The Library of the University of California - Forgotten Books · PDF fileA JAPANESE ROMANCE 3...
Transcript of The Library of the University of California - Forgotten Books · PDF fileA JAPANESE ROMANCE 3...
THE LIBRARYOF
THE U NIV ERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A . KOFOID AND
MRS . PRU DENCEW. KOFOID
@@W@WA JAPAN E S E
ROMANCE
By C LIV E HO LLANDAUTHOR OF
My JapaneseWife , ! “Mousmé,” “Marce lle
of the Quarter, etc.
ILLU STRATED lN COLOU R S
By A RTHU R o . DO V E
N EWYORK
FREDERICKA. STOKES COMPANY
PU BLISHE RS
Copyright, 1 904,
BY FREDER ICK A . S TOKE S COMPANY.
P uélz'
sfiea'inOetober, 1 904.
A l l 7 1'n reserved.
THO M A S HA R D Y , E S Q U I R E
Novelist and Poet
THI S STORY I S , WITH HIS PERM ISSION , INSCRIBED
A JAPAN E S E ROMANCE
CHAPTER I
THE wide expanse of sea through which the
Orient Queen was steadi ly ploughing herway at a good fifteen knots was like a sheet
of hammered brass . The fan-shaped wake , w ith itsnarrow
,lacelike edge of white-churned foam , and the
rounded swel l o f the North Pacific , sweeping throughthe Loochoo Islands , was all that disturbed its mo
notonous horizon-bounded surface .Underneath the white awnings Of the promenade
deck most o f the passengers were lounging in chairs ,keeping even their feet out Of any lozenge-shapedpatches o f sunsh ine which , straying through too
loosely laced edges o f the awning, fell on the deck
beneath . Those who were not too hot,or talking,
pudgelled thei r brains into imagining they were cool .
The officers not on duty, or below snatching al ittle belated sleep
,were chatting with the passengers ,
their preference being Obviously for the ladies .
On the port side of the ship in a corner near the
2 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
after deck-house were two people, a man and ayoung girl , quite apart from the rest of the pas
sengers, their two canvas deck-chairs placed with thepropinquity which the two months ’ shipboard ac
quaintance of their occupiers would be cons idered asj usti fying.
.The girl was fair, as j udged against the bronze ofsome of the other lady passengers ; and when com
pared w ith the olive-tinted Japanese women return
ing to Nagasaki from Shangha i she looked fragilelypale . Her face was oval and pretty
,notwithstanding
its lack of colour,whilst her figure
,the l ines of which
were scarcely d isguised by the folds Of the th in , whitemusl in dress she wore
,was singularly graceful .
The man was about thirty,good- look ing, and rather
above middle height . His attire only differed fromthat o f the rest of the male passengers in that he worea s i lk t ie o f the butterfly order
,a rel ic of his art
student days in the Quartier Latin .
“ A few more hours ,” said the girl a fter a some
what lengthy pause inthe conversat ion , changing herpose languidly
,and we shall be at Nagasaki .”
“ Yes,her companion assented .
“And I shal l
have to look up my com ical friend Yumoto, McKenzie , and the rest , and find a house which I canconvert into a stud io .
”
I Often wonder,Mr . Somerville , why you think
so much ofArt, w ith a capital‘
A,
’ and so l ittle of
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 3
There was a pause .Well ? ” interj ected the l istener encouragingly.
So l ittle of humanity, even w ith a small, unsocialistic h .
S O l ittle O f femin ine human ity, M iss Desbor
ough ? ” qu izzed the speaker , laughing.
I d id not say so ,” replied the girl , a shade Of
colour stealing into her cheeks ; but , after all , whatdoes it matter ? In a few hours we shall al l be scattered ,
” waving her hand towards a knot o f passengersfurther along the deck . You will go to your lotusponds
,wistaria-covered tea-houses
,—you cannot im
agine how fascinating they are,—and I to my family
group in Tokio,comprised of a dear Old uncle , an
unconscionable aunt, and three impossible cousins . Ina word , we shal l al l forget our fel low-passengers .”
I am not so sure of that,
” sa id the man,thinking
o f a dainty water-colour sketch that he had made ofhis companion . I hope i f I find mysel f near Tokio
I may cal l , and that i f you hear of an Englishman in
trouble you will interest your uncle to get the authorities to let him off.
”
“ I am sure my people will be very pleased to see
you. They owe you a debt Of gratitude for hav
ing amused me during the last few monotonous
weeks .”
“And yet you were regretting a l ittle whi le ago
that the monotony would soon be at an end .
”
4s A UAPANE S E ROMAN CE
Because when one i s lazy, repl ied M iss Desborough thoughtfully, one regrets anything whichmeans a change . Although I have called the voyage
monontonous, I shall not forget that I have made atleast one pleasant acquaintance , and have learnedsomething during the last few weeks .”
It was onthe tip o f Somervi lle ’s tongue to ask towhat she referred
,but he said nothing and regarded
her somewhat curiously,wondering whether she would
say more . There was a pause,and then she cont inued
inconsequently
But I have a few more lines to add to my mail ,and I think I must go and write them in case wecatch the homeward-bound steamer at Nagasaki .”
Lesl ie Somervi lle studied her face for a momentas she rather petulantly kicked away the clinging foldso f her skirt preparatory to rising
,and then got up to
assist her, for the vessel was roll ing .
“ Now ! ” he exclaimed,and just when the deck
was steady he give a sl ight upward pull onthe gi rl’
s
wrists .“Thanks . This deck-chai r i s my favour ite
,but it’s
no j oke getting up out of it when the ship i s rol ling.
I shall see you at lunch . I have read Le Find
’
Amour,
’ and w i l l bring it back for you then . I am
afraid my aunt would have a fit on the spot i f sheknew you had lent i t to me . Good-bye ti l l lunch .
Somervil le watched her ti l l she vanished in tlie
A JAPA NE SE ROMANCE 5
doorway o f the dec k-house , and then , tossing thestump of his cigar o verboard , he strolled forward .
He was almost angry with himsel f for regardingViolet Desborough from so purely an artistic stand
point . She had said som ething to the effect that shipboard friendships were th e least satisfactory of all .People met
,l iked each ot her , amused one another
,
parted at the end of the voyage , and—forgot .He would not forget—no . But probably only b e
cause the memory Of Violet Desb orough was enshrined
in one of the daintiest and most \ success ful p leinair
sketches he had ever made—a sketch which she had
coveted,but had been
,to tell the truth
,only too willing
that he should retain . He ought,perhaps , to have
fallen in love with her in two months . The re had been
plenty Of time,and no opportunity of escaping from
any influence or fascination that she was able to exert.
But he had not done so ; and he reali sed that he sti l l
personally regarded marriage vaguely and rather inthe light of a j oke
,though his male friends o f the
Quartier Latin had always told him,with quasi-serious
faces , that the j oke was less apparent after the fact .Meanwhile he would let the matter rest .He would doubtless marry some day ; i t might be a
model , even one o f the dainty Japanese maidens of theflower-decked land he had travelled so many thousand
miles of sea to study . Who could tell ?His memory leapt back to Petite Suzanne with
6 A JAPANE SE R ojMANoE
the flashing eyes. When he was a nouveau at C0
lorossi’
s, before he had come intro his money , he hadbeen about to marry her . But . she vanished one fine
June morning and returned lV'Ladame S emperson, having preferred a young American friend o f his own
‘
wholived less near the sky , and possessed more money andless appl ication .
Half an hour passed sp eed i ly enough in these rem iniscent mus ings , and Somervi lle was not recalled to anappreciation of hi s surroundings unti l the luncheon
bell , clanging horrib ly but welcomely between decks ,caused a stream o f hungry fellow-passengers to surgepast him .
“
A sl ight rearrangement of the tables of the salOon,to permit Of a platform being erected for the finaleven ing concert o f the voyage , had separated SomerV ill e and Miss Desborough . They could only sm ile,perhaps she somewhat sadly
,across the tables ; and
after lunch Somerv i l le felt compelled to start the pack
ing up , which , man-l ike , he had postponed almost ti l lthe last moment .At dinner the separation was repeated , and in theconfus ion follow ing the meal
,whilst the stewards
rushed hither and thither clearing out the tables asfar as possible and rearranging the chairs
,neither
Somerville nor Violet Desborough found an Oppor
tunity for anything more than a casual remark .
The concert commenced almost immed iately, and
8 A JAPANE SE ROM ANCE
S o it seemed to Violet standir’ig w ith Somervillenear the weather ra i l gazing at the phosphorescentwake .
“ I hope you w i l l find a nic e studio , the formerremarked
,in lieu of anythi 1g better to say , and
making an effort to avoid sentiment , but there shouldbe little difficulty ; the j apanese are an ingenious lot ,and will carry out sugges tions , or copy anything you
show and explain to th em accurately enoug“S O I have heard , Somervi lle assented I re
member what you tol d me about your work-box and its
chipped top . But let us talk o f something less prosaic . Don
’t you reali se , Miss Desborough , that you
are encouraging me in art , which you have hinted Ialready pursue too closely ? ”
You are not grateful .A las ! I fear I am not a grate ful man ; I do not
make a right use of my opportunities,—glancing into
the face of the woman at hi s side .Violet Desborough moved ever so sl ightly away
from him ; with her the tension was growing painfulto embarrassment .In the moonlight her slender figure appeared almostethereal ; i f it had seemed less so , i t i s possible Somerville ’s l i fe might have taken a new trend .
A j unk swam ghostlike across the broad,moonl it
track .
“How much more to be desired i s progress such
A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE 9
as that,sa id Somerville mus ingly, than the hur
rying-scurry ing , throbbing onward rush of this modernliner . Steam has knocked hal f of the poetry out ofexistence
,and given us in its stead the spirit o f
unrest . ”
Yes,replied the girl , as though her thoughts were
elsewhere ; adding,“And yet , I fancy , most women
read poetry because they vaguely hope some day tol ive it .”
She congratulated hersel f that she could speak socalmly . So long as her companion d id not touch her
she felt almost sure o f hersel f . Three generations o f
forebears in the diplomatic service had endowed her
with an unusual power o f control,and the power to
keep the one secret of a woman ’s l ife which so few candissemble .
An ocean-going steamer on a long voyage wouldbe an anomaly without the presence of at least onematch-making , hyper-inquisitive woman , and theOrient Queenhad proved no exception to the rule .Somerville and Violet Desborough had right out
from Aden been so much together that thei r apparentidentity o f tastes and pursuits had long ago aroused a
considerable amount of interest in the minds of fellowpassengers not themselves equally absorbed . A Mrs .Thriston had for some weeks regarded them as aninteresting young couple and—her legitimate prey .
Not being affl icted with undue delicacy o f perception
10 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
or feel ing,—such women seldom are , —she had at firstby covert hints
,and later by but thinly vei led pleasan
tries,endeavoured to let them see that, though every
other soul on board were blind , she saw which way thewind blew . That they took no notice Of her scarcelydisturbed her equanimity . Indeed , i t only made her
keener on the scent and less guarded in her remarks .Her friends on board
,people who either feared her or
were amused by her love of scandal , were kept wellposted in Somerville ’s and Miss Desb orough
’
s move
ments,and every glance which passed between them
and every hour they spent together was noted down bythe Argus-eyed l ittle busybody as so much drift furthertowards the maelstrom of matrimony .
Onth is last night of the voyage she had determ ined
to bring the matter to a climax , and to add one moreinstance to her l i st of people made happy ; you know,
they never would have made up their si l ly minds butfor me . ” That the two persons most concerned would
possibly resent her interference apparently d id notoccur to her .On this last night she came along the promenadedeck vivaciously as usual
,with a shawl thrown round
her shoulders , glancing sharply into shadowed corners
where deck-chairs nestled together, or i solated couples
stood gazing out over the moonlit waters in suspiciouspropinquity . At length she esp ied Somerville andM i ss Desborough .
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 11
They were evidently talk ing earnestly , and with afeel ing of an artist in matrimonial matters she feared
for a moment lest an unkind fate should have deprivedher of the glory o f putting the finishing touches to
what she considered her subtle work o f weeks .
As she approached quietly she overheard Somervi l le exclaim
,The last night ! There is always some
thing sad in the last o f anything, especially in the lastof gaiety and pleasant companionship . Despite theadage
,anticipation i s not always the greater part o f
pleasure . I,for example , did not want to fcome thi s
voyage at all . And now The l istener lost theconclus ion of the sentence in the shril l laugh o f a girlwho ran hoydenishly along the deck , sti l l in her brief
skirted tableau dress, pursued by a couple of bo isterousadmirers .
Violet Desborough was speaking by the time Mrs .Th irston was again able to catch the conversation .
you will never forget your first impress ions .
The l istener coughed . The chaplain ’s serv ices wouldevidently not be requ ired
,though matters were pro
gressing so favourably . It would doubtless be a wedding at the Legation in Tokio ; she must watch thecolumns of the Jij i S himpo for an announcement .At the sound Somervil le turned his head . Herecognised the cough
,and i f the expression which
fl itted across his face as the light from the deck-house
12 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
fel l upon it could have embarrassed Mrs . Thirston, shewould have moved away .
But the latter was not easi ly abashed .
Ah ! you young people ! ” she excla imed, w ith a
j aunty assumption of age and seriousness . Lastnights of a voyage would indeed be sad were it not forthe happy to-morrows . Yes , I know what it is to beyoung. Love ’s young dream
,and all the rest . How
does it go ? And she hummed a few bars of an ultrasentimental song which a thin-vo iced soprano had
sung at the concert an hour ago .
Her victims made no reply . Somervi lle was bitinghis moustache savagely ; whilst his compan ion had
turned away to lean over the rail and gaze down at thewater with something l ike tears of mortificationin hereyes . Mrs . Thirston paused , and then said, w ith the
pleasantry of a mort ified inquisitor , There , you mustexcuse me . It is only my deep interest in you youngpeople , and my wish that you may be very happy,that had caused me to venture to speak
Curse her impudence ! muttered the man underhis breath , as he felt the girl at his side give a littleconvulsive heave of her shoulders .I shall look in the Herald and Jij i S himpo for
an interesting announcement . Of course , Mr . Somervi l le , you will find your way to Tokio—such a veryinteresting place , o ld temples , and all that . You reallymust go.
”
14: A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
And then,ere she could reply, he added with a flash
of brightness , which almost served to cover his too
matter-of-fact proposal ,“Or i s l iving w ith the im
possible cousins too great an attraction ? ”
But he was not a good liar,and the girl at his s ide
knew too well the difference between liking and loving.
He could not, therefore , deceive her , even though shewere will ing enough to permit the deception .
Her voice , when she spoke , was not very steady, butthere was a note of unmistakable final ity in it .
“ It must be no , Mr . Somerville—believe me , i tmust ! ” she said
,ignoring his last remark . I shal l
always think of this voyage with pleasure,and remem
ber all your goodness and kindness with gratitude .You have paid me the greatest compliment it i s possiblefor a man to pay a woman
,and under ci rcumstances
which only a woman can qu ite truly appreciate . Do notask me to say more . Believe me , it must not be ; thinko f me as grateful , and even proud , not as the frivolousgirl I may have appeared . Good-bye . No,
” as he
moved along the deck at her s ide, I would rather goalone .When he had released her hand and she had gone
he waited a few minutes thinking vaguely,and then
went below to his state—room . He could almost imaginenow that he did love her
,that he was cut up by her
refusal . That she cared for him he had no doubt.
At last he recognised that he had beentoo precipi
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 15
tate . Of course she had seen through i t all how thewhole bus iness had been as it were forced upon him .
She was a plucky girl , and he had not been so wise ashe might have been .
He turned in , and fell asleep th inking of his good
intention wh ich had fai led through no great fault ofh is own.
CHAPTER II
HORTLY after sunrise Goto Shima was s ighted-a bluish
,indistinct l ine on the port horizon .
Most of the passengers were on deck , andMrs . Thirston, in no way discomposed by her encounter of the previous night
,was chatting gaily to a knot
of acquaintances who had never before beheld the
glories of a Japanese sunrise .Violet Desborough
,however
,had not yet appeared ,
and Somervil le,noting this
,had betaken himself for
ward to the turtle-deck so that he might gain an un
interrupted view o f the glories of the growing day .
A pearl haze floated l ightly onthe surface of thewater , transparent as gossamer , through which the
cl imbing sun seemed to strike in i ridescent beams , thep ink light giving an almost weird look to the peopleand obj ects onthe steamer ’s deck . Soon Goto Shimawas sinking below the horizon astern and its placetaken on the starboard bow by wooded Nomo Saki ,thrusting its pointed nose out into the grey-blue sea .
The onward rush of the vessel,the thud of whose
engines seemed to have increased as though she were
hurrying towards the nearing port, created a light,
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 17
cool a ir which blew wreaths of mist across the deck tospeedily vanish in the haze astern .
Somerville , with the seeing eye of an arti st ratherthan the devouring but the non-receptive vision of
a globe-trotter,noted with wonder and admiration the
ever-changing beauties o f this first,fresh
,Japanese
morning . To the look-out men the opalescent haze
was no more than the merest Channel wrack,sti rred
into movement by a southerly breeze,which might hide
danger , and spelt for them strained attention anddiscomfort .
The huge , Oblong sa i l Of a j unk floating bodi lessdead ahead above the shallow sea Of mist and tippedrose-pink in the sunrise caused a momentary confusion
as the steamer ’s course was altered a couple of points .And as she swept past the motionless craft the sai lflapped lazily, and then sharply and quicker, againstthe mast as the ungainly bulk of the fishing vesselfelt the steamer ’s wash
,whilst from the mist-en
shrouded deck arose shril l shouts of A bunaiyo !
Abunaiyo ! as though the occupants thought the liner
was on top Of them . Then , as she vanished astern ,there came
,clear above the thud o f the engines , a
chorus o fmorning greetings , Okayo with , perhaps,an i ronical S ayonam .
”
The morning coffee-bel l clanging brazen-tongued
between the decks drowned the good-byes of the fisher
men,and brought Somervi lle to a sense o f hunger and
18 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
more mundane th ings . With a sigh of regret at losingeven a few minutes of such a scene , as the now meltinghaze disclosed in mysterious , ethereal vistas , he hurriedbelow to the saloon
,crowded by the throng o f early
ri sers and noisi ly gay with the babel of talk .
Violet Desborough was not there . Perhaps it werebetter so , he thought, as he hasti ly gulped down the
steaming cofl’ee . He would be sure to see her at the
last to say good-bye,and anything but a hurried fare
well would be embarrassing for both o f them .
The third offi cer came into the saloon . Above thebable of various questionings his voice could be heard
exclaiming, How can I tell,Mrs . Jones ? You ’ l l be
told at the proper t ime . A good hotel,Mr . Blayner?
the ‘ Bellevue,
’ on the Bund,would be about your
ticket . In a couple o f hours . Why, bless me , yes ,coolies ? Scores of them .
”
Escaping his interrogators , he crossed to whereSomerville was standing
,and said cheerily , We have
j ust sighted Cape Saki , Mr . Somerville , and i f youwant to see Japan you can do so, for the haze has
l i fted .
Thanks,Mr . E lderson, replied Somerville , j ust as
a lady passenger anxiously questioned the former as towhether her luggage would be ransacked .
When Somerville reached his point of vantage in
the bows the blue outl ines of Japan were creeping up
out of the sea right ahead . The smoke of a tramp in
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 19
ballast, her s‘crew churn ing white and at t imes hal f out
of water , hung onthe port bow like a patch in the skyover the Nagasaki hil ls as though they were volcanoes
,
with scarcely any ai r to draw it into a streaky vei lalong the horizon . Trading j unks
,at first mere dots
onthe scarcely ruffled water , became gradually largeras the Orient Queendrew rapidly in towards the land .
Soon the wooded heights flanking the entrance to
the harbour channel oneither side took more definiteform , their grey-green tones o f pine and cryptomerias
and more vivid tints of bamboo,palms
,and elms
gradually disclosing themselves .The sti r which pervades a vessel on nearing port
was now audible ; and it must have been this whichsummoned Violet Desborough to leave her cabin .
As the steamer entered the channel which led to theanchorage Somervil le le ft hi s post and came down to
the forepart o f the promenade deck . He had caught a
glimpse o f Violet as she came out of the deck-house
and crossed to the lee side .
She was very pale,and there was the strained look
which comes from sleeplessness in her eyes .In the wakeful hours o f the hot night , when the
monotonous thud o f the engines seemed to beat itsel f
into her brain,she had reali sed that happiness had
slipped from her grasp . Fate had never been verykind to her ; and now in the person of Mrs . Thirston
she felt it had been cruel . She even persuaded herself
20 A JAPANE SE R OMAN CE
that she might,but for the latter, have been happy
instead of miserable in the thought that Somerv ille
had cared for her .As he approached she pul led hersel f together ; it
would be added bitterness i f he detected her distress .
You have missed the sunrise , Miss Desborough ,”
he said almost reproachfully .
I am afraid I have,
” she repl ied after shakinghands , turning away to gaze at the now sunlit hi lls .But you must remember it i s not my first sunrise inJapan .
I had forgotten . I have never seen anything like itbefore .
” Then changing his tone he continued,Be
fore long we shall be inport . Let me assure you , Itrust you will believe me
,how truly sorry I am for
Mrs . Thirston’
s impudence—I can call it nothing else .I have had very little experience of such women
,thank
God , or I should doubtless have known better thanto have given her a chance o f meddling . It may be a
lesson .
” And the speaker laughed somewhat bitterly.
Think no more about it,” the girl repl ied sadly . I
was as much to blame as you , perhaps more . But itwas a temptation to talk to one who knows so much ,and who has been so amusing and kind . Mrs . Thirston
was only an episode,a thunder-streak in a clear sky.
Let us forget i t .”“You are very generous
,excla imed Somerville
,
sti l l feeling somewhat contrite as he noted the speaker’s
22 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
S ayonara, she repl ied . And disengaging her
hand,with one glance at his face she left him .
As she threw hersel f sobbing on her state-roomcouch she remembered the novel ; and thi s too , then ,for her was le find’
amonr, or, rather , the end of thedream of it.Round a slight bend the steamer
,st i l l in the sub
dued light caused by the overhanging hills,on the
higher summits of wh ich the dazzl ing white sunlight
was shin ing, passed into the open sunshine of the w idebay around which the town is built . Flowers seemed
to have perfumed the warm air , unexpected gradationsof colour in wonderful freshness o f tint met the eye
on the h i lls ides behind the scatttered town , on the
heights o f wh ich could be seen the matchbox- l ike v i l lasof the merchants and more wealthy classes .
Across the lagoon-l ike expanse o f water, the sur
face j ust ruffled here and there by the draughts of a irstealing down the mountains
,giving transient motion
to the white sails o f the flocks o f picturesque though
unwieldly junks, the Orient Queenswept along at hal fspeed . A shouting arose from the hal f-naked
,yellow
ish or copper-skinned rowers o f the crowd o f sampansthat, l ike flocks of waterfowl
,skurried with apparent
aimlessness hither and thither,hampering the steamer ’s
progress at imminent risk o f being run down . Theboom-boom of the steam siren reverberated from thegorges and rock-strewn hills ide . Ahead was the Bund,
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 23
l ined w ith mercantile and shipping offices , white in themorning glare . Onthe quay itsel f Somerville , as thesteamer drew closer in towards it
,could see the crowd
Of coolies,clad in tight-fitting hose and stagey , blue
tunics,waiting to unload , with their marvellous celerity ,
the passengers ’ luggage and cargo,a sprinkling o f
Europeanised hotel and restaurant porters and bare
legged,hatless
,or over-hatted j inrikisha men stand
ing in the background .
Yumoto was there , and McKenz ie . Somerv il lecaught sight Of them almost immediately
,looking out
for him with hand-shaded eyes from the elevation of
some blue petroleum casks on end . The former , a
queer figure in Anglo-Japanese attire,in a black
bowler hat , tennis flannels,and a bril liantly blue ,
flowered kimono ; the latter in immaculately white
ducks and a wide-brimmed panama,perched well for
ward Over his face .
They waved thei r hats as they caught sight o f
Somerville . To both o f them he was a fresh importation from the West ; to M cKenz ie “ a wee bit 0
’
hame ,” though Somervi lle had in fact been born far
south Of the Tweed .
Soon the steamer was alongside,and the coolies
swarmed across her decks .Yumoto and McKenz ie were the two first landsmento step aboard
,and they eagerly made thei r way
towards Somervi lle , who stood on the fringe of the
24 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
little crowd of passengers which was b locking the
after gangway .
So you ’ve turned up al l right, exclaimed the
Scotsman,with a firm but undemonstrative grasp of
the hand .
“ There are plenty of pretty geisha ready
to lose the ir hearts to you —for a consideration , andOld Yumoto !the person referred to glared comically
at the speaker!“ keeps a capital store of Glenl ivet
in a ridiculous paper-panelled cupboard,which I
always feel inclined to put my fist through instead of
unfasten .
”
Irwshaimashp began Yumoto, at last se izinghold o f Somerville ’s hand .
“ Which being inerpreted , means in his amazinglingo welcome ,
’ put in McKenz ie .
“What he‘ says all right . Very good whisky, my
boy,at my ofli ce j ust along there . McKenz ie come in
often,very often . Business ? No ; whisky .
” And
the l ittle Japanese shook with laughter at the sly dig
he had given h is big , sandy-haired , loose-l imbedGlenlivet- imbib ing friend .
Hold hard ! ej aculated the latter good-temperedly ,
“ more about the whisky anon . But let ’s gethold o f Somerville ’s l ight baggage
,and away from this
crush . The cool ies can bring the rest .”“Hi ! ” he called out to a small coolie who was
staggering along under a huge cabin trunk , and on
the back of whose blue cotton tunic a white disc as
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 25
large as a dinner-plate was emblazoned,bring al l
the honourable Englishman ’s august luggage !spell
ing out the name , and handing the cool ie a label tornoff the bag Somerville was himself carrying! up to
my house,Dura Hill . ”
Narnhodo, boss , replied the man , with a pleasedgrin as he staggered along the gangway .
It ’s all right,
” said McKenz ie ;“ come along .
It was only about a hundred and fi fty yards toYumoto
’
s Offi ce , which was right on the Bund , andfaced the landing-stage of One of the principal Japanese steamship companies .From the brill iant noonday sunshine
,which struck up
from the surface of the water in blinding flashes l ike
workings of innumerable heliographs,and the heat of
the quay it was a relie f to pass into the shade and com
parative coolness of the impracticable- looking ofli ce .
Somerville was both interested and amused by the
strange blend ings of East and West which it displayed .
A cl imb up a flight’
o f rickety wooden stairs , thattrembled and creaked under McKenz ie
’
s ponderoustread and the bamboo rail O f which shivered con
vulsively when any one laid a hand on i t , brought
them to the narrow lacquer-panelled door on whichhung a small
,quaint bronze knocker
,representing a
Japanese arti st ’s fantastic conception o f a dolphin .
When Somerville,whose slang designation was
griffin, had beenthrust into the seat of honour, a
26 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
revolving pedestal chai r salvaged from the saloon of
an English steamer lost on Hirado Shima, he was able
to observe things .
Opposite him , fastened to the greyish wall withfour large Japanese hairpins and some pieces ofgummed stamp paper
,was a flaming red
,orange
,and
black poster of Cheret’s, depicting in startl ing pose a
favourite dancer at the Café des Ambassadeurs ; a
veritable echo Of home to Somerville,fresh from
Paris and the Quartier Latin . Near the absurdly frai ll i ttle lacquered cupboard which hung in the corner
of the wall near his desk,and from which Yumoto
proceeded to extract the large brown square bottleto which McKenz ie had referred so invitingly , was
an English poster, also of theatrical import , alongsidean ideal istic panel of Hokusai
’
s on a buff-coloured
ground . Beneath this hung a fine photo Of St . John’s
College , flanked by one of the P lace de la Concordelooking up the Avenue des Champs Elysees , and a
panoramic view of Nagasaki taken from the heightsof Venus Hill behind the foreign settlement ; whilstthe rest of the wall space was mostly covered withsteamship bills
,coloured p ictures from illustrated
papers,and almanacs of European shipping firms .
Somervil le ’s semi-sarcastic comment concerning theheterogeneous character o f the art displayed to his
astonished gaze brought forth Yumoto ’
s invariable
defence of his taste .
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 27
It is true Art,a m ixture of al l sorts such as that
in which you used to revel in the Rue de la GrandeChaumiere ,
” he replied,smiling cheerfully as he
pushed in the glass ball o f a soda-spl it with the topo f a slender ebony ruler ; i t arrests attention . Art
should be one big poster i f one i s to sell one ’s pictures ;that is what your friend S empersonused to say whenI d iscusseed the question with him after my morn
ing ’s study at the Sorbonne . He could never do any
thing big , so he failed .
Now that thing over there,continued the speaker ,
after a pause occupied in drinking the health and
future prosperity of the newly arrived griffin, pointing to the poster by Cheret ,
“ i s,as the French have
it, a blow in the eye .’
No one who enters my officecan overlook its Obvious merits . It i s
,moreover
,good
for business, you
But McKenz ie broke in . Dry up,o ld chap , that
’s
another story . Let’s get something out of Somervi lle . ”
And then followed a torrent of questions concerning Western things , the doings of the fel lows in Parisand London , and numerous interested inquiries afterthe present position of several of the artists ’ modelsand lady art students Of the Quartier Latin .
For McKenz ie, be it remarked , would have been an
artist could he have made money thereby,and had
passed fifteen months in the schools ere he discovered
28 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
he could not . He was now making money , andostensibly pursuing art
,with a small a ,
’ as manager ofa Japanese porcelain factory near Kago Street .Somerville satisfied all McKenz ie ’
s inqu irie sprompted by home-hunger , and Yumoto
’
s studiously
polite ones after the young lady students at the Sorbonne
,and the habitue
’
es at the Café d ’Harcourt, who
used to admire his gay-coloured kimono,blue
tassel led skull cap,and comical yellow face .
His recollections of a certain lively little lady,nick
named “ Demi-Siphon ” by the students,on account
o f her small s ize and effervescing spirits,were cut
short by the rumble and rattle of the mailboat blowingoff steam .
Somerville started,for the detonations shook the
room and rattled the outer shutters and the sliding
paper panels dividing it from a storeroom,as though
the whole fabric were about to collapse .Yumoto smiled and calmly mixed another drink .
“ You will get used to it,he said ; my offi ce has
stood two earthquakes . It i s very firm .
McKenz ie frankly laughed at Somerville ’s alarm .
But to the latter there was something terribly unsubstantial about the whole premises .With the shutting Off o f the steam on the l iner theminor noises of the quay again became apparentsharp , clear voices ; the clang of hammers on iron ;the screech of steam winches and cranes swaying out
CHAPTER III
HE two men took their way along the Bundtowards the eastern side of the harbour . Abare-legged , blue-j acketed coolie , wearing
upon h is bullet-shaped head an antiquated pith hel
met, no longer white , and ornamented with a sprawling yellow dragon across the front
,was carrying
Somerville ’s light baggage tied to the wooden frameonhis back .
McKenz ie ’
s house was a bit further out of townthan mo st o f those Of the foreign merchants . In fact,it clung onthe hillside rather close to the upper fringeo f the native town stretching to the north along the
Tokitsu road . Leaving the blinding glare of the
waterside,McKenz ie struck inland . A turn to the
right and through a narrow,shaded path , they pur
sued thei r way parallel to the quay .
Somervil le talked little . He was noting thequaintness o f everything . He felt almost as thoughhe had fallen from the clouds into a world of un
reality and a town of toy houses . From the balconyof a big shingle-roofed chaya !tea-house ! a geisha
b lew kisses to them from her finger-tips as they passed
30
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 81
up the loose-paved ascent . This had happened too
Often to the seasoned M cKenz ie for him to do morethan smile
,shake his head , and cal l out,
“Mata Ki
masn, mayonichi —a vague promise for the time
which never comes,in remembrance of Katakuri San
at home . To Somerville , the newest of griflins in thisflowery land
,the very act o f the little woman was in
itsel f charming,and the pose O f the dainty figure , in
its bright-hued kimono and elaborately t ied obi, ap
pealed to his artistic sense .
Seeing he was incl ined to loiter, h i s compan ionlaughed .
Come along, he exclaimed . You w i ll see heapsof prettie r geisha and mnsnme
’
,and with Miss S umomo
there you would scarcely touch the fringe o f romance . ”
Then,for the rest o f the way up the sloping street
along which they went,now into harsh shadows
clearly defined as though painted in Payne ’s grey on
the yellow reddish soil,and then across patches o f
sunlight Of almost blinding intensity, McKenz ie told
him of Miss S umomo’
s errant affections and hermany charming peccadilloes— stories which
,because
such things are the same all the world over,seemed
to Somervil le to smack familiarly of the QuartierLatin .
At length they reached the house , perched up abovethe road on a piece o f rock against the hills ide , to
which McKenz ie,in anoutburst of national ardour,
32 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
had given the name Ecclefechan -a word whichhis Japanese friends and acquaintances could never
correctly pronounce .Through a little bamboo wicket, up a fl ight of min
iature steps cut in the rock , on which gay-coloured
lizards were sunning themselves , and along a mping,plant-bordered path
,and they were on the verandah .
Quite a fair—sized garden lay at the back of the
house ; the way they had come was McKenz ie ’
s short
tut.
At the sound Of thei r footsteps a panel door atthe further end of the verandah was sl id back
,and a
little figure came running with short,quick steps
towards them . It was “ Madame McKenz ie , re
splendent in a kimono Of peach-hued si lk embroidered
with si lver Chrysanthemums , and bound round at the
waist by a broad sky-blue obi tied behind in a huge
butterfly bow . When she caught s ight of Angus herface l ighted up with a smile of welcome
,strangely
compounded of admiration and deference for hervery much big European husband .
”
Then she caught sight of Somerville .Yokn nashaimasta, welcome ,
” she exclaimed,
prostrating hersel f quaintly , and then on rising seizing h is hand Ingleesh way .
”
She was very charming, this da inty, doll-l ike l ittle
woman , who scarcely stood higher than her big husband ’
s elbow .
A JAPANE SE R OMANCE 38
Somervi l le had scarcely time to appreciate her pret
tiness ere with a little laugh she vanished into the
oz ashiki !l iving room ! which opened on to the ver
andah . Through the thin shoj i her voice could be
heard exhorting San-to the cook to serve tiffinwithout
delay .
The wonderful bareness o f the room into which
McKenz ie,after kicking Off his shoe s , led Somerville ,
with the hospitable remark that he was to considerit his ownparticular slip of territory for j ust so long
as he liked,st ruck the latter with a sl ight sense of
isolation . It was more bare than his sometime studioin the Rue de Madame
,and how immaculately clean !
The spotless matt ing, onwhich it seemed impossi
ble that anything more defiling than sunbeams could
yet have fallen , or at worst the feet o f the l ittle mistresso f the house shod in snowy-white cotton tabi
,brought
almost a sense o f chill to his mind,which had not yet
been cleansed from the memory Of the paint—stainedparquet o f his Quartier Latin home . In a corner wasthe neatly rolled-up bed , a long mattress-shapedcushion about four inches thick
,covered in some dark
blue fabric , with a short bolster for pillow -this latter
an innovation of M cKenz ie ’
s, who had never taken
kindly to one o f acacia wood like that in which
Madame ’s elaborately coiffured head was wont to
repose .
A deck-chair , a copper j ar on a bracket with a
34s A JAPANE SE R OMANCE
flower-pot of Imari ware of elegant form and chastecolouring
,which pleased Some rville ’s artistic sense ,
and a vase in one corner near the window filled withsprigs of pinky-white plum blossom , the flowers ren
dered wonderfully transparent by the broad shaft of
sunlight which struck in under the overhanging eaves
and fell upon them . That was all .You can fix your painting traps up here right
away,”McKenz ie ’
s voice struck in whilst Somerville
was inspecting his surroundings . This way ,”
shoving back a panel,which ran almost si lently in its
wooden grooves leads into the garden . That i sKatakuri
’
s i ri s pond . Pretty,i sn ’t i t ? It i s she who
must show you round . She knows heaps more about
the flowers and things than I do,and she speaks
pretty fair English . Besides,you wil l have to learn
something of the l ingo , or you ’l l find your modelsdul l .”
The view from the end of the verandah , which
ran round three sides of this strangely fragile l ittle
house perched onthe mountain-side amidst the bamboos , pines , and maples , and huge , gloomy- look ing
cryptome rias , was magnificent . Far below ,the almost
landlocked harbour lay placid and still in the sunshine,
with its calm surface here and there disturbed by thesampans fl itting about l ike legless waterflies with trai ling agitated tails . Away across the harbour was thegap between the hil ls by which the liner had entered
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 35
a darker,narrow streak of water , into the compara
tive gloom o f which several white-sai led j unks wereslowly dri fting with the tide . The road up which
Somerville and McKenz ie had climbed stretched
away like a rusty red ribbon down towards the flat
roo fed settlement .As they were contemplating the outlook a soft p itter
patter of feet sounded along the matting Of the passage leading to the room . A panel was slid back andKatakur i San appeared
,a pretty little figure
,appar
ently artificial enough to have stepped bodi ly Off afan or some rice-paper screen .
“Tiffin i s quite made
,
” she exclaimed,w ith the
nearest approach to a European housewi fely smile ofpride fl itting across her l ittle tinted face
,making an
elaborate bow , almost a prostration , the while . Wi l l
the great honourable Engleesh si r have the augustpleasantness to arrive ?The great Engleesh s ir ti ckled Somervi l le ’s
sense of humour imm ensely,as d id also the quaint
pronunciat ion o f his mother-tongue,w ith a parrot
l ike monotony o f voice .
M cKenz ie laughingly explained .
I told Katakuri ,” he said
,
“ that you were a greatfriend of mine . She mi sunderstood what I meant andis , I
’
l l go bail , a bit disappointed in your size .”
It was evident that Madame McKenz ie had learned
her English sentences by heart,for she apparent ly
36 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
fa i led to qu ite comprehend what her husband wassaying.
They went together into the oz ashiki, on the spotless matting floor of which the meal was set , a nondescript array of food over whose preparation old San-tohad struggled gamely
,though somewhat unsuccess
fully,to transmute Eastern theories of the culinary
art into Western di shes .Katakuri San flitted about
,very proud that Somer
v i lle treated her as the wife of the big Scotsman—thecolour of whose hai r and complexion always remindedher of the sunset seen from Kompirayama, when it i s
hazy—for Mr . Yumoto never seemed able to treather so .
Everyth ing was del ightfully fresh to the newarrival : the l ittle woman in her quaintly art istic dress ,a blot of colour in the white bareness of the room
the bril liant sunshine,which nothing could seemingly
prevent streaming in through the interstices of theshoj i, making ladders of light onwhich particles of
dust floated l ike the interm inable air-dance of gnats ,and the quaint insufficiency of the numerous d ishes ,soup , fish , meat, and fruits in bewildering forms .Katakuri San , moreover , evidently regarded Somerville with favour , for she tried perseveringly to converse with him in the strange mixture of Japanese
,
English , and French , most of which she had pickedup ere McKenz ie had started housekeep ingWith her.
38 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
the conversation , for she smiled a rather artificiall ittle smile
,and sat down onthe thin mat-l ike z abnton
!cushion ! in silence .
McKenz ie did not return to hi s Ofli ce as he usuallydid after tiffin, and the two men sat onthe verandah ,which was on the side of the house overlooking thetown and harbour
,smoking and talking over o ld
t imes . The sometime artist , but now merchant , waseager to hear how his O ld chums of the Quartier Latinfared ; and Somerville was only too willing to talk
of the place which had for the last five years beenhome to him .
Yumoto and Fo lkard came up quite early , and thenover coffee and cigars the four men talked on ; Kata
kuri San listening with strained attention for the Engl ish words she knew , as they spoke of Paris , London ,European politics
,and their mutual friends . Then they
discussed Somerville ’s plans til l the dusk began to
enmesh the hills ide , the sky assume a deep blue t intpowdered with gold dust
,as the myraid stars came
slowly out and the harbour became an irregular
shaped grey pearl , turning to black as the night drewon apace .
Down below the l ights of the town sparkled,and
here and there along the black gashes,which indicated
the streets , paper lanterns , carried by pedestrians orswung from the balconies of tea-houses
,gleamed fit
fully. Each sampanand j unk in the harbour had its
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 39
owngay red , orange , or pure white paper lanterns ,which were so numerous that Somerville was misledinto thinking that there was a fete .
Into the further recess of the bay and h i l ls ides theOrient Queen, which was coaling, flashed an impro
vised electric searchlight,throwing into strong relie f
the shipping, the houses , and the crowds of people
gathered along the Bund , the indistinct murmur of
whose voices floated up like the breaking of sea onasandy shore .
Once the bl inding beam of l ight flashed into the
verandah and startled Katakuri San so violently that
she declared that she had seen a bake-momo !ghost ! ,and cowered frightened at McKenz ie ’
s feet .
It i s bad,velly bad ,
” she exclaimed , almost in
tears o f vexation at having shown fear before these
Englishmen .
Yes,i t i sn ’t n ice
,agreed young Fo lkard sympa
thetically .
“ It makes things look tawdry .
”
“Robs the night o f its poetry ,
” said Somervi l le
musingly,as the sky seemed to be cut Off from them ,
“ and turns the landscape into a Caran d’
Ache—alll ines and reali sm , a mere si lhouette .
Yumoto was commercial . “ But it enables us to
see things , said he .
Katakuri San shook her elaborately coiffured headdissentingly as she remembered its blinding flash in
her eyes .
40 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
We could tell i f there were an enemy in theMegam i Channel , Yumoto continued . And thenwhat a wonderful thing electricity i s ! It will revolutionise labour and the commercial world .
”
Then the four men argued out the trend of modern
progress from their individual points of view ti ll itgot late . But at last Katakuri San took two paper
lanterns , suspended from slight bamboo sticks , fromthe corner for the guests and lighted them
,her dainty
l ittle figure hal f in shadow making a pretty picture as
she d id so,the rouge and b lanc de perle of her cheeks
being softened by the diffused orange radiance which
l ighted them as she peered cautiously into the narrow
mouths of the lanterns to make sure they were burn
ing properly .
When Yumoto and his companion had finally dis
appeared down the winding hi llside path Somervi lle
and McKenz ie went in .
The former fel l asleep under his smoke-blue mos
quito net with the eternal chirp of the cicadae andKatakuri San ’s voice in hi s ears , the last words which
came to him faintly through the panell ing being,Yes
,Fuj i j ust the one sort girl for him .
” This in
Katakuri San ’s funny little drawling voice , followedby a murmur of dissent from McKenz ie .
Then a s i lvery l ittle laugh, the c lapping of hands,and si lence .
CHAPTE R IV
E RY early next morn ing Somerville was
awakened by the song o f a grosbeak and the
twittering of the tree-sparrows in the garden
outs ide . The last thing ere turning in the night beforehe had pushed back one o f the upper panels of the
shoj i, through which now fell a ladder of golden light,soft and translucent . He lay onhis thin , mattress- l ike
bed , watching it through the haze formed by the greyish-blue mosquito curtains
,and listening to the song o f
the birds . And as he did so he suddenly rememberedwhat V o ilet Desborough had told him about the latter .“You wil l only hear it i f you waken early or travel
late ,” she had said
,
“for at noon and during the
middle part o f the day even in the woods there i s a
strange hush o f sti l lness which leads many travellers
who sleep soundly,and who do not travel except in the
middle hours Of the day, to speak o f Japan as a land
without singing—birds .”
With his thoughts o f what Violet Desborough hadsaid came thoughts o f her . He lay and wonderedwhether she had already proceeded to Tokio or was
sti l l aboard the Orient Queendown in the harbour
41
42 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
below, waiting to go on by it to Yokohama. He
remembered she had said she was undecided what shewould do unti l she got a letter from her aunt at the
post—office on the Bund, which she knew would beawaiting her .
He wondered somewhat vaguely whether she would
ever think o f him, and then his thoughts trailed off in
speculation concerning what might have happened
had only Mrs . Thirston’
s offi ciousness not forced hishand , and—the voyage lasted longer .At length the l ight became stronger. Outside the
sunwas climbing up from the sea and over the hi llsto pour a flood of soft radiance into M cKenz ie ’
s
beauti ful garden . San-to could be heard movingabout humming some dirge-l ike song ; and the boom ,
boom of an incoming steamer ’s siren signalling to the
look—out on Iwo Shima floated up from the harbour
and re-echoed amid the hills surrounding it . Thenaway to the west came the shri ller scream o f a
whistle at the Imperial Dockyard , then the sound of aclock striking down in the Foreign Settlement.Pushing the curtains o f his bed aside , Somerville
rolled out from beneath what he had already face
tiously named the“ meat safe,
” and looked out
through the shoj iAcross the garden came the song of the grosbeak,and from a tree hard by a bullfinch was sending backa mocking warble . Down below lay the exqu isite
A JAPANE SE R OMAN CE 43
harbour,only j ust bathed in the soft but clear early
morning light,which showed up every j unk
, sampan,and steamer on its surface as though they had been
carved out o f ebony or coloured woods . The traderthat had hooted at Iwo Shima was j ust coming
through the narrow passage Of scattered islets with a
long black trai l of smoke behind her floating back toTakab oko .
But it was to the garden that Somervi l le ’s eyesturned . Near the path up which he had come the day
before was a plum-tree in blossom , an exquisite tracery
o f blue-black twigs and branches thickly encrusted
with nacre-tinted flowers . Beneath it lay a carpet o f
petals as though snow had fallen in the hour of dark
ness . And further down the path , where a tiny bridge
crossed an equally dim inutive stream,were the cherry
trees Katakuri San loved,with their blossoms j ust
about to burst the gummy sheaths which held them .
Away ona bank under the bushes and diminutive
trees which bordered the garden onthe hillside was
a patch o f deep blue where a carpet o f scentless violets
lay in the green shade o f cypress and pine .
As he was wondering at the exquisite beauty of thi sl ittle garden
,he heard the sounds o f stirring in the
adj oining room,with an accompaniment of Mc
Kenzie ’s tones speaking Japanese,and the more treble
ones o f Katakuri San .
A few minutes later and there was a rap on the
44 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
karakami which served as a door leading into thepassage , the sharp noise of a small bronze knocker
meeting lacquered wood .
Ohayo ! called McKenz ie from outs ide .Ohayo !
” replied Somervil le , adding, after somethought , a polite phrase which M iss Desbo rough hadtaught him
, Orgari nasai.
The panel was slid back and McKenz ie appeared
laughing at Somervil le ’s pronunciation of the last twowords . And how have you slept ? asked the former.First-rate
,
” replied Somerville . I have been
awake since five , and lay listening to the birds and
watching the light grow stronger. It is exquisite uphere . But how is Madame ? ”
McKenz ie smiled .
“ I think,
” sa id he , you may as well call her
Katakuri San,at least when we are enfamille. It is
Yumoto’
s politeness which makes him call her
Madame . You will soon begin to feel that your best
manners are o f quite an inferior kind when you come
in contact with the people out here .”
So Miss Desborough led me to believe , remarkedSomervil le .
McKenz ie glanced at the speaker narrowly , andthen said , And who ’s Miss Desborough ?
A girl on the steamer . She ’s come out to live fora time with her people at Tokio . They ’re somethingin diplomacy ; at least her uncle i s , I believe .
”
46 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
You’
ve got everything you want, I hope ?”
queried McKenz ie , with a comprehens ive glance roundthe bare room .
“Ye—es,
” replied his friend somewhat dubiously,
i f I could have a wash .
M cKenz ie burst out laughing.
“There
’
s your washing kit over there,he said
,
after a pause , pointing to a small bowl in the corner of
the room , and a very ornamental but diminutive j arwhich stood beside it .
That ! exclaimed Somervi lle in astonishment .Why, i t
’s not so big as the ridiculous tea-cup affairI found had sufficed for the ablutions o f my pre
decessor in my room in the Rue de Madame . I can ’tget a wash in that thing.
McKenz ie laughed .
I ’m afraid,
” said he , you ’ l l find everyth ing out
here ontoo small a scale at first . But another morning you can have a bath—a real ‘ tub such as mostdecent Japs take every day or oftener , and hot enoughto cook them
,which does away with the necessity for
much washing b etweeenwhiles . But this morningKatakuri has annexed it ; and I regret to say my ownleaks . San-to ’s youngest girl fel l into it about a weekago when it was out on the verandah
,and they both
rolled together down the steps into the garden . Andwhen I extricated her I found that the shock of the
fal l had knocked out two of her teeth and started
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 47
S everal of the tub’s ribs . I t leaks like a sieve now ,
and I don ’t want to turn your floor into a swimmingbath . I f you want a
‘ tub to-day you had better get
out in the garden . The lake i s j ust about big enough ;but m ind the goldfish don ’t eat you, for they didn
’
tget a meal yesterday ; Katakuri was so excited at the
prospect Of your arrival that she .clean forgot to feed
them .
”
I ’l l cut the bath in the goldfish pond this morn
ing,said Somervi lle
,
“ and try to clean mysel f in the
eggcup .
”
Come out onthe verandah when you’re through ,
said McKenz ie , I hear Katakuri call ing .
”
Oide nasai ! Oide nasai ! sounded down thepassage as McKenz ie disappeared . And then camethe tones of Katakuri San ’s soft , gentle voice in whatwas evidently serious conversation .
Somerville hastened over the rest of his to i let,and
pushing back the shoj i strolled out onto the verandah .
The first thing he did was to search the harbourand waterside Of the Bund for the Orient Queen. Hewould perhaps have been puzzled to exactly explainwhy he did so , but he felt the mail steamer which hadbeen his home for more than six weeks was as i twere the last l ink between the l i fe he had led and thathe was j ust about to lead . And besides , Violet Des
borough possessed a greater interest for h im than hehad supposed .
48 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
As he leaned against the wooden post of the verandah
,which was painted a brick-dust red , and swept
his eyes across the harbour he caught sight Of the
Orient Queenmoored with steam up , her white hullgleaming like ivory in the morning light and silveryplumes o f vapour issuing from her steam-pipes . Theseincreased
,and before long the tearing concussion of
the safety valves reverberated in the stil l air , causing
the fragile panels o f the house to vibrate l ike tympani .
Then a whistle sounded as the mailboat cast Off hermoorings and began to drift round maj estically , with
her bows pointing to the narrow channel between IwoShima and Kame-nO-shima .
Somerville watched her gathering way,and leaving
an ever-increasing,fan-shaped wake behind her
,with
a pang of regret . .He strained his eyes uselessly inthe vain endeavour to detect the identity o f the peopleon her promenade deck, and was so preoccupied indoing so that he did not hear the soft shoo-shoo of
Madame McKenz ie ’
s tabi-clad feet along the mattingo f the verandah .
Ohayo ! she exclaimed,after gazing intently for
a moment at Somervi lle ’s face in profi le .He started , and turned round .
Madame M cKenz ie stood in a little pool o f sunlight which struck inbeneath the rafters o f the verandah , a dainty little figure in a bright orange cottonkimono
, into the fabric of which was woven a pattern
A JAPANE SE R OMANCE 49
formed by sprigs o f plum blossom,a gayer garment
than married women usually wore . But then McKenzie loved colour
,and she to please him had made
a law o f fashions Of her own, which had at first somewhat scanda
’
l i sed her relatives . Her face had thatdainty artificiality which the use o f rouge and powder
produces,a delicacy o f nuance which would have
done credit to an English fashionable beauty .
To tell the truth , this same complexion had takenher quite a while to build up , as she had sat that morn
ing cross-legged onthe white matting Of her sleeping
chamber in front of her tiny dressing-chest with its
numerous miniature drawers o f camphor-wood , and
its circular mirror of polished steel swinging betweenscrolls of hammered bronze .
It is wel l to do honour to one ’s honourable guest,
she had said in a circumlocutory phrase to McKenz ie .
But at the back Of her l ittle mind lay the desire toplease
,which had been inculcated in her for years
before she became one o f the most admired attendantsat the Fuj i - tei restaurant in Ima-machi
,at which she
had picked up a strange medley of American , English ,and French phrases .Somerville smiling
,repl ied to her good morning
in his best Japanese ; and then fell to a considerationo f her as an arti sti c whole .In that sense there could be no manner of doubt
that Katakuri San was a success . He noted the pure
50 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
oval of her face and the soft peach bloom upon the
curve of her cheeks where the poudre de riz blendedimperceptibly with the rouge fin. Her kimono wasrather widely open at the neck
,and displayed a throat
and a suspicion of her shoulders , which were plump
and almost as white as those of a European . In fact ,they were only tinted with that golden glow whichhad often pleased his artistic sense when a beauti ful
Creole , named Hermione Doucet , was posing at C0lorossi
’
s. And where in many women salt cellarsappeared , with her there were only dimples . He
noticed,too
,that where the wide
,hanging sleeve o f
her kimono fel l away from her upraised left arm ,that
the latter was well shaped and her hands small . And
as to her eyes,they were the slyest and most mis
chievous he had ever seen . As Mademoiselle Katakuri San o f the Fuj i-tei R estaurant in Ima-machi shehad learned to use them professionally and effec
tively , as her capture of McKenz ie testified , and as
Madame McKenz 1e she did not make use of them lessski l fully .
As she stepped to his side and gazed out over therail o f the verandah Somervi lle was able to appreciatethe exquisite care which Katakuri San had bestowedupon both her complexion and her coiffure . Her masso f blue-black hair—coarse , i t must be admitted , butlustrous—was piled up high upon her shapely littlehead, and in it were stuck some huge j ade-headed p ins
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 51
arranged l ike the spokes of a conventional halo ofsemi-ci rcular form .
“ Your honourable body I hope itsel f has rested,
she remarked,with a smile in a quaint mixture of
English and Japanese idiom .
“And that the noise of
the sparrows has not too early wakened you .
”
Somervil le was assuring her that he had slept well,
and that the tw i ttering of the sparrows was altogetherdelightful , when McKenz ie appeared
,cigarette in
mouth , and w ith a copy of Le P etit Journal in hi shand .
I ’ve only j ust got the mail that the Orient Queenbrought,
” he sa id ,“ and reading this has made me
quite homes ick, or, rather,‘ Quartier ’ sick . What
times we used to have , Somerville ! And the boys .We would have been going home to roost about this
time in Paris after a fierce night up on Montmartreor at Bullier . And Suzanne , what a girl ! She would
have made two of the biggest geisha down in thetown . And then there was Herm ione . Do you re
member the morning we returned with her from the‘
Quatz’ Art Ball when our
‘ float ’ took the firstprize
,and she would insist onmounting the pedestal
o f the monument in the P lace du Carrousel in hertiger skin and haranguing the Sergente de ville . Thosewere days
,i f you l ike ; and I sometimes feel sick o f
the Porcelain Works !though I’m making money fast !
and long for the o ld , bare , dirty studio in the Rue des
2 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Fourneaux,with its no rth light subdued by dust . Al l
which has been suggested,
” he continued,“ by this
paragraph announcing l ittle R ené Desmoulin ’s suicide by charcoal . Poor little R ené ! I wonder howmany time sketches I made of her whilst she used topout and pretend that all artists were cochons, and
posing was the most arduous Of all the professions
open to pretty girls . ”
Somerville smiled at McKenz ie ’
s vain regrets concerning the li fe he had abandoned . He had heard
René ’s m ishap ere he left Pari s . But such thingswere so frequent in the Quartier that a couple of
months had served to dull any poignant regret hemight have felt at the time of the occurrence .Katakuri San loo ked at McKenz ie fixedly . Shecould only gather from his speech that it concernedhis former li fe about which he sometimes spoke of her,and—a woman .
In her l ittle m ind there lay dormant mostly , butoccasionally very much the reverse
,a dislike o f foreign
women , for so she classed all Europeans . And thatMcKenz ie had spoken of women he had known shequite realised .
After a pause she ventured to say with a wonderful mispronunciation o f Pauline ’s name ! Paw- leenDays mow- len , who is she , Kumataka ?
” using thename which had been bestowed upon McKenz ie onaccount of his piercing grey eyes .
54 A‘ JAPANE SE ROMANCE
wh ich were over-bold in their fl ights across its surface,
nor the new wealth of blossom on the plum-tree sheloved , that had come to replace the fallen petals of thenight .
A ll three were di sturbed by the creaking of theverandah as San-to came along it to announce thatbreakfast was prepared .
“K ekko
,
”said McKenz ie , w ithout turn ing round .
And then , as San-to , a wrinkled-faced figure,disap
peared into the house , he laid a hand upon KatakuriSan
’
s shoulder Come,
” said he,I am hungry , and
our honourable guest wil l be wanting hi s breakfast .
She turned,and the face she showed to McKenz ie ,
however sad it had been the moment before whenshe looked out over the garden , was smil ing. For
from the reversed pages of Kaibara’
s OnnaDiagaku had she not learned in early girlhood thatshe should never offend her husband or male relatives ,or even h is relatives
,with a frowning face ? In this
“ Whole Duty of Women !which a facetious Am
ericangirl has called The Whole Gospel o f Women—According to Man she had also learned manyother things which make for domestic peace , eventhough they spell the effacement of individuality inwomen .
It was not easy for Somerville to squat crosslegged in comfort upon a z abuton, which McKenz iehad by this time learned to do so easily .
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 55
It i s strange at first , said the latter, laugh ing atthe wry face of hi s friend , but now I would rathersit ona cushion at meals l ike a tai lor than use a chair .”
“You much pain in your honourable legs have ,
remarked Katakuri San as she was handing round the
fish,tea
, mochi !rice cake ! , and meboshi !dry salted
plums ! , and noticed his discomfort . Mister Bolton ,him a great man say bad words at our abominablefloor and z abuton at first
,but now quite beauti fully
he shut up like Kumataka there . ”
McKenz ie laughed and explained that Mister Bolton was an engineer 1nthe Naval Yard
,some six feet
in height and with legs rather disproportionately long,
and that by shut up Katakuri San referred to the
ease with which he now managed to sit down .
He is a great chum of Katakuri’s,” he explained .
She has a quaint way o f estimating importance bysize , and I think sti l l bel ieves Bolton was some one ofgreat mark in England .
”
“Nani? exclaimed Katakuri San
,with an inkling
that he was laughing at her,adding after a pause
,as
she comprehended what had been said, Wakarimasu.
Mister Bolton a very great man,a very important
Offi cer gentleman .
”
As she was speaking she rose to her feet , withan almost imperceptible straightening Of her lower
limbs,and pushing one o f the karakami back in its
grooves disappeared .
56 A JAPANE SE R OMAN CE
She has gone to get some biscu its , expla ined
McKenz ie .
“ She has noticed that the mochi hangsfire with you. I have been trying to educate San-tointo the way o f preparing an English breakfast evers ince I came up here
,but to no purpose . And at last
I am getting accustomed to all sorts of weird thingswhich appear when Katakuri San and she have beenputting their heads together .”
Somervil le looked somewhat despondently at the
array o f small dishes which were spread out in a
semi-circle in front of where Katakuri San had beens itting. He had been eating all the time !what heknew not! and he was stil l hungry .
I suppose said he at length , with a grim sort ofsmile ,
“ there s not a restaurant down in the townwhere I could get a square meal ? ”
“ There is ,” replied McKenz ie, in Hama-no
machi . But no one takes a square meal at this timeo f day . And besides , Katakuri San would feel insulted beyond measure were you to scorn her breakfast, which I believe she thinks is quite European , byproposing to feed in the town .
”
But ,”argued Somervi lle , I ’ve only had samples .
And Heaven only knows o f what ! I can ’t starve,
man . And I
Ere he could finish what he was about to say the‘
karakomi once more sl id along in its grooves andKatakuri San appeared . Her face was radiant
,and
'
A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE 57
she Bore in her arms a tin o f American cra'ckers ,wh ich were only produced onstate occasions , or when
she w ished to give a lady visitor an astoni shing treat .You much l ike these , she exclaimed , seating her
sel f w ith the b iscuit tin between her knees . Oagan
nasai, take much ,” holding out a tiny plateful , adding
with the pol iteness which compels the Japanese hostand hostess to depreciate the food offered , they arevery nasty kashi, but I hope they your honourable
stomach w i l l please .”
Somervi l le laughed and took a handful of the
crackers . He had had a good many makeshi ft andinadequate meals in the Quartier Latin during thefour and a half years he had lived in Paris
,but none
stranger than the present one . Even French roll sand coffee , he thought , are a better preparation for aday ’s work than the small sl ices of raw fish
,salted
plums , m inute cups o f weak tea the colour o f whisky,and the crackers with which he had been regaled
,not
to mention hal f a dozen other mysterious things whosenature he had not ventured to ask .
He ate a good many of Katakuri San ’s nastykashi ere he felt the appetite which had been inducedby the clear , fresh morning air had been in the least
appeased . Had he glanced at his hostess instead o f
confining his attention to the crackers and conversation with McKenz ie
, he would have noticed that herface wore a look of almost plaintive anxiety as she
58’
A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
watched the precious biscuits disappearing. To tellthe truth
,it was the last tin , and McKenz ie , for
economical reasons,never let her know that the fresh
supply which presumably came each time from San
Francisco or Vancouver actually emanated from hisoffice
,where he held stock .
At length Katakuri San felt that she could withoutimpoliteness replace the lid ; and when this was doneher face resumed that expression o f tranquil lity withwhich she had been taught to endure buffets of fortune
,lest her honourable Scotsman should think she
were growing ugly and dismiss her with that ease ofdivorce which made her tenure of w ifehood soinsecure .Down in the town below them a gong sounded
in the Shinto Temple,recalling McKenz ie to a realisa
t ion of the fact that he was already due at his officein the PercelainWorks .I must be going ! he exclaimed , getting up onhis
feet with a spring,which Somervil le vainly attempted
to imitate .
“ You had better walk down with me,
and spend the morning wandering about ti l l tiffin,when I will meet you at Icho-tei in Hama-no-machi .We shall pass it onour way .
”
Katakuri San made a little moue o f disappo intmentat McKenz ie ’
s proposal .
That morning, almost as soon as her eyes were
open , she had decided how delightful a day she would
A'
JAPANE SE ROMAN CE 59
spend looking on whilst Somerville unpacked histhings . The cases which the coolies had staggered
under and eventually placed in the room at the far endo f the engawa !verandah ! must surely, she thought ,contain things o f great interest and importance . Andhad not Kumataka himsel f told her very funny storieso f her honourable guest ’s paintings
,and how he made
pictures o f women appear in a very few moments andin bri lliant colours on pieces o f canvas tight on
frames ? And then,perhaps
,she had thought , as she
lay with hal f-closed eyes looking at the sunlight which
came in through the ramma which McKenz ie always
left open for venti lation , in one or other o f those im
mense packing-cases there might be some books with
pictures in them . And Katakuri San was fond o f pic
tures . It was , there fore , with a sad heart she watched
Somervi lle disappear in company with McKenz ie over
the dip in the road which ran along the bottom of the
garden .
San-to was not an exciting compan ion ; M io Sanonly smiled when her mistress talked seriously , andnotwithstanding her honourable position which had
made Miss Morning Glory,
” Miss Snow , and“ Miss Moon Face
,
” who sti l l entertained the visitors
at the Fuj i-tei,envious and her relatives proud ,
Katakuri San was often dul l when M cKeniz e was
away,and at times often longed for her o ld l i fe of
pleasure and excitement .
CHAPTER V
ORE than a month had passed s ince Somerville had landed at Nagasaki , and by that
t ime , with the adaptabi lity of a cosmopol
i tan temperament , he had already begun to feel at
home .He sheds his griffinhood read i ly, Yumoto had ex
claimed one evening at the Hanaz ono Restaurant in
N i shiyama Go . And the phrase exactly described the
s ituation .
Long ere th is the room which McKenz ie had
allotted to Somerville had been converted by him into
a very fai r semblance o f a studio . And to Katakuri
San ’s eyes it had become a chamber o f mystery and
del ight . Never,certainly
,had she been in so very
much fil led up a heya.
” And,to tell the truth , her
native sense of orderliness and her del ight in the
crowd of different obj ects which so militated againstsuch a desirable thing were in constant opposition .
In this room , which overlooked the most beauti ful
corner o f the garden , and had a distant v iew o f thebare scrap of Venus Hill
,the triple summits o f Shich i
men-zan, and the woods of the lower hi ll s, Somervi l le
60
62 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
to pry into a locked and secret chamber,and had been
checked j ust as the door was about to open . After all ,he thought i t was probably some trivial woman ’s secret .And yet ? With a sudden comprehension the idea
seemed to form in his mind that it was something to
do with him .
A fter the first week of aimless but fascinating
wanderings through the quaint streets and narrow
alleys of the town , or away into the woods above
Ippon Matsu , Somerville had settled down to serious
work . In the room now known as the studio , which
Katakuri San called with involution o f phraseology
the heyawhere the honourable artist paints his august
kakemono,” he was ever discovering new schemes o f
lighting. The translucent shoj i were a never-ending
delight ; manipulations of them gave him golden sun
light,strong diffused radiance , or a wonderful orange
coloured glow such as proceeds from paper lanterns
in the dusk of evening.
He soon had his sketch-book ful l o f studies of o ld
San-to,Mio San
,and Katakuri San— the first named
a quaint figure generally clad in a slate-blue cotton
kimono,with a triangular cap of linen onher grey
coi ffure,and a face tanned to a reddish brown by sun
and wind,and so deeply wrinkled that all the emotions
seemed frozen upon it . Nothing, not even an earth
quake, McKenz ie once declared , could add another
line to San-to ’s expressive countenance .
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 63
Mio San was like spring . She was fresh and pretty,
with cheeks l ike a sun-kissed peach,and an artless
smile that would have played havoc with the hearts
and purses of the ofli cers off the mailboats had she
been down at Hanaz ono R estaurant in the N ishiyamaGo . But she was not, for her people were highly
respectable florists who lived near the baths at Uresh
ino ; and so she practised her wiles onSomerville , and
one day came running to him in great distress for
some of the wonderful stuff he used for nomi bites ,sl ipping her kimono from off the plumpest of
shoulders imaginable to show him where the bee had
stung her .
But this piece of coquetry almost cost Mio San her
place on the spot,for her mistress , hearing her
mingled laughter and sobs,came to inquire the cause
and drove her from the room with unnecessary wrath ,but not impolite language .
Somerville used hi s best Japanese in excus ing!
her .
She i s but a child,
” said he,and a bee-sting is um
pleasant . And how was it possible to cure the i l l i fone saw not the place which hurt ?
Katakuri San gazed at him with a slow,wide open
ing of her eyes , and an almost scornful curving o f her
lips . Then she said quietly, One i s no longer a ch i ld
when one’
s eyes can look out as M io San ’s,and when
one i s stung upon the shoulder for the need o fhealing .
”
64 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Somervi l le looked at Katakuri San , and then he
understood .
But all the same he remembered Mio San ’s ex
quisitely dimpled shoulder , and thought what a sensation it would have created at Co lorossi’s.
Katakuri San was not appeased unti l he had let her
see the sketch he had made the day before in the court
o f the Hon-ren- j i !Temple ! in N ishi Nakamachi .But as she looked at the picture and wondered how
he had caught the sunshine and put it down on the
earth beneath the trees ,” her mind was evidently else
where . At last she said, You Mio San pretty, nice
girl think ? ”
“ Yes,Somervi lle adm itted frankly .
Her face fell,but she persisted with her questioning,
although she felt as one who walked forward in the
dark, fearing lest she should stumble into a bottomless
pit
Your honourable mouth her altogether contempt
ible face has kissed ? ” she inquired , lowering her eyes
from his face .
No ,” repl ied Somervi lle slowly . Why do you
ask ? Has not O Kumataka San told me often that
there are no kisses in Japan ?
No kisses ,” agreed Katakuri San
,ti l l the hon
ourab le foreigner hi s august lips on ours places .”“ But , O Katakuri San , the lips of Mio S anand
mine have not met. And so ?”
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 65
You do not love her well , repl ied Katakur i San ;and no harm is done .
”
Somervi lle had been glancing at the speaker frombeneath his brows whilst she spoke
,and he noticed
that her chagrin had mostly dissipated by the t ime shefinished speaking .
Katakuri San looked at him for a moment withsoftened eyes
,and then she turned slowly away .
S ayonara? M ata merimas,she said
,as she
vanished on to the verandah through the open shoj i.Good-bye , O Katakuri San , called out Somerville ,
Opening his colour-box and preparing to finish a sketchof a coolie onwhich he was engaged . Adding as an
afterthought,Yes
,come again soon .
”
When he was alone he began to th ink . The angerhis l ittle hostess had shown had been strange . Then ,as he painted and saw the expressive face and bronzelimbs o f the coolie grow under the strokes of his
brush , he remembered several incidents which had
occurred during the last two weeks,and these sud
denly assumed a new light .
Katakuri San had certainly shown a great predilection for his society o f late But he had not sought to
analyse the reason,merely supposing, i f he thought
about the matter at all , that i t was because o f his“ august ski ll in painting
, or because she was fond o f
looking over his sketch-books .
Three nights ago,he now suddenly remembered,
66 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
they had been climbing up the hi l l by the light of theirpaper lanterns and a pale white moon
,after spending
the evening at the theatre in E -no-kidz umachi,when
McKenz ie and young Fo lkard had outpaced them .
As they proceeded further up the hi l l the moonlighthad become stronger and more si lvery . He had
remarked on the fact to Katakuri San,and she had
replied in a soft tone of voice,“S hiz uka ui iki kuta
biremashta
And when as desi red he had walked stil l slower shehad said ,
“ The honourable moon is risen . We cansee our road without the lanterns .”
As she stooped over to blow out her owna flood ofyellow-reddish light l it her face and neck
,throwing a
bronze tint upon her beauti ful black hair,and into her
eyes had stolen a coquettish look which turned their
usual softness into something quite different . When
he had stooped to blow out his own their two headshad come suddenly close together, and KatakuriSan had given a little s igh which no man who
had ever known much about women could well misinterpret .Her eyes glanced at him strangely ere the light of
the lantern went out,and he was conscious that
raising his head away from that inviting roundedcheek and leaving it unkissed was an effort, and one
that the owner hersel f did not appreciate .“ You a very funny man ,
” Katakuri San had ex
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 67
claimed,handing him the lantern , with a l ittle laugh ,
in which there was a trace o f chagrin .
But when he said “Why ? ” she would not tel lhim .
She only shrugged her shoulders , as she had seen
the wi fe o f the French Vice-Consul do when annoyed,
and walked onin si lence .When they had come to the turning where the
narrow , rough-paved path to McKenz ie ’
s home
branched off Katakuri San once more complained o f
fatigue .
“S ukoshi mate, kutabiremashta,
” she saidweari ly .
And when Somervil le had stopped and turned round,
w ith his face down the road and glancing out over
the harbour,she laid a small hand on his arm . And
then , as he did not resist it , she thrust it through h i sand leaned upon it .
When they went onagain she d id not remove i t ti l l
they came to the small bamboo gate which led into thelower portion of the garden . There they found bothFo lkard and McKenz ie awaiting them ,
and onseeing
the latter Katakuri San had suddenly let go his arm .
As they al l four turned to pass in at the wicket thelight o f Fo lkard ’
s lantern had fallen upon Katakuri
San ’s face for a brief moment , and he had noted the
red flush which stained her cheeks . Then the light
from the lantern had fl i ckered Off amongst the trees
and shrubs before McKenz ie turned to speak to him ,
68 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
and in the moonl ight Katakur i San ’s face looked nomore flushed than usual .Remembering her anger of half an hour ago the
incidents he had now recal led bore a new and ratherdisquieting significance to Somerville .
A l l the morning, whilst he sat before his easel pa int
ing away at the coolie,he thought Of them as he heard
Katakuri San either moving about or playing onher
samisen. Once he caught her peeping at him roundthe corner of the shoj i, and once he thought he heardher talking severely to Mio San .
I f he had but known what Katakuri San was say ing
to her l ittle maid he would not have painted so stead i ly,nor have wh istled softly to h imself an air from La
Belle Helene . ”
M io San,poo r l ittle soul , was very miserable all
that day in consequence of the interview with herm istress . For had not the latter pointed out to her inpicturesque language the enormity of her offence in
troubling “ the honourable English sir over a mis
crable hachi !bee ! sting upon her contemptible b odv ?
Into little Mio San ’s heart there crept a great blank
ness at the enormity of her offence,and with it was
mingled a sadness that she must no longer seek to
intrude her unworthy presence upon the honourable
Englishman . I f she did,had not Katakuri San told
her she would be driven from the house ? and then not
evenat meal-times would she see him . I f, too, she
70 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
that affa ir of Kynaston’
s I was telling you of the
other night has ended disastrously. You know I toldyou he married old Sakak San ’s daughter. His
go-down is next Yumoto ’
s, onthe Bund .
”
Somerville nodded assent, and as he d id so hecaught sight of Katakuri San ’s face . It had a look
o f intense interest upon it .McKenz ie continued : “ About three months ago
!they’ve been married about a couple o f years now!
Kynaston saw a geisha, Ran San,in one o f the
waterside chaya, and since then little A sagao San has
had to put up with second place . You saw her the
other day down at Tanz awa’
s when you were hunt
ing for that bronze yatate !pencil and ink case ! . Her
face has lately been like that of a pale ghost . Well ,i t appears that Kynaston has not been home for
several days,and this morn ing A sagao San
’s body
was found washed ashore near the Imperial Dock
yard . I hear that her people had urged her to remain
with him when she complained o f his treatment
months ago . And she did ; but it broke her spirit ,and the end has been that which so often happens .
During the recital Katakuri San ’s face had under
gone many changes , and when Somerville glanced
at her as McKenz ie finished speaking he was astonished to see the look of apprehension and alarm onit .
Suddenly her eyes met his,and in an instant she
gained complete control of her features , and she began
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 71
to laugh—a harsh little laugh with no real merrimentin it . For down in the depths o f her heart a greatdread had been growing whilst M cKenz ie spoke ,although she could not understand all that he had
said .
Perhaps the story of Asagao San’s misfortunes
suggested the thought to M cKenz ie , for he turned to
Somerville and said laughingly ,“ Katakuri has not
yet found you the l ittle geisha you are to marry . But
when she does , remember the end o f Asagao San .
Somervi lle smiled,and said something about being
contented to remain as he was,whilst Katakur i San ,
without a change o f colour , remarked ,“ He marry
nothing,much nice more as he is .”
A very pretty compliment ,” exclaimed McKenz ie ,
O wise one . But some day, when he i s wandering
about the town,he will see a face that he likes , and
then before you or I know he wil l be getting a house
for himsel f .
I f Katakuri San did not agree with this view she
wisely said nothing,but started to tel l McKenz ie of
some imaginary misdeeds o f poor little Mio San in
pursuance o f an idea which she had been turning
over in her mind al l the morning whilst she sat out
onthe verandah near Somervil le’s studio l i stening to
him whistl ing and singing to himsel f snatches o f
songs he had sung in the cafés o f Montmartre andthe Boule Miche
,but she said not a word of M io
72 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
San ’s crowning indiscretion in regard to the hachisting.
During the afternoon , wh i lst McKenz ie was downat the offi ce , Katakuri San paid several vis its to thestudio . She had had no intention of visiting Madame
Dubois , although she had put onher most handsome
kimono and a kerchief of finest chirimen!si lk crepe! .
With woman ’s subtlety she had put these things on
to emphasise the gul f fixed between herself and
Mio San .
“ It i s very sad,said she to Somerville , about
Asagao San . But a woman will always rather die
than be scorned .
” And as she spoke she looked at
Somerville with a mockingly inviting glance . But j ust
then he happened to be gazing intently at a patch of
l ight on the verandah outside , and so he missed the
true significance of her words .Katakuri
‘
San had not served her apprenticesh ip at
the Fuj i-tei for nothing .
In the evening Yumoto came up from the town ,as he frequently did
,for a chat and a smoke upon
the verandah . He,too
,was full of the tragedy o f
poor little Asagao San . Somerville not iced that helooked very hard several times at Katakuri San whilst
they were talking, and at length he said , with a strangesmile which Somerville could not quite comprehend
,
“And you , O Ku Sama !honourable lady o f the
house! , what do you think of the finish of O Asagao
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 73
San ? ” And then he added,
And thou,what
wouldst thou do in like circumstances ?
Katakuri San let her eyes fall for j ust a fraction ofa moment, and then , with a noticeable pallor o f face
save where two hect ic dabs of rouge glowed red,
she raised them and looked straight at Yumoto,and
in low , drawling tones said , I should do the same,
or and there she paused,and an almost threaten
ing look came into her face I should seek another
husband .
”
McKenz ie started half up in the deck-chair in wh ich
he was recl in ing,and regarded Katakuri San curi
ously . With a superb control she threw open herarms as though to embrace him from where she
sat , and then burst out into a peal of low, mus icallaughter.Yumoto San , said she , i s a phi losopher ; he i s
always ask ing his questions o f women and obtaining
women ’s answers . Ah ,” she continued
,w ith a dull
glow in her eyes , love has not le ft us with the red
petticoat . Has it, O Kumataka San ? ”
McKenz ie exclaimed , No , no , truly it has not !And seeing Somervi lle looked mystified he said
,
When a girl marries she lays aside her red petti
coat for ever,which i s the symbol of love . Hence
the proverb .
”
“Oh ,
” exclaimed Somerville,and then the con
versation stopped for a while,and Katakuri San sat
74 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
regarding the men in turn with a face out of whichshe had driven all signs of emot ion .
In her mind she was turning over and over w ith
O riental persistency every aspect o f poor Asagao
San ’s fate . It was almost incomprehensible to her,
for her temperament had been hardened whilst shedanced and sang and amused the frequenters of theFuj i-te i in the town below. She travelled back inthought to a certain night when
,intox icated with the
applause of the j okisenoffi cers , she had thought thewhole world at her feet. And now the whole worldas represented by McKenz ie was a trifle dull at times .
And from where she sat she could j ust see the yel lowglare of the many lanterns sw inging outs ide the
restaurant in the busy Ima-machi .
CHAPTER VI
E! T morning as Somervi ll e was preparing
to saunter away down into the town histhoughts , from a considerat ion o f Kata
kuri San ’s strange conduct, wandered to Miss Desborough . To tel l the truth , he had been a little di s
appointed not to have heard from her,as she had
prom ised to write and give h im some information
concerning the best quarter of the town in which tosettle i f he should decide to proceed to Tokio .
As he came out onto the verandah , sketch-bookand colour-box in hand , and a folding camp-stool
slung over hi s shoulder , which always aroused the
keenest inte rest in Katakuri San,who regarded it as
a wonderful production , he found her lounging in adeck-chair clad in a yukata, or bath-wrapper , o f
bluish-grey cotton in place of her usually gay kimono,
her plump, b are feet only partially thrust into waraj i
!straw sandals ! , and her tiny tobacco p ipe betweenher l ips .As she saw him she sl ipped her left foot free o f the
waraj i, and thrust it out into a patch of bri ll iant sun
75
76 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
shine which fel l upon the white matting like a goldenlozenge . It was an exquisitely beautiful foot
, as
shapely as a baby ’s,w ith nails l ike nacre , for Kata
kuri San had not yet adopted the high-heeled Western shoes that were temptingly displayed by Akasakain Teri-machi amid much more beautiful and quaintnative geta !clogs ! o f lacquered wood . The artist inSomerville caused him to voice his admiration , andKatakuri San , into whose eyes stole a flash of pleasure ,understood what he said .
“Gomennasai '” she excla imed , w ith a laugh,
you find my contemptible foot beauti ful ? ”
Somerville glanced at her curiously. He was b eginning to comprehend Katakuri San . But heanswered nothing to her question .
She lay back in her chair and laughed again—a low,
musical laugh . As she did so her yukata fel l open atthe neck .
Is i t, she asked , as pretty as the shoulder ofMio San ? Come , have the politeness to tel l me .
”
Somervil le looked steadily at her . She certainlypresented an adorable figure as she lay in the deckchair with her mocking
,smil ing face turned up to
his . I f Katakuri San had studied her pose it couldnot have been more effective . Perhaps she had . Fromher rouged and powdered face
,with its smile
,wh ich
was becoming impudent , to the tip of her plump , tabiless foot, thrust out so that its nai ls shone in the patch
78 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
rai l of the verandah . Down below stood a cool ie,hi s
bronze body bare to the waist , a coloured cloth knottedround his head , and a letter in his hand , which he had
j ust removed from the cleft of his carrying stick .
It i s for the honourable Mr . Somervil le,
” he
exclaimed ,“ and the honourable Mr . Yumoto has
sent it . ”
Somerville stretched out his hand for the letter,which the coolie handed to him .
How much to pay ? ” inquired Somervi lle, glanc
ing at it .Three sen , honourable s ir , replied the cool ie .Takusan takai !
” interj ected Katakuri San .
No, no ,” said the coolie . It a very much hot
runup steep hi l l to this honourable house .Somerville threw the man a couple o f coppers ,
which he caught dexterously and transferred to his
cheek . And then,after making an obeisance wh ich
would have done credit to a Court offi cial , he vanishedat a quick trot down the garden path
,his copper
coloured back gleaming in the sunlight .
Somerville sat himsel f onthe rail o f the verandah ,and
,conscious that Katakuri San ’s eyes were re
garding him ,slowly turned over his letter.
It was addressed care of Mr . Yumoto, with anelaboration of polite phraseology
,and he soon recog
niz ed the handwriting as that of Miss Desborough .
With a glance at Katakuri San,who was watching
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 79
h i s face closely , though she had allowed her eyel ids todroop ti ll the long black lashes almost lay upon her
cheek , he tore open the envelope and commenced toread . It ran thus t
KOH MACH I,TOK IO,
M ay I O,19
DEAR MR. S OM ERV ILLE,—I am afraid that you
will have thought I have forgotten my promise towrite and tel l you in which quarter of the city my
uncle thinks you would be most l ikely to find suitable
accommodation and a studio when you come . Such a
thing as the latter in our sense o f the word does notprobably exist in Tokio . But one could easi ly be made
i f you found a house that you l iked with a large room
in it . The Japanese carpenters are so clever and
ingenious that they would soon cut a hole in the rooffor you asa top light ; or , in fact , build you the nearest
approach to the English idea o f a studio i f you gave
them rough sketches to work upon .
“I fancy that you will find the best accommoda
tions in Moto-machi , and so does my uncle . But this
you will be able to decide when you come . I hope
we shall have the pleasure o f seeing you before long ,and my uncle bids me say that anything he may be
able to do to assist you in any way he will be delighted
to do , as some small return for your kindness andattention to me onthe steamer .
I am look ing forward to turn ing over the pages
80 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
of your sketch-books . Japanese l i fe i s so full ofcolour and romance that I feel sure you will havemuch that i s beauti ful to show me . [And then followed a paragraph which caused Somerville to flushand smile
,a circumstance which did not escape the
notice of Katakuri San . ! But i f I am to have thatpleasure
,which I am looking forward to
,I hope it
may be possible for you to come to Tokio beforelong
,as there are already rumours o f change at the
Embassy,and it i s even possible that my uncle !who
has been out nearly six years ! may go home on long
leave or even be transferred .
I trust the information regarding the studio may
be of service,though I fear it i s somewhat incom
plete and inadequate .
With kindest regards .Yours ever sincerely ,
V IOLET DESBOROU GH.
Leslie Somerville , E sq .
As he had been reading, the idea had come into
Somerville ’s mind that Violet Desborough was even
anxious for him to go to Tokio . Her letter,of course
,
he admitted to himself , was perhaps not warmer in
its expression o f her hope o f seeing him than ordinary
friendship dictated . But— it was difficult for him todisabuse his mind of the idea that she had missed him .
And thenhe laughed at h imself rather contemptuously
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
when he remembered what Miss Desborough had told
him of her impossible aunt and not less uncomfortablecous ins . Perhaps she was only bored with them . He
thrust the letter in hi s pocket and turned to Katakur i
San .
You have a letter, she said . Adding, From yourhonourable relations in England ? ”
No,
” replied Somerv i l le ;“ from a friend in
Tokio .
”
“ A man friend ? ” queried Katakuri San, with a
s light deepening of her colour.No , a woman .
”
As he said this he tried to look into her eyes , butshe kept them lowered .
She gave a l ittle start,and then she said , One of
your honourable countrywomen onthe mailboat ?“ Yes .
‘
But I must go,or I shall do no painting
to-day , and the blind beggar who is waiting for me
at the foot of the steps of the Temple o f O’
S uwa
will have got tired and gone away .
”
“ Let him tire,
” said Katakuri drawlingly . Stop
a l ittle more time with me . I wish with you to speak .
Somerville looked at her . There was somethingalmost fel ine in her eyes and pose—something whichmade him suddenly wonder why McKenz ie had fallen
in love with her,though she was beauti ful . But per
haps , he thought , he knows how to tame animals .
I must go ! said he,and with a nod he ran lightly
82 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
down the steps of the verandah and walked awaydown the garden path .
As Katakuri San watched him disappear beh ind
the old plum-tree,now a mass o f pale green leaves
unbroken save here and there by a few belated blossoms
,her eyes gleamed with a bronze light around
the i ri ses , and there were marks of her nails in her
soft , plump palms when she unclasped her fingers.
At Fuj i-tei in Ima-machi men had not left her whenshe bid them stay .
The one who had gone away down to the townwithout even throwing a glance behind to see i f shewere watching him was a puzzle to her . Her ex
perience o f Europeans had been , it i s true , fairly
extensive , but those she had known had been muchof a sort
, unti l she met with McKenz ie—idlers ,officers off the mai lboats
,naval Offi cers from the war
ships of friendly Powers which came into Nagasakito coal or repair. And Katakuri San was only equalto tackling the average man
,and to her chagrin Som
erville apparently stood outside that category .
When she heard the bamboo wicket rattle to,she
lay back in her chair to think , having first refil ledher tiny silver pipe , which had a bowl scarcely so
large as a child ’s thimble .In the garden no birds were singing
, even heruguisu in its bamboo cage at the end of the verandah
was si lent, but there came the hum of bees and the
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 83
s i lken whirr of the wings of dragon-flies hoveringabove the surface of the l ittle pond below the verandah
near where she sat .Katakur i San ’s thoughts were not pleasant ones i f
one m ight j udge them by the expressions wh ich flitted
across her face . A strange mercenary l ittle soul
dwelt in her, and now she was wondering why Fate
had perm itted her to see McKenz ie before she had met
Somerville, who was so much handsomer , more inter
esting and,she fancied
,richer . Whilst she was so
lonely,after her gay l i fe of the tea-house , when Mc
Kenzie was down at his office at bus iness , she would
have been able to have watched Somervi l le at work ,and to have gone into the town w ith h im
,even to have
done something to ass ist him by carrying h is colourbox or that astonishing fold ing-cha ir .Although Katakuri San was mercenary
,she was a
l ittle woman in whom the artisti c sense was strongly
developed . Any one could see that in a moment byher choice of colours , the way she d id her wonderfulblue-black hair , the perfection of the bow in wh ich herobi was t ied . Fate had not been kind to her , she dec ided . In the beginning she had thought it a won
derful thing to keep house for the honourable managero f the Porcelain Works
,and her selection by him for
that important post had caused several of her rival
geisha at Fuj i-tei many heart-burnings . Now there
was somebody e lse . Katakur i San’s training had not
84 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
been of that k ind wh ich made her loth to adm it such
a thing even to hersel f. She sm i led a little bitterly at
the idea,that was all
,and rather contemptuously when
she thought of McKenz ie and his blindness to the fact .Her guile ful coquetry of hal f an hour or so ago was
merely a continuance o f many previous attacks uponSomerville of a l ike nature
,the thing that caused her
most chargin being his calm indifference to that sideof her nature . His heart i s as cold as the water of
Katsura-gawa when the snow from off Fuj i-san is ini t
,
” she said to hersel f over and over again .
Mus ing thus she fel l asleep,and so she did not see
or hear Mio San come along the verandah from the
kitchen and enter Somervil le ’s studio .
It was a strange tragi-comedy which was beingplayed out in that dwelling on the Nagasaki hills ide—mistress and maid with the same thoughts o f andfeel ings concerning the arti st that Fate and friendship had conspired to induce into thei r l ives . But not
quite the same , after all . For whereas the love ofKatakuri San was selfish
,calculating
,and evil imag
ining, that of the poor little musume’
,Mio San , was
pure and beauti ful in its s implicity . Many a Western
maiden has a hero in the recess of her heart when inher natural growth love at length unfolds
,and this i s
what had happened to the musume’
of the East .Her feet , in thick cotton tabi, made no noise as she
entered the room, although the verandah had creaked
86 A? JAPANE SE ROMANCE
into a warmth of l i fe and love like the exqu is ite blos
sOms outside in the garden did under the caresses ofthe all-embracing sunshine .And then
,when she had fin ished , she knelt awhile
without articulate words , or even thoughts , thinkingnot of the smiling
,benign face o f the Buddha upon
which her eyes rested , but of that of Somervil le , who
to her was a radiant being shining above the splendours of all gods .How long she would have knelt thus who can tel l ?Suddenly she heard a voice call ing to her somewherebehind the karakami at a distance .Mio San ! Where art thou ? Come here . Make
haste .”It was San-to calling. And San-to was o ld ,
and apt to be impatient i f her cal l were not answeredat once .
As she rose from her knees with a start she heardanother voice drawling out sleepily
,
“D oshttu?
But Mio San dare not go out to her mistress throughthe open shoj i on to the verandah to tel l her therewas nothing the matter. For she was on forbiddenground .
She pushed back one of the karakomi softly ; neari t hung Somervi lle ’s coat. Mio San ’s hand creptout stealthi ly towards it, and then , ere she vanishedthrough the open panel , the hem of that travel-stainedgarment was pressed for an instant to her lips
.
“Kayuku ! Kayuku ! Mio San ! M io San ! Where
A JAPANE SE R OMANCE 87
art thou,M io San ? ” accompanied by p icturesque
maledictions,but not curses , called San-to .
But Mio San did not answer . Her m istress was
awake and had sharp ears,and Mio San knew if she
called out she would betray where she was .
And al l thi s t ime Somerville had been sitting in thesmal l patch o f shade near the wide fl ight o f steps
which led from the gardens up to the O-Suwa Temple
o f the Bronze Horse in N i shiyama Go , busily painting a blind beggar-man and his tiny grandchild with
quaintly smiling face . Soon a little crowd had gath
ered to watch him paint . But he was getting used tocrowds
,and most of their pol ite and interesting com
ments were as Greek to him . He comforted h imselfwith the thought that i f the Japanese were as polite arace as McKenz ie and Fo lkard asserted
,the onlookers
would be saying nothing offens ive .I f he could have understood the remarks theypassed he would have had a high opinion o f their
intell igence , because one and al l seemed to think thesketch a wonderful production
,except a tiny man in
a very tattered kimono,who
,with the literalness of
his race , wondered why the honourable painter gavethe blind beggar four fingers onhis left hand when
there were but two !“ It i s your contemptible mind ! ej aculated abright-eyed o ld woman
,
“which cannot see that thehonourable artist i s too kind to let one see that Old
88 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Maruyama has two less fingers in number thanotherpeople .”
Thus rebuked , the tattered one slunk away into theback row of interested spectators .Somervil le worked on , thinking of nothing except
the Old man before him , whose faded snuff-coloured
gown and ruddy, wrinkled countenance made so
excellent a contrast to the bright blue cotton kimonoand childish face o f his l ittle guide , ti l l all at once
some one speaking brought Katakuri San to mind .
The voice was so similar in inflection that he turned
round on h is camp-stool hal f expecting to see her.A fter al l i t proved to be but a geisha from one of
the chaya in the Park . But she had the same queer,drawling vo ice as Katakur i San and the same eyes.
And when,after looking over hi s shoulders and
saying something to him ,the meaning of which he
could not catch,she went away along the pavement
and commenced to ascend the steep fl ight of steps in
the full blaze of the afternoon sunlight , he noticedthat she had the sensuous walk o f Katakuri San as
well as her eyes and voice .It was quite late ere he finished . The l ittle crowdhad th inned and thickened again with fresh ou
lookers several times before he was sati sfied . Andthe l ittle musume
’
had fallen fast asleep,slipped down
l ike a Japanese doll with her l imbs straight out infront of her from the waist, and her t iny head with
90 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
dered i f he knew the sort of woman she was . I f hedid he kept the knowledge to himsel f, and i f he didnot it was certainly not easy for him !Somervi lle !to be the medium of enlightenment . As they trudgedup the last bit o f the road , where it ran along the
hi llside above a row of vi llas and permitted a magnificent view of the harbour below across the roofsand trees , McKenz ie spoke .I cannot quite make Katakuri out, sa id he , as
though it were the most natural remark in the world .
She has taken a ridiculous dislike to Mio San , andwants to get rid of her . Decent girls are not easyto get in Nagasaki . And then after a pause heturned to Somerville and inquired,
“Do you know
the reason ?
For the moment the latter was almost thrown off
h is guard , but he managed to consider the positionand reply w ithout a very appreciable hesitation .
No,said he quite calmly .
“ How should I ?
Mio San seems a nice,obl iging l ittle soul
,but perhaps
she i s not so to O Katakuri San .
Oh ,no
,I suppose you wouldn
’t know , repliedMcKenz ie . Only , as you
’ve been about the placewhilst I ’ve been stewing away down in that in fernal
mouse-trap of an offi ce , I thought you might perhapshave heard or noticed something.
”
Somervi lle had heard and noticed a great deal ;but the situationhe real i sed was already becom ing
A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE 91
sufficiently del icate without the need of a premature
de’
nouement. And so he merely repeated that he wasin happy ignorance of the cause o f the domest ic
disquietude .As they were com ing up the garden path both were
startled by loud voices from one o f the rooms opening
onto the verandah .
Somervi lle recognised Katakuri San ’s voice raisedto an unusually high pitch in anger . What she wassaying he could not gather
,for she was pouring out
a flood of colloquial Japanese , o f which five years ’
residence might scarcely have supplied him the key .
Both the men paused,and then McKenz ie sa id
something under his breath which was not Japanese ,for the language i s deficient in such words .What ’s up ? ” asked Somerville
,glancing at
McKenz ie ’
s face , which had turned very pale .“ Katakuri
,
” said M cKenz ie , with a rather harsh
laugh after a pause,
“ i s tell ing M io San that she has
been making love to you .
”
Somervi lle flashed a look into his compan ion ’s face ,and said with all the coolness he could muster,
“ And
M io San ? ”
I did not catch what she sa id,was the reply.
CHAPTE R VII
HAT even ing, wh il st the men were chatting and smoking on the verandah
,Katakuri
San was terribly frightened . Something inMcKenz ie ’
s face and something he said to Somer
vi lle made her suspect that her attempts at intriguewith the latter had not quite escaped the former ’s
notice . She had been shaken , too , by her stormy
interview with Mio San,whose innocence of evi l
intent so contrasted with her owndemeanour that she
felt insensibly beaten and lowered , even though the
nominal victory had been hers .As she sat in the deck-chair
,which she had occupied
when Somerville le ft her earl ier in the day , she l is
tened intently to the conversation of the two men ,although she could not comprehend all they weresaying.
During the meal which they had just fin ished
Somerville had been turning over in his mind theevents of the day , and it had not taken him very long
to foresee that unpleasant events were l ikely at any
moment to arise were he to prolong his stay withMcKenz ie . He had had no opportunity of endeavour
94 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
temptib le company she would bring al l the mostunworthy sights of the fair to the notice of his augustand honourable eyes .
But ere she could do so , he said ,“ I ’m no end
obliged to you , old fellow ,for having me here taking
up your time and rooms so long . But I ’ve been
thinking lately that it has been too bad o f me to stay
so long. I received a letter this morning from Miss
Desborough !the girl I met on the steamer! , who
says I ought to put in some time at Tokio“ There ’s surely no hurry for that , broke in
McKenz ie , who remembered that Somerville had
shown no very great enthusiasm concerning Miss
Desborough when speaking of her before . “ I
thought you ’d put in at least three months with us ,and you haven ’t been here quite two .
”
Katakuri San appeared about to speak , for she sat
up in her chair and her red lips parted . But she
apparently altered her mind,for they closed again ,
and with a glance at Somervi lle which he could notmisinterpret she lay back and closed her eyes .
“ That’s al l very well,and you
’
re awfully kind ,replied Somerville
,
“ but I ’ve about made up my
mind.You see
,I think I shall run up to Tok io for
a week or two a little later on, and before doing so
I should like to get a little place here that I couldcome back to whenever the humour to do so
took me .”
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 95
I believe , exclaimed Katakuri San,without
opening her eyes ,“ that our honourable friend means
to marry o r find a geisha to keep house for him . I
saw him looking with bright eyes at O Matsu San
the other night at the Hash i Moto . But she notreally pretty , not good at all .The two men laughed
,for Miss O Matsu San ’s
flirtations were rather notorious .
After a pause,during which Katakuri San looked
furtively through her lashes at Somervil le , he said ,No , O Katakuri San , O Matsu San has not pleased
my contemptible eyes in that way . Nor do I wishto marry . But your august eyes must long ere th is
have ti red o f seeing my inferior presence in your
beauti ful house .
”
Katakuri San winced .
This Englishman when he fenced w ith her so oftenwon . Only once during the last few weeks hadshe thought she had conquered him
,when with almost
shameless coquetry she had forced h im to understandher meaning . But even then she had been defeated ;by chance
,perhaps
,but nevertheless defeated . And
now that she saw him determined to pass from thesphere o f her possible influence she would have
spoken to deta in him , but when she glanced at h isface and that o f McKenz ie she feared to do so .
“ What nonsense ! ” exclaimed McKenz ie , when
Somerville finished speaking.
“ Neither of u s are
96 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
tired of you,and you had better make up your m ind
to remain here ti ll you leave for Tokio . Even then ,we will gladly store your things til l you return .
Whatever’s the use of house-rent going on , even i f
one i s such a plutocrat as you bid fai r to be , whilstone i s away . Come
,let us settle that you remain here
for the present . ”
Somerville did not reply for a minute or two ; andKatakuri San breathed a l ittle more quickly andopened her eyes suffi ciently to see his face clearly
from beneath her lashes . I f only he would stop !A fter to-morrow there would be no one to attract hisattention from her ; no one to spy onher movements ;no menace to her schemes . And yet
,as the thoughts
flashed through her mind,whilst she waited for h is
answer to what McKenz ie had suggested , a strange
upbraiding voice of an almost dead conscience
seemed to accuse her . That such a thing should stir
in her after al l she had done and said and thought
during her li fe at the Fuj i-tei caused her additional
alarm,which grew each moment—that terrible af
fright at the future which seizes women l ike she at
times in a grip of icy chill . She shivered sl ightly ,and perhaps it was this almost imperceptible move
ment which recalled Somerville .
“ You are awfully good ,” said he , addressing
McKenz ie ,“ but I must stick to my original inten
tion . It i s the better plan , looked at all ways . It’s
98 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
Somervi l le and McKenz ie both smoked in s i lence,
occupied by thoughts of Katakuri San for severalminutes ; and then the latter suddenly rose and , with
an almost icy “K on bonwa ” to Somerville
,went
away along the verandah to her room .
That row with little Mio San seems to have upsetKatakuri San somewhat ! exclaimed McKenz ie ashe watched her disappear . “ What eats women are
to each other when they have a rumpus ! I can ’t for
the li fe of me quite get at the bottom of the affair .A l l Katakuri wil l say i s that Mio San was impudentto her. Heaven only knows what about .” And then
he added , as though speaking to himsel f, Katakur i
has a queer devil of a temper when she ’s roused .
”
Somerville looked at McKenz ie sharply , and thenhe laughed .
“ Do you remember that l ittle Pole ,Sophie Ko lniwitz , who used to sit for Valmy ?
”
McKenz ie nodded .
“ Well,Somerville continued,
sometimes Katakuri San reminds me of her . Whata strange thing it i s that women , black or white , East
or West , run in types ! Whatever colour their skin ,they are angels or devils .
McKenz ie did not reply . He was thinking what
a mixture o f both he had installed in hi s house .Meanwhile Katakuri San , in the privacy of her
own room ,stood trembling and unnerved . One of
those fits of remorse and fear which so often assailwomen , mingled with their chagrin , had seized upon
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 99
her as soon as she was alone . With a woman o f hertype it could not be an awakening o f conscience .
As she had sat watching Somervi lle and M cKen
z ie’
s faces and recall ing the inc idents o f her treat
ment of M io San,there had suddenly flashed into her
mind the words of an old saying in which her naturally superst itious nature made her hal f bel ieve . It
ran thus : “Kagami ga kumoru to tamashiga
kumoru.
” With that saying came terrible , accusing
v isions of Kwakkto Jigoku, where her soul wouldburn til l cleansed o f all impurity .
With fingers which trembled , she commenced to
untie her obi, and slip her shoulders out of the beauti ful kimono o f purple silk , which , as he had once
admired it,she had put on for Somerv i l le ’s especial
benefit .Even her own shadow thrown d imly upon the
white matting by the flame o f the tiny oil lamp , placedona shel f before the image of Buddha , frightenedher horribly . She longed to cry out and summon
McKenz ie . But what could she tell him ? Couldshe say to him , See , I am an evi l woman whose soul
i s smirched , and whose mirror has become dim ? ”
He would either laugh at her, or i f he saw anything
lurking behind her words,he would look at her with
those quiet eyes of his blazing with the dull , hot
fire of anger that she had seen once or twice before
and could never forget.
100 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
The m irro r was there on its lacquer , box-l ike stand ,sw inging between scrol l-work o f bronze , w ith t inydrawers beneath it
,in which lay al l o f those tawdry
artifices by whose aid she sought to enhance her
facial charms—the rouge , the poudre de riz theforeign chemist in Funatsu-machi had obta ined forher from Europe ; the gold with which yuj o gild theirl ips
,the use of which M cKenz ie had long ago for
bidden . It had a strange fascination for her , thismirror with the trell i s o f young bamboo shoo ts orna
menting i ts back , and its face gleaming like polishedpewter . She hesitated
,and then after a moment or
two leaned forward and gazed into its depths .Was it that her eyes were dim with fright
,or was
it the surface of the m irror that was dulled ? shequestioned . She looked again
,leaving go o f her
kimono, which sl ipped down with a soft, caressingmotion off her amber shoulders .The lamp on the bracket above the m irror swayed
as a draught of night air seized the tiny flame in a
mimic vortex , and as Katakuri San started forwardas though to approach and gaze into the mirror hers ilhouette appeared cast upon the grey-coloured karakami which formed the walls .She looked at the mirror again
,and then her knees
gave way beneath her as she was about to lean forward and gaze more closely at it
,and she started
back and away from it. The terrible fright which
102 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
n ight air—a piercing, night-cleaving cry as of a
drowning woman .
Good God ! What is that ? ” cried McKenz ie ,j umping to his feet and rushing along the verandah .
Without waiting to find the holes for his fingersin the shoj i he dashed the panels along in theirgrooves , and entered the room . In the dim light he
could not see at first,but in a moment he caught
sight of Katakuri San stretched full length on the
white matting like a huge dead moth , the sleeves o fher garment
,from which her arms had slipped out,
l ike wings outstretched beside her .Somerville came close behind .
Get some sake,quick, and a l ight ! ” shouted
McKenz ie , stooping at Katakuri’
s s ide .Somerville rushed along the verandah and almostfel l over San-to , who had come out from her quartersto see what was the matter .Brandy sake
,nomi miden
,narutake kayaku
ej aculated Somervi lle , and San-to vanished , returning a moment later with the brandy and a j ar of
water.Meanwh ile Somerville had lighted a kerosene lamp
which hung in his studio , and with that in one handand the brandy in the other he hurried back toMcKenz ie ’
s room , followed by San-to carrying thewater.
Katakur i San still lay unconsc ious on the floor,
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 103
although when the stronger l ight from the lampSomerville carried fel l upon her, i t was evident , from
the twitching of her eyelids , that she was about to
revive .
McKenz ie ra ised her head and forced some o f thebrandy b etween her closed lips , which looked l ike
two scarlet wounds across her deathly pale face .Somerville sprinkled some water on her brow
,and
San-to kept up a crooning wail al l the time,pune
tuated by expressions o f terror .In a few moments Katakuri San opened her eyes
and murmured something which Somervil le failed to
catch , but which made McKenz ie set his teeth hardand turn away from her for a moment. He , too , had
heard the saying concerning the mirror and a woman ’s
soul, and Katakuri San’s words cut him like a whip .
When she Opened her eyes fully and caught s ight
of the mirror she sh ivered violently .
A flood of l ight fell upon the pol ished disc fromthe lamp Somervil le had brought
,and a quivering
oval reflection danced for a moment upon the cei ling
McKenz ie noted the terror with which Katakuri
San regarded the mirror , but he said nothing .
To Somervil le the cause of Katakuri San’s collapse
was incomprehensible,but then he neither knew the
saying nor the hold that superstition had upon herempty little mind .
Katakuri San sti l l lay upon the floor with her
104 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
blu ish-grey yukata, wh ich San-to had hastened to
throw across her shoulders , enveloping her . She wasless unconsc ious than the two men supposed . Andalready in her mind the question was formulatingitsel f as to whether McKenz ie had any suspicion ofthe reason for the terror which had seized upon herand forced that shrill
,terrible cry from her unwill
ing lips . But in his face , which looked hard and palein the uncertain and feeble lamplight , there was
nothing to indicate what he thought or what he mighthave discovered .
In a l ittle wh i le Katakuri San heaved a deep s ighas though recovering from a swoon , and raised hersel f to a sitting posture . Her face was stil l deathlypale, and some of the paint from her red lips hadsmeared her ch in , making the rest of her face lookthe more ghastly.
I was very much frightened,she expla ined in a
low voice in Japanese,looking straight at McKenz ie ,
who had stood up , to see the effect of her words . Ithought that a ghost looked over my shoulder wh il stI was undressing
,and I was frightened .
”
What sort of a ghost ? ” asked M cKenz ie .
But Katakuri San would not or could not tel l him .
San-to shall remain with me,
” she said after a
pause , for I wish to see no more bake-mono or yamaoga to-n ight .
”
When the two men had left her Katakuri San
106 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
drew along the amado, and then w ith a Good-night,o ld fellow ; I hope no more bake-mono w i ll disturb
our peace ,” vanished into the house .
Somerville was j ust about to enter his room and
close the S hOJZ when there came a faint scratching onthe paper panel .He listened for a moment
,and then , as it was re
peated , he slid one of the shoj i along in its groove
and peered out into the semi-obscuri ty of the
verandah .
At first he could see noth ing, but at length he madeout the figure o f San- to beckoning him with herfinger, and whispering, Oide nasai. Gomennasai.”
For the moment he could not think what the old
woman wanted with him,but it was evident that she
w i shed to speak with him,and that not near the room
where McKenz ie and Katakuri San slept, which was
next his own . So he crept out with bare feet ontothe verandah , and followed San-to to the far end .
When he was close to her he could j ust see in the
dim light that she held a piece of paper,or a long
Japanese rice-paper envelope in her hand . This shethrust into his , saying in a low tone , Katakuri Sanbad woman is . Sent away Mio San .
”
For a moment Somervi lle scarcely realised her
meaning, and he exclaimed louder than he intended,“
What do you mean , San-to ? What i s th is you
tell me ?
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 107
But San-to,w ith a gesture of alarm meant to enj o in
silence upon him,merely whispered ,
“ Honourable
Englishman,read chit
,
” and then glided away to her
ownapartments .In Somervil le ’s hand was a th in , long-shaped Japanese envelope o f shrimp coloured rice-paper . Inthe gloom o f the verandah he could scarcely seewhether it was written upon , but when he had re
entered his room and looked at it by the light hefound that i t was evidently addressed to h im . Theblurred characters were certainly l ike those McKenz iehad once shown him as constituting his own name .
What could it all mean ? Mio San driven away
by Katakuri San,as San- to had sa id
,and this myste
rious letter placed in his hands .For some time he sat on the floor underneath the
kerosene lamp which he had installed in place of theinefficient one provided by Katakuri San , consisting of
a small red glass cup with a wick floating in o il
as i l luminant,gazing at the envelope with the strange
and straggling characters upon it . He could not
read them , and so at last he decided to lock theenvelope up in his desk and turn in .
It was a long time ere he fel l asleep,for the mystery
of the note and San-to ’
s statement regarding Mio San
kept him awake . This,then
,was the explanat ion of
the latter ’s absence at the meal a couple o f hours ago,
and the reason that Katakuri San had fetched her own
108 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
p ipe and the tabako-bonwhen they w ished to smoke,instead o f clapping her hands for her l ittle maid asshe usually did .
At length , however , he fel l asleep beneath hismosquito curtains and dreamed of Mio San
,and of
Katakuri San , who was changed into the dreadfulFox-woman , of whom McKenz ie had been tel ling
him stories—the womanwho lures men to evil, anddestruction.
110 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
size of a torrent, bent over yet more sorrowfullythan usual .The garden Of sunshine and flowers had suddenly
become one of sadness and destruction .
Somerville was gazing out blankly upon the delugewhen he heard Katakuri San ’s voice talking rapidly
in Japanese , and McKenz ie ’
s deeper tones,as though
in anger .In his pocket lay the note which San-to had so
mysteriously thrust into his hand the night before .Whilst dressing he had been turning over in hismind what he should do regarding it . To askM cKenz ie to translate it to him was out of the question . Somerville laughed rather grimly to himselfat the very thought . One does not usually request
a stranger to discover the contents of a missive ofwhich we actually know nothing. M cKenz ie m ightstumble upon information regarding Katakuri San ofan unpleasant character . No
,that would not do,
thought Somerville . The only alternative which sug
gested itsel f to his perplexed mind was Yumoto, and
he fancied the latter could be trusted .
Katakuri San did not put in an appearance atbreakfast . McKenz ie excused her by saying that thefright of the night before had left her with a headache . Somerville said nothing . He was wonderingwhether little Mio San
,of whom he would now possi
b ly not be able to comp lete a pi cture he had com
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 111
mcnced , had yet gone away , and i f so what she couldbe doing in the tempest O f wind and rain which shookthe frai l house as though it sought to destroy it .San-to brought in the meal , and noticing Somer
ville ’s look of astonishment , as Mio San always waitedupon them
, McKenz ie explained .
“ Mio San has gone away , he said ; Katakur iappears to have taken a disl ike to her of late , andcomplains that she was insulting .
” Poor l ittle M ioSan ! thought Somervi lle . It was impossible to con
ceive the ever gentle and bright l ittle creature insulting. I am sorry
,
” added M cKenz ie , a trifle
ruefully , as it is a dreadful disgrace for her,and it
will not be easy to replace her with another maid .
Whilst McKenz ie was speaking Somerville caughtSan-to ’s eye , and he noticed , when mention was madeo f Mio San
’
s outrageous rudeness to her mistress,a
grim sort o f sm i le flitted across her wrinkled countenance .
No more , however , was said , and the conversation
dri fted into a discussion o f the weather and the probabil ity of the continuance o f the rain .
Once or tw ice Somerville was on the point ofdropping some observation which would have befrayed the fact that Mio San , ere her departure , hadwritten to him . But he managed to pause in time .
McKenz ie said l ittle about Katakuri San’s fright and
indisposition o f the previous night . In fact , he only
112 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
mentioned it as he was putting on his oi lskin coat and
sou ’-wester preparatory to departing for the town .
Then he remarked , I suppose Katakuri has beenworrying hersel f lest this upset should prevent her
sitting to you,so that you can finish off that study of
the little iris pond in the garden .
”
I think I shall come down into the town later on,replied Somerv i lle “ That’s i f the weather clearsup a bit .
Oh !” exclaimed McKenz ie , what’s going to
make you turn out in weather not fit for a dog ? But ,”
he added with a laugh,I ought to apologize for
cross-examining you in this way, old fellow .
“ No need ,” said Somerville pleasantly . I am
rather expecting some letters addressed to Yumoto’
s
office . You see , I’ve not yet been able to let al l my
friends know that I have been sponging on you forthe last ten weeks .
O f course ! ” rej o ined McKenz ie , stepping outinto the driving rain . S ayonara ! I f you find yoursel f near the Works
,look in
,and we ’l l have tiffinat
Sei-yo-tei .I will , repl ied Somerville , as McKenz ie turned
away and walked briskly down the miniature brookwhich formed the path .
When he disappeared Somerville reti red to his roomto consider the situation .
S o many womenhad flattered and caj oled him
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Katakuri San call ing to San-to, Oide nasai .’ Oide
nasai ! ”
And then came the maid ’s Hei ! Doshtu ? in
deeper tones above the rattle of the rain,as San-to
hurried along the verandah to Katakuri San ’s room .
There was a sound of rapid conversation,ques
tionings, and replies . Then Somervi lle caught the
mention of his ownname , then that of Mio San .
On few occasions during his stay in Japan did he
wish more devoutly that he had possessed a suffi
cient knowledge of colloquial Japanese to follow what
the two women were saying to one another in tonesloud enough to be heard distinctly through the frai l
paper karakami which divided the rooms .That Katakur1 San was angry , and San-to less
humble in demeanour than was her wont,he easi ly
gathered . But that was all .
Outside the rain was now falling less heavi ly,and
McKenz ie ’
s prognostication that noon would see the
deluge stayed appeared likely to prove correct.A lready the clouds were sweeping less thickly acrossthe hills
,and the summits of many of the lower ones
were becoming gradually visible as the vapour rolledback from them . Here and there shafts of bri lliant
sunlight pierced the clouds and fel l down momentari lyinto the rain-washed town and harbour
,making the
wet roofs onwhich they fell shine l ike hel iographs
signalling to the heights above them .
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 115
Somervi lle rose and went out on the verandah towatch the scene . In his pocket lay Mio San ’s letter
,
concerning the purport o f which he felt so keen and
increasing a curiosity . The heavy drops of rain ,which in the early morn ing had torn the surface o f
the little goldfish pond like buckshot,now only fretted
it with tiny circles l ike those made by water-beetles .Down in the harbour lay two steamers bri ll iantlywhite as though cut out of ivory , as a wandering ray
of sunshine struck them ; and now that the sea had
gone down the black , beetle-l ike sampans were fl itting
between them and other vessels at anchor and the
shore .
In an hour the waters of the harbour had changedfrom the colour of green-grey agate , flecked with
wh ite foam ,to that of j ade . So intent was Somerville
watching the atmospheric changes going on around
and below him , that he did not hear the soft shoo—shooo f approaching footsteps , or realise another presence ,t i l l Katakuri San had laid a hand lightly upon hisshoulder .
“You are idle to-day , honourable Mister Art ist ,
she exclaimed ; adding after a pause ,“I hope I have
not kept you waiting . See , I hav e not stayed to put
onmy kimono,so that I would come to you as soon
as possible . ”
Somervil le had turned round and stood regarding
Katakuri San attentively . There was no use deny
116 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
ing it , she was wonderfully pretty , and the hal fsleepy droop of the eyes , which looked at him withsuch frank
,undisguised admiration under thei r long
,
fringed lashes,was singularly attractive . Al l the
tragic terror o f the night before had passed out ofher face
,and in its place were the smiles which had
brought Katakuri San much reputation for fickleness
in her affections when she was a geisha at Fuj i-tei . Hesuddenly remembered the saying of an artist famousin the Quartier Latin for his bonmots and paintingsof fai r women !
“ A pretty woman is never moreattractive or dangerous than when she has j ust awakened from slumber—that i s
,to the awakener . And
as he met her eyes he knew the truth o f i t .Seeing that he did not move , Katakuri San said ,I am ready . It i s wet , and you cannot descend
into the town to get your august person wet . Letus go and finish the picture . ”
“ Where is Mio San ? ” said Somerv i l le,w ithout
answering her .Mio San ! exclaimed Katakuri San , as though no
such person existed . She has gone away, honour
able friend ! I no longer had need o f her, and onedoes not retain the services of those o f whom one hasno longer need .
Katakuri San glanced at Somervi l le with such aningenuous smile that , had he been blind to certain
events of the past few weeks , he might have believed
118 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
she once told him one does not share the best fru itswith another . Poor little Mio San ! ” he mused ,and so she thought you were trying to pick fruit inher orchard .
”
Ten minutes later and Katakur i San saw Somer
ville , inraincoat and oilskin cap , disappear down the
garden path , and then she gave way to the rage which
burned in her fickle little heart,in which already so
many similar passions had burned themselves to ashes .
Somervil le made his way down into the town along
the rain-torn road,that a couple of hours before had
been little better than a torrent , and then along several
of the narrow streets which intersect the main ones ofNagasaki commerce
,paved merely in the centre , w ith
overhanging roofs from which miniature N iagaras
fell , and thence out on to the Bund .
Now that the rain had almost ceased,swarms of
women were at work getting coal into the lighters, andclerks , many of them in strange mixtures o f Japanese
European attire,were hurrying in and out of the
various offices and warehouses, or standing checking
bales and boxes on the hatoba. But Somerville was tooanxious to get to Yumoto
’
s office to stand and watchwhat was going on, as he usually did . A quaintlywizened clerk , who bore the euphonious name of Sugawara , wished him ,
in a strange mixture of English andJapanese , K onnichi wa. Gagari masai,
” and then
informed him that the honourable Mister Yumoto was
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 119
within and busy, but would see his august presenceimmediately .
In response to an invitation , Somervi l le cl imbed the
rickety stai rcase , which seemed less dependable every
t ime he did so, and knocked at the l ittle door of
Yumo to’
s room .
“Oagari nasai, called Yumoto from w ith in , and
Somervi lle pushed open the door .
After the usual elaborate civi lities wh ich Yumoto
always practised , rein forced with what he remembered
o f European courtesies , he inquired why h is miserable
office was honoured by the august condescension o f his
honourable friend , and assured his visitor that he had
the whole of the day to give to hi s business should it
require such an amount of t ime .“ I have come to seek your advice , said Somer
v i l le,seating himsel f Mio San has disappeared .
In a word , Katakur i San has discharged her .
Yumoto gave a low whistle—a habit he had
acquired abroad , which , when he returned to Naga
sak i,he had found conferred a certa in air of distinc
tion and uniqueness upon him , so he had cherished
the trick for use onsuitable occasions .“ So she has gone
,
” he said , after a pause . Itdoes not bring me surprise . Where there i s but one
apple there i s no need for two to pick it ,”with which
somewhat crypti c utterance he sm i led benignly at
Somerville .
120 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
The latter found a shade more colour come into his
bronzed cheek , and so he hurriedly dived into hisundercoat pocket and produced Mio San ’s letter .“ This ,
” said he , ignoring what Yumoto had said ,was given me last night by San-to . I can ’t read it
,
so I ’ve come to you.
”
From ?”queried Yumoto, glanc ing at the
envelope .Mio San .
Yumoto wh istled aga in .
He had seen Katakuri San look at Somervi lle,and
her glance conveyed a good deal of mean ing to h is
O riental mind , cognisant as he was of the ex-geisha’
s
past . Moreover , he had no great l iking for Madame
McKenz ie , and no l ittle contempt for her , and he
scented what m ight prove to be interest ing com
pl ications .Mio San
,he repeated slowly , putting out his
hand across his desk for the letter . And why, my
honourable friend,are you anxious to know what this
contemptible gi rl has to say to you ?”
I am curious to know , replied Somerville,because it i s on account of my friendship with her
that she has suffered disgrace at Katakuri San ’s
hands . I must find her . For,Yumoto
,I do not think
Nagasaki the best place in the world for a friendless
girl , especial ly i f she is pretty .
”
Yumoto laughed a queer little laugh . Pretty girls
122 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
will even fee l compassion towards me , and j udge myheart ’s overflowing tenderness with not anger
,but
kind feel ing. It i s only in the great distress o f my
mind and the tearfulness of mine eyes , which may not
again behold you,that I venture to so unworthi ly
address to you these words .
May you live a thousand years,fortunate and
happy . To the longed- for and worshipped augustone this letter is sent . ”
When Yumoto had finished read ing the letter hela id the sheet of thin rice-paper onwhich it was writ
ten down on the desk in front of him and whistled .
With his O riental contempt for women , Mio San’s
tender l ittle love- letter—which it must have taken heran infinitude of thought to compose—conveyed onlytwo hard , cold facts . One that she was evidently in
love w ith Somerville ; the other that her conduct hadbeen very irregular and reprehensible . For a moment
or two he said nothing, and the only sound which
broke the si lence o f the room was the patter of rain
on the roof above them ,and the droning voice of
Sugawara,the clerk
,reading over bills of lading in
the room below .
At length he said,Mio San is yours for the asking.
She i s a pretty girl,and loves you . You need not
now trouble your august thoughts bv a consideration
ofO Matsu San , or O Inc San , i f you wish for a wi fe .
”
Somerville ’s face flushed , and he was about to reply .
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 123
But what was the use of doing so ? He had alreadylearned that Yumoto
’
s views of marriage,temporary
or permanent,were as far apart as the poles from hi s
own, even though these were tinctured with thebohemianism o f the Quartier Latin . Whilst Yumoto
had been reading Mio San ’s letter to him he hadrealised that she loved him
,and in consequence had
a claim upon him o f a nature that it was not necessary
to possess the keenest moral sense to admit . How to
find her and protect her unti l her friends could be
discovered was his chie f thought . And yet at theback o f his mind there was a nascent germ o f artistic love o f her which might develop along awkwardl ines .
There was an element of dri ft —which i s seldomabsent from the temperament o f artists—inhis naturewhich , tempered with honour , might land him in com
plications at any moment . Hitherto it had not landed
him in matrimony,and sometimes he had vaguely
wondered why .
Well , my honourable friend ?” exclaimed Yumoto ,
with a smile,as Somervi lle made no reply to his former
remark .
Somerville glanced at him quickly , and made up
his mind that whatever faults his vis-a-vis mightpossess , he was to be trusted . In fact
,he knew that
Yumoto,outside business competition
,was straight
enough ; that , indeed , he rather prided himsel f upon
124 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
his Western sense o f honour, acqu ired whilst a student
at London University , and afterwards at Sorbonne .“ Yumoto
,
” he said , as the former lit a cigarette
and thrust the box across the table to him ,
“ never
mind about Mio San ’s confession of love for me . The
thing to do,my friend , i s to find her. She is a mere
child
Yumoto laughed , and said slowly, You make a
mistake,augustly thinking one . She is no ch i ld , but
a woman . None but a woman ’s love-swayed heartcould have written that letter . Girls do not often
thus write even to thei r lovers in our land . Bes ides ,have I not watched her regarding you with eyes inwhich loving worship shone when she has handed you
sake, or b rought for your use the tabako-bon.
”
“ Let that be as it may , the question wh ich mostconcerns my mind is
,where can she be ? ” replied
Somerville .“Who can tel l ? ” said Yumoto, with a shrug of
his shoulders . There are many chaya and other
places where a pretty girl might have strayed to inNagasaki . She may even , ere this , have made theacquaintance of Enoki , who finds wives for the officerso f the war ships . Who knows ? ”
Somervi lle felt his anger boiling over at the indifference the speaker showed . But in time he remem
bered that i t was Yumoto who could help him to
d i scover Mio San . So he said,It is my fault
, O
126 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
rest upon that portion o f the top letter which themarble slab fai led to cover. It was a broad , i f deli
cately conveyed , hint, and Somerville took it .
It will have to do ,” said he . Many thanks for
being graciously disposed to help me . I w i l l be here
at dusk . S ayonara, for the present .”
Yumoto slipped Mio San ’s letter into its long,frai l
envelope and handed it to Somervi lle,who thrust it in
hi s pocket . Then he shook hands English fashion
instead of shaking his own as he used to do ere he wentto Europe , and set to work onhis papers almost b efore the narrow door closed behind hi s vis itor.
CHAPTER IX
HEN Somerville stepped out o f Yumoto’
s
offi ce onto the hatoba he found the rain hadalmost ceased . Venus Hill and the ad
j oining range had put off their caps o f mist and cloud ,and the sunpoured down as though in haste to dry
up every shining pool which lay in the worn stone
flags of the quays and i ll-paved streets . Away out inthe harbour lay one o f the mailboats coal ing
,a swarm
of coolies cl imbing her sides l ike ants , and on thehatoba were scores of women , thei r bodies grimed withcoal-dust , pouring their black burdens , carried instraw baskets , into the lighters alongside . But to
these Somervi lle paid no attention . The one thought
which had possessed hi s mind since Yumoto had read
Mio San ’s piteous letter had been how should he setabout finding her .There was
,indeed
,l ittle l ikel ihood that she would
be wandering in the streets,but he turned away from
the waterside and threaded some o f the narrow by
ways in the hope o f catching a glimpse o f her .
Overhead the roofs o f the houses and shops almost
met at times , and had he not been too much occupied
127
128 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
with his quest he would have stayed to exam ine thequa int wares spread out in the dim recesses o f thelatter, but he
“
pressed on,throwing an eager, searching
glance down every alley and intersecting street or
by-way .
Once , after passing along several of the w ider roads ,and j ust before he reached the bridge over theNakaj ima-gawa
,with its low rai l and huge stone
lantern,weather-worn and chipped
,standing like a
sentinel between two trees , he fancied that a figure he
saw ahead of him walking rapidly in clogs was that
o f Mio San . But when he caught her up she proved
to be a musume’
who had been shopping and was onher way back to the outskirts of the town with her
purchases .She gazed at h im with frank , childl ike eyes , which
took a shade of apprehension as their owner notedSomerville ’s look of blank disappointment .
“K onnichi wa
,
” she said in a low voice,glancing
at him with a conci liatory smile .
K onnichi wa,” replied he , adding, as he turned
away , the polite Gomen nasai ” I beg yourpardon
It granted to you , august honourableness , camethe reply , and then the little musume clattered awayacross the bridge with the folds of her kimono
gathered close around her and her wooden sandals
making a musical kuro-kuro as she walked .
A: J APANE S E ROMAN CE
into the less frequented and narrower streets . He
walked about with eyes keenly searching for M io San
unti l the sun was sinking red into the sea and the shad
ows o f the hi l ls had fallen into the town . And then
he suddenly remembered that he was weary, and that
i f he did not return to McKenz ie ’
s both his friend and
Katakuri San would be wondering,perhaps anxiously
,
where he was and what had become of him . There
might yet be time to catch M cKenz ie ere he left the
Works, so he hailed a passing j inrikisha, and , with a
strong-armed , sturdy-legged kurumaya between the
bamboo shafts,was soon at the door which led into
the portion of the Works where McKenz ie had hisoffi ce .
He had been gone hal f an hour . S o said the
American bookkeeper . What was to be done ? Somervi l le asked himsel f . At last a bright idea suggested
itsel f, and he asked i f he might write a few lines to
McKenz ie .
The bookkeeper supplied him w ith writing material s ,and he sat down to a desk gritty with dust from the
pottery and stained with ink and wet glasses . In a
few moments he had written all that was needed ;simply a statement that he had spent the day exploringthe town
,and was going to a place of amusement
with Yumoto . McKenz ie was not to bother about
him nor wait up . He would perhaps be late home .
Then the bookkeeper called a passing coolie for him,
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 131
and the man sped away up the narrow street whichdebouched into the road leading to McKenz ie ’
s house
a l i ttle way up the hi l lside . With a few words of
thanks and a nod Somervi lle made his way out alongthe Bund .
Yumoto was waiting for him in h is offi ce .You have not found the girl ? ” the former asked ,
as a mere formality.
Somerville shook his head,and then Yumoto no
ticed,as the light from the shimmering water fel l
upon his face through the w indow , that he was looking
ti red and worn .
You must have some wh isky sake, he exclaimed
concernedly , going to the little cupboard and takingout the precious bottle . I can see you have idly
tired your august legs and body searching for an
altogether contemptible girl .Somerville said nothing, drink ing the whi sky wh ich
Yumoto , regardless o f its preciousness, had lavishly
poured outWhen he had fin ished Yumoto sat down oppositehim and said
,w ith a serious face , My honourable
friend,i s it sti l l the desire o f your wonderfully kind
mind to seek out Mio San ? There are other musume’
who can be found with less diffi culty .
”
Somerville fingered his glass and gazed at the
speaker as though to fathom the depth o f his O rientalm ind
,which apparently knew no difference in women
132 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
other than could be covered by the broad class ificationof good and bad .
Outside the light was fading rap idly, and the rid inglights of j unks and steamers comm enced to sparkle
across the surface of the harbour . Somerville noticedthis indication of oncoming dusk and became the moreeager to be again afoot .My friend ,
” said he at last,in reply to Yumoto ’
s
question , I must find Mio San i f I am to rest to-night,or to rest contented for many nights to comeAnd then ? ” queried Yumoto, with an enigmatic
sm i le .And then—well , we can cons ider that afterwards .
Let us be going.
”
Yumoto got up,pulled off his ink-stained haori in
which he always worked and hung it onits peg. Thenhe brushed his European-cut coat, and putting it onannounced that he was ready .
He evidently regarded the affair from two points
of view . The first that his friend Somerville wasquixotic to an incomprehensible degree . It would
have been so much easier, he argued to himsel f, to
have found a pretty geisha at one o f the numerouschaya and restaurants to replace lost little Mio San .
The second , that , after all , the evening before thempromised amusement
,and possibly excitement
,even
though it might not result inthe discovery of her
whom they sought.
134 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
taurants and tea-houses swung innumerable lanterns,ch iefly of yellow , wh ite , and peach-coloured paper, onwhich the ir makers had limned bats , moths , and fishes ,whilst almost every passer-by carried h is or her ownlantern swaying upon a slender bamboo cane . Thelaughter of women and musume
’
, the low hum of voices ,the hal f-whispered apologies as one or other of thepedestrians j ostled against a fellow-citizen
,and the
shri l l cry of the ’
rikisha boys clearing the road as they
came along, almost passed unheeded by Somerville ,whose mind was occupied with thoughts o f Mio San .
But as he and Yumoto passed along the crowded
thoroughfare and approached the restaurant hescanned the faces of each musume who bore the least
resemblance to her in height or build narrowly .
But it was a fruitless scrutiny ; for none of thelaughing
,hurrying musume
’
,whose clogs kept up a
ringing kuro-kuro on the stones of the street , andwhose faces when the lantern-l ight fell upon them
seemed so j oyous and free from trouble of any sort,proved to be Mio San .
Both men were wel l known at the Hanaz ono , forYumoto generally had his ban-meshi there when notdining at a friend ’s house
,and Somervil le had been
there several times with McKenz ie for tiffin, and fre
quently with Katakuri San and he of an evening.
They were shown into a little room,formed out of
a larger one by the simple and effective expedient
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 135
of sl iding panels , by the boy who hastened away tosend Yumoto his favourite l ittle waitress
, O Kiku
San .
For a time neither of the men spoke . In the next
room they could hear the laughter and conversation ofa party of naval Officers and geisha—a strange com
mingling o f the Japanese and English tongues . E vi
dently , thought Somerville , the Hanaz ono was doing
great business that evening,and they would have to
wait . And how i rksome that waiting would be !Around them all the rooms appeared to have thei roccupants , and Somervi lle experienced that strange
oppression which had assai led h1m onthe first occasion
he had been at this much-patronised resort,the feel ing
o f disquietude at the murmuring voices which he couldb ear but whose owners he could not see .After a few moments Yumoto rose
,slid aside one
of the karakami,onwhose surface was depicted an
elegantly disposed fl ight o f swallows,and peered out.
In the distance he caught sight o f a musume, tea-tray
in hand,and he called out, clapping his hands the
while , Ta-betai,hayaku !
Hai- i-i ! Tadaima ! called back Miss Snowflake ,who vanished as she spoke into the room where the
Officers from the mailboat and the geisha were making
merry .
To Somervil le the ir merriment seemed sadly out o f
place,and not even the quaint and formal entrance of
136 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
O Kiku San , whose coming Miss Snowflake hadhastened , kneeling on the white matting floor and pressing her fair forehead upon the backs of her hands
,
served to divert him from his thoughts .
The meal that Yumoto ordered consisted of eightcourses , for he had been too busy all day to get his
usual tiffin, and he ate slowly . For him the quest ofM10 San was merely a more or less interesting way of
spending the evening,and he scarcely noticed
,in his
ful l enj oyment of the various dishes,that his com
panion was eating little and growing impatient .At length
,however
,the meal was done , and Yumoto
ready to accompany Somervil le on his quest . O Kiku
San could not understand why the two men did not
remain as they usually did for a smoke and a little
dancing.
Were they displeased with her or with the food ?she inquired anxiously
,slipping the ten-sen piece which
Somervi lle gave her into the li ttle pocket she had con
structed for the purpose in the wide sleeve o f her
kimono . And when Yumoto assured her that they
had enj oyed ban-meshi,and thought her looking more
charming than ever, she laughed , pushed aside thekarakami
, and , placing their shoes , which they had
discarded on entering the room,convenient to their
feet , ran away down the passage to attend to other
visitors . Only, as O Kiku San was a coquette and
Somerville handsome , she paused at the end to blow
138 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
hung,above them were si lhouetted sharply against the
star-spangled sky . Once or twice a musume or
woman cal led to them Konbanwa, or some challenge
,to which Yumoto threw back a contemptuous or
polite reply , as the speaker might be e ither old or
young.
At a corner of the street a musician was standing,samisenin hand , singing to a little crowd which had
collected,in a high-pitched and rather unmusical
voice . When she caught sight o f Yumoto and Somer
v i lle she made greater vocal efforts,rolling her eyes
and swaying her head from side to side in the very best
manner of the Japanese singer . Near her head swung
a huge paper lantern belonging to the shop round the
corner,and had it not been for this the little singer
would have been almost invisible in the dim light of
the street , dressed as she was in a slate-coloured
kimono and dark crimsinobi. The two men stopped
a moment in the hope that one of the little crowd ,which stood in a hal f-circle almost enclosing the
musician , might prove to be her they sought . But it
was a vain hope . And so,after a moment’s pause to
toss a couple of sen in the basket at the singer ’s feet,they went on.
The chaya of the Golden Lotus was crowded,for it was one o f the favourite resorts of the Euro
peanised younger Japanese of the town . In the bigroom which lay at the back of it through the quaint
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 139
rockwork garden—a room almost as large as a smallhall—one would always see good dancing, and hear
s inging which,i f s ingularly discordant to unaccus
tomed European ears , was provided by highly tra inedgirl-singers .
Onthe spotless matting floor were seated dozens ofJapanese in native or semi-native attire ,mostly smoking
and regarding the posturing o f a couple o f geisha
who had acquired fame all over the town,and whose
services are sought after by every one who could
afford them to entertain parties o f guests . There
were several of Yumoto’
s acquaintances and friends
present,who regarded him and Somerville with vague
curiosity whilst sti l l keeping an eye upon the doingso f O Dede San and O Sugi San . Remains of the
re freshments , half-emptied cups o f sake, crumbs , and
beans,l ittered the floor in front o f late-comers . So
great was the number of the patrons o f the Golden
Lotus”that the musume
, who stood peering with
smiling and painted faces round the corners o f
screens and karakami, had been unable to performtheir duties o f clearing away .
From the cross-beams above swung numbers oflanterns of all colours , stirred into lazy motion by
draughts o f cool night air from the garden . They
threw shadows o f the s ingers onthe floor,and onthe
faces and bodies o f the onlookers—weird , fantasti cshadows which gave an air o f unreality to the scene .
140 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Upon the floor m ingled with the men were hal f ascore of women spectators
,mostly young ; and Somer
vil le and Yumoto scrutinised each o f their faces inturn in the hal f-hope o f discovering Mio San . One
girl of about s ixteen , dressed in a kimono o f a similar
shade of plum colour to that in which Somerville had
been accustomed to see Mio San , caused his heart tobeat more quickly for a minute or two , until the little
musume’
turned round to address an o ld man sitting
behind her and he saw her face .
A fter they had been in the room some twentyminutes Yumoto said
,
“ It i s no good stopping here ,my friend
,although O Sugi San ’s dancing is well
worth looking at . She whom we seek is not here , and
Togakushi I have spoken to , and he has not seen any
one l ike Mio San . Come , let us be going . Unless ,and Yumoto spoke rather wearily, you are content to
leave things as they stand . Better so ! No use , I
feel sure,looking for her to -night . In a day or two
we might hear something . I might even inquire ofEnoki .
An angry flush,which passed unnoticed because the
lantern which swung from the beam just above hishead was a rosy peach colour
,suffused Somerville ’s
face , for he felt i f M io San were abandoned unti l shewas traced by means o f the notorious Enoki shewould no longer be the innocent , thoughtlessly charm
ing little musume’
he had delighted to paint and study .
140 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Upon the floor mingled with the men were half ascore of women spectators , mostly young ; and Somer
ville and Yumoto scrutinised each of their faces inturn in the hal f-hope of discovering Mio San . One
girl of about s ixteen , dressed in a kimono of a similarshade of plum colour to that in which Somerville had
been accustomed to see Mio San , caused his heart tobeat more quickly for a minute or two , until the l ittle
musume turned round to address an old man s ittingbehind her and he saw her face .
After they had been in the room some twentyminutes Yumoto said
,It i s no good stopping here ,
my fr iend,although O Sugi San ’s dancing is wel l
worth looking at . She whom we seek i s not here , andTogakushi I have spoken to , and he has not seen any
one l ike Mio San . Come , let us be going. Unless ,and Yumoto spoke rather wearily, you are content to
leave things as they stand . Better so ! No use , I
feel sure,looking for her to-night . In a day or two
we might hear something. I might even inqu ire of
Enoki .An angry flush
,which passed unnoticed because the
lantern which swung from the beam just above hishead was a rosy peach colour , suffused Somervi lle
’
s
face , for he felt i f Mio San were abandoned unti l shewas traced by means o f the notorious Enoki shewould no longer be the innocent , thoughtlessly charming little musume he had delighted to paint and study .
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 141
But keeping his temper was essential i f Yumoto ’
s aid
was to be ensured , and so he only said , I cannot yetabandon the search , my honourable friend , so long as
I am aided by your august assistance and intel ligent
mind .
”
Yumoto smiled .
It was nice for th is Engl ishman to speak thus ofhim ; and , although one musume
’
was very much l ikeanother to him
,perhaps Somervi lle had a special in
terest in Mio San . I f he had it was nothing to him ,
only he might as well put h im under obligation byhelping to discover her .Very well , augustness ever persevering , he re
plied . We will draw a net over The Sandalwood
Box ,’ ‘ The Gate of the Sky
,
’ and ‘ The BeckoningKitten ,
’ and if we do not catch our fish in either o f
these places,perhaps
,as a last hope
,we may as well
look in at the door of The Welcoming Geisha .
’
Somervi lle had heard McKenz ie tel l queer stories o fthe latter resort
,and he devoutly hoped that Mio San
might not have found her way there . So out againthey went into the narrow streets o f the native town ,l ined oneither side by low houses , through the nowtranslucent and closed shoj i o f the maj ority o f which
gleamed either rampu !lamps ! or the white papernight lanterns l ike the sun seen through a m ist . Theymet few people til l they struck across a main street
towards the harbour and made thei r way towards the
142 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Beckoning Kitten , then they encountered someEuropean sai lors ontheir way back to thei r ships
,and
a few grotesquely attired Japanese in bowler hatswith English coats worn over their other native gar
ments . But although there were musume’
about, none
that they overtook proved to be Mio San . Nor did
they discover her or any trace of her in the three teahouses Yumoto had proposed to explore first .Somerville was very tired and disappointed when
they turned away out of the last place , followed bythe laughing invitations o f the habitués, couched in
polite Japanese, To remain and see the honourable
sun rise .”
A tramp of hal f a mile through narrow alleys , theroofs of the houses on either side o f which nearly
met overhead,making the streets almost as dark as
tunnels,and they reached the restaurant known by
the euphonious title of The Welcoming Geisha .
” It
lay almost at the bottom o f a narrow lane leading to
the waterside .
Yumoto knocked at the door, and after a minute ortwo ’s delay the amado was sl id back , and he andSomervil le entered .
A short passage led to the largish room in wh ich thesake-drinking, singing, and dancing, for which the
house was noted,went on . Long ere the end of the
passage was reached sounds of applause came to them .
For several moments after the karakami had been slid
144 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
from b eaneath the rim of his bowler hat, she caught
s ight o f Somerville .A flush of mingled j oy and shame flooded hercheeks
,and the lacquer tray and the cups upon it fell
out o f her trembling fingers . Somervil le would have
sprung forward,but Yumoto laid a tight grip upon
his arm .
Tomara! Do not destroy everything, my over
hasty friend ! he whispered . We have found her ;but i f you wish to take her with you preserve your
calm .
Somervil le paused . He recogn ised the advice asbeing good . Seeing him pause and draw back a look
of piteous disappointment came into Mio San s face .Was he about to go away ? or was it al l a dream ?
Before either Yumoto or Somervi lle could decideupon anything o ld Honj o had appeared on the scene ,summoned by the ringing crash of the lacquer tray on
the floor,and the sound o f the breaking o f sake cups .
His keen,dark eyes swept round the room , and
seeing what had happened and who the culprit was , he
ran forward and struck Mio San upon the shoulder .There was a momentary confusion amongst the
guests , and ere Somerville could interfere Honj o haddriven Mio San from the room .
Now come , quick ! ej aculated Yumoto . Andstepping between the seated men they followed Honjothrough the panel which he had slid back onentering.
A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE 145
A moment later l ittle M io San was cl inging to
Somerville ’s knees and entreating him to no moreremove his shining presence from her .
Yumoto was meanwhile seeking to appease the furi
ous Honjo , and by threats and caj olery trying to dis
cover how it was that Mio San came to be in hi s
house .
She is one of my geisha, the o ld manasserted
mendac iously .
No ,” excla imed Yumoto ; you have stolen her.
And the Englishman is a great lord who will see that
you are punished i f you refuse to at once release herand let her go .
”
Honj o gazed at Yumoto w ithout speak ing. Lately ,only Yumoto did not know it , there had been trouble
with the police , who , when they raided the Welcoming Geisha ,
” although saying to Honj o, Gomen
nasai,
”—which be ing interpreted was August pardondeign to give us,
”—had made it perfectly clear thatChonKino and other no less reprehensible th ings mustnot be too frequently repeated . Honjo had told the
ra iding samurainot to mention it , that he was delightedto see them , but all the same he knew that thei r eyes
for the immediate future would be upon him and the
dances and doings o f his geisha.
The little group of three men,w ith M io San sti l l
clasping Somerville round the knees and petitioning
h im to take her away,was almost dramatic in the hal f
146 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
gloom of Honj o’
s private apartment—the room inwhich he weekly cheated h is unfortunate geisha whenhe made up h is accounts . Now the o ld scoundrel knewhe would have in the end to give way, for Yumotospoke with an ai r o f authority
,and was known to have
friends in official circles . It was a pity,he thought
sadly , for Mio San was prettier than any girls he had
j ust then , and he for some weeks past had noted thatsome of his best patrons
,who consumed most whisky
sake, had come to regard the most outrageous postur
ings and songs of his staff of geisha with increasingly
languid interest . In a word , they wanted something
new . And in M io San , decoyed to the Welcoming
Geisha whilst she sat lonely and sobbing under thecherry-trees near one of the chaya in O -Suwa Park,he had found the novelty he sought . And now this
Engl ishman,whose eyes looked at him fiercely even in
the dim light o f the room , was about to take his prize
from him . It was execrable , but inevitab le . The only
thing to do was to make as good a bargain as possible .
The necessity for this had presented itsel f to h i s astute
mind even whilst Yumoto was first speak ing.
August one , he commenced , addressing Yumoto,and bowing his head as though possessed of a humbleinstead of a rapacious sp irit ,
“ your worshipful w i l l
and that of the augustly honourable English lord mustbe done . But ,
” and his tone took an inj ured key, I
am los ing thi s m iserable girl who would have been
148 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
sent to inform his friends who were proprietors of
neighbouring drink ing-places of h is diffi culty . S o he
said,continuing his speech , But the august English
man,who is my esteemed friend , i s w i lling to give you
something for the food the girl may have eaten . Here,”
taking out a handful of money and counting out someof i t, are five yen .
”
This was too much for Honj o,who had thought of
insisting upon ten times as much at least.No , no , augustly deigning one , he almost
screamed ; give me at least fifty paltry yen , and thegirl may go .
Yumoto merely shook h is head . He knew it wouldfaci l itate matters to let Honj o put h is ownm in imumprice upon Mio San ’s lost services .Honj o
’
s wrinkled , evi l face glared at the girl . S he
had never seemed so pretty as now when he was aboutto lose her.M io San clung the more closely to Somervi l le
, for,
young and innocent as she was,there was something
like the glance of a w i ld beast robbed of its prey inHonj o
’
s eyes, which she understood , and it frightenedher .
Forty ?” queried
Another shake of Yumoto,
pursed up his lips .Thirty-five ?
Thirty ? ”
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 149
Twenty-five ?
Sti l l Yumoto shook h i s head .
Honjo was boiling over with the rage he dare notshow . But at the moment there was the sound of
tramp ing feet and voices which he recognised asthose of samurai. A whistle from Yumoto or a cal l
might summon them,and Honj o was in no humour
for an interview with the pol ice j ust then . He saw
Yumoto glance at his companion and whisper some
thing. There was no time to lose , and so with a rag
ing heart he said,Will the august one give twenty
yen ? It is not much for so pretty a
Somervi lle,who gathered what he said , exclaimed ,
Give the dirty blackguard the money,and let us go .
”
Yumoto counted out five notes into Honj o’
s yellow ,
outstretched and greasy palm . When the last one wasplaced there the recipient closed his fingers over themwith a snap like that of a trap
,as though fearing that
Yumoto m ight yet change his mind and reopen thebargaining . Then he appeared suddenly to realisethat little Mio San was wearing garments belongingto him .
Get up ! ” he said roughly,sticking out one foot
from beneath his greasy kimono as though to pushher . Quickly ! quickly ! those are my beauti ful
clothes . Come and get out o f them . Hurry , miserable girl .”
“ Tell him , said Somervil le to Yumoto,looking
150 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Honj o the while straight in the eyes , that Mio San
doesn ’t go with him . She changes here .Yumoto did as he was bid , and Honj o , after protest,hurried away
,and a moment or two later the kara
kami at the other side of the room sl id back to admita musume
’
scarcely more than hal f Mio San ’s agebearing an armful of clothes .
Moi San , trembling in every limb , got up onto her
feet and commenced to untie the gaudy obi. In a
couple of minutes , whilst the two men listened intentlyfor any suspicious noises wh ich might indicate that
Honj o was planning mischie f,she was dressed in her
own kimono , had tied her own quiet-hued obi, and was
ready, geta in hand , to go with them .
When they were once more in the street Yumoto
wh ispered to Somervil le to keep his eyes open as theywalked rapidly along. In his right hand he clasped
a revolver,which he had slipped into his pocket before
leaving his offi ce . The street was by this time ab
so lutely silent and deserted , the only noise being thatcaused by the thud o f the two men ’s boots on themuddy path or the ring of Mio San ’s geta as , when
walking between them,she trod onthe imperfect pave
ment in the centre Of the street . Hoshin’
s shop inFunadaiku-machi was a long way
,but they walked
rapidly . When at last they reached it Yumotoknocked upon the door , and when he heard some one
sti rring within he called out , Gomennasai ! ” and a
152 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
in darkness and the amado drawn . Like a thief he sl idthe panels backwards in their grooves
,but not silently
enough to prevent a sl ight screeching of wood,pol ished
by wear , meeting other wood .
The shoj i of McKenz ie ’
s room was sl id back andhis head appeared . So you ’ve
.
come back he saidsleepi ly , but with a tone o f inquiry in h1s vo1ce .
“ Yes , replied Somerville .
“ But,old fellow
,I ’m
t ired out . I am awfully sorry I have disturbed you.
Tell you all about it to-morrow . Good-night .”
M cKenz ie was too sleepy himsel f to care for a te’
te
a-te‘
te at two o ’clock in the morning, so he contented
h imsel f with yawning out Good-night . And then
he closed the shoj i.Somervil le
,without taking off anyth ing save his
coat and boots,fell asleep under his kaya to dream o f
legions of Honj os pursu ing him and l ittle Mio San ,and vainly endeavouring to sati sfactori ly answer the
problem ra ised by Yumoto’
s parting question .
CHAPTER !
OWN in the dark l ittle room in Hoshin’
s
house in Funadaiku-machi,which had been
hastily formed for her use by the shi ft ing of
the karakomi, Mio San lay long awake , although so
ti red that her eyel ids felt stiff with want o f sleep and
her limbs ached ti l l she could almost have cried .
At first when she lay down upon the futonwith herhead firmly fixed in the notch of her wooden pillow
she thought only of her experiences at the Welcoming Geisha .
It was only then that she,in her innocence , first
realised vaguely what her decoying to Honj o’
s establishment had foreboded . The coarse talk o f the geisha
as they painted her cheeks and lips and tricked her outin the tawdry
,gorgeous garments that Honj o pro
vided had happily at the time conveyed little or no
meaning to the mind of Mio San . But as she lavawake gazing at the faint l ight emitted by the whitepaper lantern ,Which only seemed to make the darkness vi sible , what she had heard and seen began toseparate itsel f in her mind
,and to a ce rtain extent ex
plain itsel f , and she shuddered like a child would havedone at terror but half-understood .
153
154 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Then from the confused tangle o f the events of thelast twelve hours
,almost like a luminous figure might
have appeared to her in the darkness o f the l ittle room
in which she lay,the remembrance o f Somervi lle ’s sud
den arrival at the Welcoming Geisha took shape .
What would she not do for so augustly high a being ?
What could she do to show her appreciation of his
honourable condescension in seeking her out ? And
then she wondered i f San-to had given him her letter ,and how he had read it
,and what he had thought in
his all-knowing wisdom o f her presumption . What
would become of her on the morrow , strangely perhaps
,scarcely troubled her at all . The honourable
Englishman,who had never given her an unkind word ,
who had even deigned to paint her despicable face so
that it looked beauti ful on the wonderful block o f
paper which would tear Off leaves,'
would surely know
what to do with her .The weary l ittle body
,which ached as though it had
been beaten with bamboo rods,and the no less tired
mind , at last fell asleep j ust as the early morning light ,which had had to climb over many intervening and
higher roofs than that of Hoshin’
s dwelling,began to
fi lter l ike golden threads through a crack in the topgroove o f the woodwork above in which the shoj i ran .
Somerville woke late , and when he was disturbed bythe sounds of McKenz ie moving about and whist
l ing ou the verandah he could not for the moment
156 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
And Yumoto and I found her about midnight in
a low singing-shop , the Welcoming Geisha .
”
McKenz ie ’
s face had a look of extreme astonishment . What the devil took her there ? ”
“ I scarcely know,
” repl ied Somerville,but Yu
moto gathered from what she told him that she had
been decoyed by one o f the geisha who were attached
to the place . Anyway,after a good deal o f bargain
ing , and some discreet hints o f trouble i f he didn ’t
give her up , we frightened and caj oled that old beastHonj o to let us take her away .
”
“ And ? ” again queried his l i stener .And she has spent the night at Hoshin’
s down inFunadaiku-machi .”
McKenz ie said noth ing for a moment or two,and
had the two men been less occupied with their thoughts
they might have heard the shoj i o f a neighbouring
room pushed gently aside and have seen Katakur i
San ’s face peering through the aperture .
At last M cKenz ie spoke .
“You are serious , old
man ? ” he asked quietly .
And Somerville,understanding what he meant ,
replied somewhat lamely,
“ I shall not be the onlyEuropean .
Obviously , remarked McKenz ie , remembering
Katakuri San .
“ But you did not come out here tostay . What then ? ”
I am wi l ling to run the risk, was the reply .
A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE 157
She ’s a nice l ittle girl , said McKenz ie medita
tively , and you ’l l improve your knowledge o f Japanese pretty quickly , I reckon .
To him it seemed a perfectly natural solution o f the
situation, for he had not yet entirely forgotten the
easi ly arranged marriages o f the Quartier Latin .
I think Katakuri ought to hear the news,so I ’l l go
and find her . ”
As he went along the verandah to their room Kata
kuri San stepped out o f the one in which she listened ,concealed
,and
,with a face from which she had
driven all expression of astonishment , advanced tomeet him .
“ So our honourable friend has returned safely ,she exclaimed . And why did he leave us to wonderwhere he had gone til l hi s chit arrived ? ”
“ He had gone,
” said M cKenz ie , and Somervi lle
thought that whilst he spoke he looked at KatakuriSan rather curiously
,as though to watch the effect
o f what he was about to say,
“ to seek for MioSan .
”
Katakuri San started visibly,and for a moment her
face paled . But she had a marvellous control over
her features when the need arose,and she recovered
her composure almost instantly .
“S O i t i s M io San
,
” and she laughed contemptuously , that our august friend has been seeking .
It i s on such despicable game that he expends his
158 A’
JAPANE SE ROMANCE
august skill in hunting. And when is he to set up
housekeeping with her ? ”
Katakuri San was a really talented actress , but shecould not quite banish a look of malignity from herface or a ring of chagrin from her voice .Somerville caught the latter , and when he spoke
he did so as coolly as though M io San were KatakuriSan ’s greatest friend .
“ August pardon deign,he sa id , for my having
caused you trouble by my absence last evening ti l l so
late . But you had told me Mio San was from Uresh ino
and therefore homeless when you drove her from you ,for which ,
” and he looked Katakuri San so straightin the face with what she always called his honourable green eyes ”
!for all eyes were green to her,which were not either black or brown ! that her owndropped , I felt I was to blame .
”
Katakuri San shrugged her shoulders,and merely
said ,“ I had no use further for her contemptible
services . And then she turned away .
Somervi lle realised that he had made an enemy, andcongratulated himsel f that he had already spoken sodefinitely about finding ei ther a house or apartments .When Katakuri San had passed from sight withinthe house McKenz ie asked Somervi lle i f he had anydefinite plans . For that new plans would now benecessary , with Mio San bulking so largely in Somerville
’
s estimation , he made no doubt .
160 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Somerv i lle saw little or nothing of Katakur i Sanduring the morning . She , boil ing over with rageand disappointment
,preferred the seclusion of her
ownroom . It seemed impossible to her that so con
temptib le a person as Mio San had captured the heart
of the handsome guest upon whom she had turnedall the batteries of her arts o f coquetry for six weekspast . And when she heard the sounds o f Somervillemoving about in the neighbouring room packing up
his things , she set her nails deep into her plump palms .In a few days at most she would see him no more
,
or only so occasionally that her influence over him
would be little or nothing. To her he was a mystery ;for she knew that she was beauti ful , and it seemedincredible that he would not stoop to pick up what
most men she had previously met with had strivenfor . And quite apart from her chagrin was the
fear of that,to her
,deadly dulness which had char
acterised her existence since she had been mistress ofthe house on the hillside before Somerville came—a
form of l i fe so different from the gay and varied one
she had led at the restaurant in Ima-machi .
CHAPTE R XI
EXT morning Somerville found a vacantvil la high up amid the woods on the hills
above the foreign settlement,along towards
the entrance o f the harbour—a tiny, b ox- l ike place
with a magnificent prospect o f Nagasaki , with its
bewildering acres o f gabled roofs,its wide-spreading
harbour dotted with tramp steamers,mailboats
,and
j unks , and the long line o f its busy hatoba looking at
that distance like a fence for the purpose of keepingthe houses from slipping into the water .Hide-yoshi , the compradore, or agent, of whomSomervil le took the house
,assured him that he would
obtain a marvellous bargain ; whilst Yumoto asserted
that twenty-five yen per month was a preposteroussum to pay . As for Somerville
,he was more than
satisfied . There was a delightful garden , throughwhich a trickling stream ran musically , lotus pondsand iri s ponds
,quaint rockeries
,and equally strangely
shaped trees,whose stunted and crabbed growth gave
them every appearance o f the extreme age they were
asserted to be . Some o f them at dusk looked almostl ike mal formed human beings
,so weird in shape were
they .
162 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
During h i s last day at McKenz ie ’
s house he sawlittle of Katakuri San , who ,
since learning that he wasabout to marry Mio San before the Consul , hadavoided him when possible . His packing had occu
pied nearly the whole o f his time , and whilst he wasengaged upon it he thought Of M io San and thewonderful expression of j oy which had suffused herdelicately pretty face when he and Yumoto togetherhad made her understand that the immense augustness ” was going to marry her . Hoshin’
s amiable ,but somewhat avaricious wi fe was never tired of
tell ing Mio San how fortunate it was that she hadfound favour in the eyes of so generous and honourably handsome a foreigner
,adding that when he left
her—and at this suggestion Mio San ’s eyes always
fil led , whilst her heart beat tumultuously—he would nodoubt make her so handsome a gift that she would
be able to l ive for a long time in comfort .For Mio San—whose little coquetries by wh ich she
had sought to woo Somerville ’s notice had beenprompted
,not by womanly experience
,as had the
more shameful ones of her mistress,but by inno
cence—there seemed no practical future now withouther very tall august husband . It was impossible forher to realise such an eventuality
,even i f she had not
!as sh e always did ! driven the thought of such a
thing from her mind .
McKenz ie , after two years’
experience of Japan
164 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
McKenz ie ’
s and took possession of his ownhouse .He had engaged a cook Hoshin had recommended as“ a very good cook
,though not augustly beautiful .”
As a matter of fact , Shi-wono was quite ugly .
As Somerville was about to leave,Katakuri San
came out onto the verandah to say good-bye . She
evinced little or no regret at his going,save o f the
most conventional kind . But as she shook hands she
pressed a small,oblong lacquer box
,s imilar in shape
to a yatate or pencil and ink case,upon him .
I have been sorry in my heart,
” she said,but had
he been looking at her face,instead o f the box , he
would have seen a sullen fire in the depths of her
beauti ful eyes,
“ that I drove Mio San away . This
is a contemptible gi ft from me to her . Give it her ,but not until she is dwell ing in your house .
Somervil le took the little b ox , which was wrappedin straw coloured rice-paper
,and securely tied with
paper string,and
,thanking Katakuri San with the
most elaborate politeness for her gi ft,sl ipped it in
his pocket . Then,after Obtaining a promise from
McKenz ie to come and see him very soon,he picked
up the last o f his luggage and made hi s way down thepath and out of the gate .
His road , in places a mere mountain foot track , lay
away to the left o f M cKenz ie ’
s house,past a row o f
villas which clung to the hillside,set in quaint
,green
gardens overlook ing the town. About three-quarters
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 165
o f a m i le along this path , which at last turned upwardsamid the trees and became wider where it ran intothat leading over the hills to Mogi , Somervil le came
in sight o f his home in the distance , perched up on
the slope o f the dark green hill l ike a match-b oxdwelling set amid the trees . It was now almost dusk ,and he hurried along , for the road was strange , and
were he to lose his way it would be difficult for him
to ask for directions . As he crossed a path leadingdownwards and back into the native town
,he began
to wish he had taken M cKenz ie’
s advice and remainedwith him until after the ceremony o f the morrow at
the Consulate . There was something almost uncanny
in his taking possession o f his strange l ittle house ,which stood isolated from the nearest other vil las
amid the gloomy greenness o f cryptomerias andpines
,at night . How much more cheerful would it
have been,he thought
,as he strode rapidly along
,
had M io San been with him ! And from thoughts o fher his mind strayed to Tokio and Violet Desbrough .
What would she say to this marriage o f his ?—so
unlike the conventional idea o f European wedlock, so
romantically inconsequent, so much a matter o f sud
den impulse . But though he wondered thus,he was
perfectly content , for his ruling instinct was satisfiedwith the quaintness and dainty charm o f l ittle MioSan , who was sitting thinking o f him and worshipping
him in iHo shin’
s house somewhere down amid the
166 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
dark mass of roofs which lay a mile or more away
below him .
At length he reached the gate which led into thegarden of his house . It was approached by a foot
path of reddish-brown earth , which he realised wouldbe a perfect quagmire in wet weather , but was now
baked hard by the sun . Shi-wono , who had command
o f fluent,i f wonderfully incorrect English , through
her having been a servant at one o f the hotels , waswaiting for him
,for she had hurried out at the sound
o f his footsteps approaching the house along the path .
As he climbed the steps leading up onto the verandahShi-wono prostrated hersel f with due humility
,and
murmured ,“ Welcome
,most august master ; please
to make yoursel f at home .” Then,having bumped
her forehead against the backs of her outspread hands,
she got up and inquired , Will your augustness eat
ban-meshi much ? ” which was her way of inquiringi f Somerville would have dinner served .
Yes ,” replied the latter , and let i t appear as soon
as your honourable fingers can serve it .”
The house was not a large one ; indeed , quite the
reverse , for it had but a large room which was to beturned into a studio , a living-room ,
and a bedroomalong the front of it
,all opening on the verandah ,
and a bedchamber with the addition of a kitchen atthe back .
But onthe evening Somervil le came to it alone it
168 A'
JAPANE SE ROMANCE
A lready on the verandah Sh i-wono had placedsome miniature pines and palms in pots , and in thestudio and living-room were simple though emb le
matic floral decorations placed in the toko-no-ma,which
,had Somerville but understood the intricate art
o f flower arrangement , he would have recognised as
indicating a welcome to him and the coming mistress
of the morrow .
After he had finishéd his dinner Somerville carried
one of the three or four deck-chairs which,after a
long search,he had obtained at a marvel lously dear
price from a tobutsuya in Tera-machi , on to theverandah and sat and smoked .
It seemed impossible that he was to be married
onthe morrow— that in some twelve or fifteen hours
Mio San would be installed as his native wi fe and themistress of his house ; Mio San , almost a child com
pared with him,yet the only woman who had inspired
him with more than a passing interest or desire toretain her within the horizon o f his ownpersonality .
Everything, save his beloved Art , was generally of anexperimental character with Somervi lle . He had onlyescaped matrimony during his years in the Quartierbecause the experiment had lacked interest ere thepossibi l ity of its being made a reality occurred . A l lthe girls and women he had known and admired—a
goodly array they proved—ranged themselves upon thescreen of his memory as he sat gazing at the tw inkling
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 169
l ights of harbour and town spread out below him .
But , unless b e deceived himsel f , none was able to compare for sweetness , freshness , and charm with her who
at the same time was dreaming o f him down at o ldHoshin
’
s . Suzanne , she was handsome and vulgar ;her laugh when anything amused her dominated other
people ’s ; Elise , she was frail , neurotic , capricious ,l ike a flower o f exquisite beauty which can only flour
ish in a warm atmosphere ; Stephanie , dark as night ,beauti ful as a tiger cat , violent , fatiguing ; Christabel
Johnson,a fair American girl student who had
favoured him above competitors for her smiles,strenu
ous,a mass o f nerves , never in repose , ful l o f plans ;
and lastly little Messaline,the interesting but terrible
product of vitiated bourgeois ancestry,
flashing like
a star in the firmament o f the Quartier , disappearing
l ike one of the ethereal worlds doomed in thei r
luminosity to destruction .
Then,whilst he sat l istening to Shi-wono
’
s wonderful squeaks , which with her passed for singing,he again thought o f Violet Desborough . And then
he wondered i f she were ever l ikely to re-enter hisli fe .
It scarcely seemed possible,and he marvelled that
at the present time he was capable o f but a tran
sient interest in her . M io San , who might , for al l he
knew,prove merely a lovely
,soulless l ittle being
,
though capable o f great devotion,was infinitely more
170 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
des irable and attractive—a pretty, unexplored tractof womanliness , unlike anything he had yet discovered .
A woman never appeals to a man more stronglythan when she i s grateful , and shows it , or when she i sweak and needs succour. He remembered that this
was the verdict that had been brought in one summer’s
night after a heated discussion on the charm of women
in his studio in Paris , A litson, a fellow-student at
Co lorossi’
s, who had been j i lted by his amie, remark
ing that when women ’s gratitude becomes yet more
attenuated by reason of modern emancipation ,” and
her need of succour less by the same process , they
would have to do all the proposing themselves , for few
men would wish to marry them .
Then Somervil le ’s thoughts trailed off to Hoshin’
s
w i fe and Mio San . And he wondered i f they had
managed to spend all the honourably numerous yenwhich he had given to the latter the day before for the
purchase of wedding garments,and the odds and ends
o f things which go to the total of a Japanese girl’
s
adornment . Mme . Ho shin’
s eyes had glittered l ike
those of a beady-eyed doll at the sight of so much
satsu !paper money! , and Mio San had li fted up her
soft , brown eyes to his face with wonder lurking in
them at the marvellous generosity of her august hus
band to be .
Onthe morrow there would be a short, unromanti c
ceremony at the Consulate ; and then Mio San would
172 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
save that o f l ittle Mio San had faded , leaving her todominate his artistic and physical senses . And then
he shuddered at the recollection of the scene in therocking atmosphere o f Honj o
’
s drinking den , and thecoarse shamelessness o f the geisha
’
s faces and postur
ings . It was good to have saved fragile , pretty MioSan from such a career . As he was thinking of her
and the might-have-been Shi-wono came along theverandah and asked i f she should not close the amado .
“ The honourable moon i s cl imbed up,said she,
and the nez umi !mice! are already out o f the irholes
,which was merely her way of tell ing her master
that it was time she went to bed . Somervil le himsel f
yawned at the mere thought of sleep , and so when
Shi-wono had slid along the amado and disappeared
into her own section of the house he himsel f roseand retired to rest .But for a long t ime the noises of the house kept
h im awake— the scampering of the mice along therafters above his head and beneath the j oists of thefloor, the screech o f an owl , the insistent whirr o f
the cicadae, and those multitudinous crackings andcreakings which seem to afflict Japanese dwellings
when the sun is off them and the mystic hours o f darkness have arrived .
At length he fell asleep , and by some strange freakof the sub -conscious mind his dreams were not of MioSan , but of Violet Desborough far away inTokio,
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 173
who as yet knew noth ing of this Japanese marriage
of his , or of the little musume’
who had captivated h issense of the beauti ful and uniquely strange .Next morning he was awakened neither by sunlight
nor the song o f the bi rds , but by the gaku !music !of Sh i-wono
’
s voice singing a welcome to her mistress
to come . For a few minutes , in the hal f-gloom o f his
bedchamber,Somervil le could not imagine what the
weird screechings and meanderings up and down an
unknown musical scale portended . But at last hedetected an inflexiono f Shi-wono ’
s voice which was
familiar,and he lay li stening
,reassured . Then he
reali sed that with in a few hours he was to marry Mio
San,and that within a few more hours beyond that
t ime she would be instal led as the mistress of the house ,as the arbiter o f his domestic destinies and peace .
Soon Shi-wono ’
s voice was heard outside inquiring i fhe had enj oyed “ honourable tranquill ity
,
” and when
he would wish breakfast . And then began the rattl ingand sliding back of the outside shutters as she opened
the house to the radiant,early morning sunshine .
A fter the meal,which proved to be the best sub sti
tute for a breakfast which he had had in'
Japan , forShi-wono had learned to consult English tastes some
what in such matters whilst servant at the hotel ,Somervi lle gave orders that the house was to be readyto receive its mistress by sundown
,and then he set
off down the rather rugged path to the town .
174 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
In the woods the birds were yet singing, for i t wasqu ite early ; and below the harbour gleamed l ikefrosted si lver under the slight m ist which hung overits surface and invaded the portion of the town nearits shores , the foreign settlement , and the bui ldingsupon Deshima . But long before Somerville had
reached the outlying part o f the town nearest to theslopes of the hi l ls on which his dwelling stood
,the m ist
had l ifted , and the distant hills and harbour entrancewhich they environed became clear and distinct .Into the narrow , steep , and sti l l descending streets
he at length plunged on his way to the Bund and Yumoto ’s office , anxious to make sure that his Japanesefriend am id the pressure of tea harvest had not for
gotten that he was to assi st at the ceremony which
was to take place at the Consulate about noon.
McKenz ie he knew he could trust.
Yumoto was in,and when Somervi l le entered his
office he greeted him almost w ith effusion , so anx ious
was he to make him understand that i f he !Yumoto !thought h im unnecessari ly punctil ious in this marriage
o f his , he was desirous of lending h im every possible
assistance in its consummation .
You are really sti l l serious , my honourable
friend ? ” he questioned , after the exchange of the
usual elaborate greetings . And when Somervilleassured him that he was , Yumoto laughed and sm i ledan enigmatical smile
,as though he thought that his
176 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
would certa inly d ie a natural death by reason of the
separation o f the twain—the natural j ealousy whichi s sure to exist where two women pursue the sameobj ect . But he dismissed Yumoto ’
s disqu ieting sug
gestion from his mind . The day was too instinct with
happiness and too radiant w ith sunshine for gloomythoughts and forebodings .
“You estimate Katakuri San ’s regard for me too
highly, my august friend , he replied , laugh ing.
Surely she could not have been j ealous of hermaid ?
Yumoto sm i led knowingly , and said after a pause ,Not of her maid
,but of a beauti ful musumé
’
s
influence over you,my most excellent but not too far
seeing friend . Women are naturally the quarry , men
the hunters ; but when passion reverses that delightful
order of things the hunters have no pity to spare
for others engaged in the chase . Take my word , let
what I say sink deep into your most honestly simple
mind ; beware o f the woman who has loved you when
you love another woman . But much as I am enj oying
your society,my contemptible business demands that
I should attend to i t i f I am to arrive at the Consulatein time to witness the pleasing ceremony your honour
able puncti liousness i s to provide .”
Which means ,! exclaimed Somervi l le, rising and
smiling,“ that I am to go ?
”
I regret the necessity, but the tea harvest leaves
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 177
one no .cho ice . Whilst you dreamed on your verandah o f Mio San and happiness last night , I was heredrowned in figures
,sick of tea and everything which
provides my miserable body with the right to exist .“You will not fai l me ?
” said Somerville,with his
hand onthe door .May I be troubled for ten thousand years by the
ghosts of my ancestors ,” rej oined Yumoto grandi
loquently in reply . And then as the door closed
behind Somerville he returned to his invoices and bil lso f lading with a sigh o f rel ief . This marriage o f his
English friend was made of far too serious a descript ion , marriage , to Yumoto
’
s O riental mind , merely
being a male tribute to women ’s charms and usefulness .
Somerville walked along the Bund,and turning
up a by-street from the waterside he soon reachedFunadaiku-machi and Hoshin’
s shop .
Hoshin , the lacquer merchant , was sitting in thed im recesses of his well-known shop thinking o f the
possible customers who might patronise him on themorrow when the great j okisencame in from Hong
kong ; but he at once caught sight o f Somerville andcalled out a welcome . Then he summoned his wife ,Haru San , who , however suitable her name ,
“ Honourab le Spring
,
” might once have been,was now
decidedly in the autumn o f l i fe . Haru San’s voice
could be heard coming from the back o f the house
178 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
call ing in a shri l l tone , Hai-i-i ! and a moment latershe appeared .
Haru San could speak but a word or two of so
called English , but she reali sed whom it was Somer
ville required , so , after she had kneeled on the floorand bumped her forehead in salutation
,she contented
hersel f with pointing to the open karakami and ej aculating the words Mio San
, achira.
”
With a polite Arigato,” Somerville stepped
through the shop and the room behind it,and sl iding
back the shoj i let in a flood of subdued radiance fromthe strange little garden which lay shut in by otherhouses . It was very small , but in it were all theelements which go—ou a larger scale—to the mak ingof a garden of size . The miniature rivulets , tiny
rocks , and dwarf trees , scarcely so large as one’s
knees,which possessed m iniature branches l ike giant
oaks and cedars,and had the appearance of full-sized
trees though so badly dwarfed,all contributed to the
strange feel ing of unreality which such gardens bringabout
Sitting onone of the art ificial rocks near a tricklingstream , scarcely larger than those one sometimes sees
in old-fashioned mechanical models contrived by arevolving spiral of glass , was Mio San
,patiently
awaiting the arrival of her august husband and very
condescending honourableness to be .”
At sight of Somervi lle she rose and hastened for
180 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
he had not seen one of her n ieces , whose eyes , shedeclared
,were as beauti ful as the stars in the sky , and
whose figure was like the willows in O -Suya Park .
But , she continued , should your great augustlycondescending eyes not remain pleased with thehumble girl who is about to marry you, perhaps othermore supremely excellent beauti fulness might pleasethem .
”
To Haru San , thought Somervil le , as by Yumoto ,this marriage of his was evidently not regardedseriously .
CHAPTER XII
U MOTO was at the Consulate punctual tothe minute
,for, as he used to say ,
“ Time iswhat a fool squanders and a wise man saves
,
”
and Yumoto was singularly wise for his age . The
ceremony, i f so prosaic a proceeding as that whichtook place before the benevolent and somewhat
amused official could so be properly described,was
brie f enough to meet w ith the approval o f the mostreti ring male .
A quarter of an hour after Somerville had enteredthe room with Yumoto and M cKenz ie , where he
found Mio San,Hoshin
,and his wi fe awaiting him ,
he emerged the husband o f one o f the prettiest and
proudest of musume’
in Nagasaki .Hoshin’
s wrinkled and generally impassive face was
as overlaid with smiles as though he had sold an Imariforgery or a bit of Birmingham bronze to a Yankeetourist for a long price . The present o f twenty yenwhich his wi fe had received from Somerville for MioSan ’s board and lodging was looked upon by both him
and her as a direct commission upon the l ittle mar
182 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
riage they had j ust w itnessed . Their only regret wasthat the goods ” had not been one o f their ownnieces .McKenz ie ’
s wedding gi ft to the br ide had been amagnificent obi of apricot-coloured satin , on whichirises were embroidered
,and to the bridegroom his
gi ft a box of excellent cigars . Yumoto had placed
a roll of satsu in the bride ’s hand immediately theceremony was concluded
,and had informed the
bridegroom that a case of “ very inferior whi sky
sake” awaited his pleasure up at his house . The
sp irit was excellent,Somerville wel l knew . It was
only Yumoto ’
s politeness which caused h im to de
preciate his gi ft .French fashion , the br idal party , consist ing of
Yumoto,a musume to whom he was j ust then paying
attention,M cKenz ie , and Fo lkard , visited a restaurant
for banmeshi !dinner! after which , j ust as the sun
was setting behind the hills opposite the foreign set
tlement,turning the water of the harbour into a lake
o f blood,and the sky into a riven glory of crimson
and gold,Somerville and Mio San set out for Sunset
View , which was the Japanese name of thei r homeEnglished .
Mio San was t i red,though radiant with happiness ,
which took many quaint and amusing forms of expression . During the dinner at the restaurant nothing
would persuade her to permit the attendant geisha to
184 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
gate which led into the lower end of Somerv i lle ’sgarden . Mio San dexterously unpacked hersel f froma position which to a European lady would have beentorture , and slid from beneath the matting roof of herpalanquin . Somerville , who had paid the men so gen
erously that they called down interminable blessingsupon his augustly wise head
,
” pushed open the l ittle
gate,and taking M io San ’s hand in his led her up the
garden path .
In the oncom ing dusk the beauties o f this l ittledomain amid the cryptomerias
,pines
,and maples
were rendered but half apparent,but along one side
o f the path gleamed almost ghostly the pale-floweredirises
,looking like huge moths hovering in the cool
night a ir amid a miniature forest o f spears . The
quaint trees onthe other side o f the path were weird
and mystic in the shadows thrown by the higher pines ,and Mio San on catching sight of them drew closer
to Somerville . The perfume o f the cooling earthand of flowers fil led the air
,and the gent le soughing
of the breeze in the pines made nature musi c as theyadvanced up the path .
The honourable moon will soon be up,said Mio
San softly,
“ and then the garden will be stil l more
beauti ful , O my augustly big husband . Even the
cicadae are singing a welcome .”
Somerville looked down at her upturned face and
smiled . In the pearly twilight it was radiantly beauti
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 185
ful with happiness and content . He drew her towardshim and kissed her . The almost shadowy little figure
with its mystically glowing face appealed to hi s sense
o f the beauti ful . Surely this marriage o f his was
destined to last ? Yumoto’
s sceptical face had haunted
him almost al l the way up from the town,and it was
only when he and Mio San were alone in the twilight
o f the exquisite garden that the doubts of Yumoto
and even M cKenz ie had conj ured up began to
dissipate .Are you happy , l ittle M io San ?
” he asked gently .
Great much happy,
” was her reply . No moreKatakuri San to scold
,no more Katakuri San to drive
me awav from your side, O most augustly shining
one .
”
Somervil le laughed . Mio San ’s'
happ iness seemedto depend upon such simple things .A turn of the path
,and the house came into view ,
ablaze with a galaxy o f paper lanterns which Sh i
wono and a sympathetic coolie who had brought up
Mio San ’s luggage earlier in the day had hung along
the whole front o f the verandah , and lit up against
the dark green background o f the trees .
Mio San gave an exclamation o f delight , which
brought Shi -wono, who had been onthe qui r ive for
an hour or more, out onto the verandah in welcome .
The light from the red,orange
,and moon-white paper
lanterns fel l upon the iris beds beneath the verandah ,
186 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
danced in tinted zigzags upon the path lead ing to thehouse
,and shone in mimic reflections in the trickl ing
stream and tiny ponds .
Irasshaimashi ! Oagannasai, O-ku-S ama. [ ras
shaimashai
To Mio San ’s ears this Welcome ! please to enter,O honourable lady of the house . Welcome ! ” must
have been sweet music . She smiled,and then
,when
she had climbed the short fl ight o f steps which led on
to the balcony , forgetful , perhaps , that she was the
august Englishman ’s wi fe, or in pol iteness to Sh i
wono , she slid down upon the spotless matting and
made her usual prostration o f welcome .
It formed an almost comical scene in Somerville ’s
eyes , old Shi-wono in the doorway of one o f the rooms
which opened out on the verandah kneeling beforeher l ittle mistress with her forehead resting upon the
backs o f her hands,and Mio San doing exactly the
same thing j ust on the edge o f the verandah steps ,with her high
,lacquered clogs sticking out from b e
neath the folds o f her beautiful kimono .
When this ceremony was finished Shi-wono backedinto the house and M io San took possession . Thehouse
,though smaller than that o f Katakuri San ,
appeared wonderfully spacious to its little mistress,for it was her ownso long as she pleased her augusthusband .
Has the coolie brought my luggage ? ” she asked
188 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
o f rich si lk , and each delicately designed kimono,and each shawl of soft silk crepe as she placed it upon
the unsubstantial shelves of the fukuro dana, whichopened in the wall l ike a doorway leading into anotherroom
,was an offering upon the shrine of her love .
To-morrow,she thought whilst folding the gar
ments,she would display all the glories of them to
Shi-wono . But not to-night. To-night belonged tothe giver of them .
At last Mio San ’s wardrobe was disposed to her ful l
satisfaction within the fukuro dana, the door was shutupon the treasures
,and she hersel f was at l iberty to
inspect the room more thoroughly .
To her it seemed a wonderful chamber,because it
was her own. In it were a marvellous and largeswing—mirror ; vases which she could take a delight infill ing with flowers out of the garden ; a chair which
extended itsel f in a wonderful manner ; a high table
for her honourable husband ’s convenience when sb av
ing ; a gaku or maxim along one o f the ceil ing beams ,in the grooves of which ran the karakami ; and a
kakemono or two onthe wall and in the alcove . That,with the beds and mosquito curtains
,comprised the
contents of the room . But not quite , after all , for inthe alcove Shi-wono had arranged some flowers andgrasses with skill , a meaning which when Mio San
’seyes rested upon them caused her to blush hotly and
her eyes to fall , though there was none save the im
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 189
pass ive face o f Buddha to see her in the soft,dim
light afforded by the two paper lanterns .As though afraid to remain longer alone in thespotless , partial ly li t room in which strange shadows
seemed to her to have suddenly come into being and
asserted themselves , she went out onto the verandah .
Somervi lle was smoking and thinking,and for the
moment scarcely noticed Mio San ’s approach and pres
ence. He had been wondering what the many artist
friends he had left behind him in the Quartier Latin
would think o f his marriage . Some would probably
be amused , and others o f them envious—envious,
could they but see her, of M io San
’s freshness,youth ,
and exquisite,uncommon beauty . Youth counts for
so much in the Quartier .
Down below to the right gleamed the thousand
l ights o f the town like luminous eyes , and above al lhung the radiant cloud which always marks the posi
tion o f a bri lliantly li t city at night . The noises came
softened by the di stance,save when they were aug
mented by the ringing clangour o f a gong at some
tea-house ; but they were suffi cient to mask the soft
shoo-shoo o f Mio San ’s approaching footsteps , and it
was not until she laid a timid hand upon his arm that
Somervi lle realised that she was at his side .
He swung round and saw her upturned face , from
which the flush had not yet entirely faded , gazing
almost timidly at him,but with the dark eyes radiant
190 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
and smiling. It would not, he dec ided, be a d ifficultmatter truly to love Mio San .
A l l done ,” she said slowly ; and then she added , as
she saw he understood , I love you,Mister august
Englishman .
”
Somerville laughed and drew her to him . And forthe moment she feared lest his laugh indicated that hewas offended .
“Kekko,
” said Somervi lle approvingly, but notMister . Say Leslie .”
But Mio San only shook her head .
A l l the Englishmen who had come to McKenz 1e s
had b een Mister,
” and she could not think of calling
her honourable husband anything else except in Japanese . So for days afterwards Somervi lle was
amused by Mio San ’s persi stence with the Mister.”
Something prompted him to inquire i f she were
happy,or whether thoughts of Katakuri San disturbed
her mind .
Much happy,she replied . Katakuri San a long
way . No afraid her .” And when she smiled up at
him he was bound to believe her .
To Mio San her late mistress had become almost anabstraction which
,once existing to her distress and
discomfort,no longer did so . Love of the man at her
side had effectually blotted out the past, j ust as it
merci fully obscured the future .
In the kitchen S hi-wono was wondering how long
192 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Somerville, but you may close the amado and enj oytranquill ity yoursel f .”
“Arigato !
” exclaimed Shi-wono,relieved that she
would not be required to keep her eyes open anylonger .When she had gone , and sounds and squeaks of thesliding along of the outside shutters showed that she
was closing up the house to its nightly semblance of a
huge box , Somervil le and Mio San entered the roomwhich he had set aside as a studio . In it were al ready
placed all the curios and articles which had formerly
so deeply interested Katakuri San ; his easels and the
lacquer cabinet with its numerous drawers secured by
a marvellously ingenious combined lock . As Somer
vi lle ’s eyes rested upon the cabinet he suddenly re
membered Katakuri San ’s wedding gi ft for Mio
San .
Should he give it her or wait ti l l the morrow ? Someinstinct seemed to tell him that the gift was not l ikely
to give pleasure , for Katakuri San could scarcely wish
that to her rival,so he did not unlock the drawer in
the cabinet in which the small oblong box lay .
Onan easel in the far corner o f the room stood theuncompleted portrait of Katakur i San , and as M ioSan
’
s eyes fell upon it Somervi lle noticed that an expression of annoyance passed across her face .
“You do not like to see the picture of Katakuri
San ? ” he asked gently.
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 193
No ,no
,was the reply , expressed tim id ly. She
bad woman . She make me sad .
”
Very well , said Somervi lle see,I wil l turn her
away !and , stepping to the easel , he took the canvasdown and placed it against the wall ! , and to-morrow I will begin to paint something more augustlypleasing .
”
Now that her rival was turned face to the wall M ioSan felt happy again , and could look at all the won
derful things which were in her august husband ’sroom .
To her mind there was no idea of dual ownership
presented by this house and its contents . They b e
longed to the man she had married,j ust as she did to
him . They had interest for her chiefly because theywere his .
But at length even a new home and the possessionof an honourable English husband could not keep Mio
San ’s eyelids from drooping so that their long, thick
lashes lay onher cheeks when she seated hersel f in the
long chair which was so strange to her , accustomed
to sit upon z abutonplaced upon the floor , and so com
fortab le . And soon as Somerville busied himsel f in
placing a few o f the things in better order , he heard
sounds of deep and gentle breathing which told him
that she slept .The sounds o f night from the garden came so sub
dued by reason of the closed amado that there was
194 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
almost a perfect sti l lness in the house . Then camethe usual croakings and cracklings as the woodworkproclaimed the cooling of the air, and at last the sounds
of scampering nez umi as they raced beneath the flooror ran up the outside walls .
Somerville moved about qu ite s i lently onthe whitematting, and wondered vaguely , when the scampering
nez umi made more noise than usual , or when some
huge , soft-winged moth fluttered down from the papered cei ling against which it had been b eating itswings
with a rattle l ike that of a miniature drum,i f Mio San
,
l ike most women , was afraid of such things . In a corner o f the room the big image o f Buddha , which he hadpicked up in the curiosity shop at the far end of the
Bungo-machi,sat perched on i ts shel f, regarding
sleeping Mio San and him with benevolent countenance
and lack-lustre eyes ; and as Somervi lle gazed at it
critically he could almost imagine that a smile of
sardonic wisdom replaced that o f indolent benevolence .
Stil l Mio San slept . There could be no pretence
about it,for
,thinking that he had seen her eyelids
quiver and partially unclose,Somerville had taken one
o f the paper lanterns with which the room was lit andhad held i t over her . A lthough a smile—for MioSan ’s dream was a happy one—flitted across her face ,her eyelids neither trembled nor unclosed , and when
he stooped and kissed her l ightly onher brow she didnot sti r.
196 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
such hearty laughter that the frail .paper walls of the
room vibrated like drums .A las ! the furniture of a Japanese room affords l ittl erefuge for those who fear the august Misters Mice ,
”
and at last,when the scurrying to and from o f these
monsters,which had stopped with Mio San ’s scream ,
recommenced,with one swift look for something on
which to stand the terrified little woman,dropping the
skirt of her kimono, l iterally threw hersel f into her
honourable husband ’s arms .Sti l l laughing at her affright
,he carried her
,w ith
her head nestling against his shoulder,out o f the
room , which had for her such noisy terrors , along the
now shut-inverandah to the chamber where a bronzefigure of Buddha sat enigmatically smiling on its narrow shelf
,and the slatey-blue gauze mosquito curtains
prepared by Shi-wono hung swaying from the rafters
in the draught of air like ghostly spirits in the dim light
o f the paper lanterns .
The no i se of the scampering h ozumi was no longerheard
,for there was no basement under this room
fi l led with rice or other stores to invite their presence ,and Mio San was not there fore afraid to stand on herowntabi-clad feet on the matting floor .She yawned
,for it was late . And then
,after she
had slid back the little door which masked the cupboard containing her wardrobe and taken from it along, cl inging, wide-sleeved gown of cotton , she
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 197
s l ipped gracefully and swi ftly from her kimono andobi into her night robe , and w ith a deft twist of herslender fingers tied the muslin sash around her waist .Even the celerity of a model ’s toilette in the
studio,thought Somervil le , could not compare with
this sudden transformation o f a bri lliant-hued butter
fly into a sombre-coloured night-moth , as with a plaintive moue o f fatigue and sleepiness the el f- l ike l ittle
figure of Mio San disappeared beneath the sem i
transparent canopy of the mosquito curtains .
CHAPTER ! III
EXT morn ing whilst M io S ansat watching
Somerville painting in the sunshine o f the
garden near the lotus pond,the latter sud
denly remembered that Katakuri San’s gift sti l l lay
where he had placed it in the drawer of the cabinet .Mio
,
” said he,Katakuri San gave me a gift for
you. Go and fetch it ; it i s in the third drawer o f thecabinet .”
At the name o f her late mistress the l ittle w i fe’s
face clouded over as a beauti ful landscape will when a
cloud sweeps across the sun . Simple—minded as shewas , she could yet not believe that anything the woman
who had loved and sought to entangle her august husband inher toi ls had sent could bode but i l l to her and
perhaps to him . And so when she rose to carry out
Somerville ’s command she did so without that ex
pression o f pleasure on her face that the receiving of
a gi ft should bring.
Into Somerville ’s mind,engaged as he was w ith his
work of sketching the iri s pond which lay lower downthe course o f the little stream
,no thought of i ll from
Katakuri San ’s gi ft entered,and he was therefore
198
200 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Come ! ” said Somerville , see what Katakur i Sanhas sent you . It may be a peace-off ering.
”
But Mio San only shook her head .
Though so young, that in her simple house kimonoof printed l inen she looked little more than a child
,
her woman ’s heart , which had been stirred and
awakened into being by love,told her that from a
j ealous rival such a thing was scarcely likely to come .
But at length she summoned courage to unfasten thestring and undo the paper
,whilst Somerv i lle looked
over her shoulder the while .The box that was disclosed when the paper was
removed was of fine lacquer,on the lid of which was
depicted one of the mythological-looking dolphins b eloved of Japanese lacquer-workers and enamellers .With trembl ing fingers Mio San slowly took off the l idas though she expected some reptile to suddenly springout
Hayaku ! exclaimed Somervi l le , smiling at her se
r ions face,and endeavouring to take the box from her .
Mio San started back, cry1ng
“Abunaiyo ! A bun
aiyo !” Take care ! take care ! in alarm lest the
evil thing she hal f-expected to find should harm himshe loved .
But when she had courage to look there was nothingto be seen but a long slip of pink-hued rice-paper
,
such as love-letters are written upon,downthe right
hand s ide of wh ich ran a message .
202 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
San ’
s sprawling characters looked black and s inister,fluttered for a moment in M10 San ’s hand and thenfell from her nerveless fingers to be caught in astrong draught of ai r from the hil ls above and then
borne upwards and away over the trees like the petal
o f some huge flower .
A lthough Somervi lle had been unable to read
Katakuri San ’s note he gathered something of its pur
port from the slender,gleaming
,murderous- looking
thing which he held in his hand and from his little
w i fe ’s pale and terrified face .She say your love will go soon . That the fire for
me will die out of you . And then —her eyes fel lupon the thing in his hand there is something that
will be wanted .
”
The man grasped the situation now l ike a flash .
How adorable this pale-faced,frightened-eyed child
looked ! He would have taken her in his arms and
crushed her to him but for the keen-bladed thing heheld in his hand .
One of those signal inspirations which come occasionally during crises to men such as Somervi lle seizedhim .
He took the dagger by the hilt and cried,Look
,
Mio ! I shall not leave you . Love does not d ie as
Katakuri San says . This will be for you a uselessthing . See ! ”
The dagger soared far up into the sunlit a i r,and
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 203
descend ing w ith a steel blue flash of blade , l ike a swiftkingfisher to its prey
,clave its way through the green
grey water of the deep , gurgling pool near which theystood .
Then Somervi l le turned and clasped M io San inhis arms . But though she tried to smile there were
tears in her eyes and her l ips quivered , and in her
heart Katakuri San ’s handful of fares had been
sown .
The dagger lay in the mud amongst the lotus stems
and roots at the bottom of the pool ; the rice-papermissive containing such sorrow-weighted words had
floated away across the dark-hued cryptomerias and
pines whither none knew . But for the t ime the beauty
of the day had died in the heart o f Mio San , and when
she was released from her husband ’s embrace she fled
up the small path to the house .
When she had entered her bedchamber and had
closed the shoj i behind her she fel l down prostrate b e
fore the bronze image o f Buddha and murmured one
o f those strange,incoherent prayers which come to the
lips of women who suffer as she suffered .
The impassive Buddha with unseeing eyes seemed
to regard the l ittle bent and swaying figure in the
gloom below with an ironical smile . But Mio San ’s
faltering words were not addressed to Buddha or
any o f the thousand other gods o f her race,but
to some !to her! vague Being beyond the sun ,
204 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
moon,and stars who seemed to offer her protection in
trouble .When Somerville , becom ing anxious at her longabsence , came back to the house he found her sti l lbefore the image of Buddha
,in front of which two
little o il lamps were burning . And i f Katakuri San
could have but seen her rival ’s face she would have
been satisfied .
In Mio San ’s mind the subtle poison of doubt
worked , for she had been told many stories by her
mistress , even before Somerville arrived , of the mar
riages of the women o f her land with foreign merchants
and tourists,who took girls l ike hersel f as toys , which
they deserted or cast aside when their caprice wassatisfied . And recognising as she did
,in her humble
love for h im that was her honourably condescend ing
husband,whose voice thri lled her and whose glance of
tenderness caused her heart to beat tumultuously in
her breast,that he was so high above her in his august
learning and wealth,the words of Katakuri San ’s
letter had taken deep and easy root .
To Somervi lle ’s more material and masculine mind
what had taken place presented only the idea of a tiny
tragedy caused by a spiteful woman ’s keen wit . As to
most men ’s minds a vanquished rival in love no longer
exists ; to most women the possibi l ityi
o f attack after
apparent victory i s Often as much feared as before .And this made it imposs ible for him to penetrate the
206'
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
subtle word or phrasing, the ve i l , which obscured thefact whilst they loved in s i lence , was li fted for a
trans ient moment .
To Somervi lle Mio San ’s qua intly involved Englishwas infinitely preferable to the more grammatically
correct parrot talk o f some of the geisha and masume
’
at Hanaz ono R estaurant or Sei-yo -tei,who ex
claimed I love you ,” without a quali fying blush
,and
wished him Good-morning with the aplomb of an
A . B . C . girl at home . But,secure that she would
never talk as they,he fell will ingly into her scheme of
teaching her .
With Shi-wono ’
s somewhat harsh voice crooning
down in the basement as an accompaniment o f the
lesson,Somervil le started upon Mio San ’s course of
instruction . Whilst he smoked she , with solemn face ,which would on occasion pucker up most comically in
her efforts to sounds good make,
” wrestled with a
language which to her must have presented difficulties
quite equalling those noted by Mark Twain relative toGerman . So much in earnest was she that she would
not allow her attention to wander, even though a
beauti ful green lizard fel l with one last protesting
waggle o f its tai l from the verandah onto the stone
paved path below after a balancing feat which wouldhave put a human acrobat to shame . Nor did she do soeven when a huge spider descended his tough
,s ilvery
web within a couple of feet o f her bare and inviting
!A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 207
neck,at the peach-hued skin of which Somerv i l le had
been gazing with artistic admiration .
I am your wife . You are my husband . Shi-wono
is our cook . The coolie i s running . Good-morning !Good-night ! House , room , book , letter ,
” and a hostof other words and phrases , some o f which she nowremembered to have heard at the missionary ’s house
in Ureshino,M io San said them all through w ith
wonderful difficulty and marvellous mispronunciation .
But most times she ended up with rippling laughter,
and I luff yew .
”
At the finish she took out her little pipe and smoked
fine,l ight-coloured , native tobacco , almost o f the hue
of yellow-bronze si lk . It was such a tiny plaything of
a pipe that had not Somervi lle been already long
inured to the practice of women’s smoking he would
not have had the heart to forbid her . Three or four
whiffs,and then the small bowl
,scarcely larger than
an acorn-cup , was knocked with a sharp pin-pin
against the metal edge o f the tabako-bon, and Mio
San ’s smoke was finished for the time being .
The afternoon sun was now fall ing into the garden
slantwise over the tops o f the taller pines , throwing
long shadows across the iris ponds and trickling
streamlet , and giving the azalea blossoms under thetrees a chastened colour . And onto the matting floor
o f the verandah the lilac wistaria,which swayed in the
gentle ai r outside,threw deep shadows like enormous
208 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
and elongated catkins . It was the hour for tea , and soMio San rose with a smile , exclaiming , Tea !
”
And when she saw that Somerville hesitated sheadded persuasively in Japanese , Most excellent for
honourable weariness it i s . ” And he , having heardKatakuri San use the same phrase ona like occasion ,understood
,and smiled back , Gokura sama
”
Many thanks for your kind thought
Ere Mio San returned,bearing the tray with its tiny
cups,of which so many were required to slake her big
husband ’s honourable and august thirst,sounds o f
footsteps coming up the garden path caused Somer
vil le to turn in his chair and look out through the
verandah balustrading.
A rockery and some dwarf trees upon it obscured
the turn o f the path,and it was not t i l l some moments
had passed that Yumoto came into view,hot and
somewhat breathless from his climb up from the
town .
Good-afternoon,he called out. And then he used
a word which i s typically English and seldom heard in
Japan . You are high up,my honourable married
ness ,” he went on, as he puffed up the verandah steps
and sank down into one of the deck-chairs . But in
climb ing to it I am become as hot as in the fires ofKwakkto Jigoku . Have you yet had time to sparefrom O Ku Sama to open a bottle o f the m iserablewhisky sake I sent you ?
”
210 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
th ing. It i s wel l that the gi ft was sent wrapped inpaper, and not in Mio San
’s heart . But ,” he continued ,
to pause as Mio San advanced along the verandah ,“ i f you are not foolish
,my august honourableness ,
you will not bring the women too close together .”
Welcome ! I hope your august l imbs are not much
wearied ,” exclaimed Mio San . P lease partake
,
” and
she put down the tray of tea and made the polite
obeisance . Then as she raised her head from her
hands she noticed the whiskey sake, and smiled . As thehonourable lady of the house she had for
'
the moment
forgotten what she knew as Katakuri San ’s maid ,namely, that Yumoto never accepted tea when whiskysake was available .
August pardon deign , she exclaimed , with asmi le . And then she handed Somerville the tea .
No more was said concerning Katakuri San,but as
Yumoto drank his whisky sake in quiet content,he
wondered whether Madame M cKenz ie would restsati sfied with the moral stab she had infl icted with suchrefinement of malice upon her rival .
Whilst Somerville and M10 San were drinking theirtea and chatting to him inconsequently about the
garden and the view from the verandah,he came to
the conclusion that how much ill Katakuri San waswilling or able to infl ict largely depended upon the
opportunities Somervi lle and Mio San might give her .That she had no morality to deter her from anything
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 211
wh ich malice might suggest he well knew . Her l i feat the restaurant in Hama-no -machi
,and her deal ings
with its less reputable frequenters had bereft her nature
o f moral fibre . and sullied her soul almost beyond
redemption .
Mio San broke in upon his reverie . Me Engleeshquick learn speak ,
” she said . And then she fired off a
cataract o f words and sentences which Somerville had
been making her repeat during the afternoon .
“ Love has the same language in al l climes,said
Yumoto , when he had finished laughing at Mio San ’s
wonderfully incorrect pronunciation o f some words ,remembering a phrase from a French novel of ques
tionab le character,but the woman who can talk most
fluently generally makes the best bargain . Therefore ,O Ku Sama ,
” he continued , addressing M io San , be
augustly wise and learn to talk the tongue of your
honourable master .
But such philosophy was beyond the comprehen
s ion of Mio San , and she took refuge in a perplexed
smile .Then the two men talked of o ld times as men whohave first met in foreign lands will , and Mio San sat
with her head resting against Somerville’
s knees li sten
ing for words she understood , and finding so few , thatshe was once more driven in upon her own sad
thoughts o f the gi ft o f Katakuri San which had flashed
upward and downward in the sunlight that morning,
212 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
and now lay amid the water-weeds in the lotus
pond .
She would have given years of her l i fe to haveunderstood the strange words that fell from her hus
band ’s lips—words that le ft her mind as dark as totheir meaning as though she were deaf , and so keen a
pain of non-comprehension at her heart that it caused
her to clench her hands so tightly together under cover
of the wide hanging sleeve of her kimono,that the nail s
bit deep into the skin o f her soft, rosy palms .
At last she heard the name of Katakuri San , and a
little shiver ran through her body . What was her
honourable husband saying about the woman who ,because o f her love for him , had driven her into dark
ness and despair ? Here and there she caught the
meaning o f a word , but most were spoken so swiftly
that to her unaccustomed ears their meaning was in
extricably j umbled .
“ Love,woman , shameless , Mc
Kenzie,night
,beauti ful
,hate , in a month or two .
”
She heard all these ; she had heard them over and
over again whilst acting as Katakuri San ’s maid . Butnow her anxious , fevered mind refused to translate
thei r meaning to her quickly enough for her to under
stand . Each time the words Katakuri San fell fromeither speaker ’s lips she shivered
,and at length Somer
vi lle noticed it .
Are you cold , Mio ?” he asked kindly . But she
did not at once reali se what he said .
CHAPTER XIV
HE days passed very slowly to the littlehousehold at “ Sunset View . Except forthe visits o f Yumoto and M cKenz ie , and
descents upon the town made by Mio San and Somer
v i lle , l ittle occurred to break the monotony . But the
honourable tranqui ll ity o f his existence,as Mio San
phrased it,was pleasant enough to one o f Somerville ’s
arti stic temperament . He worked hard ; for seldom
had painter surroundings fuller of inspiration or sub
j ects of greater beauty of atmosphere and colour .
An exquisite pastel of Mio San with her face hal f
buried in an armful of azalea blossoms,done , with the
daring o f a true artist,upon a long strip of delicate
grey-toned paper,adorned one o f the walls of the
studio , and his sketch-book was full of studies of her .
She proved,like most Japanese girls
,an excellent
model , capab le of arti stic and quick appreciation of
pose , untrammelled by conventional ideas . And i f
ever she were weary, for Somerville was an exactingand somewhat cruel taskmaster in his enthusiastic
pursu it of his art , she showed it by nothing more dis
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 215
qu ieting than her face . Neither by fidgetiness norcomplaint .But during these long s ittings , whether in the
bri l liant l ight of the open air or in the studio withthe softened radiance which fi ltered through half
drawn shoj i of translucent paper, whilst Somervillesketched in rapidly or laid on h1s colours with a sure ,deft hand
,Mio San ’s thoughts Often reverted to the
words which accompanied Katakuri San ’s wedding
gi ft,and she wondered whether the glow o f passion
always dies i f the woman sedulously fans the embersonLove ’s altar . Her heart asked thi s question over
and over again , which nothing save time could answer .
One day , when Somerville had taken her up theh il l that lay at the back o f thei r house to a l ittleruined pagoda and an exquis ite grotto he had acci
dentally discovered , where she posed all the morningin the ambient shade of pines and icho as a nymphof the crystal spring that sparkled forth like l iquid
diamonds from the recesses o f the grotto , he had
scarcely spoken to her , so intent had he been upon hiswork .
She felt a growing chil l o f apprehension attackingher heart . Between the twain seemed to be a barrierwhich had not existed in the earl ier days o f marriage—an impalpable something which she was incapable
o f analysing . Into her heart crept a feel ing almost
of j ealousy of that other woman , her idealised sel f,
216 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
which Somervi lle painted w ith so much greater at
tention than he had bestowed upon the l iving woman
who posed .
How could she explain to him her growing fears ?
How could she tell him in that so strangely difficult
language of his what she,his humble wi fe
,felt ?
what thoughts pursued thei r disturbing way throughher mind in the silence o f the night , in the shade o f
the wood ? O f what use were the words and phraseswhich she had learned so laboriously for such a need
as hers ? These things which had afforded her some
dim insight into his thoughts and meaning when he
conversed with Yumoto or McKenz ie o f an evening
upon the verandah failed her at the crisi s o f her men
tal needs . Nothing suggested itsel f to her sad littlemind save the eternal question o f women concerning
the men they love Does he love me ?
Ontheir way down the hillside through the pines,over the soft , velvety carpet o f emerald—hued mossand grass and golden l ichen
,Mio San spoke very little
to Somervil le,and he was absorbed in the work he
had accomplished . At length he said , Mio,did you
feel cold ? There was not much sun,I fear
,where
you posed . I ’m a selfish sort of beggar when I am
painting , but you must not mind . It i s only forgetfulness and not intention .
”
Mio San gathered much of what he said,although
she could not comprehend all . I was not much cold
218 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
brown dust . And when Somervil le spoke again inhalf-apology for his forgetfulness she checked himwith a ripple of laughter
,and nestling close to his side,
exclaimed,Immense big augustness honourable par
dondeign . I luff yew . You luff me much ? ”
Yes , much ,” Somerville replied , believing that he
really did , as he bent down and kissed her upturned
face .Do it again ! ” begged Mio San , who had learned
to kiss much as a baby would have done,not by in
tuition,for the kissing instinct i s non-existent or at
all events dormant in Japanese women , but fromseeing others do it and by practice . When Somerville had satisfied her demand she felt happy again .
The contact o f his lips and the sunshine had donesomething towards di spelling for the time that shadow
which so often brooded in her heart , that distrust of
the future and what it held for her which had had
its birth when she opened the box containing Kata
kuri San ’s wedding gift and read the poisoned wordswhich accompanied it .They met few people along the road
,for it was the
hour when many of the inhabitants o f the neighbouring vil las would be taking hot baths in lieu of siestas .But j ust as they reached the turning where the pathbranched downwards an o ld man came along who ,when he caught sight of Mio San
,called out in a
drooning, monotonous voice , Give me alms , most
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE $219
generous and beauti ful lady , that I may tell you the
future . ” Somerville , not understanding what he said ,would have passed by him , contenting himsel f withcasting a few cash into his outstretched box
,but Mio
San paused in front o f the wayfarer , who was scanti lyclad in a ragged
,dark blue cotton kimono
,and whose
feet were lacking even the cheapest of straw sandals .“Jz
'
u sendozo ! ” exclaimed M io San .
Ten sen ? Too much ,” replied Somerville laugh
ing , but giving her the coin . What is the matter ? ”
Mio San with a mysterious ai r gave the o ld man
the money and drew from a division o f his b ox a
t iny slip o f bamboo onwhich a Chinese number was
written . This she handed to him with a smile and afew apologetic words to excuse herself for troubling
him . The old man took the strip o f wood from her ,and placing it close against his near-sighted eyes he
read the number .A fter a minute he shook his head and ej aculated
,
Kyo !” whilst he fumbled with stiff fingers in a
little drawer which opened at the back o f the b ox .
Somerville was watching the performance withinterest . A lthough he only partially understood what
Mio San and the o ld man had said , he soon gatheredthat the latter was either a teller o f fortunes or a“ quack .
” When the o ld man said “Kyo
” in so re
gretful a tone he turned to M io San . She stood there ,w ith the strong sunshine o f the road lighting up the
2920 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
amber-t inted skin o f her face and neck til l it wasalmost transparent
,with an expression of dull distress
in her eyes and face .At length the old man produced a small slip of
paper which bore on its outside fold the same figure
as that upon the bamboo . Mio San put out her hand
for it and turned away .
With the o ld man ’s blessing for such honourable
patronage in their ears Somerville and Mio San madethei r way down the sloping path which led to the
upper entrance to the garden .
Mio San did not unfold the paper,but tucked it
into the sleeve of her kimono, and when Somervil leasked her what it was she told him that it was a sacredwriting . But she did not tel l him how her heart hadsuddenly turned heavy as lead at the o ld man ’s words
,
although but a short while before the sunshine andhis kisses had made it so tumultuously light w ithhappiness .
At last they reached the house in silence,for S om
erville’
s vocabulary was not equal to the inquiries hewould have made . He put away his painting things
,
and whilst he was doing so Mio San retired to herroom and taking out the small piece of paper sheproceeded to read it . It did not take her long to do so .
Whoever draws this miknj i,” i t ran
,will be well
advised in obeying the heavenly law,and so should
also Kwannon the Most Merci ful be continually
222 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
had meant,and for the moment not connecting it in
any way with the old mendicant they had met alongthe road .
Softly under her breath Mio San murmuredEnmei soknsai May we enj oy long life and sorrow not trouble us “
kanai anzen” Grant that
our family may be “ka-oi-mongaku ”
!“ That this house may for ever be fortunate and
then a prayer that “ for ever my august husband may
dwell with me and regard me favourably .
”
Over and over again,with her eyes sometimes
closed and at others fixed upon the l ittle shrine,M io
San prayed , but deep down in her heart there was an
element o f superstition which bred the thought that
al l these words would be useless to prevail against thei ll- fortune forto ld by the mikuj i.She knelt repeating thes
‘
e silent prayers so long that
Somerville was about to seek her when he saw Mc
Kenzie and Katakuri San coming up the garden walk .
This was the first visit that the latter had paid ,and she had spent several hours that morning in
her preparations . As she came up the path a littlein advance of McKenz ie , who had stopped a momentto inspect the iris-bed
,her lacquered clogs inlaid with
pieces of mother—o f—pearl and highly polished metalflashed from beneath the skirt o f her kimono. Andwhat a kimono ! It was one that in a fit of exceptionalgenerosity McKenz ie had purchased for her at O
224: A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
possession , and she saw at a glance that her face wascolourless and that there were circles left by her distress of mind beneath her eyes
,which shone so
brightly with unshed tears . She could not go forthto meet Katakuri San ’s scrutiny thus . There wasscarcely time to make her toilet properly
,but she
sat down before the mirror with her l ittle dressing
table o f acacia and camphor-wood in front o f herand set to work .
Outside on the verandah Katakuri San was beinginstalled in one o f the deck-chairs
,and was laughing
mus ically during the process . It was not until McKenzie had sauntered up and mentioned M io San ’s
name that she remembered to inquire if O Ku Sama
!the honourable lady of the house ! was at home and
well .Yes
,replied Somerville
,she is both . She is in
her room . I wil l cal l her . ”
Do not honourably trouble yoursel f, said Katakuri San
,laughing
,and glancing up at him archly .
But he ‘called out “M io ! M io ! Oide nasoi ! ” al l
the same ' and in a moment or two came the answering call , Hai-i-i todaimo .
Katakuri San leant back in her chair and regardedSomerville narrowly . Her li fe at the restaurant inIma-machi had made her a keen observer o f men and
their moods . Now she was engaged in attemptingto discover whether the man she hersel f so much
A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE 225
adm ired and had sought to ensnare was content w ithher rival .M cKenz ie broke the si lence by inqu iring whetherSomervi lle had finished a picture which he had seenhim painting one morning on the Bund . It was a
large canvas depicting some Murotsu fishermen and
women idling and gossiping onone o f the quays .“ Yes , replied Somervil le ;
“ I finished it off lastweek . It ’s in the studio . Would you care to see it ?
”
McKenz ie j umped up .
“ I should,
” said he,
“ and
perhaps when we return we shall find O Ku Sama
has come out.
”
When the two men walked along and entered thestudio Katakuri San had at first been inclined to fo l
low them ,but j ust as she was about to do so Mio San
appeared at the end o f the verandah and advancedtowards her .She had exchanged the cotton kimono which she
had worn in the earlier part o f the day for the beauti
ful one she wore at her wedding, and although her
eyes bore some slight traces o f distress they werebright and smiling
,for in the stil lness o f her own
room she had had time to think,and decide that she
would meet her enemy with a smile upon her face ,whatever might l ie at the bottom o f her heart .Katakuri San
,notwithstanding that the advancing
girl was once her maid,rose and politely inquired
after her health,whilst the latter sl id onto her knees ,
226 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
and w ith the word Irasshaimashi onher lips, madeher elaborate obeisance .Before she did so , however, she had had time toremark with what care her v isitor had attired hersel f,how exqui s ite ly beauti ful , though so artificially enhanced
,her face was . It was truly , as San-to had
once said , the face of one who eats men . Her dark
eyes told the sad , ineffaceable story of an impuresoul .M io San sat down opposite her vis itor and re~
garded her furtively,a fact of which the latter was
by no means ignorant . It was the measuring ofswords by two duelli sts ere the attack . The voicesof the two men came indistinctly from the studio hardby , and the noise of the 11-1-1-1-1 of the summer c icadaein the bushes near the verandah formed a stridentchorus . Katukuri San noticed the dark circles under
Mio San ’s eyes,which even the pondre de riz could
not successfully disguise , and she thought they told adifferent tale to the true one . .Her mean heart beatwith satis faction . This marriage was evidentlyalready
,though scarcely more than a couple of months
old‘
, a fai lure . Perhaps,even
,Somervil le had beaten
the girl who sat facing her and saying nothing . She
hersel f had been beaten by a man once . That was inthe days of her l i fe at the choya.
At length she said in Japanese,with a sm i le . You ,
O honourable lady,look marvellously happy. Th is
228 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
then one must know how to flatter them and how topull them back when some other eyes suddenly seembrighter and some other voice sweeter. And you ,what do you know o f them ?
Mio San was silent . In her heart the o ld fear wasreviving as Katakuri San artfully heaped fuel onthe
smouldering fires of distrust . A ll the stories of deserted geisha,
of abandoned musume’
,that San -to
when in garrulous mood had told her came rushing
back to her recol lection,and she shivered .
“ But there is always,
” continued Katakuri San ,death . It i s but a moment
,and then one does not
know any more sorrow . When your honourable
foreign husband descends to the town,it may be to
look into the eyes of another who had bewitched him
into thinking her more beauti ful than thou art , what
i s there for you ? ”
Mio San did not reply . What could she say ? The
woman whose face was so near hers , because she inspeaking had sat up in her chair and rested her face
upon her hands , was so beauti ful and yet talked of thefaithlessness of men .
Mio San would have gladly risen and made someexcuse for leaving her guest
,but none suggested itsel f
to her tortured mind . She could only sit stil l andli sten , and wonder i f Katakuri San could be wrongwhen the miknj i had foretold evil and sorrow also .
You cannot talk your honourable husband ’s
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 229
tongue,Katakuri San went on, nor he yours but a
little ; then how can you hope that he will remain by
your side ?
Al l the o ld knowledge of the gul f which yawnedat times between her and him when she failed to com
prehend his meaning was re-awakened in her mind .
She was about to explain that she would cl ing to him ,
would not let him go though he should trample uponher
,would strive to learn that most difficult tongue
in which he spoke to his foreign friends , when S om
erville’
s voice fell upon her ears . That loved voice , so
clear and deep that it seemed to her l ike the music o f
the river which ran near her o ld home at Ureshino ,recalled her to hersel f, and made her for the time atleast brave and strong .
She rose,and stooping so that Katakuri San could
hear her , she said in a low ,distinct tone
,Listen
, O
Katakuri San . You sent me a gi ft the day I becamethe wi fe o f O Somerville San . I thank you . It wasa useful gi ft for a fool . But when it fel l out o f theb ox onto the stone o f the path down yonder I felt
I should have no use for it . And so my honourablehusband cast it far away into the air
,and it fel l down
and down til l it plunged into the depths o f the poo lin which the lotus bloom and sank . It now l ies in themud at the bottom . I shall never need it . I have notknown many foreign men . But the one I know i smy husband .
230 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
For a minute or more Katakur i San sat rigid with
astonishment. Her gi ft she at length realised—forshe could not know the wound it had made in the
recipient ’s heart—lay in the mud at the bottom of apool . Perhaps even Somerville had laughed at herfol ly as he cast it away, so that M io San could neverbe reminded by its presence of the use for which itwas intended .
M io San ’s face was flushed now and her eyes bright .She had made her reply
,and she knew that it had
told . What Katakuri San could not know was howthat dagger , deep though it lay at the roots of thelotus and water-weeds
,often wounded her sti l l .
There was something almost tragic in the po se ofthe l ittle figure as she finished speaking, and the twomennoticed it as they came along the verandah .
“ Hello ! ” exclaimed McKenz ie ,“ what have our
wives been up to ? Mio San looks like some smal ltragedy queen and Katakuri l ike a d iscomfited rival .Somerville laughed , and before he could glance at
Katakuri her face was wreathed in smiles .“ A devil ish fine picture ,
” said McKenz ie , s inkinginto a chair and lighting a cigar .Which ? M ine, or our wives ?
” asked Somervi l le .Both .
”
232 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
of the Dead! that Somerville suddenly became awarethat Mio San failed to interest him as formerly. She
was kneeling in her room before the little butsnma
!shrine ! , in wh ich on the first day of the Festivaltiny new mats of the finest rice-straw woven ex
pressly for the purpose had been placed . He was inthe studio before the cabinet tearing up letters ; afew more lay at the bottom o f the drawer, the con
tents of wh ich he had been turning over. They werefrom Violet Desborough
,and as he picked one up and
read it through his mind seemed instinct ively to followup a train o f thought which was chiefly concerned
with the difference that existed between the writer andMio San . The latter he knew had l ittle in commonwith the former
,and alas ! l ittle in common with h im .
This sudden realisation by him of the unbridgeablechasm which lay between M io S anand h imself seiz edhold of him w ith an acute stab of painful knowledge .She , woman-l ike , had long been conscious of thegrowing chil l o f his caresses
, of h is looks,of his
words ; but he , man-l ike , had only til l j ust now hal freali sed the fact . A l l the wisdom which Yumoto had
dropped upon the subj ect of serious marriage at various times prior to and after his wedding of Mio Sancame back to him . Little defects of intell igence
,l ittle
habits which at first pleasing him by reason o f theirnovelty had of late become almost tiresome ; humble
efforts to show her love for him which,when he was
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 233
cold and thoughtful,worried him insensibly, came in
serried array before his mind . One o f those sudden
awakenings to facts which come at times to natures
such as his now assailed him with sickening intensity .
He real ised that he no longer loved M io San . Had it
been a vase for which he no longer cared it could
have been broken , or, i f valuable , sold or given away .
But M io San was a permanent obj ect for which hisaffection had waned , and according to the ordinary
code of morals there was no way out.
Like the memory of a desire for some half-for
gotten perfume , the English girl who had loved him
and whom he had nearly loved came back to assumeimportance in his l i fe and interests . In him had takenplace one o f those strange re- incarnations o f senti
ment which needed the death of merely arti stic and
physical love to nourish it and bring it again intobeing.
Did Mio San know ? he asked himsel f . And thenlittle incidents in their l i fe o f the last few weeks , the
tears which had once or twice glistened in her darkeyes , the flush o f pain which had stained her face
at some little act o f indifference,came back to him .
He had nothing save pity in his heart for her , but o fwhat service was pity to a woman in circumstanceslike hers ? And then as he stood with Violet Desborough ’s lette r in his hand be blamed himsel f . He
should have known better . He had been foolish,
234: A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
obstinate . The impulse of pity had cheated him intobelieving that the sentiment he felt was somethingdeeper than admiration for a beauti ful obj ect which
happened to be a woman . They way out ? He mustthink . Surely there must be some .
Out in the garden the si lvery blue of oncoming
night made al l mysteriously beauti ful , and the whirring j i-i-i-i-i-i o f the cicadae swelled to a shri l l crescendo
,to die away slowly . And then from the dim
ness of the woods or the twilight vault above themcame the dolorous note of the hototogisu l ike one
crying in pain—the mystic b ird believed by many tobe a wandering spirit from the Land o f Darkness
where the honourable ghosts rest awhile onthe ir wearyp ilgrimage to the dominion of the King of Death .
In Mio San ’s heart,as she knelt before the tiny
batsnma which she had bought and carried w ith suchreverent care up the hillside from the town
,the sad
note of the hototogisn awakened a strange longingfor her home beside the river at Ureshino and thesight of her mother ’s face . She rose to her feet witha little shudder of superstitious dread and hurriedalong the verandah to Somerville .
Have you heard the cry o f the hototogisn? she
asked , as she pushed back the shoj i. It i s bad tohear it .” And then she lowered her voice to thewhisper in which she addressed Kwannon the Merci
ful, and added , The thing is a spirit from the Land
236 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
kling lights,marking the cemeteries where thousands
o f relatives of the departed ones were gathered to paytheir devotions to the visiting spirits . And down belowgleamed the sti lly surface o f the harbour with a sheenlike that of a black pearl , upon which at midnightwould be launched the tiny boats o f barley-straw
,
plaited close,fi l led with the best offering of food their
owners could afford,l ighted by miniature lanterns at
the prow,and with glowing j oss-sticks in the stern
,
and containing written paper onwhich were inscribed
messages of faith and love for the visiting spirits,to
aid whose return to Shadowland they were intended .
Neither Somerville nor Mio San spoke much onthe irway down the steep road which led into the bril l iantlyl it town . She was thinking of the ghosts o f honourableancestors
,and wondering i f the flower offerings
,and
sprigs of shikimi, and lespedz a, and choice food in thetiny bowl which she had placed upon the white rice
straw mats in her little shrine would have pleased them .
He was wondering over the strange fact that the daintyl ittle figure which looked so fragile in the dim lightof the lanterns should have in so short a while for himhave lost so much o f her interest and charm .
Just as they reached the bottom of the road Mio
San stumbled,and to save her he threw his arm around
her. Her lantern fell and became extinguished . To
Somervi lle the incident suddenly presented itsel f assymbolical . To Mio San it was yet another warn ing
A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE 237
that evi l was in store for her . In the gloom o f theroad
, onwhich thei r dark shadows danced , thrown bythe light from the swaying lantern
, so that they b ecame elongated and enormous , she clung to him inchi ldish terror and pressed her face close against his
shoulder .Why are you afra id ?
” he asked , steadying himsel fand her
,and about to release his grasp so that he might
recover the extinguished lantern .
“ Fear has taken hold o f me , was the trembling
reply,
“ because I know that i ll-fortune comes to me
now that your love is cold for me .
”
A wave of compunction for the indifference whichhe had felt of late swept through him ,
and he kissedher tenderly
,tel l ing her the while that she was wrong,
and that he loved her as before . But she scarcely
heeded the words , for her woman’s heart could not be
deceived .
Why did you cast the gi ft o f Katakuri San away ?
she asked . When the love o f one ’s august belovedone no longer burns for her
,the woman welcomes such
a gi ft as hers .There was no answer
,and after a moment ’s pause ,
during which Somerville rel ighted the lantern in
silence , they continued thei r way down into the outski rts o f the town .
Past some sheds used for the storage of rice , straw ,
and farm produce they went,and then they suddenly
238 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
found themselves in the winding , i ll-paved , and narrowstreet which led into the wider one running westwardtowards the Bund . Even this usually comparatively
unfrequented thoroughfare was ablaze with lanterns,
torches,and lamps placed outside the tiny
,queerly
shaped shops , to il luminate the goods which werespread out ontemporary stands .From the tragic l ittle incident of the hills ide the twoplayers in it were transported by the irony of fate into
the midst of a happy,laughing throng . The strident
cries of the street merchants,sel ling the lotus flowers ,
real or of paper , which were used to decorate the
tombs onthe hill side,the altars of temples and of
household shrines,the shallow plates o f red earthen
ware for the use o f ghosts , the Bonlanterns whichserve to guide their silent footsteps
,and the l ittle straw
horses for them to ride,rose above the sharp ring of
geta as women and girls hurried along over the i l llaid paving stones . And the murmur o f voices camel ike that o f surf breaking on the shore of Nomo Sak i.Hasn-no-hana! Hasn-no-hana! Ogara!
” “Kara
wake !” “
Karamoko-ya! O-
yosni ! sounded thevoices of the sellers as Somerville and Mio San pushedthei r way through the throng . To do this it was mecessary for her to cl ing. on to his arm like honourable
foreign women ,” as she at first used to describe it. At
contact with him and surrounded by the throng of
hurrying pedestrians,and amid the bril liant gaiety
240 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
common politeness made obligatory, and was ev identlyanxious to go .
A great concourse of people now wending the ir wayfrom the lower streets up Nishiyama Go swept themapart . McKenz ie ’
s hand was waved above the headso f the l ittle women and men who engul fed him , and
his strong,deep voice rang out “
S ayonara! and then ,with the echo of the same word from Somerville ,Katakuri San and he passed out of sight .Borne along by the crowd Somervil le and Mio San
at last reached O -Suwa Park . Thousands of lanternsdanced beneath the pines and cherry-trees
,and the
tea—houses were crowded with laughing,happy throngs
o f customers . Beneath the pines outside o f the mostpopular resorts were mnsnmé in exquisite cloth ingseated on improvised benches , swinging their paper
lanterns to and fro so that the soft radiance from thei l lum inated sides fell in quaint patches on thei r happyfaces . High up , above all the clangour of the getashod feet of the women
,the hum of many voices
,the
blaze o f l ights around tea-house and booth,stood the
Temple , also lit so that from the harbour below it musthave looked like a fairy palace enféte . Up the fl ighto f wide steps , between the huge l ichen-stained lanterns of stone swayed a l iving ladder of people carry
ing lanterns and struggling to preserve a foothold .
Once more in the midst of this immense throng therecrept into Mio San ’s heart the aching feel ing of lone
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 241
l iness and i solation from Somervil le , the carking senseof her ostracis
'
m from his thoughts and li fe .Amid all thi s brill iant festival o f dead humanity
was for her the sad festival o f a dead love . The chil lo f the myriad graves upon the hillsides above them
,
which stretched through pine-woods and avenues of
giant cryptomerias,descended upon her—the ghosts
o f the happy first days after marriage,the ever-return
ing ghosts for her which would not depart .At last they reached the terrace o f the temple .
Down below them lay the town brill iantly l ighted , and
from it came the low murmur o f the moving multitudes l ike the sough o f wind in the pines . At Ohata
the people were already gathering in preparation for
the last tender rite o f the festival— the launching o f
the tiny,phantom fleets which throughout the country
side would be set adri ft on lake , river , and creek to
go floating to the open sea . Every now and again
the gong of a temple sounded musically , tell ing of
some offering or prayer ; and in the deep , blue vaulto f sky sprinkled o
’
er with a diamond dust o f starsthe white- faced moon was swinging slowly upward tothe zenith .
Mio San leaned upon the balustrade running alongth e terrace sad at heart amid all the bustle o f throbbing , hurrying li fe which surged along the paved walkbelow and around her . Somervi lle stood beside her
gazing out upon the mystic beauty o f the scene,
242 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
wondering why by some sport of chance this festival
o f the honourable dead should seem like the end of
love between him and Mio San .
Mio San ’s cold l ittle hand stole along the rail of thebalustrade and touched his arm
,almost furtively
,as
though she feared that her doing so would displeasehim . He took it gently in his own
,but it brought no
answering thrill ; the indescribable magnetism of the
past was lacking.
You are cold , he said . Let us go .
But Mio San shook her head . It was better evenhere , she thought , than up there in the lonely houseon the hills ide . Here occasionally some dropped
words of passers-by , some sight, some movement of
the crowd around or of the darker mass of people
streaming up the wide fl ight of steps leading to theterrace on which they stood
,diverted her attention for
a moment or two from her ownsad thoughts .“l ye, iye ! she excla imed
,shaking her head ,
adding,after a moment ’s pause ,
“Arigato, atsnknte
shikata go nai”
!Thanks , i t i s quite hot
But even in the heat of a summer night he felt shewas chi ll
,and so he insi sted upon walking about .
Al l the while the heart of Mio San was saying overand over again
,We are two persons . He walks at
my s ide and I at his , but in him there i s a mystery ;something has happened which I cannot understand .
”
244 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
lantern shaped like a fish hanging ona small tree,and
by its light he read it,whilst Mio San watched his face
intently .
It ran
KOJ I MACHI , TOK IO,July 1 1
, 19
DEAR MR . SOM ERV ILLE .
—I was glad to get yourlast letter tel l ing me o f all the interesting things you
have been seeing, doing, and painting. A las ! thatI am now not likely to see the latter
,at least unti l you
make up your mind !i f you ever do ! to leave Japan andreturn to England . We are in the midst of al l thehorrors of leavetaking and packing up . A l l my dear
little Japanese girl friends are bringing me the sweet
est and quaintest o f souvenirs , at the number o f which
my good and generally amiable uncle i s gradual ly b ecoming alarmed .
I have but l ittle time for writing thi s letter,so
please excuse its shortness and perhaps incoherence .
I wonder i f you would care to make the acquaintance
of my ‘august relatives ,’ to revert to Japanese phrase
ology ? I f you would , I find the steamer will stop for a
few hours at Nagasaki onher way to Hong-kong, andwe shall be pleased to see you . I suppose there i s no
chance o f your return as yet to Europe ?
We have been fortunate enough to get good staterooms onthe Empress of China, which i s due at Nagasaki on the Z I st. I shall quite hope to see you on
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 245
board unless you have gone away into the country
to pa int .
With k ind regards , believe me ,Ever yours sincerely
,
VIOLET DE SBOROU GH.
Lesl ie Somervi lle , Esq .
P . S .—Do come and see me i f you can .
Whi lst he was reading the letter an expressono f
such pleasure passed across his face that Mio San
became nervously curious as to its contents .
Good news it i s ? ” she questioned , as her husband
folded the letter and replaced it in his pocket .Yes
,
” he repl ied quickly ;“ a friend is coming
here onthe way back to my land .
”
“ A she-friend ? queried Mio San,with a s inking
heart .
Somerv i l le did not reply for a moment . He ranrapidly over in his mind the pros and cons in favouro f candour . He did not wish to hurt her ; perhaps
she would be distressed without reason . But some
thing inhim revolted against a l ie which would nothave the palliating excuse that he loved the one to
whom he told it . Mio San ’s questioning and saddened
face caused the decision to.
tremble in the balance ; butat last he said with studied carelessness
,An honour
able lady friend , but she will be here on the great
j okisenonly a few hours .
246 -A JAPANE SE R OMANCE
In the breast of M io San came a s ickening sense
of pain and apprehension . This friend of her augusthusband was perhaps a woman of his ownrace—onewho could understand his language , who could comprehend his thoughts , who could l ive hi s inner l i fe
that she,loving
,striving as she did , could never do .
She knew that he stood outside the radius of hermental grasp , lived an inner spiritual existence of whichshe
,groping in the darkness o f insufficient knowledge ,
could never !though they lived side by side for many ,many moons ! find the key . He was a man , and therefore incapable of comprehending the j ealousy of thi sunknown woman which to re her heart .I am cold
,much cold
,
” she said at last,shivering
in the warm air which,laden with the odour of senko
from the temple,came along the terrace .
Very well ,” Somervil le replied ;
“ let us be going .
They walked along the now nearly deserted terraceand descended the broad fl ight of steps which led downinto the Park, and thence , caught in the human eddyof the departing throng
,they were swept along
N ishiyama Go . The streets were stil l thick withpeople , and they turned into by-ways to escape the
crush , and at length reached the narrow road whichwould take them to the foot of the hil l onwhich theirhome stood . A lthough there had been a few j inrikishos in the principal streets , and the cries of the coolies
who dragged them could sti ll be heard in the distance ,
248 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
vi l le turned away to enter the studio , add ing under
her breath, O most beloved and augustly beautiful
one .
Good-n ight , l ittle Mio ,” he repl ied l istlessly , and
without an embrace .When he heard the shoj i close behind M io San hecast himsel f into a chair to think .
What was the meaning of that sudden sense of
satis faction and even j oy with which he had read ofthe other woman ’s coming ? Was it the beginning ofthe kindling of a greater passion than Mio San had
been able to inspire ? Was it love brought strangelyabout by the revulsion from the merely physical at
traction he had felt for fresh innocence and beauty ?
Who could tel l ?
But in his heart stirred an intense longing for thoseof his own race ; for the mind which could think in
unison with his own; for the tongue which couldspeak without impotent searchings after unknown
words . In the weakness of fatigue an exaltation
seized him,and he could have called aloud for j oy that
i t was so .
Then in the sti l l night from the end of the verandah ,onwhich the si lvery moon threw a pure soft light
,
came the sound of the other woman’s tears sorrowingover the mystery of a lost love.
CHAPTER XVI
OMERVILLE had seen Violet Desborough,and by this time the Empress of Chino was well
on her way towards Colombo , when one morn
ing he descended to the town and , walking along theBund , entered Yumoto
’
s office . The Chinese book
keeper , the skin of whose face on account of its
wrinkles looked like a section o f buff-coloured , tesselated pavement
,informed him that Mr . Yumoto had
not yet arrived . After waiting a short t ime Somerville heard his friend ’s voice outside
,and a few mo
ments later Yumoto came in,whistl ing gaily and smok
ing a cheroot .
Ohoyo ! he excla imed upon catch ing sight of his
vis itor Why this early visit,augustly welcome
one ? ”
Ohayo ! replied Somerville , most honourab le i f
late to arrive friend . I wish to consult you.
”
Me ? ” said Yumoto,with affected surprise .
Very well ; follow my unworthy shadow up the
stai rs .
Yumoto’
s l ittle private room ,l i t by the brilliant sun
250 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
shine of an August day coming off the surface of the
water o f the harbour outside in golden sheets of l ightwhich fl ickered onthe walls
,looked even more garish
than usual with its gaudy bi lls and pictures .Somerville seated himsel f
,took and lighted the cigar
Yumoto offered him,and then there was si lence .
Well ? queried Yumo to,after a slight pause
,giv
ing a keen glance at his friend ’s face .
The latter smoked a whiff or two without replying,and then said very slowly
,I have decided to return
to England, o r at any rate , to Paris .
He looked intently at his l istener to see whether
any expression o f surprise at the announcement would
fl it across his usually impassive and inscrutable face .
Nothing betrayed what Yumoto thought,and it was
perhaps a !couple of minutes b e fore he made any signother than a whistle
,which with him meant almost
anything .
Then he remarked, S o you have ti red , as I always
expected , honourable but none too everything calculat
ing friend , o f your musume’
,who must
,after all
,have
been destined by Fate to dance ChonKino and have
many husbands at the house o f Honj o the vi llainous .I am not surprised . Then he continued
,as though a
bright idea had suddenly occurred to him,A week
ago you went onboard the E mpress of China. I sawyour sampanfrom the window . You were very anx
ious to see some one onboard her,for your rowers
252 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
should be vo icing an act of indescribable treacherymy wife of the last few months up away yonder onthe h i l lside .”
“ And so , said Yumoto slowly, you have deter
mined to leave Nagasaki—to leave Japan . Well , whati s there to prevent you ?Somerville gazed at the speaker fixedly for a moment
or two , and wondered whether it was the heat of the
l ittle office or that of shame which brought the beads o f
sweat out thickly on his own forehead and set h isheart beating irregularly .
The words came from him very slowly,Mio San,
what o f her ?
Yumoto laughed . Mio San , he repeated . As
I told you at first , i t would have been better had you
taken her as a mistress and not as a wi fe . But you
chose your ownmethod of acquiring her. Now you
come to me and lament the fact .” He paused , butSomervi l le d id not reply . His face flushed and heopened his l ips as though to speak
,but contented him
sel f with aninarticulate ej aculation,and Yumoto went
on. But why worry, there is no child ? Your way i smuch more easy than you apparently think
,my friend .
Mio San canbe divorced without much difficulty i f
you are not sati sfied by the more s imple process ofmerely go ing away and leaving her . Divorce is easyin Japan . Surely she has been disrespectful to you ; orhas embro i led you with McKenz ie and his wife, your
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 253
friends ; or she has shown j ealousy ; or—ah ! ” hewent onsuddenly , as though a bright idea occurred tohim
,she has talked too much . She must surely have
often wear ied you with her dismal conversation .
”
I f a great sense of shame had not swept into Somer
vi lle ’s heart at the idea of these subterfuges for obtain
ing his freedom from the child-woman he no longer
loved he must have laughed at Yumoto’
s relieved expression o f countenance , and his suggestion that the
poor little wi fe who had clung to him but a couple of
hours ago in a paroxysm o f grief could have spoken
too much . The memory o f her stumbling, halting
efforts to talk to him smote him suddenly and painful ly .
“ No,she has done none of these things , O wise
one , he replied slowly ;“ and the chain would be
there though the links were legally snapped for so out
rageously inadequate a reason .
”
You are too augustly punctil ious , said Yumoto ,with a shrug of his shoulders . You have married a
Japanese woman , why not get rid o f her in a Japanese
manner ? ”
But Somervi lle only shook his head .
Very well,continued the other after a pause ,
there i s only one other way . Leave her. Go back to
England , and you will soon forget her and she you .
She need not go back to Honj o . !Somervil le shud
dered . !“ But she can get another situation in one o f
the foreign restaurants ; and in time she will marry
254 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
again , my friend . She i s sure to marry again , and thenyou wil l be free . It i s al l very simple , though not somuch so as I would have made it . I will let you knowthe date of her remarriage . And I shal l expect you
,
”
he continued , to send me out some of those excellent
cigars you gave me when I come up to your house .The news will be worth five hundred of them
,wi l l i t
not ? ”
Somervi lle winced . He was perfectly well awarethat he would in the end accept Yumoto
’
s solution of
the situation , namely , that he should return to England
and abandon Mio San . But his friend ’s perfectly
sincere proposal that Mio San should be divorced for
some trumpery or imagined reason revolted his better
feelings .
Onhis way down to the town he had tried to per
suade himsel f that it was the terrible home hunger ,which so often smites such a temperament as his in a
foreign clime,that had seized him in so torturing a
grip,and that there was no woman as the first cause o f
his sudden moral and temperamental upheaval . And
because he was not altogether callous he had not suc
ceeded . He had been endeavouring even as he sat there
opposite Yumoto of the benign and inscrutable face topersuade himsel f that he would some day return
,but
the image of Violet Desborough and the look he hadseen in her eyes when she welcomed him as he steppedonto the Empress ofChina
’
s deck rudely brushed as ide
256 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
Somerville did not reply,but his face flushed
,and
he opened his l ips as though about to speak .
Yumoto laughed outright, and continued, Whendo you sail ? The Orient Queencalls in ten days
,and
it would be most excellent for you to go by her . You
would be reminded of the woman you desire, and the
image o f her you have found no longer interesting
would be correspondingly obl iterated .
”
I t al l appeared so simple to Yumoto that his friend ’sreluctance seemed quixotic , and even foolish .
Believe me,
” he continued , it i s the best th ing todo . And i f I can assi st you to smooth matters with
Mio San I am at your service , my honourable friend .
You will see that I am right and that you—augustlywise in art and many other things though you are
w i l l prove to be wrong . Mio San will shed a few tears ,perhaps
,but then she wi ll accept the honourable
amount o f tangible consolation your augustly good
nature wil l prompt you to offer , and—forget . In afew months I shall be able to write and tell you of the
husband or lover she has taken ; and then , w ith all your
quixoticness, you will be glad that you took my advice .
I know women,
” remarked Yumoto with an enigmatic
smile , glancing out of the window . Their hearts are
like those wonderful boxes Kizaki sel ls there is
always something further ins ide them than one thinksor at first discovers .”
I w i l l think over what you have said, Somer
A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE 257
vi lle replied , after a moment’s pause
,and in a day or
two I will let you know .
”
Yumoto smiled . In his mind ’s eye he could already
see the Orient Queendisappearing through the nar
rows between Ogami and Megami Points with Somervi lle onboard
,bound for England and the woman he
desired .
Very well , he remarked , you are go ing to be aw i se man . Very good . Let me know ,
and I will assist
you to make a comfortable end to your affai r with Mio
San . You will not need to pay her as much as you
would have to do i f she l ived with her parents . That
i s good .
” And Yumoto nodded his head solemnly, for
his was a mind that economised in al l things , even in
his affections .Somervil le rose . The conversation promised to
become d i stasteful,and he had suffered enough from
the fire of sel f-contempt during the interview already .
I must be going,
” he said,extending h is hand to
Yumoto ; I have to call at Hoshin’
s for a piece of
lacquer he has been repa iring,and there i s also a
sketch to be got off by the next mai l for a man in
Paris . Good-bye . Come up and have a smoke soon .
”
“S ayonara, rej oined Yumoto
,taking h i s hand .
Do not worry . It i s so simple a matter , th is affair o f
yours . She can have no grievance , for you are going
away . You are not about to instal l a rival .”
When he got outside in the sunshine of the Bund
258 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Somerville felt he had escaped from anordeal of h isown seeking which had proved him and found himwanting . He was vexed that he could not feel moreindescribably mean than he did . But his regrets were
all lest he should hurt one who had never done him anyinj ury , and not because o f the defection of his love .
The mere idea o f going home caused the sunlight to
appear o f yet more exquisite radiance , the ai r less en
ervatingly hot . He was going home , and at the end of
the j ourney there was Violet Desborough .
As he walked along the quay and,turning inland ,
made his way through a shady by-street towardsFunadaiku-machi he did not give a thought to what the
latter would say to h im . By a strange development of
ideas he forgot the fact that it might be impossible to
prevent the existence o f Mio San from coming to herknowledge . He only remembered the look o f greeting
in her eyes,and her hal f-playful , hal f-serious chiding
that he had never after all come to Tokio .
Hoshin, who besides being a dealer in curios was a
metal-worker of great skill,was sitting cross- legged at
the back of.his shop tapping a piece of lacquer onastrange little bench about ten inches high with a tovl ike mallet
,when Somervi lle ’s shadow darkened the
door . He glanced up at once , and his bright , slit-l ike
eyes,which always seemed on the blink because of
thei r near- sightedness,opened a little wider in welcome
to his visitor .
260 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
Somerville smiled and dropped the money with arattle into the tiny brass bowl which served Hoshin
when he was himsel f there to guard it—as a ti l l .The sound of the money ’s chink and of Somerville ’s
’
voice must have penetrated to the back of the dark
little shop,for the fusama was slid back and Haru
San,smiling and wrinkled , appeared .
A fter the usual obeisance she exclaimed , It is along time since I have hung upon your honourableeyelids . P lease to make your honourable sel f at homein thi s our wretched place .
” Which meant nothing
more terrible , Somervi lle knew , than“ It i s a long
while since you were last here . P lease be seated .
After he had suitab ly replied came the inevitablenquiry after the health o f M io San
,and whether he
were sti l l satisfied with her . He tried to fence with
the question for a moment or two,and then he said ,
with as casual an air as he could bring himself toassume :I am thinking of returning to England soon—for
a time .”
Naru hodo ! both exclaimed in a breath .
Then Haru San inquired what was to become of
madame the honourable lady of his house, and asked
Whether he would divorce her .Even in the dim light of the shop Somervi lle felt hischeeks burn at these inquiries . But he need no t have
troubled himsel f, for to both Hoshin and Ham San
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 261
!used to fore ign marriages and the ir inevitable andforeseen ends ! his departure and abandonment of the
musumehe had seen fit to marry with such unnecessary
trouble to his august condescension was the most
natural thing in the world .
Ah ! ” exclaimed Haru San , as she found he had
no very definite plans,and with a recollection o f the
“ excellently many yen ”M io San ’s former stay b e
neath thei r roof had produced , should she need a
dwelling whilst your august honourableness i s away,what better one than here ? ”
Hoshin shook his head in deprecation of the idea ,but Haru San was not to be put off.
She will be quite happy,
” she continued,and I
will see that no one marries her during your honour
able absence . Ah ! but it was truly an august con
descension for you to marry the miserable girl . And
should you not return !Somervi lle thought that he
saw Haru San smile somewhat sardonically,even
though the light was so dim ! , she would willingly
become a widow and be grateful to you for the many
fine gi fts she has received from you,her lord .
”
Whilst Haru San was speaking an idea had pre
sented itsel f to his mind . It would no t appear so
heartless a desertion i f she were le ft with people sheknew . But he must think the matter over . Some even
better solution of the problem might eventually suggestitsel f .
262 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
You are marvellously k ind and condescending,he replied
,and your wish is a good one . I w i l l think
of what you have said to me , but I have much to do ,and must not give mysel f the honour to remain talkinghere longer .”
When he had left the shop and d isappeared along
the street Haru San promptly sat down beside her
lord , who had recommenced the tapping of the metal
plate with his tiny hammer,and set to work calculat
ing how much she might reasonably ask of the wealthv
Englishman for taking care o f the wi fe o f whom she
felt sure he had tired .
Tap,ting
,tap
,
” went Hoshin’
s tiny hammer w ith
j ust the noise a woman ’s pipe makes when hit sharply
against the smoking-box to rid it o f its ash , and every
tap counted a yen in the ears ‘
o f Haru San til l her
head grew dizzy with the wealth she imagined to beflowmg in.
And meantime Somerville had faced towards home
and M io San , and was trying to imagine what hewould say .
264 A JAPANE SE ROMAN CE
then she whispered the secret j oy that she held in herheart , and watched his face to see the change of purpose which she thought must surely come . But alas !
it came not, the face that looked into hers flushed
and then paled,but the look in the eyes was unchanged ,
and she knew he would go .
During the days which followed , Mio San wentabout with so heavy a heart that she could make no
response to his attempts at cheerfulness—couldscarcely seek to charm him in the old way with herna
’
ive affection,her quaint conceits , and equally quaint
efforts to learn the language that he spoke . To her
the sun seemed to have for ever set , the light to have
faded out of her li fe,the fragrant flowers in their ex
quisite garden to have suddenly lost the ir perfume and
d ied .
The Orient Queenhad come and gone , for Somervi lle had found it impossible
,after all
,to take his pas
sage by her . Another boat would cal l at Nagasak i
in about three weeks,and he hurried onh is arrange
ments so that he might leave by her.Mio San watched the gradual dismantlement of
the home with an aching heart . Shi-wono with a
loudly expresesd regret, for she had been treatedvery liberally by this eccentric Englishman
,who had
put himsel f to such unnecessary trouble by marrying
a musume'
who had taken'
his fancy ; and now ,unless
an’
o ther ' fore igner would be equally complacent; she
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 265
would have to return to the hotel and work harder forless pay .
During these last days Somervi l le alternately despised himsel f and excused himsel f . At t imes thecal l of his own land and race was so strong in his
blood that the latter was quite easy . And then hewould catch sight of Mio San ’s li ttle grief-stricken
face,—which gave the l ie to Yumoto
’
s loud assertions
that musume were butterfl ies , incapable of deep or
lasting feel ing,—and the '
old self-d isdain would assai l
him afresh .
When packing h is sketches and p ictures in the
studio he had made one last attempt at deception .
He had given into M io San ’s care several of thelargest pictures he had painted of her . Keep themti l l I return
,which I shall do some day , he said .
But she looked at him with large,tear-dulled , unre
sponsive eyes , in which he could read her disbel ie f .
In her heart there was always that terrible answeringnote , He will not return .
”
S o she shook her head sadly , and murmured underher breath the words which had often pleased himin the past ,
“Anota bakari son
”
!“ Thou art the
only one august one For her there could be noother .
She knew that she was to return to the care o f
Hoshin and Ham San,and she had accepted the
arrangement w ithout comment . What could it
266 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
matter ? ” she asked hersel f over and over again , nowthat her lord , who had once looked upon her withaugustly deigning favour
,was about to depart .
The last boxes were packed in the fading glimmerof the beauti ful September twilight . The house wasbare except for the merest necessities o f the few
remaining hours and the scanty fixtures which
Somervil le had found when he came to it . McKen
zie and Yumoto had both been up ; but the atmosphereof departure and of Mio San ’s uncontrollable griefdid not invite a long stay .
At the gate , after Yumoto had strolled away out
of earshot , M cKenz ie had disconcerted Somervil le
more than he real ised by one brief, terse comment
upon the s ituation .
“ By Jove, o ld fellow ,
” he had
exclaimed as his hand rested upon the gate,I believe
she loves you .
”
His friend had started as though struck by a whip ,and had turned away without another word .
Mio San awaited him on the verandah when he
returned slowly and thoughtfully up the garden path .
By some inspiration she had become possessed of
the desire to be the Mio San of old for the last time .
Something urged her to leave in his memory only
the fragrance of her when they both first came to
the home which was now stripped o f al l its charm .
As he climbed the steps his face,with its unwonted
pallor,sti ll bore traces of the blow McKenz ie
’
s words
268 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
vided an additional touch of melancholy as it reachedthem from the kitchen at the back of the house .
“ The end ! The end ! What an end ! ” the mankept th inking to himself . And the woman ! She
could not even think for the dull aching of her heart,and the overpowering sense of desolation which over
whelmed her .She sat watch ing the man she had called her lord
,
and from whom she had felt hersel f dri fting for weeksbefore the crisi s came , with sadly observant eyes ;storing her memory with pictures of him for use in
the b lank loneliness of days to come . She watched
every movement as he walked slowly about the roomor stooped to pack some almost- forgotten trifle in the
one box still to be fastened down . At last everythingwas finished
,and the room in which they had spent
so many of the happy hours of the first few weeks
after their marriage was stripped as bare , except fora l itter of paper and torn-up letters , as the day onwh ich Somervi lle first saw it . Her own th ings hadbeen packed in curious native-made cases a day or
two before,and the open doors of the fukuro dana
showed empty gaping cavities in the wall . On the
morrow coolies would come and carry her boxes toHoshin’
s house , where she had learned without emotion that she was to stay.
At last Somerville yawned w ith fat igue and the
heat of the summer ’s night, and then began and con
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 269
tinued for a while the melancholy screeching of the
amado pulled along hasti ly in thei r grooves as he shutup the house for the night .
Early next morning, whilst the dew sparkled upon
the few unfaded lotus blossoms in the pond at thebottom of the garden , the dj ins with their super
annuated j inrikishas, now used for conveyance o f
parcels and luggage , arrived at the gate o f the path
leading from the upper road down to the back of
the house,and a few minutes later the strong- l imbed
fellows descended and took possession o f the house .
There were six of them,and , laden with boxes and
small cases,they made their way swi ftly through
the wood,and in hal f an hour were well ontheir way
down the rough,stone-encumbered road to the town .
As Somerville and Mio San gazed out for the last
time from the verandah at the sunli t town below them
and the breeze-ruffled water o f the harbour a great
sadness possessed them both . But for Somervi lle
there was , however , the hope of the future—a hope
he could not have stifled even had he wished . For
the little being at his side there was the utter blank
ness and desolation of nothingness . Love’s fragile
charm and freshness had not served to preserve herfrom disaste r. Shi-wono had that morning , in not
altogether disinterested sympathy,assured her that
Somerville would return . But she had loved him with
the love that women of another race might perhaps
270 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
only have given to some god , and she knew that there
would be no reunion o f the frayed bond which hadonce bound her to him .
“ Come , said Somervi lle at length,touching her
arm .
Mio San gave a slight shudder, one more lingering,
comprehensive glance at the home she was about to
leave , which had been thrown open as usual so that
she could see into al l the rooms which were along
the verandah,and then
,with Shi-wono ’
s o ft-repeated
S ayonara in her ears,she descended the verandah
steps into the sunshine .Ere they turned the corner o f the path Somerville
threw a glance back at the house ; but Mio San , whose
face was very white and pinched by grief , kept hers
steadi ly towards the harbour . She had seen the last
of the home whilst stil l a part of i t . She would not
glance back at the empty,soulless thing . Somerville
closed the wicket with elaborate care .
On their way down the hi llside to the town theyspoke but l ittle . To Mio San the sunlight which envi
roned them seemed a mere mockery of the miserywhich possessed her heart . Once or twice Somerville
spoke with a feeble attempt at cheerfulness,but in her
anguish the knowledge of all the strange foreign words
she had so laboriously learned that she might con
verse with him in his own tongue seemed to have suddenly deserted her , leaving her painfully agitated mind
272 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
cle ft the sunlight and re-echoed amongst the sur
rounding hi lls , causing Somervil le to start and MioSan to shiver . It seemed the signal for departure
the end o f the tiny tragedy of the past few weeks .Somerville commenced to speak some halting words
o f farewell , for he had decided that there should be
no distressing, embarrassing public one either on board
the mailboat or on the hatoba. He feared Mio San ’s
outbursts o f grief and perhaps even reproaches ; and
there would not be a man amongst his friends and
acquaintances who would not consider him a fool for
exposing himsel f to e ither,for in their eyes , at least ,
Mio San was a native woman , to be taken up and
dropped as the mood o f her possessor dictated .
You will be happy , he said lamely I have seen
to that . Hoshin and Haru San will see that you want
for no th ing, and the time w i l l not be long. I shall
return .
But M io San,who had fallen at h is feet in a
paroxysm o f gr ie f, in an abandonment of entreaty
which at another time would have disgusted his sense
of woman ’s reticence,cried out with her heart full
of the knowledge that there would never be a return .
My lord,my augustly shining one
,the one whom
I worship , what i s it that I have done which has found
such d is favour in your all-seeing eyes ? Why have Ino longer favour in your eyes ? Why have I becomeas a most despicable thing that you desire nevermore
A JAPANE SE ROMANCE 273
to gaze upon ? My lord , do not leave me . R emem
ber what I have told you. Do not turn the j oy,which
was in my heart at the thought o f the coming blessing
from the gods,into utter darkness—the darkness of
the night when the light of moon and stars i s hiddenand the dry earth trembles .”
Hush ! ” said he gently , but not seeking to raiseher . “ I must go . The land o f my ancestors calls
to me across the sea . There is in my heart the desire
which comes to many who hear the note o f thehototogisu when they are far from home . You need
have no fear o f want,no anxiety for the future , and i f
you should need aught that I have not provided go
and speak with Yumoto San,and he w i l l see that the
thing you desire i s done .
M io San replied not a word , but clung to h imweep ing . What was all he had prepared to her ? In
a dim way she realised that the gulf which lay between
them o f race and spirit and mind had bl inded him so
that he could not see that she would have bartered all
these future things, of which he spoke to her, willingly
for one hour of his love that used to be .In his man ’s stupidity he thought that he had atlength sati sfied and convinced her because she said
no more,and so he stooped and with firm but gentle
fingers unclasped her own from him . Then he
stooped sti l l lower,and kissed her once as she swayed
upon her knees .
274 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
S ayonara, M io ! S ayonara! and he was gone .Then from the dimly lit room behind the shop
o f Hoshin went up an exceeding bitter cry o f My
lord,my augustly beauti ful one !
So bitter,indeed , that Haru San came running in ,
not stopping to say even S ayonara! to the Englishman who was about to depart .Outstretched upon the spotless matting covering
the floor lay Mio San l ike some gay-plumaged
wounded bird,with a face from which every vestige
o f colour had fled , leaving it an ashen , piti ful grey .
In one hand was clasped unknowingly the bundle
of satsu !paper-money! which Somerville had thrust
there as he loosed her grasp . O f these Haru San tookcharge .
Outs ide in the sunlight Somerville hurried along
w ith Mio San ’s cry,which had pierced the fusuma
though he had closed it behind him,in his ears
,and
the uncomfortable feeling that he had committed a
crime troubling his heart .
Only an hour or two remained ere the M orningCalm would be casting off her moorings and heading
for the open sea .
He found all h is luggage on the hatoba near
Yumoto’
s office,and M cKenz ie , Fo lkard , and Yumoto
h imsel f on guard near it .It is over ? queried the latter, as Somervi lle came
up to the group .
276 A JAPANE SE ROMANCE
was about to step into the sampanhe cal led Yumototo him .
You wil l not forget to write , he sa id . And i f
you hear that she is unhappy, or is falling into themire—save her, and cable to me .
”
I w i l l not fo rget ,” repl ied Yumoto , w ith a scarcely
concealed smile at what he considered his friend ’s
unnecessary punctil iousness . I shal l not forget .My memory is as good as that of a Chinese money
lender . ”
Anhour later and the huge bulk of the M orningColm throbbed her way at hal f-speed through the nar
row waters between Ogami and Megami Points andthence past the tree-crowned Pappenberg out into theimmensity o f the open grey sea .
Somervi lle stood on deck to see the last of thegreen hi ll s and town ; but he knew nothing of the
eyes o f Mio San , who ,with protesting Haru San ,
had climbed to a turn in the road which led up to
McKenz ie ’
s vi l la to see the great j okisen’
s go ing.
CHAPTER XVIII
OR the first few days after Somerv i lle ’s departure M io San ’s grief was inconsolable .Haru San ’s well-meant efforts to comfort her
were quite unava i l ing , for they consisted chiefly o f
long-w inded exhortations framed to show her sadlittle guest how grate ful she ought to be that her hon
ourab le departed lord had been so kind to her wh i lstshe l ived with him , and so generous when Fate
destined that they should part company . Then Haru
San,finding that in Mio San she had different material
to deal with than that to which she was accustomed ,namely , her nieces , who had without much waste of
sentiment contracted several profitable though transient marriages
,altered her tactics . She commenced
to assure Mio San that i f she were only patient heraugust husband would return from across the sea .
Something at first told M io San that this wouldnever be
,notwithstanding Somervil le ’s own parting
protestations and Haru San ’s sophistries . But shewas a woman
,lonely in her great grief, and she wished
for the comfort that such a belie f would bring her
aching heart . And so it was that at last she began,
278 A JAPANE SE R OMAN CE
almost insens ibly at first, to have faith in the word
of h im who had left her, eventhough she had knownthat love was dead .
Several circumstances, too , ass isted her wi l ling
mind to th is . The first mailboat wh ich arrived fromHong—kong after Somervil le ’s departure brought withit one Hilary Petherton , who had gone home a yearbefore
,leaving behind him the pretty geisha who had
two years previously captivated his senses at one ofthe most popular o f the tea—houses in O Suwa Park ,and had been instal led as his housekeeper . And now ,
although the house above the foreign settlement was
a different one , O Hagi San was again happy in i tw ith her returned lover .This fact soon b ecame noised abroad , and in timereached the ears of Hoshin and his wi fe
,and the latter
went j oyful ly to Mio San , who sat in the gardenthink ing
,as she so often did
, o f him who had gone ,to tel l her the news . “And , she added after she haddone so
,why , O not less beauti ful one , should not
thy husband also return according to his august andcondescending word given you at his departure ? ”
Then there was the coming chi ld—h is child andhers—that the augustly deigning gods had in theirwonderful goodness vouchsafed to her . Till she hadbegun to recognise that Somervi lle ’s love for her hadwaned this had been an unspeakable j oy . And nowin her forsaken heart there grew up day by day an
280 A JAPANE SE R OMAN CE
dece ive her,why should this man , who would not care
whether she were sad or gay , happy or miserable ?
I cannot believe that he will ,” she replied , after a
pause for thought If he had cared , i f I stil l foundfavour either because of my most contemptible body
or face in his eyes,he would not have gone away in
the great j okisen. No ! no ! the j oy i s not given to
me that I should again behold him and feast my eyesupon h is faceLet us walk along
,said Yumoto
,and I will tell
you. You do not understand . His people were call ing
for him ; he had business with the men of h is race .When it i s accomplished he will return again . Have
you then not heard that the lover of O Hagi Sanis with her once more ? And you
— the speaker
paused , almost surprised at his owneloquence in thecause o f consolation which could bring him no advan
tage are more beauti ful than she . Your eyes are
more like the stars which look down upon the whitebrow of Fuj i on a frosty night ; your skin is almost
as wh ite as the women o f his own race , and yourmouth can smile like the red li ly in the sunsh ine . Cannot your heart trust hi s return ? ”
M io San would have been more than a humanwoman had Yumoto ’
s words not caused the bloodto surge beneath her skin and her eyes to regain a
l ittle of their o ld sparkle . What the wise YumotoSan says must be right
,she thought . D id not my
A JAPANE SE R OMAN CE 281
honourable lord once tel l McKenz ie San that YumotoSan had all the wisdom o f the wise men of the East ;and did not McKenz ie say yes , even the w isdom of
the honourable Devi l himsel f ?
In her heart began to grow the belie f that Somer
ville would return as she listened to Yumoto ’
s wordsand drank in the arguments he used . As they walked
along Funadaiku-machi and approached Hoshin’
s
dwell ing she did not even notice that i t was dark,
and that in the open shops and outside them the
owners were l ighting their lamps and lanterns . In
her heart was a glint of the sunshine of hope , and
though she was weary she walked at Yumoto ’
s s ide
without faltering,her lacquered geta ringing sharply
onthe paving o f the street .When they parted at Ho shin’
s door she gave
Yumoto her hand in the English fashion , for she had
long ago discovered that nothing pleased him better.
than a tribute to his European education , and sa id
w ith a simplicity that was strangely winn ing“O Yumoto San , you have caused the sunshine
to come again into my heart,and to -morrow the
flowers wil l b loom again for me,and I shall know that
the birds sing . S ayonara. Perhaps my lord w i ll aftermany moons return . Gokuro sama.
”
S ayonara, O Mio San ,” repl ied Yumoto .
And then he watched her enter Hoshin’
s dwel l ingere he turned to make his way to the Restaurant of the
282 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
Many Cherry Trees , where he was to dine with
McKenz ie .
“ I am a vastly great l iar , he remarked to h imself,as he hurried along
,
“f or Somervil le wil l not return .
But it was worth many lies to see the flush come again
into Mio San ’s cheeks and the light kindle in those
eyes o f hers . Beauti ful eyes , he continued , which
might make a man forget everything except that he
was a man .
The hope that had been sown in Mio San ’s heart
grew under the fostering care o f Haru San . Some
times the latter,when she remembered the case of
O Hagi San , really began to believe in what she said
relating to the certainty o f the august Somerville re
turning . Her powers of reasoning were not great ,and it seemed natural enough to her that the foreign
wealthy augustnesses should al l behave alike .
Hoshin shook his head,but said nothing
,when he had
heard her and her guest discussing the matter . He
had lived far longer than Haru San,and had seen
many men come and go never to return since the
foreigner had been permitted to dwell in Nagasaki .
The weeks went by , and many times Mio San hadtaken a rigishaw ride round the harbour to a l ittleplateau above the fishermen’
s landing-place and oppo
site the Pappenberg, where she had sat dreaming ofthe day when perhaps one of the great j okisenwhichseemed to climb up out of the distant sea might be
284 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
was well,and that he was doing the business for which
he had returned to England . It conveyed little ideato her m ind save that he must be at work painting
some of those marvellous pictures which had been such
an eternal source of wonderment to her . But she
understood the end . Little Mio San , he said , only
Yumoto had embell ished the phraseology with a mar
vellous elaboration o f polite sentiment , you must bepat ient .” Then followed some instructions telling her
that in the event of her requiring money she was to
apply to Yumoto,and that was all .
She must be patient . ” She understood that.What , indeed , had she been during the last four wearymonths but patient ? In all her weariness and d is
tress of mind and body she had been that , hoping for
a very s imple reward .
By the same mail Yumoto h imself received a letter
from Somervil le which made it clear to his O riental
intelligence that Mio San was as truly widowed as
though she were either divorced or Somervi lle dead .
He had never really believed in the fiction o f the latter ’sreturn . Nor did , indeed , hi s desertion o f her strike
him as in the least reprehensible . It was merely thenatural end to a foreigner ’s alliance with a musume
’
.
As he had sat in his office perusing his friend ’s
letter he thought over the whole situation . He liked
Somerville , and he also in a condescending way likedMio San . He was sorry for her in prec isely the way
A JAPANE S E R OMANCE 285
that a man holding his views upon the subj ect of
women would be . He even began to wonder whether
it would not be a wise and politi c course to try tocommunicate with her father, the florist
,at Ureshino .
Mio San,once more with her ownpeople , would prob
ably ih course o f time forget her present grief at the
loss of her foreign husband , and might soon marryagain . He knew her short- l ived marriage with Somer
ville would prove no bar,as she was left with what must
to a man o f the class she might possibly marry appear
a large amount o f money . Besides , he knew Somer
vi lle was not a mean man,and that he had only to sug
gest it to him and Mio San would be provided w itha dowry which would be exceedingly tempting to
many . Had she been divorced for not cooking riceproperly , for i l l-temper, or for one of the other trivialbut possible reasons , i t would have been a differentmatter . At the back of Yumoto
’
s mind , too ,was the
idea that Somervil le would be grateful to him for the
carrying out of any scheme which would tend towardsMio San ’s happiness and oblivion o f the past.So it happened that when writing to a tea-planter
who had some fields near Ureshino he mentioned the
fact o f Mio San having left the house to which shehad gone as maid , her subsequent marriage with aforeigner
,her present residence with Hoshin
,and that
her honourable lord and master when he had left hertreated her very handsomely .
286 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
Kan-zan , the tea-planter , delighted to have such
news to impart, hied to Okada , the father of MioSan
,and told him what he had heard from his excel
lent merchant friend O Yumoto San,of the Bund
,
Nagasaki .
A few days pasesd ere Okada decided to go toNagasaki and find his daughter
,for there had been
frosts , and he could not tear himsel f away from his
beloved flowers , which needed al l the attention and
care he could devote to them . But j ust as night
was closing in,about ten days after Mio San had
received the letter from Somerv il le,she heard her
father ’s voice addressing Hoshin in the shop outside
asking if she dwelt with them .
Then,as she listened intently
,she heard Hoshin’
s
reply,and afterwards Haru San explaining how it
was that she was living with them . Then their voices
fell,and she could only catch a word here and there
amid an undertone o f conversat ion which was like
the droning o f bees .She waited and listened intently
,and after a while
she heard the sound o f footsteps on the floor of the
shop,and a moment later the fusama was pushed
aside . and her father entered the room in which
she was .
She would have made the humblest obeisance o f
welcome,but he stepped forward and checked her.
Okada had always been a good father to her ; in
288 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
beauti ful garden , of seeing the l ittle brother she hadplayed with and carried on her back
,of being amid
familiar scenes , she forgot that at Ureshino she couldno longer watch for the ships climbing up out of the
southern sea . But had she done so it would havebeen but sadness to her now remaining where she was .Her father had said she was to depart w ith him
, andhi s will could not be ga insaid .
She looked up into his face with the rapture of achild weary by long absence , with a smile such as
Somervi lle had always been able to call into being
by the merest show o f tenderness or kindness . Andthen she said
,Most august parent , I wil l gladly go
with you so that my eyes may look upon my honourable mother ’s face once more . I will be ready at
the hour you appo int .”
Then Haru San and Hoshin came in , for there
would have to be a reckoning with Okada . Haru
San had never told M io San of the amount of the rollo f satsu which she had found clasped in her hand thenight she had swooned after Somervi l le had left . She
was a woman kind of heart , but possessed of a loveof the bright yen and the satsu wh ich made a pleasant
rustling when held in the fingers tightly ; but becauseo f her kind heart the reckoning she presented wasnot so inaccurate as her inbred cupidity would fainhave made it .
When he found how generous her august foreign
A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE 289
husband had been , and what fine garments Mio Sanpossessed , Okada suddenly thought o f his friend , theproprietor o f the inn which stood onthe bank of theriver to whom M io San had been informally betrothedbefore she left the vil lage for Nagasaki . Perhaps
Yoshida would sti l l be willing to marry her when hewas told that she could bring him in her hands nearlyfive hundred dollars
,and many a fine kimono
,which
would add to her attractiveness when attending to thecomfort of his guests . But Okada was a wise man ,and he said nothing o f his thoughts concerning this
other marriage,and in the morning Mio San and he
set out for Ureshino in j inrikishas, for which the
former paid .
As they passed over the crest o f the hill on theUreshino road M io San threw one last , l ingering look
at the town and the little house onthe hil lside , oncehers
,which now appeared in the distance amid the
trees,environing it l ike a tiny chalet , and then her
eyes travelled out over the harbour to the gap betweenthe hills through which the j okisenwould come . Then
a moment or two later it was gone , and she hid her facein the wide sleeves o f her kimono
,whilst her l ittle body
shook with the anguish o f her sobs .
CHAPTER XIX
T was a raw December day when Somervillereached London , and the dreary squalor o f themetropoli s chi lled him to the bone . On the
voyage home he had had time for thought—time tothink out his future plans and to come to many con
e lusions .
Once or twice a disgust with himsel f had well-nighoverwhelmed him for a time
,and he had almost de
termined to have got o ff the M orning Calm at Aden ,and have awaited the next boat bound East . But
the image of Mio San , which so troubled him at first,became fainter and fainter
,and that of Violet Des
borough more clear . He even began to tel l himsel fwhat his friends Yumoto and McKenz ie and other
men out there would have undoubtedly done—that hismistake had been to marry . He had given to MioSan what in his truer moments he called “ rights
,
”
which she did not expect,and which every one in
the foreign settlement would have considered a
qu ixotic gi ft on his part .The woman he loved was of his own race ; the
292 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
the modern improvements which cute speculators and
up-to -date architects saw fit to embody were to b e
found in Velasquez Mansions , and rents were pro
portionately high .
Jefferson ’s flat was s ituated on the fourth floor,
because of the additional l ight and the fact that thestudio , by an ingenious arrangement of the architect,was placed on the top of a portion of the back outbui ldings . With a l i ft going from s ix til l twelve
thirty , as Jefferson often explained , height didn’t much
matter .
The two men had been fellow art students in Paris ,entering Co lorossi’s as nouveaux the same month
and although Rodney Jefferson,after a three years
residence in the Quartier had returned to London ,whilst Somervi l le had remained behind
,they had kept
up a more regular correspondence afterwards thanmost fellow-students do .
Jefferson had a factotum in the shape o f an ArmyReserve man
,who opened the door to Somerville ; but
his master was close at his heels as his visitor enteredthe l ittle cream-toned lobby of the flat .My dear old chap ,
” said Jefferson,shaking hands
warmly , I ’m real glad to see you . When I got your
wire I thought how good it was of you to take me atmy word when the opportunity served . Come in .
Aston , take Mr . Somerville’s traps into the spare room
,
and see there ’s everything he’ll want .
A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE 293
The man saluted , and w ith I understand , s ir,disappeared out of the door towards the l i ft .And now
,
” exclaimed Jefferson , as he and Somerv i l le entered the studio
,why are you here in London ?
I thought you were in Japan . By the way , only a
week or ten days ago I made the acquaintance of a
friend o f yours at a dance Mrs . Odlum Mo schelles
gave—a girl who went out on the same steamer asyou
,at least so she said . She told me she had seen
you as they called at Nagasaki on their way home , andI little expected to find you turning up in London .
”
Somerville seated himsel f in one o f the two deepeasy-chairs which stood one on either side of the
open hearth and stretched out his l imbs to the blaze .Before replying he gazed for a moment or two at the
blue , red , and green flames that played hide and seekamongst the logs o f ship ’s timbers which Jefferson
always used because they burned w ith these Samebeauti fully coloured flames .At last he sa id slowly , I was in Japan
,o ld fellow,
two months or so ago . And now I am here .”“ Precisely ,
” exclaimed Jefferson,with a laugh ;
but what has so suddenly brought you back fromthe land o f the chrysanthemum
,the geisha, and the
musume’
? I thought you wrote me from Nagasakisoon after you arrived and spoke o f spending a yearat least out there . ”
So I d id,” adm itted Somervi lle
,with a trace of
294 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
embarrassment , but c ircumstances have occurred
which have altered my plans .”
Which being interpreted,remarked his l istener,
means a woman .
”
Somerville smiled and said , I see , Jefferson , thatyour belie f in woman as the first cause of most in
expl icable things is sti l l unshaken .
It i s made yet more firm,
” replied the other ,laughing, since it has been my fate to pa int so many
of them .
”
Well,you ’re right
,rej oined Somerville . And
then he told something o f those past months in Nagasaki and o f Mio San .
The two men sat over the fire,the one l i stening and
the other tell ing a story which caused the listener everynow and again to nod his head as though some pet
idea o f his own was receiving confirmation or he
could have foreseen the end o f things .When Somerville got to a point in his story where
the gul f first began to widen between him and Mio
San,Jefferson ej aculated
,Poor l ittle woman ! poor
l ittle woman ! ” once or twice , but otherwise he madeno audible comment til l his friend had finished .
Then he said slowly,I understand . And
,Somer
ville , much as I pity the poor little woman , you wereright to come away . Perhaps the unco ’ good might
dissent from this Opinion o f mine . What matters ?
But you had run up against one of God Almighty ’s
296 A JAPANE S E ROMANCE
ism . I had an idea, he went on after a sl ight pause ,“ that you could divorce a Japanese woman prettyeasi ly. Is that so ?
”
Somerville smiled rather grimly, and replied , For
almost anything. She has only got to talk too much ,to estrange her husband ’s friends by her j ealousy or
backbiting, or —and he laughed harshly not to
cook properly. But Mio San did none of these things ,and in add ition there i s no doubt that ours was a legalmarriage . At least, I don
’t think there i s any. And
nowHe paused . And Jefferson struck in
,The chains
have commenced to gall . Poor old chap ! We must
think it out. But once more , who is she ?”
Somervi l le did not answer immediately . He was
thinking i f it were worth while to introduce Violet
Desb orough’
s name into the affai r, at least as yet.However
,he decided to tel l Jefferson . It was a
poor compliment to him as an old chum not to beperfectly frank .
It i s Miss Desborough,he said quietly
,but w ith
a shade deeper colour in hi s cheeks .Miss Desborough ! The girl I met the other n ight.
I am not altogether surprised .
”
Why ? ”
Because , my friend , I thought she showed an uncommon amount of interest in you and your doings .That is all .”
A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE 297
Somervi l le looked embarrassed .
But, continued Jefferson thoughtfully, I don ’tthink she ’s the sort o f girl I should attempt to approachunti l some o f this tangle with the woman out in
Nagasaki is unravelled . I may be mistaken , but Idon ’t think it .”
“ But i f there is no way out ?” asked Somerv il le
bitterly .
“ Then,was the reply , there are two things to
do . Forget her and return orno t to the other womanas you may decide , or make a c lean breast of it toMiss Desborough and take your chance . There wassomething about her face and eyes
,the speaker went
on, which I fancy indicates that she would probably
understand the tangle you are in and sympathise w ith
you. But I do not think she would l isten to you unti l
by some effectual and right means this Gordian knotis unloosed .
”
Somerville knew that his friend ’s estimate of Violet
Desb orough’
s character was a right one . Once before
she had refused to listen to him because she thoughthe did not really love her ; now he felt she would
refuse because o f the claims o f the other woman .
“ Does M io San believe you will go back ?” Je f
fersonasked suddenly , after a longish si lence , broken
only by the noise o f cinders falling on to the ti led
hearth .
I don ’t know,replied Somervi lle . I th inknot.
298 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
You see,he went on , the native girls are used to
temporary alliances with foreign settlers which last a
few months ,—a year or two at most , —and no one butmysel f
,
” he said bitterly,thought the marriage before
the Consul at all necessary . It seemed to me the
straight thing to do , and I did it . I needn’t go into
my reasons . But for one thing,at that time I did not
care in that way for Miss Desborough . I even hada vague idea that I might settle out there for years .There was so much to paint . Ah ! o ld chap
,you can
have no idea how much . You,with your swell s itters
duchesses and nobodies who want to be immortal isedin paint and canvas— know nothing of the fascinating,exquis ite beauty of scene and atmosphere
,flower and
l i fe , out there . And then,
” as he paused a fraction ofa minute ere going on, I did not real ise the gulf that
lay between Mio San and me in thought,mind
,and
speech . There was not even the camaraderie of
bohemia possible between us to make up for the loss
of other things . Perhaps you ’ l l think me a brute , butin three months I had become indifferent to her otherthan as some beauti ful obj ect that I l iked to use inmy pictures . And she knew it ; and then the barriergrew fast and higher
,notwithstanding her poor ,
piteous efforts to pull it down . I have been hurt byit . But somehow I am not the temperament to make
the best of a bad business,and I am back . O ther
men nearer home than Japan,he continued , as
300 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
Mio San was alive,or at least so long as h is marr iage
held good,Violet Desborough was placed out of hi s
reach by the sentiment which was sure to possess her .Then his thoughts travelled away across the sea to
Mio San,and he wondered how it was that he could
regard her with such indifference without the feel ingbeing in the least tinged with active di sl ike . He even
pited her with sincerity, for he bel ieved that she sti l lloved him , whatever change his own feeling towards
her had undergone . Yumoto had told him over and
Over again that she would forget,that she would even
after a l ittle while marry some one o f her own race .
T ime would prove—time that would hang heavily uponhis hands ; but he thought Mio San
’s love was unhappily of a more enduring sort than Yumoto argued .
Then the thought o f the child came suddenly intohis mind
,and he wondered vaguely i f he would hear
of its birth,and whether it would be yet another link
in the chain of circumstances which would perhaps
for ever separate him from the woman he loved .
Then a vision of Violet Desborough presented itsel fto his mind as he had seen her leaning over the sideof the mailboat waving him adieux as his sampanmade
for the shore,and he set his teeth at the thought that
his marriage with Mio San should have placed so im
passable a barrier between them . He knew that hadhe asked her again to marry him as they stood uponthe deck of the Empress of China in Nagasaki harbour
A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE 301
her answer would have been Yes . Now that hehad travelled hal f across the world to be near herhis lips were sealed . Even i f he met her i t would bebut to chafe the more at the chains which bound him .
He real ised to the full now that he was to pay theprice—which so often had to be paid—for an act o fi l l-considered quixoticism,
and there grew in him a
silent rage against Fate .Jefferson did hi s best during the evening to enl iven
his guest,but succeeded il l
,for at the back Of al l the
talk about art and Jefferson ’s work lay for Somerv i lle
the gnawing pain of regret and disil lusionment .
At length he said wearily,
“ I ’m not much com
pany , Old chap , to-night , and I think , i f you don’t mind ,
I ’ l l turn in . It wil l be a treat to have a shore bed
again—the first real bed I ’ve slept in for more thantwelve months . Good-night . ”
Good-night , replied Jefferson,shaking hands .
I f there ’s anything more you want ring the bel l andAston will come . He ’s a capital chap
,and never
minds what time he gets routed out. Sleep well .
Perhaps the tangle won ’t turn out so bad , after all .Have another c igar ? There ’s no one to Obj ect tosmoking al l over the place here
,though I generally
try to get the scent o f tobacco out o f the studio a bitwhen any one i s giving me a sitting .
When Somerville had gone Rodney Jefferson satdown , and , drawing his chair close to the fire
,started
302 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
thinking. To him it seemed a hard thing that thismarriage of his friend to a native woman should standin the way of his wooing the woman he loved and thewoman who it was evident loved him .
Poor old chap ! ” he ej aculated,
“ I know him of
Old . He did it for the best as it appeared to him for
the moment, and now he has got to pay . Somewomen ,
” he mused , might take him as he i s , native
wi fe and all ; but Miss Desborough , i f I know anythingo f her type , i s not built that way . And so Well
,
there is no way out that I can see .
304 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
grandmotherly care , spread for her, could not standin the place o f him who had gone . Once or twicethere came a strange stirring in her heart, and she
took little Flower of the Spring in her arms and trudged
along the path towards the hill that gave her a clearview for some distance along the road leading back to
Nagasaki—why she scarcely knew ! But hope diedhard now that it had been born aga in .
So passed the months unti l the cherry-trees in the ir
turn had in the soft ai r of nights spread a pink carpeton the earth
,and Okada had begun to think in the
back of h is mind that soon it would be t ime to see
whether Yoshida of the tea-house by the s inging river
would not be prepared to wed Mio San . In Okada’
s
mind the marriage with the foreigner was as noth ing,and he knew that Yoshida was wishful to add to the
tea-house he owned , and Mio San had yet many yenle ft of the sum she had brought with her from
Nagasak i .So it happened that Yoshida used to come in the
intervals of business along the road to the garden,and
made it clear that he was will ing to marry Mio San
because o f the yen belonging to her . Okada had toldhis w i fe what he wished , and it never entered her m indthat his desires could be gainsaid .
It was ona beauti ful June evening that Mio Sanfirst fully real ised what was expected of her. Okada,who always treated her with more kindness thanfalls
A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE 305
to the lot of most girls at the hands of thei r fathers ,sa id to her
,when Yoshida had gone back to his tea
house,Yoshida is an excellent and prosperous man
,
his tea-house is known far and near . Even geisha
from Nagasaki wil l come to it for him,and he i s mak
ing much money , my daughter . And he even deigns
to w ish to marry you .
Mio San turned very pale . In her folly of hope
and in her love for her baby there had been never athought of Yoshida’
s meaning or o f the possible reason
of his many vis its . How could there be when she wassti l l her lord ’s ?But Mio San had been taught the precepts o f Onna
Daigaku,
” and she could not openly venture to disobeyher father
,so she said
, O my august father , let there
be yet a l ittl e while before you ask me to l i sten toYoshida , who so honourably deigns to desire me ashis w ife . Perhaps my foreign husband may return,and he is rich
,and he would be greatly angered were
he to find me living as the wife o f another . And then ,”
cont inued M io San , knowing her father’s love o f
money, though he was neither a hard nor graspingman , my child would be poor instead of wealthy, for
my Somerville San had more money than a Chinaman could count in many hours
,and the fingers and
minds of Chinamen are quick and clever at count ingmoney .
”
Okada paused when Mio San had done speak
306 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
ing. There was something of common sense inwhat she said , and !for he did not know how long the
j okisentook crossing the sea! there had been scarcelytime for “ the august foreigner with whom his
daughter had lived to yet return . At last he said,
Very good,my daughter ; we will wait a moon or
two and see whether O Somerville San will return
to you . If he be as rich as you say,and as Hoshin
San told me,he would be welcome .
”
After this Yoshida came far less frequently to
Okada’
s, and Mio San dreamed her dream o f hope .
Away in Nagasaki Yumoto sometimes wondered
what had become of her , and whether she had fulfil led his prophecy that she would forget Somervil leand perhaps marry again . Hoshin had given him the
address of her father in Ureshino when he called toinquire for her shortly after she had been taken awayby Okada , but Yumoto had neither the curiosity nor
the incl ination to write or make further inquiries—atleast not unless it was in furtherance of Somervi l le ’sw i shes .About the end of June he received another com
munication from. the latter , tel l ing him that he hadsettled in London for a time with a friend
,after paying
a flying v isit to Paris,but saying nothing of Miss Des
borough , at which Yumoto smiled . He at oncej umped to the conclusonthat Somerville was about tomarry her, but did not wish the fact known lest any
308 A JAPANE S E R OMANCE
McKenz ie did not reply . He was wonderingvaguely what he would do i f ever he were wealthyenough to quit the Porcelain Works and return
home .
Whi lst she was speaking an idea was resolvingitself in Katakuri San ’s mind . To—morrow she wouldsee whether her enemy were entirely beyond her reach.
She did not in the least care whether McKenz ie thoughtYumoto right or wrong . She was only glad that hehad told her Yumoto ’
s news .
Next morning, when M cKenz ie had le ft home forthe Works
,Katakuri San sat down to write . In her
,
mean little heart was a glow o f intense satis factionas she took out her bronze yafaie, which happened
to have been a parting gi ft when Somervi lle le ft them,
and after grinding up some ink took her finely po inted
brush in hand and commenced to trace the charactersupon the paper . Writing was a somewhat laborioustask
,as a rule
,to her , but to -day she was fi l led with
gratitude that , neglected as her education had been ,she had at al l events learned to write .When she had finished she folded the letterlengthwise and placed it in a rose—coloured envelopeand addressed it , then placing it in the sleeve—pocketof her kimono she selected a paper umbrella from
several standing in the corner o f the room and setoff through the garden down into the town . She
would not trust San-to with the posting of the pre
A JAPANE S E R OMANCE 309
cious letter, whom , to tel l the truth , she suspected o f
being in nowise amiably disposed towards hersel f,
though willing to serve her for the good wages
McKenz ie paid her . It was very hot , and as Kata
kuri San was not fond o f walking, San- to , whowatched her disappear down the garden path and out
into the road,decided that her mistress was not bound
upon any good work .
When she had posted her missive Katakur i San
cl imbed the hi ll aga in and spent the rest o f the morn
ing ere M cKenz ie returned for tiffin imagining the
effect of the blow she had dealt poor little Mio San ,her only regret being that she was unable
,owing to
the d istance Ureshino was from Nagasaki,to go over
in a day or two to enj oy the sight of the wound sheknew she would have infl icted .
In the afternoon o f the next day,as Mio San was
s itting on the verandah o f the house playing with
Flower of the Spring, her father came up from the
lower part Of the garden with a letter in his hand .
“For you
,my daughter
,i t has arrived ,
” he ex
claimed,handing it to her with curiosi ty written large
upon his face . Perhaps from your august foreign
husband it is ? ” he added interrogatively .
But Mio San,who had examined the post-mark ,
only shook her head sorrowfully . No , my honourable father
,she replied
,
“ from some one in Nagasaki it i s .”
310 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
And then when he had gone away back to his workin the garden she Opened the envelope .Katakuri San ’s writing was none o f the best, andat first Mio San was unable to read it clearly. Atlast , however, she read out slowly , whilst her chi ld
rolled on the matting in the sunshine at her feet,the
words which her enemy had so exultingly penned .
They were not many.
NAGASAK I , June, 19O M io San , most miserable o f women ,
”\
[ it began!no more , as I told thee , ever wise one, on the
engawa of thy house now deserted and empty o f you
and him,will O Somerville San
,thy august husband ,
who,ti ring of your despicable self le ft you , rej oice
your eyes . He departed across the wide sea to obtain
hi s desire of the white woman who used to write him
loving letters . And now he l ives with her, and gives to
her the caresses which you,fool ish one , thought would
be always yours . This I have heard from Yumoto
San , to whom your foreign husband has written .
Farewell , O deluded girl . He was in truth never
yours or he would have returned .
”
As Mio San read the cruel words a mist gatheredbefore her eyes . A l l the hope
,which since the birth
o f her chi ld had gradually revived in her heart that
Somerville would return,died suddenly . The letter
312 A JAPANE S E ROMANCE
She only told her mother that she had had news
which compelled her to go onthe morrow to Naga
saki to see 0 Yumoto San .
Perhaps your honourab le fore ign husband mayhave sent you more money ?
” queried Kusatsu San .
Perhaps , O honourable parent, he may,”was Mio
San ’s vague response .Early next morning a j inrikisha came to the gate of
Okada’
s garden with two sturdy kurumaya todraw it,and M io San departed for Nagasaki .Through the heat of a long day they toiled over the
dust-clad road which stretched like a dun-coloured
ribbon past rice-fields and scattered houses . And as
the t i red runners reached the crest of the hill above
the town,ere descend ing through the woods by the
steep zigzag road,the sun was sinking, rapidly bathing
the exquisite harbour in a flood of softened golden
light and turning the summits of the higher hill s on the
eastern side o f i t a ruddy yellow . As her j inrikisha
descended the hillside , and by narrow streets and byways reached the w ider thoroughfares and at last cameout upon the Bund
,Mio San was seized by a flood of
tender and sad memories , which was succeeded by aterrible anxiety .
A l l day along the dusty road and past fields inwhich the rice was being planted only one thought
seemed to possess her What should she hear
from Yumoto San ? What would she learn of
A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE 313
her departed lord ? ” And now as the kurumaya attheir j ourney ’s end quickened the pace
,which had
lagged somewhat during the last few miles,she was
seized with a terrible apprehension , and would have for
a moment or two turned back had such a thing been
poss ible .Yumoto was about to leave his ofli ce for the day
when the j inrikisha drew up outside and Mio San,assisted by one of the kurumaya, alighted .
As she entered the office her l imbs , cramped by long
s i tt ing, felt as though they would give way beneath
her , but she pushed open the door and went in .
Yumoto was giving some last instructions to h is
Chinese clerk,and for a moment he did not glance up .
When he did so a look of utter aston ishment overspreadhis face .
O Mio San ! ” he ej aculated .
You are right,most august friend
,repl ied Mio
San .
“ I have come far to see you and speak with
you . I fear I find you honourably engaged with your
business . Is it so ? ”
Yumoto,who had not taken his eyes off the tired ,
travel—stained little figure,felt a great pity creep into
his heart whilst speculating why she had come .
Whispering a few words to the clerk at his side , he
said,Mio San
,you have come to speak with me .
P lease come into my inconvenient Ofli ce . I hope noth
ing is i l l with your honourable health ?”
314 A JAPANE S E R OMANCE
He stepped to the door leading upstairs to his office
overlooking the harbour,and Mio San followed him .
When they were seated in the twilight of the room ,
the garish posters on the walls o f which looked less in
sistent than any one could have supposed possible who
had ever seen them in sunlight, he looked fixedly at
his visitor for a moment or two ,and then he said ,
Now , most honourable lady, what it is your j ourney
has made you come to say to me ?
Mio San gazed at him as he sat in h is office armchair slightly away from the fading light which came
in through the window,and then she said slowly,
“ Yesterday , j ust before sunset , a letter came to me
from O Katakuri San which told me that my honour
able lord , who had gone from me across the sea , had
forgotten me , and that a woman of his own race loved
him ,and it i s she to whom he speaks sweet words ,
and who now lives in the j oy of his sight , and
whose heart throbs at his caresses . It i s from you ,O Yumoto San
,that O Katakuri San told me in her
letter the news had come .
”
She paused a moment to stifle her anguish , and toattempt to control the heavy beating o f her anxious
heart , whose pulsations sti rred the folds of her kimonoacross her breast .
Yumoto allowed his eyes to fall upon a letter which
lay upon the table in front of him,and tried to think
over the situation rapidly ere replying.
316 A JAPANE S E R OMANCE
all the same—they cried a l ittle about the lover goneti l l the lover come dried thei r tears for them , and
then they forgot . At least,so Yumoto thought as he
sat oppos ite Mio San and watched her anxious littleface , down which tears fel l that sparkled as the fading
l ight from the window caught them . It was very
easy for h im,then
, to make up his mind that he was
doing a k ind act to Somerville,and was not inj uring
Mio San . O f course , the former would never return,he reasoned
,whether she remained faithful to his
memory or not . Therefore , it would be better for her
to marry Yosh ida .
At last he broke the s i lence , which seemed to Mio
San,wait ing for h is reply, to envelop and almost to
crush her.Alas ! he began
,Katakuri San does not l ie . It
i s true,that O Somervil le San
’s business across the
w ide sea does not permit of his return,as he thought .
And He paused a moment,hal f-hesitant to strike
the piteous little figure before him the final blow . But
Yumoto dealt in tea and not sentiment,so he cleared
his throat and went on, And O Somerville San has
found that he must marry a woman of his own race .”
In the silence of the dingy offi ce,which seemed so
l ittle in keeping with tragedy,there rang out a great
wa i l ing cry , and Mio San rose , with her arms—fromoff which the sleeves of her kimono sl ipped back
,leav
ing them bare and almost phantom-l ike in the gloom
A JAPANE S E R OMANCE 317
stretched out in front of her as though she wereblind .
O my beloved august one , she cried , that I amno more forever to let my eyes feast upon thy
face
Yumoto caught her, think ing she was about to fall ,but she almost pushed him aside . Then her weariness ,which was now almost l ike that o f death , overcame
her , and she leaned upon him .
“ To Hoshin’
s . Take me to O Haru San, shemurmured There i s no light . I cannot see . Take
me to Hoshin’
s.
”
When Yumoto left her, after he had told Haru San
something of what had happened , he wondered
whether after al l he had done right . But he remem
bered that Somerville ’s embarrassment would begreatly mitigated i f he could but hear that M io Sanhad remarried . And Yumoto was an imaginativebe ing, and there fore only saw clearly ahead that MioSan and Yoshida would ere long become man andwi fe . Then , as he took out his case and lit a cheroot ,he remembered that onthe day he cabled Somervi llenews of her wedding to the proprietor of the chaya
five hundred excellent cigars would be as good as hi s .Somerville was a generous fellow
,and would surelv
not forget his promise .
These thoughts enabled Yumoto to eat an excellent
meal at Hanaz ono Restaurant untroubled by pricks of
318 A JAPANE S E R OMANCE l
conscience ; for, after all , he had reasoned, He had onlyanticipated Somerville ’s marriage to Miss Desborough.
Perhaps he might have even got r id of his too punctilious ideas , and have married her already.
As he drank hissake and watched thegeishadancing,the memory of the recent scene w ith Mio San in hisoffice was pleasantly obliterated . Women , he thought,were wonderfully fascinating so long as one did nottake them too seriously.
320 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
futonat her s ide,with a pass ionate grasp . In this
frail form for the moment was re incarnated the father
who would never return . Then into her mind camethe complete idea of her escape from the bondage ofmarriage with Yoshida , and thinking of it she fel lasleep j ust as the dawn was breaking over the distanthills .
In the room which had been allotted to her in consequence Of the money she had brought and the augustposition she had held as the wife o f Somerville wasthe tiny shrine which had stood in her bedchamber inher home onthe Nagasaki hillside . Into this shrineat noon on the day following she placed two ihai
!memorial tablets ! with their kaimyo in letters of
red and gold . This was the outward sign that she haddeterm ined to rema in faithful to the memory of him
who,so far as she was concerned , might well have been
dead and laid to rest in the cemetery near the temple,beneath the spreading pines and cryptomerias , amid the
grey,l ichen-stained memorials o f forgotten dead .
Then,as the afternoon sun streamed in through the
opened shoj i, and whilst her baby slumbered peacefully upon the futon in the corner of the room ,
she
knelt before the shrine and prayed .
In the garden outside,the flowers of which bloomed,
refreshed by the ra in of the night before—for it wasthe dew month of the seasonof rice planting—thecicadae kept up their ins istent no ise , and from a dis
A JAPANE SE R OMANCE 321
tance came the water-mus ic of the r iver swollen byrain . But Mio San , kneeling before the batsuma, in
which stood the ihai o f the lost one and herself ,heard neither . In her heart was the overwhelmingsense o f desolation , desertion , and despai r .
At last the prayers,which she murmured so softly
over and over again that her whispering voice sounded
l ike that of the gentle autumn breeze amid the higher
branches o f the pines , ceased . Beside her onthe matting lay a shining Obj ect whose blades every now and
again caught the sunbeams which fell upon them when
the lingering wistaria blossom hanging in long pen
dants from the eaves of the verandah were swung aside
by the wind . At last one more cry was sent up from
Mio San ’s grief- stricken heart to the impass ive figure
of the Buddha within the shrine .Then she slowly
,and with hands that trembled with
p iteous hal f-reluctance,removed the pins
,many o f
which had been Somerville ’s gi fts,from her beauti fully
arranged hair,which soon fel l in dark
,blue-black
masses about her shoulders,almost to her waist . It
was this that she would have laid with scarcely a
regret , although i t was her glory , upon Somervi lle’s
knees in the coffi n had he died ; but to make this rich
offering o f her undying love for him in that way had
been denied her . Now there was no such sacrifice possible save to the memory o f him .
M io San paused for a moment when about to take
322 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
up the scissors off the floor bes ide her,and
,taking a
long coil of the glossy tresses in her hands,she drew
it across her shoulders and covered it with k isses . That
one silent act was the only sign of regret she per
mitted hersel f . Then , taking the keen-edged scissors
in her hand , she cut each tress from her head unti l thelast was severed
,and the whole of her beauti ful hair
lay on the white matting in a heap . As the last coi l
fel l under the shears a deep,heartrending sob broke
from her and her eyes fil led with tears .The baby on the futon, awakened by the no ise ,regarded her with blue
,wonder-filled eyes , but Mio
San heeded it not . She gathered the hair up and
plaited it roughly unti l it formed one thick , short rope ,and then she rose to her feet and laid the whole glossy
offering,emblem of her youth and beauty
,within the
butsudanround the base of Somerville ’s ihai.Once more she knelt again in prayer , and it was
thus—shorn of her beautiful hair,which she would
never permit to grow again—that her mother foundher.
With an exclamation of horror and aston ishmentKusatsu San ran to her daughter ’s side .
“What hast thou done , O most miserable girl ?
she cried . What is it I see ? You with no longer
hair upon your head . Speak ; what is the meaningof it ? ”
M io San turned round,and
,facing the speaker,
324 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
Mio San did not reply for a few moments to hermother’s upbraiding words . She knew that though
her mother loved her there was no comprehension
possible to her narrow mind of love for the memory of
Somervi lle San such as she felt . Kusatsu San ’s creed
had ever been obedience to her husband and to her
eldest son . She had learned most of the teach ingcontained in the pages o f Onna Daigaku,
” and had
known no other education . She could scarcely write ,and only read with difficulty . She was o f the last
generation,whilst M io San was of the more en
l ightened present .
O august mother , who deigns thus to speak with
me,your unworthy and miserable daughter ,
” M io San
said at length,
“ the hair which I have cut Off i s meant
for a sign of my perpetual widowhood . The few poor
hairs which remain wi ll not meet with favour in the
eyes of O Yoshida San . Surely he will now turn h is
august glance towards the face of Yusuri San , who is
b eauti ful and young .
To Mio San ’s mind her mother ’s suggestion thatYoshida would , now that her beauti ful hair had beencut off , no longer desire her for his wi fe had brought
the only gleam o f comfort which had come to her formany davs . I f only she might be permitted to dwell
with her august parents , tending her baby until the
gods should see fit to summon her to the Land of
Shadows !
A JAPANE S E R OMANCE 325
Though Okada loved her with a somewhat unusualaffection
,seeing that she was but a daughter
,he could
scarcely control his anger when he learned and saw
what she had done . That night he went to Yoshida ,and whilst they sat onthe verandah of his house told
him what Mio San had done,and asked him i f he sti l l
had any desire for her as his wi fe .Yoshida saw that Okada was hoping that he would
st i ll be prepared to marry her,and so he said
,She i s
less to be desired now than before !but even shorn
of her beauti ful hair he knew that she was prettier o f
form and face than Yusuri San,both o f whose eyes did
not look at one at the same time ! ,“ but you say ,
Okada San,that she has many yen which the English
man who had her to wi fe in Nagasaki left her as consolation ? Okada nodded his head , and Yoshida
continued,And it may be that you would for the sake
of thy daughter ’s marriage with me be willing to give
some yen
Okada looked thoughtful,but he knew Yoshida o f
o ld , and the po ssibi l ity o f his making such a suggestion
had been foreseen . However,he did not speak for a
moment or two , but sat looking out across the river to
where he could see the house o f Yusuri San’s father
and the musume’
hersel f walking onthe little balconyerected partly over the river ’s brink . Yo shida
’
s eyesalso travelled in that direction
,and Okada , noticing
the fact,made his decision .
326 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
My unworthy daughter,O Yoshida San , he re
marked , has o f her ownmany yen , but i f your evessti l l look upon her with favour a few more yen
!though I am not a rich man ! shall be added to them .
What is it you say ?Yoshida
’
s heart was made glad,for he des ired Mio
San and the yen that she possessed . And as for her
hair, he thought she could for a time wear false locks
l ike some of the geisha he had seen on his visits to
Nagasaki . So he repl ied , I will wed your honour
able daughter , O Okada San , but see that she goes not
out so that our neighbours and the other women come
to know that she has cut Off her hair and declared that
she will marry no man . But I am Old i f she is
young, and I can wait not much longer for her . Is
she to be mine at the new moon ?
And after a pause Okada replied , She shall beyours .Then Yoshida clapped his hands together loudly and
a pretty musume’
brought the two men some of thebest whisky sake, and they drank together onthe bar
gain . When they had finished Okada took leave of
Yoshida,and crossing the bridge over the river , walked
back along the road to his garden with a feel ing ofsatis faction pervading his whole being. For the
whisky sake had been very good , and Yoshida hadbeen less exigent than he had feared concerning hismarriage with Mio San .
328 A JAPANE S E ROMANCE
At length,as she grew calmer and could think, an
idea began to formulate itsel f, which long ago had
once or tw ice presented itsel f to her mind when sheand Somerville had commenced to dri ft apart aftersome unintentional
,but none the less bitter, in
stance o f his neglect . Now,as she thought of him ,
the same idea returned,and she was seized with a ter
rible j oy . Surely in the Land of Shadows , where thebeloved ghosts dwelt
,there would be peace for her ,
and i f at times she too returned as they , could she not
go to him and,unseen perhaps
,look upon his face
once more ? Those beloved ghosts could cross riversand mounta ins
,she had heard many times , and could
not the sea wh ich d iv ided him and her be over
passed ?
Til l long after noon she remained in her room lostin thought
,possessed with thi s one idea which had
presented itsel f to her sorrowing, despairing mind .
Kusatsu San came and gazed upon her , and evenspoke to her . But she made no reply beyond an al
most inarticulate plea to be le ft undisturbed .
Towards the afternoon her mother brought Flowerof the Spring and laid her upon the futonin the cornerof the room , but by some strange process of the working of Mio San ’s mind she scarcely noticed her child
,
who soon fell asleep , ti red out with the air and sunshine o f the garden .
At last she rose and went across to it, and knelt
A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE 329
down Over it ti l l her throbbing brow touched its small ,cool face . At the contact Flower o f the Spring openedher blue eyes drowsily for a brie f moment
,and then
closed them again . And Mio San felt that the eyeso f Somerville had looked at her once more .Like one in a dream she rose
,and set off , as she had
done many times before since she had come back to
Ureshino both with her babe and without her, alongthe road towards the river for the bath which so many
other women would be taking at that hour .
When she crossed the bridge spanning the rushing
river the voice of the water seemed to be call ing the
name o f him she loved .
As she entered the long wooden shed which enclosed
the hot springs she heard a woman say,Look ! that
i s Mio San whom her foreign husband left . She is to
marry O Yoshida San at the new moon .
”
At the name of Yoshida M io San , who saw no one
clearly , and in whose ears was stil l the sound o f the
name whispered by the water as it rushed over therocks beneath the bridge
,shivered and passed along
into the bath with a face so colourless that even themen noticed it .
An hour later a woman hurried along the sunlitroad to Okada’
s garden as swi ftly as her geta would
permit . Her face was white and terrified,and it was
evident she had come from the baths in haste , for her
330 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
attire was in disarray as though she had scarcely
stopped to dress .Okada was tending his flowers at the far end of thegarden he loved so well . The iri s-beds were now infull bloom
,and as the woman approached he was con
templating their mauve and yellow loveliness .As she came along the sunlit path , onthe flat stones
o f wh ich her geta rang sharply , he looked up and
called out in astonishment at her frightened face ,What is wrong ? ” without the usual polite preliminaries , O Ume San , what i s wrong ?Ume San paused a moment as she reached h is side ,and then she said slowly and tearfully , for she was one
o f Mio San ’s old schoolfel lows,A las ! O Okada
San , weep , for thy daughter Mio San is dead . She
came to the baths to cleanse hersel f but an hour or so
ago , and now she lies dead . The waters swallowed
her up , and Yoshida i s robbed by them of his intended
w i fe .”
Okada stood in the middle of the path near the irispond , in which the frogs were croaking monotonously,as one stunned . For a moment or two the idea o f what
Ume San had told him failed to penetrate h is dazed
mind . But at last he spoke .You do not speak the truth
,Ume San
,he said .
'
Mio San cannot be dead . She was here well and
beauti ful but a short hour or so gone. You aremistaken .
CHAPTER XXII
T was more than a week ere Yumoto heard of thefinal scene of the little tragedy which had commenced within h is own ken in the house upon the
Nagasaki hil lside .
The tea-planter ofUresh ino, to whom he had writtenearly in the year when getting into communication with
Mio San ’s people , happened to have business inNa
gasaki, and called onhim . And then,in conversation ,
the whole sad story was told to Yumoto . No one
seemed to know in Ureshino—so at least said KanZ an, the tea-planter—how the affair had happened ;and for several days after the occurrence the village
was divided into two parties—those who said that M ioSan ’s death was an accident and those who said she
had compassed her owndeath .
When Kan-Z anhad gone Yumoto leaned back in hi s
chair and thought deeply . One fact remained clear,Mio San was dead and would no longer prove asource of embarrassment to his honourable friendSomervi lle . The excellent cigars , the smoking of
which he had often anticipated with pleasure,seemed
very near now .Whilst Kan-Z anhad been telling him the story he
A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE 333
had felt a pass ing sense of keen regret, but the effect of
this had soon worn off . R educed to its elements
and Yumoto was fond o f this process o f logic—thesituation amounted to l ittle more than the death by
her ownhand , or otherwise , o f a gardener’s daughter
at Ureshino , which only gained any importance in his
mind by reason o f the fact that by it an esteemed
friend ’s embarrassment was largely alleviated . Then
he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to ask
Kan-Z ananything concerning the child . But after
all,
” he said musingly,whilst his eyes looked away out
of the window absently at the throng on the sunl it
hatoba, it i s j ust as well I was not curious enough to
do so . I need not trouble my august friend Somer
vi lle with the matter . ”
Then Yumoto rose and went out along the Bund
to the telegraph office , and cabled to Somervi lle inLondon .
Rodney Jefferson and Somerville were j ust finishing thei r breakfast ona brill iantly fine June morning,and congratulating themselves that the day on the
river they had planned for a week past would prove a
pleasant break after several weeks o f hard work,when
Aston entered and handed Somervi lle Yumoto’
s
cablegram .
Jefferson glanced up as his friend turned the envelope over , as though seeking to discover the sender
334 A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE
and contents without opening it . At last,when Aston
had left the room , he tore i t open .
The message was very b rief,for Yumoto was a
business man , and had learned to economise words
when they cost him nearly two dollars each .
Not bad news,I hope ? ” Jefferson queried slowly
,
as he saw Somerville ’s face blanch .
Yes ,” replied the latter huskily
,push ing the
fl imsy slip o f paper across the table R ead
Jefferson took it and read the message She died
with her people at Ureshino ten days ago .—YU M OTO.
That was all .
The sender had hesitated at first whilst he was writing out the message in the busy ofl‘
ice whether the last
few words were necessary,but had decided to cable
them out of consideration for Somerville ’s feelings ,thinking that i t would be a sati sfaction to him to know
that the woman he had abandoned had not d ied awayfrom the solace of her ownpeople .Through Somerville ’s mind rushed a flood of vain
and vague regrets . And then , although he would have
had it otherwise,came the overmastering thought and
the j oy of it that he was free—free to see the womanhe desired with such overpowering longing. Not yet
awhile perhaps,but soon . Sooner than he had dared
to hope the cords which bound him had be en severed ,and he was free .
No thought of the manner of Mio San’s death j ust
336 A JAPANE S E I s s amtp E
But all the time there was a note of j oy in his heartwhich no memory of the past days in the O rient couldsilence . When he had retired to his own studio , a
room which he had rented on the floor above Jefferson ’s flat , whose other rooms he had arranged to share ,he sat down to think .
His sense of common propriety revolted from the
idea o f approaching Violet Desborough with a viewo f again asking her to marry him unti l a decent intervalshould separate such a proceeding from Mio San ’s
death . But at the same time he recognised that his
departure without a word for Paris,where he would
remain unti l the autumn at work and endeavouring tofind a tenant for his o ld studio , would possibly vex herand even be misunderstood .
He had met her several times since h is return,and
and he knew that she loved him as she had done even
when re fusing him upon the Orient Queen. The voice
of his desire urged that he should delay no longer
should assure hi s own happiness now that it once more
seemed within reach . But as this voice spoke the visiono f the little woman who in her own way had loved
him so well , and between whom and h im racial di fferences had placed a gul f that he was incapable of
bridging , seemed to plead sorrowfully for some slightdelay prompted by regret .
Next day Violet Desborough rece ived a brief notefrom Somervi lle which told of his almost immediate
A JAPANE S E R OMAN CE 337
departure for Paris and hi s deep regret that he would
not see her again ere he left. But between the linesshe could read the happiness he said he would ex
perience onhis return .
I shall call onyou i f you are in town , he said in
ending,within a few hours of my return . There is
something I wish to ask of you which more than a
year ago you refused to grant me .”
As Violet Desborough folded the letter and put it
away w ith a few others she had received from him ,
there was a look o f contentment upon her face that
was full of promise for the man who had written it .
Somerv il le had been in Paris nearly two months ereYumoto
’
s letter reached him . In the penning of it
his friend had been as discreet as hi s wont . Why
trouble my friend ? ” he had said to himsel f,as he sat
down to write it, with the autumn rain rattling like
buckshot onthe roof above his head and blotting out
most o f the length o f the hatoba with a watery veil ;why trouble him with painful details or a mention of
the child who bore in her eyes and face the image of
her white father ? ” And so beyond the fact that MioSan had been drowned whilst bathing in the publicbaths at Ureshino Somerville learned nothing .
During his two months ’ stay in Paris the regret andthe small measure of sel f-condemnation from which he
had suffered for the first few days after the receipt o fYumoto
’
s cablegram had gradually faded,and he was
338 A JAPANE S E R OMANCE
too honest to seek to delude himsel f by s imulatedsorrow. He had succeeded in disposing of the re
mainder of his term of the studio in the Rue de Madame , and there was nothing to keep him much longer
away from London and the woman he loved .
The day after he received Yumoto ’
s letter he wroteto Rodney Jefferson , to advise him of h is return w ith ina fortnight.The September w inds were str ipp ing the trees of the
Boulevards of their leaves and whirling them aroundthe street corners to the embarrassment of pedestrainswhen Somerville left Paris for London . A lthough itwas the autumn of Dame Nature
,in his heart was the
spring of immortal hope .Rodney Jefferson welcomed him gai ly, for in the
eyes of h is return ing friend the light of unaffected
happ iness gleamed .
There was no reference to the past , for Somerville
had buried that under the thin earth of the present as
only such a temperament as his could .
You w i l l see her ? ” queried Jeffersonas they sat
down to dinner.“Yes, was the reply, to-n ight.
THE END.