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diff --git a/old/12527-8.txt b/old/12527-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d229cd4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12527-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12719 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Kimono, by John Paris + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 + + + + + +Title: Kimono + +Author: John Paris + +Release Date: June 5, 2004 [eBook #12527] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KIMONO*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Bill Hershey, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +KIMONO + +by + +JOHN PARIS + +1922 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I AN ANGLO-JAPANESE MARRIAGE + + II HONEYMOON + + III EASTWARDS + + IV NAGASAKI + + V CHONKINA + + VI ACROSS JAPAN + + VII THE EMBASSY + + VIII THE HALF-CASTE GIRL + + IX ITO SAN + + X THE YOSHIWARA WOMEN + + XI A GEISHA DINNER + + XII FALLEN CHERRY-BLOSSOMS + + XIII THE FAMILY ALTAR + + XIV THE DWARF TREES + + XV EURASIA + + XVI THE GREAT BUDDHA + + XVII THE RAINY SEASON + +XVIII AMONG THE NIKKO MOUNTAINS + + XIX YAÉ SMITH + + XX THE KIMONO + + XXI SAYONARA (GOOD-BYE) + + XXII FUJINAMI ASAKO + +XXIII THE REAL SHINTO + + XXIV THE AUTUMN FESTIVAL + + XXV JAPANESE COURTSHIP + + XXVI ALONE IN TOKYO + +XXVII LADY BRANDAN + + + + + _Utsutsu wo mo + Utsutsu to sara ni + Omowaneba, + Yume wo mo yume to + Nani ka omowamu? + + Since I am convinced + That Reality is in no way + Real, + How am I to admit + That dreams are dreams?_ + + +The verses and translation above are taken from A. Waley's "JAPANESE +POETRY: THE UTA" (Clarendon Press), as are many of the classical +poems placed at the head of the chapters. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +AN ANGLO-JAPANESE MARRIAGE + + _Shibukaro ka + Shiranedo kaki no + Hatsu-chigiri_. + + Whether the fruit be bitter + Or whether it be sweet, + The first bite tells. + + +The marriage of Captain the Honourable Geoffrey Barrington and Miss +Asako Fujinami was an outstanding event in the season of 1913. It +was bizarre, it was picturesque, it was charming, it was socially +and politically important, it was everything that could appeal to +the taste of London society, which, as the season advances, is apt to +become jaded by the monotonous process of Hymen in High Life and by +the continued demand for costly wedding presents. + +Once again Society paid for its seat at St. George's and for its +glass of champagne and crumb of cake with gifts of gold and silver and +precious stones enough to smother the tiny bride; but for once in a +way it paid with a good heart, not merely in obedience to convention, +but for the sake of participating in a unique and delightful scene, a +touching ceremony, the plighting of East and West. + +Would the Japanese heiress be married in a kimono with flowers and +fans fixed in an elaborate _coiffure_? Thus the ladies were wondering +as they craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the bride's +procession up the aisle; but, though some even stood on hassocks and +pew seats, few were able to distinguish for certain. She was so very +tiny. At any rate, her six tall bridesmaids were arrayed in Japanese +dress, lovely white creations embroidered with birds and foliage. + +It is hard to distinguish anything in the perennial twilight of St. +George's; a twilight symbolic of the new lives which emerge from its +Corinthian portico into that married world about which so much has +been guessed and so little is known. + +One thing, however, was visible to all as the pair moved together +up to the altar rails, and that was the size of the bridegroom as +contrasted with the smallness of his bride. He looked like a great +rough bear and she like a silver fairy. There was something intensely +pathetic in the curve of his broad shoulders as he bent over the +little hand to place in its proud position the diminutive golden +circlet which was to unite their two lives. + +As they left the church, the organ was playing _Kimi-ga-ya_, the +Japanese national hymn. Nobody recognized it, except the few Japanese +who were present; but Lady Everington, with that exaggeration of the +suitable which is so typical of her, had insisted on its choice as a +voluntary. Those who had heard the tune before and half remembered +it decided that it must come from the "Mikado"; and one stern dowager +went so far as to protest to the rector for permitting such a tune to +desecrate the sacred edifice. + +Outside the church stood the bridegroom's brother officers. Through +the gleaming passage of sword-blades, smiling and happy, the strangely +assorted couple entered upon the way of wedlock, as Mr. and Mrs. +Geoffrey Barrington--the shoot of the Fujinami grafted on to one of +the oldest of our noble families. + +"Are her parents here?" one lady was asking her neighbour. + +"Oh, no; they are both dead, I believe." + +"What kind of people are they, do you know? Do Japs have an +aristocracy and society and all that kind of thing?" + +"I'm sure I don't know. I shouldn't think so. They don't look real +enough." + +"She is very rich, anyhow," a third lady intervened, "I've heard they +are big landowners in Tokyo, and cousins of Admiral Togo's." + + * * * * * + +The opportunity for closer inspection of this curiosity was afforded +by the reception given at Lady Everington's mansion in Carlton House +Terrace. Of course, everybody was there. The great ballroom was draped +with hangings of red and white, the national colours of Japan. Favours +of the same bright hues were distributed among the guests. Trophies +of Union Jacks and Rising Suns were grouped in corners and festooned +above windows and doorways. + +Lady Everington was bent upon giving an international importance to +her protégée's marriage. Her original plan had been to invite the +whole Japanese community in London, and so to promote the popularity +of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance by making the most of this opportunity +for social fraternising. But where was the Japanese community in +London? Nobody knew. Perhaps there was none. There was the Embassy, of +course, which arrived smiling, fluent, and almost too well-mannered. +But Lady Everington had been unable to push very far her programme for +international amenities. There were strange little yellow men from +the City, who had charge of ships and banking interests; there were +strange little yellow men from beyond the West End, who studied the +Fine Arts, and lived, it appeared, on nothing. But the hostess could +find no ladies at all, except Countess Saito and the Embassy dames. + +Monsieur and Madame Murata from Paris, the bride's guardians, were +also present. But the Orient was submerged beneath the flood of our +rank and fashion, which, as one lady put it, had to take care how it +stepped for fear of crushing the little creatures. + +"Why _did_ you let him do it?" said Mrs. Markham to her sister. + +"It was a mistake, my dear," whispered Lady Everington, "I meant her +for somebody quite different." + +"And you're sorry now?" + +"No, I have no time to be sorry--ever," replied that eternally +graceful and youthful Egeria, who is one of London's most powerful +social influences. "It will be interesting to see what becomes of +them." + +Lady Everington has been criticised for stony-heartedness, for +opportunism, and for selfish abuse of her husband's vast wealth. She +has been likened to an experimental chemist, who mixes discordant +elements together in order to watch the results, chilling them in ice +or heating them over the fire, until the lives burst in fragments or +the colour slowly fades out of them. She has been called an artist in +_mésalliances_, a mismatch-maker of dangerous cunning, a dangler of +picturesque beggar-maids before romantic-eyed Cophetuas, a daring +promoter of ambitious American girls and a champion of musical comedy +peeresses. Her house has been named the Junior Bachelors Club. The +charming young men who seem to be bound to its hospitable board by +invisible chains are the material for her dashing improvisations and +the _dramatis personae_ of the scores of little domestic comedies +which she likes to keep floating around her in different stages of +development. + +Geoffrey Barrington had been the secretary of this club, and a +favourite with the divinity who presided over it. We had all supposed +that he would remain a bachelor; and the advent of Asako Fujinami into +London society gave us at first no reason to change our opinion. But +she was certainly attractive. + + * * * * * + +She ought to have been married in a kimono. There was no doubt about +it now, when there was more liberty to inspect her, as she stood there +shaking hands with hundreds of guests and murmuring her "Thank you +very much" to the reiterated congratulations. + +The white gown was perfectly cut and of a shade to give its full +value to her complexion, a waxen complexion like old ivory or like +a magnolia petal, in which the Mongolian yellow was ever so faintly +discernible. It was a sweet little face, oval and smooth; but it might +have been called expressionless if it had not been for a dimple which +peeped and vanished around a corner of the small compressed mouth, and +for the great deep brown eyes, like the eyes of deer or like pools of +forest water, eyes full of warmth and affection. This was the feature +which struck most of us as we took the opportunity to watch her in +European dress with the glamour of her kimono stripped from her. They +were the eyes of the Oriental girl, a creature closer to the animals +than we are, lit by instinct more often than by reason, and hiding +a soul in its infancy, a repressed, timorous, uncertain thing, +spasmodically violent and habitually secretive and aloof. + +Sir Ralph Cairns, the famous diplomat, was talking on this subject to +Professor Ironside. + +"The Japanese are extraordinarily quick," he was saying, "the most +adaptable people since the ancient Greeks, whom they resemble in some +ways. But they are more superficial. The intellect races on ahead, but +the heart lingers in the Dark Ages." + +"Perhaps intermarriage is the solution of the great racial problem," +suggested the Professor. + +"Never," said the old administrator. "Keep the breed pure, be it +white, black, or yellow. Bastard races cannot flourish. They are waste +of Nature." + +The Professor glanced towards the bridal pair. + +"And these also?" he asked. + +"Perhaps," said Sir Ralph, "but in her case her education has been so +entirely European." + +Hereupon, Lady Everington approaching, Sir Ralph turned to her and +said,-- + +"Dear lady, let me congratulate you: this is your masterpiece." + +"Sir Ralph," said the hostess, already looking to see which of her +guests she would next pounce upon, "You know the East so well. Give +me one little piece of advice to hand over to the children before they +start on their honeymoon." + +Sir Ralph smiled benignly. + +"Where are they going?" he asked. + +"Everywhere," replied Lady Everington, "they are going to travel." + +"Then let them travel all over the world," he answered, "only not to +Japan. That is their Bluebeard's cupboard; and into that they must not +look." + +There was more discussion of bridegroom and bride than is usual at +society weddings, which are apt to become mere reunions of fashionable +people, only vaguely conscious of the identity of those in whose +honour they have been gathered together. + +"Geoffrey Barrington is such a healthy barbarian," said a pale young +man with a monocle; "if it had been a high-browed child of culture +like you, Reggie, with a taste for exotic sensations, I should hardly +have been surprised." + +"And if it had been you, Arthur," replied Reggie Forsyth of the +Foreign Office, who was Barrington's best man, "I should have known +at once that it was the twenty thousand a year which was the supreme +attraction." + +There was a certain amount of Anglo-Indian sentiment afloat among +the company, which condemned the marriage entirely as an outrage on +decency. + +"What was Brandan dreaming of," snorted General Haslam, "to allow his +son to marry a yellow native?" + +"Dreaming of the mortgage on the Brandan property, I expect, General," +answered Lady Rushworth. + +"It's scandalous," foamed the General, "a fine young fellow, a fine +officer, too! His career ruined for an undersized _geisha_!" + +"But think of the millions of _yens_ or _sens_ or whatever they are, +with which she is going to re-gild the Brandan coronet!" + +"That wouldn't console me for a yellow baby with slit eyes," continued +the General, his voice rising in debate as his custom was at the +Senior. + +"Hush, General!" said his interlocutor, "we don't discuss such +possibilities." + +"But everybody here must be thinking of them, except that unfortunate +young man." + +"We never say what we are thinking, General; it would be too +upsetting." + +"And we are to have a Japanese Lord Brandan, sitting in the House of +Lords?" the General went on. + +"Yes, among the Jews, Turks, and Armenians, who are there already," +Lady Rushworth answered, "an extra Oriental will never be noticed. It +will only be another instance of the course of Empire taking its way +Eastward." + + * * * * * + +In the Everington dining-room the wedding presents were displayed. It +looked more like the interior of a Bond Street shop where every kind +of _article de luxe_, useful and useless, was heaped in plenty. + +Perhaps the only gift which had cost less than twenty pounds was Lady +Everington's own offering, a photograph of herself in a plain silver +frame, her customary present when one of her protégées was married +under her immediate auspices. + +"My dear," she would say, "I have enriched you by several thousands of +pounds. I have introduced you to the right people for present-giving +at precisely the right moment previous to your wedding, when they know +you neither too little nor too much. By long experience I have +learnt to fix it to a day. But I am not going to compete with this +undistinguished lavishness. I give you my picture to stand in +your drawing-room as an artist puts his signature to a completed +masterpiece, so that when you look around upon the furniture, the +silver, the cut glass, the clocks, the engagement tablets, and the +tantalus stands, the offerings of the rich whose names you have +long ago forgotten, then you will confess to yourself in a burst of +thankfulness to your fairy godmother that all this would never have +been yours if it had not been for her!" + +In a corner of the room and apart from the more ostentatious homage, +stood on a small table a large market-basket, in which was lying a +huge red fish, a roguish, rollicking mullet with a roving eye, all +made out of a soft crinkly silk. In the basket beneath it were rolls +and rolls of plain silk, red and white. This was an offering from +the Japanese community in London, the conventional wedding present of +every Japanese home from the richest to the poorest, varying only +in size and splendour. On another small table lay a bundle of brown +objects like prehistoric axe heads, bound round with red and white +string, and vaguely odorous of bloater-paste. These were dried flesh +of the fish called _katsuobushi_ by the Japanese, whose absence also +would have brought misfortune to the newly married. Behind them, on +a little tray, stood a miniature landscape representing an aged +pine-tree by the sea-shore and a little cottage with a couple of old, +old people standing at its door, two exquisite little dolls dressed +in rough, poor kimonos, brown and white. The old man holds a rake, +and the old woman holds a broom. They have very kindly faces and white +silken hair. Any Japanese would recognise them at once as the Old +People of Takasago, the personification of the Perfect Marriage. +They are staring with wonder and alarm at the Brandan sapphires, +a monumental _parure_ designed for the massive state of some +Early-Victorian Lady Brandan. + +Asako Fujinami had spent days rejoicing over the arrival of her +presents, little interested in the identity of the givers but +fascinated by the things themselves. She had taken hours to arrange +them in harmonious groups. Then a new gift would arrive which would +upset the balance, and she would have to begin all over again. + +Besides this treasury in the dining-room, there were all her +clothes, packed now for the honeymoon, a whole wardrobe of fairy-like +disguises, wonderful gowns of all colours and shapes and materials. +These, it is true, she had bought herself. She had always been +surrounded by money; but it was only since she had lived with Lady +Everington that she had begun to learn something about the thousand +different ways of spending it, and all the lovely things for which it +can be exchanged. So all her new things, whatever their source, seemed +to her like presents, like unexpected enrichments. She had basked +among her new acquisitions, silent as was her wont when she was happy, +sunning herself in the warmth of her prosperity. Best of all, she +never need wear kimonos again in public. Her fiancé had acceded to +this, her most immediate wish. She could dress now like the girls +around her. She would no longer be stared at like a curio in a shop +window. Inquisitive fingers would no longer clutch at the long sleeves +of, crinkled silk, or try to probe the secret of the huge butterfly +bow on her back. She could step out fearlessly now like English women. +She could give up the mincing walk and the timid manner which she felt +was somehow inseparable from her native dress. + +When she told her protectress that Geoffrey had consented to its +abandonment, Lady Everington had heaved a sigh. + +"Poor Kimono!" she said, "it has served you well. But I suppose a +soldier is glad to put his uniform away when the fighting is over. +Only, never forget the mysterious power of the uniform over the other +sex." + +Another day when her Ladyship had been in a bad mood, she had +snapped,-- + +"Put those things away, child, and keep to your kimono. It is your +natural plumage. In those borrowed plumes you look undistinguished and +underfed." + + * * * * * + +The Japanese Ambassador to the Court of St. James proposed the health +of the bride and bridegroom. Count Saito was a small, wise man, whom +long sojourn in European countries had to some extent de-orientalised. +His hair was grizzled, his face was seamed, and he had a peering way +of gazing through his gold-rimmed spectacles with head thrust forward +like a man half blind, which he certainly was not. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "it is a great pleasure for me to +be present on this occasion, for I think this wedding is a personal +compliment to myself and to my work in this splendid country. Mr. and +Mrs. Geoffrey Barrington are the living symbols of the Anglo-Japanese +Alliance; and I hope they will always remember the responsibility +resting on their shoulders. The bride and bridegroom of to-day must +feel that the relations of Great Britain and Japan depend upon the +perfect harmony of their married life. Ladies and gentlemen, let us +drink long life and happiness to Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey Barrington, to +the Union Jack and to the Rising Sun!" + +The toast, was drunk and three cheers were given, with an extra cheer +for Mrs. Geoffrey. The husband, who was no hand at speechmaking, +replied--and his good-natured voice was quite thick with emotion--that +it was awfully good of them all to give his wife and himself such a +ripping send-off, and awfully good of Sir George and Lady Everington +especially, and awfully good of Count Saito; and that he was the +happiest man in the world and the luckiest, and that his wife had told +him to tell them all that she was the happiest woman, though he really +did not see why she should be. Anyhow, he would do his best to give +her a jolly good time. He thanked his friends for their good wishes +and for their beautiful presents. They had had jolly good times +together, and, in return for all their kindness, he and his wife +wanted to wish them all a jolly good time. + +So spoke Geoffrey Barrington; and at that moment many people present +must have felt a pang of regret that this fine specimen of England's +young manhood should marry an oriental. He was over six feet high. His +broad shoulders seemed to stoop a little with the lazy strength of a +good-tempered carnivore, of Una's lion, and his face, which was almost +round, was set off by a mane of the real lion colour. He wore his +moustache rather longer than was the fashion. It was a face which +seemed ready to laugh at any moment--or else to yawn. For there +was about the man's character and appearance something indolent and +half-awakened and much of the schoolboy. Yet he was over thirty. But +there is always a tendency for Army life to be merely a continuation +of public-school existence. Eton merges into Sandhurst, and Sandhurst +merges into the regiment. One's companions are all the time men of +the same class and of the same ideas. The discipline is the same, +the conventionality and the presiding fetish of Good and Bad Form. So +many, generals are perennial school boys. They lose their freshness, +that is all. + +But Geoffrey Barrington had not lost his freshness. This was his great +charm, for he certainly was not quick or witty. Lady Everington said +that she kept him as a disinfectant to purify the atmosphere. + +"This house," she declared, "sometimes gets over-scented with +tuberoses. Then I open the window and let Geoffrey Barrington in!" + +He was the only son of Lord Brandan and heir to that ancient but +impoverished title. He had been brought up to the idea that he must +marry a rich wife. He neither jibbed foolishly at the proposal, nor +did he surrender lightly to any of the willing heiresses who threw +themselves at his head. He accepted his destiny with the fatalism +which every soldier must carry in his knapsack, and took up his post +as Mars in attendance in Lady Everington's drawing-room, recognising +that there lay the strategic point for achieving his purpose. He was +not without hope, too, that besides obtaining the moneybags he might +be so fortunate as to fall in love with the possessor of them. + +Asako Fujinami, whom he had first met at dinner, at Lady Everington's, +had crossed his mind just like an exquisite bar of melody. He made no +comments at the time, but he could not forget her. The haunting tune +came back to him again and again. By the time that she had floated in +his arms through three or four dances, the spell had worked. _La belle +dame sans merci_, the enchantress who lurks in every woman, had him +in thrall. Her simplest observations seemed to him to be pearls of +wisdom, her every movement a triumph of grace. + +"Reggie," he said to his friend Forsyth, "what do you think of that +little Japanese girl?" + +Reggie, who was a diplomat by profession and a musician by the grace +of God, and whose intuition was almost feminine especially where +Geoffrey was concerned, answered,-- + +"Why, Geoffrey, are you thinking of marrying her?" + +"By Jove!" exclaimed his friend, starting at the thought as at a +discovery; "but I, don't think she'd have me. I'm not her sort." + +"You never can tell," suggested Reggie mischievously; "She is quite +unspoilt, and she has twenty thousand a year. She is unique. You could +not possibly get her confused with somebody else's wife, as so many +people seem to do when they get married. Why not try?" + +Reggie thought that such a mating was impossible, but it amused him +to play with the idea. As for Lady Everington, who knew every one so +well, and who thought that she knew them perfectly, she never guessed. + +"I think, Geoffrey, that you like to be seen with Asako," she said, +"just to point the contrast." + +Her confession to her sister, Mrs. Markham, was the truth. She had +made a mistake; she had destined Asako for somebody quite different. +It was the girl herself who had been the first to enlighten her. She +came to her hostess's boudoir one evening before the labours of the +night began. + +"Lady Georgie," she had said--Lady Everington is Lady Georgie to +all who know her even a little. "_Il faut que je vous dise quelque +chose_." The girl's face glanced downward and sideways, as her habit +was when embarrassed. + +When Asako spoke in French it meant that something grave was afoot. +She was afraid that her unsteady English might muddle what she +intended to say. Lady Everington knew that it must be another +proposal; she had already dealt with three. + +"_Eh bien, cette fois qui est-il?_" she asked. + +"_Le capitaine Geoffroi_" answered Asako. Then her friend knew that it +was serious. + +"What did you say to him?" she demanded. + +"I tell him he must ask you." + +"But why drag me into it? It's your own affair." + +"In France and in Japan," said Asako, "a girl do not say Yes and No +herself. It is her father and her mother who decide. I have no father +or mother; so I think he must ask you." + +"And what do you want me to say?" + +For answer Asako gently squeezed the elder woman's hand, but Lady +Georgie was in no mood to return the pressure. The girl at once felt +the absence of the response, and said,-- + +"What, you do not like the _capitaine Geoffroi_?" + +But her fairy godmother answered bitterly,-- + +"On the contrary, I have a considerable affection for Geoffrey." + +"Then," cried Asako, starting up, "you think I am not good enough for +him. It's because I'm--not English." + +She began to cry. In spite of her superficial hardness, Lady +Everington has a very tender heart. She took the girl in her arms. + +"Dearest child," she said, raising the little, moist face to hers, +"don't cry. In England we answer this great question ourselves. Our +fathers and mothers and fairy godmothers have to concur. If Geoffrey +Barrington has asked you to marry him, it is because he loves you. He +does not scatter proposals like calling-cards, as some young men do. +In fact, I have never heard of him proposing to anyone before. He does +not want you to say 'No', of course. But are you quite ready to say +'Yes'? Very well, wait a fortnight, and don't see more of him than you +can help in the meantime. Now, let them send for my _masseuse_. There +is nothing so exhausting to the aged as the emotions of young people." + +That evening, when Lady Everington met Geoffrey at the theatre, she +took him severely to task for treachery, secrecy and decadence. He, +was very humble and admitted all his faults except the last, pleading +as his excuse that he could not get Asako out of his head. + +"Yes, that is a symptom," said her Ladyship; "you are clearly +stricken. So I fear I am too late to effect a rescue. All I can do +is to congratulate you both. But, remember, a wife is not nearly so +fugitive as a melody, unless she is the wrong kind of wife." + +It was a wrench for the little lady to part with the oldest of +her friendships, and to give up her Geoffrey to the care of this +decorative stranger whose qualities were unknown, and undeveloped. But +she knew what the answer would be at the end of the fortnight. So she +steeled her nerves to laugh at her friends commiserations and to make +the marriage of her godchildren one of the season's successes. It +would certainly be an interesting addition to her museum of domestic +dramas. + + * * * * * + +There was one person whom Lady Everington was determined to pump for +information on that wedding-day, and had drawn into the net of her +invitations for this very purpose. It was Count Saito, the Japanese +Ambassador. + +She cornered him as he was admiring the presents, and whisked him away +to the silence and twilight of her husband's study. + +"I am so glad you were able to come, Count Saito," she began. "I +suppose you know the Fujinamis, Asako's relatives in Tokyo?" + +"No, I do not know them." His Excellency answered, but his tone +conveyed to the lady's instinct that he personally would not wish to +know them. + +"But you know the name, do you not?" + +"Yes, I have heard the name; there are many families called Fujinami +in Japan." + +"Are they very rich?" + +"Yes, I believe there are some who are very rich," said the little +diplomat, who clearly was ill at ease. + +"Where does their money come from?" his inquisitor went on +remorselessly, "You are keeping something from me, Count Saito. Please +be frank, if there is any mystery." + +"Oh no, Lady Everington, there is no mystery, I am sure. There is one +family of Fujinami who have many houses and lands in Tokyo and other +towns. I will be quite open with you. They are rather what you in +England call _nouveaux riches_." + +"Really!" Her Ladyship was taken aback for a moment. "But you would +never notice it with Asako, would you? I mean, she does not drop her +Japanese aitches, and that sort of thing, does she?" + +"Oh no," Count Saito reassured her, "I do not think Mademoiselle Asako +talks Japanese language, so she cannot drop her aitches." + +"I never thought of that," his hostess continued, "I thought that if a +Japanese had money, he must be a _daimyo_, or something." + +The Ambassador smiled. + +"English people," he said, "do not know very well the true condition +of Japan. Of course we have our rich new families and our poor old +families just as you have in England. In some aspects our society is +just the same as yours. In others, it is so, different, that you would +lose your way at once in a maze of ideas which would seem to you quite +upside down." + +Lady Everington interrupted his reflections in a desperate attempt to +get something out of him by a surprise attack. + +"How interesting," she said, "it will be for Geoffrey Harrington and +his wife to visit Japan and find out all about it." + +The Ambassador's manner changed. + +"No, I do not think," he said, "I do not think that is a good thing at +all. They must not do that. You must not let them." + +"But why not?" + +"I say to all Japanese men and women who live a long time in foreign +countries or who marry foreign people, 'Do not go back to Japan,' +Japan is like a little pot and the foreign world is like a big garden. +If you plant a tree from the pot into the garden and let it grow, you +cannot put it back into the pot again." + +"But, in this case, that is not the only reason," objected Lady +Everington. + +"No, there are many other reasons too," the Ambassador admitted; and +he rose from his sofa, indicating that the interview was at an end. + + * * * * * + +The bridal pair left in a motor-car for Folkestone tinder a hailstorm +of rice, and with the propitious white slipper dangling from the +number-plate behind. + +When all her guests were gone, Lady Everington fled to her boudoir and +collapsed in a little heap of sobbing finery on the broad divan. She +was overtired, no doubt; but the sense of her mistake lay heavy upon +her, and the feeling that she had sacrificed to it her best friend, +the most humanly valuable of all the people who resorted to her house. +An evil cloud of mystery hung over the young marriage, one of those +sinister unfamiliar forces which travellers bring home from the East, +the curse of a god or a secret poison or a hideous disease. + +It would be so natural for those two to want to visit Japan and to +know their second home. Yet both Sir Ralph Cairns and Count Saito, the +only two men that day who knew anything about the real conditions, +had insisted that such a visit would be fatal. And who were these +Fujinamis whom Count Saito knew, but did not know? Why had she, who +was so socially careful, taken so much for granted just because Asako +was a Japanese? + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HONEYMOON + + _Asa no kami + Ware wa kezuraji + Utsukushiki + Kimi ga ta-makura + Fureteshi mono wo._ + + (My) morning sleep hair + I will not comb; + For it has been in contact with + The pillowing hand of + My beautiful Lord! + + +The Barringtons left England for a prolonged honeymoon, for Geoffrey +was now free to realise his favourite project of travelling abroad. +So they became numbered among that shoal of English people out of +England, who move restless leisure between Paris and the Nile. + +Geoffrey had resigned his commission in the army. His friends thought +that this was a mistake. For the loss of a man's career, even when it +is uncongenial to him, is a serious amputation, and entails a lesion +of spiritual blood. He had refused his father's suggestion of settling +down in a house on the Brandan estate, for Lord Brandan was an +unpleasing old gentleman, a frequenter of country bars and country +barmaids. His son wished to keep his young bride as far away as +possible from a spectacle of which he was heartily ashamed. + +First of all they went to Paris, which Asako adored; for was it not +her home? But this time she made the acquaintance of a Paris unknown +to her, save by rumour, in the convent days or within the discreet +precincts of Monsieur Murata's villa. She was enchanted by the +theatres, the shops, the restaurants, the music, and the life which +danced around her. She wanted to rent an _appartement_, and to live +there for the rest of her existence. + +"But the season is almost over," said her husband; "everybody will be +leaving." + +Unaccustomed as yet to his freedom, he still felt constrained to do +the same as Everybody. + +Before leaving Paris, they paid a visit to the Auteuil villa, which +had been Asako's home for so many years. + +Murata was the manager of a big Japanese firm in Paris. He had spent +almost all his life abroad and the last twenty years of it in the +French capital, so that even in appearance, except for his short +stature and his tilted eyes, he had come to look like a Frenchman with +his beard _à l'impériale_, and his quick bird-like gestures. His wife +was a Japanese, but she too had lost almost all traces of her native +mannerisms. + +Asako Fujinami had been brought to Paris by her father, who had died +there while still a young man. He had entrusted his only child to the +care of the Muratas with instructions that she should be educated in +European ways and ideas, that she should hold no communication with +her relatives in Japan, and that eventually a white husband should be +provided for her. He had left his whole fortune in trust for her, and +the interest was forwarded regularly to M. Murata by a Tokyo lawyer, +to be used for her benefit as her guardian might deem best. This money +was to be the only tie between Asako and her native land. + +To cut off a child from its family, of which by virtue of vested +interests it must still be an important member, was a proceeding +so revolutionary to all respectable Japanese ideas that even the +enlightened Murata demurred. In Japan the individual counts for +so little, the family for so much. But Fujinami had insisted, and +disobedience to a man's dying wish brings the curse of a "rough ghost" +upon the recalcitrant, and all kinds of evil consequences. + +So the Muratas took Asako and cherished her as much as their hearts, +withered by exile and by unnatural living, were capable of +cherishing anything. She became a daughter of the well-to-do French +_bourgeoisie_, strictly but affectionately disciplined with the proper +restraints on the natural growth of her brain and individuality. + +Geoffrey Barrington was not very favourably impressed by the Murata +household. He wondered how so bright a little flower as Asako could +have been reared in such gloomy surroundings. The spirits dominant in +the villa were respectable economy and slavish imitation of the tastes +and habits of Parisian friends. The living-rooms were as impersonal as +the rooms of a boarding-house. Neutral tints abounded, ugly browns +and nightmare vegetable patterns on carpets, furniture and wallpapers. +There was a marked tendency towards covers, covers for the chairs +and sofas, tablecloths and covers for the tablecloths, covers for +cushion-covers, antimacassars, lamp-stands, vase-stands and every kind +of decorative duster. Everywhere the thick smell of concealed grime +told of insufficient servants and ineffective sweeping. There was not +one ornament or picture which recalled Japan, or gave a clue to the +personal tastes of the owners. + +Geoffrey had expected to be the nervous witness of an affecting scene +between his wife and her adopted parents. But no, the greetings were +polite and formal. Asako's frock and jewellery were admired, but +without that note of angry envy which often brightens the dullest talk +between ladies in England. Then, they sat down to an atrocious lunch +eaten in complete silence. + +When the meal was over, Murata drew Geoffrey aside into his shingly +garden. + +"I think that you will be content with our Asa San," he said; "the +character is still plastic. In England it is different; but in France +and in Japan we say it is the husband who must make the character of +his wife. She is the plain white paper; let him take his brush and +write on it what he will. Asa San is a very sweet girl. She is very +easy to manage. She has a beautiful disposition. She does not tell +lies without reason. She does not wish to make strange friends. I do +not think you will have trouble with her." + +"He talks about her rather as if she were a horse," thought Geoffrey. +Murata went on,-- + +"The Japanese woman is the ivy which clings to the tree. She does not +wish to disobey." + +"You think Asako is still very Japanese, then?" asked Geoffrey. + +"Not her manners, or her looks, or even her thoughts," replied Murata, +"but nothing can change the heart." + +"Then do you think she is homesick sometimes for Japan?" said her +husband. + +"Oh no," smiled Murata. The little wizened man was full of smiles. +"She left Japan when she was not two years old. She remembers nothing +at all." + +"I think one day we shall go to Japan," said Geoffrey, "when we get +tired of Europe, you know. It is a wonderful country, I am told; +and it does not seem right that Asako should know nothing about it. +Besides, I should like to look into her affairs and find out about her +investments." + +Murata was staring at his yellow boots with an embarrassed air. It +suddenly struck the Englishman that he, Geoffrey Harrington, was +related to people who looked like that, and who now had the right to +call him cousin. He shivered. + +"You can trust her lawyers," said the Japanese, "Mr. Ito is an old +friend of mine. You may be quite certain that Asako's money is safe." + +"Oh yes, of course," assented Geoffrey, "but what exactly are her +investments? I think I ought to know." + +Murata began to laugh nervously, as all Japanese do when embarrassed. + +"_Mon Dieu_!" he exclaimed, "but I do not know myself. The money has +been paid regularly for nearly twenty years; and I know the Fujinami +are very rich. Indeed, Captain Barrington, I do not think Asako would +like Japan. It was her father's last wish that she should never return +there." + +"But why?" asked Geoffrey. He felt that Murata was keeping something +from him. The little man answered,-- + +"He thought that for a woman the life is more happy in Europe; he +wished Asako to forget altogether that she was Japanese." + +"Yes, but now she is married and her future is fixed. She is not going +back permanently to Japan, but just to see the country. I think we +would both of us like to. People say it is a magnificent country." + +"You are very kind," said Murata, "to speak so of my country. But the +foreign people who marry Japanese are happy if they stay in their own +country, and Japanese who marry foreigners are happy if they go away +from Japan. But if they stay in Japan they are not happy. The national +atmosphere in Japan is too strong for those people who are not +Japanese or are only half Japanese. They fade. Besides life in Japan +is very poor and rough. I do not like it myself." + +Somehow Geoffrey could not accept these as being the real reasons. He +had never had a long talk with a Japanese man before; but he felt that +if they were all like that, so formal, so unnatural, so secretive, +then he had better keep out of the range of Asako's relatives. + +He wondered what his wife really thought of the Muratas, and during +the return to their hotel, he asked,-- + +"Well, little girl, do you want to go back again and live at Auteuil?" + +She shook her head. + +"But it is nice to think you have always got an extra home in Paris, +isn't it?" he went on, fishing for an avowal that home was in his arms +only, a kind of conversation which was the wine of life to him at that +period. + +"No," she answered with a little shudder, "I don't call that home." + +Geoffrey's conventionality was a little bit shocked at this lack +of affection; he was also disappointed at not getting exactly the +expected answer. + +"Why, what was wrong with it?" he asked. + +"Oh, it was not pretty or comfortable," she said, "they were so afraid +to spend money. When I wash my hands, they say, 'Do not use too much +soap; it is waste.'" + + * * * * * + +Asako was like a little prisoner released into the sunlight. She +dreaded the idea of being thrust back into darkness again. + +In this new life of hers anything would have made her happy, that is +to say, anything new, anything given to her, anything good to eat or +drink, anything soft and shimmery to wear, anything--so long as her +big husband was with her. He was the most fascinating of all her +novelties. He was much nicer than Lady Everington; for he was not +always saying, "Don't," or making clever remarks, which she could not +understand. He gave her absolutely her own way, and everything that +she admired. He reminded her of an old Newfoundland dog who had been +her slave when she was a little girl. + +He used to play with her as he would have played with a child, +watching her as she tried on her finery, hiding things for her to +find, holding them over her head and making her jump for them like +a puppy, arranging her ornaments for her in those continual private +exhibitions which took up so much of her time. Then she would ring the +bell and summon all the chambermaids within call to come and admire; +and Geoffrey would stand among all these womenfolk, listening to the +chorus of "_Mon Dieu!_" and "_Ah, que c'est beau!_" and "_Ah, qu'elle +est gentille!_" like some Hector who had strayed into the _gynaeceum_ +of Priam's palace. He felt a little foolish, perhaps, but very happy, +happy in his wife's naive happiness and affection, which did not +require any mental effort to understand, nor that panting pursuit +on which he had embarked more than once in order to keep up with the +witty flirtatiousness of some of the beauties of Lady Everington's +_salon_. + +Happiness shone out of Asako like light. But would she always be +happy? There were the possibilities of the future to be reckoned +with, sickness, childbirth, and the rearing of children, the hidden +development of the character which so often grows away from what +it once cherished, the baleful currents of outside influences, the +attraction and repulsion of so-called friends and enemies all of which +complicate the primitive simplicity of married life and forfeit the +honeymoon Eden. Adam and Eve in the garden of the Creation can hear +the voice of God whispering in the evening breeze; they can live +without jars and ambitions, without suspicion and without reproaches. +They have no parents, no parents-in-law, no brothers, sisters, +aunts, or guardians, no friends to lay the train of scandal or to +be continually pulling them from each other's arms. But the first +influence which crosses the walls of their paradise, the first being +to whom they speak, which possesses the semblance of a human voice, +is most certainly Satan and that Old Serpent, who was a liar and a +slanderer from the beginning, and whose counsels will lead inevitably +to the withdrawal of God's presence and to the doom of a life of pain +and labor. + +There was one cloud in the heaven of their happiness. Geoffrey was +inclined to tease Asako about her native country. His ideas about +Japan were gleaned chiefly from musical comedies. He would call his +wife Yum Yum and Pitti Sing. He would fix the end of one of her black +veils under his hat, and would ask her whether she liked him better +with a pigtail. + +"Captain Geoffrey," she would complain, "it is the Chinese who wear +the pigtail; they are a very savage people." + +Then he would call her his little _geisha_, and this she resented; +for she knew from the Muratas that _geisha_ were bad women who took +husbands away from their wives, and that was no joking matter. + +"What nonsense!" exclaimed Geoffrey, taken aback by this sudden +reproof: "they are dear little things like you, darling, and they +bring you tea and wave fans behind your head, and I would like to have +twenty of them--to wait upon you!" + +He would tease her about a supposed fondness for rice, for +chop-sticks, for paper umbrellas and _jiujitsu._ She liked him to +tease her, just as a child likes to be teased, while all the time +on the verge of tears. With Asako, tears and laughter were never far +apart. + +"Why do you tease me because I am Japanese?" she would sob; "besides, +I'm not really. I can't help it. I can't help it!" + +"But, sweetheart," her Captain Geoffrey would say, suddenly ashamed +of his elephantine humour, "there's nothing to cry about. I would be +proud to be a Japanese. They are jolly brave people. They gave the +Russians a jolly good hiding." + +It made her feel well to hear him praise her people, but she would +say: + +"No, no, they're not. I don't want to be a Jap. I don't like them. +They're ugly and spiteful. Why can't we choose what we are? I would be +an English girl--or perhaps French," she added, thinking of the Rue de +la Paix. + + * * * * * + +They left Paris and went to Deauville; and here it was that the +serpent first crawled into Eden, whispering of forbidden fruit. +These serpents were charming people, amusing men and smart women, all +anxious to make the acquaintance of the latest sensation, the Japanese +millionairess and her good-looking husband. + +Asako lunched with them and dined with them and sat with them near the +sea in wonderful bathing costumes which it would be a shame to wet. +Conscious of the shortcomings of her figure as compared with those +of the lissom mermaids who surrounded her, Asako returned to kimonos, +much to her husband's surprise; and the mermaids had to confess +themselves beaten. + +She listened to their talk and learned a hundred things, but another +hundred at least remained hidden from her. + +Geoffrey left his wife to amuse herself in the cosmopolitan society of +the French watering-place. He wanted this. All the wives whom he +had ever known seemed to enjoy themselves best when away from their +husbands' company. He did not quite trust the spirit of mutual +adoration, which the gods had given to him and his bride. Perhaps it +was an unhealthy symptom. Worse still, it might be Bad Form. He wanted +Asako to be natural and to enjoy herself, and not to make their love +into a prison house. + +But he felt a bit lonely when he was away from her. Occupation did not +seem to come easily to him as it did when she was there to suggest it. +Sometimes he would loaf up and down on the esplanade; and sometimes he +would take strenuous swims in the sea. He became the prey of the bores +who haunt every seaside place at home and abroad, lurking for lonely +and polite people upon whom they may unload their conversation. + +All these people seemed either to have been in Japan themselves or to +have friends and relations who knew the country thoroughly. + +A wonderful land, they assured him. The nation of the future, the +Garden of the East, but of course Captain Barrington knew Japan +well. No, he had never been there? Ah, but Mrs. Barrington must have +described it all to him. Impossible! Really? Not since she was a baby? +How very extraordinary! A charming country, so quaint, so original, +so picturesque, such a place to relax in; and then the Japanese girls, +the little _mousmés_, in their bright kimonos, who came fluttering +round like little butterflies, who were so gentle and soft and +grateful; but there! Captain Barrington was a married man, that was no +affair of his. Ha! Ha! + +The elderly _roués_, who buzzed like February flies in the sunshine +of Deauville, seemed to have particularly fruity memories of tea-house +sprees and oriental philanderings under the cherry-blossoms of +Yokohama. Evidently, Japan was just like the musical comedies. + +Geoffrey began to be ashamed of his ignorance concerning his wife's +native country. Somebody had asked him, what exactly _bushido_ was. He +had answered at random that it was made of rice and curry powder. By +the hilarious reception given to this explanation he knew that he must +have made a _gaffe_. So he asked one of the more erudite bores to give +him the names of the best books about Japan. He would "mug it up," +and get some answers off pat to the leading questions. The erudite +one promptly lent him some volumes by Lafcadio Hearn and Pierre Loti's +_Madame Chrysanthème_. He read the novel first of all. Rather spicy, +wasn't it? + +Asako found the book. It was an illustrated edition; and the little +drawings of Japanese scenes pleased her immensely, so that she began +to read the letter press. + +"It is the story of a bad man and a bad woman," she said; "Geoffrey, +why do you read bad things? They bring bad conditions." + +Geoffrey smiled. He was wondering whether the company of the +fictitious _Chrysanthème_ was more demoralizing than that of the +actual Mme. Laroche Meyerbeer, with whom his wife had been that day +for a picnic lunch. + +"Besides, it isn't fair," his wife continued. "People read that book +and then they think that all Japanese girls are bad like that." + +"Why, darling, I didn't think you had read it," Geoffrey expostulated, +"who has been telling you about it?" + +"The Vicomte de Brie," Asako answered. "He called me _Chrysanthème_ +and I asked him why." + +"Oh, did he?" said Geoffrey. Really it was time to put an end to +lunch picnics and mermaidism. But Asako was so happy and so shiningly +innocent. + +She returned to her circle of admirers, and Geoffrey to his studies of +the Far East. He read the Lafcadio Hearn books, and did not perceive +that he was taking opium. The wonderful sentences of that master of +prose poetry rise before the eyes in whorls of narcotic smoke. They +lull the brain as in a dream, and form themselves gradually into +visions of a land more beautiful than any land that has ever existed +anywhere, a country of vivid rice plains and sudden hills, of gracious +forests and red temple gateways, of wise priests and folk-lore +imagery, of a simple-hearted smiling people with children bright as +flowers laughing and playing in unfailing sunlight, a country where +everything is kind, gentle, small, neat, artistic, and spotlessly +clean, where men become gods not by sudden apotheosis but by the easy +processes of nature, a country, in short, which is the reverse of our +own poor vexed continent where the monstrous and the hideous multiply +daily. + +One afternoon Geoffrey was lounging on the terrace of the hotel +reading _Kokoro_, when his attention was attracted by the arrival of +Mme. Laroche Meyerbeer's motor-car with Asako, her hostess and another +woman embedded in its depths. Asako was the first to leap out. She +went up to her apartment without looking to right or left, and before +her husband had time to reach her. Mme. Meyerbeer watched this arrow +flight and shrugged her shoulders before lazily alighting. + +"Is all well?" asked Geoffrey. + +"No serious damage," smiled the lady, who is known in Deauville as +_Madame Cythère_, "but you had better go and console her. I think she +has seen the devil for the first time." + +He opened the door of their sunny bedroom, and found Asako packing +feverishly, and sobbing in spasms. + +"My poor little darling," he said, lifting her in his arms, "whatever +is the matter?" + +He laid her on the sofa, took off her hat, and loosened her dress, +until gradually she became coherent. + +"He tried to kiss me," she sobbed. + +"Who did?" her husband asked. + +"The Vicomte de Brie." + +"Damned little monkey," cried Geoffrey, "I'll break every miserable +bone in his pretence of a body." + +"Oh, no, no," protested Asako, "let us go away from here at once. Let +us go to Switzerland, anywhere." + +The serpent had got into the garden, but he had not been a very adroit +reptile. He had shown his fangs; and the woman had promptly bruised +his head and had given him an eye like an Impressionist sunset, which +for several days he had to hide from the ridicule of his friends. + +But Asako too had been grievously injured in the innocence of her +heart; and it took all the snow winds of the Engadine to blow away +from her face the hot defilement of the man's breath. She clung +closely to her husband's protection. She, who had hitherto abandoned +herself to excessive amiability, barbed the walls of their violated +paradise with the broken glass of bare civility. Every man became +suspect, the German professors culling Alpine plants, the mountain +maniacs with their eyes fixed on peaks to conquer. She had no word +for any of them. Even the manlike womenfolk, who golfed and rowed and +clambered, were to her indignant eyes dangerous panders to the lusts +of men, disguised allies of _Madame Cythère_. + +"Are they all bad?" she asked Geoffrey. + +"No, little girl, I don't suppose so. They look too dismal to be bad." + +Geoffrey was grateful for the turn of events which had delivered up +his wife again into his sole company. He had missed her society more +than he dared confess; for uxoriousness is a pitiful attitude. In +fact, it is Bad Form. + +At this period he wanted her as a kind of mirror for his own mind and +for his own person. She saw to it that his clothes were spotless and +that his tie was straight. Of course, he always dressed for dinner +even when they dined in their room. She too would dress herself up in +her new finery for his eyes alone. She would listen to him laying down +the law on subjects which he would not dare broach were he talking +to any one else. She flattered him in that silent way which is so +soothing to a man of his character. Her mind seemed to absorb his +thoughts with the readiness of blotting paper; and he did not pause to +observe whether the impression had come out backwards or forwards. He +who had been so mute among Lady Everington's geniuses fell all of a +sudden into a loquaciousness which was merely the reaction of his love +for his wife, the instinct which makes the male bird sing. He just +went on talking; and every day he became in his own estimation and in +that of Asako, a more intelligent, a more original and a more eloquent +man. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +EASTWARDS + + _Nagaki yo no + To no nemuri no + Miname-zame, + Nami nori fune no + Oto no yoki kana_. + + From the deep sleep + Of a long night + Waking, + Sweet is the sound + Of the ship as it rides the waves. + + +When August snow fell upon St. Moritz, the Barringtons descended to +Milan, Florence, Venice and Rome. Towards Christmas they found their +way to the Riviera, where they met Lady Everington at Monte Carlo, +very indignant, or pretending to be so, at the neglect with which she +had been treated. + +"Fairy godmothers are important people," she said, "and very easily +offended. Then, they turn you into wild animals, or send you to sleep +for a hundred years. Why didn't you write to me, child?" + +They were sitting on the terrace with the Casino behind them, +overlooking the blue Mediterranean. A few yards farther on, a tall, +young Englishman was chatting and laughing with a couple of girls too +elaborately beautiful and too dazzlingly gowned for any world but the +half-world. Suddenly he turned, and noticed Lady Everington. With a +courteous farewell to his companions, he advanced to greet her. + +"Aubrey Laking," she exclaimed, "you never answered the letter I wrote +to you at Tokyo." + +"Dear Lady Georgie, I left Tokyo ages ago. It followed me back to +England; and I am now second secretary at Christiania. That is why I +am in Monte Carlo!" + +"Then let me introduce you to Asako Fujinami, who is now Mrs. +Barrington. You must tell her all about Tokyo. It is her native city; +but she has not seen it since she was in long clothes, if Japanese +babies wear such things." + +Aubrey Laking and Barrington had been at Eton together. They were old +friends, and were delighted to meet once more. Barrington, especially, +was pleased to have this opportunity to hear about Japan from one who +had but lately left the country, and who was moreover a fluent and +agreeable talker. Laking had not resided in Japan long enough to get +tired of orientalism. He described the quaint, the picturesque, the +amusing side of life in the East. He was full of enthusiasm for the +land of soft voices and smiling faces, where countless little shops +spread their wares under the light of the evening lanterns, where the +twang of the _samisen_ and the _geisha's_ song are heard coming from +the lighted tea-house, and the shadow of her helmet-like _coiffure_ +is seen appearing and disappearing in silhouette against the paper +_shoji_. + + * * * * * + +The East was drawing the Barringtons towards its perilous coasts. +Laking's position at the Tokyo Embassy had been taken by Reggie +Forsyth, one of Geoffrey's oldest friends, his best man at his wedding +and a light of Lady Everington's circle. Already, Geoffrey had sent +him a post-card, saying, "Warm up the _saké_ bottle," (Geoffrey +was becoming quite learned in things Japanese), "and expect friends +shortly." + +However, when the Barringtons did at last tear themselves from the +Riviera, they announced rather disingenuously that they were going to +Egypt. + +"They are too happy," Lady Everington said to Laking a few days later, +"and they know nothing. I am afraid there will be trouble." + +"Oh, Lady Georgie," he replied, "I have never known you to be a +prophetess of gloom. I would have thought the auspices were most +fortunate." + +"They ought to quarrel more than they do," Lady Everington complained. +"She ought to contradict him more than she does. There must be a +volcanic element in marriage. It is a sign of trouble coming when the +fires are quiet." + +"But they have got plenty of money," expostulated Aubrey, whose +troubles were invariably connected with his banking account, "and they +are very fond of each other. Where is the trouble to come from?" + +"Trouble is on the lookout for all of us, Aubrey," said his companion, +"it is no good flying from it, even. The only thing to do is to look +it in the face and laugh at it; then it gets annoyed sometimes, and +goes away. But those two poor dears are sailing into the middle of it, +and they don't even know how to laugh yet." + +"You think that Egypt is hopelessly demoralising. Thousands of people +go there and come safely home, almost all, in fact, except Robert +Hichens's heroines." + +"Oh no, not in Egypt," said Lady Everington; "Egypt is only a +stepping-stone. They are going to Japan." + +"Well, certainly Japan is harmless enough. There is nobody there worth +flirting with except us at the Embassies, and we generally have our +hands full. As for the visitors, they are always under the influence +of Cook's tickets and Japanese guides." + +"Aubrey dear, you think that trouble can only come from flirting or +money." + +"I know that those two preoccupations are an abundant source of +trouble." + +"What do you think of Mrs. Barrington?" asked her Ladyship, appearing +to change the subject. + +"Oh, a very sweet little thing." + +"Like your lady friends in Tokyo, the Japanese ones, I mean?" + +"Not in the least. Japanese ladies look very picturesque, but they are +as dull as dolls. They sidle along in the wake of their husbands, and +don't expect to be spoken to." + +"And have you no more intimate experience?" asked Lady Everington. +"Really, Aubrey, you have not been living up to your reputation." + +"Well, Lady Georgie," the young man proceeded, gazing at his polished +boots with a well-assumed air of embarrassment, "since I know that you +are one of the enlightened ones, I will confess to you that I did keep +a little establishment _à la_ Pierre Loti. My Japanese teacher thought +it would be a good way of improving my knowledge of the local +idiom; and this knowledge meant an extra hundred pounds to me for +interpreter's allowance, as it is called. I thought, too, that it +would be a relief after diplomatic dinner parties to be able to swear +for an hour or so, big round oaths in the company of a dear beloved +one who would not understand me. So my teacher undertook to provide me +with a suitable female companion. He did. In fact, he introduced me +to his sister; and the suitability was based on the fact that she +held the same position under my predecessor, a man whom I dislike +exceedingly. But this I only found out later on. She was dull, deadly +dull. I couldn't even make her jealous. She was as dull as my Japanese +grammar; and when I had passed my examination and burnt my books, I +dismissed her." + +"Aubrey, what a very wicked story!" + +"No, Lady Georgie, it was not even wicked. She was not real enough to +sin with. The affair had not even the excitement of badness to keep it +going." + +"Do you know the Japanese well?" Lady Everington returned to the +highroad of her inquiry. + +"No, nobody does; they are a most secretive people." + +"Do you think that, if the Barringtons go to Japan, there is any +danger of Asako being drawn back into the bosom of her family?" + +"No, I shouldn't think so," Laking replied, "Japanese life is so very +uncomfortable, you know, even to the Japs themselves, when once they +have got used to living in Europe or America. They sleep on the floor, +their clothes are inconvenient, and their food is nasty, even in the +houses of the rich ones." + +"Yes, it must be a peculiar country. What do you think is the greatest +shock for the average traveller who goes there?" + +"Lady Georgie, you are asking me very searching questions to-day. I +don't think I will answer any more." + +"Just this one," she pleaded. + +He considered his boots again for a moment, and then, raising his face +to hers with that humorous challenging look which he assumes when on +the verge of some indiscretion, he replied,-- + +"The _Yoshiwara_." + +"Yes," said her Ladyship, "I have heard of such a place. It is a kind +of Vanity Fair, isn't it, for all the _cocottes_ Of Tokyo?" + +"It's more than that," Laking answered; "it is a market of +human flesh, with nothing to disguise the crude fact except the +picturesqueness of the place. It is a square enclosure as large as a +small town. In this enclosure are shops, and in the shop windows +women are displayed just like goods, or like animals in cages; for the +windows have wooden bars. Some of the girls sit there stolidly like +stuffed images, some of them come to the bars and try to catch hold of +the passers-by, just like monkeys, and joke with them and shout after +them. But I could not understand what they said--fortunately, perhaps. +The girls,--there must be several thousands--are all dressed up in +bright kimonos. It really is a very pretty sight, until one begins to +think. They have their price tickets hung up in the shop windows, one +shilling up to one pound. That is the greatest shock which Japan has +in store for the ordinary tourist." + +Lady Everington was silent for a moment; her flippant companion had +become quite serious. + +"After all," she said, "is it any worse than Piccadilly Circus at +night?" + +"It is not a question of better or worse," argued Laking. "Such a +purely mercenary system is a terrible offence to our most cherished +belief. We may be hypocrites, but our hypocrisy itself is an admission +of guilt and an act of worship. To us, even to the readiest sinners +among us, woman is always something divine. The lowest assignation +of the streets has at least a disguise of romance. It symbolises +the words and the ways of Love, even if it parodies them. But to the +Japanese, woman must be merely animal. You buy a girl as you buy a +cow." + +Lady Everington shivered, but she tried to live up to her reputation +of being shocked by nothing. + +"Well, that is true, after all, whether in Piccadilly or in the +Yoshiwara. All prostitution is just a commercial transaction." + +"Perhaps," said the young diplomat, "but what about the Ideal at the +back of our minds? Passion is often a grotesque incarnation of the +Ideal, like a savage's rude image of his god. A glimpse of the ideal +is possible in Piccadilly, and impossible in the Yoshiwara. The divine +something was visible in Marguérite Gautier; little Hugh saw it even +in Nana. For one thing, here in London, in the dirtiest of sordid +dramas, it is still the woman who gives, but in Japan it is always the +man who takes." + +"Aubrey," said his friend, "I had no idea that you were a poet, or in +other words that you ever talked nonsense without laughing. You think +such a shock is strong enough to upset the Barrington _ménage_?" + +"It will give furiously to think," he answered, "to poor old Geoffrey, +who is a very straight, clean and honest fellow, not overused to +furious thinking. I suppose if one married a monkey, one might +persuade oneself of her humanity, until one saw her kindred in cages." + +"Poor little Asako, my latest god-daughter!" cried Lady Everington. +"Really, Aubrey, you are very rude!" + +"I did not mean to be," said Laking penitently. "She is a most +ingratiating little creature, like a lazy kitten; but I think it is +unwise for him to take her to Japan. All kinds of latent orientalisms +may develop." + + * * * * * + +The spring was at hand, the season of impulse, when we obey most +readily the sudden stirrings of our hearts. Even in the torrid climate +of Egypt, squalls of rain passed over like stray birds of passage. +Asako Barrington felt the fresh influence and the desire to do new +things in new places. Hitherto she had evinced very little inclination +to revisit the home of her ancestors. But on their return from the +temples of Luxor, she said quite unexpectedly to Geoffrey,-- + +"If we go to Japan now, we shall be in time to see the +cherry-blossoms." + +"Why, little Yum Yum," cried her husband, delighted, "are you tired of +Pharaohs?" + +"Egypt is very interesting," said Asako, correctly; "it is wonderful +to think of these great places standing here for thousands and +thousands of years. But it makes one sad, don't you think? Everybody +here seems to have died long, long ago. It would be nice to see green +fields again, wouldn't it, Geoffrey dearest?" + +The voice of the Spring was speaking clearly. + +"And you really want to go to Japan, sweetheart? It's the first time +I've heard you say you want to go." + +"Uncle and Aunt Murata in Paris used always to say about now, 'If we +go back to Japan we shall be in time to see the cherry-blossoms.'" + +"Why," asked Geoffrey, "do the Japanese make such a fuss about their +cherry-blossoms?" + +"They must be very pretty," answered his wife, "like great clouds of +snow. Besides, the cherry-flowers are supposed to be like the Japanese +spirit." + +"So you are my little cherry-blossom--is that right?" + +"Oh no, not the women," she replied, "the men are the +cherry-blossoms." + +Geoffrey laughed. It seemed absurd to him to compare a man to the +frail and transient beauty of a flower. + +"Then what about the Japanese ladies," he asked, "if the men are +blossoms?" + +Asako did not think they had any special flower to symbolise their +charms. She suggested,-- + +"The bamboo, they say, because the wives have to bend under the storms +when their husbands are angry. But, Geoffrey, you are never angry. You +do not give me a chance to be like the bamboo." + +Next day, he boldly booked their tickets for Tokyo. + +The long sea voyage was a pleasant experience, broken by fleeting +visits to startled friends in Ceylon and at Singapore, and enlivened +by the close ephemeral intimacies of life on board ship. + +There was a motley company on board _S.S. Sumatra_; a company +whose most obvious elements, the noisy and bibulous pests in the +smoking-room and the ladies of mysterious destination with whom +they dallied, were dismissed by Geoffrey at once as being terrible +bounders. Beneath this scum more congenial spirits came to light, +officers and Government officials returning to their posts, and a few +globe-trotters of leisure. Everybody seemed anxious to pay attention +to the charming Japanese lady; and from such incessant attention it +is difficult to escape within the narrow bounds of ship life. The +only way to keep off the impossibles was to form a bodyguard of the +possibles. The seclusion of the honeymoon paradise had to be opened up +for once in a way. + +Of course, there was much talk about the East; but it was a different +point of view, from that of the enthusiasts of Deauville and the +Riviera. These men and women had many of them lived in India, the +Malay States, Japan, or the open ports of China, lived there to earn +their bread and butter, not to dream about the Magic of the Orient. +For such as these the romance had faded. The pages of their busy lives +were written within a mourning border of discontent, of longing for +that home land, to which on the occasion of their rare holidays they +returned so readily, and which seemed to have no particular place or +use for them when they did return. They were members of the British +Dispersion; but their Zion was of more comfort to them as a sweet +memory than as an actual home. + +"Yes," they would say about the land of their exile, "it is very +picturesque." + +But their faces, lined or pale, their bitterness and their reticence, +told of years of strain, laboriously money-earning, in lands where +relaxations are few and forced, where climatic conditions are adverse, +where fevers lurk, and where the white minority are posted like +soldiers in a lonely fort, ever suspicious, ever on the watch. + + * * * * * + +The most faithful of Asako's bodyguard was a countryman of her own, +Viscount Kamimura, the son of a celebrated Japanese statesman and +diplomat, who, after completing his course at Cambridge, was returning +to his own country for the first time after many years. + +He was a shy gentle youth, very quiet and refined, a little +effeminate, even, in his exaggerated gracefulness and in his +meticulous care for his clothes and his person. He avoided all company +except that of the Barringtons, probably because a similarity in +circumstances formed a bond between him and his country-woman. + +He had a high, intellectual forehead, the beautiful deep brown eyes of +Asako, curling, sarcastic lips, a nose almost aquiline but starting a +fraction of an inch too low between his eyes. He had read everything, +he remembered everything, and he had played lawn tennis for his +university. + +He was returning to Japan to be married. When Geoffrey asked him who +his fiancée was, he replied that he did not know yet, but that his +relatives would tell him as soon as ever he arrived in Japan. + +"Haven't you got any say in the matter?" asked the Englishman. + +"Oh yes," he answered, "If I actually dislike her, I need not marry +her; but, of course, the choice is limited, so I must try not to be +too hard to please." + +Geoffrey thought that it must be because of his extreme aristocracy +that so few maidens in Japan were worthy of his hand. But Asako asked +the question,-- + +"Why is the choice so small?" + +"You see," he said, "there are not many girls in Japan who can speak +both English and French, and as I am going into the Diplomatic Service +and shall leave Japan again shortly, that is an absolute necessity; +besides, she must have a very good degree from her school." + +Geoffrey could hardly restrain himself from laughing. This idea of +choosing a wife like a governess for her linguistic accomplishments +seemed to him exceedingly comic. + +"You don't mind trusting other people," he said, "to arrange your +marriage for you?" + +"Certainly not," said the young Japanese, "they are my own relatives, +and they will do their best for me. They are all older than I am, and +they have had the experience of their own marriages." + +"But," said Geoffrey, "when you saw your friends in England choosing +for themselves, and falling in love and marrying for love's sake--?" + +"Some of them chose for themselves and married barmaids and divorced +persons, just for the reason that they were in love and uncontrolled. +So they brought shame on their families, and are probably now very +unhappy. I think they would have done better if they had let their +relatives choose for them." + +"Yes; but the others who marry girls of their own set?" + +"I think their choice is not really free at all. I do not think it is +so much the girl who attracts them. It is the plans and intentions of +those around them which urge them on. It is a kind of mesmerism. The +parents of the young man and the parents of the young girl make the +marriage by force of will. That also is a good way. It is not so very +different from our system in Japan." + +"Don't you think that people in England marry because they love each +other?" asked Asako. + +"Perhaps so," replied Kamimura, "but in our Japanese language we have +no word which is quite the same as your word Love. So they say we +do not know what this Love is. It may be so, perhaps. Anyhow Mr. +Barrington will not wish to learn Japanese, I think." + +Geoffrey liked the young man. He was a good athlete, he was unassuming +and well-bred, he clearly knew the difference between Good and Bad +Form. Geoffrey's chief misgiving with regard to Japan had been a doubt +as to the wisdom of making the acquaintance of his wife's kindred. How +dreadful if they turned out to be a collection of oriental curios with +whom he would not have one idea in common! + +The company of this young aristocrat, in no way distinguishable from +an Englishman except for a certain grace and maturity, reassured him. +No doubt his wife would have cousins like this; clean, manly fellows +who would take him shooting and with whom he could enjoy a game of +golf. He thought that Kamimura must be typical of the young Japanese +of the upper classes. He did not realize that he was an official +product, chosen by his Government and carefully moulded and polished, +not to be a Japanese at home, but to be a Japanese abroad, the +qualified representative of a First Class Power. + +Kamimura left the boat with them at Colombo and joined them in their +visit to some tea-planting relatives. He was ready to do the same at +Singapore, but he received an urgent cable from Japan recalling him at +once. + +"I must not be too late for my own wedding," he said, during their +last lunch together at Raffles's Hotel. "It would be a terrible sin +against the laws of Filial Piety." + +"Whatever is that?" asked Asako. + +"Dear Mrs. Barrington, are you a daughter of Japan, and have never +heard of the Twenty-four Children?" + +"No; who are they?" + +"They are model children, the paragons of goodness, celebrated because +of their love for their fathers and mothers. One of them walked miles +and miles every day to get water from a certain spring for his sick +mother; another, when a tiger was going to eat his father, rushed to +the animal and cried, 'No, eat me instead!' Little boys and girls in +Japan are always being told to be like the Twenty-four Children." + +"Oh, how I'd hate them!" cried Asako. + +"That is because you are a rebellious, individualistic Englishwoman. +You have lost that sense of family union, which makes good Japanese, +brothers and cousins and uncles and aunts, all love each other +publicly, however much they may hate each other in private." + +"That is very hypocritical!" + +"It is the social law," replied Kamimura. "In Japan the family is the +important thing. You and I are nothing. If you want to get on in the +world you must always be subject to your family. Then you are sure +to get on however stupid you may be. In England you seem to use your +families chiefly to quarrel with." + +"I think our relatives ought to be just our best friends," said Asako. + +"They are that too in a way," the young man answered. "In Japan it +would be better to be born without hands and feet than to be born +without relatives." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +NAGASAKI + + _Hono-bono to + Akashi no ura no + Asa-giri ni + Shima-kakure-yuku + Fune wo shi zo omou._ + + My thoughts are with a boat + Which travels island-hid + In the morning-mist + Of the shore of Akashi + Dim, dim! + + +After Hongkong, they let the zone of eternal summer behind them. The +crossing from Shanghai to Japan was rough, and the wind bitter. But on +the first morning in Japanese waters Geoffrey was on deck betimes to +enjoy to the full the excitement of arrival. They were approaching +Nagasaki. It was a misty dawn. The sky was like mother-of-pearl, +and the sea like mica. Abrupt grey islands appeared and disappeared, +phantasmal, like guardian spirits of Japan, representatives of those +myriads of Shinto deities who have the Empire in their keeping. + +Then, suddenly from behind the cliff of one of the islands a fishing +boat came gliding with the silent stateliness of a swan. The body of +the boat was low and slender, built of some white, shining wood; from +the middle rose the high sail like a silver tower. It looked like the +soul of that sleeping island setting out upon a dream journey. + +The mist was dissolving, slowly revealing more islands and more boats. +Some of them passed quite close to the steamer; and Geoffrey could see +the fishermen, dwarfish figures straining at the oar or squatting at +the bottom of the boat, looking like Nibelungen on the quest for the +Rhinegold. He could hear their strange cries to each other and to the +steamer, harsh like the voice of sea-gulls. + +Asako came on deck to join her husband. The thrill of returning to +Japan had scattered her partiality for late sleeping. She was dressed +in a tailor-made coat and skirt of navy-blue serge. Her shoulders were +wrapped in a broad stole of sable. Her head was bare. Perhaps it was +the inherited instinct of generations of Japanese women, who never +cover their heads, which made her dislike hats and avoid wearing them +if possible. + +The sun was still covered, but the view was clear as far as the high +mountains on the horizon towards which the ship was ploughing her way. + +"Look, Asako, Japan!" + +She was not looking at the distance. Her eyes were fixed on an emerald +islet half a mile or less from the steamer's course, a jewel of the +seas. It rose to the height of two hundred feet or so, a conical +knoll, densely wooded. On the summit appeared a scar of rock like a +ruined castle, and, rising from the rock's crest, a single pine-tree. +Its trunk was twisted by all the winds of Heaven. Its long, lean +branches groped the air like the arms of a blinded demon. It seemed to +have an almost human personality an expression of fruitless striving, +pathetic yet somehow sinister--a Prometheus among trees. Geoffrey +followed his wife's gaze to the base of the island where a shoal of +brown rocks trailed out to seawards. In a miniature bay he saw a tiny +beach of golden sand, and, planted in the sand, a red gateway, two +uprights and two lintels, the lower one held between the posts, the +upper one laid across them and protruding on either side. It is +the simplest of architectural designs, but strangely suggestive. +It transformed that wooded island into a dwelling-place. It cast +an enchantment over it, and seemed to explain the meaning of the +pine-tree. The place was holy, an abode of spirits. + +Geoffrey had read enough by now to recognize the gateway as a +"_torii_"; a religious symbol in Japan which always announces the +neighbourhood of a shrine. It is a common feature of the country-side, +as familiar as the crucifix in Catholic lands. + +But Asako, seeing the beauty of her country for the first time, and +unaware of the dimming cloud of archaeological explanations, clapped +her hands together three times in sheer delight; or was it in +unconscious obedience to the custom of her race which in this way +calls upon its gods? Then with a movement entirely occidental she +threw her arms round her husband's neck, kissing him with all the +devotion of her being. + +"Dear old Geoffrey, I love you so," she murmured. Her brown eyes were +full of tears. + + * * * * * + +The steamer passed into a narrow channel, a kind of fiord, with wooded +hills on both sides. The forests were green with spring foliage. Never +had Geoffrey seen such a variety or such density of verdure. Every +tree seemed to be different from its neighbour; and the hillsides were +packed with trees like a crowded audience. Here and there a spray of +mountain cherry-blossom rose among the green like a jet of snow. + +At the foot of the woods, by the edge of the calm water, the villages +nestled. Only roofs could be seen, high, brown, thatched roofs with a +line of sword-leaved irises growing along the roof-ridge like a crown. +These native cottages looked like timid animals, cowering in their +forms under the protecting trees. One felt that at any time an +indiscreet hoot of the steamer might send them scuttering back to +the forest depths. There were no signs of life in these submerged +villages, where the fight between the forester's axe and primal +vegetation seemed still undecided. Life was there; but it was hidden +under the luxuriance of the overgrowth, hidden to casual passers-by +like the life of insects. Only by the seaside, where the houses were +clustered together above a seawall of cyclopean stones, and on the +beach, where the long narrow boats, sharp-prowed and piratical, were +drawn up to the shore, the same gnome-like little men, with a generous +display of naked brown limbs, were sawing and hammering and mending +their nets. + +The steamer glided up the fiord towards a cloud of black smoke ahead. +Unknown to Geoffrey, it passed the grey Italianate Catholic cathedral, +the shrine of the old Christian faith of Japan planted there by Saint +Francis Xavier four hundred years ago. Anchor was cast off the island +of Deshima, now moored to the mainland, where during the locked +centuries the Dutch merchants had been permitted to remain in +profitable servitude. Deshima has now been swallowed up by the +Japanese town, and its significance has shifted across the bay to +where the smoke and din of the Mitsubishi Dockyard prepare romantic +visitors for the modern industrial life of the new Japan. Night and +day, the furnace fires are roaring; and ten thousand workmen are +busy building ships of war and ships of peace for the Britain of the +Pacific. + +The quarantine officers came on board, little, brown men in uniform, +absurdly self-important. Then the ship was besieged by a swarm +of those narrow, primitive boats called _sampan_, which Loti has +described as a kind of barbaric gondola, all jostling each other to +bring merchants of local wares, damascene, tortoise-shell, pottery and +picture post cards aboard the vessel, and to take visitors ashore. + +Geoffrey and Asako were among the first to land. The moment of arrival +on Japanese soil brought a pang of disappointment. The sea-front at +Nagasaki seemed very like a street in any starveling European town. +It presented a line of offices and consulates built in Western style, +without distinction and without charm. Customs' officers and policemen +squinted suspiciously at the strangers. A few women, in charge of +children or market-baskets, stared blankly. + +"Why, they are wearing kimonos!" exclaimed Asako, "but how dirty and +dusty they are. They look as though they had been sleeping in them!" + +The Japanese women, indeed, cling to their national dress. But to +the Barringtons, landing at Nagasaki, they seemed ugly, shapeless and +dingy. Their hair was greasy and unkempt. Their faces were stupid +and staring. Their figures were hidden in the muffle of their dirty +garments. Geoffrey had been told they have baths at least once a day, +but he was inclined to doubt it. Or else, it was because they all +bathed in the same bath and their ablutions were merely an exchange +of grime. But where were those butterfly girls, who dance with fan and +battledore on our cups and saucers? + +The rickshaws were a pleasant experience, the one-man perambulators; +and the costume of the rickshaw-runners was delightful, and their +gnarled, indefatigable legs. With their tight trunk-hose of a coarse +dark-blue material and short coat to match like an Eton jacket and +with their large, round mushroom hats, they were like figures from the +crowd of a Flemish Crucifixion. + +Behind the Barrington's _sampan_, a large lighter came alongside the +wharf. It was black with coal-dust, and in one corner was heaped +a pile of shallow baskets, such as are used in coaling vessels at +Japanese ports, being slipped from hand to hand in unbroken chain +up the ship's side and down again to the coal barge. The work was +finished. The lighter was empty except for a crowd of coal-stained +coolies which it was bringing back to Nagasaki. These were dressed +like the rickshaw-men. They wore tight trousers, short jackets and +straw sandals. They were sitting, wearied, on the sides of the barge, +wiping black faces with black towels. Their hair was long, lank and +matted. Their hands were bruised and shapeless with the rough toil. + +"Poor men," sighed Asako, "they've had hard work!" + +The crowd of them passed, peering at the English people and chattering +in high voices. Geoffrey had never seen such queer-looking fellows, +with their long hair, clean-shaven faces, and stumpy bow-legs. One +more disheveled than the others was standing near him with tunic +half-open. It exposed a woman's breast, black, loose and hard like +leather. + +"They are women!" he exclaimed, "what an extraordinary thing!" + +But the children of Nagasaki--surely there could be no such +disillusionment. They are laughing, happy, many-coloured and +ubiquitous. They roll under the rickshaw wheels. They peep from behind +the goods piled on the floors of the shops, a perpetual menace to +shopkeepers, especially in the china stores, where their bird-like +presence is more dangerous than that of the dreaded bull. They are +blown up and down the temple-steps like fallen petals. They gather +like humming-birds round the itinerant venders of the streets, the old +men who balance on their bare shoulders their whole stock in trade of +sweetmeats, syrups, toys or singing grasshoppers. They are the dolls +of our own childhood, endowed with disconcerting life. Around their +little bodies flames the love of colour of an oriental people, whose +adult taste has been disciplined to sombre browns and greys. Wonderful +motley kimonos they make for their children with flower patterns, +butterfly patterns, toy and fairy-story patterns, printed on +flannelette--or on silk for the little plutocrats--in all colors, +among which reds, oranges, yellows, mauves, blues and greens +predominate. + +They invaded the depressing atmosphere of the European-style hotel, +where Geoffrey and Asako were trying to enjoy a tasteless lunch--their +grubby, bare feet pattering on the worn lino. + +It pleased him to watch them, playing their game of _Jonkenpan_ +with much show of pudgy fingers, and with restrained and fitful +scamperings. He even made a tentative bid for popularity by throwing +copper coins. There was no scramble for this largesse. Gravely and +in turn each child pocketed his penny; but they all regarded Geoffrey +with a wary and suspicious eye. He, too, on closer inspection found +them less angelic than at first sight. The slimy horror of unwiped +noses distressed him, and the significant prevalence of scabby scalps. + + * * * * * + +After their dull lunch in this drab hotel, Geoffrey and his wife +started once more on their voyage of discovery. Nagasaki is a hidden +city; it flows through its narrow valleys like water, and follows +their serpentine meanderings far inland. + +They soon left behind the foreign settlement and its nondescript +ugliness to plunge into the labyrinth of little native streets, +wayward and wandering like sheep-tracks, with sudden abrupt hills +and flights of steps which checked the rickshaws' progress. Here, the +houses of the rich people were closely fenced and cunningly hidden; +but the life of poverty and the shopkeepers' domesticity were flowing +over into the street out of the too narrow confines of the boxes which +they called their homes. + +With an extra man to push behind, the rickshaws had brought them up a +zigzag hill to a cautious wooden gateway half open in a close fence of +bamboo. + +"Tea-house!" said the rickshaw man, stopping and grinning. It was +clearly expected of the foreigners that they should descend and enter. + +"Shall we get out and explore, sweetheart?" suggested Geoffrey. They +passed under the low gate, up a pebbled pathway through the sweetest +fairy garden to the entrance of the tea-house, a stage of brown boards +highly polished and never defiled by the contamination of muddy boots. +On the steps of approach a collection of _geta_ (native wooden clogs) +and abominable side-spring shoes told that guests had already arrived. + +Within the dark corridors of the house there was an immediate +fluttering as of pigeons. Four or five little women prostrated +themselves before the visitors with a hissing murmur of "_Irasshai_! +(Condescend to come!)." + +The Barringtons removed their boots and followed one of these ladies +down a gleaming corridor with another miniature garden in an enclosed +courtyard on one side, and paper _shoji_ and peeping faces on the +other, out across a further garden by a kind of oriental Bridge of +Sighs to a small separate pavilion, which floated on a lake of green +shrubs and pure air, as though moored by the wooden gangway to the +main block of the building. + +This summer-house contained a single small room like a very clean box +with wooden frame, opaque paper walls, and pale golden matting. The +only wall which seemed at all substantial presented the appearance of +an alcove. In this niche there hung a long picture of cherry-blossoms +on a mountain side, below which, on a stand of dark sandalwood, +squatted a bronze monkey holding a crystal ball. This was the only +ornament in the room. + +Geoffrey and his wife sat down or sprawled on square silk cushions +called _zabuton_. Then the _shoji_ were thrown open; and they looked +down upon Nagasaki. + +It was a scene of sheer enchantment. The tea-house was perched on a +cliff which overhung the city. The light pavilion seemed like the +car of some pullman aeroplane hovering over the bay. It was the brief +half-hour of evening, the time of day when the magic of Japan is at +its most powerful. All that was cheap and sordid was shut out by +the bamboo fence and wrapped away in the twilight mists. It was a +half-hour of luminous greyness. The skies were grey and the waters of +the bay and the roofs of the houses. A grey vapour rose from the town; +and a black-grey trail of smoke drifted from the dockyards and from +the steamers in the harbour. The cries and activities of the city +below rose clear and distinct but infinitely remote, as sound of the +world might reach the Gods in Heaven. It was a half-hour of fairyland +when anything might happen. + +Two little maids brought tea and sugary cakes, green tea like bitter +hot water, insipid and unsatisfying. It was a shock to see the girls' +faces as they raised the tiny china teacups. Under the glaze of their +powder they were old and wise. + +They observed Asako's nationality, and began to speak to her in +Japanese. + +"Their politeness is put on to order," thought Geoffrey, "they seem +forward and inquisitive minxes." + +But Asako only knew a few set phrases of her native tongue. This +baffled the ladies, one of whom after a whispered consultation and +some giggling behind sleeves, went off to find a friend who would +solve the mystery. + +"_Nésan, Nésan_ (elder sister)" she called across the garden. + +Strange little dishes were produced on trays of red lacquer, fish +and vegetables of different kinds artistically arranged, but most +unpalatable. + +A third _nésan_ appeared. She could speak some English. + +"Is _Okusama_ (lady) Japanese?" she began, after she had placed the +tiny square table before Geoffrey, and had performed a prostration. + +Geoffrey assented. + +Renewed prostration before _okusama_, and murmured greetings in +Japanese. + +"But I can't speak Japanese," said Asako laughing. This perplexed the +girl, but her curiosity prompted her. + +"_Danna San_ (master) Ingiris'?" she asked, looking at Geoffrey. + +"Yes," said Asako. "Do many Englishmen have Japanese wives?" + +"Yes, very many," was the unexpected answer. "O Fuji San," she +continued, indicating one of the other maids, "have Ingiris' _danna +San_ very many years ago; very kind _danna san_; give O Fuji plenty +nice kimono; he say, O Fuji very good girl, go to Ingiris' wit him; +O Fuji say, No, cannot go, mother very sick; so _danna san_ go away. +Give O Fuji San very nice finger ring." + +She lapsed into vernacular. The other girl showed with feigned +embarrassment a little ring set with glassy sapphires. + +"Oh!" said Asako, dimly comprehending. + +"All Ingiris' _danna san_ come Nagasaki," the talkative maid went on, +"want Japanese girl. Ingiris' _danna san_ kind man, but too plenty +drink. Japanese _danna san_ not kind, not good. Ingiris' _danna san_ +plenty money, plenty. Nagasaki girl very many foreign _danna san. +Rashamen wa Nagasaki meibutsu_ (foreigners' mistresses famous product +of Nagasaki). Ingiris' _danna san_ go away all the time. One year, two +year--then go away to Ingiris' country." + +"Then what does the Japanese girl do?" asked Asako. + +"Other _danna san_ come," was the laconic reply. "Ingiris' _danna san_ +live in Japan, Japanese girl very nice. Ingiris' _danna san_ go away, +no want Japanese girl. Japanese girl no want go away Japan. Japanese +girl go to other country, she feel very sick; heart very lonely, very +sad!" + +A weird, unpleasant feeling had stolen into the little room, the +presence of unfamiliar thoughts and of foreign moralities, birds of +unhealth. + +The two other girls who could not speak English were posing for +Geoffrey's benefit; one of them reclining against the framework of the +open window with her long kimono sleeves crossed in front of her like +wings, her painted oval face fixed on him in spite of the semblance +of downcast eyes; the other squatting on her heels in a corner of the +room with the same demure expression and with her hands folded in her +lap. Despite the quietness of the poses they were as challenging in +their way as the swinging hips of Piccadilly. It is as true to-day as +it was in Kaempffer's time, the old Dutch traveler of two hundred and +fifty years ago, that every hotel in Japan is a brothel, and every +tea-house and restaurant a house of assignation. + +From a wing of the building near by came the twanging of a string, +like a banjo string being tuned in fantastic quarter tones. A few +sharp notes were struck, at random it seemed, followed by a few bars +of a quavering song and then a burst of clownish laughter. Young +bloods of Nagasaki had called in _geisha_ to amuse them at their meal. + +"Japanese _geisha_," said the tea-house girl, "if _danna san_ wish to +see _geisha_ dance--?" + +"No thank you," said Geoffrey, hurriedly, "Asako darling, it is time +we went home: we want our dinners." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +CHONKINA + + _Modashi-ite + Sakashira suru wa + Sake nomite + Yei-naki suru ni + Nao shikazu keri._ + + To sit silent + And look wise + Is not to be compared with + Drinking _saké_ + And making a riotous shouting. + + +As soon as the meal was over, Asako went to bed. She was tired out +by an orgy of sight-seeing and new impressions. Geoffrey said that +he would have a short walk and a smoke before turning in. He took the +road which led towards the harbour of Nagasaki. + + _Chonkina, Chonkina, Chon, Chon, Kina, Kina, + Yokohama, Nagasaki, Hakodate--Hoi!_ + +The refrain of an old song was awakened in his mind by the melodious +name of the place. + +He descended the hill from the hotel, and crossed a bridge over a +narrow river. The town was full of beauty. The warm light in the +little wooden houses, the creamy light of the paper walls, illuminated +from within, with the black silhouettes of the home groups traced upon +them, the lanterns dancing on the boats in the harbour, the lights on +the larger vessels in stiff patterns like propositions of Euclid, the +lanterns on carts and rickshaws, lanterns like fruit, red, golden and +glowing, and round bubble lamps over each house entrance with Chinese +characters written upon them giving the name of the occupant. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +As though in answer to his incantation, Geoffrey suddenly came upon +Wigram. Wigram had been a fellow-passenger on board the steamer. He +was an old Etonian; and this was really the only bond between the two +men. For Wigram was short, fat and flabby, dull-eyed and pasty-faced. +He spoke with a drawl; he had literary pretensions and he was +travelling for pleasure. + +"Hello, Barrington," he said, "you all alone?" + +"Yes," answered Geoffrey, "my wife is a bit overtired; she has turned +in." + +"So you are making the most of your opportunity, studying night-life, +eh, naughty boy?" + +"Not much about, is there?" said Geoffrey, who considered that a "pi +fellow" was Bad Form, and would not be regarded as such even by a +creature whose point of view was as contemptible as that of Wigram. + +"Doesn't walk the streets, old man; but it's there all the same. The +men at the club here tell me that Nagasaki is one of the hottest spots +on the face of the globe." + +"Seems sleepy enough," answered Geoffrey. + +"Oh, here! these are just English warehouses and consulates. +They're always asleep. But you come with me and see them dance the +_Chonkina_." + +Geoffrey started at this echo of his own thoughts, but he said,-- + +"I must be getting back; my wife will be anxious." + +"Not yet, not yet. It will be all over in half an hour, and it's worth +seeing. I am just going to the club to find a fellow who said he'd +show me the ropes." + +Geoffrey allowed himself to be persuaded. After all he was not +expected home so immediately. It was many years since he had visited +low and disreputable places. They were Bad Form, and had no appeal for +him. But the strangeness of the place attracted him, and a longing for +the first glimpse behind the scenes in this inexplicable new country. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +Why shouldn't he go? + +He was introduced to Wigram's friend, Mr. Patterson, a Scotch merchant +of Nagasaki, who lurched out of the club in his habitual Saturday +evening state of mellow inebriation. + +They called for three rickshaws, whose runners seemed to know without +instructions whither they had to go. + +"Is it far from here?" asked Geoffrey. + +"It is not so far," said the Scotchman; "it is most conveniently +situated." + +Noiselessly they sped down narrow twisting streets with the same +unfamiliar lights and shadows, the glowing paper walls, and the +luminous globes of the gate lamps. + +From the distance came the beat of a drum. + +Geoffrey had heard a drum sounded like that before in the Somali +village at Aden, a savage primitive sound with a kind of marching +rhythm, suggestive of the swing of hundreds of black bodies moving to +some obscene festival. + +But here, in Japan, such music sounded remote from the civilisation of +the country, from the old as from the new. + +"_Chonkina, Chonkina_," it seemed to be beating. + +The rickshaws turned into a broader street with houses taller and more +commanding than any seen hitherto. They were built of brown wood like +big Swiss chalets, and were hung with red paper lanterns like huge +ripe cherries. + +Another stage-like entrance, more fluttering of women and low +prostrations, a procession along shining corridors and up steep +stairways like companion-ladders, everywhere a heavy smell of cheap +scent and powder, the reek of the brothel. + +The three guests were installed, squatting or lounging around a +low table with beer and cakes. There was a chorus of tittering and +squeaking voices in the corridor. The partition slid open, and six +little women came running into the room. + +"Patasan San! Patasan San!" they cried, clapping their hands. + +Here at last were the butterfly women of the traveller's imagination. +They wore bright kimonos, red and blue, embroidered with gold thread. +Their faces were pale like porcelain with the enamelling effect of the +liquid powder which they use. Their black shiny hair, like liquorice, +was arranged in fantastic volutes, which were adorned with silver +bell-like ornaments and paper flowers. Choking down Geoffrey's +admiration, a cloud of heavy perfume hung around them. + +"Good day to you," they squeaked in comical English, "How do you do? I +love you. Please kiss me. Dam! dam!" + +Patterson introduced them by name as O Hana San (Miss Flower), O Yuki +San (Miss Snow), O En San (Miss Affinity), O Toshi San (Miss Year), O +Taka San (Miss Tall) and O Koma San (Miss Pony). + +One of them, Miss Pony, put her arm around Geoffrey's neck--the little +fingers felt like the touch of insects--and said,-- + +"My darling, you love me?" + +The big Englishman disengaged himself gently. It is Bad Form to be +rough to women, even to Japanese courtesans. He began to be sorry that +he had come. + +"I have brought two very dear friends of mine," said Patterson to all +the world, "for pleasure artistic rather than carnal; though perhaps I +can safely prophesy that the pleasure of the senses is the end of +all true art. We have come to see the national dance of Japan, the +Nagasaki reel, the famous _Chonkina_. I myself am familiar with the +dance. On two or three occasions I have performed with credit in these +very halls. But these two gentlemen have come all the way from England +on purpose to see the dance. I therefore request that you will dance +it to-night with care and attention, with force of imagination, with +a sense of pleasurable anticipation, and with humble respect to the +naked truth." + +He spoke with the precise eloquence of intoxication, and as he flopped +to the ground again Wigram clapped him on the shoulder with a "Bravo, +old man!" + +Geoffrey felt very silent and rather sick. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +The little women made a show of modesty, hiding their faces behind +their long kimono sleeves. + +A servant girl pushed open the walls which communicated with the +next room, an exact replica of the one in which they were sitting. An +elderly woman in a sea-grey kimono was squatting there silent, rigid +and dignified. For a moment Geoffrey thought that a mistake had been +made, that this was another guest disturbed in quiet reflection and +about to be justly indignant. + +But no, this Roman matron held in her lap the white disc of a +_samisen_, the native banjo, upon which she strummed with a flat white +bone. She was the evening's orchestra, an old _geisha_. + +The six little butterflies lined up in front of her and began to +dance, not our Western dance of free limbs, but an Oriental dance +from the hips with posturings of hands and feet. They sang a harsh +faltering song without any apparent relation to the accompaniment +played by that austere dame. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +The six little figures swayed to and fro. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina! Hoi!_ + +With a sharp cry the song and dance stopped abruptly. The six dancers +stood rigid with hands held out in different attitudes. One of them +had lost the first round and must pay forfeit. Off came the broad +embroidered sash. It was thrown aside, and the raucous singing began +afresh. + +_Chonkina! Chonkina! Hoi!_ + +The same girl lost again; and amid shrill titterings the gorgeous +scarlet kimono fell to the ground. She was left standing in a +pretty blue under-kimono of light silk with a pale pink design of +cherry-blossoms starred all over it. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +Round after round the game was played; and first one girl lost and +then another. Two of them were standing now with the upper part +of their bodies bare. One of them was wearing a kind of white lace +petticoat, stained and sour-looking, wrapped about her hips; the other +wore short flannel drawers, like a man's bathing-pants, coloured in +a Union Jack pattern, some sailor's offering to his _inamorata_. They +were both of them young girls. Their breasts were flat and shapeless. +The yellow skin ended abruptly at the throat and neck with the powder +line. For the neck and face were a glaze of white. The effect of this +break was to make the body look as if it had lost its real head under +the guillotine, and had received an ill-matched substitute from the +surgeon's hands. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +Patterson had drawn nearer to the performers. His red face and his +grim smile were tokens of what he would have described as pleasurable +anticipation. Wigram, too, his flabby visage paler than ever, his +large eyes bulging, and his mouth hanging open, gazed as in a trance. +He had whispered to Geoffrey,-- + +"I've seen the _danse du ventre_ at Algiers, but this beats anything." + +Geoffrey from behind the fumes of the pipe-smoke watched the unreal +phantasmagoria as he might have watched a dream. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +The dance was more expressive now, not of art but of mere animalism. +The bodies shook and squirmed. The faces were screwed up to express an +ecstacy of sensual delight. The little fingers twitched into immodest +gestures. + +_Chonkina! Chonkina! Hoi!_ + +Geoffrey had never gazed on a naked woman except idealised in marble +or on canvas. The secret of Venus had been for him, as for many men, +an inviolate Mecca towards which he worshipped. Glimpses he had seen, +visions of soft curves, mica glistenings of creamy skin, but never the +crude anatomical fact. + +An overgrown embryo she seemed, a gawkish ill-moulded thing. + +Woman, thought Geoffrey, should be supple and pliant, with a +suggestion of swiftness galvanising the delicacy of the lines. +Atalanta was his ideal woman. + +But this creature had apparently no bones or sinews. She looked like +a sawdust dummy. She seemed to have been poured into a bag of brown +tissue. There was no waist line. The chest appeared to fit down upon +the thighs like a lid. The legs hung from the hips like trouser-legs, +and seemed to fit into the feet like poles into their sockets. The +turned-in toes were ridiculous and exasperating. There was no shaping +of breasts, stomach, knees and ankles. There was nothing in this image +of clay to show the loving caress of the Creator's hand. It had been +modelled by a wretched bungler in a moment of inattention. + +Yet it stood there, erect and challenging, this miserable human +tadpole, usurping the throne of Lais and crowned with the worship of +such devotees as Patterson and Wigram. + +Are all women ugly? The query flashed through Geoffrey's brain. Is +the vision of Aphrodite Anadyomene an artist's lie? Then he thought of +Asako. Stripped of her gauzy nightdresses, was she like this? A shame +on such imagining! + +Patterson was hugging a girl on his knee. Wigram had caught hold of +another. Geoffrey said--but nobody heard him,-- + +"It's getting too hot for me here. I'm going." + +So he went. + +His little wife was awake, and disposed to be tearful. + +"Where have you been?" she asked, "You said you would only be half an +hour." + +"I met Wigram," said Geoffrey, "and I went with him to see some +_geisha_ dancing." + +"You might have taken me. Was it very pretty?" + +"No, it was very ugly; you would not have cared for it at all." + +He had a hot bath, before he lay down by her side. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ACROSS JAPAN + + _Momo-shiki no + Omiya-bito wa + Okaredo + Kokoro ni norite + Omoyuru imo!_ + + Though the people of the + Great City + With its hundred towers + Be many, + Riding on my heart-- + (Only) my beloved Sister! + + +The traveller in Japan is restricted to a hard-worn road, dictated to +him by Messrs. Thos. Cook and Son, and by the Tourists' Information +Bureau. This _via sacra_ is marked by European-style hotels of varying +quality, by insidious curio-shops, and by native guides, serious and +profane, who classify foreigners under the two headings of Temples and +Tea-houses. The lonely men-travellers are naturally supposed to have +a _penchant_ for the spurious _geisha_, who haunt the native +restaurants; the married couples are taken to the temples, and to +those merchants of antiquities, who offer the highest commission to +the guides. There is always an air of petty conspiracy in the wake of +every foreigner who visits the country. If he is a Japan enthusiast, +he is amused by the naive ways, and accepts the conventional smile as +the reflection of the heart of "the happy, little Japs." If he hates +the country, he takes it for granted that extortion and villainy will +accompany his steps. + +Geoffrey and Asako enjoyed immensely their introduction to Japan. The +unpleasant experiences of Nagasaki were soon forgotten after their +arrival at Kyoto, the ancient capital of the Mikado, where the charm +of old Japan still lingers. They were happy, innocent people, devoted +to each other, easily pleased, and having heaps of money to spend. +They were amused with everything, with the people, with the houses, +with the shops, with being stared at, with being cheated, with being +dragged to the ends of the vast city only to see flowerless gardens +and temples in decay. + +Asako especially was entranced. The feel of the Japanese silk and the +sight of bright colours and pretty patterns awoke in her a kind of +ancestral memory, the craving of generations of Japanese women. She +bought kimonos by the dozen, and spent hours trying them on amid a +chorus of admiring chambermaids and waitresses, a chorus specially +trained by the hotel management in the difficult art of admiring +foreigners' purchases. + +Then to the curio-shops! The antique shops of Kyoto give to the simple +foreigner the impression that he is being received in a private home +by a Japanese gentleman of leisure whose hobby is collecting. The +unsuspecting prey is welcomed with cigarettes and specially honourable +tea, the thick green kind like pea-soup. An autograph book is produced +in which are written the names of rich and distinguished people +who have visited the collection. You are asked to add your own +insignificant signature. A few glazed earthenware pots appear, +Tibetan temple pottery of the Han Period. They are on their way to +the Winckler collection in New York, a trifle of a hundred thousand +dollars. + +Having pulverised the will-power of his guest, the merchant of +antiquities hands him over to his myrmidons who conduct him round the +shop--for it is only a shop after all. Taking accurate measurement of +his purse and tastes, they force him to buy what pleases them, just as +a conjurer can force a card upon his audience. + +The Barringtons' rooms at the Miyako Hotel soon became like an annex +to the show-rooms in Messrs. Yamanaka's store. Brocades and kimonos +were draped over chairs and bedsteads. Tables were crowded with +porcelain, _cloisonné_ and statues of gods. Lanterns hung from the +roof; and in a corner of the room stood an enormous bowl-shaped bell +as big as a bath, resting on a tripod of red lacquer. When struck +with a thick leather baton like a drum-stick it uttered a deep sob, +a wonderful, round, perfect sound, full of the melancholy of the +wind and the pine-forests, of the austere dignity of a vanishing +civilisation, and the loneliness of the Buddhist Law. + +There was a temple on the hill behind the hotel whence such a note +reached the visitors at dawn and again at sunset. The spirit of +everything lovely in the country sang in its tones; and Asako and +Geoffrey had agreed, that, whatever else they might buy or not buy, +they must take an echo of that imprisoned music home with them to +England. + +So they bought the cyclopean voice, engraved with cabalistic writing, +which might be, as it professed to be, a temple bell of Yamato over +five hundred years old, or else the last year's product of an Osaka +foundry for antique brass ware. Geoffrey called it "Big Ben." + +"What are you going to do with all these things?" he asked his wife. + +"Oh, for our home in London," she answered, clapping her hands +and gazing with ecstatic pride at all her treasures. "It will be +wonderful. Oh, Geoffrey, Geoffrey, you are so good to give all this to +me!" + +"But it is your own money, little sweetheart!" + + * * * * * + +Never did Asako seem further from her parents' race than during +the first weeks of her sojourn in her native country. She was so +unconscious of her relationship that she liked to play at imitating +native life, as something utterly peculiar and absurd. Meals in +Japanese eating-houses amused her immensely. The squatting on bare +floors, the exaggerated obeisance of the waiting-girls, the queer +food, the clumsy use of chop-sticks, the numbness of her feet after +being sat upon for half an hour, all would set her off in peals of +unchecked laughter, so as to astonish her compatriots who naturally +enough mistook her for one of themselves. + +Once, with the aid of the girls of the hotel, she arrayed herself in +the garments of a Japanese lady of position with her hair dressed +in the shiny black helmet-shape, and her waist encased in the broad, +tight _obi_ or sash, which after all was no more uncomfortable than +a corset. Thus attired she came down to dinner one evening, trotting +behind her husband as a well-trained Japanese wife should do. In +foreign dress she appeared _petite_ and exotic, but one would have +hesitated to name the land of her birth. It was a shock to Geoffrey +to see her again in her native costume. In Europe, it had been a +distinction, but here, in Japan, it was like a sudden fading into the +landscape. He had never realised quite how entirely his wife was one +of these people. The short stature and the shuffling gait, the tiny +delicate hands, the grooved slit of the eyelids, and the oval of the +face were pure Japanese. The only incongruous elements were the white +ivory skin which, however, is a beauty not unknown among home-reared +Japanese women also, and, above all, the expression which looked out +of the dancing eyes and the red mouth ripe for kisses, an expression +of freedom, happiness, and natural high spirits, which is not to be +seen in a land where the women are hardly free, never natural, and +seldom happy. The Japanese woman's face develops a compressed look +which leaves the features a mere mask, and acquires very often a +furtive glance, as of a sharp-fanged animal half-tamed by fear, +something weasel-like or vixenish. + +Flaunting her native costume, Asako came down to dinner at the Miyako +Hotel, laughing, chattering, and imitating the mincing steps of her +country-women and their exaggerated politeness. Geoffrey tried to play +his part in the little comedy; but his good spirits were forced +and gradually silence fell between them, the silence which falls on +masqueraders in fancy dress, who have tried to play up to the spirit +of their costume, but whose imagination flags. Had Geoffrey been +able to think a little more deeply he would have realized that this +play-acting was a very visible sign of the gulf which yawned between +his wife and the yellow women of Japan. She was acting as a white +woman might have done, certain of the impossibility of confusion. But +Geoffrey for the first time felt his wife's exoticism, not from the +romantic and charming side, but from the ugly, sinister, and--horrible +word--inferior side of it. Had he married a coloured woman? Was he a +squaw's man? A sickening vision of _chonkina_ at Nagasaki rose before +his imagination. + +When dinner was over, and after Asako had received the congratulations +of the other guests, she retired upstairs to put on her _négligé_. +Geoffrey liked a cigar after dinner, but Asako objected to the heavy +aroma hanging about her bedroom. They therefore parted generally for +this brief half hour; and afterwards they would read and talk together +in their sitting-room. Like other people, they soon got into the +habit of going to bed early in a country where there were no theatres +playing in a comprehensible tongue, and no supper restaurants to turn +night into day. + +Geoffrey lit his cigar and made his way to the smoking-room. Two +elderly men, merchants from Kobe, were already sitting there over +whiskies and sodas, discussing a mutual acquaintance. + +"No, I don't see much of him," one of them, an American, was saying, +"nobody does nowadays. But take my word, when he came out here as a +young man he was one of the smartest young fellows in the East." + +"Yes, I can quite believe you," said the other, a stolid Englishman +with a briar pipe, "he struck me as an exceptionally well-educated +man." + +"He was more than that, I tell you. He was a financial genius. He was +a man with a great future." + +"Poor fellow!" said the other. "Well, he has only got himself to +thank." + +Geoffrey was not an eavesdropper by nature, but he found himself +getting interested in the fate of this anonymous failure, and wondered +if he was going to hear the cause of the man's downfall. + +"When these Japanese women get hold of a man," the American went on, +"they seem to drain the brightness out of him. Why, you have only got +to stroll around to the Kobe Club and look at the faces. You can +tell the ones that have Japanese wives or housekeepers right away. +Something seems to have gone right out of their expression." + +"It's worry," said the Englishman. "A fellow marries a Japanese girl, +and he finds he has to keep all her lazy relatives as well; and then a +crowd of half-caste brats come along, and he doesn't know whether they +are his own or not." + +"It is more than that," was the emphatic answer. "Men with white wives +have worry enough; and a man can go gay in the tea-houses, and none +the worse. But when once they marry them it is like signing a bond +with the devil. That man's damned." + +Geoffrey rose and left the room. He thought on the whole it was better +to withdraw than to hit that harsh-voiced Yankee hard in the eye. He +felt that his wife had been insulted. But the speaker could not +have known by whom he had been overheard. He had merely expressed an +opinion which, as a sudden instinct told Geoffrey, must be generally +prevalent among the white people living in this yellow country. Now +that he came to think of it, he remembered curious glances cast at him +and Asako by foreigners and also, strange to say, by Japanese, glances +half contemptuous. Had he acquired it already, that expression which +marked the faces of the unfortunates at the Kobe Club? He remembered +also tactless remarks on board ship, such as, "Mrs. Barrington +has lived all her life in England; of course, that makes all the +difference." + +Geoffrey looked at his reflection in the long mirror in the hall. +There were no signs as yet of premature damnation on the honest, +healthy British face. There were signs, perhaps, of ripened thought +and experience, of less superficial appreciation. The eyes seemed to +have withdrawn deeper into their sockets, like the figurines in toy +barometers when they feel wet weather coming. + +He was beginning to appreciate the force of the advice which had urged +him to beware of Japan. Here, in the hotbed of race prejudice, evil +spirits were abroad. It was so different in broad-hearted tolerant +London. Asako was charming and rich. She was received everywhere. +To marry her was no more strange than to marry a French girl or a +Russian. They could have lived peaceably in Europe; and her distant +fatherland would have added a pathetic charm to her personality. But +here in Japan, where between the handful of whites and the myriads of +yellow men stretches a No Man's Land, serrated and desolate, marked +with bloody fights, with suspicions and treacheries, Asako's position +as the wife of a white man and Geoffrey's position as the husband of a +yellow wife were entirely different. The stranger's phrases had summed +up the situation. They were no good, these white men who had pawned +their lives to yellow girls. They were the failures, the _ratés_. +Geoffrey had heard of promising young officers in India who had +married native women and who had had to leave the service. He had +done the same. Better go gay in the tea-houses with Wigram. He was the +husband of a coloured woman. + +And then the crowd of half-caste brats? In England one hardly ever +thinks of the progeny of mixed races. That bitter word "half-caste" is +a distant echo of sensational novels. Geoffrey had not as yet noticed +the pale handsome children of Eurasia, Nature's latest and most +half-hearted experiment, whose seed, they say, is lost in the third +generation. But he had heard the tone of scorn which flung out the +term; and it suddenly occurred to him that his own children would be +half-castes. + +He was walking on the garden terrace overlooking the starry city. He +was thinking with an intensity unfamiliar to him and terrifying, like +a machine which is developing its fullest power, and is shaking a +framework unused to such a strain. He wanted a friend's presence, +a desultory chat with an old pal about people and things which they +shared in common. Thank God, Reggie Forsyth was in Tokyo. He would +leave to-morrow. He must see Reggie, laugh at his queer clever talk +again, relax himself, and feel sane. + +He was nervous of meeting his wife, lest her instinct might guess his +thoughts. Yet he must not leave her any longer or his absence would +make her anxious. Not that his love for Asako had been damaged; but +he felt that they were traveling along a narrow path over a bottomless +gulf in an unexplored country. + +He returned to the rooms and found her lying disconsolate on a sofa, +wrapped in a flimsy champagne-coloured dressing-gown, one of the +spoils of Paris. Her hair had been rapidly combed out of its formal +native arrangement. It looked draggled and hard as though she had been +bathing. Titine, the French maid, was removing the rejected débris of +kimono and sash. + +"Sweetheart, you've been crying," said Geoffrey, kissing her. + +"You didn't like me as a Jap, and you've been thinking terrible things +about me. Look at me, and tell me what you have been thinking." + +"Little Yum Yum talks great nonsense sometimes. As a matter of fact, I +was thinking of going on to Tokyo to-morrow. I think we've seen about +all there is to be seen here, don't you?" + +"Geoffrey, you want to see Reggie Forsyth. You're getting bored and +homesick already." + +"No, I'm not. I think it is a ripping country; in fact, I want to see +more of it. What I am wondering is whether we should take Tanaka." + + * * * * * + +This made Asako laugh. Any mention of Tanaka's name acted as a +talisman of mirth. Tanaka was the Japanese guide who had fixed himself +on to their company remora-like, with a fine flair for docile and +profitable travelers. + +He was a very small man, small even for a Japanese, but plump +withal. His back view looked like that of a little boy, an illusion +accentuated by the shortness of his coat and his small straw boater +with its colored ribbon. Even when he turned the illusion was not +quite dispelled; for his was a round, ruddy, chubby face with dimples, +a face with big cheeks ripe for smacking, and little sunken pig-like +eyes. + +He had stalked the Barringtons during their first excursion on foot +through the ancient city, knowing that sooner or later they would lose +their way. When the opportunity offered itself and he saw them gazing +vaguely round at cross-roads, he bore down upon them, raising his hat +and saying: + +"Can I assist you, sir?" + +"Yes; would you kindly tell me the way to the Miyako Hotel?" asked +Geoffrey. + +"I am myself _en route_," answered Tanaka. "Indeed we meet very _à +propos_." + +On the way he had discoursed about all there was to be seen in Kyoto. +Only, visitors must know their way about, or must have the service +of an experienced guide who was _au fait_ and who knew the "open +sesames." He pronounced this phrase "open sessums," and it was not +until late that night that its meaning dawned upon Geoffrey. + +Tanaka had a rich collection of foreign and idiomatic phrases, which +he must have learned by heart from a book and with which he adorned +his conversation. + +On his own initiative he had appeared next morning to conduct the two +visitors to the Emperor's palace, which he gave them to understand +was open for that day only, and as a special privilege due to Tanaka's +influence. While expatiating on the wonders to be seen, he brushed +Geoffrey's clothes and arranged them with the care of a trained valet. +In the evening, when they returned to the hotel and Asako complained +of pains in her shoulder, Tanaka showed himself to be an adept at +massage. + +Next morning he was again at his post; and Geoffrey realized that +another member had been added to his household. He acted as their +_cicerone_ or "siseroan," as he pronounced it, to temple treasuries +and old palace gardens, to curio-shops and to little native +eating-houses. The Barringtons submitted, not because they liked +Tanaka, but because they were good-natured, and rather lost in this +new country. Besides, Tanaka clung like a leech and was useful in many +ways. + +Only on Sunday morning it was the hotel boy who brought their early +morning tea. Tanaka was absent. When he made his appearance he wore a +grave expression which hardly suited his round face; and he carried a +large black prayer-book. He explained that he had been to church. He +was a Christian, Greek Orthodox. At least so he said, but afterwards +Geoffrey was inclined to think that this was only one of his +mystifications to gain the sympathy of his victims and to create a +bond between him and them. + +His method was one of observation, imitation and concealed +interrogation. The long visits to the Barringtons' rooms, the time +spent in clothes-brushing and in massage, were so much opportunity +gained for inspecting the room and its inhabitants, for gauging +their habits and their income, and for scheming out how to derive the +greatest possible advantage for himself. + +The first results of this process were almost unconscious. The wide +collar, in which his face had wobbled Micawber-like, disappeared; and +a small double collar, like the kind Geoffrey wore, took its place. +The garish neck-tie and hatband were replaced by discreet black. He +acquired the attitudes and gestures of his employer in a few days. + +As for the cross-examination, it took place in the evening, when +Geoffrey was tired, and Tanaka was taking off his boots. + +"Previous to the _fiancée_," Tanaka began, "did Lady Barrington live +long time in Japan?" + +He was lavish with titles, considering that money and nobility in such +people must be inseparable; besides, experience had taught him that +the use of such honorifics never came amiss. + +"No; she left when she was quite a little baby." + +"Ladyship has Japanese name?" + +"Asako Fujinami. Do you know the name, Tanaka?" + +The Japanese set his head on one side to indicate an attitude of +reflection. + +"Tokyo?" he suggested. + +"Yes, from Tokyo." + +"Does Lordship pay his _devoir_ to relatives of Ladyship?" + +"Yes, I suppose so, when we go to Tokyo." + +"Ladyship's relatives have noble residence?" asked Tanaka; it was his +way of inquiring if they were rich. + +"I really don't know at all," answered Geoffrey. + +"Then I will detect for Lordship. It will be better. A man can do +great foolishness if he does not detect." + +After this Geoffrey discouraged Tanaka. But Asako thought him a huge +joke. He made himself very useful and agreeable, fetching and carrying +for her, and amusing her with his wonderful English. He almost +succeeded in dislodging Titine from her cares for her mistress's +person. Geoffrey had once objected, on being expelled from his wife's +bedroom during a change of raiment: + +"But Tanaka was there. You don't mind him seeing you apparently." + +Asako had burst out laughing. + +"Oh, he isn't a man. He isn't real at all. He says that I am like a +flower, and that I am very beautiful in '_deshabeel_.'" + +"That sounds real enough," grunted Geoffrey, "and very like a man." + +Perhaps, innocent as she was, Asako enjoyed playing off Tanaka against +her husband, just as it certainly amused her to watch the jealousy +between Titine and the Japanese. It gave her a pleasant sense of power +to see her big husband look so indignant. + +"How old do you think Tanaka is?" he asked her one day. + +"Oh, about eighteen or nineteen," she answered. She was not yet used +to the deceptiveness of Japanese appearances. + +"He does not look more sometimes," said her husband; "but he has the +ways and the experience of a very old hand. I wouldn't mind betting +you that he is thirty." + +"All right," said Asako, "give me the jade Buddha if you are wrong." + +"And what will you give me if I am right?" said Geoffrey. + +"Kisses," replied his wife. + +Geoffrey went out to look for Tanaka. In a quarter of an hour he came +back, triumphant. + +"My kisses, sweetheart," he demanded. + +"Wait," said Asako; "how old is he?" + +"I went out of the front door and there was Master Tanaka, telling the +rickshaw-men the latest gossip about us. I said to him, 'Tanaka, +are you married?' 'Yes, Lordship,' he answered, 'I am widower.' 'Any +children?' I asked again. 'I have two progenies,' he said; 'they are +soldiers of His Majesty the Emperor.' 'Why, how old are you?' I asked. +'Forty-three years,' he answered. 'You are very well preserved for a +man of your age,' I said, and I have come back for my kisses." + +After this monstrous deception Geoffrey had declared that he would +dismiss Tanaka. + +"A man who goes about like that," he said, "is a living lie." + + * * * * * + +Two days later, early in the morning, they left Kyoto by the great +metal high road of Japan, which has replaced the famous way known as +the _Tokaido_, sacred in history, legend and art. Every stone has its +message for Japanese eyes, every tree its association with poetry or +romance. Even among Western connoisseurs of Japanese wood engraving, +its fifty-two resting places are as familiar as the Stations of the +Cross. Such is the _Tokaido_, the road between the two capitals of +Kyoto and Tokyo, still haunted by the ghosts of the Emperor's ox-drawn +wagons, the _Shoguns'_ lacquered palanquins, by feudal warriors in +their death-like armour, and by the swinging strides of the _samurai_. + +"Look, look, Fujiyama!" + +There was a movement in the observation-car, where Geoffrey and his +wife were watching the unfolding of their new country. The sea was +away to the right beyond the tea-fields and the pine-woods. To the +left was the base of a mountain. Its summit was wrapped in cloud. From +the fragment visible, it was possible to appreciate the architecture +of the whole--_ex pede Herculem_. It took the train quite one hour to +travel over that arc of the circuit of Fuji, which it must pass on its +way to Tokyo. During this time, the curtained presence of the great +mountain dominated the landscape. Everything seemed to lead up to that +mantle of cloud. The terraced rice fields rose towards it, the trees +slanted towards it, the moorland seemed to be pulled upwards, and the +skin of the earth was stretched taut over some giant limb which +had pushed itself up from below, the calm sea was waiting for its +reflection, and even the microscopic train seemed to swing in its +orbit round the mountain like an unwilling satellite. + +"It's a pity we can't see it," said Geoffrey. + +"Yes; it's the only big thing in the whole darned country," said a +saturnine American, sitting opposite; "and then, when you get on to +it, it's just a heap of cinders." + +Asako was not worrying about the landscape. Her thoughts were directed +to a family of well-to-do Japanese, first-class passengers, who had +settled in the observation car for half an hour or so, and had then +withdrawn. There was a father, his wife and two daughters, wax-like +figures who did not utter a word but glided shadow-like in and out of +the compartment. Were they relations of hers? + +Then, when she and her husband passed down the corridor train to +lunch, and through the swarming second-class carriages, she wondered +once more, as she saw male Japan sprawling its length over the +seats in the ugliest attitudes of repose, and female Japan squatting +monkey-like and cleaning ears and nostrils with scraps of paper +or wiping stolid babies. The carriages swarmed with children, with +luggage and litter. The floors were a mess of spilled tea, broken +earthenware cups and splintered wooden boxes. Cheap baggage was +piled up everywhere, with wicker baskets, paper parcels, bundles of +drab-coloured wraps, and cases of imitation leather. Among this débris +children were playing unchecked, smearing their faces with rice cakes, +and squashing the flies on the window pane. + +Were any of these her relatives? Asako shuddered. How much did she +actually know about these far-away cousins? She could just remember +her father. She could recall great brown shining eyes, and a thin face +wasted by the consumption which killed him, and a tenderness of voice +and manner quite apart from anything which she had ever experienced +since. This soon came to an end. After that she had known only the +conscientiously chilly care of the Muratas. They had told her that her +mother had died when she was born, and that her father was so unhappy +that he had left Japan forever. Her father was a very clever man. +He had read all the English and French and German books. He had left +special word when he was dying that Asako was not to go back to Japan, +that Japanese men were bad to women, that she was to be brought up +among French girls and was to marry a European or an American. But the +Muratas could not tell her any intimate details about her father, whom +they had not known very well. Again, although they were aware that she +had rich cousins living in Tokyo, they did not know them personally +and could tell her nothing. + +Her father had left no papers, only his photograph, the picture of a +delicate, good-looking, sad-faced man in black cloak and kimono, and a +little French book called _Pensées de Pascal_, at the end of which was +written the address of Mr. Ito, the lawyer in Tokyo through whom the +dividends were paid, and that of "my cousin Fujinami Gentaro." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE EMBASSY + + _Tsuyu no yo no + Tsuyu no yo nagara + Sari nagara!_ + + While this dewdrop world + Is but a dewdrop world, + Yet--all the same!-- + + +The fabric of our lives is like a piece of knitting, terribly botched +and bungled in most cases. There are stitches which are dropped, +sometimes to be swallowed up and forgotten in the superstructure, +sometimes to be picked up again after a lapse of years. These stitches +are old friendships. + +The first stitch from Geoffrey's bachelor days to be worked back into +the scheme of his married life was his friendship for Reggie Forsyth, +who had been best man at his wedding and who had since then been +appointed Secretary to the Embassy at Tokyo. + +Reggie had received a telegram saying that Geoffrey was coming. He was +very pleased. He had reached that stage in the progress of exile +where one is inordinately happy to see any old friend. In fact, he +was beginning to be "fed up" with Japan, with its very limited +distractions, and with the monotony of his diplomatic colleagues. + +Instead of going to the tennis court, which was his usual afternoon +occupation, he had spent the time in arranging his rooms, shifting +the furniture, rehanging the pictures, paying especial care to the +disposition of his Oriental curios, his recent purchases, his last +enthusiasms in this land of languor. Reggie collected Buddhas, Chinese +snuff-bottles and lacquered medicine cases--called _inro_ in Japanese. + +"Caviare to the general!" murmured Reggie, as he gloated over a +chaste design of fishes in mother-of-pearl, a pseudo-Korin. "Poor old +Geoffrey! He's only a barbarian; but perhaps she will be interested. +Here, T[=o]!" he called out to an impassive Japanese man-servant, "have +the flowers come yet, and the little trees?" + +T[=o] produced from the back regions of the house a quantity of dwarf +trees, planted as miniature landscapes in shallow porcelain dishes, +and big fronds of budding cherry blossom. + +Reggie arranged the blossom in a triumphal arch over the corner table, +where stood the silent company of the Buddhas. From among the trees +he chose his favourite, a kind of dwarf cedar, to place between the +window, opening on to a sunny veranda, and an old gold screen, across +whose tender glory wound the variegated comicality of an Emperor's +traveling procession, painted by a Kano artist of three centuries ago. + +He removed the books which were lying about the room--grim Japanese +grammars, and forbidding works on International Law; and in +their place he left volumes of poetry and memoirs, and English +picture-papers strewn about in artistic disorder. Then he gave the +silver frames of his photographs to To to be polished, the photographs +of fair women signed with Christian names, of diplomats in grand +uniforms, and of handsome foreigners. + +Having reduced the serious atmosphere of his study so as to give an +impression of amiable indolence, Reggie Forsyth lit a cigarette and +strolled out into the garden, amused at his own impatience. In London +he would never have bestirred himself for old Geoffrey Barrington, who +was only a Philistine, after all, with no sense of the inwardness of +things. + +Reggie was a slim and graceful young man, with thin fair hair brushed +flat back from his forehead. A certain projection of bones under the +face gave him an almost haggard look; and his dancing blue eyes seemed +to be never still. He wore a suit of navy serge fitting close to his +figure, black tie, and grey spats. In fact, he was as immaculate as a +young diplomat should always be. + +Outside his broad veranda was a gravel path, and beyond that a +Japanese garden, the hobby of one of his predecessors, a miniature +domain of hillocks and shrubs, with the inevitable pebbly water +course, in which a bronze crane was perpetually fishing. Over the +red-brick wall which encircles the Embassy compound the reddish buds +of a cherry avenue were bursting in white stars. + +The compound of the Embassy is a fragment of British soil. The British +flag floats over it; and the Japanese authorities have no power +within its walls. Its large population of Japanese servants, about one +hundred and fifty in all, are free from the burden of Japanese taxes; +and, since the police may not enter, gambling, forbidden throughout +the Empire, flourishes there; and the rambling servants' quarters +behind the Ambassador's house are the Monte Carlo of the Tokyo _betto_ +(coachman) and _kurumaya_ (rickshaw runner). However, since the +alarming discovery that a professional burglar had, Diogenes-like, +been occupying an old tub in a corner of the wide grounds, a policeman +has been allowed to patrol the garden; but he has to drop that +omnipotent swagger which marks his presence outside the walls. + +Except for Reggie Forsyth's exotic shrubbery, there is nothing +Japanese within the solid red walls. The Embassy itself is the house +of a prosperous city gentleman and might be transplanted to Bromley or +Wimbledon. The smaller houses of the secretaries and the interpreters +also wear a smug, suburban appearance, with their red brick and their +black-and-white gabling. Only the broad verandas betray the intrusion +of a warmer sun than ours. + +The lawns were laid out as a miniature golf-links, the thick masses +of Japanese shrubs forming deadly bunkers, and Reggie was trying some +mashie shots when one of the rare Tokyo taxi-cabs, carrying Geoffrey +Barrington inside it, came slowly round a corner of the drive, as +though it were feeling its way for its destination among such a +cluster of houses. + +Geoffrey was alone. + +"Hello, old chap!" cried Reggie, running up and shaking his friend's +big paw in his small nervous grip, "I'm so awfully glad to see you; +but where's Mrs. Barrington?" + +Geoffrey had not brought his wife. He explained that they had been +to pay their first call on Japanese relations, and that they had been +honourably out; but even so the strain had been a severe one, and +Asako had retired to rest at the hotel. + +"But why not come and stay here with me?" suggested Reggie. "I have +got plenty of spare rooms; and there is such a gulf fixed between +people who inhabit hotels and people with houses of their own. They +see life from an entirely different point of view; their spirits +hardly ever meet." + +"Have you room for eight large boxes of dresses and kimonos, several +cases of curios, a French maid, a Japanese guide, two Japanese dogs +and a monkey from Singapore?" + +Reggie whistled. + +"No really, is it as bad as all that? I was thinking that marriage +meant just one extra person. It would have been fun having you both +here, and this is the only place in Tokyo fit to live in." + +"It looks a comfortable little place," agreed Geoffrey. They had +reached the secretary's house, and the newcomer was admiring its +artistic arrangement. + +"Just like your rooms in London!" + +Reggie prided himself on the exclusively oriental character of his +habitation, and its distinction from any other dwelling place which +he had ever possessed. But then Geoffrey was only a Philistine, after +all. + +"I suppose it's the photographs which look like old times," Geoffrey +went on. "How's little Véronique?" + +"Veronica married an Argentine beef magnate, a German Jew, the +nastiest person I have ever avoided meeting." + +"Poor old Reggie! Was that why you came to Japan?" + +"Partly; and partly because I had a chief in the Foreign Office who +dared to say that I was lacking in practical experience of diplomacy. +He sent me to this comic country to find it." + +"And you have found it right enough," said Geoffrey, inspecting a +photograph of a Japanese girl in her dark silk kimono with a dainty +flower pattern round the skirts and at the fall of the long sleeves. +She was not unlike Asako; only there was a fraction of an inch more of +bridge to her nose, and in that fraction lay the secret of her birth. + +"That is my latest inspiration," said Reggie. "Listen!" + +He sat down at the piano and played a plaintive little air, small and +sweet and shivering. + +"_Japonaiserie d'hiver_," he explained. + +Then he changed the burden of his song into a melody rapid and +winding, with curious tricklings among the bass notes. + +"Lamia," said Reggie, "or Lilith." + +"There's no tune in that last one; you can't whistle it," said +Geoffrey, who exaggerated his Philistinism to throw Reggie's artistic +nature into stronger relief. "But what has that got to do with the +lady?" + +"Her name is Smith," said Reggie. "I know it is almost impossible and +terribly sad; but her other name is Yaé. Rather wild and savage--isn't +it? Like the cry of a bird in the night-time, or of a cannibal tribe +on the warpath." + +"And is this your oriental version of Véronique?" asked his friend. + +"No," said Reggie, "it is a different chapter of experience +altogether. Perhaps old Hardwick was right. I still have much to +learn, thank God. Véronique was personal; Yaé is symbolic. She is my +model, just like a painter's model, only more platonic. She is the +East to me; for I cannot understand the East pure and undiluted. She +is a country-woman of mine on her father's side, and therefore easier +to understand. Impersonality and fatalism, the Eastern Proteus, in +the grip of self-insistence and idealism, the British Hercules. A +butterfly body with this cosmic war shaking it incessantly. Poor +child! no wonder she seems always tired." + +"She is a half-caste?" asked Geoffrey. + +"Bad word, bad word. She isn't half-anything; and caste suggests India +and suttees. She is a Eurasian, a denizen of a dream country which has +a melodious name and no geographical existence. Have you ever +heard anybody ask where Eurasia was? I have. A traveling Member of +Parliament's wife at the Embassy here only a few months ago. I said +that it was a large undiscovered country lying between the Equator and +Tierra del Fuego. She seemed quite satisfied, and wondered whether +it was very hot there; she remembered having heard a missionary once +complain that the Eurasians wore so very few clothes! But to return +to Yaé, you must meet her. This evening? No? To-morrow then. You will +like her because, she looks something like Asako; and she will adore +you because you are utterly unlike me. She comes here to inspire me +once or twice a week. She says she likes me because everything in +my house smells so sweet. That is the beginning of love, I sometimes +think. Love enters the soul through the nostrils. If you doubt me, +observe the animals. But foreign houses in Japan are haunted by a +smell of dust and mildew. You cannot love in them. She likes to lie +on my sofa, and smoke cigarettes, and do nothing, and listen to my +playing tunes about her." + +"You are very impressionable," said his friend. "If it were anybody +else I should say you were in love with this girl." + +"I am still the same, Geoffrey; always in love--and never." + +"But what about the other people here?" Barrington asked. + +"There are none, none who count. I am not impressionable. I am just +short-sighted. I have to focus my weak vision on one person and +neglect the rest." + + * * * * * + +A rickshaw was waiting to take Geoffrey back to the hotel. Under the +saffron light of an uncanny sunset, which barred the western heavens +with three broad streaks of orange and inky-blue like a gypsy girl's +kerchief, the odd little vehicle rolled down the hill of Miyakezaka +which overhangs the moat of the Imperial Palace. + +The latent soul of Tokyo, the mystery of Japan, lies within the +confines of that moat, which is the only great majestic thing in an +untidy rambling village of more than two million living beings. + +The Palace of the Mikado--a title by the way which is never used among +Japanese--is hidden from sight. That is the first remarkable thing +about it. The gesture of Versailles, the challenge of "_l'etat c'est +moi_," the majestic vulgarity which the millionaire of the moment can +mimic with a vulgarity less majestic, are here entirely absent; and +one cannot mimic the invisible. + +Hardly, on bare winter days, when the sheltering groves are stripped, +and the saddened heart is in need of reassurance, appears a green +lustre of copper roofs. + +The _Goshö_ at Tokyo is not a sovereign's palace; it is the abode of a +God. + +The surrounding woods and gardens occupy a space larger than Hyde +Park in the very centre of the city. One well-groomed road crosses +an extreme corner of this estate. Elsewhere only privileged feet may +tread. This is a vast encumbrance in a modern commercial metropolis, +but a striking tribute to the unseen. + +The most noticeable feature of the Palace is its moats. These lie in +three or four concentric circles, the defences of ancient Yedo, whose +outer lines have now been filled up by modern progress and an electric +railway. They are broad sheets of water as wide as the Thames at +Oxford, where ducks are floating and fishing. Beyond is a _glacis_ +of vivid grass, a hundred feet high at some points, topped by vast +iron-grey walls of cyclopean boulder-work, with the sudden angles of +a Vauban fortress. Above these walls the weird pine-trees of Japan +extend their lean tormented boughs. Within is the Emperor's domain. + +Geoffrey was hurrying homeward along the banks of the moat. The +stagnant, viscous water was yellow under the sunset, and a yellow +light hung over the green slopes, the grey walls and the dark tree +tops. An echelon of geese passed high overhead in the region of the +pale moon. Within the mysterious _enclave_ of the "Son of Heaven" the +crows were uttering their harsh sarcastic croak. + +Witchery is abroad in Tokyo during this brief sunset hour. The +mongrel nature of the city is less evident. The pretentious Government +buildings of the New Japan assume dignity with the deep shadows and +the heightening effect of the darkness. The untidy network of tangled +wires fades into the coming obscurity. The rickety trams, packed to +overflowing with the city crowds returning homeward, become creeping +caterpillars of light. Lights spring up along the banks of the moat. +More lights are reflected from its depth. Dark shadows gather like +a frown round the Gate of the Cherry Field, where Ii Kamon no Kami's +blood stained the winter snow-drifts some sixty years ago, because he +dared to open the Country of the Gods to the contemptible foreigners; +and in the cry of the _tofu_-seller echoes the voice of old Japan, a +long-drawn wail, drowned at last by the grinding of the tram wheels +and the lash and crackle of the connecting-rods against the overhead +lines. + +Geoffrey, sitting back in his rickshaw, turned up his coat-collar, and +watched the gathering pall of cloud extinguishing the sunset. + +"Looks like snow," he said to himself; "but it is impossible!" + +At the entrance to the Imperial Hotel--a Government institution, as +almost everything in Japan ultimately turns out to be--Tanaka was +standing in his characteristic attitude of a dog who waits for his +master's return. Characteristically also, he was talking to a man, +a Japanese, a showy person with spectacles and oily buffalo-horn +moustaches, dressed in a vivid pea-green suit. However, at Geoffrey's +approach, this individual raised his bowler-hat, bobbed and vanished; +and Tanaka assisted his patron to descend from his rickshaw. + +As he approached the door of his suite, a little cloud of hotel _boys_ +scattered like sparrows. This phenomenon did not as yet mean anything +to Geoffrey. The native servants were not very real to him. But he +was soon to realize that the _boy san_--Mister Boy, as his dignity now +insists on being called--is more than an amusing contribution to the +local atmosphere. When his smiles, his bows, and his peculiar English +begin to pall, he reveals himself in his true light as a constant +annoyance and a possible danger. Hell knows no fury like the untipped +"_boy san_" He refuses to answer the bell. He suddenly understands no +English at all. He bangs all the doors. He spends his spare moments +in devising all kinds of petty annoyances, damp and dirty sheets, +accidental damage to property, surreptitious draughts. And to vex one +_boy san_ is to antagonize the whole caste; it is a boycott. At last +the tip is given. Sudden sunshine, obsequious manners, attention of +all kinds--for ever dwindling periods, until at last the _boy san_ +attains his end, a fat retaining fee, extorted at regular intervals. + +But even more exasperating, since no largesse can cure it, is his +national bent towards espionage. What does he do with his spare time, +of which he has so much? He spends it in watching and listening to the +hotel guests. He has heard legends of large sums paid for silence or +for speech. There may be money in it, therefore, and there is always +amusement. So the only housework which the _boy san_ does really +willingly, is to dust the door, polish the handle, wipe the +threshold;--anything in fact which brings him into the propinquity of +the keyhole. What he observes or overhears, he exchanges with another +_boy san_; and the hall porter or the head waiter generally serves as +Chief Intelligence Bureau, and is always in touch with the Police. + +The arrival of guests so remarkable as the Barringtons became, +therefore, at once a focus for the curiosity the ambition of the _boy +sans_. And a rickshaw-man had told the lodgekeeper, whose wife told +the wife of one of the cooks, who told the head waiter, that there was +some connection between these visitors and the rich Fujinami. All the +_boy sans_ knew what the Fujinami meant; so here was a cornucopia of +unwholesome secrets. It was the most likely game which had arrived at +the Imperial Hotel for years, ever since the American millionaire's +wife who ran away with a San Francisco Chinaman. + +But to Geoffrey, when he broke up the gathering, the _boy sans_ were +just a lot of queer little Japs. + +Asako was lying on her sofa, reading. Titine was brushing her hair. +Asako, when she read, which was not often, preferred literature of +the sentimental school, books like _The Rosary_, with stained glass in +them, and tragedy overcome by nobleness of character. + +"I've been lonely without you and nervous," she said, "and I've had a +visitor already." + +She pointed to a card lying on a small round table, a flimsy card +printed--not engraved--on cream-coloured pasteboard. Geoffrey picked +it up with a smile. + +"Curio dealers?" he asked. + +Japanese letters were printed on one side and English on the other. + +[Illustration: _S. ITO_ _Attorney of Law_] + +"Ito, that's the lawyer fellow, who pays the dividends. Did you see +him." + +"Oh, no, I was much too weary. But he has only just gone. You probably +passed him on the stairs." + +Geoffrey could only think of the vivid gentleman, who had been talking +with Tanaka. The guide was sent for and questioned, but he knew +nothing. The gentleman in green had merely stopped to ask him the +time. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE HALF-CASTE GIRL + + + _Tomarite mo + Tsubasa wa ugoku + Kocho kana!_ + + Little butterfly! + Even when it settles + Its wings are moving. + + +Next morning it was snowing and bitterly cold. Snow in Japan, snow in +April, snow upon the cherry trees, what hospitality was this? + +The snow fell all day, muffling the silent city. Silence is at all +times one of Tokyo's characteristics. For so large and important a +metropolis it is strangely silent always. The only continuous street +noise is the grating and crackling of the trams. The lumbering of +horse vehicles and the pulsation of motor traffic are absent; for as +beasts of burden horses are more costly than men, and in 1914 motor +cars were still a novelty. Since the war boom, of course, every +_narikin (nouveau riche)_ has rushed to buy his car; but even so, the +state of the roads, which alternate between boulders and slush, do +not encourage the motorist, and are impassable for heavy lorries. So +incredible weights and bundles are moved on hand-barrows; and bales of +goods and stacks of produce are punted down the dark waterways which +give to parts of Tokyo a Venetian picturesqueness. Passengers, too +proud to walk, flit past noiselessly in rubber-tyred rickshaws--which +are not, as many believe, an ancient and typical Oriental conveyance, +but the modern invention of an English missionary called Robinson. +The hum of the city is dominated by the screech of the tramcars in the +principal streets and by the patter of the wooden clogs, an incessant, +irritating sound like rain. But these were now hushed by the snow. + +Neither the snow nor the other of Nature's discouragements can keep +the Japanese for long indoors. Perhaps it is because their own houses +are so draughty and uncomfortable. + +This day they were out in their thousands, men and women, drifting +aimlessly along the pavements, as is their wont, wrapped in grey +ulsters, their necks protected by ragged furs, pathetic spoils of +domestic tabbies, and their heads sheltered under those wide oil-paper +umbrellas, which have become a symbol of Japan in foreign eyes, the +gigantic sunflowers of rainy weather, huge blooms of dark blue or +black or orange, inscribed with the name and address of the owner in +cursive Japanese script. + +Most of these people are wearing _ashida_, high wooden clogs perilous +to the balance, which raise them as on stilts above the street level +and add to the fantastical appearance of these silent shuffling +multitudes. + +The snow falls, covering the city's meannesses, its vulgar apings of +Americanisms, its crude advertisements. On the other hand, the +true native architecture asserts itself, and becomes more than ever +attractive. The white purity seems to gather all this miniature +perfection, these irregular roofs, these chalet balconies, these broad +walls and studies in rock and tree under a close-fitting cape, its +natural winter garment. + + * * * * * + +The first chill of the rough weather kept Geoffrey and Asako by their +fireside. But the indoor amenities of Japanese hotel life are few. +There is a staleness in the public rooms and an angular discord in the +private sitting-rooms, which condemn the idea of a comfortable day +of reading, or of writing to friends at home about the Spirit of the +East. So at the end of the first half of a desolate afternoon, a visit +to the Embassy suggested itself. + +They left the hotel, ushered on their way by bowing _boy sans_; and +in a few minutes an unsteady motor-car, careless of obstacles and +side-slips, had whirled them through the slushy streets into +the British compound, which only wanted a robin to look like the +conventional Christmas card. + +It was a pleasant shock, after long traveling through countries +modernized in a hurry, to be received by an English butler against a +background of thick Turkey carpet, mahogany hall table and Buhl clock. +It was like a bar of music long-forgotten to see the fall of snowy +white cards accumulating in their silver bowl. + +Lady Cynthia Cairns's drawing-room was not an artistic apartment; it +was too comfortable for that. There were too many chairs and sofas; +and they were designed on broad lines for the stolid, permanent +sitting of stout, comfortable bodies. There were too many photographs +on view of persons distinguished for their solidity rather than for +their good looks, the portraits of the guests whom one would expect +to find installed in those chairs. A grand piano was there; but the +absence of any music in its neighbourhood indicated that its purpose +was chiefly to symbolize harmony in the home life, and to provide a +spacious crush-room for the knick-knacks overflowing from many tables. +These were dominated by a large signed photograph of Queen Victoria. +In front of an open fireplace, where bright logs were crackling, slept +an enormous black cat on a leopard's skin hearthrug. + +Out of this sea of easy circumstances rose Lady Cynthia. A daughter +of the famous Earl of Cheviot, hers was a short but not unmajestic +figure, encased in black silks which rustled and showed flashes of +beads and jet in the dancing light of the fire. She had the firm pose +of a man, and a face entirely masculine with strong lips and chin and +humourous grey eyes, the face of a judge. + +Miss Gwendolen Cairns, who had apparently been reading to her mother +when the visitors arrived, was a tall girl with fair _cendré_ hair. +The simplicity of the cut of her dress and its pale green color +showed artistic sympathies of the old aesthetic kind. The maintained +amiability of her expression and manner indicated her life's task of +smoothing down feelings ruffled by her mother's asperities, and of +oiling the track of her father's career. + +"How are you, my dears?" Lady Cynthia was saying. "I'm so glad you've +come in spite of the tempest. Gwendolen was just reading me to sleep. +Do you ever read to your husband, Mrs. Barrington? It is a good idea, +if only your voice is sufficiently monotonous." + +"I hope we haven't interrupted you," murmured Asako, who was rather +alarmed at the great lady's manner. + +"It was a shock when I heard the bell ring. I cried out in my +sleep--didn't I, Gwendolen?--and said, 'It's the Beebees!'" + +"I'm glad it wasn't as bad as all that," said Geoffrey, coming to his +wife's rescue; "would that have been the worst that could possibly +happen?" + +"The very worst," Lady Cynthia answered. "Professor Beebee teaches +something or other to the Japanese, and he and Mrs. Beebee have lived +in Japan for the last forty years. They remind me of that old tortoise +at the Zoo, who has lived at the bottom of the sea for so many +centuries that he is quite covered with seaweed and barnacles. But +they are very sorry for me, because I only came here yesterday. They +arrive almost every day to instruct me in the path in which I should +go, and to eat my cakes by the dozen. They don't have any dinner the +days they come here for tea. Mrs. Beebee is the Queen of the Goonies." + +"Who are the Goonies?" asked Geoffrey. + +"The rest of the old tortoises. They are missionaries and professors +and their wives and daughters. The sons, of course, run away and go to +the bad. There are quite a lot of the Goonies, and I see much more of +them than I do of the _geishas_ and the _samurais_ and the _harakiris_ +and all the Eastern things, which Gwendolen will talk about when she +gets home. She is going to write a book, poor girl. There's nothing +else to do in this country except to write about what is not here. +It's very easy, you know. You copy it all out of some one else's book, +only you illustrate it with your own snapshots. The publishers say +that there is a small but steady demand, chiefly for circulating +libraries in America. You see, I have been approached already on the +subject, and I have not been here many months. So you've seen Reggie +Forsyth already, he tells me. What do you think of him?" + +"Much the same as usual; he seemed rather bored." + +Lady Cynthia had led her guest away from the fireside, where Gwendolen +Cairns was burbling to Asako. + +Geoffrey could feel the searchlight of her judicial eye upon him, and +a sensation like the pause when a great man enters a room. Something +essential was going to invade the commonplace talk. + +"Captain Barrington, your coming here just now is most providential. +Reggie Forsyth is not bored at all, far from it." + +"I thought he would like the country," said Geoffrey guardedly. + +"He doesn't like the country. Why should he? But he likes somebody in +the country. Now do you understand?" + +"Yes," agreed Geoffrey, "he showed me the photograph of a half +Japanese girl. He said that she was his inspiration for local colour." + +"Exactly, and she's turning his brain yellow," snapped Lady Cynthia, +forgetting, as everybody else did, including Geoffrey himself, +that the same criticism might apply to Asako. However, Geoffrey was +becoming more sensitive of late. He blushed a little and fidgeted, but +he answered,-- + +"Reggie has always been easily inflammable." + +"Oh, in England, perhaps, it's good for a boy's education; but out +here, Captain Barrington, it is different. I have lived for a long +time East of Suez; and I know the danger of these love episodes in +countries where there is nothing else to do, nothing else to talk +about. I am a gossip myself; so I know the harm gossip can do." + +"But is it so serious, Lady Cynthia? Reggie rather laughed about it to +me. He said, 'I am in love always--and never!'" + +"She is a dangerous young lady," said the Ambassadress. "Two years ago +a young business man out here was engaged to be married to her. In the +autumn his body was washed ashore near Yokohama. He had been bathing +imprudently, and yet he was a good swimmer Last year two officers +attached to the Embassy fought a duel, and one was badly wounded. It +was turned into an accident of course; but they were both admirers of +hers. This year it is Reggie's turn. And Reggie is a man with a great +future. It would be a shame to lose him." + +"Lady Cynthia, aren't you being rather pessimistic? Besides, what can +I do?" + +"Anything, everything! Eat with him, drink with him, play cards with +him, go to the dogs with him--no, what a pity you are married! But, +even so, it's better than nothing. Play tennis with him; take him to +the top of Fujiyama. I can do nothing with him. He flouts me publicly. +The old man can give him an official scolding; and Reginald will just +mimic him for the benefit of the Chancery. I can hear them laughing +all the way from here when Reggie is doing what he calls one of his +'stunts'. But you--why, he can see in your face the whole of +London, the London which he respects and appreciates in spite of his +cosmopolitan airs. He can see himself introducing Miss Yaé Smith in +Lady Everington's drawing-room as Mrs. Forsyth." + +"Is there a great objection?" asked Geoffrey. + +"It is impossible," said Lady Cynthia. + +A sudden weariness came over Geoffrey. Did that ruthless "Impossible" +apply to his case also? Would Lady Everington's door be closed to him +on his return? Was he guilty of that worst offence against Good Form, +a _mésalliance_? Or was Asako saved--by her money? Something unfair +was impending. He looked at the two girls seated by the fireside, +sipping their tea and laughing together. He must have shown signs of +his embarrassment, for Lady Cynthia said,-- + +"Don't be absurd, Captain Barrington. The case is entirely different. +A lady is always a lady, whether she is born in England or Japan. Miss +Smith is not a lady; still worse, she is a half-caste, the daughter of +an adventurer journalist and a tea-house woman. What can one expect? +It is bad blood." + + * * * * * + +After taking leave of the Cairns, Geoffrey and Asako crossed the +garden compound, white and Christmas-like under its covering of +snow. They found their way down the by-path which led to the discreet +seclusion of Reggie Forsyth's domain. The leaping of fire shadows +against the lowered blinds gave a warm and welcoming impression of +shelter and comfort; and still more welcoming were the sounds of the +piano. It was a pleasure for the travellers to hear, for they had long +been unaccustomed to the sound of music. Music should be the voice +of the soul of the house; in the discord of hotels it is lost and +scattered, but the home which is without music is dumb and imperfect. + +Reggie must have heard them coming, for he changed the dreamy melody +which he was playing into the chorus of a popular song which had been +rife in London a year ago. Geoffrey laughed. "Father's home again! +Father's home again!" he hummed, fitting the words to the tune, as he +waited for the door to open. + +They were greeted in the passage by Reggie. He was dressed in all +respects like a Japanese gentleman, in black silk _haori_ (cloak), +brown wadded kimono and fluted _hakama_ (skirt). He wore white _tabi_ +(socks) and straw _zori_ (slippers). It is a becoming and sensible +dress for any man. + +"I thought it must be you," he laughed, "so I played the watchword. +Fancy you're being so homesick already. Please come in, Mrs. +Harrington. I have often longed to see you in Japan, but I never +thought you would come; and let me take your coat off. You will find +it quite warm indoors." + +It was warm indeed. There was the heat of a green-house in Reggie's +artistically ordered room. It was larger too than on the occasion +of Geoffrey's visit; for the folding doors which led into a further +apartment were thrown open. Two big fires were blazing; and old gold +screens, glittering like Midas's treasury, warded off the draught from +the windows. The air was heavy with fumes of incense still rising from +a huge brass brazier, full of glowing charcoal and grey sand, placed +in the middle of the floor. In one corner stood the Buddha table +twinkling in the firelight. The miniature trees were disposed along +the inner wall. There was no other furniture except an enormous black +cushion lying between the brazier and the fireplace; and in the middle +of the cushion--a little Japanese girl. + +She was squatting on her white-gloved toes in native fashion. Her +kimono was sapphire blue, and it was fastened by a huge silver sash +with a blue and green peacock embroidered on the fold of the bow, +which looked like great wings and was almost as big as the rest of the +little person put together. Her back was turned to the guests; and +she was gazing into the flames in an attitude of reverie. She seemed +unconscious of everything, as though still listening to the echo of +the silent music. Reggie in his haste to greet his visitors had not +noticed the hurried solicitude to arrange the set of the kimono to a +nicety in order to indicate exactly the right pose. + +She looked like a jeweled butterfly on a great black leaf. + +"Yaé--Miss Smith," said Reggie, "these are my old friends whom I was +telling you about." + +The small creature rose slowly with a dreamy grace, and stepped off +her cushion as a fairy might alight from her walnut-shell carriage. + +"I am very pleased to meet you," she purred. + +It was the stock American phrase which has crossed the Pacific +westwards; but the citizen's brusqueness was replaced by the +condescension of a queen. + +Her face was a delicate oval of the same creamy smoothness as Asako's +But the chin, which in Asako's case receded a trifle in obedience +to Japanese canons of beauty, was thrust vigorously forward; and +the curved lips in their Cupid's bow seemed moulded for kissing by +generations of European passions, whereas about Japanese mouths there +is always something sullen and pinched and colourless. The bridge of +her nose and her eyes of deep olive green, the eyes of a wildcat, gave +the lie to her mother's race. + +Reggie's artistry could not help watching the two women together with +appreciative satisfaction. Yaé was even smaller and finer-fingered +than the pure-bred Japanese. Ever since he had first met Yaé Smith he +had compared and contrasted her in his mind with Asako Barrington. He +had used both as models for his dainty music. His harmonies, he was +wont to explain, came to him in woman's shape. To express Japan he +must see a Japanese woman. Not that he had any interest in Japanese +women, physically. They are too different from our women, he used to +think; and the difference repelled and fascinated him. It is so +wide that it can only be crossed by frank sensuality or by blind +imagination. But the artist needs his flesh-and-blood interpreter +if he is to get even as far as a misunderstanding. So in figuring to +himself the East, Reggie had at first made use of his memory of Asako, +with her European education built up over the inheritance of Japan. +Later he met Yaé Smith, through the paper walls of whose Japanese +existence the instincts of her Scottish forefathers kept forcing their +unruly way. + +Geoffrey could not define his thoughts so precisely; but something +unruly stirred in his consciousness, when he saw the ghost of his days +of courtship rise before him in the deep blue kimono. His wife had +certainly made a great abdication when she abandoned her native dress +for plain blue serges. Of course he could not have Asako looking like +a doll; but still--had he fallen in love with a few yards of silk? + +Yaé Smith seemed most anxious to please in spite of the affectation of +her poses, which perhaps were necessary to her, lest, looking so much +like a plaything, she might be greeted as such. She always wanted to +be liked by people. This was her leading characteristic. It was at the +root of her frailties--a soil overfertilized from which weeds spring +apace. + +She was voluble in a gentle cat-like way, praising the rings on +Asako's fingers, and the cut and material of her dress. But her eyes +were forever glancing towards Geoffrey. He was so very tall and broad, +standing in the framework of the folding doors beside the slim figure +of Reggie, more girlish than ever in the skirts of his kimono. + +Captain Barrington, the son of a lord! How fine he must look in +uniform, in that cavalry uniform, with the silver cuirass and the +plumed helmet like the English soldiers in her father's books at home! + +"Your husband is very big," she said to Asako. + +"Yes, he is," said Asako; "much too big for Japan." + +"Oh, I should like that," said the little Eurasian, "it must be nice." + +There was a warmth, a sincerity in the tone which made Asako stare +at her companion. But the childish face was innocent and smiling. +The languid curve of the smile and the opalescence of the green eyes +betrayed none of their secrets to Asako's inexperience. + +Reggie sat down at the piano, and, still watching the two women, he +began to play. + +"This is the Yaé Sonata," he explained to Geoffrey. + +It began with some bars from an old Scottish song: + + "Had we never loved so sadly, + Had we never loved so madly, + Never loved and never parted, + We had ne'er been broken-hearted." + +Insensibly the pathetic melody faded away into the _staccato_ beat +of a _geisha's_ song, with more rhythm than tune, which doubled +and redoubled its pace, stumbling and leaping up again over strange +syncopations. + +All of a sudden the musician stopped. + +"I can't describe your wife, now that I see her," he said. "I don't +know any dignified old Japanese music, something like the _gavottes_ +of Couperin only in a setting of Kyoto and gold screens; and then +there must be a dash of something very English which she has acquired +from you--'Home, Sweet Home' or 'Sally in our Alley.'" + +"Never mind, old chap!" said Geoffrey; "play 'Father's home again!'" + +Reggie shook himself; and then struck up the rolling chorus; but, as +he interpreted it, his mood turned pensive again. The tone was hushed, +the time slower. The vulgar tune expressed itself suddenly in deep +melancholy, It brought back to the two young men more forcibly than +the most inspired _concerto_, the memory of England, the sparkle +of the theatres, the street din of London, and the warmth of good +company--all that had seemed sweet to them in a time which was distant +now. + +Reggie ceased playing. The two girls were sitting together now on +the big black cushion in front of the fire. They were looking at a +portfolio of Japanese prints, Reggie's embryo collection. + +The young diplomat said to his friend: + +"Geoffrey, you've not been in the East long enough to be exasperated +by it. I have. So our ideas will not be in sympathy." + +"It's not what I thought it was going to be, I must admit. Everything +is so much of a muchness. If you've seen one temple you've seen the +lot, and the same with everything here." + +"That is the first stage, Disappointment. We have heard so much of +the East and its splendours, the gorgeous East and the rest of it. The +reality is small and sordid, and like so much that is ugly in our own +country." + +"Yes, they wear shocking bad clothes, don't they, directly they get +out of kimonos; and even the kimonos look dingy and dirty." + +"They are." said Reggie. "Yours would be, if you had to keep a wife +and eight children on thirty shillings a month." + +Then he added: + +"The second stage in the observer's progress is Discovery. Have you +read Lafcadio Hearn's books about Japan?" + +"Yes. some of them," answered Geoffrey. "It strikes me that he was a +thorough-paced liar." + +"No, he was a poet, a poet; and he jumped over the first stage to +dwell for some time in the second, probably because he was by nature +short-sighted. That is a great advantage for discoverers." + +"But what do you mean by the second stage?" + +"The stage of Discovery! Have you ever walked about a Japanese city in +the twilight when the evening bell sounds from a hidden temple? Have +you turned into the by-streets and watched the men returning to their +wise little houses and the family groups assembled to meet them and +help them change into their kimonos? Have you heard the splashing +and the chatter of the bath-houses which are the evening clubs of the +common people and the great clearing-houses of gossip? Have you heard +the broken _samisen_ music tracking you down a street of _geisha_ +houses? Have you seen the _geisha_ herself in her blue cloak sitting +rigid and expressionless in the rickshaw which is carrying her off to +meet her lover? Have you heard the drums of Priapus beating from the +gay quarters? Have you watched the crowds which gather round a temple +festival, buying queer little plants for their homes and farthing toys +for their children, crowding to the fortune-teller's booth for news of +good luck and bad luck, throwing their penny to the god and clapping +their hands to attract his attention? Have you seen anything of this +without a feeling of deep pleasure and a wonder as to how these people +live and think, what we have got in common with them, and what we have +got to learn from them?" + +"I think I know what you mean," said Geoffrey. "It's all very +picturesque, but they always seem to be hiding something." + +"Exactly," said his friend, "and every man of intelligence who has to +live in this country thinks that he need only learn their language and +use their customs, and then he will find out what is hidden. That is +what Lafcadio Hearn did; and that is why I wear a kimono. But what did +he find out? A lot of pretty stories, echoes of old civilization and +folk-lore; but of the mind and heart of the Japanese people--the only +coloured people, after all, who have held their heads up against +the white races--little or nothing until he reached the third stage, +Disillusionment. Then he wrote _Japan, an Interpretation_, which is +his best book." + +"I haven't read it." + +"You ought to. His other things are mere melodies, the kind of stuff +I can play to you by the hour. This is a serious book of history and +political science." + +"Sounds a bit dry for me." laughed Geoffrey. + +"It is a disillusioned man's explanation of the country into which he +had tried to sink, but which had rejected him. He explains the present +by the past. That is reasonable. The dead are the real rulers of +Japan, he says. Underneath the surface changing, the nation is deeply +conservative, suspicious of all interference and unconventionally, +sullenly self-satisfied; and above all, still as much locked in its +primitive family system as it was a thousand years ago. You cannot be +friends with a Japanese unless you are friends with his family; and +you cannot be friends with his family unless you belong to it. This is +the deadlock; and this is why we never get any forwarder." + +"Then I've got a chance since I've got a Japanese family." + +"I don't know of course," said Reggie; "but I shouldn't think they +would have much use for you. They will receive you most politely; but +they will look upon you as an interloper and they will try to steer +you out of the country." + +"But my wife?" said Geoffrey, "she is their own flesh and blood, after +all." + +"Well, of course, I don't know. But if they are extremely friendly +I should look out, if I were you. The Japanese are conventionally +hospitable, but they are not cordial to strangers unless they have a +very strong motive." + +Geoffrey Barrington looked in the direction where his wife was seated +on a corner of the big cushion, turning over one by one a portfolio +full of parti-colored woodprints on their broad white mounts. The +firelight flickered round her like a crowd of importunate thoughts. +She felt that he was looking at her, and glanced across at him. + +"Can you see in there, Mrs. Barrington, or shall I turn the lights +on?" asked her host. + +"Oh, no," answered the little lady, "that would spoil it. The pictures +look quite alive in the firelight. What a lovely collection you've +got!" + +"There's nothing very valuable there," said Reggie, "but they are very +effective, I think, even the cheap ones." + +Asako was holding up a pied engraving of a sinuous Japanese woman, an +Utamaro from an old block recut, in dazzling raiment, with her sash +tied in front of her and her head bristling with amber pins like a +porcupine. + +"Geoffrey, will you please take me to see the Yoshiwara?" she asked. + +The request dismayed Geoffrey. He knew well enough what was to be seen +at the Yoshiwara. He would have been interested to visit the licensed +quarter of the demi-monde himself in the company of--say Reggie +Forsyth. But this was a branch of inquiry which to his mind should be +reserved for men alone. Nice women never think of such things. That +his own wife should wish to see the place and, worse still, should +express that wish in public was a blatant offence against Good Form, +which could only be excused by her innocent ignorance. + +But Reggie, who was used to the curiosity of every tourist, male and +female, about the night-life of Tokyo, answered readily: + +"Yes, Mrs. Barrington. It's well worth seeing. We must arrange to go +down there." + +"Miss Smith tells me," said Asako, "that all these lovely gay +creatures are Yoshiwara girls; and that you can see them there now." + +"Not that identical lady of course," said Reggie, who had joined +the group by the fireside, "she died a hundred years ago; but her +professional great-granddaughters are still there." + +"And I can see them!" Asako clapped her hands. "Ladies are allowed to +go and look? It does not matter? It is not improper?" + +"Oh, no," said Yaé Smith, "my brothers have taken me. Would you like +to go?" + +"Yes, I would," said Asako, glancing at her husband, who, however, +showed no signs of approval. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ITO SAN + + _Ama no hara + Fumi-todorokashi + Naru-kami mo + Omou-naka wo ba + Sakuru mono ka wa?_ + + Can even the God of Thunder + Whose footfall resounds + In the plains of the sky + Put asunder + Those whom love joins? + +Geoffrey's conscience was disturbed. His face was lined and worried +with thought, such as had left him untroubled since the effervescences +of his early youth. Like many young men of his caste, he had soon +submitted all the baffling riddles of conduct to the thumb rule of +Good Form. This Yoshiwara question was to him something more than +a moral conundrum. It was a subtle attack by the wife of his bosom, +aided and abetted by his old friend Reggie Forsyth and by the +mysterious forces of this unfamiliar land as typified by Yaé Smith, +against the citadel of Good Form, against the stronghold of his +principles. + +Geoffrey himself wished to see the Yoshiwara. His project had been +that one evening, when Asako had been invited to dinner by friends, he +and Reggie would go and look at the place. This much was sanctioned by +Good Form. + +For him to take his wife there, and for people to know that he +had done so, would be the worst of Bad Form, the conduct of a rank +outsider. Unfortunately, it was also Bad Form for him to discuss the +matter with Asako. + +A terrible dilemma. + +Was it possible that the laws of Good and Bad Form were only locally +binding, and that here in Japan they were no longer valid? + +Reggie was different. He was so awfully clever. He could extemporize +on Good Form as he could extemporize on the piano. Besides, he was a +victim to the artistic temperament, which cannot control itself. But +Reggie had not been improved by his sojourn in this queer country, or +he would never have so far forgotten himself as to speak in such a way +in the presence of ladies. + +Geoffrey would give him a good beating at tennis; and then, having +reduced him to a fit state of humility, he would have it out with him. +For Barrington was not a man to nurse displeasure against his friends. + +The tennis courts at Tokyo--which stand in a magnificent central +position one day to be occupied by the Japanese Houses of +Parliament--are every afternoon the meeting place for youth in exile +with a sprinkling of Japanese, some of whom have acquired great skill +at the game. Towards tea-time the ladies arrive to watch the evening +efforts of their husbands and admirers, and to escort them home when +the light begins to fail. So the tennis courts have become a little +social oasis in the vast desert of oriental life. Brilliant it is not. +Sparkle there is none. But there is a certain chirpiness, the forced +gaiety of caged birds. + +The day was warm and bright. The snow had vanished as though by +supernatural command. Geoffrey enjoyed his game thoroughly, although +he was beaten, being out of practice and unused to gravel courts. But +the exercise made him, in his own language, "sweat like a pig," and he +felt better. He thought he would shelve the unpleasant subject for the +time being; but it was Reggie himself who revived it. + +"About the Yoshiwara," he said, seating himself on one of the benches +placed round the courts. "They are having a special show down there +to-morrow. It will probably be worth seeing." + +"Look here," said Geoffrey, "is it the thing for ladies--English +ladies--to go to a place like that?" + +"Of course," answered his friend, "it is one of the sights of +Tokyo. Why, I went with Lady Cynthia not so long ago. She was quite +fascinated." + +"By Jove!" Geoffrey ejaculated. "But for a young girl--? Did Miss +Cairns go too?" + +"Not on that occasion; but I have no doubt she has been." + +"But isn't it much the same as taking a lady to a public brothel?" + +"Not in the least," was Reggie's answer, "it is like along Piccadilly +after nightfall, looking in at the Empire, and returning via Regent +Street; and in Paris, like a visit to the _Rat Mort_ and the _Bal +Tabarin_. It is the local version of an old theme." + +"But is that a nice sight for a lady?" + +"It is what every lady wants to see." + +"Reggie, what rot! Any clean-minded girl--" + +"Geoffrey, old man, would _you_ like to see the place?" + +"Yes, but for a man it's different." + +"Why do you want to see it? You're not going there for business, I +presume?" + +"Why? for curiosity, I suppose. One hears such a lot of people talk +about the Yoshiwara--" + +"For curiosity, that's right: and do you really think that women, even +clean-minded women, have less curiosity than men?" + +Geoffrey Barrington started to laugh at his own discomfiture. + +"Reggie, you were always a devil for arguing!" he said. "At home one +would never talk about things like that." + +"There must be a slight difference then between Home and Abroad. +Certain bonds are relaxed. Abroad, one is a sight-seer. One is out to +watch the appearance and habits of the natives in a semi-scientific +mood, just as one looks at animals in the Zoo. Besides, nobody knows +or cares who one is. One has no awkward responsibilities towards one's +neighbours; and there is little or no danger of finding an intimate +acquaintance in an embarrassing position. In London one lives in +constant dread of finding people out." + +"But my wife," Geoffrey continued, troubled once more, "I can't +imagine--" + +"Mrs. Barrington may be an exception; but take my word for it, every +woman, however good and holy, is intensely interested in the lives +of her fallen sisters. They know less about them than we do. They are +therefore more mysterious and interesting to them. And yet they are +much nearer to them by the whole difference of sex. There is always +a personal query arising, 'I, too, might have chosen that life--what +would it have brought me?' There is a certain compassion, too; +and above all there is the intense interest of rivalry. Who is not +interested in his arch-enemy? and what woman does not want to know by +what unholy magic her unfair competitor holds her power over men?" + +The tennis courts were filling with youths released from offices. In +the court facing them, two young fellows had begun a single. One of +them was a Japanese; the other, though his hair and eyes were of the +native breed, was too fair of skin and too tall of stature. He was +a Eurasian. They both played exceedingly well. The rallies were long +sustained, the drives beautifully timed and taken. The few unemployed +about the courts soon made this game the object of their special +attention. + +"Who are they?" asked Geoffrey, glad to change the conversation. + +"That's Aubrey Smith, Yaé's brother, one of the best players here, +and Viscount Kamimura, who ought to be quite the best; but he has just +married, and his wife will not let him play often enough." + +"Oh," exclaimed Geoffrey, "he was on the ship with us coming out." + +He had not recognised the good-looking young Japanese. He had not +expected to meet him somehow in such a European _milieu_. Kamimura had +noticed his fellow-traveller, however; and when the set was over +and the players had changed sides, he came up and greeted him most +cordially. + +"I hear you are already married," said Geoffrey. "Our best +congratulations!" + +"Thank you," replied Kamimura, blushing. Japanese blush readily in +spite of their complexion. + +"We Japanese must not boast about our wives. It is what you call Bad +Form. But I would like her to meet Mrs. Barrington. She speaks English +not so badly." + +"Yes," said Geoffrey, "I hope you will come and dine with us one +evening at the Imperial." + +"Thank you very much," answered the young Viscount. "How long are you +staying in Japan?" + +"Oh, for some months." + +"Then we shall meet often, I hope," he said, and returned to his game. + +"A very decent fellow; quite human," Reggie commented. + +"Yes, isn't he?" said Geoffrey; and then he asked suddenly,-- + +"Do you think he would take his wife to see the Yoshiwara?" + +"Probably not; but then they are Japanese people living in Japan. That +alters everything." + +"I don't think so," said Geoffrey; and he was conscious of having +scored off his friend for once. + +Miss Yaé Smith had arrived on her daily visit to the courts. She was +already surrounded by a little retinue of young men, who, however, +scattered at Reggie's approach. + +Miss Yaé smiled graciously on the two new-comers and inquired after +Mrs. Barrington. + +"It was so nice to talk with her the other day; it was like being in +England again." + +Yes, Miss Yaé had been in England and in America too. She preferred +those countries very much to Japan. It was so much more amusing. There +was so little to do here. Besides, in Japan it was such a small world; +and everybody was so disagreeable; especially the women, always saying +untrue, unkind things. + +She looked so immaterial and sprite-like in her blue kimono, her +strange eyes downcast as her habit was when talking about herself and +her own doings, that Geoffrey could think no evil of her, nor could he +wonder at Reggie's gaze of intense admiration which beat upon her like +sunlight on a picture. + +However, Asako must be waiting for him. He took his leave, and +returned to his hotel. + + * * * * * + +Asako had been entertaining a visitor. She had gone out shopping for +an hour, not altogether pleased to find herself alone. On her return, +a Japanese gentleman in a vivid green suit had risen from a seat in +the lounge of the hotel, and had introduced himself. + +"I am Ito, your attorney-of-law." + +He was a small, podgy person with a round oily face and heavy voluted +moustaches. The expression of his eyes was hidden behind gold-rimmed +spectacles. It would have been impossible for a European to guess his +age, anything between twenty-five and fifty. His thick, plum-coloured +hair was brushed up on his forehead in a butcher-boy's curl. His teeth +glittered with dentist's gold. He wore a tweed suit of bright +pea-soup colour, a rainbow tie and yellow boots. Over the bulge of an +egg-shaped stomach hung a massive gold watch-chain blossoming into a +semi-heraldic charm, which might be a masonic emblem or a cycling club +badge. His breastpocket appeared to hold a quiverful of fountain-pens. + +"How do you do, Mrs. Harrington? I am pleased to meet you." + +The voice was high and squeaky, like a boy's voice when it is +breaking. The extended hand was soft and greasy in spite of its +attempt at a firm grip. With elaborate politeness he ushered Mrs. +Harrington into her chair. He took his place close beside her, crossed +his fat legs, and stuck his thumbs into his arm-holes. + +"I am your friend Ito," he began, "your father's friend, and I am sure +to be your friend, too." + +But for the reference to her father she would have snubbed him. She +decided to give him tea in the lounge, and not to invite him to her +private rooms. A growing distrust of her countrymen, arising largely +from observation of the ways of Tanaka, was making little Asako less +confiding than of yore. She was still ready to be amused by them, but +she was becoming less credulous of the Japanese pose of simplicity +and the conventional smile. However, she was soon melted by Mr. Ito's +kindliness of manner. He patted her hand, and called her "little +girl." + +"I am your old lawyer," he kept on saying, "your father's friend, and +your best friend too. Anything you want, just ring me and you have it. +There's my number. Don't forget now. Shiba 1326. What do you think +of Japan, now? Beautiful country, I think. And you have not yet seen +Miyanoshita, or Kamakura, or Nikko temples. You have not yet got +automobile, I think. Indeed, I am sorry for you. That is a very wrong +thing! I shall at once order for you a very splendid automobile, +and we must make a grand trip. Every rich and noble person possesses +splendid automobile." + +"Oh, that would be nice!" Asako clapped her hands. "Japan is so +pretty. I do want to see more of it. But I must ask my husband about +buying the motor." + +Ito laughed a fat, oily laugh. + +"Indeed, that is Japanese style, little girl. Japanese wife say, 'I +ask my husband.' American style wife very different. She say, 'My +husband do this, do that'--like coolie. I have travelled much abroad. +I know American custom very well." + +"My husband gives me all I want, and a great deal more," said Asako. + +"He is very kind man," grinned the lawyer, "because the money is all +yours--not his at all. Ha, ha!" + +Then, seeing that his officiousness was overstepping the mark, he +added,-- + +"I know American ladies very well. They don't give money to their +husbands. They tell their husbands, 'You give money to me.' They just +do everything themselves, writing cheques all the time!" + +"Really?" said Asako; "but my husband is the kindest and best man in +the world!" + +"Quite right, quite right. Love your husband like a good little girl. +But don't forget your old lawyer, Ito. I was your father's friend. We +were at school together here in Tokyo." + +This interested Asako immensely. She tried to make the lawyer talk +further, but he said that it was a very long story, and he must tell +her some other time. Then she asked him about her cousin, Mr. Fujinami +Gentaro. + +"He is away from town just now. When he returns, I think he will +invite you to splendid feast." + +With that he took his leave. + +"What do you think of him?" Asako asked Tanaka, who had been watching +the interview with an attendant chorus of _boy sans_. + +"He is _haikara_ gentleman," was the reply. + +Now, _haikara_, is a native corruption of the words "high collar," and +denoted at first a variety of Japanese "nut," who aped the European +and the American in his habits, manners and dress--of which pose +the high collar was the most visible symbol. The word was presumably +contemptuous in its origin. It has since, however, changed its +character as so to mean anything smart and fashionable. You can live +in a _haikara_ house, you can read _haikara_ books, you can wear a +_haikara_ hat. It has become indeed practically a Japanese equivalent +for that untranslatable expression "_chic_." + + * * * * * + +Asako Harrington, like all simple people, had little familiarity save +with the superficial stratum of her intelligence. She lived in the +gladness of her eyes like a happy young animal. Nothing, not even her +marriage, had touched her very profoundly. Even the sudden shock of +de Brie's love-making had not shaken anything deeper than her natural +pride and her ignorance of mankind. + +But in this strange, still land, whose expression looks inwards and +whose face is a mask, a change was operating. Ito left her, as he had +intended, with a growing sense of her own importance as distinct from +her husband. "I was your father's friend: we were at school together +here in Tokyo." Why, Geoffrey did not even know her father's name. + +Asako did not think as closely as this. She could not. But she must +have looked very thoughtful; for when Geoffrey came in, he saw her +still sitting in the lounge, and exclaimed,-- + +"Why, my little Yum Yum, how serious we are! We look as if we were at +our own funeral. Couldn't you get the things you wanted?" + +"Oh yes," said Asako, trying to brighten up, "and I've had a visitor. +Guess!" + +"Relations?" + +"No and yes. It was Mr. Ito, the lawyer." + +"Oh, that little blighter. That reminds me. I must go and see him +to-morrow, and find out what he is doing with our money." + +"_My_ money," laughed Asako, "Tanaka never lets me forget that." + +"Of course, little one," said Geoffrey, "I'd be in the workhouse if it +wasn't for you." + +"Geoffrey darling," said his wife hesitating, "will you give me +something?" + +"Yes, of course, my sweetheart, what do you want?" + +"I want a motor-car, yes please; and I'd like to have a cheque-book of +my own. Sometimes when I am out by myself I would like--" + +"Why, of course," said Geoffrey, "you ought to have had one long ago. +But it was your own idea; you didn't want to be bothered with money." + +"Oh Geoffrey, you angel, you are so good to me." + +She clung to his neck; and he, seeing the hotel deserted and nobody +about, raised her in his arms and carried her bodily upstairs to the +interest and amusement of the chorus of _boy sans_, who had just been +discussing why _danna san_ had left _okusan_ for so many hours that +afternoon, and who and what was the Japanese gentleman who had been +talking to _okusan_ in the hall. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE YOSHIWARA WOMEN + + _Kyushu dai-ichi no ume + Kon-ya kimi ga tame ni hiraku. + Hana no shingi wo shiran + to hosseba, + San-ko tsuki wo funde kitare_. + + The finest plum-blossom of Kyushu + This night is opening for thee. + If thou wishes to know the true character of this flower, + Come at the third hour singing in the moonlight. + +_Yoshiwara Popular Song_. + + +As the result of an affecting scene with his wife, Geoffrey's +opposition to the Yoshiwara project collapsed. If everybody went to +see the place, then it could not be such very Bad Form to do so. + +Asako rang up Reggie; and on the next afternoon the young diplomat +called for the Barringtons in a motor-car, where Miss Yaé Smith was +already installed. They drove through Tokyo. It was like crossing +London for the space of distance covered; an immense city--yet is it a +city, or merely a village preposterously overgrown? + +There is no dignity in the Japanese capital, nothing secular or +permanent, except that mysterious forest-land in the midst of the +moats and the grey walls, where dwell the Emperor and the Spirit of +the Race. It is a mongrel city, a vast congeries of native wooden +huts, hastily equipped with a few modern conveniences. Drunken poles +stagger down the streets, waving their cobwebs of electric wires. +Rickety trams jolt past, crowded to overflowing, so crowded that +humanity clings to the steps and platforms in clots, like flies +clinging to some sweet surface. Thousands of little shops glitter, +wink or frown at the passer-by. Many of them have western plate-glass +windows and stucco fronts, hiding their savagery, like a native woman +tricked out in ridiculous pomp. Some, still grimly conservative, +receive the customer in their cavernous interior, and cheat his eyes +in their perpetual twilight. Many of these little shops are so small +that their stock-in-trade flows over on to the pavement. The toy +shops, the china shops, the cake shops, the shops for women's ribbons +and hairpins seem to be trying to turn themselves inside out. Others +are so reticent that nothing appears save a stretch of clean straw +mats, where sulky clerks sit smoking round the _hibachi_ (fireboxes). +Then, when the eye gets accustomed to the darkness, one can see behind +them the ranks of the tea-jars of Uji, or layers of dark kimono stuff. + +The character of the shops changed as the Barringtons and their party +approached their destination. The native element predominated more and +more. The wares became more and more inexplicable. There were shops +in which gold Buddhas shone and brass lamps for temple use, shops +displaying queer utensils and mysterious little bits of things, whose +secret was hidden in the cabalistic signs of Chinese script. There +were stalls of curios, and second-hand goods spread out on the +pavement, under the custody of wizened, inattentive old men, who +squatted and smoked. + +Red-faced maids stared at the foreigners from the balconies of lofty +inns and eating-houses near Uyeno station. Further on, they passed +the silence of old temple walls, the spaciousness of pigeon-haunted +cloisters, and the huge high-pitched roofs of the shrines, with their +twisted horn-like points. Then, down a narrow alley appeared the +garish banners of the Asakusa theatres and cinema palaces. They heard +the yelling of the door-touts, and the bray of discordant music. They +caught a glimpse of hideous placards whose crude illustrations showed +the quality of the performance to be seen within, girls falling from +aeroplanes, demon ghosts with bloody daggers, melodrama unleashed. + +Everywhere the same crowds loitered along the pavements. No hustle, no +appearance of business save where a messenger-boy threaded the maze +on a break-neck bicycle, or where a dull-faced coolie pulled at an +overloaded barrow. Grey and brown, the crowd clattered by on their +wooden shoes. Grey and black, passed the _haikara_ young men with +their yellow side-spring shoes. Black and sabre-dragging, the +policeman went to and fro, invisibly moored to his wooden sentry-box. + +The only bright notes among all these drab multitudes were the little +girls in their variegated kimonos, who fluttered in and out of the +entrances, and who played unscolded on the footpaths. These too were +the only notes of happiness; for their grown-up relatives, especially +the women, carried an air, if not an actual expression, of animal +melancholy, the melancholy of driven sheep or of cows ruminant. + +The crowds were growing denser. Their faces were all set in one +direction. At last the whole roadway was filled with the slow-moving +tide. The Harringtons and their friends had to alight from their car +and continue the rest of the way on foot. + +"They are all going to see the show," Reggie explained to his party, +and he pointed to a line of high houses, which stood out above the low +native huts. It was a square block of building some hundreds of yards +long, quite foreign in character, having the appearance of factory +buildings, or of a barracks or workhouse. + +"What a dismal-looking place!" said Asako. + +"Yes," agreed Reggie, "but at night it is much brighter. It is all lit +up from top to bottom. It is called the Nightless City." + +"What bad faces these people have!" said Asako, who was romantically +set on seeing evil everywhere, "Is it quite safe?" + +"Oh yes," said their guide, "Japanese crowds are very orderly." + +Indeed they suffered no inconvenience from the crowd beyond much +staring, an ordeal which awaits the foreigner in all corners of Tokyo. + +They had reached a very narrow street, where raffish beer-shops were +doing a roaring trade. They caught a glimpse of dirty tablecloths and +powdered waitresses wearing skirts, aprons and lumpy shoes--all very +_haikara_. On the right hand they passed a little temple from whose +exiguous courtyard two stone foxes grinned maliciously, the temple of +the god Inari, who brings rich lovers to the girls who pray to him. + +They passed through iron gates, like the gates of a park, where two +policemen were posted to regulate the traffic. Beyond was a single +line of cherry-trees in full bloom, a single wave of pinkish spray, a +hanging curtain of vapourous beauty, the subject of a thousand +poems, of a thousand allusions, licentious, delicate and trite,--the +cherry-blossoms of the Yoshiwara. + +At a street corner stood a high white building plastered with golden +letters in Japanese and English--"Asahi Beer Hall." + +"That is the place," said Yaé, "let us get out of this crowd." + +They found refuge among more dirty tablecloths, Europeanised +_mousmés_, and gaping guests. When Yaé spoke to the girls in Japanese, +there was much bowing and hissing of the breath; and they were invited +upstairs on to the first floor where was another beer-hall, slightly +more exclusive-looking than the downstair Gambrinus. Here a table +and chairs were set for them in the embrasure of a bow-window, which, +protruding over the cross-roads, commanded an admirable view of the +converging streets. + +"The procession won't be here for two hours more," said Yaé, pouting +her displeasure. + +"One always has to wait in Japan," said Reggie. "Nobody ever knows +exactly when anything is going to happen; and so the Japanese just +wait and wait. They seem to like it rather. Anyhow they don't get +impatient. Life is so uneventful here that I think they must like +prolonging an incident as much as possible, like sucking a sweet +slowly." + +Meanwhile there was plenty to look at. Asako could not get over her +shock at the sea of wicked faces which surged below. + +"What class of people are these?" Geoffrey asked. + +"Oh, shop-people, I think, most of them," said Yaé, "and people who +work in factories." + +"Good class Japanese don't come here, then?" Geoffrey asked again. + +"Oh no, only low class people and students. Japanese people say it is +a shameful thing to go to the Yoshiwara. And, if they go, they go very +secretly." + +"Do you know any one who goes?" asked Reggie, with a directness which +shocked his friend's sense of Good Form. + +"Oh, my brothers," said Yaé, "but they go everywhere; or they say they +do." + + * * * * * + +It certainly was an ill-favoured crowd. The Japanese are not an ugly +race. The young aristocrat who has grown up with fresh air and healthy +exercise is often good-looking, and sometimes distinguished and +refined. But the lower classes, those who keep company with poverty, +dirt and pawnshops, with the pleasures of the _saké_ barrel and the +Yoshiwara, are the ugliest beings that were ever created in the image +of their misshapen gods. Their small stature and ape-like attitudes, +the colour and discolour of their skin, the flat Mongolian nose, their +gaping mouths and bad teeth, the coarse fibre of their lustreless +black hair, give them an elvish and a goblin look, as though +this country were a nursery for fairy changelings, a land of the +Nibelungen, where bad thoughts have found their incarnation. Yet the +faces have not got that character for good and evil as we find them +among the Aryan peoples, the deep lines and the firm profiles. + +"It is the absence of something rather than its presence which appals +and depresses us," Reggie Forsyth observed, "an absence of happiness +perhaps, or of a promise of happiness." + +The crowd which filled the four roads with its slow grey tide was +peaceable enough; and it was strangely silent. The drag and clatter +of the clogs made more sound than the human voices. The great majority +were men, though there were women among them, quiet and demure. If +ever a voice was lifted, one could see by the rolling walk and the +fatuous smile that its owner had been drinking. Such a person would +be removed out of sight by his friends. The Japanese generally go +sight-seeing and merry-making in friendships and companies; and the +_Verein_, which in Japan is called the _Kwai_, flourishes here as in +Germany. + +Two coolies started quarreling under the Barringtons' window. They too +had been drinking. They did not hit out at each other like Englishmen, +but started an interchange of abuse in gruff monosyllables and +indistinguishable grunts and snorts. + +"_Baka! Chikushomé! Kuso_! (Fool! Beast! Dung!)" + +These amenities exasperating their ill humour, they began to pull at +each other's coats and to jostle each other like quarrelsome curs. +This was a sign that affairs were growing serious; and the police +intervened. Again each combatant was pushed away by his companions +into opposite byways. + +With these exceptions, all tramplings, squeezings, pushings and +pokings were received with conventional grins or apathetic staring. +Yet in the paper next day it was said that so great had been the crowd +that six deaths had occurred, and numerous persons had fainted. + +"But where is the Yoshiwara?" Geoffrey asked at last. "Where are these +wretched women kept?" + +Reggie waved his hand in the direction of the three roads facing them. + +"Inside the iron gates, that is all the Yoshiwara, and those high +houses and the low ones too. That is where the girls are. There are +two or three thousand of them within sight, as it were, from here. +But, of course, the night time is the time to see them." + +"I suppose so," said Geoffrey vaguely. + +"They sit in shop windows, one might say," Reggie went on, "only with +bars in front like cages in the Zoo. And they wear gorgeous kimonos, +red and gold and blue, and embroidered with flowers and dragons. It +is like nothing I can think of, except aviaries full of wonderful +parrakeets and humming-birds." + +"Are they pretty?" Asako asked. + +"No, I can't say they are pretty; and they all seem very much alike to +the mere Westerner. I can't imagine any body picking out one of them +and saying, 'I love her'--'she is the loveliest.' There is a fat, +impassive type like Buddha. There is a foxy animated type which +exchanges _badinage_ with the young nuts through the bars of her cage; +and there is a merely ugly lumpy type, a kind of cloddish country-girl +who exists in all countries. But the more exclusive houses don't +display their women. One can only see a row of photographs. No doubt +they are very flattering to their originals." + +Asako was staring at the buildings now, at the high square prison +houses, and at the low native roofs. These had each its little +platform, its _monohoshi_, where much white washing was drying in the +sun. + +At the farther end of one street a large stucco building, with a +Grecian portico, stood athwart the thoroughfare. + +"What is that?" said Asako; "it looks like a church." + +"That is the hospital," answered Reggie. + +"But why is there a hospital here?" she asked again. + +Yaé Smith smiled ever so little at her new friend's ignorance of the +wages of sin. But nobody answered the question. + + * * * * * + +There was a movement in the crowd, a pushing back from some unseen +locality, like the jolting of railway trucks. At the same time there +was a craning of necks and a murmur of interest. + +In the street opposite, the crowd was opening down the centre. The +police, who had sprung up everywhere like the crop of the dragons' +teeth, were dividing the people. And then, down the path so formed, +came the strangest procession which Geoffrey Barrington had ever seen +on or off the stage. + +High above the heads of the crowd appeared what seemed to be a +life-size automaton, a moving waxwork magnificently garbed in white +brocade with red and gold embroidery of phenixes, and a huge red sash +tied in a bow in front. The hem of the skirt, turned up with red and +thickly wadded, revealed a series of these garments fitting beneath +each other, like the leaves of an artichoke. Under a monumental +edifice of hair, bristling like a hedgehog with amber-coloured pins +and with silver spangles and rosettes, a blank, impassive little face +was staring straight in front of it, utterly expressionless, utterly +unnatural, hidden beneath the glaze of enamel--the china face of a +doll. + +It parted the grey multitude like a pillar of light. It tottered +forward slowly, for it was lifted above the crowd on a pair of +black-lacquered clogs as high as stilts, dangerous and difficult to +manipulate. On each side were two little figures, similarly painted, +similarly bedizened, similarly expressionless, children of nine or +ten years only, the _komuro_, the little waiting-women. They served to +support the reigning beauty and at the same time to display her long +embroidered sleeves, outstretched on either side like wings. + +The brilliant figure and her two attendants moved forward under the +shade of a huge ceremonial umbrella of yellow oiled paper, which +looked like a membrane or like old vellum, and upon which were written +in Chinese characters the personal name of the lady chosen for the +honour and the name of the house in which she was an inmate. The +shaft of this umbrella, some eight or nine feet long, was carried by a +sinister being, clothed in the blue livery of the Japanese artisan, +a kind of tabard with close-fitting trousers. He kept twisting the +umbrella-shaft all the time with a gyrating movement to and fro, which +imparted to the disc of the umbrella the hesitation of a wave. He +followed the Queen with a strange slow stride. For long seconds +he would pause with one foot held aloft in the attitude of a +high-stepping horse, which distorted his dwarfish body into a diabolic +convulsion, like Durer's angel of horror. He seemed a familiar spirit, +a mocking devil, the wicked _Spielmann_ of the "Miracle" play, whose +harsh laughter echoes through the empty room when the last cup is +emptied, the last shilling gone, and the dreamer awakes from his +dream. + +Behind him followed five or six men carrying large oval lanterns, +also inscribed with the name of the house; and after them came a +representative collection of the officials of the proud establishment, +a few foxy old women and a crowd of swaggering men, spotty +and vicious-looking. The _Orian_ (Chief Courtesan) reached the +cross-roads. There, as if moved by machinery or magnetism, she slowly +turned to the left. She made her way towards one of a row of small, +old-fashioned native houses, on the road down which the Barringtons +had come. Here the umbrella was lowered. The beauty bowed her +monumental head to pass under the low doorway, and settled herself on +a pile of cushions prepared to receive her. + +Almost at once the popular interest was diverted to the appearance of +another procession, precisely similar, which was debouching from the +opposite road. The new _Orian_ garbed in blue, with a sash of gold and +a design of cherry-blossom, supported by her two little attendants, +wobbled towards another of the little houses. On her disappearing a +third procession came into sight. + +"Ah!" sighed Asako, "what lovely kimonos! Where do they get them +from?" + +"I don't know," said Yaé, "some of them are quite old. They come out +fresh year after year for a different girl." + +Yaé, with her distorted little soul, was thinking that it must be +worth the years of slavery and the humiliation of disease to have that +one day of complete triumph, to be the representative of Beauty upon +earth, to feel the admiration and the desire of that vast concourse of +men rising round one's body like a warm flood. + +Geoffrey stared fascinated, wondering to see the fact of prostitution +advertised so unblushingly as a public spectacle, his hatred and +contempt breaking over the heads of the swine-faced men who followed +the harlot, and picked their livelihood out of her shame. + +Reggie was wondering what might be the thoughts of those little +creatures muffled in such splendour that their personality, like that +of infant queens, was entirely hidden by the significance of what they +symbolized. Not a smile, not a glance of recognition passed over the +unnatural whiteness of their faces. Yet they could not be, as they +appeared to be, sleep-walkers. Were they proud to wear such finery? +Were they happy to be so acclaimed? Did their heart beat for one man, +or did their vanity drink in the homage of all? Did their mind turn +back to the mortgaged farm and the work in the paddy-fields, to +the thriftless shop and the chatter of the little town, to the +_saké_-sodden father who had sold them in the days of their innocence, +to the first numbing shock of that new life? Perhaps; or perhaps they +were too taken up with maintaining their equilibrium on their high +shoes, or perhaps they thought of nothing at all. Reggie, who had a +poor opinion of the intellectual brightness of uneducated Japanese +women, thought that the last alternative was highly probable. + +"I wonder what those little houses are where they pay their visits," +Reggie said. + +"Oh, those are the _hikité chaya_" said Yaé glibly, "the Yoshiwara +tea-houses." + +"Do they live there?" asked Asako. + +"Oh, no; rich men who come to the Yoshiwara do not go to the big +houses where the _oiran_ live. They go to the tea-houses; and they +order food and _geisha_ to sing, and the _oiran_ to be brought from +the big house. It is more private. So the tea-houses are called +_hikité chaya_, 'tea-houses which lead by the hand.'" + +"Yaé," said Reggie, "you know a lot about it." + +"Yes," said Miss Smith, "my brothers have told me. They tell me lots +of things." + +After a stay of about half an hour, the _oiran_ left their tea-houses. +The processions reformed; and they slowly tottered back to the places +whence they had come. Across their path the cherry petals were already +falling like snowflakes; for the cherry-blossom is the Japanese symbol +of the impermanence of earthly beauty, and of all sweet things and +pleasant. + +"By Jove!" said Geoffrey Harrington to the world in general, "that +was an extraordinary sight. East is East and West is West, eh? I never +felt that so strongly before. How often does this performance take +place?" + +"This performance," said Reggie, "has taken place for three days every +Spring for the last three hundred years. But it is more than doubtful +whether it will ever happen again. It is called _Oiran Dochu_, the +procession of the courtesans. Geoffrey, what you have seen to-day is +nothing more or less than the Passing of Old Japan!" + +"But whom do these women belong to?" asked Geoffrey. "And who is +making money out of all this filth?" + +"Various people and companies, I suppose, who own the different +houses," answered Reggie. "A fellow once offered to sell me his whole +establishment, bedding and six girls for £50 down. But he must +have been having a run of bad luck. In most countries it is a +most profitable form of investment. Do you remember 'Mrs. Warren's +Profession'? Thirty-five per cent I think was the exact figure. I +don't suppose Japan is any exception." + +"By Jove!" said Geoffrey, "The women, poor wretches, they can't help +themselves; and the men who buy what they sell, one can't blame them +either. But the creatures who make fortunes out of all this beastiness +and cruelty, I say, they ought to be flogged round the place with a +cat-o'-nine-tails till the life is beaten out of them. Let's get away +from here!" + +As they left the beer-house a small round Japanese man bobbed up from +the crowd, raised his hat, bowed and smiled. It was Tanaka. Geoffrey +had left him behind on purpose, that his servants, at least, might not +know where he was going. + +"I think--I meet Ladyship here," said the little man, "but for long +time I do not spy her. I am very sorry." + +"Is anything wrong? Why did you come?" asked Geoffrey. + +"Good _samurai_ never leave Lordship's side. Of course, I come," was +the reply. + +"Well, hurry up and get back," said his master, "or we shall be home +before you." + +With renewed bowings he disappeared. + +Asako was laughing. + +"We can never get rid of Tanaka," she said, "can we? He follows us +like a detective." + +"Sometimes I think he is deliberately spying on us," said her husband. + +"Cheer up," said Reggie, "they all do that." + +The party dispersed at the Imperial Hotel. Asako was laughing and +happy. She had enjoyed herself immensely as usual; and her innocence +had realized little or nothing of the grim significance of what she +had seen. + +But Geoffrey was gloomy and distrait. He had taken it much to heart. +That night he had a horrible dream. The procession of the _oiran_ was +passing once more before his eyes; but he could not see the face of +the gorgeous doll whom all these crowds had come out to admire. He +felt strangely apprehensive, however. Then at a corner of the street +the figure turned and faced him. It was Asako, his wife. He struggled +to reach her and save her. But the crowds of Japanese closed in upon +him; he struggled in vain. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A GEISHA DINNER + + _Inishi toshi + Ne-kojite uyeshi + Waga yodo no + Wakaki no ume wa + Hana saki ni keri_. + + The young plum tree + Of my house + Which in bygone years + I dug up by the roots and transplanted + Has at last bloomed with flowers. + + +Next morning Geoffrey rose earlier than was his wont; and arrayed +in one of his many kimonos, entered his sitting-room. There he found +Tanaka, wrapped in contemplation of a letter. He was scrutinizing it +with an attention which seemed to pierce the envelope. + +"Who is it from, Tanaka?" asked Geoffrey; he had become mildly +ironical in his dealings with the inquisitive guide. + +"I think perhaps invitation to pleasure party from Ladyship's noble +relatives," Tanaka replied, unabashed. + +Geoffrey took the note to his wife, and she read aloud: + +"DEAR MR. AND MRS. BARRINGTON--It is now the bright Spring weather. I +hope you to enjoy good health. I have been rude thus to absent myself +during your polite visit. Much pressing business has hampered me, +also stomach trouble, but indeed there is no excuse. Please not to be +angry. This time I hope you to attend a poor feast, Maple Club Hotel, +next Tuesday, six p.m. Hoping to esteemed favor and even friend, + +"Yours obedient, + +"G. FUJINAMI." + +"What exactly does he mean?" + +"As Tanaka says, it is an invitation to a pleasure party at the +beginning of next week." + +"Answer it, sweetheart," said Geoffrey; "tell them that we are not +angry, and that we shall be delighted to accept." + +Tanaka explained that the Maple Club Restaurant or Koyokwan, which +more strictly should be translated Hall of the Red Leaf, is the +largest and most famous of Tokyo "tea-houses"--to use a comprehensive +term which applies equally to a shack by the roadside, and to a dainty +pleasure resort where entertainments run easily into four or five +pounds per head. There are restaurants more secretive and more +_élite_, where the aesthetic _gourmet_ may feel more at ease and where +the bohemian spirit can loose its wit. But for public functions of +all kinds, for anything on a really big scale, the Maple Club stands +alone. It is the "Princes" of Tokyo with a flavour of the Guildhall +steaming richly through its corridors. Here the great municipal +dinners take place, the great political entertainments. Here famous +foreigners are officially introduced to the mysteries of Japanese +_cuisine_ and the charms of Japanese _geisha_. Here hangs a picture of +Lord Kitchener himself, scrambled over by laughing _mousmés_, who +seem to be peeping out of his pockets and buttonholes, a Gulliver in +Lilliput. + +Both Geoffrey and Asako had treated the invitation as a joke; but at +the last moment, while they were threading the mysterious streets +of the still unfamiliar city, they both confessed to a certain +nervousness. They were on the brink of a plunge into depths unknown. +They knew nothing whatever about the customs, tastes and prejudices of +the people with whom they were to mix--not even their names and their +language. + +"Well, we're in for it," said Geoffrey, "we must see it through now." + +They drove up a steep gravel drive and stopped before a broad Japanese +entrance, three wide steps like altar stairs leading up to a dark +cavernous hall full of bowing women and men in black clothes, similar, +silent and ghostlike. The first impression was lugubrious, like a +feast of mutes. + +Boots off! Geoffrey knew at least this rule number one in Japanese +etiquette. But who were these fluttering women, so attentive in +removing their cloaks and hats? Were they relatives or waitresses? +And the silent groups beyond? Were they Fujinami or waiters? The two +guests had friendly smiles for all; but they gazed helplessly for a +familiar face. + +An apparition in evening dress with a long frock coat and a purple tie +emerged from that grim chorus of spectators. It was Ito, the lawyer. +The free and easy American manner was checked by the responsibility +of those flapping coat-tails. He looked and behaved just like a +shop-walker. After a stiff bow and handshake he said: + +"Very pleased to see you, Sir, and Mrs. Barrington, also. The Fujinami +family is proud to make your entertainment." + +Geoffrey expected further introductions; but the time had not yet +come. With a wave of the arm Mr. Ito added: + +"Please step this way, Sir and Lady." + +The Barringtons with Ito led the procession; and the mutes closed +in behind them. Down endless polished corridors they passed with +noiseless steps over the spotless boards. The only sound was the +rustling of silk garments. To closed eyes they might have seemed like +the arrival of a company of dowagers. The women, who had at first +received them, were still fluttering around them like humming-birds +escorting a flight of crows. To one of them Geoffrey owed his +preservation. He would have struck his forehead against a low doorway +in the darkness; but she touched the lintel with her finger and then +laid her tiny hand on Barrington's tall shoulder, laughing and saying +in infantile English: + +"English _danna san_ very high!" + +They came to a sudden opening between paper walls. In a little +room behind a table stood a middle-aged Japanese couple as stiff as +waxworks. For an instant Geoffrey thought they must be the cloakroom +attendants. Then, to his surprise, Ito announced: + +"Mr. and Mrs. Fujinami Gentaro, the head of the Fujinami family. +Please walk in and shake hands." + +Geoffrey and his wife did as they were directed. Three mutual bowings +took place in absolute silence, followed by a handshake. Then Ito +said: + +"Mr. and Mrs. Fujinami Gentaro wish to say they are very pleased you +both come to-night. It is very poor food and very poor feast, they +say. Japanese food is very simple sort of thing. But they ask you +please excuse them, for what they have done they have done from a good +heart." + +Geoffrey was mumbling incoherently, and wondering whether he was +expected to reply to this oration, when Ito again exclaimed, "Please +step this way." + +They passed into a large room like a concert hall with a stage at one +end. There were several men squatting on the floor round _hibachi_ +smoking and drinking beer. They looked like black sheep browsing. + +These were joined by the mutes who followed the Barringtons. All of +these people were dressed exactly alike. They wore white socks, a dark +kimono almost hidden by the black cloak upon which the family crest--a +wreath of wisteria (_fuji_) foliage--shone like a star on sleeves and +neck, and by the fluted yellowish skirt of heavy rustling silk. This +dress, though gloomy and sacerdotal, was dignified and becoming; but +the similarity was absurd. It looked like a studied effect at a fancy +dress ball. It was particularly exasperating to the guests of honour +who were anxious to distinguish their relatives and to know them +apart; but Ito alone, with his European clothes and his purple tie, +was conspicuous and unmistakable. + +"He is like Mrs. Jarley," thought Geoffrey, "he explains the +waxworks." + +In the middle of the room was a little group of chairs of the weary +beast of burden type, which are requisitioned for public meetings. Two +of them were dignified by cushions of crimson plush. These were for +Geoffrey and Asako. + +Among the black sheep there was no movement beyond the steady staring +of some thirty pairs of eyes. When the Harringtons had been enthroned, +the host and hostess approached them with silent dragging steps and +downcast faces. They might have been the bearers of evil tidings. A +tall girl followed behind her parents. + +Mrs. Fujinami Shidzuyé and her daughter, Sadako, were the only women +present. This was a compromise, and a consideration for Asako's +feelings. Mr. Ito had proposed that since a lady was the chief guest +of honour, therefore all the Fujinami ladies ought to be invited to +meet her. To Mr. Fujinami's strict conservative mind such an idea +was anathema. What! Wives at a banquet! In a public restaurant! With +_geisha_ present! Absurd--and disgusting! _O tempora! O mores_! + +Then, argued the lawyer, Asako must not be invited. But Asako was +the _clou_ of the evening; and besides, an English gentleman would be +insulted if his wife were not invited too. And--as Mr. Ito went on +to urge--any woman, Japanese or foreign, would be ill-at-ease in a +company composed entirely of men. Besides Sadako could speak English +so well; it was so convenient that she should come; and under her +mother's care her morals would not be contaminated by the propinquity +of _geisha_. So Mr. Fujinami gave in so far as concerned his own wife +and daughter. + +Shidzuyé San, as befitted a matron of sober years, wore a plain black +kimono; but Sadako's dress was of pale mauve color, with a bronze sash +tied in an enormous bow. Her hair was parted on one side and caught +up in a bun behind--the latest _haikara_ fashion and a tribute to the +foreign guests. Hers was a graceful figure; but her expression +was spoiled by the blue-tinted spectacles which completely hid her +features. + +"Miss Sadako Fujinami, daughter of Mr. Fujinami Gentaro," said Ito. +"She has been University undergraduate, and she speaks English quite +well." + +Miss Sadako bowed three times. Then she said, "How do you do" in a +high unnatural voice. + +The room was filling up with the little humming-bird women who had +been present at the entrance. They were handing cigarettes and +tea cups to the guests. They looked bright and pleasant; and they +interested Geoffrey. + +"Are these ladies relatives of the Fujinami family?" he asked Ito. + +"Oh, no, not at all," the lawyer gasped; "you have made great +mistake, Mr. Barrington. Japanese ladies all left at home, never go +to restaurant. These girls are no ladies, they're _geisha_ girls. +_Geisha_ girls very famous to foreign persons." + +Geoffrey knew that he had made his first _faux pas_. + +"Now," said Mr. Ito, "please step this way; we go upstairs to the +feast room." + +The dining-room seemed larger still than the reception room. Down each +side of it were arranged two rows of red lacquer tables, each about +eighteen inches high and eighteen inches square. Mysterious little +dishes were placed on each side of these tables; the most conspicuous +was a flat reddish fish with a large eye, artistically served in a +rollicking attitude, which in itself was an invitation to eat. + +The English guests were escorted to two seats at the extreme end of +the room, where two tables were laid in isolated glory. They were to +sit there like king and queen, with two rows of their subjects in long +aisles to the right and to the left of them. + +The seats were cushions merely; but those placed for Geoffrey and +Asako were raised on low hassocks. After them the files of the +Fujinami streamed in and took up their appointed positions along +the sides of the room. They were followed by the _geisha_, each girl +carrying a little white china bottle shaped like a vegetable marrow, +and a tiny cup like the bath which hygienic old maids provide for +their canary birds. + +"Japanese _saké_" said Sadako to her cousin, "you do not like?" + +"Oh, yes, I do," replied Asako, who was intent on enjoying everything. +But on this occasion she had chosen the wrong answer; for real ladies +in Japan are not supposed to drink the warm rice wine. + +The _geisha_ certainly looked most charming as they slowly advanced in +a kind of ritualistic procession. Their feet like little white mice, +the dragging skirts of their spotless kimonos, their exaggerated care +and precision, and their stiff conventional attitudes presented a +picture from a Satsuma vase. Their dresses were of all shades, black, +blue, purple, grey and mauve. The corner of the skirt folded back +above the instep revealed a glimpse of gaudy underwear provoking to +men's eyes, and displayed the intricate stenciled flower patterns, +which in the case of the younger women seemed to be catching hold of +the long sleeves and straying upwards. Little dancing girls, +thirteen and fourteen years old--the so-called _hangyoku_ or half +jewels--accompanied their elder sisters of the profession. They wore +very bright dresses just like the dolls; and their massive _coiffure_ +was bedizened with silver spangles and elaborately artificial flowers. + +"Oh!" gasped the admiring Asako, "I must get one of those _geisha_ +girls to show me how to wear my kimonos properly; they do look smart." + +"I do not think," answered Sadako. "These are vulgar women, bad style; +I will teach you the noble way." + +But all the _geisha_ had a grave and dignified look, quite different +from the sprightly butterflies of musical comedy from whom Geoffrey +had accepted his knowledge of Japan. + +They knelt down before the guests and poured a little of the _saké_ +into the shallow saucer held out for their ministrations. Then they +folded their hands in their laps and appeared to slumber. + +A sucking sound ran round the room as the first cup was drained. Then +a complete silence fell, broken only by the shuffle of the girls' feet +on the matting as they went to fetch more bottles. + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro spoke to the guests assembled, bidding them +commence their meal, and not to stand upon ceremony. + +"It is like the one--two--three--go! at a race," thought Geoffrey. + +All the guests were manipulating their chop-sticks. Geoffrey raised +his own pair. The two slender rods of wood were unparted at one end to +show that they had never been used. It was therefore necessary to pull +them in two. As he did so a tiny splinter of wood like a match fell +from between them. + +Asako laughed. + +"That is the toothpick," cousin Sadako explained. "We call such +chop-sticks _komochi-hashi_, chopstick with baby, because the +toothpick inside the chopstick like the baby inside the mother. Very +funny, I think." + +There were two kinds of soup--excellent; there was cooked fish and +raw fish in red and white slices, chastely served with ice; there were +vegetables known and unknown, such as sweet potatoes, French beans, +lotus stems and bamboo shoots. These had to be eaten with the aid of +the chop-sticks--a difficult task when it came to cutting up the wing +of a chicken or balancing a soft poached egg. + +The guests did not eat with gusto. They toyed with the food, sipping +wine all the time, smoking cigarettes and picking their teeth. + +Geoffrey, according to his own description, was just getting his eye +in, when Mr. Fujinami Gentaro rose from his humble place at the far +end of the room. In a speech full of poetical quotations, which must +have cost his tame students considerable trouble in the composition, +he welcomed Asako Barrington, who, he said, had been restored to Japan +like a family jewel which has been lost and is found. He compared her +visit to the sudden flowering of an ancient tree. This did not seem +very complimentary; however, it referred not to the lady's age but +to the elder branch of the family which she represented. After many +apologies for the tastelessness of the food and the stupidity of the +entertainment, he proposed the health of Mr. and Mrs. Harrington, +which was drunk by the whole company standing. + +Ito produced from his pocket a translation of this oration. + +"Now please say a few words in reply," he directed. + +Geoffrey, feeling acutely ridiculous, scrambled to his feet and +thanked everybody for giving his wife and himself such a jolly good +time. Ito translated. + +"Now please command to drink health of the Fujinami family," said +the lawyer, consulting his _agenda_. So the health of Mr. and Mrs. +Fujinami Gentaro was drunk with relish by everybody, including the +lady and gentleman honoured. + +"In this country," thought Geoffrey, "one gets the speechmaking over +before the dinner. Not a bad idea. It saves that nervous feeling which +spoils the appetite." + +An old gentleman, with a restless jaw, tottered to his feet and +approached Geoffrey's table. He bowed twice before him, and held out a +claw-like hand. + +"Mr. Fujinami Gennosuké, the father of Mr. Fujinami Gentaro," +announced Ito. "He has retired from life. He wishes to drink wine with +you. Please wash your cup and give it to him." + +There was a kind of finger-bowl standing in front of Geoffrey, which +he had imagined might be a spittoon. He was directed to rinse his +cup in this vessel, and to hand it to the old gentleman. Mr. Fujinami +Gennosuké received it in both hands as if it had been a sacrament. The +attendant _geisha_ poured out a little of the greenish liquid, +which was drunk with much hissing and sucking. Then followed another +obeisance; the cup was returned, and the old gentleman retired. + +He was succeeded by Mr. Fujinami Gentaro himself, with whom the same +ceremony of the _saké_ drinking was repeated; and then all the family +passed by, one after another, each taking the cup and drinking. It was +like a visiting figure in the lancers' quadrille. + +As each relative bent and bowed, Ito announced his name and quality. +These names seemed all alike, alike as their faces and as their +garments were. Geoffrey could only remember vaguely that he had been +introduced to a Member of Parliament, a gross man with a terrible +wen like an apple under his ear, and to two army officers, tall +clean-looking men, who pleased him more than the others. There were +several Government functionaries; but the majority were business men. +Geoffrey could only distinguish for certain his host and his host's +father. + +"They look just like two old vultures," he thought. + +Then there was Mr. Fujinami Takeshi, the son of the host and the hope +of the family, a livid youth with a thin moustache and unhealthy marks +on his face like raspberries under the skin. + +Still the _geisha_ kept bringing more and more food in a desultory way +quite unlike our system of fixed and regular courses. Still Ito kept +pressing Geoffrey to eat, while at the same time apologizing for the +quality of the food with exasperating repetition. Geoffrey had fallen +into the error of thinking that the fish and its accompanying dishes +which had been laid before him at first comprised the whole of the +repast. He had polished them off with gusto; and had then discovered +to his alarm that they were merely _hors d'oeuvres_. Nor did he +observe until too late how little the other guests were eating. There +was no discourtesy apparently in leaving the whole of a dish untasted, +or in merely picking at it from time to time. Rudeness consisted in +refusing any dish. + +Plates of broiled meat and sandwiches arrived, bowls of soup, grilled +eels on skewers--that most famous of Tokyo delicacies; finally, the +inevitable rice with whose adhesive substance the Japanese epicure +fills up the final crannies in his well-lined stomach. It made its +appearance in a round drum-like tub of clean white wood, as big as +a bandbox, and bound round with shining brass. The girls served the +sticky grains into the china rice-bowl with a flat wooden ladle. + +"Japanese people always take two bowls of rice at least," observed +Ito. "One bowl very unlucky; at the funeral we only eat one bowl." + +This to Geoffrey was the _coup de grâce_. He had only managed to stuff +down his bowl through a desperate sense of duty. + +"If I do have a second," he gasped, "it will be my own funeral." + +But this joke did not run in the well-worn lines of Japanese humour. +Mr. Ito merely thought that the big Englishman, having drunk much +_saké_, was talking nonsense. + +All the guests were beginning to circulate now; the quadrille was +becoming more and more elaborate. They were each calling on each +other and taking wine. The talk was becoming more animated. A few bold +spirits began to laugh and joke with the _geisha_. Some had laid aside +their cloaks; and some even had loosened their kimonos at the neck, +displaying hairy chests. The stiff symmetry of the dinner party +was quite broken up. The guests were scattered like rooks, bobbing, +scratching and pecking about on the yellow mats. The bright plumage of +the _geisha_ stood out against their sombre monotony. + +Presently the _geisha_ began to dance at the far end of the room. Ten +of the little girls did their steps, a slow dance full of posturing +with coloured handkerchiefs. Three of the elder _geisha_ in plain grey +kimonos squatted behind the dancers, strumming on their _samisens_. +But there was very little music either in the instrument or in the +melody. The sound of the string's twang and the rattle of the bone +plectrum drowned the sweetness of the note. The result was a kind of +dry clatter or cackle which is ingenious, but not pleasing. + +Reggie Forsyth used to say that there is no melody in Japanese music; +but that the rhythm is marvelous. It is a kind of elaborate ragtime +without any tune to it. + +The guests did not pay any attention to the performance, nor did they +applaud when it was over. + +Mr. Ito was consulting his _agenda_ paper and his gold watch. + +"You will now drink with these gentlemen," he said. Geoffrey must have +demurred. + +"It is Japanese custom," he continued; "please step this way; I will +guide you." + +Poor Geoffrey! it was his turn now to do the visiting figure, but +his head was buzzing with some thirty cups of _saké_ which he had +swallowed out of politeness, and with the unreality of the whole +scene. + +"Can't do it," he protested; "drunk too much already." + +"In Japan we say, 'When friends meet the _saké_ sellers laugh!'" +quoted the lawyer. "It is Japanese custom to drink together, and to +be happy. To be drunk in good company, it is no shame. Many of these +gentlemen will presently be drunk. But if you do not wish to drink +more, then just pretend to drink. You take the cup, see; you lift it +to your mouth, but you throw away the _saké_ into the basin when you +wash the cup. That is _geisha's_ trick when the boys try to make her +drunk, but she is too wise!" + +Armed with this advice Geoffrey started on his round of visits, +first to his host and then to his host's father. The face of old Mr. +Fujinami Gennosuké was as red as beet-root, and his jaw was chewing +more vigorously than ever. Nothing, however, could have been more +perfect than his deportment in exchanging the cup with his guest. But +no sooner had Geoffrey turned away to pay another visit than he became +aware of a slight commotion. He glanced round and saw Mr. Fujinami, +senior, in a state of absolute collapse, being conducted out of the +room by two members of the family and a cluster of _geisha_. + +"What has happened?" he asked in some alarm. + +"It is nothing," said Ito; "old gentleman tipsy very quick." + +Everybody now seemed to be smiling and happy. Geoffrey felt the curse +of his speechlessness. He was brimming over with good humour, and was +most anxious to please. The Japanese no longer appeared so grotesque +as they had on his arrival. He was sure that he would have much in +common with many of these men, who talked so good-naturedly among +themselves, until the chill of his approach fell upon them. + +Besides Ito and Sadako Fujinami, the only person present who could +talk English at all fluently was that blotchy-faced individual, Mr. +Fujinami Takeshi. The young man was in a very hilarious state, and +had gathered around him a bevy of _geisha_ with whom he was cracking +jokes. From the nature of his gestures they must have been far from +decorous. + +"Please to sit down, my dear friend," he said to Geoffrey. "Do you +like _geisha_ girl?" + +"I don't think they like me," said Geoffrey. "I'm too big." + +"Oh, no," said the Japanese; "very big, very good. Japanese man +too small, no good at all. Why do all _geisha_ love _sumotori_ +(professional wrestlers)? Because _sumotori_ very big; but this +English gentleman bigger than _sumotori_. So this girl love you, and +this girl, and this girl, and this very pretty girl, I don't know?" + +He added a question in Japanese. The _geisha_ giggled, and hid her +face behind her sleeve. + +"She say, she wish to try first. To try the cake, you eat some? Is +that right?" + +He repeated his joke in Japanese. The girl wriggled with +embarrassment, and finally scuttled away across the room, while the +others laughed. + +All the _geisha_ now hid their faces among much tittering. + +Geoffrey was becoming harassed by this _badinage_; but he hated to +appear a prude, and said: + +"I have got a wife, you know, Mr. Fujinami; she is keeping an eye on +me." + +"No matter, no matter," the young man answered, waving his hand to and +fro; "we all have wife; wife no matter in Japan." + +At last Geoffrey got back to his throne at Asako's side. He was +wondering what would be the next move in the game when, to his relief +and surprise, Ito, after a glance at his watch, said suddenly: + +"It is now time to go home. Please say good-bye to Mr. and Mrs. +Fujinami." + +A sudden dismissal, but none the less welcome. + +The inner circle of the Fujinami had gathered round. They and the +_geisha_ escorted their guests to the rickshaws and helped them on +with their cloaks and boots. There was no pressing to remain; and as +Geoffrey passed the clock in the entrance hall he noticed that it +was just ten o'clock. Evidently the entertainment was run with strict +adherence to the time-table. + +Some of the guests were too deep in _saké_ and flirtation to be +aware of the break-up; and the last vision granted to Geoffrey of the +M.P.--the fat man with the wen--was of a kind of Turkey Trot going +on in a corner of the room, and the thick arms of the legislator +disappearing up the lady's kimono sleeve. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +FALLEN CHERRY-BLOSSOM + + _Iro wa nioedo + Chirinuru wo-- + Woga yo tore zo + Tsune naran? + Ui no okuyama + Kyo koete, + Asaki yume miji + Ei mo sezu._ + + The colours are bright, but + The petals fall! + In this world of ours who + Shall remain forever? + To-day crossing + The high mountains of mutability, + We shall see no fleeting dreams, + Being inebriate no longer. + + +"_O hay[=o] gazaimas!_" (Respectfully early!) + +Twitterings of maid-servants salute the lady of the house with the +conventional morning greeting. Mrs. Fujinami Shidzuyé replies in the +high, fluty, unnatural voice which is considered refined in her social +set. + +The servants glide into the room which she has just left, moving +noiselessly so as not to wake the master who is still sleeping. They +remove from his side the thick warm mattresses upon which his wife +has been lying, the hard wooden pillow like the block of history, +the white sheets and the heavy padded coverlet with sleeves like an +enormous kimono. They roil up all these _yagu_ (night implements), +fold them and put them away into an unsuspected cupboard in the +architecture of the veranda. + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro still snores. + +After a while his wife returns. She is dressed for the morning in a +plain grey silk kimono with a broad olive-green _obi_ (sash). Her +hair is arranged in a formidable helmet-like _coiffure_--all Japanese +matrons with their hair done properly bear a remote resemblance to +Pallas Athene and Britannia. This will need the attention of the +hairdresser so as to wax into obedience a few hairs left wayward by +the night in spite of that severe wooden pillow, whose hard, high +discomfort was invented by female vanity to preserve from disarray +the rigid order of their locks. Her feet are encased in little white +_tabi_ like gloves, for the big toe has a compartment all to itself. +She walks with her toes turned in, and with the heels hardly touching +the ground. This movement produces a bend of the knees and hips so +as to maintain the equilibrium of the body, and a sinuous appearance +which is considered the height of elegance in Japan, so that the grace +of a beautiful woman is likened to "a willow-tree blown by the +wind," and the shuffle of her feet on the floor-matting to the wind's +whisper. + +Mrs. Fujinami carries a red lacquer tray. On the tray is a tiny teapot +and a tiny cup and a tiny dish, in which are three little salted +damsons, with a toothpick fixed in one of them. It is the _petit +déjeuner_ of her lord. She put down the tray beside the head of +the pillow, and makes a low obeisance, touching the floor with her +forehead. + +"_O hay[=o] gazaimas_'!" + +Mr. Fujinami stirs, gapes, stretches, yawns, rubs his lean fist in his +hollow eyes, and stares at the rude incursion of daylight. He takes no +notice of his wife's presence. She pours out tea for him with studied +pose of hands and wrists, conventional and graceful. She respectfully +requests him to condescend to partake. Then she makes obeisance again. + +Mr. Fujinami yawns once more, after which he condescends. He sucks +down the thin, green tea with a whistling noise. Then he places in his +mouth the damson balanced on the point of the toothpick. He turns it +over and over with his tongue as though he was chewing a cud. Finally +he decides to eat it, and to remove the stone. + +Then he rises from his couch. He is a very small wizened man. Dressed +in his night kimono of light blue silk, he passes along the veranda +in the direction of the morning ablutions. Soon the rending sounds of +throat-clearing show that he has begun his wash. Three maids appear +as by magic in the vacated room. The bed is rolled away, the matting +swept, and the master's morning clothes are laid out ready for him on +his return. + +Mrs. Fujinami assists her husband to dress, holding each garment ready +for him to slip into, like a well-trained valet. Mr. Fujinami does not +speak to her. When his belt has been adjusted, and a watch with a gold +fob thrust into its interstice, he steps down from the veranda, slides +his feet into a pair of _geta_, and strolls out into the garden. + +Mr. Fujinami's garden is a famous one. It is a temple garden many +centuries old; and the eyes of the initiated may read in the miniature +landscape, in the grouping of shrubs and rocks, in the sudden +glimpses of water, and in the bare pebbly beaches, a whole system of +philosophic and religious thought worked out by the patient priests of +the Ashikaga period, just as the Gothic masons wrote their version of +the Bible history in the architecture of their cathedrals. + +But for the ignorant, including its present master, it was just a +perfect little park, with lawns six feet square and ancient pine +trees, with impenetrable forests which one could clear at a bound, +with gorges, waterfalls, arbours for lilliputian philanderings and +a lake round whose tiny shores were represented the Eight Beautiful +Views of the Lake of Biwa near Kyoto. + +The bungalow mansion of the family lies on a knoll overlooking the +lake and the garden valley, a rambling construction of brown wood with +grey scale-like tiles, resembling a domesticated dragon stretching +itself in the sun. + +Indeed, it is not one house but many, linked together by a number of +corridors and spare rooms. For Mr. and Mrs. Fujinami live in one wing, +their son and his wife in another, and also Mr. Ito, the lawyer, who +is a distant relative and a partner in the Fujinami business. Then, +on the farther side of the house, near the pebble drive and the great +gate, are the swarming quarters of the servants, the rickshaw men, and +Mr. Fujinami's secretaries. Various poor relations exist unobserved +in unfrequented corners; and there is the following of University +students and professional swashbucklers which every important Japanese +is bound to keep, as an advertisement of his generosity, and to do his +dirty work for him. A Japanese family mansion is very like a hive--of +drones. + +Nor is this the entire population of the Fujinami _yashiki_. Across +the garden and beyond the bamboo grove is the little house of Mr. +Fujinami's stepbrother and his wife; and in the opposite corner, below +the cherry-orchard, is the _inkyo_, the dower house, where old +Mr. Fujinami Gennosuké, the retired Lord--who is the present Mr. +Fujinami's father by adoption only--watches the progress of the family +fortunes with the vigilance of Charles the Fifth in the cloister of +Juste. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro shuffled his way towards a little room like a +kind of summer-house, detached from the main building and overlooking +the lake and garden from the most favourable point of vantage. + +This is Mr. Fujinami's study--like all Japanese rooms, a square box +with wooden framework, wooden ceiling, sliding paper _shoji_, pale +golden _tatami_ and double alcove. All Japanese rooms are just the +same, from the Emperor's to the rickshaw-man's; only in the quality +of the wood, in the workmanship of the fittings, in the newness and +freshness of paper and matting, and by the ornaments placed in the +alcove, may the prosperity of the house be known. + +In Mr. Fujinami's study, one niche of the alcove was fitted up as a +bookcase; and that bookcase was made of a wonderful honey-coloured +satinwood brought from the hinterland of China. The lock and +the handles were inlaid with dainty designs in gold wrought by a +celebrated Kyoto artist. In the open alcove the hanging scroll of Lao +Tze's paradise had cost many hundreds of pounds, as had also the Sung +dish below it, an intricacy of lotus leaves caved out of a single +amethyst. + +On a table in the middle of this chaste apartment lay a pair of +gold-rimmed spectacles and a yellow book. The room was open to the +early morning sunlight; the paper walls were pushed back. Mr. Fujinami +moved a square silk cushion to the edge of the matting near the +outside veranda. There he could rest his back against a post in +the framework of the building--for even Japanese get wearied by the +interminable squatting which life on the floor level entails--and +acquire that condition of bodily repose which is essential for +meditation. + +Mr. Fujinami was in the habit of meditating for one hour every +morning. It was a tradition of his house; his father and his +grandfather had done so before him. The guide of his meditations was +the yellow book, the _Rongo_ (Maxims) of Confucius, that Bible of the +Far East which has moulded oriental morality to the shape of the Three +Obediences, the obedience of the child to his parents, of the wife to +her husband, and of the servant to his lord. + +Mr. Fujinami sat on the sill of his study, and meditated. Around him +was the stillness of early morning. From the house could be heard the +swish of the maids' brooms brushing the _tatami_, and the flip-flap +of their paper flickers, like horses' tails, with which they dislodged +the dust from the walls and cornices. + +A big black crow had been perched on one of the cherry-trees in the +garden. He rose with a shaking of branches and a flapping of broad +black wings. He crossed the lake, croaking as he flew with a note +more harsh, rasping and cynical than the consequential caw of English +rooks. His was a malevolent presence "from the night's Plutonian +shore," the symbol of something unclean and sinister lurking behind +this dainty beauty and this elaboration of cleanliness. + +Mr. Fujinami's meditations were deep and grave. Soon he put down the +book. The spectacles glided along his nose. His chest rose and fell +quickly under the weight of his resting chin. To the ignorant observer +Mr. Fujinami would have appeared to be asleep. + +However, when his wife appeared about an hour and a half afterwards, +bringing her lord's breakfast on another red lacquer table she +besought him kindly to condescend to eat, and added that he must +be very tired after so much study. To this Mr. Fujinami replied by +passing his hand over his forehead and saying, "_D[=o]m[=o]! So des' né!_ +(Indeed, it is so!) I have tired myself with toil." + +This little farce repeated itself every morning. All the household +knew that the master's hour of meditation was merely an excuse for +an after-sleep. But it was a tradition in the family that the master +should study thus; and Mr. Fujinami's grandfather had been a great +scholar in his generation. To maintain the tradition Mr. Fujinami had +hired a starveling journalist to write a series of random essays of +a sentimental nature, which he had published under his own name, with +the title, _Fallen Cherry-Blossoms_. + +Such is the hold of humbug in Japan that nobody in the whole +household, including the students who respected nothing, ever allowed +themselves the relief of smiling at the sacred hour of study, even +when the master's back was turned. + + * * * * * + +"_O hay[=o] gozaimas_'!" + +"For honourable feast of yesterday evening indeed very much obliged!" + +The oily forehead of Mr. Ito touched the matting floor with the +exaggerated humility of conventional gratitude. The lawyer wore +a plain kimono of slate-grey silk. His American manners and his +pomposity had both been laid aside with the tweed suit and the +swallow-tail. He was now a plain Japanese business man, servile +and adulatory in his patron's presence. Mr. Fujinami Gentaro bowed +slightly in acknowledgment across the remnants of his meal. + +"It is no matter," he said, with a few waves of his fan; "please sit +at your ease." + +The two gentlemen arranged themselves squatting cross-legged for the +morning's confidential talk. + +"The cherry-flowers," Ito began, with a sweep of the arm towards the +garden grove, "how quickly they fall, alas!" + +"Indeed, human life also," agreed Mr. Fujinami. "But the guests of +last evening, what is one to think?" + +"_Ma_! In truth, _sensei_ (master or teacher), it would be impossible +not to call that Asa San a beauty." + +"Ito Kun," said his relative in a tone of mild censure, "it is foolish +always to think of women's looks. This foreigner, what of him?" + +"For a foreigner, that person seems to be honourable and grave," +answered the retainer, "but one fears that it is a misfortune for the +house of Fujinami." + +"To have a son who is no son," said the head of the family, sighing. + +"_D[=o]m[=o]!_ It is terrible!" was the reply; "besides, as the _sensei_ +so eloquently said last night, there are so few blossoms on the old +tree." + +The better to aid his thoughts, Mr. Fujinami drew from about his +person a case which contained a thin bamboo pipe, called _kiseru_ in +Japanese, having a metal bowl of the size and shape of the socket of +an acorn. He filled this diminutive bowl with a little wad of tobacco, +which looked like coarse brown hair. He kindled it from the charcoal +ember in the _hibachi_. He took three sucks of smoke, breathing them +slowly out of his mouth again in thick grey whorls. Then with three +hard raps against the wooden edge of the firebox, he knocked out again +the glowing ball of weed. When this ritual was over, he replaced the +pipe in its sheath of old brocade. + +The lawyer sucked in his breath, and bowed his head. + +"In family matters," he said, "it is rude for an outside person to +advise the master. But last night I saw a dream. I saw the Englishman +had been sent back to England; and that this Asa San with all her +money was again in the Fujinami family. Indeed, a foolish dream, but a +good thing, I think!" + +Mr. Fujinami pondered with his face inclined and his eyes shut. + +"Ito Kun," he said at last, "you are indeed a great schemer. Every +month you make one hundred schemes. Ninety of them are impracticable, +eight of them are foolish, and two of them are masterpieces!" + +"And this one?" asked Ito. + +"I think it is impracticable," said his patron, "but it would be worth +while to try. It would without doubt be an advantage to send away +this foreigner. He is a great trouble, and may even become a danger. +Besides, the house of Fujinami has few children. Where there are no +sons even daughters are welcome. If we had this Asa, we could marry +her to some influential person. She is very beautiful, she is rich, +and she speaks foreign languages. There would be no difficulty. Now, +as to the present, how about this Osaka business?" + +"I have heard from my friend this morning," answered Ito; "it is good +news. The Governor will sanction the establishment of the new licensed +quarter at Tobita, if the Home Minister approves." + +"But that is easy. The Minister has always protected us. Besides, did +I not give fifty thousand _yen_ to the funds of the _Seiyukwai_?" +said Mr. Fujinami, naming the political party then in the majority in +Parliament. + +"Yes, but it must be done quickly; for opposition is being organised. +First, there was the Salvation Army and the missionaries. Now, there +are Japanese people, too, people who make a cry and say this licensed +prostitute system is not suitable to a civilised country, and it is a +shame to Japan. Also, there may be a political change very soon, and a +new Minister." + +"Then we would have to begin all over again, another fifty thousand +_yen_ to the other side." + +"If it is worth it?" + +"My father says that Osaka is the gold mine of Japan. It is worth all +that we can pay." + +"Yes, but Mr. Fujinami Gennosuké is an old man now, and the times are +changing." + +The master laughed. + +"Times change," he said, "but men and women never change." + +"It is true," argued Ito, "that rich and noble persons no longer +frequent the _yukwaku_ (pleasure enclosure). My friend, Suzuki, has +seen the Chief of the Metropolitan Police. He says that he will not +be able to permit _Oiran Dochu_ another year. He says too that it +will soon be forbidden to show the _jor[=o]_ in their windows. It will +be photograph-system for all houses. It is all a sign of the change. +Therefore, the Fujinami ought not to sink any more capital in the +_yukwaku_." + +"But men will still be men, they will still need a laundry for their +spirits." Mr. Fujinami used a phrase which in Japan is a common excuse +for those who frequent the _demi-monde_. + +"That is true, _sensei_," said the counsellor; "but our Japan must +take on a show of Western civilisation. It is the thing called +progress. It is part of Western civilisation that men will become more +hypocritical. These foreigners say our Yoshiwara is a shame; but, in +their own cities, immoral women walk in the best streets, and offer +themselves to men quite openly. These virtuous foreigners are worse +than we are. I myself have seen. They say, 'We have no Yoshiwara +system, therefore we are good.' They pretend not to see like a +_geisha_ who squints through a fan. We Japanese, we now become more +hypocritical, because this is necessary law of civilisation. The two +swords of the _samurai_ have gone; but honour and hatred and revenge +will never go. The _kanzashi_ (hair ornaments) of the _oiran_ will go +too; but what the _oiran_ lose, the _geisha_ will gain. Therefore, if +I were Fujinami San, I would buy up the _geisha_, and also perhaps the +_inbai_ (unregistered women)." + +"But that is a low trade," objected the Yoshiwara magnate. + +"It is very secret; your name need never be spoken." + +"And it is too scattered, too disorganised, it would be impossible to +control." + +"I do not think it would be so difficult. What might be proposed is a +_geisha_ trust." + +"But even the Fujinami have not got enough money." + +"Within one month I guarantee to find the right men, with the money +and the experience and the influence." + +"Then the business would no longer be the Fujinami only--" + +"It would be as in America, a combine, something on a big scale. In +Japan one is content with such small business. Indeed, we Japanese are +a very small people." + +"In America, perhaps, there is more confidence," said the elder man; +"but in Japan we say, 'Beware of friends who are not also relatives,' +There is, as you know, the temple of Inari Daimy[=o]jin in Asakusa. They +say that if a man worships at that temple he becomes the owner of his +friend's wealth. I fear that too many of us Japanese make pilgrimage +to that temple after nightfall." + +With those words, Mr. Fujinami picked up a newspaper to indicate +that the audience was terminated; and Mr. Ito, after a series of +prostrations, withdrew. + + * * * * * + +As soon as he was out of sight, Mr. Fujinami Gentaro selected from the +pile in front of him a number of letters and newspapers. With these +in his hand, he left the study, and followed a path of broad, flat +stepping-stones across the garden towards the cherry-orchard. Here +the way sloped rapidly downward under a drift of fallen petals. On the +black naked twigs of the cherry-trees one or two sturdy blossoms still +clung pathetically, like weather-beaten butterflies. Beyond a green +shrubbery, on a little knoll, a clean newly-built Japanese house, +like a large rabbit hutch, rested in a patch of sunlight. It was +the _inkyo_, the "shadow dwelling" or dower house. Here dwelt Mr. +Fujinami, senior, and his wife--his fourth matrimonial experiment. + +The old gentleman was squatting on the balcony of the front corner +room, the one which commanded the best view of the cherry-grove. He +looked as if he had just been unpacked; for he was surrounded by reams +and reams of paper, some white, and some with Chinese letters scrawled +over them. He was busy writing these letters with a kind of thick +paint-brush; and he was so deep in his task that he appeared not to +notice his son's approach. His restless jaw was still imperturbably +chewing. + +"_O hay[=o] gozaimas_'!" + +"_Tar[=o], yo! O hay[=o]_!" cried the old gentleman, calling his son by his +short boy's name, and cutting off all honorifics from his speech. +He always affected surprise at this visit, which had been a daily +occurrence for many years. + +"The cherry-flowers are fallen and finished," said the younger man. +"Ah, human life, how short a thing!" + +"Yes, one year more I have seen the flowers," said Mr. Fujinami +Gennosuké, nodding his head and taking his son's generalisation as +a personal reference. He had laid his brush aside; and he was really +wondering what would be Gentaro's comment on last night's feast and +its guests of honour. + +"Father is practising handwriting again?" + +The old man's mania was penmanship, just as his son's was literature. +Among Japanese it is considered the pastime becoming to his age. + +"My wrist has become stiff. I cannot write as I used to. It is +always so. Youth has the strength but not the knowledge; age has the +knowledge, but no strength." + +As a matter of fact, Mr. Gennosuké was immensely satisfied with his +calligraphy, and was waiting for compliments. + +"But this, this is beautifully written. It is worthy of Kobo Daishi!" +said the younger man, naming a famous scholar priest of the Middle +Ages. He was admiring a scroll on which four characters were +written in a perpendicular row. They signified, "From the midst of +tranquillity I survey the world." + +"No," said the artist; "you see the _ten_ (point) there is wrong. It +is ill-formed. It should be written thus." + +Shaking back his kimono sleeve--he wore a sea-blue cotton kimono, as +befitted his years--and with a little flourish of his wrist, like a +golfer about to make his stroke, he traced off the new version of the +character on the white paper. + +Perched on his veranda, with his head on one side he looked very like +the marabout stork, as you may see him at the Zoo, that raffish bird +with the folds in his neck, the stained glaucous complexion, the bald +head and the brown human eye. He had the same look of respectable +rascality. The younger Fujinami showed signs of becoming exactly like +him, although the parentage was by adoption only. He was not yet so +bald. His black hair was patched with grey in a piebald design. The +skin of the throat was at present merely loose, it did not yet hang in +bags. + +"And this Asa San?" remarked the elder after a pause; "what is to be +thought of her? Last night I became drunk, as my habit is, and I could +not see those people well." + +"She is not loud-voiced and bold like foreign women. Indeed, her voice +and her eyes are soft. Her heart is very good, I think. She is timid, +and in everything she puts her husband first. She does not understand +the world at all; and she knows nothing about money. Indeed, she is +like a perfect Japanese wife." + +"Hm! A good thing, and the husband?" + +"He is a soldier, an honourable man. He seemed foolish, or else he is +very cunning. The English people are like that. They say a thing. Of +course, you think it is a lie. But no, it is the truth; and so they +deceive." + +"_Ma, mendo-kusai_ (indeed, smelly-troublesome!) And why has this +foreigner come to Japan?" + +"Ito says he has come to learn about the money. That means, when he +knows he will want more." + +"How much do we pay to Asa San?" + +"Ten per cent." + +"And the profits last year on all our business came to thirty seven +and a half per cent. Ah! A fine gain. We could not borrow from the +banks at ten per cent. They would want at least fifteen, and many +gifts for silence. It is better to fool the husband, and to let them +go back to England. After all, ten per cent is a good rate. And we +want all our money now for the new brothels in Osaka. If we make much +money there, then afterwards we can give them more." + +"Ito says that if the Englishman knows that the money is made in +brothels, he will throw it all away and finish. Ito thinks it would be +not impossible to send the Englishman back to England, and to keep Asa +here in Japan." + +The old man looked up suddenly, and for once his jaw stopped chewing. + +"That would be best of all," he exclaimed. "Then indeed he is +honourable and a great fool. Being an Englishman, it is possible. Let +him go back to England. We will keep Asa. She too is a Fujinami; and, +even though she is a woman, she can be useful to the family. She will +stay with us. She would not like to be poor. She has not borne a baby +to this foreigner, and she is young. I think also our Sada can teach +her many things." + +"It is of Sada that I came to speak to father," said Mr. Gentaro. "The +marriage of our Sada is a great question for the Fujinami family. Here +is a letter from Mr. Osumi, a friend of the Governor of Osaka. The +Governor has been of much help to us in getting the concession for +the new brothels. He is a widower with no children. He is a man with a +future. He is protected by the military clan. He is wishful to marry +a woman who can assist his career, and who would be able to take the +place of a Minister's wife. Mr. Osumi, who writes, had heard of the +accomplishments of our Sada. He mentioned her name to the Governor; +and His Excellency was quite willing that Mr. Osumi should write +something in a letter to Ito." + +"Hm!" grunted the old gentleman, squinting sidelong at his son; "this +Governor, has he a private fortune?" + +"No, he is a self-made man." + +"Then it will not be with him, as it was with that Viscount Kamimura. +He will not be too proud to take our money." + +The truth of the allusion to Viscount Kamimura was that the name of +Sadako Fujinami had figured on the list of possible brides submitted +to that young aristocrat on his return from England. At first, it +seemed likely that the choice would fall upon her, because of her +undisputed cleverness; and the Fujinami family were radiant at the +prospect of so brilliant a match. For although nothing had been +formally mentioned between the two families, yet Sadako and her mother +had learned from their hairdresser that there was talk of such a +possibility in the servants' quarter of the Kamimura mansion, and +that old Dowager Viscountess Kamimura was undoubtedly making inquiries +which could only point to that one object. + +The young Viscount, however, on ascertaining the origin of the family +wealth, eliminated poor Sadako from the competition for his hand. + +It was a great disappointment to the Fujinami, and most of all to the +ambitious Sadako. For a moment she had seen opening the doorway into +that marvellous world of high diplomacy, of European capitals, of +diamonds, duchesses and intrigue, of which she had read in foreign +novels, where everybody is rich, brilliant, immoral and distinguished, +and where to women are given the rôles to play even more important +than those of the men. This was the only world, she felt, worthy of +her talents; but few, very few, just one in a million Japanese women, +ever gets the remotest chance of entering it. This chance presented +itself to Sadako--but for a moment only. The doorway shut to again; +and Sadako was left feeling more acutely than before the emptiness +of life, and the bitterness of woman's lot in a land where men are +supreme. + +Her cousin, Asako, by the mere luck of having had an eccentric parent +and a European upbringing, possessed all the advantages and all the +experience which the Japanese girl knew only through the glamorous +medium of books. But this Asa San was a fool. Sadako had found that +out at once in the course of a few minutes talk at the Maple Club +dinner. She was sweet, gentle and innocent; far more Japanese, indeed, +than her sophisticated cousin. Her obvious respect and affection for +her big rough husband, her pathetic solicitude for the father whose +face she could hardly remember and for the mother who was nothing but +a name; these traits of character belong to the meek Japanese girl +of _Onna Daigaku_ (Woman's Great Learning), that famous classic +of Japanese girlhood which teaches the submission of women and the +superiority of men. It was a type which was becoming rare in her own +country. Little Asako had nothing in common with the argumentative +heroines of Bernard Shaw or with the desperate viragos of Ibsen, to +whom Sadako felt herself spiritually akin. Asako must be a fool. She +exasperated her Japanese cousin, who at the same time was envious of +her, envious above all of her independent wealth. As she observed to +her own mother, it was most improper that a woman, and a young woman +too, should have so much money of her own. It would be sure to spoil +her character. + +Meanwhile Asako was a way of access to first-hand knowledge of that +world of European womanhood which so strongly attracted Sadako's +intelligence, that almost incredible world in which men and women were +equal, had equal rights to property, and equal rights to love. Asako +must have seen enough to explain something about it; if only she were +not a fool. But it appeared that she had never heard of Strindberg, +Sudermann, or d'Annunzio; and even Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde were +unfamiliar names. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE FAMILY ALTAR + + _Yume no ai wa + Kurushikari keri? + Odorokite + Kaki-saguredomo + Te ni mo fureneba._ + + (These) meetings in dreams + How sad they are! + When, waking up startled + One gropes about-- + And there is no contact to the hand. + + +Miss Fujinami made up her mind to cultivate Asako's friendship, and to +learn all that she could from her. So she at once invited her cousin +to the mysterious house in Akasaka, and Asako at once accepted. + +The doors seemed to fly open at the magic of the wanderer's return. +Behind each partition were family retainers, bowing and smiling. +Three maids assisted her to remove her boots. There was a sense of +expectation and hospitality, which calmed Asako's fluttering shyness. + +"Welcome! Welcome!" chanted the chorus of maids, "_O agari +nasaimashi!_ (pray step up into the house!)" + +The visitor was shown into a beautiful airy room overlooking the +landscape garden. She could not repress an Ah! of wonder, when first +this fairy pleasance came in sight. It was all so green, so tiny, and +so perfect,--the undulating lawn, the sheet of silver water, the pigmy +forests which clothed its shores, its disappearance round a shoulder +of rock into that hinterland of high trees which closed the vista and +shut out the intrusion of the squalid city. + +The Japanese understand better than we do the mesmeric effects +of sights and sounds. It was to give her time to assimilate her +surroundings that Asako was left alone for half an hour or so, while +Sadako and her mother were combing their hair and putting their +kimonos straight. Tea and biscuits were brought for her, but her fancy +was astray in the garden. Already to her imagination a little town +had sprung up along the shingles of the tiny bay which faced her; +the sails of white ships were glimpsing where the sunlight struck the +water; and from round the rock promontory she could catch the shimmer +of the Prince's galleon with its high poop and stern covered with +solid gold. He was on his way to rescue the lady who was immured in +the top of the red pagoda on the opposite hill. + +Asako's legs were getting numb. She had been sitting on them +in correct Japanese fashion all this time. She was proud of the +accomplishment, which she considered must be hereditary, but she could +not keep it up for much longer than half an hour. Sadako's mother +entered. + +"Asa San is welcome." + +Much bowing began, in which Asako felt her disadvantage. The long +lines of the kimono, with the big sash tied behind, lend themselves +with peculiar grace to the squatting bow of Japanese intercourse. But +Asako, in the short blue jacket of her tailor-made serge, felt that +her attitude was that of the naughty little boys in English picture +books, bending over for castigation. + +Mrs. Fujinami wore a perfectly plain kimono, blackish-brown in colour, +with a plain gold sash. It is considered correct for middle-aged +ladies in Japan to dress with modesty and reserve. She was tall for a +Japanese woman and big-boned, with a long lantern-face, and an almost +Jewish nose. The daughter was of her mother's build. But her face was +a perfect oval, the melon-seed shape which is so highly esteemed in +her country. The severity of her appearance was increased, by her +blue-tinted spectacles; and like so many Japanese women, her teeth +were full of gold stopping. She was resplendent in blue, the blue of +the Mediterranean, with fronds of cherry-blossom and floating pink +petals designed round her skirts and at the bottom of the long +exaggerated sleeves. The sash of broad stiff brocade shone with light +blue and silver in a kind of conventional wave pattern. This was tied +at the back with a huge bow, which seemed perched upon its wearer like +a gigantic butterfly alighting on a cornflower. Her straight black +hair was parted on one side in "foreign" style. But her mother wore +the helmet-like _marumagé_, the edifice of conservative taste in +married women, which looks more like a wig than like natural hair. + +Rings sparkled on Sadako's fingers, and she wore a diamond ornament +across her sash; but neither their taste nor their quality impressed +her cousin. Her face was of the same ivory tint as Asako's, but it +was hidden under a lavish coating of liquid powder. This hideous +embellishment covers not only the Mongolian yellow, which every +Japanese woman seems anxious to hide, but also the natural and +charming nuances of young skin, under a white monotonous surface +like a mask of clay. Painted roses bloomed on the girl's cheeks. The +eyebrows were artificially darkened as well as the lines round the +eyes. The face and its expression, in fact, were quite obscured by +cosmetics; and Miss Fujinami was wrapped in a cloud of cheap scent +like a servant-girl on her evening out. + +She spoke English well. In fact, at school she had achieved a really +brilliant career, and she had even attended a University for a time +with the intention of reading for a degree, an attainment rare among +Japanese girls. But overwork brought on its inevitable result. Books +had to be banished, and glasses interposed to save the tired eyes from +the light. It was a bitter disappointment for Sadako, who was a proud +and ambitious girl, and it had not improved her disposition. + +After the first formalities Asako was shown round the house. The +sameness of the rooms surprised her. There was nothing to distinguish +them except the different woods used in their ceilings and walls, a +distinction which betrayed its costliness and its taste only to the +practised eye. Each room was spotless and absolutely bare, with golden +_tatami_, rice-straw mats with edgings of black braid, fixed into the +flooring, by whose number the size of a Japanese room is measured. +Asako admired the pale white _shoji_, the sliding windows of opaque +glowing paper along the side of the room open to the outdoor light, +the _fusuma_ or sliding partitions between room and room, set in the +framework of the house, some of them charmingly painted with sketches +of scenery, flowers, or people, some of them plain cream-coloured +boards flecked with tiny specks of gold. + +Nothing broke the sameness of these rooms except the double alcove, +or _tokonoma_ with its inevitable hanging picture, its inevitable +ornament, and its spray of blossom. Between the double niche stood +that pillar of wood which Sadako explained as being the soul of the +room, the leading feature from which its character was taken, being +either plain and firm, or twisted and ornate, or else still unshaped, +with the bosses of amputated branches seared and black protesting +against confinement. The _tokonoma_, as the word suggests, must +originally have been the sleeping-place of the owner of the room, for +it certainly is the only corner in a Japanese house which is secured +from draughts. But perhaps it was respect for invisible spirits which +drove the sleeper eventually to abandon his coign of vantage to the +service of aesthetic beauty, and to stretch himself on the open floor. + +To Asako the rooms seemed all the same. Each gave the same impression +of spotlessness and nudity. Each was stiffly rectangular like the +honey squares fitted into a hive. Above all, there was nothing about +any of them to indicate their individual use, or the character of +the person to whom they were specially assigned. No dining-room, or +drawing-room, or library. + +"Where is your bedroom?" asked Asako, with a frank demand for that +sign of sisterhood among Western girls; "I should so like to see it." + +"I generally sleep," answered the Japanese girl, "in that room at the +corner where we have been already, where the bamboo pictures are. This +is the room where father and mother sleep." + +They were standing on the balcony outside the apartment where Asako +had first been received. + +"But where are the beds?" she asked. + +Sadako went to the end of the balcony, and threw open a big cupboard +concealed in the outside of the house. It was full of layers of rugs, +thick, dark and wadded. + +"These are the beds," smiled the Japanese cousin. "My brother Takeshi +has a foreign bed in his room; but my father does not like them, or +foreign clothes, or foreign food, or anything foreign. He says +the Japanese things are best for the Japanese. But he is very +old-fashioned." + +"Japanese style looks nicer," said Asako, thinking how big and vulgar +a bedstead would appear in that clean emptiness and how awkwardly its +iron legs would trample on the straw matting; "but isn't it draughty +and uncomfortable?" + +"I like the foreign beds best," said Sadako; "my brother has let me +try his. It is very soft." + +So in this country of Asako's fathers, a bedstead was lent for trial +as though it had been some fascinating novelty, a bicycle or a piano. + +The kitchen appealed most to the visitor. It was the only room to her +mind which had any individuality of its own. It was large, dark and +high, full of servant-girls scuttering about like little mice, who +bowed and then fled when the two ladies came in. The stoves for +boiling the rice interested Asako, round iron receptacles like +coppers, each resting on a brick fireplace. Everything was explained +to her: the high dressers hung with unfamiliar implements in white +metal and white wood: the brightly labelled casks of _saké_ and +_shoyu_ (sauce) waiting in the darkness like the deputation of a +friendly society in its insignia of office: the silent jars of tea, +greenish in colour and ticketed with strange characters, the names of +the respective tea-gardens: the iron kettle hanging on gibbet chains +from the top of the ceiling over a charcoal fire sunk in the floor; +the tasteful design of the commonest earthenware bowl: the little +board and chopper for slicing the raw fish: the clean white rice-tubs +with their brass bindings polished and shining: the odd shape and +entirely Japanese character which distinguished the most ordinary +things, and gave to the short squat knives a romantic air and to the +broad wooden spoons a suggestion of witchcraft: finally, the little +shrine to the Kitchen God, perched on a shelf close to the ceiling, +looking like the façade of a doll's temple, and decorated with brass +vases, dry grasses, and strips of white paper. The wide kitchen was +impregnated with a smell already familiar to Asako's nose, one of +the most typical odours of Japan, the smell of native cooking, humid, +acrid and heavy like the smell of wood smoke from damp logs, with +a sour and rotten flavour to it contributed by a kind of pickled +horse-radish called _Daikon_ or the Great Root, dear to the Japanese +palate. + +The central ceremony of Asako's visit was her introduction to the +memory of her dead parents. She was taken to a small room, where the +alcove, the place of honour, was occupied by a closed cabinet, the +_butsudan_ (Buddha shelf), a beautiful piece of joiner's work in a +kind of lattice pattern covered with red lacquer and gold. Sadako, +approaching, reverently opened this shrine. The interior was all gilt +with a dazzling gold like that used an old manuscripts. In the centre +of this glory sat a golden-faced Buddha with dark blue hair and cloak, +and an aureole of golden rays. Below him were arranged the _ihai_, the +Tablets of the Dead, miniature grave-stones about one foot high, with +a black surface edged with gold upon which were inscribed the names of +the dead persons, the new names given by the priests. + +Sadako stepped back and clapped her hands together three times, +repeating the formula of the Nichiren Sect of Buddhists. + +"_Namu my[=o]h[=o] renge ky[=o]!_ (Adoration to the Wonderful Law of +the Lotus Scriptures!)" + +She instructed Asako to do the same. + +"For," she said, "we believe that the spirits of the dead people are +here; and we must be very good to them." + +Asako did as she was told, wondering whether her confessor would +give her penance for idolatry. Sadako then motioned her to sit on the +floor. She took one of the tablets from its place and placed it in +front of her cousin. + +"That is your father's _ihai_," she said; and then removing another +and placing it beside the first, she added,-- + +"This is your mother." + +Asako was deeply moved. In England we love our dead; but we consign +them to the care of nature, to the change of the seasons, and the cold +promiscuity of the graveyard. The Japanese dead never seem to leave +the shelter of their home or the circle of their family. We bring to +our dear ones flowers and prayers; but the Japanese give them food +and wine, and surround them with every-day talk. The companionship is +closer. We chatter much about immortality. We believe, many of us, in +some undying particle. We even think that in some other world the +dead may meet the dead whom they have known in life. But the actual +communion of the dead and the living is for us a beautiful and +inspiring metaphor rather than a concrete belief. Now the Japanese, +although their religion is so much vaguer than ours, hardly question +this survival of the ancestors in the close proximity of their +children and grandchildren. The little funeral tablets are for them +clothed with an invisible personality. + +"This is your mother." + +Asako felt influences floating around her. Her mind was in pain, +straining to remember something which seemed to be not wholly +forgotten. + +Just at this moment Mrs. Fujinami arrived, carrying an old photograph +album and a roll of silk. Her appearance was so opportune that any one +less innocent than Asako might have suspected that the scene had +been rehearsed. In the hush and charm of that little chamber of the +spirits, the face of the elder woman looked soft and sweet. She opened +the volume at the middle, and pushed it in front of Asako. + +She saw the photograph of a Japanese girl seated in a chair with a +man standing at her side, with one hand resting on the chair back. Her +father's photograph she recognised at once, the broad forehead, the +deep eyes, the aquiline nose, the high cheek bones, and the thin, +angry sarcastic lips; not a typically Japanese face, but a type +recurrent throughout our over-educated world, cultured, desperate and +stricken. Asako had very little in common with her father; for his +character had been moulded or warped by two powerful agencies, his +intellect and his disease; and it was well for his daughter that she +had escaped this dire inheritance. But never before had she seen her +mother's face. Sometimes she had wondered who and what her mother had +been; what she had thought of as her baby grew within her; and with +what regrets she had exchanged her life for her child's. More often +she had considered herself as a being without a mother, a fairy's +child, brought into this world on a sunbeam or born from a flower. + +Now she saw the face which had reflected pain and death for her. It +was impassive, doll-like and very young, pure oval in outline, +but lacking in expression. The smallness of the mouth was the most +characteristic feature, but it was not alive with smiles like her +daughter's. It was pinched and constrained, with the lower lips drawn +in. + +The photograph was clearly a wedding souvenir. She wore the black +kimono of a bride, and the multiple skirts. A kind of little +pocket-book with silver charms dangling from it, an ancient marriage +symbol, was thrust into the opening at her breast. Her head was +covered with a curious white cap like the "luggage" of Christmas +crackers. She was seated rigidly at the edge of her uncomfortable +chair; and her personality seemed to be overpowered by the solemnity +of the occasion. + +"Did she love him," her daughter wondered, "as I love Geoffrey?" + +Through Sadako's interpretation Mrs. Fujinami explained that Asako's +mother's name had been Yamagata Haruko (Spring child). Her father had +been a _samurai_ in the old two-sworded days. The photograph was not +very like her. It was too serious. + +"Like you," said the elder woman, "she was always laughing and happy. +My husband's father used to call her the _Semi_ (the cicada), because +she was always singing her little song. She was chosen for your father +because he was so sad and wrathful. They thought that she would +make him more gentle. But she died; and then he became more sad than +before." + +Asako was crying very gently. She felt the touch of her cousin's hand +on her arm. The intellectual Miss Sadako also was weeping, the tears +furrowing her whitened complexion. The Japanese are a very emotional +race. The women love tears; and even the men are not averse from this +very natural expression of feeling, which our Anglo-Saxon schooling +has condemned as babyish. Mrs. Fujinami continued,-- + +"I saw her a few days before you were born. They lived in a little +house on the bank of the river. One could see the boats passing. It +was very damp and cold. She talked all the time of her baby. 'If it is +a boy,' she said, 'everybody will be happy; if it is a girl, +Fujinami San will be very anxious for the family's sake; and the +fortune-tellers say that it will surely be a little girl. But,' she +used to say, 'I could play better with a little girl; I know what +makes them laugh!' When you were born she became very ill. She never +spoke again, and in a few days she died. Your father became like a +madman, he locked the house, and would not see any of us; and as soon +as you were strong enough, he took you away in a ship." + +Sadako placed in front of her cousin the roll of silk, and said,-- + +"This is Japanese _obi_ (sash). It belonged to your mother. She gave +it to my mother a short time before you were born; for she said, +'It is too bright for me now; when I have my baby, I shall give up +society, and I shall spend all my time with my children.' My mother +gives it to you for your mother's sake." + +It was a wonderful work of art, a heavy golden brocade, embroidered +with fans, and on each fan a Japanese poem and a little scene from the +olden days. + +"She was very fond of this _obi_, she chose the poems herself." + +But Asako was not admiring the beautiful workmanship. She was thinking +of the mother's heart which had beat for her under that long strip of +silk, the little Japanese mother who "would have known how to make her +laugh." Tears were falling very quietly on to the old sash. + +The two Japanese women saw this; and with the instinctive tact +of their race, they left her alone face to face with this strange +introduction to her mother's personality. + +There is a peculiar pathos about the clothes of the dead. They are so +nearly a part of our bodies that it seems unnatural almost that they +should survive with the persistence of inanimate things, when we who +gave them the semblance of life are far more dead than they. It would +be more seemly, perhaps, if all these things which have belonged to +us so intimately were to perish with us in a general _suttee_. But the +mania for relics would never tolerate so complete a disappearance of +one whom we had loved; and our treasuring of hair and ornaments and +letters is a desperate--and perhaps not an entirely vain--attempt to +check the liberated spirit in its leap for eternity. + +Asako found in that old garment of her mother's a much more faithful +reflection of the life which had been transmitted to her, than the +stiff photograph could ever realise. She had chosen the poems herself. +Asako must get them transcribed and translated; for they would be a +sure indication of her mother's character. Already the daughter could +see that her mother too must have loved rich and beautiful things, +happiness and laughter. + +Old Mr. Fujinami had called her "the _Semi_." Asako did not yet +know the voice of the little insects which are the summer and autumn +orchestra of Japan. But she knew that it must be something happy and +sweet; or they would not have told her. + + * * * * * + +She rose from her knees, and found her cousin waiting for her on the +veranda. Whatever real expression she may have had was effectively +hidden behind the tinted glasses, and the false white complexion, now +renovated from the ravages of emotion. But Asako's heart was won by +the power of the dead, of whom Sadako and her family were, she felt, +the living representatives. + +Asako took both of her cousin's hands in her own. + +"It was sweet of you and your mother to give me that," she said--and +her eyes were full of tears--"you could not have thought of anything +which would please me more." + +The Japanese girl was on the point of starting to bow and smile the +conventional apologies for the worthlessness of the gift, when she +felt herself caught by a power unfamiliar to her, the power of the +emotions of the West. + +The pressure on her wrists increased, her face was drawn down towards +her cousin's, and she felt against the corner of her mouth the warm +touch of Asako's lips. + +She started back with a cry of "_Iya_! (don't!)," the cry of outraged +Japanese femininity. Then she remembered from her readings that such +kissings were common among European girls, that they were a compliment +and a sign of affection. But she hoped that it had not disarranged her +complexion again; and that none of the servants had seen. + +Her cousin's surprise shook Asako out of her dream; and the kiss left +a bitter powdery taste upon her lips which disillusioned her. + +"Shall we go into the garden?" said Sadako, who felt that fresh air +was advisable. + +They joined hands; so much familiarity was permitted by Japanese +etiquette. They went along the gravel path to the summit of the little +hillock where the cherry-trees had lately been in bloom, Sadako in her +bright kimono, Asako in her dark suit. She looked like a mere mortal +being introduced to the wonders of Titania's country by an authentic +fairy. + +The sun was setting in the clear sky, one half of which was a tempest +of orange, gold and red, and the other half warm and calm with roseate +reflections. Over the spot where the focus point of all this glory +was sinking into darkness, a purple cloud hovered like a shred of +the monarch's glory caught and torn away on the jag of some invisible +obstruction. Its edges were white flame, as though part of the sun's +fire were hidden behind it. + +Even from this high position little could be seen beyond the Fujinami +enclosure except tree-tops. Away down the valley appeared the grey +scaly roofs of huddled houses, and on a hill opposite more trees with +the bizarre pinnacle of a pagoda forcing its way through the midst of +them. It looked like a series of hats perched one on the top of the +other by a merchant of Petticoat Lane. + +Lights were glimpsing from the Fujinami mansion; more lights were +visible among the shrubberies below. This soft light, filtered through +the paper walls, shone like a luminous pearl. This is the home light +of the Japanese, and is as typical of their domesticity as the +blazing log-fire is of ours. It is greenish, still and pure, like a +glow-worm's beacon. + +Out of the deep silence a bell tolled. It was as though an unseen hand +had struck the splendour of that metallic firmament; or as though a +voice had spoken out of the sunset cloud. + +The two girls descended to the brink of the lake. Here at the farther +end the water was broader; and it was hidden from view of the houses. +Green reeds grew along the margin, and green iris leaves, like sword +blades, black now in the failing light. There was a studied roughness +in the tiny landscape, and in the midst of the wilderness a little +hut. + +"What a sweet little summer-house!" cried Asako. + +It looked like a settler's shack, built of rough, unshapen logs and +thatched with rushes. + +"It is the room for the _chanoyu_, the tea-ceremony," said her cousin. + +Inside, the walls were daubed with earth; and a round window barred +with bamboo sticks gave a view into what was apparently forest depths. + +"Why, it is just like a doll's house," cried Asako, delighted. "Can we +go in?" + +"Oh, yes," said the Japanese. Asako jumped in at once and squatted +down on the clean matting; but her more cautious cousin dusted the +place with her handkerchief before risking a stain. + +"Do you often have tea-ceremonies?" asked Asako. + +The Muratas had explained to her long ago something about the +mysterious rites. + +"Two or three times in the Spring, and then two or three times in the +Autumn. But my teacher comes every week." + +"How long have you been learning?" Asako wanted to know. + +"Oh, since I was ten years old about." + +"Is it so difficult then?" said Asako, who had found it comparatively +easy to pour out a cup of drawing-room tea without clumsiness. + +Sadako smiled tolerantly at her cousin's naive ignorance of things +aesthetic and intellectual. It was as though she had been asked +whether music or philosophy were difficult. + +"One can never study too much," she said, "one is always learning; one +can never be perfect. Life is short, art is long." + +"But it is not an art like painting or playing the piano, just pouring +out tea?" + +"Oh, yes," Sadako smiled again, "it is much more than that. We +Japanese do not think art is just to be able to do things, showing +off like _geisha_. Art is in the character, in the spirit. And +the tea-ceremony teaches us to make our character full of art, by +restraining everything ugly and common, in every movement, in the +movement of our hands, in the position of our feet, in the looks of +our faces. Men and women ought not to sit and move like animals; but +the shape of their bodies, and their way of action ought to express a +poetry. That is the art of the _chanoyu_." + +"I should like to see it," said Asako, excited by her cousin's +enthusiasm, though she hardly understood a word of what she had been +saying. + +"You ought to learn some of it," said Sadako, with the zeal of a +propagandist. "My teacher says--and my teacher was educated at the +court of the Tokugawa Shogun--that no woman can have really good +manners, if she has not studied the _chanoyu_." + +Of course, there was nothing which Asako would like more than to sit +in this fascinating arbour in the warm days of the coming summer, +and play at tea-parties with her new-found Japanese cousin. She would +learn to speak Japanese, too; and she would help Sadako with her +French and English. + +The two cousins worked out the scheme for their future intimacy until +the stars were reflected in the lake and the evening breeze became too +cool for them. + +Then they left the little hermitage and continued their walk around +the garden. They passed a bamboo grove, whose huge plumes, black in +the darkness, danced and beckoned like the Erl-king's daughters. They +passed a little house shuttered like a Noah's Ark, from which came a +monotonous moaning sound as of some one in pain, and the rhythmic beat +of a wooden clapper. + +"What is that?" asked Asako. + +"That is my father's brother's house. But he is illegitimate brother; +he is not of the true family. He is a very pious man. He repeats the +prayer to Buddha ten thousand times every day; and he beats upon the +_mokugy[=o]_ a kind of drum like a fish which the Buddhist priests use." + +"Was he at the dinner last night?" asked Asako. + +"Oh no, he never goes out. He has not once left that house for ten +years. He is perhaps rather mad; but it is said that he brings good +luck to the family." + +A little farther on they passed two stone lanterns, cold and blind +like tombstones. Stone steps rose between them to what in the darkness +looked like a large dog-kennel. A lighted paper lantern hung in front +of it like a great ripe fruit. + +"What is that?" asked Asako. + +In the failing twilight this fairy garden was becoming more and more +wonderful. At any moment, she felt she might meet the Emperor himself +in the white robes of ancient days and the black coal-scuttle hat. + +"That is a little temple," explained her cousin, "for Inari Sama." + +At the top of the flight of steps Asako distinguished two stone foxes. +Their expression was hungry and malign. They reminded her of--what? +She remembered the little temple outside the Yoshiwara on the day she +had gone to see the procession. + +"Do you say prayers there?" she asked her companion. + +"No, _I_ do not," answered the Japanese, "but the servants light +the lamp every evening; and we believe it makes the house lucky. +We Japanese are very superstitious. Besides, it looks pretty in the +garden." + +"I don't like the foxes' faces," said Asako, "they look bad +creatures." + +"They _are_ bad creatures," was the reply, "nobody likes to see a fox; +they fool people." + +"Then why say prayers, if they are bad?" + +"It is just because they are bad," said Sadako, "that we must please +them. We flatter them so that they may not hurt us." + +Asako was unlearned in the difference between religion and +devil-worship, so she did not understand the full significance of this +remark. But she felt an unpleasant reaction, the first which she had +received that day; and she thought to herself that if she were the +mistress of that lovely garden, she would banish the stone foxes and +risk their displeasure. + +The two girls returned to the house. Its shutters were up, and it, +too, had that same appearance of a Noah's Ark but of a more complete +and expensive variety. One little opening was left in the wooden +armature for the girls to enter by. + +"Please come again many, many times," was cousin Sadako's last +farewell. "The house of the Fujinami is your home. _Sayonara_!" + + * * * * * + +Geoffrey was waiting for his wife in the hall of the hotel. He was +anxious at her late return. His embrace seemed to swallow her up to +the amusement of the _boy sans_ who had been discussing the lateness +of _okusan_, and the possibility of her having an admirer. + +"Thank goodness," said Geoffrey, "what have you been doing? I was just +going to organise a search party." + +"I have been with Mrs. Fujinami and Sadako," Asako panted, "they +would not let me go; and oh!"--She was going to tell him all about her +mother's picture; but she suddenly checked herself, and said instead, +"They've got such a lovely garden." + +She described the home of the cousins in glowing colours, the +hospitality of the family, the cleverness of cousin Sadako, and +the lessons which they were going to exchange. Yes, she replied to +Geoffrey's questions, she had seen the memorial tablets of her father +and mother, and their wedding photograph. But a strange paralysis +sealed her lips, and her soul became inarticulate. She found herself +absolutely incapable of telling that big foreign husband of hers, +truly as she loved him, the veritable state of her emotions when +brought face to face with her dead parents. + +Geoffrey had never spoken to her of her mother. He had never seemed +to have the least interest in her identity. These "Jap women," as he +called them, were never very real to him. She dreaded the possibility +of revealing to him her secret, and then of receiving no response to +her emotion. Also she had an instinctive reluctance to emphasise in +Geoffrey's mind her kinship with these alien people. + +After dinner, when she had gone up to her room, Geoffrey was left +alone with his cigar and his reflection. + +"Funny that she did not speak more about her father and mother. But I +suppose they don't mean much to her, after all. And, by Jove, it's a +good thing for me! I wouldn't like to have a wife who was all the time +running home to her people, and comparing notes with her mother." + +Upstairs in her bedroom, Asako had unrolled the precious _obi_. An +unmounted photograph came fluttering out of the parcel. It was a +portrait of her father alone taken a short time before his death. At +the back of the photograph was some Japanese writing. + +"Is Tanaka there?" Asako asked her maid Titine. + +Yes, of course, Tanaka was there, in the next room with his ear near +the door. + +"Tanaka, what does this mean?" + +"Japanese poem," he said, "meaning very difficult: very many meanings: +I think perhaps it means, having travelled all over the world, he +feels very sad." + +"Yes, but word for word, Tanaka, what does it mean?" + +"This writing means, World is really not the same it says: all the +world very many tell lies." + +"And this?" + +"This means, Travelling everywhere." + +"And this at the end?" + +"It means, Eveything always the same thing. Very bad translation I +make. Very sad poem." + +"And this writing here?" + +"That is Japanese name--Fujinami Katsundo--and the date, twenty-fifth +year of Meiji, twelfth month." + +Tanaka had turned over the photograph and was looking attentively at +the portrait. + +"The honoured father of Ladyship, I think," he said. + +"Yes," said Asako. + +Then she thought she heard her husband's step away down the corridor. +Hurriedly she thrust _obi_ and photograph into a drawer. + +Now, why did she do that? wondered Tanaka. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE DWARF TREES + + _Iwa-yado ni + Tateru maisu no ki, + Na wo mireba, + Mukashi no hito wo + Ai-miru gotashi._ + + O pine-tree standing + At the (side of) the stone house, + When I look at you, + It is like seeing face to face + The men of old time. + + +For the first time during the journey of their married lives, Geoffrey +and Asako were pursuing different paths. It is the normal thing, no +doubt, for the man to go out to his work and to his play, while the +wife attends to her social and domestic duties. The evening brings +reunion with new impressions and new interests to discuss. Such a life +with its brief restorative separations prevents love growing stale, +and soothes the irritation of nerves which, by the strain of petty +repetitions, are exasperated sometimes into blasphemy of the heart's +true creed. But the Barrington _ménage_ was an unusual one. By +adopting a life of travel, they had devoted themselves to a +protracted honeymoon, a relentless _tête-à-tête_. So long as they were +continually on the move, constantly refreshed by new scenes, they did +not feel the difficulty of their self-imposed task. But directly their +stay in Tokyo seemed likely to become permanent, their ways separated +as naturally as two branches, which have been tightly bound together, +spread apart with the loosening of the string. + +This separation was so inevitable that they were neither of them +conscious of it. Geoffrey had all his life been devoted to exercise +and games of all kinds. They were as necessary as food for his +big body. At Tokyo he had found, most unexpectedly, excellent +tennis-courts and first-class players. + +They still spent the mornings together, driving round the city, and +inspecting curios. So what could be more reasonable than that Asako +should prefer to spend her afternoons with her cousin, who was so +anxious to please her and to initiate her into that intimate Japanese +life, which of course must appeal to her more strongly than to her +husband? + +Personally, Geoffrey found the company of his Japanese relatives +exceedingly slow. + +In return for the hospitalities of the Maple Club the Barringtons +invited a representative gathering of the Fujinami clan to dinner at +the Imperial Hotel, to be followed by a general adjournment to the +theatre. + +It was a most depressing meal. Nobody spoke. All of the guests were +nervous; some of them about their clothes, some about their knives and +forks, all of them about their English. They were too nervous even to +drink wine, which would have been the only remedy for such a "frost." + +Only Ito, the lawyer, talked, talked noisily, talked with his mouth +full. But Geoffrey disliked Ito. He mistrusted the man; but, because +of his wife's growing intimacy with her cousins, he felt loath to +start subterranean inquiries as to the whereabouts of her fortune. It +was Ito who, foreseeing embarrassment, had suggested the theatre party +after dinner. For this at least Geoffrey was grateful to him. It saved +him the pain of trying to make conversation with his cousins. + +"Talking to these Japs," he said to Reggie Forsyth, "is like trying to +play tennis all by yourself." + +Later on, at his wife's insistence, he attended an informal +garden-party at the Fujinami house. Again he suffered acutely from +those cruel silences and portentous waitings, to which he noticed that +even the Japanese among themselves were liable, but which apparently +they did not mind. + +Tea and ice-creams were served by _geisha_ girls who danced afterwards +upon the lawn. When this performance was over the guests were +conducted to an open space behind the cherry-grove, where a little +shooting-range had been set up, with a target, air-guns and boxes of +lead lugs. Geoffrey, of course, joined in the shooting-competition, +and won a handsome cigarette case inlaid with Damascene work. But he +thought that it was a poor game; nor did he ever realize that this +entertainment had been specially organized with a view to flattering +his military and sporting tastes. + +But the greatest disillusionment was the Akasaka garden. Geoffrey was +resigned to be bored by everything else. But his wife had grown so +enthusiastic about the beauties of the Fujinami domain, that he had +expected to walk straight into a paradise. What did he see? A dirty +pond and some shrubs, not one single flower to break the monotony of +green and drab, and everything so small. Why, he could walk round the +whole enclosure in ten minutes. Geoffrey Barrington was accustomed +to country houses in England, with their broad acres and their lavish +luxuriance of scent and blossom. This niggling landscape art of the +Japanese seemed to him mean and insignificant. + + * * * * * + +He much preferred the garden at Count Saito's home. Count Saito, +the late Ambassador at the Court of St. James, with his stooping +shoulders, his grizzled hair, and his deep eyes peering under the +gold-rimmed spectacles, had proposed the health of Captain and Mrs. +Barrington at their wedding breakfast. Since then, he had returned +to Japan, where he was soon to play a leading political rôle. Meeting +Geoffrey one day at the Embassy, he had invited him and his wife to +visit his famous garden. + +It was a hanging garden on the side of a steep hill, parted down the +middle by a little stream with its string of waterfalls. Along either +bank rose groups of iris, mauve and white, whispering together like +long-limbed pre-Raphaelite girls. Round a sunny fountain, the source +of the stream, just below the terrace of the Count's mansion, they +thronged together more densely, surrounding the music of the water +with the steps of a slow sarabande, or pausing at the edge of the pool +to admire their own reflection. + +Count Saito showed Geoffrey where the roses were coming on, new +varieties of which he had brought from England with him. + +"Perhaps they will not like to be turned into Japanese," he observed; +"the rose is such an English flower." + +They passed on to where the azaleas would soon be in fiery bloom. +For with the true gardener, the hidden promise of the morrow is more +stimulating to the enthusiasm than the assured success of the full +flowers. + +The Count wore his rustling native dress; but two black cocker +spaniels followed at his heels. This combination presented an odd +mixture of English squire-archy and the _daimyo_ of feudal Japan. + +On the crest of the hill above him rose the house, a tall Italianate +mansion of grey stucco, softened by creepers, jessamine and climbing +roses. Alongside ran the low irregular roofs of the Japanese portion +of the residence. Almost all rich Japanese have a double house, +half foreign and half native, to meet the needs of their amphibious +existence. This grotesque juxtaposition is to be seen all over Tokyo, +like a tall boastful foreigner tethered to a timid Japanese wife. + +Geoffrey inquired in which wing of this unequal bivalve his host +actually lived. + +"When I returned from England," said Count Saito, "I tried to live +again in the Japanese style. But we could not, neither my wife nor I. +We took cold and rheumatism sleeping on the floor, and the food made +us ill; so we had to give it up. But I was sorry. For I think it is +better for a country to keep its own ways. There is a danger nowadays, +when all the world is becoming cosmopolitan. A kind of international +type is springing up. His language is _esperanto_, his writing is +shorthand, he has no country, he fights for whoever will pay him most, +like the Swiss of the Middle Ages. He is the mercenary of commerce, +the ideal commercial traveler. I am much afraid of him, because I am +a Japanese and not a world citizen. I want my country to be great and +respected. Above all, I want it to be always Japanese. I think that +loss in national character means loss of national strength." + +Asako was being introduced by her hostess to the celebrated collection +of dwarf trees, which had made the social fame of the Count's sojourn +as Ambassador in Grosvenor Square. + +Countess Saito, like her husband, spoke excellent English; and her +manner in greeting Asako was of London rather than of Tokyo. She took +both her hands and shook them warmly. + +"My dear," she said, in her curious deep hoarse voice, "I'm so glad to +see you. You are like a little bit of London come to say that you have +not forgotten me." + +This great Japanese lady was small and very plain. Her high forehead +was deeply lined and her face was marked with small-pox. Her big mouth +opened wide as she talked, like a nestling's. But she was immensely +rich. The only child of one of the richest bankers of Japan, she +had brought to her husband the opportunity for his great gifts as a +political leader, and the luxury in which they lived. + +The little trees were in evidence everywhere, decorating the living +rooms, posted like sentinels on the terrace, and staged with the +honour due to statuary at points of vantage in the garden. But their +chief home was in a sunny corner at the back of a shrubbery, where +they were aligned on shelves in the sunlight. Three special gardeners +who attended to their wants were grooming and massaging them, soothing +and titivating them, for their temporary appearances in public. Here +they had a green-house of their own, kept slightly warmed for a few +delicate specimens, and also for the convalescence of the hardier +trees; for these precious dwarfs are quite human in their ailments, +their pleasures and their idiosyncracies. + +Countess Saito had a hundred or more of these fashionable pets, of all +varieties and shapes. There were giants of primeval forests reduced to +the dimensions of a few feet, like the timbers of a lordly park seen +through the wrong end of a telescope. There were graceful maple trees, +whose tiny star-like leaves were particularly adapted to the process +of diminution which had checked the growth of trunk and branches. +There were weeping willows with light-green feathery foliage, such +as sorrowing fairies might plant on the grave of some Taliessin +of Oberon's court. There was a double cherry in belated bloom; its +flowers of natural size hung amid the slender branches like big birds' +nests. There was a stunted oak tree, creeping along the earth with +gnarled and lumpy limbs like a miniature dinosaur; it waved in the air +a clump of demensurate leaves with the truculent mien of boxing-gloves +or lobsters' claws. In the centre of the rectangle formed by this +audience of trees, and raised on a long table, was a tiny wisteria +arbour, formed by a dozen plants arranged in quincunx. The +intertwisted ropes of branches were supported on shining rods of +bamboo; and the clusters of blossom, like bunches of grapes or like +miniature chandeliers, still hung over the litter of their fallen +beauty, with a few bird-like flowers clinging to them, pale and +bleached. + +"They are over two hundred years old," said their proud owner, "they +came from one of the Emperor's palaces at Kyoto." + +But the pride of the collection were the conifers and +evergreens--trees which have Japanese and Latin names only, the +_hinoki_, the _enoki_, the _sasaki_, the _keyaki_, the _maki_, the +_surgi_ and the _kusunoki_--all trees of the dark funereal families of +fir and laurel, which the birds avoid, and whose deep winter green in +the summer turns to rust. There were spreading cedar trees, black like +the tents of Bedouins, and there were straight cryptomerias for the +masts of fairy ships. There was a strange tree, whose light-green +foliage grew in round clumps like trays of green lacquer at the +extremities of twisted brandies, a natural _étagère_. There were the +distorted pine-trees of Japan, which are the symbol of old age, of +fidelity, of patience under adversity, and of the Japanese nation +itself, in every attitude of menace, curiosity, jubilation and gloom. +Some of them were leaning out of their pots and staring head downwards +at the ground beneath them; some were creeping along the earth +like reptiles; some were mere trunks, with a bunch of green needles +sprouting at the top like a palm; some with one long pathetic branch +were stretching out in quest of the infinite to the neglect of the +rest of the tree; some were tall and bent as by some sea wind blowing +shoreward. Streaking a miniature landscape, they were whispering +together the tales of centuries past. + +The Japanese art of cultivating these tiny trees is a weird and +unhealthy practice, akin to vivisection, but without its excuse. It is +like the Chinese custom of dwarfing their women's feet. The result is +pleasing to the eye; but it hurts the mind by its abnormality, and the +heart by its ruthlessness. + +Asako's admiration, so easily stirred, became enthusiastic as Countess +Saito told her something of the personal history of her favourite +plants, how this one was two hundred years old, and that one three +hundred and fifty, and how another had been present at such and such a +scene famous in Japanese history. + +"Oh, they are lovely," cried Asako. "Where can one get them? I must +have some." + +Countess Saito gave her the names of some well-known market gardeners. + +"You can get pretty little trees from them for fifty to a hundred +_yen_ (£5 to £10)," she said. "But of course the real historical trees +are so very few; they hardly ever come on the market. They are like +animals, you know. They want so much attention. They must have a +garden to take their walks in, and a valet of their own." + +This great Japanese lady felt an affection and sympathy for the girl +who, like herself, had been set apart by destiny from the monotonous +ranks of Japanese women and their tedious dependence. + +"Little Asa Chan," she said, calling her by her pet name, "take care; +you can become Japanese again, but your husband cannot." + +"Of course not, he's too big," laughed Asako; "but I like to run +away from him sometimes, and hide behind the _shoji_. Then I feel +independent." + +"But you are not really so," said the Japanese, "no woman is. You see +the wisteria hanging in the big tree there. What happens when the +big tree is taken away? The wisteria becomes independent, but it lies +along the ground and dies. Do you know the Japanese name for wisteria? +It is _fuji_--Fujinami Asako. If you have any difficulty ever, come +and talk to me. You see, I, too, am a rich woman; and I know that it +is almost as difficult to be very rich as it is to be very poor." + + * * * * * + +Captain Barrington and the ex-Ambassador were sitting on one of the +benches of the terrace when the ladies rejoined them. + +"Well, Daddy," the Countess addressed her husband in English, "what +are you talking about so earnestly?" + +"About England and Japan," replied the Count. + +As a matter of fact, in the course of a rambling conversation, Count +Saito had asked his guest: + +"Now, what strikes you as the most surprising difference between our +two countries?" + +Geoffrey pondered for a moment. He wanted to answer frankly, but he +was still awed by the canons of Good Form. At last he said: "This +Yoshiwara business." + +The Japanese statesman seemed surprised. + +"But that is just a local difference in the manner of regulating a +universal problem," he said. + +"Englishmen aren't any better than they should be," said Geoffrey; +"but we don't like to hear of women put up for sale like things in a +shop." + +"Then you have not actually seen them yourself?" said the Count. +He could not help smiling at the characteristic British habit of +criticising on hearsay. + +"Not actually; but I saw the procession last month." + +"You really think that it is better to let immoral women stray about +the streets without any attempt to control them and the crime and +disease they cause?" + +"It's not that," said Geoffrey; "it seems to me horrible that women +should be put up to sale and exposed in shop windows ticketed and +priced." + +Count Saito smiled again and said: + +"I see that you are an idealist like so many Englishmen. But I am only +a practical statesman. The problem of vice is a problem of government. +No law can abolish it. It is for us statesmen to study how to restrain +it and its evil consequences. Three hundred years ago these women +used to walk about the streets as they do in London to-day. Tokugawa +Iyeyasu, the greatest of all Japanese statesmen, who gave peace to the +whole country, put in order this untidiness also. He had the Yoshiwara +built, and he put all the women there, where the police could watch +both them and the men who visited them. The English might learn from +us here, I think. But you are an unruly people. It is not only that +you object for ideal reasons to the imprisonment of these women; but +it is your men who would object very strongly to having the eye of the +policeman watching them when they paid their visits." + +Geoffrey was silenced by the experience of his host. He was afraid, +as most Englishmen are, of arguing that the British determination to +ignore vice, however disastrous in practice, is a system infinitely +nobler in conception than the acquiescence which admits for the evil +its right to exist, and places it among the commonplaces of life. + +"And how about the people who make money out of such a place?" asked +Geoffrey. "They must be contemptible specimens." + +The face of the wise statesman became suddenly gentle. + +"I really don't know much about them," he said. "If we do meet them +they do not boast about it." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +EURASIA + + _Mono-sugo ya + Ara omoshiro no + Kaeri-bana._ + + Queer-- + Yes, but attractive + Are the flowers which bloom out of season. + + +Although he felt a decreasing interest in the Japanese people, +Geoffrey was enjoying his stay in Tokyo. He was tired of traveling, +and was glad to settle down in the semblance of a home life. + +He was very keen on his tennis. It was also a great pleasure to see +so much of Reggie Forsyth. Besides, he was conscious of the mission +assigned to him by Lady Cynthia Cairns to save his friend from the +dangerous connection with Yaé Smith. + +Reggie and he had been at Eton together. Geoffrey, four years the +senior, a member of "Pop," and an athlete of many colours, found +himself one day the object of an almost idolatrous worship on the part +of a skinny little being, discreditably clever at Latin verses, and +given over to the degrading habit of solitary piano practicing on +half-holidays. He was embarrassed but touched by a devotion which was +quite incomprehensible to him; and he encouraged it furtively. When +Geoffrey left Eton the friends did not see each other again for some +years, though they watched each other's careers from a distance, +mutually appreciative. Their next meeting took place in Lady +Everington's drawing-room, where Barrington had already heard fair +ladies praising the gifts and graces of the young diplomat. He heard +him play the piano; and he also heard the appreciation of discerning +judgment. He heard him talking with arabesque agility. It was +Geoffrey's turn to feel on the wrong side of a vast superiority, and +in his turn he repaid the old debt of admiration; generosity filled +the gulf and the two became firm friends. Reggie's intelligence +flicked the inertia of Geoffrey's mind, quickened his powers of +observation, and developed his sense of interest in the world around +him. Geoffrey's prudence and stolidity had more than once saved the +young man from the brink of sentimental precipices. + +For Reggie's unquestionable musical talent found its nourishment +in love affairs dangerously unsophisticated. He refused to consider +marriage with any of the sweet young things, who would gladly +have risked his lukewarm interest for the chance of becoming an +Ambassador's wife. He equally avoided pawning his youth to any of +the maturer married ladies, whose status and character, together with +those of their husbands, license them to practice as certificated +Egerias. His dangerous _penchant_ was for highly spiced adventuresses, +and for pastoral amourettes, wistful and obscure. But he never gave +away his heart; he lent it out at interest. He received it again +intact, with the profit of his musical inspiration. Thus his liaison +with Véronique Gerson produced the publication of _Les demi-jours_, a +series of musical poems which placed him at once in the forefront of +young composers; but it also alarmed the Foreign Office, which was +paternally interested in Reggie's career. This brought about his +banishment to Japan. The _Attente d'hiver_, now famous, is his candid +musical confession that the coma inflicted upon him by Véronique's +unconcern was merely the drowsiness of the waiting earth before the +New Year brought back the old story. + +Reggie would never be attracted to native women; and he had not the +dry inquisitiveness of his predecessor, Aubrey Laking, which might +induce him to buy and keep a woman for whom he felt no affection. The +love which can exchange no thoughts in speech was altogether too +crude for him. It was his emotions, rather than his senses, which were +always craving for amorous excitement. His frail body claimed merely +its right to follow their lead, as a little boat follows the strong +wind which fills its sails. But ever since he had loved Geoffrey +Barrington at Eton it was a necessity for his nature to love some one; +and as the haze of his young conceptions cleared, that some one became +necessarily a woman. + +He soon recognized the wisdom of the Foreign Office in choosing Japan. +It was a starvation diet which had been prescribed for him. So he +settled down to his memories and to _L'attente d'hiver_, thinking that +it would be two long years or more before his Spring blossomed again. + + * * * * * + +Then he heard the story of the duel fought for Yaé Smith by two young +English officers, both of them her lovers, so people said, and the +vaguer tale of a fiancé's suicide. Some weeks later, he met her for +the first time at a dance. She was the only woman present in Japanese +dress, and Reggie thought at once of Asako Barrington. How wise of +these small women to wear the kimono which drapes so gracefully their +stumpy figures. He danced with her, his right hand lodged somewhere in +the folds of the huge bow with the embroidered peacock, which covered +her back. Under this stiff brocade he could feel no sensation of a +living body. She seemed to have no bones in her, and she was as +light as a feather. It was then that he imagined her as Lilith, the +snake-girl. She danced with ease, so much better than he, that at the +end of a series of cannons she suggested that they might sit out the +dance. She guided him into the garden, and they took possession of a +rustic seat. In the ballroom she had seemed timid, and had spoken in +undertones only; but in this shadowy _tête-à-tête_ beneath the stars, +she began to talk frankly about her own life. + +She told him about her one visit to England with her father; how she +had loved the country, and how dull it was for her here in Japan. She +asked him about his music. She would so like to hear him play. There +was an old piano at her home. She did not think he would like it very +much--indeed, Reggie was already shuddering in anticipation--or else? +Would she come to tea with him at the Embassy? That would be nice! She +could bring her mother or one of her brothers? She would rather come +with a girl friend. Very well, to-morrow? + +On the morrow she came. + +Reggie hated playing in public. He said that it was like stripping +naked before a multitude, or like having to read one's own love +letters aloud in a divorce court. But there is nothing more soothing +than to play to one attentive listener, especially if that listener +be feminine and if the interest shown be that personal interest, which +with so many women takes the place of true appreciation, and which +looks over the art to the artist. + +Yaé came with the girl friend, a lean and skinny half-caste girl +like a gipsy, whom Yaé patronized. She came once again with the girl +friend; and then she came alone. + +Reggie was relieved, and said so. Yaé laughed and replied: + +"But I brought her for your own sake; I always go everywhere by +myself." + +"Then please don't take me into consideration ever again," answered +Reggie. + +So those afternoons began which so soon darkened into evenings, while +Reggie sat at the piano playing his thoughts aloud, and the girl +lay on the sofa or squatted on the big cushion by the fire, with +cigarettes within reach and a glass of liqueur, wrapped in an +atmosphere of laziness and well-being such as she had never known +before. Then Reggie would stop playing. He would sit down beside her, +or he would take her on his knee; and they would talk. + +He talked as poets talk, weaving stories out of nothing, finding +laughter and tears in what she would have passed by unnoticed. She +talked to him about herself, about the daily doings of her home, +its sadness and isolation since her father died. He had been the +playfellow of her childhood. He had never grudged his time or his +money for her amusement. She had been brought up like a little +princess. She had been utterly spoiled. He had transferred to her +precocious mind his love of excitement, his inquisitiveness, his +courage and his lack of scruple; and then, when she was sixteen, he +had died, leaving as his last command to the Japanese wife who would +obey him in death as she had obeyed him living, the strict injunction +that Yaé was to have her own way always and in everything. + +He left a respectable fortune, a Japanese widow and two worthless +sons. + +Poor Yaé! Surrounded by the friends and amusements of an English +girl's life, the qualities of her happy disposition might have borne +their natural fruit. But at her father's death she found herself +isolated, without friends and without amusements. She found herself +marooned on the island of Eurasia, a flat and barren land of narrow +confines and stunted vegetation. The Japanese have no use for the +half-castes; and the Europeans look down upon them. They dwell apart +in a limbo of which Baroness Miyazaki is the acknowledged queen. + +Baroness Miyazaki is a stupendous old lady, whose figure might be +drawn from some eighteenth-century comedy. Her late husband--and +gossip says that she was his landlady during a period of study in +England--held a high position in the Imperial Court. His wife, by +a pomposity of manner and an assumption of superior knowledge, +succeeded, where no other white woman has succeeded, in acquiring the +respect and intimacy of the great ladies of Japan. She has inculcated +the accents of Pentonville, with its aitches dropped and recovered +again, among the high Japanese aristocracy. + +But first her husband died; and then the old Imperial Court of the +Emperor Meiji passed away. So Baroness Miyazaki had to retire from +the society of princesses. She passed not without dignity, like an +old monarch _en disponibilité_, to the vacant throne of the Eurasian +limbo, where her rule is undisputed. + +Every Friday afternoon you may see her presiding over her little court +in the Miyazaki mansion, with its mixture of tinsel and dust. The +Bourbonian features, the lofty white wig, the elephantine form, the +rustling taffeta, and the ebony stick with its ivory handle, leads +one's thoughts backwards to the days of Richardson and Sterne. + +But her loyal subjects who surround her--it is impossible to place +them. They are poor, they are untidy, they are restless. Their black +hair is straggling, their brown eyes are soft, their clothes are +desperately European, but ill-fitting and tired. They chatter together +ceaselessly and rapidly like starlings, with curious inflections in +their English speech, and phrases snatched up from the vernacular. +They are forever glancing and whispering, bursting at times into wild +peals of laughter which lack the authentic ring of gladness. They are +a people of shadows blown by the harsh winds of destiny across the +face of a land where they can find no permanent resting place. They +are the children of Eurasia, the unhappiest people on earth. + +It was among these people that Yaé's lot was cast. She stepped into an +immediate ascendancy over them, thanks to her beauty, her personality +and, above all, to her money. Baroness Miyazaki saw at once that +she had a rival in Eurasia. She hated her, but waited calmly for the +opportunity to assist in her inevitable collapse, a woman of wide +experience watching the antics of a girl innocent and giddy, the +Baroness playing the part of Elizabeth of England to Yaé's Mary Queen +of Scots. + +Meanwhile, Yaé was learning what the Eurasian girls were whispering +about so continually--love affairs, intrigues with secretaries of +South American legations, secret engagements, disguised messages. + +This seed fell upon soil well-prepared. Her father had been a +reprobate till the day of his death, when he had sent for his +favourite Japanese girl to come and massage the pain out of his wasted +body. Her brothers had one staple topic of conversation which they +did not hesitate to discuss before their sister--_geisha_, assignation +houses, and the licensed quarters. Yaé's mind was formed to the idea +that for grown-up people there is one absorbing distraction, which is +to be found in the company of the opposite sex. + +There was no talk in the Smith's home of the romance of marriage, +of the love of parents and children, which might have turned this +precocious preoccupation in a healthy direction. The talk was of women +all the time, of women as instruments of pleasure. Nor could Mrs. +Smith, the Japanese mother, guide her daughter's steps. She was a +creature of duty, dry-featured and self-effaced. She did her utmost +for her children's physical wants, she nursed them devotedly in +sickness, she attended to their clothes and to their comforts. But she +did not attempt to influence their moral ideas. She had given up any +hope of understanding her husband. She schooled herself to accept +everything without surprise. Poor man! He was a foreigner and had +a fox (i.e. he was possessed); and unfortunately his children had +inherited this incorrigible animal. + +To please her daughter she opened up her house for hospitality with +unseemly promptitude after her husband's death. The Smiths gave +frequent dances, well-attended by young people of the Tokyo foreign +community. At the first of these series, Yaé listened to the +passionate pleadings of a young man called Hoskin, a clerk in an +English firm. On the second opportunity she became engaged to him. On +the third, she was struck with admiration and awe by a South American +diplomat with the green ribbon of a Bolivian order tied across his +false shirt front. Don Quebrado d'Acunha was a practiced hand at +seduction and Yaé became one of his victims soon after her seventeenth +birthday, and just ten days before her admirer sailed away to rejoin +his legitimate spouse in Guayaquil. The engagement with Hoskin still +lingered on; but the young man, who adored her was haggard and pale. +Yaé had a new follower, a teacher of English in a Japanese school, who +recited beautifully and wrote poetry about her. + +Then Baroness Miyazaki judged that her time was ripe. She summoned +young Hoskin into her dowager presence, and, with a manner heavily +maternal, she warned him against the lightness of his fiancée. When he +refused to believe evil of her she produced a pathetic letter full +of half-confessions, which the girl herself had written to her in +a moment of expansion. A week later the young man's body was washed +ashore near Yokohama. + +Yaé was sorry to hear of the accident; but she had long ceased to be +interested in Hoskin, the reticence of whose passion had seemed like +a touch of ice to her fevered nerves. But this was Baroness Miyazaki's +opportunity to discredit Yaé, to crush her rival out of serious +competition, and to degrade her to the _demi-monde_. It was done +promptly and ruthlessly; for the Baroness's gossip carried weight +throughout the diplomatic, professional and missionary circles, even +where her person was held in ridicule. The facts of Hoskin's suicide +became known. Nice women dropped Yaé entirely; and bad men ran after +her with redoubled zest. Yaé did not realize her ostracism. + +The Smith's dances next winter became so many competitions for the +daughter's corruption, and were rendered brilliant by the presence +of several of the young officers attached to the British Embassy, who +made the running, and finally monopolized the prize. + +Next year the Smiths acquired a motor-car which soon became Yaé's +special perquisite. She would disappear for whole days and nights. +None of her family could restrain her. Her answer to all remonstrances +was: + +"You do what you want; I do what I want." + +That summer two English officers whom she especially favoured fought a +duel with pistols--for her beauty or for her honour. The exact motive +remained unknown. One was seriously wounded; and both of them had to +leave the country. + +Yaé was grieved by this sudden loss of both her lovers. It left her +in a condition of double widowhood from which she was most anxious to +escape. But now she was becoming more fastidious. The school teachers +and the dagos fascinated her no longer. Her soldier friends had +introduced her into Embassy circles, and she wished to remain there. +She fixed on Aubrey Laking for her next attempt, but from him she +received her first rebuff. Having lured him into a _tête-à-tête_, as +her method was, she asked him for counsel in the conduct of her life. + +"If I were you," he said dryly, "I should go to Paris or New York. You +will find much more scope there." + +Fortunately fate soon exchanged Aubrey Laking for Reggie Forsyth. He +was just what suited her--for a time. But a certain impersonality in +his admiration, his fits of reverie, the ascendancy of music over his +mind, made her come to regret her more masculine lovers. And it was +just at this moment of dissatisfaction that she first saw Geoffrey +Barrington, and thought how lovely he would look in his uniform. From +that moment desire entered her heart. Not that she wanted to lose +Reggie; the peace and harmony of his surroundings soothed her like a +warm and scented bath. But she wanted both. She had had two before, +and had found them complimentary to one another and agreeable to her. +She wanted to sit on Geoffrey's knee and to feel his strong arms round +her. But she must not be too sudden in her advances, or she would lose +him as she had lost Laking. + +It is easy to condemn Yaé as a bad girl, a born _cocotte_. Yet such +a judgment would not be entirely equitable. She was a laughter-loving +little creature, a child of the sun. She never sought to do harm to +anybody. Rather was she over-amiable. She wished above all to make +her men friends happy and to be pleasing in their eyes. She was never +swayed by mercenary motives. She was to be won by admiration, by good +looks, and by personal distinction, but never by money. If she tired +of her lovers somewhat rapidly, it was as a child tires of a game or +of a book, and leaves it forgotten to start another. + +She was a child with bad habits, rather than a mature sinner. It never +occurred to her that, because Geoffrey Harrington was married, he at +least ought to be immune from her attack. In her dreams of an earthly +paradise there was no marrying or giving in marriage, only the +sweet mingling of breath, the quickening of the heart-beats like the +pulsation of her beloved motor-car, the sound as of violin arpeggios +rising higher and ever higher, the pause of the ecstatic moment +when the sense of time is lost--and then the return to earth on lazy +languorous wings like a sea-gull floating motionless on a shoreward +breeze. Such was Yaé's ideal of Love and of Life too. It is not for +us to condemn Yaé, but rather should we censure the blasphemy of mixed +marriages which has brought into existence these thistledown children +of a realm which has no kings or priests or laws or Parliaments or +duty or tradition or hope for the future, which has not even an acre +of dry ground for its heritage or any concrete symbol of its soul--the +Cimmerian land of Eurasia. + +Reggie Forsyth understood the pathos of the girl's position; and being +a rebel and an anarchist at heart, he readily condoned the faults +which she confided to him frankly. Gradually Pity, most dangerous +of all counsellors, revealed her to him as a girl romantically +unfortunate, who never had a fair chance in life, who had been +the sport of bad men and fools, who needed only a measure of true +friendship and affection for the natural sunshine of her disposition +to scatter the rank vapours of her soul's night. What Reggie grasped +only in that one enlightened moment when he had christened her Lamia, +was the tragic fact that she had no soul. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE GREAT BUDDHA + + _Tsuki-yo yoshi + Tachitsu itsu netsu + Mitsu-no-hama._ + + The sea-shore of Mitsu! + Standing, sitting or lying + down, + How lovely is the moonlight + night! + + +Before the iris had quite faded, and before the azaleas of Hibiya were +set ablaze--in Japan they count the months by the blossoming of the +flowers--Reggie Forsyth had deserted Tokyo for the joys of sea bathing +at Kamakura. He attended at the Embassy for office hours during +the morning, but returned to the seaside directly after lunch. This +departure disarranged Geoffrey's scheme for his friend's salvation; +for he was not prepared to go the length of sacrificing his daily game +of tennis. + +"What do you want to leave us for?" he remonstrated. + +"The bathing," said Reggie, "is heavenly. Besides, next month I have +to go into _villegiatura_ with my chief. I must prepare myself for the +strain with prayer and fasting. But why don't you come down and join +us?" + +"Is there any tennis?" asked Geoffrey. + +"There is a court, a grass court with holes in it; but I've never seen +anybody playing." + +"Then what is there to do?" + +"Oh, bathing and sleeping and digging in the sand and looking at +temples and bathing again; and next week there is a dance." + +"Well, we might come down for that if her Ladyship agrees. How is +Lamia?" + +"Don't call her that, please. She has got a soul after all. But it +is rather a disobedient one. It runs away like a little dog, and goes +rabbit-hunting for days on end. She is in great form. We motor in the +moonlight." + +"Then I think it is quite time I did come," said Geoffrey. + +So the Harringtons arrived in their sumptuous car on the afternoon +before the dance of which Reggie Forsyth had spoken. + +On the beach they found him in a blue bathing-costume sitting under an +enormous paper umbrella with Miss Smith and the gipsy half-caste girl. +Yaé wore a cotton kimono of blue and white, and she looked like a +figurine from a Nanking vase. + +"Geoffrey," said the young diplomat, "come into the sea at once. You +look thoroughly dirty. Do you like sea-bathing, Mrs. Harrington?" + +"I have only paddled," said Asako, "when I was a little girl." + +Geoffrey could not resist the temptation of the blue water and the +lazy curling waves. In a few minutes the two men were walking down to +the sea's edge, Geoffrey laughing at Reggie's chatter. His arms were +akimbo, with hands on the hips, hips which looked like the boles of a +mighty oak-tree. He touched the ground with the elasticity of Mercury; +he pushed through the air with the shoulders of Hercules. The line of +his back was pliant as a steel blade. In his hair the sun's reflection +shone like wires of gold. The Gods were come down in the semblance of +men. + +Yaé did not repress a sharp intake of her breath; and she squeezed the +hand of the gipsy girl as if pain had gripped her. + +"How big your husband is!" she said to Asako. "What a splendid man!" + +Asako thought of her husband as "dear old Geoffrey." She never +criticized his points; nor did she think that Yaé's admiration was in +very good taste. However, she accepted it as a clumsy compliment from +an uneducated girl who knew no better. The gipsy companion watched +with a peculiar smile. She understood the range of Yaé's admiration. + +"Isn't it a pity they have to wear bathing dress?" Miss Smith went on. +"It's so ugly. Look at the Japanese." + +Farther along the beach some Japanese men were bathing. They threw +their clothes down on the sand and ran into the water with nothing on +their bodies except a strip of white cotton knotted round the loins. +They dashed into the sea with their arms lifted above their head, +shouting wildly like savage devotees calling upon their gods. The sea +sparkled like silver round their tawny skin. Their torsos were well +formed and hardy; their dwarfed and ill-shaped legs were hidden by the +waves. Certainly they presented an artistic contrast with the sodden +blue of the foreigners' bathing suits. But Asako, brought up to the +strict ideals of convent modesty, said: + +"I think it's disgusting; the police ought to stop those people +bathing with no clothes on." + +The dust and sun of the motor ride, the constant anxiety lest they +might run over some doddering old woman or some heedless child, had +given her a headache. As soon as Geoffrey returned from his dip, she +announced that she would go back to her room. + +As the headache continued, she abandoned the idea of dancing. She +would go to bed, and listen to the music in the distance. Geoffrey +wished to stay with her, but she would not hear of it. She knew that +her husband was fond of dancing; she thought that the change and the +brightness would be good for him. + +"Don't flirt with Yaé Smith," she smiled, as he gave her the last +kiss, "or Reggie will be jealous." + +At first Geoffrey was bored. He did not know many of the dancers, +business people from Yokohama, most of them, or strangers stopping at +the hotel. Their appearance depressed him. The women had hard faces, +the lustre was gone from their hair, they wore ill-fitting dresses +without style or charm. The men were gross, heavy-limbed and +plethoric. The music was appalling. It was produced out of a piano, +a cello, and a violin driven by three Japanese who cared nothing for +time or tune. Each dance, evidently, was timed to last ten minutes. +At the end of the ten minutes the music stopped without finishing the +phrase or even the bar; and the movement of the dancers was jerked +into stability. + +Reggie entered the room with Yaé Smith. His manner was unusually +excited and elate. + +"Hello, Geoffrey, enjoying yourself?" + +"No," said Geoffrey, "my wife has got a headache; and that music is +simply awful." + +"Come and have a drink," proposed Reggie. + +He took them aside into the bar and ordered champagne. + +"This is to drink our own healths," he announced, "and many years +of happiness to all of us. It is also, Geoffrey, to drive away your +English spleen, and to make you into an agreeable grass-widower into +whose hands I may commend this young lady, because you can dance and I +cannot. My evening is complete. This is my _Nunc Dimittis._" + +He led them back to the ballroom. Then, with a low bow and a flourish +of an imaginary cocked-hat, he disappeared. + +Geoffrey and Yaé danced together. Then they sat out a dance; and then +they danced again. Yaé was tiny, but she danced well; and Geoffrey was +used to a small partner. For Yaé it was sheer delight to feel the +size and strength of this giant man bending over her like a sheltering +tree; and then to be lifted almost in his arms and to float on tiptoe +over the floor with the delightful airiness of dreams. + +What strange orgies our dances are! To the critical mind what a +strange contradiction to our sheepish passion-hiding conventions! A +survival of the corroboree, of the immolation of the tribal virgins, +a ritual handed down from darkest antiquity like the cult of the +Christmas Tree and the Easter Egg; only their significance is lost, +while that of the dance is transparently evident. + +Maidens as chaste as Artemis, wives as loyal as Lucretia pass into the +arms of men who are scarcely known to them with touchings of hands and +legs, with crossings of breath, to the sound of music aphrodisiac or +fescennine. + +The Japanese consider, not unreasonably, that our dancing is +disgusting. + +A nice girl no doubt, and a nice man too, thinks of a dance as a +graceful exercise or as a game like tennis or hockey. But Yaé was not +a nice girl; and when the music stopped with its hideous abruptness, +it awoke her from a kind of trance in which she had been lost to all +sensations except the grip of Geoffrey's hand and arm, the stooping of +his shadow above her, and the tingling of her own desire. + +Geoffrey left his partner at the end of their second dance. He went +upstairs to see his wife. He found her sleeping peacefully; so he +returned to the ballroom again. He looked in at the bar, and drank +another glass of champagne. He was beginning to enjoy himself. + +He could not find Yaé, so he danced with the gipsy girl, who had a +stride like a kangaroo. Then Yaé reappeared. They had two more dances +together, and another glass of champagne. The night was fine. There +was a bright moonlight. Geoffrey remarked that it was jolly hot for +dancing. Yaé suggested a stroll along the sea-shore; and in a few +minutes they were standing together on the beach. + +"Oh! Look at the bonfires," cried Yaé. + +A few hundred yards down the sea-front, where the black shadows of the +native houses overhung the beach, the lighted windows gleamed softly +like flakes of mica. The fishermen were burning seaweed and jetsam +for ashes which would be used as fertilizer. Tongues of fire were +flickering skywards. It was a blue night. The sky was deep blue, and +the sea an oily greenish blue. Blue flames of salt danced and vanished +over the blazing heaps. The savage figures squatting round the fires +were dressed in tunics of dark blue cloth. Their legs were bare. Their +healthy faces lit up by the blaze were the color of ripe apricots. +Their attitudes and movements were those of apes. The elder men were +chattering together; the younger ones were gazing into the fire with +an expression of healthy stupor. A boat was coming in from the sea. +A ruby light hung at the prow. It was rowed by four men standing and +_yulohing_, two in the stern and two at the bow. They were intoning +a rhythmic chant to which their bodies moved. The boat was slim and +pointed; and the rowers looked like Vikings. + +The shadows cast by the moonlight were inky black, the shadows of the +beaked ships, the shadows of the savage huts, of the ape-like men, of +the huge round fish-baskets like immense _amphorae_. + +Far out from land, where the wide floating nets were spread, lights +were scattered like constellations. The foreland was clearly visible, +with the high woods which clothed its summit. But the farther end of +the beach faded into an uneven string of lights, soft and spectral as +will-o'-the-wisps. Warmth rose from the sleeping earth; and a breeze +blew in from the sea, making a strange metallic rustling, which to +Japanese ears is the sweetest natural music, in the gaunt sloping +pine-trees, whose height in the semi-darkness was exaggerated to +monstrous and threatening proportions. + +Geoffrey felt a little hand in his, warm and moist. + +"Shall we go and see _Dai-Butsu_?" said Yaé. + +Geoffrey had no idea who _Dai-Butsu_ might be, but he gladly agreed. +She fluttered on beside him with her long kimono sleeves like a big +moth. Geoffrey's head was full of wine and waltz tunes. + +They dived into a narrow street with dwellings on each side. Some of +the houses were shuttered and silent. Others were open to the +street with a completeness of detail denied by our stingy +window-casements--women sitting up late over their needlework, men +talking round the firebox, shopkeepers adding up their accounts, +fishermen mending their tackle. + +The street led inland towards abrupt hills, which looked like a +wall of darkness. It was lit by the round street lamps, the luminous +globules with Chinese letters on them which had pleased Geoffrey first +at Nagasaki. The road entered a gorge between two precipices, the +kind of cleft into which the children of Hamlin had followed the Pied +Piper. + +"I would not like to come here alone," said Yaé, clinging tighter. + +"It looks peaceful enough," said Geoffrey. + +"There is a little temple just to the left, where a nun was murdered +by a priest only last year. He chopped her with a kitchen knife." + +"What did he do it for?" asked Geoffrey. + +"He loved her, and she would not listen to him; so he killed her. I +think I would feel like that if I were a man." + +They passed under an enormous gateway, like a huge barn door with no +barn behind it. Two threatening gods stood sentinel on either hand. +Under the influence of the moonlight the carved figures seemed to +move. + +Yaé led her big companion along a broad-flagged path between a +pollarded avenue. Geoffrey still did not know what they had come so +far to see. Nor did he care. Everything was so dreamy and so sweet. + +The path turned; and suddenly, straight in front of them, they saw the +God--the Great Buddha--the immense bronze statue which has survived +from the days of Kamakura's sovereignty. The bowed head and the broad +shoulders were outlined against the blue and starry sky; against +the shadow of the woods the body, almost invisible, could be dimly +divined. The moonlight fell on the calm smile and on the hands palm +upwards in the lap, with finger-tips and thumb-tips touching in the +attitude of meditation. That ineffably peaceful, smiling face seemed +to look down from the very height of heaven upon Geoffrey Barrington +and Yaé Smith. The presence of the God filled the valley, patient and +powerful, the Creator of the Universe and the Maintainer of Life. + +Geoffrey had never seen anything so impressive. He Stooped down +towards his little companion, listening for a response to his own +emotion. It came. Before he could realize what was happening he felt +the soft kimono sleeves like wings round his neck, and the girl's +burning mouth pressing his lips. + +"Oh, Geoffrey," she whispered. + +He sat down on a low table in front of a shuttered refreshment bar +with Yaé on his knee, his strong arm round her, even as she had +dreamed. The Buddha of Infinite Understanding smiled down upon them. + +Geoffrey was too little of a prig to scold the girl, and too much of +a man not to be touched and flattered by the sincerity of her embrace. +He was too much of an Englishman to ascribe it to its real passionate +motive, and to profit by the opportunity. + +Instead, he told himself that she was only a child excited by the +beauty and the romance of the night even as he was. He did not begin +to realize that he or she were making love. So he took her on his knee +and stroked her hand. + +"Isn't he fine?" he said, looking up at the God. + +She started at the sound of his voice, and put her arms round his neck +again. + +"Oh, Geoffrey," she murmured, "how strong you are!" + +He stood up laughing, with the girl in his arms. + +"If it wasn't for your big _obi_" he said, "you would weigh nothing at +all. Now hold tight; for I am going to carry you home." + +He started down the avenue with a swinging stride. Yaé could watch +almost within range of her lips the powerful profile of his big face, +a soldier's face trained to command strong men and to be gentle to +women and children. There was a delicious fragrance about him, the +dry heathery smell of clean men. He did not look down at her. He was +staring into the black shadows ahead, his mind still full of that +sudden vision of Buddha Amitabha. He was scarcely thinking of the +half-caste girl who clung tightly to his neck. + +Yaé had no interest in the _Dai-Butsu_ except as a grand background +for love-making, a good excuse for hand squeezings and ecstatic +movements. She had tried it once before with her school-master lover. +It never occurred to her that Geoffrey was in any way different from +her other admirers. She thought that she herself was the sole cause of +his emotion and that his fixed expression as he strode in the darkness +was an indication of his passion and a compliment to her charms. She +was too tactful to say anything, or to try to force the situation; but +she felt disappointed when at the approach of lighted houses he put +her down without further caresses. In silence they returned to the +hotel, where a few tired couples were still revolving to a spasmodic +music. + +Geoffrey was weary now; and the enchantment of the wine had passed +away. + +"Good-night, Yaé," he said. + +She was holding the lapels of his coat, and she would have dearly +loved to kiss him again. But he stood like a tower without any sign of +bending down to her; and she would have had to jump for the forbidden +fruit. + +"Good-night, Geoffrey," she purred, "I will never forget to-night." + +"It was lovely," said the Englishman, thinking of the Great Buddha. + + * * * * * + +Geoffrey retired to his room, where Asako was sleeping peacefully. +He was very English. Only the first surprise of the girl's kiss had +startled his loyalty. With the ostrich-like obtuseness, which our +continental neighbours call our hypocrisy, he buried his head in his +principles. As Asako's husband, he could not flirt with another woman. +As Reggie's friend, he would not flirt with Reggie's sweetheart. As an +honourable man, he would not trifle with the affections of a girl who +meant nothing whatever to him. Therefore the incident of the Great +Buddha had no significance. Therefore he could lie down and sleep with +a light heart. + +Geoffrey had been sleeping for half an hour or so when he was awakened +by a sudden jolt, as though the whole building had met with a violent +collision, or as though a gigantic fist had struck it. Everything +in the room was in vibration. The hanging lamp was swinging like a +pendulum. The pictures were shaking on the walls. A china ornament on +the mantelpiece reeled, and fell with a crash. + +Geoffrey leapt out of bed to cross to where his wife was sleeping. +Even the floor was unsteady like a ship's deck. + +"Geoffrey! Geoffrey!" Asako called out. + +"It must be an earthquake," her husband gasped, "Reggie told me to +expect one." + +"It has made me feel so sick," said Asako. + +The disturbance was subsiding. Only the lamp was still oscillating +slightly to prove that the earthquake was not merely a nightmare. + +"Is any one about?" asked Asako. + +Geoffrey went out on to the veranda. The hotel having survived many +hundreds of earthquake shocks, seemed unaware of what had happened. +Far out to sea puffs of fire were dimly seen like the flashes of a +battleship in action, where the island volcano of Oshima was emptying +its wrath against the sky. + +There were hidden and unfamiliar powers in this strange country, of +which Geoffrey and Asako had not yet taken account. + +Beneath a tall lamp-post on the lawn, round whose smooth waxy light +scores of moths were flitting, stood the short stout figure of a +Japanese, staring up at the hotel. + +"It looks like Tanaka," thought Geoffrey, "by Jove, it _is_ Tanaka!" + +They had definitely left their guide behind in Tokyo. Had Asako +yielded at the last moment unable to dispense with her faithful +squire? Or had he come of his own accord? and if so, why? These Japs +were an unfathomable and exasperating people. + +Sure enough next morning it was Tanaka who brought the early tea. + +"Hello," said Geoffrey, "I thought you were in Tokyo." + +"Indeed," grinned the guide, "I am sorry for you. Perhaps I have +commit great crime so to come. But I think and I think Ladyship not so +well. Heart very anxious. Go to theatre, wish to make merry, but all +the time heart very sad. I think I will take last train. I will turn +like bad penny. Perhaps Lordship is angry." + +"No, not angry, Tanaka, just helpless. There was an earthquake last +night?" + +"Not so bad _jishin_ (earth-shaking). Every twenty, thirty years one +very big _jishin_ come. Last big _jishin_ Gifu _jishin_ twenty years +before. Many thousand people killed. Japanese people say that beneath +the earth is one big fish. When the fish move, the earth shake. Silly +fabulous myth! Tanaka say, 'It is the will of God!'" + +The little man crossed himself devoutly. + + * * * * * + +A few minutes later there was a loud banging at the door, followed by +Reggie's voice, shouting,-- + +"Are you coming down for a bath?" + +"Earthquakes are horrible things," commented Reggie, on their way to +the sea. "Foreigners are supposed always to sleep through their first +one. Their second they find an interesting experience; but the +third and the fourth and the rest are a series of nervous shocks in +increasing progression. It is like feeling God--but a wicked, cruel +God! No wonder the Japanese are so fatalistic and so desperate. It is +a case of 'Eat and drink, for to-morrow ye die.'" + +The morning sea was cold and bracing. The two friends did not remain +in for long. When they were dried and dressed again, and when Geoffrey +was for returning to breakfast, Reggie held him back. + +"Come and walk by the sea," he said, "I have something to tell you." + +They turned in the direction of the fishing village, where Geoffrey +and Yaé had walked together only a few hours ago. But the fires were +quenched. Black circles of charred ashes remained; and the magic world +of the moonlight had become a cluster of sordid hovels, where dirty +women were sweeping their frowsty floors, and scrofulous children were +playing among stale bedding. + +"Did you notice anything unusual in my manner last night?" Reggie +began very seriously. + +"No," laughed Geoffrey, "you seemed rather excited. But why did you +leave so early?" + +"For various reasons," said his friend. "First, I hate dancing, but +I feel rather envious of people who like it. Secondly, I wanted to be +alone with my own sensations. Thirdly, I wanted you, my best friend, +to have every opportunity of observing Yaé and forming an opinion +about her." + +"But why?" Geoffrey began. + +"Because it would now be too late for me to take your advice," said +Reggie mysteriously. + +"What do you mean?" Barrington asked. + +"Last night I asked Yaé to marry me; and I understand that she +accepted." + +Geoffrey sat in the sunlight on the gunwale of a fishing-boat. + +"You can't do that," he said. + +"Oh, Geoffrey, I was afraid you'd say it, and you have," said his +friend, half laughing. "Why not?" + +"Your career, old chap." + +"My career," snorted Reggie, "protocol, protocol and protocol. I am +fed up with that, anyway. Can you imagine me a be-ribboned Excellency, +worked by wires from London, babbling platitudes over teacups to +other old Excellencies, and giving out a lot of gas for the F.O. every +morning. No, in the old days there was charm and power and splendour, +when an Ambassador was really plenipotentiary, and peace and war +turned upon a court intrigue. All that is as dead as Louis Quatorze. +Personality has faded out of politics. Everything is business, now, +concessions, vested interests, dividends and bond-holders. These +diplomats are not real people at all. They are shadowy survivals +of the _grand siècle_, wraiths of Talleyrand; or else just restless +bagmen. I don't call that a career." + +Geoffrey had listened to these tirades before. It was Reggie's froth. + +"But what do you propose doing?" he asked. + +"Doing? Why, my music of course. Before I left England some music-hall +people offered me seventy pounds a week to do stunts for them. Their +first offer was two hundred and fifty, because they were under the +illusion that I had a title. My official salary at this moment is two +hundred _per annum_. So you see there would be no financial loss." + +"Then are you giving up diplomacy because you are fed up with it? or +for Yaé Smith's sake? I don't quite understand," said Geoffrey. + +He was still pondering over the scene of last evening, and he found +considerable comfort in ascribing Yaé's behaviour to excitement caused +by her engagement. + +"Yaé is the immediate reason: utter fed-upness is the original cause," +replied Reggie. + +"Do you feel that you are very much in love with her?" asked his +friend. + +The young man considered for a moment, and then answered,-- + +"No, not in love exactly. But she represents what I have come to +desire. I get so terribly lonely, Geoffrey, and I must have some one, +some woman, of course; and I hate intrigue and adultery. Yaé never +grates upon me. I hate the twaddling activities of our modern +women, their little sports, their little sciences, their little +earnestnesses, their little philanthropies, their little imitations of +men's ways. I like the seraglio type of woman, lazy and vain, a little +more than a lovely animal. I can play with her, and hear her purring. +She must have no father or mother or brothers or sisters or any social +scheme to entangle me in. She must have no claim on my secret mind, +she must not be jealous of my music, or expect explanations. Still +less explain me to others,--a wife who shows one round like a monkey, +what horror!" + +"But Reggie! old chap, does she love you?" + +Geoffrey's ideas were stereotyped. To his mind, only great love on +both sides could excuse so bizarre a marriage. + +"Love!" cried Reggie. "What is Love? I can feel Love in music. I can +feel it in poetry. I can see it in sunshine, in the wet woods, and in +the phosphorescent sea. But in actual life! I think of things in too +abstract a way ever to feel in love with anybody. So I don't think +anybody could really fall in love with me. It is like religious faith. +I have no faith, and yet I believe in faith. I have no love, and yet +I have a great love for love. Blessed are they who have not seen, and +yet have believed!" + +When Reggie was in this mood Geoffrey despaired of getting any sense +out of him, and he felt that the occasion was too serious for smiles. + +They were walking back to the hotel in the direction of breakfast. + +"Reggie, are you quite sure?" said his friend, solemnly. + +"No, of course I'm not, I never could be." + +"And are you intending to get married soon?" + +"Not immediately, no: and all this is quite in confidence, please." + +"I'm glad there's no hurry," grunted Geoffrey. He knew that the girl +was light and worthless; but to have shown Reggie his proofs would +have been to admit his own complicity; and to give a woman away +so callously would be a greater offence against Good Form than his +momentary and meaningless trespass. + +"But there is one thing you have forgotten," said. Reggie, rather +bitterly. + +"What's that, old chap?" + +"When a fellow announces his engagement to the dearest little girl +in all the world, his friends offer their congratulations. It's Good +Form," he added maliciously. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE RAINY SEASON + + _Fugu-jiru no + Ware ikite ir + Ne-zame kana!_ + + Poisonous delicacies (last night)! + I awake + And I am still alive. + + +Geoffrey Barrington tried not to worry about Yaé Smith; and, of +course, he did not mention the episode of the Great Buddha either to +his wife or to Reggie Forsyth. He did not exactly feel ashamed of the +incident; but he realised that it was open to misinterpretation. He +certainly had no love for Yaé; and she, since she was engaged to his +friend, presumably had no love for him. There are certain unnatural +states of mind in which we are not altogether morally responsible +beings. Among these may be numbered the ballroom mood, which drives +quite sane people to act madly. The music, the wine, the giddy +turning, the display of women's charms and the confusing proximity of +them produce an unwonted atmosphere, of which we have most of us been +aware, so bewildering that admiration of one woman will drive sane +men to kiss another. Explanation is of course impossible; and +circumstances must have their way. Scheming people, mothers with +daughters to marry, study the effects of this psychical chemistry and +profit by their knowledge. Under similar influences Geoffrey himself +had been guilty of wilder indiscretions than the kissing of a +half-caste girl. + +But when he thought the matter over, he was sorry that it had +occurred; and he was profoundly thankful that nobody had seen him. + +Somebody had seen him, however. + +The faithful Tanaka, who had been charged by Mr. Ito, the Fujinami +lawyer, not to let his master out of his sight, had followed him at +a discreet distance during the whole of that midnight stroll. He had +observed the talk and the attitudes, the silences and the holding of +hands, the glad exchange of kisses, the sitting of Yaé on Geoffrey's +knees, and her triumphant return, carried in his arms. + +To the Japanese mind such conduct could only mean one thing. The +Japanese male is frankly animal where women are concerned. He does +not understand our fine shades of self-deception, which give to our +love-making the thrill of surprise and the palliation of romance. +Tanaka concluded that there could be only one termination to the scene +which he had witnessed. + +He also learned that Yaé Smith was Reggie Forsyth's mistress, that he +visited her room at night, that she was a girl of no character at all, +that she had frequently stopped at the Kamakura hotel with other men, +all of them her lovers. + +All this information Tanaka collected with a wealth and precision of +detail which is only possible in Japan, where the espionage habit is +so deeply implanted in the every-day life of the people. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Ito could scarcely believe such welcome tidings. The Barrington +_ménage_ had seemed to him so devoted that he had often despaired +of his boast to his patron that he would divide the wife from her +husband, and restore her to her family. Now, if Tanaka's story were +true, his task would be child's play. A woman charged with jealousy +becomes like a weapon primed and cocked. If Ito could succeed +in making Asako jealous, then he knew that any stray spark of +misunderstanding would blast a black gulf between husband and wife, +and might even blow the importunate Englishman back to his own +country--alone. + +The lawyer explained his plan to the head of the family, who +appreciated its classic simplicity. Sadako was given to understand the +part which she was to play in alienating her cousin's affections from +the foreigner. She was to harp on the faithlessness of men in general, +and on husbands in particular, and on the importance of money values +in matrimonial considerations. + +She was to suggest that a foreign man would never choose a Japanese +bride merely for love of her. Then when the psychological moment had +struck, the name of Yaé Smith was to be flashed into Asako's mind with +a blinding glare. + +Asako had been visiting her Japanese cousins almost every day. Her +conversation lessons were progressing rapidly; for the first stages +of the language are easy. The new life appealed to Asako's love +of novelty, and the strangeness of it to her child's love of +make-believe. The summoning of her parents' spirits awakened in her +the desire for a home, which lurks in every one of us; the love of old +family things around us, the sense of an inheritance and a tradition. +She was tired of hotel life; and she turned for relaxation to playing +at Japan with cousin Sadako, just as her husband turned to tennis. + +Her favourite haunt was the little tea-house among the reeds at the +edge of the lake, which seemed so hidden from everywhere. Here the +two girls practised their languages. Here they tried on each others +clothes, and talked about their lives and purposes. Sadako was +intellectually the cleverer of the two, but Asako had seen and heard +more; so they were fairly equally matched. + +Often the cousins shocked each other's sense of propriety. Asako had +already observed that to the Japanese mind, the immediate corollary +to being married is to produce children as promptly and as rapidly as +possible. Already she had been questioned on the subject by Tanaka, by +_boy sans_ and by shop-attendants. + +"It is a great pity," said cousin Sadako, "that you have no baby. In +Japan if a wife have no baby, she is often divorced. But perhaps it is +the fault of Mr. Barrington?" + +Asako had vaguely hoped for children in the future, but on the whole +she was glad that their coming had been delayed. There was so much +to do and to see first of all. It had never occurred to her that her +childlessness might be the _fault_ of either herself or her husband. +But her cousin went on ruthlessly,-- + +"Many men are like that. Because of their sickness their wives cannot +have babies." + +Asako shivered. This beautiful country of hers seemed to be full of +bogeys like a child's dream. + +Another time Sadako asked her with much diffidence and slanting of the +eyes,-- + +"I wish to learn about--kissing." + +"What is the Japanese for 'kiss'?" laughed Asako. + +"Oh! There is no such word," expostulated Sadako, shocked at her +cousin's levity, "we Japanese do not speak of such things." + +"Then Japanese people don't kiss?" + +"Oh, no," said the girl. + +"Not ever?" asked Asako, incredulous. + +"Only when they are--quite alone." + +"Then when you see foreign people kissing in public, you think it is +very funny?" + +"We think it is disgusting," answered her cousin. + +It is quite true. Foreigners kiss so recklessly. They kiss on meeting: +they kiss on parting. They kiss in London: they kiss in Tokyo. They +kiss indiscriminately their fathers, mothers, wives, mistresses, +cousins and aunts. Every kiss sends a shiver down the spine of a +Japanese observer of either sex, as we should be shocked by the crude +exhibition of an obscene gesture. For this blossoming of our buds of +affection suggests to him, with immediate and detailed clearness, that +other embrace of which in his mind it is the inseparable concomitant. + +The Japanese find the excuse that foreigners know no better, just as +we excuse the dirty habits of natives. But they quote the kiss as an +indisputable proof of the lowness of our moral standard, and as a sign +of the guilt, not of individuals so much as of our whole civilisation. + +"Foreign people kiss too much," said cousin Sadako, "it is a bad +thing. If I had a husband, I would always fear he kiss somebody else." + +"That is why I am so happy with Geoffrey," said Asako, "I know he +would never love any one but me." + +"It is not safe to be so sure," said her cousin darkly, "a woman is +made for one man, but a man is made for many women." + +Asako, arrayed in a Japanese kimono, and to all appearance as Japanese +as her cousin, was sitting in the Fujinami tea-parlour. She had not +understood much of the lesson in tea-ceremony at which she had just +assisted. But the exceeding propriety and dignity of the teacher, the +daughter of great people fallen upon evil days, had impressed her. She +longed to acquire that tranquillity of deportment, that slow graceful +poise of hand and arm, that low measured speech. When the teacher +had gone, she began to mimic her gestures with all the seriousness of +appreciative imitation. + +Sadako laughed. She supposed that her cousin was fooling. Asako +thought that she was amused by her clumsiness. + +"I shall never be able to do it," she sighed. + +"But of course you will. I laugh because you are so like Kikuyé San." + +Kikuyé San was their teacher. + +"If only I could practise by myself!" said Asako, "but at the hotel it +would be impossible." + +Then they both laughed together at the incongruity of rehearsing those +dainty rites of old Japan in the over-furnished sitting-room at +the Imperial Hotel, with Geoffrey sitting back in his arm-chair and +puffing at his cigar. + +"If only I had a little house like this," said Asako. + +"Why don't you hire one?" suggested her cousin. + +Why not? The idea was an inspiration. So Asako thought; and she +broached the matter to Geoffrey that very evening. + +"Wouldn't it be sweet to have a ducky little Japanese house all our +very own?" she urged. + +"Oh yes," her husband agreed, wearily, "that would be great sport." + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro was delighted at the success of his daughter's +diplomacy. He saw that this plan for a Japanese house meant a further +separation of husband and wife, a further step towards recovery of +his errant child. For he was beginning to regard Asako with parental +sentiment, and to pity her condition as the wife of this coarse +stranger. + +Miss Sadako was under no such altruistic delusions. She envied her +cousin. She envied her money, her freedom, and her frank happiness. +She had often pondered about the ways of Japanese husbands and wives; +and the more she thought over the subject, the more she envied Asako +her happy married life. She envied her with a woman's envy, which +seeks to hurt and spoil. She was smarting from her own disappointment; +and by making her cousin suffer, she thought that she could assuage +her own grief. Besides, the intrigue in itself interested her, and +provided employment for her idolent existence and her restless mind. +Of affection for Asako she had none at all, but then she had no +affection for anybody. She was typical of a modern Japanese womanhood, +which is the result of long repression, loveless marriages and sudden +intellectual licence. + +Asako thought her charming, because she had not yet learned to +discern. She confided to her all her ideas about the new house; and +together the two girls explored Tokyo in the motor-car which Ito +provided for them, inspecting properties. + +Asako had already decided that her home was to be on the bank of the +river, where she could see the boats passing, something like the house +in which her father and mother had lived. The desired abode was found +at last on the river-bank at Mukojima just on the fringe of the city? +where the cherry-trees are so bright in Springtime, where she could +see the broad Sumida river washing her garden steps, the fussy little +river boats puffing by, the portly junks, the crews of students +training for their regattas, and, away on the opposite bank, the trees +of Asakusa, the garish river restaurants so noisy at nightfall, the +tall peaceful pagoda, the grey roofs and the red plinths of the temple +of the Goddess of Mercy. + +Just when the new home was ready for occupation, just when Asako's +enthusiasm was at its height and the purchases of silken bedding and +dainty trays were almost complete, Geoffrey suddenly announced his +intention of leaving Japan. + +"I can't stick it any longer," he said fretfully, "I don't know what's +coming over me." + +"Leave Japan?" cried his wife, aghast. + +"Well, I don't know," grunted her husband, "it's no good stopping here +and going all to seed." + +The rainy season was just over, the hot season of steaming rain +which the Japanese call _nyubai_. It had played havoc with Geoffrey's +nerves. He had never known anything so unpleasant as this damp, +relaxing heat. It made the walls of the room sweat. It impregnated +paper and blotting-paper. It rotted leather; and spread mould on boots +and clothes. It made matches unstrikeable. It drenched Geoffrey's +bed with perspiration, and drove away sleep. It sent him out on long +midnight walks through the silent city in an atmosphere as stifling as +that of a green-house. It beat down upon Tokyo its fetid exhalations, +the smell of cooking, of sewage and of humanity, and the queer sickly +scent of a powerful evergreen tree aflower throughout the city, which +resembled the reek of that Nagasaki brothel, and recalled the dancing +of the _Chonkina_. + +It bred swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitoes from every drop of stagnant +water. They found their way through the musty mosquito-net which +separated his bed from Asako's. They eluded his blow in the evening +light; and he could only wreak his vengeance in the morning, when they +were heavy with his gore. + +The colour faded from the Englishman's cheeks. His appetite failed. +He was becoming, what he had never been before, cross and irritable. +Reggie Forsyth wrote to him from Chuzenji,-- + +"Yaé is here, and we go in for yachting in a kind of winged punt, +called a 'lark.' For five pounds you can become a ship-owner. I fancy +myself as a skipper, and I have already won two races. But more often +we escape from the burble of the diplomats, and take our sandwiches +and _thermata_--or is _thermoi_ the plural?--to the untenanted shores +of the lake, and picnic _à deux_. Then, if the wind does not fall +we are lucky; but if it does, I have to row home. Yaé laughs at my +oarsmanship; and says that, if you were here, you would do it so much +better. You are a dangerous rival, but for this once I challenge you. +I have a spare pen in my rabbit-hutch. There is just room for you and +Mrs. Barrington. You must be quite melted by now." + +But Asako did not want to go to Chuzenji. All her thoughts were +centred on the little house by the river. + +"Geoffrey darling," she said, stroking his hair with her tiny waxen +fingers, "it is the hot weather which is making you feel cross. Why +don't you go up to the mountains for a week or so, and stop with +Reggie?" + +"Will you come?" asked her husband, brightening. + +"I can't very well. You see they are just laying down the _tatami_: +and when that is done the house will be ready. Besides, I feel so well +here. I like the heat." + +"But I've never been away without you!" objected Geoffrey, "I think it +would be beastly." + +This side of the question had not struck Asako. She was so taken up +with her project. Now, however, she felt a momentary thrill of relief. +She would be able to give all her time to her beloved Japanese home. +Geoffrey was a darling, but he was so uninterested in everything. + +"It will only be for a few days," she said, "you want the change; and +when you come back it will be like being married again." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +AMONG THE NIKKO MOUNTAINS + + _Io chikaki + Tsumagi no michi ya + Kure-nuramu; + Nokiba ni kudaru + Yama-bito no koye_! + + Dusk, it seems, has come + To the wood-cutter's track + That is near my hut; + The voices of the mountainmen + Going down to the shed! + + +Geoffrey left early one morning in a very doubtful frame of mind, +after having charged Tanaka to take the greatest care of his lady, and +to do exactly what she told him. + +It was not until half-way up the steep climb between Nikko and +Chuzenji that his lungs suddenly seemed to break through a thick film, +and he breathed fresh air again. Then he was glad that he had come. + +He was afoot. A coolie strode on before him with his suit-case +strapped on his back. They had started in pouring rain, a long tramp +through narrow gorges. Geoffrey could feel the mountains around him; +but their forms were wrapped in cloud. Now the mist was lifting; +and although in places it still clung to the branches like wisps of +cotton-wool, the precipitous slopes became visible; and overhead, +peeping through the clouds at impossible elevations, pieces of the +mountain seemed to be falling from the grey sky. Everything was bathed +in rain. The sandstone cliffs gleamed like marble, the luxuriant +foliage like polished leather. The torrent foamed over its wilderness +of grey boulders with a splendid rush of liberty. + +Country people passed by, dressed in straw overcoats which looked +like bee-hives, or with thin capes of oiled paper, saffron or +salmon-coloured. The kimono shirts were girt up like fishers--both +men and women--showing gnarled and muscular limbs. The complexions +of these mountain folk were red like fruit; the Mongolian yellow was +hardly visible. + +Some were leading long files of lean-shanked horses, with bells to +their bridles and high pack-saddles like cradles, painted red. Rough +girls rode astride in tight blue trunk-hose. It was with a start that +Geoffrey recognised their sex; and he wondered vaguely whether men +could fall in love with them, and fondle them. They were on their +way to fetch provision for the lake settlements, or for remote +mining-camps way beyond the mountains. + +The air was full of the clamour of the torrent, the heavy splashing +of raindrops delayed among the leaves, and the distant thunder of +waterfalls. + +What a relief to breath again, and what a pleasure to escape from the +tortuous streets and the toy houses, from the twisted prettiness of +the Tokyo gardens and the tiresome delicacy of the rice-field mosaic, +into a wild and rugged nature, a land of forests and mountains +reminiscent of Switzerland and Scotland, where the occasional croak of +a pheasant fell like music upon Geoffrey's ear! + +The two hours' climb ended abruptly in a level sandy road running +among birch trees. At a wayside tea-house a man was sitting on a low +table. He wore white trousers, a coat of cornflower shade and a Panama +hat--all very spick and span. It was Reggie Forsyth. + +"Hello," he cried, "my dear old Geoffrey! I'm awfully glad you've +come. But you ought to have brought Mrs. Harrington too. You seem +quite incomplete without her." + +"Yes, it's a peculiar sensation, and I don't like it. But the heat, +you know, at Tokyo, it made me feel rotten. I simply had to come away. +And Asako is so busy now with her new cousins and her Japanese house +and all the rest of it." + +For the first time Reggie thought that he detected a tone in his +friend's voice which he had been expecting to hear sooner or later, a +kind of "flagging" tone--he found the word afterwards in working out +a musical sketch called _Love's Disharmony_. Geoffrey looked white +and tired, he thought. It was indeed high time that he came up to the +mountains. + +They were approaching the lake, which already showed through the +tree-trunks. A path led away to the left across a rustic bridge. + +"That's the way to the hotel. Yaé is there. Farther along are the +Russian, French and British Embassies. That's about half an hour from +here." + +Reggie's little villa stood at a few minutes' distance in the opposite +direction, past two high Japanese hotels which looked like skeleton +houses with the walls taken out of them, past sheds where furs were on +sale, and picture post-cards, and dry biscuits. + +The garden of the villa jutted out over the lake on an embankment of +stones. The house was discreetly hidden by a high hedge of evergreens. + +"William Tell's chapel," explained Reggie, "a week in lovely Lucerne!" + +It was a Japanese house, another skeleton. From the wicket gate, +Geoffrey could see its simple scheme open to the four winds, its +scanty furniture unblushingly displayed; downstairs, a table, a sofa, +some bamboo chairs and a piano--upstairs, two beds, two washstands, +and the rest. The garden consisted of two strips of wiry grass on each +side of the house; and a flight of steps ran down to the water's edge, +where a small sailing-boat was moored. + +The landscape of high wooded hills was fading into evening across the +leaden ripples of the lake. + +"What do you think of our highland home?" asked Reggie. + +There was not a sign of life over the heavy waters, not a boat, not a +bird, not an island even. + +"Not much doing," commented Geoffrey, "but the air's good." + +"Not quite like a lake, it is?" his host reflected. + +That was true. A lake had always appealed to Geoffrey, both to his +sense of natural beauty and to his instinct for sport. There is a +soothing influence in the imprisoned waters, the romance of the sea +without its restlessness and fury. The freshness of untrodden islands, +the possibilities of a world beneath the waters, of half-perceived +Venetas, the adventure of entrusting oneself and one's fortunes to a +few planks of wood, are delights which the lake-lover knows well. He +knows too, the delicious sense of detachment from the shore--the shore +of ordinary affairs and monotonous people--and the charm of unfamiliar +lights and colours and reflections. Even on the Serpentine he can find +this glamour, when the birds are flocking to roost in the trees of +Peter Pan's island. + +But on this lake of Chuzenji there was a sullen brooding, an absence +of life, a suggestion of tragedy. + +"It isn't a lake," explained Reggie; "it's the crater of an old +volcano which has filled up with water. It is one of the earth's +pockmarks healed over and forgotten. But there is something lunar +about it still, some memory of burned out passions, something creepy +in spite of the beauty of the place. It is too dark this evening to +see how beautiful it is. In places the lake is unfathomably deep, and +people have fallen into the water and have never been seen again." + +The waters were almost blue now, a deep dull greyish blue. + +Suddenly, away to the left, lines of silver streaked the surface; and, +with a clapping and dripping commotion, a flight of white geese rose. +They had been dozing under the bank, and some one had disturbed them. +A pale figure like a little flame was dimly discernible. + +"It's Yaé!" cried Reggie; and he made a noise which was supposed to be +a _jodel_ The white figure waved an answer. + +Reggie picked up a megaphone which seemed to be kept there for the +purpose. + +"Good night," he shouted, "same time to-morrow!" + +The figure waved again and disappeared. + +Next morning Geoffrey was awakened by the boom of a temple bell. He +stepped out on to his balcony, and saw the lake and the hills around +clear and bright under the yellow sunshine. He drank in the cool +breath of the dew. For the first time after many limp and damp +awakenings he felt the thrill of the wings of the morning. He thanked +God he had come. If only Asako were here! he thought. Perhaps she was +right in getting a Japanese home just for the two of them. They would +be happier there than jostled by the promiscuity of hotels. + +At breakfast, Reggie had found a note from the Ambassador. + +"Oh, damn!" he cried, "I must go over and beat a typewriter for two +or three hours. I must therefore break my tryst. But I expect you to +replace me like the immortal Cyrano, who should be the ideal of all +soldiers. Will you take Yaé for an hour or two's sail? She likes you +very much." + +"And if I drown your fiancée? I don't know anything about sailing." + +"I'll show you. It's very easy. Besides, Yaé really knows more about +it than I do." + +So Geoffrey after a short lesson in steering, tacking, and the +manipulation of the centreboard, piloted his host safely over to +British Bay, the exclusive precinct of the temporary Embassy on the +opposite shore of the lake. He then made his way round French Cape +past Russia Cove to the wooden landing-stage of the Lakeside Hotel. +There he found Yaé, sitting on a bench and throwing pebbles at the +geese. + +She wore the blue and white cotton kimono, which is the summer dress +of Japanese women. It is a cheap garment, but most effective--so clean +and cool in the hot weather. Silk kimonos soon become stale-looking; +but this cotton dress always seems to be fresh from the laundry. A +rope of imitation pearls was entwined in her dark hair; and her broad +sash of deep blue was secured in front with an old Chinese ornament of +jade. + +"Oh, big captain," she cried, "I am so glad it is you. I heard you +were coming." + +She stepped into the boat, and took over the tiller and the command. +Geoffrey explained his friend's absence. + +"The bad boy," she said, "he wants to get away from me in order to +think about a lot of music. But I don't care!" + +Under a steady wind they sheered through the water. On the right hand +was Chuzenji village, a Swiss effect of brown chalets dwarfed to utter +insignificance by the huge wooded mountain dome of Nantai San which +rose behind it. On the left the forest was supreme already, except +where in small clearings five or six houses, tenanted by foreign +diplomats, stood out above the lake. A little farther on a Buddhist +temple slumbered above a flight of broad stone steps. The sacred +buildings were freshly lacquered, and red as a new toy. In front, on +the slope of golden sand, its base bathed by the tiny waves, stood +the _torii_, the wooden archway which is Japan's universal religious +symbol. Its message is that of the Wicket Gate in the Pilgrim's +Progress. Wherever it is to be seen--and it is to be seen +everywhere--it stands for the entering in of the Way, whether that way +be "_Shinto_" (The Way of the Gods), or "_Butsudo_" (The Way of the +Buddhas), or "_Bushido_" (The Way of the Warriors). + +There was plenty of breeze. The boat shot down the length of the +lake at a delicious speed. The two voyagers reached at last a little +harbour, Sh[=o]bu-ga-Hama--The Beach of the Lilies--a muddy shore with +slimy rocks, a few brown cottages and a saw-mill. + +"Let's go and see the waterfall," suggested Yaé, "it's only a few +minutes." + +They walked together up a steep winding lane. The fresh air and the +birch trees, the sight of real Alderney cows grazing on patches +of real grass, the distant rumble of the cataract brought back to +Geoffrey a feeling of strength and well-being to which he had for +weeks been a stranger. + +If only the real Asako had been with him instead of this enigmatic and +disquieting image of her! + +The Japanese, who have an innate love for natural beauty, never +fail to mark an exceptional view with a little bench or shelter for +travelers, whence they can obtain the best perspective. If sight-seers +frequent the spot in any number, there will be an old dame _en +guérite_ with her picture post-cards and her Ebisu Beer, her +"Champagne Cider," her _sembei_ (round and salted biscuits) and her +tale of the local legend. + +"_Irrasshai! Irrasshai_;" she pipes. "Come, come, please rest a +little!" + +But the cascade above Sh[=o]bu-ga-Hama is only one among the thousand +lesser waterfalls of this mountain country. It is honoured merely by +an unsteady bench under a broken roof, and by a rope knotted round the +trunk of a tall tree in mid-stream to indicate that the locality is +an abode of spirits, and to warn passers-by against inconsiderately +offending the Undine. + +Geoffrey and Yaé were balancing themselves on the bench, gazing at the +race of foam and at the burnished bracken. The Englishman was clearing +his mind for action. + +"Miss Smith," he began at last, "do you think you will be happy with +Reggie?" + +"He says so, big captain," answered the little half-caste, her mouth +queerly twisted. + +"Because if you are not happy, Reggie won't be happy; and if you are +neither of you happy, you will be sorry that you married."! + +"But we are not married yet," said the girl, "we are only engaged." + +"But you will be married sometime, I suppose?" + +"This year, next year, sometime, never!" laughed Yaé. "It is nice to +be engaged, and it is such a protection. When I am not engaged, all +the old cats, Lady Cynthia and the rest, say that I flirt. Now when +I am engaged, my fiancé is here to shield me. Then they dare not +say things, or it comes round to him, and he is angry. So I can do +anything I like when I am engaged." + +This was a new morality for Geoffrey. It knocked the text from under +the sermon which he had been preparing. She was as preposterous as +Reggie; but she was not, like him, conscious of her preposterousness. + +"Then, when you are married, will you flirt?" asked her companion. + +"I think so," said Yaé gravely. "Besides, Reggie only wants me to +dress me up and write music about me. If I am always the same like an +English doll wife, he won't get many tunes to play. Reggie is like a +girl." + +"Reggie is too good for you," said the Englishman, roughly. + +"I don't think so," said Yaé, "I don't want Reggie, but Reggie wants +me." + +"What do you want then?" + +"I want a great big man with arms and legs like a wrestler. A man who +hunts lions. He will pick me up like you did at Kamakura, big captain, +and throw me in the air and catch me again. And I will take him away +from the woman he loves, so that he will hate me and beat me for it. +And when he sees on my back the marks of the whip and the blood he +will love me again so strongly that he will become weak and silly like +a baby. Then I will look after him and nurse him; and we will drink +wine together. And we will go for long rides together on horseback in +the moonlight galloping along the sands by the edge of the sea!" + +Geoffrey was gazing at her with alarm. Was she going mad? The girl +jumped up and laid her little hands on his shoulder. + +"There, big captain," she cried, "don't be frightened. That is only +one of Reggie's piano tunes. I never heard tunes like his before. He +plays them, and then explains to me what each note means; and then +he plays the tune again, and I can see the whole story. That is why I +love him--sometimes!" + +"Then you _do_ love him?" Geoffrey was clutching pathetically for +anything which he could understand or appeal to in this elusive +person. + +"I love him," said Yaé, pirouetting on her white toes near the edge of +the chasm, "and I love you and I love any man who is worth loving!" + +They returned to the lake in silence. Geoffrey's sermon was abortive. +This girl was altogether outside the circle of his code of Good Form. +He might as well preach vegetarianism to a leopard. Yet she fascinated +him, as she fascinated all men who were not as dry as Aubrey Laking. +She was so pretty, so frail and so fearless. Life had not given her +a fair chance; and she appealed to the chivalrous instinct in men, as +well as to their less creditable passions. She was such a butterfly +creature; and the flaring lamps of life had such a fatal attraction +for her. + +The wind was blowing straight against the harbour. The bay of +Sh[=o]bu-ga-Hama was shallow water. Try as he might, Geoffrey could not +manoeuvre the little yacht into the open waters of the lake. + +"We are on a lee-shore," said Geoffrey. + +At the end he had to get down and wade bare-legged, towing the boat +after him until at last Yaé announced that the centreboard had been +lowered and that the boat was answering to the helm. + +Geoffrey clambered in dripping. He shook himself like a big dog after +a swim. + +"Reggie could never have done that," said Yaé, with fervent +admiration. "He would be afraid of catching cold." + + * * * * * + +At last they reached the steps of the villa. They were both hungry. + +"I am going to stop to lunch, big captain," said Yaé, "Reggie won't be +back." + +"How do you know?" + +"Because I saw Gwendolen Cairns listening last evening when he spoke +to me through the big trumpet. She tells Lady Cynthia, and that means +a lot of work next day for poor Reggie, so that he can't spend his +time with me. You see! Oh, how I hate women!" + +After lunch, at Chuzenji, all the world goes to sleep. It awakes at +about four o'clock, when the white sails come gliding out of the green +bays like swans. They greet, or avoid. They run side by side for +the length of a puff of breeze. They coquet with one another like +butterflies; or they head for one of those hidden beaches which are +the principal charm of the lake, where baskets are unpacked and cakes +and sandwiches appear, where dry sticks are gathered for a rustic +fire, and after an hour or more of anxious stoking the kettle boils. + +"Of all the Japanese holiday places, Chuzenji is the most select and +the most agreeable," Reggie Forsyth explained; "it is the only place +in all Japan where the foreigner is genuinely popular and respected. +He spends his money freely, he does not swear or scold. The +woman-chasing, whisky-swilling type, who has disgraced us in the +open ports, is unknown here. These native mountaineers are rough and +uneducated savages, but they are honest and healthy. We feel on easy +terms with them, as we do with our own peasantry. In the village +street of Chuzenji I have seen a young English officer instructing the +sons of boatmen and woodcutters in the mysteries of cricket." + +In Chuzenji there are no Japanese visitors except the pilgrims who +throng to the lake during the season for climbing the holy mountain of +Nantai. These are country people, all of them, from villages all over +Japan, who have drawn lucky lots in the local pilgrimage club. One +can recognize them at once by their dingy white clothes, like +grave-clothes--men and women are garbed alike--by their straw mushroom +hats, by the strip of straw matting strapped across their shoulders, +and by the long wooden staves which they carry and which will be +stamped with the seal of the mountain-shrine when they have reached +the summit. These pilgrims are lodged free by the temple on the +lake-side, in long sheds like cattle-byres. + +The endless files of lean pack-horses, laden with bags of rice and +other provisions, the ruddy sexless girls who lead them, and the women +who have been foraging for wood and come down from the mountain with +enormous faggots on their bent shoulders, provide a foreground for the +Chuzenji landscape. + + * * * * * + +Geoffrey was sleeping upstairs in his bedroom. Yaé was sleeping +downstairs on the sofa. He had expected her to return to the hotel +after lunch, but her attitude was that of "_J'y suis, j'y reste_." + +He awoke with a start to find the girl standing beside his bed. +Afterwards he became sure that he had been awakened by the touch of +soft fingers on his face. + +"Wake up, big captain," she was saying. "It is four o'clock, and the +Ark's coming." + +"What Ark?" he yawned. + +"Why, the Embassy boat." + +Out of sheer devilry, Miss Smith waited for the arrival of Lady +Cynthia. The great lady paid no more attention to her existence than +if she had been a piece of the house. But she greeted Geoffrey most +cordially. + +"Come for a walk," she said in her abrupt way. + +As they turned down the village street she announced: + +"The worst has happened--I suppose you know?" + +"About Reggie?" + +"Yes; he's actually engaged to be married to the creature. Has he told +you?" + +"In the greatest confidence." + +"Well, he forgot to bind his young lady to secrecy. She has told +everybody." + +"Can't he be recalled to London?" + +"The old man says that would just push him over the edge. He has +talked of resigning from the service." + +"Is there anything to be done?" + +"Nothing! Let him marry her. It will spoil his career in diplomacy, of +course. But he will soon get tired of her fooling him. He will divorce +her, and will give up his life to music to which, of course, he +belongs. People like Reggie Forsyth have no right to marry at all." + +"But are you sure that she wants to marry him?" said his friend; and +he related his conversation with Yaé that morning. + +"That's very interesting and encouraging," said Her Excellency. "So +she has been trying her hand on you already." + +"I never thought of that," exclaimed Geoffrey. "Why, she knows that +Reggie is my best friend; and that I am married." + +The judicial features of Lady Cynthia lightened with a judicial smile. + +"You have been through so many London seasons, Captain Barrington, and +there is still no guile in you!" + +They walked on in silence past the temple terraces down a winding +country lane. + +"Captain Barrington, would you care to play the part of a real hero, a +real theatre hero, playing to the gallery?" + +Geoffrey was baffled. Had the talk suddenly swung over to amateur +theatricals? Lady Cynthia was a terrible puller of legs. + +"Did you ever hear of Madge Carlyle?" she asked, "or was she before +your time?" + +"I have heard of her." + +She was a famous London _cocotte_ in the days when mashers wore +whiskers and "Champagne Charlie" was sung. + +"At the age of forty-three'" said Lady Cynthia, "Madge decided to +marry for the third or fourth time. She had found a charming young man +with plenty of money and a noble heart, who believed that Madge was +a much slandered woman. His friends were sorry for the young man; and +one of them decided to give a dinner to celebrate the betrothal. In +the middle of the feast an urgent message arrived for the enamoured +one, summoning him to his home. When he had gone the others started +plying poor Madge with drinks. She was very fond of drinks. They +had splendid fun. Then one of the guests--he was an old lover of +Madge's--suggested--Good-bye to the old days and the rest of it!" + +"But what did he think of his friends?" asked Geoffrey. "It seems a +low-down sort of trick." + +"He was very sore about it at the time," said Lady Cynthia; "but +afterwards he understood that they were heroes, real theatre heroes." + +"It looks like rain," said Geoffrey, uneasily. + +So they turned back, talking about London people. + +The first drops fell as they were passing through the wicket gate; and +they entered the house during a roar of thunder. Reggie was alone. + +"I see that my fate is sealed," he said, as he rose to meet them. +"'The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes!'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +YAÉ SMITH + + _Nusubito wo + Toraete mireba + Waga ko nari_. + + The thief-- + When I caught him and looked + at him, + Lo! My own child! + + +A week of very hard work began for Reggie. The Ambassador +was reporting home on every imaginable subject from political +assassination to the manufacture of celluloid. This was part of Lady +Cynthia's scheme. She was determined to throw Yaé Smith and Geoffrey +Barrington together all the time, and to risk the consequences. + +So Yaé though she had her room at the hotel, became an inmate of +Reggie's villa. She took all her meals there, and her siesta during +most of the afternoons. She even passed whole nights with Reggie; +and their relations could no longer be a secret even to Geoffrey's +laborious discretion. + +This knowledge troubled him; for the presence of lovers, and the +shadows cast by their intimacies are always disquieting even to the +purest minds. But Geoffrey felt that it was no business of his; +and that Reggie and Yaé being what they were, it would be useless +hypocrisy for him to censure their pleasures. + +Meanwhile, Asako was writing to him, bewailing her loneliness. So +one morning at breakfast he announced that he must be getting back to +Tokyo. A cloud passed over Yaé's face. + +"Not yet, big captain," she expostulated; "I want to take you right to +the far end of the lake where the bears live." + +"Very well," agreed Geoffrey, "to-morrow morning early, then; for the +next day I really must go." + +He wrote to Asako a long letter with much about the lake and Yaé +Smith, promising to return within forty-eight hours. + +At daybreak next morning Yaé was hammering at Geoffrey's door. + +"Wake up, old sleepy captain," she cried. + +Geoffrey got the boat ready; and Yaé prepared a picnic breakfast to be +eaten on the way. Poor Reggie, of course, had work at the Embassy; he +could not come. + +It was an ideal excursion. They reached Senju, the wood-cutter's +village at the end of the lake. They ascended the forest path as far +as the upper lake, a mere pond of reeds and sedges, which the bears +are supposed to haunt. + +Geoffrey and Yaé, however, saw nothing more alarming than the village +curs. + +"Returned in safety from the land of danger!" cried the girl, as she +sprang ashore at the steps of the villa. + +The air and exercise had wearied Geoffrey. After lunch he changed into +a kimono of Reggie's. Then he lay down on his bed and was soon fast +asleep. + +How long he slept he could not say; but he awoke slowly out of +confusing dreams. Somebody was in his room. Somebody was near his bed. +Was it Asako? Was it a dream? + +No, it was his comrade of the morning's voyage. It was Yaé Smith. She +was sitting on the bed beside him. She was gazing into his face with +her soft, still, cat-like eyes. What was she doing that for? She was +stroking his arm. Her touch was soft. He did not stop her. + +Her hair was let down to below her waist, long black hair, more silky +in texture and more wavy than that of a pure Japanese woman. Her +kimono was wide open at the throat. A sweet fragrance exhaled from her +body. + +"Big captain, may I?" she pleaded. + +"What?" said Geoffrey, still half asleep. + +"Just lie by your side--just once,--just for the last time," she +cooed. + +Geoffrey was for going to sleep again, well pleased with his dream. +But Yaé slipped an arm across his chest, and caught his shoulder in +her hand. She nestled closer to him. + +"Geoffrey," she murmured, "I love you so much. You are so strong and +so big, Geoffrey. I want to stay like this always, always, holding +on to you till I make you love me. Love me just a little, Geoffrey. +Nobody will ever know. Geoffrey, it must be nice to have me near you. +Geoffrey, you must, you must want to love me." + +She was hugging his body now in an embrace astonishingly powerful +for so small a creature. It was this pressure which finally awoke +Geoffrey. Gently he disengaged her arms and sat up in the bed. + +She was clinging to his neck now, wild-eyed like a Maenad. He +felt pitifully ridiculous. The rôle of Joseph is so thankless and +humiliating. A month ago he would have ordered her sternly to get out +of the room and behave herself. But the hot month in Tokyo had relaxed +his firmness of mind; and familiarity with Reggie's bohemian morality +has sapped his fortress of Good Form. + +"Don't be so naughty, Yaé," he said feebly. "Reggie may be coming. For +God's sake, control yourself." + +Her voice was terrible now. + +Geoffrey had lost the first moment when he might have been stern with +her. Clumsily he tried to loosen her embrace. But for the first time +in his life he was in the grip of an elemental natural force, a thing +foreign to his experience of women in marriage or out of it. + +"Yaé, don't," he gasped, pushing the girl away. "I can't; I'm +married." + +"Married!" she screamed. "Does marriage hurt like this? Love me, love +me, Geoffrey. You must love me, you will!" + + * * * * * + +"The rhapsody is ended!" + +A voice which nobody would have recognized as Reggie's put a sudden +end to this frantic assault. + +He was standing in the doorway smiling queerly. He had watched the two +from the garden, whence indeed all Chuzenji could have seen them +in the open bedroom. He had slipped off his shoes and had stolen +up quietly in order to listen to them. Now he judged it time to +intervene. + +Yaé started up from the bed. For a moment she hovered on the edge, +uncertain of her tactics. Geoffrey stared, one hand to his forehead. +Then the girl darted across the room, fell at Reggie's feet, clasped +his knees, and sobbed convulsively. + +"Reggie, Reggie, forgive me!" she cried. "It's not my fault. He's been +asking me and asking me to do this--ever since Kamakura--and all the +time here. This is what he came to stay here for. Reggie, forgive me. +I will never be naughty again." + +Reggie looked across at his friend for confirmation or denial. The +queer smile had vanished. Good Form decreed that the man must lie for +the woman's sake, if necessary till his soul were damned. But, with +Geoffrey, Good Form had long since been thrown to the winds, like +International Law in war time. Besides, the woman was no better than a +_cocotte_; and Reggie's friendship was at stake. + +"No," he said huskily; "that is not true. I was quietly sleeping here +and she came up to me. She is man-mad." + +The tangled heap at Reggie's feet leaped up, her green eyes blazing. + +"Liar!" she cried. "Reggie, do you believe him? The hypocrite, the +goody-goody, the white slave man, the pimp!" + +"What does she mean?" said Geoffrey. Thank God, the woman was clearly +mad. + +"Fujinami! Fujinami!" she yelled. "The great girl king! The Yoshiwara +_daimyo_! Every scrap of money which his fool wife spends on sham +curios was made in the Yoshiwara, made by women, made out of filth, +made by prostitutes!" + +The last word brought Geoffrey to his feet. In his real agony he had +quite forgotten his sham sin. + +"Reggie, for God's sake, tell me, is this true?" + +"Yes," said Reggie quietly, "it is quite true." + +"Then why did no one tell me?" + +"Husbands," said the young man, "and prospective husbands are always +the last to learn. Yaé, go back to the hotel. You have done enough +harm for to-day." + +"Not unless you forgive me, Reggie," the girl pleaded. "I will never +go unless you forgive." + +"I can't forgive," he said, "but I can probably forget." + +The wrath of these two men fascinated her. She would have waited if +she could, listening at the door. Reggie knew this. + +"If you don't clear out, Yaé, I will have to call T[=o] to take you," he +threatened. + +To his great relief she went quietly. + + * * * * * + +Reggie returned to the bare bedroom, where Geoffrey with bowed head +was staring at the floor. In Reggie's short kimono the big man looked +decidedly ridiculous. + +"Good," thought Reggie. "Thank God for the comic spirit. It will be +easier to get through with this now." + +His first action was to wash his hands. He had an unconscious instinct +for symbolism. Then he sat down opposite his friend. + +The action of sitting reduces tragedy to comedy at once,--this was one +of Napoleon's maxims. + +Then he opened his cigarette case and offered it to Geoffrey. This, +too, was symbolic. Geoffrey took a cigarette mechanically, and sucked +it between his lips, unlighted. + +"Geoffrey," said his friend very quietly, "let us try to put these +women and all their rottenness out of our heads. We will try to talk +this over decently." + +Geoffrey was so stunned by the shock of what he had just learned that +he had thought of nothing else. Now, all of a sudden he remembered +that he owed serious explanations to his friend. + +"Reggie," he said dully, "I'm most awfully sorry. I had never dreamed +of this. I was good pals with Yaé because of you. I never dreamed of +making love to her. You know how I love my wife. She must have been +mad to think of me like that. Besides," he added sheepishly, "nothing +actually happened." + +"I'm sure I don't care what actually happened or did not happen. Damn +actual facts. They distort the truth. They are at the bottom of every +injustice. What actually happened never matters. It is the picture +which sticks in one's brain. True or false, it sticks just the same; +and suddenly or slowly it alters every thing. But I can wipe up my +own mess, I think. It is much more serious with you than with me, +Geoffrey. She has bruised my heel, but she has broken your head. No, +don't protest, for Heaven's sake! I am not interested." + +"Then what she says is absolutely true?" said Geoffrey, lighting his +cigarette at last, and throwing the match aside as if it were Hope. +"For a whole year I have been living on prostitutes' earnings. I am +no better than those awful _ponces_ in Leicester Square, who can be +flogged if they are caught, and serve them right too. And all that +filthy Yoshiwara, it belongs to Asako, to my sweet innocent little +girl, just as Brandan belongs to my father; and with all this +filthy money we have been buying comforts and clothes and curios and +rubbish." + +Reggie was pouring out whiskies and sodas, two strong ones. Geoffrey +gulped down his drink, and then proceeded with his lamentation: + +"I understand it all now. Everybody knew. The secrecy and the mystery. +Even at my wedding they were saying, 'Don't go to Japan, don't go.' +They must have all known even then. And then those damned Fujinami, +so anxious to be civil for the beastly money's sake, and yet hiding +everything and lying all the time. And you knew, and the Ambassador, +and Count Saito, and the servants too--always whispering and laughing +behind our backs. But you, Reggie, you were my friend, you ought to +have told me." + +"I asked Sir Ralph," said Reggie candidly, "whether you ought to be +told. He is a very wise man. He said, 'No.' He said, 'It would be +cruel and it would be useless. They will go back to England soon and +then they will never know.' Where ignorance is bliss, you understand?" + +"It was unfair," groaned Geoffrey; "you were all deceiving me." + +"I said to Sir Ralph that it seemed to me unfair and dangerous. But he +has more experience than I." + +"But what am I to do now?" said the big man helplessly. "This money +must be given up, yes, and everything we have. But whom to? Not to +those filthy Fujinami?" + +"Go slow," advised Reggie. "Go back to England first. Get your +brain clear. Talk it over with your lawyers. Don't be too generous. +Magnanimity has spoiled many noble lives. And remember that your wife +is in this too. You must consider her first. She is very young and she +knows nothing. I don't think that she wants to be poor, or that she +will understand your motives." + +"I will make her understand then," said Geoffrey. + +"Don't talk like a brute. You will have to be very patient and +considerate for her. Go slow!" + +"Can I stop here to-night, then?" asked Barrington, plaintively. + +"No," said Reggie with firmness; "that is really more than I could +stick. I told you--truth or untruth, the mind keeps on seeing +pictures. Pack up your things. Call a coolie. The evening walk down to +Nikko will do you more good than my jawing. Good-bye." + +An unreal handshake--and he was gone. + +Then, of a sudden, Geoffrey realized that, how very unwittingly, he +had deeply wronged this man who was his best friend and upon whom +he was leaning in his hour of trial. Like Job, his adversities were +coming upon him from this side and from that, until he must curse God +and die. Now his friend had given him his dismissal. He would probably +never see Reggie Forsyth again. + +As he was starting on his long walk downhill a motor car passed him. +Only one motor car that season had climbed the precipitous road from +the plains. It must be Yaé Smith's. Just as it was passing the girl +leaned out of the carriage and blew a kiss to Geoffrey. + +She was not alone. There was a small fat man in the car beside her, +a Japanese with a round impertinent face. With a throb of bitter +heart-sickness Geoffrey recognized his own servant, Tanaka. + + * * * * * + +Next morning Reggie Forsyth crossed the lake as usual to his work at +the Embassy. He met the Ambassadress on the terrace of her villa. + +"Good morning, Lady Cynthia," he said, "I congratulate you on your +masterly diplomacy." + +"What do you mean?" + +Her manner nowadays was very chilly towards her former favourite. + +"In accordance with your admirable arrangements," he said, "my +marriage is off." + +"Oh, Reggie," her coolness changed at once, "I'm so glad--" + +He held up a warning hand. + +"But--you have broken a better man than I." + +"Why, what do you mean?" + +"Geoffrey Barrington. He has learned who the Fujinami are, and where +his money comes from." + +"You told him?" + +"I'm not such a skunk as all that, Lady Cynthia." + +Her Excellency was pondering what had better be done for Geoffrey. + +"Where is he?" she asked. + +"He stopped the night at Nikko. He is probably in the train for Tokyo +by now." + +If she were a hero, a real theatre hero, as Geoffrey had been +apparently, she would go straight off to Tokyo also; and perhaps she +would be able to prevent a catastrophe. Or perhaps she would not. +Perhaps she would only make things worse. On the whole, she had better +stop in Chuzenji and look after her own husband. + +"Reggie," she said, "you've had a lucky escape. How did you know that +I had any hand in this? You're more of a girl than a man. A rotten +marriage would have broken you. Geoffrey Barrington is made of +stronger stuff. He is in for a bad time. But he will learn a lot which +you know already; and he will survive." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE KIMONO + + _Na we to wa wo + Hito zo saku naru. + Ide, wagimi! + Hito no naka-goto + Kiki-kosu na yume!_ + + It is other people who have separated + You and me. + Come, my Lord! + Do not dream of listening + To the between-words of people! + + +After a ghastly night of sleeplessness at Nikko, Geoffrey Barrington +reached Tokyo in time for lunch. His thoughts were confused and +discordant. + +"I feel as if I had been drunk for a week," he kept on saying to +himself. Indeed, he felt a fume of unreality over all his actions. + +One thing was certain: financially, he was a ruined man. The thousands +a year which yesterday morning had been practically his, the ease and +comfort which had seemed so secure, were lost more hopelessly than if +his bank had failed. Even the cash in his pocket he touched with the +greatest disgust, as if those identical bills and coins had been paid +across the brothel counter as the price for a man's dirty pleasures +and a girl's shame and disease. He imagined that the Nikko +hotel-keeper looked at his notes suspiciously as though they were +endorsed with the seal of the Yoshiwara. + +Geoffrey was ruined. He was henceforth dependent on what his brain +could earn and on what his father would allow him, five hundred pounds +a year at the outside. If he had been alone in the world it would not +have mattered much; but Asako, poor little Asako, the innocent cause +of this disaster, she was ruined too. She who loved her riches, her +jewellery, her pretty things, she would have to sell them all. She +would have to follow him into poverty, she, who had no experience of +its meaning. This was his punishment, perhaps, for having steadily +pursued the idea of a rich marriage. But what had Asako done to +deserve it? Thank God, his marriage had at least not been a loveless +one. + +Geoffrey felt acutely the need of human sympathy in his trouble. By +sheer bad luck he had forfeited Reggie's friendship. But he could +still depend upon his wife's love. + +So he ran up the stairs at the Imperial Hotel longing for Asako's +welcome, though he dreaded the obligation to break the bad news. + +He threw open the door. The room was empty. He looked for cloaks and +hats and curios, for luggage, for any sign of her presence. There was +nothing to indicate that the room was hers. + +Sick with apprehension, he returned to the corridor. There was a _boy +san_ near at hand. + +"_Okusan_ go away," said the _boy san_. "No come back, I think." + +"Where has she gone?" asked Geoffrey. + +The _boy san_, with the infuriating Japanese grin, shook his head. + +"I am very sorry for you," he said. "To-day very early plenty people +come, Tanaka San and two Japanese girls. Very plenty talk. _Okusan_ +cry tears. All nice kimono take away very quick." + +"Then Tanaka, where is he?" + +"Go away with _okusan_" the boy grinned again, "I am very sorry--" + +Geoffrey slammed the door in the face of his tormentor. He staggered +into a chair and collapsed, staring blankly. What could have happened? + +Slowly his ideas returned. Tanaka! He had seen the little beast in +Yaé's motor car at Chuzenji. He must have come spying after his master +as he had done fifty times before. He and that half-caste devil had +raced him back to Tokyo, had got in ahead of him, and had told a pack +of lies to Asako. She must have believed them, since she had gone +away. But where had she gone to? The _boy san_ had said "two Japanese +girls." She must have gone to the Fujinami house, and to her horribly +unclean cousins. + +He must find her at once. He must open her eyes to the truth. He must +bring her back. He must take her away from Japan--forever. + +Harrington was crossing the hall of the hotel muttering to himself, +seeing nothing, hearing nothing, when he felt a hand laid on his arm. +It was Titine, Asako's French maid. + +"_Monsieur le capitaine_" she said, "_madame est partie_. It is not my +fault, _monsieur le capitaine_. I say to madame, do not go, wait for +monsieur. But madame is bewitched. She, who is _bonne catholique_, she +say prayers to the temples of these yellow devils. I myself have seen +her clap her hands--so!--and pray. Her saints have left her. She is +bewitched." + +Titine was a Breton peasant girl. She believed implicitly in the +powers of darkness. She had long ago decided that the gods of the +Japanese and the _korrigans_ of her own country were intimately +related. She had served Asako since before her marriage, and would +have remained with her until death. She was desperately faithful. But +she could not follow her mistress to the Fujinami house and risk her +soul's salvation. + +"_Monsieur le capitaine_ go away, and madame very, very unhappy. Every +night she cry. Why did monsieur stay away so long time?" + +"It was only a fortnight," expostulated Geoffrey. + +"For the first parting it was too long," said Titine judicially. +"Every night madame cry; and then she write to monsieur and say, 'Come +back.'" Monsieur write and say, 'Not yet.' Then madame break her heart +and say, 'It is because of some woman that he stay away so long time!' +She say so to Tanaka; and Tanaka say, 'I go and detect, and come again +and tell madame;' and madame say, 'Yes, Tanaka can go: I wish to know +the truth!' And still more she cry and cry. This morning very +early Tanaka came back with Mademoiselle Smith and mademoiselle _la +cousine_. They all talk a long time with madame in bedroom. But they +send me away. Then madame call me. She cry and cry. 'Titine,' she say, +'I go away. Monsieur do not love me now. I go to the Japanese house. +Pack all my things, Titine.' I say, 'No, madame, never. I never go to +that house of devils. How can madame tell the good confessor? How can +madame go to the Holy Mass? Will madame leave her husband and go to +these people who pray to stone beasts? Wait for monsieur!' I say, +'What Tanaka say, it is lies, all the time lies. What Mademoiselle +Smith say all lies.' But madame say, 'No come with me, Titine!' But +I say again, 'Never!' And madame go away, crying all the time: and +sixteen rickshaw all full of baggage. "Oh, _monsieur le capitaine_, +what shall I do?" + +"I'm sure, I don't know," said the helpless Geoffrey. + +"Send me back to France, monsieur. This country is full of devils, +devils and lies." + +He left her sobbing in the hall of the hotel with a cluster of _boy +sans_ watching her. + + * * * * * + +Geoffrey took a taxi to the Fujinami house. No one answered his +ringing; but he thought that he could hear voices inside the building. +So he strode in, unannounced, and with his boots on his feet, an +unspeakable offence against Japanese etiquette. + +He found Asako in a room which overlooked the garden where he had been +received on former occasions. Her cousin Sadako was with her and Ito, +the lawyer. To his surprise and disgust, his wife was dressed in the +Japanese kimono and _obi_ which had once been so pleasing to his eyes. +Her change of nationality seemed to be already complete. + +This was an Asako whom he had never known before. Her eyes were ringed +with weeping, and her face was thin and haggard. But her expression +had a new look of resolution. She was no longer a child, a doll. In +the space of a few hours she had grown to be a woman. + +They were all standing. Sadako and the lawyer had formed up behind the +runaway as though to give her moral support. + +"Asako," said Geoffrey sternly, "what does this mean?" + +The presence of the two Japanese exasperated him. His manner was +tactless and unfortunate. His tall stature in the dainty room looked +coarse and brutal. Sadako and Ito were staring at his offending boots +with an expression of utter horror. Geoffrey suddenly remembered that +he ought to have taken them off. + +"Oh, damn," he thought. + +"Geoffrey," said his wife, "I can't come back. I am sorry. I have +decided to stay here." + +"Why?" asked Geoffrey brusquely. + +"Because I know that you do not love me. I think you never loved +anything except my money." + +The hideous irony of this statement made poor Geoffrey gasp. He +gripped the wooden framework of the room so as to steady himself. + +"Good God!" he shouted. "Your money! Do you know where it comes from?" + +Asako stared at him, more and more bewildered. + +"Send these people out of the room, and I'll tell you," said Geoffrey. + +"I would rather they stayed," his wife answered. + +It had been arranged beforehand that, if, Geoffrey called, Asako was +not to be left alone with him. She had been made to believe that she +was in danger of physical violence. She was terribly frightened. + +"Very well," Geoffrey blundered on, "every penny you have is made +out of prostitution, out of the sale of women to men. You saw the +Yoshiwara, you saw the poor women imprisoned there, you know that any +drunken beast can come and pay his money down and say, 'I want that +girl,' and she has to give herself up to be kissed and pulled about +by him, even if she hates him and loathes him. Well, all this filthy +Yoshiwara and all those poor girls and all that dirty money belongs to +these Fujinami and to you. That is why they are so rich, and that is +why we have been so rich. If we were in England, we could be flogged +for this, and imprisoned, and serve us right too. And all this money +is bad; and, if we keep it, we are worse than criminals; and neither +of us can ever be happy, or look any one in the face again." + +Asako was shaking her head gently like an automaton, understanding +not a word of all this outburst. Her mind was on one thing only, her +husband's infidelity. His mind was on one thing only, the shame of +his wife's money. They were like card-players who concentrate their +attention exclusively on the cards in their own hands, oblivious to +what their partners or opponents may hold. + +Asako remaining silent, Mr. Ito began to speak. His voice seemed more +squeaky than ever. + +"Captain Barrington," he said, "I am very sorry for you. But you +see now true condition of things. You must remember you are English +gentleman. Mrs. Barrington wishes not to return to you. She has been +told that you make misconduct with Miss Smith at Kamakura, and again +at Chuzenji. Miss Smith herself says so. Mrs. Harrington thinks this +story must be true; or Miss Smith do not tell so bad story about +herself. We think she is quite right--" + +"Shut up!" thundered Geoffrey. "This is a matter for me and my wife +alone. Please, leave us. My wife has heard one side of a story which +is unfair and untrue. She must hear from me what really happened." + +"I think, some other day, it would be better," cousin Sadako +intervened. "You see, Mrs. Barrington cannot speak to-day. She is too +unhappy." + +It was quite true. Asako stood like a dummy, neither seeing nor +hearing apparently, neither assenting nor contradicting. How powerful +is the influence of clothes! If Asako had been dressed in her Paris +coat and skirt, her husband would have crossed the few mats which +separated them, and would have carried her off willy-nilly. But in her +kimono did she wholly belong to him? Or was she a Japanese again, +a Fujinami? She seemed to have been transformed by some enchanter's +spell; as Titine had said, she was bewitched. + +"Asako, do you mean this?" The big man's voice was harsh with grief. +"Do you mean that I am to go without you?" + +Asako still showed no sign of comprehension. + +"Answer me, my darling; do you want me to go?" + +Her head moved in assent, and her lips answered "Yes." + +That whisper made such a wrench at her husband's heart that his grip +tightened on the frail _shoji_, and with a nervous spasm he sent it +clattering out of its socket flat upon the floor of the room, like +a screen blown down by the wind. Ito dashed forward to help Geoffrey +replace the damage. When they turned round again, the two women had +disappeared. + +"Captain Barrington," said Ito, "I think you had better go away. You +make bad thing worse." + +Geoffrey frowned at the little creature. He would have liked to have +crushed him underfoot like a cockroach. But as that was impossible, +nothing remained for him to do but to depart, leaving the track of his +dirty boots on the shining corridor. His last glimpse of his cousins' +home was of two little serving-maids scuttering up with dusters to +remove the defilement. + +Asako had fainted. + + * * * * * + +As Reggie had said in Chuzenji, "What actually happens does not +matter: it is the thought of what might have happened, which sticks." +If Reggie's tolerant and experienced mind could not rid itself of the +picture conjured up by the possibility of his friend's treachery and +his mistress's lightness, how could Asako, ignorant and untried, hope +to escape from a far more insistent obsession? She believed that her +husband was guilty. But the mere feeling that it was possible that he +might be guilty would have been enough to numb her love for him, at +any rate for a time. She had never known heartache before. She did not +realise that it is a fever which runs its appointed course of torment +and despair, which at length after a given term abates, and then +disappears altogether, leaving the sufferer weak but whole again. +The second attack of the malady finds its victim familiar with the +symptoms, resigned to a short period of misery and confident of +recovery. A broken heart like a broken horse is of great service to +its owner. + +But Asako was like one stricken with an unknown disease. Its violence +appalled her, and in her uncertainty she prayed for death. Moreover, +she was surrounded by counsellors who traded on her little faith, who +kept on reminding her that she was a Japanese, that she was among her +father's people who loved her and understood her, that foreigners +were notoriously treacherous to women, that they were blue-eyed and +cruel-hearted, that they thought only of money and material things. +Let her stay in Japan, let her make her home there. There she would +always be a personage, a member of the family. Among those big, +bold-voiced foreign women, she was overshadowed and out of place. If +her husband left her for a half-caste, what chance had she of keeping +him when once he got back among the women of his own race? Mixed +marriages, in fact, were a mistake, an offence against nature. Even if +he wished to be faithful to her, he could not really care for her as +he could for an Englishwoman. + + * * * * * + +As soon as Geoffrey Barrington had left the house, Mr. Ito went in +search of the head of the Fujinami, whom he found at work on the +latest literary production of his tame students, _The Pinegrove by the +Sea-shore_. + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro put his writing-box aside with a leisurely +gesture, for a Japanese gentleman of culture must never be in a hurry. + +"Indeed, it has been so noisy, composition has become impossible," he +complained; "has that foreigner come, to the house?" + +He used the uncomplimentary word "_ket[=o]jin_" which may be literally +translated "hairy rascal". It is a survival from the time of Perry's +black ships and the early days of foreign intercourse, when "Expel the +Barbarians!" was a watchword in the country. Modern Japanese assure +their foreign friends that it has fallen altogether into disuse; but +such is not the case. It is a word loaded with all the hatred, envy +and contempt against foreigners of all nationalities, which still +pervade considerable sections of the Japanese public. + +"This Barrington," answered the lawyer, "is indeed a rough fellow, +even for a foreigner. He came into the house with his boots on, +uninvited. He shouted like a coolie, and he broke the _shoji_. +His behaviour was like that of Susa-no-O in the chambers of the +Sun-Goddess. Perhaps he had been drinking whisky-sodas." + +"A disgusting thing, is it not?" said the master. "At this time I am +writing an important chapter on the clear mirror of the soul. It is +troublesome to be interrupted by these quarrels of women and savages. +You will have Keiichi and Gor[=o] posted at the door of the house. They +are to refuse entrance to all foreigners. It must not be allowed to +turn our _yashiki_ into a battlefield." + +Mr. Fujinami's meditations that morning had been most bitter. His +literary preoccupation was only a sham. There was a tempest in the +political world of Japan. The Government was tottering under the +revelations of a corruption in high places more blatant than usual. +With the fall of the Cabinet, the bribes which the Fujinami had +lavished to obtain the licences and privileges necessary to their +trade, would become waste money. True, the Governor of Osaka had not +yet been replaced. A Fujinami familiar had been despatched thither +at full speed to secure the new Tobita brothel concessions as a _fait +accompli_ before the inevitable change should take place. + +The head of the house of Fujinami, therefore, being a monarch in a +small way, had much to think of besides "the quarrels of women and +savages." Moreover, he was not quite sure of his ground with regard to +Asako. To take a wife from her husband against his will, seems to the +Japanese mind so flagrantly illegal a proceeding; and old Mr. Fujinami +Gennosuké had warned his irreligious son most gravely against the +danger of tampering with the testament of Asako's father, and of +provoking thereby a visitation of his "rough spirit." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +SAYONARA (GOOD-BYE) + + _Tomo ni narite + Onaji minato wo + Izuru fune no + Yuku-ye mo shirazu + Kogi-wakari-nuru!_ + + Those ships which left + The same harbour + Side by side + Towards an unknown destination + Have rowed away from one another! + + +Reggie Forsyth, remaining in Chuzenji, had become a prey to a +most crushing reaction. At the time of trial, he had been calm and +clear-sighted. For a moment he had experienced a sensation of relief +at shaking off the shackles which Yaé's fascination had fastened upon +him. He had been aware all along that she was morally worthless. He +was glad to have the matter incontestably proved. But his paradise, +though an artificial one, had been paradise all the same. It had +nourished him with visions and music. Now, he had no companion except +his own irrepressible spirit jibing at his heart's infirmity. He came +to the reluctant conclusion that he must take Yaé back again. But she +must never come again to him on the same terms. He would take her for +what she really was, a unique and charming _fille-de-joie_, and he +knew that she would be glad to return. Without something, somebody, +some woman to interest him, he could not face another year in this +barren land. + +Then what about Geoffrey, his friend who had betrayed him? No, +he could not regard him in such a tragic light. He was angry with +Geoffrey, but not indignant. He was angry with him for being a +blunderer, an elephant, for being so easily amenable to Lady Cynthia's +intrigues, for being so good-natured, stupid and gullible. He argued +that if Geoffrey had been a wicked seducer, a bold Don Juan, he would +have excused him and would have felt more sympathy for him. He would +have thoroughly enjoyed sitting down with him to a discussion of Yaé's +psychology. But what did an oaf like Geoffrey understand about +that bundle of nerves and instincts, partly primitive and partly +artificial, bred out of an abnormal cross between East and West, and +doomed from conception to a life astray between light and darkness? +He had been disillusioned about his old friend, and he wished never to +see him again. + +"What frauds these noble natures are!" he said to himself, "these Old +Honests, these sterling souls! And as an excuse he tells me, 'Nothing +actually happened!' Disgusting!" + + 'To play with light loves in the portal, + To kiss and embrace and refrain!' + +"The virtue of our days is mostly impotence! Lust and passion and love +and marriage! Why do our dull insular minds mix up these four entirely +separate notions? And how can we jump with such goat-like agility from +one circle of thought into another without ever noticing the change in +the landscape?" + +He strolled over to the piano to put these ideas into music. + +Lady Cynthia had decided that it would be bad for him to stop in +Chuzenji. Mountain scenery is demoralising for a nature so Byronic. +He was forthwith despatched to Tokyo to represent his Embassy at a +Requiem Mass to be celebrated for the souls of an Austrian Archduke +and his wife, who had recently been assassinated by a Serbian fanatic +somewhere in Bosnia. Reggie was furious at having to undertake this +mission. For the mountains were soothing to him, and he was not yet +ready for encounters. When he arrived in Tokyo, he was in a very bad +temper. + + * * * * * + +Asako had heard from Tanaka that Reggie Forsyth was expected at the +Embassy. That useful intelligence-officer had been posted by the +Fujinami to keep watch on the Embassy compound, and to report any +movements of importance; for the conspirators were not entirely at +ease as to the legality of abducting the wife of a British subject, +and keeping her against her husband's demands. + +Asako had received that day a pathetic letter from Geoffrey, giving +detail for detail his account of his dealings with Yaé Smith, begging +her to understand and believe him, and to forgive him for the crime +which he had never committed. + +In spite of her cousin's incredulity, Asako's resolution was shaken +by this appeal. At last, now that she had lost her husband, she was +beginning to realise how very much she loved him. Reggie Forsyth would +be a more or less impartial witness. + +Late that evening, in a hooded rickshaw she crossed the short distance +which led to the Embassy. Mr. Forsyth had just arrived. + +Mr. Forsyth was very displeased to hear Mrs. Barrington announced. It +was just the kind of meeting which would exasperate and unnerve him. + +Her appearance was against her. She wore a Japanese kimono, +unpleasantly reminiscent of Yaé. Her hair was disordered and +frantic-looking. Her eyes were red with weeping. + +"Let me say at once," observed Reggie, as he offered her a chair, +"that I am in no way responsible for your husband's shortcomings. I +have too many of my own." + +Asako could never understand Reggie when he talked in that sarcastic +tone. + +"I want to know exactly what happened," she begged. "I have no one +else who can tell me." + +"Your husband says that nothing actually happened," replied Reggie +brutally. + +The girl realised that this statement was far from being the +vindication of Geoffrey which she had begun to hope for. + +"But what did you actually see?" she asked. + +"I saw Miss Smith with your husband. As it was in my house, they might +have asked my leave first." + +Asako shivered. + +"But do you think Geoffrey had been--love-making to Miss Smith?" + +"I don't know," said Reggie wearily. "From what I heard, I think Miss +Smith was doing most of the love-making to Geoffrey; but he did not +seem to object to the process." + +Asako's yearnings for proof of her husband's innocence were crushed. + +"What shall I do?" she pleaded. + +"I'm sure I don't know." This scene to Reggie was becoming positively +silly. "Take him back to England as soon as possible, I should think." + +"But would he fall in love with women in England?" + +"Possibly." + +"Then what am I to do?" + +"Grin and bear it. That's what we all have to do." + +"Oh, Mr. Forsyth," Asako implored, "you know my husband so well. Do +you think he is a bad man?" + +"No, not worse than the rest of us," answered Reggie, who felt quite +maddened by this talk. "He is a bit of a fool, and a good deal of a +blunderer." + +"But do you think Geoffrey was to blame for what happened?" + +"I have told you, my dear Mrs. Barrington, that your husband assured +me that nothing actually happened. I am quite sure this is true, for +your husband is a very honourable man--in details." + +"You mean," said Asako, gulping out the words, "that Miss Smith was +not actually Geoffrey's--mistress; they did not--sin together." + +Asako did not know how intimate were the relations between Reggie and +Yaé. She did not understand therefore how cruelly her words lanced +him. But, more than the shafts of memory it was the imbecility of the +whole scene which almost made the young man scream. + +"Exactly," he answered. "In the words of the Bible, she lay with him, +but he knew her not." + +"Then, do you think I ought to forgive Geoffrey?" + +This was too much. Reggie leaped to his feet. + +"My dear lady, that is really a question for yourself and yourself +alone. Personally, I do not at present feel like forgiving anybody. +Least of all, can I forgive fools. Geoffrey Harrington is a fool. He +was a fool to marry, a fool to marry you, a fool to come to Japan when +everybody warned him not to, a fool to talk to Yaé when everybody +told him that she was a dangerous woman. No, personally, at present I +cannot forgive Geoffrey Barrington. But it is very late and I am very +tired, and I'm sure you are, too. I would advise you to go home to +your erring husband; and to-morrow morning we shall all be thinking +more clearly. As the French say, _L'oreiller raccommode tout_." + +Asako still made no movement. + +"Well, dear lady, if you wish to wait longer, you will excuse me, +if, instead of talking rot, I play to you. It is more soothing to the +nerves." + +He sat down at the piano, and struck up the _Merry Widow_ chorus,-- + + "I'll go off to Maxim's: I've done with lovers' dreams; + The girls will laugh and greet me, they will not trick + and cheat me; + Lolo, Dodo, Joujou, + Cloclo, Margot, Frou-frou, + I'm going off to Maxim's, and you may go to--" + +The pianist swung around on his stool: his visitor had gone. + + * * * * * + +"Thank God," he sighed; and within a quarter of an hour he was asleep. + +He awoke in the small hours with that sick restless feeling on his +chest, which he described as a conviction of sin. + +"Good God!" he said aloud; "what a cad I've been!" + +He realised that an unspoiled and gentle creature had paid him +the greatest of all compliments by coming to him for advice in +the extremity of her soul's misery. He had received her with silly +_badinage_ and cheap cynicism. + +At breakfast he learned that things were much more serious than he had +imagined, that Asako had actually left her husband and was living with +her Japanese cousins. What he had thought to be a lover's quarrel, he +now recognised to be the shipwreck of two lives. With a kindly word he +might have prevented this disaster. + +He drove straight to the Fujinami mansion, at the risk of being late +for the Requiem Mass. He found two evil-eyed hooligans posted at the +gate, who stopped his rickshaw, and, informing him that none of the +Fujinami family were at home, seemed prepared to resist his entry with +force. + +During the reception of the Austrian Embassy which followed the +Mass, an incident occurred which altered the whole set of the young +diplomat's thoughts, and, most surprisingly, sent him posting down +to the Imperial Hotel to find Geoffrey Harrington, as one who has +discovered a treasure and must share it with his friend. + +The big Englishman was contemplating a whisky-and-soda in the hall of +the hotel. It was by no means the first of its series. He gazed dully +at Reggie. + +"Thought you were at Chuzenji," he said thickly. + +"I had to come down for the special service for the Archduke Franz +Ferdinand," said Reggie, excitedly. "They gave us a regular wake, +champagne by the gallon! Several of the _corps diplomatique_ became +inspired! They saw visions and made prophesyings. Von Falkenturm, the +German military attache, was shouting out, 'We've got to fight. We're +going to fight! We don't care who we fight! Russia, France, England: +yes, the whole lot of them!' The man was drunk, of course; but, after, +all, _in vino veritas_. The rest of the square-heads were getting very +rattled, and at last they succeeded in suppressing Falkenturm. But, I +tell you, Geoffrey, it's coming at last; it's really coming!" + +"What's coming?" + +"Why, the Great War. Thank God, it's coming!" + +"Why thank God?" + +"Because we've all become too artificial and beastly. We want +exterminating, and to start afresh. We shall escape at last from women +and drawing-rooms and silly gossip. We shall become men. It will give +us all something to do and something to think about." + +"Yes," echoed Geoffrey, "I wish I could get something to do." + +"You'll get it all right. I wish I were a soldier. Are you going to +stop in Japan much longer?" + +"No--going next week--going home." + +"Look here, I'll put in my resignation right away, and I'll come along +with you." + +"No, thanks," said Geoffrey, "rather not." + +In his excitement Reggie had failed to observe the chilliness of his +friend's demeanour. This snub direct brought up the whole chain of +events, which Reggie had momentarily forgotten, or which were too +recent as yet to have assumed complete reality. + +"I'm sorry, Geoffrey," he said, as he rose to go. + +"Not at all," said Barrington, ignoring his friend's hand and turning +aside to order another drink. + +Geoffrey had a letter in his pocket, received from his wife that +morning. It ran:-- + + "DEAR GEOFFREY,--I am very sorry. I cannot come back. It is + not only what has happened. I am Japanese. You are English. + You can never really love me. Our marriage was a mistake. + Everybody says so even Reggie Forsyth. I tried my best to want + to come back. I went to Reggie last night, and asked him what + actually happened. He says that our marriage was a mistake, + and that our coming to Japan was a mistake. So do I. I think + we might have been happy in England. I want you to divorce me. + It seems to be very easy in Japan. You only have to write a + letter, which Mr. Ito will give you. Then I can become quite + Japanese again, and Mr. Fujinami can take me back into his + family. Also you will be free to marry an English girl. But + don't have anything to do with Miss Smith. She is a very bad + girl. I shall never marry anybody else. My cousins are very + kind to me. It is much better for me to stay in Japan. Titine + said I was wrong to go away. Please give her fifty pounds from + me, and send her back to France, if she wants to go. I don't + think it is good for us to see each other. We only make + each other unhappy. Tanaka is here. I do not like him now. + Good-bye! Good-bye! + + "Your loving, + + "ASAKO." + +From this letter Geoffrey understood that Reggie Forsyth also was +against him. The request for a divorce baffled him entirely. How could +he divorce his wife, when he had nothing against her? In answer, he +wrote another frantic appeal to her to return to him. There was no +answer. + +Then he left Tokyo for Yokohama--it is only eighteen miles away--to +wait there until his boat started. + +Thither he was pursued by Ito. + +"I am sorry for you." The revolting little man always began his +discourse now with this exasperating phrase. "Mrs. Barrington would +like very much to obtain the divorce. She wishes very much to have her +name inscribed on family register of Fujinami house. If there is no +divorce, this is not possible." + +"But," objected Geoffrey, "it is not so easy to get divorced as to get +married--unfortunately." + +"In Japan," said the lawyer, "it is more easy, because we have +different custom." + +"Then there must be a lot of divorces," said Geoffrey grimly. + +"There are very many," answered the Japanese, "more than in any other +country. In divorce Japan leads the world. Even the States come second +to our country. Among the low-class persons in Japan there are even +women who have been married thirty-five times, married properly, +honourably and legally. In upper society, too, many divorce, but not +so many, for it makes the family angry." + +"Marvellous!" said Geoffrey. "How do you do it?" + +"There is divorce by law-courts, as in your country," said Ito. "The +injured party can sue the other party, and the court can grant decree. +But very few Japanese persons go to the court for divorce. It is not +nice, as you say, to wash dirty shirt before all people. So there is +divorce by custom." + +"Well?" asked the Englishman. + +"Now, as you know, our marriage is also by custom. There is no +ceremony of religion, unless parties desire. Only the man and the +woman go to the _Shiyakusho_, to the office of the city or the +village; and the man say, 'This woman is my wife; please, write her +name on the register of my family,' Then when he want to divorce her, +he goes again to the office of the city and says, 'I have sent my wife +away; please, take her name from the register of my family, and write +it again on the register of her father's family.' You see, our custom +is very convenient. No expense, no trouble." + +"Very convenient," Geoffrey agreed. + +"So, if Captain Barrington will come with me to the office of Akasaka, +Tokyo, and will give notice that he has sent Mrs. Barrington back +to her family, then the divorce is finished. Mrs. Barrington becomes +again a Japanese subject. Her name becomes Fujinami. She is again one +of her family. This is her prayer to you." + +"And Mrs. Barrington's money?" asked Geoffrey sarcastically. "You have +forgotten that." + +"Oh no," was the answer, "we don't forget the money. Mr. Fujinami +quite understand that it is great loss to send away Mrs. Barrington. +He will give big compensation as much as Captain Barrington desires." + +To Ito's surprise, his victim left the table and did not return. So +he inquired from the servants about Captain Barrington's habits; +and learned from the _boy sans_ that the big Englishman drank plenty +whisky-soda; but he did not talk to any one or go to the brothels. +Perhaps he was a little mad. + + * * * * * + +Ito returned to the charge next day. This time Geoffrey had an +inspiration. He said that if he could be granted an interview alone +with Asako, he would discuss with her the divorce project, and would +consent, if she asked him personally. After some demur, the lawyer +agreed. + +The last interview between husband and wife took place in Ito's +office, which Geoffrey had visited once before in his search for the +fortune of the Fujinami. The scene of the rendezvous was well chosen +to repress any revival of old emotions. The varnished furniture, the +sham mahogany, the purple plush upholstery, the gilt French clock, the +dirty bust of Abraham Lincoln and the polyglot law library checked the +tender word and the generous impulse. The Japanese have an instinctive +knowledge of the influence of inanimate things, and use this knowledge +with an unscrupulousness, which the crude foreigner only realises--if +ever--after it is too late. + +Geoffrey's wife appeared hand in hand with cousin Sadako. There was +nothing English in her looks. She had become completely Japanese +from her black helmet-like _coiffure_ to the little white feet which +shuffled over the dusty carpet. There was no hand-shaking. The +two women sat down stiffly on chairs against the wall remote from +Geoffrey, like two swallows perched uneasily on an unsteady wire. +Asako held a fan. There was complete silence. + +"I wish to see my wife alone," said Geoffrey. + +He spoke to Ito, who grinned with embarrassment and looked at the two +women. Asako shook her head. + +"I made it quite clear to you, Mr. Ito," said Geoffrey angrily, "that +this was my condition. I understand that pressure has been used to +keep my wife away from me. I will apply to my Embassy to get her +restored." + +Ito muttered under his breath. That was a contingency which he had +greatly dreaded. He turned to Sadako Fujinami and spoke to her in +voluble Japanese. Sadako whispered in her cousin's ear. Then she rose +and withdrew with Ito. + +Geoffrey was left alone with Asako. But was she really the same Asako? +Geoffrey had often seen upper class Japanese ladies at receptions in +the hotel at Tokyo. He had thought how picturesque they were, how well +mannered, how excellent their taste in dress. But they had seemed +to him quite unreal, denizens of a shadow world of bowing, gliding +figures. + +He now realised that his former wife had become entirely a Japanese, +a person absolutely different from himself, a visitant from another +sphere. He was English she was Japanese. They were divorced already. + +The big man rose from his chair, and held out his hand to his wife. + +"I'm sorry, little Asako!" he said, very gently. "You are quite right. +It was a mistake. Good-bye, and--God bless you always!" + +With immense relief and gratitude she took the giant's paw in her +own tiny hand. It seemed to have lost its grip, to have become like a +Japanese hand. + +He opened the door for her. Once again, as on the altar-steps of St. +George's, the tall shoulders bent over the tiny figure with a movement +of instinctive protection and tenderness. He closed the door behind +her, recrossed the room and stared into the empty fireplace. + +After a time, Ito returned. The two men went together to the district +office of the Akasaka Ward. There Geoffrey signed a declaration +in Japanese and English to the effect that his marriage with Asako +Fujinami was cancelled, and that she was free to return to her +father's family. + +Next morning, at daylight his ship left Yokohama. + +Before he reached Liverpool, war had been declared. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +FUJINAMI ASAKO + + _Okite mitsu + Nete mitsu kaya no + Hirosa kana_. + + When I rise, I look-- + When I lie down, I look-- + Alas, how vast is the mosquito-curtain. + + +Asako Barrington was restored to the name and home of the Fujinami. +Her action had been the result of hereditary instinct, of the +natural current of circumstances, and of the adroit diplomacy of her +relatives. She had been hunted and caught like a wild animal; and +she was soon to find that the walls of her enclosure, which at first +seemed so wide that she perceived them not, were closing in upon her +day by day as in a mediaeval torture chamber, forcing her step by step +towards the unfathomable pit of Japanese matrimony. + +The Fujinami had not adopted their foreign cousin out of pure +altruism. Far from it. Like Japanese in general, they resented the +intrusion of a "_tanin_" (outside person) into their intimacy. They +took her for what she was worth to them. + +Since Asako was now a member of the family, custom allowed Mr. +Fujinami Gentaro to control her money. But Mr. Ito warned his patron +that, legally, the money was still hers, and hers alone, and that in +case of her marrying a second time it might again slip away. It was +imperative, therefore, to the policy of the Fujinami house that Asako +should marry a Fujinami, and that as soon as possible. + +A difficulty here arose, not that Asako might object to her new +husband--it never occurred to the Fujinami that this stranger from +Europe might have opinions quite opposed to Japanese conventions--but +that there were very few adequately qualified suitors. Indeed, in the +direct line of succession there was only young Mr. Fujinami Takeshi, +the youth with the purple blotches, who had distinguished himself +by his wit and his _savoir vivre_ on the night of the first family +banquet. + +True, he had a wife already; but she could easily be divorced, as +her family were nobodies. If he married Asako, however, was he still +capable of breeding healthy children? Of course, he might adopt the +children whom he already possessed by his first wife, but the +elder boy showed signs of being mentally deficient, the younger was +certainly deaf and dumb, and the two others were girls and did not +count. + +Grandfather Fujinami Gennosuké, who hated and despised his grandson, +was for sweeping him and his brood out of the way altogether, and for +adopting a carefully selected and creditable _yoshi_ (adopted son) by +marriage with either Sadako or Asako. + +"But if this Asa is barren?" said Mrs. Fujinami Shidzuyé, who +naturally desired that her daughter Sadako's husband should be the +heir of the Fujinami. "That Englishman was strong and healthy. There +was living together for more than a year, and still no child." + +"If she is barren, then a son must be adopted," said the old +gentleman. + +"To adopt twice in succession is unlucky," objected Mr. Fujinami +Gentaro. + +"Then," said Mrs. Shidzuyé, "the old woman of Akabo shall come +for consultation. She shall tell if it is possible for her to have +babies." + +Akabo was the up-country village, whence the first Fujinami had come +to Tokyo to seek his fortune. The Japanese never completely loses +touch with his ancestral village; and for over a hundred years the +Tokyo Fujinami had paid their annual visit to the mountains of the +North to render tribute to the graves of their forefathers. They still +preserved an inherited faith in the "wise woman" of the district, +who from time to time was summoned to the capital to give her advice. +Their other medical counselor was Professor Kashio, who held degrees +from Munich and Vienna. + + * * * * * + +During the first days of her self-chosen widowhood Asako was little +better than a convalescent. She had never looked at sorrow before; and +the shock of what she had seen had paralyzed her vitality without as +yet opening her understanding. Like a dog, who in the midst of +his faithful affection has been struck for a fault of which he is +unconscious, she took refuge in darkness, solitude and despair. + +The Japanese, who are as a rule intuitively aware of others' emotions, +recognized her case. A room was prepared for her in a distant wing of +the straggling house, a "foreign-style" room in an upper story with +glass in the windows--stained glass too--with white muslin blinds, a +colored lithograph of Napoleon and a real bed, recently purchased on +Sadako's pleading that everything must be done to make life happy for +their guest. + +"But she is a Japanese," Mr. Fujinami Gentaro had objected. "It is not +right that a Japanese should sleep upon a tall bed. She must learn to +give up luxurious ways." + +Sadako protested that her cousin's health was not yet assured; and so +discipline was relaxed for a time. + +Asako spent most of her days in the tall bed, gazing through the open +doorway, across the polished wood veranda like the toffee veranda of +a confectioner's model, past the wandering branch of an old twisted +pine-tree which crouched by the side of the mansion like a faithful +beast, over the pigmy landscape of the garden, to the scale-like roofs +of the distant city, and to the pagoda on the opposite hill. + +It rested her to lie thus and look at her country. From time to time +Sadako would steal into the room. Her cousin would leave the invalid +in silence, but she always smiled; and she would bring some offering +with her, a dish of food--Asako's favorite dishes, of which Tanaka had +already compiled a complete list--or sometimes a flower. At the open +door she would pause to shuffle off her pale blue _zori_ (sandals); +and she would glide across the clean rice-straw matting shod in her +snow-white _tabi_ only. + +Asako gradually accustomed herself to the noises of the house. First, +there was the clattering of the _amado_, the wooden shutters whose +removal announced the beginning of the day, then the gurgling and the +expectorations which accompanied the family ablutions, then the harsh +sound of the men's voices and their rattling laughter, the sound +of their _geta_ on the gravel paths of the garden like the tedious +dropping of heavy rain on an iron roof, then the flicking and dusting +of the maids as they went about their daily _soji_ (house-cleaning), +their shrill mouselike chirps and their silly giggle; then the +afternoon stillness when every one was absent or sleeping; and then, +the revival of life and bustle at about six o'clock, when the clogs +were shuffled off at the front door, when the teacups began to jingle, +and when sounds of swishing water came up from the bath-house, the +crackle of the wood-fire under the bathtub, the smell of the burning +logs, and the distant odours of the kitchen. + +Outside, the twilight was beginning to gather. A big black crow +flopped lazily on to the branch of the neighbouring pine-tree. His +harsh croak disturbed Asako's mind like a threat. High overhead passed +a flight of wild geese in military formation on their way to the +continent of Asia. Lights began to peep among the trees. Behind the +squat pagoda a sky of raspberry pink closed the background. + +The twilight is brief in Japan. The night is velvety; and the +moonlight and the starlight transfigure the dolls' house architecture, +the warped pine-trees, the feathery bamboo clumps and the pagoda +spires. + +From a downstair room there came the twang of cousin Sadako's _koto_, +a kind of zither instrument, upon which she played interminable +melancholy sonatas of liquid, detached notes, like desultory thoughts +against a background of silence. There was no accompaniment to this +music and no song to chime with it; for, as the Japanese say, the +accompaniment for _koto_ music is the summer night-time and its heavy +fragrance, and the voice with which it harmonizes is the whisper of +the breeze in the pine-branches. + +Long after Sadako had finished her practice, came borne upon the +distance the still more melancholy pipe of a student's flute. This was +the last human sound. After that the night was left to the orchestra +of the insects--the grasshoppers, the crickets and the _semi_ +(cicadas). Asako soon was able to distinguish at least ten or twelve +different songs, all metallic in character, like clock springs being +slowly wound up and then let down with a run. The night and the house +vibrated with these infinitesimal chromatics. Sometimes Asako +thought the creatures must have got into her room, and feared for +entanglements in her hair. Then she remembered that her mother's +nickname had been "the _Semi_" and that she had been so called because +she was always happy and singing in her little house by the river. + +This memory roused Asako one day with a wish to see how her own house +was progressing. This wish was the first positive thought which had +stirred her mind since her husband had left her; and it marked a stage +in her convalescence. + +"If the house is ready," she thought "I will go there soon. The +Fujinamis will not want me to live here permanently." + +This showed how little she understood as yet the Japanese family +system, whereby relatives remain as permanent guests for years on end. + +"Tanaka" she said one morning, in what was almost her old manner, "I +think I will have the motor car to-day." + +Tanaka had become her body servant as in the old days. At first +she had resented the man's reappearance, which awakened such cruel +memories. She had protested against him to Sadako, who had smiled and +promised. But Tanaka continued his ministrations; and Asako had +not the strength to go on protesting. As a matter of fact, he +was specially employed by Mr. Fujinami Gentaro to spy on Asako's +movements, an easy task hitherto, since she had not moved from her +room. + +"Where is the motor car, Tanaka?" she asked again. + +He grinned, as Japanese always do when embarrassed. + +"Very sorry for you," he answered; "motor car has gone away." + +"Has Captain Barrington--?" Asako began instinctively; then, +remembering that Geoffrey was now many thousands of miles from Japan, +she turned her face to the wall and began to cry. + +"Young Fujinami San," said Tanaka, "has taken motor car. He go away +to mountains with _geisha_ girl. Very bad, young Fujinami San, very +_roué_." + +Asako thought that it was rather impertinent to borrow her own motor +car without asking permission, even if she was their guest. She did +not yet understand that she and all her possessions belonged from +henceforth to her family--to her male relatives, that is to say; for +she was only a woman. + +"Old Mr. Fujinami San," Tanaka went on, happy to find his mistress, to +whom he was attached in a queer Japanese sort of way, interested and +responsive at last, "old Mr. Fujinami San, he also go to mountain +with _geisha_ girl, but different mountain. Japanese people all very +_roué_. All Japanese people like to go away in summer season with +_geisha_ girl. Very bad custom. Old Mr. Fujinami San, not so very +bad, keep same _geisha_ girl very long time. Perhaps Ladyship see one +little girl, very nice little girl, come sometimes with Miss Sadako +and bring meal-time things. That little girl is _geisha_ girl's +daughter. Perhaps old Mr. Fujinami San's daughter also, I think: very +bastard: I don't know!" + +So he rambled on in the fashion of servants all the world over, until +Asako knew all the ramifications of her relatives, legitimate and +illegitimate. + +She gathered that the men had all left Tokyo during the hot season, +and that only the women were left in the house. This encouraged her +to descend from her eyrie, and to endeavour to take up her position in +her family, which was beginning to appear the less reassuring the more +she learned about its history. + +The life of a Japanese lady of quality is peculiarly tedious. She is +relieved from the domestic cares which give occupation to her humbler +sisters. But she is not treated as an equal or as a companion by her +menfolk, who are taught that marriage is for business and not for +pleasure, and consequently that home-life is a bore. She is supposed +to find her own amusements, such as flower-arrangement, tea-ceremony, +music, kimono-making and the composition of poetry. More often, this +refined and innocent ideal degenerates into a poor trickle of an +existence, enlivened only by scrappy magazine reading, servants' +gossip, empty chatter about clothes, neighbours and children, +backbiting, envying and malice. + +Once Sadako took her cousin to a charity entertainment given for the +Red Cross at the house of a rich nobleman. A hundred or more ladies +were present; but stiff civility prevailed. None of the guests seemed +to know each other. There was no friendly talking. There were no +men guests. There was three hours' agony of squatting, a careful +adjustment of expensive kimonos, weak tea and tasteless cakes, a blank +staring at a dull conjuring performance, and deadly silence. + +"Do you ever have dances?" Asako asked her cousin. + +"The _geisha_ dance, because they are paid," said Sadako primly. Her +pose was no longer cordial and sympathetic. She set herself up as +mentor to this young savage, who did not know the usages of civilized +society. + +"No, not like that," said the girl from England; "but dancing among +yourselves with your men friends." + +"Oh, no, that would not be nice at all. Only tipsy persons would dance +like that." + +Asako tried, not very successfully, to chat in easy Japanese with +her cousin; but she fled from the interminable talking parties of +her relatives, where she could not understand one word, except the +innumerable parentheses--_naruhodo_ (indeed!) and _so des'ka_ (is it +so?)--with which the conversation was studded. As the realization of +her solitude made her nerves more jumpy, she began to imagine that the +women were forever talking about her, criticizing her unfavorably and +disposing of her future. + +The only man whom she saw during the hot summer months, besides the +inevitable Tanaka, was Mr. Ito, the lawyer. He could talk quite +good English. He was not so egotistical and bitter as Sadako. He had +traveled in America and Europe. He seemed to understand the trouble of +Asako's mind, and would offer sympathetic advice. + +"It is difficult to go to school when we are no longer children," +he would say sententiously. "Asa San must be patient. Asa San must +forget. Asa San must take Japanese husband. I think it is the only +way." + +"Oh, no," the poor girl shivered; "I wouldn't marry again for +anything." + +"But," Ito went on relentlessly, "it is hurtful to the body when once +it has custom to be married. I think that is reason why so many widow +women are unfortunate and become mad." + +Every day he would spend an hour or so in conversation with Asako. She +thought that this was a sign of friendliness and sympathy. As a matter +of fact, his object at first was to improve his English. Later on more +ambitious projects developed in his fertile brain. + +He would talk about New York and London in his queer stilted way. He +had been a fireman on board ship, a teacher of _jiujitsu_, a juggler, +a quack dentist, Heaven knows what else. Driven by the conscientious +inquisitiveness of his race, he had endured hardships, contempt and +rough treatment with the smiling patience inculcated in the Japanese +people by their education. "We must chew our gall, and bide our time," +they say, when the too powerful foreigner insults or abuses them. + +He had seen the magnificence of our cities, the vastness of our +undertakings and had returned to Japan with great relief to find that +life among his own people was less strenuous and fierce, that it was +ordered by circumstances and the family system, that less was left +to individual courage and enterprise, that things happened more often +than things were done. The impersonality of Japan was as restful to +him as it is aggravating to a European. + +But it must not be imagined that Ito was an idle man. On the contrary, +he was exceedingly hard working and ambitious. His dream was to become +a statesman, to enjoy unlimited patronage, to make men and to break +men, and to die a peer. When he returned to Japan from his wanderings +with exactly two shillings in his pocket, this was his programme. Like +Cecil Rhodes, his hero among white men, he made a will distributing +millions. Then he attached himself to his rich cousins, the Fujinami; +and very soon he became indispensable to them. Fujinami Gentaro, +an indolent man, gave him more and more authority over the family +fortune. It was dirty business, this buying of girls and hiring of +pimps, but it was immensely profitable; and more and more of the +profits found their way into Ito's private account. Fujinami Gentaro +did not seem to care. Takeshi, the son and heir, was a nonentity. +Ito's intention was to continue to serve his cousins until he had +amassed a working capital of a hundred thousand pounds. Then he would +go into politics. + +But the advent of Asako suggested a short cut to his hopes. If he +married her he would gain immediate control of a large interest in the +Fujinami estate. Besides she had all the qualifications for the wife +of a Cabinet Minister, knowledge of foreign languages, ease in foreign +society, experience of foreign dress and customs. Moreover, passion +was stirring in his heart, the swift stormy passion of the Japanese +male, which, when thwarted, drives him towards murder and suicide. + +Like many Japanese, he had felt the attractiveness of foreign women +when he was traveling abroad. Their independence stimulated him, their +savagery and their masterful ways. Ito had found in Asako the physical +beauty of his own race together with the character and energy which +had pleased him so much in white women. Everything seemed to favor +his suit. Asako clearly seemed to prefer his company to that of other +members of the family. He had a hold over the Fujinami which would +compel them to assent to anything he might require. True, he had a +wife already; but she could easily be divorced. + +Asako tolerated him, _faute de mieux_. Cousin Sadako was becoming +tired of their system of mutual instruction, as she tired sooner or +later of everything. + +She had developed a romantic interest in one of the pet students, whom +the Fujinami kept as an advertisement and a bodyguard. He was a pale +youth with long greasy hair, spectacles and more gold in his teeth +than he had ever placed in his waist-band. Popriety forbade any actual +conversation with Sadako; but there was an interchange of letters +almost every day, long subjective letters describing states of mind +and high ideals, punctuated with shadowy Japanese poems and with +quotations from the Bible, Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Bergson, Eucken, Oscar +Wilde and Samuel Smiles. + +Sadako told her cousin that the young man was a genius, and would one +day be Professor of Literature at the Imperial University. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE REAL SHINTO + + _Yo no naka wo + Nani ni tatoyemu? + Asa-borake + Kogi-yuku fune no + Ato no shira-nami_. + + To what shall I compare + This world? + To the white wake behind + A ship that has rowed away + At dawn! + + +When the autumn came and the maple trees turned scarlet, the men +returned from their long summer holidays. After that Asako's lot +became heavier than ever. + +"What is this talk of tall beds and special cooking?" said Mr. +Fujinami Gentaro. "The girl is a Japanese. She must live like a +Japanese and be proud of it." + +So Asako had to sleep on the floor alongside her cousin Sadako in one +of the downstairs rooms. Her last possession, her privacy, was taken +away from her. The soft mattresses which formed the native bed, were +not uncomfortable; but Asako discarded at once the wooden pillow, +which every Japanese woman fits into the nape of her neck, so as to +prevent her elaborate _coiffure_ becoming disarranged. As a result, +her head was always untidy, a fact upon which her relatives commented. + +"She does not look like a great foreign lady now," said Mrs. Shidzuyé, +the mistress of the house. "She looks like _osandon_ (a rough kitchen +maid) from a country inn." + +The other women tittered. + +One day the old woman of Akabo arrived. Her hair was quite white like +spun glass, and her waxen face was wrinkled like a relief map. Her +body was bent double like a lobster; and her eyes were dim with +cataracts. Cousin Sadako said with awe that she was over a hundred +years old. + +Asako had to submit to the indignity of allowing this dessicated +hag to pass her fumbling hands all over her body, pinching her and +prodding her. The old woman smelt horribly of _daikon_ (pickled +horse-radish). Furthermore the terrified girl had to answer a +battery of questions as to her personal habits and her former marital +relations. In return, she learned a number of curious facts about +herself, of which she had hitherto no inkling. The lucky coincidence +of having been born in the hour of the Bird and the day of the Bird +set her apart from the rest of womankind as an exceptionally fortunate +individual. But, unhappily, the malignant influence of the Dog Year +was against her nativity. When once this disaffected animal had been +conquered and cast out, Asako's future should be a very bright one. +The family witch agreed with the Fujinami that the Dog had in all +probability departed with the foreign husband. Then the toothless +crone breathed three times upon the mouth, breasts and thighs of +Asako; and when this operation was concluded, she stated her opinion +that there was no reason, obstetrical or esoteric, why the ransomed +daughter of the house of Fujinami should not become the mother of many +children. + +But on the psychical condition of the family in general she was far +from reassuring. Everything about the mansion, the growth of the +garden, the flight of the birds, the noises of the night-time, +foreboded dire disaster in the near future. The Fujinami were in the +grip of a most alarming _ingé_ (chain of cause and effect). Several +"rough ghosts" were abroad; and were almost certain to do damage +before their wrath could be appeased. What was the remedy? It was +indeed difficult to prescribe for such complicated cases. Temple +charms, however, were always efficacious. The old woman gave the names +of some of the shrines which specialized in exorcism. + +Some days later the charms were obtained, strips of rice paper with +sacred writings and symbols upon them, and were pasted upon posts and +lintels all over the house. This was done in Mr. Fujinami's absence. +When he returned, he commented most unfavourably on this act of faith. +The prayer tickets disfigured his house. They looked like luggage +labels. They injured his reputation as an _esprit fort_. He ordered +the students to remove them. + +After this sacrilegious act, the old woman, who had lingered on in the +family mansion for several weeks, returned again to Akabo, shaking her +white locks and prophesying dark things to come. + + * * * * * + +For some reason or other, the witch's visit did not improve Asako's +position. She was expected to perform little menial services, to bring +in food at meal-times and to serve the gentlemen on bended knee, +to clap her hands in summons to the servant girls, to massage Mrs. +Fujinami, who suffered from rheumatism in the shoulder, and to scrub +her back in the bath. + +Her wishes were usually ignored; and she was not encouraged to leave +the house and grounds. Sadako no longer took her cousin with her to +the theatre or to choose kimono patterns at the Mitsukoshi store. She +was irritated at Asako's failure to learn Japanese. It bored her to +have to explain everything. She found this girl from Europe silly and +undutiful. + +Only at night they would chatter as girls will, even if they are +enemies; and it was then that Sadako narrated the history of her +romance with the young student. + +One night, Asako awoke to find that the bed beside her was empty, and +that the paper _shoji_ was pushed aside. Nervous and anxious, she +rose and stood in the dark veranda outside the room. A cold wind was +blowing in from some aperture in the _amado_. This was unusual, for a +Japanese house in its night attire is hermetically sealed. + +Suddenly Sadako appeared from the direction of the wind. Her hair +was disheveled. She wore a dark cloak over her parti-coloured night +kimono. By the dim light of the _andon_ (a rushlight in a square paper +box), Asako could see that the cloak was spotted with rain. + +"I have been to _benjo_," said Sadako nervously. + +"You have been out in the rain," contradicted her cousin. "You are wet +through. You will catch cold." + +"_Sa! Damaré!_ (Be quiet!)" whispered Sadako, as she threw her cloak +aside, "do not talk so loud. See!" She drew from her breast a short +sword in a sheath of shagreen. "If you speak one word, I kill you with +this." + +"What have you done?" asked Asako, trembling. + +"What I wished to do," was the sullen answer. + +"You have been with Sekiné?" Asako mentioned the student's name. + +Sadako nodded in assent. Then she began to cry, hiding her face in her +kimono sleeve. + +"Do you love him?" Asako could not help asking. + +"Of course, I love him," cried Sadako, starting up from her sorrow. +"You see me. I am no more virgin. He is my life to me. Why cannot I +love him? Why cannot I be free like men are free to love as they wish? +I am new woman. I read Bernard Shaw. I find one law for men in Japan, +and another law for women. But I will break that law. I have made +Sekiné my lover, because I am free." + +Asako could never have imagined her proud, inhuman cousin reduced to +this state of quivering emotion. Never before had she seen a Japanese +soul laid bare. + +"But you will marry Sekiné, Sada dear; and then you will be happy." + +"Marry Sekiné!" the girl hissed, "marry a boy with no money and leave +you to be the Fujinami heiress, when I am promised to the Governor of +Osaka, who will be home Minister when the next Governor comes!" + +"Oh, don't do that," urged Asako, her English sentimentalism flooding +back across her mind. "Don't marry a man whom you don't love. You say +you are a new woman. Marry Sekiné. Marry the man whom you love. Then +you will be happy." + +"Japanese girls are never happy," groaned her cousin. + +Asako gasped. This morality confused her. + +"But that would be a mortal sin," she said. "Then you could never be +happy." + +"We cannot be happy. We are Fujinami," said Sadako gravely. "We are +cursed. The old woman of Akabo said that it is a very bad curse. I do +not believe superstition. But I believe there is a curse. You also, +you have been unhappy, and your father and mother. We are cursed +because of the women. We have made so much money from poor women. They +are sold to men, and they suffer in pain and die so that we become +rich. It is a very bad _ingé_. So they say in Akabo, that we Fujinami +have a fox in our family. It brings us money; but it makes us unhappy. +In Akabo, even poor people will not marry with the Fujinami, because +we have the fox." + +It is a popular belief, still widely held in Japan, that certain +families own spirit foxes, a kind of family banshee who render them +service, but mark them with a curse. + +"I do not understand," said Asako, afraid of this wild talk. + +"Do you know why the Englishman went away?" said her cousin brutally. + +It was Asako's turn to cry. + +"Oh, I wish I had gone with him. He was so good to me, always so kind +and so gentle!" + +"When he married you," said Sadako, "he did not know that you had the +curse. He ought not to have come to Japan with you. Now he knows you +have the curse. So he went away. He was wise." + +"What do you mean by the curse?" asked Asako. + +"You do not know how the Fujinami have made so much money?" + +"No," said Asako. "It used to come for me from Mr. Ito. He had shares +or something." + +"Yes. But a share that means a share of a business. Do you not know +what is our business?" + +"No," said Asako again. + +"You have seen the Yoshiwara, where girls are sold to men. That is our +business. Do you understand now?" + +"No." + +"Then I will tell you the whole story of the Fujinami. About one +hundred and twenty years ago our great-great-grandfather came to Yedo, +as Tokyo was then called. He was a poor boy from the country. He had +no friends. He became clerk in a dry goods store. One day a woman, +rather old, asked him: 'How much pay you get?' He said, 'No pay, only +food and clothes.' The woman said, 'Come with me; I will give you food +and clothes and pay also,' He went with her to the Yoshiwara where she +had a small house with five or six girls. Every night he must stand +in front of the house, calling. Then the drunken workmen, and the +gamblers, and the bad _samurai_ would come and pay their money. And +they pay their money to him, our great-great-grandfather. When the +girls were sick, or would not receive guests, he would beat them, and +starve them, and burn _o kyu_ (a medical plant called moxa, used for +cauterization) on their backs. One day he said to the woman who was +mistress of the house, 'Your girls are too old. The rich friends do +not come any more. Let us sell these girls. I will go into the +country and get new girls, and then you will marry me and make me your +partner.' The woman said, 'If we have good luck with the girls and +make money, then I marry you.' So our great-great-grandfather went +back to his own country, to Akabo; and his old friends in the country +were astonished, seeing how much money he had to spend. He said 'Yes. +I have many rich friends in Yedo. They want pretty country girls to be +their wives. See, I pay you in advance five pieces of gold. After the +marriage more money will be given. Let me take your prettiest girls to +Yedo with me. And they will all get rich husbands.' They were simple +country people, and they believed him because he was a man of their +village, of Akabo. He went back to Yedo with about twenty girls, +fifteen or sixteen years old. He and the other clerks of the Yoshiwara +first made them _jor[=o]_. From those twenty girls he made very much +money. So he married the woman who kept the house. Then he hired a big +house called Tomonji. He furnished it very richly; and he would only +receive guests of the high-class people. Five of his girls became very +famous _oiran_. Even their pictures, drawn by Utamaro, are worth now +hundreds of _yen_. When our great-great-grandfather died he was a very +rich man. His son was the second Fujinami. He bought more houses in +the Yoshiwara and more girls. He was our great-grandfather. He had +two sons. One was your father's father, who bought this land and first +built a house here. The other was my grandfather, Fujinami Gennosuké, +who still lives in the _inkyo_. They have all made much money from +girls; but the curse was hurting them all, especially their wives and +daughters." + +"And my father?" asked Asako. + +"Your father wrote a book to say how bad a thing it is that money is +made from men's lust and the pain of Women. He told in the book +how girls are tricked to come to Tokyo, how their parents sell them +because they are poor or because there is famine, how the girls are +brought to Tokyo ten and twenty at a time, and are put to auction sale +in the Yoshiwara, how they are shut up like prisoner, how very rough +men are sent to them to break their spirit and to compel them to be +_jor[=o]_. There is a trial to see how strong they are. Then, when the +spirit is broken, they are shown in the window as 'new girls' with +beautiful kimono and with wreath of flowers on their head. If they +are lucky they escape disease for a few years, but it comes soon or +late--_rinbyo, baidoku_ and _raibyo_. They are sent to the hospital +for treatment; or else they are told to hide the disease and to get +more men. So the men take the disease and bring it to their wives and +children, who have done no wrong. But the girls of the Yoshiwara have +to work all the time, when they are only half cured. So they become +old and ugly and rotten very quickly. Then, if they take consumption +or some such thing, they die and the master says, 'It is well. She +was already too old. She was wasting our money.' And they are +buried quickly in the burial place of the _jor[=o]_ outside the city +boundary, the burial place of the dead who are forgotten. Or some, who +are very strong, live until their contract is finished. Then they go +back to the country, and marry there and spread disease. But they all +die cursing the Fujinami, who have made money out of their sorrow and +pain. I think this garden is full of their ghosts, and their curses +beat upon the house, like the wind when it makes the shutters rattle!" + +"How do you know all these terrible things?" asked Asako. + +"It is written in your father's book. I will read it to you. If you do +not believe, ask Ito San. He will tell you it is true." + +So for several evenings Sadako read to this stranger Fujinami her own +father's words, the words of a forerunner. + +Japan is still a savage country, wrote Fujinami Katsundo, the Japanese +are still barbarians. To compare the conventional codes, which they +have mistaken for civilization, with the depth and the height of +Occidental idealism, as Christ perceived it and Dante and St. Francis +of Assisi and Tolstoy, is "to compare the tortoise with the moon." +Japan is imitating from the West its worst propensities--hard +materialism, vulgarity and money-worship. The Japanese must be humble, +and must admit that the most difficult part of their lesson has yet to +be learned. Cut and dried systems are useless. Prussian constitution, +technical education, military efficiency and bravado--such things are +not progress. Japan must denounce the slavery of ancestor-worship, and +escape from the rule of the dead. She must chase away the bogeys of +superstition, and enjoy life as a lovely thing, and love as the vision +of a life still more beautiful. She must cleanse her land of all its +filth, and make it what it still might be--the Country of the Rising +Sun. + +Such was the message of Asako's father in his book, _The Real Shinto_. + +"We are not allowed to read this book," Sadako explained; "the police +have forbidden it. But I found a secret copy. It was undutiful of your +father to write such things. He went away from Japan; and everyone +said, 'It is a good thing he has gone; he was a bad man; he shamed his +country and his family.'" + +There was much in the book which Asako could not follow. Her cousin +tried to explain it to her; and many nights passed, thus, the two +girls sitting up and reading by the pale light of the _andon_. It was +like a renewal of the old friendship. Sometimes a low whistle sounded +from outside the house. Sadako would lay aside the book, would slip +on her cloak and go out into the garden, where Sekiné was waiting for +her. + +When she was left to herself Asako began to think for the first time +in her life. Hitherto her thoughts had been concerned merely with her +own pleasures and pains, with the smiles and frowns of those around +her, with petty events and trifling projects. Perhaps, because some +of her father's blood was alive in her veins, she could understand +certain aspects of his book more clearly than her interpreter, Sadako. +She knew now why Geoffrey would not touch her money. It was filthy, +it was diseased, like the poor women who had earned it. Of course, her +Geoffrey preferred poverty to wealth like that. Could she face poverty +with him? Why, she was poor already, here in her cousins' house. Where +was the luxury which her money used to buy? She was living the life of +a servant and a prisoner. + +What would be the end of it? Surely Geoffrey would come back to her, +and take her away! But he had no money now, and it would cost much +money to travel to Japan. And then, this terrible war! Geoffrey was a +soldier. He would be sure to be there, leading his men. Supposing he +were killed? + +One night in a dream she saw his body carried past her, limp and +bleeding. She screamed in her sleep. Sadako awoke, terrified. + +"What is the matter?" + +"I dreamed of Geoffrey, my husband. Perhaps he is killed in the war." + +"Do not say that," said Sadako. "It is unlucky to speak of death. It +troubles the ghosts. I have told you this house is haunted." + +Certainly for Asako the Fujinami mansion had lost its charm. Even the +beautiful landscape was besieged by horrible thoughts. Every day two +or three of the Yoshiwara women died of disease and neglect, so Sadako +said and therefore every day the invisible population of the Fujinami +garden must be increasing, and the volume of their curses must be +gathering in intensity. The ghosts hissed like snakes in the bamboo +grove. They sighed in the pine branches. They nourished the dwarf +shrubs with their pollution. Beneath the waters of the lake the +corpses--women's corpses--were laid out in rows. Their thin hands +shook the reeds. Their pale faces rose at night to the surface, and +stared at the moon. The autumn maples smeared the scene with infected +blood; and the stone foxes in front of the shrine of Inari sneered and +grinned at the devil world which their foul influence had called into +being through the black witchcraft of lechery, avarice and disease. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE AUTUMN FESTIVAL + + _Yo no naka ni + Ushi no Kuruma no + Nakari-seba, + Omoi no iye wo + Ikade ide-mashi?_ + + In this world + If there were no + Ox-cart (_i.e._ Buddhist religion), + How should we escape + From the (burning) mansion of our thought? + + +During October, the whole family of the Fujinami removed from Tokyo +for a few days in order to perform their religious duties at the +temple of Ikégami. Even grandfather Gennosuké emerged from his +dower-house, bringing his wife, O Tsugi. Mr. Fujinami Gentaro was in +charge of his own wife, Shidzuyé San, of Sadako and of Asako. Only +Fujinami Takeshi, the son and heir, with his wife Matsuko, was absent. + +There had been some further trouble in the family which had not +been confided to Asako, but which necessitated urgent steps for the +propitiation of religious influences. The Fujinami were followers of +the Nichiren sect of Buddhism. Their conspicuous devotion and their +large gifts to the priests of the temple were held to be causes of +their ever-increasing prosperity. The dead Fujinami, down from that +great-great-grandfather who had first come to seek his fortune in +Yedo, were buried at Ikégami. Here the priests gave to each _hotoké_ +(Buddha or dead person) his new name, which was inscribed on small +black tablets, the _ihai_. One of these tablets for each dead person +was kept in the household shrine at Tokyo, and one in the temple at +Ikégami. + +Asako was taken to the October festival, because her father too was +buried in the temple grounds--one small bone of him, that is to say, +an _ikotsu_ or legacy bone, posted home from Paris before the rest of +his mortality found alien sepulture at Père Lachaise. Masses were said +for the dead; and Asako was introduced to the tablet. But she did not +feel the same emotion as when she first visited the Fujinami house. +Now, she had heard her father's authentic voice. She knew his scorn +for pretentiousness of all kinds, for false conventions, for false +emotions, his hatred of priestcraft, his condemnation of the family +wealth, and his contempt for the little respectabilities of Japanese +life. + + * * * * * + +A temple in Japan is not merely a building; it is a site. These sites +were most carefully chosen with the same genius which guided our +Benedictines and Carthusians. The site of Ikégami is a long-abrupt +hill, half-way between Tokyo and Yokohama. It is clothed with +_cryptomeria_ trees. These dark conifers, like immense cypresses, give +to the spot that grave, silent, irrevocable atmosphere, with which +Boecklin has invested his picture of the Island of the Dead. These +majestic trees are essentially a part of the temple. They correspond +to the pillars of our Gothic cathedrals. The roof is the blue vault +of heaven; and the actual buildings are but altars, chantries and +monuments. + +A steep flight of steps is suspended like a cascade from the crest of +the hill. Up and down these steps, the wooden clogs of the Japanese +people patter incessantly like water-drops. At the top of the steps +stands the towered gateway, painted with red ochre, which leads to the +precincts. The guardians of the gate, _Ni-O_, the two gigantic Deva +kings, who have passed from India into Japanese mythology, are encaged +in the gateway building. Their cage and their persons are littered +with nasty morsels of chewed paper, wherever their worshippers have +literally spat their prayers at them. + +Within the enclosure are the various temple buildings, the bell-tower, +the library, the washing-trough, the hall of votive offerings, +the sacred bath-house, the stone lanterns and the lodgings for the +pilgrims; also the two main halls for the temple services, which are +raised on low piles and are linked together by a covered bridge, so +that they look like twin arks of safety, floating just five feet above +the troubles of this life. These buildings are most of them painted +red; and there is fine carving on panels, friezes and pediments, +and also much tawdry gaudiness. Behind these two sanctuaries is the +mortuary chapel where repose the memories of many of the greatest +in the land. Behind this again are the priests' dormitories, with a +lovely hidden garden hanging on the slopes of a sudden ravine; its +presiding genius is an old pine-tree, beneath which Nichiren himself, +a contemporary and a counterpart of Saint Dominic, used to meditate on +his project for a Universal Church, founded on the life of Buddha, and +led by the apostolate of Japan. + + * * * * * + +For the inside of a week the Fujinami dwelt in one of a row of stalls, +like loose-boxes, within the temple precincts. The festival might have +some affinity with the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, when the devout +left their city dwellings to live in booths outside the walls. + + _Namu my[=o]h[=o] renge ky[=o]._ + +(Adoration to the Wonderful Law of the Lotus Scriptures!) + +The famous formula of the priests of the Nichiren sect was being +repeated over and over again to the accompaniment of drums; for in +the sacred text itself lies the only authentic Way of Salvation. With +exemplary insistence Mr. Fujinami Gennosuké was beating out the rhythm +of the prayer with a wooden clapper on the _mokugy[=o]_, a wooden drum, +shaped like a fish's head. + + _Namu my[=o]h[=o] renge ky[=o]_. + +From every corner of the temple _enclave_ the invocation was droning +like a threshing machine. Asako's Catholic conscience, now awakening +from the spell which Japan had cast upon it, became uneasy about its +share in these pagan rites. In order to drive the echo of the litany +out of her ears, she tried to concentrate her attention upon watching +the crowd. + + _Namu my[=o]h[=o] renge ky[=o]_. + +Around her was a dense multitude of pilgrims, in their hundreds of +thousands, shuffling, chaffering and staring. Some, like the +Fujinami, had hired temporary lodgings, and had cooks and servants in +attendance. Some were camping in the open. Others were merely visiting +the temple for the inside of the day. The crowds kept on shifting and +mingling like ants on an ant-hill. + +Enjoyment, rather than piety, was the prevailing spirit; for this was +one of the few annual holidays of the industrious Tokyo artisan. + +In the central buildings, five feet above this noisy confluence of +people, where the golden images of the Buddhas are enthroned, the +mitred priests with their copes of gold-embroidered brown were +performing the rituals of their order. To right and left of the high +altar, the canons squatting at their red-lacquered praying-desks, were +reciting the _sutras_ in strophe and antistrophe. Clouds of incense +rose. + +In the adjoining building an earnest young preacher was exhorting a +congregation of elderly and somnolent ladies to eschew the lusts of +the flesh and to renounce the world and its gauds, marking each point +in his discourse with raps of his fan. Foxy-faced satellites of the +abbey were doing a roaring trade in charms against various accidents, +and in sacred scrolls printed with prayers or figures of Nichiren. + +The temple-yard was an immense fancy fair. The temple pigeons wheeled +disconsolately in the air or perched upon the roofs, unable to find +one square foot of the familiar flagstones, where they were used to +strut and peck. Stalls lined the stone pathways and choked the spaces +between the buildings. Merchants were peddling objects of piety, +sacred images, charms and rosaries; and there were flowers for the +women's hair, and toys for the children, and cakes and biscuits, +_biiru_ (beer) and _ramuné_ (lemonade) and a distressing sickly drink +called "champagne cider" and all manner of vanities. In one corner of +the square a theatre was in full swing, the actors making up in +public on a balcony above the crowd, so as to whet their curiosity and +attract their custom. Beyond was a cinematograph, advertised by lurid +paintings of murders and apparitions; and farther on there was a +circus with a mangy zoo. + +The crowd was astonishingly mixed. There were prosperous merchants of +Tokyo with their wives, children, servants and apprentices. There were +students with their blue and white spotted cloaks, their _képis_ with +the school badge, and their ungainly stride. There were modern young +men in _y[=o]fuku_ (European dress), with panama hats, swagger canes +and side-spring shoes, supercilious in attitude and proud of their +unbelief. There were troops of variegated children, dragging at +their elders' hands or kimonos, or getting lost among the legs of the +multitude like little leaves in an eddy. There were excursion parties +from the country, with their kimonos caught up to the knees, and with +baked earthen faces stupidly staring, sporting each a red flower or +a coloured towel for identification purposes. There were labourers +in tight trousers and tabard jackets, inscribed with the name and +profession of their employer. There were _geisha_ girls on their best +behaviour, in charge of a professional auntie, and recognizable only +by the smart cut of their cloaks and the deep space between the collar +and the nape of the neck, where the black _chignon_ lay. + +Close to the tomb of Nichiren stood a Japanese Salvationist, a zealous +pimply young man, wearing the red and blue uniform of General Booth +with _kaiseigun_ (World-saving Army) in Japanese letters round his +staff cap. He stood in front of a screen, on which the first verse of +"Onward, Christian Soldiers," was written in a Japanese translation. +An assistant officiated at a wheezy harmonium. The tune was vaguely +akin to its Western prototype; and the two evangelists were trying to +induce a tolerant but uninterested crowd to join in the chorus. + +Everywhere beggars were crawling over the compound in various states +of filth. Some, however, were so ghastly that they were excluded +from the temple enclosure. They had lined up among the trunks of +the cryptomeria trees, among the little grey tombs with their fading +inscriptions and the moss-covered statues of kindly Buddhas. + +Asako gave a penny into the crooked hand of one poor sightless wretch. + +"Oh, no!" cried cousin Sadako; "do not go near to them. Do not touch +them. They are lepers." + +Some of them had no arms, or had mere stumps ending abruptly in a red +and sickening object like a bone which a dog has been chewing. Some +had no legs, and were pulled along on little wheeled trolleys by their +less dilapidated companions in misfortune. Some had no features. +Their faces were mere glabrous disks, from which eyes and nose had +completely vanished; only the mouth remained, a toothless gap fringed +with straggling hairs. Some had faces abnormally bloated, with +powerful foreheads and heavy jowls, which gave them an expression of +stony immobility like Byzantine lions. All were fearfully dirty and +covered with sores and lice. + +The people passing by smiled at their grim unsightliness, and threw +pennies to them, for which they scrambled and scratched like beasts. + + _Namu my[=o]h[=o] renge ky[=o]_. + +Asako's relatives spent the day in eating, drinking and gossiping to +the rhythm of the interminable prayer. + +It was a perfect day of autumn, which is the sweetest season in Japan. +A warm bright sun had been shining on the sumptuous colours of the +waning year, on the brilliant reds and yellows which clothed the +neighbouring hills, on the broad brown plain with its tesselated +design of bare rice-fields, on the brown villas and cottages huddled +in their fences of evergreen like birds in their nests, on the +red trunks of the cryptomeria trees, on the brown carpet of matted +pine-needles, on the grey crumbling stones of the old graveyard, on +the high-pitched temple roofs, and on the inconsequential swarms of +humanity drifting to their devotions, casting their pennies into the +great alms-trough in front of the shrine, clanging the brass bell with +a prayer for good luck, and drifting home again with their bewildered, +happy children. + +Asako no longer felt like a Japanese. The sight of her countrymen in +their drab monotonous thousands sickened her. The hiss and cackle +of their incomprehensible tongue beat upon her brain with a deadly +incessant sound, like raindrops to one who is impatiently awaiting the +return of fine weather. + +Here at Ikégami, the distant view of the sea and the Yokohama shipping +invited Asako to escape. But where could she escape to? To England. +She was an Englishwoman no longer. She had cast her husband off for +insufficient reasons. She had been cold, loveless, narrow-minded and +silly. She had acted, as she now recognised, largely on the suggestion +of others. Like a fool she had believed what had been told. She had +not trusted her love for her husband. As usual, her thoughts returned +to Geoffrey, and to the constant danger which threatened him. Lately, +she had started to write a letter to him several times, but had never +got further than "Dearest Geoffrey." + +She was glad when the irritating day was over, when the rosy sunset +clouds showed through the trunks of the cryptomerias, when the night +fell and the great stars like lamps hung in the branches. But the +night brought no silence. Paper lanterns were lighted round the +temple; and rough acetylene flares lit up the tawdry fairings. The +chattering, the bargaining, the clatter of the _geta_ became more +terrifying even than in daytime. It was like being in the darkness in +a cage of wild beasts, heard, felt, but unseen. + +The evening breeze was cold. In spite of the big wooden fireboxes +strewn over their stall, the Fujinami were shivering. + +"Let us go for a walk," suggested cousin Sadako. + +The two girls strolled along the ridge of the hill as far as the +five-storied pagoda. They passed the tea-house, so famous for its +plum-blossoms in early March. It was brightly lighted. The paper +rectangles of the _shoji_ were aglow like an illuminated honeycomb. +The wooden walls resounded with the jangle of the _samisen_, the high +screaming _geisha_ voices, and the rough laughter of the guests. From +one room the _shoji_ were pushed open; and drunken men could be seen +with kimonos thrown back from their shoulders showing a body reddened +with _saké_. They had taken the _geishas_' instruments from them, and +were performing an impromptu song and dance, while the girls clapped +their hands and writhed with laughter. Beyond the tea-house, the din +of the festival was hushed. Only from the distance came the echo of +the song, the rasp of the forced merriment, the clatter of the _geta_, +and the hum of the crowd. + +Starlight revealed the landscape. The moon was rising through a +cloud's liquescence. Soon the hundreds of rice-plots would catch her +full reflection. The outline of the coast of Tokyo Bay was visible +as far as Yokohama; so were the broad pool of Ikégami and the lumpy +masses of the hills inland. + +The landscape was alive with lights, lights dim, lights bright, +lights stationary, lights in swaying movement round each centre of +population. It looked as if the stars had fallen from heaven, and were +being shifted and sorted by careful gleaners. As each nebula of white +illumination assembled itself, it began to move across the vast plain, +drawn inwards towards Ikégami from every point of the compass as +though by a magnetic force. These were the lantern processions of +pilgrims. They looked like the souls of the righteous rising from +earth to heaven in a canto from Dante. + +The clusters of lights started, moved onwards, paused, re-grouped +themselves, and struggled forward, until in the narrow street of +the village under the hill Asako could distinguish the shapes of the +lantern-bearers and their strange antics, and the sacred palanquin, +a kind of enormous wooden bee-hive, which was the centre of each +procession, borne on the sturdy shoulders of a swarm of young men to +the beat of drums and the inevitable chant. + + _Namu my[=o]h[=o] renge ky[=o]_. + +Slowly the procession jolted up the steep stairway, and came to rest +with their heavy burdens in front of the temple of Nichiren. + +"It is very silly," said cousin Sadako, "to be so superstitious, I +think." + +"Then why are we here?" asked Asako. + +"My grandfather is very superstitious; and my father is afraid to say +'No' to him. My father does not believe in any gods or Buddhas; but +he says it does no harm, and it may do good. All our family is +_gohei-katsugi_ (brandishers of sacred symbols). We think that with +all this prayer we can turn away the trouble of Takeshi." + +"Why, what is the matter with Mr. Takeshi? Why is he not here? and +Matsuko San and the children?" + +"It is a great secret," said the Fujinami cousin, "you will tell no +one. You will pretend also even with me that you do not know. Takeshi +San is very sick. The doctor says that he is a leper." + +Asako stared, uncomprehending. Sadako went on,-- + +"You saw this morning those ugly beggars. They were all so terrible +to see, and their bodies were so rotten. My brother is becoming like +that. It is a sickness. It cannot be cured. It will kill him very +slowly. Perhaps his wife Matsu and his children also have the +sickness. Perhaps we too are sick. No one can tell, not for many +years." + +Ugly wings seemed to cover the night. The world beneath the hill had +become the Pit of Hell, and the points of light were devils' spears. +Asako trembled. + +"What does it mean?" she asked. "How did Takeshi San become sick?" + +"It was a _tenbatsu_ (judgment of heaven)," answered her cousin. +"Takeshi San was a bad man. He was rude to his father, and he was +cruel to his wife. He thought only of _geisha_ and bad women. No +doubt, he became sick from touching a woman who was sick. Besides, +it is the bad _ingé_ of the Fujinami family. Did not the old woman of +Akabo say so? It is the curse of the Yoshiwara women. It will be our +turn next, yours and mine." + +No wonder that poor Asako could not sleep that night in the cramped +promiscuity of the family dead. + +Fujinami Takeshi had been sickly for some time; but then his course +of life could hardly be called a healthy one. On his return from his +summer holiday, red patches had appeared on the palms of his hands, +and afterwards on his forehead. He had complained of the irritation +caused by this "rash." Professor Kashio had been called in to +prescribe. A blood test was taken. The doctor then pronounced that +the son and heir was suffering from leprosy, and for that there was no +cure. + +The disease is accompanied by irritation, but by little actual pain. +Constant application of compresses can allay the itching, and can +often save the patient from the more ghastly ravages of disfigurement. +But, slowly, the limbs lose their force, the fingers and toes drop +away, the hair falls, and merciful blindness comes to hide from the +sufferer the living corpse to which his spirit is bound. More merciful +yet, the slow decay attacks the organs of the body. Often consumption +intervenes. Often just a simple cold suffices to snuff out the +flickering life. + +In the village of Kusatsu, beyond the Karuizawa mountains, there is a +natural hot spring, whose waters are beneficial for the alleviation of +the disease. In this place there is a settlement of well-to-do lepers. +Thither it was decided to banish poor Takeshi. His wife, Matsuko, +naturally was expected to accompany him, to nurse him and to make +life as comfortable for him as she could. Her eventual doom was almost +certain. But there was no question, no choice, no hesitation and no +praise. Every Japanese wife is obliged to become an Alcestis, if +her husband's well-being demand it. The children were sent to the +ancestral village of Akabo. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +JAPANESE COURTSHIP + + _O-bune no + Hatsuru-tomari no + Tayutai ni + Mono-omoi-yase-nu + Hito no ko yuye ni_. + + With a rocking + (As) of great ships + Riding at anchor + I have at last become worn out with love, + Because of a child of a man. + + +When the Fujinami returned to Tokyo, the wing of the house in which +the unfortunate son had lived, had been demolished. An ugly scar +remained, a slab of charred concrete strewn with ashes and burned +beams. Saddest sight of all was the twisted iron work of Takeshi's +foreign bedstead, once the symbol of progress and of the _haikara_ +spirit. The fire was supposed to have been accidental; but the ravages +had been carefully limited to the offending wing. + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro, disgusted at this unsightly wreckage wished to +rebuild at once. But the old grandfather had objected that this spot +of misfortune was situated in the northeast corner of the mansion, a +quarter notoriously exposed to the attacks of _oni_ (evil spirits). He +was in favor of total demolishment. + +This was only one of the differences of opinion between the two +seniors of the house of Fujinami, which became more frequent as the +clouds of disaster gathered over the home in Akasaka. A far more +thorny problem was the question of the succession. + +With the living death of Takeshi, there was no male heir. Several +family councils were held in the presence of the two Mr. Fujinami +generally in the lower-house, at which six or seven members of the +collateral branches were also present. Grandfather Gennosuké, who +despised Takeshi as a waster, would not listen to any plea on behalf +of his children. + +"To a bad father a bad child," he enunciated, his restless jaw +masticating more ferociously than ever. + +He was strongly of opinion that it was the curse of Asako's father +which had brought this sorrow upon his family. Katsundo and Asako were +representatives of the elder branch. Himself, Gentaro and Takeshi +were mere usurpers. Restore the elder branch to its rights, and the +indignant ghost would cease to plague them all. + +Such was the argument of grandfather Gennosuké. + +Fujinami Gentaro naturally supported the claims of his own progeny. If +Takeshi's children must be disinherited because of the leprous strain, +then, at least, Sadako remained. She was a well-educated and serious +girl. She knew foreign languages. She could make a brilliant marriage. +Her husband would be adopted as heir. Perhaps the Governor of Osaka? + +The other members of the council shook their heads, and breathed +deeply. Were there no Fujinami left of the collateral branches? Why +adopt a _tanin_ (outside person)? So spoke the M.P., the man with a +wen, who had an axe of his own to grind. + +It was decided to choose the son-in-law candidate first of all; and, +afterwards, to decide which of the girls he was to marry. Perhaps it +would be as well to consult the fortune tellers. At any rate, a list +of suitable applicants would be prepared for the next meeting. + +"When men speak of the future," said grandfather Gennosuké, "the rats +in the ceiling laugh." + +So the conference broke up. + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro had no sooner returned to the academic calm of +his chaste reading room, than Mr. Ito appeared on the threshold. + +The oily face was more moist than usual, the buffalo-horn moustache +more truculent; and though the autumn day was cool, Ito was agitating +a fan. He was evidently nervous. Before approaching the sanctum, he +had blown his nose into a small square piece of soft paper, which is +the Japanese apology for a handkerchief. He had looked around for +some place where to cast the offence; but finding none along the trim +garden border, he had slipped it into his wide kimono sleeve. + +Mr. Fujinami frowned. He was tired of business matters, and the worry +of other people's affairs. He longed for peace. + +"Indeed, the weather becomes perceptibly cooler," said Mr. Ito, with a +low prostration. + +"If there is business," his patron replied crisply, "please step up +into the room." + +Mr. Ito slipped off his _geta_, and ascended from the garden path. +When he had settled himself in the correct attitude with legs +crossed and folded, Mr. Fujinami pushed over towards him a packet of +cigarettes, adding; + +"Please, without embarrassment, speak quickly what you have to say." + +Mr. Ito chose a cigarette, and slowly pinched together the cardboard +holder, which formed its lower half. + +"Indeed, _sensei_, it is a difficult matter," he began. "It is a +matter which should be handled by an intermediary. If I speak face to +face like a foreigner the master will excuse my rudeness." + +"Please, speak clearly." + +"I owe my advancement in life entirely to the master. I was the son +of poor parents. I was an emigrant and a vagabond over three thousand +worlds. The master gave me a home and lucrative employment. I have +served the master for many years; with my poor effort the fortunes of +the family have perhaps increased. I have become as it were a _son_ to +the Fujinami." + +He paused at the word "son." His employer had caught his meaning, and +was frowning more than ever. At last he answered: + +"To expect too much is a dangerous thing. To choose a _yoshi_ (adopted +son) is a difficult question. I myself cannot decide such grave +matters. There must be consultation with the rest of the Fujinami +family. You yourself have suggested that Governor Sugiwara might +perhaps be a suitable person." + +"At that time the talk was of Sada San; this time the talk is of Asa +San." + +A flash of inspiration struck Mr. Fujinami Gentaro, and a gush of +relief. By giving her to Ito, he might be able to side-track Asako, +and leave the highway to inheritance free for his own daughter. But +Ito had grown too powerful to be altogether trusted. + +"It must be clearly understood," said the master, "that it is the +husband of our Sada who will be the Fujinami _yoshi_." + +Ito bowed. + +"Thanks to the master," he said, "there is money in plenty. There is +no desire to speak of such matters. The request is for Asa San only. +Truly, the heart is speaking. That girl is a beautiful child, and +altogether a _haikara_ person. My wife is old and barren and of low +class. I wish to have a wife who is worthy of my position in the house +of Fujinami San." + +The head of the family cackled with sudden laughter; he was much +relieved. + +"Ha! Ha! Ito Kun! So it is love, is it? You are in love like a school +student. Well, indeed, love is a good thing. What you have said shall +be well considered." + +So the lawyer was dismissed. + +Accordingly, at the next family council Mr. Fujinami put forward +the proposal that Asako should be married forthwith to the family +factotum, who should be given a lump sum down in consideration for a +surrender of all further claim in his own name or his wife's to any +share in the family capital. + +"Ito Kun," he concluded, "is the brain of our business. He is the +family _karo_ (prime minister). I think it would be well to give this +Asa to him." + +To his surprise, the proposal met with unanimous opposition. The +rest of the family envied and disliked Ito, who was regarded as Mr. +Fujinami's pampered favourite. + +Grandfather Gennosuké was especially indignant. + +"What?" he exploded in one of those fits of rage common to old men in +Japan; "give the daughter of the elder branch to a butler, to a man +whose father ran between rickshaw shafts. If the spirit of Katsundo +has not heard this foolish talk it would be a good thing for us. +Already there is a bad _ingé_. By doing such a thing it will become +worse and worse, until the whole house of Fujinami is ruined. This Ito +is a rascal, a thief, a good-for-nothing, a----" + +The old gentleman collapsed. + +Again the council separated, still undecided except for one thing that +the claim of Mr. Ito to the hand of Asako was quite inadmissible. + +When the "family prime minister" next pressed his master on the +subject, Mr. Fujinami had to confess that the proposal had been +rejected. + +Then Ito unmasked his batteries, and his patron had to realize that +the servant was a servant no longer. + +Ito said that it was necessary for him to have Asa San and that before +the end of the year. He was in love with this girl. Passion was an +overwhelming thing. + + "Two things have ever been the same + Since the Age of the Gods-- + The flowing of water, + And the way of Love." + +This old Japanese poem he quoted as his excuse for what would +otherwise be an inexcusable impertinence. The master was aware that +politics in Japan were in an unsettled state, and that the new Cabinet +was scarcely established; that a storm would overthrow it, and that +the Opposition were already looking about for a suitable scandal +to use for their revenge. He, Ito, held the evidence which they +desired--the full story of the Tobita concession, with the names and +details of the enormous bribes distributed by the Fujinami. If these +things were published, the Government would certainly fall; also the +Tobita concession would be lost and the whole of that great outlay; +also the Fujinami's leading political friends would be discredited +and ruined. There would be a big trial, and exposure, and outcry, and +judgment, and prison. The master must excuse his servant for speaking +so rudely to his benefactor. But in love there are no scruples; and he +must have Asa San. After all, after his long service, was his request +so unreasonable? + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro, thoroughly scared, protested that he himself was +in favour of the match. He begged for time so as to be able to convert +the other members of the family council. + +"Perhaps," suggested Ito, "if Asa San were sent away from Akasaka, +perhaps if she were living alone, it would be more easy to manage. +What is absent is soon forgotten. Mr. Fujinami Gennosuké is a very old +gentleman; he would soon forget. Sada San could then take her proper +position as the only daughter of the Fujinami. Was there not a small +house by the river side at Mukojima, which had been rented for Asa +San? Perhaps she would like to live there--quite alone." + +"Perhaps Ito Kun would visit her from time to time," said Mr. +Fujinami, pleased with the idea; "she will be so lonely; there is no +knowing." + +The one person who was never consulted, and who had not the remotest +notion of what was going on, was Asako herself. + + * * * * * + +Asako was most unhappy. The disappearance of Fujinami Takeshi +exasperated the competition between herself and her cousin. Just +as formerly all Sadako's intelligence and charm had been exerted +to attract her English relative to the house in Akasaka, so now she +applied all her force to drive her cousin out of the family circle. +For many weeks now Asako had been ignored; but after the return from +Ikégami a positive persecution commenced. Although the nights were +growing chilly, she was given no extra bedding. Her meals were no +longer served to her; she had to get what she could from the kitchen. +The servants, imitating their mistress's attitude were deliberately +disobliging and rude to the little foreigner. + +Sadako and her mother would sneer at her awkwardness and at her +ignorance of Japanese customs. Her _obi_ was tied anyhow; for she had +no maid. Her hair was untidy; for she was not allowed a hairdresser. + +They nicknamed her _rashamen_ (goat face), using an ugly slang word +for a foreigner's Japanese mistress; and they would pretend that she +smelt like a European. + +"_Kusai! Kusai_! (Stink! Stink!)" they would say. + +The war even was used to bait Asako. Every German success was greeted +with acclamation. The exploits of the _Emden_ were loudly praised; and +the tragedy of Coronel was gloated over with satisfaction. + +"The Germans will win because they are brave," said Sadako. + +"The English lose too many prisoners; Japanese soldiers are never +taken prisoner." + +"When the Japanese general ordered the attack on Tsingtao, the English +regiment ran away!" + +Cousin Sadako announced her intention of studying German. + +"Nobody will speak English now," she said. "The English are disgraced. +They cannot fight." + +"I wish Japan would make war on the English," Asako answered bitterly, +"you would get such a beating that you would never boast again. Look +at my husband," she added proudly; "he is so big and strong and brave. +He could pick up two or three Japanese generals like toys and knock +their heads together." + +Even Mr. Fujinami Gentaro joined once or twice in these debates, and +announced sententiously: + +"Twenty years ago Japan defeated China and took Korea. Ten years ago +we defeated Russia and took Manchuria. This year we defeat Germany and +take Tsingtao. In ten years we shall defeat America and take Hawaii +and the Philippines. In twenty years we shall defeat England and +take India and Australia. Then we Japanese shall be the most powerful +nation in the world. This is our divine mission." + +It was characteristic of the loyalty of Asako's nature, that, although +very ignorant of the war, of its causes and its vicissitudes, yet +she remained fiercely true to England and the Allies, and could +never accept the Japanese detachment. Above all, the thought of her +husband's danger haunted her. Waking and sleeping she could see him, +sword in hand, leading his men to desperate hand-to-hand struggles, +like those portrayed in the crude Japanese chromographs, which Sadako +showed her to play upon her fears. Poor Asako! How she hated Japan +now! How she loathed the cramped, draughty, uncomfortable life! How +she feared the smiling faces and the watchful eyes, from which it +seemed she never could escape! + +Christmas was at hand, the season of pretty presents and good things +to eat. Her last Christmas she had spent with Geoffrey on the Riviera. +Lady Everington had been there. They had watched the pigeon +shooting in the warm sunlight. They had gone to the opera in the +evening--_Madame Butterfly!_ Asako had imagined herself in the rôle of +the heroine, so gentle, so faithful, waiting and waiting in her little +wooden house for the big white husband--who never came. What was that? +She heard the guns of his ship saluting the harbour. He was coming +back to her at last--but not alone! A woman was with him, a white +woman! + +Alone, in her bare room--her only companion a flaky yellow +chrysanthemum nodding in the draught--Asako sobbed and sobbed as +though her heart were breaking. Somebody tapped at the sliding +shutter. Asako could not answer. The _shoji_ was pushed open, and +Tanaka entered. + +Asako was glad to see him. Alone of the household Tanaka was still +deferential in his attitude towards his late mistress. He was always +ready to talk about the old times which gave her a bitter pleasure. + +"If Ladyship is so sad," he began, as he had been coached in his part +beforehand by the Fujinami, "why Ladyship stay in this house? Change +house, change trouble, we say." + +"But where can I go?" Asako asked helplessly. + +"Ladyship has pretty house by river brink," suggested Tanaka. +"Ladyship can stay two month, three month. Then the springtime come +and Ladyship feel quite happy again. Even I, in the winter season, I +find the mind very distress. It is often so." + +To be alone, to be free from the daily insults and cruelty; this in +itself would be happiness to Asako. + +"But will Mr. Fujinami allow me to go?" she asked, timorously. + +"Ladyship must be brave," said the counselor. "Ladyship is not +prisoner. Ladyship must say, I go. But perhaps I can arrange matter +for Ladyship." + +"Oh, Tanaka, please, please do. I'm so unhappy here." + +"I will hire cook and maid for Ladyship. I myself will be seneschal!" + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro and his family were delighted to hear that their +plan was working so smoothly, and that they could so easily get rid of +their embarrassing cousin. The "seneschal" was instructed at once +to see about arrangements for the house, which had not been lived in +since its new tenancy. + +Next evening, when Asako had spread the two quilts on the golden +matting, when she had lit the rushlight in the square _andon_, +when the two girls were lying side by side under the heavy wadded +bedclothes, Sadako said to her cousin: + +"Asa Chan, I do not think you like me now as much as you used to like +me." + +"I always like people when I have once liked them," said Asako; "but +everything is different now." + +"I see, your heart changes quickly," said her cousin bitterly. + +"No, I have tried to change, but I cannot change. I have tried to +become Japanese, but I cannot even learn the Japanese language. I do +not like the Japanese way of living. In France and in England I was +always happy. I don't think I shall ever be happy again." + +"You ought to be more grateful," said Sadako severely. "We have saved +you from your husband, who was cruel and deceitful--" + +"No, I don't believe that now. My husband and I loved each other +always. You people came between us with wicked lies and separated us." + +"Anyhow, you have made the choice. You have chosen to be Japanese. You +can never be English again." + +The Fujinami had hypnotized Asako with this phrase, as a hen can be +hypnotized with a chalk line. Day after day it was dinned into her +ears, cutting off all hope of escape from the country or of appeal to +her English friends. + +"You had better marry a Japanese," said Sadako, "or you will become +old maid. Why not marry Ito San? He says he likes you. He is a clever +man. He has plenty of money. He is used to foreign ways." + +"Marry Mr. Ito!" Asako exclaimed, aghast; "but he has a wife already." + +"They will divorce. It is no trouble. There are not even children." + +"I would rather die than marry any Japanese," said Asako with +conviction. + +Sadako Fujinami turned her back and pretended to sleep; but long +through the dark cold night Asako could feel her turning restlessly to +and fro. + +Some time about midnight Asako heard her name called: + +"Asa Chan, are you awake?" + +"Yes; is anything the matter?" + +"Asa Chan, in your house by the river you will be lonely. You will not +be afraid?" + +"I am not afraid to be lonely," Asako answered; "I am afraid of +people." + +"Look!" said her cousin; "I give you this." + +She drew from the bosom of her kimono the short sword in its sheath of +shagreen, which Asako had seen once or twice before. + +"It is very old," she continued; "it belonged to my mother's people. +They were _samurai_ of the Sendai clan. In old Japan every noble +girl carried such a short sword; for she said, 'Better death than +dishonour.' When the time came to die she would strike--here, in the +throat, not too hard, but pushing strongly. But first she would tie +her feet together with the _obidomé_, the silk string which you have +to hold your _obi_ straight. That was in case the legs open too +much; she must not die in immodest attitude. So when General Nogi did +_harakiri_ at Emperor Meiji's funeral, his wife, Countess Nogi, killed +herself also with such a sword. I give you my sword because in the +house by the river you will be lonely--and things might happen. I can +never use the sword myself now. It was the sword of my ancestors. I am +not pure now. I cannot use the sword. If I kill myself I throw myself +into the river like a common _geisha_. I think it is best you marry +Ito. In Japan it is bad to have a husband; but to have no husband, it +is worse." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +ALONE IN TOKYO + + _Kuraki yori + Kuraki michi ni zo + Iri-nu-beki: + Haruka ni terase + Yuma no ha no tsuki!_ + + Out of the dark + Into a dark path + I now must enter: + Shine (on me) from afar, + Moon of the mountain fringe! + + +Some days before Christmas Asako had moved into her own little home. + +To be free, to have escaped from the watchful eyes and the whispering +tongues to be at liberty to walk about the streets and to visit the +shops, as an independent lady of Japan--these were such unfamiliar +joys to her that for a time she forgot how unhappy she really was, and +how she longed for Geoffrey's company as of old. Only in the evenings +a sense of insecurity rose with the river mists, and a memory of +Sadako's warning shivered through the lonely room with the bitter cold +of the winter air. It was then that Asako felt for the little dagger +resting hidden in her bosom just as Sadako had shown her how to +wear it. It was then that she did not like to be alone, and that she +summoned Tanaka to keep her company and to while away the time with +his quaint loquacity. + +Considering that he had been largely instrumental in breaking up her +happy life, considering that every day he stole from her and lied to +her, it was wonderful that his mistress was still so attached to him, +that, in fact, she regarded him as her only friend. He was like a +bad habit or an old disease, which we almost come to cherish since we +cannot be delivered from it. + +But, when Tanaka protested his devotion, did he mean what he said? +There is a bedrock of loyalty in the Japanese nature. Half-way down +the road to shame, it will halt of a sudden, and bungle back its way +to honour. Then there is the love of the _beau geste_ which is an even +stronger motive very often than the love of right-doing for its own +sake. The favorite character of the Japanese drama is the _otokodaté_, +the chivalrous champion of the common people who rescues beauty in +distress from the lawless, bullying, two-sworded men. It tickled +Tanaka's remarkable vanity to regard himself as the protector of this +lonely and unfortunate lady. It might be said of him as of Lancelot, +that-- + + "His honour rooted in dishonour stood, + And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true." + +Asako was glad on the whole that she had no visitors. The Fujinami +were busy with their New Year preparations. Christmas Day passed by, +unheeded by the Japanese, though the personality and appearance of +Santa Claus are not unknown to them. He stands in the big shop windows +in Tokyo as in London, with his red cloak, his long white beard +and his sack full of toys. Sometimes he is to be seen chatting with +Buddhist deities, with the hammer-bearing Daikoku, with Ebisu the +fisherman, with fat naked Hotei, and with Benten, the fair but frail. +In fact, with the American Billiken, Santa Claus may be considered as +the latest addition to the tolerant theocracy of Japan. + +Asako attended High Mass at the Catholic Cathedral in Tsukiji, the old +foreign settlement. The music was crude; and there was a long sermon +in Japanese. The magnificent bearded bishop, who officiated, was +flanked by two native priests. But the familiar sounds and movements +of the office soothed her, and the fragrance of the incense. The +centre of the aisle was covered with straw mats where the Japanese +congregation was squatting. Chairs for the foreigners were placed in +the side aisles These were mostly members of the various Embassy +and Legation staffs. For a moment Asako feared recognition. Then she +remembered how entirely Japanese she had become--in appearance. + +Mr. Ito called during the afternoon to wish a Merry Christmas. Asako +regaled him with thin green tea and little square cakes of ground +rice, filled with a kind of bean paste called "_an_." She kept Tanaka +in the room all the time; for Sadako's remarks about marriage with Ito +had alarmed her. He was most agreeable, however, and most courteous. +He amused Asako with stories of his experiences abroad. He admired the +pretty little house and its position on the river bank; and, when he +bowed his thanks for Asako's hospitality, he expressed a wish that he +might come again many times in future. + +"I am afraid of him," Asako had confided to Tanaka, when the guest had +departed, "because Sada San said that he wants to divorce his wife and +marry me. You are to stop here with me in the room whenever he comes. +Do not leave me alone, please." + +"Ladyship is _daimyo_," the round face answered; "Tanaka is faithful +_samurai_. Tanaka gives life for Ladyship!" + + * * * * * + +It was the week before New Year. All along the Ginza, which is the +main thoroughfare of Tokyo, along the avenue of slender willow trees +which do their gallant utmost to break the monotony of the wide +ramshackle street, were spread every evening the stock-in-trade of the +_yomisé_, the night shops, which cater their most diverse wares for +the aimless multitudes sauntering up and down the sidewalks. There are +quack medicines and stylograph pens, clean wooden altar cabinets for +the kitchen gods, and images of Daikoku and Ebisu; there are cheap +underclothing and old hats, food of various kinds, boots and books and +toys. But most fascinating of all are the antiquities. Strewn over a +square six feet of ground are curios, most attractive to the unwary, +especially by the deceptive light of kerosene lamps. One in a thousand +perhaps may be a piece of real value; but almost every object has a +character and a charm of its own. There are old gold screens, lacquer +tables and cabinets, bronze vases, gilded Buddhas, fans, woodcuts, +porcelains, _kakémono_ (hanging pictures), _makimono_ (illustrated +scrolls), _inro_ (lacquer medicine boxes for the pocket), _netsuké_ +(ivory or bone buttons, through which the cords of the tobacco pouch +are slung), _tsuba_ (sword hilts of iron ornamented with delightful +landscapes of gold and silver inlay). The Ginza at night-time is a +paradise for the minor collector. + +"_Kore wa ikura_? (How much is this?)" asked Asako, picking up a tiny +silver box, which could slip into a waistcoat pocket. Inside were +enshrined three gentle Buddhas of old creamy ivory, perfectly carved +to the minutest petal of the full-blown lotus upon which each reposed. + +"Indeed, it is the end of the year. We must sell all things cheaply," +answered the merchant. "It is asked sixty _yen_ for true ancient +artistic object." + +"Such a thing is not said," replied Asako, her Japanese becoming quite +fluent with the return of her light-heartedness. "Perhaps a joke is +being made. It would be possible to give ten _yen_." + +The old curio vender, with the face and spare figure of Julius Caesar, +turned aside from such idle talk with a shrug of hopelessness. He +affected to be more interested in lighting his slender pipe over the +chimney of the lamp which hung suspended over his wares. + +"Ten _yen_! Please see!" said Asako, showing a banknote. The merchant +shook his head and puffed. Asako turned away into the stream of +passers-by. She had not gone, ten yards, however, before she felt a +touch on her kimono sleeve. It was Julius Caesar with his curio. + +"Indeed, _okusan_, there must be reduction. Thirty _yen_; take it, +please." + +He pressed the little box into Asako's hand. + +"Twenty _yen_," she bargained, holding out two notes. + +"It is loss! It is loss!" he murmured; but he shuffled back to his +stall again, very well content. + +"I shall send it to Geoffrey," thought Asako; "it will bring him good +luck. Perhaps he will write to me and thank me. Then I can write to +him." + +The New Year is the greatest of Japanese festivals. Japanese of the +middle and lower classes live all the year round in a thickening web +of debt. But during the last days of the year these complications are +supposed to be unraveled and the defaulting debtor must sell some of +his family goods, and start the New Year with a clean slate. These +operations swell the stock-in-trade of the _yomisé_. + +On New Year's Day the wife prepares the _mochi_ cakes of ground rice, +which are the specialities of the season; and the husband sees to the +erection of his door posts of the two _kadomatsu_ (corner pine trees), +little Christmas trees planted in a coil of rope. Then, attired in his +frock-coat and top hat, if he be a _haikara_ gentleman, or in his best +kimono and _haori_, if he be an old-fashioned Japanese, he goes round +in a rickshaw to pay his complimentary calls, and to exchange _o +medet[=o]_ (respectfully lucky!), the New Year wish. He has presents +for his important patrons, and cards for his less influential +acquaintances. For, as the Japanese proverb says, "Gifts preserve +friendship." At each house, which he visits, he sips a cup of _saké_, +so that his return home is often due to the rickshaw man's assistance, +rather than to his own powers of self-direction. In fact, as Asako's +maid confided to her mistress, "Japanese wife very happy when New Year +time all finish." + + * * * * * + +On the night following New Year, snow fell. It continued to fall +all the next morning until Asako's little garden was as white as a +bride-cake. The irregularities of her river-side lawn were smoothed +out under the white carpet. The straw coverings, which a gardener's +foresight had wrapped round the azalea shrubs and the dwarf conifers, +were enfolded in a thick white shroud. Like tufts of foam on a wave, +the snow was tossed on the plumes of the bamboo clump, which hid the +neighbour's dwelling, and made a bird's nest of Asako's tiny domain. + +Beyond the brown sluggish river, the roofs and pinnacles of Asakusa +were more fairy-like than a theatre scene. Asako was thinking of that +first snow-white day, which introduced Geoffrey and her to the Embassy +and to Yaé Smith. + +She shivered. Darkness was falling. A Japanese house is a frail +protection in winter time; and a charcoal fire in a wooden box is poor +company. The maid came in to close the shutters for the night. Where +was Tanaka? He had gone out to a New Year party with relatives. Asako +felt her loneliness all of a sudden; and she was grateful for the +moral comfort of cousin Sadako's sword. She drew it from its sheath +and examined the blade, and the fine work on the hilt, with care and +alarm, like a man fingering a serpent. + +No sooner was the house silenced than the wind arose. It smote the +wooden framework with an unexpected buffet almost like an earthquake. +The bamboo grove began to rattle like bones; and the snow slid and +fell from the roof in dull thuds. + +There was a sharp rap at the front door. Asako started and thrust the +dagger into the breast of her kimono. She had been lying full length +on a long deckchair. Now she put her feet to the ground. O Hana, +the maid, came in and announced that Ito San had called. Asako, +half-pleased and half-apprehensive, gave instructions for him to be +shown in. She heard a stumbling on the steps of her house; then Ito +lurched into the room. His face was very red, and his voice thick. He +had been paying many New Year calls. + +"Happy New Year, Asa San, Happy New Year!" he hiccoughed, grasping her +hand and working it up and down like a pump-handle. "New Year in Japan +very lucky time. All Japanese people say New Year time very lucky. +This New Year very lucky for Ito. No more dirty business, no more +Yoshiwara, no more pimp. I am millionaire, madame. I have made one +hundred thousand pounds, five hundred thousand dollars gold. I now +become _giin giin_ (Member of Parliament). I become great party +organizer, great party boss, then _daijin_ (Minister of State), then +_taishi_ (Ambassador), then _soridaijin_ (Prime Minister). I shall +be greatest man in Japan. Japan greatest country in the world. Ito +greatest man in the world. And I marry Asa San to-morrow, next day, +any day." + +Ito was sprawling in the deck chair, which divided the little +sitting-room into two parts and cut off Asako's retreat. She was +trembling on a bamboo stool near the shuttered window. She was +terribly frightened. Why did not Tanaka come? + +"Speak to me, Asa San," shouted the visitor; "say to me very glad, +very, very glad, will be very nice wife of Ito. Fujinami give you to +me. I have all Fujinami's secrets in my safe box. Ito greatest man in +Japan. Fujinami very fear of me. He give me anything I want. I say, +give me Asa San. Very, very love." + +Asako remaining without speech, the Japanese frowned at her. + +"Why so silence, little girl? Say, I love you, I love you like all +foreign girls say. I am husband now. I never go away from this house +until you kiss me. You understand?" + +Asako gasped. + +"Mr. Ito, it is very late. Please, come some other day. I must go to +bed now." + +"Very good, very good. I come to bed with you," said Ito, rolling out +of his chair and putting one heavy leg to the ground. He was earing a +kimono none too well adjusted, and Asako could see his hairy limb high +up the thigh. Her face must have reflected her displeasure. + +"What?" the Japanese shouted; "you don't like me. Too very proud! No +dirty Jap, no yellow man, what? So you think, Madame Lord Princess +Barrington. In the East, it may be, ugly foreign women despise Japs. +But New York, London, Paris--very different, ha! ha! New York girl +say, Hello, Jap! come here! London girl say, Jap man very nice, very +sweet manner, very soft eyes. When I was in London I have five or six +girls, English girls, white girls, very beauty girls, all together, +all very love! London time was great fine time!" + +Asako felt helpless. Her hand was on the hilt of her dagger, but she +still hoped that Ito might come to his senses and go away. + +"There!" he cried, "I know foreign custom. I know everything. +Mistletoe! Mistletoe! A kiss for the mistletoe, Asa San!" + +He staggered out of his chair and came towards her, like a great black +bird. She dodged him, and tried to escape round the deck chair. But he +caught hold of her kimono. She drew her sword. + +"Help! Help!" she cried. "Tanaka!" + +Something wrenched at her wrist, and the blade fell. At the same +moment the inner _shoji_ flew open like the shutter of a camera. +Tanaka rushed into the room. + +Asako did not turn to look again until she was outside the room with +her maid and her cook trembling beside her. Then she saw Tanaka and +Ito locked in a wrestler's embrace, puffing and grunting at each +other, while their feet were fumbling for the sword which lay between +them. Suddenly both figures relaxed. Two foreheads came together with +a wooden concussion. Hands were groping where the feet had been. One +set of fingers, hovering over the sword, grasped the hilt. It was +Tanaka; but his foot slipped. He tottered and fell backward. Ito was +on the top of him. Asako closed her eyes. She heard a hoarse roar like +a lion. When she dared to look again, she saw Tanaka kneeling over +Ito's body. With a wrench he pulled Sadako's dagger out of the +prostrate mass. It was followed by a jet of blood, and then by a +steady trickle from body, mouth and nostrils, which spread over the +matting. Slowly and deliberately, Tanaka wiped first the knife and +then his hands on the clothes of his victim. Then he felt his mouth +and throat. + +"_Sa! Shimatta_! (There, finished!)" he said. He turned towards the +garden side, threw open the _shoji_ and the _amado_. He ran across +the snow-covered lawn; and from beyond the unearthly silence which +followed his departure, come the distant sound of a splash in the +river. + +At last, Asako said helplessly: "Is he dead?" + +The cook, a man, was glad of the opportunity to escape. + +"I go and call doctor," he said. + +"No, stay with me," said Asako; "I am afraid. O Hana can go for the +doctor." + +Asako and the cook waited by the open _shoji_, staring blankly at +the body of Ito. Presently the cook said that he must go and get +something. He did not return. Asako called to him to come. There was +no answer. She went to look for him in his little three-mat room +near the kitchen. It was empty. He had packed his few chattels in his +wicker basket and had decamped. + +Asako resumed her watch at the sitting-room door, an unwilling Rizpah. +It was as though she feared that, if she left her post, somebody might +come in and steal Ito. But she could have hardly approached the corpse +even under compulsion. Sometimes it seemed to move, to try to rise; +but it was stuck fast to the matting by the resinous flow of purple +blood. Sometimes it seemed to speak: + +"Mistletoe! Mistletoe! Kiss me, Asa San!" + +Gusts of cold wind came in from the open windows, touching the dead +man curiously, turning over his kimono sleeves. Outside, the bamboo +grove was rattling like bones; and the caked snow fell from the roof +in heavy thuds. + + * * * * * + +O Hana returned with a doctor and a policeman. The doctor loosened +Ito's kimono, and at once shook his head. + +The policeman wore a blue uniform and cape; and a sword dragged at his +side. He had produced a notebook and a pencil from a breast pocket. + +"What is your name?" he asked Asako; "what is your age? your father's +and mother's name? What is your address? Are you married? Where is +your husband? How long have you known this man? Were you on familiar +terms? Did you kill him? How did you kill him? Why did you kill him?" + +The questions buzzed round Asako's head like a swarm of hornets. It +had never occurred to the unfortunate girl that any suspicion could +fall upon her. Three more policemen had arrived. + +"Every one in this house is arrested," announced the first policeman. + +"Put out your hands," he ordered Asako. Rusty handcuffs were slipped +over her delicate wrists. One of the policemen had produced a coil +of rope, which he proceeded to tie round her waist and then round the +waist of O Hana. + +"But what have I done?" asked Asako plaintively. + +The policeman took no notice. She could hear two of them upstairs +in her bedroom, talking and laughing, knocking open her boxes and +throwing things about. + +Asako and her maid were led out of the house like two performing +animals. It was bitterly cold, and Asako had no cloak. The road was +already full of loafers. They stared angrily at Asako. Some laughed. +Some pulled at her kimono as she passed. She heard one say: + +"It is a _geisha_; she has murdered her sweetheart." + +At the police station, Asako had to undergo the same confusing +interrogatory before the chief inspector. + +"What is your name? What is your age? Where do you live? What are your +father's and mother's names?" + +"Lies are no good," said the inspector, a burly unshaven man; "confess +that you have killed this man." + +"But I did not kill him," protested Asako. + +"Who killed him then? You must know that," said the inspector +triumphantly. + +"It was Tanaka," said Asako. + +"Who is this Tanaka?" the inspector asked the policeman. + +"I do not know; perhaps it is lies," he answered sulkily. + +"But it is not lies," expostulated Asako, "he ran away through the +window. You can see his footmarks in the snow." + +"Did you see the marks?" the policeman was asked. + +"No; perhaps there were no marks." + +"Did you look?" + +"I did not look actually, but--" + +"You're a fool!" said the inspector. + +The weary questioning continued for quite two hours, until Asako had +told her story of the murder at least three times. The unfamiliar +language confused her, and the reiterated refrain: + +"You, now confess; you killed the man!" + +Asako was chilled to the bone. Her head was aching; her eyes were +aching; her legs were aching with the ordeal of standing. She felt +that they must soon give way altogether. + +At last, the inspector closed his _questionnaire_. + +"_Sa_!" he ejaculated, "it is past midnight. Even I must sleep +sometimes. Take her away to the court, and lock her in the 'sty,' +To-morrow the procurator will examine at nine o'clock. She is +pretending to be silly and not understanding; so she is probably +guilty." + +Again the handcuffs and the degrading rope were fastened upon her. She +felt that she had already been condemned. + +"May I send word to my friends?" she asked. Surely even the Fujinami +would not abandon her to her fate. + +"No. The procurator's examination has not yet taken place. After that, +sometimes permission can be granted. That is the law." + +She was left waiting in a stone-flagged guard-room, where eight or +nine policemen stared at her impertinently. + +"A pretty face, eh?" they said, "it looks like a _geisha_! Who is +taking her to the court? It is Ishibashi. Oh, so! He is always the +lucky chap!" + +A rough fellow thrust his hand up her kimono sleeve, and caught hold +of her bare arm near the shoulder. + +"Here, Ishibashi," he cried; "you have caught a fine bird this time." + +The policeman Ishibashi picked up the loose end of the rope, and drove +Asako before him into a closed van, which was soon rumbling along the +deserted streets. + +She was made to alight at a tall stone building, where they passed +down several echoing corridors, until, at the end of a little passage +a warder pushed open a door. This was the "sty," where prisoners are +kept pending examination in the procurator's court. The floor and +walls were of stone. It was bitterly cold. There was no window, no +light, no firebox, and no chair. Alone, in the petrifying darkness, +her teeth chattering, her limbs trembling, poor Asako huddled her +misery into a corner of the dirty cell, to await the further tender +mercies of the Japanese criminal code. She could hear the scuttering +of rats. Had she been ten times guilty, she felt that she could not +have suffered more! + + * * * * * + +Daylight began to show under the crack of the door. Later on a warder +came and beckoned to Asako to follow him. She had not touched food for +twenty hours, but nothing was offered to her. She was led into a +room with benches like a schoolroom. At the master's desk sat a small +spotted man with a cloak like a scholar's gown, and a black cap with +ribbons like a Highlander's bonnet. This was the procurator. At his +side, sat his clerk, similarly but less sprucely garbed. + +Asako, utterly weary, was preparing to sit down on one of the benches. +The warder pulled her up by the nape of her kimono. She had to stand +during her examination. + +"What is your name? What is your age? What are your father's and +mother's names?" + +The monotonous questions were repeated all over again; and then,-- + +"To confess were better. When you confess, we shall let you go. If you +do not confess, we keep you here for days and days." + +"I am feeling sick," pleaded Asako; "may I eat something?" + +The warder brought a cup of tea and some salt biscuit. + +"Now, confess," bullied the procurator; "if you do not confess, you +will get no more to eat." + +Asako told her story of the murder. She then told it again. Her +Japanese words were slipping from the clutch of her worn brain. She +was saying things she did not mean. How could she defend herself in a +language which was strange to her mind? How could she make this judge, +who seemed so pitiless and so hostile to her, understand and believe +her broken sentences? She was beating with a paper sword against an +armed enemy. + +An interpreter was sent for; and the questions were all repeated in +English. The procurator was annoyed at Asako's refusal to speak in +Japanese. He thought that it was obstinacy, or that she was trying to +fool him. He seemed quite convinced that she was guilty. + +"I can't answer any more questions. I really can't. I am sick," said +Asako, in tears. + +"Take her back to the 'sty,' while we have lunch," ordered the +procurator. "I think this afternoon she will confess." + +Asako was taken away, and thrust into the horrible cell again. +She collapsed on the hard floor in a state which was partly a +fainting-fit, and partly the sleep of exhaustion. Dreams and images +swept over her brain like low-flying clouds. It seemed to her +distracted fancy that only one person could save her--Geoffrey, her +husband! He must be coming soon. She thought that she could hear his +step in the corridor. + +"Geoffrey! Geoffrey!" she cried. + +It was the warder. He stirred her with his foot. She was hauled back +to the procurator's court. + +"So! Have you considered well?" said the little spotted man. "Will you +now confess?" + +"How can I confess what I have not done?" protested Asako. + +The remorseless inquisition proceeded. Asako's replies became more and +more confused. The procurator frowned at her contradictions. She must +assuredly be guilty. + +"How many times do you say that you have met this Ito?" he asked. + +Asako was at the end of her strength. She reeled and would have +fallen; but the warder jerked her straight again. + +"Confess, then," shouted the procurator, "confess and you will be +liberated." + +"I will confess," Asako gasped, "anything you like." + +"Confess that you killed this Ito!" + +"Yes, I confess." + +"Then, sign the confession." + +With the triumphant air of a sportsman who has landed his fish after +a long and bitter struggle, the procurator held out a sheet of paper +prepared beforehand, on which something was written in Japanese +characters. + +Asako tried to move towards the desk that she might write her name; +but this time, her legs gave way altogether. The warder caught her by +the neck of her kimono, and shook her as a terrier shakes a rat. But +the body remained limp. He twisted her arm behind her with a savage +wrench. His victim groaned with pain, but spoke no distinguishable +word. Then he laid her out on the benches, and felt her chest. + +"The body is very hot," he said; "perhaps she is indeed sick." + +"Obstinate," grunted the procurator; "I am certain that she is guilty. +Are you not?" he added, addressing the clerk. + +The clerk was busy filling up some of the blanks in the back evidence, +extemporising where he could not remember. + +"Assuredly," he said, "the opinion of the procurator is always +correct." + +However, the doctor was summoned. He pronounced that the patient was +in a high fever, and must at once be removed to the infirmary. + +So the preliminary examination of Asako Fujinami came to an abrupt +end. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +LADY BRANDAN + + _Haru no hi no + Nagaki omoi wa + Wasureji wo, + Hito no kokoro ni + Aki ya tatsuramu._ + + The long thoughts + Of the spring days + Will never be forgotten + Even when autumn comes + To the hearts of the people. + + +The low-flying clouds of hallucination had fallen so close to Asako's +brain, that her thoughts seemed to be caught up into the dizzy +whirlwind and to be skimming around and round the world at the speed +of an express aeroplane. Like a clock whose regulation is out of +order, the hour-hand of her life seemed to be racing the minute-hand, +and the minute-hand to be covering the face of the dial in sixty +seconds or less, returning incessantly to the same well-known figures, +pausing awhile, then jerking away again at an insane rate. From time +to time the haze over the mind began to clear; and Asako seemed to +look down upon the scene around her from a great height. There was a +long room, so long that she could not see the end of it, and rows of +narrow beds, and nurses, dressed in white with high caps like bishops' +mitres, who appeared and disappeared. Sometimes they would speak to +her and she would answer. But she did not know what they said, nor +what she said to them. + +A gentle Japanese lady with a very long, pock-marked face, sat on her +bed and talked to her in English. Asako noticed that the nurses +and doctors were most deferential to this lady; and that, after her +departure, she was treated much more kindly than before. A name kept +peeping out of her memory, like a shy lizard out of its hole; but +the moment her brain tried to grab at it, it slipped back again into +oblivion. + +Two English ladies called together, one older and one younger. They +talked about Geoffrey. Geoffrey was one of the roman figures on the +clock dial of her mind. They said good things about Geoffrey; but she +could not remember what they were. + +One day, the Japanese lady with the marked face and one of the nurses +helped her to get out of bed. Her legs were trembling, and her +feet were sorely plagued by pins and needles; but she held together +somehow. Together they dressed her. The lady wrapped a big fur cloak +round her; and with a supporter on either side she was led into the +open air, where a beautiful motor-car was waiting. There was a crowd +gathered round it. But the police kept them back. As Asako stepped in, +she heard the click of cameras. + +"Asa Chan," said the lady, "don't you remember me? I am Countess +Saito." + +Of course, Asako remembered now--a spring morning with Geoffrey and +the little dwarf trees. + +The notoriety of the Ito murder case did Asako a good turn. Her +friends in Japan had forgotten her. They had imagined that she had +returned to England with Geoffrey. Reggie Forsyth, who alone knew the +details of her position, had thrown up his secretaryship the day that +war was declared, and had gone home to join the army. + +The morning papers of January 3rd, with their high-flown account of +the mysterious house by the river-side and the Japanese lady who could +talk no Japanese, brought an unexpected shock to acquaintances of the +Barringtons, and especially to Lady Cynthia Cairns and to Countess +Saito. These ladies both made inquiries, and learned that Asako was +lying dangerously ill in the prison infirmary. A few days later, when +Tanaka was arrested and had made a full confession of the crime, +Count Saito, who knew how suspects fare at the hands of a zealous +procurator, called in person on the Minister of Justice, and secured +Asako's speedy liberation. + +"This girl is a valuable asset to our country," he had explained to +the Minister. "She is married to an Englishman, who will one day be a +peer in England. This was a marriage of political importance. It was a +proof of the equal civilisation of our Japan with the great countries +of Europe. It is most important that this Asako should be sent back +to England as soon as possible, and that she should speak good things +about Japan." + +So Asako was released from the procurator's clutches; and she was +given a charming little bedroom of her own in the European wing of the +Saito mansion. The house stood on a high hill; and Asako, seated at +the window, could watch the multiplex activity of the streets below, +the jolting tramcars, the wagons, the barrows and the rickshaws. To +the left was a labyrinth of little houses of clean white wood, bright +and new, like toys, with toy evergreens and pine-trees bursting out of +their narrow gardens. This was a _geisha_ quarter, whence the sound +of _samisen_ music and quavering songs resounded all day long. To the +right was a big grey-boarded primary school, which, with the regular +movement of tides, sucked in and belched out its flood of blue-cloaked +boys and magenta-skirted maidens. + +Count and Countess Saito, despite their immense wealth and their +political importance, were simple, unostentatious people, who seemed +to devote most of their thoughts to their children, their garden, +their dwarf trees, and their breed of cocker spaniels. They took +their social duties lightly, though their home was a Mecca for +needy relatives on the search for jobs. They gave generously; they +entertained hospitably. Good-humour ruled the household; for husband +and wife were old partners and devoted friends. + +Count Saito brought his nephew and secretary, a most agreeable young +man, to see Asako. The Count said,-- + +"Asa Chan, I want you to tell Mr. Sakabé all about the Fujinami house +and the way of life there." + +So Asako told her story to this interested listener. Fortunately, +perhaps, she could not read the Japanese newspapers; for most of her +adventures reappeared in the daily issues almost word for word. From +behind the scenes, Count Saito was directing the course of the famous +trial which had come to be known as the Fujinami Affair. For the Count +had certain political scores of his own to pay off; and Asako proved +to be a godsend. + +Tanaka was tried for murder; but it was established that he had killed +Ito in defending his mistress's honour; and the court let him off +with a year's hard labour. But the great Fujinami bribery case which +developed out of the murder trial, ruined a Cabinet Minister, a local +governor, and a host of minor officials. It reacted on the Yoshiwara +regulations. The notoriety of the case has gone far towards putting +an end to public processions of _oiran_, and to the display of +prostitutes in the windows of their houses. Indeed, it is probably +only a question of time for the great pleasure quarters to be closed +down, and for vice to be driven into secrecy. Mr. Fujinami Gentaro +was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for causing bribes to be +distributed. + +Meanwhile Countess Saito had been in correspondence with Lady +Everington in England. On one bright March morning, she came into +Asako's room with a small flowerpot in her hands. + +"See, Asa Chan," she said in her strange hoarse voice, "the first +flower of the New Year, the plum-blossom. It is the flower of hope and +patience. It blooms when the snow is still on the ground, and before +it has any green leaves to protect it." + +"It smells sweet," said Asako. + +Her hostess quoted the famous poem of the exiled Japanese statesman, +Sukawara no Michizané,-- + + "When the East wind blows, + Send your perfume to me, + Flower of the plum; + Even if your master is absent, + Do not forget the spring." + +"Asako dear," Countess Saito continued, "would you like to go to +England?" + +Asako's heart leaped. + +"Oh yes!" she answered gladly. + +Her hostess sighed reproachfully. She had tried to make life so +agreeable for her little visitor; yet from the tone of her voice it +was clear that Japan would never be home for her. + +"Marchioness Saméjima and I," continued the Japanese lady, "have been +arranging for a party of about twenty-five Red Cross nurses to visit +England and France. They are all very good, clever girls from noble +families. We wish to show sympathy of Japan for the poor soldiers who +are suffering so much; and we wish to teach our girls true facts about +war and how to manage a hospital in war-time. We thought you might +like to go as guide and interpreter." + +It needed no words to show how joyfully Asako accepted this proposal. +Besides, she had heard from Geoffrey. A letter had arrived thanking +her for her Christmas gift. + +"Little darling Asako," her husband had written, "It was so sweet of +you and so like you to think of me at Christmas time. I hope that +you are very happy and having a jolly good time. It is very rotten +in England just now with the war going on. It had broken out before +I reached home; and I joined up at once with my old regiment. We have +had a very lively time. About half of my brother officers have been +killed; and I am a colonel now. Also, incidentally, I have become Lord +Brandan. My father died at the end of last year. Poor old father! This +war is a ghastly business; but we have got them beat now. I shall be +sorry in a way when it is over; for it gives me plenty to do and +to think about. Reggie Forsyth is with his regiment in Egypt. Lady +Everington is writing to you. I am in the north of France, and doing +quite a lot of _parley-voo_. Is there any chance of your coming to +England? God bless you, Asako darling. Write to me soon. + +"Your loving Geoffrey." + + +With this letter folded near her heart, Asako was hardly in a mood +to admire plum-blossoms. It was with difficulty that she could summon +sufficient attention for give the little Saito children their daily +lessons in English and French. + +Long rides in the motor-car through the reviving country-side to the +splendid gorge of Miyanoshita or to the beaches of Oiso, where Count +Saito had his summer villa, long days of play with the children in the +hanging garden, the fascinating companionship of the dwarf trees and +the black spaniels, and the welcome absence of espionage and innuendo, +had soon restored Asako to health again. + +"Little Asa Chan," Count Saito said one day, beckoning his guest to +sit down beside him in the sunlight on the terrace, "you will be happy +to go back to England?" + +"Oh yes," said the girl. + +"It is a fine country, a noble country; and you will be happy to see +your husband again?" + +Asako blushed and held down her head. + +"I don't think he is still my husband," she said, "but oh! I do want +to see him so." + +"I think he wants to see you," said the Count; "My wife has received +a letter from Lady Everington which says that he would like you very +much to come back to him." + +The Count waited for this joyful news to produce its effect, and then +he added,-- + +"Asa Chan, you are going to be a great English lady; but you will +always remain a Japanese. In England, you will be a kind of ambassador +for Japan. So you must never forget your father's country, and you +must never say bad things about Japan, even if you have suffered here. +Then the English people will like you; and for that reason, they will +like Japan too; and the two counties will stand side by side, as they +ought to, like good friends. The English are a very great people, the +greatest of all; but they know very little about us in the East. They +think that because we are yellow people, therefore we are inferior to +them. Perhaps, when they see a Japanese lady as one of their peers' +wives and a leader in society, they will understand that the Japanese +also are not so inferior; for the English people have a great respect +for peers. Japan is proud to be England's younger brother; but the +elder brother must not take all the inheritance. He must be content to +share. For perhaps he will not always be the strong one. This war will +make England weak and it will make Japan strong. It will make a great +change in the world, and in Asia most of all. Already the people of +Asia are saying, Why should these white men rule over us? They cannot +rule themselves; they fight among themselves like drunkards; their +time is over and past. Then, when the white rulers are pushed out of +Asia, Japan will become very strong indeed. It will be said then that +England, the elder brother, is become _inkyo_ (retired from active +life), and that Japan, the younger brother, is manager of the family. +I think you will live to see these things, Asa Chan. Certainly your +children will see them." + +"I could never like Japan," Asako said honestly. + +The old diplomat shrugged his shoulders. + +"Very well, Asa Chan. Just enjoy life, and be happy That will be the +best propaganda." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KIMONO*** + + +******* This file should be named 12527-8.txt or 12527-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/2/12527 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions 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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/12527-8.zip b/old/12527-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0823e95 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12527-8.zip diff --git a/old/12527.txt b/old/12527.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..04b7c5a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12527.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12719 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Kimono, by John Paris + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 + + + + + +Title: Kimono + +Author: John Paris + +Release Date: June 5, 2004 [eBook #12527] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KIMONO*** + + +E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Bill Hershey, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +KIMONO + +by + +JOHN PARIS + +1922 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I AN ANGLO-JAPANESE MARRIAGE + + II HONEYMOON + + III EASTWARDS + + IV NAGASAKI + + V CHONKINA + + VI ACROSS JAPAN + + VII THE EMBASSY + + VIII THE HALF-CASTE GIRL + + IX ITO SAN + + X THE YOSHIWARA WOMEN + + XI A GEISHA DINNER + + XII FALLEN CHERRY-BLOSSOMS + + XIII THE FAMILY ALTAR + + XIV THE DWARF TREES + + XV EURASIA + + XVI THE GREAT BUDDHA + + XVII THE RAINY SEASON + +XVIII AMONG THE NIKKO MOUNTAINS + + XIX YAE SMITH + + XX THE KIMONO + + XXI SAYONARA (GOOD-BYE) + + XXII FUJINAMI ASAKO + +XXIII THE REAL SHINTO + + XXIV THE AUTUMN FESTIVAL + + XXV JAPANESE COURTSHIP + + XXVI ALONE IN TOKYO + +XXVII LADY BRANDAN + + + + + _Utsutsu wo mo + Utsutsu to sara ni + Omowaneba, + Yume wo mo yume to + Nani ka omowamu? + + Since I am convinced + That Reality is in no way + Real, + How am I to admit + That dreams are dreams?_ + + +The verses and translation above are taken from A. Waley's "JAPANESE +POETRY: THE UTA" (Clarendon Press), as are many of the classical +poems placed at the head of the chapters. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +AN ANGLO-JAPANESE MARRIAGE + + _Shibukaro ka + Shiranedo kaki no + Hatsu-chigiri_. + + Whether the fruit be bitter + Or whether it be sweet, + The first bite tells. + + +The marriage of Captain the Honourable Geoffrey Barrington and Miss +Asako Fujinami was an outstanding event in the season of 1913. It +was bizarre, it was picturesque, it was charming, it was socially +and politically important, it was everything that could appeal to +the taste of London society, which, as the season advances, is apt to +become jaded by the monotonous process of Hymen in High Life and by +the continued demand for costly wedding presents. + +Once again Society paid for its seat at St. George's and for its +glass of champagne and crumb of cake with gifts of gold and silver and +precious stones enough to smother the tiny bride; but for once in a +way it paid with a good heart, not merely in obedience to convention, +but for the sake of participating in a unique and delightful scene, a +touching ceremony, the plighting of East and West. + +Would the Japanese heiress be married in a kimono with flowers and +fans fixed in an elaborate _coiffure_? Thus the ladies were wondering +as they craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the bride's +procession up the aisle; but, though some even stood on hassocks and +pew seats, few were able to distinguish for certain. She was so very +tiny. At any rate, her six tall bridesmaids were arrayed in Japanese +dress, lovely white creations embroidered with birds and foliage. + +It is hard to distinguish anything in the perennial twilight of St. +George's; a twilight symbolic of the new lives which emerge from its +Corinthian portico into that married world about which so much has +been guessed and so little is known. + +One thing, however, was visible to all as the pair moved together +up to the altar rails, and that was the size of the bridegroom as +contrasted with the smallness of his bride. He looked like a great +rough bear and she like a silver fairy. There was something intensely +pathetic in the curve of his broad shoulders as he bent over the +little hand to place in its proud position the diminutive golden +circlet which was to unite their two lives. + +As they left the church, the organ was playing _Kimi-ga-ya_, the +Japanese national hymn. Nobody recognized it, except the few Japanese +who were present; but Lady Everington, with that exaggeration of the +suitable which is so typical of her, had insisted on its choice as a +voluntary. Those who had heard the tune before and half remembered +it decided that it must come from the "Mikado"; and one stern dowager +went so far as to protest to the rector for permitting such a tune to +desecrate the sacred edifice. + +Outside the church stood the bridegroom's brother officers. Through +the gleaming passage of sword-blades, smiling and happy, the strangely +assorted couple entered upon the way of wedlock, as Mr. and Mrs. +Geoffrey Barrington--the shoot of the Fujinami grafted on to one of +the oldest of our noble families. + +"Are her parents here?" one lady was asking her neighbour. + +"Oh, no; they are both dead, I believe." + +"What kind of people are they, do you know? Do Japs have an +aristocracy and society and all that kind of thing?" + +"I'm sure I don't know. I shouldn't think so. They don't look real +enough." + +"She is very rich, anyhow," a third lady intervened, "I've heard they +are big landowners in Tokyo, and cousins of Admiral Togo's." + + * * * * * + +The opportunity for closer inspection of this curiosity was afforded +by the reception given at Lady Everington's mansion in Carlton House +Terrace. Of course, everybody was there. The great ballroom was draped +with hangings of red and white, the national colours of Japan. Favours +of the same bright hues were distributed among the guests. Trophies +of Union Jacks and Rising Suns were grouped in corners and festooned +above windows and doorways. + +Lady Everington was bent upon giving an international importance to +her protegee's marriage. Her original plan had been to invite the +whole Japanese community in London, and so to promote the popularity +of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance by making the most of this opportunity +for social fraternising. But where was the Japanese community in +London? Nobody knew. Perhaps there was none. There was the Embassy, of +course, which arrived smiling, fluent, and almost too well-mannered. +But Lady Everington had been unable to push very far her programme for +international amenities. There were strange little yellow men from +the City, who had charge of ships and banking interests; there were +strange little yellow men from beyond the West End, who studied the +Fine Arts, and lived, it appeared, on nothing. But the hostess could +find no ladies at all, except Countess Saito and the Embassy dames. + +Monsieur and Madame Murata from Paris, the bride's guardians, were +also present. But the Orient was submerged beneath the flood of our +rank and fashion, which, as one lady put it, had to take care how it +stepped for fear of crushing the little creatures. + +"Why _did_ you let him do it?" said Mrs. Markham to her sister. + +"It was a mistake, my dear," whispered Lady Everington, "I meant her +for somebody quite different." + +"And you're sorry now?" + +"No, I have no time to be sorry--ever," replied that eternally +graceful and youthful Egeria, who is one of London's most powerful +social influences. "It will be interesting to see what becomes of +them." + +Lady Everington has been criticised for stony-heartedness, for +opportunism, and for selfish abuse of her husband's vast wealth. She +has been likened to an experimental chemist, who mixes discordant +elements together in order to watch the results, chilling them in ice +or heating them over the fire, until the lives burst in fragments or +the colour slowly fades out of them. She has been called an artist in +_mesalliances_, a mismatch-maker of dangerous cunning, a dangler of +picturesque beggar-maids before romantic-eyed Cophetuas, a daring +promoter of ambitious American girls and a champion of musical comedy +peeresses. Her house has been named the Junior Bachelors Club. The +charming young men who seem to be bound to its hospitable board by +invisible chains are the material for her dashing improvisations and +the _dramatis personae_ of the scores of little domestic comedies +which she likes to keep floating around her in different stages of +development. + +Geoffrey Barrington had been the secretary of this club, and a +favourite with the divinity who presided over it. We had all supposed +that he would remain a bachelor; and the advent of Asako Fujinami into +London society gave us at first no reason to change our opinion. But +she was certainly attractive. + + * * * * * + +She ought to have been married in a kimono. There was no doubt about +it now, when there was more liberty to inspect her, as she stood there +shaking hands with hundreds of guests and murmuring her "Thank you +very much" to the reiterated congratulations. + +The white gown was perfectly cut and of a shade to give its full +value to her complexion, a waxen complexion like old ivory or like +a magnolia petal, in which the Mongolian yellow was ever so faintly +discernible. It was a sweet little face, oval and smooth; but it might +have been called expressionless if it had not been for a dimple which +peeped and vanished around a corner of the small compressed mouth, and +for the great deep brown eyes, like the eyes of deer or like pools of +forest water, eyes full of warmth and affection. This was the feature +which struck most of us as we took the opportunity to watch her in +European dress with the glamour of her kimono stripped from her. They +were the eyes of the Oriental girl, a creature closer to the animals +than we are, lit by instinct more often than by reason, and hiding +a soul in its infancy, a repressed, timorous, uncertain thing, +spasmodically violent and habitually secretive and aloof. + +Sir Ralph Cairns, the famous diplomat, was talking on this subject to +Professor Ironside. + +"The Japanese are extraordinarily quick," he was saying, "the most +adaptable people since the ancient Greeks, whom they resemble in some +ways. But they are more superficial. The intellect races on ahead, but +the heart lingers in the Dark Ages." + +"Perhaps intermarriage is the solution of the great racial problem," +suggested the Professor. + +"Never," said the old administrator. "Keep the breed pure, be it +white, black, or yellow. Bastard races cannot flourish. They are waste +of Nature." + +The Professor glanced towards the bridal pair. + +"And these also?" he asked. + +"Perhaps," said Sir Ralph, "but in her case her education has been so +entirely European." + +Hereupon, Lady Everington approaching, Sir Ralph turned to her and +said,-- + +"Dear lady, let me congratulate you: this is your masterpiece." + +"Sir Ralph," said the hostess, already looking to see which of her +guests she would next pounce upon, "You know the East so well. Give +me one little piece of advice to hand over to the children before they +start on their honeymoon." + +Sir Ralph smiled benignly. + +"Where are they going?" he asked. + +"Everywhere," replied Lady Everington, "they are going to travel." + +"Then let them travel all over the world," he answered, "only not to +Japan. That is their Bluebeard's cupboard; and into that they must not +look." + +There was more discussion of bridegroom and bride than is usual at +society weddings, which are apt to become mere reunions of fashionable +people, only vaguely conscious of the identity of those in whose +honour they have been gathered together. + +"Geoffrey Barrington is such a healthy barbarian," said a pale young +man with a monocle; "if it had been a high-browed child of culture +like you, Reggie, with a taste for exotic sensations, I should hardly +have been surprised." + +"And if it had been you, Arthur," replied Reggie Forsyth of the +Foreign Office, who was Barrington's best man, "I should have known +at once that it was the twenty thousand a year which was the supreme +attraction." + +There was a certain amount of Anglo-Indian sentiment afloat among +the company, which condemned the marriage entirely as an outrage on +decency. + +"What was Brandan dreaming of," snorted General Haslam, "to allow his +son to marry a yellow native?" + +"Dreaming of the mortgage on the Brandan property, I expect, General," +answered Lady Rushworth. + +"It's scandalous," foamed the General, "a fine young fellow, a fine +officer, too! His career ruined for an undersized _geisha_!" + +"But think of the millions of _yens_ or _sens_ or whatever they are, +with which she is going to re-gild the Brandan coronet!" + +"That wouldn't console me for a yellow baby with slit eyes," continued +the General, his voice rising in debate as his custom was at the +Senior. + +"Hush, General!" said his interlocutor, "we don't discuss such +possibilities." + +"But everybody here must be thinking of them, except that unfortunate +young man." + +"We never say what we are thinking, General; it would be too +upsetting." + +"And we are to have a Japanese Lord Brandan, sitting in the House of +Lords?" the General went on. + +"Yes, among the Jews, Turks, and Armenians, who are there already," +Lady Rushworth answered, "an extra Oriental will never be noticed. It +will only be another instance of the course of Empire taking its way +Eastward." + + * * * * * + +In the Everington dining-room the wedding presents were displayed. It +looked more like the interior of a Bond Street shop where every kind +of _article de luxe_, useful and useless, was heaped in plenty. + +Perhaps the only gift which had cost less than twenty pounds was Lady +Everington's own offering, a photograph of herself in a plain silver +frame, her customary present when one of her protegees was married +under her immediate auspices. + +"My dear," she would say, "I have enriched you by several thousands of +pounds. I have introduced you to the right people for present-giving +at precisely the right moment previous to your wedding, when they know +you neither too little nor too much. By long experience I have +learnt to fix it to a day. But I am not going to compete with this +undistinguished lavishness. I give you my picture to stand in +your drawing-room as an artist puts his signature to a completed +masterpiece, so that when you look around upon the furniture, the +silver, the cut glass, the clocks, the engagement tablets, and the +tantalus stands, the offerings of the rich whose names you have +long ago forgotten, then you will confess to yourself in a burst of +thankfulness to your fairy godmother that all this would never have +been yours if it had not been for her!" + +In a corner of the room and apart from the more ostentatious homage, +stood on a small table a large market-basket, in which was lying a +huge red fish, a roguish, rollicking mullet with a roving eye, all +made out of a soft crinkly silk. In the basket beneath it were rolls +and rolls of plain silk, red and white. This was an offering from +the Japanese community in London, the conventional wedding present of +every Japanese home from the richest to the poorest, varying only +in size and splendour. On another small table lay a bundle of brown +objects like prehistoric axe heads, bound round with red and white +string, and vaguely odorous of bloater-paste. These were dried flesh +of the fish called _katsuobushi_ by the Japanese, whose absence also +would have brought misfortune to the newly married. Behind them, on +a little tray, stood a miniature landscape representing an aged +pine-tree by the sea-shore and a little cottage with a couple of old, +old people standing at its door, two exquisite little dolls dressed +in rough, poor kimonos, brown and white. The old man holds a rake, +and the old woman holds a broom. They have very kindly faces and white +silken hair. Any Japanese would recognise them at once as the Old +People of Takasago, the personification of the Perfect Marriage. +They are staring with wonder and alarm at the Brandan sapphires, +a monumental _parure_ designed for the massive state of some +Early-Victorian Lady Brandan. + +Asako Fujinami had spent days rejoicing over the arrival of her +presents, little interested in the identity of the givers but +fascinated by the things themselves. She had taken hours to arrange +them in harmonious groups. Then a new gift would arrive which would +upset the balance, and she would have to begin all over again. + +Besides this treasury in the dining-room, there were all her +clothes, packed now for the honeymoon, a whole wardrobe of fairy-like +disguises, wonderful gowns of all colours and shapes and materials. +These, it is true, she had bought herself. She had always been +surrounded by money; but it was only since she had lived with Lady +Everington that she had begun to learn something about the thousand +different ways of spending it, and all the lovely things for which it +can be exchanged. So all her new things, whatever their source, seemed +to her like presents, like unexpected enrichments. She had basked +among her new acquisitions, silent as was her wont when she was happy, +sunning herself in the warmth of her prosperity. Best of all, she +never need wear kimonos again in public. Her fiance had acceded to +this, her most immediate wish. She could dress now like the girls +around her. She would no longer be stared at like a curio in a shop +window. Inquisitive fingers would no longer clutch at the long sleeves +of, crinkled silk, or try to probe the secret of the huge butterfly +bow on her back. She could step out fearlessly now like English women. +She could give up the mincing walk and the timid manner which she felt +was somehow inseparable from her native dress. + +When she told her protectress that Geoffrey had consented to its +abandonment, Lady Everington had heaved a sigh. + +"Poor Kimono!" she said, "it has served you well. But I suppose a +soldier is glad to put his uniform away when the fighting is over. +Only, never forget the mysterious power of the uniform over the other +sex." + +Another day when her Ladyship had been in a bad mood, she had +snapped,-- + +"Put those things away, child, and keep to your kimono. It is your +natural plumage. In those borrowed plumes you look undistinguished and +underfed." + + * * * * * + +The Japanese Ambassador to the Court of St. James proposed the health +of the bride and bridegroom. Count Saito was a small, wise man, whom +long sojourn in European countries had to some extent de-orientalised. +His hair was grizzled, his face was seamed, and he had a peering way +of gazing through his gold-rimmed spectacles with head thrust forward +like a man half blind, which he certainly was not. + +"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "it is a great pleasure for me to +be present on this occasion, for I think this wedding is a personal +compliment to myself and to my work in this splendid country. Mr. and +Mrs. Geoffrey Barrington are the living symbols of the Anglo-Japanese +Alliance; and I hope they will always remember the responsibility +resting on their shoulders. The bride and bridegroom of to-day must +feel that the relations of Great Britain and Japan depend upon the +perfect harmony of their married life. Ladies and gentlemen, let us +drink long life and happiness to Mr. and Mrs. Geoffrey Barrington, to +the Union Jack and to the Rising Sun!" + +The toast, was drunk and three cheers were given, with an extra cheer +for Mrs. Geoffrey. The husband, who was no hand at speechmaking, +replied--and his good-natured voice was quite thick with emotion--that +it was awfully good of them all to give his wife and himself such a +ripping send-off, and awfully good of Sir George and Lady Everington +especially, and awfully good of Count Saito; and that he was the +happiest man in the world and the luckiest, and that his wife had told +him to tell them all that she was the happiest woman, though he really +did not see why she should be. Anyhow, he would do his best to give +her a jolly good time. He thanked his friends for their good wishes +and for their beautiful presents. They had had jolly good times +together, and, in return for all their kindness, he and his wife +wanted to wish them all a jolly good time. + +So spoke Geoffrey Barrington; and at that moment many people present +must have felt a pang of regret that this fine specimen of England's +young manhood should marry an oriental. He was over six feet high. His +broad shoulders seemed to stoop a little with the lazy strength of a +good-tempered carnivore, of Una's lion, and his face, which was almost +round, was set off by a mane of the real lion colour. He wore his +moustache rather longer than was the fashion. It was a face which +seemed ready to laugh at any moment--or else to yawn. For there +was about the man's character and appearance something indolent and +half-awakened and much of the schoolboy. Yet he was over thirty. But +there is always a tendency for Army life to be merely a continuation +of public-school existence. Eton merges into Sandhurst, and Sandhurst +merges into the regiment. One's companions are all the time men of +the same class and of the same ideas. The discipline is the same, +the conventionality and the presiding fetish of Good and Bad Form. So +many, generals are perennial school boys. They lose their freshness, +that is all. + +But Geoffrey Barrington had not lost his freshness. This was his great +charm, for he certainly was not quick or witty. Lady Everington said +that she kept him as a disinfectant to purify the atmosphere. + +"This house," she declared, "sometimes gets over-scented with +tuberoses. Then I open the window and let Geoffrey Barrington in!" + +He was the only son of Lord Brandan and heir to that ancient but +impoverished title. He had been brought up to the idea that he must +marry a rich wife. He neither jibbed foolishly at the proposal, nor +did he surrender lightly to any of the willing heiresses who threw +themselves at his head. He accepted his destiny with the fatalism +which every soldier must carry in his knapsack, and took up his post +as Mars in attendance in Lady Everington's drawing-room, recognising +that there lay the strategic point for achieving his purpose. He was +not without hope, too, that besides obtaining the moneybags he might +be so fortunate as to fall in love with the possessor of them. + +Asako Fujinami, whom he had first met at dinner, at Lady Everington's, +had crossed his mind just like an exquisite bar of melody. He made no +comments at the time, but he could not forget her. The haunting tune +came back to him again and again. By the time that she had floated in +his arms through three or four dances, the spell had worked. _La belle +dame sans merci_, the enchantress who lurks in every woman, had him +in thrall. Her simplest observations seemed to him to be pearls of +wisdom, her every movement a triumph of grace. + +"Reggie," he said to his friend Forsyth, "what do you think of that +little Japanese girl?" + +Reggie, who was a diplomat by profession and a musician by the grace +of God, and whose intuition was almost feminine especially where +Geoffrey was concerned, answered,-- + +"Why, Geoffrey, are you thinking of marrying her?" + +"By Jove!" exclaimed his friend, starting at the thought as at a +discovery; "but I, don't think she'd have me. I'm not her sort." + +"You never can tell," suggested Reggie mischievously; "She is quite +unspoilt, and she has twenty thousand a year. She is unique. You could +not possibly get her confused with somebody else's wife, as so many +people seem to do when they get married. Why not try?" + +Reggie thought that such a mating was impossible, but it amused him +to play with the idea. As for Lady Everington, who knew every one so +well, and who thought that she knew them perfectly, she never guessed. + +"I think, Geoffrey, that you like to be seen with Asako," she said, +"just to point the contrast." + +Her confession to her sister, Mrs. Markham, was the truth. She had +made a mistake; she had destined Asako for somebody quite different. +It was the girl herself who had been the first to enlighten her. She +came to her hostess's boudoir one evening before the labours of the +night began. + +"Lady Georgie," she had said--Lady Everington is Lady Georgie to +all who know her even a little. "_Il faut que je vous dise quelque +chose_." The girl's face glanced downward and sideways, as her habit +was when embarrassed. + +When Asako spoke in French it meant that something grave was afoot. +She was afraid that her unsteady English might muddle what she +intended to say. Lady Everington knew that it must be another +proposal; she had already dealt with three. + +"_Eh bien, cette fois qui est-il?_" she asked. + +"_Le capitaine Geoffroi_" answered Asako. Then her friend knew that it +was serious. + +"What did you say to him?" she demanded. + +"I tell him he must ask you." + +"But why drag me into it? It's your own affair." + +"In France and in Japan," said Asako, "a girl do not say Yes and No +herself. It is her father and her mother who decide. I have no father +or mother; so I think he must ask you." + +"And what do you want me to say?" + +For answer Asako gently squeezed the elder woman's hand, but Lady +Georgie was in no mood to return the pressure. The girl at once felt +the absence of the response, and said,-- + +"What, you do not like the _capitaine Geoffroi_?" + +But her fairy godmother answered bitterly,-- + +"On the contrary, I have a considerable affection for Geoffrey." + +"Then," cried Asako, starting up, "you think I am not good enough for +him. It's because I'm--not English." + +She began to cry. In spite of her superficial hardness, Lady +Everington has a very tender heart. She took the girl in her arms. + +"Dearest child," she said, raising the little, moist face to hers, +"don't cry. In England we answer this great question ourselves. Our +fathers and mothers and fairy godmothers have to concur. If Geoffrey +Barrington has asked you to marry him, it is because he loves you. He +does not scatter proposals like calling-cards, as some young men do. +In fact, I have never heard of him proposing to anyone before. He does +not want you to say 'No', of course. But are you quite ready to say +'Yes'? Very well, wait a fortnight, and don't see more of him than you +can help in the meantime. Now, let them send for my _masseuse_. There +is nothing so exhausting to the aged as the emotions of young people." + +That evening, when Lady Everington met Geoffrey at the theatre, she +took him severely to task for treachery, secrecy and decadence. He, +was very humble and admitted all his faults except the last, pleading +as his excuse that he could not get Asako out of his head. + +"Yes, that is a symptom," said her Ladyship; "you are clearly +stricken. So I fear I am too late to effect a rescue. All I can do +is to congratulate you both. But, remember, a wife is not nearly so +fugitive as a melody, unless she is the wrong kind of wife." + +It was a wrench for the little lady to part with the oldest of +her friendships, and to give up her Geoffrey to the care of this +decorative stranger whose qualities were unknown, and undeveloped. But +she knew what the answer would be at the end of the fortnight. So she +steeled her nerves to laugh at her friends commiserations and to make +the marriage of her godchildren one of the season's successes. It +would certainly be an interesting addition to her museum of domestic +dramas. + + * * * * * + +There was one person whom Lady Everington was determined to pump for +information on that wedding-day, and had drawn into the net of her +invitations for this very purpose. It was Count Saito, the Japanese +Ambassador. + +She cornered him as he was admiring the presents, and whisked him away +to the silence and twilight of her husband's study. + +"I am so glad you were able to come, Count Saito," she began. "I +suppose you know the Fujinamis, Asako's relatives in Tokyo?" + +"No, I do not know them." His Excellency answered, but his tone +conveyed to the lady's instinct that he personally would not wish to +know them. + +"But you know the name, do you not?" + +"Yes, I have heard the name; there are many families called Fujinami +in Japan." + +"Are they very rich?" + +"Yes, I believe there are some who are very rich," said the little +diplomat, who clearly was ill at ease. + +"Where does their money come from?" his inquisitor went on +remorselessly, "You are keeping something from me, Count Saito. Please +be frank, if there is any mystery." + +"Oh no, Lady Everington, there is no mystery, I am sure. There is one +family of Fujinami who have many houses and lands in Tokyo and other +towns. I will be quite open with you. They are rather what you in +England call _nouveaux riches_." + +"Really!" Her Ladyship was taken aback for a moment. "But you would +never notice it with Asako, would you? I mean, she does not drop her +Japanese aitches, and that sort of thing, does she?" + +"Oh no," Count Saito reassured her, "I do not think Mademoiselle Asako +talks Japanese language, so she cannot drop her aitches." + +"I never thought of that," his hostess continued, "I thought that if a +Japanese had money, he must be a _daimyo_, or something." + +The Ambassador smiled. + +"English people," he said, "do not know very well the true condition +of Japan. Of course we have our rich new families and our poor old +families just as you have in England. In some aspects our society is +just the same as yours. In others, it is so, different, that you would +lose your way at once in a maze of ideas which would seem to you quite +upside down." + +Lady Everington interrupted his reflections in a desperate attempt to +get something out of him by a surprise attack. + +"How interesting," she said, "it will be for Geoffrey Harrington and +his wife to visit Japan and find out all about it." + +The Ambassador's manner changed. + +"No, I do not think," he said, "I do not think that is a good thing at +all. They must not do that. You must not let them." + +"But why not?" + +"I say to all Japanese men and women who live a long time in foreign +countries or who marry foreign people, 'Do not go back to Japan,' +Japan is like a little pot and the foreign world is like a big garden. +If you plant a tree from the pot into the garden and let it grow, you +cannot put it back into the pot again." + +"But, in this case, that is not the only reason," objected Lady +Everington. + +"No, there are many other reasons too," the Ambassador admitted; and +he rose from his sofa, indicating that the interview was at an end. + + * * * * * + +The bridal pair left in a motor-car for Folkestone tinder a hailstorm +of rice, and with the propitious white slipper dangling from the +number-plate behind. + +When all her guests were gone, Lady Everington fled to her boudoir and +collapsed in a little heap of sobbing finery on the broad divan. She +was overtired, no doubt; but the sense of her mistake lay heavy upon +her, and the feeling that she had sacrificed to it her best friend, +the most humanly valuable of all the people who resorted to her house. +An evil cloud of mystery hung over the young marriage, one of those +sinister unfamiliar forces which travellers bring home from the East, +the curse of a god or a secret poison or a hideous disease. + +It would be so natural for those two to want to visit Japan and to +know their second home. Yet both Sir Ralph Cairns and Count Saito, the +only two men that day who knew anything about the real conditions, +had insisted that such a visit would be fatal. And who were these +Fujinamis whom Count Saito knew, but did not know? Why had she, who +was so socially careful, taken so much for granted just because Asako +was a Japanese? + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HONEYMOON + + _Asa no kami + Ware wa kezuraji + Utsukushiki + Kimi ga ta-makura + Fureteshi mono wo._ + + (My) morning sleep hair + I will not comb; + For it has been in contact with + The pillowing hand of + My beautiful Lord! + + +The Barringtons left England for a prolonged honeymoon, for Geoffrey +was now free to realise his favourite project of travelling abroad. +So they became numbered among that shoal of English people out of +England, who move restless leisure between Paris and the Nile. + +Geoffrey had resigned his commission in the army. His friends thought +that this was a mistake. For the loss of a man's career, even when it +is uncongenial to him, is a serious amputation, and entails a lesion +of spiritual blood. He had refused his father's suggestion of settling +down in a house on the Brandan estate, for Lord Brandan was an +unpleasing old gentleman, a frequenter of country bars and country +barmaids. His son wished to keep his young bride as far away as +possible from a spectacle of which he was heartily ashamed. + +First of all they went to Paris, which Asako adored; for was it not +her home? But this time she made the acquaintance of a Paris unknown +to her, save by rumour, in the convent days or within the discreet +precincts of Monsieur Murata's villa. She was enchanted by the +theatres, the shops, the restaurants, the music, and the life which +danced around her. She wanted to rent an _appartement_, and to live +there for the rest of her existence. + +"But the season is almost over," said her husband; "everybody will be +leaving." + +Unaccustomed as yet to his freedom, he still felt constrained to do +the same as Everybody. + +Before leaving Paris, they paid a visit to the Auteuil villa, which +had been Asako's home for so many years. + +Murata was the manager of a big Japanese firm in Paris. He had spent +almost all his life abroad and the last twenty years of it in the +French capital, so that even in appearance, except for his short +stature and his tilted eyes, he had come to look like a Frenchman with +his beard _a l'imperiale_, and his quick bird-like gestures. His wife +was a Japanese, but she too had lost almost all traces of her native +mannerisms. + +Asako Fujinami had been brought to Paris by her father, who had died +there while still a young man. He had entrusted his only child to the +care of the Muratas with instructions that she should be educated in +European ways and ideas, that she should hold no communication with +her relatives in Japan, and that eventually a white husband should be +provided for her. He had left his whole fortune in trust for her, and +the interest was forwarded regularly to M. Murata by a Tokyo lawyer, +to be used for her benefit as her guardian might deem best. This money +was to be the only tie between Asako and her native land. + +To cut off a child from its family, of which by virtue of vested +interests it must still be an important member, was a proceeding +so revolutionary to all respectable Japanese ideas that even the +enlightened Murata demurred. In Japan the individual counts for +so little, the family for so much. But Fujinami had insisted, and +disobedience to a man's dying wish brings the curse of a "rough ghost" +upon the recalcitrant, and all kinds of evil consequences. + +So the Muratas took Asako and cherished her as much as their hearts, +withered by exile and by unnatural living, were capable of +cherishing anything. She became a daughter of the well-to-do French +_bourgeoisie_, strictly but affectionately disciplined with the proper +restraints on the natural growth of her brain and individuality. + +Geoffrey Barrington was not very favourably impressed by the Murata +household. He wondered how so bright a little flower as Asako could +have been reared in such gloomy surroundings. The spirits dominant in +the villa were respectable economy and slavish imitation of the tastes +and habits of Parisian friends. The living-rooms were as impersonal as +the rooms of a boarding-house. Neutral tints abounded, ugly browns +and nightmare vegetable patterns on carpets, furniture and wallpapers. +There was a marked tendency towards covers, covers for the chairs +and sofas, tablecloths and covers for the tablecloths, covers for +cushion-covers, antimacassars, lamp-stands, vase-stands and every kind +of decorative duster. Everywhere the thick smell of concealed grime +told of insufficient servants and ineffective sweeping. There was not +one ornament or picture which recalled Japan, or gave a clue to the +personal tastes of the owners. + +Geoffrey had expected to be the nervous witness of an affecting scene +between his wife and her adopted parents. But no, the greetings were +polite and formal. Asako's frock and jewellery were admired, but +without that note of angry envy which often brightens the dullest talk +between ladies in England. Then, they sat down to an atrocious lunch +eaten in complete silence. + +When the meal was over, Murata drew Geoffrey aside into his shingly +garden. + +"I think that you will be content with our Asa San," he said; "the +character is still plastic. In England it is different; but in France +and in Japan we say it is the husband who must make the character of +his wife. She is the plain white paper; let him take his brush and +write on it what he will. Asa San is a very sweet girl. She is very +easy to manage. She has a beautiful disposition. She does not tell +lies without reason. She does not wish to make strange friends. I do +not think you will have trouble with her." + +"He talks about her rather as if she were a horse," thought Geoffrey. +Murata went on,-- + +"The Japanese woman is the ivy which clings to the tree. She does not +wish to disobey." + +"You think Asako is still very Japanese, then?" asked Geoffrey. + +"Not her manners, or her looks, or even her thoughts," replied Murata, +"but nothing can change the heart." + +"Then do you think she is homesick sometimes for Japan?" said her +husband. + +"Oh no," smiled Murata. The little wizened man was full of smiles. +"She left Japan when she was not two years old. She remembers nothing +at all." + +"I think one day we shall go to Japan," said Geoffrey, "when we get +tired of Europe, you know. It is a wonderful country, I am told; +and it does not seem right that Asako should know nothing about it. +Besides, I should like to look into her affairs and find out about her +investments." + +Murata was staring at his yellow boots with an embarrassed air. It +suddenly struck the Englishman that he, Geoffrey Harrington, was +related to people who looked like that, and who now had the right to +call him cousin. He shivered. + +"You can trust her lawyers," said the Japanese, "Mr. Ito is an old +friend of mine. You may be quite certain that Asako's money is safe." + +"Oh yes, of course," assented Geoffrey, "but what exactly are her +investments? I think I ought to know." + +Murata began to laugh nervously, as all Japanese do when embarrassed. + +"_Mon Dieu_!" he exclaimed, "but I do not know myself. The money has +been paid regularly for nearly twenty years; and I know the Fujinami +are very rich. Indeed, Captain Barrington, I do not think Asako would +like Japan. It was her father's last wish that she should never return +there." + +"But why?" asked Geoffrey. He felt that Murata was keeping something +from him. The little man answered,-- + +"He thought that for a woman the life is more happy in Europe; he +wished Asako to forget altogether that she was Japanese." + +"Yes, but now she is married and her future is fixed. She is not going +back permanently to Japan, but just to see the country. I think we +would both of us like to. People say it is a magnificent country." + +"You are very kind," said Murata, "to speak so of my country. But the +foreign people who marry Japanese are happy if they stay in their own +country, and Japanese who marry foreigners are happy if they go away +from Japan. But if they stay in Japan they are not happy. The national +atmosphere in Japan is too strong for those people who are not +Japanese or are only half Japanese. They fade. Besides life in Japan +is very poor and rough. I do not like it myself." + +Somehow Geoffrey could not accept these as being the real reasons. He +had never had a long talk with a Japanese man before; but he felt that +if they were all like that, so formal, so unnatural, so secretive, +then he had better keep out of the range of Asako's relatives. + +He wondered what his wife really thought of the Muratas, and during +the return to their hotel, he asked,-- + +"Well, little girl, do you want to go back again and live at Auteuil?" + +She shook her head. + +"But it is nice to think you have always got an extra home in Paris, +isn't it?" he went on, fishing for an avowal that home was in his arms +only, a kind of conversation which was the wine of life to him at that +period. + +"No," she answered with a little shudder, "I don't call that home." + +Geoffrey's conventionality was a little bit shocked at this lack +of affection; he was also disappointed at not getting exactly the +expected answer. + +"Why, what was wrong with it?" he asked. + +"Oh, it was not pretty or comfortable," she said, "they were so afraid +to spend money. When I wash my hands, they say, 'Do not use too much +soap; it is waste.'" + + * * * * * + +Asako was like a little prisoner released into the sunlight. She +dreaded the idea of being thrust back into darkness again. + +In this new life of hers anything would have made her happy, that is +to say, anything new, anything given to her, anything good to eat or +drink, anything soft and shimmery to wear, anything--so long as her +big husband was with her. He was the most fascinating of all her +novelties. He was much nicer than Lady Everington; for he was not +always saying, "Don't," or making clever remarks, which she could not +understand. He gave her absolutely her own way, and everything that +she admired. He reminded her of an old Newfoundland dog who had been +her slave when she was a little girl. + +He used to play with her as he would have played with a child, +watching her as she tried on her finery, hiding things for her to +find, holding them over her head and making her jump for them like +a puppy, arranging her ornaments for her in those continual private +exhibitions which took up so much of her time. Then she would ring the +bell and summon all the chambermaids within call to come and admire; +and Geoffrey would stand among all these womenfolk, listening to the +chorus of "_Mon Dieu!_" and "_Ah, que c'est beau!_" and "_Ah, qu'elle +est gentille!_" like some Hector who had strayed into the _gynaeceum_ +of Priam's palace. He felt a little foolish, perhaps, but very happy, +happy in his wife's naive happiness and affection, which did not +require any mental effort to understand, nor that panting pursuit +on which he had embarked more than once in order to keep up with the +witty flirtatiousness of some of the beauties of Lady Everington's +_salon_. + +Happiness shone out of Asako like light. But would she always be +happy? There were the possibilities of the future to be reckoned +with, sickness, childbirth, and the rearing of children, the hidden +development of the character which so often grows away from what +it once cherished, the baleful currents of outside influences, the +attraction and repulsion of so-called friends and enemies all of which +complicate the primitive simplicity of married life and forfeit the +honeymoon Eden. Adam and Eve in the garden of the Creation can hear +the voice of God whispering in the evening breeze; they can live +without jars and ambitions, without suspicion and without reproaches. +They have no parents, no parents-in-law, no brothers, sisters, +aunts, or guardians, no friends to lay the train of scandal or to +be continually pulling them from each other's arms. But the first +influence which crosses the walls of their paradise, the first being +to whom they speak, which possesses the semblance of a human voice, +is most certainly Satan and that Old Serpent, who was a liar and a +slanderer from the beginning, and whose counsels will lead inevitably +to the withdrawal of God's presence and to the doom of a life of pain +and labor. + +There was one cloud in the heaven of their happiness. Geoffrey was +inclined to tease Asako about her native country. His ideas about +Japan were gleaned chiefly from musical comedies. He would call his +wife Yum Yum and Pitti Sing. He would fix the end of one of her black +veils under his hat, and would ask her whether she liked him better +with a pigtail. + +"Captain Geoffrey," she would complain, "it is the Chinese who wear +the pigtail; they are a very savage people." + +Then he would call her his little _geisha_, and this she resented; +for she knew from the Muratas that _geisha_ were bad women who took +husbands away from their wives, and that was no joking matter. + +"What nonsense!" exclaimed Geoffrey, taken aback by this sudden +reproof: "they are dear little things like you, darling, and they +bring you tea and wave fans behind your head, and I would like to have +twenty of them--to wait upon you!" + +He would tease her about a supposed fondness for rice, for +chop-sticks, for paper umbrellas and _jiujitsu._ She liked him to +tease her, just as a child likes to be teased, while all the time +on the verge of tears. With Asako, tears and laughter were never far +apart. + +"Why do you tease me because I am Japanese?" she would sob; "besides, +I'm not really. I can't help it. I can't help it!" + +"But, sweetheart," her Captain Geoffrey would say, suddenly ashamed +of his elephantine humour, "there's nothing to cry about. I would be +proud to be a Japanese. They are jolly brave people. They gave the +Russians a jolly good hiding." + +It made her feel well to hear him praise her people, but she would +say: + +"No, no, they're not. I don't want to be a Jap. I don't like them. +They're ugly and spiteful. Why can't we choose what we are? I would be +an English girl--or perhaps French," she added, thinking of the Rue de +la Paix. + + * * * * * + +They left Paris and went to Deauville; and here it was that the +serpent first crawled into Eden, whispering of forbidden fruit. +These serpents were charming people, amusing men and smart women, all +anxious to make the acquaintance of the latest sensation, the Japanese +millionairess and her good-looking husband. + +Asako lunched with them and dined with them and sat with them near the +sea in wonderful bathing costumes which it would be a shame to wet. +Conscious of the shortcomings of her figure as compared with those +of the lissom mermaids who surrounded her, Asako returned to kimonos, +much to her husband's surprise; and the mermaids had to confess +themselves beaten. + +She listened to their talk and learned a hundred things, but another +hundred at least remained hidden from her. + +Geoffrey left his wife to amuse herself in the cosmopolitan society of +the French watering-place. He wanted this. All the wives whom he +had ever known seemed to enjoy themselves best when away from their +husbands' company. He did not quite trust the spirit of mutual +adoration, which the gods had given to him and his bride. Perhaps it +was an unhealthy symptom. Worse still, it might be Bad Form. He wanted +Asako to be natural and to enjoy herself, and not to make their love +into a prison house. + +But he felt a bit lonely when he was away from her. Occupation did not +seem to come easily to him as it did when she was there to suggest it. +Sometimes he would loaf up and down on the esplanade; and sometimes he +would take strenuous swims in the sea. He became the prey of the bores +who haunt every seaside place at home and abroad, lurking for lonely +and polite people upon whom they may unload their conversation. + +All these people seemed either to have been in Japan themselves or to +have friends and relations who knew the country thoroughly. + +A wonderful land, they assured him. The nation of the future, the +Garden of the East, but of course Captain Barrington knew Japan +well. No, he had never been there? Ah, but Mrs. Barrington must have +described it all to him. Impossible! Really? Not since she was a baby? +How very extraordinary! A charming country, so quaint, so original, +so picturesque, such a place to relax in; and then the Japanese girls, +the little _mousmes_, in their bright kimonos, who came fluttering +round like little butterflies, who were so gentle and soft and +grateful; but there! Captain Barrington was a married man, that was no +affair of his. Ha! Ha! + +The elderly _roues_, who buzzed like February flies in the sunshine +of Deauville, seemed to have particularly fruity memories of tea-house +sprees and oriental philanderings under the cherry-blossoms of +Yokohama. Evidently, Japan was just like the musical comedies. + +Geoffrey began to be ashamed of his ignorance concerning his wife's +native country. Somebody had asked him, what exactly _bushido_ was. He +had answered at random that it was made of rice and curry powder. By +the hilarious reception given to this explanation he knew that he must +have made a _gaffe_. So he asked one of the more erudite bores to give +him the names of the best books about Japan. He would "mug it up," +and get some answers off pat to the leading questions. The erudite +one promptly lent him some volumes by Lafcadio Hearn and Pierre Loti's +_Madame Chrysantheme_. He read the novel first of all. Rather spicy, +wasn't it? + +Asako found the book. It was an illustrated edition; and the little +drawings of Japanese scenes pleased her immensely, so that she began +to read the letter press. + +"It is the story of a bad man and a bad woman," she said; "Geoffrey, +why do you read bad things? They bring bad conditions." + +Geoffrey smiled. He was wondering whether the company of the +fictitious _Chrysantheme_ was more demoralizing than that of the +actual Mme. Laroche Meyerbeer, with whom his wife had been that day +for a picnic lunch. + +"Besides, it isn't fair," his wife continued. "People read that book +and then they think that all Japanese girls are bad like that." + +"Why, darling, I didn't think you had read it," Geoffrey expostulated, +"who has been telling you about it?" + +"The Vicomte de Brie," Asako answered. "He called me _Chrysantheme_ +and I asked him why." + +"Oh, did he?" said Geoffrey. Really it was time to put an end to +lunch picnics and mermaidism. But Asako was so happy and so shiningly +innocent. + +She returned to her circle of admirers, and Geoffrey to his studies of +the Far East. He read the Lafcadio Hearn books, and did not perceive +that he was taking opium. The wonderful sentences of that master of +prose poetry rise before the eyes in whorls of narcotic smoke. They +lull the brain as in a dream, and form themselves gradually into +visions of a land more beautiful than any land that has ever existed +anywhere, a country of vivid rice plains and sudden hills, of gracious +forests and red temple gateways, of wise priests and folk-lore +imagery, of a simple-hearted smiling people with children bright as +flowers laughing and playing in unfailing sunlight, a country where +everything is kind, gentle, small, neat, artistic, and spotlessly +clean, where men become gods not by sudden apotheosis but by the easy +processes of nature, a country, in short, which is the reverse of our +own poor vexed continent where the monstrous and the hideous multiply +daily. + +One afternoon Geoffrey was lounging on the terrace of the hotel +reading _Kokoro_, when his attention was attracted by the arrival of +Mme. Laroche Meyerbeer's motor-car with Asako, her hostess and another +woman embedded in its depths. Asako was the first to leap out. She +went up to her apartment without looking to right or left, and before +her husband had time to reach her. Mme. Meyerbeer watched this arrow +flight and shrugged her shoulders before lazily alighting. + +"Is all well?" asked Geoffrey. + +"No serious damage," smiled the lady, who is known in Deauville as +_Madame Cythere_, "but you had better go and console her. I think she +has seen the devil for the first time." + +He opened the door of their sunny bedroom, and found Asako packing +feverishly, and sobbing in spasms. + +"My poor little darling," he said, lifting her in his arms, "whatever +is the matter?" + +He laid her on the sofa, took off her hat, and loosened her dress, +until gradually she became coherent. + +"He tried to kiss me," she sobbed. + +"Who did?" her husband asked. + +"The Vicomte de Brie." + +"Damned little monkey," cried Geoffrey, "I'll break every miserable +bone in his pretence of a body." + +"Oh, no, no," protested Asako, "let us go away from here at once. Let +us go to Switzerland, anywhere." + +The serpent had got into the garden, but he had not been a very adroit +reptile. He had shown his fangs; and the woman had promptly bruised +his head and had given him an eye like an Impressionist sunset, which +for several days he had to hide from the ridicule of his friends. + +But Asako too had been grievously injured in the innocence of her +heart; and it took all the snow winds of the Engadine to blow away +from her face the hot defilement of the man's breath. She clung +closely to her husband's protection. She, who had hitherto abandoned +herself to excessive amiability, barbed the walls of their violated +paradise with the broken glass of bare civility. Every man became +suspect, the German professors culling Alpine plants, the mountain +maniacs with their eyes fixed on peaks to conquer. She had no word +for any of them. Even the manlike womenfolk, who golfed and rowed and +clambered, were to her indignant eyes dangerous panders to the lusts +of men, disguised allies of _Madame Cythere_. + +"Are they all bad?" she asked Geoffrey. + +"No, little girl, I don't suppose so. They look too dismal to be bad." + +Geoffrey was grateful for the turn of events which had delivered up +his wife again into his sole company. He had missed her society more +than he dared confess; for uxoriousness is a pitiful attitude. In +fact, it is Bad Form. + +At this period he wanted her as a kind of mirror for his own mind and +for his own person. She saw to it that his clothes were spotless and +that his tie was straight. Of course, he always dressed for dinner +even when they dined in their room. She too would dress herself up in +her new finery for his eyes alone. She would listen to him laying down +the law on subjects which he would not dare broach were he talking +to any one else. She flattered him in that silent way which is so +soothing to a man of his character. Her mind seemed to absorb his +thoughts with the readiness of blotting paper; and he did not pause to +observe whether the impression had come out backwards or forwards. He +who had been so mute among Lady Everington's geniuses fell all of a +sudden into a loquaciousness which was merely the reaction of his love +for his wife, the instinct which makes the male bird sing. He just +went on talking; and every day he became in his own estimation and in +that of Asako, a more intelligent, a more original and a more eloquent +man. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +EASTWARDS + + _Nagaki yo no + To no nemuri no + Miname-zame, + Nami nori fune no + Oto no yoki kana_. + + From the deep sleep + Of a long night + Waking, + Sweet is the sound + Of the ship as it rides the waves. + + +When August snow fell upon St. Moritz, the Barringtons descended to +Milan, Florence, Venice and Rome. Towards Christmas they found their +way to the Riviera, where they met Lady Everington at Monte Carlo, +very indignant, or pretending to be so, at the neglect with which she +had been treated. + +"Fairy godmothers are important people," she said, "and very easily +offended. Then, they turn you into wild animals, or send you to sleep +for a hundred years. Why didn't you write to me, child?" + +They were sitting on the terrace with the Casino behind them, +overlooking the blue Mediterranean. A few yards farther on, a tall, +young Englishman was chatting and laughing with a couple of girls too +elaborately beautiful and too dazzlingly gowned for any world but the +half-world. Suddenly he turned, and noticed Lady Everington. With a +courteous farewell to his companions, he advanced to greet her. + +"Aubrey Laking," she exclaimed, "you never answered the letter I wrote +to you at Tokyo." + +"Dear Lady Georgie, I left Tokyo ages ago. It followed me back to +England; and I am now second secretary at Christiania. That is why I +am in Monte Carlo!" + +"Then let me introduce you to Asako Fujinami, who is now Mrs. +Barrington. You must tell her all about Tokyo. It is her native city; +but she has not seen it since she was in long clothes, if Japanese +babies wear such things." + +Aubrey Laking and Barrington had been at Eton together. They were old +friends, and were delighted to meet once more. Barrington, especially, +was pleased to have this opportunity to hear about Japan from one who +had but lately left the country, and who was moreover a fluent and +agreeable talker. Laking had not resided in Japan long enough to get +tired of orientalism. He described the quaint, the picturesque, the +amusing side of life in the East. He was full of enthusiasm for the +land of soft voices and smiling faces, where countless little shops +spread their wares under the light of the evening lanterns, where the +twang of the _samisen_ and the _geisha's_ song are heard coming from +the lighted tea-house, and the shadow of her helmet-like _coiffure_ +is seen appearing and disappearing in silhouette against the paper +_shoji_. + + * * * * * + +The East was drawing the Barringtons towards its perilous coasts. +Laking's position at the Tokyo Embassy had been taken by Reggie +Forsyth, one of Geoffrey's oldest friends, his best man at his wedding +and a light of Lady Everington's circle. Already, Geoffrey had sent +him a post-card, saying, "Warm up the _sake_ bottle," (Geoffrey +was becoming quite learned in things Japanese), "and expect friends +shortly." + +However, when the Barringtons did at last tear themselves from the +Riviera, they announced rather disingenuously that they were going to +Egypt. + +"They are too happy," Lady Everington said to Laking a few days later, +"and they know nothing. I am afraid there will be trouble." + +"Oh, Lady Georgie," he replied, "I have never known you to be a +prophetess of gloom. I would have thought the auspices were most +fortunate." + +"They ought to quarrel more than they do," Lady Everington complained. +"She ought to contradict him more than she does. There must be a +volcanic element in marriage. It is a sign of trouble coming when the +fires are quiet." + +"But they have got plenty of money," expostulated Aubrey, whose +troubles were invariably connected with his banking account, "and they +are very fond of each other. Where is the trouble to come from?" + +"Trouble is on the lookout for all of us, Aubrey," said his companion, +"it is no good flying from it, even. The only thing to do is to look +it in the face and laugh at it; then it gets annoyed sometimes, and +goes away. But those two poor dears are sailing into the middle of it, +and they don't even know how to laugh yet." + +"You think that Egypt is hopelessly demoralising. Thousands of people +go there and come safely home, almost all, in fact, except Robert +Hichens's heroines." + +"Oh no, not in Egypt," said Lady Everington; "Egypt is only a +stepping-stone. They are going to Japan." + +"Well, certainly Japan is harmless enough. There is nobody there worth +flirting with except us at the Embassies, and we generally have our +hands full. As for the visitors, they are always under the influence +of Cook's tickets and Japanese guides." + +"Aubrey dear, you think that trouble can only come from flirting or +money." + +"I know that those two preoccupations are an abundant source of +trouble." + +"What do you think of Mrs. Barrington?" asked her Ladyship, appearing +to change the subject. + +"Oh, a very sweet little thing." + +"Like your lady friends in Tokyo, the Japanese ones, I mean?" + +"Not in the least. Japanese ladies look very picturesque, but they are +as dull as dolls. They sidle along in the wake of their husbands, and +don't expect to be spoken to." + +"And have you no more intimate experience?" asked Lady Everington. +"Really, Aubrey, you have not been living up to your reputation." + +"Well, Lady Georgie," the young man proceeded, gazing at his polished +boots with a well-assumed air of embarrassment, "since I know that you +are one of the enlightened ones, I will confess to you that I did keep +a little establishment _a la_ Pierre Loti. My Japanese teacher thought +it would be a good way of improving my knowledge of the local +idiom; and this knowledge meant an extra hundred pounds to me for +interpreter's allowance, as it is called. I thought, too, that it +would be a relief after diplomatic dinner parties to be able to swear +for an hour or so, big round oaths in the company of a dear beloved +one who would not understand me. So my teacher undertook to provide me +with a suitable female companion. He did. In fact, he introduced me +to his sister; and the suitability was based on the fact that she +held the same position under my predecessor, a man whom I dislike +exceedingly. But this I only found out later on. She was dull, deadly +dull. I couldn't even make her jealous. She was as dull as my Japanese +grammar; and when I had passed my examination and burnt my books, I +dismissed her." + +"Aubrey, what a very wicked story!" + +"No, Lady Georgie, it was not even wicked. She was not real enough to +sin with. The affair had not even the excitement of badness to keep it +going." + +"Do you know the Japanese well?" Lady Everington returned to the +highroad of her inquiry. + +"No, nobody does; they are a most secretive people." + +"Do you think that, if the Barringtons go to Japan, there is any +danger of Asako being drawn back into the bosom of her family?" + +"No, I shouldn't think so," Laking replied, "Japanese life is so very +uncomfortable, you know, even to the Japs themselves, when once they +have got used to living in Europe or America. They sleep on the floor, +their clothes are inconvenient, and their food is nasty, even in the +houses of the rich ones." + +"Yes, it must be a peculiar country. What do you think is the greatest +shock for the average traveller who goes there?" + +"Lady Georgie, you are asking me very searching questions to-day. I +don't think I will answer any more." + +"Just this one," she pleaded. + +He considered his boots again for a moment, and then, raising his face +to hers with that humorous challenging look which he assumes when on +the verge of some indiscretion, he replied,-- + +"The _Yoshiwara_." + +"Yes," said her Ladyship, "I have heard of such a place. It is a kind +of Vanity Fair, isn't it, for all the _cocottes_ Of Tokyo?" + +"It's more than that," Laking answered; "it is a market of +human flesh, with nothing to disguise the crude fact except the +picturesqueness of the place. It is a square enclosure as large as a +small town. In this enclosure are shops, and in the shop windows +women are displayed just like goods, or like animals in cages; for the +windows have wooden bars. Some of the girls sit there stolidly like +stuffed images, some of them come to the bars and try to catch hold of +the passers-by, just like monkeys, and joke with them and shout after +them. But I could not understand what they said--fortunately, perhaps. +The girls,--there must be several thousands--are all dressed up in +bright kimonos. It really is a very pretty sight, until one begins to +think. They have their price tickets hung up in the shop windows, one +shilling up to one pound. That is the greatest shock which Japan has +in store for the ordinary tourist." + +Lady Everington was silent for a moment; her flippant companion had +become quite serious. + +"After all," she said, "is it any worse than Piccadilly Circus at +night?" + +"It is not a question of better or worse," argued Laking. "Such a +purely mercenary system is a terrible offence to our most cherished +belief. We may be hypocrites, but our hypocrisy itself is an admission +of guilt and an act of worship. To us, even to the readiest sinners +among us, woman is always something divine. The lowest assignation +of the streets has at least a disguise of romance. It symbolises +the words and the ways of Love, even if it parodies them. But to the +Japanese, woman must be merely animal. You buy a girl as you buy a +cow." + +Lady Everington shivered, but she tried to live up to her reputation +of being shocked by nothing. + +"Well, that is true, after all, whether in Piccadilly or in the +Yoshiwara. All prostitution is just a commercial transaction." + +"Perhaps," said the young diplomat, "but what about the Ideal at the +back of our minds? Passion is often a grotesque incarnation of the +Ideal, like a savage's rude image of his god. A glimpse of the ideal +is possible in Piccadilly, and impossible in the Yoshiwara. The divine +something was visible in Marguerite Gautier; little Hugh saw it even +in Nana. For one thing, here in London, in the dirtiest of sordid +dramas, it is still the woman who gives, but in Japan it is always the +man who takes." + +"Aubrey," said his friend, "I had no idea that you were a poet, or in +other words that you ever talked nonsense without laughing. You think +such a shock is strong enough to upset the Barrington _menage_?" + +"It will give furiously to think," he answered, "to poor old Geoffrey, +who is a very straight, clean and honest fellow, not overused to +furious thinking. I suppose if one married a monkey, one might +persuade oneself of her humanity, until one saw her kindred in cages." + +"Poor little Asako, my latest god-daughter!" cried Lady Everington. +"Really, Aubrey, you are very rude!" + +"I did not mean to be," said Laking penitently. "She is a most +ingratiating little creature, like a lazy kitten; but I think it is +unwise for him to take her to Japan. All kinds of latent orientalisms +may develop." + + * * * * * + +The spring was at hand, the season of impulse, when we obey most +readily the sudden stirrings of our hearts. Even in the torrid climate +of Egypt, squalls of rain passed over like stray birds of passage. +Asako Barrington felt the fresh influence and the desire to do new +things in new places. Hitherto she had evinced very little inclination +to revisit the home of her ancestors. But on their return from the +temples of Luxor, she said quite unexpectedly to Geoffrey,-- + +"If we go to Japan now, we shall be in time to see the +cherry-blossoms." + +"Why, little Yum Yum," cried her husband, delighted, "are you tired of +Pharaohs?" + +"Egypt is very interesting," said Asako, correctly; "it is wonderful +to think of these great places standing here for thousands and +thousands of years. But it makes one sad, don't you think? Everybody +here seems to have died long, long ago. It would be nice to see green +fields again, wouldn't it, Geoffrey dearest?" + +The voice of the Spring was speaking clearly. + +"And you really want to go to Japan, sweetheart? It's the first time +I've heard you say you want to go." + +"Uncle and Aunt Murata in Paris used always to say about now, 'If we +go back to Japan we shall be in time to see the cherry-blossoms.'" + +"Why," asked Geoffrey, "do the Japanese make such a fuss about their +cherry-blossoms?" + +"They must be very pretty," answered his wife, "like great clouds of +snow. Besides, the cherry-flowers are supposed to be like the Japanese +spirit." + +"So you are my little cherry-blossom--is that right?" + +"Oh no, not the women," she replied, "the men are the +cherry-blossoms." + +Geoffrey laughed. It seemed absurd to him to compare a man to the +frail and transient beauty of a flower. + +"Then what about the Japanese ladies," he asked, "if the men are +blossoms?" + +Asako did not think they had any special flower to symbolise their +charms. She suggested,-- + +"The bamboo, they say, because the wives have to bend under the storms +when their husbands are angry. But, Geoffrey, you are never angry. You +do not give me a chance to be like the bamboo." + +Next day, he boldly booked their tickets for Tokyo. + +The long sea voyage was a pleasant experience, broken by fleeting +visits to startled friends in Ceylon and at Singapore, and enlivened +by the close ephemeral intimacies of life on board ship. + +There was a motley company on board _S.S. Sumatra_; a company +whose most obvious elements, the noisy and bibulous pests in the +smoking-room and the ladies of mysterious destination with whom +they dallied, were dismissed by Geoffrey at once as being terrible +bounders. Beneath this scum more congenial spirits came to light, +officers and Government officials returning to their posts, and a few +globe-trotters of leisure. Everybody seemed anxious to pay attention +to the charming Japanese lady; and from such incessant attention it +is difficult to escape within the narrow bounds of ship life. The +only way to keep off the impossibles was to form a bodyguard of the +possibles. The seclusion of the honeymoon paradise had to be opened up +for once in a way. + +Of course, there was much talk about the East; but it was a different +point of view, from that of the enthusiasts of Deauville and the +Riviera. These men and women had many of them lived in India, the +Malay States, Japan, or the open ports of China, lived there to earn +their bread and butter, not to dream about the Magic of the Orient. +For such as these the romance had faded. The pages of their busy lives +were written within a mourning border of discontent, of longing for +that home land, to which on the occasion of their rare holidays they +returned so readily, and which seemed to have no particular place or +use for them when they did return. They were members of the British +Dispersion; but their Zion was of more comfort to them as a sweet +memory than as an actual home. + +"Yes," they would say about the land of their exile, "it is very +picturesque." + +But their faces, lined or pale, their bitterness and their reticence, +told of years of strain, laboriously money-earning, in lands where +relaxations are few and forced, where climatic conditions are adverse, +where fevers lurk, and where the white minority are posted like +soldiers in a lonely fort, ever suspicious, ever on the watch. + + * * * * * + +The most faithful of Asako's bodyguard was a countryman of her own, +Viscount Kamimura, the son of a celebrated Japanese statesman and +diplomat, who, after completing his course at Cambridge, was returning +to his own country for the first time after many years. + +He was a shy gentle youth, very quiet and refined, a little +effeminate, even, in his exaggerated gracefulness and in his +meticulous care for his clothes and his person. He avoided all company +except that of the Barringtons, probably because a similarity in +circumstances formed a bond between him and his country-woman. + +He had a high, intellectual forehead, the beautiful deep brown eyes of +Asako, curling, sarcastic lips, a nose almost aquiline but starting a +fraction of an inch too low between his eyes. He had read everything, +he remembered everything, and he had played lawn tennis for his +university. + +He was returning to Japan to be married. When Geoffrey asked him who +his fiancee was, he replied that he did not know yet, but that his +relatives would tell him as soon as ever he arrived in Japan. + +"Haven't you got any say in the matter?" asked the Englishman. + +"Oh yes," he answered, "If I actually dislike her, I need not marry +her; but, of course, the choice is limited, so I must try not to be +too hard to please." + +Geoffrey thought that it must be because of his extreme aristocracy +that so few maidens in Japan were worthy of his hand. But Asako asked +the question,-- + +"Why is the choice so small?" + +"You see," he said, "there are not many girls in Japan who can speak +both English and French, and as I am going into the Diplomatic Service +and shall leave Japan again shortly, that is an absolute necessity; +besides, she must have a very good degree from her school." + +Geoffrey could hardly restrain himself from laughing. This idea of +choosing a wife like a governess for her linguistic accomplishments +seemed to him exceedingly comic. + +"You don't mind trusting other people," he said, "to arrange your +marriage for you?" + +"Certainly not," said the young Japanese, "they are my own relatives, +and they will do their best for me. They are all older than I am, and +they have had the experience of their own marriages." + +"But," said Geoffrey, "when you saw your friends in England choosing +for themselves, and falling in love and marrying for love's sake--?" + +"Some of them chose for themselves and married barmaids and divorced +persons, just for the reason that they were in love and uncontrolled. +So they brought shame on their families, and are probably now very +unhappy. I think they would have done better if they had let their +relatives choose for them." + +"Yes; but the others who marry girls of their own set?" + +"I think their choice is not really free at all. I do not think it is +so much the girl who attracts them. It is the plans and intentions of +those around them which urge them on. It is a kind of mesmerism. The +parents of the young man and the parents of the young girl make the +marriage by force of will. That also is a good way. It is not so very +different from our system in Japan." + +"Don't you think that people in England marry because they love each +other?" asked Asako. + +"Perhaps so," replied Kamimura, "but in our Japanese language we have +no word which is quite the same as your word Love. So they say we +do not know what this Love is. It may be so, perhaps. Anyhow Mr. +Barrington will not wish to learn Japanese, I think." + +Geoffrey liked the young man. He was a good athlete, he was unassuming +and well-bred, he clearly knew the difference between Good and Bad +Form. Geoffrey's chief misgiving with regard to Japan had been a doubt +as to the wisdom of making the acquaintance of his wife's kindred. How +dreadful if they turned out to be a collection of oriental curios with +whom he would not have one idea in common! + +The company of this young aristocrat, in no way distinguishable from +an Englishman except for a certain grace and maturity, reassured him. +No doubt his wife would have cousins like this; clean, manly fellows +who would take him shooting and with whom he could enjoy a game of +golf. He thought that Kamimura must be typical of the young Japanese +of the upper classes. He did not realize that he was an official +product, chosen by his Government and carefully moulded and polished, +not to be a Japanese at home, but to be a Japanese abroad, the +qualified representative of a First Class Power. + +Kamimura left the boat with them at Colombo and joined them in their +visit to some tea-planting relatives. He was ready to do the same at +Singapore, but he received an urgent cable from Japan recalling him at +once. + +"I must not be too late for my own wedding," he said, during their +last lunch together at Raffles's Hotel. "It would be a terrible sin +against the laws of Filial Piety." + +"Whatever is that?" asked Asako. + +"Dear Mrs. Barrington, are you a daughter of Japan, and have never +heard of the Twenty-four Children?" + +"No; who are they?" + +"They are model children, the paragons of goodness, celebrated because +of their love for their fathers and mothers. One of them walked miles +and miles every day to get water from a certain spring for his sick +mother; another, when a tiger was going to eat his father, rushed to +the animal and cried, 'No, eat me instead!' Little boys and girls in +Japan are always being told to be like the Twenty-four Children." + +"Oh, how I'd hate them!" cried Asako. + +"That is because you are a rebellious, individualistic Englishwoman. +You have lost that sense of family union, which makes good Japanese, +brothers and cousins and uncles and aunts, all love each other +publicly, however much they may hate each other in private." + +"That is very hypocritical!" + +"It is the social law," replied Kamimura. "In Japan the family is the +important thing. You and I are nothing. If you want to get on in the +world you must always be subject to your family. Then you are sure +to get on however stupid you may be. In England you seem to use your +families chiefly to quarrel with." + +"I think our relatives ought to be just our best friends," said Asako. + +"They are that too in a way," the young man answered. "In Japan it +would be better to be born without hands and feet than to be born +without relatives." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +NAGASAKI + + _Hono-bono to + Akashi no ura no + Asa-giri ni + Shima-kakure-yuku + Fune wo shi zo omou._ + + My thoughts are with a boat + Which travels island-hid + In the morning-mist + Of the shore of Akashi + Dim, dim! + + +After Hongkong, they let the zone of eternal summer behind them. The +crossing from Shanghai to Japan was rough, and the wind bitter. But on +the first morning in Japanese waters Geoffrey was on deck betimes to +enjoy to the full the excitement of arrival. They were approaching +Nagasaki. It was a misty dawn. The sky was like mother-of-pearl, +and the sea like mica. Abrupt grey islands appeared and disappeared, +phantasmal, like guardian spirits of Japan, representatives of those +myriads of Shinto deities who have the Empire in their keeping. + +Then, suddenly from behind the cliff of one of the islands a fishing +boat came gliding with the silent stateliness of a swan. The body of +the boat was low and slender, built of some white, shining wood; from +the middle rose the high sail like a silver tower. It looked like the +soul of that sleeping island setting out upon a dream journey. + +The mist was dissolving, slowly revealing more islands and more boats. +Some of them passed quite close to the steamer; and Geoffrey could see +the fishermen, dwarfish figures straining at the oar or squatting at +the bottom of the boat, looking like Nibelungen on the quest for the +Rhinegold. He could hear their strange cries to each other and to the +steamer, harsh like the voice of sea-gulls. + +Asako came on deck to join her husband. The thrill of returning to +Japan had scattered her partiality for late sleeping. She was dressed +in a tailor-made coat and skirt of navy-blue serge. Her shoulders were +wrapped in a broad stole of sable. Her head was bare. Perhaps it was +the inherited instinct of generations of Japanese women, who never +cover their heads, which made her dislike hats and avoid wearing them +if possible. + +The sun was still covered, but the view was clear as far as the high +mountains on the horizon towards which the ship was ploughing her way. + +"Look, Asako, Japan!" + +She was not looking at the distance. Her eyes were fixed on an emerald +islet half a mile or less from the steamer's course, a jewel of the +seas. It rose to the height of two hundred feet or so, a conical +knoll, densely wooded. On the summit appeared a scar of rock like a +ruined castle, and, rising from the rock's crest, a single pine-tree. +Its trunk was twisted by all the winds of Heaven. Its long, lean +branches groped the air like the arms of a blinded demon. It seemed to +have an almost human personality an expression of fruitless striving, +pathetic yet somehow sinister--a Prometheus among trees. Geoffrey +followed his wife's gaze to the base of the island where a shoal of +brown rocks trailed out to seawards. In a miniature bay he saw a tiny +beach of golden sand, and, planted in the sand, a red gateway, two +uprights and two lintels, the lower one held between the posts, the +upper one laid across them and protruding on either side. It is +the simplest of architectural designs, but strangely suggestive. +It transformed that wooded island into a dwelling-place. It cast +an enchantment over it, and seemed to explain the meaning of the +pine-tree. The place was holy, an abode of spirits. + +Geoffrey had read enough by now to recognize the gateway as a +"_torii_"; a religious symbol in Japan which always announces the +neighbourhood of a shrine. It is a common feature of the country-side, +as familiar as the crucifix in Catholic lands. + +But Asako, seeing the beauty of her country for the first time, and +unaware of the dimming cloud of archaeological explanations, clapped +her hands together three times in sheer delight; or was it in +unconscious obedience to the custom of her race which in this way +calls upon its gods? Then with a movement entirely occidental she +threw her arms round her husband's neck, kissing him with all the +devotion of her being. + +"Dear old Geoffrey, I love you so," she murmured. Her brown eyes were +full of tears. + + * * * * * + +The steamer passed into a narrow channel, a kind of fiord, with wooded +hills on both sides. The forests were green with spring foliage. Never +had Geoffrey seen such a variety or such density of verdure. Every +tree seemed to be different from its neighbour; and the hillsides were +packed with trees like a crowded audience. Here and there a spray of +mountain cherry-blossom rose among the green like a jet of snow. + +At the foot of the woods, by the edge of the calm water, the villages +nestled. Only roofs could be seen, high, brown, thatched roofs with a +line of sword-leaved irises growing along the roof-ridge like a crown. +These native cottages looked like timid animals, cowering in their +forms under the protecting trees. One felt that at any time an +indiscreet hoot of the steamer might send them scuttering back to +the forest depths. There were no signs of life in these submerged +villages, where the fight between the forester's axe and primal +vegetation seemed still undecided. Life was there; but it was hidden +under the luxuriance of the overgrowth, hidden to casual passers-by +like the life of insects. Only by the seaside, where the houses were +clustered together above a seawall of cyclopean stones, and on the +beach, where the long narrow boats, sharp-prowed and piratical, were +drawn up to the shore, the same gnome-like little men, with a generous +display of naked brown limbs, were sawing and hammering and mending +their nets. + +The steamer glided up the fiord towards a cloud of black smoke ahead. +Unknown to Geoffrey, it passed the grey Italianate Catholic cathedral, +the shrine of the old Christian faith of Japan planted there by Saint +Francis Xavier four hundred years ago. Anchor was cast off the island +of Deshima, now moored to the mainland, where during the locked +centuries the Dutch merchants had been permitted to remain in +profitable servitude. Deshima has now been swallowed up by the +Japanese town, and its significance has shifted across the bay to +where the smoke and din of the Mitsubishi Dockyard prepare romantic +visitors for the modern industrial life of the new Japan. Night and +day, the furnace fires are roaring; and ten thousand workmen are +busy building ships of war and ships of peace for the Britain of the +Pacific. + +The quarantine officers came on board, little, brown men in uniform, +absurdly self-important. Then the ship was besieged by a swarm +of those narrow, primitive boats called _sampan_, which Loti has +described as a kind of barbaric gondola, all jostling each other to +bring merchants of local wares, damascene, tortoise-shell, pottery and +picture post cards aboard the vessel, and to take visitors ashore. + +Geoffrey and Asako were among the first to land. The moment of arrival +on Japanese soil brought a pang of disappointment. The sea-front at +Nagasaki seemed very like a street in any starveling European town. +It presented a line of offices and consulates built in Western style, +without distinction and without charm. Customs' officers and policemen +squinted suspiciously at the strangers. A few women, in charge of +children or market-baskets, stared blankly. + +"Why, they are wearing kimonos!" exclaimed Asako, "but how dirty and +dusty they are. They look as though they had been sleeping in them!" + +The Japanese women, indeed, cling to their national dress. But to +the Barringtons, landing at Nagasaki, they seemed ugly, shapeless and +dingy. Their hair was greasy and unkempt. Their faces were stupid +and staring. Their figures were hidden in the muffle of their dirty +garments. Geoffrey had been told they have baths at least once a day, +but he was inclined to doubt it. Or else, it was because they all +bathed in the same bath and their ablutions were merely an exchange +of grime. But where were those butterfly girls, who dance with fan and +battledore on our cups and saucers? + +The rickshaws were a pleasant experience, the one-man perambulators; +and the costume of the rickshaw-runners was delightful, and their +gnarled, indefatigable legs. With their tight trunk-hose of a coarse +dark-blue material and short coat to match like an Eton jacket and +with their large, round mushroom hats, they were like figures from the +crowd of a Flemish Crucifixion. + +Behind the Barrington's _sampan_, a large lighter came alongside the +wharf. It was black with coal-dust, and in one corner was heaped +a pile of shallow baskets, such as are used in coaling vessels at +Japanese ports, being slipped from hand to hand in unbroken chain +up the ship's side and down again to the coal barge. The work was +finished. The lighter was empty except for a crowd of coal-stained +coolies which it was bringing back to Nagasaki. These were dressed +like the rickshaw-men. They wore tight trousers, short jackets and +straw sandals. They were sitting, wearied, on the sides of the barge, +wiping black faces with black towels. Their hair was long, lank and +matted. Their hands were bruised and shapeless with the rough toil. + +"Poor men," sighed Asako, "they've had hard work!" + +The crowd of them passed, peering at the English people and chattering +in high voices. Geoffrey had never seen such queer-looking fellows, +with their long hair, clean-shaven faces, and stumpy bow-legs. One +more disheveled than the others was standing near him with tunic +half-open. It exposed a woman's breast, black, loose and hard like +leather. + +"They are women!" he exclaimed, "what an extraordinary thing!" + +But the children of Nagasaki--surely there could be no such +disillusionment. They are laughing, happy, many-coloured and +ubiquitous. They roll under the rickshaw wheels. They peep from behind +the goods piled on the floors of the shops, a perpetual menace to +shopkeepers, especially in the china stores, where their bird-like +presence is more dangerous than that of the dreaded bull. They are +blown up and down the temple-steps like fallen petals. They gather +like humming-birds round the itinerant venders of the streets, the old +men who balance on their bare shoulders their whole stock in trade of +sweetmeats, syrups, toys or singing grasshoppers. They are the dolls +of our own childhood, endowed with disconcerting life. Around their +little bodies flames the love of colour of an oriental people, whose +adult taste has been disciplined to sombre browns and greys. Wonderful +motley kimonos they make for their children with flower patterns, +butterfly patterns, toy and fairy-story patterns, printed on +flannelette--or on silk for the little plutocrats--in all colors, +among which reds, oranges, yellows, mauves, blues and greens +predominate. + +They invaded the depressing atmosphere of the European-style hotel, +where Geoffrey and Asako were trying to enjoy a tasteless lunch--their +grubby, bare feet pattering on the worn lino. + +It pleased him to watch them, playing their game of _Jonkenpan_ +with much show of pudgy fingers, and with restrained and fitful +scamperings. He even made a tentative bid for popularity by throwing +copper coins. There was no scramble for this largesse. Gravely and +in turn each child pocketed his penny; but they all regarded Geoffrey +with a wary and suspicious eye. He, too, on closer inspection found +them less angelic than at first sight. The slimy horror of unwiped +noses distressed him, and the significant prevalence of scabby scalps. + + * * * * * + +After their dull lunch in this drab hotel, Geoffrey and his wife +started once more on their voyage of discovery. Nagasaki is a hidden +city; it flows through its narrow valleys like water, and follows +their serpentine meanderings far inland. + +They soon left behind the foreign settlement and its nondescript +ugliness to plunge into the labyrinth of little native streets, +wayward and wandering like sheep-tracks, with sudden abrupt hills +and flights of steps which checked the rickshaws' progress. Here, the +houses of the rich people were closely fenced and cunningly hidden; +but the life of poverty and the shopkeepers' domesticity were flowing +over into the street out of the too narrow confines of the boxes which +they called their homes. + +With an extra man to push behind, the rickshaws had brought them up a +zigzag hill to a cautious wooden gateway half open in a close fence of +bamboo. + +"Tea-house!" said the rickshaw man, stopping and grinning. It was +clearly expected of the foreigners that they should descend and enter. + +"Shall we get out and explore, sweetheart?" suggested Geoffrey. They +passed under the low gate, up a pebbled pathway through the sweetest +fairy garden to the entrance of the tea-house, a stage of brown boards +highly polished and never defiled by the contamination of muddy boots. +On the steps of approach a collection of _geta_ (native wooden clogs) +and abominable side-spring shoes told that guests had already arrived. + +Within the dark corridors of the house there was an immediate +fluttering as of pigeons. Four or five little women prostrated +themselves before the visitors with a hissing murmur of "_Irasshai_! +(Condescend to come!)." + +The Barringtons removed their boots and followed one of these ladies +down a gleaming corridor with another miniature garden in an enclosed +courtyard on one side, and paper _shoji_ and peeping faces on the +other, out across a further garden by a kind of oriental Bridge of +Sighs to a small separate pavilion, which floated on a lake of green +shrubs and pure air, as though moored by the wooden gangway to the +main block of the building. + +This summer-house contained a single small room like a very clean box +with wooden frame, opaque paper walls, and pale golden matting. The +only wall which seemed at all substantial presented the appearance of +an alcove. In this niche there hung a long picture of cherry-blossoms +on a mountain side, below which, on a stand of dark sandalwood, +squatted a bronze monkey holding a crystal ball. This was the only +ornament in the room. + +Geoffrey and his wife sat down or sprawled on square silk cushions +called _zabuton_. Then the _shoji_ were thrown open; and they looked +down upon Nagasaki. + +It was a scene of sheer enchantment. The tea-house was perched on a +cliff which overhung the city. The light pavilion seemed like the +car of some pullman aeroplane hovering over the bay. It was the brief +half-hour of evening, the time of day when the magic of Japan is at +its most powerful. All that was cheap and sordid was shut out by +the bamboo fence and wrapped away in the twilight mists. It was a +half-hour of luminous greyness. The skies were grey and the waters of +the bay and the roofs of the houses. A grey vapour rose from the town; +and a black-grey trail of smoke drifted from the dockyards and from +the steamers in the harbour. The cries and activities of the city +below rose clear and distinct but infinitely remote, as sound of the +world might reach the Gods in Heaven. It was a half-hour of fairyland +when anything might happen. + +Two little maids brought tea and sugary cakes, green tea like bitter +hot water, insipid and unsatisfying. It was a shock to see the girls' +faces as they raised the tiny china teacups. Under the glaze of their +powder they were old and wise. + +They observed Asako's nationality, and began to speak to her in +Japanese. + +"Their politeness is put on to order," thought Geoffrey, "they seem +forward and inquisitive minxes." + +But Asako only knew a few set phrases of her native tongue. This +baffled the ladies, one of whom after a whispered consultation and +some giggling behind sleeves, went off to find a friend who would +solve the mystery. + +"_Nesan, Nesan_ (elder sister)" she called across the garden. + +Strange little dishes were produced on trays of red lacquer, fish +and vegetables of different kinds artistically arranged, but most +unpalatable. + +A third _nesan_ appeared. She could speak some English. + +"Is _Okusama_ (lady) Japanese?" she began, after she had placed the +tiny square table before Geoffrey, and had performed a prostration. + +Geoffrey assented. + +Renewed prostration before _okusama_, and murmured greetings in +Japanese. + +"But I can't speak Japanese," said Asako laughing. This perplexed the +girl, but her curiosity prompted her. + +"_Danna San_ (master) Ingiris'?" she asked, looking at Geoffrey. + +"Yes," said Asako. "Do many Englishmen have Japanese wives?" + +"Yes, very many," was the unexpected answer. "O Fuji San," she +continued, indicating one of the other maids, "have Ingiris' _danna +San_ very many years ago; very kind _danna san_; give O Fuji plenty +nice kimono; he say, O Fuji very good girl, go to Ingiris' wit him; +O Fuji say, No, cannot go, mother very sick; so _danna san_ go away. +Give O Fuji San very nice finger ring." + +She lapsed into vernacular. The other girl showed with feigned +embarrassment a little ring set with glassy sapphires. + +"Oh!" said Asako, dimly comprehending. + +"All Ingiris' _danna san_ come Nagasaki," the talkative maid went on, +"want Japanese girl. Ingiris' _danna san_ kind man, but too plenty +drink. Japanese _danna san_ not kind, not good. Ingiris' _danna san_ +plenty money, plenty. Nagasaki girl very many foreign _danna san. +Rashamen wa Nagasaki meibutsu_ (foreigners' mistresses famous product +of Nagasaki). Ingiris' _danna san_ go away all the time. One year, two +year--then go away to Ingiris' country." + +"Then what does the Japanese girl do?" asked Asako. + +"Other _danna san_ come," was the laconic reply. "Ingiris' _danna san_ +live in Japan, Japanese girl very nice. Ingiris' _danna san_ go away, +no want Japanese girl. Japanese girl no want go away Japan. Japanese +girl go to other country, she feel very sick; heart very lonely, very +sad!" + +A weird, unpleasant feeling had stolen into the little room, the +presence of unfamiliar thoughts and of foreign moralities, birds of +unhealth. + +The two other girls who could not speak English were posing for +Geoffrey's benefit; one of them reclining against the framework of the +open window with her long kimono sleeves crossed in front of her like +wings, her painted oval face fixed on him in spite of the semblance +of downcast eyes; the other squatting on her heels in a corner of the +room with the same demure expression and with her hands folded in her +lap. Despite the quietness of the poses they were as challenging in +their way as the swinging hips of Piccadilly. It is as true to-day as +it was in Kaempffer's time, the old Dutch traveler of two hundred and +fifty years ago, that every hotel in Japan is a brothel, and every +tea-house and restaurant a house of assignation. + +From a wing of the building near by came the twanging of a string, +like a banjo string being tuned in fantastic quarter tones. A few +sharp notes were struck, at random it seemed, followed by a few bars +of a quavering song and then a burst of clownish laughter. Young +bloods of Nagasaki had called in _geisha_ to amuse them at their meal. + +"Japanese _geisha_," said the tea-house girl, "if _danna san_ wish to +see _geisha_ dance--?" + +"No thank you," said Geoffrey, hurriedly, "Asako darling, it is time +we went home: we want our dinners." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +CHONKINA + + _Modashi-ite + Sakashira suru wa + Sake nomite + Yei-naki suru ni + Nao shikazu keri._ + + To sit silent + And look wise + Is not to be compared with + Drinking _sake_ + And making a riotous shouting. + + +As soon as the meal was over, Asako went to bed. She was tired out +by an orgy of sight-seeing and new impressions. Geoffrey said that +he would have a short walk and a smoke before turning in. He took the +road which led towards the harbour of Nagasaki. + + _Chonkina, Chonkina, Chon, Chon, Kina, Kina, + Yokohama, Nagasaki, Hakodate--Hoi!_ + +The refrain of an old song was awakened in his mind by the melodious +name of the place. + +He descended the hill from the hotel, and crossed a bridge over a +narrow river. The town was full of beauty. The warm light in the +little wooden houses, the creamy light of the paper walls, illuminated +from within, with the black silhouettes of the home groups traced upon +them, the lanterns dancing on the boats in the harbour, the lights on +the larger vessels in stiff patterns like propositions of Euclid, the +lanterns on carts and rickshaws, lanterns like fruit, red, golden and +glowing, and round bubble lamps over each house entrance with Chinese +characters written upon them giving the name of the occupant. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +As though in answer to his incantation, Geoffrey suddenly came upon +Wigram. Wigram had been a fellow-passenger on board the steamer. He +was an old Etonian; and this was really the only bond between the two +men. For Wigram was short, fat and flabby, dull-eyed and pasty-faced. +He spoke with a drawl; he had literary pretensions and he was +travelling for pleasure. + +"Hello, Barrington," he said, "you all alone?" + +"Yes," answered Geoffrey, "my wife is a bit overtired; she has turned +in." + +"So you are making the most of your opportunity, studying night-life, +eh, naughty boy?" + +"Not much about, is there?" said Geoffrey, who considered that a "pi +fellow" was Bad Form, and would not be regarded as such even by a +creature whose point of view was as contemptible as that of Wigram. + +"Doesn't walk the streets, old man; but it's there all the same. The +men at the club here tell me that Nagasaki is one of the hottest spots +on the face of the globe." + +"Seems sleepy enough," answered Geoffrey. + +"Oh, here! these are just English warehouses and consulates. +They're always asleep. But you come with me and see them dance the +_Chonkina_." + +Geoffrey started at this echo of his own thoughts, but he said,-- + +"I must be getting back; my wife will be anxious." + +"Not yet, not yet. It will be all over in half an hour, and it's worth +seeing. I am just going to the club to find a fellow who said he'd +show me the ropes." + +Geoffrey allowed himself to be persuaded. After all he was not +expected home so immediately. It was many years since he had visited +low and disreputable places. They were Bad Form, and had no appeal for +him. But the strangeness of the place attracted him, and a longing for +the first glimpse behind the scenes in this inexplicable new country. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +Why shouldn't he go? + +He was introduced to Wigram's friend, Mr. Patterson, a Scotch merchant +of Nagasaki, who lurched out of the club in his habitual Saturday +evening state of mellow inebriation. + +They called for three rickshaws, whose runners seemed to know without +instructions whither they had to go. + +"Is it far from here?" asked Geoffrey. + +"It is not so far," said the Scotchman; "it is most conveniently +situated." + +Noiselessly they sped down narrow twisting streets with the same +unfamiliar lights and shadows, the glowing paper walls, and the +luminous globes of the gate lamps. + +From the distance came the beat of a drum. + +Geoffrey had heard a drum sounded like that before in the Somali +village at Aden, a savage primitive sound with a kind of marching +rhythm, suggestive of the swing of hundreds of black bodies moving to +some obscene festival. + +But here, in Japan, such music sounded remote from the civilisation of +the country, from the old as from the new. + +"_Chonkina, Chonkina_," it seemed to be beating. + +The rickshaws turned into a broader street with houses taller and more +commanding than any seen hitherto. They were built of brown wood like +big Swiss chalets, and were hung with red paper lanterns like huge +ripe cherries. + +Another stage-like entrance, more fluttering of women and low +prostrations, a procession along shining corridors and up steep +stairways like companion-ladders, everywhere a heavy smell of cheap +scent and powder, the reek of the brothel. + +The three guests were installed, squatting or lounging around a +low table with beer and cakes. There was a chorus of tittering and +squeaking voices in the corridor. The partition slid open, and six +little women came running into the room. + +"Patasan San! Patasan San!" they cried, clapping their hands. + +Here at last were the butterfly women of the traveller's imagination. +They wore bright kimonos, red and blue, embroidered with gold thread. +Their faces were pale like porcelain with the enamelling effect of the +liquid powder which they use. Their black shiny hair, like liquorice, +was arranged in fantastic volutes, which were adorned with silver +bell-like ornaments and paper flowers. Choking down Geoffrey's +admiration, a cloud of heavy perfume hung around them. + +"Good day to you," they squeaked in comical English, "How do you do? I +love you. Please kiss me. Dam! dam!" + +Patterson introduced them by name as O Hana San (Miss Flower), O Yuki +San (Miss Snow), O En San (Miss Affinity), O Toshi San (Miss Year), O +Taka San (Miss Tall) and O Koma San (Miss Pony). + +One of them, Miss Pony, put her arm around Geoffrey's neck--the little +fingers felt like the touch of insects--and said,-- + +"My darling, you love me?" + +The big Englishman disengaged himself gently. It is Bad Form to be +rough to women, even to Japanese courtesans. He began to be sorry that +he had come. + +"I have brought two very dear friends of mine," said Patterson to all +the world, "for pleasure artistic rather than carnal; though perhaps I +can safely prophesy that the pleasure of the senses is the end of +all true art. We have come to see the national dance of Japan, the +Nagasaki reel, the famous _Chonkina_. I myself am familiar with the +dance. On two or three occasions I have performed with credit in these +very halls. But these two gentlemen have come all the way from England +on purpose to see the dance. I therefore request that you will dance +it to-night with care and attention, with force of imagination, with +a sense of pleasurable anticipation, and with humble respect to the +naked truth." + +He spoke with the precise eloquence of intoxication, and as he flopped +to the ground again Wigram clapped him on the shoulder with a "Bravo, +old man!" + +Geoffrey felt very silent and rather sick. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +The little women made a show of modesty, hiding their faces behind +their long kimono sleeves. + +A servant girl pushed open the walls which communicated with the +next room, an exact replica of the one in which they were sitting. An +elderly woman in a sea-grey kimono was squatting there silent, rigid +and dignified. For a moment Geoffrey thought that a mistake had been +made, that this was another guest disturbed in quiet reflection and +about to be justly indignant. + +But no, this Roman matron held in her lap the white disc of a +_samisen_, the native banjo, upon which she strummed with a flat white +bone. She was the evening's orchestra, an old _geisha_. + +The six little butterflies lined up in front of her and began to +dance, not our Western dance of free limbs, but an Oriental dance +from the hips with posturings of hands and feet. They sang a harsh +faltering song without any apparent relation to the accompaniment +played by that austere dame. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +The six little figures swayed to and fro. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina! Hoi!_ + +With a sharp cry the song and dance stopped abruptly. The six dancers +stood rigid with hands held out in different attitudes. One of them +had lost the first round and must pay forfeit. Off came the broad +embroidered sash. It was thrown aside, and the raucous singing began +afresh. + +_Chonkina! Chonkina! Hoi!_ + +The same girl lost again; and amid shrill titterings the gorgeous +scarlet kimono fell to the ground. She was left standing in a +pretty blue under-kimono of light silk with a pale pink design of +cherry-blossoms starred all over it. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +Round after round the game was played; and first one girl lost and +then another. Two of them were standing now with the upper part +of their bodies bare. One of them was wearing a kind of white lace +petticoat, stained and sour-looking, wrapped about her hips; the other +wore short flannel drawers, like a man's bathing-pants, coloured in +a Union Jack pattern, some sailor's offering to his _inamorata_. They +were both of them young girls. Their breasts were flat and shapeless. +The yellow skin ended abruptly at the throat and neck with the powder +line. For the neck and face were a glaze of white. The effect of this +break was to make the body look as if it had lost its real head under +the guillotine, and had received an ill-matched substitute from the +surgeon's hands. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +Patterson had drawn nearer to the performers. His red face and his +grim smile were tokens of what he would have described as pleasurable +anticipation. Wigram, too, his flabby visage paler than ever, his +large eyes bulging, and his mouth hanging open, gazed as in a trance. +He had whispered to Geoffrey,-- + +"I've seen the _danse du ventre_ at Algiers, but this beats anything." + +Geoffrey from behind the fumes of the pipe-smoke watched the unreal +phantasmagoria as he might have watched a dream. + + _Chonkina! Chonkina!_ + +The dance was more expressive now, not of art but of mere animalism. +The bodies shook and squirmed. The faces were screwed up to express an +ecstacy of sensual delight. The little fingers twitched into immodest +gestures. + +_Chonkina! Chonkina! Hoi!_ + +Geoffrey had never gazed on a naked woman except idealised in marble +or on canvas. The secret of Venus had been for him, as for many men, +an inviolate Mecca towards which he worshipped. Glimpses he had seen, +visions of soft curves, mica glistenings of creamy skin, but never the +crude anatomical fact. + +An overgrown embryo she seemed, a gawkish ill-moulded thing. + +Woman, thought Geoffrey, should be supple and pliant, with a +suggestion of swiftness galvanising the delicacy of the lines. +Atalanta was his ideal woman. + +But this creature had apparently no bones or sinews. She looked like +a sawdust dummy. She seemed to have been poured into a bag of brown +tissue. There was no waist line. The chest appeared to fit down upon +the thighs like a lid. The legs hung from the hips like trouser-legs, +and seemed to fit into the feet like poles into their sockets. The +turned-in toes were ridiculous and exasperating. There was no shaping +of breasts, stomach, knees and ankles. There was nothing in this image +of clay to show the loving caress of the Creator's hand. It had been +modelled by a wretched bungler in a moment of inattention. + +Yet it stood there, erect and challenging, this miserable human +tadpole, usurping the throne of Lais and crowned with the worship of +such devotees as Patterson and Wigram. + +Are all women ugly? The query flashed through Geoffrey's brain. Is +the vision of Aphrodite Anadyomene an artist's lie? Then he thought of +Asako. Stripped of her gauzy nightdresses, was she like this? A shame +on such imagining! + +Patterson was hugging a girl on his knee. Wigram had caught hold of +another. Geoffrey said--but nobody heard him,-- + +"It's getting too hot for me here. I'm going." + +So he went. + +His little wife was awake, and disposed to be tearful. + +"Where have you been?" she asked, "You said you would only be half an +hour." + +"I met Wigram," said Geoffrey, "and I went with him to see some +_geisha_ dancing." + +"You might have taken me. Was it very pretty?" + +"No, it was very ugly; you would not have cared for it at all." + +He had a hot bath, before he lay down by her side. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ACROSS JAPAN + + _Momo-shiki no + Omiya-bito wa + Okaredo + Kokoro ni norite + Omoyuru imo!_ + + Though the people of the + Great City + With its hundred towers + Be many, + Riding on my heart-- + (Only) my beloved Sister! + + +The traveller in Japan is restricted to a hard-worn road, dictated to +him by Messrs. Thos. Cook and Son, and by the Tourists' Information +Bureau. This _via sacra_ is marked by European-style hotels of varying +quality, by insidious curio-shops, and by native guides, serious and +profane, who classify foreigners under the two headings of Temples and +Tea-houses. The lonely men-travellers are naturally supposed to have +a _penchant_ for the spurious _geisha_, who haunt the native +restaurants; the married couples are taken to the temples, and to +those merchants of antiquities, who offer the highest commission to +the guides. There is always an air of petty conspiracy in the wake of +every foreigner who visits the country. If he is a Japan enthusiast, +he is amused by the naive ways, and accepts the conventional smile as +the reflection of the heart of "the happy, little Japs." If he hates +the country, he takes it for granted that extortion and villainy will +accompany his steps. + +Geoffrey and Asako enjoyed immensely their introduction to Japan. The +unpleasant experiences of Nagasaki were soon forgotten after their +arrival at Kyoto, the ancient capital of the Mikado, where the charm +of old Japan still lingers. They were happy, innocent people, devoted +to each other, easily pleased, and having heaps of money to spend. +They were amused with everything, with the people, with the houses, +with the shops, with being stared at, with being cheated, with being +dragged to the ends of the vast city only to see flowerless gardens +and temples in decay. + +Asako especially was entranced. The feel of the Japanese silk and the +sight of bright colours and pretty patterns awoke in her a kind of +ancestral memory, the craving of generations of Japanese women. She +bought kimonos by the dozen, and spent hours trying them on amid a +chorus of admiring chambermaids and waitresses, a chorus specially +trained by the hotel management in the difficult art of admiring +foreigners' purchases. + +Then to the curio-shops! The antique shops of Kyoto give to the simple +foreigner the impression that he is being received in a private home +by a Japanese gentleman of leisure whose hobby is collecting. The +unsuspecting prey is welcomed with cigarettes and specially honourable +tea, the thick green kind like pea-soup. An autograph book is produced +in which are written the names of rich and distinguished people +who have visited the collection. You are asked to add your own +insignificant signature. A few glazed earthenware pots appear, +Tibetan temple pottery of the Han Period. They are on their way to +the Winckler collection in New York, a trifle of a hundred thousand +dollars. + +Having pulverised the will-power of his guest, the merchant of +antiquities hands him over to his myrmidons who conduct him round the +shop--for it is only a shop after all. Taking accurate measurement of +his purse and tastes, they force him to buy what pleases them, just as +a conjurer can force a card upon his audience. + +The Barringtons' rooms at the Miyako Hotel soon became like an annex +to the show-rooms in Messrs. Yamanaka's store. Brocades and kimonos +were draped over chairs and bedsteads. Tables were crowded with +porcelain, _cloisonne_ and statues of gods. Lanterns hung from the +roof; and in a corner of the room stood an enormous bowl-shaped bell +as big as a bath, resting on a tripod of red lacquer. When struck +with a thick leather baton like a drum-stick it uttered a deep sob, +a wonderful, round, perfect sound, full of the melancholy of the +wind and the pine-forests, of the austere dignity of a vanishing +civilisation, and the loneliness of the Buddhist Law. + +There was a temple on the hill behind the hotel whence such a note +reached the visitors at dawn and again at sunset. The spirit of +everything lovely in the country sang in its tones; and Asako and +Geoffrey had agreed, that, whatever else they might buy or not buy, +they must take an echo of that imprisoned music home with them to +England. + +So they bought the cyclopean voice, engraved with cabalistic writing, +which might be, as it professed to be, a temple bell of Yamato over +five hundred years old, or else the last year's product of an Osaka +foundry for antique brass ware. Geoffrey called it "Big Ben." + +"What are you going to do with all these things?" he asked his wife. + +"Oh, for our home in London," she answered, clapping her hands +and gazing with ecstatic pride at all her treasures. "It will be +wonderful. Oh, Geoffrey, Geoffrey, you are so good to give all this to +me!" + +"But it is your own money, little sweetheart!" + + * * * * * + +Never did Asako seem further from her parents' race than during +the first weeks of her sojourn in her native country. She was so +unconscious of her relationship that she liked to play at imitating +native life, as something utterly peculiar and absurd. Meals in +Japanese eating-houses amused her immensely. The squatting on bare +floors, the exaggerated obeisance of the waiting-girls, the queer +food, the clumsy use of chop-sticks, the numbness of her feet after +being sat upon for half an hour, all would set her off in peals of +unchecked laughter, so as to astonish her compatriots who naturally +enough mistook her for one of themselves. + +Once, with the aid of the girls of the hotel, she arrayed herself in +the garments of a Japanese lady of position with her hair dressed +in the shiny black helmet-shape, and her waist encased in the broad, +tight _obi_ or sash, which after all was no more uncomfortable than +a corset. Thus attired she came down to dinner one evening, trotting +behind her husband as a well-trained Japanese wife should do. In +foreign dress she appeared _petite_ and exotic, but one would have +hesitated to name the land of her birth. It was a shock to Geoffrey +to see her again in her native costume. In Europe, it had been a +distinction, but here, in Japan, it was like a sudden fading into the +landscape. He had never realised quite how entirely his wife was one +of these people. The short stature and the shuffling gait, the tiny +delicate hands, the grooved slit of the eyelids, and the oval of the +face were pure Japanese. The only incongruous elements were the white +ivory skin which, however, is a beauty not unknown among home-reared +Japanese women also, and, above all, the expression which looked out +of the dancing eyes and the red mouth ripe for kisses, an expression +of freedom, happiness, and natural high spirits, which is not to be +seen in a land where the women are hardly free, never natural, and +seldom happy. The Japanese woman's face develops a compressed look +which leaves the features a mere mask, and acquires very often a +furtive glance, as of a sharp-fanged animal half-tamed by fear, +something weasel-like or vixenish. + +Flaunting her native costume, Asako came down to dinner at the Miyako +Hotel, laughing, chattering, and imitating the mincing steps of her +country-women and their exaggerated politeness. Geoffrey tried to play +his part in the little comedy; but his good spirits were forced +and gradually silence fell between them, the silence which falls on +masqueraders in fancy dress, who have tried to play up to the spirit +of their costume, but whose imagination flags. Had Geoffrey been +able to think a little more deeply he would have realized that this +play-acting was a very visible sign of the gulf which yawned between +his wife and the yellow women of Japan. She was acting as a white +woman might have done, certain of the impossibility of confusion. But +Geoffrey for the first time felt his wife's exoticism, not from the +romantic and charming side, but from the ugly, sinister, and--horrible +word--inferior side of it. Had he married a coloured woman? Was he a +squaw's man? A sickening vision of _chonkina_ at Nagasaki rose before +his imagination. + +When dinner was over, and after Asako had received the congratulations +of the other guests, she retired upstairs to put on her _neglige_. +Geoffrey liked a cigar after dinner, but Asako objected to the heavy +aroma hanging about her bedroom. They therefore parted generally for +this brief half hour; and afterwards they would read and talk together +in their sitting-room. Like other people, they soon got into the +habit of going to bed early in a country where there were no theatres +playing in a comprehensible tongue, and no supper restaurants to turn +night into day. + +Geoffrey lit his cigar and made his way to the smoking-room. Two +elderly men, merchants from Kobe, were already sitting there over +whiskies and sodas, discussing a mutual acquaintance. + +"No, I don't see much of him," one of them, an American, was saying, +"nobody does nowadays. But take my word, when he came out here as a +young man he was one of the smartest young fellows in the East." + +"Yes, I can quite believe you," said the other, a stolid Englishman +with a briar pipe, "he struck me as an exceptionally well-educated +man." + +"He was more than that, I tell you. He was a financial genius. He was +a man with a great future." + +"Poor fellow!" said the other. "Well, he has only got himself to +thank." + +Geoffrey was not an eavesdropper by nature, but he found himself +getting interested in the fate of this anonymous failure, and wondered +if he was going to hear the cause of the man's downfall. + +"When these Japanese women get hold of a man," the American went on, +"they seem to drain the brightness out of him. Why, you have only got +to stroll around to the Kobe Club and look at the faces. You can +tell the ones that have Japanese wives or housekeepers right away. +Something seems to have gone right out of their expression." + +"It's worry," said the Englishman. "A fellow marries a Japanese girl, +and he finds he has to keep all her lazy relatives as well; and then a +crowd of half-caste brats come along, and he doesn't know whether they +are his own or not." + +"It is more than that," was the emphatic answer. "Men with white wives +have worry enough; and a man can go gay in the tea-houses, and none +the worse. But when once they marry them it is like signing a bond +with the devil. That man's damned." + +Geoffrey rose and left the room. He thought on the whole it was better +to withdraw than to hit that harsh-voiced Yankee hard in the eye. He +felt that his wife had been insulted. But the speaker could not +have known by whom he had been overheard. He had merely expressed an +opinion which, as a sudden instinct told Geoffrey, must be generally +prevalent among the white people living in this yellow country. Now +that he came to think of it, he remembered curious glances cast at him +and Asako by foreigners and also, strange to say, by Japanese, glances +half contemptuous. Had he acquired it already, that expression which +marked the faces of the unfortunates at the Kobe Club? He remembered +also tactless remarks on board ship, such as, "Mrs. Barrington +has lived all her life in England; of course, that makes all the +difference." + +Geoffrey looked at his reflection in the long mirror in the hall. +There were no signs as yet of premature damnation on the honest, +healthy British face. There were signs, perhaps, of ripened thought +and experience, of less superficial appreciation. The eyes seemed to +have withdrawn deeper into their sockets, like the figurines in toy +barometers when they feel wet weather coming. + +He was beginning to appreciate the force of the advice which had urged +him to beware of Japan. Here, in the hotbed of race prejudice, evil +spirits were abroad. It was so different in broad-hearted tolerant +London. Asako was charming and rich. She was received everywhere. +To marry her was no more strange than to marry a French girl or a +Russian. They could have lived peaceably in Europe; and her distant +fatherland would have added a pathetic charm to her personality. But +here in Japan, where between the handful of whites and the myriads of +yellow men stretches a No Man's Land, serrated and desolate, marked +with bloody fights, with suspicions and treacheries, Asako's position +as the wife of a white man and Geoffrey's position as the husband of a +yellow wife were entirely different. The stranger's phrases had summed +up the situation. They were no good, these white men who had pawned +their lives to yellow girls. They were the failures, the _rates_. +Geoffrey had heard of promising young officers in India who had +married native women and who had had to leave the service. He had +done the same. Better go gay in the tea-houses with Wigram. He was the +husband of a coloured woman. + +And then the crowd of half-caste brats? In England one hardly ever +thinks of the progeny of mixed races. That bitter word "half-caste" is +a distant echo of sensational novels. Geoffrey had not as yet noticed +the pale handsome children of Eurasia, Nature's latest and most +half-hearted experiment, whose seed, they say, is lost in the third +generation. But he had heard the tone of scorn which flung out the +term; and it suddenly occurred to him that his own children would be +half-castes. + +He was walking on the garden terrace overlooking the starry city. He +was thinking with an intensity unfamiliar to him and terrifying, like +a machine which is developing its fullest power, and is shaking a +framework unused to such a strain. He wanted a friend's presence, +a desultory chat with an old pal about people and things which they +shared in common. Thank God, Reggie Forsyth was in Tokyo. He would +leave to-morrow. He must see Reggie, laugh at his queer clever talk +again, relax himself, and feel sane. + +He was nervous of meeting his wife, lest her instinct might guess his +thoughts. Yet he must not leave her any longer or his absence would +make her anxious. Not that his love for Asako had been damaged; but +he felt that they were traveling along a narrow path over a bottomless +gulf in an unexplored country. + +He returned to the rooms and found her lying disconsolate on a sofa, +wrapped in a flimsy champagne-coloured dressing-gown, one of the +spoils of Paris. Her hair had been rapidly combed out of its formal +native arrangement. It looked draggled and hard as though she had been +bathing. Titine, the French maid, was removing the rejected debris of +kimono and sash. + +"Sweetheart, you've been crying," said Geoffrey, kissing her. + +"You didn't like me as a Jap, and you've been thinking terrible things +about me. Look at me, and tell me what you have been thinking." + +"Little Yum Yum talks great nonsense sometimes. As a matter of fact, I +was thinking of going on to Tokyo to-morrow. I think we've seen about +all there is to be seen here, don't you?" + +"Geoffrey, you want to see Reggie Forsyth. You're getting bored and +homesick already." + +"No, I'm not. I think it is a ripping country; in fact, I want to see +more of it. What I am wondering is whether we should take Tanaka." + + * * * * * + +This made Asako laugh. Any mention of Tanaka's name acted as a +talisman of mirth. Tanaka was the Japanese guide who had fixed himself +on to their company remora-like, with a fine flair for docile and +profitable travelers. + +He was a very small man, small even for a Japanese, but plump +withal. His back view looked like that of a little boy, an illusion +accentuated by the shortness of his coat and his small straw boater +with its colored ribbon. Even when he turned the illusion was not +quite dispelled; for his was a round, ruddy, chubby face with dimples, +a face with big cheeks ripe for smacking, and little sunken pig-like +eyes. + +He had stalked the Barringtons during their first excursion on foot +through the ancient city, knowing that sooner or later they would lose +their way. When the opportunity offered itself and he saw them gazing +vaguely round at cross-roads, he bore down upon them, raising his hat +and saying: + +"Can I assist you, sir?" + +"Yes; would you kindly tell me the way to the Miyako Hotel?" asked +Geoffrey. + +"I am myself _en route_," answered Tanaka. "Indeed we meet very _a +propos_." + +On the way he had discoursed about all there was to be seen in Kyoto. +Only, visitors must know their way about, or must have the service +of an experienced guide who was _au fait_ and who knew the "open +sesames." He pronounced this phrase "open sessums," and it was not +until late that night that its meaning dawned upon Geoffrey. + +Tanaka had a rich collection of foreign and idiomatic phrases, which +he must have learned by heart from a book and with which he adorned +his conversation. + +On his own initiative he had appeared next morning to conduct the two +visitors to the Emperor's palace, which he gave them to understand +was open for that day only, and as a special privilege due to Tanaka's +influence. While expatiating on the wonders to be seen, he brushed +Geoffrey's clothes and arranged them with the care of a trained valet. +In the evening, when they returned to the hotel and Asako complained +of pains in her shoulder, Tanaka showed himself to be an adept at +massage. + +Next morning he was again at his post; and Geoffrey realized that +another member had been added to his household. He acted as their +_cicerone_ or "siseroan," as he pronounced it, to temple treasuries +and old palace gardens, to curio-shops and to little native +eating-houses. The Barringtons submitted, not because they liked +Tanaka, but because they were good-natured, and rather lost in this +new country. Besides, Tanaka clung like a leech and was useful in many +ways. + +Only on Sunday morning it was the hotel boy who brought their early +morning tea. Tanaka was absent. When he made his appearance he wore a +grave expression which hardly suited his round face; and he carried a +large black prayer-book. He explained that he had been to church. He +was a Christian, Greek Orthodox. At least so he said, but afterwards +Geoffrey was inclined to think that this was only one of his +mystifications to gain the sympathy of his victims and to create a +bond between him and them. + +His method was one of observation, imitation and concealed +interrogation. The long visits to the Barringtons' rooms, the time +spent in clothes-brushing and in massage, were so much opportunity +gained for inspecting the room and its inhabitants, for gauging +their habits and their income, and for scheming out how to derive the +greatest possible advantage for himself. + +The first results of this process were almost unconscious. The wide +collar, in which his face had wobbled Micawber-like, disappeared; and +a small double collar, like the kind Geoffrey wore, took its place. +The garish neck-tie and hatband were replaced by discreet black. He +acquired the attitudes and gestures of his employer in a few days. + +As for the cross-examination, it took place in the evening, when +Geoffrey was tired, and Tanaka was taking off his boots. + +"Previous to the _fiancee_," Tanaka began, "did Lady Barrington live +long time in Japan?" + +He was lavish with titles, considering that money and nobility in such +people must be inseparable; besides, experience had taught him that +the use of such honorifics never came amiss. + +"No; she left when she was quite a little baby." + +"Ladyship has Japanese name?" + +"Asako Fujinami. Do you know the name, Tanaka?" + +The Japanese set his head on one side to indicate an attitude of +reflection. + +"Tokyo?" he suggested. + +"Yes, from Tokyo." + +"Does Lordship pay his _devoir_ to relatives of Ladyship?" + +"Yes, I suppose so, when we go to Tokyo." + +"Ladyship's relatives have noble residence?" asked Tanaka; it was his +way of inquiring if they were rich. + +"I really don't know at all," answered Geoffrey. + +"Then I will detect for Lordship. It will be better. A man can do +great foolishness if he does not detect." + +After this Geoffrey discouraged Tanaka. But Asako thought him a huge +joke. He made himself very useful and agreeable, fetching and carrying +for her, and amusing her with his wonderful English. He almost +succeeded in dislodging Titine from her cares for her mistress's +person. Geoffrey had once objected, on being expelled from his wife's +bedroom during a change of raiment: + +"But Tanaka was there. You don't mind him seeing you apparently." + +Asako had burst out laughing. + +"Oh, he isn't a man. He isn't real at all. He says that I am like a +flower, and that I am very beautiful in '_deshabeel_.'" + +"That sounds real enough," grunted Geoffrey, "and very like a man." + +Perhaps, innocent as she was, Asako enjoyed playing off Tanaka against +her husband, just as it certainly amused her to watch the jealousy +between Titine and the Japanese. It gave her a pleasant sense of power +to see her big husband look so indignant. + +"How old do you think Tanaka is?" he asked her one day. + +"Oh, about eighteen or nineteen," she answered. She was not yet used +to the deceptiveness of Japanese appearances. + +"He does not look more sometimes," said her husband; "but he has the +ways and the experience of a very old hand. I wouldn't mind betting +you that he is thirty." + +"All right," said Asako, "give me the jade Buddha if you are wrong." + +"And what will you give me if I am right?" said Geoffrey. + +"Kisses," replied his wife. + +Geoffrey went out to look for Tanaka. In a quarter of an hour he came +back, triumphant. + +"My kisses, sweetheart," he demanded. + +"Wait," said Asako; "how old is he?" + +"I went out of the front door and there was Master Tanaka, telling the +rickshaw-men the latest gossip about us. I said to him, 'Tanaka, +are you married?' 'Yes, Lordship,' he answered, 'I am widower.' 'Any +children?' I asked again. 'I have two progenies,' he said; 'they are +soldiers of His Majesty the Emperor.' 'Why, how old are you?' I asked. +'Forty-three years,' he answered. 'You are very well preserved for a +man of your age,' I said, and I have come back for my kisses." + +After this monstrous deception Geoffrey had declared that he would +dismiss Tanaka. + +"A man who goes about like that," he said, "is a living lie." + + * * * * * + +Two days later, early in the morning, they left Kyoto by the great +metal high road of Japan, which has replaced the famous way known as +the _Tokaido_, sacred in history, legend and art. Every stone has its +message for Japanese eyes, every tree its association with poetry or +romance. Even among Western connoisseurs of Japanese wood engraving, +its fifty-two resting places are as familiar as the Stations of the +Cross. Such is the _Tokaido_, the road between the two capitals of +Kyoto and Tokyo, still haunted by the ghosts of the Emperor's ox-drawn +wagons, the _Shoguns'_ lacquered palanquins, by feudal warriors in +their death-like armour, and by the swinging strides of the _samurai_. + +"Look, look, Fujiyama!" + +There was a movement in the observation-car, where Geoffrey and his +wife were watching the unfolding of their new country. The sea was +away to the right beyond the tea-fields and the pine-woods. To the +left was the base of a mountain. Its summit was wrapped in cloud. From +the fragment visible, it was possible to appreciate the architecture +of the whole--_ex pede Herculem_. It took the train quite one hour to +travel over that arc of the circuit of Fuji, which it must pass on its +way to Tokyo. During this time, the curtained presence of the great +mountain dominated the landscape. Everything seemed to lead up to that +mantle of cloud. The terraced rice fields rose towards it, the trees +slanted towards it, the moorland seemed to be pulled upwards, and the +skin of the earth was stretched taut over some giant limb which +had pushed itself up from below, the calm sea was waiting for its +reflection, and even the microscopic train seemed to swing in its +orbit round the mountain like an unwilling satellite. + +"It's a pity we can't see it," said Geoffrey. + +"Yes; it's the only big thing in the whole darned country," said a +saturnine American, sitting opposite; "and then, when you get on to +it, it's just a heap of cinders." + +Asako was not worrying about the landscape. Her thoughts were directed +to a family of well-to-do Japanese, first-class passengers, who had +settled in the observation car for half an hour or so, and had then +withdrawn. There was a father, his wife and two daughters, wax-like +figures who did not utter a word but glided shadow-like in and out of +the compartment. Were they relations of hers? + +Then, when she and her husband passed down the corridor train to +lunch, and through the swarming second-class carriages, she wondered +once more, as she saw male Japan sprawling its length over the +seats in the ugliest attitudes of repose, and female Japan squatting +monkey-like and cleaning ears and nostrils with scraps of paper +or wiping stolid babies. The carriages swarmed with children, with +luggage and litter. The floors were a mess of spilled tea, broken +earthenware cups and splintered wooden boxes. Cheap baggage was +piled up everywhere, with wicker baskets, paper parcels, bundles of +drab-coloured wraps, and cases of imitation leather. Among this debris +children were playing unchecked, smearing their faces with rice cakes, +and squashing the flies on the window pane. + +Were any of these her relatives? Asako shuddered. How much did she +actually know about these far-away cousins? She could just remember +her father. She could recall great brown shining eyes, and a thin face +wasted by the consumption which killed him, and a tenderness of voice +and manner quite apart from anything which she had ever experienced +since. This soon came to an end. After that she had known only the +conscientiously chilly care of the Muratas. They had told her that her +mother had died when she was born, and that her father was so unhappy +that he had left Japan forever. Her father was a very clever man. +He had read all the English and French and German books. He had left +special word when he was dying that Asako was not to go back to Japan, +that Japanese men were bad to women, that she was to be brought up +among French girls and was to marry a European or an American. But the +Muratas could not tell her any intimate details about her father, whom +they had not known very well. Again, although they were aware that she +had rich cousins living in Tokyo, they did not know them personally +and could tell her nothing. + +Her father had left no papers, only his photograph, the picture of a +delicate, good-looking, sad-faced man in black cloak and kimono, and a +little French book called _Pensees de Pascal_, at the end of which was +written the address of Mr. Ito, the lawyer in Tokyo through whom the +dividends were paid, and that of "my cousin Fujinami Gentaro." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE EMBASSY + + _Tsuyu no yo no + Tsuyu no yo nagara + Sari nagara!_ + + While this dewdrop world + Is but a dewdrop world, + Yet--all the same!-- + + +The fabric of our lives is like a piece of knitting, terribly botched +and bungled in most cases. There are stitches which are dropped, +sometimes to be swallowed up and forgotten in the superstructure, +sometimes to be picked up again after a lapse of years. These stitches +are old friendships. + +The first stitch from Geoffrey's bachelor days to be worked back into +the scheme of his married life was his friendship for Reggie Forsyth, +who had been best man at his wedding and who had since then been +appointed Secretary to the Embassy at Tokyo. + +Reggie had received a telegram saying that Geoffrey was coming. He was +very pleased. He had reached that stage in the progress of exile +where one is inordinately happy to see any old friend. In fact, he +was beginning to be "fed up" with Japan, with its very limited +distractions, and with the monotony of his diplomatic colleagues. + +Instead of going to the tennis court, which was his usual afternoon +occupation, he had spent the time in arranging his rooms, shifting +the furniture, rehanging the pictures, paying especial care to the +disposition of his Oriental curios, his recent purchases, his last +enthusiasms in this land of languor. Reggie collected Buddhas, Chinese +snuff-bottles and lacquered medicine cases--called _inro_ in Japanese. + +"Caviare to the general!" murmured Reggie, as he gloated over a +chaste design of fishes in mother-of-pearl, a pseudo-Korin. "Poor old +Geoffrey! He's only a barbarian; but perhaps she will be interested. +Here, T[=o]!" he called out to an impassive Japanese man-servant, "have +the flowers come yet, and the little trees?" + +T[=o] produced from the back regions of the house a quantity of dwarf +trees, planted as miniature landscapes in shallow porcelain dishes, +and big fronds of budding cherry blossom. + +Reggie arranged the blossom in a triumphal arch over the corner table, +where stood the silent company of the Buddhas. From among the trees +he chose his favourite, a kind of dwarf cedar, to place between the +window, opening on to a sunny veranda, and an old gold screen, across +whose tender glory wound the variegated comicality of an Emperor's +traveling procession, painted by a Kano artist of three centuries ago. + +He removed the books which were lying about the room--grim Japanese +grammars, and forbidding works on International Law; and in +their place he left volumes of poetry and memoirs, and English +picture-papers strewn about in artistic disorder. Then he gave the +silver frames of his photographs to To to be polished, the photographs +of fair women signed with Christian names, of diplomats in grand +uniforms, and of handsome foreigners. + +Having reduced the serious atmosphere of his study so as to give an +impression of amiable indolence, Reggie Forsyth lit a cigarette and +strolled out into the garden, amused at his own impatience. In London +he would never have bestirred himself for old Geoffrey Barrington, who +was only a Philistine, after all, with no sense of the inwardness of +things. + +Reggie was a slim and graceful young man, with thin fair hair brushed +flat back from his forehead. A certain projection of bones under the +face gave him an almost haggard look; and his dancing blue eyes seemed +to be never still. He wore a suit of navy serge fitting close to his +figure, black tie, and grey spats. In fact, he was as immaculate as a +young diplomat should always be. + +Outside his broad veranda was a gravel path, and beyond that a +Japanese garden, the hobby of one of his predecessors, a miniature +domain of hillocks and shrubs, with the inevitable pebbly water +course, in which a bronze crane was perpetually fishing. Over the +red-brick wall which encircles the Embassy compound the reddish buds +of a cherry avenue were bursting in white stars. + +The compound of the Embassy is a fragment of British soil. The British +flag floats over it; and the Japanese authorities have no power +within its walls. Its large population of Japanese servants, about one +hundred and fifty in all, are free from the burden of Japanese taxes; +and, since the police may not enter, gambling, forbidden throughout +the Empire, flourishes there; and the rambling servants' quarters +behind the Ambassador's house are the Monte Carlo of the Tokyo _betto_ +(coachman) and _kurumaya_ (rickshaw runner). However, since the +alarming discovery that a professional burglar had, Diogenes-like, +been occupying an old tub in a corner of the wide grounds, a policeman +has been allowed to patrol the garden; but he has to drop that +omnipotent swagger which marks his presence outside the walls. + +Except for Reggie Forsyth's exotic shrubbery, there is nothing +Japanese within the solid red walls. The Embassy itself is the house +of a prosperous city gentleman and might be transplanted to Bromley or +Wimbledon. The smaller houses of the secretaries and the interpreters +also wear a smug, suburban appearance, with their red brick and their +black-and-white gabling. Only the broad verandas betray the intrusion +of a warmer sun than ours. + +The lawns were laid out as a miniature golf-links, the thick masses +of Japanese shrubs forming deadly bunkers, and Reggie was trying some +mashie shots when one of the rare Tokyo taxi-cabs, carrying Geoffrey +Barrington inside it, came slowly round a corner of the drive, as +though it were feeling its way for its destination among such a +cluster of houses. + +Geoffrey was alone. + +"Hello, old chap!" cried Reggie, running up and shaking his friend's +big paw in his small nervous grip, "I'm so awfully glad to see you; +but where's Mrs. Barrington?" + +Geoffrey had not brought his wife. He explained that they had been +to pay their first call on Japanese relations, and that they had been +honourably out; but even so the strain had been a severe one, and +Asako had retired to rest at the hotel. + +"But why not come and stay here with me?" suggested Reggie. "I have +got plenty of spare rooms; and there is such a gulf fixed between +people who inhabit hotels and people with houses of their own. They +see life from an entirely different point of view; their spirits +hardly ever meet." + +"Have you room for eight large boxes of dresses and kimonos, several +cases of curios, a French maid, a Japanese guide, two Japanese dogs +and a monkey from Singapore?" + +Reggie whistled. + +"No really, is it as bad as all that? I was thinking that marriage +meant just one extra person. It would have been fun having you both +here, and this is the only place in Tokyo fit to live in." + +"It looks a comfortable little place," agreed Geoffrey. They had +reached the secretary's house, and the newcomer was admiring its +artistic arrangement. + +"Just like your rooms in London!" + +Reggie prided himself on the exclusively oriental character of his +habitation, and its distinction from any other dwelling place which +he had ever possessed. But then Geoffrey was only a Philistine, after +all. + +"I suppose it's the photographs which look like old times," Geoffrey +went on. "How's little Veronique?" + +"Veronica married an Argentine beef magnate, a German Jew, the +nastiest person I have ever avoided meeting." + +"Poor old Reggie! Was that why you came to Japan?" + +"Partly; and partly because I had a chief in the Foreign Office who +dared to say that I was lacking in practical experience of diplomacy. +He sent me to this comic country to find it." + +"And you have found it right enough," said Geoffrey, inspecting a +photograph of a Japanese girl in her dark silk kimono with a dainty +flower pattern round the skirts and at the fall of the long sleeves. +She was not unlike Asako; only there was a fraction of an inch more of +bridge to her nose, and in that fraction lay the secret of her birth. + +"That is my latest inspiration," said Reggie. "Listen!" + +He sat down at the piano and played a plaintive little air, small and +sweet and shivering. + +"_Japonaiserie d'hiver_," he explained. + +Then he changed the burden of his song into a melody rapid and +winding, with curious tricklings among the bass notes. + +"Lamia," said Reggie, "or Lilith." + +"There's no tune in that last one; you can't whistle it," said +Geoffrey, who exaggerated his Philistinism to throw Reggie's artistic +nature into stronger relief. "But what has that got to do with the +lady?" + +"Her name is Smith," said Reggie. "I know it is almost impossible and +terribly sad; but her other name is Yae. Rather wild and savage--isn't +it? Like the cry of a bird in the night-time, or of a cannibal tribe +on the warpath." + +"And is this your oriental version of Veronique?" asked his friend. + +"No," said Reggie, "it is a different chapter of experience +altogether. Perhaps old Hardwick was right. I still have much to +learn, thank God. Veronique was personal; Yae is symbolic. She is my +model, just like a painter's model, only more platonic. She is the +East to me; for I cannot understand the East pure and undiluted. She +is a country-woman of mine on her father's side, and therefore easier +to understand. Impersonality and fatalism, the Eastern Proteus, in +the grip of self-insistence and idealism, the British Hercules. A +butterfly body with this cosmic war shaking it incessantly. Poor +child! no wonder she seems always tired." + +"She is a half-caste?" asked Geoffrey. + +"Bad word, bad word. She isn't half-anything; and caste suggests India +and suttees. She is a Eurasian, a denizen of a dream country which has +a melodious name and no geographical existence. Have you ever +heard anybody ask where Eurasia was? I have. A traveling Member of +Parliament's wife at the Embassy here only a few months ago. I said +that it was a large undiscovered country lying between the Equator and +Tierra del Fuego. She seemed quite satisfied, and wondered whether +it was very hot there; she remembered having heard a missionary once +complain that the Eurasians wore so very few clothes! But to return +to Yae, you must meet her. This evening? No? To-morrow then. You will +like her because, she looks something like Asako; and she will adore +you because you are utterly unlike me. She comes here to inspire me +once or twice a week. She says she likes me because everything in +my house smells so sweet. That is the beginning of love, I sometimes +think. Love enters the soul through the nostrils. If you doubt me, +observe the animals. But foreign houses in Japan are haunted by a +smell of dust and mildew. You cannot love in them. She likes to lie +on my sofa, and smoke cigarettes, and do nothing, and listen to my +playing tunes about her." + +"You are very impressionable," said his friend. "If it were anybody +else I should say you were in love with this girl." + +"I am still the same, Geoffrey; always in love--and never." + +"But what about the other people here?" Barrington asked. + +"There are none, none who count. I am not impressionable. I am just +short-sighted. I have to focus my weak vision on one person and +neglect the rest." + + * * * * * + +A rickshaw was waiting to take Geoffrey back to the hotel. Under the +saffron light of an uncanny sunset, which barred the western heavens +with three broad streaks of orange and inky-blue like a gypsy girl's +kerchief, the odd little vehicle rolled down the hill of Miyakezaka +which overhangs the moat of the Imperial Palace. + +The latent soul of Tokyo, the mystery of Japan, lies within the +confines of that moat, which is the only great majestic thing in an +untidy rambling village of more than two million living beings. + +The Palace of the Mikado--a title by the way which is never used among +Japanese--is hidden from sight. That is the first remarkable thing +about it. The gesture of Versailles, the challenge of "_l'etat c'est +moi_," the majestic vulgarity which the millionaire of the moment can +mimic with a vulgarity less majestic, are here entirely absent; and +one cannot mimic the invisible. + +Hardly, on bare winter days, when the sheltering groves are stripped, +and the saddened heart is in need of reassurance, appears a green +lustre of copper roofs. + +The _Goshoe_ at Tokyo is not a sovereign's palace; it is the abode of a +God. + +The surrounding woods and gardens occupy a space larger than Hyde +Park in the very centre of the city. One well-groomed road crosses +an extreme corner of this estate. Elsewhere only privileged feet may +tread. This is a vast encumbrance in a modern commercial metropolis, +but a striking tribute to the unseen. + +The most noticeable feature of the Palace is its moats. These lie in +three or four concentric circles, the defences of ancient Yedo, whose +outer lines have now been filled up by modern progress and an electric +railway. They are broad sheets of water as wide as the Thames at +Oxford, where ducks are floating and fishing. Beyond is a _glacis_ +of vivid grass, a hundred feet high at some points, topped by vast +iron-grey walls of cyclopean boulder-work, with the sudden angles of +a Vauban fortress. Above these walls the weird pine-trees of Japan +extend their lean tormented boughs. Within is the Emperor's domain. + +Geoffrey was hurrying homeward along the banks of the moat. The +stagnant, viscous water was yellow under the sunset, and a yellow +light hung over the green slopes, the grey walls and the dark tree +tops. An echelon of geese passed high overhead in the region of the +pale moon. Within the mysterious _enclave_ of the "Son of Heaven" the +crows were uttering their harsh sarcastic croak. + +Witchery is abroad in Tokyo during this brief sunset hour. The +mongrel nature of the city is less evident. The pretentious Government +buildings of the New Japan assume dignity with the deep shadows and +the heightening effect of the darkness. The untidy network of tangled +wires fades into the coming obscurity. The rickety trams, packed to +overflowing with the city crowds returning homeward, become creeping +caterpillars of light. Lights spring up along the banks of the moat. +More lights are reflected from its depth. Dark shadows gather like +a frown round the Gate of the Cherry Field, where Ii Kamon no Kami's +blood stained the winter snow-drifts some sixty years ago, because he +dared to open the Country of the Gods to the contemptible foreigners; +and in the cry of the _tofu_-seller echoes the voice of old Japan, a +long-drawn wail, drowned at last by the grinding of the tram wheels +and the lash and crackle of the connecting-rods against the overhead +lines. + +Geoffrey, sitting back in his rickshaw, turned up his coat-collar, and +watched the gathering pall of cloud extinguishing the sunset. + +"Looks like snow," he said to himself; "but it is impossible!" + +At the entrance to the Imperial Hotel--a Government institution, as +almost everything in Japan ultimately turns out to be--Tanaka was +standing in his characteristic attitude of a dog who waits for his +master's return. Characteristically also, he was talking to a man, +a Japanese, a showy person with spectacles and oily buffalo-horn +moustaches, dressed in a vivid pea-green suit. However, at Geoffrey's +approach, this individual raised his bowler-hat, bobbed and vanished; +and Tanaka assisted his patron to descend from his rickshaw. + +As he approached the door of his suite, a little cloud of hotel _boys_ +scattered like sparrows. This phenomenon did not as yet mean anything +to Geoffrey. The native servants were not very real to him. But he +was soon to realize that the _boy san_--Mister Boy, as his dignity now +insists on being called--is more than an amusing contribution to the +local atmosphere. When his smiles, his bows, and his peculiar English +begin to pall, he reveals himself in his true light as a constant +annoyance and a possible danger. Hell knows no fury like the untipped +"_boy san_" He refuses to answer the bell. He suddenly understands no +English at all. He bangs all the doors. He spends his spare moments +in devising all kinds of petty annoyances, damp and dirty sheets, +accidental damage to property, surreptitious draughts. And to vex one +_boy san_ is to antagonize the whole caste; it is a boycott. At last +the tip is given. Sudden sunshine, obsequious manners, attention of +all kinds--for ever dwindling periods, until at last the _boy san_ +attains his end, a fat retaining fee, extorted at regular intervals. + +But even more exasperating, since no largesse can cure it, is his +national bent towards espionage. What does he do with his spare time, +of which he has so much? He spends it in watching and listening to the +hotel guests. He has heard legends of large sums paid for silence or +for speech. There may be money in it, therefore, and there is always +amusement. So the only housework which the _boy san_ does really +willingly, is to dust the door, polish the handle, wipe the +threshold;--anything in fact which brings him into the propinquity of +the keyhole. What he observes or overhears, he exchanges with another +_boy san_; and the hall porter or the head waiter generally serves as +Chief Intelligence Bureau, and is always in touch with the Police. + +The arrival of guests so remarkable as the Barringtons became, +therefore, at once a focus for the curiosity the ambition of the _boy +sans_. And a rickshaw-man had told the lodgekeeper, whose wife told +the wife of one of the cooks, who told the head waiter, that there was +some connection between these visitors and the rich Fujinami. All the +_boy sans_ knew what the Fujinami meant; so here was a cornucopia of +unwholesome secrets. It was the most likely game which had arrived at +the Imperial Hotel for years, ever since the American millionaire's +wife who ran away with a San Francisco Chinaman. + +But to Geoffrey, when he broke up the gathering, the _boy sans_ were +just a lot of queer little Japs. + +Asako was lying on her sofa, reading. Titine was brushing her hair. +Asako, when she read, which was not often, preferred literature of +the sentimental school, books like _The Rosary_, with stained glass in +them, and tragedy overcome by nobleness of character. + +"I've been lonely without you and nervous," she said, "and I've had a +visitor already." + +She pointed to a card lying on a small round table, a flimsy card +printed--not engraved--on cream-coloured pasteboard. Geoffrey picked +it up with a smile. + +"Curio dealers?" he asked. + +Japanese letters were printed on one side and English on the other. + +[Illustration: _S. ITO_ _Attorney of Law_] + +"Ito, that's the lawyer fellow, who pays the dividends. Did you see +him." + +"Oh, no, I was much too weary. But he has only just gone. You probably +passed him on the stairs." + +Geoffrey could only think of the vivid gentleman, who had been talking +with Tanaka. The guide was sent for and questioned, but he knew +nothing. The gentleman in green had merely stopped to ask him the +time. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE HALF-CASTE GIRL + + + _Tomarite mo + Tsubasa wa ugoku + Kocho kana!_ + + Little butterfly! + Even when it settles + Its wings are moving. + + +Next morning it was snowing and bitterly cold. Snow in Japan, snow in +April, snow upon the cherry trees, what hospitality was this? + +The snow fell all day, muffling the silent city. Silence is at all +times one of Tokyo's characteristics. For so large and important a +metropolis it is strangely silent always. The only continuous street +noise is the grating and crackling of the trams. The lumbering of +horse vehicles and the pulsation of motor traffic are absent; for as +beasts of burden horses are more costly than men, and in 1914 motor +cars were still a novelty. Since the war boom, of course, every +_narikin (nouveau riche)_ has rushed to buy his car; but even so, the +state of the roads, which alternate between boulders and slush, do +not encourage the motorist, and are impassable for heavy lorries. So +incredible weights and bundles are moved on hand-barrows; and bales of +goods and stacks of produce are punted down the dark waterways which +give to parts of Tokyo a Venetian picturesqueness. Passengers, too +proud to walk, flit past noiselessly in rubber-tyred rickshaws--which +are not, as many believe, an ancient and typical Oriental conveyance, +but the modern invention of an English missionary called Robinson. +The hum of the city is dominated by the screech of the tramcars in the +principal streets and by the patter of the wooden clogs, an incessant, +irritating sound like rain. But these were now hushed by the snow. + +Neither the snow nor the other of Nature's discouragements can keep +the Japanese for long indoors. Perhaps it is because their own houses +are so draughty and uncomfortable. + +This day they were out in their thousands, men and women, drifting +aimlessly along the pavements, as is their wont, wrapped in grey +ulsters, their necks protected by ragged furs, pathetic spoils of +domestic tabbies, and their heads sheltered under those wide oil-paper +umbrellas, which have become a symbol of Japan in foreign eyes, the +gigantic sunflowers of rainy weather, huge blooms of dark blue or +black or orange, inscribed with the name and address of the owner in +cursive Japanese script. + +Most of these people are wearing _ashida_, high wooden clogs perilous +to the balance, which raise them as on stilts above the street level +and add to the fantastical appearance of these silent shuffling +multitudes. + +The snow falls, covering the city's meannesses, its vulgar apings of +Americanisms, its crude advertisements. On the other hand, the +true native architecture asserts itself, and becomes more than ever +attractive. The white purity seems to gather all this miniature +perfection, these irregular roofs, these chalet balconies, these broad +walls and studies in rock and tree under a close-fitting cape, its +natural winter garment. + + * * * * * + +The first chill of the rough weather kept Geoffrey and Asako by their +fireside. But the indoor amenities of Japanese hotel life are few. +There is a staleness in the public rooms and an angular discord in the +private sitting-rooms, which condemn the idea of a comfortable day +of reading, or of writing to friends at home about the Spirit of the +East. So at the end of the first half of a desolate afternoon, a visit +to the Embassy suggested itself. + +They left the hotel, ushered on their way by bowing _boy sans_; and +in a few minutes an unsteady motor-car, careless of obstacles and +side-slips, had whirled them through the slushy streets into +the British compound, which only wanted a robin to look like the +conventional Christmas card. + +It was a pleasant shock, after long traveling through countries +modernized in a hurry, to be received by an English butler against a +background of thick Turkey carpet, mahogany hall table and Buhl clock. +It was like a bar of music long-forgotten to see the fall of snowy +white cards accumulating in their silver bowl. + +Lady Cynthia Cairns's drawing-room was not an artistic apartment; it +was too comfortable for that. There were too many chairs and sofas; +and they were designed on broad lines for the stolid, permanent +sitting of stout, comfortable bodies. There were too many photographs +on view of persons distinguished for their solidity rather than for +their good looks, the portraits of the guests whom one would expect +to find installed in those chairs. A grand piano was there; but the +absence of any music in its neighbourhood indicated that its purpose +was chiefly to symbolize harmony in the home life, and to provide a +spacious crush-room for the knick-knacks overflowing from many tables. +These were dominated by a large signed photograph of Queen Victoria. +In front of an open fireplace, where bright logs were crackling, slept +an enormous black cat on a leopard's skin hearthrug. + +Out of this sea of easy circumstances rose Lady Cynthia. A daughter +of the famous Earl of Cheviot, hers was a short but not unmajestic +figure, encased in black silks which rustled and showed flashes of +beads and jet in the dancing light of the fire. She had the firm pose +of a man, and a face entirely masculine with strong lips and chin and +humourous grey eyes, the face of a judge. + +Miss Gwendolen Cairns, who had apparently been reading to her mother +when the visitors arrived, was a tall girl with fair _cendre_ hair. +The simplicity of the cut of her dress and its pale green color +showed artistic sympathies of the old aesthetic kind. The maintained +amiability of her expression and manner indicated her life's task of +smoothing down feelings ruffled by her mother's asperities, and of +oiling the track of her father's career. + +"How are you, my dears?" Lady Cynthia was saying. "I'm so glad you've +come in spite of the tempest. Gwendolen was just reading me to sleep. +Do you ever read to your husband, Mrs. Barrington? It is a good idea, +if only your voice is sufficiently monotonous." + +"I hope we haven't interrupted you," murmured Asako, who was rather +alarmed at the great lady's manner. + +"It was a shock when I heard the bell ring. I cried out in my +sleep--didn't I, Gwendolen?--and said, 'It's the Beebees!'" + +"I'm glad it wasn't as bad as all that," said Geoffrey, coming to his +wife's rescue; "would that have been the worst that could possibly +happen?" + +"The very worst," Lady Cynthia answered. "Professor Beebee teaches +something or other to the Japanese, and he and Mrs. Beebee have lived +in Japan for the last forty years. They remind me of that old tortoise +at the Zoo, who has lived at the bottom of the sea for so many +centuries that he is quite covered with seaweed and barnacles. But +they are very sorry for me, because I only came here yesterday. They +arrive almost every day to instruct me in the path in which I should +go, and to eat my cakes by the dozen. They don't have any dinner the +days they come here for tea. Mrs. Beebee is the Queen of the Goonies." + +"Who are the Goonies?" asked Geoffrey. + +"The rest of the old tortoises. They are missionaries and professors +and their wives and daughters. The sons, of course, run away and go to +the bad. There are quite a lot of the Goonies, and I see much more of +them than I do of the _geishas_ and the _samurais_ and the _harakiris_ +and all the Eastern things, which Gwendolen will talk about when she +gets home. She is going to write a book, poor girl. There's nothing +else to do in this country except to write about what is not here. +It's very easy, you know. You copy it all out of some one else's book, +only you illustrate it with your own snapshots. The publishers say +that there is a small but steady demand, chiefly for circulating +libraries in America. You see, I have been approached already on the +subject, and I have not been here many months. So you've seen Reggie +Forsyth already, he tells me. What do you think of him?" + +"Much the same as usual; he seemed rather bored." + +Lady Cynthia had led her guest away from the fireside, where Gwendolen +Cairns was burbling to Asako. + +Geoffrey could feel the searchlight of her judicial eye upon him, and +a sensation like the pause when a great man enters a room. Something +essential was going to invade the commonplace talk. + +"Captain Barrington, your coming here just now is most providential. +Reggie Forsyth is not bored at all, far from it." + +"I thought he would like the country," said Geoffrey guardedly. + +"He doesn't like the country. Why should he? But he likes somebody in +the country. Now do you understand?" + +"Yes," agreed Geoffrey, "he showed me the photograph of a half +Japanese girl. He said that she was his inspiration for local colour." + +"Exactly, and she's turning his brain yellow," snapped Lady Cynthia, +forgetting, as everybody else did, including Geoffrey himself, +that the same criticism might apply to Asako. However, Geoffrey was +becoming more sensitive of late. He blushed a little and fidgeted, but +he answered,-- + +"Reggie has always been easily inflammable." + +"Oh, in England, perhaps, it's good for a boy's education; but out +here, Captain Barrington, it is different. I have lived for a long +time East of Suez; and I know the danger of these love episodes in +countries where there is nothing else to do, nothing else to talk +about. I am a gossip myself; so I know the harm gossip can do." + +"But is it so serious, Lady Cynthia? Reggie rather laughed about it to +me. He said, 'I am in love always--and never!'" + +"She is a dangerous young lady," said the Ambassadress. "Two years ago +a young business man out here was engaged to be married to her. In the +autumn his body was washed ashore near Yokohama. He had been bathing +imprudently, and yet he was a good swimmer Last year two officers +attached to the Embassy fought a duel, and one was badly wounded. It +was turned into an accident of course; but they were both admirers of +hers. This year it is Reggie's turn. And Reggie is a man with a great +future. It would be a shame to lose him." + +"Lady Cynthia, aren't you being rather pessimistic? Besides, what can +I do?" + +"Anything, everything! Eat with him, drink with him, play cards with +him, go to the dogs with him--no, what a pity you are married! But, +even so, it's better than nothing. Play tennis with him; take him to +the top of Fujiyama. I can do nothing with him. He flouts me publicly. +The old man can give him an official scolding; and Reginald will just +mimic him for the benefit of the Chancery. I can hear them laughing +all the way from here when Reggie is doing what he calls one of his +'stunts'. But you--why, he can see in your face the whole of +London, the London which he respects and appreciates in spite of his +cosmopolitan airs. He can see himself introducing Miss Yae Smith in +Lady Everington's drawing-room as Mrs. Forsyth." + +"Is there a great objection?" asked Geoffrey. + +"It is impossible," said Lady Cynthia. + +A sudden weariness came over Geoffrey. Did that ruthless "Impossible" +apply to his case also? Would Lady Everington's door be closed to him +on his return? Was he guilty of that worst offence against Good Form, +a _mesalliance_? Or was Asako saved--by her money? Something unfair +was impending. He looked at the two girls seated by the fireside, +sipping their tea and laughing together. He must have shown signs of +his embarrassment, for Lady Cynthia said,-- + +"Don't be absurd, Captain Barrington. The case is entirely different. +A lady is always a lady, whether she is born in England or Japan. Miss +Smith is not a lady; still worse, she is a half-caste, the daughter of +an adventurer journalist and a tea-house woman. What can one expect? +It is bad blood." + + * * * * * + +After taking leave of the Cairns, Geoffrey and Asako crossed the +garden compound, white and Christmas-like under its covering of +snow. They found their way down the by-path which led to the discreet +seclusion of Reggie Forsyth's domain. The leaping of fire shadows +against the lowered blinds gave a warm and welcoming impression of +shelter and comfort; and still more welcoming were the sounds of the +piano. It was a pleasure for the travellers to hear, for they had long +been unaccustomed to the sound of music. Music should be the voice +of the soul of the house; in the discord of hotels it is lost and +scattered, but the home which is without music is dumb and imperfect. + +Reggie must have heard them coming, for he changed the dreamy melody +which he was playing into the chorus of a popular song which had been +rife in London a year ago. Geoffrey laughed. "Father's home again! +Father's home again!" he hummed, fitting the words to the tune, as he +waited for the door to open. + +They were greeted in the passage by Reggie. He was dressed in all +respects like a Japanese gentleman, in black silk _haori_ (cloak), +brown wadded kimono and fluted _hakama_ (skirt). He wore white _tabi_ +(socks) and straw _zori_ (slippers). It is a becoming and sensible +dress for any man. + +"I thought it must be you," he laughed, "so I played the watchword. +Fancy you're being so homesick already. Please come in, Mrs. +Harrington. I have often longed to see you in Japan, but I never +thought you would come; and let me take your coat off. You will find +it quite warm indoors." + +It was warm indeed. There was the heat of a green-house in Reggie's +artistically ordered room. It was larger too than on the occasion +of Geoffrey's visit; for the folding doors which led into a further +apartment were thrown open. Two big fires were blazing; and old gold +screens, glittering like Midas's treasury, warded off the draught from +the windows. The air was heavy with fumes of incense still rising from +a huge brass brazier, full of glowing charcoal and grey sand, placed +in the middle of the floor. In one corner stood the Buddha table +twinkling in the firelight. The miniature trees were disposed along +the inner wall. There was no other furniture except an enormous black +cushion lying between the brazier and the fireplace; and in the middle +of the cushion--a little Japanese girl. + +She was squatting on her white-gloved toes in native fashion. Her +kimono was sapphire blue, and it was fastened by a huge silver sash +with a blue and green peacock embroidered on the fold of the bow, +which looked like great wings and was almost as big as the rest of the +little person put together. Her back was turned to the guests; and +she was gazing into the flames in an attitude of reverie. She seemed +unconscious of everything, as though still listening to the echo of +the silent music. Reggie in his haste to greet his visitors had not +noticed the hurried solicitude to arrange the set of the kimono to a +nicety in order to indicate exactly the right pose. + +She looked like a jeweled butterfly on a great black leaf. + +"Yae--Miss Smith," said Reggie, "these are my old friends whom I was +telling you about." + +The small creature rose slowly with a dreamy grace, and stepped off +her cushion as a fairy might alight from her walnut-shell carriage. + +"I am very pleased to meet you," she purred. + +It was the stock American phrase which has crossed the Pacific +westwards; but the citizen's brusqueness was replaced by the +condescension of a queen. + +Her face was a delicate oval of the same creamy smoothness as Asako's +But the chin, which in Asako's case receded a trifle in obedience +to Japanese canons of beauty, was thrust vigorously forward; and +the curved lips in their Cupid's bow seemed moulded for kissing by +generations of European passions, whereas about Japanese mouths there +is always something sullen and pinched and colourless. The bridge of +her nose and her eyes of deep olive green, the eyes of a wildcat, gave +the lie to her mother's race. + +Reggie's artistry could not help watching the two women together with +appreciative satisfaction. Yae was even smaller and finer-fingered +than the pure-bred Japanese. Ever since he had first met Yae Smith he +had compared and contrasted her in his mind with Asako Barrington. He +had used both as models for his dainty music. His harmonies, he was +wont to explain, came to him in woman's shape. To express Japan he +must see a Japanese woman. Not that he had any interest in Japanese +women, physically. They are too different from our women, he used to +think; and the difference repelled and fascinated him. It is so +wide that it can only be crossed by frank sensuality or by blind +imagination. But the artist needs his flesh-and-blood interpreter +if he is to get even as far as a misunderstanding. So in figuring to +himself the East, Reggie had at first made use of his memory of Asako, +with her European education built up over the inheritance of Japan. +Later he met Yae Smith, through the paper walls of whose Japanese +existence the instincts of her Scottish forefathers kept forcing their +unruly way. + +Geoffrey could not define his thoughts so precisely; but something +unruly stirred in his consciousness, when he saw the ghost of his days +of courtship rise before him in the deep blue kimono. His wife had +certainly made a great abdication when she abandoned her native dress +for plain blue serges. Of course he could not have Asako looking like +a doll; but still--had he fallen in love with a few yards of silk? + +Yae Smith seemed most anxious to please in spite of the affectation of +her poses, which perhaps were necessary to her, lest, looking so much +like a plaything, she might be greeted as such. She always wanted to +be liked by people. This was her leading characteristic. It was at the +root of her frailties--a soil overfertilized from which weeds spring +apace. + +She was voluble in a gentle cat-like way, praising the rings on +Asako's fingers, and the cut and material of her dress. But her eyes +were forever glancing towards Geoffrey. He was so very tall and broad, +standing in the framework of the folding doors beside the slim figure +of Reggie, more girlish than ever in the skirts of his kimono. + +Captain Barrington, the son of a lord! How fine he must look in +uniform, in that cavalry uniform, with the silver cuirass and the +plumed helmet like the English soldiers in her father's books at home! + +"Your husband is very big," she said to Asako. + +"Yes, he is," said Asako; "much too big for Japan." + +"Oh, I should like that," said the little Eurasian, "it must be nice." + +There was a warmth, a sincerity in the tone which made Asako stare +at her companion. But the childish face was innocent and smiling. +The languid curve of the smile and the opalescence of the green eyes +betrayed none of their secrets to Asako's inexperience. + +Reggie sat down at the piano, and, still watching the two women, he +began to play. + +"This is the Yae Sonata," he explained to Geoffrey. + +It began with some bars from an old Scottish song: + + "Had we never loved so sadly, + Had we never loved so madly, + Never loved and never parted, + We had ne'er been broken-hearted." + +Insensibly the pathetic melody faded away into the _staccato_ beat +of a _geisha's_ song, with more rhythm than tune, which doubled +and redoubled its pace, stumbling and leaping up again over strange +syncopations. + +All of a sudden the musician stopped. + +"I can't describe your wife, now that I see her," he said. "I don't +know any dignified old Japanese music, something like the _gavottes_ +of Couperin only in a setting of Kyoto and gold screens; and then +there must be a dash of something very English which she has acquired +from you--'Home, Sweet Home' or 'Sally in our Alley.'" + +"Never mind, old chap!" said Geoffrey; "play 'Father's home again!'" + +Reggie shook himself; and then struck up the rolling chorus; but, as +he interpreted it, his mood turned pensive again. The tone was hushed, +the time slower. The vulgar tune expressed itself suddenly in deep +melancholy, It brought back to the two young men more forcibly than +the most inspired _concerto_, the memory of England, the sparkle +of the theatres, the street din of London, and the warmth of good +company--all that had seemed sweet to them in a time which was distant +now. + +Reggie ceased playing. The two girls were sitting together now on +the big black cushion in front of the fire. They were looking at a +portfolio of Japanese prints, Reggie's embryo collection. + +The young diplomat said to his friend: + +"Geoffrey, you've not been in the East long enough to be exasperated +by it. I have. So our ideas will not be in sympathy." + +"It's not what I thought it was going to be, I must admit. Everything +is so much of a muchness. If you've seen one temple you've seen the +lot, and the same with everything here." + +"That is the first stage, Disappointment. We have heard so much of +the East and its splendours, the gorgeous East and the rest of it. The +reality is small and sordid, and like so much that is ugly in our own +country." + +"Yes, they wear shocking bad clothes, don't they, directly they get +out of kimonos; and even the kimonos look dingy and dirty." + +"They are." said Reggie. "Yours would be, if you had to keep a wife +and eight children on thirty shillings a month." + +Then he added: + +"The second stage in the observer's progress is Discovery. Have you +read Lafcadio Hearn's books about Japan?" + +"Yes. some of them," answered Geoffrey. "It strikes me that he was a +thorough-paced liar." + +"No, he was a poet, a poet; and he jumped over the first stage to +dwell for some time in the second, probably because he was by nature +short-sighted. That is a great advantage for discoverers." + +"But what do you mean by the second stage?" + +"The stage of Discovery! Have you ever walked about a Japanese city in +the twilight when the evening bell sounds from a hidden temple? Have +you turned into the by-streets and watched the men returning to their +wise little houses and the family groups assembled to meet them and +help them change into their kimonos? Have you heard the splashing +and the chatter of the bath-houses which are the evening clubs of the +common people and the great clearing-houses of gossip? Have you heard +the broken _samisen_ music tracking you down a street of _geisha_ +houses? Have you seen the _geisha_ herself in her blue cloak sitting +rigid and expressionless in the rickshaw which is carrying her off to +meet her lover? Have you heard the drums of Priapus beating from the +gay quarters? Have you watched the crowds which gather round a temple +festival, buying queer little plants for their homes and farthing toys +for their children, crowding to the fortune-teller's booth for news of +good luck and bad luck, throwing their penny to the god and clapping +their hands to attract his attention? Have you seen anything of this +without a feeling of deep pleasure and a wonder as to how these people +live and think, what we have got in common with them, and what we have +got to learn from them?" + +"I think I know what you mean," said Geoffrey. "It's all very +picturesque, but they always seem to be hiding something." + +"Exactly," said his friend, "and every man of intelligence who has to +live in this country thinks that he need only learn their language and +use their customs, and then he will find out what is hidden. That is +what Lafcadio Hearn did; and that is why I wear a kimono. But what did +he find out? A lot of pretty stories, echoes of old civilization and +folk-lore; but of the mind and heart of the Japanese people--the only +coloured people, after all, who have held their heads up against +the white races--little or nothing until he reached the third stage, +Disillusionment. Then he wrote _Japan, an Interpretation_, which is +his best book." + +"I haven't read it." + +"You ought to. His other things are mere melodies, the kind of stuff +I can play to you by the hour. This is a serious book of history and +political science." + +"Sounds a bit dry for me." laughed Geoffrey. + +"It is a disillusioned man's explanation of the country into which he +had tried to sink, but which had rejected him. He explains the present +by the past. That is reasonable. The dead are the real rulers of +Japan, he says. Underneath the surface changing, the nation is deeply +conservative, suspicious of all interference and unconventionally, +sullenly self-satisfied; and above all, still as much locked in its +primitive family system as it was a thousand years ago. You cannot be +friends with a Japanese unless you are friends with his family; and +you cannot be friends with his family unless you belong to it. This is +the deadlock; and this is why we never get any forwarder." + +"Then I've got a chance since I've got a Japanese family." + +"I don't know of course," said Reggie; "but I shouldn't think they +would have much use for you. They will receive you most politely; but +they will look upon you as an interloper and they will try to steer +you out of the country." + +"But my wife?" said Geoffrey, "she is their own flesh and blood, after +all." + +"Well, of course, I don't know. But if they are extremely friendly +I should look out, if I were you. The Japanese are conventionally +hospitable, but they are not cordial to strangers unless they have a +very strong motive." + +Geoffrey Barrington looked in the direction where his wife was seated +on a corner of the big cushion, turning over one by one a portfolio +full of parti-colored woodprints on their broad white mounts. The +firelight flickered round her like a crowd of importunate thoughts. +She felt that he was looking at her, and glanced across at him. + +"Can you see in there, Mrs. Barrington, or shall I turn the lights +on?" asked her host. + +"Oh, no," answered the little lady, "that would spoil it. The pictures +look quite alive in the firelight. What a lovely collection you've +got!" + +"There's nothing very valuable there," said Reggie, "but they are very +effective, I think, even the cheap ones." + +Asako was holding up a pied engraving of a sinuous Japanese woman, an +Utamaro from an old block recut, in dazzling raiment, with her sash +tied in front of her and her head bristling with amber pins like a +porcupine. + +"Geoffrey, will you please take me to see the Yoshiwara?" she asked. + +The request dismayed Geoffrey. He knew well enough what was to be seen +at the Yoshiwara. He would have been interested to visit the licensed +quarter of the demi-monde himself in the company of--say Reggie +Forsyth. But this was a branch of inquiry which to his mind should be +reserved for men alone. Nice women never think of such things. That +his own wife should wish to see the place and, worse still, should +express that wish in public was a blatant offence against Good Form, +which could only be excused by her innocent ignorance. + +But Reggie, who was used to the curiosity of every tourist, male and +female, about the night-life of Tokyo, answered readily: + +"Yes, Mrs. Barrington. It's well worth seeing. We must arrange to go +down there." + +"Miss Smith tells me," said Asako, "that all these lovely gay +creatures are Yoshiwara girls; and that you can see them there now." + +"Not that identical lady of course," said Reggie, who had joined +the group by the fireside, "she died a hundred years ago; but her +professional great-granddaughters are still there." + +"And I can see them!" Asako clapped her hands. "Ladies are allowed to +go and look? It does not matter? It is not improper?" + +"Oh, no," said Yae Smith, "my brothers have taken me. Would you like +to go?" + +"Yes, I would," said Asako, glancing at her husband, who, however, +showed no signs of approval. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ITO SAN + + _Ama no hara + Fumi-todorokashi + Naru-kami mo + Omou-naka wo ba + Sakuru mono ka wa?_ + + Can even the God of Thunder + Whose footfall resounds + In the plains of the sky + Put asunder + Those whom love joins? + +Geoffrey's conscience was disturbed. His face was lined and worried +with thought, such as had left him untroubled since the effervescences +of his early youth. Like many young men of his caste, he had soon +submitted all the baffling riddles of conduct to the thumb rule of +Good Form. This Yoshiwara question was to him something more than +a moral conundrum. It was a subtle attack by the wife of his bosom, +aided and abetted by his old friend Reggie Forsyth and by the +mysterious forces of this unfamiliar land as typified by Yae Smith, +against the citadel of Good Form, against the stronghold of his +principles. + +Geoffrey himself wished to see the Yoshiwara. His project had been +that one evening, when Asako had been invited to dinner by friends, he +and Reggie would go and look at the place. This much was sanctioned by +Good Form. + +For him to take his wife there, and for people to know that he +had done so, would be the worst of Bad Form, the conduct of a rank +outsider. Unfortunately, it was also Bad Form for him to discuss the +matter with Asako. + +A terrible dilemma. + +Was it possible that the laws of Good and Bad Form were only locally +binding, and that here in Japan they were no longer valid? + +Reggie was different. He was so awfully clever. He could extemporize +on Good Form as he could extemporize on the piano. Besides, he was a +victim to the artistic temperament, which cannot control itself. But +Reggie had not been improved by his sojourn in this queer country, or +he would never have so far forgotten himself as to speak in such a way +in the presence of ladies. + +Geoffrey would give him a good beating at tennis; and then, having +reduced him to a fit state of humility, he would have it out with him. +For Barrington was not a man to nurse displeasure against his friends. + +The tennis courts at Tokyo--which stand in a magnificent central +position one day to be occupied by the Japanese Houses of +Parliament--are every afternoon the meeting place for youth in exile +with a sprinkling of Japanese, some of whom have acquired great skill +at the game. Towards tea-time the ladies arrive to watch the evening +efforts of their husbands and admirers, and to escort them home when +the light begins to fail. So the tennis courts have become a little +social oasis in the vast desert of oriental life. Brilliant it is not. +Sparkle there is none. But there is a certain chirpiness, the forced +gaiety of caged birds. + +The day was warm and bright. The snow had vanished as though by +supernatural command. Geoffrey enjoyed his game thoroughly, although +he was beaten, being out of practice and unused to gravel courts. But +the exercise made him, in his own language, "sweat like a pig," and he +felt better. He thought he would shelve the unpleasant subject for the +time being; but it was Reggie himself who revived it. + +"About the Yoshiwara," he said, seating himself on one of the benches +placed round the courts. "They are having a special show down there +to-morrow. It will probably be worth seeing." + +"Look here," said Geoffrey, "is it the thing for ladies--English +ladies--to go to a place like that?" + +"Of course," answered his friend, "it is one of the sights of +Tokyo. Why, I went with Lady Cynthia not so long ago. She was quite +fascinated." + +"By Jove!" Geoffrey ejaculated. "But for a young girl--? Did Miss +Cairns go too?" + +"Not on that occasion; but I have no doubt she has been." + +"But isn't it much the same as taking a lady to a public brothel?" + +"Not in the least," was Reggie's answer, "it is like along Piccadilly +after nightfall, looking in at the Empire, and returning via Regent +Street; and in Paris, like a visit to the _Rat Mort_ and the _Bal +Tabarin_. It is the local version of an old theme." + +"But is that a nice sight for a lady?" + +"It is what every lady wants to see." + +"Reggie, what rot! Any clean-minded girl--" + +"Geoffrey, old man, would _you_ like to see the place?" + +"Yes, but for a man it's different." + +"Why do you want to see it? You're not going there for business, I +presume?" + +"Why? for curiosity, I suppose. One hears such a lot of people talk +about the Yoshiwara--" + +"For curiosity, that's right: and do you really think that women, even +clean-minded women, have less curiosity than men?" + +Geoffrey Barrington started to laugh at his own discomfiture. + +"Reggie, you were always a devil for arguing!" he said. "At home one +would never talk about things like that." + +"There must be a slight difference then between Home and Abroad. +Certain bonds are relaxed. Abroad, one is a sight-seer. One is out to +watch the appearance and habits of the natives in a semi-scientific +mood, just as one looks at animals in the Zoo. Besides, nobody knows +or cares who one is. One has no awkward responsibilities towards one's +neighbours; and there is little or no danger of finding an intimate +acquaintance in an embarrassing position. In London one lives in +constant dread of finding people out." + +"But my wife," Geoffrey continued, troubled once more, "I can't +imagine--" + +"Mrs. Barrington may be an exception; but take my word for it, every +woman, however good and holy, is intensely interested in the lives +of her fallen sisters. They know less about them than we do. They are +therefore more mysterious and interesting to them. And yet they are +much nearer to them by the whole difference of sex. There is always +a personal query arising, 'I, too, might have chosen that life--what +would it have brought me?' There is a certain compassion, too; +and above all there is the intense interest of rivalry. Who is not +interested in his arch-enemy? and what woman does not want to know by +what unholy magic her unfair competitor holds her power over men?" + +The tennis courts were filling with youths released from offices. In +the court facing them, two young fellows had begun a single. One of +them was a Japanese; the other, though his hair and eyes were of the +native breed, was too fair of skin and too tall of stature. He was +a Eurasian. They both played exceedingly well. The rallies were long +sustained, the drives beautifully timed and taken. The few unemployed +about the courts soon made this game the object of their special +attention. + +"Who are they?" asked Geoffrey, glad to change the conversation. + +"That's Aubrey Smith, Yae's brother, one of the best players here, +and Viscount Kamimura, who ought to be quite the best; but he has just +married, and his wife will not let him play often enough." + +"Oh," exclaimed Geoffrey, "he was on the ship with us coming out." + +He had not recognised the good-looking young Japanese. He had not +expected to meet him somehow in such a European _milieu_. Kamimura had +noticed his fellow-traveller, however; and when the set was over +and the players had changed sides, he came up and greeted him most +cordially. + +"I hear you are already married," said Geoffrey. "Our best +congratulations!" + +"Thank you," replied Kamimura, blushing. Japanese blush readily in +spite of their complexion. + +"We Japanese must not boast about our wives. It is what you call Bad +Form. But I would like her to meet Mrs. Barrington. She speaks English +not so badly." + +"Yes," said Geoffrey, "I hope you will come and dine with us one +evening at the Imperial." + +"Thank you very much," answered the young Viscount. "How long are you +staying in Japan?" + +"Oh, for some months." + +"Then we shall meet often, I hope," he said, and returned to his game. + +"A very decent fellow; quite human," Reggie commented. + +"Yes, isn't he?" said Geoffrey; and then he asked suddenly,-- + +"Do you think he would take his wife to see the Yoshiwara?" + +"Probably not; but then they are Japanese people living in Japan. That +alters everything." + +"I don't think so," said Geoffrey; and he was conscious of having +scored off his friend for once. + +Miss Yae Smith had arrived on her daily visit to the courts. She was +already surrounded by a little retinue of young men, who, however, +scattered at Reggie's approach. + +Miss Yae smiled graciously on the two new-comers and inquired after +Mrs. Barrington. + +"It was so nice to talk with her the other day; it was like being in +England again." + +Yes, Miss Yae had been in England and in America too. She preferred +those countries very much to Japan. It was so much more amusing. There +was so little to do here. Besides, in Japan it was such a small world; +and everybody was so disagreeable; especially the women, always saying +untrue, unkind things. + +She looked so immaterial and sprite-like in her blue kimono, her +strange eyes downcast as her habit was when talking about herself and +her own doings, that Geoffrey could think no evil of her, nor could he +wonder at Reggie's gaze of intense admiration which beat upon her like +sunlight on a picture. + +However, Asako must be waiting for him. He took his leave, and +returned to his hotel. + + * * * * * + +Asako had been entertaining a visitor. She had gone out shopping for +an hour, not altogether pleased to find herself alone. On her return, +a Japanese gentleman in a vivid green suit had risen from a seat in +the lounge of the hotel, and had introduced himself. + +"I am Ito, your attorney-of-law." + +He was a small, podgy person with a round oily face and heavy voluted +moustaches. The expression of his eyes was hidden behind gold-rimmed +spectacles. It would have been impossible for a European to guess his +age, anything between twenty-five and fifty. His thick, plum-coloured +hair was brushed up on his forehead in a butcher-boy's curl. His teeth +glittered with dentist's gold. He wore a tweed suit of bright +pea-soup colour, a rainbow tie and yellow boots. Over the bulge of an +egg-shaped stomach hung a massive gold watch-chain blossoming into a +semi-heraldic charm, which might be a masonic emblem or a cycling club +badge. His breastpocket appeared to hold a quiverful of fountain-pens. + +"How do you do, Mrs. Harrington? I am pleased to meet you." + +The voice was high and squeaky, like a boy's voice when it is +breaking. The extended hand was soft and greasy in spite of its +attempt at a firm grip. With elaborate politeness he ushered Mrs. +Harrington into her chair. He took his place close beside her, crossed +his fat legs, and stuck his thumbs into his arm-holes. + +"I am your friend Ito," he began, "your father's friend, and I am sure +to be your friend, too." + +But for the reference to her father she would have snubbed him. She +decided to give him tea in the lounge, and not to invite him to her +private rooms. A growing distrust of her countrymen, arising largely +from observation of the ways of Tanaka, was making little Asako less +confiding than of yore. She was still ready to be amused by them, but +she was becoming less credulous of the Japanese pose of simplicity +and the conventional smile. However, she was soon melted by Mr. Ito's +kindliness of manner. He patted her hand, and called her "little +girl." + +"I am your old lawyer," he kept on saying, "your father's friend, and +your best friend too. Anything you want, just ring me and you have it. +There's my number. Don't forget now. Shiba 1326. What do you think +of Japan, now? Beautiful country, I think. And you have not yet seen +Miyanoshita, or Kamakura, or Nikko temples. You have not yet got +automobile, I think. Indeed, I am sorry for you. That is a very wrong +thing! I shall at once order for you a very splendid automobile, +and we must make a grand trip. Every rich and noble person possesses +splendid automobile." + +"Oh, that would be nice!" Asako clapped her hands. "Japan is so +pretty. I do want to see more of it. But I must ask my husband about +buying the motor." + +Ito laughed a fat, oily laugh. + +"Indeed, that is Japanese style, little girl. Japanese wife say, 'I +ask my husband.' American style wife very different. She say, 'My +husband do this, do that'--like coolie. I have travelled much abroad. +I know American custom very well." + +"My husband gives me all I want, and a great deal more," said Asako. + +"He is very kind man," grinned the lawyer, "because the money is all +yours--not his at all. Ha, ha!" + +Then, seeing that his officiousness was overstepping the mark, he +added,-- + +"I know American ladies very well. They don't give money to their +husbands. They tell their husbands, 'You give money to me.' They just +do everything themselves, writing cheques all the time!" + +"Really?" said Asako; "but my husband is the kindest and best man in +the world!" + +"Quite right, quite right. Love your husband like a good little girl. +But don't forget your old lawyer, Ito. I was your father's friend. We +were at school together here in Tokyo." + +This interested Asako immensely. She tried to make the lawyer talk +further, but he said that it was a very long story, and he must tell +her some other time. Then she asked him about her cousin, Mr. Fujinami +Gentaro. + +"He is away from town just now. When he returns, I think he will +invite you to splendid feast." + +With that he took his leave. + +"What do you think of him?" Asako asked Tanaka, who had been watching +the interview with an attendant chorus of _boy sans_. + +"He is _haikara_ gentleman," was the reply. + +Now, _haikara_, is a native corruption of the words "high collar," and +denoted at first a variety of Japanese "nut," who aped the European +and the American in his habits, manners and dress--of which pose +the high collar was the most visible symbol. The word was presumably +contemptuous in its origin. It has since, however, changed its +character as so to mean anything smart and fashionable. You can live +in a _haikara_ house, you can read _haikara_ books, you can wear a +_haikara_ hat. It has become indeed practically a Japanese equivalent +for that untranslatable expression "_chic_." + + * * * * * + +Asako Harrington, like all simple people, had little familiarity save +with the superficial stratum of her intelligence. She lived in the +gladness of her eyes like a happy young animal. Nothing, not even her +marriage, had touched her very profoundly. Even the sudden shock of +de Brie's love-making had not shaken anything deeper than her natural +pride and her ignorance of mankind. + +But in this strange, still land, whose expression looks inwards and +whose face is a mask, a change was operating. Ito left her, as he had +intended, with a growing sense of her own importance as distinct from +her husband. "I was your father's friend: we were at school together +here in Tokyo." Why, Geoffrey did not even know her father's name. + +Asako did not think as closely as this. She could not. But she must +have looked very thoughtful; for when Geoffrey came in, he saw her +still sitting in the lounge, and exclaimed,-- + +"Why, my little Yum Yum, how serious we are! We look as if we were at +our own funeral. Couldn't you get the things you wanted?" + +"Oh yes," said Asako, trying to brighten up, "and I've had a visitor. +Guess!" + +"Relations?" + +"No and yes. It was Mr. Ito, the lawyer." + +"Oh, that little blighter. That reminds me. I must go and see him +to-morrow, and find out what he is doing with our money." + +"_My_ money," laughed Asako, "Tanaka never lets me forget that." + +"Of course, little one," said Geoffrey, "I'd be in the workhouse if it +wasn't for you." + +"Geoffrey darling," said his wife hesitating, "will you give me +something?" + +"Yes, of course, my sweetheart, what do you want?" + +"I want a motor-car, yes please; and I'd like to have a cheque-book of +my own. Sometimes when I am out by myself I would like--" + +"Why, of course," said Geoffrey, "you ought to have had one long ago. +But it was your own idea; you didn't want to be bothered with money." + +"Oh Geoffrey, you angel, you are so good to me." + +She clung to his neck; and he, seeing the hotel deserted and nobody +about, raised her in his arms and carried her bodily upstairs to the +interest and amusement of the chorus of _boy sans_, who had just been +discussing why _danna san_ had left _okusan_ for so many hours that +afternoon, and who and what was the Japanese gentleman who had been +talking to _okusan_ in the hall. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE YOSHIWARA WOMEN + + _Kyushu dai-ichi no ume + Kon-ya kimi ga tame ni hiraku. + Hana no shingi wo shiran + to hosseba, + San-ko tsuki wo funde kitare_. + + The finest plum-blossom of Kyushu + This night is opening for thee. + If thou wishes to know the true character of this flower, + Come at the third hour singing in the moonlight. + +_Yoshiwara Popular Song_. + + +As the result of an affecting scene with his wife, Geoffrey's +opposition to the Yoshiwara project collapsed. If everybody went to +see the place, then it could not be such very Bad Form to do so. + +Asako rang up Reggie; and on the next afternoon the young diplomat +called for the Barringtons in a motor-car, where Miss Yae Smith was +already installed. They drove through Tokyo. It was like crossing +London for the space of distance covered; an immense city--yet is it a +city, or merely a village preposterously overgrown? + +There is no dignity in the Japanese capital, nothing secular or +permanent, except that mysterious forest-land in the midst of the +moats and the grey walls, where dwell the Emperor and the Spirit of +the Race. It is a mongrel city, a vast congeries of native wooden +huts, hastily equipped with a few modern conveniences. Drunken poles +stagger down the streets, waving their cobwebs of electric wires. +Rickety trams jolt past, crowded to overflowing, so crowded that +humanity clings to the steps and platforms in clots, like flies +clinging to some sweet surface. Thousands of little shops glitter, +wink or frown at the passer-by. Many of them have western plate-glass +windows and stucco fronts, hiding their savagery, like a native woman +tricked out in ridiculous pomp. Some, still grimly conservative, +receive the customer in their cavernous interior, and cheat his eyes +in their perpetual twilight. Many of these little shops are so small +that their stock-in-trade flows over on to the pavement. The toy +shops, the china shops, the cake shops, the shops for women's ribbons +and hairpins seem to be trying to turn themselves inside out. Others +are so reticent that nothing appears save a stretch of clean straw +mats, where sulky clerks sit smoking round the _hibachi_ (fireboxes). +Then, when the eye gets accustomed to the darkness, one can see behind +them the ranks of the tea-jars of Uji, or layers of dark kimono stuff. + +The character of the shops changed as the Barringtons and their party +approached their destination. The native element predominated more and +more. The wares became more and more inexplicable. There were shops +in which gold Buddhas shone and brass lamps for temple use, shops +displaying queer utensils and mysterious little bits of things, whose +secret was hidden in the cabalistic signs of Chinese script. There +were stalls of curios, and second-hand goods spread out on the +pavement, under the custody of wizened, inattentive old men, who +squatted and smoked. + +Red-faced maids stared at the foreigners from the balconies of lofty +inns and eating-houses near Uyeno station. Further on, they passed +the silence of old temple walls, the spaciousness of pigeon-haunted +cloisters, and the huge high-pitched roofs of the shrines, with their +twisted horn-like points. Then, down a narrow alley appeared the +garish banners of the Asakusa theatres and cinema palaces. They heard +the yelling of the door-touts, and the bray of discordant music. They +caught a glimpse of hideous placards whose crude illustrations showed +the quality of the performance to be seen within, girls falling from +aeroplanes, demon ghosts with bloody daggers, melodrama unleashed. + +Everywhere the same crowds loitered along the pavements. No hustle, no +appearance of business save where a messenger-boy threaded the maze +on a break-neck bicycle, or where a dull-faced coolie pulled at an +overloaded barrow. Grey and brown, the crowd clattered by on their +wooden shoes. Grey and black, passed the _haikara_ young men with +their yellow side-spring shoes. Black and sabre-dragging, the +policeman went to and fro, invisibly moored to his wooden sentry-box. + +The only bright notes among all these drab multitudes were the little +girls in their variegated kimonos, who fluttered in and out of the +entrances, and who played unscolded on the footpaths. These too were +the only notes of happiness; for their grown-up relatives, especially +the women, carried an air, if not an actual expression, of animal +melancholy, the melancholy of driven sheep or of cows ruminant. + +The crowds were growing denser. Their faces were all set in one +direction. At last the whole roadway was filled with the slow-moving +tide. The Harringtons and their friends had to alight from their car +and continue the rest of the way on foot. + +"They are all going to see the show," Reggie explained to his party, +and he pointed to a line of high houses, which stood out above the low +native huts. It was a square block of building some hundreds of yards +long, quite foreign in character, having the appearance of factory +buildings, or of a barracks or workhouse. + +"What a dismal-looking place!" said Asako. + +"Yes," agreed Reggie, "but at night it is much brighter. It is all lit +up from top to bottom. It is called the Nightless City." + +"What bad faces these people have!" said Asako, who was romantically +set on seeing evil everywhere, "Is it quite safe?" + +"Oh yes," said their guide, "Japanese crowds are very orderly." + +Indeed they suffered no inconvenience from the crowd beyond much +staring, an ordeal which awaits the foreigner in all corners of Tokyo. + +They had reached a very narrow street, where raffish beer-shops were +doing a roaring trade. They caught a glimpse of dirty tablecloths and +powdered waitresses wearing skirts, aprons and lumpy shoes--all very +_haikara_. On the right hand they passed a little temple from whose +exiguous courtyard two stone foxes grinned maliciously, the temple of +the god Inari, who brings rich lovers to the girls who pray to him. + +They passed through iron gates, like the gates of a park, where two +policemen were posted to regulate the traffic. Beyond was a single +line of cherry-trees in full bloom, a single wave of pinkish spray, a +hanging curtain of vapourous beauty, the subject of a thousand +poems, of a thousand allusions, licentious, delicate and trite,--the +cherry-blossoms of the Yoshiwara. + +At a street corner stood a high white building plastered with golden +letters in Japanese and English--"Asahi Beer Hall." + +"That is the place," said Yae, "let us get out of this crowd." + +They found refuge among more dirty tablecloths, Europeanised +_mousmes_, and gaping guests. When Yae spoke to the girls in Japanese, +there was much bowing and hissing of the breath; and they were invited +upstairs on to the first floor where was another beer-hall, slightly +more exclusive-looking than the downstair Gambrinus. Here a table +and chairs were set for them in the embrasure of a bow-window, which, +protruding over the cross-roads, commanded an admirable view of the +converging streets. + +"The procession won't be here for two hours more," said Yae, pouting +her displeasure. + +"One always has to wait in Japan," said Reggie. "Nobody ever knows +exactly when anything is going to happen; and so the Japanese just +wait and wait. They seem to like it rather. Anyhow they don't get +impatient. Life is so uneventful here that I think they must like +prolonging an incident as much as possible, like sucking a sweet +slowly." + +Meanwhile there was plenty to look at. Asako could not get over her +shock at the sea of wicked faces which surged below. + +"What class of people are these?" Geoffrey asked. + +"Oh, shop-people, I think, most of them," said Yae, "and people who +work in factories." + +"Good class Japanese don't come here, then?" Geoffrey asked again. + +"Oh no, only low class people and students. Japanese people say it is +a shameful thing to go to the Yoshiwara. And, if they go, they go very +secretly." + +"Do you know any one who goes?" asked Reggie, with a directness which +shocked his friend's sense of Good Form. + +"Oh, my brothers," said Yae, "but they go everywhere; or they say they +do." + + * * * * * + +It certainly was an ill-favoured crowd. The Japanese are not an ugly +race. The young aristocrat who has grown up with fresh air and healthy +exercise is often good-looking, and sometimes distinguished and +refined. But the lower classes, those who keep company with poverty, +dirt and pawnshops, with the pleasures of the _sake_ barrel and the +Yoshiwara, are the ugliest beings that were ever created in the image +of their misshapen gods. Their small stature and ape-like attitudes, +the colour and discolour of their skin, the flat Mongolian nose, their +gaping mouths and bad teeth, the coarse fibre of their lustreless +black hair, give them an elvish and a goblin look, as though +this country were a nursery for fairy changelings, a land of the +Nibelungen, where bad thoughts have found their incarnation. Yet the +faces have not got that character for good and evil as we find them +among the Aryan peoples, the deep lines and the firm profiles. + +"It is the absence of something rather than its presence which appals +and depresses us," Reggie Forsyth observed, "an absence of happiness +perhaps, or of a promise of happiness." + +The crowd which filled the four roads with its slow grey tide was +peaceable enough; and it was strangely silent. The drag and clatter +of the clogs made more sound than the human voices. The great majority +were men, though there were women among them, quiet and demure. If +ever a voice was lifted, one could see by the rolling walk and the +fatuous smile that its owner had been drinking. Such a person would +be removed out of sight by his friends. The Japanese generally go +sight-seeing and merry-making in friendships and companies; and the +_Verein_, which in Japan is called the _Kwai_, flourishes here as in +Germany. + +Two coolies started quarreling under the Barringtons' window. They too +had been drinking. They did not hit out at each other like Englishmen, +but started an interchange of abuse in gruff monosyllables and +indistinguishable grunts and snorts. + +"_Baka! Chikushome! Kuso_! (Fool! Beast! Dung!)" + +These amenities exasperating their ill humour, they began to pull at +each other's coats and to jostle each other like quarrelsome curs. +This was a sign that affairs were growing serious; and the police +intervened. Again each combatant was pushed away by his companions +into opposite byways. + +With these exceptions, all tramplings, squeezings, pushings and +pokings were received with conventional grins or apathetic staring. +Yet in the paper next day it was said that so great had been the crowd +that six deaths had occurred, and numerous persons had fainted. + +"But where is the Yoshiwara?" Geoffrey asked at last. "Where are these +wretched women kept?" + +Reggie waved his hand in the direction of the three roads facing them. + +"Inside the iron gates, that is all the Yoshiwara, and those high +houses and the low ones too. That is where the girls are. There are +two or three thousand of them within sight, as it were, from here. +But, of course, the night time is the time to see them." + +"I suppose so," said Geoffrey vaguely. + +"They sit in shop windows, one might say," Reggie went on, "only with +bars in front like cages in the Zoo. And they wear gorgeous kimonos, +red and gold and blue, and embroidered with flowers and dragons. It +is like nothing I can think of, except aviaries full of wonderful +parrakeets and humming-birds." + +"Are they pretty?" Asako asked. + +"No, I can't say they are pretty; and they all seem very much alike to +the mere Westerner. I can't imagine any body picking out one of them +and saying, 'I love her'--'she is the loveliest.' There is a fat, +impassive type like Buddha. There is a foxy animated type which +exchanges _badinage_ with the young nuts through the bars of her cage; +and there is a merely ugly lumpy type, a kind of cloddish country-girl +who exists in all countries. But the more exclusive houses don't +display their women. One can only see a row of photographs. No doubt +they are very flattering to their originals." + +Asako was staring at the buildings now, at the high square prison +houses, and at the low native roofs. These had each its little +platform, its _monohoshi_, where much white washing was drying in the +sun. + +At the farther end of one street a large stucco building, with a +Grecian portico, stood athwart the thoroughfare. + +"What is that?" said Asako; "it looks like a church." + +"That is the hospital," answered Reggie. + +"But why is there a hospital here?" she asked again. + +Yae Smith smiled ever so little at her new friend's ignorance of the +wages of sin. But nobody answered the question. + + * * * * * + +There was a movement in the crowd, a pushing back from some unseen +locality, like the jolting of railway trucks. At the same time there +was a craning of necks and a murmur of interest. + +In the street opposite, the crowd was opening down the centre. The +police, who had sprung up everywhere like the crop of the dragons' +teeth, were dividing the people. And then, down the path so formed, +came the strangest procession which Geoffrey Barrington had ever seen +on or off the stage. + +High above the heads of the crowd appeared what seemed to be a +life-size automaton, a moving waxwork magnificently garbed in white +brocade with red and gold embroidery of phenixes, and a huge red sash +tied in a bow in front. The hem of the skirt, turned up with red and +thickly wadded, revealed a series of these garments fitting beneath +each other, like the leaves of an artichoke. Under a monumental +edifice of hair, bristling like a hedgehog with amber-coloured pins +and with silver spangles and rosettes, a blank, impassive little face +was staring straight in front of it, utterly expressionless, utterly +unnatural, hidden beneath the glaze of enamel--the china face of a +doll. + +It parted the grey multitude like a pillar of light. It tottered +forward slowly, for it was lifted above the crowd on a pair of +black-lacquered clogs as high as stilts, dangerous and difficult to +manipulate. On each side were two little figures, similarly painted, +similarly bedizened, similarly expressionless, children of nine or +ten years only, the _komuro_, the little waiting-women. They served to +support the reigning beauty and at the same time to display her long +embroidered sleeves, outstretched on either side like wings. + +The brilliant figure and her two attendants moved forward under the +shade of a huge ceremonial umbrella of yellow oiled paper, which +looked like a membrane or like old vellum, and upon which were written +in Chinese characters the personal name of the lady chosen for the +honour and the name of the house in which she was an inmate. The +shaft of this umbrella, some eight or nine feet long, was carried by a +sinister being, clothed in the blue livery of the Japanese artisan, +a kind of tabard with close-fitting trousers. He kept twisting the +umbrella-shaft all the time with a gyrating movement to and fro, which +imparted to the disc of the umbrella the hesitation of a wave. He +followed the Queen with a strange slow stride. For long seconds +he would pause with one foot held aloft in the attitude of a +high-stepping horse, which distorted his dwarfish body into a diabolic +convulsion, like Durer's angel of horror. He seemed a familiar spirit, +a mocking devil, the wicked _Spielmann_ of the "Miracle" play, whose +harsh laughter echoes through the empty room when the last cup is +emptied, the last shilling gone, and the dreamer awakes from his +dream. + +Behind him followed five or six men carrying large oval lanterns, +also inscribed with the name of the house; and after them came a +representative collection of the officials of the proud establishment, +a few foxy old women and a crowd of swaggering men, spotty +and vicious-looking. The _Orian_ (Chief Courtesan) reached the +cross-roads. There, as if moved by machinery or magnetism, she slowly +turned to the left. She made her way towards one of a row of small, +old-fashioned native houses, on the road down which the Barringtons +had come. Here the umbrella was lowered. The beauty bowed her +monumental head to pass under the low doorway, and settled herself on +a pile of cushions prepared to receive her. + +Almost at once the popular interest was diverted to the appearance of +another procession, precisely similar, which was debouching from the +opposite road. The new _Orian_ garbed in blue, with a sash of gold and +a design of cherry-blossom, supported by her two little attendants, +wobbled towards another of the little houses. On her disappearing a +third procession came into sight. + +"Ah!" sighed Asako, "what lovely kimonos! Where do they get them +from?" + +"I don't know," said Yae, "some of them are quite old. They come out +fresh year after year for a different girl." + +Yae, with her distorted little soul, was thinking that it must be +worth the years of slavery and the humiliation of disease to have that +one day of complete triumph, to be the representative of Beauty upon +earth, to feel the admiration and the desire of that vast concourse of +men rising round one's body like a warm flood. + +Geoffrey stared fascinated, wondering to see the fact of prostitution +advertised so unblushingly as a public spectacle, his hatred and +contempt breaking over the heads of the swine-faced men who followed +the harlot, and picked their livelihood out of her shame. + +Reggie was wondering what might be the thoughts of those little +creatures muffled in such splendour that their personality, like that +of infant queens, was entirely hidden by the significance of what they +symbolized. Not a smile, not a glance of recognition passed over the +unnatural whiteness of their faces. Yet they could not be, as they +appeared to be, sleep-walkers. Were they proud to wear such finery? +Were they happy to be so acclaimed? Did their heart beat for one man, +or did their vanity drink in the homage of all? Did their mind turn +back to the mortgaged farm and the work in the paddy-fields, to +the thriftless shop and the chatter of the little town, to the +_sake_-sodden father who had sold them in the days of their innocence, +to the first numbing shock of that new life? Perhaps; or perhaps they +were too taken up with maintaining their equilibrium on their high +shoes, or perhaps they thought of nothing at all. Reggie, who had a +poor opinion of the intellectual brightness of uneducated Japanese +women, thought that the last alternative was highly probable. + +"I wonder what those little houses are where they pay their visits," +Reggie said. + +"Oh, those are the _hikite chaya_" said Yae glibly, "the Yoshiwara +tea-houses." + +"Do they live there?" asked Asako. + +"Oh, no; rich men who come to the Yoshiwara do not go to the big +houses where the _oiran_ live. They go to the tea-houses; and they +order food and _geisha_ to sing, and the _oiran_ to be brought from +the big house. It is more private. So the tea-houses are called +_hikite chaya_, 'tea-houses which lead by the hand.'" + +"Yae," said Reggie, "you know a lot about it." + +"Yes," said Miss Smith, "my brothers have told me. They tell me lots +of things." + +After a stay of about half an hour, the _oiran_ left their tea-houses. +The processions reformed; and they slowly tottered back to the places +whence they had come. Across their path the cherry petals were already +falling like snowflakes; for the cherry-blossom is the Japanese symbol +of the impermanence of earthly beauty, and of all sweet things and +pleasant. + +"By Jove!" said Geoffrey Harrington to the world in general, "that +was an extraordinary sight. East is East and West is West, eh? I never +felt that so strongly before. How often does this performance take +place?" + +"This performance," said Reggie, "has taken place for three days every +Spring for the last three hundred years. But it is more than doubtful +whether it will ever happen again. It is called _Oiran Dochu_, the +procession of the courtesans. Geoffrey, what you have seen to-day is +nothing more or less than the Passing of Old Japan!" + +"But whom do these women belong to?" asked Geoffrey. "And who is +making money out of all this filth?" + +"Various people and companies, I suppose, who own the different +houses," answered Reggie. "A fellow once offered to sell me his whole +establishment, bedding and six girls for L50 down. But he must +have been having a run of bad luck. In most countries it is a +most profitable form of investment. Do you remember 'Mrs. Warren's +Profession'? Thirty-five per cent I think was the exact figure. I +don't suppose Japan is any exception." + +"By Jove!" said Geoffrey, "The women, poor wretches, they can't help +themselves; and the men who buy what they sell, one can't blame them +either. But the creatures who make fortunes out of all this beastiness +and cruelty, I say, they ought to be flogged round the place with a +cat-o'-nine-tails till the life is beaten out of them. Let's get away +from here!" + +As they left the beer-house a small round Japanese man bobbed up from +the crowd, raised his hat, bowed and smiled. It was Tanaka. Geoffrey +had left him behind on purpose, that his servants, at least, might not +know where he was going. + +"I think--I meet Ladyship here," said the little man, "but for long +time I do not spy her. I am very sorry." + +"Is anything wrong? Why did you come?" asked Geoffrey. + +"Good _samurai_ never leave Lordship's side. Of course, I come," was +the reply. + +"Well, hurry up and get back," said his master, "or we shall be home +before you." + +With renewed bowings he disappeared. + +Asako was laughing. + +"We can never get rid of Tanaka," she said, "can we? He follows us +like a detective." + +"Sometimes I think he is deliberately spying on us," said her husband. + +"Cheer up," said Reggie, "they all do that." + +The party dispersed at the Imperial Hotel. Asako was laughing and +happy. She had enjoyed herself immensely as usual; and her innocence +had realized little or nothing of the grim significance of what she +had seen. + +But Geoffrey was gloomy and distrait. He had taken it much to heart. +That night he had a horrible dream. The procession of the _oiran_ was +passing once more before his eyes; but he could not see the face of +the gorgeous doll whom all these crowds had come out to admire. He +felt strangely apprehensive, however. Then at a corner of the street +the figure turned and faced him. It was Asako, his wife. He struggled +to reach her and save her. But the crowds of Japanese closed in upon +him; he struggled in vain. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A GEISHA DINNER + + _Inishi toshi + Ne-kojite uyeshi + Waga yodo no + Wakaki no ume wa + Hana saki ni keri_. + + The young plum tree + Of my house + Which in bygone years + I dug up by the roots and transplanted + Has at last bloomed with flowers. + + +Next morning Geoffrey rose earlier than was his wont; and arrayed +in one of his many kimonos, entered his sitting-room. There he found +Tanaka, wrapped in contemplation of a letter. He was scrutinizing it +with an attention which seemed to pierce the envelope. + +"Who is it from, Tanaka?" asked Geoffrey; he had become mildly +ironical in his dealings with the inquisitive guide. + +"I think perhaps invitation to pleasure party from Ladyship's noble +relatives," Tanaka replied, unabashed. + +Geoffrey took the note to his wife, and she read aloud: + +"DEAR MR. AND MRS. BARRINGTON--It is now the bright Spring weather. I +hope you to enjoy good health. I have been rude thus to absent myself +during your polite visit. Much pressing business has hampered me, +also stomach trouble, but indeed there is no excuse. Please not to be +angry. This time I hope you to attend a poor feast, Maple Club Hotel, +next Tuesday, six p.m. Hoping to esteemed favor and even friend, + +"Yours obedient, + +"G. FUJINAMI." + +"What exactly does he mean?" + +"As Tanaka says, it is an invitation to a pleasure party at the +beginning of next week." + +"Answer it, sweetheart," said Geoffrey; "tell them that we are not +angry, and that we shall be delighted to accept." + +Tanaka explained that the Maple Club Restaurant or Koyokwan, which +more strictly should be translated Hall of the Red Leaf, is the +largest and most famous of Tokyo "tea-houses"--to use a comprehensive +term which applies equally to a shack by the roadside, and to a dainty +pleasure resort where entertainments run easily into four or five +pounds per head. There are restaurants more secretive and more +_elite_, where the aesthetic _gourmet_ may feel more at ease and where +the bohemian spirit can loose its wit. But for public functions of +all kinds, for anything on a really big scale, the Maple Club stands +alone. It is the "Princes" of Tokyo with a flavour of the Guildhall +steaming richly through its corridors. Here the great municipal +dinners take place, the great political entertainments. Here famous +foreigners are officially introduced to the mysteries of Japanese +_cuisine_ and the charms of Japanese _geisha_. Here hangs a picture of +Lord Kitchener himself, scrambled over by laughing _mousmes_, who +seem to be peeping out of his pockets and buttonholes, a Gulliver in +Lilliput. + +Both Geoffrey and Asako had treated the invitation as a joke; but at +the last moment, while they were threading the mysterious streets +of the still unfamiliar city, they both confessed to a certain +nervousness. They were on the brink of a plunge into depths unknown. +They knew nothing whatever about the customs, tastes and prejudices of +the people with whom they were to mix--not even their names and their +language. + +"Well, we're in for it," said Geoffrey, "we must see it through now." + +They drove up a steep gravel drive and stopped before a broad Japanese +entrance, three wide steps like altar stairs leading up to a dark +cavernous hall full of bowing women and men in black clothes, similar, +silent and ghostlike. The first impression was lugubrious, like a +feast of mutes. + +Boots off! Geoffrey knew at least this rule number one in Japanese +etiquette. But who were these fluttering women, so attentive in +removing their cloaks and hats? Were they relatives or waitresses? +And the silent groups beyond? Were they Fujinami or waiters? The two +guests had friendly smiles for all; but they gazed helplessly for a +familiar face. + +An apparition in evening dress with a long frock coat and a purple tie +emerged from that grim chorus of spectators. It was Ito, the lawyer. +The free and easy American manner was checked by the responsibility +of those flapping coat-tails. He looked and behaved just like a +shop-walker. After a stiff bow and handshake he said: + +"Very pleased to see you, Sir, and Mrs. Barrington, also. The Fujinami +family is proud to make your entertainment." + +Geoffrey expected further introductions; but the time had not yet +come. With a wave of the arm Mr. Ito added: + +"Please step this way, Sir and Lady." + +The Barringtons with Ito led the procession; and the mutes closed +in behind them. Down endless polished corridors they passed with +noiseless steps over the spotless boards. The only sound was the +rustling of silk garments. To closed eyes they might have seemed like +the arrival of a company of dowagers. The women, who had at first +received them, were still fluttering around them like humming-birds +escorting a flight of crows. To one of them Geoffrey owed his +preservation. He would have struck his forehead against a low doorway +in the darkness; but she touched the lintel with her finger and then +laid her tiny hand on Barrington's tall shoulder, laughing and saying +in infantile English: + +"English _danna san_ very high!" + +They came to a sudden opening between paper walls. In a little +room behind a table stood a middle-aged Japanese couple as stiff as +waxworks. For an instant Geoffrey thought they must be the cloakroom +attendants. Then, to his surprise, Ito announced: + +"Mr. and Mrs. Fujinami Gentaro, the head of the Fujinami family. +Please walk in and shake hands." + +Geoffrey and his wife did as they were directed. Three mutual bowings +took place in absolute silence, followed by a handshake. Then Ito +said: + +"Mr. and Mrs. Fujinami Gentaro wish to say they are very pleased you +both come to-night. It is very poor food and very poor feast, they +say. Japanese food is very simple sort of thing. But they ask you +please excuse them, for what they have done they have done from a good +heart." + +Geoffrey was mumbling incoherently, and wondering whether he was +expected to reply to this oration, when Ito again exclaimed, "Please +step this way." + +They passed into a large room like a concert hall with a stage at one +end. There were several men squatting on the floor round _hibachi_ +smoking and drinking beer. They looked like black sheep browsing. + +These were joined by the mutes who followed the Barringtons. All of +these people were dressed exactly alike. They wore white socks, a dark +kimono almost hidden by the black cloak upon which the family crest--a +wreath of wisteria (_fuji_) foliage--shone like a star on sleeves and +neck, and by the fluted yellowish skirt of heavy rustling silk. This +dress, though gloomy and sacerdotal, was dignified and becoming; but +the similarity was absurd. It looked like a studied effect at a fancy +dress ball. It was particularly exasperating to the guests of honour +who were anxious to distinguish their relatives and to know them +apart; but Ito alone, with his European clothes and his purple tie, +was conspicuous and unmistakable. + +"He is like Mrs. Jarley," thought Geoffrey, "he explains the +waxworks." + +In the middle of the room was a little group of chairs of the weary +beast of burden type, which are requisitioned for public meetings. Two +of them were dignified by cushions of crimson plush. These were for +Geoffrey and Asako. + +Among the black sheep there was no movement beyond the steady staring +of some thirty pairs of eyes. When the Harringtons had been enthroned, +the host and hostess approached them with silent dragging steps and +downcast faces. They might have been the bearers of evil tidings. A +tall girl followed behind her parents. + +Mrs. Fujinami Shidzuye and her daughter, Sadako, were the only women +present. This was a compromise, and a consideration for Asako's +feelings. Mr. Ito had proposed that since a lady was the chief guest +of honour, therefore all the Fujinami ladies ought to be invited to +meet her. To Mr. Fujinami's strict conservative mind such an idea +was anathema. What! Wives at a banquet! In a public restaurant! With +_geisha_ present! Absurd--and disgusting! _O tempora! O mores_! + +Then, argued the lawyer, Asako must not be invited. But Asako was +the _clou_ of the evening; and besides, an English gentleman would be +insulted if his wife were not invited too. And--as Mr. Ito went on +to urge--any woman, Japanese or foreign, would be ill-at-ease in a +company composed entirely of men. Besides Sadako could speak English +so well; it was so convenient that she should come; and under her +mother's care her morals would not be contaminated by the propinquity +of _geisha_. So Mr. Fujinami gave in so far as concerned his own wife +and daughter. + +Shidzuye San, as befitted a matron of sober years, wore a plain black +kimono; but Sadako's dress was of pale mauve color, with a bronze sash +tied in an enormous bow. Her hair was parted on one side and caught +up in a bun behind--the latest _haikara_ fashion and a tribute to the +foreign guests. Hers was a graceful figure; but her expression +was spoiled by the blue-tinted spectacles which completely hid her +features. + +"Miss Sadako Fujinami, daughter of Mr. Fujinami Gentaro," said Ito. +"She has been University undergraduate, and she speaks English quite +well." + +Miss Sadako bowed three times. Then she said, "How do you do" in a +high unnatural voice. + +The room was filling up with the little humming-bird women who had +been present at the entrance. They were handing cigarettes and +tea cups to the guests. They looked bright and pleasant; and they +interested Geoffrey. + +"Are these ladies relatives of the Fujinami family?" he asked Ito. + +"Oh, no, not at all," the lawyer gasped; "you have made great +mistake, Mr. Barrington. Japanese ladies all left at home, never go +to restaurant. These girls are no ladies, they're _geisha_ girls. +_Geisha_ girls very famous to foreign persons." + +Geoffrey knew that he had made his first _faux pas_. + +"Now," said Mr. Ito, "please step this way; we go upstairs to the +feast room." + +The dining-room seemed larger still than the reception room. Down each +side of it were arranged two rows of red lacquer tables, each about +eighteen inches high and eighteen inches square. Mysterious little +dishes were placed on each side of these tables; the most conspicuous +was a flat reddish fish with a large eye, artistically served in a +rollicking attitude, which in itself was an invitation to eat. + +The English guests were escorted to two seats at the extreme end of +the room, where two tables were laid in isolated glory. They were to +sit there like king and queen, with two rows of their subjects in long +aisles to the right and to the left of them. + +The seats were cushions merely; but those placed for Geoffrey and +Asako were raised on low hassocks. After them the files of the +Fujinami streamed in and took up their appointed positions along +the sides of the room. They were followed by the _geisha_, each girl +carrying a little white china bottle shaped like a vegetable marrow, +and a tiny cup like the bath which hygienic old maids provide for +their canary birds. + +"Japanese _sake_" said Sadako to her cousin, "you do not like?" + +"Oh, yes, I do," replied Asako, who was intent on enjoying everything. +But on this occasion she had chosen the wrong answer; for real ladies +in Japan are not supposed to drink the warm rice wine. + +The _geisha_ certainly looked most charming as they slowly advanced in +a kind of ritualistic procession. Their feet like little white mice, +the dragging skirts of their spotless kimonos, their exaggerated care +and precision, and their stiff conventional attitudes presented a +picture from a Satsuma vase. Their dresses were of all shades, black, +blue, purple, grey and mauve. The corner of the skirt folded back +above the instep revealed a glimpse of gaudy underwear provoking to +men's eyes, and displayed the intricate stenciled flower patterns, +which in the case of the younger women seemed to be catching hold of +the long sleeves and straying upwards. Little dancing girls, +thirteen and fourteen years old--the so-called _hangyoku_ or half +jewels--accompanied their elder sisters of the profession. They wore +very bright dresses just like the dolls; and their massive _coiffure_ +was bedizened with silver spangles and elaborately artificial flowers. + +"Oh!" gasped the admiring Asako, "I must get one of those _geisha_ +girls to show me how to wear my kimonos properly; they do look smart." + +"I do not think," answered Sadako. "These are vulgar women, bad style; +I will teach you the noble way." + +But all the _geisha_ had a grave and dignified look, quite different +from the sprightly butterflies of musical comedy from whom Geoffrey +had accepted his knowledge of Japan. + +They knelt down before the guests and poured a little of the _sake_ +into the shallow saucer held out for their ministrations. Then they +folded their hands in their laps and appeared to slumber. + +A sucking sound ran round the room as the first cup was drained. Then +a complete silence fell, broken only by the shuffle of the girls' feet +on the matting as they went to fetch more bottles. + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro spoke to the guests assembled, bidding them +commence their meal, and not to stand upon ceremony. + +"It is like the one--two--three--go! at a race," thought Geoffrey. + +All the guests were manipulating their chop-sticks. Geoffrey raised +his own pair. The two slender rods of wood were unparted at one end to +show that they had never been used. It was therefore necessary to pull +them in two. As he did so a tiny splinter of wood like a match fell +from between them. + +Asako laughed. + +"That is the toothpick," cousin Sadako explained. "We call such +chop-sticks _komochi-hashi_, chopstick with baby, because the +toothpick inside the chopstick like the baby inside the mother. Very +funny, I think." + +There were two kinds of soup--excellent; there was cooked fish and +raw fish in red and white slices, chastely served with ice; there were +vegetables known and unknown, such as sweet potatoes, French beans, +lotus stems and bamboo shoots. These had to be eaten with the aid of +the chop-sticks--a difficult task when it came to cutting up the wing +of a chicken or balancing a soft poached egg. + +The guests did not eat with gusto. They toyed with the food, sipping +wine all the time, smoking cigarettes and picking their teeth. + +Geoffrey, according to his own description, was just getting his eye +in, when Mr. Fujinami Gentaro rose from his humble place at the far +end of the room. In a speech full of poetical quotations, which must +have cost his tame students considerable trouble in the composition, +he welcomed Asako Barrington, who, he said, had been restored to Japan +like a family jewel which has been lost and is found. He compared her +visit to the sudden flowering of an ancient tree. This did not seem +very complimentary; however, it referred not to the lady's age but +to the elder branch of the family which she represented. After many +apologies for the tastelessness of the food and the stupidity of the +entertainment, he proposed the health of Mr. and Mrs. Harrington, +which was drunk by the whole company standing. + +Ito produced from his pocket a translation of this oration. + +"Now please say a few words in reply," he directed. + +Geoffrey, feeling acutely ridiculous, scrambled to his feet and +thanked everybody for giving his wife and himself such a jolly good +time. Ito translated. + +"Now please command to drink health of the Fujinami family," said +the lawyer, consulting his _agenda_. So the health of Mr. and Mrs. +Fujinami Gentaro was drunk with relish by everybody, including the +lady and gentleman honoured. + +"In this country," thought Geoffrey, "one gets the speechmaking over +before the dinner. Not a bad idea. It saves that nervous feeling which +spoils the appetite." + +An old gentleman, with a restless jaw, tottered to his feet and +approached Geoffrey's table. He bowed twice before him, and held out a +claw-like hand. + +"Mr. Fujinami Gennosuke, the father of Mr. Fujinami Gentaro," +announced Ito. "He has retired from life. He wishes to drink wine with +you. Please wash your cup and give it to him." + +There was a kind of finger-bowl standing in front of Geoffrey, which +he had imagined might be a spittoon. He was directed to rinse his +cup in this vessel, and to hand it to the old gentleman. Mr. Fujinami +Gennosuke received it in both hands as if it had been a sacrament. The +attendant _geisha_ poured out a little of the greenish liquid, +which was drunk with much hissing and sucking. Then followed another +obeisance; the cup was returned, and the old gentleman retired. + +He was succeeded by Mr. Fujinami Gentaro himself, with whom the same +ceremony of the _sake_ drinking was repeated; and then all the family +passed by, one after another, each taking the cup and drinking. It was +like a visiting figure in the lancers' quadrille. + +As each relative bent and bowed, Ito announced his name and quality. +These names seemed all alike, alike as their faces and as their +garments were. Geoffrey could only remember vaguely that he had been +introduced to a Member of Parliament, a gross man with a terrible +wen like an apple under his ear, and to two army officers, tall +clean-looking men, who pleased him more than the others. There were +several Government functionaries; but the majority were business men. +Geoffrey could only distinguish for certain his host and his host's +father. + +"They look just like two old vultures," he thought. + +Then there was Mr. Fujinami Takeshi, the son of the host and the hope +of the family, a livid youth with a thin moustache and unhealthy marks +on his face like raspberries under the skin. + +Still the _geisha_ kept bringing more and more food in a desultory way +quite unlike our system of fixed and regular courses. Still Ito kept +pressing Geoffrey to eat, while at the same time apologizing for the +quality of the food with exasperating repetition. Geoffrey had fallen +into the error of thinking that the fish and its accompanying dishes +which had been laid before him at first comprised the whole of the +repast. He had polished them off with gusto; and had then discovered +to his alarm that they were merely _hors d'oeuvres_. Nor did he +observe until too late how little the other guests were eating. There +was no discourtesy apparently in leaving the whole of a dish untasted, +or in merely picking at it from time to time. Rudeness consisted in +refusing any dish. + +Plates of broiled meat and sandwiches arrived, bowls of soup, grilled +eels on skewers--that most famous of Tokyo delicacies; finally, the +inevitable rice with whose adhesive substance the Japanese epicure +fills up the final crannies in his well-lined stomach. It made its +appearance in a round drum-like tub of clean white wood, as big as +a bandbox, and bound round with shining brass. The girls served the +sticky grains into the china rice-bowl with a flat wooden ladle. + +"Japanese people always take two bowls of rice at least," observed +Ito. "One bowl very unlucky; at the funeral we only eat one bowl." + +This to Geoffrey was the _coup de grace_. He had only managed to stuff +down his bowl through a desperate sense of duty. + +"If I do have a second," he gasped, "it will be my own funeral." + +But this joke did not run in the well-worn lines of Japanese humour. +Mr. Ito merely thought that the big Englishman, having drunk much +_sake_, was talking nonsense. + +All the guests were beginning to circulate now; the quadrille was +becoming more and more elaborate. They were each calling on each +other and taking wine. The talk was becoming more animated. A few bold +spirits began to laugh and joke with the _geisha_. Some had laid aside +their cloaks; and some even had loosened their kimonos at the neck, +displaying hairy chests. The stiff symmetry of the dinner party +was quite broken up. The guests were scattered like rooks, bobbing, +scratching and pecking about on the yellow mats. The bright plumage of +the _geisha_ stood out against their sombre monotony. + +Presently the _geisha_ began to dance at the far end of the room. Ten +of the little girls did their steps, a slow dance full of posturing +with coloured handkerchiefs. Three of the elder _geisha_ in plain grey +kimonos squatted behind the dancers, strumming on their _samisens_. +But there was very little music either in the instrument or in the +melody. The sound of the string's twang and the rattle of the bone +plectrum drowned the sweetness of the note. The result was a kind of +dry clatter or cackle which is ingenious, but not pleasing. + +Reggie Forsyth used to say that there is no melody in Japanese music; +but that the rhythm is marvelous. It is a kind of elaborate ragtime +without any tune to it. + +The guests did not pay any attention to the performance, nor did they +applaud when it was over. + +Mr. Ito was consulting his _agenda_ paper and his gold watch. + +"You will now drink with these gentlemen," he said. Geoffrey must have +demurred. + +"It is Japanese custom," he continued; "please step this way; I will +guide you." + +Poor Geoffrey! it was his turn now to do the visiting figure, but +his head was buzzing with some thirty cups of _sake_ which he had +swallowed out of politeness, and with the unreality of the whole +scene. + +"Can't do it," he protested; "drunk too much already." + +"In Japan we say, 'When friends meet the _sake_ sellers laugh!'" +quoted the lawyer. "It is Japanese custom to drink together, and to +be happy. To be drunk in good company, it is no shame. Many of these +gentlemen will presently be drunk. But if you do not wish to drink +more, then just pretend to drink. You take the cup, see; you lift it +to your mouth, but you throw away the _sake_ into the basin when you +wash the cup. That is _geisha's_ trick when the boys try to make her +drunk, but she is too wise!" + +Armed with this advice Geoffrey started on his round of visits, +first to his host and then to his host's father. The face of old Mr. +Fujinami Gennosuke was as red as beet-root, and his jaw was chewing +more vigorously than ever. Nothing, however, could have been more +perfect than his deportment in exchanging the cup with his guest. But +no sooner had Geoffrey turned away to pay another visit than he became +aware of a slight commotion. He glanced round and saw Mr. Fujinami, +senior, in a state of absolute collapse, being conducted out of the +room by two members of the family and a cluster of _geisha_. + +"What has happened?" he asked in some alarm. + +"It is nothing," said Ito; "old gentleman tipsy very quick." + +Everybody now seemed to be smiling and happy. Geoffrey felt the curse +of his speechlessness. He was brimming over with good humour, and was +most anxious to please. The Japanese no longer appeared so grotesque +as they had on his arrival. He was sure that he would have much in +common with many of these men, who talked so good-naturedly among +themselves, until the chill of his approach fell upon them. + +Besides Ito and Sadako Fujinami, the only person present who could +talk English at all fluently was that blotchy-faced individual, Mr. +Fujinami Takeshi. The young man was in a very hilarious state, and +had gathered around him a bevy of _geisha_ with whom he was cracking +jokes. From the nature of his gestures they must have been far from +decorous. + +"Please to sit down, my dear friend," he said to Geoffrey. "Do you +like _geisha_ girl?" + +"I don't think they like me," said Geoffrey. "I'm too big." + +"Oh, no," said the Japanese; "very big, very good. Japanese man +too small, no good at all. Why do all _geisha_ love _sumotori_ +(professional wrestlers)? Because _sumotori_ very big; but this +English gentleman bigger than _sumotori_. So this girl love you, and +this girl, and this girl, and this very pretty girl, I don't know?" + +He added a question in Japanese. The _geisha_ giggled, and hid her +face behind her sleeve. + +"She say, she wish to try first. To try the cake, you eat some? Is +that right?" + +He repeated his joke in Japanese. The girl wriggled with +embarrassment, and finally scuttled away across the room, while the +others laughed. + +All the _geisha_ now hid their faces among much tittering. + +Geoffrey was becoming harassed by this _badinage_; but he hated to +appear a prude, and said: + +"I have got a wife, you know, Mr. Fujinami; she is keeping an eye on +me." + +"No matter, no matter," the young man answered, waving his hand to and +fro; "we all have wife; wife no matter in Japan." + +At last Geoffrey got back to his throne at Asako's side. He was +wondering what would be the next move in the game when, to his relief +and surprise, Ito, after a glance at his watch, said suddenly: + +"It is now time to go home. Please say good-bye to Mr. and Mrs. +Fujinami." + +A sudden dismissal, but none the less welcome. + +The inner circle of the Fujinami had gathered round. They and the +_geisha_ escorted their guests to the rickshaws and helped them on +with their cloaks and boots. There was no pressing to remain; and as +Geoffrey passed the clock in the entrance hall he noticed that it +was just ten o'clock. Evidently the entertainment was run with strict +adherence to the time-table. + +Some of the guests were too deep in _sake_ and flirtation to be +aware of the break-up; and the last vision granted to Geoffrey of the +M.P.--the fat man with the wen--was of a kind of Turkey Trot going +on in a corner of the room, and the thick arms of the legislator +disappearing up the lady's kimono sleeve. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +FALLEN CHERRY-BLOSSOM + + _Iro wa nioedo + Chirinuru wo-- + Woga yo tore zo + Tsune naran? + Ui no okuyama + Kyo koete, + Asaki yume miji + Ei mo sezu._ + + The colours are bright, but + The petals fall! + In this world of ours who + Shall remain forever? + To-day crossing + The high mountains of mutability, + We shall see no fleeting dreams, + Being inebriate no longer. + + +"_O hay[=o] gazaimas!_" (Respectfully early!) + +Twitterings of maid-servants salute the lady of the house with the +conventional morning greeting. Mrs. Fujinami Shidzuye replies in the +high, fluty, unnatural voice which is considered refined in her social +set. + +The servants glide into the room which she has just left, moving +noiselessly so as not to wake the master who is still sleeping. They +remove from his side the thick warm mattresses upon which his wife +has been lying, the hard wooden pillow like the block of history, +the white sheets and the heavy padded coverlet with sleeves like an +enormous kimono. They roil up all these _yagu_ (night implements), +fold them and put them away into an unsuspected cupboard in the +architecture of the veranda. + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro still snores. + +After a while his wife returns. She is dressed for the morning in a +plain grey silk kimono with a broad olive-green _obi_ (sash). Her +hair is arranged in a formidable helmet-like _coiffure_--all Japanese +matrons with their hair done properly bear a remote resemblance to +Pallas Athene and Britannia. This will need the attention of the +hairdresser so as to wax into obedience a few hairs left wayward by +the night in spite of that severe wooden pillow, whose hard, high +discomfort was invented by female vanity to preserve from disarray +the rigid order of their locks. Her feet are encased in little white +_tabi_ like gloves, for the big toe has a compartment all to itself. +She walks with her toes turned in, and with the heels hardly touching +the ground. This movement produces a bend of the knees and hips so +as to maintain the equilibrium of the body, and a sinuous appearance +which is considered the height of elegance in Japan, so that the grace +of a beautiful woman is likened to "a willow-tree blown by the +wind," and the shuffle of her feet on the floor-matting to the wind's +whisper. + +Mrs. Fujinami carries a red lacquer tray. On the tray is a tiny teapot +and a tiny cup and a tiny dish, in which are three little salted +damsons, with a toothpick fixed in one of them. It is the _petit +dejeuner_ of her lord. She put down the tray beside the head of +the pillow, and makes a low obeisance, touching the floor with her +forehead. + +"_O hay[=o] gazaimas_'!" + +Mr. Fujinami stirs, gapes, stretches, yawns, rubs his lean fist in his +hollow eyes, and stares at the rude incursion of daylight. He takes no +notice of his wife's presence. She pours out tea for him with studied +pose of hands and wrists, conventional and graceful. She respectfully +requests him to condescend to partake. Then she makes obeisance again. + +Mr. Fujinami yawns once more, after which he condescends. He sucks +down the thin, green tea with a whistling noise. Then he places in his +mouth the damson balanced on the point of the toothpick. He turns it +over and over with his tongue as though he was chewing a cud. Finally +he decides to eat it, and to remove the stone. + +Then he rises from his couch. He is a very small wizened man. Dressed +in his night kimono of light blue silk, he passes along the veranda +in the direction of the morning ablutions. Soon the rending sounds of +throat-clearing show that he has begun his wash. Three maids appear +as by magic in the vacated room. The bed is rolled away, the matting +swept, and the master's morning clothes are laid out ready for him on +his return. + +Mrs. Fujinami assists her husband to dress, holding each garment ready +for him to slip into, like a well-trained valet. Mr. Fujinami does not +speak to her. When his belt has been adjusted, and a watch with a gold +fob thrust into its interstice, he steps down from the veranda, slides +his feet into a pair of _geta_, and strolls out into the garden. + +Mr. Fujinami's garden is a famous one. It is a temple garden many +centuries old; and the eyes of the initiated may read in the miniature +landscape, in the grouping of shrubs and rocks, in the sudden +glimpses of water, and in the bare pebbly beaches, a whole system of +philosophic and religious thought worked out by the patient priests of +the Ashikaga period, just as the Gothic masons wrote their version of +the Bible history in the architecture of their cathedrals. + +But for the ignorant, including its present master, it was just a +perfect little park, with lawns six feet square and ancient pine +trees, with impenetrable forests which one could clear at a bound, +with gorges, waterfalls, arbours for lilliputian philanderings and +a lake round whose tiny shores were represented the Eight Beautiful +Views of the Lake of Biwa near Kyoto. + +The bungalow mansion of the family lies on a knoll overlooking the +lake and the garden valley, a rambling construction of brown wood with +grey scale-like tiles, resembling a domesticated dragon stretching +itself in the sun. + +Indeed, it is not one house but many, linked together by a number of +corridors and spare rooms. For Mr. and Mrs. Fujinami live in one wing, +their son and his wife in another, and also Mr. Ito, the lawyer, who +is a distant relative and a partner in the Fujinami business. Then, +on the farther side of the house, near the pebble drive and the great +gate, are the swarming quarters of the servants, the rickshaw men, and +Mr. Fujinami's secretaries. Various poor relations exist unobserved +in unfrequented corners; and there is the following of University +students and professional swashbucklers which every important Japanese +is bound to keep, as an advertisement of his generosity, and to do his +dirty work for him. A Japanese family mansion is very like a hive--of +drones. + +Nor is this the entire population of the Fujinami _yashiki_. Across +the garden and beyond the bamboo grove is the little house of Mr. +Fujinami's stepbrother and his wife; and in the opposite corner, below +the cherry-orchard, is the _inkyo_, the dower house, where old +Mr. Fujinami Gennosuke, the retired Lord--who is the present Mr. +Fujinami's father by adoption only--watches the progress of the family +fortunes with the vigilance of Charles the Fifth in the cloister of +Juste. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro shuffled his way towards a little room like a +kind of summer-house, detached from the main building and overlooking +the lake and garden from the most favourable point of vantage. + +This is Mr. Fujinami's study--like all Japanese rooms, a square box +with wooden framework, wooden ceiling, sliding paper _shoji_, pale +golden _tatami_ and double alcove. All Japanese rooms are just the +same, from the Emperor's to the rickshaw-man's; only in the quality +of the wood, in the workmanship of the fittings, in the newness and +freshness of paper and matting, and by the ornaments placed in the +alcove, may the prosperity of the house be known. + +In Mr. Fujinami's study, one niche of the alcove was fitted up as a +bookcase; and that bookcase was made of a wonderful honey-coloured +satinwood brought from the hinterland of China. The lock and +the handles were inlaid with dainty designs in gold wrought by a +celebrated Kyoto artist. In the open alcove the hanging scroll of Lao +Tze's paradise had cost many hundreds of pounds, as had also the Sung +dish below it, an intricacy of lotus leaves caved out of a single +amethyst. + +On a table in the middle of this chaste apartment lay a pair of +gold-rimmed spectacles and a yellow book. The room was open to the +early morning sunlight; the paper walls were pushed back. Mr. Fujinami +moved a square silk cushion to the edge of the matting near the +outside veranda. There he could rest his back against a post in +the framework of the building--for even Japanese get wearied by the +interminable squatting which life on the floor level entails--and +acquire that condition of bodily repose which is essential for +meditation. + +Mr. Fujinami was in the habit of meditating for one hour every +morning. It was a tradition of his house; his father and his +grandfather had done so before him. The guide of his meditations was +the yellow book, the _Rongo_ (Maxims) of Confucius, that Bible of the +Far East which has moulded oriental morality to the shape of the Three +Obediences, the obedience of the child to his parents, of the wife to +her husband, and of the servant to his lord. + +Mr. Fujinami sat on the sill of his study, and meditated. Around him +was the stillness of early morning. From the house could be heard the +swish of the maids' brooms brushing the _tatami_, and the flip-flap +of their paper flickers, like horses' tails, with which they dislodged +the dust from the walls and cornices. + +A big black crow had been perched on one of the cherry-trees in the +garden. He rose with a shaking of branches and a flapping of broad +black wings. He crossed the lake, croaking as he flew with a note +more harsh, rasping and cynical than the consequential caw of English +rooks. His was a malevolent presence "from the night's Plutonian +shore," the symbol of something unclean and sinister lurking behind +this dainty beauty and this elaboration of cleanliness. + +Mr. Fujinami's meditations were deep and grave. Soon he put down the +book. The spectacles glided along his nose. His chest rose and fell +quickly under the weight of his resting chin. To the ignorant observer +Mr. Fujinami would have appeared to be asleep. + +However, when his wife appeared about an hour and a half afterwards, +bringing her lord's breakfast on another red lacquer table she +besought him kindly to condescend to eat, and added that he must +be very tired after so much study. To this Mr. Fujinami replied by +passing his hand over his forehead and saying, "_D[=o]m[=o]! So des' ne!_ +(Indeed, it is so!) I have tired myself with toil." + +This little farce repeated itself every morning. All the household +knew that the master's hour of meditation was merely an excuse for +an after-sleep. But it was a tradition in the family that the master +should study thus; and Mr. Fujinami's grandfather had been a great +scholar in his generation. To maintain the tradition Mr. Fujinami had +hired a starveling journalist to write a series of random essays of +a sentimental nature, which he had published under his own name, with +the title, _Fallen Cherry-Blossoms_. + +Such is the hold of humbug in Japan that nobody in the whole +household, including the students who respected nothing, ever allowed +themselves the relief of smiling at the sacred hour of study, even +when the master's back was turned. + + * * * * * + +"_O hay[=o] gozaimas_'!" + +"For honourable feast of yesterday evening indeed very much obliged!" + +The oily forehead of Mr. Ito touched the matting floor with the +exaggerated humility of conventional gratitude. The lawyer wore +a plain kimono of slate-grey silk. His American manners and his +pomposity had both been laid aside with the tweed suit and the +swallow-tail. He was now a plain Japanese business man, servile +and adulatory in his patron's presence. Mr. Fujinami Gentaro bowed +slightly in acknowledgment across the remnants of his meal. + +"It is no matter," he said, with a few waves of his fan; "please sit +at your ease." + +The two gentlemen arranged themselves squatting cross-legged for the +morning's confidential talk. + +"The cherry-flowers," Ito began, with a sweep of the arm towards the +garden grove, "how quickly they fall, alas!" + +"Indeed, human life also," agreed Mr. Fujinami. "But the guests of +last evening, what is one to think?" + +"_Ma_! In truth, _sensei_ (master or teacher), it would be impossible +not to call that Asa San a beauty." + +"Ito Kun," said his relative in a tone of mild censure, "it is foolish +always to think of women's looks. This foreigner, what of him?" + +"For a foreigner, that person seems to be honourable and grave," +answered the retainer, "but one fears that it is a misfortune for the +house of Fujinami." + +"To have a son who is no son," said the head of the family, sighing. + +"_D[=o]m[=o]!_ It is terrible!" was the reply; "besides, as the _sensei_ +so eloquently said last night, there are so few blossoms on the old +tree." + +The better to aid his thoughts, Mr. Fujinami drew from about his +person a case which contained a thin bamboo pipe, called _kiseru_ in +Japanese, having a metal bowl of the size and shape of the socket of +an acorn. He filled this diminutive bowl with a little wad of tobacco, +which looked like coarse brown hair. He kindled it from the charcoal +ember in the _hibachi_. He took three sucks of smoke, breathing them +slowly out of his mouth again in thick grey whorls. Then with three +hard raps against the wooden edge of the firebox, he knocked out again +the glowing ball of weed. When this ritual was over, he replaced the +pipe in its sheath of old brocade. + +The lawyer sucked in his breath, and bowed his head. + +"In family matters," he said, "it is rude for an outside person to +advise the master. But last night I saw a dream. I saw the Englishman +had been sent back to England; and that this Asa San with all her +money was again in the Fujinami family. Indeed, a foolish dream, but a +good thing, I think!" + +Mr. Fujinami pondered with his face inclined and his eyes shut. + +"Ito Kun," he said at last, "you are indeed a great schemer. Every +month you make one hundred schemes. Ninety of them are impracticable, +eight of them are foolish, and two of them are masterpieces!" + +"And this one?" asked Ito. + +"I think it is impracticable," said his patron, "but it would be worth +while to try. It would without doubt be an advantage to send away +this foreigner. He is a great trouble, and may even become a danger. +Besides, the house of Fujinami has few children. Where there are no +sons even daughters are welcome. If we had this Asa, we could marry +her to some influential person. She is very beautiful, she is rich, +and she speaks foreign languages. There would be no difficulty. Now, +as to the present, how about this Osaka business?" + +"I have heard from my friend this morning," answered Ito; "it is good +news. The Governor will sanction the establishment of the new licensed +quarter at Tobita, if the Home Minister approves." + +"But that is easy. The Minister has always protected us. Besides, did +I not give fifty thousand _yen_ to the funds of the _Seiyukwai_?" +said Mr. Fujinami, naming the political party then in the majority in +Parliament. + +"Yes, but it must be done quickly; for opposition is being organised. +First, there was the Salvation Army and the missionaries. Now, there +are Japanese people, too, people who make a cry and say this licensed +prostitute system is not suitable to a civilised country, and it is a +shame to Japan. Also, there may be a political change very soon, and a +new Minister." + +"Then we would have to begin all over again, another fifty thousand +_yen_ to the other side." + +"If it is worth it?" + +"My father says that Osaka is the gold mine of Japan. It is worth all +that we can pay." + +"Yes, but Mr. Fujinami Gennosuke is an old man now, and the times are +changing." + +The master laughed. + +"Times change," he said, "but men and women never change." + +"It is true," argued Ito, "that rich and noble persons no longer +frequent the _yukwaku_ (pleasure enclosure). My friend, Suzuki, has +seen the Chief of the Metropolitan Police. He says that he will not +be able to permit _Oiran Dochu_ another year. He says too that it +will soon be forbidden to show the _jor[=o]_ in their windows. It will +be photograph-system for all houses. It is all a sign of the change. +Therefore, the Fujinami ought not to sink any more capital in the +_yukwaku_." + +"But men will still be men, they will still need a laundry for their +spirits." Mr. Fujinami used a phrase which in Japan is a common excuse +for those who frequent the _demi-monde_. + +"That is true, _sensei_," said the counsellor; "but our Japan must +take on a show of Western civilisation. It is the thing called +progress. It is part of Western civilisation that men will become more +hypocritical. These foreigners say our Yoshiwara is a shame; but, in +their own cities, immoral women walk in the best streets, and offer +themselves to men quite openly. These virtuous foreigners are worse +than we are. I myself have seen. They say, 'We have no Yoshiwara +system, therefore we are good.' They pretend not to see like a +_geisha_ who squints through a fan. We Japanese, we now become more +hypocritical, because this is necessary law of civilisation. The two +swords of the _samurai_ have gone; but honour and hatred and revenge +will never go. The _kanzashi_ (hair ornaments) of the _oiran_ will go +too; but what the _oiran_ lose, the _geisha_ will gain. Therefore, if +I were Fujinami San, I would buy up the _geisha_, and also perhaps the +_inbai_ (unregistered women)." + +"But that is a low trade," objected the Yoshiwara magnate. + +"It is very secret; your name need never be spoken." + +"And it is too scattered, too disorganised, it would be impossible to +control." + +"I do not think it would be so difficult. What might be proposed is a +_geisha_ trust." + +"But even the Fujinami have not got enough money." + +"Within one month I guarantee to find the right men, with the money +and the experience and the influence." + +"Then the business would no longer be the Fujinami only--" + +"It would be as in America, a combine, something on a big scale. In +Japan one is content with such small business. Indeed, we Japanese are +a very small people." + +"In America, perhaps, there is more confidence," said the elder man; +"but in Japan we say, 'Beware of friends who are not also relatives,' +There is, as you know, the temple of Inari Daimy[=o]jin in Asakusa. They +say that if a man worships at that temple he becomes the owner of his +friend's wealth. I fear that too many of us Japanese make pilgrimage +to that temple after nightfall." + +With those words, Mr. Fujinami picked up a newspaper to indicate +that the audience was terminated; and Mr. Ito, after a series of +prostrations, withdrew. + + * * * * * + +As soon as he was out of sight, Mr. Fujinami Gentaro selected from the +pile in front of him a number of letters and newspapers. With these +in his hand, he left the study, and followed a path of broad, flat +stepping-stones across the garden towards the cherry-orchard. Here +the way sloped rapidly downward under a drift of fallen petals. On the +black naked twigs of the cherry-trees one or two sturdy blossoms still +clung pathetically, like weather-beaten butterflies. Beyond a green +shrubbery, on a little knoll, a clean newly-built Japanese house, +like a large rabbit hutch, rested in a patch of sunlight. It was +the _inkyo_, the "shadow dwelling" or dower house. Here dwelt Mr. +Fujinami, senior, and his wife--his fourth matrimonial experiment. + +The old gentleman was squatting on the balcony of the front corner +room, the one which commanded the best view of the cherry-grove. He +looked as if he had just been unpacked; for he was surrounded by reams +and reams of paper, some white, and some with Chinese letters scrawled +over them. He was busy writing these letters with a kind of thick +paint-brush; and he was so deep in his task that he appeared not to +notice his son's approach. His restless jaw was still imperturbably +chewing. + +"_O hay[=o] gozaimas_'!" + +"_Tar[=o], yo! O hay[=o]_!" cried the old gentleman, calling his son by his +short boy's name, and cutting off all honorifics from his speech. +He always affected surprise at this visit, which had been a daily +occurrence for many years. + +"The cherry-flowers are fallen and finished," said the younger man. +"Ah, human life, how short a thing!" + +"Yes, one year more I have seen the flowers," said Mr. Fujinami +Gennosuke, nodding his head and taking his son's generalisation as +a personal reference. He had laid his brush aside; and he was really +wondering what would be Gentaro's comment on last night's feast and +its guests of honour. + +"Father is practising handwriting again?" + +The old man's mania was penmanship, just as his son's was literature. +Among Japanese it is considered the pastime becoming to his age. + +"My wrist has become stiff. I cannot write as I used to. It is +always so. Youth has the strength but not the knowledge; age has the +knowledge, but no strength." + +As a matter of fact, Mr. Gennosuke was immensely satisfied with his +calligraphy, and was waiting for compliments. + +"But this, this is beautifully written. It is worthy of Kobo Daishi!" +said the younger man, naming a famous scholar priest of the Middle +Ages. He was admiring a scroll on which four characters were +written in a perpendicular row. They signified, "From the midst of +tranquillity I survey the world." + +"No," said the artist; "you see the _ten_ (point) there is wrong. It +is ill-formed. It should be written thus." + +Shaking back his kimono sleeve--he wore a sea-blue cotton kimono, as +befitted his years--and with a little flourish of his wrist, like a +golfer about to make his stroke, he traced off the new version of the +character on the white paper. + +Perched on his veranda, with his head on one side he looked very like +the marabout stork, as you may see him at the Zoo, that raffish bird +with the folds in his neck, the stained glaucous complexion, the bald +head and the brown human eye. He had the same look of respectable +rascality. The younger Fujinami showed signs of becoming exactly like +him, although the parentage was by adoption only. He was not yet so +bald. His black hair was patched with grey in a piebald design. The +skin of the throat was at present merely loose, it did not yet hang in +bags. + +"And this Asa San?" remarked the elder after a pause; "what is to be +thought of her? Last night I became drunk, as my habit is, and I could +not see those people well." + +"She is not loud-voiced and bold like foreign women. Indeed, her voice +and her eyes are soft. Her heart is very good, I think. She is timid, +and in everything she puts her husband first. She does not understand +the world at all; and she knows nothing about money. Indeed, she is +like a perfect Japanese wife." + +"Hm! A good thing, and the husband?" + +"He is a soldier, an honourable man. He seemed foolish, or else he is +very cunning. The English people are like that. They say a thing. Of +course, you think it is a lie. But no, it is the truth; and so they +deceive." + +"_Ma, mendo-kusai_ (indeed, smelly-troublesome!) And why has this +foreigner come to Japan?" + +"Ito says he has come to learn about the money. That means, when he +knows he will want more." + +"How much do we pay to Asa San?" + +"Ten per cent." + +"And the profits last year on all our business came to thirty seven +and a half per cent. Ah! A fine gain. We could not borrow from the +banks at ten per cent. They would want at least fifteen, and many +gifts for silence. It is better to fool the husband, and to let them +go back to England. After all, ten per cent is a good rate. And we +want all our money now for the new brothels in Osaka. If we make much +money there, then afterwards we can give them more." + +"Ito says that if the Englishman knows that the money is made in +brothels, he will throw it all away and finish. Ito thinks it would be +not impossible to send the Englishman back to England, and to keep Asa +here in Japan." + +The old man looked up suddenly, and for once his jaw stopped chewing. + +"That would be best of all," he exclaimed. "Then indeed he is +honourable and a great fool. Being an Englishman, it is possible. Let +him go back to England. We will keep Asa. She too is a Fujinami; and, +even though she is a woman, she can be useful to the family. She will +stay with us. She would not like to be poor. She has not borne a baby +to this foreigner, and she is young. I think also our Sada can teach +her many things." + +"It is of Sada that I came to speak to father," said Mr. Gentaro. "The +marriage of our Sada is a great question for the Fujinami family. Here +is a letter from Mr. Osumi, a friend of the Governor of Osaka. The +Governor has been of much help to us in getting the concession for +the new brothels. He is a widower with no children. He is a man with a +future. He is protected by the military clan. He is wishful to marry +a woman who can assist his career, and who would be able to take the +place of a Minister's wife. Mr. Osumi, who writes, had heard of the +accomplishments of our Sada. He mentioned her name to the Governor; +and His Excellency was quite willing that Mr. Osumi should write +something in a letter to Ito." + +"Hm!" grunted the old gentleman, squinting sidelong at his son; "this +Governor, has he a private fortune?" + +"No, he is a self-made man." + +"Then it will not be with him, as it was with that Viscount Kamimura. +He will not be too proud to take our money." + +The truth of the allusion to Viscount Kamimura was that the name of +Sadako Fujinami had figured on the list of possible brides submitted +to that young aristocrat on his return from England. At first, it +seemed likely that the choice would fall upon her, because of her +undisputed cleverness; and the Fujinami family were radiant at the +prospect of so brilliant a match. For although nothing had been +formally mentioned between the two families, yet Sadako and her mother +had learned from their hairdresser that there was talk of such a +possibility in the servants' quarter of the Kamimura mansion, and +that old Dowager Viscountess Kamimura was undoubtedly making inquiries +which could only point to that one object. + +The young Viscount, however, on ascertaining the origin of the family +wealth, eliminated poor Sadako from the competition for his hand. + +It was a great disappointment to the Fujinami, and most of all to the +ambitious Sadako. For a moment she had seen opening the doorway into +that marvellous world of high diplomacy, of European capitals, of +diamonds, duchesses and intrigue, of which she had read in foreign +novels, where everybody is rich, brilliant, immoral and distinguished, +and where to women are given the roles to play even more important +than those of the men. This was the only world, she felt, worthy of +her talents; but few, very few, just one in a million Japanese women, +ever gets the remotest chance of entering it. This chance presented +itself to Sadako--but for a moment only. The doorway shut to again; +and Sadako was left feeling more acutely than before the emptiness +of life, and the bitterness of woman's lot in a land where men are +supreme. + +Her cousin, Asako, by the mere luck of having had an eccentric parent +and a European upbringing, possessed all the advantages and all the +experience which the Japanese girl knew only through the glamorous +medium of books. But this Asa San was a fool. Sadako had found that +out at once in the course of a few minutes talk at the Maple Club +dinner. She was sweet, gentle and innocent; far more Japanese, indeed, +than her sophisticated cousin. Her obvious respect and affection for +her big rough husband, her pathetic solicitude for the father whose +face she could hardly remember and for the mother who was nothing but +a name; these traits of character belong to the meek Japanese girl +of _Onna Daigaku_ (Woman's Great Learning), that famous classic +of Japanese girlhood which teaches the submission of women and the +superiority of men. It was a type which was becoming rare in her own +country. Little Asako had nothing in common with the argumentative +heroines of Bernard Shaw or with the desperate viragos of Ibsen, to +whom Sadako felt herself spiritually akin. Asako must be a fool. She +exasperated her Japanese cousin, who at the same time was envious of +her, envious above all of her independent wealth. As she observed to +her own mother, it was most improper that a woman, and a young woman +too, should have so much money of her own. It would be sure to spoil +her character. + +Meanwhile Asako was a way of access to first-hand knowledge of that +world of European womanhood which so strongly attracted Sadako's +intelligence, that almost incredible world in which men and women were +equal, had equal rights to property, and equal rights to love. Asako +must have seen enough to explain something about it; if only she were +not a fool. But it appeared that she had never heard of Strindberg, +Sudermann, or d'Annunzio; and even Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde were +unfamiliar names. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE FAMILY ALTAR + + _Yume no ai wa + Kurushikari keri? + Odorokite + Kaki-saguredomo + Te ni mo fureneba._ + + (These) meetings in dreams + How sad they are! + When, waking up startled + One gropes about-- + And there is no contact to the hand. + + +Miss Fujinami made up her mind to cultivate Asako's friendship, and to +learn all that she could from her. So she at once invited her cousin +to the mysterious house in Akasaka, and Asako at once accepted. + +The doors seemed to fly open at the magic of the wanderer's return. +Behind each partition were family retainers, bowing and smiling. +Three maids assisted her to remove her boots. There was a sense of +expectation and hospitality, which calmed Asako's fluttering shyness. + +"Welcome! Welcome!" chanted the chorus of maids, "_O agari +nasaimashi!_ (pray step up into the house!)" + +The visitor was shown into a beautiful airy room overlooking the +landscape garden. She could not repress an Ah! of wonder, when first +this fairy pleasance came in sight. It was all so green, so tiny, and +so perfect,--the undulating lawn, the sheet of silver water, the pigmy +forests which clothed its shores, its disappearance round a shoulder +of rock into that hinterland of high trees which closed the vista and +shut out the intrusion of the squalid city. + +The Japanese understand better than we do the mesmeric effects +of sights and sounds. It was to give her time to assimilate her +surroundings that Asako was left alone for half an hour or so, while +Sadako and her mother were combing their hair and putting their +kimonos straight. Tea and biscuits were brought for her, but her fancy +was astray in the garden. Already to her imagination a little town +had sprung up along the shingles of the tiny bay which faced her; +the sails of white ships were glimpsing where the sunlight struck the +water; and from round the rock promontory she could catch the shimmer +of the Prince's galleon with its high poop and stern covered with +solid gold. He was on his way to rescue the lady who was immured in +the top of the red pagoda on the opposite hill. + +Asako's legs were getting numb. She had been sitting on them +in correct Japanese fashion all this time. She was proud of the +accomplishment, which she considered must be hereditary, but she could +not keep it up for much longer than half an hour. Sadako's mother +entered. + +"Asa San is welcome." + +Much bowing began, in which Asako felt her disadvantage. The long +lines of the kimono, with the big sash tied behind, lend themselves +with peculiar grace to the squatting bow of Japanese intercourse. But +Asako, in the short blue jacket of her tailor-made serge, felt that +her attitude was that of the naughty little boys in English picture +books, bending over for castigation. + +Mrs. Fujinami wore a perfectly plain kimono, blackish-brown in colour, +with a plain gold sash. It is considered correct for middle-aged +ladies in Japan to dress with modesty and reserve. She was tall for a +Japanese woman and big-boned, with a long lantern-face, and an almost +Jewish nose. The daughter was of her mother's build. But her face was +a perfect oval, the melon-seed shape which is so highly esteemed in +her country. The severity of her appearance was increased, by her +blue-tinted spectacles; and like so many Japanese women, her teeth +were full of gold stopping. She was resplendent in blue, the blue of +the Mediterranean, with fronds of cherry-blossom and floating pink +petals designed round her skirts and at the bottom of the long +exaggerated sleeves. The sash of broad stiff brocade shone with light +blue and silver in a kind of conventional wave pattern. This was tied +at the back with a huge bow, which seemed perched upon its wearer like +a gigantic butterfly alighting on a cornflower. Her straight black +hair was parted on one side in "foreign" style. But her mother wore +the helmet-like _marumage_, the edifice of conservative taste in +married women, which looks more like a wig than like natural hair. + +Rings sparkled on Sadako's fingers, and she wore a diamond ornament +across her sash; but neither their taste nor their quality impressed +her cousin. Her face was of the same ivory tint as Asako's, but it +was hidden under a lavish coating of liquid powder. This hideous +embellishment covers not only the Mongolian yellow, which every +Japanese woman seems anxious to hide, but also the natural and +charming nuances of young skin, under a white monotonous surface +like a mask of clay. Painted roses bloomed on the girl's cheeks. The +eyebrows were artificially darkened as well as the lines round the +eyes. The face and its expression, in fact, were quite obscured by +cosmetics; and Miss Fujinami was wrapped in a cloud of cheap scent +like a servant-girl on her evening out. + +She spoke English well. In fact, at school she had achieved a really +brilliant career, and she had even attended a University for a time +with the intention of reading for a degree, an attainment rare among +Japanese girls. But overwork brought on its inevitable result. Books +had to be banished, and glasses interposed to save the tired eyes from +the light. It was a bitter disappointment for Sadako, who was a proud +and ambitious girl, and it had not improved her disposition. + +After the first formalities Asako was shown round the house. The +sameness of the rooms surprised her. There was nothing to distinguish +them except the different woods used in their ceilings and walls, a +distinction which betrayed its costliness and its taste only to the +practised eye. Each room was spotless and absolutely bare, with golden +_tatami_, rice-straw mats with edgings of black braid, fixed into the +flooring, by whose number the size of a Japanese room is measured. +Asako admired the pale white _shoji_, the sliding windows of opaque +glowing paper along the side of the room open to the outdoor light, +the _fusuma_ or sliding partitions between room and room, set in the +framework of the house, some of them charmingly painted with sketches +of scenery, flowers, or people, some of them plain cream-coloured +boards flecked with tiny specks of gold. + +Nothing broke the sameness of these rooms except the double alcove, +or _tokonoma_ with its inevitable hanging picture, its inevitable +ornament, and its spray of blossom. Between the double niche stood +that pillar of wood which Sadako explained as being the soul of the +room, the leading feature from which its character was taken, being +either plain and firm, or twisted and ornate, or else still unshaped, +with the bosses of amputated branches seared and black protesting +against confinement. The _tokonoma_, as the word suggests, must +originally have been the sleeping-place of the owner of the room, for +it certainly is the only corner in a Japanese house which is secured +from draughts. But perhaps it was respect for invisible spirits which +drove the sleeper eventually to abandon his coign of vantage to the +service of aesthetic beauty, and to stretch himself on the open floor. + +To Asako the rooms seemed all the same. Each gave the same impression +of spotlessness and nudity. Each was stiffly rectangular like the +honey squares fitted into a hive. Above all, there was nothing about +any of them to indicate their individual use, or the character of +the person to whom they were specially assigned. No dining-room, or +drawing-room, or library. + +"Where is your bedroom?" asked Asako, with a frank demand for that +sign of sisterhood among Western girls; "I should so like to see it." + +"I generally sleep," answered the Japanese girl, "in that room at the +corner where we have been already, where the bamboo pictures are. This +is the room where father and mother sleep." + +They were standing on the balcony outside the apartment where Asako +had first been received. + +"But where are the beds?" she asked. + +Sadako went to the end of the balcony, and threw open a big cupboard +concealed in the outside of the house. It was full of layers of rugs, +thick, dark and wadded. + +"These are the beds," smiled the Japanese cousin. "My brother Takeshi +has a foreign bed in his room; but my father does not like them, or +foreign clothes, or foreign food, or anything foreign. He says +the Japanese things are best for the Japanese. But he is very +old-fashioned." + +"Japanese style looks nicer," said Asako, thinking how big and vulgar +a bedstead would appear in that clean emptiness and how awkwardly its +iron legs would trample on the straw matting; "but isn't it draughty +and uncomfortable?" + +"I like the foreign beds best," said Sadako; "my brother has let me +try his. It is very soft." + +So in this country of Asako's fathers, a bedstead was lent for trial +as though it had been some fascinating novelty, a bicycle or a piano. + +The kitchen appealed most to the visitor. It was the only room to her +mind which had any individuality of its own. It was large, dark and +high, full of servant-girls scuttering about like little mice, who +bowed and then fled when the two ladies came in. The stoves for +boiling the rice interested Asako, round iron receptacles like +coppers, each resting on a brick fireplace. Everything was explained +to her: the high dressers hung with unfamiliar implements in white +metal and white wood: the brightly labelled casks of _sake_ and +_shoyu_ (sauce) waiting in the darkness like the deputation of a +friendly society in its insignia of office: the silent jars of tea, +greenish in colour and ticketed with strange characters, the names of +the respective tea-gardens: the iron kettle hanging on gibbet chains +from the top of the ceiling over a charcoal fire sunk in the floor; +the tasteful design of the commonest earthenware bowl: the little +board and chopper for slicing the raw fish: the clean white rice-tubs +with their brass bindings polished and shining: the odd shape and +entirely Japanese character which distinguished the most ordinary +things, and gave to the short squat knives a romantic air and to the +broad wooden spoons a suggestion of witchcraft: finally, the little +shrine to the Kitchen God, perched on a shelf close to the ceiling, +looking like the facade of a doll's temple, and decorated with brass +vases, dry grasses, and strips of white paper. The wide kitchen was +impregnated with a smell already familiar to Asako's nose, one of +the most typical odours of Japan, the smell of native cooking, humid, +acrid and heavy like the smell of wood smoke from damp logs, with +a sour and rotten flavour to it contributed by a kind of pickled +horse-radish called _Daikon_ or the Great Root, dear to the Japanese +palate. + +The central ceremony of Asako's visit was her introduction to the +memory of her dead parents. She was taken to a small room, where the +alcove, the place of honour, was occupied by a closed cabinet, the +_butsudan_ (Buddha shelf), a beautiful piece of joiner's work in a +kind of lattice pattern covered with red lacquer and gold. Sadako, +approaching, reverently opened this shrine. The interior was all gilt +with a dazzling gold like that used an old manuscripts. In the centre +of this glory sat a golden-faced Buddha with dark blue hair and cloak, +and an aureole of golden rays. Below him were arranged the _ihai_, the +Tablets of the Dead, miniature grave-stones about one foot high, with +a black surface edged with gold upon which were inscribed the names of +the dead persons, the new names given by the priests. + +Sadako stepped back and clapped her hands together three times, +repeating the formula of the Nichiren Sect of Buddhists. + +"_Namu my[=o]h[=o] renge ky[=o]!_ (Adoration to the Wonderful Law of +the Lotus Scriptures!)" + +She instructed Asako to do the same. + +"For," she said, "we believe that the spirits of the dead people are +here; and we must be very good to them." + +Asako did as she was told, wondering whether her confessor would +give her penance for idolatry. Sadako then motioned her to sit on the +floor. She took one of the tablets from its place and placed it in +front of her cousin. + +"That is your father's _ihai_," she said; and then removing another +and placing it beside the first, she added,-- + +"This is your mother." + +Asako was deeply moved. In England we love our dead; but we consign +them to the care of nature, to the change of the seasons, and the cold +promiscuity of the graveyard. The Japanese dead never seem to leave +the shelter of their home or the circle of their family. We bring to +our dear ones flowers and prayers; but the Japanese give them food +and wine, and surround them with every-day talk. The companionship is +closer. We chatter much about immortality. We believe, many of us, in +some undying particle. We even think that in some other world the +dead may meet the dead whom they have known in life. But the actual +communion of the dead and the living is for us a beautiful and +inspiring metaphor rather than a concrete belief. Now the Japanese, +although their religion is so much vaguer than ours, hardly question +this survival of the ancestors in the close proximity of their +children and grandchildren. The little funeral tablets are for them +clothed with an invisible personality. + +"This is your mother." + +Asako felt influences floating around her. Her mind was in pain, +straining to remember something which seemed to be not wholly +forgotten. + +Just at this moment Mrs. Fujinami arrived, carrying an old photograph +album and a roll of silk. Her appearance was so opportune that any one +less innocent than Asako might have suspected that the scene had +been rehearsed. In the hush and charm of that little chamber of the +spirits, the face of the elder woman looked soft and sweet. She opened +the volume at the middle, and pushed it in front of Asako. + +She saw the photograph of a Japanese girl seated in a chair with a +man standing at her side, with one hand resting on the chair back. Her +father's photograph she recognised at once, the broad forehead, the +deep eyes, the aquiline nose, the high cheek bones, and the thin, +angry sarcastic lips; not a typically Japanese face, but a type +recurrent throughout our over-educated world, cultured, desperate and +stricken. Asako had very little in common with her father; for his +character had been moulded or warped by two powerful agencies, his +intellect and his disease; and it was well for his daughter that she +had escaped this dire inheritance. But never before had she seen her +mother's face. Sometimes she had wondered who and what her mother had +been; what she had thought of as her baby grew within her; and with +what regrets she had exchanged her life for her child's. More often +she had considered herself as a being without a mother, a fairy's +child, brought into this world on a sunbeam or born from a flower. + +Now she saw the face which had reflected pain and death for her. It +was impassive, doll-like and very young, pure oval in outline, +but lacking in expression. The smallness of the mouth was the most +characteristic feature, but it was not alive with smiles like her +daughter's. It was pinched and constrained, with the lower lips drawn +in. + +The photograph was clearly a wedding souvenir. She wore the black +kimono of a bride, and the multiple skirts. A kind of little +pocket-book with silver charms dangling from it, an ancient marriage +symbol, was thrust into the opening at her breast. Her head was +covered with a curious white cap like the "luggage" of Christmas +crackers. She was seated rigidly at the edge of her uncomfortable +chair; and her personality seemed to be overpowered by the solemnity +of the occasion. + +"Did she love him," her daughter wondered, "as I love Geoffrey?" + +Through Sadako's interpretation Mrs. Fujinami explained that Asako's +mother's name had been Yamagata Haruko (Spring child). Her father had +been a _samurai_ in the old two-sworded days. The photograph was not +very like her. It was too serious. + +"Like you," said the elder woman, "she was always laughing and happy. +My husband's father used to call her the _Semi_ (the cicada), because +she was always singing her little song. She was chosen for your father +because he was so sad and wrathful. They thought that she would +make him more gentle. But she died; and then he became more sad than +before." + +Asako was crying very gently. She felt the touch of her cousin's hand +on her arm. The intellectual Miss Sadako also was weeping, the tears +furrowing her whitened complexion. The Japanese are a very emotional +race. The women love tears; and even the men are not averse from this +very natural expression of feeling, which our Anglo-Saxon schooling +has condemned as babyish. Mrs. Fujinami continued,-- + +"I saw her a few days before you were born. They lived in a little +house on the bank of the river. One could see the boats passing. It +was very damp and cold. She talked all the time of her baby. 'If it is +a boy,' she said, 'everybody will be happy; if it is a girl, +Fujinami San will be very anxious for the family's sake; and the +fortune-tellers say that it will surely be a little girl. But,' she +used to say, 'I could play better with a little girl; I know what +makes them laugh!' When you were born she became very ill. She never +spoke again, and in a few days she died. Your father became like a +madman, he locked the house, and would not see any of us; and as soon +as you were strong enough, he took you away in a ship." + +Sadako placed in front of her cousin the roll of silk, and said,-- + +"This is Japanese _obi_ (sash). It belonged to your mother. She gave +it to my mother a short time before you were born; for she said, +'It is too bright for me now; when I have my baby, I shall give up +society, and I shall spend all my time with my children.' My mother +gives it to you for your mother's sake." + +It was a wonderful work of art, a heavy golden brocade, embroidered +with fans, and on each fan a Japanese poem and a little scene from the +olden days. + +"She was very fond of this _obi_, she chose the poems herself." + +But Asako was not admiring the beautiful workmanship. She was thinking +of the mother's heart which had beat for her under that long strip of +silk, the little Japanese mother who "would have known how to make her +laugh." Tears were falling very quietly on to the old sash. + +The two Japanese women saw this; and with the instinctive tact +of their race, they left her alone face to face with this strange +introduction to her mother's personality. + +There is a peculiar pathos about the clothes of the dead. They are so +nearly a part of our bodies that it seems unnatural almost that they +should survive with the persistence of inanimate things, when we who +gave them the semblance of life are far more dead than they. It would +be more seemly, perhaps, if all these things which have belonged to +us so intimately were to perish with us in a general _suttee_. But the +mania for relics would never tolerate so complete a disappearance of +one whom we had loved; and our treasuring of hair and ornaments and +letters is a desperate--and perhaps not an entirely vain--attempt to +check the liberated spirit in its leap for eternity. + +Asako found in that old garment of her mother's a much more faithful +reflection of the life which had been transmitted to her, than the +stiff photograph could ever realise. She had chosen the poems herself. +Asako must get them transcribed and translated; for they would be a +sure indication of her mother's character. Already the daughter could +see that her mother too must have loved rich and beautiful things, +happiness and laughter. + +Old Mr. Fujinami had called her "the _Semi_." Asako did not yet +know the voice of the little insects which are the summer and autumn +orchestra of Japan. But she knew that it must be something happy and +sweet; or they would not have told her. + + * * * * * + +She rose from her knees, and found her cousin waiting for her on the +veranda. Whatever real expression she may have had was effectively +hidden behind the tinted glasses, and the false white complexion, now +renovated from the ravages of emotion. But Asako's heart was won by +the power of the dead, of whom Sadako and her family were, she felt, +the living representatives. + +Asako took both of her cousin's hands in her own. + +"It was sweet of you and your mother to give me that," she said--and +her eyes were full of tears--"you could not have thought of anything +which would please me more." + +The Japanese girl was on the point of starting to bow and smile the +conventional apologies for the worthlessness of the gift, when she +felt herself caught by a power unfamiliar to her, the power of the +emotions of the West. + +The pressure on her wrists increased, her face was drawn down towards +her cousin's, and she felt against the corner of her mouth the warm +touch of Asako's lips. + +She started back with a cry of "_Iya_! (don't!)," the cry of outraged +Japanese femininity. Then she remembered from her readings that such +kissings were common among European girls, that they were a compliment +and a sign of affection. But she hoped that it had not disarranged her +complexion again; and that none of the servants had seen. + +Her cousin's surprise shook Asako out of her dream; and the kiss left +a bitter powdery taste upon her lips which disillusioned her. + +"Shall we go into the garden?" said Sadako, who felt that fresh air +was advisable. + +They joined hands; so much familiarity was permitted by Japanese +etiquette. They went along the gravel path to the summit of the little +hillock where the cherry-trees had lately been in bloom, Sadako in her +bright kimono, Asako in her dark suit. She looked like a mere mortal +being introduced to the wonders of Titania's country by an authentic +fairy. + +The sun was setting in the clear sky, one half of which was a tempest +of orange, gold and red, and the other half warm and calm with roseate +reflections. Over the spot where the focus point of all this glory +was sinking into darkness, a purple cloud hovered like a shred of +the monarch's glory caught and torn away on the jag of some invisible +obstruction. Its edges were white flame, as though part of the sun's +fire were hidden behind it. + +Even from this high position little could be seen beyond the Fujinami +enclosure except tree-tops. Away down the valley appeared the grey +scaly roofs of huddled houses, and on a hill opposite more trees with +the bizarre pinnacle of a pagoda forcing its way through the midst of +them. It looked like a series of hats perched one on the top of the +other by a merchant of Petticoat Lane. + +Lights were glimpsing from the Fujinami mansion; more lights were +visible among the shrubberies below. This soft light, filtered through +the paper walls, shone like a luminous pearl. This is the home light +of the Japanese, and is as typical of their domesticity as the +blazing log-fire is of ours. It is greenish, still and pure, like a +glow-worm's beacon. + +Out of the deep silence a bell tolled. It was as though an unseen hand +had struck the splendour of that metallic firmament; or as though a +voice had spoken out of the sunset cloud. + +The two girls descended to the brink of the lake. Here at the farther +end the water was broader; and it was hidden from view of the houses. +Green reeds grew along the margin, and green iris leaves, like sword +blades, black now in the failing light. There was a studied roughness +in the tiny landscape, and in the midst of the wilderness a little +hut. + +"What a sweet little summer-house!" cried Asako. + +It looked like a settler's shack, built of rough, unshapen logs and +thatched with rushes. + +"It is the room for the _chanoyu_, the tea-ceremony," said her cousin. + +Inside, the walls were daubed with earth; and a round window barred +with bamboo sticks gave a view into what was apparently forest depths. + +"Why, it is just like a doll's house," cried Asako, delighted. "Can we +go in?" + +"Oh, yes," said the Japanese. Asako jumped in at once and squatted +down on the clean matting; but her more cautious cousin dusted the +place with her handkerchief before risking a stain. + +"Do you often have tea-ceremonies?" asked Asako. + +The Muratas had explained to her long ago something about the +mysterious rites. + +"Two or three times in the Spring, and then two or three times in the +Autumn. But my teacher comes every week." + +"How long have you been learning?" Asako wanted to know. + +"Oh, since I was ten years old about." + +"Is it so difficult then?" said Asako, who had found it comparatively +easy to pour out a cup of drawing-room tea without clumsiness. + +Sadako smiled tolerantly at her cousin's naive ignorance of things +aesthetic and intellectual. It was as though she had been asked +whether music or philosophy were difficult. + +"One can never study too much," she said, "one is always learning; one +can never be perfect. Life is short, art is long." + +"But it is not an art like painting or playing the piano, just pouring +out tea?" + +"Oh, yes," Sadako smiled again, "it is much more than that. We +Japanese do not think art is just to be able to do things, showing +off like _geisha_. Art is in the character, in the spirit. And +the tea-ceremony teaches us to make our character full of art, by +restraining everything ugly and common, in every movement, in the +movement of our hands, in the position of our feet, in the looks of +our faces. Men and women ought not to sit and move like animals; but +the shape of their bodies, and their way of action ought to express a +poetry. That is the art of the _chanoyu_." + +"I should like to see it," said Asako, excited by her cousin's +enthusiasm, though she hardly understood a word of what she had been +saying. + +"You ought to learn some of it," said Sadako, with the zeal of a +propagandist. "My teacher says--and my teacher was educated at the +court of the Tokugawa Shogun--that no woman can have really good +manners, if she has not studied the _chanoyu_." + +Of course, there was nothing which Asako would like more than to sit +in this fascinating arbour in the warm days of the coming summer, +and play at tea-parties with her new-found Japanese cousin. She would +learn to speak Japanese, too; and she would help Sadako with her +French and English. + +The two cousins worked out the scheme for their future intimacy until +the stars were reflected in the lake and the evening breeze became too +cool for them. + +Then they left the little hermitage and continued their walk around +the garden. They passed a bamboo grove, whose huge plumes, black in +the darkness, danced and beckoned like the Erl-king's daughters. They +passed a little house shuttered like a Noah's Ark, from which came a +monotonous moaning sound as of some one in pain, and the rhythmic beat +of a wooden clapper. + +"What is that?" asked Asako. + +"That is my father's brother's house. But he is illegitimate brother; +he is not of the true family. He is a very pious man. He repeats the +prayer to Buddha ten thousand times every day; and he beats upon the +_mokugy[=o]_ a kind of drum like a fish which the Buddhist priests use." + +"Was he at the dinner last night?" asked Asako. + +"Oh no, he never goes out. He has not once left that house for ten +years. He is perhaps rather mad; but it is said that he brings good +luck to the family." + +A little farther on they passed two stone lanterns, cold and blind +like tombstones. Stone steps rose between them to what in the darkness +looked like a large dog-kennel. A lighted paper lantern hung in front +of it like a great ripe fruit. + +"What is that?" asked Asako. + +In the failing twilight this fairy garden was becoming more and more +wonderful. At any moment, she felt she might meet the Emperor himself +in the white robes of ancient days and the black coal-scuttle hat. + +"That is a little temple," explained her cousin, "for Inari Sama." + +At the top of the flight of steps Asako distinguished two stone foxes. +Their expression was hungry and malign. They reminded her of--what? +She remembered the little temple outside the Yoshiwara on the day she +had gone to see the procession. + +"Do you say prayers there?" she asked her companion. + +"No, _I_ do not," answered the Japanese, "but the servants light +the lamp every evening; and we believe it makes the house lucky. +We Japanese are very superstitious. Besides, it looks pretty in the +garden." + +"I don't like the foxes' faces," said Asako, "they look bad +creatures." + +"They _are_ bad creatures," was the reply, "nobody likes to see a fox; +they fool people." + +"Then why say prayers, if they are bad?" + +"It is just because they are bad," said Sadako, "that we must please +them. We flatter them so that they may not hurt us." + +Asako was unlearned in the difference between religion and +devil-worship, so she did not understand the full significance of this +remark. But she felt an unpleasant reaction, the first which she had +received that day; and she thought to herself that if she were the +mistress of that lovely garden, she would banish the stone foxes and +risk their displeasure. + +The two girls returned to the house. Its shutters were up, and it, +too, had that same appearance of a Noah's Ark but of a more complete +and expensive variety. One little opening was left in the wooden +armature for the girls to enter by. + +"Please come again many, many times," was cousin Sadako's last +farewell. "The house of the Fujinami is your home. _Sayonara_!" + + * * * * * + +Geoffrey was waiting for his wife in the hall of the hotel. He was +anxious at her late return. His embrace seemed to swallow her up to +the amusement of the _boy sans_ who had been discussing the lateness +of _okusan_, and the possibility of her having an admirer. + +"Thank goodness," said Geoffrey, "what have you been doing? I was just +going to organise a search party." + +"I have been with Mrs. Fujinami and Sadako," Asako panted, "they +would not let me go; and oh!"--She was going to tell him all about her +mother's picture; but she suddenly checked herself, and said instead, +"They've got such a lovely garden." + +She described the home of the cousins in glowing colours, the +hospitality of the family, the cleverness of cousin Sadako, and +the lessons which they were going to exchange. Yes, she replied to +Geoffrey's questions, she had seen the memorial tablets of her father +and mother, and their wedding photograph. But a strange paralysis +sealed her lips, and her soul became inarticulate. She found herself +absolutely incapable of telling that big foreign husband of hers, +truly as she loved him, the veritable state of her emotions when +brought face to face with her dead parents. + +Geoffrey had never spoken to her of her mother. He had never seemed +to have the least interest in her identity. These "Jap women," as he +called them, were never very real to him. She dreaded the possibility +of revealing to him her secret, and then of receiving no response to +her emotion. Also she had an instinctive reluctance to emphasise in +Geoffrey's mind her kinship with these alien people. + +After dinner, when she had gone up to her room, Geoffrey was left +alone with his cigar and his reflection. + +"Funny that she did not speak more about her father and mother. But I +suppose they don't mean much to her, after all. And, by Jove, it's a +good thing for me! I wouldn't like to have a wife who was all the time +running home to her people, and comparing notes with her mother." + +Upstairs in her bedroom, Asako had unrolled the precious _obi_. An +unmounted photograph came fluttering out of the parcel. It was a +portrait of her father alone taken a short time before his death. At +the back of the photograph was some Japanese writing. + +"Is Tanaka there?" Asako asked her maid Titine. + +Yes, of course, Tanaka was there, in the next room with his ear near +the door. + +"Tanaka, what does this mean?" + +"Japanese poem," he said, "meaning very difficult: very many meanings: +I think perhaps it means, having travelled all over the world, he +feels very sad." + +"Yes, but word for word, Tanaka, what does it mean?" + +"This writing means, World is really not the same it says: all the +world very many tell lies." + +"And this?" + +"This means, Travelling everywhere." + +"And this at the end?" + +"It means, Eveything always the same thing. Very bad translation I +make. Very sad poem." + +"And this writing here?" + +"That is Japanese name--Fujinami Katsundo--and the date, twenty-fifth +year of Meiji, twelfth month." + +Tanaka had turned over the photograph and was looking attentively at +the portrait. + +"The honoured father of Ladyship, I think," he said. + +"Yes," said Asako. + +Then she thought she heard her husband's step away down the corridor. +Hurriedly she thrust _obi_ and photograph into a drawer. + +Now, why did she do that? wondered Tanaka. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE DWARF TREES + + _Iwa-yado ni + Tateru maisu no ki, + Na wo mireba, + Mukashi no hito wo + Ai-miru gotashi._ + + O pine-tree standing + At the (side of) the stone house, + When I look at you, + It is like seeing face to face + The men of old time. + + +For the first time during the journey of their married lives, Geoffrey +and Asako were pursuing different paths. It is the normal thing, no +doubt, for the man to go out to his work and to his play, while the +wife attends to her social and domestic duties. The evening brings +reunion with new impressions and new interests to discuss. Such a life +with its brief restorative separations prevents love growing stale, +and soothes the irritation of nerves which, by the strain of petty +repetitions, are exasperated sometimes into blasphemy of the heart's +true creed. But the Barrington _menage_ was an unusual one. By +adopting a life of travel, they had devoted themselves to a +protracted honeymoon, a relentless _tete-a-tete_. So long as they were +continually on the move, constantly refreshed by new scenes, they did +not feel the difficulty of their self-imposed task. But directly their +stay in Tokyo seemed likely to become permanent, their ways separated +as naturally as two branches, which have been tightly bound together, +spread apart with the loosening of the string. + +This separation was so inevitable that they were neither of them +conscious of it. Geoffrey had all his life been devoted to exercise +and games of all kinds. They were as necessary as food for his +big body. At Tokyo he had found, most unexpectedly, excellent +tennis-courts and first-class players. + +They still spent the mornings together, driving round the city, and +inspecting curios. So what could be more reasonable than that Asako +should prefer to spend her afternoons with her cousin, who was so +anxious to please her and to initiate her into that intimate Japanese +life, which of course must appeal to her more strongly than to her +husband? + +Personally, Geoffrey found the company of his Japanese relatives +exceedingly slow. + +In return for the hospitalities of the Maple Club the Barringtons +invited a representative gathering of the Fujinami clan to dinner at +the Imperial Hotel, to be followed by a general adjournment to the +theatre. + +It was a most depressing meal. Nobody spoke. All of the guests were +nervous; some of them about their clothes, some about their knives and +forks, all of them about their English. They were too nervous even to +drink wine, which would have been the only remedy for such a "frost." + +Only Ito, the lawyer, talked, talked noisily, talked with his mouth +full. But Geoffrey disliked Ito. He mistrusted the man; but, because +of his wife's growing intimacy with her cousins, he felt loath to +start subterranean inquiries as to the whereabouts of her fortune. It +was Ito who, foreseeing embarrassment, had suggested the theatre party +after dinner. For this at least Geoffrey was grateful to him. It saved +him the pain of trying to make conversation with his cousins. + +"Talking to these Japs," he said to Reggie Forsyth, "is like trying to +play tennis all by yourself." + +Later on, at his wife's insistence, he attended an informal +garden-party at the Fujinami house. Again he suffered acutely from +those cruel silences and portentous waitings, to which he noticed that +even the Japanese among themselves were liable, but which apparently +they did not mind. + +Tea and ice-creams were served by _geisha_ girls who danced afterwards +upon the lawn. When this performance was over the guests were +conducted to an open space behind the cherry-grove, where a little +shooting-range had been set up, with a target, air-guns and boxes of +lead lugs. Geoffrey, of course, joined in the shooting-competition, +and won a handsome cigarette case inlaid with Damascene work. But he +thought that it was a poor game; nor did he ever realize that this +entertainment had been specially organized with a view to flattering +his military and sporting tastes. + +But the greatest disillusionment was the Akasaka garden. Geoffrey was +resigned to be bored by everything else. But his wife had grown so +enthusiastic about the beauties of the Fujinami domain, that he had +expected to walk straight into a paradise. What did he see? A dirty +pond and some shrubs, not one single flower to break the monotony of +green and drab, and everything so small. Why, he could walk round the +whole enclosure in ten minutes. Geoffrey Barrington was accustomed +to country houses in England, with their broad acres and their lavish +luxuriance of scent and blossom. This niggling landscape art of the +Japanese seemed to him mean and insignificant. + + * * * * * + +He much preferred the garden at Count Saito's home. Count Saito, +the late Ambassador at the Court of St. James, with his stooping +shoulders, his grizzled hair, and his deep eyes peering under the +gold-rimmed spectacles, had proposed the health of Captain and Mrs. +Barrington at their wedding breakfast. Since then, he had returned +to Japan, where he was soon to play a leading political role. Meeting +Geoffrey one day at the Embassy, he had invited him and his wife to +visit his famous garden. + +It was a hanging garden on the side of a steep hill, parted down the +middle by a little stream with its string of waterfalls. Along either +bank rose groups of iris, mauve and white, whispering together like +long-limbed pre-Raphaelite girls. Round a sunny fountain, the source +of the stream, just below the terrace of the Count's mansion, they +thronged together more densely, surrounding the music of the water +with the steps of a slow sarabande, or pausing at the edge of the pool +to admire their own reflection. + +Count Saito showed Geoffrey where the roses were coming on, new +varieties of which he had brought from England with him. + +"Perhaps they will not like to be turned into Japanese," he observed; +"the rose is such an English flower." + +They passed on to where the azaleas would soon be in fiery bloom. +For with the true gardener, the hidden promise of the morrow is more +stimulating to the enthusiasm than the assured success of the full +flowers. + +The Count wore his rustling native dress; but two black cocker +spaniels followed at his heels. This combination presented an odd +mixture of English squire-archy and the _daimyo_ of feudal Japan. + +On the crest of the hill above him rose the house, a tall Italianate +mansion of grey stucco, softened by creepers, jessamine and climbing +roses. Alongside ran the low irregular roofs of the Japanese portion +of the residence. Almost all rich Japanese have a double house, +half foreign and half native, to meet the needs of their amphibious +existence. This grotesque juxtaposition is to be seen all over Tokyo, +like a tall boastful foreigner tethered to a timid Japanese wife. + +Geoffrey inquired in which wing of this unequal bivalve his host +actually lived. + +"When I returned from England," said Count Saito, "I tried to live +again in the Japanese style. But we could not, neither my wife nor I. +We took cold and rheumatism sleeping on the floor, and the food made +us ill; so we had to give it up. But I was sorry. For I think it is +better for a country to keep its own ways. There is a danger nowadays, +when all the world is becoming cosmopolitan. A kind of international +type is springing up. His language is _esperanto_, his writing is +shorthand, he has no country, he fights for whoever will pay him most, +like the Swiss of the Middle Ages. He is the mercenary of commerce, +the ideal commercial traveler. I am much afraid of him, because I am +a Japanese and not a world citizen. I want my country to be great and +respected. Above all, I want it to be always Japanese. I think that +loss in national character means loss of national strength." + +Asako was being introduced by her hostess to the celebrated collection +of dwarf trees, which had made the social fame of the Count's sojourn +as Ambassador in Grosvenor Square. + +Countess Saito, like her husband, spoke excellent English; and her +manner in greeting Asako was of London rather than of Tokyo. She took +both her hands and shook them warmly. + +"My dear," she said, in her curious deep hoarse voice, "I'm so glad to +see you. You are like a little bit of London come to say that you have +not forgotten me." + +This great Japanese lady was small and very plain. Her high forehead +was deeply lined and her face was marked with small-pox. Her big mouth +opened wide as she talked, like a nestling's. But she was immensely +rich. The only child of one of the richest bankers of Japan, she +had brought to her husband the opportunity for his great gifts as a +political leader, and the luxury in which they lived. + +The little trees were in evidence everywhere, decorating the living +rooms, posted like sentinels on the terrace, and staged with the +honour due to statuary at points of vantage in the garden. But their +chief home was in a sunny corner at the back of a shrubbery, where +they were aligned on shelves in the sunlight. Three special gardeners +who attended to their wants were grooming and massaging them, soothing +and titivating them, for their temporary appearances in public. Here +they had a green-house of their own, kept slightly warmed for a few +delicate specimens, and also for the convalescence of the hardier +trees; for these precious dwarfs are quite human in their ailments, +their pleasures and their idiosyncracies. + +Countess Saito had a hundred or more of these fashionable pets, of all +varieties and shapes. There were giants of primeval forests reduced to +the dimensions of a few feet, like the timbers of a lordly park seen +through the wrong end of a telescope. There were graceful maple trees, +whose tiny star-like leaves were particularly adapted to the process +of diminution which had checked the growth of trunk and branches. +There were weeping willows with light-green feathery foliage, such +as sorrowing fairies might plant on the grave of some Taliessin +of Oberon's court. There was a double cherry in belated bloom; its +flowers of natural size hung amid the slender branches like big birds' +nests. There was a stunted oak tree, creeping along the earth with +gnarled and lumpy limbs like a miniature dinosaur; it waved in the air +a clump of demensurate leaves with the truculent mien of boxing-gloves +or lobsters' claws. In the centre of the rectangle formed by this +audience of trees, and raised on a long table, was a tiny wisteria +arbour, formed by a dozen plants arranged in quincunx. The +intertwisted ropes of branches were supported on shining rods of +bamboo; and the clusters of blossom, like bunches of grapes or like +miniature chandeliers, still hung over the litter of their fallen +beauty, with a few bird-like flowers clinging to them, pale and +bleached. + +"They are over two hundred years old," said their proud owner, "they +came from one of the Emperor's palaces at Kyoto." + +But the pride of the collection were the conifers and +evergreens--trees which have Japanese and Latin names only, the +_hinoki_, the _enoki_, the _sasaki_, the _keyaki_, the _maki_, the +_surgi_ and the _kusunoki_--all trees of the dark funereal families of +fir and laurel, which the birds avoid, and whose deep winter green in +the summer turns to rust. There were spreading cedar trees, black like +the tents of Bedouins, and there were straight cryptomerias for the +masts of fairy ships. There was a strange tree, whose light-green +foliage grew in round clumps like trays of green lacquer at the +extremities of twisted brandies, a natural _etagere_. There were the +distorted pine-trees of Japan, which are the symbol of old age, of +fidelity, of patience under adversity, and of the Japanese nation +itself, in every attitude of menace, curiosity, jubilation and gloom. +Some of them were leaning out of their pots and staring head downwards +at the ground beneath them; some were creeping along the earth +like reptiles; some were mere trunks, with a bunch of green needles +sprouting at the top like a palm; some with one long pathetic branch +were stretching out in quest of the infinite to the neglect of the +rest of the tree; some were tall and bent as by some sea wind blowing +shoreward. Streaking a miniature landscape, they were whispering +together the tales of centuries past. + +The Japanese art of cultivating these tiny trees is a weird and +unhealthy practice, akin to vivisection, but without its excuse. It is +like the Chinese custom of dwarfing their women's feet. The result is +pleasing to the eye; but it hurts the mind by its abnormality, and the +heart by its ruthlessness. + +Asako's admiration, so easily stirred, became enthusiastic as Countess +Saito told her something of the personal history of her favourite +plants, how this one was two hundred years old, and that one three +hundred and fifty, and how another had been present at such and such a +scene famous in Japanese history. + +"Oh, they are lovely," cried Asako. "Where can one get them? I must +have some." + +Countess Saito gave her the names of some well-known market gardeners. + +"You can get pretty little trees from them for fifty to a hundred +_yen_ (L5 to L10)," she said. "But of course the real historical trees +are so very few; they hardly ever come on the market. They are like +animals, you know. They want so much attention. They must have a +garden to take their walks in, and a valet of their own." + +This great Japanese lady felt an affection and sympathy for the girl +who, like herself, had been set apart by destiny from the monotonous +ranks of Japanese women and their tedious dependence. + +"Little Asa Chan," she said, calling her by her pet name, "take care; +you can become Japanese again, but your husband cannot." + +"Of course not, he's too big," laughed Asako; "but I like to run +away from him sometimes, and hide behind the _shoji_. Then I feel +independent." + +"But you are not really so," said the Japanese, "no woman is. You see +the wisteria hanging in the big tree there. What happens when the +big tree is taken away? The wisteria becomes independent, but it lies +along the ground and dies. Do you know the Japanese name for wisteria? +It is _fuji_--Fujinami Asako. If you have any difficulty ever, come +and talk to me. You see, I, too, am a rich woman; and I know that it +is almost as difficult to be very rich as it is to be very poor." + + * * * * * + +Captain Barrington and the ex-Ambassador were sitting on one of the +benches of the terrace when the ladies rejoined them. + +"Well, Daddy," the Countess addressed her husband in English, "what +are you talking about so earnestly?" + +"About England and Japan," replied the Count. + +As a matter of fact, in the course of a rambling conversation, Count +Saito had asked his guest: + +"Now, what strikes you as the most surprising difference between our +two countries?" + +Geoffrey pondered for a moment. He wanted to answer frankly, but he +was still awed by the canons of Good Form. At last he said: "This +Yoshiwara business." + +The Japanese statesman seemed surprised. + +"But that is just a local difference in the manner of regulating a +universal problem," he said. + +"Englishmen aren't any better than they should be," said Geoffrey; +"but we don't like to hear of women put up for sale like things in a +shop." + +"Then you have not actually seen them yourself?" said the Count. +He could not help smiling at the characteristic British habit of +criticising on hearsay. + +"Not actually; but I saw the procession last month." + +"You really think that it is better to let immoral women stray about +the streets without any attempt to control them and the crime and +disease they cause?" + +"It's not that," said Geoffrey; "it seems to me horrible that women +should be put up to sale and exposed in shop windows ticketed and +priced." + +Count Saito smiled again and said: + +"I see that you are an idealist like so many Englishmen. But I am only +a practical statesman. The problem of vice is a problem of government. +No law can abolish it. It is for us statesmen to study how to restrain +it and its evil consequences. Three hundred years ago these women +used to walk about the streets as they do in London to-day. Tokugawa +Iyeyasu, the greatest of all Japanese statesmen, who gave peace to the +whole country, put in order this untidiness also. He had the Yoshiwara +built, and he put all the women there, where the police could watch +both them and the men who visited them. The English might learn from +us here, I think. But you are an unruly people. It is not only that +you object for ideal reasons to the imprisonment of these women; but +it is your men who would object very strongly to having the eye of the +policeman watching them when they paid their visits." + +Geoffrey was silenced by the experience of his host. He was afraid, +as most Englishmen are, of arguing that the British determination to +ignore vice, however disastrous in practice, is a system infinitely +nobler in conception than the acquiescence which admits for the evil +its right to exist, and places it among the commonplaces of life. + +"And how about the people who make money out of such a place?" asked +Geoffrey. "They must be contemptible specimens." + +The face of the wise statesman became suddenly gentle. + +"I really don't know much about them," he said. "If we do meet them +they do not boast about it." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +EURASIA + + _Mono-sugo ya + Ara omoshiro no + Kaeri-bana._ + + Queer-- + Yes, but attractive + Are the flowers which bloom out of season. + + +Although he felt a decreasing interest in the Japanese people, +Geoffrey was enjoying his stay in Tokyo. He was tired of traveling, +and was glad to settle down in the semblance of a home life. + +He was very keen on his tennis. It was also a great pleasure to see +so much of Reggie Forsyth. Besides, he was conscious of the mission +assigned to him by Lady Cynthia Cairns to save his friend from the +dangerous connection with Yae Smith. + +Reggie and he had been at Eton together. Geoffrey, four years the +senior, a member of "Pop," and an athlete of many colours, found +himself one day the object of an almost idolatrous worship on the part +of a skinny little being, discreditably clever at Latin verses, and +given over to the degrading habit of solitary piano practicing on +half-holidays. He was embarrassed but touched by a devotion which was +quite incomprehensible to him; and he encouraged it furtively. When +Geoffrey left Eton the friends did not see each other again for some +years, though they watched each other's careers from a distance, +mutually appreciative. Their next meeting took place in Lady +Everington's drawing-room, where Barrington had already heard fair +ladies praising the gifts and graces of the young diplomat. He heard +him play the piano; and he also heard the appreciation of discerning +judgment. He heard him talking with arabesque agility. It was +Geoffrey's turn to feel on the wrong side of a vast superiority, and +in his turn he repaid the old debt of admiration; generosity filled +the gulf and the two became firm friends. Reggie's intelligence +flicked the inertia of Geoffrey's mind, quickened his powers of +observation, and developed his sense of interest in the world around +him. Geoffrey's prudence and stolidity had more than once saved the +young man from the brink of sentimental precipices. + +For Reggie's unquestionable musical talent found its nourishment +in love affairs dangerously unsophisticated. He refused to consider +marriage with any of the sweet young things, who would gladly +have risked his lukewarm interest for the chance of becoming an +Ambassador's wife. He equally avoided pawning his youth to any of +the maturer married ladies, whose status and character, together with +those of their husbands, license them to practice as certificated +Egerias. His dangerous _penchant_ was for highly spiced adventuresses, +and for pastoral amourettes, wistful and obscure. But he never gave +away his heart; he lent it out at interest. He received it again +intact, with the profit of his musical inspiration. Thus his liaison +with Veronique Gerson produced the publication of _Les demi-jours_, a +series of musical poems which placed him at once in the forefront of +young composers; but it also alarmed the Foreign Office, which was +paternally interested in Reggie's career. This brought about his +banishment to Japan. The _Attente d'hiver_, now famous, is his candid +musical confession that the coma inflicted upon him by Veronique's +unconcern was merely the drowsiness of the waiting earth before the +New Year brought back the old story. + +Reggie would never be attracted to native women; and he had not the +dry inquisitiveness of his predecessor, Aubrey Laking, which might +induce him to buy and keep a woman for whom he felt no affection. The +love which can exchange no thoughts in speech was altogether too +crude for him. It was his emotions, rather than his senses, which were +always craving for amorous excitement. His frail body claimed merely +its right to follow their lead, as a little boat follows the strong +wind which fills its sails. But ever since he had loved Geoffrey +Barrington at Eton it was a necessity for his nature to love some one; +and as the haze of his young conceptions cleared, that some one became +necessarily a woman. + +He soon recognized the wisdom of the Foreign Office in choosing Japan. +It was a starvation diet which had been prescribed for him. So he +settled down to his memories and to _L'attente d'hiver_, thinking that +it would be two long years or more before his Spring blossomed again. + + * * * * * + +Then he heard the story of the duel fought for Yae Smith by two young +English officers, both of them her lovers, so people said, and the +vaguer tale of a fiance's suicide. Some weeks later, he met her for +the first time at a dance. She was the only woman present in Japanese +dress, and Reggie thought at once of Asako Barrington. How wise of +these small women to wear the kimono which drapes so gracefully their +stumpy figures. He danced with her, his right hand lodged somewhere in +the folds of the huge bow with the embroidered peacock, which covered +her back. Under this stiff brocade he could feel no sensation of a +living body. She seemed to have no bones in her, and she was as +light as a feather. It was then that he imagined her as Lilith, the +snake-girl. She danced with ease, so much better than he, that at the +end of a series of cannons she suggested that they might sit out the +dance. She guided him into the garden, and they took possession of a +rustic seat. In the ballroom she had seemed timid, and had spoken in +undertones only; but in this shadowy _tete-a-tete_ beneath the stars, +she began to talk frankly about her own life. + +She told him about her one visit to England with her father; how she +had loved the country, and how dull it was for her here in Japan. She +asked him about his music. She would so like to hear him play. There +was an old piano at her home. She did not think he would like it very +much--indeed, Reggie was already shuddering in anticipation--or else? +Would she come to tea with him at the Embassy? That would be nice! She +could bring her mother or one of her brothers? She would rather come +with a girl friend. Very well, to-morrow? + +On the morrow she came. + +Reggie hated playing in public. He said that it was like stripping +naked before a multitude, or like having to read one's own love +letters aloud in a divorce court. But there is nothing more soothing +than to play to one attentive listener, especially if that listener +be feminine and if the interest shown be that personal interest, which +with so many women takes the place of true appreciation, and which +looks over the art to the artist. + +Yae came with the girl friend, a lean and skinny half-caste girl +like a gipsy, whom Yae patronized. She came once again with the girl +friend; and then she came alone. + +Reggie was relieved, and said so. Yae laughed and replied: + +"But I brought her for your own sake; I always go everywhere by +myself." + +"Then please don't take me into consideration ever again," answered +Reggie. + +So those afternoons began which so soon darkened into evenings, while +Reggie sat at the piano playing his thoughts aloud, and the girl +lay on the sofa or squatted on the big cushion by the fire, with +cigarettes within reach and a glass of liqueur, wrapped in an +atmosphere of laziness and well-being such as she had never known +before. Then Reggie would stop playing. He would sit down beside her, +or he would take her on his knee; and they would talk. + +He talked as poets talk, weaving stories out of nothing, finding +laughter and tears in what she would have passed by unnoticed. She +talked to him about herself, about the daily doings of her home, +its sadness and isolation since her father died. He had been the +playfellow of her childhood. He had never grudged his time or his +money for her amusement. She had been brought up like a little +princess. She had been utterly spoiled. He had transferred to her +precocious mind his love of excitement, his inquisitiveness, his +courage and his lack of scruple; and then, when she was sixteen, he +had died, leaving as his last command to the Japanese wife who would +obey him in death as she had obeyed him living, the strict injunction +that Yae was to have her own way always and in everything. + +He left a respectable fortune, a Japanese widow and two worthless +sons. + +Poor Yae! Surrounded by the friends and amusements of an English +girl's life, the qualities of her happy disposition might have borne +their natural fruit. But at her father's death she found herself +isolated, without friends and without amusements. She found herself +marooned on the island of Eurasia, a flat and barren land of narrow +confines and stunted vegetation. The Japanese have no use for the +half-castes; and the Europeans look down upon them. They dwell apart +in a limbo of which Baroness Miyazaki is the acknowledged queen. + +Baroness Miyazaki is a stupendous old lady, whose figure might be +drawn from some eighteenth-century comedy. Her late husband--and +gossip says that she was his landlady during a period of study in +England--held a high position in the Imperial Court. His wife, by +a pomposity of manner and an assumption of superior knowledge, +succeeded, where no other white woman has succeeded, in acquiring the +respect and intimacy of the great ladies of Japan. She has inculcated +the accents of Pentonville, with its aitches dropped and recovered +again, among the high Japanese aristocracy. + +But first her husband died; and then the old Imperial Court of the +Emperor Meiji passed away. So Baroness Miyazaki had to retire from +the society of princesses. She passed not without dignity, like an +old monarch _en disponibilite_, to the vacant throne of the Eurasian +limbo, where her rule is undisputed. + +Every Friday afternoon you may see her presiding over her little court +in the Miyazaki mansion, with its mixture of tinsel and dust. The +Bourbonian features, the lofty white wig, the elephantine form, the +rustling taffeta, and the ebony stick with its ivory handle, leads +one's thoughts backwards to the days of Richardson and Sterne. + +But her loyal subjects who surround her--it is impossible to place +them. They are poor, they are untidy, they are restless. Their black +hair is straggling, their brown eyes are soft, their clothes are +desperately European, but ill-fitting and tired. They chatter together +ceaselessly and rapidly like starlings, with curious inflections in +their English speech, and phrases snatched up from the vernacular. +They are forever glancing and whispering, bursting at times into wild +peals of laughter which lack the authentic ring of gladness. They are +a people of shadows blown by the harsh winds of destiny across the +face of a land where they can find no permanent resting place. They +are the children of Eurasia, the unhappiest people on earth. + +It was among these people that Yae's lot was cast. She stepped into an +immediate ascendancy over them, thanks to her beauty, her personality +and, above all, to her money. Baroness Miyazaki saw at once that +she had a rival in Eurasia. She hated her, but waited calmly for the +opportunity to assist in her inevitable collapse, a woman of wide +experience watching the antics of a girl innocent and giddy, the +Baroness playing the part of Elizabeth of England to Yae's Mary Queen +of Scots. + +Meanwhile, Yae was learning what the Eurasian girls were whispering +about so continually--love affairs, intrigues with secretaries of +South American legations, secret engagements, disguised messages. + +This seed fell upon soil well-prepared. Her father had been a +reprobate till the day of his death, when he had sent for his +favourite Japanese girl to come and massage the pain out of his wasted +body. Her brothers had one staple topic of conversation which they +did not hesitate to discuss before their sister--_geisha_, assignation +houses, and the licensed quarters. Yae's mind was formed to the idea +that for grown-up people there is one absorbing distraction, which is +to be found in the company of the opposite sex. + +There was no talk in the Smith's home of the romance of marriage, +of the love of parents and children, which might have turned this +precocious preoccupation in a healthy direction. The talk was of women +all the time, of women as instruments of pleasure. Nor could Mrs. +Smith, the Japanese mother, guide her daughter's steps. She was a +creature of duty, dry-featured and self-effaced. She did her utmost +for her children's physical wants, she nursed them devotedly in +sickness, she attended to their clothes and to their comforts. But she +did not attempt to influence their moral ideas. She had given up any +hope of understanding her husband. She schooled herself to accept +everything without surprise. Poor man! He was a foreigner and had +a fox (i.e. he was possessed); and unfortunately his children had +inherited this incorrigible animal. + +To please her daughter she opened up her house for hospitality with +unseemly promptitude after her husband's death. The Smiths gave +frequent dances, well-attended by young people of the Tokyo foreign +community. At the first of these series, Yae listened to the +passionate pleadings of a young man called Hoskin, a clerk in an +English firm. On the second opportunity she became engaged to him. On +the third, she was struck with admiration and awe by a South American +diplomat with the green ribbon of a Bolivian order tied across his +false shirt front. Don Quebrado d'Acunha was a practiced hand at +seduction and Yae became one of his victims soon after her seventeenth +birthday, and just ten days before her admirer sailed away to rejoin +his legitimate spouse in Guayaquil. The engagement with Hoskin still +lingered on; but the young man, who adored her was haggard and pale. +Yae had a new follower, a teacher of English in a Japanese school, who +recited beautifully and wrote poetry about her. + +Then Baroness Miyazaki judged that her time was ripe. She summoned +young Hoskin into her dowager presence, and, with a manner heavily +maternal, she warned him against the lightness of his fiancee. When he +refused to believe evil of her she produced a pathetic letter full +of half-confessions, which the girl herself had written to her in +a moment of expansion. A week later the young man's body was washed +ashore near Yokohama. + +Yae was sorry to hear of the accident; but she had long ceased to be +interested in Hoskin, the reticence of whose passion had seemed like +a touch of ice to her fevered nerves. But this was Baroness Miyazaki's +opportunity to discredit Yae, to crush her rival out of serious +competition, and to degrade her to the _demi-monde_. It was done +promptly and ruthlessly; for the Baroness's gossip carried weight +throughout the diplomatic, professional and missionary circles, even +where her person was held in ridicule. The facts of Hoskin's suicide +became known. Nice women dropped Yae entirely; and bad men ran after +her with redoubled zest. Yae did not realize her ostracism. + +The Smith's dances next winter became so many competitions for the +daughter's corruption, and were rendered brilliant by the presence +of several of the young officers attached to the British Embassy, who +made the running, and finally monopolized the prize. + +Next year the Smiths acquired a motor-car which soon became Yae's +special perquisite. She would disappear for whole days and nights. +None of her family could restrain her. Her answer to all remonstrances +was: + +"You do what you want; I do what I want." + +That summer two English officers whom she especially favoured fought a +duel with pistols--for her beauty or for her honour. The exact motive +remained unknown. One was seriously wounded; and both of them had to +leave the country. + +Yae was grieved by this sudden loss of both her lovers. It left her +in a condition of double widowhood from which she was most anxious to +escape. But now she was becoming more fastidious. The school teachers +and the dagos fascinated her no longer. Her soldier friends had +introduced her into Embassy circles, and she wished to remain there. +She fixed on Aubrey Laking for her next attempt, but from him she +received her first rebuff. Having lured him into a _tete-a-tete_, as +her method was, she asked him for counsel in the conduct of her life. + +"If I were you," he said dryly, "I should go to Paris or New York. You +will find much more scope there." + +Fortunately fate soon exchanged Aubrey Laking for Reggie Forsyth. He +was just what suited her--for a time. But a certain impersonality in +his admiration, his fits of reverie, the ascendancy of music over his +mind, made her come to regret her more masculine lovers. And it was +just at this moment of dissatisfaction that she first saw Geoffrey +Barrington, and thought how lovely he would look in his uniform. From +that moment desire entered her heart. Not that she wanted to lose +Reggie; the peace and harmony of his surroundings soothed her like a +warm and scented bath. But she wanted both. She had had two before, +and had found them complimentary to one another and agreeable to her. +She wanted to sit on Geoffrey's knee and to feel his strong arms round +her. But she must not be too sudden in her advances, or she would lose +him as she had lost Laking. + +It is easy to condemn Yae as a bad girl, a born _cocotte_. Yet such +a judgment would not be entirely equitable. She was a laughter-loving +little creature, a child of the sun. She never sought to do harm to +anybody. Rather was she over-amiable. She wished above all to make +her men friends happy and to be pleasing in their eyes. She was never +swayed by mercenary motives. She was to be won by admiration, by good +looks, and by personal distinction, but never by money. If she tired +of her lovers somewhat rapidly, it was as a child tires of a game or +of a book, and leaves it forgotten to start another. + +She was a child with bad habits, rather than a mature sinner. It never +occurred to her that, because Geoffrey Harrington was married, he at +least ought to be immune from her attack. In her dreams of an earthly +paradise there was no marrying or giving in marriage, only the +sweet mingling of breath, the quickening of the heart-beats like the +pulsation of her beloved motor-car, the sound as of violin arpeggios +rising higher and ever higher, the pause of the ecstatic moment +when the sense of time is lost--and then the return to earth on lazy +languorous wings like a sea-gull floating motionless on a shoreward +breeze. Such was Yae's ideal of Love and of Life too. It is not for +us to condemn Yae, but rather should we censure the blasphemy of mixed +marriages which has brought into existence these thistledown children +of a realm which has no kings or priests or laws or Parliaments or +duty or tradition or hope for the future, which has not even an acre +of dry ground for its heritage or any concrete symbol of its soul--the +Cimmerian land of Eurasia. + +Reggie Forsyth understood the pathos of the girl's position; and being +a rebel and an anarchist at heart, he readily condoned the faults +which she confided to him frankly. Gradually Pity, most dangerous +of all counsellors, revealed her to him as a girl romantically +unfortunate, who never had a fair chance in life, who had been +the sport of bad men and fools, who needed only a measure of true +friendship and affection for the natural sunshine of her disposition +to scatter the rank vapours of her soul's night. What Reggie grasped +only in that one enlightened moment when he had christened her Lamia, +was the tragic fact that she had no soul. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE GREAT BUDDHA + + _Tsuki-yo yoshi + Tachitsu itsu netsu + Mitsu-no-hama._ + + The sea-shore of Mitsu! + Standing, sitting or lying + down, + How lovely is the moonlight + night! + + +Before the iris had quite faded, and before the azaleas of Hibiya were +set ablaze--in Japan they count the months by the blossoming of the +flowers--Reggie Forsyth had deserted Tokyo for the joys of sea bathing +at Kamakura. He attended at the Embassy for office hours during +the morning, but returned to the seaside directly after lunch. This +departure disarranged Geoffrey's scheme for his friend's salvation; +for he was not prepared to go the length of sacrificing his daily game +of tennis. + +"What do you want to leave us for?" he remonstrated. + +"The bathing," said Reggie, "is heavenly. Besides, next month I have +to go into _villegiatura_ with my chief. I must prepare myself for the +strain with prayer and fasting. But why don't you come down and join +us?" + +"Is there any tennis?" asked Geoffrey. + +"There is a court, a grass court with holes in it; but I've never seen +anybody playing." + +"Then what is there to do?" + +"Oh, bathing and sleeping and digging in the sand and looking at +temples and bathing again; and next week there is a dance." + +"Well, we might come down for that if her Ladyship agrees. How is +Lamia?" + +"Don't call her that, please. She has got a soul after all. But it +is rather a disobedient one. It runs away like a little dog, and goes +rabbit-hunting for days on end. She is in great form. We motor in the +moonlight." + +"Then I think it is quite time I did come," said Geoffrey. + +So the Harringtons arrived in their sumptuous car on the afternoon +before the dance of which Reggie Forsyth had spoken. + +On the beach they found him in a blue bathing-costume sitting under an +enormous paper umbrella with Miss Smith and the gipsy half-caste girl. +Yae wore a cotton kimono of blue and white, and she looked like a +figurine from a Nanking vase. + +"Geoffrey," said the young diplomat, "come into the sea at once. You +look thoroughly dirty. Do you like sea-bathing, Mrs. Harrington?" + +"I have only paddled," said Asako, "when I was a little girl." + +Geoffrey could not resist the temptation of the blue water and the +lazy curling waves. In a few minutes the two men were walking down to +the sea's edge, Geoffrey laughing at Reggie's chatter. His arms were +akimbo, with hands on the hips, hips which looked like the boles of a +mighty oak-tree. He touched the ground with the elasticity of Mercury; +he pushed through the air with the shoulders of Hercules. The line of +his back was pliant as a steel blade. In his hair the sun's reflection +shone like wires of gold. The Gods were come down in the semblance of +men. + +Yae did not repress a sharp intake of her breath; and she squeezed the +hand of the gipsy girl as if pain had gripped her. + +"How big your husband is!" she said to Asako. "What a splendid man!" + +Asako thought of her husband as "dear old Geoffrey." She never +criticized his points; nor did she think that Yae's admiration was in +very good taste. However, she accepted it as a clumsy compliment from +an uneducated girl who knew no better. The gipsy companion watched +with a peculiar smile. She understood the range of Yae's admiration. + +"Isn't it a pity they have to wear bathing dress?" Miss Smith went on. +"It's so ugly. Look at the Japanese." + +Farther along the beach some Japanese men were bathing. They threw +their clothes down on the sand and ran into the water with nothing on +their bodies except a strip of white cotton knotted round the loins. +They dashed into the sea with their arms lifted above their head, +shouting wildly like savage devotees calling upon their gods. The sea +sparkled like silver round their tawny skin. Their torsos were well +formed and hardy; their dwarfed and ill-shaped legs were hidden by the +waves. Certainly they presented an artistic contrast with the sodden +blue of the foreigners' bathing suits. But Asako, brought up to the +strict ideals of convent modesty, said: + +"I think it's disgusting; the police ought to stop those people +bathing with no clothes on." + +The dust and sun of the motor ride, the constant anxiety lest they +might run over some doddering old woman or some heedless child, had +given her a headache. As soon as Geoffrey returned from his dip, she +announced that she would go back to her room. + +As the headache continued, she abandoned the idea of dancing. She +would go to bed, and listen to the music in the distance. Geoffrey +wished to stay with her, but she would not hear of it. She knew that +her husband was fond of dancing; she thought that the change and the +brightness would be good for him. + +"Don't flirt with Yae Smith," she smiled, as he gave her the last +kiss, "or Reggie will be jealous." + +At first Geoffrey was bored. He did not know many of the dancers, +business people from Yokohama, most of them, or strangers stopping at +the hotel. Their appearance depressed him. The women had hard faces, +the lustre was gone from their hair, they wore ill-fitting dresses +without style or charm. The men were gross, heavy-limbed and +plethoric. The music was appalling. It was produced out of a piano, +a cello, and a violin driven by three Japanese who cared nothing for +time or tune. Each dance, evidently, was timed to last ten minutes. +At the end of the ten minutes the music stopped without finishing the +phrase or even the bar; and the movement of the dancers was jerked +into stability. + +Reggie entered the room with Yae Smith. His manner was unusually +excited and elate. + +"Hello, Geoffrey, enjoying yourself?" + +"No," said Geoffrey, "my wife has got a headache; and that music is +simply awful." + +"Come and have a drink," proposed Reggie. + +He took them aside into the bar and ordered champagne. + +"This is to drink our own healths," he announced, "and many years +of happiness to all of us. It is also, Geoffrey, to drive away your +English spleen, and to make you into an agreeable grass-widower into +whose hands I may commend this young lady, because you can dance and I +cannot. My evening is complete. This is my _Nunc Dimittis._" + +He led them back to the ballroom. Then, with a low bow and a flourish +of an imaginary cocked-hat, he disappeared. + +Geoffrey and Yae danced together. Then they sat out a dance; and then +they danced again. Yae was tiny, but she danced well; and Geoffrey was +used to a small partner. For Yae it was sheer delight to feel the +size and strength of this giant man bending over her like a sheltering +tree; and then to be lifted almost in his arms and to float on tiptoe +over the floor with the delightful airiness of dreams. + +What strange orgies our dances are! To the critical mind what a +strange contradiction to our sheepish passion-hiding conventions! A +survival of the corroboree, of the immolation of the tribal virgins, +a ritual handed down from darkest antiquity like the cult of the +Christmas Tree and the Easter Egg; only their significance is lost, +while that of the dance is transparently evident. + +Maidens as chaste as Artemis, wives as loyal as Lucretia pass into the +arms of men who are scarcely known to them with touchings of hands and +legs, with crossings of breath, to the sound of music aphrodisiac or +fescennine. + +The Japanese consider, not unreasonably, that our dancing is +disgusting. + +A nice girl no doubt, and a nice man too, thinks of a dance as a +graceful exercise or as a game like tennis or hockey. But Yae was not +a nice girl; and when the music stopped with its hideous abruptness, +it awoke her from a kind of trance in which she had been lost to all +sensations except the grip of Geoffrey's hand and arm, the stooping of +his shadow above her, and the tingling of her own desire. + +Geoffrey left his partner at the end of their second dance. He went +upstairs to see his wife. He found her sleeping peacefully; so he +returned to the ballroom again. He looked in at the bar, and drank +another glass of champagne. He was beginning to enjoy himself. + +He could not find Yae, so he danced with the gipsy girl, who had a +stride like a kangaroo. Then Yae reappeared. They had two more dances +together, and another glass of champagne. The night was fine. There +was a bright moonlight. Geoffrey remarked that it was jolly hot for +dancing. Yae suggested a stroll along the sea-shore; and in a few +minutes they were standing together on the beach. + +"Oh! Look at the bonfires," cried Yae. + +A few hundred yards down the sea-front, where the black shadows of the +native houses overhung the beach, the lighted windows gleamed softly +like flakes of mica. The fishermen were burning seaweed and jetsam +for ashes which would be used as fertilizer. Tongues of fire were +flickering skywards. It was a blue night. The sky was deep blue, and +the sea an oily greenish blue. Blue flames of salt danced and vanished +over the blazing heaps. The savage figures squatting round the fires +were dressed in tunics of dark blue cloth. Their legs were bare. Their +healthy faces lit up by the blaze were the color of ripe apricots. +Their attitudes and movements were those of apes. The elder men were +chattering together; the younger ones were gazing into the fire with +an expression of healthy stupor. A boat was coming in from the sea. +A ruby light hung at the prow. It was rowed by four men standing and +_yulohing_, two in the stern and two at the bow. They were intoning +a rhythmic chant to which their bodies moved. The boat was slim and +pointed; and the rowers looked like Vikings. + +The shadows cast by the moonlight were inky black, the shadows of the +beaked ships, the shadows of the savage huts, of the ape-like men, of +the huge round fish-baskets like immense _amphorae_. + +Far out from land, where the wide floating nets were spread, lights +were scattered like constellations. The foreland was clearly visible, +with the high woods which clothed its summit. But the farther end of +the beach faded into an uneven string of lights, soft and spectral as +will-o'-the-wisps. Warmth rose from the sleeping earth; and a breeze +blew in from the sea, making a strange metallic rustling, which to +Japanese ears is the sweetest natural music, in the gaunt sloping +pine-trees, whose height in the semi-darkness was exaggerated to +monstrous and threatening proportions. + +Geoffrey felt a little hand in his, warm and moist. + +"Shall we go and see _Dai-Butsu_?" said Yae. + +Geoffrey had no idea who _Dai-Butsu_ might be, but he gladly agreed. +She fluttered on beside him with her long kimono sleeves like a big +moth. Geoffrey's head was full of wine and waltz tunes. + +They dived into a narrow street with dwellings on each side. Some of +the houses were shuttered and silent. Others were open to the +street with a completeness of detail denied by our stingy +window-casements--women sitting up late over their needlework, men +talking round the firebox, shopkeepers adding up their accounts, +fishermen mending their tackle. + +The street led inland towards abrupt hills, which looked like a +wall of darkness. It was lit by the round street lamps, the luminous +globules with Chinese letters on them which had pleased Geoffrey first +at Nagasaki. The road entered a gorge between two precipices, the +kind of cleft into which the children of Hamlin had followed the Pied +Piper. + +"I would not like to come here alone," said Yae, clinging tighter. + +"It looks peaceful enough," said Geoffrey. + +"There is a little temple just to the left, where a nun was murdered +by a priest only last year. He chopped her with a kitchen knife." + +"What did he do it for?" asked Geoffrey. + +"He loved her, and she would not listen to him; so he killed her. I +think I would feel like that if I were a man." + +They passed under an enormous gateway, like a huge barn door with no +barn behind it. Two threatening gods stood sentinel on either hand. +Under the influence of the moonlight the carved figures seemed to +move. + +Yae led her big companion along a broad-flagged path between a +pollarded avenue. Geoffrey still did not know what they had come so +far to see. Nor did he care. Everything was so dreamy and so sweet. + +The path turned; and suddenly, straight in front of them, they saw the +God--the Great Buddha--the immense bronze statue which has survived +from the days of Kamakura's sovereignty. The bowed head and the broad +shoulders were outlined against the blue and starry sky; against +the shadow of the woods the body, almost invisible, could be dimly +divined. The moonlight fell on the calm smile and on the hands palm +upwards in the lap, with finger-tips and thumb-tips touching in the +attitude of meditation. That ineffably peaceful, smiling face seemed +to look down from the very height of heaven upon Geoffrey Barrington +and Yae Smith. The presence of the God filled the valley, patient and +powerful, the Creator of the Universe and the Maintainer of Life. + +Geoffrey had never seen anything so impressive. He Stooped down +towards his little companion, listening for a response to his own +emotion. It came. Before he could realize what was happening he felt +the soft kimono sleeves like wings round his neck, and the girl's +burning mouth pressing his lips. + +"Oh, Geoffrey," she whispered. + +He sat down on a low table in front of a shuttered refreshment bar +with Yae on his knee, his strong arm round her, even as she had +dreamed. The Buddha of Infinite Understanding smiled down upon them. + +Geoffrey was too little of a prig to scold the girl, and too much of +a man not to be touched and flattered by the sincerity of her embrace. +He was too much of an Englishman to ascribe it to its real passionate +motive, and to profit by the opportunity. + +Instead, he told himself that she was only a child excited by the +beauty and the romance of the night even as he was. He did not begin +to realize that he or she were making love. So he took her on his knee +and stroked her hand. + +"Isn't he fine?" he said, looking up at the God. + +She started at the sound of his voice, and put her arms round his neck +again. + +"Oh, Geoffrey," she murmured, "how strong you are!" + +He stood up laughing, with the girl in his arms. + +"If it wasn't for your big _obi_" he said, "you would weigh nothing at +all. Now hold tight; for I am going to carry you home." + +He started down the avenue with a swinging stride. Yae could watch +almost within range of her lips the powerful profile of his big face, +a soldier's face trained to command strong men and to be gentle to +women and children. There was a delicious fragrance about him, the +dry heathery smell of clean men. He did not look down at her. He was +staring into the black shadows ahead, his mind still full of that +sudden vision of Buddha Amitabha. He was scarcely thinking of the +half-caste girl who clung tightly to his neck. + +Yae had no interest in the _Dai-Butsu_ except as a grand background +for love-making, a good excuse for hand squeezings and ecstatic +movements. She had tried it once before with her school-master lover. +It never occurred to her that Geoffrey was in any way different from +her other admirers. She thought that she herself was the sole cause of +his emotion and that his fixed expression as he strode in the darkness +was an indication of his passion and a compliment to her charms. She +was too tactful to say anything, or to try to force the situation; but +she felt disappointed when at the approach of lighted houses he put +her down without further caresses. In silence they returned to the +hotel, where a few tired couples were still revolving to a spasmodic +music. + +Geoffrey was weary now; and the enchantment of the wine had passed +away. + +"Good-night, Yae," he said. + +She was holding the lapels of his coat, and she would have dearly +loved to kiss him again. But he stood like a tower without any sign of +bending down to her; and she would have had to jump for the forbidden +fruit. + +"Good-night, Geoffrey," she purred, "I will never forget to-night." + +"It was lovely," said the Englishman, thinking of the Great Buddha. + + * * * * * + +Geoffrey retired to his room, where Asako was sleeping peacefully. +He was very English. Only the first surprise of the girl's kiss had +startled his loyalty. With the ostrich-like obtuseness, which our +continental neighbours call our hypocrisy, he buried his head in his +principles. As Asako's husband, he could not flirt with another woman. +As Reggie's friend, he would not flirt with Reggie's sweetheart. As an +honourable man, he would not trifle with the affections of a girl who +meant nothing whatever to him. Therefore the incident of the Great +Buddha had no significance. Therefore he could lie down and sleep with +a light heart. + +Geoffrey had been sleeping for half an hour or so when he was awakened +by a sudden jolt, as though the whole building had met with a violent +collision, or as though a gigantic fist had struck it. Everything +in the room was in vibration. The hanging lamp was swinging like a +pendulum. The pictures were shaking on the walls. A china ornament on +the mantelpiece reeled, and fell with a crash. + +Geoffrey leapt out of bed to cross to where his wife was sleeping. +Even the floor was unsteady like a ship's deck. + +"Geoffrey! Geoffrey!" Asako called out. + +"It must be an earthquake," her husband gasped, "Reggie told me to +expect one." + +"It has made me feel so sick," said Asako. + +The disturbance was subsiding. Only the lamp was still oscillating +slightly to prove that the earthquake was not merely a nightmare. + +"Is any one about?" asked Asako. + +Geoffrey went out on to the veranda. The hotel having survived many +hundreds of earthquake shocks, seemed unaware of what had happened. +Far out to sea puffs of fire were dimly seen like the flashes of a +battleship in action, where the island volcano of Oshima was emptying +its wrath against the sky. + +There were hidden and unfamiliar powers in this strange country, of +which Geoffrey and Asako had not yet taken account. + +Beneath a tall lamp-post on the lawn, round whose smooth waxy light +scores of moths were flitting, stood the short stout figure of a +Japanese, staring up at the hotel. + +"It looks like Tanaka," thought Geoffrey, "by Jove, it _is_ Tanaka!" + +They had definitely left their guide behind in Tokyo. Had Asako +yielded at the last moment unable to dispense with her faithful +squire? Or had he come of his own accord? and if so, why? These Japs +were an unfathomable and exasperating people. + +Sure enough next morning it was Tanaka who brought the early tea. + +"Hello," said Geoffrey, "I thought you were in Tokyo." + +"Indeed," grinned the guide, "I am sorry for you. Perhaps I have +commit great crime so to come. But I think and I think Ladyship not so +well. Heart very anxious. Go to theatre, wish to make merry, but all +the time heart very sad. I think I will take last train. I will turn +like bad penny. Perhaps Lordship is angry." + +"No, not angry, Tanaka, just helpless. There was an earthquake last +night?" + +"Not so bad _jishin_ (earth-shaking). Every twenty, thirty years one +very big _jishin_ come. Last big _jishin_ Gifu _jishin_ twenty years +before. Many thousand people killed. Japanese people say that beneath +the earth is one big fish. When the fish move, the earth shake. Silly +fabulous myth! Tanaka say, 'It is the will of God!'" + +The little man crossed himself devoutly. + + * * * * * + +A few minutes later there was a loud banging at the door, followed by +Reggie's voice, shouting,-- + +"Are you coming down for a bath?" + +"Earthquakes are horrible things," commented Reggie, on their way to +the sea. "Foreigners are supposed always to sleep through their first +one. Their second they find an interesting experience; but the +third and the fourth and the rest are a series of nervous shocks in +increasing progression. It is like feeling God--but a wicked, cruel +God! No wonder the Japanese are so fatalistic and so desperate. It is +a case of 'Eat and drink, for to-morrow ye die.'" + +The morning sea was cold and bracing. The two friends did not remain +in for long. When they were dried and dressed again, and when Geoffrey +was for returning to breakfast, Reggie held him back. + +"Come and walk by the sea," he said, "I have something to tell you." + +They turned in the direction of the fishing village, where Geoffrey +and Yae had walked together only a few hours ago. But the fires were +quenched. Black circles of charred ashes remained; and the magic world +of the moonlight had become a cluster of sordid hovels, where dirty +women were sweeping their frowsty floors, and scrofulous children were +playing among stale bedding. + +"Did you notice anything unusual in my manner last night?" Reggie +began very seriously. + +"No," laughed Geoffrey, "you seemed rather excited. But why did you +leave so early?" + +"For various reasons," said his friend. "First, I hate dancing, but +I feel rather envious of people who like it. Secondly, I wanted to be +alone with my own sensations. Thirdly, I wanted you, my best friend, +to have every opportunity of observing Yae and forming an opinion +about her." + +"But why?" Geoffrey began. + +"Because it would now be too late for me to take your advice," said +Reggie mysteriously. + +"What do you mean?" Barrington asked. + +"Last night I asked Yae to marry me; and I understand that she +accepted." + +Geoffrey sat in the sunlight on the gunwale of a fishing-boat. + +"You can't do that," he said. + +"Oh, Geoffrey, I was afraid you'd say it, and you have," said his +friend, half laughing. "Why not?" + +"Your career, old chap." + +"My career," snorted Reggie, "protocol, protocol and protocol. I am +fed up with that, anyway. Can you imagine me a be-ribboned Excellency, +worked by wires from London, babbling platitudes over teacups to +other old Excellencies, and giving out a lot of gas for the F.O. every +morning. No, in the old days there was charm and power and splendour, +when an Ambassador was really plenipotentiary, and peace and war +turned upon a court intrigue. All that is as dead as Louis Quatorze. +Personality has faded out of politics. Everything is business, now, +concessions, vested interests, dividends and bond-holders. These +diplomats are not real people at all. They are shadowy survivals +of the _grand siecle_, wraiths of Talleyrand; or else just restless +bagmen. I don't call that a career." + +Geoffrey had listened to these tirades before. It was Reggie's froth. + +"But what do you propose doing?" he asked. + +"Doing? Why, my music of course. Before I left England some music-hall +people offered me seventy pounds a week to do stunts for them. Their +first offer was two hundred and fifty, because they were under the +illusion that I had a title. My official salary at this moment is two +hundred _per annum_. So you see there would be no financial loss." + +"Then are you giving up diplomacy because you are fed up with it? or +for Yae Smith's sake? I don't quite understand," said Geoffrey. + +He was still pondering over the scene of last evening, and he found +considerable comfort in ascribing Yae's behaviour to excitement caused +by her engagement. + +"Yae is the immediate reason: utter fed-upness is the original cause," +replied Reggie. + +"Do you feel that you are very much in love with her?" asked his +friend. + +The young man considered for a moment, and then answered,-- + +"No, not in love exactly. But she represents what I have come to +desire. I get so terribly lonely, Geoffrey, and I must have some one, +some woman, of course; and I hate intrigue and adultery. Yae never +grates upon me. I hate the twaddling activities of our modern +women, their little sports, their little sciences, their little +earnestnesses, their little philanthropies, their little imitations of +men's ways. I like the seraglio type of woman, lazy and vain, a little +more than a lovely animal. I can play with her, and hear her purring. +She must have no father or mother or brothers or sisters or any social +scheme to entangle me in. She must have no claim on my secret mind, +she must not be jealous of my music, or expect explanations. Still +less explain me to others,--a wife who shows one round like a monkey, +what horror!" + +"But Reggie! old chap, does she love you?" + +Geoffrey's ideas were stereotyped. To his mind, only great love on +both sides could excuse so bizarre a marriage. + +"Love!" cried Reggie. "What is Love? I can feel Love in music. I can +feel it in poetry. I can see it in sunshine, in the wet woods, and in +the phosphorescent sea. But in actual life! I think of things in too +abstract a way ever to feel in love with anybody. So I don't think +anybody could really fall in love with me. It is like religious faith. +I have no faith, and yet I believe in faith. I have no love, and yet +I have a great love for love. Blessed are they who have not seen, and +yet have believed!" + +When Reggie was in this mood Geoffrey despaired of getting any sense +out of him, and he felt that the occasion was too serious for smiles. + +They were walking back to the hotel in the direction of breakfast. + +"Reggie, are you quite sure?" said his friend, solemnly. + +"No, of course I'm not, I never could be." + +"And are you intending to get married soon?" + +"Not immediately, no: and all this is quite in confidence, please." + +"I'm glad there's no hurry," grunted Geoffrey. He knew that the girl +was light and worthless; but to have shown Reggie his proofs would +have been to admit his own complicity; and to give a woman away +so callously would be a greater offence against Good Form than his +momentary and meaningless trespass. + +"But there is one thing you have forgotten," said. Reggie, rather +bitterly. + +"What's that, old chap?" + +"When a fellow announces his engagement to the dearest little girl +in all the world, his friends offer their congratulations. It's Good +Form," he added maliciously. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE RAINY SEASON + + _Fugu-jiru no + Ware ikite ir + Ne-zame kana!_ + + Poisonous delicacies (last night)! + I awake + And I am still alive. + + +Geoffrey Barrington tried not to worry about Yae Smith; and, of +course, he did not mention the episode of the Great Buddha either to +his wife or to Reggie Forsyth. He did not exactly feel ashamed of the +incident; but he realised that it was open to misinterpretation. He +certainly had no love for Yae; and she, since she was engaged to his +friend, presumably had no love for him. There are certain unnatural +states of mind in which we are not altogether morally responsible +beings. Among these may be numbered the ballroom mood, which drives +quite sane people to act madly. The music, the wine, the giddy +turning, the display of women's charms and the confusing proximity of +them produce an unwonted atmosphere, of which we have most of us been +aware, so bewildering that admiration of one woman will drive sane +men to kiss another. Explanation is of course impossible; and +circumstances must have their way. Scheming people, mothers with +daughters to marry, study the effects of this psychical chemistry and +profit by their knowledge. Under similar influences Geoffrey himself +had been guilty of wilder indiscretions than the kissing of a +half-caste girl. + +But when he thought the matter over, he was sorry that it had +occurred; and he was profoundly thankful that nobody had seen him. + +Somebody had seen him, however. + +The faithful Tanaka, who had been charged by Mr. Ito, the Fujinami +lawyer, not to let his master out of his sight, had followed him at +a discreet distance during the whole of that midnight stroll. He had +observed the talk and the attitudes, the silences and the holding of +hands, the glad exchange of kisses, the sitting of Yae on Geoffrey's +knees, and her triumphant return, carried in his arms. + +To the Japanese mind such conduct could only mean one thing. The +Japanese male is frankly animal where women are concerned. He does +not understand our fine shades of self-deception, which give to our +love-making the thrill of surprise and the palliation of romance. +Tanaka concluded that there could be only one termination to the scene +which he had witnessed. + +He also learned that Yae Smith was Reggie Forsyth's mistress, that he +visited her room at night, that she was a girl of no character at all, +that she had frequently stopped at the Kamakura hotel with other men, +all of them her lovers. + +All this information Tanaka collected with a wealth and precision of +detail which is only possible in Japan, where the espionage habit is +so deeply implanted in the every-day life of the people. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Ito could scarcely believe such welcome tidings. The Barrington +_menage_ had seemed to him so devoted that he had often despaired +of his boast to his patron that he would divide the wife from her +husband, and restore her to her family. Now, if Tanaka's story were +true, his task would be child's play. A woman charged with jealousy +becomes like a weapon primed and cocked. If Ito could succeed +in making Asako jealous, then he knew that any stray spark of +misunderstanding would blast a black gulf between husband and wife, +and might even blow the importunate Englishman back to his own +country--alone. + +The lawyer explained his plan to the head of the family, who +appreciated its classic simplicity. Sadako was given to understand the +part which she was to play in alienating her cousin's affections from +the foreigner. She was to harp on the faithlessness of men in general, +and on husbands in particular, and on the importance of money values +in matrimonial considerations. + +She was to suggest that a foreign man would never choose a Japanese +bride merely for love of her. Then when the psychological moment had +struck, the name of Yae Smith was to be flashed into Asako's mind with +a blinding glare. + +Asako had been visiting her Japanese cousins almost every day. Her +conversation lessons were progressing rapidly; for the first stages +of the language are easy. The new life appealed to Asako's love +of novelty, and the strangeness of it to her child's love of +make-believe. The summoning of her parents' spirits awakened in her +the desire for a home, which lurks in every one of us; the love of old +family things around us, the sense of an inheritance and a tradition. +She was tired of hotel life; and she turned for relaxation to playing +at Japan with cousin Sadako, just as her husband turned to tennis. + +Her favourite haunt was the little tea-house among the reeds at the +edge of the lake, which seemed so hidden from everywhere. Here the +two girls practised their languages. Here they tried on each others +clothes, and talked about their lives and purposes. Sadako was +intellectually the cleverer of the two, but Asako had seen and heard +more; so they were fairly equally matched. + +Often the cousins shocked each other's sense of propriety. Asako had +already observed that to the Japanese mind, the immediate corollary +to being married is to produce children as promptly and as rapidly as +possible. Already she had been questioned on the subject by Tanaka, by +_boy sans_ and by shop-attendants. + +"It is a great pity," said cousin Sadako, "that you have no baby. In +Japan if a wife have no baby, she is often divorced. But perhaps it is +the fault of Mr. Barrington?" + +Asako had vaguely hoped for children in the future, but on the whole +she was glad that their coming had been delayed. There was so much +to do and to see first of all. It had never occurred to her that her +childlessness might be the _fault_ of either herself or her husband. +But her cousin went on ruthlessly,-- + +"Many men are like that. Because of their sickness their wives cannot +have babies." + +Asako shivered. This beautiful country of hers seemed to be full of +bogeys like a child's dream. + +Another time Sadako asked her with much diffidence and slanting of the +eyes,-- + +"I wish to learn about--kissing." + +"What is the Japanese for 'kiss'?" laughed Asako. + +"Oh! There is no such word," expostulated Sadako, shocked at her +cousin's levity, "we Japanese do not speak of such things." + +"Then Japanese people don't kiss?" + +"Oh, no," said the girl. + +"Not ever?" asked Asako, incredulous. + +"Only when they are--quite alone." + +"Then when you see foreign people kissing in public, you think it is +very funny?" + +"We think it is disgusting," answered her cousin. + +It is quite true. Foreigners kiss so recklessly. They kiss on meeting: +they kiss on parting. They kiss in London: they kiss in Tokyo. They +kiss indiscriminately their fathers, mothers, wives, mistresses, +cousins and aunts. Every kiss sends a shiver down the spine of a +Japanese observer of either sex, as we should be shocked by the crude +exhibition of an obscene gesture. For this blossoming of our buds of +affection suggests to him, with immediate and detailed clearness, that +other embrace of which in his mind it is the inseparable concomitant. + +The Japanese find the excuse that foreigners know no better, just as +we excuse the dirty habits of natives. But they quote the kiss as an +indisputable proof of the lowness of our moral standard, and as a sign +of the guilt, not of individuals so much as of our whole civilisation. + +"Foreign people kiss too much," said cousin Sadako, "it is a bad +thing. If I had a husband, I would always fear he kiss somebody else." + +"That is why I am so happy with Geoffrey," said Asako, "I know he +would never love any one but me." + +"It is not safe to be so sure," said her cousin darkly, "a woman is +made for one man, but a man is made for many women." + +Asako, arrayed in a Japanese kimono, and to all appearance as Japanese +as her cousin, was sitting in the Fujinami tea-parlour. She had not +understood much of the lesson in tea-ceremony at which she had just +assisted. But the exceeding propriety and dignity of the teacher, the +daughter of great people fallen upon evil days, had impressed her. She +longed to acquire that tranquillity of deportment, that slow graceful +poise of hand and arm, that low measured speech. When the teacher +had gone, she began to mimic her gestures with all the seriousness of +appreciative imitation. + +Sadako laughed. She supposed that her cousin was fooling. Asako +thought that she was amused by her clumsiness. + +"I shall never be able to do it," she sighed. + +"But of course you will. I laugh because you are so like Kikuye San." + +Kikuye San was their teacher. + +"If only I could practise by myself!" said Asako, "but at the hotel it +would be impossible." + +Then they both laughed together at the incongruity of rehearsing those +dainty rites of old Japan in the over-furnished sitting-room at +the Imperial Hotel, with Geoffrey sitting back in his arm-chair and +puffing at his cigar. + +"If only I had a little house like this," said Asako. + +"Why don't you hire one?" suggested her cousin. + +Why not? The idea was an inspiration. So Asako thought; and she +broached the matter to Geoffrey that very evening. + +"Wouldn't it be sweet to have a ducky little Japanese house all our +very own?" she urged. + +"Oh yes," her husband agreed, wearily, "that would be great sport." + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro was delighted at the success of his daughter's +diplomacy. He saw that this plan for a Japanese house meant a further +separation of husband and wife, a further step towards recovery of +his errant child. For he was beginning to regard Asako with parental +sentiment, and to pity her condition as the wife of this coarse +stranger. + +Miss Sadako was under no such altruistic delusions. She envied her +cousin. She envied her money, her freedom, and her frank happiness. +She had often pondered about the ways of Japanese husbands and wives; +and the more she thought over the subject, the more she envied Asako +her happy married life. She envied her with a woman's envy, which +seeks to hurt and spoil. She was smarting from her own disappointment; +and by making her cousin suffer, she thought that she could assuage +her own grief. Besides, the intrigue in itself interested her, and +provided employment for her idolent existence and her restless mind. +Of affection for Asako she had none at all, but then she had no +affection for anybody. She was typical of a modern Japanese womanhood, +which is the result of long repression, loveless marriages and sudden +intellectual licence. + +Asako thought her charming, because she had not yet learned to +discern. She confided to her all her ideas about the new house; and +together the two girls explored Tokyo in the motor-car which Ito +provided for them, inspecting properties. + +Asako had already decided that her home was to be on the bank of the +river, where she could see the boats passing, something like the house +in which her father and mother had lived. The desired abode was found +at last on the river-bank at Mukojima just on the fringe of the city? +where the cherry-trees are so bright in Springtime, where she could +see the broad Sumida river washing her garden steps, the fussy little +river boats puffing by, the portly junks, the crews of students +training for their regattas, and, away on the opposite bank, the trees +of Asakusa, the garish river restaurants so noisy at nightfall, the +tall peaceful pagoda, the grey roofs and the red plinths of the temple +of the Goddess of Mercy. + +Just when the new home was ready for occupation, just when Asako's +enthusiasm was at its height and the purchases of silken bedding and +dainty trays were almost complete, Geoffrey suddenly announced his +intention of leaving Japan. + +"I can't stick it any longer," he said fretfully, "I don't know what's +coming over me." + +"Leave Japan?" cried his wife, aghast. + +"Well, I don't know," grunted her husband, "it's no good stopping here +and going all to seed." + +The rainy season was just over, the hot season of steaming rain +which the Japanese call _nyubai_. It had played havoc with Geoffrey's +nerves. He had never known anything so unpleasant as this damp, +relaxing heat. It made the walls of the room sweat. It impregnated +paper and blotting-paper. It rotted leather; and spread mould on boots +and clothes. It made matches unstrikeable. It drenched Geoffrey's +bed with perspiration, and drove away sleep. It sent him out on long +midnight walks through the silent city in an atmosphere as stifling as +that of a green-house. It beat down upon Tokyo its fetid exhalations, +the smell of cooking, of sewage and of humanity, and the queer sickly +scent of a powerful evergreen tree aflower throughout the city, which +resembled the reek of that Nagasaki brothel, and recalled the dancing +of the _Chonkina_. + +It bred swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitoes from every drop of stagnant +water. They found their way through the musty mosquito-net which +separated his bed from Asako's. They eluded his blow in the evening +light; and he could only wreak his vengeance in the morning, when they +were heavy with his gore. + +The colour faded from the Englishman's cheeks. His appetite failed. +He was becoming, what he had never been before, cross and irritable. +Reggie Forsyth wrote to him from Chuzenji,-- + +"Yae is here, and we go in for yachting in a kind of winged punt, +called a 'lark.' For five pounds you can become a ship-owner. I fancy +myself as a skipper, and I have already won two races. But more often +we escape from the burble of the diplomats, and take our sandwiches +and _thermata_--or is _thermoi_ the plural?--to the untenanted shores +of the lake, and picnic _a deux_. Then, if the wind does not fall +we are lucky; but if it does, I have to row home. Yae laughs at my +oarsmanship; and says that, if you were here, you would do it so much +better. You are a dangerous rival, but for this once I challenge you. +I have a spare pen in my rabbit-hutch. There is just room for you and +Mrs. Barrington. You must be quite melted by now." + +But Asako did not want to go to Chuzenji. All her thoughts were +centred on the little house by the river. + +"Geoffrey darling," she said, stroking his hair with her tiny waxen +fingers, "it is the hot weather which is making you feel cross. Why +don't you go up to the mountains for a week or so, and stop with +Reggie?" + +"Will you come?" asked her husband, brightening. + +"I can't very well. You see they are just laying down the _tatami_: +and when that is done the house will be ready. Besides, I feel so well +here. I like the heat." + +"But I've never been away without you!" objected Geoffrey, "I think it +would be beastly." + +This side of the question had not struck Asako. She was so taken up +with her project. Now, however, she felt a momentary thrill of relief. +She would be able to give all her time to her beloved Japanese home. +Geoffrey was a darling, but he was so uninterested in everything. + +"It will only be for a few days," she said, "you want the change; and +when you come back it will be like being married again." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +AMONG THE NIKKO MOUNTAINS + + _Io chikaki + Tsumagi no michi ya + Kure-nuramu; + Nokiba ni kudaru + Yama-bito no koye_! + + Dusk, it seems, has come + To the wood-cutter's track + That is near my hut; + The voices of the mountainmen + Going down to the shed! + + +Geoffrey left early one morning in a very doubtful frame of mind, +after having charged Tanaka to take the greatest care of his lady, and +to do exactly what she told him. + +It was not until half-way up the steep climb between Nikko and +Chuzenji that his lungs suddenly seemed to break through a thick film, +and he breathed fresh air again. Then he was glad that he had come. + +He was afoot. A coolie strode on before him with his suit-case +strapped on his back. They had started in pouring rain, a long tramp +through narrow gorges. Geoffrey could feel the mountains around him; +but their forms were wrapped in cloud. Now the mist was lifting; +and although in places it still clung to the branches like wisps of +cotton-wool, the precipitous slopes became visible; and overhead, +peeping through the clouds at impossible elevations, pieces of the +mountain seemed to be falling from the grey sky. Everything was bathed +in rain. The sandstone cliffs gleamed like marble, the luxuriant +foliage like polished leather. The torrent foamed over its wilderness +of grey boulders with a splendid rush of liberty. + +Country people passed by, dressed in straw overcoats which looked +like bee-hives, or with thin capes of oiled paper, saffron or +salmon-coloured. The kimono shirts were girt up like fishers--both +men and women--showing gnarled and muscular limbs. The complexions +of these mountain folk were red like fruit; the Mongolian yellow was +hardly visible. + +Some were leading long files of lean-shanked horses, with bells to +their bridles and high pack-saddles like cradles, painted red. Rough +girls rode astride in tight blue trunk-hose. It was with a start that +Geoffrey recognised their sex; and he wondered vaguely whether men +could fall in love with them, and fondle them. They were on their +way to fetch provision for the lake settlements, or for remote +mining-camps way beyond the mountains. + +The air was full of the clamour of the torrent, the heavy splashing +of raindrops delayed among the leaves, and the distant thunder of +waterfalls. + +What a relief to breath again, and what a pleasure to escape from the +tortuous streets and the toy houses, from the twisted prettiness of +the Tokyo gardens and the tiresome delicacy of the rice-field mosaic, +into a wild and rugged nature, a land of forests and mountains +reminiscent of Switzerland and Scotland, where the occasional croak of +a pheasant fell like music upon Geoffrey's ear! + +The two hours' climb ended abruptly in a level sandy road running +among birch trees. At a wayside tea-house a man was sitting on a low +table. He wore white trousers, a coat of cornflower shade and a Panama +hat--all very spick and span. It was Reggie Forsyth. + +"Hello," he cried, "my dear old Geoffrey! I'm awfully glad you've +come. But you ought to have brought Mrs. Harrington too. You seem +quite incomplete without her." + +"Yes, it's a peculiar sensation, and I don't like it. But the heat, +you know, at Tokyo, it made me feel rotten. I simply had to come away. +And Asako is so busy now with her new cousins and her Japanese house +and all the rest of it." + +For the first time Reggie thought that he detected a tone in his +friend's voice which he had been expecting to hear sooner or later, a +kind of "flagging" tone--he found the word afterwards in working out +a musical sketch called _Love's Disharmony_. Geoffrey looked white +and tired, he thought. It was indeed high time that he came up to the +mountains. + +They were approaching the lake, which already showed through the +tree-trunks. A path led away to the left across a rustic bridge. + +"That's the way to the hotel. Yae is there. Farther along are the +Russian, French and British Embassies. That's about half an hour from +here." + +Reggie's little villa stood at a few minutes' distance in the opposite +direction, past two high Japanese hotels which looked like skeleton +houses with the walls taken out of them, past sheds where furs were on +sale, and picture post-cards, and dry biscuits. + +The garden of the villa jutted out over the lake on an embankment of +stones. The house was discreetly hidden by a high hedge of evergreens. + +"William Tell's chapel," explained Reggie, "a week in lovely Lucerne!" + +It was a Japanese house, another skeleton. From the wicket gate, +Geoffrey could see its simple scheme open to the four winds, its +scanty furniture unblushingly displayed; downstairs, a table, a sofa, +some bamboo chairs and a piano--upstairs, two beds, two washstands, +and the rest. The garden consisted of two strips of wiry grass on each +side of the house; and a flight of steps ran down to the water's edge, +where a small sailing-boat was moored. + +The landscape of high wooded hills was fading into evening across the +leaden ripples of the lake. + +"What do you think of our highland home?" asked Reggie. + +There was not a sign of life over the heavy waters, not a boat, not a +bird, not an island even. + +"Not much doing," commented Geoffrey, "but the air's good." + +"Not quite like a lake, it is?" his host reflected. + +That was true. A lake had always appealed to Geoffrey, both to his +sense of natural beauty and to his instinct for sport. There is a +soothing influence in the imprisoned waters, the romance of the sea +without its restlessness and fury. The freshness of untrodden islands, +the possibilities of a world beneath the waters, of half-perceived +Venetas, the adventure of entrusting oneself and one's fortunes to a +few planks of wood, are delights which the lake-lover knows well. He +knows too, the delicious sense of detachment from the shore--the shore +of ordinary affairs and monotonous people--and the charm of unfamiliar +lights and colours and reflections. Even on the Serpentine he can find +this glamour, when the birds are flocking to roost in the trees of +Peter Pan's island. + +But on this lake of Chuzenji there was a sullen brooding, an absence +of life, a suggestion of tragedy. + +"It isn't a lake," explained Reggie; "it's the crater of an old +volcano which has filled up with water. It is one of the earth's +pockmarks healed over and forgotten. But there is something lunar +about it still, some memory of burned out passions, something creepy +in spite of the beauty of the place. It is too dark this evening to +see how beautiful it is. In places the lake is unfathomably deep, and +people have fallen into the water and have never been seen again." + +The waters were almost blue now, a deep dull greyish blue. + +Suddenly, away to the left, lines of silver streaked the surface; and, +with a clapping and dripping commotion, a flight of white geese rose. +They had been dozing under the bank, and some one had disturbed them. +A pale figure like a little flame was dimly discernible. + +"It's Yae!" cried Reggie; and he made a noise which was supposed to be +a _jodel_ The white figure waved an answer. + +Reggie picked up a megaphone which seemed to be kept there for the +purpose. + +"Good night," he shouted, "same time to-morrow!" + +The figure waved again and disappeared. + +Next morning Geoffrey was awakened by the boom of a temple bell. He +stepped out on to his balcony, and saw the lake and the hills around +clear and bright under the yellow sunshine. He drank in the cool +breath of the dew. For the first time after many limp and damp +awakenings he felt the thrill of the wings of the morning. He thanked +God he had come. If only Asako were here! he thought. Perhaps she was +right in getting a Japanese home just for the two of them. They would +be happier there than jostled by the promiscuity of hotels. + +At breakfast, Reggie had found a note from the Ambassador. + +"Oh, damn!" he cried, "I must go over and beat a typewriter for two +or three hours. I must therefore break my tryst. But I expect you to +replace me like the immortal Cyrano, who should be the ideal of all +soldiers. Will you take Yae for an hour or two's sail? She likes you +very much." + +"And if I drown your fiancee? I don't know anything about sailing." + +"I'll show you. It's very easy. Besides, Yae really knows more about +it than I do." + +So Geoffrey after a short lesson in steering, tacking, and the +manipulation of the centreboard, piloted his host safely over to +British Bay, the exclusive precinct of the temporary Embassy on the +opposite shore of the lake. He then made his way round French Cape +past Russia Cove to the wooden landing-stage of the Lakeside Hotel. +There he found Yae, sitting on a bench and throwing pebbles at the +geese. + +She wore the blue and white cotton kimono, which is the summer dress +of Japanese women. It is a cheap garment, but most effective--so clean +and cool in the hot weather. Silk kimonos soon become stale-looking; +but this cotton dress always seems to be fresh from the laundry. A +rope of imitation pearls was entwined in her dark hair; and her broad +sash of deep blue was secured in front with an old Chinese ornament of +jade. + +"Oh, big captain," she cried, "I am so glad it is you. I heard you +were coming." + +She stepped into the boat, and took over the tiller and the command. +Geoffrey explained his friend's absence. + +"The bad boy," she said, "he wants to get away from me in order to +think about a lot of music. But I don't care!" + +Under a steady wind they sheered through the water. On the right hand +was Chuzenji village, a Swiss effect of brown chalets dwarfed to utter +insignificance by the huge wooded mountain dome of Nantai San which +rose behind it. On the left the forest was supreme already, except +where in small clearings five or six houses, tenanted by foreign +diplomats, stood out above the lake. A little farther on a Buddhist +temple slumbered above a flight of broad stone steps. The sacred +buildings were freshly lacquered, and red as a new toy. In front, on +the slope of golden sand, its base bathed by the tiny waves, stood +the _torii_, the wooden archway which is Japan's universal religious +symbol. Its message is that of the Wicket Gate in the Pilgrim's +Progress. Wherever it is to be seen--and it is to be seen +everywhere--it stands for the entering in of the Way, whether that way +be "_Shinto_" (The Way of the Gods), or "_Butsudo_" (The Way of the +Buddhas), or "_Bushido_" (The Way of the Warriors). + +There was plenty of breeze. The boat shot down the length of the +lake at a delicious speed. The two voyagers reached at last a little +harbour, Sh[=o]bu-ga-Hama--The Beach of the Lilies--a muddy shore with +slimy rocks, a few brown cottages and a saw-mill. + +"Let's go and see the waterfall," suggested Yae, "it's only a few +minutes." + +They walked together up a steep winding lane. The fresh air and the +birch trees, the sight of real Alderney cows grazing on patches +of real grass, the distant rumble of the cataract brought back to +Geoffrey a feeling of strength and well-being to which he had for +weeks been a stranger. + +If only the real Asako had been with him instead of this enigmatic and +disquieting image of her! + +The Japanese, who have an innate love for natural beauty, never +fail to mark an exceptional view with a little bench or shelter for +travelers, whence they can obtain the best perspective. If sight-seers +frequent the spot in any number, there will be an old dame _en +guerite_ with her picture post-cards and her Ebisu Beer, her +"Champagne Cider," her _sembei_ (round and salted biscuits) and her +tale of the local legend. + +"_Irrasshai! Irrasshai_;" she pipes. "Come, come, please rest a +little!" + +But the cascade above Sh[=o]bu-ga-Hama is only one among the thousand +lesser waterfalls of this mountain country. It is honoured merely by +an unsteady bench under a broken roof, and by a rope knotted round the +trunk of a tall tree in mid-stream to indicate that the locality is +an abode of spirits, and to warn passers-by against inconsiderately +offending the Undine. + +Geoffrey and Yae were balancing themselves on the bench, gazing at the +race of foam and at the burnished bracken. The Englishman was clearing +his mind for action. + +"Miss Smith," he began at last, "do you think you will be happy with +Reggie?" + +"He says so, big captain," answered the little half-caste, her mouth +queerly twisted. + +"Because if you are not happy, Reggie won't be happy; and if you are +neither of you happy, you will be sorry that you married."! + +"But we are not married yet," said the girl, "we are only engaged." + +"But you will be married sometime, I suppose?" + +"This year, next year, sometime, never!" laughed Yae. "It is nice to +be engaged, and it is such a protection. When I am not engaged, all +the old cats, Lady Cynthia and the rest, say that I flirt. Now when +I am engaged, my fiance is here to shield me. Then they dare not +say things, or it comes round to him, and he is angry. So I can do +anything I like when I am engaged." + +This was a new morality for Geoffrey. It knocked the text from under +the sermon which he had been preparing. She was as preposterous as +Reggie; but she was not, like him, conscious of her preposterousness. + +"Then, when you are married, will you flirt?" asked her companion. + +"I think so," said Yae gravely. "Besides, Reggie only wants me to +dress me up and write music about me. If I am always the same like an +English doll wife, he won't get many tunes to play. Reggie is like a +girl." + +"Reggie is too good for you," said the Englishman, roughly. + +"I don't think so," said Yae, "I don't want Reggie, but Reggie wants +me." + +"What do you want then?" + +"I want a great big man with arms and legs like a wrestler. A man who +hunts lions. He will pick me up like you did at Kamakura, big captain, +and throw me in the air and catch me again. And I will take him away +from the woman he loves, so that he will hate me and beat me for it. +And when he sees on my back the marks of the whip and the blood he +will love me again so strongly that he will become weak and silly like +a baby. Then I will look after him and nurse him; and we will drink +wine together. And we will go for long rides together on horseback in +the moonlight galloping along the sands by the edge of the sea!" + +Geoffrey was gazing at her with alarm. Was she going mad? The girl +jumped up and laid her little hands on his shoulder. + +"There, big captain," she cried, "don't be frightened. That is only +one of Reggie's piano tunes. I never heard tunes like his before. He +plays them, and then explains to me what each note means; and then +he plays the tune again, and I can see the whole story. That is why I +love him--sometimes!" + +"Then you _do_ love him?" Geoffrey was clutching pathetically for +anything which he could understand or appeal to in this elusive +person. + +"I love him," said Yae, pirouetting on her white toes near the edge of +the chasm, "and I love you and I love any man who is worth loving!" + +They returned to the lake in silence. Geoffrey's sermon was abortive. +This girl was altogether outside the circle of his code of Good Form. +He might as well preach vegetarianism to a leopard. Yet she fascinated +him, as she fascinated all men who were not as dry as Aubrey Laking. +She was so pretty, so frail and so fearless. Life had not given her +a fair chance; and she appealed to the chivalrous instinct in men, as +well as to their less creditable passions. She was such a butterfly +creature; and the flaring lamps of life had such a fatal attraction +for her. + +The wind was blowing straight against the harbour. The bay of +Sh[=o]bu-ga-Hama was shallow water. Try as he might, Geoffrey could not +manoeuvre the little yacht into the open waters of the lake. + +"We are on a lee-shore," said Geoffrey. + +At the end he had to get down and wade bare-legged, towing the boat +after him until at last Yae announced that the centreboard had been +lowered and that the boat was answering to the helm. + +Geoffrey clambered in dripping. He shook himself like a big dog after +a swim. + +"Reggie could never have done that," said Yae, with fervent +admiration. "He would be afraid of catching cold." + + * * * * * + +At last they reached the steps of the villa. They were both hungry. + +"I am going to stop to lunch, big captain," said Yae, "Reggie won't be +back." + +"How do you know?" + +"Because I saw Gwendolen Cairns listening last evening when he spoke +to me through the big trumpet. She tells Lady Cynthia, and that means +a lot of work next day for poor Reggie, so that he can't spend his +time with me. You see! Oh, how I hate women!" + +After lunch, at Chuzenji, all the world goes to sleep. It awakes at +about four o'clock, when the white sails come gliding out of the green +bays like swans. They greet, or avoid. They run side by side for +the length of a puff of breeze. They coquet with one another like +butterflies; or they head for one of those hidden beaches which are +the principal charm of the lake, where baskets are unpacked and cakes +and sandwiches appear, where dry sticks are gathered for a rustic +fire, and after an hour or more of anxious stoking the kettle boils. + +"Of all the Japanese holiday places, Chuzenji is the most select and +the most agreeable," Reggie Forsyth explained; "it is the only place +in all Japan where the foreigner is genuinely popular and respected. +He spends his money freely, he does not swear or scold. The +woman-chasing, whisky-swilling type, who has disgraced us in the +open ports, is unknown here. These native mountaineers are rough and +uneducated savages, but they are honest and healthy. We feel on easy +terms with them, as we do with our own peasantry. In the village +street of Chuzenji I have seen a young English officer instructing the +sons of boatmen and woodcutters in the mysteries of cricket." + +In Chuzenji there are no Japanese visitors except the pilgrims who +throng to the lake during the season for climbing the holy mountain of +Nantai. These are country people, all of them, from villages all over +Japan, who have drawn lucky lots in the local pilgrimage club. One +can recognize them at once by their dingy white clothes, like +grave-clothes--men and women are garbed alike--by their straw mushroom +hats, by the strip of straw matting strapped across their shoulders, +and by the long wooden staves which they carry and which will be +stamped with the seal of the mountain-shrine when they have reached +the summit. These pilgrims are lodged free by the temple on the +lake-side, in long sheds like cattle-byres. + +The endless files of lean pack-horses, laden with bags of rice and +other provisions, the ruddy sexless girls who lead them, and the women +who have been foraging for wood and come down from the mountain with +enormous faggots on their bent shoulders, provide a foreground for the +Chuzenji landscape. + + * * * * * + +Geoffrey was sleeping upstairs in his bedroom. Yae was sleeping +downstairs on the sofa. He had expected her to return to the hotel +after lunch, but her attitude was that of "_J'y suis, j'y reste_." + +He awoke with a start to find the girl standing beside his bed. +Afterwards he became sure that he had been awakened by the touch of +soft fingers on his face. + +"Wake up, big captain," she was saying. "It is four o'clock, and the +Ark's coming." + +"What Ark?" he yawned. + +"Why, the Embassy boat." + +Out of sheer devilry, Miss Smith waited for the arrival of Lady +Cynthia. The great lady paid no more attention to her existence than +if she had been a piece of the house. But she greeted Geoffrey most +cordially. + +"Come for a walk," she said in her abrupt way. + +As they turned down the village street she announced: + +"The worst has happened--I suppose you know?" + +"About Reggie?" + +"Yes; he's actually engaged to be married to the creature. Has he told +you?" + +"In the greatest confidence." + +"Well, he forgot to bind his young lady to secrecy. She has told +everybody." + +"Can't he be recalled to London?" + +"The old man says that would just push him over the edge. He has +talked of resigning from the service." + +"Is there anything to be done?" + +"Nothing! Let him marry her. It will spoil his career in diplomacy, of +course. But he will soon get tired of her fooling him. He will divorce +her, and will give up his life to music to which, of course, he +belongs. People like Reggie Forsyth have no right to marry at all." + +"But are you sure that she wants to marry him?" said his friend; and +he related his conversation with Yae that morning. + +"That's very interesting and encouraging," said Her Excellency. "So +she has been trying her hand on you already." + +"I never thought of that," exclaimed Geoffrey. "Why, she knows that +Reggie is my best friend; and that I am married." + +The judicial features of Lady Cynthia lightened with a judicial smile. + +"You have been through so many London seasons, Captain Barrington, and +there is still no guile in you!" + +They walked on in silence past the temple terraces down a winding +country lane. + +"Captain Barrington, would you care to play the part of a real hero, a +real theatre hero, playing to the gallery?" + +Geoffrey was baffled. Had the talk suddenly swung over to amateur +theatricals? Lady Cynthia was a terrible puller of legs. + +"Did you ever hear of Madge Carlyle?" she asked, "or was she before +your time?" + +"I have heard of her." + +She was a famous London _cocotte_ in the days when mashers wore +whiskers and "Champagne Charlie" was sung. + +"At the age of forty-three'" said Lady Cynthia, "Madge decided to +marry for the third or fourth time. She had found a charming young man +with plenty of money and a noble heart, who believed that Madge was +a much slandered woman. His friends were sorry for the young man; and +one of them decided to give a dinner to celebrate the betrothal. In +the middle of the feast an urgent message arrived for the enamoured +one, summoning him to his home. When he had gone the others started +plying poor Madge with drinks. She was very fond of drinks. They +had splendid fun. Then one of the guests--he was an old lover of +Madge's--suggested--Good-bye to the old days and the rest of it!" + +"But what did he think of his friends?" asked Geoffrey. "It seems a +low-down sort of trick." + +"He was very sore about it at the time," said Lady Cynthia; "but +afterwards he understood that they were heroes, real theatre heroes." + +"It looks like rain," said Geoffrey, uneasily. + +So they turned back, talking about London people. + +The first drops fell as they were passing through the wicket gate; and +they entered the house during a roar of thunder. Reggie was alone. + +"I see that my fate is sealed," he said, as he rose to meet them. +"'The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes!'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +YAE SMITH + + _Nusubito wo + Toraete mireba + Waga ko nari_. + + The thief-- + When I caught him and looked + at him, + Lo! My own child! + + +A week of very hard work began for Reggie. The Ambassador +was reporting home on every imaginable subject from political +assassination to the manufacture of celluloid. This was part of Lady +Cynthia's scheme. She was determined to throw Yae Smith and Geoffrey +Barrington together all the time, and to risk the consequences. + +So Yae though she had her room at the hotel, became an inmate of +Reggie's villa. She took all her meals there, and her siesta during +most of the afternoons. She even passed whole nights with Reggie; +and their relations could no longer be a secret even to Geoffrey's +laborious discretion. + +This knowledge troubled him; for the presence of lovers, and the +shadows cast by their intimacies are always disquieting even to the +purest minds. But Geoffrey felt that it was no business of his; +and that Reggie and Yae being what they were, it would be useless +hypocrisy for him to censure their pleasures. + +Meanwhile, Asako was writing to him, bewailing her loneliness. So +one morning at breakfast he announced that he must be getting back to +Tokyo. A cloud passed over Yae's face. + +"Not yet, big captain," she expostulated; "I want to take you right to +the far end of the lake where the bears live." + +"Very well," agreed Geoffrey, "to-morrow morning early, then; for the +next day I really must go." + +He wrote to Asako a long letter with much about the lake and Yae +Smith, promising to return within forty-eight hours. + +At daybreak next morning Yae was hammering at Geoffrey's door. + +"Wake up, old sleepy captain," she cried. + +Geoffrey got the boat ready; and Yae prepared a picnic breakfast to be +eaten on the way. Poor Reggie, of course, had work at the Embassy; he +could not come. + +It was an ideal excursion. They reached Senju, the wood-cutter's +village at the end of the lake. They ascended the forest path as far +as the upper lake, a mere pond of reeds and sedges, which the bears +are supposed to haunt. + +Geoffrey and Yae, however, saw nothing more alarming than the village +curs. + +"Returned in safety from the land of danger!" cried the girl, as she +sprang ashore at the steps of the villa. + +The air and exercise had wearied Geoffrey. After lunch he changed into +a kimono of Reggie's. Then he lay down on his bed and was soon fast +asleep. + +How long he slept he could not say; but he awoke slowly out of +confusing dreams. Somebody was in his room. Somebody was near his bed. +Was it Asako? Was it a dream? + +No, it was his comrade of the morning's voyage. It was Yae Smith. She +was sitting on the bed beside him. She was gazing into his face with +her soft, still, cat-like eyes. What was she doing that for? She was +stroking his arm. Her touch was soft. He did not stop her. + +Her hair was let down to below her waist, long black hair, more silky +in texture and more wavy than that of a pure Japanese woman. Her +kimono was wide open at the throat. A sweet fragrance exhaled from her +body. + +"Big captain, may I?" she pleaded. + +"What?" said Geoffrey, still half asleep. + +"Just lie by your side--just once,--just for the last time," she +cooed. + +Geoffrey was for going to sleep again, well pleased with his dream. +But Yae slipped an arm across his chest, and caught his shoulder in +her hand. She nestled closer to him. + +"Geoffrey," she murmured, "I love you so much. You are so strong and +so big, Geoffrey. I want to stay like this always, always, holding +on to you till I make you love me. Love me just a little, Geoffrey. +Nobody will ever know. Geoffrey, it must be nice to have me near you. +Geoffrey, you must, you must want to love me." + +She was hugging his body now in an embrace astonishingly powerful +for so small a creature. It was this pressure which finally awoke +Geoffrey. Gently he disengaged her arms and sat up in the bed. + +She was clinging to his neck now, wild-eyed like a Maenad. He +felt pitifully ridiculous. The role of Joseph is so thankless and +humiliating. A month ago he would have ordered her sternly to get out +of the room and behave herself. But the hot month in Tokyo had relaxed +his firmness of mind; and familiarity with Reggie's bohemian morality +has sapped his fortress of Good Form. + +"Don't be so naughty, Yae," he said feebly. "Reggie may be coming. For +God's sake, control yourself." + +Her voice was terrible now. + +Geoffrey had lost the first moment when he might have been stern with +her. Clumsily he tried to loosen her embrace. But for the first time +in his life he was in the grip of an elemental natural force, a thing +foreign to his experience of women in marriage or out of it. + +"Yae, don't," he gasped, pushing the girl away. "I can't; I'm +married." + +"Married!" she screamed. "Does marriage hurt like this? Love me, love +me, Geoffrey. You must love me, you will!" + + * * * * * + +"The rhapsody is ended!" + +A voice which nobody would have recognized as Reggie's put a sudden +end to this frantic assault. + +He was standing in the doorway smiling queerly. He had watched the two +from the garden, whence indeed all Chuzenji could have seen them +in the open bedroom. He had slipped off his shoes and had stolen +up quietly in order to listen to them. Now he judged it time to +intervene. + +Yae started up from the bed. For a moment she hovered on the edge, +uncertain of her tactics. Geoffrey stared, one hand to his forehead. +Then the girl darted across the room, fell at Reggie's feet, clasped +his knees, and sobbed convulsively. + +"Reggie, Reggie, forgive me!" she cried. "It's not my fault. He's been +asking me and asking me to do this--ever since Kamakura--and all the +time here. This is what he came to stay here for. Reggie, forgive me. +I will never be naughty again." + +Reggie looked across at his friend for confirmation or denial. The +queer smile had vanished. Good Form decreed that the man must lie for +the woman's sake, if necessary till his soul were damned. But, with +Geoffrey, Good Form had long since been thrown to the winds, like +International Law in war time. Besides, the woman was no better than a +_cocotte_; and Reggie's friendship was at stake. + +"No," he said huskily; "that is not true. I was quietly sleeping here +and she came up to me. She is man-mad." + +The tangled heap at Reggie's feet leaped up, her green eyes blazing. + +"Liar!" she cried. "Reggie, do you believe him? The hypocrite, the +goody-goody, the white slave man, the pimp!" + +"What does she mean?" said Geoffrey. Thank God, the woman was clearly +mad. + +"Fujinami! Fujinami!" she yelled. "The great girl king! The Yoshiwara +_daimyo_! Every scrap of money which his fool wife spends on sham +curios was made in the Yoshiwara, made by women, made out of filth, +made by prostitutes!" + +The last word brought Geoffrey to his feet. In his real agony he had +quite forgotten his sham sin. + +"Reggie, for God's sake, tell me, is this true?" + +"Yes," said Reggie quietly, "it is quite true." + +"Then why did no one tell me?" + +"Husbands," said the young man, "and prospective husbands are always +the last to learn. Yae, go back to the hotel. You have done enough +harm for to-day." + +"Not unless you forgive me, Reggie," the girl pleaded. "I will never +go unless you forgive." + +"I can't forgive," he said, "but I can probably forget." + +The wrath of these two men fascinated her. She would have waited if +she could, listening at the door. Reggie knew this. + +"If you don't clear out, Yae, I will have to call T[=o] to take you," he +threatened. + +To his great relief she went quietly. + + * * * * * + +Reggie returned to the bare bedroom, where Geoffrey with bowed head +was staring at the floor. In Reggie's short kimono the big man looked +decidedly ridiculous. + +"Good," thought Reggie. "Thank God for the comic spirit. It will be +easier to get through with this now." + +His first action was to wash his hands. He had an unconscious instinct +for symbolism. Then he sat down opposite his friend. + +The action of sitting reduces tragedy to comedy at once,--this was one +of Napoleon's maxims. + +Then he opened his cigarette case and offered it to Geoffrey. This, +too, was symbolic. Geoffrey took a cigarette mechanically, and sucked +it between his lips, unlighted. + +"Geoffrey," said his friend very quietly, "let us try to put these +women and all their rottenness out of our heads. We will try to talk +this over decently." + +Geoffrey was so stunned by the shock of what he had just learned that +he had thought of nothing else. Now, all of a sudden he remembered +that he owed serious explanations to his friend. + +"Reggie," he said dully, "I'm most awfully sorry. I had never dreamed +of this. I was good pals with Yae because of you. I never dreamed of +making love to her. You know how I love my wife. She must have been +mad to think of me like that. Besides," he added sheepishly, "nothing +actually happened." + +"I'm sure I don't care what actually happened or did not happen. Damn +actual facts. They distort the truth. They are at the bottom of every +injustice. What actually happened never matters. It is the picture +which sticks in one's brain. True or false, it sticks just the same; +and suddenly or slowly it alters every thing. But I can wipe up my +own mess, I think. It is much more serious with you than with me, +Geoffrey. She has bruised my heel, but she has broken your head. No, +don't protest, for Heaven's sake! I am not interested." + +"Then what she says is absolutely true?" said Geoffrey, lighting his +cigarette at last, and throwing the match aside as if it were Hope. +"For a whole year I have been living on prostitutes' earnings. I am +no better than those awful _ponces_ in Leicester Square, who can be +flogged if they are caught, and serve them right too. And all that +filthy Yoshiwara, it belongs to Asako, to my sweet innocent little +girl, just as Brandan belongs to my father; and with all this +filthy money we have been buying comforts and clothes and curios and +rubbish." + +Reggie was pouring out whiskies and sodas, two strong ones. Geoffrey +gulped down his drink, and then proceeded with his lamentation: + +"I understand it all now. Everybody knew. The secrecy and the mystery. +Even at my wedding they were saying, 'Don't go to Japan, don't go.' +They must have all known even then. And then those damned Fujinami, +so anxious to be civil for the beastly money's sake, and yet hiding +everything and lying all the time. And you knew, and the Ambassador, +and Count Saito, and the servants too--always whispering and laughing +behind our backs. But you, Reggie, you were my friend, you ought to +have told me." + +"I asked Sir Ralph," said Reggie candidly, "whether you ought to be +told. He is a very wise man. He said, 'No.' He said, 'It would be +cruel and it would be useless. They will go back to England soon and +then they will never know.' Where ignorance is bliss, you understand?" + +"It was unfair," groaned Geoffrey; "you were all deceiving me." + +"I said to Sir Ralph that it seemed to me unfair and dangerous. But he +has more experience than I." + +"But what am I to do now?" said the big man helplessly. "This money +must be given up, yes, and everything we have. But whom to? Not to +those filthy Fujinami?" + +"Go slow," advised Reggie. "Go back to England first. Get your +brain clear. Talk it over with your lawyers. Don't be too generous. +Magnanimity has spoiled many noble lives. And remember that your wife +is in this too. You must consider her first. She is very young and she +knows nothing. I don't think that she wants to be poor, or that she +will understand your motives." + +"I will make her understand then," said Geoffrey. + +"Don't talk like a brute. You will have to be very patient and +considerate for her. Go slow!" + +"Can I stop here to-night, then?" asked Barrington, plaintively. + +"No," said Reggie with firmness; "that is really more than I could +stick. I told you--truth or untruth, the mind keeps on seeing +pictures. Pack up your things. Call a coolie. The evening walk down to +Nikko will do you more good than my jawing. Good-bye." + +An unreal handshake--and he was gone. + +Then, of a sudden, Geoffrey realized that, how very unwittingly, he +had deeply wronged this man who was his best friend and upon whom +he was leaning in his hour of trial. Like Job, his adversities were +coming upon him from this side and from that, until he must curse God +and die. Now his friend had given him his dismissal. He would probably +never see Reggie Forsyth again. + +As he was starting on his long walk downhill a motor car passed him. +Only one motor car that season had climbed the precipitous road from +the plains. It must be Yae Smith's. Just as it was passing the girl +leaned out of the carriage and blew a kiss to Geoffrey. + +She was not alone. There was a small fat man in the car beside her, +a Japanese with a round impertinent face. With a throb of bitter +heart-sickness Geoffrey recognized his own servant, Tanaka. + + * * * * * + +Next morning Reggie Forsyth crossed the lake as usual to his work at +the Embassy. He met the Ambassadress on the terrace of her villa. + +"Good morning, Lady Cynthia," he said, "I congratulate you on your +masterly diplomacy." + +"What do you mean?" + +Her manner nowadays was very chilly towards her former favourite. + +"In accordance with your admirable arrangements," he said, "my +marriage is off." + +"Oh, Reggie," her coolness changed at once, "I'm so glad--" + +He held up a warning hand. + +"But--you have broken a better man than I." + +"Why, what do you mean?" + +"Geoffrey Barrington. He has learned who the Fujinami are, and where +his money comes from." + +"You told him?" + +"I'm not such a skunk as all that, Lady Cynthia." + +Her Excellency was pondering what had better be done for Geoffrey. + +"Where is he?" she asked. + +"He stopped the night at Nikko. He is probably in the train for Tokyo +by now." + +If she were a hero, a real theatre hero, as Geoffrey had been +apparently, she would go straight off to Tokyo also; and perhaps she +would be able to prevent a catastrophe. Or perhaps she would not. +Perhaps she would only make things worse. On the whole, she had better +stop in Chuzenji and look after her own husband. + +"Reggie," she said, "you've had a lucky escape. How did you know that +I had any hand in this? You're more of a girl than a man. A rotten +marriage would have broken you. Geoffrey Barrington is made of +stronger stuff. He is in for a bad time. But he will learn a lot which +you know already; and he will survive." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE KIMONO + + _Na we to wa wo + Hito zo saku naru. + Ide, wagimi! + Hito no naka-goto + Kiki-kosu na yume!_ + + It is other people who have separated + You and me. + Come, my Lord! + Do not dream of listening + To the between-words of people! + + +After a ghastly night of sleeplessness at Nikko, Geoffrey Barrington +reached Tokyo in time for lunch. His thoughts were confused and +discordant. + +"I feel as if I had been drunk for a week," he kept on saying to +himself. Indeed, he felt a fume of unreality over all his actions. + +One thing was certain: financially, he was a ruined man. The thousands +a year which yesterday morning had been practically his, the ease and +comfort which had seemed so secure, were lost more hopelessly than if +his bank had failed. Even the cash in his pocket he touched with the +greatest disgust, as if those identical bills and coins had been paid +across the brothel counter as the price for a man's dirty pleasures +and a girl's shame and disease. He imagined that the Nikko +hotel-keeper looked at his notes suspiciously as though they were +endorsed with the seal of the Yoshiwara. + +Geoffrey was ruined. He was henceforth dependent on what his brain +could earn and on what his father would allow him, five hundred pounds +a year at the outside. If he had been alone in the world it would not +have mattered much; but Asako, poor little Asako, the innocent cause +of this disaster, she was ruined too. She who loved her riches, her +jewellery, her pretty things, she would have to sell them all. She +would have to follow him into poverty, she, who had no experience of +its meaning. This was his punishment, perhaps, for having steadily +pursued the idea of a rich marriage. But what had Asako done to +deserve it? Thank God, his marriage had at least not been a loveless +one. + +Geoffrey felt acutely the need of human sympathy in his trouble. By +sheer bad luck he had forfeited Reggie's friendship. But he could +still depend upon his wife's love. + +So he ran up the stairs at the Imperial Hotel longing for Asako's +welcome, though he dreaded the obligation to break the bad news. + +He threw open the door. The room was empty. He looked for cloaks and +hats and curios, for luggage, for any sign of her presence. There was +nothing to indicate that the room was hers. + +Sick with apprehension, he returned to the corridor. There was a _boy +san_ near at hand. + +"_Okusan_ go away," said the _boy san_. "No come back, I think." + +"Where has she gone?" asked Geoffrey. + +The _boy san_, with the infuriating Japanese grin, shook his head. + +"I am very sorry for you," he said. "To-day very early plenty people +come, Tanaka San and two Japanese girls. Very plenty talk. _Okusan_ +cry tears. All nice kimono take away very quick." + +"Then Tanaka, where is he?" + +"Go away with _okusan_" the boy grinned again, "I am very sorry--" + +Geoffrey slammed the door in the face of his tormentor. He staggered +into a chair and collapsed, staring blankly. What could have happened? + +Slowly his ideas returned. Tanaka! He had seen the little beast in +Yae's motor car at Chuzenji. He must have come spying after his master +as he had done fifty times before. He and that half-caste devil had +raced him back to Tokyo, had got in ahead of him, and had told a pack +of lies to Asako. She must have believed them, since she had gone +away. But where had she gone to? The _boy san_ had said "two Japanese +girls." She must have gone to the Fujinami house, and to her horribly +unclean cousins. + +He must find her at once. He must open her eyes to the truth. He must +bring her back. He must take her away from Japan--forever. + +Harrington was crossing the hall of the hotel muttering to himself, +seeing nothing, hearing nothing, when he felt a hand laid on his arm. +It was Titine, Asako's French maid. + +"_Monsieur le capitaine_" she said, "_madame est partie_. It is not my +fault, _monsieur le capitaine_. I say to madame, do not go, wait for +monsieur. But madame is bewitched. She, who is _bonne catholique_, she +say prayers to the temples of these yellow devils. I myself have seen +her clap her hands--so!--and pray. Her saints have left her. She is +bewitched." + +Titine was a Breton peasant girl. She believed implicitly in the +powers of darkness. She had long ago decided that the gods of the +Japanese and the _korrigans_ of her own country were intimately +related. She had served Asako since before her marriage, and would +have remained with her until death. She was desperately faithful. But +she could not follow her mistress to the Fujinami house and risk her +soul's salvation. + +"_Monsieur le capitaine_ go away, and madame very, very unhappy. Every +night she cry. Why did monsieur stay away so long time?" + +"It was only a fortnight," expostulated Geoffrey. + +"For the first parting it was too long," said Titine judicially. +"Every night madame cry; and then she write to monsieur and say, 'Come +back.'" Monsieur write and say, 'Not yet.' Then madame break her heart +and say, 'It is because of some woman that he stay away so long time!' +She say so to Tanaka; and Tanaka say, 'I go and detect, and come again +and tell madame;' and madame say, 'Yes, Tanaka can go: I wish to know +the truth!' And still more she cry and cry. This morning very +early Tanaka came back with Mademoiselle Smith and mademoiselle _la +cousine_. They all talk a long time with madame in bedroom. But they +send me away. Then madame call me. She cry and cry. 'Titine,' she say, +'I go away. Monsieur do not love me now. I go to the Japanese house. +Pack all my things, Titine.' I say, 'No, madame, never. I never go to +that house of devils. How can madame tell the good confessor? How can +madame go to the Holy Mass? Will madame leave her husband and go to +these people who pray to stone beasts? Wait for monsieur!' I say, +'What Tanaka say, it is lies, all the time lies. What Mademoiselle +Smith say all lies.' But madame say, 'No come with me, Titine!' But +I say again, 'Never!' And madame go away, crying all the time: and +sixteen rickshaw all full of baggage. "Oh, _monsieur le capitaine_, +what shall I do?" + +"I'm sure, I don't know," said the helpless Geoffrey. + +"Send me back to France, monsieur. This country is full of devils, +devils and lies." + +He left her sobbing in the hall of the hotel with a cluster of _boy +sans_ watching her. + + * * * * * + +Geoffrey took a taxi to the Fujinami house. No one answered his +ringing; but he thought that he could hear voices inside the building. +So he strode in, unannounced, and with his boots on his feet, an +unspeakable offence against Japanese etiquette. + +He found Asako in a room which overlooked the garden where he had been +received on former occasions. Her cousin Sadako was with her and Ito, +the lawyer. To his surprise and disgust, his wife was dressed in the +Japanese kimono and _obi_ which had once been so pleasing to his eyes. +Her change of nationality seemed to be already complete. + +This was an Asako whom he had never known before. Her eyes were ringed +with weeping, and her face was thin and haggard. But her expression +had a new look of resolution. She was no longer a child, a doll. In +the space of a few hours she had grown to be a woman. + +They were all standing. Sadako and the lawyer had formed up behind the +runaway as though to give her moral support. + +"Asako," said Geoffrey sternly, "what does this mean?" + +The presence of the two Japanese exasperated him. His manner was +tactless and unfortunate. His tall stature in the dainty room looked +coarse and brutal. Sadako and Ito were staring at his offending boots +with an expression of utter horror. Geoffrey suddenly remembered that +he ought to have taken them off. + +"Oh, damn," he thought. + +"Geoffrey," said his wife, "I can't come back. I am sorry. I have +decided to stay here." + +"Why?" asked Geoffrey brusquely. + +"Because I know that you do not love me. I think you never loved +anything except my money." + +The hideous irony of this statement made poor Geoffrey gasp. He +gripped the wooden framework of the room so as to steady himself. + +"Good God!" he shouted. "Your money! Do you know where it comes from?" + +Asako stared at him, more and more bewildered. + +"Send these people out of the room, and I'll tell you," said Geoffrey. + +"I would rather they stayed," his wife answered. + +It had been arranged beforehand that, if, Geoffrey called, Asako was +not to be left alone with him. She had been made to believe that she +was in danger of physical violence. She was terribly frightened. + +"Very well," Geoffrey blundered on, "every penny you have is made +out of prostitution, out of the sale of women to men. You saw the +Yoshiwara, you saw the poor women imprisoned there, you know that any +drunken beast can come and pay his money down and say, 'I want that +girl,' and she has to give herself up to be kissed and pulled about +by him, even if she hates him and loathes him. Well, all this filthy +Yoshiwara and all those poor girls and all that dirty money belongs to +these Fujinami and to you. That is why they are so rich, and that is +why we have been so rich. If we were in England, we could be flogged +for this, and imprisoned, and serve us right too. And all this money +is bad; and, if we keep it, we are worse than criminals; and neither +of us can ever be happy, or look any one in the face again." + +Asako was shaking her head gently like an automaton, understanding +not a word of all this outburst. Her mind was on one thing only, her +husband's infidelity. His mind was on one thing only, the shame of +his wife's money. They were like card-players who concentrate their +attention exclusively on the cards in their own hands, oblivious to +what their partners or opponents may hold. + +Asako remaining silent, Mr. Ito began to speak. His voice seemed more +squeaky than ever. + +"Captain Barrington," he said, "I am very sorry for you. But you +see now true condition of things. You must remember you are English +gentleman. Mrs. Barrington wishes not to return to you. She has been +told that you make misconduct with Miss Smith at Kamakura, and again +at Chuzenji. Miss Smith herself says so. Mrs. Harrington thinks this +story must be true; or Miss Smith do not tell so bad story about +herself. We think she is quite right--" + +"Shut up!" thundered Geoffrey. "This is a matter for me and my wife +alone. Please, leave us. My wife has heard one side of a story which +is unfair and untrue. She must hear from me what really happened." + +"I think, some other day, it would be better," cousin Sadako +intervened. "You see, Mrs. Barrington cannot speak to-day. She is too +unhappy." + +It was quite true. Asako stood like a dummy, neither seeing nor +hearing apparently, neither assenting nor contradicting. How powerful +is the influence of clothes! If Asako had been dressed in her Paris +coat and skirt, her husband would have crossed the few mats which +separated them, and would have carried her off willy-nilly. But in her +kimono did she wholly belong to him? Or was she a Japanese again, +a Fujinami? She seemed to have been transformed by some enchanter's +spell; as Titine had said, she was bewitched. + +"Asako, do you mean this?" The big man's voice was harsh with grief. +"Do you mean that I am to go without you?" + +Asako still showed no sign of comprehension. + +"Answer me, my darling; do you want me to go?" + +Her head moved in assent, and her lips answered "Yes." + +That whisper made such a wrench at her husband's heart that his grip +tightened on the frail _shoji_, and with a nervous spasm he sent it +clattering out of its socket flat upon the floor of the room, like +a screen blown down by the wind. Ito dashed forward to help Geoffrey +replace the damage. When they turned round again, the two women had +disappeared. + +"Captain Barrington," said Ito, "I think you had better go away. You +make bad thing worse." + +Geoffrey frowned at the little creature. He would have liked to have +crushed him underfoot like a cockroach. But as that was impossible, +nothing remained for him to do but to depart, leaving the track of his +dirty boots on the shining corridor. His last glimpse of his cousins' +home was of two little serving-maids scuttering up with dusters to +remove the defilement. + +Asako had fainted. + + * * * * * + +As Reggie had said in Chuzenji, "What actually happens does not +matter: it is the thought of what might have happened, which sticks." +If Reggie's tolerant and experienced mind could not rid itself of the +picture conjured up by the possibility of his friend's treachery and +his mistress's lightness, how could Asako, ignorant and untried, hope +to escape from a far more insistent obsession? She believed that her +husband was guilty. But the mere feeling that it was possible that he +might be guilty would have been enough to numb her love for him, at +any rate for a time. She had never known heartache before. She did not +realise that it is a fever which runs its appointed course of torment +and despair, which at length after a given term abates, and then +disappears altogether, leaving the sufferer weak but whole again. +The second attack of the malady finds its victim familiar with the +symptoms, resigned to a short period of misery and confident of +recovery. A broken heart like a broken horse is of great service to +its owner. + +But Asako was like one stricken with an unknown disease. Its violence +appalled her, and in her uncertainty she prayed for death. Moreover, +she was surrounded by counsellors who traded on her little faith, who +kept on reminding her that she was a Japanese, that she was among her +father's people who loved her and understood her, that foreigners +were notoriously treacherous to women, that they were blue-eyed and +cruel-hearted, that they thought only of money and material things. +Let her stay in Japan, let her make her home there. There she would +always be a personage, a member of the family. Among those big, +bold-voiced foreign women, she was overshadowed and out of place. If +her husband left her for a half-caste, what chance had she of keeping +him when once he got back among the women of his own race? Mixed +marriages, in fact, were a mistake, an offence against nature. Even if +he wished to be faithful to her, he could not really care for her as +he could for an Englishwoman. + + * * * * * + +As soon as Geoffrey Barrington had left the house, Mr. Ito went in +search of the head of the Fujinami, whom he found at work on the +latest literary production of his tame students, _The Pinegrove by the +Sea-shore_. + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro put his writing-box aside with a leisurely +gesture, for a Japanese gentleman of culture must never be in a hurry. + +"Indeed, it has been so noisy, composition has become impossible," he +complained; "has that foreigner come, to the house?" + +He used the uncomplimentary word "_ket[=o]jin_" which may be literally +translated "hairy rascal". It is a survival from the time of Perry's +black ships and the early days of foreign intercourse, when "Expel the +Barbarians!" was a watchword in the country. Modern Japanese assure +their foreign friends that it has fallen altogether into disuse; but +such is not the case. It is a word loaded with all the hatred, envy +and contempt against foreigners of all nationalities, which still +pervade considerable sections of the Japanese public. + +"This Barrington," answered the lawyer, "is indeed a rough fellow, +even for a foreigner. He came into the house with his boots on, +uninvited. He shouted like a coolie, and he broke the _shoji_. +His behaviour was like that of Susa-no-O in the chambers of the +Sun-Goddess. Perhaps he had been drinking whisky-sodas." + +"A disgusting thing, is it not?" said the master. "At this time I am +writing an important chapter on the clear mirror of the soul. It is +troublesome to be interrupted by these quarrels of women and savages. +You will have Keiichi and Gor[=o] posted at the door of the house. They +are to refuse entrance to all foreigners. It must not be allowed to +turn our _yashiki_ into a battlefield." + +Mr. Fujinami's meditations that morning had been most bitter. His +literary preoccupation was only a sham. There was a tempest in the +political world of Japan. The Government was tottering under the +revelations of a corruption in high places more blatant than usual. +With the fall of the Cabinet, the bribes which the Fujinami had +lavished to obtain the licences and privileges necessary to their +trade, would become waste money. True, the Governor of Osaka had not +yet been replaced. A Fujinami familiar had been despatched thither +at full speed to secure the new Tobita brothel concessions as a _fait +accompli_ before the inevitable change should take place. + +The head of the house of Fujinami, therefore, being a monarch in a +small way, had much to think of besides "the quarrels of women and +savages." Moreover, he was not quite sure of his ground with regard to +Asako. To take a wife from her husband against his will, seems to the +Japanese mind so flagrantly illegal a proceeding; and old Mr. Fujinami +Gennosuke had warned his irreligious son most gravely against the +danger of tampering with the testament of Asako's father, and of +provoking thereby a visitation of his "rough spirit." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +SAYONARA (GOOD-BYE) + + _Tomo ni narite + Onaji minato wo + Izuru fune no + Yuku-ye mo shirazu + Kogi-wakari-nuru!_ + + Those ships which left + The same harbour + Side by side + Towards an unknown destination + Have rowed away from one another! + + +Reggie Forsyth, remaining in Chuzenji, had become a prey to a +most crushing reaction. At the time of trial, he had been calm and +clear-sighted. For a moment he had experienced a sensation of relief +at shaking off the shackles which Yae's fascination had fastened upon +him. He had been aware all along that she was morally worthless. He +was glad to have the matter incontestably proved. But his paradise, +though an artificial one, had been paradise all the same. It had +nourished him with visions and music. Now, he had no companion except +his own irrepressible spirit jibing at his heart's infirmity. He came +to the reluctant conclusion that he must take Yae back again. But she +must never come again to him on the same terms. He would take her for +what she really was, a unique and charming _fille-de-joie_, and he +knew that she would be glad to return. Without something, somebody, +some woman to interest him, he could not face another year in this +barren land. + +Then what about Geoffrey, his friend who had betrayed him? No, +he could not regard him in such a tragic light. He was angry with +Geoffrey, but not indignant. He was angry with him for being a +blunderer, an elephant, for being so easily amenable to Lady Cynthia's +intrigues, for being so good-natured, stupid and gullible. He argued +that if Geoffrey had been a wicked seducer, a bold Don Juan, he would +have excused him and would have felt more sympathy for him. He would +have thoroughly enjoyed sitting down with him to a discussion of Yae's +psychology. But what did an oaf like Geoffrey understand about +that bundle of nerves and instincts, partly primitive and partly +artificial, bred out of an abnormal cross between East and West, and +doomed from conception to a life astray between light and darkness? +He had been disillusioned about his old friend, and he wished never to +see him again. + +"What frauds these noble natures are!" he said to himself, "these Old +Honests, these sterling souls! And as an excuse he tells me, 'Nothing +actually happened!' Disgusting!" + + 'To play with light loves in the portal, + To kiss and embrace and refrain!' + +"The virtue of our days is mostly impotence! Lust and passion and love +and marriage! Why do our dull insular minds mix up these four entirely +separate notions? And how can we jump with such goat-like agility from +one circle of thought into another without ever noticing the change in +the landscape?" + +He strolled over to the piano to put these ideas into music. + +Lady Cynthia had decided that it would be bad for him to stop in +Chuzenji. Mountain scenery is demoralising for a nature so Byronic. +He was forthwith despatched to Tokyo to represent his Embassy at a +Requiem Mass to be celebrated for the souls of an Austrian Archduke +and his wife, who had recently been assassinated by a Serbian fanatic +somewhere in Bosnia. Reggie was furious at having to undertake this +mission. For the mountains were soothing to him, and he was not yet +ready for encounters. When he arrived in Tokyo, he was in a very bad +temper. + + * * * * * + +Asako had heard from Tanaka that Reggie Forsyth was expected at the +Embassy. That useful intelligence-officer had been posted by the +Fujinami to keep watch on the Embassy compound, and to report any +movements of importance; for the conspirators were not entirely at +ease as to the legality of abducting the wife of a British subject, +and keeping her against her husband's demands. + +Asako had received that day a pathetic letter from Geoffrey, giving +detail for detail his account of his dealings with Yae Smith, begging +her to understand and believe him, and to forgive him for the crime +which he had never committed. + +In spite of her cousin's incredulity, Asako's resolution was shaken +by this appeal. At last, now that she had lost her husband, she was +beginning to realise how very much she loved him. Reggie Forsyth would +be a more or less impartial witness. + +Late that evening, in a hooded rickshaw she crossed the short distance +which led to the Embassy. Mr. Forsyth had just arrived. + +Mr. Forsyth was very displeased to hear Mrs. Barrington announced. It +was just the kind of meeting which would exasperate and unnerve him. + +Her appearance was against her. She wore a Japanese kimono, +unpleasantly reminiscent of Yae. Her hair was disordered and +frantic-looking. Her eyes were red with weeping. + +"Let me say at once," observed Reggie, as he offered her a chair, +"that I am in no way responsible for your husband's shortcomings. I +have too many of my own." + +Asako could never understand Reggie when he talked in that sarcastic +tone. + +"I want to know exactly what happened," she begged. "I have no one +else who can tell me." + +"Your husband says that nothing actually happened," replied Reggie +brutally. + +The girl realised that this statement was far from being the +vindication of Geoffrey which she had begun to hope for. + +"But what did you actually see?" she asked. + +"I saw Miss Smith with your husband. As it was in my house, they might +have asked my leave first." + +Asako shivered. + +"But do you think Geoffrey had been--love-making to Miss Smith?" + +"I don't know," said Reggie wearily. "From what I heard, I think Miss +Smith was doing most of the love-making to Geoffrey; but he did not +seem to object to the process." + +Asako's yearnings for proof of her husband's innocence were crushed. + +"What shall I do?" she pleaded. + +"I'm sure I don't know." This scene to Reggie was becoming positively +silly. "Take him back to England as soon as possible, I should think." + +"But would he fall in love with women in England?" + +"Possibly." + +"Then what am I to do?" + +"Grin and bear it. That's what we all have to do." + +"Oh, Mr. Forsyth," Asako implored, "you know my husband so well. Do +you think he is a bad man?" + +"No, not worse than the rest of us," answered Reggie, who felt quite +maddened by this talk. "He is a bit of a fool, and a good deal of a +blunderer." + +"But do you think Geoffrey was to blame for what happened?" + +"I have told you, my dear Mrs. Barrington, that your husband assured +me that nothing actually happened. I am quite sure this is true, for +your husband is a very honourable man--in details." + +"You mean," said Asako, gulping out the words, "that Miss Smith was +not actually Geoffrey's--mistress; they did not--sin together." + +Asako did not know how intimate were the relations between Reggie and +Yae. She did not understand therefore how cruelly her words lanced +him. But, more than the shafts of memory it was the imbecility of the +whole scene which almost made the young man scream. + +"Exactly," he answered. "In the words of the Bible, she lay with him, +but he knew her not." + +"Then, do you think I ought to forgive Geoffrey?" + +This was too much. Reggie leaped to his feet. + +"My dear lady, that is really a question for yourself and yourself +alone. Personally, I do not at present feel like forgiving anybody. +Least of all, can I forgive fools. Geoffrey Harrington is a fool. He +was a fool to marry, a fool to marry you, a fool to come to Japan when +everybody warned him not to, a fool to talk to Yae when everybody +told him that she was a dangerous woman. No, personally, at present I +cannot forgive Geoffrey Barrington. But it is very late and I am very +tired, and I'm sure you are, too. I would advise you to go home to +your erring husband; and to-morrow morning we shall all be thinking +more clearly. As the French say, _L'oreiller raccommode tout_." + +Asako still made no movement. + +"Well, dear lady, if you wish to wait longer, you will excuse me, +if, instead of talking rot, I play to you. It is more soothing to the +nerves." + +He sat down at the piano, and struck up the _Merry Widow_ chorus,-- + + "I'll go off to Maxim's: I've done with lovers' dreams; + The girls will laugh and greet me, they will not trick + and cheat me; + Lolo, Dodo, Joujou, + Cloclo, Margot, Frou-frou, + I'm going off to Maxim's, and you may go to--" + +The pianist swung around on his stool: his visitor had gone. + + * * * * * + +"Thank God," he sighed; and within a quarter of an hour he was asleep. + +He awoke in the small hours with that sick restless feeling on his +chest, which he described as a conviction of sin. + +"Good God!" he said aloud; "what a cad I've been!" + +He realised that an unspoiled and gentle creature had paid him +the greatest of all compliments by coming to him for advice in +the extremity of her soul's misery. He had received her with silly +_badinage_ and cheap cynicism. + +At breakfast he learned that things were much more serious than he had +imagined, that Asako had actually left her husband and was living with +her Japanese cousins. What he had thought to be a lover's quarrel, he +now recognised to be the shipwreck of two lives. With a kindly word he +might have prevented this disaster. + +He drove straight to the Fujinami mansion, at the risk of being late +for the Requiem Mass. He found two evil-eyed hooligans posted at the +gate, who stopped his rickshaw, and, informing him that none of the +Fujinami family were at home, seemed prepared to resist his entry with +force. + +During the reception of the Austrian Embassy which followed the +Mass, an incident occurred which altered the whole set of the young +diplomat's thoughts, and, most surprisingly, sent him posting down +to the Imperial Hotel to find Geoffrey Harrington, as one who has +discovered a treasure and must share it with his friend. + +The big Englishman was contemplating a whisky-and-soda in the hall of +the hotel. It was by no means the first of its series. He gazed dully +at Reggie. + +"Thought you were at Chuzenji," he said thickly. + +"I had to come down for the special service for the Archduke Franz +Ferdinand," said Reggie, excitedly. "They gave us a regular wake, +champagne by the gallon! Several of the _corps diplomatique_ became +inspired! They saw visions and made prophesyings. Von Falkenturm, the +German military attache, was shouting out, 'We've got to fight. We're +going to fight! We don't care who we fight! Russia, France, England: +yes, the whole lot of them!' The man was drunk, of course; but, after, +all, _in vino veritas_. The rest of the square-heads were getting very +rattled, and at last they succeeded in suppressing Falkenturm. But, I +tell you, Geoffrey, it's coming at last; it's really coming!" + +"What's coming?" + +"Why, the Great War. Thank God, it's coming!" + +"Why thank God?" + +"Because we've all become too artificial and beastly. We want +exterminating, and to start afresh. We shall escape at last from women +and drawing-rooms and silly gossip. We shall become men. It will give +us all something to do and something to think about." + +"Yes," echoed Geoffrey, "I wish I could get something to do." + +"You'll get it all right. I wish I were a soldier. Are you going to +stop in Japan much longer?" + +"No--going next week--going home." + +"Look here, I'll put in my resignation right away, and I'll come along +with you." + +"No, thanks," said Geoffrey, "rather not." + +In his excitement Reggie had failed to observe the chilliness of his +friend's demeanour. This snub direct brought up the whole chain of +events, which Reggie had momentarily forgotten, or which were too +recent as yet to have assumed complete reality. + +"I'm sorry, Geoffrey," he said, as he rose to go. + +"Not at all," said Barrington, ignoring his friend's hand and turning +aside to order another drink. + +Geoffrey had a letter in his pocket, received from his wife that +morning. It ran:-- + + "DEAR GEOFFREY,--I am very sorry. I cannot come back. It is + not only what has happened. I am Japanese. You are English. + You can never really love me. Our marriage was a mistake. + Everybody says so even Reggie Forsyth. I tried my best to want + to come back. I went to Reggie last night, and asked him what + actually happened. He says that our marriage was a mistake, + and that our coming to Japan was a mistake. So do I. I think + we might have been happy in England. I want you to divorce me. + It seems to be very easy in Japan. You only have to write a + letter, which Mr. Ito will give you. Then I can become quite + Japanese again, and Mr. Fujinami can take me back into his + family. Also you will be free to marry an English girl. But + don't have anything to do with Miss Smith. She is a very bad + girl. I shall never marry anybody else. My cousins are very + kind to me. It is much better for me to stay in Japan. Titine + said I was wrong to go away. Please give her fifty pounds from + me, and send her back to France, if she wants to go. I don't + think it is good for us to see each other. We only make + each other unhappy. Tanaka is here. I do not like him now. + Good-bye! Good-bye! + + "Your loving, + + "ASAKO." + +From this letter Geoffrey understood that Reggie Forsyth also was +against him. The request for a divorce baffled him entirely. How could +he divorce his wife, when he had nothing against her? In answer, he +wrote another frantic appeal to her to return to him. There was no +answer. + +Then he left Tokyo for Yokohama--it is only eighteen miles away--to +wait there until his boat started. + +Thither he was pursued by Ito. + +"I am sorry for you." The revolting little man always began his +discourse now with this exasperating phrase. "Mrs. Barrington would +like very much to obtain the divorce. She wishes very much to have her +name inscribed on family register of Fujinami house. If there is no +divorce, this is not possible." + +"But," objected Geoffrey, "it is not so easy to get divorced as to get +married--unfortunately." + +"In Japan," said the lawyer, "it is more easy, because we have +different custom." + +"Then there must be a lot of divorces," said Geoffrey grimly. + +"There are very many," answered the Japanese, "more than in any other +country. In divorce Japan leads the world. Even the States come second +to our country. Among the low-class persons in Japan there are even +women who have been married thirty-five times, married properly, +honourably and legally. In upper society, too, many divorce, but not +so many, for it makes the family angry." + +"Marvellous!" said Geoffrey. "How do you do it?" + +"There is divorce by law-courts, as in your country," said Ito. "The +injured party can sue the other party, and the court can grant decree. +But very few Japanese persons go to the court for divorce. It is not +nice, as you say, to wash dirty shirt before all people. So there is +divorce by custom." + +"Well?" asked the Englishman. + +"Now, as you know, our marriage is also by custom. There is no +ceremony of religion, unless parties desire. Only the man and the +woman go to the _Shiyakusho_, to the office of the city or the +village; and the man say, 'This woman is my wife; please, write her +name on the register of my family,' Then when he want to divorce her, +he goes again to the office of the city and says, 'I have sent my wife +away; please, take her name from the register of my family, and write +it again on the register of her father's family.' You see, our custom +is very convenient. No expense, no trouble." + +"Very convenient," Geoffrey agreed. + +"So, if Captain Barrington will come with me to the office of Akasaka, +Tokyo, and will give notice that he has sent Mrs. Barrington back +to her family, then the divorce is finished. Mrs. Barrington becomes +again a Japanese subject. Her name becomes Fujinami. She is again one +of her family. This is her prayer to you." + +"And Mrs. Barrington's money?" asked Geoffrey sarcastically. "You have +forgotten that." + +"Oh no," was the answer, "we don't forget the money. Mr. Fujinami +quite understand that it is great loss to send away Mrs. Barrington. +He will give big compensation as much as Captain Barrington desires." + +To Ito's surprise, his victim left the table and did not return. So +he inquired from the servants about Captain Barrington's habits; +and learned from the _boy sans_ that the big Englishman drank plenty +whisky-soda; but he did not talk to any one or go to the brothels. +Perhaps he was a little mad. + + * * * * * + +Ito returned to the charge next day. This time Geoffrey had an +inspiration. He said that if he could be granted an interview alone +with Asako, he would discuss with her the divorce project, and would +consent, if she asked him personally. After some demur, the lawyer +agreed. + +The last interview between husband and wife took place in Ito's +office, which Geoffrey had visited once before in his search for the +fortune of the Fujinami. The scene of the rendezvous was well chosen +to repress any revival of old emotions. The varnished furniture, the +sham mahogany, the purple plush upholstery, the gilt French clock, the +dirty bust of Abraham Lincoln and the polyglot law library checked the +tender word and the generous impulse. The Japanese have an instinctive +knowledge of the influence of inanimate things, and use this knowledge +with an unscrupulousness, which the crude foreigner only realises--if +ever--after it is too late. + +Geoffrey's wife appeared hand in hand with cousin Sadako. There was +nothing English in her looks. She had become completely Japanese +from her black helmet-like _coiffure_ to the little white feet which +shuffled over the dusty carpet. There was no hand-shaking. The +two women sat down stiffly on chairs against the wall remote from +Geoffrey, like two swallows perched uneasily on an unsteady wire. +Asako held a fan. There was complete silence. + +"I wish to see my wife alone," said Geoffrey. + +He spoke to Ito, who grinned with embarrassment and looked at the two +women. Asako shook her head. + +"I made it quite clear to you, Mr. Ito," said Geoffrey angrily, "that +this was my condition. I understand that pressure has been used to +keep my wife away from me. I will apply to my Embassy to get her +restored." + +Ito muttered under his breath. That was a contingency which he had +greatly dreaded. He turned to Sadako Fujinami and spoke to her in +voluble Japanese. Sadako whispered in her cousin's ear. Then she rose +and withdrew with Ito. + +Geoffrey was left alone with Asako. But was she really the same Asako? +Geoffrey had often seen upper class Japanese ladies at receptions in +the hotel at Tokyo. He had thought how picturesque they were, how well +mannered, how excellent their taste in dress. But they had seemed +to him quite unreal, denizens of a shadow world of bowing, gliding +figures. + +He now realised that his former wife had become entirely a Japanese, +a person absolutely different from himself, a visitant from another +sphere. He was English she was Japanese. They were divorced already. + +The big man rose from his chair, and held out his hand to his wife. + +"I'm sorry, little Asako!" he said, very gently. "You are quite right. +It was a mistake. Good-bye, and--God bless you always!" + +With immense relief and gratitude she took the giant's paw in her +own tiny hand. It seemed to have lost its grip, to have become like a +Japanese hand. + +He opened the door for her. Once again, as on the altar-steps of St. +George's, the tall shoulders bent over the tiny figure with a movement +of instinctive protection and tenderness. He closed the door behind +her, recrossed the room and stared into the empty fireplace. + +After a time, Ito returned. The two men went together to the district +office of the Akasaka Ward. There Geoffrey signed a declaration +in Japanese and English to the effect that his marriage with Asako +Fujinami was cancelled, and that she was free to return to her +father's family. + +Next morning, at daylight his ship left Yokohama. + +Before he reached Liverpool, war had been declared. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +FUJINAMI ASAKO + + _Okite mitsu + Nete mitsu kaya no + Hirosa kana_. + + When I rise, I look-- + When I lie down, I look-- + Alas, how vast is the mosquito-curtain. + + +Asako Barrington was restored to the name and home of the Fujinami. +Her action had been the result of hereditary instinct, of the +natural current of circumstances, and of the adroit diplomacy of her +relatives. She had been hunted and caught like a wild animal; and +she was soon to find that the walls of her enclosure, which at first +seemed so wide that she perceived them not, were closing in upon her +day by day as in a mediaeval torture chamber, forcing her step by step +towards the unfathomable pit of Japanese matrimony. + +The Fujinami had not adopted their foreign cousin out of pure +altruism. Far from it. Like Japanese in general, they resented the +intrusion of a "_tanin_" (outside person) into their intimacy. They +took her for what she was worth to them. + +Since Asako was now a member of the family, custom allowed Mr. +Fujinami Gentaro to control her money. But Mr. Ito warned his patron +that, legally, the money was still hers, and hers alone, and that in +case of her marrying a second time it might again slip away. It was +imperative, therefore, to the policy of the Fujinami house that Asako +should marry a Fujinami, and that as soon as possible. + +A difficulty here arose, not that Asako might object to her new +husband--it never occurred to the Fujinami that this stranger from +Europe might have opinions quite opposed to Japanese conventions--but +that there were very few adequately qualified suitors. Indeed, in the +direct line of succession there was only young Mr. Fujinami Takeshi, +the youth with the purple blotches, who had distinguished himself +by his wit and his _savoir vivre_ on the night of the first family +banquet. + +True, he had a wife already; but she could easily be divorced, as +her family were nobodies. If he married Asako, however, was he still +capable of breeding healthy children? Of course, he might adopt the +children whom he already possessed by his first wife, but the +elder boy showed signs of being mentally deficient, the younger was +certainly deaf and dumb, and the two others were girls and did not +count. + +Grandfather Fujinami Gennosuke, who hated and despised his grandson, +was for sweeping him and his brood out of the way altogether, and for +adopting a carefully selected and creditable _yoshi_ (adopted son) by +marriage with either Sadako or Asako. + +"But if this Asa is barren?" said Mrs. Fujinami Shidzuye, who +naturally desired that her daughter Sadako's husband should be the +heir of the Fujinami. "That Englishman was strong and healthy. There +was living together for more than a year, and still no child." + +"If she is barren, then a son must be adopted," said the old +gentleman. + +"To adopt twice in succession is unlucky," objected Mr. Fujinami +Gentaro. + +"Then," said Mrs. Shidzuye, "the old woman of Akabo shall come +for consultation. She shall tell if it is possible for her to have +babies." + +Akabo was the up-country village, whence the first Fujinami had come +to Tokyo to seek his fortune. The Japanese never completely loses +touch with his ancestral village; and for over a hundred years the +Tokyo Fujinami had paid their annual visit to the mountains of the +North to render tribute to the graves of their forefathers. They still +preserved an inherited faith in the "wise woman" of the district, +who from time to time was summoned to the capital to give her advice. +Their other medical counselor was Professor Kashio, who held degrees +from Munich and Vienna. + + * * * * * + +During the first days of her self-chosen widowhood Asako was little +better than a convalescent. She had never looked at sorrow before; and +the shock of what she had seen had paralyzed her vitality without as +yet opening her understanding. Like a dog, who in the midst of +his faithful affection has been struck for a fault of which he is +unconscious, she took refuge in darkness, solitude and despair. + +The Japanese, who are as a rule intuitively aware of others' emotions, +recognized her case. A room was prepared for her in a distant wing of +the straggling house, a "foreign-style" room in an upper story with +glass in the windows--stained glass too--with white muslin blinds, a +colored lithograph of Napoleon and a real bed, recently purchased on +Sadako's pleading that everything must be done to make life happy for +their guest. + +"But she is a Japanese," Mr. Fujinami Gentaro had objected. "It is not +right that a Japanese should sleep upon a tall bed. She must learn to +give up luxurious ways." + +Sadako protested that her cousin's health was not yet assured; and so +discipline was relaxed for a time. + +Asako spent most of her days in the tall bed, gazing through the open +doorway, across the polished wood veranda like the toffee veranda of +a confectioner's model, past the wandering branch of an old twisted +pine-tree which crouched by the side of the mansion like a faithful +beast, over the pigmy landscape of the garden, to the scale-like roofs +of the distant city, and to the pagoda on the opposite hill. + +It rested her to lie thus and look at her country. From time to time +Sadako would steal into the room. Her cousin would leave the invalid +in silence, but she always smiled; and she would bring some offering +with her, a dish of food--Asako's favorite dishes, of which Tanaka had +already compiled a complete list--or sometimes a flower. At the open +door she would pause to shuffle off her pale blue _zori_ (sandals); +and she would glide across the clean rice-straw matting shod in her +snow-white _tabi_ only. + +Asako gradually accustomed herself to the noises of the house. First, +there was the clattering of the _amado_, the wooden shutters whose +removal announced the beginning of the day, then the gurgling and the +expectorations which accompanied the family ablutions, then the harsh +sound of the men's voices and their rattling laughter, the sound +of their _geta_ on the gravel paths of the garden like the tedious +dropping of heavy rain on an iron roof, then the flicking and dusting +of the maids as they went about their daily _soji_ (house-cleaning), +their shrill mouselike chirps and their silly giggle; then the +afternoon stillness when every one was absent or sleeping; and then, +the revival of life and bustle at about six o'clock, when the clogs +were shuffled off at the front door, when the teacups began to jingle, +and when sounds of swishing water came up from the bath-house, the +crackle of the wood-fire under the bathtub, the smell of the burning +logs, and the distant odours of the kitchen. + +Outside, the twilight was beginning to gather. A big black crow +flopped lazily on to the branch of the neighbouring pine-tree. His +harsh croak disturbed Asako's mind like a threat. High overhead passed +a flight of wild geese in military formation on their way to the +continent of Asia. Lights began to peep among the trees. Behind the +squat pagoda a sky of raspberry pink closed the background. + +The twilight is brief in Japan. The night is velvety; and the +moonlight and the starlight transfigure the dolls' house architecture, +the warped pine-trees, the feathery bamboo clumps and the pagoda +spires. + +From a downstair room there came the twang of cousin Sadako's _koto_, +a kind of zither instrument, upon which she played interminable +melancholy sonatas of liquid, detached notes, like desultory thoughts +against a background of silence. There was no accompaniment to this +music and no song to chime with it; for, as the Japanese say, the +accompaniment for _koto_ music is the summer night-time and its heavy +fragrance, and the voice with which it harmonizes is the whisper of +the breeze in the pine-branches. + +Long after Sadako had finished her practice, came borne upon the +distance the still more melancholy pipe of a student's flute. This was +the last human sound. After that the night was left to the orchestra +of the insects--the grasshoppers, the crickets and the _semi_ +(cicadas). Asako soon was able to distinguish at least ten or twelve +different songs, all metallic in character, like clock springs being +slowly wound up and then let down with a run. The night and the house +vibrated with these infinitesimal chromatics. Sometimes Asako +thought the creatures must have got into her room, and feared for +entanglements in her hair. Then she remembered that her mother's +nickname had been "the _Semi_" and that she had been so called because +she was always happy and singing in her little house by the river. + +This memory roused Asako one day with a wish to see how her own house +was progressing. This wish was the first positive thought which had +stirred her mind since her husband had left her; and it marked a stage +in her convalescence. + +"If the house is ready," she thought "I will go there soon. The +Fujinamis will not want me to live here permanently." + +This showed how little she understood as yet the Japanese family +system, whereby relatives remain as permanent guests for years on end. + +"Tanaka" she said one morning, in what was almost her old manner, "I +think I will have the motor car to-day." + +Tanaka had become her body servant as in the old days. At first +she had resented the man's reappearance, which awakened such cruel +memories. She had protested against him to Sadako, who had smiled and +promised. But Tanaka continued his ministrations; and Asako had +not the strength to go on protesting. As a matter of fact, he +was specially employed by Mr. Fujinami Gentaro to spy on Asako's +movements, an easy task hitherto, since she had not moved from her +room. + +"Where is the motor car, Tanaka?" she asked again. + +He grinned, as Japanese always do when embarrassed. + +"Very sorry for you," he answered; "motor car has gone away." + +"Has Captain Barrington--?" Asako began instinctively; then, +remembering that Geoffrey was now many thousands of miles from Japan, +she turned her face to the wall and began to cry. + +"Young Fujinami San," said Tanaka, "has taken motor car. He go away +to mountains with _geisha_ girl. Very bad, young Fujinami San, very +_roue_." + +Asako thought that it was rather impertinent to borrow her own motor +car without asking permission, even if she was their guest. She did +not yet understand that she and all her possessions belonged from +henceforth to her family--to her male relatives, that is to say; for +she was only a woman. + +"Old Mr. Fujinami San," Tanaka went on, happy to find his mistress, to +whom he was attached in a queer Japanese sort of way, interested and +responsive at last, "old Mr. Fujinami San, he also go to mountain +with _geisha_ girl, but different mountain. Japanese people all very +_roue_. All Japanese people like to go away in summer season with +_geisha_ girl. Very bad custom. Old Mr. Fujinami San, not so very +bad, keep same _geisha_ girl very long time. Perhaps Ladyship see one +little girl, very nice little girl, come sometimes with Miss Sadako +and bring meal-time things. That little girl is _geisha_ girl's +daughter. Perhaps old Mr. Fujinami San's daughter also, I think: very +bastard: I don't know!" + +So he rambled on in the fashion of servants all the world over, until +Asako knew all the ramifications of her relatives, legitimate and +illegitimate. + +She gathered that the men had all left Tokyo during the hot season, +and that only the women were left in the house. This encouraged her +to descend from her eyrie, and to endeavour to take up her position in +her family, which was beginning to appear the less reassuring the more +she learned about its history. + +The life of a Japanese lady of quality is peculiarly tedious. She is +relieved from the domestic cares which give occupation to her humbler +sisters. But she is not treated as an equal or as a companion by her +menfolk, who are taught that marriage is for business and not for +pleasure, and consequently that home-life is a bore. She is supposed +to find her own amusements, such as flower-arrangement, tea-ceremony, +music, kimono-making and the composition of poetry. More often, this +refined and innocent ideal degenerates into a poor trickle of an +existence, enlivened only by scrappy magazine reading, servants' +gossip, empty chatter about clothes, neighbours and children, +backbiting, envying and malice. + +Once Sadako took her cousin to a charity entertainment given for the +Red Cross at the house of a rich nobleman. A hundred or more ladies +were present; but stiff civility prevailed. None of the guests seemed +to know each other. There was no friendly talking. There were no +men guests. There was three hours' agony of squatting, a careful +adjustment of expensive kimonos, weak tea and tasteless cakes, a blank +staring at a dull conjuring performance, and deadly silence. + +"Do you ever have dances?" Asako asked her cousin. + +"The _geisha_ dance, because they are paid," said Sadako primly. Her +pose was no longer cordial and sympathetic. She set herself up as +mentor to this young savage, who did not know the usages of civilized +society. + +"No, not like that," said the girl from England; "but dancing among +yourselves with your men friends." + +"Oh, no, that would not be nice at all. Only tipsy persons would dance +like that." + +Asako tried, not very successfully, to chat in easy Japanese with +her cousin; but she fled from the interminable talking parties of +her relatives, where she could not understand one word, except the +innumerable parentheses--_naruhodo_ (indeed!) and _so des'ka_ (is it +so?)--with which the conversation was studded. As the realization of +her solitude made her nerves more jumpy, she began to imagine that the +women were forever talking about her, criticizing her unfavorably and +disposing of her future. + +The only man whom she saw during the hot summer months, besides the +inevitable Tanaka, was Mr. Ito, the lawyer. He could talk quite +good English. He was not so egotistical and bitter as Sadako. He had +traveled in America and Europe. He seemed to understand the trouble of +Asako's mind, and would offer sympathetic advice. + +"It is difficult to go to school when we are no longer children," +he would say sententiously. "Asa San must be patient. Asa San must +forget. Asa San must take Japanese husband. I think it is the only +way." + +"Oh, no," the poor girl shivered; "I wouldn't marry again for +anything." + +"But," Ito went on relentlessly, "it is hurtful to the body when once +it has custom to be married. I think that is reason why so many widow +women are unfortunate and become mad." + +Every day he would spend an hour or so in conversation with Asako. She +thought that this was a sign of friendliness and sympathy. As a matter +of fact, his object at first was to improve his English. Later on more +ambitious projects developed in his fertile brain. + +He would talk about New York and London in his queer stilted way. He +had been a fireman on board ship, a teacher of _jiujitsu_, a juggler, +a quack dentist, Heaven knows what else. Driven by the conscientious +inquisitiveness of his race, he had endured hardships, contempt and +rough treatment with the smiling patience inculcated in the Japanese +people by their education. "We must chew our gall, and bide our time," +they say, when the too powerful foreigner insults or abuses them. + +He had seen the magnificence of our cities, the vastness of our +undertakings and had returned to Japan with great relief to find that +life among his own people was less strenuous and fierce, that it was +ordered by circumstances and the family system, that less was left +to individual courage and enterprise, that things happened more often +than things were done. The impersonality of Japan was as restful to +him as it is aggravating to a European. + +But it must not be imagined that Ito was an idle man. On the contrary, +he was exceedingly hard working and ambitious. His dream was to become +a statesman, to enjoy unlimited patronage, to make men and to break +men, and to die a peer. When he returned to Japan from his wanderings +with exactly two shillings in his pocket, this was his programme. Like +Cecil Rhodes, his hero among white men, he made a will distributing +millions. Then he attached himself to his rich cousins, the Fujinami; +and very soon he became indispensable to them. Fujinami Gentaro, +an indolent man, gave him more and more authority over the family +fortune. It was dirty business, this buying of girls and hiring of +pimps, but it was immensely profitable; and more and more of the +profits found their way into Ito's private account. Fujinami Gentaro +did not seem to care. Takeshi, the son and heir, was a nonentity. +Ito's intention was to continue to serve his cousins until he had +amassed a working capital of a hundred thousand pounds. Then he would +go into politics. + +But the advent of Asako suggested a short cut to his hopes. If he +married her he would gain immediate control of a large interest in the +Fujinami estate. Besides she had all the qualifications for the wife +of a Cabinet Minister, knowledge of foreign languages, ease in foreign +society, experience of foreign dress and customs. Moreover, passion +was stirring in his heart, the swift stormy passion of the Japanese +male, which, when thwarted, drives him towards murder and suicide. + +Like many Japanese, he had felt the attractiveness of foreign women +when he was traveling abroad. Their independence stimulated him, their +savagery and their masterful ways. Ito had found in Asako the physical +beauty of his own race together with the character and energy which +had pleased him so much in white women. Everything seemed to favor +his suit. Asako clearly seemed to prefer his company to that of other +members of the family. He had a hold over the Fujinami which would +compel them to assent to anything he might require. True, he had a +wife already; but she could easily be divorced. + +Asako tolerated him, _faute de mieux_. Cousin Sadako was becoming +tired of their system of mutual instruction, as she tired sooner or +later of everything. + +She had developed a romantic interest in one of the pet students, whom +the Fujinami kept as an advertisement and a bodyguard. He was a pale +youth with long greasy hair, spectacles and more gold in his teeth +than he had ever placed in his waist-band. Popriety forbade any actual +conversation with Sadako; but there was an interchange of letters +almost every day, long subjective letters describing states of mind +and high ideals, punctuated with shadowy Japanese poems and with +quotations from the Bible, Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Bergson, Eucken, Oscar +Wilde and Samuel Smiles. + +Sadako told her cousin that the young man was a genius, and would one +day be Professor of Literature at the Imperial University. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE REAL SHINTO + + _Yo no naka wo + Nani ni tatoyemu? + Asa-borake + Kogi-yuku fune no + Ato no shira-nami_. + + To what shall I compare + This world? + To the white wake behind + A ship that has rowed away + At dawn! + + +When the autumn came and the maple trees turned scarlet, the men +returned from their long summer holidays. After that Asako's lot +became heavier than ever. + +"What is this talk of tall beds and special cooking?" said Mr. +Fujinami Gentaro. "The girl is a Japanese. She must live like a +Japanese and be proud of it." + +So Asako had to sleep on the floor alongside her cousin Sadako in one +of the downstairs rooms. Her last possession, her privacy, was taken +away from her. The soft mattresses which formed the native bed, were +not uncomfortable; but Asako discarded at once the wooden pillow, +which every Japanese woman fits into the nape of her neck, so as to +prevent her elaborate _coiffure_ becoming disarranged. As a result, +her head was always untidy, a fact upon which her relatives commented. + +"She does not look like a great foreign lady now," said Mrs. Shidzuye, +the mistress of the house. "She looks like _osandon_ (a rough kitchen +maid) from a country inn." + +The other women tittered. + +One day the old woman of Akabo arrived. Her hair was quite white like +spun glass, and her waxen face was wrinkled like a relief map. Her +body was bent double like a lobster; and her eyes were dim with +cataracts. Cousin Sadako said with awe that she was over a hundred +years old. + +Asako had to submit to the indignity of allowing this dessicated +hag to pass her fumbling hands all over her body, pinching her and +prodding her. The old woman smelt horribly of _daikon_ (pickled +horse-radish). Furthermore the terrified girl had to answer a +battery of questions as to her personal habits and her former marital +relations. In return, she learned a number of curious facts about +herself, of which she had hitherto no inkling. The lucky coincidence +of having been born in the hour of the Bird and the day of the Bird +set her apart from the rest of womankind as an exceptionally fortunate +individual. But, unhappily, the malignant influence of the Dog Year +was against her nativity. When once this disaffected animal had been +conquered and cast out, Asako's future should be a very bright one. +The family witch agreed with the Fujinami that the Dog had in all +probability departed with the foreign husband. Then the toothless +crone breathed three times upon the mouth, breasts and thighs of +Asako; and when this operation was concluded, she stated her opinion +that there was no reason, obstetrical or esoteric, why the ransomed +daughter of the house of Fujinami should not become the mother of many +children. + +But on the psychical condition of the family in general she was far +from reassuring. Everything about the mansion, the growth of the +garden, the flight of the birds, the noises of the night-time, +foreboded dire disaster in the near future. The Fujinami were in the +grip of a most alarming _inge_ (chain of cause and effect). Several +"rough ghosts" were abroad; and were almost certain to do damage +before their wrath could be appeased. What was the remedy? It was +indeed difficult to prescribe for such complicated cases. Temple +charms, however, were always efficacious. The old woman gave the names +of some of the shrines which specialized in exorcism. + +Some days later the charms were obtained, strips of rice paper with +sacred writings and symbols upon them, and were pasted upon posts and +lintels all over the house. This was done in Mr. Fujinami's absence. +When he returned, he commented most unfavourably on this act of faith. +The prayer tickets disfigured his house. They looked like luggage +labels. They injured his reputation as an _esprit fort_. He ordered +the students to remove them. + +After this sacrilegious act, the old woman, who had lingered on in the +family mansion for several weeks, returned again to Akabo, shaking her +white locks and prophesying dark things to come. + + * * * * * + +For some reason or other, the witch's visit did not improve Asako's +position. She was expected to perform little menial services, to bring +in food at meal-times and to serve the gentlemen on bended knee, +to clap her hands in summons to the servant girls, to massage Mrs. +Fujinami, who suffered from rheumatism in the shoulder, and to scrub +her back in the bath. + +Her wishes were usually ignored; and she was not encouraged to leave +the house and grounds. Sadako no longer took her cousin with her to +the theatre or to choose kimono patterns at the Mitsukoshi store. She +was irritated at Asako's failure to learn Japanese. It bored her to +have to explain everything. She found this girl from Europe silly and +undutiful. + +Only at night they would chatter as girls will, even if they are +enemies; and it was then that Sadako narrated the history of her +romance with the young student. + +One night, Asako awoke to find that the bed beside her was empty, and +that the paper _shoji_ was pushed aside. Nervous and anxious, she +rose and stood in the dark veranda outside the room. A cold wind was +blowing in from some aperture in the _amado_. This was unusual, for a +Japanese house in its night attire is hermetically sealed. + +Suddenly Sadako appeared from the direction of the wind. Her hair +was disheveled. She wore a dark cloak over her parti-coloured night +kimono. By the dim light of the _andon_ (a rushlight in a square paper +box), Asako could see that the cloak was spotted with rain. + +"I have been to _benjo_," said Sadako nervously. + +"You have been out in the rain," contradicted her cousin. "You are wet +through. You will catch cold." + +"_Sa! Damare!_ (Be quiet!)" whispered Sadako, as she threw her cloak +aside, "do not talk so loud. See!" She drew from her breast a short +sword in a sheath of shagreen. "If you speak one word, I kill you with +this." + +"What have you done?" asked Asako, trembling. + +"What I wished to do," was the sullen answer. + +"You have been with Sekine?" Asako mentioned the student's name. + +Sadako nodded in assent. Then she began to cry, hiding her face in her +kimono sleeve. + +"Do you love him?" Asako could not help asking. + +"Of course, I love him," cried Sadako, starting up from her sorrow. +"You see me. I am no more virgin. He is my life to me. Why cannot I +love him? Why cannot I be free like men are free to love as they wish? +I am new woman. I read Bernard Shaw. I find one law for men in Japan, +and another law for women. But I will break that law. I have made +Sekine my lover, because I am free." + +Asako could never have imagined her proud, inhuman cousin reduced to +this state of quivering emotion. Never before had she seen a Japanese +soul laid bare. + +"But you will marry Sekine, Sada dear; and then you will be happy." + +"Marry Sekine!" the girl hissed, "marry a boy with no money and leave +you to be the Fujinami heiress, when I am promised to the Governor of +Osaka, who will be home Minister when the next Governor comes!" + +"Oh, don't do that," urged Asako, her English sentimentalism flooding +back across her mind. "Don't marry a man whom you don't love. You say +you are a new woman. Marry Sekine. Marry the man whom you love. Then +you will be happy." + +"Japanese girls are never happy," groaned her cousin. + +Asako gasped. This morality confused her. + +"But that would be a mortal sin," she said. "Then you could never be +happy." + +"We cannot be happy. We are Fujinami," said Sadako gravely. "We are +cursed. The old woman of Akabo said that it is a very bad curse. I do +not believe superstition. But I believe there is a curse. You also, +you have been unhappy, and your father and mother. We are cursed +because of the women. We have made so much money from poor women. They +are sold to men, and they suffer in pain and die so that we become +rich. It is a very bad _inge_. So they say in Akabo, that we Fujinami +have a fox in our family. It brings us money; but it makes us unhappy. +In Akabo, even poor people will not marry with the Fujinami, because +we have the fox." + +It is a popular belief, still widely held in Japan, that certain +families own spirit foxes, a kind of family banshee who render them +service, but mark them with a curse. + +"I do not understand," said Asako, afraid of this wild talk. + +"Do you know why the Englishman went away?" said her cousin brutally. + +It was Asako's turn to cry. + +"Oh, I wish I had gone with him. He was so good to me, always so kind +and so gentle!" + +"When he married you," said Sadako, "he did not know that you had the +curse. He ought not to have come to Japan with you. Now he knows you +have the curse. So he went away. He was wise." + +"What do you mean by the curse?" asked Asako. + +"You do not know how the Fujinami have made so much money?" + +"No," said Asako. "It used to come for me from Mr. Ito. He had shares +or something." + +"Yes. But a share that means a share of a business. Do you not know +what is our business?" + +"No," said Asako again. + +"You have seen the Yoshiwara, where girls are sold to men. That is our +business. Do you understand now?" + +"No." + +"Then I will tell you the whole story of the Fujinami. About one +hundred and twenty years ago our great-great-grandfather came to Yedo, +as Tokyo was then called. He was a poor boy from the country. He had +no friends. He became clerk in a dry goods store. One day a woman, +rather old, asked him: 'How much pay you get?' He said, 'No pay, only +food and clothes.' The woman said, 'Come with me; I will give you food +and clothes and pay also,' He went with her to the Yoshiwara where she +had a small house with five or six girls. Every night he must stand +in front of the house, calling. Then the drunken workmen, and the +gamblers, and the bad _samurai_ would come and pay their money. And +they pay their money to him, our great-great-grandfather. When the +girls were sick, or would not receive guests, he would beat them, and +starve them, and burn _o kyu_ (a medical plant called moxa, used for +cauterization) on their backs. One day he said to the woman who was +mistress of the house, 'Your girls are too old. The rich friends do +not come any more. Let us sell these girls. I will go into the +country and get new girls, and then you will marry me and make me your +partner.' The woman said, 'If we have good luck with the girls and +make money, then I marry you.' So our great-great-grandfather went +back to his own country, to Akabo; and his old friends in the country +were astonished, seeing how much money he had to spend. He said 'Yes. +I have many rich friends in Yedo. They want pretty country girls to be +their wives. See, I pay you in advance five pieces of gold. After the +marriage more money will be given. Let me take your prettiest girls to +Yedo with me. And they will all get rich husbands.' They were simple +country people, and they believed him because he was a man of their +village, of Akabo. He went back to Yedo with about twenty girls, +fifteen or sixteen years old. He and the other clerks of the Yoshiwara +first made them _jor[=o]_. From those twenty girls he made very much +money. So he married the woman who kept the house. Then he hired a big +house called Tomonji. He furnished it very richly; and he would only +receive guests of the high-class people. Five of his girls became very +famous _oiran_. Even their pictures, drawn by Utamaro, are worth now +hundreds of _yen_. When our great-great-grandfather died he was a very +rich man. His son was the second Fujinami. He bought more houses in +the Yoshiwara and more girls. He was our great-grandfather. He had +two sons. One was your father's father, who bought this land and first +built a house here. The other was my grandfather, Fujinami Gennosuke, +who still lives in the _inkyo_. They have all made much money from +girls; but the curse was hurting them all, especially their wives and +daughters." + +"And my father?" asked Asako. + +"Your father wrote a book to say how bad a thing it is that money is +made from men's lust and the pain of Women. He told in the book +how girls are tricked to come to Tokyo, how their parents sell them +because they are poor or because there is famine, how the girls are +brought to Tokyo ten and twenty at a time, and are put to auction sale +in the Yoshiwara, how they are shut up like prisoner, how very rough +men are sent to them to break their spirit and to compel them to be +_jor[=o]_. There is a trial to see how strong they are. Then, when the +spirit is broken, they are shown in the window as 'new girls' with +beautiful kimono and with wreath of flowers on their head. If they +are lucky they escape disease for a few years, but it comes soon or +late--_rinbyo, baidoku_ and _raibyo_. They are sent to the hospital +for treatment; or else they are told to hide the disease and to get +more men. So the men take the disease and bring it to their wives and +children, who have done no wrong. But the girls of the Yoshiwara have +to work all the time, when they are only half cured. So they become +old and ugly and rotten very quickly. Then, if they take consumption +or some such thing, they die and the master says, 'It is well. She +was already too old. She was wasting our money.' And they are +buried quickly in the burial place of the _jor[=o]_ outside the city +boundary, the burial place of the dead who are forgotten. Or some, who +are very strong, live until their contract is finished. Then they go +back to the country, and marry there and spread disease. But they all +die cursing the Fujinami, who have made money out of their sorrow and +pain. I think this garden is full of their ghosts, and their curses +beat upon the house, like the wind when it makes the shutters rattle!" + +"How do you know all these terrible things?" asked Asako. + +"It is written in your father's book. I will read it to you. If you do +not believe, ask Ito San. He will tell you it is true." + +So for several evenings Sadako read to this stranger Fujinami her own +father's words, the words of a forerunner. + +Japan is still a savage country, wrote Fujinami Katsundo, the Japanese +are still barbarians. To compare the conventional codes, which they +have mistaken for civilization, with the depth and the height of +Occidental idealism, as Christ perceived it and Dante and St. Francis +of Assisi and Tolstoy, is "to compare the tortoise with the moon." +Japan is imitating from the West its worst propensities--hard +materialism, vulgarity and money-worship. The Japanese must be humble, +and must admit that the most difficult part of their lesson has yet to +be learned. Cut and dried systems are useless. Prussian constitution, +technical education, military efficiency and bravado--such things are +not progress. Japan must denounce the slavery of ancestor-worship, and +escape from the rule of the dead. She must chase away the bogeys of +superstition, and enjoy life as a lovely thing, and love as the vision +of a life still more beautiful. She must cleanse her land of all its +filth, and make it what it still might be--the Country of the Rising +Sun. + +Such was the message of Asako's father in his book, _The Real Shinto_. + +"We are not allowed to read this book," Sadako explained; "the police +have forbidden it. But I found a secret copy. It was undutiful of your +father to write such things. He went away from Japan; and everyone +said, 'It is a good thing he has gone; he was a bad man; he shamed his +country and his family.'" + +There was much in the book which Asako could not follow. Her cousin +tried to explain it to her; and many nights passed, thus, the two +girls sitting up and reading by the pale light of the _andon_. It was +like a renewal of the old friendship. Sometimes a low whistle sounded +from outside the house. Sadako would lay aside the book, would slip +on her cloak and go out into the garden, where Sekine was waiting for +her. + +When she was left to herself Asako began to think for the first time +in her life. Hitherto her thoughts had been concerned merely with her +own pleasures and pains, with the smiles and frowns of those around +her, with petty events and trifling projects. Perhaps, because some +of her father's blood was alive in her veins, she could understand +certain aspects of his book more clearly than her interpreter, Sadako. +She knew now why Geoffrey would not touch her money. It was filthy, +it was diseased, like the poor women who had earned it. Of course, her +Geoffrey preferred poverty to wealth like that. Could she face poverty +with him? Why, she was poor already, here in her cousins' house. Where +was the luxury which her money used to buy? She was living the life of +a servant and a prisoner. + +What would be the end of it? Surely Geoffrey would come back to her, +and take her away! But he had no money now, and it would cost much +money to travel to Japan. And then, this terrible war! Geoffrey was a +soldier. He would be sure to be there, leading his men. Supposing he +were killed? + +One night in a dream she saw his body carried past her, limp and +bleeding. She screamed in her sleep. Sadako awoke, terrified. + +"What is the matter?" + +"I dreamed of Geoffrey, my husband. Perhaps he is killed in the war." + +"Do not say that," said Sadako. "It is unlucky to speak of death. It +troubles the ghosts. I have told you this house is haunted." + +Certainly for Asako the Fujinami mansion had lost its charm. Even the +beautiful landscape was besieged by horrible thoughts. Every day two +or three of the Yoshiwara women died of disease and neglect, so Sadako +said and therefore every day the invisible population of the Fujinami +garden must be increasing, and the volume of their curses must be +gathering in intensity. The ghosts hissed like snakes in the bamboo +grove. They sighed in the pine branches. They nourished the dwarf +shrubs with their pollution. Beneath the waters of the lake the +corpses--women's corpses--were laid out in rows. Their thin hands +shook the reeds. Their pale faces rose at night to the surface, and +stared at the moon. The autumn maples smeared the scene with infected +blood; and the stone foxes in front of the shrine of Inari sneered and +grinned at the devil world which their foul influence had called into +being through the black witchcraft of lechery, avarice and disease. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE AUTUMN FESTIVAL + + _Yo no naka ni + Ushi no Kuruma no + Nakari-seba, + Omoi no iye wo + Ikade ide-mashi?_ + + In this world + If there were no + Ox-cart (_i.e._ Buddhist religion), + How should we escape + From the (burning) mansion of our thought? + + +During October, the whole family of the Fujinami removed from Tokyo +for a few days in order to perform their religious duties at the +temple of Ikegami. Even grandfather Gennosuke emerged from his +dower-house, bringing his wife, O Tsugi. Mr. Fujinami Gentaro was in +charge of his own wife, Shidzuye San, of Sadako and of Asako. Only +Fujinami Takeshi, the son and heir, with his wife Matsuko, was absent. + +There had been some further trouble in the family which had not +been confided to Asako, but which necessitated urgent steps for the +propitiation of religious influences. The Fujinami were followers of +the Nichiren sect of Buddhism. Their conspicuous devotion and their +large gifts to the priests of the temple were held to be causes of +their ever-increasing prosperity. The dead Fujinami, down from that +great-great-grandfather who had first come to seek his fortune in +Yedo, were buried at Ikegami. Here the priests gave to each _hotoke_ +(Buddha or dead person) his new name, which was inscribed on small +black tablets, the _ihai_. One of these tablets for each dead person +was kept in the household shrine at Tokyo, and one in the temple at +Ikegami. + +Asako was taken to the October festival, because her father too was +buried in the temple grounds--one small bone of him, that is to say, +an _ikotsu_ or legacy bone, posted home from Paris before the rest of +his mortality found alien sepulture at Pere Lachaise. Masses were said +for the dead; and Asako was introduced to the tablet. But she did not +feel the same emotion as when she first visited the Fujinami house. +Now, she had heard her father's authentic voice. She knew his scorn +for pretentiousness of all kinds, for false conventions, for false +emotions, his hatred of priestcraft, his condemnation of the family +wealth, and his contempt for the little respectabilities of Japanese +life. + + * * * * * + +A temple in Japan is not merely a building; it is a site. These sites +were most carefully chosen with the same genius which guided our +Benedictines and Carthusians. The site of Ikegami is a long-abrupt +hill, half-way between Tokyo and Yokohama. It is clothed with +_cryptomeria_ trees. These dark conifers, like immense cypresses, give +to the spot that grave, silent, irrevocable atmosphere, with which +Boecklin has invested his picture of the Island of the Dead. These +majestic trees are essentially a part of the temple. They correspond +to the pillars of our Gothic cathedrals. The roof is the blue vault +of heaven; and the actual buildings are but altars, chantries and +monuments. + +A steep flight of steps is suspended like a cascade from the crest of +the hill. Up and down these steps, the wooden clogs of the Japanese +people patter incessantly like water-drops. At the top of the steps +stands the towered gateway, painted with red ochre, which leads to the +precincts. The guardians of the gate, _Ni-O_, the two gigantic Deva +kings, who have passed from India into Japanese mythology, are encaged +in the gateway building. Their cage and their persons are littered +with nasty morsels of chewed paper, wherever their worshippers have +literally spat their prayers at them. + +Within the enclosure are the various temple buildings, the bell-tower, +the library, the washing-trough, the hall of votive offerings, +the sacred bath-house, the stone lanterns and the lodgings for the +pilgrims; also the two main halls for the temple services, which are +raised on low piles and are linked together by a covered bridge, so +that they look like twin arks of safety, floating just five feet above +the troubles of this life. These buildings are most of them painted +red; and there is fine carving on panels, friezes and pediments, +and also much tawdry gaudiness. Behind these two sanctuaries is the +mortuary chapel where repose the memories of many of the greatest +in the land. Behind this again are the priests' dormitories, with a +lovely hidden garden hanging on the slopes of a sudden ravine; its +presiding genius is an old pine-tree, beneath which Nichiren himself, +a contemporary and a counterpart of Saint Dominic, used to meditate on +his project for a Universal Church, founded on the life of Buddha, and +led by the apostolate of Japan. + + * * * * * + +For the inside of a week the Fujinami dwelt in one of a row of stalls, +like loose-boxes, within the temple precincts. The festival might have +some affinity with the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, when the devout +left their city dwellings to live in booths outside the walls. + + _Namu my[=o]h[=o] renge ky[=o]._ + +(Adoration to the Wonderful Law of the Lotus Scriptures!) + +The famous formula of the priests of the Nichiren sect was being +repeated over and over again to the accompaniment of drums; for in +the sacred text itself lies the only authentic Way of Salvation. With +exemplary insistence Mr. Fujinami Gennosuke was beating out the rhythm +of the prayer with a wooden clapper on the _mokugy[=o]_, a wooden drum, +shaped like a fish's head. + + _Namu my[=o]h[=o] renge ky[=o]_. + +From every corner of the temple _enclave_ the invocation was droning +like a threshing machine. Asako's Catholic conscience, now awakening +from the spell which Japan had cast upon it, became uneasy about its +share in these pagan rites. In order to drive the echo of the litany +out of her ears, she tried to concentrate her attention upon watching +the crowd. + + _Namu my[=o]h[=o] renge ky[=o]_. + +Around her was a dense multitude of pilgrims, in their hundreds of +thousands, shuffling, chaffering and staring. Some, like the +Fujinami, had hired temporary lodgings, and had cooks and servants in +attendance. Some were camping in the open. Others were merely visiting +the temple for the inside of the day. The crowds kept on shifting and +mingling like ants on an ant-hill. + +Enjoyment, rather than piety, was the prevailing spirit; for this was +one of the few annual holidays of the industrious Tokyo artisan. + +In the central buildings, five feet above this noisy confluence of +people, where the golden images of the Buddhas are enthroned, the +mitred priests with their copes of gold-embroidered brown were +performing the rituals of their order. To right and left of the high +altar, the canons squatting at their red-lacquered praying-desks, were +reciting the _sutras_ in strophe and antistrophe. Clouds of incense +rose. + +In the adjoining building an earnest young preacher was exhorting a +congregation of elderly and somnolent ladies to eschew the lusts of +the flesh and to renounce the world and its gauds, marking each point +in his discourse with raps of his fan. Foxy-faced satellites of the +abbey were doing a roaring trade in charms against various accidents, +and in sacred scrolls printed with prayers or figures of Nichiren. + +The temple-yard was an immense fancy fair. The temple pigeons wheeled +disconsolately in the air or perched upon the roofs, unable to find +one square foot of the familiar flagstones, where they were used to +strut and peck. Stalls lined the stone pathways and choked the spaces +between the buildings. Merchants were peddling objects of piety, +sacred images, charms and rosaries; and there were flowers for the +women's hair, and toys for the children, and cakes and biscuits, +_biiru_ (beer) and _ramune_ (lemonade) and a distressing sickly drink +called "champagne cider" and all manner of vanities. In one corner of +the square a theatre was in full swing, the actors making up in +public on a balcony above the crowd, so as to whet their curiosity and +attract their custom. Beyond was a cinematograph, advertised by lurid +paintings of murders and apparitions; and farther on there was a +circus with a mangy zoo. + +The crowd was astonishingly mixed. There were prosperous merchants of +Tokyo with their wives, children, servants and apprentices. There were +students with their blue and white spotted cloaks, their _kepis_ with +the school badge, and their ungainly stride. There were modern young +men in _y[=o]fuku_ (European dress), with panama hats, swagger canes +and side-spring shoes, supercilious in attitude and proud of their +unbelief. There were troops of variegated children, dragging at +their elders' hands or kimonos, or getting lost among the legs of the +multitude like little leaves in an eddy. There were excursion parties +from the country, with their kimonos caught up to the knees, and with +baked earthen faces stupidly staring, sporting each a red flower or +a coloured towel for identification purposes. There were labourers +in tight trousers and tabard jackets, inscribed with the name and +profession of their employer. There were _geisha_ girls on their best +behaviour, in charge of a professional auntie, and recognizable only +by the smart cut of their cloaks and the deep space between the collar +and the nape of the neck, where the black _chignon_ lay. + +Close to the tomb of Nichiren stood a Japanese Salvationist, a zealous +pimply young man, wearing the red and blue uniform of General Booth +with _kaiseigun_ (World-saving Army) in Japanese letters round his +staff cap. He stood in front of a screen, on which the first verse of +"Onward, Christian Soldiers," was written in a Japanese translation. +An assistant officiated at a wheezy harmonium. The tune was vaguely +akin to its Western prototype; and the two evangelists were trying to +induce a tolerant but uninterested crowd to join in the chorus. + +Everywhere beggars were crawling over the compound in various states +of filth. Some, however, were so ghastly that they were excluded +from the temple enclosure. They had lined up among the trunks of +the cryptomeria trees, among the little grey tombs with their fading +inscriptions and the moss-covered statues of kindly Buddhas. + +Asako gave a penny into the crooked hand of one poor sightless wretch. + +"Oh, no!" cried cousin Sadako; "do not go near to them. Do not touch +them. They are lepers." + +Some of them had no arms, or had mere stumps ending abruptly in a red +and sickening object like a bone which a dog has been chewing. Some +had no legs, and were pulled along on little wheeled trolleys by their +less dilapidated companions in misfortune. Some had no features. +Their faces were mere glabrous disks, from which eyes and nose had +completely vanished; only the mouth remained, a toothless gap fringed +with straggling hairs. Some had faces abnormally bloated, with +powerful foreheads and heavy jowls, which gave them an expression of +stony immobility like Byzantine lions. All were fearfully dirty and +covered with sores and lice. + +The people passing by smiled at their grim unsightliness, and threw +pennies to them, for which they scrambled and scratched like beasts. + + _Namu my[=o]h[=o] renge ky[=o]_. + +Asako's relatives spent the day in eating, drinking and gossiping to +the rhythm of the interminable prayer. + +It was a perfect day of autumn, which is the sweetest season in Japan. +A warm bright sun had been shining on the sumptuous colours of the +waning year, on the brilliant reds and yellows which clothed the +neighbouring hills, on the broad brown plain with its tesselated +design of bare rice-fields, on the brown villas and cottages huddled +in their fences of evergreen like birds in their nests, on the +red trunks of the cryptomeria trees, on the brown carpet of matted +pine-needles, on the grey crumbling stones of the old graveyard, on +the high-pitched temple roofs, and on the inconsequential swarms of +humanity drifting to their devotions, casting their pennies into the +great alms-trough in front of the shrine, clanging the brass bell with +a prayer for good luck, and drifting home again with their bewildered, +happy children. + +Asako no longer felt like a Japanese. The sight of her countrymen in +their drab monotonous thousands sickened her. The hiss and cackle +of their incomprehensible tongue beat upon her brain with a deadly +incessant sound, like raindrops to one who is impatiently awaiting the +return of fine weather. + +Here at Ikegami, the distant view of the sea and the Yokohama shipping +invited Asako to escape. But where could she escape to? To England. +She was an Englishwoman no longer. She had cast her husband off for +insufficient reasons. She had been cold, loveless, narrow-minded and +silly. She had acted, as she now recognised, largely on the suggestion +of others. Like a fool she had believed what had been told. She had +not trusted her love for her husband. As usual, her thoughts returned +to Geoffrey, and to the constant danger which threatened him. Lately, +she had started to write a letter to him several times, but had never +got further than "Dearest Geoffrey." + +She was glad when the irritating day was over, when the rosy sunset +clouds showed through the trunks of the cryptomerias, when the night +fell and the great stars like lamps hung in the branches. But the +night brought no silence. Paper lanterns were lighted round the +temple; and rough acetylene flares lit up the tawdry fairings. The +chattering, the bargaining, the clatter of the _geta_ became more +terrifying even than in daytime. It was like being in the darkness in +a cage of wild beasts, heard, felt, but unseen. + +The evening breeze was cold. In spite of the big wooden fireboxes +strewn over their stall, the Fujinami were shivering. + +"Let us go for a walk," suggested cousin Sadako. + +The two girls strolled along the ridge of the hill as far as the +five-storied pagoda. They passed the tea-house, so famous for its +plum-blossoms in early March. It was brightly lighted. The paper +rectangles of the _shoji_ were aglow like an illuminated honeycomb. +The wooden walls resounded with the jangle of the _samisen_, the high +screaming _geisha_ voices, and the rough laughter of the guests. From +one room the _shoji_ were pushed open; and drunken men could be seen +with kimonos thrown back from their shoulders showing a body reddened +with _sake_. They had taken the _geishas_' instruments from them, and +were performing an impromptu song and dance, while the girls clapped +their hands and writhed with laughter. Beyond the tea-house, the din +of the festival was hushed. Only from the distance came the echo of +the song, the rasp of the forced merriment, the clatter of the _geta_, +and the hum of the crowd. + +Starlight revealed the landscape. The moon was rising through a +cloud's liquescence. Soon the hundreds of rice-plots would catch her +full reflection. The outline of the coast of Tokyo Bay was visible +as far as Yokohama; so were the broad pool of Ikegami and the lumpy +masses of the hills inland. + +The landscape was alive with lights, lights dim, lights bright, +lights stationary, lights in swaying movement round each centre of +population. It looked as if the stars had fallen from heaven, and were +being shifted and sorted by careful gleaners. As each nebula of white +illumination assembled itself, it began to move across the vast plain, +drawn inwards towards Ikegami from every point of the compass as +though by a magnetic force. These were the lantern processions of +pilgrims. They looked like the souls of the righteous rising from +earth to heaven in a canto from Dante. + +The clusters of lights started, moved onwards, paused, re-grouped +themselves, and struggled forward, until in the narrow street of +the village under the hill Asako could distinguish the shapes of the +lantern-bearers and their strange antics, and the sacred palanquin, +a kind of enormous wooden bee-hive, which was the centre of each +procession, borne on the sturdy shoulders of a swarm of young men to +the beat of drums and the inevitable chant. + + _Namu my[=o]h[=o] renge ky[=o]_. + +Slowly the procession jolted up the steep stairway, and came to rest +with their heavy burdens in front of the temple of Nichiren. + +"It is very silly," said cousin Sadako, "to be so superstitious, I +think." + +"Then why are we here?" asked Asako. + +"My grandfather is very superstitious; and my father is afraid to say +'No' to him. My father does not believe in any gods or Buddhas; but +he says it does no harm, and it may do good. All our family is +_gohei-katsugi_ (brandishers of sacred symbols). We think that with +all this prayer we can turn away the trouble of Takeshi." + +"Why, what is the matter with Mr. Takeshi? Why is he not here? and +Matsuko San and the children?" + +"It is a great secret," said the Fujinami cousin, "you will tell no +one. You will pretend also even with me that you do not know. Takeshi +San is very sick. The doctor says that he is a leper." + +Asako stared, uncomprehending. Sadako went on,-- + +"You saw this morning those ugly beggars. They were all so terrible +to see, and their bodies were so rotten. My brother is becoming like +that. It is a sickness. It cannot be cured. It will kill him very +slowly. Perhaps his wife Matsu and his children also have the +sickness. Perhaps we too are sick. No one can tell, not for many +years." + +Ugly wings seemed to cover the night. The world beneath the hill had +become the Pit of Hell, and the points of light were devils' spears. +Asako trembled. + +"What does it mean?" she asked. "How did Takeshi San become sick?" + +"It was a _tenbatsu_ (judgment of heaven)," answered her cousin. +"Takeshi San was a bad man. He was rude to his father, and he was +cruel to his wife. He thought only of _geisha_ and bad women. No +doubt, he became sick from touching a woman who was sick. Besides, +it is the bad _inge_ of the Fujinami family. Did not the old woman of +Akabo say so? It is the curse of the Yoshiwara women. It will be our +turn next, yours and mine." + +No wonder that poor Asako could not sleep that night in the cramped +promiscuity of the family dead. + +Fujinami Takeshi had been sickly for some time; but then his course +of life could hardly be called a healthy one. On his return from his +summer holiday, red patches had appeared on the palms of his hands, +and afterwards on his forehead. He had complained of the irritation +caused by this "rash." Professor Kashio had been called in to +prescribe. A blood test was taken. The doctor then pronounced that +the son and heir was suffering from leprosy, and for that there was no +cure. + +The disease is accompanied by irritation, but by little actual pain. +Constant application of compresses can allay the itching, and can +often save the patient from the more ghastly ravages of disfigurement. +But, slowly, the limbs lose their force, the fingers and toes drop +away, the hair falls, and merciful blindness comes to hide from the +sufferer the living corpse to which his spirit is bound. More merciful +yet, the slow decay attacks the organs of the body. Often consumption +intervenes. Often just a simple cold suffices to snuff out the +flickering life. + +In the village of Kusatsu, beyond the Karuizawa mountains, there is a +natural hot spring, whose waters are beneficial for the alleviation of +the disease. In this place there is a settlement of well-to-do lepers. +Thither it was decided to banish poor Takeshi. His wife, Matsuko, +naturally was expected to accompany him, to nurse him and to make +life as comfortable for him as she could. Her eventual doom was almost +certain. But there was no question, no choice, no hesitation and no +praise. Every Japanese wife is obliged to become an Alcestis, if +her husband's well-being demand it. The children were sent to the +ancestral village of Akabo. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +JAPANESE COURTSHIP + + _O-bune no + Hatsuru-tomari no + Tayutai ni + Mono-omoi-yase-nu + Hito no ko yuye ni_. + + With a rocking + (As) of great ships + Riding at anchor + I have at last become worn out with love, + Because of a child of a man. + + +When the Fujinami returned to Tokyo, the wing of the house in which +the unfortunate son had lived, had been demolished. An ugly scar +remained, a slab of charred concrete strewn with ashes and burned +beams. Saddest sight of all was the twisted iron work of Takeshi's +foreign bedstead, once the symbol of progress and of the _haikara_ +spirit. The fire was supposed to have been accidental; but the ravages +had been carefully limited to the offending wing. + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro, disgusted at this unsightly wreckage wished to +rebuild at once. But the old grandfather had objected that this spot +of misfortune was situated in the northeast corner of the mansion, a +quarter notoriously exposed to the attacks of _oni_ (evil spirits). He +was in favor of total demolishment. + +This was only one of the differences of opinion between the two +seniors of the house of Fujinami, which became more frequent as the +clouds of disaster gathered over the home in Akasaka. A far more +thorny problem was the question of the succession. + +With the living death of Takeshi, there was no male heir. Several +family councils were held in the presence of the two Mr. Fujinami +generally in the lower-house, at which six or seven members of the +collateral branches were also present. Grandfather Gennosuke, who +despised Takeshi as a waster, would not listen to any plea on behalf +of his children. + +"To a bad father a bad child," he enunciated, his restless jaw +masticating more ferociously than ever. + +He was strongly of opinion that it was the curse of Asako's father +which had brought this sorrow upon his family. Katsundo and Asako were +representatives of the elder branch. Himself, Gentaro and Takeshi +were mere usurpers. Restore the elder branch to its rights, and the +indignant ghost would cease to plague them all. + +Such was the argument of grandfather Gennosuke. + +Fujinami Gentaro naturally supported the claims of his own progeny. If +Takeshi's children must be disinherited because of the leprous strain, +then, at least, Sadako remained. She was a well-educated and serious +girl. She knew foreign languages. She could make a brilliant marriage. +Her husband would be adopted as heir. Perhaps the Governor of Osaka? + +The other members of the council shook their heads, and breathed +deeply. Were there no Fujinami left of the collateral branches? Why +adopt a _tanin_ (outside person)? So spoke the M.P., the man with a +wen, who had an axe of his own to grind. + +It was decided to choose the son-in-law candidate first of all; and, +afterwards, to decide which of the girls he was to marry. Perhaps it +would be as well to consult the fortune tellers. At any rate, a list +of suitable applicants would be prepared for the next meeting. + +"When men speak of the future," said grandfather Gennosuke, "the rats +in the ceiling laugh." + +So the conference broke up. + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro had no sooner returned to the academic calm of +his chaste reading room, than Mr. Ito appeared on the threshold. + +The oily face was more moist than usual, the buffalo-horn moustache +more truculent; and though the autumn day was cool, Ito was agitating +a fan. He was evidently nervous. Before approaching the sanctum, he +had blown his nose into a small square piece of soft paper, which is +the Japanese apology for a handkerchief. He had looked around for +some place where to cast the offence; but finding none along the trim +garden border, he had slipped it into his wide kimono sleeve. + +Mr. Fujinami frowned. He was tired of business matters, and the worry +of other people's affairs. He longed for peace. + +"Indeed, the weather becomes perceptibly cooler," said Mr. Ito, with a +low prostration. + +"If there is business," his patron replied crisply, "please step up +into the room." + +Mr. Ito slipped off his _geta_, and ascended from the garden path. +When he had settled himself in the correct attitude with legs +crossed and folded, Mr. Fujinami pushed over towards him a packet of +cigarettes, adding; + +"Please, without embarrassment, speak quickly what you have to say." + +Mr. Ito chose a cigarette, and slowly pinched together the cardboard +holder, which formed its lower half. + +"Indeed, _sensei_, it is a difficult matter," he began. "It is a +matter which should be handled by an intermediary. If I speak face to +face like a foreigner the master will excuse my rudeness." + +"Please, speak clearly." + +"I owe my advancement in life entirely to the master. I was the son +of poor parents. I was an emigrant and a vagabond over three thousand +worlds. The master gave me a home and lucrative employment. I have +served the master for many years; with my poor effort the fortunes of +the family have perhaps increased. I have become as it were a _son_ to +the Fujinami." + +He paused at the word "son." His employer had caught his meaning, and +was frowning more than ever. At last he answered: + +"To expect too much is a dangerous thing. To choose a _yoshi_ (adopted +son) is a difficult question. I myself cannot decide such grave +matters. There must be consultation with the rest of the Fujinami +family. You yourself have suggested that Governor Sugiwara might +perhaps be a suitable person." + +"At that time the talk was of Sada San; this time the talk is of Asa +San." + +A flash of inspiration struck Mr. Fujinami Gentaro, and a gush of +relief. By giving her to Ito, he might be able to side-track Asako, +and leave the highway to inheritance free for his own daughter. But +Ito had grown too powerful to be altogether trusted. + +"It must be clearly understood," said the master, "that it is the +husband of our Sada who will be the Fujinami _yoshi_." + +Ito bowed. + +"Thanks to the master," he said, "there is money in plenty. There is +no desire to speak of such matters. The request is for Asa San only. +Truly, the heart is speaking. That girl is a beautiful child, and +altogether a _haikara_ person. My wife is old and barren and of low +class. I wish to have a wife who is worthy of my position in the house +of Fujinami San." + +The head of the family cackled with sudden laughter; he was much +relieved. + +"Ha! Ha! Ito Kun! So it is love, is it? You are in love like a school +student. Well, indeed, love is a good thing. What you have said shall +be well considered." + +So the lawyer was dismissed. + +Accordingly, at the next family council Mr. Fujinami put forward +the proposal that Asako should be married forthwith to the family +factotum, who should be given a lump sum down in consideration for a +surrender of all further claim in his own name or his wife's to any +share in the family capital. + +"Ito Kun," he concluded, "is the brain of our business. He is the +family _karo_ (prime minister). I think it would be well to give this +Asa to him." + +To his surprise, the proposal met with unanimous opposition. The +rest of the family envied and disliked Ito, who was regarded as Mr. +Fujinami's pampered favourite. + +Grandfather Gennosuke was especially indignant. + +"What?" he exploded in one of those fits of rage common to old men in +Japan; "give the daughter of the elder branch to a butler, to a man +whose father ran between rickshaw shafts. If the spirit of Katsundo +has not heard this foolish talk it would be a good thing for us. +Already there is a bad _inge_. By doing such a thing it will become +worse and worse, until the whole house of Fujinami is ruined. This Ito +is a rascal, a thief, a good-for-nothing, a----" + +The old gentleman collapsed. + +Again the council separated, still undecided except for one thing that +the claim of Mr. Ito to the hand of Asako was quite inadmissible. + +When the "family prime minister" next pressed his master on the +subject, Mr. Fujinami had to confess that the proposal had been +rejected. + +Then Ito unmasked his batteries, and his patron had to realize that +the servant was a servant no longer. + +Ito said that it was necessary for him to have Asa San and that before +the end of the year. He was in love with this girl. Passion was an +overwhelming thing. + + "Two things have ever been the same + Since the Age of the Gods-- + The flowing of water, + And the way of Love." + +This old Japanese poem he quoted as his excuse for what would +otherwise be an inexcusable impertinence. The master was aware that +politics in Japan were in an unsettled state, and that the new Cabinet +was scarcely established; that a storm would overthrow it, and that +the Opposition were already looking about for a suitable scandal +to use for their revenge. He, Ito, held the evidence which they +desired--the full story of the Tobita concession, with the names and +details of the enormous bribes distributed by the Fujinami. If these +things were published, the Government would certainly fall; also the +Tobita concession would be lost and the whole of that great outlay; +also the Fujinami's leading political friends would be discredited +and ruined. There would be a big trial, and exposure, and outcry, and +judgment, and prison. The master must excuse his servant for speaking +so rudely to his benefactor. But in love there are no scruples; and he +must have Asa San. After all, after his long service, was his request +so unreasonable? + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro, thoroughly scared, protested that he himself was +in favour of the match. He begged for time so as to be able to convert +the other members of the family council. + +"Perhaps," suggested Ito, "if Asa San were sent away from Akasaka, +perhaps if she were living alone, it would be more easy to manage. +What is absent is soon forgotten. Mr. Fujinami Gennosuke is a very old +gentleman; he would soon forget. Sada San could then take her proper +position as the only daughter of the Fujinami. Was there not a small +house by the river side at Mukojima, which had been rented for Asa +San? Perhaps she would like to live there--quite alone." + +"Perhaps Ito Kun would visit her from time to time," said Mr. +Fujinami, pleased with the idea; "she will be so lonely; there is no +knowing." + +The one person who was never consulted, and who had not the remotest +notion of what was going on, was Asako herself. + + * * * * * + +Asako was most unhappy. The disappearance of Fujinami Takeshi +exasperated the competition between herself and her cousin. Just +as formerly all Sadako's intelligence and charm had been exerted +to attract her English relative to the house in Akasaka, so now she +applied all her force to drive her cousin out of the family circle. +For many weeks now Asako had been ignored; but after the return from +Ikegami a positive persecution commenced. Although the nights were +growing chilly, she was given no extra bedding. Her meals were no +longer served to her; she had to get what she could from the kitchen. +The servants, imitating their mistress's attitude were deliberately +disobliging and rude to the little foreigner. + +Sadako and her mother would sneer at her awkwardness and at her +ignorance of Japanese customs. Her _obi_ was tied anyhow; for she had +no maid. Her hair was untidy; for she was not allowed a hairdresser. + +They nicknamed her _rashamen_ (goat face), using an ugly slang word +for a foreigner's Japanese mistress; and they would pretend that she +smelt like a European. + +"_Kusai! Kusai_! (Stink! Stink!)" they would say. + +The war even was used to bait Asako. Every German success was greeted +with acclamation. The exploits of the _Emden_ were loudly praised; and +the tragedy of Coronel was gloated over with satisfaction. + +"The Germans will win because they are brave," said Sadako. + +"The English lose too many prisoners; Japanese soldiers are never +taken prisoner." + +"When the Japanese general ordered the attack on Tsingtao, the English +regiment ran away!" + +Cousin Sadako announced her intention of studying German. + +"Nobody will speak English now," she said. "The English are disgraced. +They cannot fight." + +"I wish Japan would make war on the English," Asako answered bitterly, +"you would get such a beating that you would never boast again. Look +at my husband," she added proudly; "he is so big and strong and brave. +He could pick up two or three Japanese generals like toys and knock +their heads together." + +Even Mr. Fujinami Gentaro joined once or twice in these debates, and +announced sententiously: + +"Twenty years ago Japan defeated China and took Korea. Ten years ago +we defeated Russia and took Manchuria. This year we defeat Germany and +take Tsingtao. In ten years we shall defeat America and take Hawaii +and the Philippines. In twenty years we shall defeat England and +take India and Australia. Then we Japanese shall be the most powerful +nation in the world. This is our divine mission." + +It was characteristic of the loyalty of Asako's nature, that, although +very ignorant of the war, of its causes and its vicissitudes, yet +she remained fiercely true to England and the Allies, and could +never accept the Japanese detachment. Above all, the thought of her +husband's danger haunted her. Waking and sleeping she could see him, +sword in hand, leading his men to desperate hand-to-hand struggles, +like those portrayed in the crude Japanese chromographs, which Sadako +showed her to play upon her fears. Poor Asako! How she hated Japan +now! How she loathed the cramped, draughty, uncomfortable life! How +she feared the smiling faces and the watchful eyes, from which it +seemed she never could escape! + +Christmas was at hand, the season of pretty presents and good things +to eat. Her last Christmas she had spent with Geoffrey on the Riviera. +Lady Everington had been there. They had watched the pigeon +shooting in the warm sunlight. They had gone to the opera in the +evening--_Madame Butterfly!_ Asako had imagined herself in the role of +the heroine, so gentle, so faithful, waiting and waiting in her little +wooden house for the big white husband--who never came. What was that? +She heard the guns of his ship saluting the harbour. He was coming +back to her at last--but not alone! A woman was with him, a white +woman! + +Alone, in her bare room--her only companion a flaky yellow +chrysanthemum nodding in the draught--Asako sobbed and sobbed as +though her heart were breaking. Somebody tapped at the sliding +shutter. Asako could not answer. The _shoji_ was pushed open, and +Tanaka entered. + +Asako was glad to see him. Alone of the household Tanaka was still +deferential in his attitude towards his late mistress. He was always +ready to talk about the old times which gave her a bitter pleasure. + +"If Ladyship is so sad," he began, as he had been coached in his part +beforehand by the Fujinami, "why Ladyship stay in this house? Change +house, change trouble, we say." + +"But where can I go?" Asako asked helplessly. + +"Ladyship has pretty house by river brink," suggested Tanaka. +"Ladyship can stay two month, three month. Then the springtime come +and Ladyship feel quite happy again. Even I, in the winter season, I +find the mind very distress. It is often so." + +To be alone, to be free from the daily insults and cruelty; this in +itself would be happiness to Asako. + +"But will Mr. Fujinami allow me to go?" she asked, timorously. + +"Ladyship must be brave," said the counselor. "Ladyship is not +prisoner. Ladyship must say, I go. But perhaps I can arrange matter +for Ladyship." + +"Oh, Tanaka, please, please do. I'm so unhappy here." + +"I will hire cook and maid for Ladyship. I myself will be seneschal!" + +Mr. Fujinami Gentaro and his family were delighted to hear that their +plan was working so smoothly, and that they could so easily get rid of +their embarrassing cousin. The "seneschal" was instructed at once +to see about arrangements for the house, which had not been lived in +since its new tenancy. + +Next evening, when Asako had spread the two quilts on the golden +matting, when she had lit the rushlight in the square _andon_, +when the two girls were lying side by side under the heavy wadded +bedclothes, Sadako said to her cousin: + +"Asa Chan, I do not think you like me now as much as you used to like +me." + +"I always like people when I have once liked them," said Asako; "but +everything is different now." + +"I see, your heart changes quickly," said her cousin bitterly. + +"No, I have tried to change, but I cannot change. I have tried to +become Japanese, but I cannot even learn the Japanese language. I do +not like the Japanese way of living. In France and in England I was +always happy. I don't think I shall ever be happy again." + +"You ought to be more grateful," said Sadako severely. "We have saved +you from your husband, who was cruel and deceitful--" + +"No, I don't believe that now. My husband and I loved each other +always. You people came between us with wicked lies and separated us." + +"Anyhow, you have made the choice. You have chosen to be Japanese. You +can never be English again." + +The Fujinami had hypnotized Asako with this phrase, as a hen can be +hypnotized with a chalk line. Day after day it was dinned into her +ears, cutting off all hope of escape from the country or of appeal to +her English friends. + +"You had better marry a Japanese," said Sadako, "or you will become +old maid. Why not marry Ito San? He says he likes you. He is a clever +man. He has plenty of money. He is used to foreign ways." + +"Marry Mr. Ito!" Asako exclaimed, aghast; "but he has a wife already." + +"They will divorce. It is no trouble. There are not even children." + +"I would rather die than marry any Japanese," said Asako with +conviction. + +Sadako Fujinami turned her back and pretended to sleep; but long +through the dark cold night Asako could feel her turning restlessly to +and fro. + +Some time about midnight Asako heard her name called: + +"Asa Chan, are you awake?" + +"Yes; is anything the matter?" + +"Asa Chan, in your house by the river you will be lonely. You will not +be afraid?" + +"I am not afraid to be lonely," Asako answered; "I am afraid of +people." + +"Look!" said her cousin; "I give you this." + +She drew from the bosom of her kimono the short sword in its sheath of +shagreen, which Asako had seen once or twice before. + +"It is very old," she continued; "it belonged to my mother's people. +They were _samurai_ of the Sendai clan. In old Japan every noble +girl carried such a short sword; for she said, 'Better death than +dishonour.' When the time came to die she would strike--here, in the +throat, not too hard, but pushing strongly. But first she would tie +her feet together with the _obidome_, the silk string which you have +to hold your _obi_ straight. That was in case the legs open too +much; she must not die in immodest attitude. So when General Nogi did +_harakiri_ at Emperor Meiji's funeral, his wife, Countess Nogi, killed +herself also with such a sword. I give you my sword because in the +house by the river you will be lonely--and things might happen. I can +never use the sword myself now. It was the sword of my ancestors. I am +not pure now. I cannot use the sword. If I kill myself I throw myself +into the river like a common _geisha_. I think it is best you marry +Ito. In Japan it is bad to have a husband; but to have no husband, it +is worse." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +ALONE IN TOKYO + + _Kuraki yori + Kuraki michi ni zo + Iri-nu-beki: + Haruka ni terase + Yuma no ha no tsuki!_ + + Out of the dark + Into a dark path + I now must enter: + Shine (on me) from afar, + Moon of the mountain fringe! + + +Some days before Christmas Asako had moved into her own little home. + +To be free, to have escaped from the watchful eyes and the whispering +tongues to be at liberty to walk about the streets and to visit the +shops, as an independent lady of Japan--these were such unfamiliar +joys to her that for a time she forgot how unhappy she really was, and +how she longed for Geoffrey's company as of old. Only in the evenings +a sense of insecurity rose with the river mists, and a memory of +Sadako's warning shivered through the lonely room with the bitter cold +of the winter air. It was then that Asako felt for the little dagger +resting hidden in her bosom just as Sadako had shown her how to +wear it. It was then that she did not like to be alone, and that she +summoned Tanaka to keep her company and to while away the time with +his quaint loquacity. + +Considering that he had been largely instrumental in breaking up her +happy life, considering that every day he stole from her and lied to +her, it was wonderful that his mistress was still so attached to him, +that, in fact, she regarded him as her only friend. He was like a +bad habit or an old disease, which we almost come to cherish since we +cannot be delivered from it. + +But, when Tanaka protested his devotion, did he mean what he said? +There is a bedrock of loyalty in the Japanese nature. Half-way down +the road to shame, it will halt of a sudden, and bungle back its way +to honour. Then there is the love of the _beau geste_ which is an even +stronger motive very often than the love of right-doing for its own +sake. The favorite character of the Japanese drama is the _otokodate_, +the chivalrous champion of the common people who rescues beauty in +distress from the lawless, bullying, two-sworded men. It tickled +Tanaka's remarkable vanity to regard himself as the protector of this +lonely and unfortunate lady. It might be said of him as of Lancelot, +that-- + + "His honour rooted in dishonour stood, + And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true." + +Asako was glad on the whole that she had no visitors. The Fujinami +were busy with their New Year preparations. Christmas Day passed by, +unheeded by the Japanese, though the personality and appearance of +Santa Claus are not unknown to them. He stands in the big shop windows +in Tokyo as in London, with his red cloak, his long white beard +and his sack full of toys. Sometimes he is to be seen chatting with +Buddhist deities, with the hammer-bearing Daikoku, with Ebisu the +fisherman, with fat naked Hotei, and with Benten, the fair but frail. +In fact, with the American Billiken, Santa Claus may be considered as +the latest addition to the tolerant theocracy of Japan. + +Asako attended High Mass at the Catholic Cathedral in Tsukiji, the old +foreign settlement. The music was crude; and there was a long sermon +in Japanese. The magnificent bearded bishop, who officiated, was +flanked by two native priests. But the familiar sounds and movements +of the office soothed her, and the fragrance of the incense. The +centre of the aisle was covered with straw mats where the Japanese +congregation was squatting. Chairs for the foreigners were placed in +the side aisles These were mostly members of the various Embassy +and Legation staffs. For a moment Asako feared recognition. Then she +remembered how entirely Japanese she had become--in appearance. + +Mr. Ito called during the afternoon to wish a Merry Christmas. Asako +regaled him with thin green tea and little square cakes of ground +rice, filled with a kind of bean paste called "_an_." She kept Tanaka +in the room all the time; for Sadako's remarks about marriage with Ito +had alarmed her. He was most agreeable, however, and most courteous. +He amused Asako with stories of his experiences abroad. He admired the +pretty little house and its position on the river bank; and, when he +bowed his thanks for Asako's hospitality, he expressed a wish that he +might come again many times in future. + +"I am afraid of him," Asako had confided to Tanaka, when the guest had +departed, "because Sada San said that he wants to divorce his wife and +marry me. You are to stop here with me in the room whenever he comes. +Do not leave me alone, please." + +"Ladyship is _daimyo_," the round face answered; "Tanaka is faithful +_samurai_. Tanaka gives life for Ladyship!" + + * * * * * + +It was the week before New Year. All along the Ginza, which is the +main thoroughfare of Tokyo, along the avenue of slender willow trees +which do their gallant utmost to break the monotony of the wide +ramshackle street, were spread every evening the stock-in-trade of the +_yomise_, the night shops, which cater their most diverse wares for +the aimless multitudes sauntering up and down the sidewalks. There are +quack medicines and stylograph pens, clean wooden altar cabinets for +the kitchen gods, and images of Daikoku and Ebisu; there are cheap +underclothing and old hats, food of various kinds, boots and books and +toys. But most fascinating of all are the antiquities. Strewn over a +square six feet of ground are curios, most attractive to the unwary, +especially by the deceptive light of kerosene lamps. One in a thousand +perhaps may be a piece of real value; but almost every object has a +character and a charm of its own. There are old gold screens, lacquer +tables and cabinets, bronze vases, gilded Buddhas, fans, woodcuts, +porcelains, _kakemono_ (hanging pictures), _makimono_ (illustrated +scrolls), _inro_ (lacquer medicine boxes for the pocket), _netsuke_ +(ivory or bone buttons, through which the cords of the tobacco pouch +are slung), _tsuba_ (sword hilts of iron ornamented with delightful +landscapes of gold and silver inlay). The Ginza at night-time is a +paradise for the minor collector. + +"_Kore wa ikura_? (How much is this?)" asked Asako, picking up a tiny +silver box, which could slip into a waistcoat pocket. Inside were +enshrined three gentle Buddhas of old creamy ivory, perfectly carved +to the minutest petal of the full-blown lotus upon which each reposed. + +"Indeed, it is the end of the year. We must sell all things cheaply," +answered the merchant. "It is asked sixty _yen_ for true ancient +artistic object." + +"Such a thing is not said," replied Asako, her Japanese becoming quite +fluent with the return of her light-heartedness. "Perhaps a joke is +being made. It would be possible to give ten _yen_." + +The old curio vender, with the face and spare figure of Julius Caesar, +turned aside from such idle talk with a shrug of hopelessness. He +affected to be more interested in lighting his slender pipe over the +chimney of the lamp which hung suspended over his wares. + +"Ten _yen_! Please see!" said Asako, showing a banknote. The merchant +shook his head and puffed. Asako turned away into the stream of +passers-by. She had not gone, ten yards, however, before she felt a +touch on her kimono sleeve. It was Julius Caesar with his curio. + +"Indeed, _okusan_, there must be reduction. Thirty _yen_; take it, +please." + +He pressed the little box into Asako's hand. + +"Twenty _yen_," she bargained, holding out two notes. + +"It is loss! It is loss!" he murmured; but he shuffled back to his +stall again, very well content. + +"I shall send it to Geoffrey," thought Asako; "it will bring him good +luck. Perhaps he will write to me and thank me. Then I can write to +him." + +The New Year is the greatest of Japanese festivals. Japanese of the +middle and lower classes live all the year round in a thickening web +of debt. But during the last days of the year these complications are +supposed to be unraveled and the defaulting debtor must sell some of +his family goods, and start the New Year with a clean slate. These +operations swell the stock-in-trade of the _yomise_. + +On New Year's Day the wife prepares the _mochi_ cakes of ground rice, +which are the specialities of the season; and the husband sees to the +erection of his door posts of the two _kadomatsu_ (corner pine trees), +little Christmas trees planted in a coil of rope. Then, attired in his +frock-coat and top hat, if he be a _haikara_ gentleman, or in his best +kimono and _haori_, if he be an old-fashioned Japanese, he goes round +in a rickshaw to pay his complimentary calls, and to exchange _o +medet[=o]_ (respectfully lucky!), the New Year wish. He has presents +for his important patrons, and cards for his less influential +acquaintances. For, as the Japanese proverb says, "Gifts preserve +friendship." At each house, which he visits, he sips a cup of _sake_, +so that his return home is often due to the rickshaw man's assistance, +rather than to his own powers of self-direction. In fact, as Asako's +maid confided to her mistress, "Japanese wife very happy when New Year +time all finish." + + * * * * * + +On the night following New Year, snow fell. It continued to fall +all the next morning until Asako's little garden was as white as a +bride-cake. The irregularities of her river-side lawn were smoothed +out under the white carpet. The straw coverings, which a gardener's +foresight had wrapped round the azalea shrubs and the dwarf conifers, +were enfolded in a thick white shroud. Like tufts of foam on a wave, +the snow was tossed on the plumes of the bamboo clump, which hid the +neighbour's dwelling, and made a bird's nest of Asako's tiny domain. + +Beyond the brown sluggish river, the roofs and pinnacles of Asakusa +were more fairy-like than a theatre scene. Asako was thinking of that +first snow-white day, which introduced Geoffrey and her to the Embassy +and to Yae Smith. + +She shivered. Darkness was falling. A Japanese house is a frail +protection in winter time; and a charcoal fire in a wooden box is poor +company. The maid came in to close the shutters for the night. Where +was Tanaka? He had gone out to a New Year party with relatives. Asako +felt her loneliness all of a sudden; and she was grateful for the +moral comfort of cousin Sadako's sword. She drew it from its sheath +and examined the blade, and the fine work on the hilt, with care and +alarm, like a man fingering a serpent. + +No sooner was the house silenced than the wind arose. It smote the +wooden framework with an unexpected buffet almost like an earthquake. +The bamboo grove began to rattle like bones; and the snow slid and +fell from the roof in dull thuds. + +There was a sharp rap at the front door. Asako started and thrust the +dagger into the breast of her kimono. She had been lying full length +on a long deckchair. Now she put her feet to the ground. O Hana, +the maid, came in and announced that Ito San had called. Asako, +half-pleased and half-apprehensive, gave instructions for him to be +shown in. She heard a stumbling on the steps of her house; then Ito +lurched into the room. His face was very red, and his voice thick. He +had been paying many New Year calls. + +"Happy New Year, Asa San, Happy New Year!" he hiccoughed, grasping her +hand and working it up and down like a pump-handle. "New Year in Japan +very lucky time. All Japanese people say New Year time very lucky. +This New Year very lucky for Ito. No more dirty business, no more +Yoshiwara, no more pimp. I am millionaire, madame. I have made one +hundred thousand pounds, five hundred thousand dollars gold. I now +become _giin giin_ (Member of Parliament). I become great party +organizer, great party boss, then _daijin_ (Minister of State), then +_taishi_ (Ambassador), then _soridaijin_ (Prime Minister). I shall +be greatest man in Japan. Japan greatest country in the world. Ito +greatest man in the world. And I marry Asa San to-morrow, next day, +any day." + +Ito was sprawling in the deck chair, which divided the little +sitting-room into two parts and cut off Asako's retreat. She was +trembling on a bamboo stool near the shuttered window. She was +terribly frightened. Why did not Tanaka come? + +"Speak to me, Asa San," shouted the visitor; "say to me very glad, +very, very glad, will be very nice wife of Ito. Fujinami give you to +me. I have all Fujinami's secrets in my safe box. Ito greatest man in +Japan. Fujinami very fear of me. He give me anything I want. I say, +give me Asa San. Very, very love." + +Asako remaining without speech, the Japanese frowned at her. + +"Why so silence, little girl? Say, I love you, I love you like all +foreign girls say. I am husband now. I never go away from this house +until you kiss me. You understand?" + +Asako gasped. + +"Mr. Ito, it is very late. Please, come some other day. I must go to +bed now." + +"Very good, very good. I come to bed with you," said Ito, rolling out +of his chair and putting one heavy leg to the ground. He was earing a +kimono none too well adjusted, and Asako could see his hairy limb high +up the thigh. Her face must have reflected her displeasure. + +"What?" the Japanese shouted; "you don't like me. Too very proud! No +dirty Jap, no yellow man, what? So you think, Madame Lord Princess +Barrington. In the East, it may be, ugly foreign women despise Japs. +But New York, London, Paris--very different, ha! ha! New York girl +say, Hello, Jap! come here! London girl say, Jap man very nice, very +sweet manner, very soft eyes. When I was in London I have five or six +girls, English girls, white girls, very beauty girls, all together, +all very love! London time was great fine time!" + +Asako felt helpless. Her hand was on the hilt of her dagger, but she +still hoped that Ito might come to his senses and go away. + +"There!" he cried, "I know foreign custom. I know everything. +Mistletoe! Mistletoe! A kiss for the mistletoe, Asa San!" + +He staggered out of his chair and came towards her, like a great black +bird. She dodged him, and tried to escape round the deck chair. But he +caught hold of her kimono. She drew her sword. + +"Help! Help!" she cried. "Tanaka!" + +Something wrenched at her wrist, and the blade fell. At the same +moment the inner _shoji_ flew open like the shutter of a camera. +Tanaka rushed into the room. + +Asako did not turn to look again until she was outside the room with +her maid and her cook trembling beside her. Then she saw Tanaka and +Ito locked in a wrestler's embrace, puffing and grunting at each +other, while their feet were fumbling for the sword which lay between +them. Suddenly both figures relaxed. Two foreheads came together with +a wooden concussion. Hands were groping where the feet had been. One +set of fingers, hovering over the sword, grasped the hilt. It was +Tanaka; but his foot slipped. He tottered and fell backward. Ito was +on the top of him. Asako closed her eyes. She heard a hoarse roar like +a lion. When she dared to look again, she saw Tanaka kneeling over +Ito's body. With a wrench he pulled Sadako's dagger out of the +prostrate mass. It was followed by a jet of blood, and then by a +steady trickle from body, mouth and nostrils, which spread over the +matting. Slowly and deliberately, Tanaka wiped first the knife and +then his hands on the clothes of his victim. Then he felt his mouth +and throat. + +"_Sa! Shimatta_! (There, finished!)" he said. He turned towards the +garden side, threw open the _shoji_ and the _amado_. He ran across +the snow-covered lawn; and from beyond the unearthly silence which +followed his departure, come the distant sound of a splash in the +river. + +At last, Asako said helplessly: "Is he dead?" + +The cook, a man, was glad of the opportunity to escape. + +"I go and call doctor," he said. + +"No, stay with me," said Asako; "I am afraid. O Hana can go for the +doctor." + +Asako and the cook waited by the open _shoji_, staring blankly at +the body of Ito. Presently the cook said that he must go and get +something. He did not return. Asako called to him to come. There was +no answer. She went to look for him in his little three-mat room +near the kitchen. It was empty. He had packed his few chattels in his +wicker basket and had decamped. + +Asako resumed her watch at the sitting-room door, an unwilling Rizpah. +It was as though she feared that, if she left her post, somebody might +come in and steal Ito. But she could have hardly approached the corpse +even under compulsion. Sometimes it seemed to move, to try to rise; +but it was stuck fast to the matting by the resinous flow of purple +blood. Sometimes it seemed to speak: + +"Mistletoe! Mistletoe! Kiss me, Asa San!" + +Gusts of cold wind came in from the open windows, touching the dead +man curiously, turning over his kimono sleeves. Outside, the bamboo +grove was rattling like bones; and the caked snow fell from the roof +in heavy thuds. + + * * * * * + +O Hana returned with a doctor and a policeman. The doctor loosened +Ito's kimono, and at once shook his head. + +The policeman wore a blue uniform and cape; and a sword dragged at his +side. He had produced a notebook and a pencil from a breast pocket. + +"What is your name?" he asked Asako; "what is your age? your father's +and mother's name? What is your address? Are you married? Where is +your husband? How long have you known this man? Were you on familiar +terms? Did you kill him? How did you kill him? Why did you kill him?" + +The questions buzzed round Asako's head like a swarm of hornets. It +had never occurred to the unfortunate girl that any suspicion could +fall upon her. Three more policemen had arrived. + +"Every one in this house is arrested," announced the first policeman. + +"Put out your hands," he ordered Asako. Rusty handcuffs were slipped +over her delicate wrists. One of the policemen had produced a coil +of rope, which he proceeded to tie round her waist and then round the +waist of O Hana. + +"But what have I done?" asked Asako plaintively. + +The policeman took no notice. She could hear two of them upstairs +in her bedroom, talking and laughing, knocking open her boxes and +throwing things about. + +Asako and her maid were led out of the house like two performing +animals. It was bitterly cold, and Asako had no cloak. The road was +already full of loafers. They stared angrily at Asako. Some laughed. +Some pulled at her kimono as she passed. She heard one say: + +"It is a _geisha_; she has murdered her sweetheart." + +At the police station, Asako had to undergo the same confusing +interrogatory before the chief inspector. + +"What is your name? What is your age? Where do you live? What are your +father's and mother's names?" + +"Lies are no good," said the inspector, a burly unshaven man; "confess +that you have killed this man." + +"But I did not kill him," protested Asako. + +"Who killed him then? You must know that," said the inspector +triumphantly. + +"It was Tanaka," said Asako. + +"Who is this Tanaka?" the inspector asked the policeman. + +"I do not know; perhaps it is lies," he answered sulkily. + +"But it is not lies," expostulated Asako, "he ran away through the +window. You can see his footmarks in the snow." + +"Did you see the marks?" the policeman was asked. + +"No; perhaps there were no marks." + +"Did you look?" + +"I did not look actually, but--" + +"You're a fool!" said the inspector. + +The weary questioning continued for quite two hours, until Asako had +told her story of the murder at least three times. The unfamiliar +language confused her, and the reiterated refrain: + +"You, now confess; you killed the man!" + +Asako was chilled to the bone. Her head was aching; her eyes were +aching; her legs were aching with the ordeal of standing. She felt +that they must soon give way altogether. + +At last, the inspector closed his _questionnaire_. + +"_Sa_!" he ejaculated, "it is past midnight. Even I must sleep +sometimes. Take her away to the court, and lock her in the 'sty,' +To-morrow the procurator will examine at nine o'clock. She is +pretending to be silly and not understanding; so she is probably +guilty." + +Again the handcuffs and the degrading rope were fastened upon her. She +felt that she had already been condemned. + +"May I send word to my friends?" she asked. Surely even the Fujinami +would not abandon her to her fate. + +"No. The procurator's examination has not yet taken place. After that, +sometimes permission can be granted. That is the law." + +She was left waiting in a stone-flagged guard-room, where eight or +nine policemen stared at her impertinently. + +"A pretty face, eh?" they said, "it looks like a _geisha_! Who is +taking her to the court? It is Ishibashi. Oh, so! He is always the +lucky chap!" + +A rough fellow thrust his hand up her kimono sleeve, and caught hold +of her bare arm near the shoulder. + +"Here, Ishibashi," he cried; "you have caught a fine bird this time." + +The policeman Ishibashi picked up the loose end of the rope, and drove +Asako before him into a closed van, which was soon rumbling along the +deserted streets. + +She was made to alight at a tall stone building, where they passed +down several echoing corridors, until, at the end of a little passage +a warder pushed open a door. This was the "sty," where prisoners are +kept pending examination in the procurator's court. The floor and +walls were of stone. It was bitterly cold. There was no window, no +light, no firebox, and no chair. Alone, in the petrifying darkness, +her teeth chattering, her limbs trembling, poor Asako huddled her +misery into a corner of the dirty cell, to await the further tender +mercies of the Japanese criminal code. She could hear the scuttering +of rats. Had she been ten times guilty, she felt that she could not +have suffered more! + + * * * * * + +Daylight began to show under the crack of the door. Later on a warder +came and beckoned to Asako to follow him. She had not touched food for +twenty hours, but nothing was offered to her. She was led into a +room with benches like a schoolroom. At the master's desk sat a small +spotted man with a cloak like a scholar's gown, and a black cap with +ribbons like a Highlander's bonnet. This was the procurator. At his +side, sat his clerk, similarly but less sprucely garbed. + +Asako, utterly weary, was preparing to sit down on one of the benches. +The warder pulled her up by the nape of her kimono. She had to stand +during her examination. + +"What is your name? What is your age? What are your father's and +mother's names?" + +The monotonous questions were repeated all over again; and then,-- + +"To confess were better. When you confess, we shall let you go. If you +do not confess, we keep you here for days and days." + +"I am feeling sick," pleaded Asako; "may I eat something?" + +The warder brought a cup of tea and some salt biscuit. + +"Now, confess," bullied the procurator; "if you do not confess, you +will get no more to eat." + +Asako told her story of the murder. She then told it again. Her +Japanese words were slipping from the clutch of her worn brain. She +was saying things she did not mean. How could she defend herself in a +language which was strange to her mind? How could she make this judge, +who seemed so pitiless and so hostile to her, understand and believe +her broken sentences? She was beating with a paper sword against an +armed enemy. + +An interpreter was sent for; and the questions were all repeated in +English. The procurator was annoyed at Asako's refusal to speak in +Japanese. He thought that it was obstinacy, or that she was trying to +fool him. He seemed quite convinced that she was guilty. + +"I can't answer any more questions. I really can't. I am sick," said +Asako, in tears. + +"Take her back to the 'sty,' while we have lunch," ordered the +procurator. "I think this afternoon she will confess." + +Asako was taken away, and thrust into the horrible cell again. +She collapsed on the hard floor in a state which was partly a +fainting-fit, and partly the sleep of exhaustion. Dreams and images +swept over her brain like low-flying clouds. It seemed to her +distracted fancy that only one person could save her--Geoffrey, her +husband! He must be coming soon. She thought that she could hear his +step in the corridor. + +"Geoffrey! Geoffrey!" she cried. + +It was the warder. He stirred her with his foot. She was hauled back +to the procurator's court. + +"So! Have you considered well?" said the little spotted man. "Will you +now confess?" + +"How can I confess what I have not done?" protested Asako. + +The remorseless inquisition proceeded. Asako's replies became more and +more confused. The procurator frowned at her contradictions. She must +assuredly be guilty. + +"How many times do you say that you have met this Ito?" he asked. + +Asako was at the end of her strength. She reeled and would have +fallen; but the warder jerked her straight again. + +"Confess, then," shouted the procurator, "confess and you will be +liberated." + +"I will confess," Asako gasped, "anything you like." + +"Confess that you killed this Ito!" + +"Yes, I confess." + +"Then, sign the confession." + +With the triumphant air of a sportsman who has landed his fish after +a long and bitter struggle, the procurator held out a sheet of paper +prepared beforehand, on which something was written in Japanese +characters. + +Asako tried to move towards the desk that she might write her name; +but this time, her legs gave way altogether. The warder caught her by +the neck of her kimono, and shook her as a terrier shakes a rat. But +the body remained limp. He twisted her arm behind her with a savage +wrench. His victim groaned with pain, but spoke no distinguishable +word. Then he laid her out on the benches, and felt her chest. + +"The body is very hot," he said; "perhaps she is indeed sick." + +"Obstinate," grunted the procurator; "I am certain that she is guilty. +Are you not?" he added, addressing the clerk. + +The clerk was busy filling up some of the blanks in the back evidence, +extemporising where he could not remember. + +"Assuredly," he said, "the opinion of the procurator is always +correct." + +However, the doctor was summoned. He pronounced that the patient was +in a high fever, and must at once be removed to the infirmary. + +So the preliminary examination of Asako Fujinami came to an abrupt +end. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +LADY BRANDAN + + _Haru no hi no + Nagaki omoi wa + Wasureji wo, + Hito no kokoro ni + Aki ya tatsuramu._ + + The long thoughts + Of the spring days + Will never be forgotten + Even when autumn comes + To the hearts of the people. + + +The low-flying clouds of hallucination had fallen so close to Asako's +brain, that her thoughts seemed to be caught up into the dizzy +whirlwind and to be skimming around and round the world at the speed +of an express aeroplane. Like a clock whose regulation is out of +order, the hour-hand of her life seemed to be racing the minute-hand, +and the minute-hand to be covering the face of the dial in sixty +seconds or less, returning incessantly to the same well-known figures, +pausing awhile, then jerking away again at an insane rate. From time +to time the haze over the mind began to clear; and Asako seemed to +look down upon the scene around her from a great height. There was a +long room, so long that she could not see the end of it, and rows of +narrow beds, and nurses, dressed in white with high caps like bishops' +mitres, who appeared and disappeared. Sometimes they would speak to +her and she would answer. But she did not know what they said, nor +what she said to them. + +A gentle Japanese lady with a very long, pock-marked face, sat on her +bed and talked to her in English. Asako noticed that the nurses +and doctors were most deferential to this lady; and that, after her +departure, she was treated much more kindly than before. A name kept +peeping out of her memory, like a shy lizard out of its hole; but +the moment her brain tried to grab at it, it slipped back again into +oblivion. + +Two English ladies called together, one older and one younger. They +talked about Geoffrey. Geoffrey was one of the roman figures on the +clock dial of her mind. They said good things about Geoffrey; but she +could not remember what they were. + +One day, the Japanese lady with the marked face and one of the nurses +helped her to get out of bed. Her legs were trembling, and her +feet were sorely plagued by pins and needles; but she held together +somehow. Together they dressed her. The lady wrapped a big fur cloak +round her; and with a supporter on either side she was led into the +open air, where a beautiful motor-car was waiting. There was a crowd +gathered round it. But the police kept them back. As Asako stepped in, +she heard the click of cameras. + +"Asa Chan," said the lady, "don't you remember me? I am Countess +Saito." + +Of course, Asako remembered now--a spring morning with Geoffrey and +the little dwarf trees. + +The notoriety of the Ito murder case did Asako a good turn. Her +friends in Japan had forgotten her. They had imagined that she had +returned to England with Geoffrey. Reggie Forsyth, who alone knew the +details of her position, had thrown up his secretaryship the day that +war was declared, and had gone home to join the army. + +The morning papers of January 3rd, with their high-flown account of +the mysterious house by the river-side and the Japanese lady who could +talk no Japanese, brought an unexpected shock to acquaintances of the +Barringtons, and especially to Lady Cynthia Cairns and to Countess +Saito. These ladies both made inquiries, and learned that Asako was +lying dangerously ill in the prison infirmary. A few days later, when +Tanaka was arrested and had made a full confession of the crime, +Count Saito, who knew how suspects fare at the hands of a zealous +procurator, called in person on the Minister of Justice, and secured +Asako's speedy liberation. + +"This girl is a valuable asset to our country," he had explained to +the Minister. "She is married to an Englishman, who will one day be a +peer in England. This was a marriage of political importance. It was a +proof of the equal civilisation of our Japan with the great countries +of Europe. It is most important that this Asako should be sent back +to England as soon as possible, and that she should speak good things +about Japan." + +So Asako was released from the procurator's clutches; and she was +given a charming little bedroom of her own in the European wing of the +Saito mansion. The house stood on a high hill; and Asako, seated at +the window, could watch the multiplex activity of the streets below, +the jolting tramcars, the wagons, the barrows and the rickshaws. To +the left was a labyrinth of little houses of clean white wood, bright +and new, like toys, with toy evergreens and pine-trees bursting out of +their narrow gardens. This was a _geisha_ quarter, whence the sound +of _samisen_ music and quavering songs resounded all day long. To the +right was a big grey-boarded primary school, which, with the regular +movement of tides, sucked in and belched out its flood of blue-cloaked +boys and magenta-skirted maidens. + +Count and Countess Saito, despite their immense wealth and their +political importance, were simple, unostentatious people, who seemed +to devote most of their thoughts to their children, their garden, +their dwarf trees, and their breed of cocker spaniels. They took +their social duties lightly, though their home was a Mecca for +needy relatives on the search for jobs. They gave generously; they +entertained hospitably. Good-humour ruled the household; for husband +and wife were old partners and devoted friends. + +Count Saito brought his nephew and secretary, a most agreeable young +man, to see Asako. The Count said,-- + +"Asa Chan, I want you to tell Mr. Sakabe all about the Fujinami house +and the way of life there." + +So Asako told her story to this interested listener. Fortunately, +perhaps, she could not read the Japanese newspapers; for most of her +adventures reappeared in the daily issues almost word for word. From +behind the scenes, Count Saito was directing the course of the famous +trial which had come to be known as the Fujinami Affair. For the Count +had certain political scores of his own to pay off; and Asako proved +to be a godsend. + +Tanaka was tried for murder; but it was established that he had killed +Ito in defending his mistress's honour; and the court let him off +with a year's hard labour. But the great Fujinami bribery case which +developed out of the murder trial, ruined a Cabinet Minister, a local +governor, and a host of minor officials. It reacted on the Yoshiwara +regulations. The notoriety of the case has gone far towards putting +an end to public processions of _oiran_, and to the display of +prostitutes in the windows of their houses. Indeed, it is probably +only a question of time for the great pleasure quarters to be closed +down, and for vice to be driven into secrecy. Mr. Fujinami Gentaro +was sentenced to three years' imprisonment for causing bribes to be +distributed. + +Meanwhile Countess Saito had been in correspondence with Lady +Everington in England. On one bright March morning, she came into +Asako's room with a small flowerpot in her hands. + +"See, Asa Chan," she said in her strange hoarse voice, "the first +flower of the New Year, the plum-blossom. It is the flower of hope and +patience. It blooms when the snow is still on the ground, and before +it has any green leaves to protect it." + +"It smells sweet," said Asako. + +Her hostess quoted the famous poem of the exiled Japanese statesman, +Sukawara no Michizane,-- + + "When the East wind blows, + Send your perfume to me, + Flower of the plum; + Even if your master is absent, + Do not forget the spring." + +"Asako dear," Countess Saito continued, "would you like to go to +England?" + +Asako's heart leaped. + +"Oh yes!" she answered gladly. + +Her hostess sighed reproachfully. She had tried to make life so +agreeable for her little visitor; yet from the tone of her voice it +was clear that Japan would never be home for her. + +"Marchioness Samejima and I," continued the Japanese lady, "have been +arranging for a party of about twenty-five Red Cross nurses to visit +England and France. They are all very good, clever girls from noble +families. We wish to show sympathy of Japan for the poor soldiers who +are suffering so much; and we wish to teach our girls true facts about +war and how to manage a hospital in war-time. We thought you might +like to go as guide and interpreter." + +It needed no words to show how joyfully Asako accepted this proposal. +Besides, she had heard from Geoffrey. A letter had arrived thanking +her for her Christmas gift. + +"Little darling Asako," her husband had written, "It was so sweet of +you and so like you to think of me at Christmas time. I hope that +you are very happy and having a jolly good time. It is very rotten +in England just now with the war going on. It had broken out before +I reached home; and I joined up at once with my old regiment. We have +had a very lively time. About half of my brother officers have been +killed; and I am a colonel now. Also, incidentally, I have become Lord +Brandan. My father died at the end of last year. Poor old father! This +war is a ghastly business; but we have got them beat now. I shall be +sorry in a way when it is over; for it gives me plenty to do and +to think about. Reggie Forsyth is with his regiment in Egypt. Lady +Everington is writing to you. I am in the north of France, and doing +quite a lot of _parley-voo_. Is there any chance of your coming to +England? God bless you, Asako darling. Write to me soon. + +"Your loving Geoffrey." + + +With this letter folded near her heart, Asako was hardly in a mood +to admire plum-blossoms. It was with difficulty that she could summon +sufficient attention for give the little Saito children their daily +lessons in English and French. + +Long rides in the motor-car through the reviving country-side to the +splendid gorge of Miyanoshita or to the beaches of Oiso, where Count +Saito had his summer villa, long days of play with the children in the +hanging garden, the fascinating companionship of the dwarf trees and +the black spaniels, and the welcome absence of espionage and innuendo, +had soon restored Asako to health again. + +"Little Asa Chan," Count Saito said one day, beckoning his guest to +sit down beside him in the sunlight on the terrace, "you will be happy +to go back to England?" + +"Oh yes," said the girl. + +"It is a fine country, a noble country; and you will be happy to see +your husband again?" + +Asako blushed and held down her head. + +"I don't think he is still my husband," she said, "but oh! I do want +to see him so." + +"I think he wants to see you," said the Count; "My wife has received +a letter from Lady Everington which says that he would like you very +much to come back to him." + +The Count waited for this joyful news to produce its effect, and then +he added,-- + +"Asa Chan, you are going to be a great English lady; but you will +always remain a Japanese. In England, you will be a kind of ambassador +for Japan. So you must never forget your father's country, and you +must never say bad things about Japan, even if you have suffered here. +Then the English people will like you; and for that reason, they will +like Japan too; and the two counties will stand side by side, as they +ought to, like good friends. The English are a very great people, the +greatest of all; but they know very little about us in the East. They +think that because we are yellow people, therefore we are inferior to +them. Perhaps, when they see a Japanese lady as one of their peers' +wives and a leader in society, they will understand that the Japanese +also are not so inferior; for the English people have a great respect +for peers. Japan is proud to be England's younger brother; but the +elder brother must not take all the inheritance. He must be content to +share. For perhaps he will not always be the strong one. This war will +make England weak and it will make Japan strong. It will make a great +change in the world, and in Asia most of all. Already the people of +Asia are saying, Why should these white men rule over us? They cannot +rule themselves; they fight among themselves like drunkards; their +time is over and past. Then, when the white rulers are pushed out of +Asia, Japan will become very strong indeed. It will be said then that +England, the elder brother, is become _inkyo_ (retired from active +life), and that Japan, the younger brother, is manager of the family. +I think you will live to see these things, Asa Chan. Certainly your +children will see them." + +"I could never like Japan," Asako said honestly. + +The old diplomat shrugged his shoulders. + +"Very well, Asa Chan. Just enjoy life, and be happy That will be the +best propaganda." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KIMONO*** + + +******* This file should be named 12527.txt or 12527.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/2/12527 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions 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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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