The evening world. Newspaper, September 19, 1922, Page 24

j ¥ f i H Secone TT vice peReTS Se ea ae ae as enn treet « oad i rime at ell THE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY. THE HONORABLE GEOFFREY BARRINGTON, gon of Lord Brandan, @ Captain in the British Army. resigns his commission when he weds ASAKO FUJINAMI, heiress, Gaughter of Japanese parents who are dead brought up and educated in French convent schools and introduced to the samurai have gone; but honor and London society by LADY EVERINGION, a bniliant matchmaker, who did not foresee the result: kanzash! PEGE EE: ‘They pretend not to eee Ike a geisha who equints through a fan, We Jap- aneno, we now become more hypo- critical, because this ie neceseary law of civilization. The two swords of hatred nad revenge will never go. The (hair ornaments) of the of the bringing together of the ‘wo. At the reception toasts are drunk to the ofran will go too; but what the ofran closer union of Britain and fapan. sut both British and Japanese diplomats lose, the geisha will gain. Therefore, in thé distinguished company evade the si Japan as appears to be their desire stion that the couple visit Some of the reception guests frankly Question the wisdom of the marrage and doubt the possibility of a happy lite for the pair Lady -ver:ngton, who has been her special orovege, COUNT SATO, the Japanese Ambassa to the nouveaux riches of Japan, bu . in her anxiety for the young Captain. Iterviews dor, who tells her the Fujinamis belong t gives little information of their origin or the source of their wealth. A visit to his wife's guardians, the Muratas, a Japanese tamily living > Paris, an’ a sojourn among the cosmopolitans of Deauville, sharpen the desire to see Japan. Aboard the ship they meet VISCOUN| KAMIMURA, returning home to wed a bride chosen by his family, whom he has never seen, A stop jepan A part of the revelation 1s Barrington in company wath two shocked by the performance. He at Nagasaki is the first sight of real th Chonkina, or Geisha dance, seen by English acquaintances, Barrington is 1s disturbed to learn from the talk of Americans and Englishmen that marriges with Japanese women are not favorably regarded TANAKA. a nondescript Japanese attaches himself to the Barringtons, follows them everywhere and accompanies them to lokyo, where Geoffrey meets REGGIE FORSYTH, Attache of the British Embassy, musical and romantic, shaking off old attachments in Paris for a new. one in Japan, the novelty being, YAE SMITH, daughter of a Japanese mother and an English father. Bar- rington meets Miss Smith, who smokes and languishes in Forsyth’s apart- ments at tre tmbassy. Barrington, from a talk with !ADY CYNTHIA CAIRNS, wife of the British Ambassador, learns of Yae's many—om: tatat—love affarrs and of the Embassy's disapproval of For- syt! > eugagement to the young woman. S. 110, lawyer for the Yujinami cstate who has made regular remittances to Mrs. Barrington, »rranges for her and her husband to meet the Fu- jinamis of Tokyo. The entertainments fail to impress Barrington, to whom Japanese family customs seem odd and contradictory. CHAPTER XII. (Continued). toy Fallen Cherry-Blossome. UCH ts the hold of humbug tn Ja- pan that nobody in the whole house- hold, including the students who re- spected nothing, ever allowed them- selves the relief of smiling at the sa- cred hour of study, even when the master's back was turned, “O-hayo goxal- mas'!"* “For honorable feast of yesterday @vening indeed very much obliged!"* The oily forehead of Mr. Ito touched the matting floor with the exaggerated humility of conventional gratitude. The lawyer wore a plain kimono of elate-gray silk. His American, manners and his pomposity had both been laid aside with the tweed suit and the swallow-tail. He was now a plain Japanese business man, servile and adulatory In his pa- tron’s presence. Mr. Fujinam! Gen- taro bowed slightly in acknowledg- Ment across the remnants of his meal, “It is no matter,"’ he said, with a few waves of his fan; ‘‘pleaso sit at Your ease,’ The two gentlemen arranged them- elves squatting cross-legged for the .morning’s confidential talk. “The cherry-flowers,”” Ito began, with a sweep of the arm towards the Rerden grove, “how quickly they fall, alas!*”* ‘Indeed, human lite also,’’ agreed Mr. Fujinami. “But the guests of latt evening, what is one to think?” Ma! In truth, sense! (master or teacher), it would be impossible not fb 'ball that Asa San a beauty “Ito Kun," said his relative in a tone of mild censure, “it is foolish aways think of women's looks. This foreigner, what of him?” ytFor foreigner, thet person Seems to be honorable and grave,” answered the retainer, ‘but one fears to a that it is a misfortune for the house of JF ujinami have a son a8 no son,” said the head of (he family, sighing “Domo! It is terrible!" was the re- ply; “besides, as the sense! su elo Avently seid last uight, there are so few blossoms on the old tree The better to aid his thoughts, Mr #yginami drew trom about his per- OB a case which contained a thin Bainboo pipe, called kiseru in Japan- ess, having a metal bowl of the size and shape of the socket of an acorn. Hé filled this diminutive bow! with e Uittle wad of tobseco, whicl, looked like coarse brown hair. He kindled it''trom the chareoal ember tn the *Yiach!. He took three sucks of amoke, bre ing them slowly ont of nis mou in in thick whorls. Then with three hard raps against ang wooden edge of the firebox, he mocked out aguin the glowing ball Ut'woed. When this ritual wax over, Me replaced the pipe in ity sheath of brocade eBhe lawyer sucked 1 bowed his head “Im family matiers, te oreath rude for an outside person to advice thd master, But last night I saw & dream. I saw the Englishman had been sent back to Dngland and that this Asa San with all her money was again in the Fujinam! family. In- deed, @ foolish dream, but a good thing, I think!"* Mr. Fujinami pondere@, with his face inclined and his eyes shut. “Ito Kum,” he said at last, “you are indeed a great achemer. Every month you make one hundred schemes, Ninety of them are imprac- ticable, eight of them are foolish, and two of them are masterpieces!” “And this one?” asked Ito. “T think it is impracticable,” sald hte patren, “but it would be worth while to try. It would without doubt be an advantage to send away this foreign He is @ great trouble, and may even become a danger. Besides, the house of Fujinami has few chil- dren. Where there are no sons even daughters are welcome. If we had shis Asa, we could marry her to some influential person. She ts very beau- tiful, she {s rich and she speaks for- eign languages. There would be no dimculty, Now, as to the present, how about this Osaka business?" “I have heard from my friend this morning,” answered Ito; “it is good news. The Governor will sanction the estadiishment of the new licensed quarter et Tobita, if the Home Min- inter approves.” “But that is easy, The Minister has always protected us. Besides, did I not give fifty thousand yen (wo the funds of the Selyukwai?” sa! Mr, Pujinami, naming the political perty then in the majority in Parlia- ment, “Yes, but it must be done quickly; for opposition is being organized First, there was the Salvation Army and the missionaries, Now, there are Japanese people, too, people who fake a ery and say this lHeensed prostitute system i# not suitable to « civilized count: and ft is a shame to Japan. Also, there may be # po Utical change very soon, and a new Minister.” “Then we would have to begin ali over again, another fifty thousang yen to the other side.” “It it ts worth it?” “My father says that Osaka in the gold mine of Japan. T ts worth all tuat we can pay.” “Yes, but Mr. Fujinami Gennosuke is an old man now, and the times are changing,” The master laughed “Times change,"’ he said and women never change “It te true,” argued Ito, “that rich and noble persons no longer frequent the yukwaku (pleasure inelosure), My friend, Suzuka, has seen the lef of the Metropolitan Police. He says thet he will not be able to per- mit Otran Dochu another year. He says too that It will soon be forbidden to show the joro in their windows. It will te photograph-system for all houses. It ts all a sign of the change. Therefore, the Fujinam! ought not to “but men sink any more capital in the yuk- wakn.”” “But men will still be men, they will stil] need a faundry for their spirits.” Mr, Fujinamt used a phtase £ which in Japan is a common excuse That is true, sensei,’ said the counsellor; ‘‘but our Japan must take on‘a sh Vestern civilization. It is the. thing called It ina part of Western civilization that men will become more hypveritical. These foreigners say our Yoshiwara ie a shame; but, in their own cities, Im- moral women walk in the best streets and offer themselves to men qaite openly. These virtuous foreigners are Worse than we ure. I myself imve seen. They eay, ‘We have no Yoehi- were system, thevatore we ase goad.’ {f I were Fujinam! San, I would buy up the geishe, and also perhaps the Inbal (unregistered women),** “But that is @ low trade," objected the Yoshiwara magnate. “It is very secret; your name need never be spoken.”* “And It ts too scattered, too disor- ganized, !t would be impossible to control.” “1 do not think ft would be so aim- cult, What might be proposed is a geisha trust.” “But even the Fujinam! have not got enough money.” “Within one month I guarantee to find the right men, with the money and the experience and the influ- ence.” “Then the business would no longer bo the Fujinami only"’— “It would be as in America, a com- bine, something on @ big acale. In Japan one is content with such smal! business. Indeed, we Japanese are a very small people.’” “In America, perhaps, there is more confidence,” said the elder man; “but in Japan we say, ‘Beware of friends who are not also relativi There is, as you know, the temple of Inart Daimyojin in Asakusa: They “ SHE 1S TIMID AND IN EVERY- THING SHE PUTS HER HUSBAND FIRST. INDEED SHE I8 LIKE A PERFECT JAPANESE WIFE.” say that if a man worships at that temple he becomes the owner of his friend's wealth, of I tear that too many us Japanese make pilgrimage to that tenrple after nightfall." With those words, Mr. Fujinamt picked upea newspaper to indicate that the audience was terminated; and Mr. Ito, after @ serles of pros~ trations, withdr As soon as he was out of sight, Mr, Fujinam! Gentaro selected from the pile in tront of him a number of letters and newspapers. With these {n his hand, he left the study, and fol- lowed a path of broad, flat stepping stones across the garden toward the cherry orchard. Here the way sloped rapidly downward under a drift of fall- en petals, On the black naked twigs of the cherry trees one or two sturdy blossoms still clung pathetically, Uke weathér beaten butterflies. Beyond 6 green shrubbery, on a little knoll; 2 clean newly-built Japanese house, like a large rabbit hutch, rested in @ patch of ‘sunlight. It was the inkyo, the “shadow dwelling’ of dower jouse. Here dwelt Mr, Fujinami, senior, and his wife—his fourth mat- rimonial experiment The old gentleman was squatting on the balcony of the front corner room, the one which commanded the best view of the cherry grove. He looked as if he had just been un- ked; for he was surrounded by reams and reams of paper, some white, and somo with Chinese letters scrawled over them. He was busy writing these letters with a kind of thick paint brush; and he was so deep in his task that he appeared not te notice his son's approach, His reat- Jess Jaw was still Imperturbably chew- ing. “0 Havo gozainas'! “Taro, yo! O hayo!’’ cried the old them calling his son by hi short boy's name and cutting off al) honorifics from his speech. He @l- ways siectes aurprise 43 this saslt, COPYRIGHT, Illustrated By WIill.B. Johnstone. {is22 BY BON! AND LIVERIGHT. which had been @ daily occurrence for “Ten per cent.’* many years. “The cherry flowers are fallen and "Ah, how short a thing! year more I have seen said Mr. Fujinam! Gen- nosuke, nodding his head and taking his son's generalization as a personal reference. He had laid his brush aside, and he was really wondering what would be Gentaro's comment on last night's feast and its guests of honor, "Father ts practising handwriting again?” The old man’s mania was penman- ship, just as his son's was litera- ture. Among Japanese it ts oonsid- ered the pastime becoming to his age. “My wrist has become stiff. I can- not write as I used to. It is always so. Youth has the strength but not the knowledge; age’ has the know!- edge, but no strength As a matter of fact, Mr. Gennosuke was immensely satisfied with his cal- ligraphy, aod was waiting for compli- ments. “But this, this is beautifully writ- ten. It is worthy of Kobo Daishi!"’ said the younger man, naming a fa- mous scholar priest of the Middle Ages. He was admiring a scrol] on which four characters were written in @ perpendicular row. They signified, “From the midst of tranquillity I survey the world. “No,” sald the artist; “you see the ten (point) there is wrong. It ta ill- formed. It should be written thns. Shaking back his kimono sleeve—he wore a sea-blue cotton kimono, as be~ fitted his years—and with a little flourish of his wrist, like a golfer about to make his stroke, he traced off the new version of the character on the white paper. Perched on his veranda, with his head on one side he looked very ike the marabout stork, as you may see him at the Zoo, that xaffish bird with folds in his neck, the stained glaucous complexion, the bald head and the brown human eye. He had the same look of respectable rascality’ The younger Fujinami showed signs of becoming exactly like him, although the parentage was by adoption only. He was not yet so bald. His black hair was patched with gray in a pie- bald design. The skin of the throat was at present merely loose; it did not yet hang in bags “And thie Asa San?" remarked the elder after @ pause; ‘what is to be thought of her? Last night I became drunk, as my habit is, and I could © people well.’* ot loudevoiced and boli, hike foreign women, Indeed, her voice and her eyes are soft. Her heart 1s very good, I think, She ts timid, and in everything she puts her husband first. She does not understand the world at all; and she knows nothing about money, Indeed, she is ke a Perfect Japanese wite"” “Hm! A good thing band?"* ‘He is @ soldier, an honorable man. He seemed foolish, or else he is very cunning. The English people are ke that. They say a thing. Of course, you think it {sa lie. But no, it is the and the hus- truth; and So they deceive,”* “Ma, mendo-kusa! (indeed, amelly- this troublesome!) And why fore.gner come to Japan?’ “Ito says he has come to about the money. That meens ke kpows he will wan re." “Mow muah do WO Dey to Ase Ben?” has “And the profite last year on all our business came to 87 1-2 per cent. Ah! A fine gain. We could not bor- row from the banks at 10 per cent. ‘They would want at least fifteen, and many gifts for silence. It is better to fool the husband, and to let them go back to England, After all, 10 per cent. is a good rate, our money now for the new brothels in Osaka, If wo make much money there, then afterwards we can give them more," “Ito says that if the Englishmen knows that the money ts made in brothels, he will throw it all awsy and finish, Ito thinks {t would nut be impossible to send the Englishman back to England, and to keep Ai here in Japan. The old man looked up suddenty, and for once his Jaw stopped chewing. “That would be best of all,"* he ex- claimed. “Then indeed he. is hghor- able and a great fool. Being an Eng- lishman, It 1s possible. Let him go back to England. We will keep Asa. She too Is a Fujinam!; and, even though she is a woman, she can bv useful to the family. She will stay with us. She would not like to be poor, She has not borne a baby to this foreigner, and she ts young. I think also our Sada can teach her many things."* “It is of Sada that I came to speak to father,”” said Mr. Gentaro, ‘The marriage of our Sada Is a great ques- tion for the Fujinam! family. Here is a letter from Mr.‘ Osumi, a friend of the Governor of Osaka, The Goy- {| id ernor has been of much help to us in getting tlhe concession for the new brothels, He ts a widower with no children. He ts a man with a future. He ts protected by the military clan. He ts wishful to marry a woman who can assist his career, and who would be able to take the place of a Minis- ter's wife. Mr. Osumi, who writes, had heerd of the accomplishments of our Sada. He mentioned her name to the Governor; and His Excellency was quite willing that Mr. Osumi should write something in a letter to Ito." *Hm!"’ grunted the old gentle man, wquinting sidelong at his son: "this Governor, has he a private fortune?"’ “No, he is a self-made man.” “Then {t will not be with him, as it was with that Viscouni Kamimura. He will not be too proud to take our money."* The truth of the allusion to Vis- count Kamimura was that the name of Sadako Fujinam! had figured on the lst of possible brides submitted to that young aristocrat on his re turn from England. At first, it seemed likely that the choice would fall upon , because of her undis- puted cleverness; and the Fusinami family were radiant at the prospect of so brilliant a match For although nothing had been formally mentioned between the twe families, yet Sadako and her mothe had learned trom their hairdress that there was talk of such a pos- sibility in the servants’ quarter of the Kamimura mension, and that old Dowager Viscountess Kamimura was undoubtedly making inquiries which could only point to that one object The young Viscount, however, on aacortaining the origin of the family wealth, eliminated poor Sadako from the competition for his hand. It was @ great disappointment to the Fusinam!, and most of all to the ameious Bedako. For a moment she oe: tmto And we want all yshe felt, worthy that marvellous world of high aiplo- macy, of European capitals, of dia- Monds, duchesses and Intrigue, of which she had read tn foreign novels, whore everybody Is rich, brililant, tm- moral and distinguished, and where to women are given the roles to play even more important than those of the men. This was the only world, of her talents; but few, very few, just one !n a million Mpanese women, ever gets the re- motest chance of entering {t. This chance presented Itself to Sadako— but for a moment only. The doorway shut to again; and Sadako was left feeling more acutely than before the emptiness of life, and the bitterness of woman's lot in @ land where men are supreme. Her cousin, Asako, by the mere luck of having had an eccentric parent and a European upbringing, possessed all the advantages and all the experience which the Japanese girl knew only through the glamor- ous medium of books. But this Asa San was a fool, Sadako had found that out at once In the course of a few minutes’ talk at the Maple Club dinner. She was sweet, gentle and inno- cent; far more Japanese, indeed, than her sophisticated cousin. Her obvious respect and affection for her big rough husband, her pathetle solicitude for the father whose face she could hardly remember and for the mother who was nothing but a name; these traits of character belong to the meek Japa- nese girl of Onna Daigaku (Woman's Great Learning), that famous classic of Japanese girlhood which teaches the submission of women and the su- pertority of mien. It was a type which was becoming rare in her own country. Little Asako had nothing in common with the argumentative hero- ines of Bernard Shaw or with the des- Perate viragos of Ibsen, to whom Sadako felt herself spiritually akin. Asako must be a fool. She exasper- ated her Japanese cousin, who at the same time was envious of her, envious above all of her independent wealth. As she observed to her own mother, it was most Improper that a woman, and a young woman too, should have s0 much money of her own. It would be sure to spoil her character. Meanwhile Asako was a way of ac- cess to first-hand knowledge of that world of European womanhood which so, strongly attracted Sadako's intelli- Bence, that almost Incredible world in which men and women were equal, had equal rights to property, and equal rights to love. Aseko must have zeen enough to explain something about it; if only she were not a fool But {t appeared that she had never heard of Strindberg, Sudermann, or @'Annanzio; and even Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde were unfamiliar names, CHAPTER XIII. THE FAMILY ALTAR. Yume no ai wa Kurushikars keri! Odorokite Kaki-saguredomo Te ni mo fureneba (These) meetings in dreams How ead they arel When, waking up startled One gropes about— And there is no oontact to the hand. M* Fufinami made up her miné to cultivate Asako's friendship, and to learn all that she could from her. So she at once invited her cousin to the mysterious house in Al- taka, and at once accepted. he decee seemed te ty cpus the magio of the wanderer’s return. Behind each partition were family ro- tainers, bowing and smiling. Three maids assisted her to remove her boots. There was a sense of expecta- tion and hospitality, which calmed Asako's fluttering shyness, “Welcome! Welcome!'* chanted the chorus of maids, “O agari nasalma- shi! (pray step up into the house!)’* The visitor was shown into a beaut!- ful airy room overlooking the land- scape garden, She could not repress an Ah! of wonder, when first this fairy pleasance came in sight. It was all 80 green, #0 tiny, and #0 perfect— the undulating lawn, the sheet of silver water, the pigmy forests which clothed its shores, its disappearance round @ shoulder of rock into that hinterland of high trees which closed the vista and shut out the intrusion of the squalid city. The Japanese understand better than we do the mesmerie effects of sights and sounds. It was to give her time to assimilate her surroundings that Asako was left alone for half an hour or so, while Sadako and her mother were combing their hair and putting their kimonos straight. Tea and biscuits were brought for her, but her fancy was astray in the gar- den. Already to her imagination a little town had sprung up along the shingles of the tiny bay which faced her; tho sails of white ships wers slimpsing where the sunlight struck the water; and from round the rock promontory she could catch the shim- mer of the Prince's galleon with Its high poop and stern covered with solid gold. He was on his way to rescue the lady who was immured in the top of the red pagoda on the op- posite hill. Asako's legs were getting numb. She had been sitting on them tn cor- ect Japanese fashion all this time. She was proud of the accomplish- ment, which she considered must be hereditary, but she could not keep !t up for much longer than half an hour. Sadako’s mother entered. — “Asa San is welcome.’* era Much bowing began, in which Asako felt her disadvantage. The long lines of the kimono, with the big sash tled behind, lend themselves with pecullar grace to the squatting bow of Japanese intercourse. But Asako, in the short blue jacket of her tatlor- made serge, felt that her attitude was that of the naughty Nttle boys In English picture books, bending over tor castigation. Mrs. Fujinami wore a perfectly Plain kimono, blackish-brown tn color, with a plain gold sash. It ts considered correct for middle-aged ladies in Japan to dress with modesty and reserve. She was tall’for a Jap- anese woman and big boned, with a long lantern face and an almost Jew- ish nose. The daughter was of her mother's build. But her face was a perfect oval, the melon-seed shapo which is 80 highly esteemed in her country. The severity of her ap- Pearance was increased by her blue~- tinted spectacles, and, like so many Japaneso women, her teeth were full of gold stopping. She was resplen- dent in blue, the blue of the Mediter- ranean, with fronds of cherry-blossom and floating pink petals designed round her skirts and at the bottom of the long, exaggerated sleeves. The sash of broad, stiff brocade shone with Mght blue and silver in a kind of conventional wave pattern. This was tied at the back with a huge bow, which seemed perched ‘pon i wearer like a gigantic butterfly alighting on a, cornflower, Her straight black hair was parted on one side in ‘‘foreign'’ style, Rut her mother wore the helmetlike marumage, the edifice of conserva~ tive taste in married women, which looks more like a wig than like nat- ural hair. Rings sparkled on Sadako's fingers and she wore a-+diamond ornament across her sash, but neither their taste nor their quality impressed her cousin. Her face was of the same ivory tint as Asako's, but it was hid- den under a lavish coating of liquid powder, This hideous embellishment covers not only the Mongolian yel- low, which every Japanese woman seems anxious to hide, but also thp natural and cherming nuances of young skin, under a white, monot- onous surface like a mask of clay. Painted roses bloomed on the girl's cheeks. The eyebrows were artificially darkened as wel! as the lines round the eyes. The face and its expression, in fact, were quite obscured by cos- metics; and Mi Fujinami was wrapped in a cloud of cheap scent like @ nervant girl on her evening out, She spoke English well. In fact, at school shé had achieved a really bril- liant career, and she had even at- tended a university for a time with t! intention of reading for a degree, an attainment rare among Japanese giris. But overwork brought on {ts inevitable yesult. Books had to be banished and @iamees imterpossd to suse the tired eyes from the light. It w; disappointment for Sadako, who was @ proud and ambitious girl, and it had not tmproved her disposition, After the first formailites Asako was shown round the house. The samenese of the rooms surprised her, There was nothing to distinguish them except the different woods used in their cefl- ings and walls, a distinction which be- trayed its costliness and its taste only to the practised eye. Hach room was spotless and absolutely bare, with gol- den tatamt, rice straw mats with edg- ings of black id, fixed into the flooring, by whose number the size of a Japanese room Is measured. Asako admired the pale white shoji, the slid. ing windows of opaque glowing paper along the side of the room open to the outdoor light, the fusuma, or sliding Partitions between room and room, set in the framework of the house, some of them charmingly painted with sketches of scenery, flowers or people, some of them plain cream-colored boards flecked with tiny specks of gold. Noththg broke the sameness of thes rooms except the double alcove, or tokonoma with its inevitable hang- ing picture, {ts inevitable ornament, and Its spray of blossom. Between the double niche stood that pillar of wood which Sadako explained as being the soul of the room, the leading feature from which {ts character was taken being etther plain and firm, or twisted and ornate, or else still unshaped, with the bosses of amputated branches seared and black protesting against confinement. Tho tokonoma, as the word suggests, must originally have been the sleeping place of the owner of the room, for it certainly ts the only corner in @ Japanese house which 16 secured from draughts. But per- haps it was respect for invisible spirits which drove the sleeper eventu- ally to abandon his colgn of vantage to the service of aesthetic beauty, and to stretch himself on the open floor. _ To Awako the rooms seemed all the Same. Each gave the same tmpression of spotlessness and nudity. Each was stiffly rectangular like the honey squarcs fitted into a hive. Above all, there was nothing about any of them to indicate their individual use, or the character of the person to whom they were specially assigned. No dining Toom, or drawing room, or library. “Where is your bedroom?” asked Asako, with a frank demand for that sign of sisterhood among Western girls; “'I should so like to see it."* “I generally sleep,” answered the Japanese girl, ‘in that room at the corner where we have been already, where the bamboo pictures are. This is the room where father and mother sleep."* : They were standing on the balcony outside the apartment where Asako had first been received. “But where are the beds?" usked. Sadako went to the end of the bal. cony, and threw open a big cupboard concealed in the outside of the house It was full of layers of rugs, thick dark and wadded “These are the beds," smiled the Japanese cousin. fy brother ‘Take shi has a foreign bed in his room! hut my father doea not Ike them, or for eign clothes, or foreign food, or any thing foreign, He says the Japanese she things are best for the Japanese. But he fs very old-fashioned.” “Japanese style looks nicer,” said Asako, thinking how big and vulga bedstead would appear in th tron legs would trample on the straw mat ting; “but isn’t it draughty and un comfortable?” “T like the foreign beds best,’’ sald Sadako; ‘‘my brother has let me try his. It is very soft.” Bo in this country of Asako's fathers, a bedstead was lent for triat as though it had been some tascinat ing novelty, a bicycle or @ plano The kitchen appealed most to the visitor, It was the only room to her niind which had any individuality of its own. It was large, dark and high, full of servant giris scuttering about lke little mice, who bowed and thes fled when the two ladies came in, The stoves for boiling the rice interested Asako, round iron receptacles like coppers, each resting on a brick fire- place. Everything was explained to her; the high dressers hung with unfamiliar implements in white metal and white wood; the brightly labelled casks of sake and shoyu (sauce) waiting in the darkness like the deputation of @ friendly soclety in its insignia of of fice: the stlent Jers of tea, greenish in color and ticketed with strange characters, the names of the respec tive tea-gardens: the Iron kettle hang ing on gibbet chains from the top of the celling over @ charcoal fire sunk in the floor; the tasteful design of the commonest earthenware bowl: the little board and chopper for allcing the raw fish: the clean white rice-tubs with brass bindings polished and shin- ing: the odd shape and entirely Jap- anase character which distinguished the most ordinary things, and gave to the short squat knives a ~omantic aly and to the broad wooden spoons a aug: gestion of witchcraft: finally, the little shrine to the Kitchen God, perched on @ shelf close to the ceiling. look- ing like the facade of a doll's temple. and decorated with brass vases, dry grasses, and strips of white paper. The wide kitchen was impregnated with a smell already famibiar to Asko's nose, one of the most typical odors of Ja pan, the smell of native cooking, bu mid, acrid and heavy like the smell of wood smoke from damp loge, with a sour and rotten flavor to it contributed by a kind of pickled horseradish called baikon or the great root, dear to the Japanese pala! cen dase