Who they are? My august ancestors came from the moon. My one -hundled grade-grandfathers fight and fight and fight like the lion, and -conquer one-half of all Japan--fight the shogun, fight the kazoku, fight -each other. They were great Samourai, cutting off the haeds of aevery -humble mans they don' like. So much bloodshed displeased the gods. They -punishing all my ancestors, bringin' them down to thad same poverty of -those honorable peebles killed by them. Then much distress an' sadness -come forever ad our house. All pride, all haughty boasting daed forever. -Aeverybody goin' 'bout weepin' like ad a funeral. Nobody habby. What -they goin' do git bag thad power an' reeches ag'in? Also one ancestor -have grade big family to keep from starving, an' one daughter beautiful -as the moon of her ancestors. He weep more than all the rest of those -ancestors, weep an' weep till he go blind like an owl ad day-time. Then -the gods begin feel sawry. One of them mos' sawry of all. He also is -descendant of the Sun. Well, thad sun-god he comin' down ad Japan, make -big raddle an' noise, an' marrying with thad same beautifullest daughter -of thad ole blind ancestor. Thad sun-god my fadder. Me? I am the -half-moon-half-sun offspring." - -She had promised to accompany him, at all events, to see the review from -the American-legation tent, but at the last moment she backed out. She -had seen it many times before, she declared. She was tired of it. - -At first he swore he would not go without her. Why, the "show," he -declared, would be nothing to him without her to see it with him. Half -the pleasure--nay, all of it--would be gone. He was really keenly -disappointed, but she coaxed and wheedled and petted around him, till, -before he knew that he was aggrieved at her backsliding, he was well on -his way. - -The streets were thronged with a motley crowd of people. Jinrikishas -were scurrying hither and thither, and little bits of humanity, in the -shape of small men, small women, small children, and small dogs and -cats, were colliding and jostling against the many ramshackle vehicles -in the road. Gay flags and bunting were displayed everywhere, and the -town presented a gala appearance. - -Jack got out of his jinrikisha and pushed his way through the crowd -until he came up to the parade-grounds. He found his way to the proper -tent, and, with a half-score of former acquaintances about him, he was -soon drawn into the babble and gush of small talk and jokes that -tourists meeting each other in foreign lands usually indulge in. - -Once on the parade-grounds, where infantry, cavalry, and artillery were -forming themselves, it seemed as if he had suddenly left Japan -altogether, and was once more in the modern Western world, of which he -had always been a part. - -There was nothing Oriental in this brave display of the imperial army. -There was nothing Oriental in this bustling, noisy crowd of foreigners, -each trying to outdo the other in importance and precedence. Only the -skies and the little winds, and, in the distance, the sinuous outlines -of the mountains and forests beyond, and the disks on the national flag -displayed everywhere, were Japanese. And after his long seclusion in the -country the glitter dazzled him. - -There were seven thousand men in the field, and the Mikado, surrounded -by his generals, body-guard, outriders, and standard-bearers, reviewed -the troops; and then, amid a great flourish, and hoarse cheering -drowning the national hymn, which was being played by all the bands at -once, he left the grounds. - -Jack did not return after the parade to his home, much as he would have -liked to do so. Some acquaintances who had crossed on the same steamer -with him on his way to Japan carried him off triumphantly to their -hotel, and that night he went with them to the imperial ball. - -It was very late when he went home to Yuki. There was a faint light -burning in the zashishi, and he wondered with some concern whether she -were sitting up waiting for him. He did not see her at first when he -entered the room, for the light of the andon had fluttered down dimly, -and it was more the grayness of the approaching dawn which saved the -room from complete darkness. Crossing the room, he came upon her. She -had fallen asleep on the floor. She was lying on her back, her arms -encircling her head. He was suddenly struck with her extreme youth. She -seemed little more than a tired child, who had grown weary and had -fallen asleep among her toys, for beside her on a tiny foot-high table -was the little supper she had prepared for him, and which was now quite -cold. On the other side of her were her tiny drum and samisen, with -which she had been attempting doubtless to pass the evening by pulling -from the strings some of that weird music he knew so well now. - -For a long time her husband looked at her, and a feeling of intense -isolation about her came over and suddenly possessed him. Why had he -never been able to bridge that strange distance which lay like a pall -between them, the feeling always that she was not wholly his own, that -she had been but a guest within his house, a tiny wild bird that he had -caught in some strange way and caged--caught, though she had come to -him, as it were, for protection? Just as, when a boy, he remembered how -a robin had beaten at his shutters, and he had saved it from an enemy, -and afterwards how he had caged it, and how it had pined for its -freedom. - -The thought that he might yet lose Yuki caused him such anguish of mind -it almost stunned him. He knelt down beside her, and drew her up in his -arms, and then, as gently as a mother would have done, he carried her up -the queer spiral stairway which led to their little up-stairs room. - -The next day she questioned him anxiously. Were there many ladies more -beautiful than she at the ball? Had he enjoyed himself largely with -them, and how could he live away hereafter from such mirth and gayety? -Why had he come back to little, insignificant her? - -And he told her that never in all his life before had he longed so -ardently for any one as he had for her that previous night. That the day -had been endless; the noise and show, the brassy merriment and cheer, -were abhorrent to him, for she had not been there to rob it of its -vulgarity with the charm of her sweet presence. That he had been rude in -his efforts to escape it, had bullied the jinrikimen because they had -seemed to creep, and that happiness and peace had only come back to him -again when he had crossed his own threshold and had taken her in his -arms. - -Still the wistful distress in her misty eyes was only in part dispelled. - -"Last night," she said, "I broke my liddle jade bracelet. It is a bad -omen." - -"I will buy you a dozen new ones," he said. - -"One million dozens cannot mend jus' thad liddle one," she returned, -sadly, shaking her head. "It is a bad omen. Mebbe a warning from the -gods." - -Of what did they warn her? That she could not say, but she had heard -that such an accident usually preceded the sorrows of love. Perhaps he -would soon pass away from her, and, like the ghost of the fisher-boy -Urashima, who had left his fairy bride to return to his people, he too -would pass out of her life, back into that from which he had come. - - - - - X - - A BAD OMEN - - -It was late in November. The parks were dropping their autumn glories -and taking on the browner hues and hints of hoar-frost, black-and-white -vestments, the sackcloth and ashes of winter. The recessional of the -birds was dying away into silence. Soon the final, long-drawn amen of -the north-wind would be breathed out over the deserted woods, where the -anthem of praise had rung out to the worshipping air all through the -golden days and silver nights of summer. - -The still beauty of the autumn evening was piercingly melancholy, and, -even with a loving sunset still lingering in the skies, a silken, gentle -rain was falling, as though the gods were weeping over the death of the -autumn, were weeping hopeless tears--the most tragic of all. - -The little house that stood alone on the hill faced to the west, its wet -roofs and shingles sparkling and glistening in the rays of the dying -sunset that enveloped it. - -Yuki opened a shoji (sliding paper door) of her chamber, and looked out -wistfully at the city of Tokyo, that in the autumn silence was shining -out like a gem, with its many strange lights and colors. She stole -softly out on to a small balcony, and stepped down into the tiny garden -as the night began to spread its mantle of darkness. A few minutes later -her husband called to her: - -"Yuki! Yuki!" - -He drew her into the room, and closed the shoji behind her. - -"You have been crying again!" he said, sharply, and turned her face up -to the light. - -"It is the rain on my face, my lord," she answered in the smallest -voice. - -"But you mustn't go out in the rain. You are quite wet, dear." - -"Soach a little, gentle rain," she said. "It will not hurt jus' me. I -loogin' aeverywhere 'bout for our liddle bit poor nightingale. Gone! -Perhaps daed! Aeverything dies--bird, flowers, mebbe--me!" - -He put his hand over her mouth with a hurt exclamation. - -"Don't!" he only said. - -The maid brought in their supper on a tray, but before she could set it -down Yuki had impetuously crossed the room and taken it from her hands. - -"Go, go, honorable maid," she said. "I will with my own hands attend my -lord's honorable appetite." - -She knelt at his feet, geisha fashion, holding the tray and waiting for -him to eat, but he took it from her gravely, and put it on the small -table beside them, and then silently, tenderly, he took her small hands -in his own. - -"What is troubling you, Yuki? You must tell me. You are hiding something -from me. What has become of my little mocking-bird? I cannot live -without it." - -"You also los' liddle bird?" she queried, softly--"jus' lige unto my -same liddle nightingale?" - -"I have lost--I am losing you," he said, suddenly, with a burst of -anguish. "I cannot make you out these last few weeks. What has come over -you? I miss your laughing and your singing. You are always sad now; your -eyes--ah, I cannot bear it." His voice went suddenly anxious. "Tell me, -is it--do you--want--need some more money, Yuki? You know you can have -all you want." - -She sprang to her feet fiercely. - -"No, no, no, no!" she cried; "naever any more for all my life long, -_dear_ my lord." - -"Then why--" - -"Ah, _pray_ don' ask why." - -"But why--" - -"Then listen unto me. I nod any longer thad liddle bit geisha girl you -marrying with. I change grade big moach. Now you see me, I am one -wooman, mebbe like wooman one hundled years ole--wise--sad--I change!" - -"Yes," he said. "You are changed. You are my Undine, and I have found -your soul at last!" - - * * * * * - -One oppressive afternoon, when a nagging, bleating wind out-doors had -prevented their going on their customary ramble through the woods or on -a little trip to the city, Jack had fallen asleep. Long before he had -awakened he had felt her warm, soothing presence near him, but with the -pleasure it afforded him was mingled a premonition of disaster and a -dread of something unhappy about her? He awoke to find her standing by -him, her face white and drawn with a despair he could not comprehend. - -"What is it?" He started up fearfully. "Your eyes are tragic! You look -as if you were contemplating something frightful." - -She sank down to his feet, and, despite his protests, knelt and clung to -him there, sobbing with passionate abandon. - -"Don't! Don't! I can't bear you to do that. What is it, Yuki?" - -"Oh, for liddle while, jus' liddle bit while, bear with me," she said. - -"Little while! What do you mean?" he demanded. - -She tried to regain her composure. Her laughter was piteous. - -"I only liddle bit skeered," she said. "I--" she stammered--"I skeered -'bout thad liddle foolish jade bracelet, all smashed and broken." - -"Is that all?" - -"It is soach a bad omen! The gods trying to separate us, mebbe." - -"Separate us?" His suspicions were growing. "How can they do that? It -lies between you and me, such a--such a fate. The gods--ah, you are -talking nonsense." - -"The gods see inside," she said. - -"Inside what?" - -"Our hearts." Her voice was barely above a whisper. - -"And what can they find there to distress you?" he asked, almost -fiercely. She was hurting him with her failure to confide in him. - -"The bracelet--" she began. "It is broken, an' love, too, mus' die--an' -break!" - -From that day her melancholy grew rather than diminished. But she had -roused her husband's suspicions, and her morbidness irritated rather -than appealed to him. He felt that in some way he was being deceived. -The day that he found her wardrobe neatly and carefully folded away in -her queer little packing-case, as though in preparation for a journey, -the full sense of her deceit dawned upon him. Hitherto when she had left -him she had taken none of her belongings with her. He perceived it was -now her intention to desert him utterly. He had served her purpose, -apparently, and she was through with him. - -His wrath burst its bounds. He had not known the capabilities of his -angry passion. He tore the silken garments from the box with the fierce -madness of one demented, then he pushed her into the room, and showed -her where they lay scattered. - -"The meaning of this?" he demanded, white to the lips with the intensity -of his passion. - -She remained mute. She did not even trouble to mock or laugh at him, nor -would she weep. She seemed dazed and bewildered, and he, infuriated -against her, said things which rankled in his conscience for years -afterwards. - -"Does a promise mean nothing to you--a promise--an oath itself? Were -you, parrot-like, merely echoing my words when you swore to stay by me -until--" his voice broke--"death?" - -Still she made him no denial, and her silence maddened him, and drove -him on with his bitter arraignment. - -"What your object has been I fail to see, but you cannot deny that you -have laid yourself out, have used every effort, every art and wile, of -which you are mistress, to make me believe in you. And I--I--like a -blind, deluded fool--ah, Yuki--there is something wrong, some hideous -mistake somewhere. You have some secret, some trouble. Be frank with me. -Can't you see--understand how I--I am suffering?" - -She roused herself with an effort, but her words were pitifully -conventional. She apologized for the trouble and noise she had brought -into his house. - -"You have not answered me!" he cried. "What was your intention? Did you -intend to leave me? You shall answer me that!" - -"It was bedder so," she said, and her voice fainted. She could speak no -further. - -"Then such was your intention!" He could hardly believe her words. - - - - - XI - - THE NIGHTINGALE - - -When Love lives after Trust is dead, then peace is an unknown quantity. -A constraint that was baffling in its intense hopelessness now hedged up -between these two. Yuki grew thin and wistful. Her whole attitude became -one of pitiful attempted conciliation and humility, which with bitter -suspicion her husband took to be confusion and guilt. Had she even -affected somewhat of her old light-heartedness and attempted to win his -forgiveness by her old audacious wiles, her husband would have forgotten -and forgiven everything, glad of an excuse to renew the old close -comradeship with her. But she made no such attempt. - -She had acquired a peculiar fear of her husband, and unconsciously -shrank from him, as though dreading to bring down on herself his further -displeasure. She kept away from him as much as she could, though at -times she made spasmodic, frantic efforts to assume her old -light-heartedness, but these efforts were usually followed by passionate -outbursts of tears, when she had drawn the shoji between them, and was -once more alone with her own inward thoughts, whatever they were. - -Meanwhile her husband kept the watch of a jailer over her. He was -convinced that she was waiting for a chance to leave him, and this he -was determined to frustrate. She had raised in him a feeling of the -intensest bitterness, which amounted almost to antagonism towards her. -And still beneath all this resentment and bitterness a tenderness and -yearning for her threatened to strangle and overpower all other feeling. -Her apparent fear of him hurt him terribly, and caused him distractedly -at times to question whether he had been as kind to her as he might have -been. Then his mind would inevitably revert to the fact that she was -planning to leave him, and his resentment would burn fiercer than ever. - -By a common dread of the subject, both of them avoided alluding to it, -and for this reason it weighed the heavier on their minds. He feared -that any explanation she might attempt to make to him would only be some -excuse put forward to reconcile him, and win his consent to the -impossible situation which he instinctively knew she intended to -consummate. She, on the other hand, watched wildly to turn the subject, -dreading his wrath, which she was conscious was righteous. - -To add to the gloom of their strained relations, a season of drizzly wet -weather set in, which confined them to the house, and moreover Yuki was -grieving and pining over the loss of a favorite nightingale that had -made its home in the tall bamboo out in the midnight garden of their -little home. Jack was misanthropic and cynical, restless as it is -possible for a man to be under such galling circumstances, yearning -nevertheless for things to be as they had been between him and his wife. - -One night, at dusk, after an exceptionally sad and chilly meal in-doors, -Jack had come out alone, and was trying to soothe his senses with a -fragrant cigar. Instinctively he was waiting for his wife. He missed her -if she was absent from his side but a moment. Suddenly out of the -gloaming soared out one long, thrilling note of sheer ecstasy and bliss, -that quivered and quavered a moment, and then floated away into the -maddest peals of melody, ending in a sob that was excruciating in its -intense humanness. The nightingale had returned! - -He sprang to his feet, and, trembling by the veranda rail, stared -outward into the darkness. And then? Yuki came out from the shadows of -their garden, and under the light of the moon, beneath their small -balcony, she looked up into his eyes, and murmured in a voice thrilled -by an inward sob, so timid and meek, so beseeching and prayerful: - -"I lige please you, my lord!" - -"The nightingale!" he whispered, with hoarse emotion. "Did you hear it? -It has returned!" - -"Nay, my lord--tha's jus' me! I jus' a liddle echo!" - -She had learned the voice of the nightingale. - - [Illustration: THE NIGHTINGALE SONG] - - * * * * * - -With an exclamation of indescribable tenderness he drew her into his -arms, and for a few moments at least all the misery and pain and -constraint of the last few weeks between them passed away and gave place -to all their pent-up love and loneliness. - -As he held her close to him, he was conscious at first only of the fact -that she loved him, that she was clinging to him with somewhat of her -old abandon, and then he felt her hands upon his arms. He could almost -see them shaking and trembling. She was attempting to release herself! -Struggling to be free! All of a sudden he released her, and stood -breathing hard, his arms folded across his breast, waiting for her to do -or say something to him. - -She did not move. She stood before him, with her head down; and then her -blue eyes lifted, and timidly, appealingly, they beseeched his own. She -started to speak, stammered only a few incoherent words, and then, with -a half-sob, she unsteadily crossed the room and left him alone. - -Two days later, upon their household gloom came word from Taro Burton, -announcing that he had arrived in Tokyo. Jack rushed off to meet him, -telling Yuki he expected an old friend, and would bring him home that -evening. - - - - - XII - - TARO BURTON - - -It may be that Jack Bigelow first awoke to the fact that for months he -had been literally living in a dream-world when he saw his old -college-chum, Taro Burton--the same dear, old, grave Taro! He rushed up -to him in the old boyish fashion, wringing his hands with unaffected -delight. - -The past dream-months rolled for the moment from his memory, and Jack -was once again the happy up-to-date American boy. - -Taro had been delayed in America, he now told the other frankly, on -account of the failure of his people to send him passage money until -about a month ago. He had a few hardships to recount and some messages -to deliver from mutual friends, and then he wanted to know all about -Jack. Why had he failed to visit his people as promised? How much of the -country had he seen? Why were his letters so few and far between? - -Jack Bigelow laughed shortly. "Burton, old man," he said, "I've been -dead to everything in Japan--in the world, in fact--save one entrancing -subject." - -"Yes?" The other was curious. "And that is--?" - -"My wife." - -"Your wife!" Taro stopped short. They were crossing the main street of -Tokyo on foot. - -"Yes," said the other, laughing boyishly, all his resentment against the -girl lost and forgiven for the time being. - -"And so you did it, after all?" said the other, with slow, bitter -emphasis. His friend, then, was little different from other foreigners -who marry only to desert. - -"Did what?" - -"Got a wife." - -"Got a wife! Why, man, she came to me. She's a witch, the sun-goddess -herself. She's had me under her spell all these months. She has -hypnotized me." - -"And still has you under her spell?" - -"I am wider awake to-day," said Jack, soberly. - -"And soon," said Taro, "you will be still wider awake, and then--then it -will be time for her to awaken." - -"No!" said Jack, sharply, with bitter memory. "She has no heart -whatever. She likes to pretend--that is all." - -"How do you mean?" - -"Simply that we've both been pretending and acting--I to myself, she to -me; she trying to make me believe it was all real to her, at any rate -these last two months; I trying to delude myself into believing in her, -which was more than my conceit was good for, after all. Just when I was -sure of her, I accidentally discovered that she was preparing to desert -me altogether." - -"She apparently has more sense than some of them," said Taro. "Her head -rules her heart." - -"Oh, entirely," Jack agreed, quickly, thinking of the money she had -coaxed from him in the past. - -"And you," Taro turned on him, "have you come out all right?" - -"Perfectly!" the other laughed with forced assurance and airiness that -deceived Taro, who was somewhat credulous by nature. "It wasn't for a -lifetime, you know," he added. - -His reply was distasteful to the high moral sense of Taro Burton--more, -it pained him, for it brought to him a sudden and deep disappointment in -his friend. He changed the subject, and tried to talk about his own -people. He was in a great hurry to go home, and would linger but a day -in Tokyo. He had arrived sooner than they expected him. He was hungry -for a sight of his little sister and mother--they were all he had in the -world. - -Jack's spirits were dampened for the moment, as he had expected his -friend to remain with him for a few days. However, he got Taro's consent -to accompany him to his home for dinner that evening, in order to meet -the "Sun-goddess." - - * * * * * - -Taro was ushered with great ceremony into the quaint zashishi, which was -supposed to be entirely Japanese, and was in reality wholly American, -despite the screens and mats and vases. Jack ran up-stairs to prepare -his wife to meet his friend. - -The girl was panically dressing in her best clothes. The maid had -brushed her hair till it glistened. Long ago her husband had -peremptorily forbidden her the use of oil for the purpose of darkening -or smoothing it, so it now shone a rich bronze black and curled -entrancingly around her little ears and neck. She needed no color for -her lips or cheeks; this also her husband had forbidden her to use. She -looked like the picture of the sun-goddess in some old fairy print, her -eyes dancing and shining with excitement, her cheeks very red and rosy. -She was irresistible, thought her husband, as he held her at arm's -length. Then, to her great mortification and chagrin, he lifted her -bodily in his arms and carried her downstairs. And thus they entered the -room, the girl blushing and struggling in his arms. - -Taro Burton was standing tall and erect, his back to the light. He was -very grave, in spite of his friend's mirth, and, as Jack set the girl on -the floor, he took a step forward to meet her, bowing ceremoniously in -Japanese fashion. - -Yuki stood up, straightened her crumpled gown, and hung her head a -moment. - -"Yuki, this is my friend, Mr. Burton." - -She raised her head with a quick, terrified start, and then -instantaneously hers and Taro's eyes met, and each recoiled and shrank -backward, their eyes matching each other in the intense startled look of -horror. - -The man's face had taken on the color of death, and he was standing, -immovable and silent, almost as if he were an image of stone. The girl -sank to the floor in a confused heap, shivering and sobbing. - -Jack turned from her to Taro, and then back again to the crouching girl. -She was creeping on her knees towards Taro, but the man, having found -the power of movement, went backward away from her, aged all in a -moment. - -He tried to turn his sick eyes from her, but they clung, fascinated as -is the needle by the pole. - -And then Jack's voice, hoarse with a fear he could not understand, broke -in: - -"Burton, what is the matter?" - -Suddenly the girl sprang to her feet and rushed to Taro, sobbing and -entreating in Japanese, but the terrible figure of the man remained -immovable. Jack pulled her forcibly from him. - -"Burton, dear old friend, what is it?" - -The other pushed his hands from him with almost a blow. - -"She is my sister! Oh, my God!" - -Jack Bigelow felt for an instant as if the life within him had been -stopped. Then he grasped at a chair and sank down dazed. - -As though to break up the terrible silence, the girl commenced to laugh, -but her laughter was terrible, almost unearthly. The man in the chair -covered his face with his hands; the other made a movement towards her -as if he would strike her. But she did not retreat: nay, she leaned -towards him. And her laughter, loud and discordant, sank low, and then -faded in a tremulous sob. - -She put out her little speaking, beseeching hands, and "Sayonara!" she -whispered softly. Then there was stillness in the room, though the -echoes seemed to repeat "Sayonara," "Sayonara," and again "Sayonara," -and that means not merely "Farewell," but the heart's resignation: "If -it must be." - -Jack and Taro were alone together, neither breaking by a word the tragic -sadness of that terrible silence. It was the coming into the room of the -maid that recalled them to life. Twilight was settling. She brought the -lighted andon and set it in the darkening room. - -Jack got up slowly. The stupor and horror of it all were not gone from -him, but he crossed to the other man, and looked into his dull, ashen -face. - -"My God! Burton, forgive me," he said, brokenly; "I am a gentleman. I -will fix it all right. She is my wife, and all the world to me. We can -remarry if you wish, and I swear to protect her with all the love and -homage I would give to any woman who became my wife." - -"Yes, you must do that," said the other, with weak half-comprehension. -"But where is she?" - -"Where is she?" Jack repeated, dazedly. They had forgotten her -departure. A dread of her possible loss possessed and stupefied Jack, -and Taro was half delirious. - -"We must look for her at once," said Jack. - -They called to her, and all over the house and through the grounds they -searched for her, their lanterns scanning the dark shadows under the -trees in the little garden; but only the autumn winds, sighing in the -pine-trees, echoed her singing minor notes, and mocked and numbed their -senses. - -"She must have gone home," said the husband. - -"We must go there at once," said the brother. - -"It will be all right, Burton, dear old friend. Trust me; you know me -well enough for that." - -Taro paused, and turned on him burning eyes, in which friendliness had -been replaced by a look that spoke of stern and awful judgment. -"Otherwise," he began, but paused; he went on in a cold hard voice, "I -was going to say, I will kill you." - - - - - XIII - - IN WHICH TWO MEN LEARN OF A - SISTER'S SACRIFICE - - -Jack Bigelow's usually sunny face was bleached to the ashiness of fear -and despair. He was so nervous that he could not keep still a moment at -a time, but would get up and pace the length of the car, only to return -and look with eyes that attested the heartache within at the other man, -silent and grim. Taro seemed the calmer, but well the younger man knew -that beneath that subdued exterior slumbered a fire that needed but a -breath to be turned into avenging fury. - -At last they reached their destination. The little town once again! But -this night Jack was not alone. There was no star or moon overhead to -lighten their pathway; a dull, drizzly, sleety rain was falling. In -silence they left the car; in silence plodded through the mud of the -road and the damp grass of the field beyond. The little garden gate -creaked on its hinges as they went through. They saw the dim outlines of -the old palace before them, with its wide balconies and sloping roofs. -Half-way up the garden was the family pond, freshened by a hidden -spring, and the little winding brook which wound hither and thither -showed how it emptied into the bay beyond. There was even a tiny boat -moored on a toy-like island in the centre of the pond. - -For the first time Taro Burton paused, and looked with dreadful eyes at -its dull surface, which even the darkness of the night and the miserable -rain could not obliterate entirely. What were the memories that crowded -back on him, suffocating him? Here it was that he and Yuki had grown up -together. The little boat was the same, the island as small and neat, -the house seemed as ever; nothing had changed. Yes, there was Yuki! A -deep groan slipped from his lips. - -There was a difference of seven years in their ages, but a stronger bond -of sympathy and comradeship had existed between these two than is usual -between brother and sister. Their nationality had to a large extent -isolated them from other children, for the Japanese children had laughed -at their hair and eyes, and called them "Kirishitans" (Christians). -Until he was seven years of age, Taro had manfully, though bitterly, -fought his battles alone. He had been a queer, brooding little lad, of -passionate and violent temper, and, apparently, scorning any overtures -of friendship from any one outside his own household. - -When the little sister had come, the boy had gone suddenly wild with -joy, and had proceeded to bestow upon her the same worshipful love his -mother gave exclusively to him, for Snowflake had been born when their -English father lay at the gates of death, her tiny soul fluttering into -life just as that of her father drifted outward into eternity, so that -to Omatsu, the mother, who was passionately absorbed in her grief, her -arrival had been a source of irritation. But Taro had carried her to the -family temple, and had, himself, named her "Snowflake" (Yuki), for she -had come at a time when all the land was covered with whiteness. There -had been a frost and even a snowfall, which is rare in that part of the -country. Moreover, she resembled a snowflake, so soft and white and -pure. - -How was it possible for him, after all these years, to come, as he now -had come, once more to this place of which she had always been a part, -and with which she had always been lovingly associated in his mind, and -not be filled with emotions that rent his heart. She had been his -inspiration and all the world to him. - -He remembered how they would drift around in their tiny boat, and she, -little autocrat, would perch before him, her eyes dancing and shining, -while he told her the story of the fisher-boy Urashima and his bride, -the daughter of the dragon king. And when he would finish, for the -hundredth time, perhaps, she would say, "See, Taro-sama, I am the -princess, and you the fisher-boy. We are sailing, sailing, sailing on -the sea 'where Summer never dies,'" and he, to please her fancy, drifted -on and on with her, around and around the little pond, until the sun -began to sink in the west and the little mother would call them -in-doors. - -Now the monotonous drip, drip, drip of the rain-drops as they plashed -from the weeping willow-trees that surrounded the tiny lake, fell upon -its dull surface with mournful sound. Taro groaned again. - -When he had knocked loudly a man came shuffling round from the rear of -the house, and, in reply to his inquiry for Madam Omatsu, informed him -gruffly that she had retired. - -It did not matter; he must awaken her, Taro, who had found voice, told -him with such insistence that the servant fled ignominiously to obey -him. They waited for some time, out in the melancholy night. There was -no sound from within the house. Taro hammered on the door once more. -Then a faint light appeared from a window close by the door, and the -man's head showed again. He begged their honorable patience. He would -open in a fraction of a second. He was very humble and servile now, and, -as he admitted them, backed before them, bowing and bobbing at every -step, for his mistress's entire household had been taught to treat -foreigners with the greatest deference and respect. - -"Go to your mistress," said Taro, briefly, "and tell her that her son -desires to see her at once." - -There was immediately a fluttering at the other side of the shoji. Taro -saw an eye withdraw from a hole. There were a few minutes of silence, -and then the shoji parted and a woman entered the room. Her mother-love -must have prompted her to rush into the arms of her son, for she had not -seen him in five years, but, whatever her emotions, she skilfully -concealed them, for the paltry reason that her son was accompanied by a -stranger, an honorable foreign friend; and it behooved her to affect the -finest manners. Consequently she prostrated herself gracefully, bowing -and bowing, until Taro strode rapidly over to her and lifted her to her -feet. - -She was quite pretty and very gentle and graceful. Her face, oval in -contour, was smooth and unwrinkled as a girl's, for Japanese women age -slowly. It was hard to believe she was the mother of the tall man now -holding her at arm's length and looking down at her with such deep, -questioning eyes. - -"Where is my sister, Yuki?" he demanded, hoarsely. - -"Yuki?" Madam Omatsu smiled with saintly confidence. She had retired. -Would they pray wait till morning? Ah, how was her honorable son, her -august offspring? She began fondling her boy now, stroking his face, -standing on tiptoe to kiss it, ecstatically smoothing and caressing his -hands, feeling his strange clothes, and laughing joyously at their -likeness to those of her dead husband's. But the dark shadow on Taro's -face was deepening, nor would he return or submit to his mother's -caresses till his fears regarding his sister were stilled. - -"Send for her," he said, briefly, and she knew he would not be gainsaid. - -Send for her! Ah, Madam Omatsu begged her noble son's pardon ten million -times, but she had made a great mistake. His sister had, of course, -retired, but it was not within their augustly miserable and honorably -unworthy domicile. She had gone out on a visit to some friends. - -Taro undid the clinging hands and pushed her from him, his brooding eyes -glaring. - -"Where?" - -Where? Why, it was only a short distance--perhaps two rice-fields' -lengths from their house. - -"The house?--the people's name?" - -Madam Omatsu whitened a trifle. Her eyes narrowed, her lips quivered. -She tried once more frantically to prevaricate. - -The people's name? She could not quite recall, but the next day--the -next day surely-- - -"Ah-h," said her son, with delirious brutality, "you are deceiving me, -lying to me. I demand to know where she is. I am her rightful guardian. -I must see her at once." - -Madam Omatsu protested with faint vehemence, but she did not weep. She -even essayed a little laugh, that reminded Jack eerily of Yuki. In the -dimly lighted room she looked strangely like her daughter, save that she -was much smaller and quite thin and frail, whereas Yuki was rosy and -healthy. - -Taro was speaking to her in Japanese, in a sharp, cruel voice, and she -was answering gently, meekly, humbly, consolingly. Jack felt sorry for -her. Suddenly Taro threw her hands from him, with a gesture of sheer -despair and exhausted patience. - -"I can learn nothing from her, nothing," he said in English. Then he -turned on her again. "Listen," he said: "You are my mother, and as such -I honor you, but you must not deceive me. I know all; know that my -sister was married to an American; know how she was married, if you call -such marriage. They do not consider it so, as you must know. What do you -know of this, my mother? It could not have happened without your -knowledge?" - -The mother broke down at last. All was indeed lost if he knew that much. -She sank in a heap at his feet, and again the other man was reminded of -her daughter. - -Taro raised her, not ungently, curbing his emotions. - -"Pray speak to me the truth," he implored. - -"It was for you," she said, faintly, in Japanese. "I desired it, I, your -mother; and, afterwards, she also, she, your sister. It was a small -sacrifice, my son." - -"Sacrifice! What do you mean?" he cried. - -"Alas, we had not the money to keep you at the American school, and -later, when you desired to return, it was still harder." - -"Oh, my God!" - -She went on, speaking brokenly in Japanese. After he had gone to America -their little fortune had been swept away, but of this they had kept him -in ignorance, fearing that he would not remain in the university did he -know how poor they had become. The house belonged to him; they could not -sell it. There had been but poor crops in their few remaining acres of -rice-fields; their income became smaller and smaller. One by one their -servants and coolies had to be sacrificed, till there were only a very -few left, and these refused to be paid for their services. They had -secured money in what manner they could, and sent it to him. It was -hard, but they loved him. - -Then Yuki, unknown to her mother, had gone up to Tokyo each day and -learned the arts of the geisha; later she invented dances and songs of -her own, and soon she was able to command a good price at one of the -chief tea-gardens in Tokyo. - -This for a season had brought them in a fair income, and for a time they -were enabled to send him even more than the usual allowance. Then came -his request for his passage money. Alas! they were but weak and silly -women. They had forgotten to save against this event in their desire to -keep him in comfort. Nakodas had approached Yuki, and tempting offers -were made to her. She had resisted all of them, for she was then below -the age when girls usually marry, but sixteen years of age. Only when it -became imperative to raise the passage money would she even listen to -the pursuasion of her mother and of the nakoda. They had pointed out to -her the great advantage, and finally, as the brother's letters grew more -insistent, she had broken down and given in. After that time she had -assisted them in their efforts to secure her a suitable husband. They -had been exceptionally successful, for she had married a foreigner who -would likely leave her soon, which was fortunate in Omatsu's mind, one -whose excellent virtues and whose wealth were above question. This was -all there was to tell. She prayed and besought her honorable son's -pardon. - -During her recital Taro had leaned towards her, listening with bated -breath to every word that escaped her lips. His thin, nervous face was -horribly drawn, his hands were clinched tightly at his side, his whole -form was quivering. He tried to regain his scattered senses, and his -hand vaguely wandered to his brow, pushing back the thick black hair -that had fallen over it. - -"You cannot understand," he said to the other man, his voice scarcely -recognizable for its labor. "It was for me, me, my little sister sold -herself. To keep me in comfort and ease! Snowflake for me! And they kept -me in ignorance. I did not even dream they were in straitened -circumstances. Oh, had I not willing hands and an eager heart to work, -to slave for them? Why should the whole burden have fallen on her, my -little, frail sister? But it has always been so. There is no such thing -as justice in this land for the woman." - -Jack heard him raving, understood, and bowed his head in impotent -sorrow. - -"Has your mother given you any information of her whereabouts?" he -suddenly broke in. - -Taro had forgotten that they were seeking her. His mother's story had -held all his attention. The horror aroused by that recital of devotion, -the thought of the months of her sweet life which she had sacrificed for -him, and then how he had repulsed her, pressed on his poor numbed -senses. But Jack's inquiry recalled him. A thousand dark surmises -regarding her overwhelmed him. - -"Yes, yes--where is she?" he asked, huskily. - -She had been with her husband some days now. Madam Omatsu expected her -home soon, and this time she would never again return to him. - -Taro's eyes were inflamed. "And she has not returned? She should be here -now! Ah, it is plain to be seen what has happened. She may be taking her -life at this moment. It is what a Japanese girl would do. She had the -blood of heroes in her veins; she would not falter." - -All of a sudden he turned upon his friend. Then the full agony caused by -his sister's disappearance and her great sacrifice descended upon him, -and he tottered. Before Jack could stay him, he swayed forward and, as -he fell, struck his forehead upon the corner of a heavy chair that had -been his father's. When Jack raised the head of the unconscious man he -found blood flowing from a wide cut over the left eye. - -There were hurrying feet throughout the house, terrified whispers, and -sobs, and, above all, a mother's voice raised in terrible anguish. - - - - - XIV - - A STRUGGLE IN THE NIGHT - - -By day and night they kept their unrelaxing watch by the bedside of the -sick man. Ever he tossed and turned and muttered and cried aloud, one -word alone on his lips--his sister's name. - -Tenderly the mother smoothed the fevered brow, softly she stroked the -restless hands, and tried to still their fever between her own cool, -soothing ones. Thin lines had traced their shadows on her worn face; -gray threads had come to mingle with the glossy black of her hair. But -she never permitted herself, after that first night of anguish, to -betray her emotions, for, if she did, well she knew she would be refused -the precious labor of nursing her boy. And she kept her sleepless, -tireless watch night and day. Her maid begged her to lie down herself -and rest, but she shook her head with bright, dry eyes. Rest for her? -While he lay tossing thus? Nay! perhaps when he should find the rest, -the gods would permit her also a respite; till then she must keep her -watch. - -She smiled pathetically when the white-faced American boy tried to -insist that she should sleep, with the little air of authority he had -assumed in the household. But with the gentle smile she also shook her -head in negation. - -"Let me take your place," he pleaded. "He is dear to me also." - -Still she smiled, such a shadowy, heart-aching smile, and turned back to -the sick-bed. - -Jack Bigelow went back to Tokyo, and began his vigilant search for the -missing girl. The services of the entire metropolitan police board were -called forth, and money was not spared. The nakoda who had brought about -their marriage was put through a vigorous catechism, but he could tell -them nothing. The proprietor of the tea-garden swore she had not -returned to him, and when he bewailed the misfortune which was filling -his house and gardens with officers, Jack consoled him by paying -liberally for the loss he claimed he was suffering. - -On the fifth day the mystery of the girl's disappearance still remained -unsolved. Large rewards were offered for a clew to her whereabouts. The -police were sure that she was somewhere in Tokyo, and Jack urged them to -continue unremitting search in the city, but each night dawned upon -their fruitless efforts. Now some one had seen a girl of her description -entering a tea-house on the eve of her disappearance; another had seen -her selling flowers in the market-place; and yet another swore she had -gone on board a German vessel with a dried-up foreigner. This last -person could not be mistaken--a Japanese girl with blue eyes and red -hair. But each clew was found wanting and proved false. - -Then back to Yuki's home, sick-hearted, disappointed, weary, went Jack -Bigelow. A servant met him with the blessed news that the man down with -brain fever was improving; that a merciful calm had at last come to him, -and that now he slept. Wearied from his fruitless endeavors to find some -clew to Yuki's whereabouts, the first good news in days unnerved the -young man. He sat down, covering his eyes with his hands. He was badly -in need of rest himself, but his mind was full of the mother in the -sick-room overhead. - -Madam Omatsu, was she resting? - -No, she still kept her watch, but she was very weak, and they feared she -would break down if they could not prevail on her to rest. - -Jack went slowly up the stairs, tapped softly on the shoji, and then -entered the sick-room. - -Taro lay on the heavy English bed, with its white coverlets and -curtains, his face upturned. - -"You must rest," Jack whispered to the woman with the wan face and -wasted form, kneeling by the bedside. - -She shook her head, resisting. - -"I beg you to," pleaded Jack, and, though she could not understand him, -she knew what he was saying, and still resisted. - -"Come," he said, gently, and put his hands upon her shoulders. "See, he -sleeps now. It is well, and you will be too weak and faint to minister -to him when he awakes, otherwise." - -But she protested that her health was excellent; that she would not -leave her son. He stooped down, and attempted to raise her gently to her -feet, but she would not permit him. - -He saw the tired droop of the eyes. "She will fall asleep soon," he said -to himself, and so sat down beside her, putting his arm about her and -pillowing her head on his shoulder. She did not restrain him. She looked -gratefully into the frank, inviting eyes. She sighed, her head wavered -and dropped. The room was very still and silent. Gradually the woman -fell asleep, and as she slept she sighed from ineffable weariness. - -Jack looked towards the silent figure on the bed. The grayness of the -approaching night gave the face an expression that was sinister in the -extreme. He shuddered and averted his face. The little form in his arms -grew heavier. - -"She will rest better lying down," he thought, and carried her into the -adjoining room and laid her softly down. Then he took the lighted andon, -and, carrying it into the sick-room, set it in a corner near the bed, -and drew down the shutters. After this, he went back to the bed, and -stood for a minute looking down on the sleeping man, an expression of -infinite sadness on his face. Taro stirred, the hand lying outside the -coverlet contracted, then closed spasmodically; the expression of the -face became terrifying. He moaned. It seemed to Jack as if the sleeping -man was haunted by a terrible nightmare which robbed him of the rest -that should have found him. - -And it was with Taro as Jack had thought. He was in the midst of a fever -dream--a nightmare. He thought his little sister, Snowflake, knelt by -his bedside and soothed and ministered to his wants. He felt rested and -at peace at last; but, alas! just as he was slipping into happy oblivion -a dark form loomed up beside his sister, bent over, and clutched at her. -She struggled wildly at first, then weakly; finally her struggles -ceased, and she lay very still and white. The man lifted her up and -carried her away. After a time he came back, and now Taro felt his -breath on his own face. He was bending over him. In a dim haze he saw -the face, and recognized it as that of his friend, Jack Bigelow! He -tried to reach out and grasp him, to strike and kill him, but he was at -the mercy of some invisible power which benumbed him and held him down. -His limbs refused to move, he was unable to lift so much as a finger, -stir an eyelash, and all the time the man's breath was on his face, -stealing into his nostrils and suffocating him. - -Jack noted the gasping of his friend with alarm, and stooped over for -the purpose of removing the pillow to give him relief. But at the touch -of his hand, as he attempted to raise the head on the pillow, the life -blood started vividly, madly, through the man on the bed, and suddenly -he had sprung into wild life. Jack saw the terrible gleam of two -delirious eyes, and stood magnetized. With lightning fury the raving man -had thrown aside the bedclothes, sprung from the bed, and thrown himself -on the other with such force that the two came to the ground together, -the madman on top. - -"I have you now!--traitor! betrayer!" he said, as his hands felt Jack's -warm throat. - -Jack had been taken so by surprise that he was dazed in the first -moment, and in the next realized that he was powerless to defend -himself. He was in the grasp of one temporarily insane, one whose lithe, -physical strength he already knew well. It would be useless to fight -against that strength. His salvation lay in being passive and feigning -unconsciousness; but could he do this with those terrible fingers -closing around his throat, throttling the life out of him? Now they -pressed hard, now relaxed, now caressed his neck and throat, rubbed it, -pinched only to press again. He was playing with him! Jack did not stir. -He had closed his eyes, and was praying for strength to meet -unflinchingly whatever fate held for him. - -"Where have you put her?" came the fierce whisper, close to his ear. -"Where did you carry her to? Hah! you are silent. Have I silenced you -like this and this? You are cold; you cannot breathe now, nor smile nor -laugh at her. No, not while I have my hand here to press so and so. Once -you were my friend, and I loved you. But now--so you killed her! Now I -will kill you like this and this and this!" - -Jack was becoming weaker and weaker. The white-shrouded figure sitting -on him leaned forward, staring dreadfully, but his victim saw nothing, -heard nothing. Suddenly it seemed as if another had sprung upon him and -was beating his life out. He dimly heard a woman's cries, and, -intermingled, a terrible laughter. Then life and consciousness seemed to -depart, and he knew no more. - -When he regained consciousness he found himself on a bed. A woman was -leaning over him, bathing his head, smoothing and caressing it--a woman -with an angelic face, so like Yuki's when she had nursed him during a -brief illness that in his weakness he fainted at the mere dream of her -sweet presence. But it was not Yuki; it was the mother. She had been -awakened by the talking and cries in the sickroom, and, rushing to the -door, had looked in on the terrible scene. Japanese women have little or -no fear of physical disaster for themselves. She raised a fearful cry to -arouse the household, then flung herself on the two men, and with her -puny strength sought to divide them. At first her son laughed and -resisted her, but when her white face flashed before him his grip grew -weak, and he staggered back, dazed by the rush of returning reason. He, -too, had taken her for the ghost of his lost sister! - -The alarmed household had flocked into the room. Gently they prevailed -on him to return once more to the bed, as weak as a child now. - -Jack was not seriously hurt. In his shattered, nervous condition, -however, the shock had temporarily unhinged him, and for several days he -lay in bed, waited on and attended by the gentle Omatsu, who went like a -sweet, soothing spirit back and forth between the two rooms, who called -him "son," and was to him as if she were indeed his mother, till she -could not approach him but he kissed her hands and blessed her from his -heart. - - - - - XV - - THE VOW - - -The happy sadness of the brown autumn had faded in a yellow gleam of -light. December had entered the land with a little drift of frost and -snow which had surprised the country, for December is not usually a cold -month in Japan. Its advent shook the little housewives into action and -life. New mats of rice straw were being laid, and every nook and corner -dusted with fresh bamboo brooms and dusters, for the Japanese begin to -prepare a month in advance for the New Year season, and all the country -seems to wake into active life and present a holiday appearance. - -But the old palace, where dwelt the Burton family, kept its garment of -perpetual gloom, and stood out in mocking contrast to the neighboring -houses. No window was thrown open, no door turned in to air the place -and give it the sunshine of the coming New Year. - -Thick as the dust that had gathered about its unkept rooms, the shadow -of death pervaded the place. Vast shadows, mysterious and oppressive, -crept in, enshrouding it with their ghostly presence. From afar off the -drone of a curfew bell was heard, its slow, mournful cadence seeming to -drift into a dirge. Outside the early winds of winter were wailing a -requiem, and all the spirits of the air floated about and beat against -the sombre palace. - -At dusk consciousness returned to the dying man, and weakly, though -intelligently, he looked about him, and even smiled faintly at the -wailing and moaning that crept upward from the rooms below, where the -few old retainers of the household, who had been in the service of the -family long before Taro had been born, and had stayed by them after -their fortunes had fallen, were huddled together and loudly lamenting -the approaching death of the son of the house. - -Before a tiny shrine in a corner of the room was the prostrate form of -the mother. Her lips were dumb, but her speaking eyes wailed out her -prayer to all the gods for mercy. And at the bedside, his face in his -hands, knelt Jack Bigelow. Perhaps he, too, was praying to the one and -only God of his people. - -"Burton," he said, as the sick man stirred, "you have something to say -to me?" - -He bent over and wiped the dews that lay thick as a frost on lips and -brow. - -"My sister--" Taro began with painful slowness. - -"My wife--" whispered the other, his voice breaking, and then, as Taro -seemed unable to proceed, he put his mouth close down to his ear. - -"Burton, our grief is a common one. I swear by everything I hold sacred -and holy that I will never cease in my efforts to find my wife! Nothing -that strength or money can do shall be spared. I will take no rest till -she is found. Before God, I will right this wrong I have unconsciously -done you and yours--and mine!" - -Taro's eyes, wide and bright, fixed Jack's steadfastly. His long, thin -hand stirred and quivered, and attempted to raise itself. Without a word -Jack took it in his own. He had understood that mute effort to mean -belief and confidence in him. And, kneeling there in the melancholy -dusk, he held Taro's hand between his own until it was stiff and cold. - -Whither had the soul of the Eurasian drifted? Out and along the -interminable and winding journey to the Meido of his maternal ancestors, -or to give an account of itself to the great -Man-God-three-in-one-Creator of his father? - - * * * * * - -The mother crept from the shrine with stealing step, her white face like -a mask of death, her small, frail hands outstretched, like those of one -gone blind. - -A consciousness of her eerie approach thrilled Jack Bigelow. He dropped -Taro's hand and turned towards her, standing before and hiding the sight -of the dead from her. In the dim shadows of the deepening twilight she -looked as frail and ethereal as a wraith, for she had clothed herself in -all the vestal garments of the dead. - -With somewhat of the heroism of her feudal ancestors Omatsu had prepared -herself to face and undertake that perilous journey into the unknown -with her son. In the pitiful tangled reasoning that had wrestled in the -bosom of this Japanese woman, always there had disturbed the beauty of -such a sacrifice the doubt as to whether the gods would indeed receive -her with this son of hers who had dedicated his soul to an alien and -strange God. But she had prepared herself to risk the consequences. And -now she stood there swaying and tottering in all her ghastly attire, -while opposite to her stood the tall, fair-haired foreigner with the -pitying gray eyes of her own dead lord. - -She essayed to speak, but her voice was barely above a parched whisper. - -"Anata?" (Thou). It was a gentle word, spoken as a question, as though -she would ask him, "Condescend to speak your honorable desire with me?" - -"Mother!" he only said--"dear mother!" - - * * * * * - -At Taro's funeral Jack Bigelow made the acquaintance of his wife's -family. He had not imagined it possible for any one to have so many -relatives. They came from all parts of the country, distant and close -cousins and uncles and aunts, and even an old grandfather and -grandmother, the former very decrepit and quite blind. And they all -lined up in order, and wept real or artificial tears and muttered -prayers for the soul of the dead boy. - -A few of them were rich and important men of high rank in Japan; some of -them were suave and courteous, coming merely for form's sake and for the -honor of the family; most of them were of the type of the decayed -gentility of Japan--poor but proud, dignified but humble in their -dignity. - -They all regarded Jack with the same grave, stoical gaze peculiar to the -better-class Japanese, betraying in no way by their expression surprise -or resentment at his presence among them. As a matter of fact, none of -the family were aware of the relation in which he stood to them, and so -had occasion for no real animus against him, regarding him merely as a -friend of Taro's. But in his supersensitive condition Jack imagined that -they looked upon him as an intruder, perhaps as one who had brought -distress and havoc upon their household. - -When, however, after the funeral the little mob of friends and relatives -had gradually dispersed till there was none left besides himself and -Omatsu, the intense loneliness and silence of the big house grated upon -his nerves, so that he would have welcomed the wailing of the servants, -which had now been buried in the grave. - -Omatsu, too, who had borne herself with heroic fortitude and bravery all -through the day, now that the reaction had come was shivering and -trembling, and, when he approached her with a pitying exclamation, she -went to him straightway and cried in his arms like a little, tired -child. He comforted her with broken words, though his own tears were -falling on her little, bowed head. And he tried to tell her, in terribly -bad pidgin Japanese--something Yuki had taught him--how it would be his -care to protect and guard her in the future just as if she were indeed -his mother; that he was not worthy, but he would try to fill the place -of the beautiful boy who was sleeping his last sleep. And he told of the -promise he had given to Taro, how his life would be devoted to but one -end and purpose, to find his wife. Would she accompany him? - -She entreated him to take her with him. But in the end, after all, she -could not accompany him. Her health, which had never been robust, gave -way to her grief, and Jack took her back to her parents, for it was -necessary that he should spare no time from his search, and, moreover, -she was too delicate to travel. Before leaving her he saw to it that she -and her parents should have every comfort possible. - - * * * * * - -The old palace, grim, gray, and haggard in the winter landscape, was now -completely deserted. The townspeople looked askance at it, as at a -haunted house, knowing somewhat of the tragedy that hid within its -closed portals. - -Jack was the last to leave the place. Omatsu had begged him to see to -the closing up, and the paying-off of all the old servants. When he had -finally come out he was shocked at the curious crowd of neighbors who -had gathered about the gates and were whispering and gossiping about him -and waiting for him. But they were quite respectful and silent as he -passed them. He was an object of curiosity, this tall foreigner who had -married among them, and they watched him with round, wondering eyes, -following him all the way to the station, a little, pygmy procession, -very much as children follow a circus. Once or twice he half turned as -though to tell them to leave him, but stopped himself in time, -remembering how strange he must really seem to them. - -At the station he bowed to them gravely, and his bow was solemnly and -politely returned by those in front. And it was in this strangely -pathetic though grotesque manner that the tall, fair-haired barbarian -left the town. - -Less than a year before he had been a light-hearted, joyous boy. He was -now a man, with a burden on his soul and a sacred task to perform. -Moreover, there was an awful abyss in his life that must be bridged. -Never again would life have for him the same rosy bow of promise, not -until he had found that other part of his soul--his Sun-goddess. - - - - - XVI - - A PILGRIM OF LOVE - - -Jack Bigelow went up to Yokohama, where the Tokyo detectives thought -they had a clew to the girl's whereabouts. A new and very beautiful -geisha had appeared among the dancing-girls, and as no one seemed to -know anything about her history it was thought that she might be the -missing Yuki. But she had disappeared only the day before his arrival -there. - -Jack spent a month in the big metropolis, shadowing the tea-gardens, and -watching, with the assistance of men he had hired, every geisha house -and garden; but though many girls apparently answering to the -description of Yuki were brought before him, none of them proved to be -the missing girl, and the disgust the young man experienced at their -total unlikeness to his wife was only equalled by his bitter -disappointment. - -A telegram from police headquarters brought him back to Tokyo. Here he -was told that the detectives had traced the missing girl to Nagasaki, a -seaport on the western coast of Kiushu. This was the city where Yuki's -father had first lived in Japan. He had been the son of a rich silk -merchant, and had come to Japan in order to extend his knowledge of the -silk trade and expand his father's business. But Stephen Burton had -become infatuated with the country, had married a Japanese wife, -assimilated the ways of her people, and in time had even become a -naturalized citizen. He never returned alive to his native England, -though strange, cold, red-bearded men had taken his body from the wife, -and had crossed the seas with it. - -Old Sir Stephen Burton had never forgiven what he considered the -_mésalliance_ of his son, and hence Taro and Yuki had never seen or -known any of their father's people, and he himself had died while they -were yet children. - -Some feeling of sentiment might have brought Yuki to this place. -Moreover, there were many public tea-houses there, where she could -quickly find employment. The police were positive in their statements -that they were not mistaken in the identity of the girl they claimed to -be Yuki. - -Travelling by slow and tedious trains, with no sleeping accommodations -and but few of the modern luxuries that are necessities on American -trains; travelling by kurumma, with the flying heels of his runners -scattering the dust of the highway in his eyes, when the landscape -before, behind, and around him seemed a maze of dazzling blue; -travelling on foot, when he was too restless to do otherwise than tramp, -he was weary and ill when he finally, reached Nagasaki. Here an amazing -horde of nakodas pestered him with their offerings of matrimonial -happiness. He had no heart for them. They stifled him with memories that -were better sleeping. - -The tea-house to which he had been directed was owned and run by an -elderly geisha, who, in her day, had been noted for her own beauty and -cleverness. She was all affectation and grace now. She met Jack with -exaggerated expressions of welcome, and in a sweet, sibilant voice -pressed upon him the comforts and entertainments of her "poor place." - -He did not pause to exchange compliments with her. - -Was there not in her house a girl, very beautiful and very young, who -sang and danced? - -Madam Pine-leaf (that was her name) allowed her face to betray surprised -amusement at the question. Why, her place was famous for the beauty of -her maidens, and every one of them danced and sang more bewitchingly -than the fairies themselves. But she only said, very humbly: - -"My maidens are all unworthily fair, and all of them indulge in the -honorable dance and song. It is part of the accomplishment of every -geisha." - -"Yes, but you could not mistake this girl. She is distinct from all -others. She--her eyes are blue. She is only half Japanese!" - -"Ah-h!--a half-caste." Madam Pine-leaf's lips formed in a _moue_. She -was very polite, however. She pretended to consult her mind. Then she -begged that he would remain, at all events, and see for himself all her -girls. - -Impatiently he waited, a terrible nervousness taking possession of him -at the mere possibility that Yuki might be near him. But though he -scanned with almost seeming rudeness the faces of the inmates of the -place, none of them was like unto her whom he sought. - -When he paid his hostess, who, recognizing in him a generous patron, had -been careful to stay close by him the entire evening, his face betrayed -his exceeding disappointment. - -The woman glanced at the big fee in her hand, and a feeling of pity and -gratitude called up all her native prevarication. - -Now that she had spent the whole evening turning the matter over in her -mind, she recalled the fact that only a few days before a girl answering -exactly to his description of his wife had worked for her for a short -period, but unfortunately she had left her and gone to Osaka. - -Madam Pine-leaf's face was guileless, her words convincing. There was -gentle compassion in her eyes, which added to the comfort of her words. - -Jack wrung her slim hands gratefully till they ached. - -Osaka? How far away was that? Did Madam Pine-leaf believe he had time to -get there before she would leave? What was the exact address? - -Yes, she believed he would be in time, and she drew out a dainty tablet -and wrote an address upon it, and with deep and graceful obeisances she -prayed that the gods would accompany and guide him. - - * * * * * - -He reached Osaka at night, when its many strange canals and narrow -rivers were reflecting the lights of the city, like glittering -spear-heads, on their dark, shining surface. The hotel was miles from -the station, but the streets were deserted, and there was no traffic to -hinder the flying feet of his runner. At night the city seemed strangely -romantic and peaceful, a spot that would have attracted one of Yuki's -temperament. But daylight revealed it as it was--a bustling commercial -centre, where everybody seemed hurrying as though bent on accomplishing -some important mission. - -Jack stayed but a few days in Osaka. She was not there. The proprietor -of the Osaka gardens, hearing his story, humbly apologized for the fact -that while such a girl had honored for a short season his unworthy -gardens, she had left him now some days ago. Whither had she gone? To -Kyoto. - -And in Kyoto, the most fascinating and beautiful city in all Japan, he -was sent from one tea-house to another, each proprietor acknowledging -that one answering to the description had been in his employ, but -declaring that she had left only a short time previous. She was only a -visiting geisha, who moved from place to place. - -Finally he traced her back to Tokyo, the place whence he had started on -his weary pilgrimage. She was the chief geisha, so he was told, of the -Sanzaeyemon gardens. With his brain swimming, his lips almost refusing -him speech, he went straightway to this place. The proprietor received -him with magnificent humility, and, listening to his disjointed -questions, answered that all was well. She was even then within his -honorably miserable tea-house. For the privilege of seeing her he would -be obliged to make an honorably insignificant charge, and, if he (the -august barbarian) desired to take her away with him, a further fee must -be forthcoming. - -Waiving these questions aside, by putting down so much coin that the -little proprietor's eyes matched its glisten, he followed him up the -stairway to the private quarters of the more important geishas. Into one -of the rooms he was unceremoniously ushered. - -A girl who sat on a mat put forward her two hands, and her bowed head on -top of them. Jack watched her with bated breath. He could not see her -face, and the room was badly lighted. But when he could bear no longer -her perpetual bowing and had lifted her, with hands that shook, to her -feet, he saw her face. It was that of a stranger! - -A slight illness now hindered the progress of his search, but he would -not allow himself the rest he needed; and still ill, haggard, and a -shadow of his former self, the young man once more drifted to the -metropolitan police station. - -They had exhausted all their clews, but they were kind-hearted little -men, these Japanese policemen. The chief of police invented a story that -would have done credit to one of Japan's poets. - -Yuki was somewhere in the vicinity of Matsushima Bay, on the -northeastern coast of Japan, near the city of Sendai, where the waters -flow into the Pacific. This was a spot favored by unhappy lovers, and -the chief of police had positive evidence that a girl answering to her -description had been seen wandering daily in that part of the country. -He even produced a telegraph blank, with an indecipherable message in -Japanese characters written on it, purporting to give this information. -His advice to the young man was to go to this honorable place and stay -there for some time. The country was large thereabouts. He might not -find her at once, but soon or late surely she would turn up there. - -Jack was impressed with his glib recital, and then, moreover, he -remembered that Yuki had told him much about this place, which they had -planned to visit together some day. He started straightway for it, -buoyed up with a hope he had not known in months. - -And the chief of police snapped his fingers and bobbed his head and -clinked the big fee he had received. - -"These foreign devils are naïve," he said to an assistant. - -The cringing assistant agreed. "They believe any august lie," he -replied. - -His superior frowned. "It was for his good, after all," he returned, -tartly. - -In the city of Sendai Jack put up at a small Japanese hostelry, and from -there each day he would start out and wander down to the beach of the -wonderful bay. It was all as Yuki had pictured it, with her vivid, -passionate imagery. There were the countless rocks of all sizes and -forms scattered in it, with strange, shapely pine-trees growing up from -them, and the one bare rock called "Hadakajima," or "Naked Island," and -all the beautiful romances, impossible and dreamy as the fairy tales of -a classic Oriental poet, that she had woven about and around this place, -came back to his mind now, haunting him like a beautiful dream, until -the memory of her, and the influence of the beauty of the place, seemed -to cast a mystic spell about him. - -For, oh! the scenes that enwrapped the bay! The slopes and hillocks and -the great mountains beyond were garbed in vestal white, pure and -glistening. The snowflakes had tipped the branches of the pine, and -there they hung, like glistening pearl-drops, sometimes dropping with -little bounds on the rocks, there to freeze or melt into the bay. - -And some vague fancy, baffling in its hopelessness, nevertheless, clung -to him that possibly she might have come hither to this peaceful spot, -far from the scenes where they had loved and suffered so deeply, for, -with unerring insight, Jack knew that she had loved him. Bit by bit he -traced backward in his mind every proof she had given him of this, and -now, when the sorrow of her loss seemed more than he could bear, the -knowledge of this upheld and cheered him always. - -But the beauty of Matsushima could give him no peace of mind or soul, -for he was alone! The stillness and silence of the very atmosphere, the -tall pine-trees, bending gracefully in the swaying, swinging breezes, -seemed to mock him with their calm content. The bay was enchanted--yes, -but haunted too--haunted by the imagination of the little feet that had -perhaps wandered along its shore. - -In a little village only a short distance from the beach, inhabited by a -few simple, honest fisher-folk, Jack tried to ascertain whether they had -seen aught of her he sought. But they babbled fairy stories back at him. -There had been many, many witch-maids who had haunted the shores of -Matsushima; many young girls, who had lost their minds through -unfortunate love affairs, had wandered thither. They were the ghosts of -these unfortunate lovers, who had sought in death the bliss of love -denied them in life, which now haunted the shore of the bay. - -That the strange, fair man who had lost his bride would meet the same -untimely though poetic fate the simple people never doubted. - -And so, like one who has lost his soul, he wandered hither and thither -throughout the islands of Japan in search of it. - -Sunshine had been the dominant element in Jack Bigelow's character, and -in a less degree impulsiveness and generosity. No one had ever given him -credit for intensity of feeling or greatness of purpose. But sometimes -tribulation will bring out such qualities, which have lain hidden -beneath an apparently superficial exterior. - -A deep, abiding love for his summer bride had sprung into eternal life -in his heart. She was never absent from his mind. There were moments -when for a time he would forget his immeasurable loss, and would drift -into memory, and in fancy re-live with her that dream summer. She had -become the soul of him. She would remain in his heart until it ceased to -beat. - - - - - XVII - - YUKI'S WANDERINGS - - -Had Jack followed Yuki on the night she went out of his house and life, -he would have known that she was not to be found in all Japan. She had -hurried from his and Taro's presence with but one object--to take -herself forever from the sight of the brother whom she had loved but who -had repulsed her, whom she had dishonored in trying to assist. She took -the road for Tokyo, and, head downward, sobbing like a little child who -has lost its way in the dark, stumbled blindly along until she had come -within its limits. - -She had no idea whither she was going now, what she would do; her mind -could only contain her grief. But as she wandered aimlessly about, -weeping silently, an address slipped itself into her consciousness--the -address written on the card handed her by the American theatrical man -months before, when he had followed her from the tea-house. She had -studied the card curiously at the time, and now, though the name had -escaped her--she had really never been able to make it out--her mind -still held the address. - -She turned in the direction in which she knew the American's house lay, -and at length found it, wearied both by the anguish of her mind and by -her long walk. Yes, the American gentleman was in, said the garrulous -Japanese servant who answered her timid summons. He had returned from -lands far south less than a week ago, and now in two more days he would -be off again. Did she want to meet him? Perhaps he slept. - -Yuki said she would speak with him but a minute, and the servant -vanished. Almost immediately the manager appeared before her, frowning -heavily. But at sight of her his face brightened wonderfully. - -"Why, if it ain't the girl I heard sing at the tea-garden!" he cried. -"Come right inside." - -And he eagerly drew her, unresisting, within. - - * * * * * - -Two days later, on board the _Yokohama Maru_, Yuki left her native -Japan. - -As the ship weighed anchor, she closed her eyes and faintly clung to the -guard-rail. All about her she could hear the passengers talking and -laughing, a few were cheering and waving flags and handkerchiefs to -friends on shore. And long after the wharf was only a dim, shadowy -outline she still clung there to the rail, her hands cold and tense. - -Some one put an arm about her, and she started as though she had been -struck. - -"You are not ill already, you poor little thing?" said a woman's clear, -pleasing voice. - -Yuki regarded her piteously. She dimly recognized in her the wife of her -employer, and she struggled to regain her scattered wits, but vainly. -She was only able to look up into the sympathetic face of the other with -eyes which could not conceal the turbulent tragedy of her soul. - -"Why, you are shivering all over, and are as cold as--Jimmy, come over -here," she turned and called peremptorily to her husband, who hastened -forward, throwing his cigar overboard. - -"Look here; she's sick already. Better send one of those ayah women, or -whatever you call 'em, over, and have her put to bed right away." - -They undressed her, submissive as a little child, and put her into the -berth of a little stateroom, which seemed to Yuki, who had never in her -life before been on board a vessel of any sort, save the tiny craft -about the rivers at her home, like a tiny cage or vault, wherein she, -exhausted and weary, had been put to die. - -She lay there with the surging bustle of the ship's noises overhead and -the tremulous growl of the waters beneath the ship droning in her ears -like the melancholy ringing of a dying curfew-bell at twilight. - -The ayah reported to the manager's wife, an ex-comic-opera prima donna, -that she was resting and sleeping; but when that impetuous, big-hearted -woman peeped in on her, she found Yuki's eyes wide open. She whirled -into the small stateroom, almost filling it with her large person, and -sat down beside the poor little weary girl and looked at her with -friendly and approving eyes. - -"You are like a pretty picture on a fan," she said; "the prettiest -Japanese girl I've seen. I think we'll be fine friends, don't you?" - -Yuki could only assent with a weary little nod of her head. She closed -her eyes. - -"You are not so dreadfully sick, are you?" said the American. "I thought -maybe we could have a nice little gossip together. You see, my husband's -the boss of this whole outfit that we've got along with us, and I don't -know that there's one of the whole lot I've ever cared to associate with -before. You're different. Now, ain't I good to speak out just what's on -my mind, eh?" - -"I _ought_ to thang you," said Yuki, feebly, "but I am too weary to be -perlite." - -"Then you shall be left alone, you child, you," said the other; then she -kissed Yuki lightly, and went out of the door. - -But after she had gone Yuki's passivity left her. She sat up quivering, -and then with nervous quickness she began to dress herself. She could -not open the door of the stateroom. She was unused to strange doors that -required the pushing of springs and bolts. She had lived in a land where -bolts and locks were almost unknown, where a shoji fell apart at a touch -of a hand. Now she pushed hard against the door, but, as she had not -turned the handle, it refused to move. A terror possessed her that they -had locked her in this tiny, awful cell, to which penetrated no light -save that which filtered through a small porthole against which the -waters beat and beat. - -She flung herself desperately against the door, battering it with her -tiny hands; she felt herself growing dizzy and blind as the ship rocked -and swayed beneath her feet. She tried to pace the tiny length of the -stateroom, her sense of terrible loneliness and homesickness deepening -with every moment. The moving of the ship horrified her, and the -knowledge that it was taking her farther and farther from her home -across the immense bottomless sea filled her with a terror akin to -nothing She had ever known in her life before. - -In the sickening, wearying dazzle of the few days previous to their -sailing, the girl's mind had held but one thought--to go far away from -the scenes of her pain; now perhaps the reaction had come, and her -terror at the step she had taken appalled her. Memory, which had been -thrust out of sight by the ever-present nagging pain that had blinded -her to all else, now asserted its power, merciless and invincible. She -pressed her hands to her head, as though to blot out forever from her -mind the pitiless ghosts that haunted her. - -Like the wraiths that come and vanish in a nightmare, the events of her -life came to her one by one--the happy childhood with her brother, their -passionate devotion to each other, her grief at his departure for -America, the months of struggle that had followed, sacrifices made for -him, her attempts to make a living sufficient for his maintenance in -America, and then--her marriage! After that, memory held no other -thought but the immeasurable craving and longing that was almost madness -for the voice, the touch, the sight of the man she had loved and left. - -It was three days before her illness ended. Then, having begged the -consent of the woman who attended her, she crept up the companion-way -and out on deck, where the passengers were disporting and enjoying -themselves. - -She had looked forward to the time when she would regain sufficient -strength to leave her prison-cell, for such she regarded her stateroom. -In the strange medley of ideas which had curiously woven themselves into -a maze in her mind, she had imagined that once in the open on deck she -would see once more the shores of her home, Fujiyama's lofty peak -smiling against its celestial background, and hanging like a mirage in -mid-air. - -But there was no sight visible to her, as, with her hand shading her -eyes, she looked out before her, save a vast, cold, pitiless waste of -surging waters, jumping up to meet the sky, which smiled or glowered -with its moods. - - * * * * * - -In the months that followed, Yuki met with nothing but kindness from the -American theatrical manager and his wife. With them she went to China, -India, the Philippines, and finally to Australia. From all these -different points the American theatrical scout drew together a motley -troupe of jugglers, fancy dancers, wizards, fencers, and performers of -one sort and another, with which he hoped to make a larger fortune in -America. He had combined business with this long pleasure trip, for he -was on his bridal tour at the time. - -By some remarkable intuition peculiar sometimes to the gayest and most -frivolous hearted of women of the world, the wife of the theatrical -manager had gained some insight into the cause of the pitiful -sensitiveness and shrinking shyness of the queer little Japanese girl -with the blue eyes, to whom she had taken an extravagant fancy. - -She had taken Yuki under her personal charge, and sheltered and shielded -the girl from the overbold scrutiny of those with whom they daily came -in contact. It was many months, however, before she learned her history. -In fact, it was only a few days before their expected departure for -America, the great country in the west, which seemed to Yuki as far -distant as the stars above her. - -As the time for their departure, which had been delayed already much -longer than the manager had anticipated, drew nearer, Yuki grew more -depressed and restless, so that to the exaggerated fancy of the American -woman she seemed to be fading away and entering into what she -emphatically called "the last stages of consumption." - -She cornered the girl relentlessly, and finally wrung from her the whole -pitiful, tragic story of her life. How homesick and weary she had been -ever since she had left Japan, how her heart seemed to faint whenever -she thought of that final interview with her brother, and of the -immeasurable longing for the man she loved, and whom she had married -"for jus' liddle bid while." - -All the big, romantic heart of the American woman went out to her as she -took her into her arms and mingled her own honest tears with Yuki's. - -"You sha'n't go to America," she said, drying her eyes with a tiny piece -of lace which served as a handkerchief. "You are going right back to -Japan, bag and baggage of you. I'm going with you, to see you get there -O.K." - -"Bud--" began Yuki, weakly. - -"Never mind, now. I know he expects to sail in a week. I don't. I'm -boss! See!" - - - - - XVIII - - THE SEASON OF THE CHERRY - BLOSSOM - - -In summer the fields of Japan are alive with color--burning flat -lowlands shimmering with the dazzling gleam of the natane and azalea -blossoms. In autumn the leaves, as well as the blossoms, have caught all -the tints of heaven and earth, and in winter the gods are said to be -resting after their riotous ramblings during the warm months. But in the -spring-time they awake, and in their lavish renewed youth bless hill and -dale and meadow and forest with an abandon unlike any other time of -year. It is the season of the cherry blossom, of the mating of the -birds, the babbling of the brooks, and the chattering and unfolding anew -of all the beauties of nature. - -It was two years from the day when Jack and Yuki had married each other -in the spring-time. And Jack was back in Tokyo. Recalled thither by a -telegram from the police headquarters, he was preparing to depart for -America, where the police claimed they had positive evidence that Yuki -had gone. He was staying at an American hotel in the city proper, and -his heart on this day sickened and yearned for the little house only a -few miles away that he longed and yet dreaded to see again. - -Now that he contemplated leaving Japan, the dread possibility that Yuki -might still be in the country and that he would be placing the distance -of thousands and thousands of miles of land and water between them, -depressed and weighed on his mind, despite the really plausible proof -the police board had that she had gone to America with a theatrical -company--that of the very man he himself had witnessed coaxing her to go -with him. - -The afternoon previous to the day set for sailing, his melancholy and -morbidness grew in intensity. With no fixed purpose in view he started -out from his hotel, tramped half-way across Tokyo, then hailed a -jinrikisha and gave the runner orders to take him to the little house -that had formerly been his home, and which he had struggled against -visiting ever since his return to Tokyo. - -As in a dream the interminable stretch of rice-fields, blue mountains, -and valleys and hamlets, stretching away into misty outlines, flashed by -him, and he noted only half absently how the heels of his runner were -all worn hard just as if they had dried in the sun. Yuki once had called -his attention to this. - -"The honorable soles are the same," she had said. "It is the perpetual -running. The gods have mercifully protected the feet from pain." - -The landscape about him, familiar as the face of a mother, gave him no -pain now. He was conscious only of a sense of ineffable rest and peace, -as a traveller who has wandered long feels when nearing home. And soon -the runner had stopped with a jerk, and was doubling over and waiting -for his pay. - -Should he humbly wait for his excellency to condescend to return to the -city? - -"Just for a little while," Jack told him absently. And he went through -the little garden gate and up the pebbled adobe path, now arched on -either side by two rows of cherry-blossom trees, that met at the top and -made a bower under which to walk. - -When he had pushed the door backward and stepped inside he paused -irresolute, his heart paining him with its rapid beating. Coming from -out the blaze of the out-door light into the shadowed room, his vision -dazzled him. But gradually the objects inside grew upon his -consciousness, and a rosy pain, an ecstasy that stung him with its -sweetness, shot upward like a dawn through all his being. - -He scarcely dared breathe, so potent was the influence of the place upon -him. He feared to stir, lest the spell, ghostly and entrancing as the -influence of a magic hand, might vanish into mistland, for with all the -immeasurable pain that rushed to his heart in a flame was mingled a -tentative, exquisite pleasure--a survival of the old joy he had once -known. - -And there came back to his mind whisperings of the old mysterious -romances she had been wont to ramble into. What was that tale of the -spirit which haunted and was felt but never seen? Was there not behind -it all some mysterious possibility of such a spirit? For the very -furnishings of the room, the mats, the vases, the old broken-down -hammock, and his big tobacco-bon, each and all of them suddenly assumed -a personality--the personality of one he loved. - -Stepping on tip-toe, he crossed the room and stooped to touch the little -drum, the sticks of which were snapped in twain. And then he suddenly -remembered how she had broken them because he had complained one day -that her drum disturbed him. He had liked the koto and the samisen; the -drum she had beaten on when she mocked him. Now the sight of it beat -against his brain and heart. - -He could not bear the sight of those little broken sticks. He tried to -cover them with his handkerchief, as if they were the evidence of a -crime. - -"The place is haunted!" he said, and scarce knew his own hollow voice, -which the echoes of the silent room mocked back at him. - -"I shall go mad," he said, and again the echoes repeated, "Mad! mad! -mad!" - -Then he covered his eyes, and sat in the silence, motionless and still. - - * * * * * - -From afar off there came to him the melancholy sweetness of the bells of -a neighboring temple. They caused his hearing exquisite pain. What -memories were recalled by them! But now every toll of the bells, slow -and muffled, seemed to speak of baffled hope and despair. There was no -balm in their sweet monotone. Would they never cease? Why were they so -loud? They had not been so formerly. Now they filled all the land with -their ringing. What were they tolling for, and, ah, why had the ghostly -visitants of his house caught up the tone, and softly, sweetly, with -piercing cadence, chanted back and echoed the sighing of the bells? - -The house was full of music, inexpressibly dear and familiar. He started -to his feet, trembling like one afflicted with ague. And gradually -words, in a fairy language that he had learned to love, began to form -themselves into the melody of a voice. - -Slowly, painfully, like one led by unseen, subtle, persuasive hands, he -went forward, and up and up the spiral stairs till he had reached her -chamber, and there he stood, like one who has come far and can go no -farther. - -One other presence besides himself was within. This he knew, and still -could not comprehend. He could see her plainly, just as she had been in -life--her little, shining head, her dear, small hands, the long, blue, -misty eyes, and the small mouth with the little pathetic droop that had -come to it in the last few days they had been together. She stood with -her hands raised, dreamily loitering before a mirror, putting cherry -blossoms in her hair on either side of her head. But at the prolonged -silence that ensued she turned slowly about, and then she saw the man -standing silently in the doorway. - -She was not a girl to scream or faint, but she went gray with fear, and -stood perfectly still there in the middle of the room. Then gradually -her eyes travelled upward to the man's face, and there they remained -transfixed. - -For a long while they faced each other thus, both with hearts that -seemed not to beat. Then the man made a movement towards her, a -passionate, wild movement, and she had dropped the flowers from her -hands, and had gone to meet him. The next moment he was crushing her to -him. When he released her but a moment, it was to hold her again and yet -again, as though he feared to find her gone, and his arms empty once -more, as they had been for so long. He could only breathe her -name--"Yuki! Yuki! My wife! My wife!" - -Neither tried to explain. There was time enough for that. They were -absorbed alone in the fact that they were together at last. - -Some one noisily entered the house and whirled up the stairs. It was the -American girl. She gazed in upon them with eyes and mouth agape in -amazement. - -"Well, I never!" she ejaculated, and went out and down the steps, -sobbing aloud. - -"Such a romance! Such a nice, big fellow, too! And, oh, dear me, I've -lost her sure enough now forever! Bother men, anyhow!" and she jumped -into Jack's jinrikisha and bade the man take her on the instant to -Tokyo. - - * * * * * - -Meanwhile the lovers had wandered out into the open air. He was holding -both her hands in his, and his eyes were straying hungrily over her -face; her eyes bewitched him; her lips thrilled him. - -[Illustration: "THE THOUSAND PETALS OF CHERRY BLOSSOMS WERE FALLING -ABOUT THEM"] - -The thousand petals of cherry blossoms were falling about them, and the -birds had all flown to their garden and were twittering and bursting -their little throats with melody. A fugitive wind came up from the bay -and tossed the little scattering curls about her ears and temples. A -strand of her hair swept across his hand. He stooped and kissed it -reverently, and she laughed and thrilled under the touch of his lips. - -"I love you with all my soul," he said. "Do not laugh at me now." - -She said, "Dear my lord, I will never laugh more ad you. I laugh only -for the joy ad being with you." - -"I will take you to my home," he said. - -"I will follow you to the end of the world and beyond," said she. - -"And we will come back here again, love. We will take up the broken -threads of our lives and piece them together." - -"They shall never again be broken," she said. But he must needs spoil -her divine faith. "Till death do us part," he added. - -"No, no. We will have the faith of our simple peasant folk. We are -weded for ever an' ever." - -"Yes, forever," he repeated. - - THE END - - - - - Transcriber Notes: - -Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. - -Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. - -Throughout the dialogues, there were very many words used to mimic -accents of the speakers. Those words were retained as-is. - -The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up -paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate. - -Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected -unless otherwise noted. - -In the frontispiece, a closing bracket was added after "See p. 8". - -On page 22, "craêpe" was replaced with "crêpe". - -On page 122, "balony" was replaced with "balcony". - -On page 159, the period before "and later," was replaced with a comma. - -On page 160, "pursuasion" was replaced with "persuasion". - -On page 226, "weded" was replaced with "wedded". - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's A Japanese Nightingale, by Winnifred Eaton - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A JAPANESE NIGHTINGALE *** - -***** This file should be named 63181-8.txt or 63181-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/1/8/63181/ - -Produced by Mary Glenn Krause, Ernest Schaal, University -of Toronto: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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