HYACINTH
THE HEART
OF HYACINTH
to
ONOTO WATANNA
ILLUSTRATED
DECORATIONS BY
KIYOKIGHI SANO
NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS
PUBLISHERS M-C-M-I-I-I
Copyright, 1903, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
All rights reserved,
Published September, 1903.
ILLUSTRATIONS
HYACINTH Frontispiece
"KOMA LIFTED HER IN HIS
ARMS" Facing p. 42
"'NOW, COME, LITTLE ONE!
COME, GIVE ME THAT WEL-
COME HOME " 7O
" HE KNELT IN A RAPT SILENCE
BESIDE HER" " 200
iii
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
I
THE City of Sendai, on the north-
-tern coast of Japan, raises its head
queenly-wise towards the sun, as though
conscious of its own matchless beauty
and that which envelops it on all sides.
Here, where the waters flow into the
Pacific, the surges are never heard.
Neptune seems to have forgotten his
anger in the presence of such peerless
beauty.
Near to Sendai there is a bay called
Matsushima. Here Nature has flung
out her favors with more than lavish
hand; for throughout the bay she has
scattered jewel-like rocks, whose white
sides rise above the waters, and whos
i
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
surface gives nutrition to the grace-
ful pine -trees which find their roots
within the stone. Near to a thousand
rocks they are said to number, and save
for the one called Hadakajima, or Naked
Island, all are crowned with pine-trees.
The historic temple Zuiganjii is situ-
ated at the base of a hill a few cho from
the beach. About the temple are the
tombs and sepulchres of the great Date
family, once the feudal lords of Sendai.
There is a huge image of Date Masamune,
whose far-seeing mind sent an envoy to
Rome early in the seventeenth century.
The sepulchres are, for the most part,
in the hollowed caves of the range of
rocky hills behind the temples. Name-
less flowers, large and brilliant in color,
bloom about the tombs of these proud,
slumbering lords. Mount Tomi bends
its noble head in homage towards the
glories of a past generation. The air is
very still and cool. Silence enshrines
and deifies all.
The inhabitants of Sendai and the
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
little fishing village on the northern
shore of the bay were simple, gentle folk.
As though affected by the slumbrous
beauty of the hills and mountains
hedging them in upon all sides, these let
their life glide by with slow and sweetly
sleepy tread. Not even the shock of
the Restoration had brought this re-
gion's people into that prophetic regard
for the future which pervaded all other
parts of the empire. The change-com-
pelling progress which pressed in upon
all sides seemed not as yet to have laid
its withering finger upon fair Mat-
sushima. Like their home, the inhabi-
tants clung to their hermit existence.
When an English ship, having ploughed
its way through the waters of the Pacific,
sent out its men in boats to take the
bay's soundings, the people were not
alarmed, but greatly mystified. The
strange white men made their way in
their smaller boats to the shore. A
missionary and his wife were landed.
A little home, on a small hill situated
3
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
only a short distance from the Temple
Zuiganjii, they built for themselves.
Afterwards, native artisans raised for
them a larger structure, where for many
years they patiently taught the gospel
of Jesus Christ. The people gradually
learned to love and reverence their pale
teachers. There came a time when the
little band, which had at first gone
desultorily and curiously to the mission-
house, began to see what the strangers
termed "the light . ' ' Then the Christian
Church in far-away England enrolled
a little list of converts to their religion.
The missionary grew old and white
and bent. His gentle wife passed away.
He lingered wistfully, a strangely iso-
lated, though beloved, figure in the little
community.
Then came a second visitation from
an English vessel. Sailors and officers
lolled about the town by day and
rioted by night. Some of them wooed
the dark-eyed daughters of the town but
to leave them. One there was, however,
4
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
who brought a girl, a shrinking, yet
trustful girl, to the old missionary on the
hill, and there, in the shabby old mission-
house, the solemn and beautiful cere-
mony of the Christian marriage service
was performed over their heads.
That was ten years before. At first
the Englishman had seemingly settled in
his adopted land, as he loved to call it.
The place appealed to his artistic per-
ceptions. The Mecca of all his hopes,
he called it. Why should he return to
the world of cold and strife ? Here were
peace, rest, and love unbounded. But
before the close of the second year of
their union an event occurred which
shook the stranger suddenly into life's
vivid reality. A great duty thrust
itself in his track. Not for himself,
but for another, must he turn his back
upon the land of love. A son had
been born to him in the season of Little
Heat.
So the Englishman crushed to his
breast his foreign wife and child, and
5
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
with reiterated promises of a speedy re-
turn he left them.
Letters in those days travelled slow-
ly from England to Japan. Sometimes
those addressed to the little town of
Sendai remained for weeks in the offices
at the open ports. Sometimes they
travelled hither and thither from one
port to another, the stupid indifference
of officials scarcely troubling itself to
send them to their proper destination.
But finally, after many months, the
little wife and mother in Sendai held
between her trembling hands an Eng-
lish letter. It had come in a very large
envelope, and there were several bulky
inclosures neatly folded documents
they were tied with red tape. 'There
was also another letter, shorter than the
one she held in her hand, and written in
a different form. She could not even
read her letter, though she did not doubt
from whom it had come. Happy, she
pressed her precious package to her lips
and breast. She believed that the
6
THE HEART OF
ACINTH
strangely printed papers within the en-
velopes, similar in her eyes to the many
English papers he had always about him,
were merely other forms of his epistle of
love.
The woman waited with a divine pa-
tience for the return of the old mis-
sionary from a little journey inland.
She watched for him, watched ceaseless-
ly, constantly. And when he had re-
turned she dressed the little Komazawa
in fresh, sweet-smelling garments, and
carried him with her papers to the mis-
sion-house.
Why detail the pain of that inter-
view? The papers and one of the let-
ters, it is true, were, indeed, from her
lord, but they were sent by another, a
stranger. The Englishman had died
died in what he termed a foreign coun-
try, since his home was by her side,
his last hours he had striven to write
her and instruct her in the course she
must take in the years to come when
could not be by her as her loving guide.
7
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Madame Aoi meekly followed the
counsel of the aged missionary. Under
his guidance, childlike and with unques-
tioning faith, she studied unceasingly
the English language and the Christian
faith.
If the old missionary had at first mar-
velled at the calm which settled upon
her after that one wild outcry when
first she had heard the dread tidings of
her husband, he was not long in discover-
ing that her passiveness was but an outer
mask to veil the anguish of a broken
heart, and to give her that strength
which must overcome the weakness
which would be the doom of her hopes.
For Aoi was not left without some hope
in life. Her lord, in departing, had set
upon her an injunction, a duty. This
it was her task to perform. Once that
was accomplished, perhaps the strain
might lessen. Meanwhile tirelessly,
ceaselessly, she studied.
She had the natural gift of intelli-
gence, and the advantage of having
8
i
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
spent two full years with her husband.
Hence it was not long before she mas-
tered the language, and, if she spoke it
brokenly and even haltingly, she wrote
and read accurately.
To the little Komazawa she spoke
only in English. She kept him jeal-
ously apart from the villagers, and
taught his little tongue to shape and
form the words of his father's language.
"Some day, liddle one," she would
say, "you will become great big man.
Then you will cross those seas. You
will become great lord also at that Eng-
land. So! It is the will of thy august
father."
II
IT was the season of Seed Rain. The
country was green and fragrant and the
crops thirstily absorbed the rain. The vil-
lagers sat at their thresholds , some of them
even indolently lounging in the open, un-
mindful or perhaps enjoying the seething
rain, an antidote for the heat, which was
somewhat sweltering for the season.
Children were playing in the street,
nimbly jumping over the puddle ponds,
or climbing, with the agility of monkeys,
the trees that lined the streets, and about
whose boughs they hung in various at-
titudes of daring delight.
One small boy had climbed to the very
tip of a bamboo, and there he clung by
his feet, swaying with the shakings of
the slender tree, and the motion of those
below him far below him.
10
THE HEART OF HYACI
It was not often that the son of
Madame Aoi was permitted such ab-
solute freedom. Indeed, it was only
upon those occasions when Komazawa,
momentarily blind to the reproach of
his mother's sad eyes, literally thrust
away the bonds which seemed to hold
and chain him to their quiet household
and burst out and beyond their reach.
Surely, at the tip of this long, perilous
bamboo he was quite beyond the reach
of little Madame Aoi and her old ser-
vant, Mume. But even in his present
lofty position Komazawa had kept his
eyes from the possible glimpse of his
mother. His feet clung to the tree only
because his hands were engaged in cover-
ing his ears.
Yet, even in the open, Komazawa was
alone. The neighbors' children played
in little bodies and groups together, and
Komazawa from his perch watched them
with the same ardent wistfulness with
which he was wont to regard them from
the door of his little isolated home,
n
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Old Mum& was angry. Her voice had
become hoarse, and she was tired of her
position in the rain, for the bamboo
gave but scant shelter. She shook the
tree angrily.
"Do not so," entreated the gentle Aoi.
"See how the tree bends. Take care
lest it become angry with us and vent its
vengeance upon my son. But, pray you,
good Mume, return to the home and give
food and succor to our honorable guest."
As Mume shuffled off, her heavy clogs
clicking against the pavement, Aoi called
up, entreatingly, to the truant:
"Ah, Koma, Koma, son, do pray come
down."
But Komazawa, with head thrown
backward, was whistling to the clouds.
He was very well content, and it pleased
him much to be wet through. How long
he sat there, whistling softly strange airs
and imagining wild and fanciful things,
he could not have told, since the passage
of time in these days of freedom was a
thing which he noted little.
12
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Gradually he became aware that the
rain was becoming colder and the sky
had darkened. Komazawa looked down-
ward. There was nothing but darkness
beneath him. He shivered and shook
his little body and head, the hair of
which was weighted with rain. Koma-
zawa began to slide downward, feeling
the way with his feet and hands. It was
quite a journey down. In the darkness
he had knocked his little shins against
out-jutting broken boughs. He landed
with both feet upon something palpitat-
ing and soft something that caught its
breath in a sigh, then inclosed him in its
arms.
Komazawa guilty, but not altogether
tamed, spoke no words to his mother.
He stood stiffly and quietly still while
she felt his wetness with her hands. But
he threw off the cape in which she en-
deavored to wrap him. He was obliged
to stand on tiptoe to put it back around
his mother, and as this was an undigni-
fied position, his bravado broke down.
13
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
radually he nestled up against her, and
strange marvel in Japan! these two
embraced and kissed each other.
After a while, as they trudged silently
down the street homeward, Komazawa
inquired, in a sharp little voice, as he
looked up apprehensively at his mother:
"And the honorable stranger, moth-
er?"
Aoi hesitated. The hand about her
son trembled somewhat. His thin little
fingers clutched it almost viciously. He
flushed angrily.
"Why do you not answer me?" he
asked, with peevishness.
" I have not seen the honorable one,"
said Aoi, gently.
"Pah!" snapped the boy. "No, cer-
tainly, and we do not wish to see her.
We do not like such bold intrusion."
"Nay, son," she reproved, "we must
not so regard it. Let us remember the
words of the good master, the august
missionary."
"What words?" inquired Koma, tart-
14
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
ly. " Why, his excellency does not even
know of the coming of the woman, since
he is gone three days from Sendai now."
"Ah, but my son, do you not remem-
ber that he taught us to treat with kind-
ness the stranger within our gates?"
Koma made a sound of disapproval,
his little, ill-tempered face puckered in
a frown. After a moment he inquired
again :
"But where is the woman, mother?"
Aoi regarded her small son almost
apologetically.
"She is within our humble house," she
replied.
Koma pulled his hand from hers with
a jerk. For a time he walked beside her
in silence. He was strangely old for his
years, and already he showed the in-
heritance of his father's pride.
"Mother," he said, "we do not wish
the stranger to disturb our home. My
father would not have permitted it. We
are happy alone together. What do we
want with this woman stranger'"
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
" But, my son, she is very ill."
"She should have stayed at the honor-
able tavern. We do not keep a hos-
telry."
Aoi sighed.
"Well," she said, hopefully, "let us
bear with her for a little while and after-
wards"
"We will turn her out," quickly fin-
ished the boy.
"We will entreat her to remain," said
Aoi. "It would be proper for us to do
so. But the stranger will not be lacking
in all courtesy. She will not remain."
They had reached their home. Now
they paused on the threshold, the mother
regarding the son somewhat appealingly ,
and he with his sulky head turned from
her. Aoi pushed the sli ding-doors apart.
A gust of wind blew inward, flaring up
the light of the dim andon and then ex-
tinguishing it. The house was in dark-
ness.
Suddenly a voice, a piercing, shrill
voice, rang out through the silent house.
16
TfK
THE HEART OF
HYACI
"The light, the light!" it cried; "oh,
it is gone, gone!"
Koma clutched his mother's hand with
a sudden, tense fear.
"The light!" he repeated. "Quickly,
mother; the honorable one fears the
darkness. Quickly, the light!"
Ill
OLD Mum& was busily engaged in the
kitchen. The milk over the fire had
begun to bubble. With a large wooden
stick she stirred it. Then she returned
to her rice. As she pounded it into flat
cakes, her old face, with its hundred
wrinkles, was contorted, and she mut-
tered and talked to herself as she worked.
She was like some old witch, breathing
incantations.
At the threshold of the room stood
Koma. His eyes were very wide open
and his cheeks were flushed. At his side
his little hands were sharply clinched.
His whole attitude betokened excite-
ment and impatience. Suddenly he
clapped his hands so loudly and sharply
that the old woman started in fright;
then catching sight of the little intruder,
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
she hobbled towards him on her heels,
her tongue in angry operation.
"Now, who but an evil one would
frighten an old woman? Shame upon
you, naughty one!"
"Oh, Mume, you are so slow the evil
one will catch you. Just see, the milk
boils over. Still you do not hasten.
Yet the illustrious ones are ill, very
ill."
"Tsh!" scolded the old woman, as she
poured the steaming milk into a shallow
bowl, and broke pieces of the rice-bread
into it. "What, would you advise old
Mume about such matters? Would you
have me burn the honorable babe?"
She cooled the preparation with her
hand, fanning it back and forth across
the bowl.
Koma watched her a moment with
smouldering eyes. Suddenly he started,
his little ears alert and attentive.
A cry, thin and piping at first, grew
in volume. Was it possible that so small
a thing could fill the house with its
19
THE HEART OF
HYACINTH
noise? Koma strode to the fire, seized
the bowl with both hands, and, before
the grumbling old servant could inter-
fere, he was gone with it from the room,
and speeding along the hall.
With his finger-tips on the closed
shoji of the guest-chamber he tapped
gently. It was softly pushed aside, and
Aoi appeared in the opening. Stepping
into the hall, she closed the sliding
screens behind her.
The boy spoke in an eager whisper.
"Here is the milk the honorable one
desired."
"Where did you obtain it, son?"
"In the village. And see, we have
warmed it, for it was quite cold. It is
good goat's milk."
"Such a good son!" whispered Aoi,
and stooped to kiss the upraised face ere
she returned to the sick-chamber.
Koma crouched down on the floor by
the door. He could hear within the soft
glide of his mother's feet across the floor.
There was a murmuring of indistin-
20
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
guishable words. Then that voice, with
its strange accent, which seemed to
pierce and reach something in the 00
The voice was weak now, but its ex-
quisite clearness was hot dulled. Then
Koma heard the movement of the lifting
of the babe ; a little cry or two, then little
gurgling, satisfied gasps. The babe was
being fed with the milk he had procured.
It gave Koma a strange satisfaction
a warm delight. He stretched out his
little limbs across the floor. He, too,
was satisfied. All was now well. Grad-
ually his head drooped backward and
Komazawa fell into a slumber.
Within, the stranger was imparting
bits of her history to the sympathetic
Aoi. She was hardly conscious of her
words, which were spoken through her
semi-delirium. Her feverish eyes, wide
open, shone up into the bending face of
Aoi, and held the Japanese woman with
their piteous appeal. She seemed sooth-
ed under the gentle touch of Aoi's hand
on her brow.
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Pray thee to sleep," gently the
Japanese woman persuaded her.
She was quiet a moment, only to start
up the next.
"Nay," entreated Aoi, "sleep first
to-morrow speak. Rest, I pray you."
"It was so long, so long!" cried the
woman on the bed, clasping her thin
hands across those on her head. "And,
oh, the pain, the agony of it all! I was
so tired o "
Her body palpitated and quivered
with the sighing sobs that shook her.
She sprang up suddenly, pushing away
from her the hands of Aoi, which gently
attempted to restrain her.
' ' It was all wrong quite wrong from
the first. But what did they care ? They
had their wedding. Ah, I tell you, they
are bad, all bad! Ah, it was cruel,
cruel!"
"Ah," thought Aoi, sadly; "she, too,
has been pierced with anguish. Truly,
my heart breaks in sympathy with
her."
22
.
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
She bent above the quivering woman,
her pitying face close to hers.
"Pray thee, dear one, take rest and
comfort," she said, smoothing softly her
brow.
"Ah, you are so good, s^ good," said
the sick woman. "You are not like
those others those fearful people." She
covered her eyes with her thin hands as
if to shut out a vision of some horror.
"God will bless you, bless you for your
goodness to me," she said.
Exhausted, she lay back among the
pillows, her eyes closed. How grateful
to her must have felt that great English
bed, with its soft coverlets! For how
many days had she wandered, without
sight or word of her own people! Her
thin, fine lips quivered unceasingly,
while her blue eyes held a constant mist,
seemingly haunted by some troubled
spectre that pursued her ceaselessly.
Once she raised her hands feebly, then
plucked at the coverlet with long, white
fingers.
23
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"What a death! oh, what a death!"
she whispered, faintly.
After a long silence her voice raised
itself to the pitch of one delirious.
"If I could see " Her words came
slowly and with difficulty, and she re-
peated them ramblingly. " If I could
only see a white face a white one of
my own people. Oh, so long, and, oh
me! mamma, mamma!"
"Ah, dear lady," said Aoi, "if you will
but deign to rest I will go forth and
endeavor to find some of your people.
There are white people in the next town.
It is not far not very far, and perhaps,
ah, surely, they will come to you."
"My people," the woman repeated.
"No, no." Her voice became hoarse.
She started up in her bed. "You do not
understand. I must never, never see
them again. I could not bear it. They
are cruel, wicked. No! Ah, you shall
promise me promise me."
She fell back, exhausted from her
transport of passion. Aoi knelt beside
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
her and took her hands within her
own.
"I will promise you whatever you
wish, dear lady. Only speak your desires
to me. I will humbly try to carry them
out."
The sick woman's voice was so weak
that she scarce could raise it above a
whisper, but her words were plain.
"Promise me that you will not give
them my little one when I am gone.
You are good, and will be kind to her.
Oh, will you not? I would not be
happy, I could not rest in peace if she
were sent to to him." Her words
rambled off again. "I left him," she
said, "ran away far away, far away,
and the country was all strange to me, ^
and I could not find my way. Every
one stared at me; it must have been
because I had gone mad, you know,
quite mad. All women do. I wanted
to put a great distance between us, to
get beyond his sight beyond the sound
of his voice, beyond "
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Ah, do not speak more," entreated
Aoi, now in tears.
"Why, you are crying!" said the sick
woman, looking wistfully into Aoi's face.
She began to weep, weakly, impotently,
herself.
After a time she became quieter. She
started once again, when Aoi had snuff-
ed a few of the lights, seeming to dread
the darkness, but when the Japanese
woman's hands reassured her, she was
again silent. And as she slept she still
clung spasmodically to the hands of
Aoi.
MORNING dawned with a haggard
light. Ceaselessly the rain drizzled down.
The torpid heat of the previous day had
given place to a clammy chilliness. The
weather oppressed the sick one. Her
restlessness was gone, but passive quiet
was more ominous. Her white face
seemed to have shrunken through the
night so white and still it was that
she seemed scarcely to breathe.
Too weak to bear the burden of her
child against her, the mother permitted
the little one to be cared for in an in-
terior room lest its cries might disturb
her. All through the day she spoke no
word. Wearily, the heavy lids of her
eyes were closed.
As the day began to wane, Aoi,
thoroughly alarmed, summoned the vil-
27
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
lage doctor ; a very old and learned man
he was considered. He felt the wom-
an's hands, listened to her breathing with
his ear against her lips. Very cold her
hands were, but her breathing was reg-
ular, though faint.
The doctor looked grave, solemn, and
wise. He shook his bald head omi-
nously.
"How long has the honorable one
been thus?"
"Since early morn, sir doctor. She
awoke from her night sleep only to fall
into this condition."
"The woman has but a short space of
life left to her," said the doctor, solemnly.
Aoi trembled.
"Her people ' she began, falter-
ingly. "Oh, good sir doctor, it is very,
very sad. So young! Ah, so beau-
tiful!"
Seeming not to share or understand
Aoi's sympathy, the doctor gathered
up his instruments and simples slowly,
meanwhile glancing uneasily towards
28
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
the face of the sick woman,
suddenly to Aoi.
"Madame," he said, "the village
sympathizes with you at the infliction
placed upon you by this enforced guest,
but"
"You do not finish, sir doctor?"
"The woman became a nuisance
the tavern. The people there were not
Kirishitans (Christians), and were more-
over in ignorance of the woman's speech.
They could only comprehend that she
wished to be taken to some one of her
own people so, madame, you "
"I, being of her people," said Aoi, with
simple dignity, "she was brought to me.
That was right. I thank my neighbors
for their kindness. I am honored, in-
deed, with such a guest. She is wel-
come."
The doctor moved towards the door.
"And the child? It is well, and will
not accompany the mother on her last
journey. What will become of it?"
Aoi did not reply.
29
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
" If it is desired by you, Madame Aoi,"
said the doctor, endeavoring to be kind,
"I will immediately despatch word to
the city to send notification to the near-
est open port. There, surely, must be
some consul, or representative of the
woman's country. To them the child
should go."
Aoi spoke swiftly.
"The poor one's people were unkind
to her and cruel. How can we tell but
that they might also abuse the child?"
"That is the affair of the child, Ma-
dame Aoi. Pray accept my counsel.
Send the child"
Interrupted by the sudden entrance
of little Komazawa, he did not finish.
The boy had evidently heard all, through
the thin partition doors, against which
he had leaned, listening intently. He
thrust himself now before the doctor,
with eyes purpled by excitement. His
tense little body quivered.
"Sir doctor," he said, in a voice new
even to his mother, it was so strong
30
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
and haughty, "you make mistake. The
child is already among its own people.
Here, in my father's house, all people are
Engleesh. So! The child belongs to us,
smce~"tHe mother did present it to us.
It is a gift of the good God!"
Smiling and frowning together the lit-
tle doctor bowed ironically to the little
fellow facing him.
"And will the august one enlighten
me as to whether he will make an effort
to find the child's legal guardians?"
"That is our affair, sir doctor, but I
will answer. We will ask advice of the
good excellency when he returns. He
is in Sendai even now. He will be in our
village to-night."
The doctor bowed himself out, and
Koma turned to his mother, a question
in his eyes. Aoi nodded sadly. The
poor white woman would die, had said
the sir doctor.
Komazawa approached the bed softly,
until he stood by the woman's side.
looking down fixedly upon her. Ho*,v
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
white was the still face, how beautiful
the long lashes that swept the cheeks,
how wonderful and sunlike the silken
hair enveloping her head like a halo.
Could she be real, this beautiful, still
creature? Never had Komazawa seen
anything like her. She seemed a spirit
.of the lingering twilight.
Suddenly he bent over her and softly
touched the small hand that lay outside
the coverlet. But soft as was his touch
it acted like an electric shock upon the
woman. She started and quivered, as
her heavy lids lifted. At the little face
bending above her she stared. A strange
expression came into her face. Her
voice was like that of one murmuring
in a dream.
"A little white boy," she said. "A
little white"
Her lips were stilled, but a breath, a
sigh passed from her as Koma, with a
sudden instinctive motion, put his face
down to hers. When Aoi gently drew
the boy up she found the still, white
32
/^K^^
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
face softly smiling in the twilight, as
though ere she slept she had seen a
vision.
But Komazawa knelt by the bedside,
weeping passionately.
NEAR the Temple Zuiganjii there is
one huge rock, where the Date lords in
the feudal days were wont to gather
yearly, attended by musicians, and seek-
ing recreation in gay amusements. It
is of enormous size, and when the sun's
rays beat upon its white surface it
shines like white, polished glass. Flat,
embedded in the soil, there is, however,
a part of the rock which rises many feet
above the level, its out - jutting point
resembling the head of some giant sea-
monster. Under this jutting head a
natural cave has been formed.
Here, on a summer day, two children
were playing together. Far below them
the Bay of Matsushima spread out its
insistent beauty. Moored to the beach,
a few cho below them, was their minia-
34
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
ture raft-sampan, an old weather-beaten
boat, in which they had made their
^pilgrimage from the village. Behind
them were the tombs and the eastern
hills. The sunlight slanting upon them
was no less golden than these summer
foot-hills of the mountains beyond.
Bareheaded and barelegged the chil-
dren were, the sandals upon their feet
wet, showing how they had paddled in
the bay. The boy, a lad of possibly
fifteen years, was stretched full length
under the shadow of the rock, only his
sandalled feet projecting into the sun-
light, which he hoped would dry them.
His elbows were in the sand, his chin
resting upon one arm. He was reading
from a very much worn and ragged
book, the leaves of which he turned with
the utmost care and tenderness.
The little girl had gradually come from
the rock's shadow, and now squatted at
his feet. The sun fell upon her. She
was a diminutive, odd little mite. Her
hair, a dark shining brown, had been
35
^
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
carefully knotted up into a little chignon
at the top of her head, but, being way-
ward by nature, it had escaped the most
persistent brushing and the severe pins
which held it. It clung around her ears
and little neck in soft, damp curls. Her
face and hands were russet, sunburned
and freckled. Her eyes were large and
gray, shading towards blue. She wore
but one garment, a little red, ragged
kimono, very much frayed at the ends
and soaked from her late paddling. Un-
like the average Japanese child, the lit-
tle girl was restless and lacked all sense
of repose, an inherent instinct with Jap-
anese children.
Though the boy had constituted her
his audience and was reading aloud to
her, she apparently had heard no word
of what he had been reading. Having
wriggled her way beyond the reach of his
hand, she now looked about her for new
means of engaging her active little mind.
This she discovered in some stalks of
grass . H a ving selected the strff est blade
36
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
she could find, she stealthily crept back
to the feet of the boy, and first tickled,
then pricked his feet with the grass. The
natural result followed. The boy's dron-
ing, monotonous voice in reading chang-
ed to a sudden, sharp grunt, and he threw
up his heels, whereat the little girl burst
into a wild, elfish peal of laughter. At
the same time she renewed her jabs at
the boy's protesting feet.
Komazawa, still agitating his heels,
closed the book with care, placed it in
safety in the sleeve of his hakama, and
swung upward, drawing his heels under
him beyond the reach of his naughty
tormentor.
With assumed gravity he regarded the
small rogue before him.
"Something bitten you, yes?" she in-
quired, keeping her distance from him
and hugging her knees up to her chin.
Koma nodded, silently.
"What?" she inquired. "What was
that bitten you, Koma?"
"Gnat!" said the boy, briefly.
37
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Gnat?" She crept a few paces near-
er to him, and peered up into his face.
"Yes gnat," he repeated, "bad devil
gnat."
The expression on the little girl's face
was involved. How was it possible for
any one ever to know just what Koma-
zawa meant when his face was so grave
and smileless. She had an odd little
trick of glancing up at one sideways
under her eyelashes. She peeped up at
Koma now for some time in this man-
ner. Her mirth had changed to a matter
of speculation. Did or did not Koma
know what had bitten him? He had
said it was a gnat. Her intelligence was
not sufficiently developed to include the
possibility that he might have meant her
for the gnat. She ventured:
"Did you see that gnat bite you?"
"Yes, twice."
Her eyes became wide.
"Where is it gone?" she inquired,
breathlessly.
"Still there," was his reply.
38
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Where ?" She started, actually
frightened. Koma's voice and air of
mystery began to work upon her active
imagination. What was a gnat, any-
way? And if one had actually bitten
Komazawa, might it not also bite her?
By this time she had entirely forgotten
her own attacks with the grass blade.
She was close to Koma now, her hands
upon his arm, her upraised eyes search-
ing his face.
"What is a gnat, Komazawa?"
"Bad little insect."
"Oh! Does it bite?"
"Yes."
"Did it also bite you?"
"Three times."
"Oh!" A palpitating pause. Then:
"Will it bite me, too?"
"Maybe."
She crept completely into his arms,
shielding herself with his sleeves.
"Where is it that bad gnat?"
"Here." He pointed at her with
index-finger.
39
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Here!" She gave a little scream.
"On my face!"
She was a small bundle of pricked
nerves, frightened at a shadow of her
own making. Komazawa relented, and
pressed her little, fluttering face against
his own.
"There foolish one! No; there is
nothing on your face. You are the gnat
I meant."
"Me!" She drew back a pace. "But
I am not an insect!"
"Little bit like one," said Koma, a
smile of sunshine replacing his affected
gravity a moment since.
His small companion sat up stiffly,
half indignant, half curious.
"How'm I like unto an insect gnat?"
"Gnat jumps this way, that, every
way. So you do so. Can't sit still,
listen to beautiful stories."
" I don't like those kind stories. Like
better stories about ghosts and "
"Oh, you always get afraid of such
stories, screaming like sea-gull."
40
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Yes, but all same, I like to do that
like to hear such stories like also get
frightened and scream."
"Gnat also bites bites foot, same as
you do."
"That don't hurt," she said, her eyes
askance. Then, repeating her words,
questioningly, "That don't hurt?"
"Oh yes, it does, certainly. What do
you suppose I got to keep my feet under
me now for?"
Her little bosom heaved.
" Let me see those foots, Komazawa."
"Too sore."
"Oh, Komazawa!"
Her eyes were beginning to fill. He
thrust his two feet out quickly.
"No, no; they are all right."
" Her face was aglow again in an in-
stant.
"Oh, I love you, my Koma," she said.
" I only pretend hurt your honorable
foots."
"That's right. Now, you fix your
hands so." He illustrated, doubling his
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
own hands into fists, then doubling hers
also.
"That's right. Make hand good and
hard. So! Now you hit hard against
those feet. So!"
He brought her little, closed fist down
hard with his own hand on his offending
foot. The little girl became pale. Her
lips quivered. She began to sob.
Koma lifted her in his arms, jumped
her on his shoulder, and carried her
down to the beach, soothing her as he
walked.
"That's just little punishment for me;
punishment for teasing little sister," said
Koma, laughing quietly. " That don't
hurt. You going to laugh soon? You
just little gnat! That's so? You bite
just little bit. I am big dog. I bite
big."
He set her in the boat.
"Such a foolish little gnat," he said,
"always cry always laugh. Like these
waters sometimes jump sometimes lie
still."
42
MA I.I FT I- I) II KK IN 111
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Standing in the boat he pushed it out
into the bay with the large pole which
served as a sort of paddling oar.
He smiled back over his shoulder at
her. "Ah, the wind go blowing us home
so quick. Now you smile once more.
Good! Sun come up again!"
He had been speaking to her in Eng-
lish, idiomatic, but clear. Now he
broke into Japanese song. His voice
was round and large, full and sweet for
one so young. It seemed to ring out
across the bay, and float back to them
from the echoing hills.
VI
"ALAS!" said Madame Aoi, as she
brushed, with long hopeless strokes, the
rippling hair of little Hyacinth. "Alas!
no use try to keep you nice. Look at
those hands so brown like little boy's
and that neck and face!"
Hyacinth sat upon the weekly chair of
torture. Her little russet face had been
scrubbed till it shone. Her hair was
being brushed uncomfortably smooth
with water, to prepare it for being twist-
ed up in a pyramid on her head. Had
she been a properly regulated Japanese
child, one such hair - dressing a month
would have sufficed. But, as a rule, she
had scarcely escaped from under the
painstaking hands of Aoi before she
managed to shakeclown, or at least
>"
iNTH
THE HEART OF HYACIN
loosen, the beautiful glossy coiffure upon
her head.
Cleaning - day, Hyacinth dreaded.
Though Koma had taught her to swim
in the bay like a veritable little duck, it
is sad to relate that the little girl despised
water which was thrown upon her for
the purpose of removing that dirt, the
inevitable portion of a child who plays
continually in the open and burrows in
beach sand.
So now, restless, rebellious, and mis- I
erable, anything but the usual passive \
little Japanese girl, she squirmed under \
the hands of Aoi.
The day was Sunday, a red-letter day
for Aoi. The mission-house on the hill
opened its doors to its tiny congregation
upon this day. Hence Aoi prepared her
little family against this weekly event,
and poor Hyacinth was the chief subject
of torture. Koma's hair grew in a short,
smooth mass, which required no brush-
ing or twisting. Also, he had reached
an age when he had, wholly graduated
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
from his mother's hands and was com-
petent to effect his own toilet. But he
was forced to sit in the chamber of
horrors during the time that his sister
was undergoing the weekly operation,
since, were his presence removed, it
would have been impossible to manage
or control the restless child.
"There!" exclaimed Aoi, as she placed
the last pin in the child's head. " Now,
that is fine. Been good child to-day."
Hyacinth slid down from the small
stool, lingered in discontent on the floor
a moment, then, with an expression of
childish resignation, rose to her feet and
stood silently awaiting further opera-
tions upon her.
Aoi lightly wafted a little powder tow-
ards her face and neck; then removed
it with a soft cloth. The tanned skin
appeared whitened and softened. Then
she dressed her little charge in a fresh
cre"pe kimono a red-flowered kimono it
was tied a purple obi about it with a
huge bow behind, placed a flower orna-
46
;T
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
ment in the side of her hair, and Hya-
cinth's toilet was completed.
Her appearance did credit to the labor
of Aoi. She seemed such a bewitching,
quaint little figure her face, piquantly
pretty, her hair shining, the red flower
ornament matching her little red cheeks
and lips. A moment later, too, the
discontent and restlessness had quite
fled from her face, for Koma had seized
her the instant of her release and given
her an enormous hug, to the palpitating
anxiety of Aoi, who besought him to be
careful not to disturb the elegance of her
hair and gown.
"Now," she told them, "go sit at the
door like good children. Keep very still.
Soon your mother will also be ready."
Aoi expended less pains upon her own
person. Her hair erection needed no
re -dressing. She changed her cotton
kimono for a very elegant silken one,
powdered her face lightly in a trice, and
a moment later was at the door, anxious-
looking about for the children.
47
B5&
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
She was still a young woman, so
pretty that it was hard to believe her
the mother of a boy of sixteen. Her fig-
ure was slight and girlish, her face un-
marked by any trace of age, save that
the eyes were sad and anxious and the
lips had a tendency to quiver patheti-
cally. She fluttered down the little gar-
den-path, looking right and left for the
truants.
She discovered them bending over the
great well in the garden.
"See," said little Hyacinth. "There's
big cherry - tree in well, and little girl
under it, also."
Aoi looked at the reflection, lingered a
moment, smiling pensively at the three
faces in the water, then drew them away.
"Come," she said. "Listen; those
temple bells already are beginning to
ring. We shall be late and disgrace his
excellency."
She opened a large paper parasol, and
with Koma holding her sleeve on one
side and Hyacinth on the ether, they
48
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
tripped up the hill to the little mission
church.
They were late, as usual, to the ex-
treme humiliation of Aoi, who shrank
to the most obscure corner possible in
the church. She gave one anxious,
fluttering glance about her, shook her
head at the restless Hyacinth, then very
simply and naturally lifted her little,
thin voice in singing with the rest of this
strange congregation.
The old missionary at his stand, who
had seen her entrance, beamed benign-
ly upon her from over his spectacles.
Though so old, his voice could be heard
loud and clear, leading his little flock in
their hymn of invocation.
The service was exceedingly simple.
A reading from a Japanese translation
of the Bible, a few announcements by
the old pastor, then an address by a thin,
curious-looking stranger, the new assist-
ant of the missionary. After that fol-
lowed the offerings, to which every one
in the church contributed, even the chil-
THE HEART OF
dren, then a sweet hymn, a solemn word
of benediction, and church was over.
How strangely like the church in his
own home in far-away England was this
little mission-house to the old minister!
These gentle people had labored to erect
this house on the plan he had described
to them. They lifted up the same voices
in melodious hymns of praise to the
same Creator. Their eyes looked up to
their leader with the same profound de-
votion. Yes, surely, he had done right
in the desertion of that small pastorate
in England, which a hundred ministers
could fill. Here lay his true work the
fruits of his labors. This had become
his home.
So down the aisle he went, followed
by his new assistant with a word and a
smile, and a hearty grip of the hand for
each and all of his little band.
Aoi stood in the little pew, her face
turned towards him, wistfully expectant.
Even the restless Hyacinth peered at
him with sombre, quieted gaze.
50
5** I
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Ah," he said, "Mrs. Montrose and
Koma. How is my little girl?" and he
patted Hyacinth upon the head.
The new minister stared with some
surprise at the two children, then looked
questioningly at the old missionary. He
was listening attentively and with old-
fashioned courtesy to the words of the
anxious Aoi.
"Is it not yet time, excellency? The
boy is growing beyond me. What is
to be done ? I have taught him all
the words I myself know of the Eng-
lish language, but, alas! I am very
ignorant, and my tongue trips and
halts."-
The missionary glanced gravely and
thoughtfully at Koma, who was engaged
in whispering to the inquisitive Hya-
cinth. The latter was intently engross-
ed in regarding the pale and anaemic
face of the new minister.
" He seems such a boy such a child,"
said the old missionary, "I think y
have done well by him, and it certainly
5'
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
was wise to keep him from the schools in
Sendai."
"Ah, excellency," said Aoi, "he mere-
ly looks like a child. He is, indeed,
much older than he appears. Was he
not always old for his age? It is merely
his constant association with the tiny
one which causes him to appear so
young."
"Well," said the missionary, "we
must think about it. I will talk it over
with Mr. Blount." He indicated his as-
sistant, who bowed quietly.
Aoi appeared troubled.
"Excellency," she said, "it was the
will of his august father that he should
see something of the world when he
should have attained to years of man-
hood."
The missionary nodded thoughtfully.
"I will give you my opinion to-mor-
row to-morrow evening," he said.
" The matter requires serious reflec-
tion."
"Thank you," she murmured, grate-
5 2
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
fully. "You are so good the gods will
bless you."
Thus, even within the house of the new
religion, poor Aoi let slip from her lips
that almost unconscious faith in the gods
of her childhood.
TWILIGHT falls slowly and tenderly in
Matsushima. The trees, which spread
out their arms over the waters, seem but
to deepen their shadows and gradual-
ly become part of the creeping silver
shadow of night. For night is scarcely
dark here in the summer. The noon-
rays are perpetual. The stars shine
with an unusual lustre. Earth reflects
the light of the moon and the stars upon
its shimmering waters, its deep blue
fields, its blossom - decked trees. The
pebbles on the shore become whiter, and
the whiteness of the sands deepens the
green of the pines. Night is but one
long twilight, slumberous and peaceful
in fair Matsushima.
When the numerous candles are light-
ed in the temples on the hills, slanting
54
I
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
out their glimmer upon the bewilder-
ed waters, one might almost wonder
whether the stars have changed their
place and descended like spirits to render
more fairy-like this Princess of Bays.
An oddly assorted group of five people
occupied a secluded spot on the shore.
The influence of the night was upon
them as they gazed out with seeing eyes
that reflected the beauty of the scene
and the emotions that tore at their
hearts. A mother and two children
one, whose boy soul had only begun to
open into a graver manhood, the other
a child of seven. But seven years old
was Hyacinth, yet in the child's little
face shone the restless, passionate nature
of one old enough to feel an infinity of
suffering. She it was who helplessly
sobbed as they stood there by the bay
sobbed with an effort at strangulation,
and who gazed not alone at the magic
of the scene, but upward into the face of
Komazawa.
One of the ministers broke the
55
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
silence. An eager, odd, and somewhat
nervous young man he appeared.
"Dear friend," he said, addressing the
boy Koma, "it will be much for the
best. Our good friend here agrees with
me in believing that it is your duty to
follow the wishes of your father."
Koma did not reply, but little Hy-
acinth raised a face of turbulent scorn
towards the speaker. She did not speak,
but contented herself with clasping the
hand of Koma the tighter, pressing her
face close against it.
"Possibly it might be as well to put
off for a year " began the elder mission-
ary, hesitatingly. Aoi interrupted:
"Nay, excellency, the humble one
agrees with the illustrious one. My
lord's son has come to manhood. It
is time now that he should leave us,"
her voice faltered "for a season," she
added, softly.
The Reverend Mr. Blount bowed
gravely.
"I am glad, madame," he said, "to
56
K
EART O
find that your views coincide with mine.
Your son is er first of all more Eng-
lish than Japanese."
Koma stirred uneasily. He opened
his lips as though about to speak, then
closed them and turned his face towards
the speaker.
"He is, in fact, one of us," continued
the minister. " He has the physical ap-
pearance, somewhat of the training, and,
let us hope, the natural instincts of the
Caucasian. It would be not only ludi-
crous but wicked for him to continue
here in this isolated spot, where he is,
may we say, an alien, and particularly
when it is his duty to follow the wishes
of his father as regards his English es-
tate. Certainly this is not where Ko-
mazawa belongs."
" I do not agree with you, excellency,"
said Koma, with a queer accent. "This
is, indeed, my home. Do not, I beg
you, be deceived in that matter. It is
true that I am also Engleesh, but, ah,
I am not so base to deny my other blood.
57
v&rt*tm
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Is it not so good, excellency? Could I
despise this land of my birth, my honor-
able, dear home?"
"Nay, son," interposed the agitated
Aoi, "his excellency meant no reflection
upon our Japan. But, oh, my son, you
would not rebel against the will of your
father?"
" No," said Koma, clinching his hands
at his side, "I would not."
"Then you will go to this England,
like a good son. The time has come."
Koma remained plunged in gloomy
thought.
After a moment he lifted his head and
looked at the elder missionary.
1 ' How do we know the time has come ? ' '
"Because, my son, you have arrived
at the years of manhood."
"I am but sixteen years."
The younger minister answered,
quickly :
"It will require four or five years, at
least, in England to learn the language
and ways of your people thoroughly."
5*
iwfl
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
" I already speak that language," said
Koma, flushing darkly. "Do I not, sir
excellency?"
44 No and yes. You have been brought |
up to speak the language. It is in- i
telligible, but queer wrong, somehow.
You speak your father's language like a
foreigner."
"Very well," agreed Koma, bitterly.
"Let us admit that. But may I in-
quire whether it will be necessary for me
to go all the way to England to learn
that language?"
"Well, yes. Four years in an Eng-
lish school will do much for you."
"Four years; and when those four
years are ended I still will lack one year
from my majority."
"That's right," said the missionary.
" In England one attains one's majority
at twenty-one. So you would have a
year in which to return, if you wish it, to
Japan, previous to settling in England."
I do not know if I shall ever do that,"
said the boy, sadly.
59
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
" It was the wish of your father," said
Aoi, pathetically.
"Yes, it was his wish," repeated
Koma. "Yet I will come back each
year."
"That is right," said the old minister,
patting him on the shoulder.
"Your father never came back," said
Aoi, sighing wistfully.
"It would be entirely out of the
question for you to return each year.
Be advised by me, Komazawa; I have
your interest at heart," said the young
minister, earnestly. "Stay in England
four years, then return and visit your
mother and sister."
"Let the good excellency decide for
us," said Aoi, glancing appealingly at
her old friend. He drew his brows to-
gether.
"Wait till the time comes to decide
that," he concluded. " If the boy is old
enough to leave home, he is of an age,
also, to choose what he shall do. Let us
not attempt to curb him."
60
THE new missionary assumed that
Hyacinth was the sister of Komazawa.
His interest in her was less than in
Komazawa, since the boy was his
father's heir. Possibly, too, this might
have been because of the natural an-
tagonism with which the little girl had
from the first met his overtures to her.
From the moment when she became
acutely aware that the new minister was
practically responsible for the departure
of her beloved Koma, the child conceived
a violent dislike for him.
When the old minister, worn with his
years of labor, quietly resigned his
pastorate into the hands of his succes-
sor, and the new minister had taken up
the management of the little church,
Hyacinth refused henceforth even to
6l
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
, enter the mission -house. All the en-
treaties and threats of Aoi were in vain,
and, with Koma gone, she soon realized
the fruitlessness of attempting to force
her to do anything against her will.
Comprehending the turbulent nature of
the child, she knew that Hyacinth would
only disgrace them both if she were
forced into the church. So the de-
parture of Komazawa meant at least
the Sunday freedom of Hyacinth.
Nor was this the only result. The
child, whose strange, independent nature
had never been controlled by any one
save by Koma, now that he was gone
broke all restraints. She wandered at will
about the bay, hiding in hollows in the
rocks among the tombs when they sought
to find her. Her little vagabond exist-
ence was not unlike that which Koma
himself had led in his early childhood,
save that she was not so easily restrained
by the reproaches of Aoi. Like him, at
this time, she scorned the companionship
of other children. Like him she
62
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
dered away from her home in fits and
starts, passive for an interval, and then
bursting all bounds and disappearing
sometimes for the space of an entire day
or night, to return ragged and raven-
ously hungry.
But when the winter came, and the
snow and icicles crested the trees and
whitened the hills, poor Hyacinth was
like a little, languishing, caged bird.
Her face grew wistful and mournful.
She would remain for hours with her
face pressed against the street shoji,
staring out into the white, cold world
that bounded the horizon on all sides.
If you had asked her what she was wait-
ing for, she would have replied:
" I am waiting for the summer, for the
summer brings Koma. He has prom-
ised."
Yet when the summer came no Koma
returned with the flowers and the sun.
Little Hyacinth grew accustomed to
her solitude. The following year she
came under the new edict of education,
63
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
compulsory everywhere in Japan, and,
in spite of her protests, was forced into
school with a half -score of Japanese
children of her own age.
At first she regarded with a fierce de-
testation the school and all connected
with it. Did not the sensei (teacher), on
the very first day, perch his spectacles
upon his nose, and, drawing her by the
sleeve to one side, examine her with the
curiosity he would have bestowed upon
some small animal. The children eyed
her askance. One or two of the larger
ones pointed at her hair, and, laugh-
ing shrilly, called her a strange name.
If familiarity breeds contempt it also
breeds toleration with the young. Hya-
cinth in the beginning had merely ex-
cited the curiosity, not the antipathy, of
the Japanese teacher and his scholars.
But as time passed they became accus-
tomed to the difference between her and
themselves. Gradually she slipped into
being regarded and treated as one of
them.
64
THE HEART OF
Then Hyacinth's small, lonesome soul
expanded to stretch out timid though
passionate glad hands of comradeship to
all the world. She became a favorite,
the very life and soul of the school.
Japanese children are painfully docile
and passive. Never were such strange
spirits infused into a Japanese class be-
fore.
So the years passed, not unhappily,
for Hyacinth. Koma at the end of the
second year was a mere memory, at the
end of the third he was forgotten
wholly forgotten. Such is the fickle
mind of a child of the nature of Hyacinth.
The fourth year brought him back to
Matsushima. He had become very tall,
taller than any of the inhabitants of
Sendai he seemed, quite a head over
them. He wore strange and unpleasant-
looking clothes, such as those worn by
the Reverend Mr. Blount, who was dis-
liked as heartily as his predecessor had
been beloved.
Koma was now an object of the
65
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
est curiosity to Hyacinth. At first his
strange appearance in the house fright-
ened her into speechlessness. Never had
she seen in all her minute experience
such a strange-apparelled being, save, of
course, the "abominable Blount." In
concert with the small children of the
neighborhood, and in spite of the re-
monstrances of Aoi, Hyacinth would
shout strange names whenever the gaunt
figure of the white missionary appeared.
"Forn debbil! Clistian!" such were the
names this little Caucasian bestowed
upon the representative of her race.
She had become the most utter little
backslider, if she could ever have been
considered a member of the church. Re-
spect and awe for the teachings of a care-
ful and pious Shinto teacher, and as-
sociation with a score of Shinto children,
had had their due effect upon Hyacinth,
and the influence of Aoi waned with the
years. Little if anything of the ethics
of the two religions did she understand,
but to her the gods were bright, beaute-
66
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
ous beings, whose temples were glittering
gold, and whose priests kept them fra-
grant with incense and beaming lights
by night. The mission-house was empty,
ugly, dark, and damp so it seemed to
her and an odious man, with terrible,
long hairs falling from his chin, shouted
and gesticulated to a congregation which
often wept and groaned in unison.
The small children shouted derisively
and often threw stones at the " abomi-
nable Blount " when in little groups to-
gether. But when one of their number
met the minister alone, he would run
from him in a sheer agony of fright.
So when Komazawa returned to Sen-
dai, clad in the garments worn by the
missionary, Hyacinth regarded him with
mingled feelings of terror and fascina-
tion.
Though he made ceaseless efforts to
speak to her, she could not be brought
to utter one word in response. His
every movement mystified her. She
would sit on the floor through an entire
6?
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
meal watching him with wide eyes while
he ate in a fashion she had never seen or
heard of before.
Koma had discarded the chop-sticks,
and now used, to the extreme joy and
agitation of Aoi, great silver knives and
forks, which she brought forth from a
mysterious recess, which even the in-
quisitive Hyacinth had never discovered
before.
Koma, distressed over the change in
his little playmate, sought to win her
friendship with presents purchased in
England, boxes of strange sweetmeats
at least he told her they were sweet-
meats. But they were coated with a
black-brown covering which the little
girl regarded suspiciously. She pushed
almost fearfully from her the harmless
chocolate drops. The sugar-coated bis-
cuits tempted her to touch one with the
tip of her tongue, but she retreated the
next moment when she found the red
coloring upon her fingers.
Koma regarded the girl with an ex-
68
'^TfW
"A,
W'
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
pression half whimsical, half tragical,
and, turning to his mother, said:
"Why, the little one is even more
Japanese than I."
Aoi nodded her head, smiling tenderly
at the flushing face of Hyacinth.
"Will you not even speak to Koma
zawa?" she inquired, reproachfully
"Why, that is not kind. Do you
love your august brother?"
As Hyacinth made no response, Koma
held out his hands to her.
"Come here, little one," he said, bend-
ing to her till his face was quite close to
hers.
Her fascinated eyes wandered from
his strange apparel to his face. His
eyes held hers with their strong, tender,
reassuring expression. Half unconscious-
ly she went closer to him.
" Do you not remember me, then?" he
queried, in a soft voice, whose reproach-
ful tones thrilled the girl.
Wistfully she approached him still
closer, only to retreat in panic the next
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
moment. She was like a little wild bird,
shy and fearful, yet half anxious to make
friends with a strange being.
Suddenly she began to cry, drawing
her sleeve across her eyes and turning
her face to the wall. She could not have
told why she wept. Was it fear, childish
conscience, or a slow recognition of her
old, beloved Koma, whose name had be-
come but a word to her?
If she remembered Koma at all, the
memory bore no resemblance to this tall
man-boy who had returned so suddenly
to their home. To her he seemed a
stranger, a fearful intruder.
Hurt to the quick, Madame Aoi whis-
pered to her son. He arose without a
word and disappeared into his room.
Fifteen minutes later, Hyacinth, playing
with a regiment of Japanese doll soldiers
on the floor, having forgotten all her
tears of a few minutes since, leaped to
her feet suddenly, with a strange, little
cry.
There in the middle of the room she
70
Ml . i;tYK Ml- THAT V
HOI
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
stood, holding tightly in her hand her
doll, and staring, as if fascinated by the
smiling figure on the threshold. It was
the same stranger surely, yet, ah, not the
same. A few minutes had wrought such
a change in his appearance. He had
discarded the heavy, dark, mysterious
clothes. He appeared like any other
Japanese youth, save that he was much
taller, and his face smiled down upon the
little girl with an expression whose pow-
er she had been unable to resist even
when he had worn those outlandish gar-
ments. He called to her, softly.
41 Now, come, little one; come, give me
that welcome home."
Her hand unclinched, the doll dropped
to the floor. With a sudden impulse
she ran blindly towards him, and he
caught her in his arms with a great hug,
which was as familiar to her as life it-
self.
IX
IT was late in December, the time of
Great Snow. Komazawa was still in
Sendai, and Hyacinth had been taken
from the school. She was now twelve
years of age, still undeveloped in body
and childish in mind.
Hyacinth, like most impressionable
children, had quickly succumbed to the
influence of the school-teacher. In his
hands she had yielded like plaster to the
sculptor. Out of crude, almost wild, ma-
terial had been developed what seemed
on the surface an admirable example of
a Japanese child.
Komazawa, fresh from four years of
training at an English school and inti-
mate association with English students
and professors, now set about the task
HEART
of undermining all that the sensei had
taught Hyacinth.
This was no light task. Hyacinth
could not unlearn in a few months that
which had practically become ingrained.
Quite useless it was, therefore, for Koma-
zawa to seek to turn the child's mind to
a new and alien point of view, when, too,
this view-point was, in a measure, an ac-
quired thing with Koma himself. Yet he
was patient, and labored unceasingly.
No; the people in the West were not
all savages and barbarians.
" Did they not look like the Reverend
Blount?" would inquire his small pupil.
"Yes, somewhat like him."
then, they perhaps were not
but they certainly were mon-
"Ah,
savages
sters."
41 No; they are very fine peopl
great."
"But only monsters and evil spirits
have hair growing from the chin and
awful, blue-glass eyes," protested Hya-
cinth.
high.
s&
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Whereupon Koma quietly brought a
small mirror from his room, held it be-
fore her face, and bade her look within.
She stared curiously and somewhat
timorously.
"What do you see?" he inquired,
quietly.
"Little girl," she said, in a faint
voice.
"Yes, and what color are her eyes?"
The eyes within the glass became en-
larged with excitement. The lips part-
ed. Hyacinth put her face close to the
glass.
" They are blue, also," she said, shrink-
ing.
"Very well, then. You, also, have blue
eyes, Hyacinth."
"Me!" She stared up at him, aghast.
"Certainly. Is not the little girl in
the glass you?"
"No!" Her dilated eyes strained at
the glass, then looked behind it and
about her. She could see no other little
girl in the room. There was only that
74
THE HEART
face in the shining glass, with its blue,
shiny eyes. With spasmodic working
of features, she regarded it.
"This is you certainly," repeated
Koma, pointing to the reflection.
An uncanny fear took possession of
the little girl. Suddenly she raised
hand, knocking the glass from that o
Koma.
"That's not me. No! That's lie.
am here here! That's not me."
She burst into a passion of tears.
Raising the glass, Koma put it aside.
He sought his mother immediately,
and, with concern and perplexity in his
face, told her of the incident of the
mirror.
"Hyacinth was frightened yes, ac-
tually afraid of the mirror. What can
be the matter?"
"That is only natural," said Aoi.
"And I am much distressed that you
should have frightened her with the
glass."
"But why should it affright her?"
75
THE HEART OF HYACI
NTH
"Because she has never seen one be-
fore."
"Never seen a mirror before?"
"No. It is only of late years that
they have come to Sendai, my son."
"Why, the mirror is as old as the
nation."
"Oh, son, but not for general use. Un-
til recent years they were regarded as
things of mystery, and were very pre-
cious and priceless."
"Yet as a child I had often seen my
father's mirror. Our house contains one,
does it not?"
"True; but it is locked away in our
secret panel."
"But why?"
Aoi hesitated.
" It was, perhaps, a useless custom, my
son. But in my younger days maidens
were not permitted to see their own
faces. The mirror was for the married
woman only. Thus, a maiden was saved
from being vain of her beauty."
Koma frowned impatiently.
son
"A useless and foolish custom, truly.
And now, here in these enlightened times,
you put it into practice with Hyacinth.
Why, you are prolonging the customs of
the ancients here in this house, whic
should be an example of the new
enlightened age."
Meekly Aoi bowed her head.
"You are honorably right, my
yet there was another reason why the
mirror was kept from the sight of the
little one."
"Yes?"
" How could I blast the little one's life
by letting her know of of her peculiar
physical misfortunes?"
' ' Physical misfortunes ! What do you
mean?"
"Why, the hair, eyes, skin how
strange, how unnatural!"
Koma threw back his head and laugh-
ed with an angry note.
"Oh, my mother, you are growing
backward. You are seeing all things
from a narrowing point of view. Be-
77
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
cause Hyacinth is not like other Japan-
ese children, she is not ugly. Why, the
little one is beautiful, quite so, in her
own way."
Aoi appeared troubled.
" You did not consider my father ugly,
did you?"
"Ah no."
"Well, but was he not fair of face?"
"It is true," she admitted ; then, sigh-
ing, added, "But I fear the little one
would not agree with us in the matter.
It might terrify her to see her own face
so different from that of her play-
mates. In heart and nature she is all
Japanese."
"Nay; her natural parts have had no
opportunities. She, like you, has seen
only one side of life and the world. Now,
is it not time to educate her real self?"
With an unconscious motion of dis-
tress, Aoi wrung her hands.
"The task is beyond me, my son. How
can I effect it? Alas! as you say, I am
in the same condition, for am I not
78
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
all Japanese? My lord is gone these
many years. I cannot keep step with
the passage of time. Yes, son, I slip
backward into the old mode of life and
thought. When you were by my side,
you were the prop that kept me awake,
alive. But you were gone so long. Ah!
it seemed as if time would never end."
"Oh, my mother," he cried, "I will
never leave you again. It is I who am
all wrong, wrong I who am the rene-
gade. But we will remain here to-
gether, and you, dear mother, will teach
me all over again the precepts of my
childhood. For these four years I have
been studying, acquiring a new method
of thought and life, yet I fell into it
naturally. My father's blood was strong
in me. Yet, dear mother, now I feel I
have been wrong in leaving you, and I
will not return."
"Oh, son," she said, with trembling
lips, "you are all Engleesh all your
father. And it is right. Do not speak
of remaining here with us. A mother's
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
eyes can see deep beyond the shallows
into her child's soul. I know your rest-
less heart cries for the other world. It
is there, indeed, you belong. And you
must return to this England and the
college."
"But I shall not remain," he said,
throwing his arm about her shoulder.
"No; I shall come back when I am
through college, for you and Hya-
cinth."
Aoi did not speak. Her poor little
hands trembled against his arms.
Fluttering to the door came Hyacinth.
The tear-stains were gone from her face.
In her hand she carried the small Eng-
lish mirror. Evidently she had over-
come her repugnance and fear of it, and
now regarded it as some strange and
active possession.
Aoi looked up at her son with ques-
tioning eyes.
"The little one's new education must
commence at once," he said, slowly.
He went to the child and took the
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
mirror from her hand and again held it
before her face.
"This is the beginning," he said.
"Let her become acquainted with her-
self as she is. This will force a new
trend of thought."
Then to the child:
"Who is this within?" he asked.
"It is I," she said, simply.
She had discovered the secret of the
mirror, and somehow it had lost all
terror for her nay, it held her with a
strange delight and fascination.
"Little one," said Komazawa, kneel-
ing beside her, "look very often into
the honorable mirror every day. There
you will see your own image. You will
not be ignorant of yourself. You will
learn much which the sensei cannot
teach you. Also, go each day to the
mission-house. No; do not shake your
head so. But every day you must go
to the school class. Then very soon,
maybe in three years, I will return and
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Hyacinth looked timidly up into his
earnest face a moment. Then she sud-
denly smiled and dimpled.
"Very well," she said, in English, in
a tone whose note expressed as words
could not her perplexed emotion.
A smile overspread Koma's face.
"Ah," he said, with a glance back at
his mother, "the little one has not for-
gotten."
"Yet," said Aoi, "she has not spoken
it, son, since you left Sendai five years
ago."
THE Reverend Mr. Blount knocked
sharply at the door of Madame Aoi's
house. There was no response at first
to his summons, beyond a slight stir and
bustle at the rear. After a pause the
sliding doors were pushed aside and the
fat face of Mum& appeared for a moment,
to disappear the next. She was heard
chattering, in a grumbling voice, to some
one within.
The visitor, grown impatient, rapped
hard upon the panelling. A moment
later there was the light patter of feet
along the hall and Aoi appeared. She
hastened towards the visitor with an
apologetic expression.
Would the honorable one pardon her
great discourtesy ? She had been taking
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
her noonday siesta and had not heard the
visitor's knock. She would immediate-
ly reprove her insignificantly rude and
ignorant servant for not having shown
the illustrious one welcome and hos-
pitality.
"I want to see Hyacinth," said the
caller, entering the guest-room and slow-
ly removing his kid gloves.
Hyacinth, Aoi informed her visitor,
was also taking her noon sleep. Would
the honorable one deign to excuse her,
or should she disturb the little one?
"Asleep?" he repeated, disapproving-
ly. " How can that be, madame, since I
only just saw her at the window?"
" She must have awakened, then,"
said Aoi, simply.
The other nodded curtly. " No
doubt," he said. He seated himself
stiffly in the only chair in the room, and
when Aoi had quietly seated herself on
a mat some distance from him, he clasp-
ed his hands together and leaned for-
ward towards her.
84
te
J'M
w
i
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Madame Aoi," he said, "I have just
heard the most improbable, ridiculous
tale about Hyacinth."
Madame Aoi elevated her eyes in
gentle question.
"That she is, in fact er engaged
that is, affianced you know what I
mean."
Aoi smiled beamingly. Yes, she ad-
mitted, her daughter was, indeed, be-
trothed to Yamashiro Yoshida, "son of
our most illustrious and respected and
honorable friend in Sendai, Yamashiro
Shawtaro."
"But," said the visitor, after a mo-
ment of speechless surprise, "this is the
most preposterous, impossible of things.
Why this this Yamashiro Shawtaro,
the father of the boy, is one of the most
rabid Buddhists, and, besides, it is bar-
baric, an unheard - of thing, to think
of marrying a girl of her age to any
one."
"The betrothal," said Aoi, with a
slight smile, "was all arranged by the
85
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Yamashiro family. The boy is the
father's salt of life. He cast eyes of
desire upon the little one, and as he is
the richest, noblest, and proudest youth
in Sendai, we have accepted him. All
the town envies us, excellency."
"Does her brother know about this?"
demanded Mr. Blount, severely.
"Oh yes, surely."
"And what does he say? He is Eng-
lish enough to perceive the utter im-
possibility of such a marriage."
"We have not heard from my son yet
in the matter," said Aoi, simply.
"Well," said the other, "I can assure
you that when he knows the truth he
will refuse to countenance it."
"But, illustrious master, how can he
do so? He has not that right."
"He has not the right! Why, even
your Japanese law makes him her right-
ful guardian. He is still a citizen of
Japan. A brother, in Japan, is his sis-
ter's legal guardian. I know this to be
a fact."
86
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Ah, but, honored sir, you do not
know everything."
Mr. Blount looked over his gold-rim-
med spectacles sharply, endeavoring to
pierce beneath the softness of her tone.
Japanese women were all guile was his
inner comment.
"Well, now, suppose you explain to me
why your son is not his sister's guardian ?"
"Because, august minister, he is not
the little one's actual brother."
Mr. Blount started so that he actually
bounded from his seat.
"What do you mean?" he jerked out
to Aoi.
"The little one is only my adopted
child," said Aoi, smiling serenely.
The minister could scarcely believe he
heard aright. The Japanese woman con-
tinued to smile in a manner whose guile-
less, impenetrable innocence of expres-
sion had the effect of irritating him
excessively.
"If Hyacinth is not your child, Ma-
dame Aoi, who are her parents?"
87
THB HEART OF HYACINTH
"The gods forsaken little Hyacinth.
She has no true parents."
In his acute interest in the niatter, the
minister actually overlooked the slip of
Aoi when she alluded to the "gods."
What he said, with his eyes fixed very
sternly upon her face, was:
"You are deceiving me, Madame Aoi.
You are hiding the truth from me."
The slightest frown pa'ssed over Aoi's
face. Her color deepened, then faded,
leaving her inscrutable and impassive
tonce more.
The honorable one was augustly mis-
taken, for the humble one had nothing
to hide. Since the affairs of her adopted
child concerned only her foster-parent,
it was impossible to deceive the honor-
able minister.
It was the visitor's turn to flush, and
I he did so angrily. Plainly this Japan-
ese woman was attempting to conceal,
with the prevarication and guile of her
people, some mystery concerning Hya-
cinth. If the girl was not the daughter
88,
.
EART
her English husband, who then
was she? She certainly was not pure
Japanese. Could it be that she was not
even in part Japanese? The possibility
staggered the missionary.
"Madame Aoi, you are taking a most
unusual attitude towards me to-day."
Aoi inclined her head in a motion that
might have meant either assent or ne-
gation.
" Hitherto," continued the other, "you
have not hesitated to accept my advice "
"In matters concerning that religion,
yes," interposed Aoi, softly.
"Which surely concerns all other mat-
ters connected with your welfare and
that of Hyacinth. No one knows better
than you do that the lives of our parish-
ioners, our children, are our particular
care and charge. I take the interest of a
parent in our little band. So you would
not withhold your confidence from a
parent?"
"What is it the honorable sir would
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"The history of Hyacinth who she
is, how you came by her, her people's
name all information about her."
"There is nothing to confide," said
Aoi, slowly, as though she chose her
words carefully before replying. "The
old excellency knew the history of the
child. It was under his advice that
the humble one adopted the little
one."
"Under Mr. Radcliffe's advice!"
"Yes."
"What did he know of Hyacinth?"
"The excellency deigned to make ef-
fort to discover the little one's parents."
"But you don't mean to tell me that
you did not know her parents?"
1 ' Only the mother, and she lived but
a day after the coming of the child."
"Did Mr. Radcliffe fail to find her
father?"
Nervously Aoi clasped her hands to-
gether. She did not answer.
" Did he find her father?" repeated Mr.
Blount.
90
THE HEART O
Aoi looked at him with a gleam of
stubbornness in her glance.
"If the excellency did not make con-
fidant of you before he died, why should
I do so, also?"
"It is your duty, madame."
She shook her head slowly.
"Certainly, it is your duty. It is per-
fectly plain that Hyacinth is a white
that she's not pure Japanese, at all
events."
Aoi moved uneasily. Then she looked
up very earnestly at her interlocutor.
"The little one knows nothing of her
parentage, save that she is an orphan
confided to my care. It would distress
her to be told that that she is not
Japanese."
"Then you admit that?"
"No; I do not so admit. I but
begged the honorable one to put no
such notion into her mind, so sorely
would it distress her."
"I wouldn't think of keeping her in
ignorance," exclaimed the other, with
9'
V
i
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
some indignation. "She ought to have
been told the truth long ago. I shall
certainly tell her."
"What can you tell her?"
Aoi had risen and was regarding the
missionary with a strange expression.
"That I suspect she is not Japanese
not all Japanese."
"She would not believe you," said
Aoi, thoughtfully.
" I will see her at once, if you will allow
me," said Mr. Blount, also rising. He
was somewhat startled at the attitude
and the reply of Aoi. She had placed
herself before the door, as if to prevent
the passage of any one desiring to enter.
"My daughter will not see visitors to-
day," she said. "You will excuse her."
The next moment she had clapped her
hands loudly. In answer to her sum-
mons, Mume came shuffling into the
room, hastily wiping her hands upon her
sleeves, and looking inquiringly towards
her mistress.
"The illustrious one," said Aoi, with
92
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
intense sweetness, "wishes to return
home. Pray, conduct him to the street."
She bowed with profound grace to the
missionary, and stepped aside to permit
him to pass.
He hesitated a moment, and then said,
slowly and succinctly:
" Madame Aoi, I have only this to say.
I shall immediately take it upon myself
to unravel this mystery. I will com-
municate with the nearest open port at
once, and find out whether my prede-
cessor had correspondence with any one
on this subject. Good-day." He bow-
ed stiffly.
G\
XI
MEANWHILE Hyacinth lay stretched
upon the matted floor of her chamber,
her chin in one hand, the other holding
an ancient oval mirror. She was study-
ing her face closely, critically, and also
wistfully.
The head was quaintly Japanese, yet
the face was oddly at variance. For the
hair was dressed in the prevailing mode
of the Japanese maid of beauty and
fashion in Sendai. It was a very elab-
orate coiffure, spread out on either side
in the shape of the wings of a butterfly.
Upon both sides of the little mountain
at top projected long, dagger-like pins;
gold they were and jewelled the gift of
Yoshida.
Hyacinth no longer fretted under the
hands of a hair-dresser, since it was her
94
7
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
pride and delight to have her hair dress-
ed in this becoming and striking mode.
If the hair-dresser, who came once a
fortnight, puckered her face and shook
her head when the beautiful, soft, brown
locks twisted about her fingers, and di
not follow the usual plastic method
used upon the hair of most Japanese
maids, Hyacinth cared little. When the
operation was completed, her hair, dark,
shining, and smooth, appeared little dif-
ferent from that of other girls in the
village.
It was the face beneath the coiffure
that distressed the girl. The eyes were
undoubtedly gray-blue. They were large,
too, and wore an expression of wistful
questioning which had only come there,
perhaps, since the girl had begun to look
into the mirror and to discover the secret
of those strange, unnatural eyes.
The whiteness of her skin pleased her.
What girl of her acquaintance would not
be glad of such a complexion ? She had
small use for the powder-pot, into which
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
her friends must dip so freely. Her
mouth was rosy, the teeth within white
and sparkling. Her chin was dimpled
at the side and tipped with the same rose
that dwelt in her rounded cheeks. The
little nose was thin and delicate, piquant
in shape and expression.
Why should such a face have dis-
tressed her? She would not admit to
herself that she was homely. Perfume,
Dewdrop, Spring what did their judg-
ment amount to? They were rude, un-
couth even to have hinted at her "de-
formities." They were one-eyed, seeing
but one type of beauty. There must be
another kind, for she was surely, surely
beautiful. Then she fell into a reverie
in which she speculated upon the pos-
sible existence of another people whose
maidens' hair and eyes were not like the
night, but reflected the day.
Yet Yoshida, the son of Yamashiro
Shawtaro, had actually suggested to her
once, with a shamefaced expression, that
if she stood in the sun-rays the goddess
THE HEART OF
might darken her skin and eyes! Also,
he had brought her, all the way from
Tokyo, a little box of oil with which to
shade her hair!
The oil had disappeared in the bay,
though the pretty box in which it had
come had been placed with the other
gifts of Yoshida. As for the sun-god-
dess those at the mission - house had
insisted that there was no such being.
Great and wise were the mission-house
people, since they had come from the
land of Komazawa.
Komazawa represented to her all that
was fine and great and good. He was
the beloved of Aoi, and the good God
had given him to her for a brother and a
hero. He wrote to her every week from
the other end of the world, never for-
getting. His letters were the sun and
light of Aoi's life, and Hyacinth shared
with her something of the joy of re-
ceiving them. These two talked of him
always. They watched for his letters,
and devoured them with eager little
97
ML*
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
outcries to each other when they
rived.
He was in London. College was done
for the year. He was going to Cheshire,
though apprehensive of the welcome he
would receive from his father's people.
But the lawsuit had been won, with
scarcely any struggle. His claim, his
papers, withstood the closest of legal
scrutiny. Yes; he was now an English-
man, almost entirely. Yet, ah, how he
longed for home for his mother and for
little Hyacinth. The estate was very
large, his lawyers told him, so large that
he could not live there alone. Soon he
was coming to take back with him the
little mother and sister. Yes; it would
be strange at first, but they would soon
become accustomed to it. It was a cold
country, and the milk of human kind-
ness ran not freely, but it satisfied the
desires of an ambitious one.
So ran his last letter.
Hyacinth wondered, vaguely, what he
would say when he. returned to Japan
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
and found that she could not accom-
pany him. By that time she would be
married married to Yamashiro Yoshida,
who was rich and owned large stores in
Tokyo, and who sometimes wore an
English hat, the envy and marvel of all
the gilded youth of Sendai.
Upon her cogitations came Aoi, trem-
bling and anxious. She hovered a mo-
ment over the girl, hesitation and worry
depicted in her countenance.
In surprise, Hyacinth looked up at
her, then, carefully slipping the mirror
into her sleeve, raised herself erect.
"What is troubling you, mother?
Why, your hands tremble. I will hold
them. You have news from Koma?
What is it?"
"No, little one; it is not of Koma I
speak."
"Of whom, then?"
"Of you."
"Then smile instantly. I am an in-
significant subject for mirth, not tears."
"Little one, if the right of freedom
99
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
were given you, would you leave the
humble one?"
" No; not in ten million years. What
sort of freedom would that be?"
"Yet the learned ones at the mission-
house will surely persuade you to take
some such step."
Hyacinth laughed scornfully.
"One cannot persuade a humming-
bird to come to one's hand. No; nor
can these ones of the mission - house
persuade me to do aught against my
will."
"But they of the mission-house Mr.
Blount insinuated that we have not the
right to possess you."
"He is foolish. He has blue eyes,"
said she of the blue eyes, disdainfully.
"Yet it is true that we have no legal
right to you," said Aoi, sadly.
"No? And why have you not?"
"Because I am not your real mother,
and the time may come when others
may claim you."
"Since my own mother is gone, has
roo
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
not my foster-mother all right over
me?"
"I do not know the law as to that,"
said Aoi. "Oh, if the old, good ex-
cellency were but still alive to enlighten
and advise us."
"Mother," said Hyacinth, looking up
with questioning, wistful eyes at Aoi,
"I have never asked a question of you
concerning my own mother. You were
always enough for me. I needed no
other parent, dear, dear one. Yet now
I would ask, can you tell me aught con-
cerning my people?"
"No, little one. The sick one gave
to me no information of her people.
The good excellency made effort to find
them, but failed."
"My mother was a stranger to Sen-
dai?"
"Yes, a stranger."
"And she left nothing nothing for
me?"
Aoi hesitated a moment, then, cross-
ing the room, slipped her hand deftly
101
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
along the wall and pushed aside a small
panel. Hyacinth arose slowly. Her eyes
were apprehensive, her lips apart. She
had grown white with expectation.
"Here, in your own chamber, little
one, is all that the august one left. I
would have given you them on your
wedding-day."
Fearfully the girl touched the things
in the little cupboard. How long had
they lain there untouched ? There were
a woman's strange dress, white under-
wear, a queer, basket-shaped thing with
dark feathers upon it, a pair of black
Suede gloves, small shoes, and then, in a
little heap, three rings a plain gold
band, one with a large diamond, another
with a ruby set between two smaller
diamonds. Also a little chamois-skin
bag containing a little roll of green bills
and some strange coin.
Upon her knees Hyacinth fell beside
the little shelf, and she stretched her
arms out over it, burying her face in her
sleeves.
102
m
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
For a long time neither of the two
uttered a word. When the girl raised
her face, after a long interval, it was
very white, and tears streamed down her
cheeks. She put out a little, groping
hand to Aoi.
"Oh, you were good to her, were you
not were you not?" she whisperingly
cried.
Aoi could not speak.
After a time the girl arose and rev-
erently pushed the panel into place.
"The things are Engleesh," she said,
slowly. "Is it not strange?"
"Yes," said Aoi, brokenly.
Yet even then she did not tell the girl
the truth. Why she had hidden this
fact always from Hyacinth she could
hardly have explained even to herself
She thought she had but waited for th
girl to come to years of understandin
Afterwards, when the proud Yamashi
family condescended to seek alliance
with her, Aoi, faintheartedly fearful lest
they should refuse to permit the mar-
103
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
riage if they knew the truth, had care-
fully guarded the secret even from the
girl. She knew that only a few people
in the little village of Matsushima had
heard of the history of the girl. It was
only recently that they had moved to
the City of Sendai. This match with the
Yamashiro family was a thing so splen-
did as to be regarded with awe by Aoi.
It could not be possible that such a
chance would ever come again to her
adopted daughter.
Now she said to the girl, placing both
her hands upon her shoulders:
"Promise me, then, that you will re-
fuse to discuss this subject with the
mission-house people."
"I will not even see them," said
the girl, stooping to kiss the anxious
face.
"For if you should do so," said Aoi,
sadly, " they might persuade you to aban-
don us."
"Ah, no; never, mother. No one
could ever do so."
104
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Save Yamashiro Yoshida," said Aoi,
quickly.
A cloud stole for an instant over the
girl's face. She sighed as she repeated,
half under her breath:
"Save Yoshida perhaps "
XII
ABOUT a fortnight later the honorable
Yamashiro family condescended to pay
a visit to the house of Aoi. Although
they lived but a field's length away,
they came in their carriages, very ele-
gant jinrikishas, drawn by liveried run-
ners.
The father was imperious and lordly.
A man of samurai birth, he had been one
of the first to take advantage of the
change in government and go imme-
diately into trade, thus placing behind
him all the traditions of caste. In
Tokyo he had acquired an enormous
fortune. He had a partnership there
in a European store. He had purchased
much of the land in the region of Sendai,
and the townspeople looked with some
apprehensions upon his steady advance,
106
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
knowing that wherever he set his heel
the land was despoiled of beauty.
Sendai in these latter years had be-
come quite a bustling commercial city,
and all because of Yamashiro's enter-
prise. In ten years he had altered the
little coast town's exclusive policy. Thus
the townspeople came to believe that
Sendai could no longer remain a seclud-
ed place of abode, but would become
an ugly, commercial centre, a stamping-
ground for tradespeople, and in time an
open port for the barbarians. In the
face of the dissatisfaction of his towns-
people Yamashiro steadily kept to his
march of progress. Realizing that he
could never have the affection of his
neighbors, he openly tried to play the
despot over them.
A plastic little pupil was his wife, the
typical Japanese matron, who, bowing
to the will of her lord in all things,
scarcely ever spoke save to echo his
words, and who lived but for his pleasure
and comfort.
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
The boy Yoshida was like his father,
save that he spent his restlessness upon
the pleasures of youth. Having no oc-
casion to work, and being provided with
an unlimited supply of money, Yoshida
frittered his way through life with the
idle and rich young men of Sendai, lei-
surely inventing amusements for them-
selves, seeking and chasing every butter-
fly. Not a geisha of Sendai but knew
the gallant Yoshida.
Then, mothlike, with a daintier and
as gay a fluttering of wings as the
geishas, Hyacinth had crossed his path.
Aoi had moved her home about this
time from the little village on the shore
of the bay to the city proper. This oc-
curred after Komazawa's English lawsuit
had been settled, so that the family were
now living in more affluent circum-
stances.
Actually abandoning his geishas, Yo-
shida, to the envy of the town's young
belles and beauties, offered himself to
the daughter of Madame Aoi, the girl
108
THE HEART OF
whose eyes did not slant in shape, and
yet which had a trick of closing half-way
and then glancing out sideways. It
was as if Hyacinth, with her wide eyes,
had unconsciously fallen into the habit
of copying nature, where all eyes about
her were narrow and seemingly half
d.
On this day Yoshida and his parents
rought gifts for Aoi and her daughter ;
gorgeous gifts they were and very costly.
The girl, quite forgetful of the presence
of the watchful parents of her lover,
threw all her manners to the winds
when she beheld the exquisite obi her
father-in-law-elect had brought her from
Tokyo. Out c f the room she slipped, to
return in the space of a few minutes,
fluttering in through the sliding-doors
like a bird of gay plumage, her eyes
brighter, her cheeks and lips rosier than
the red gold obi twisted so entrancingly
about her slender waist.
Yet in her brief absence the Yama-
shiro family had exchanged significant
109
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
glances and commented upon her rude
actions.
"Your worthy daughter, Madame
Aoi," said Yamashiro, the elder, "should
be placed under the care of a severe
governess."
Aoi looked appealingly from the dis-
pleased face of Yamashiro to his wife.
The latter sat still as an image, her small
vermilion-tipped lips closely sealed to-
gether like those of a doll.
"You would not delay the marriage,
excellent Yamashiro?" inquired Aoi,
faintly, the match-making vanities of a
mother stirring within her.
"It might be well," said Yamashiro,
stiffly. Languidly the boy interposed:
"Ah, well, she will have time to learn
when she has the father and mother-in-
law to teach and command her."
"True," said his father, and "True"
echoed his mother, stonily, scarce part-
ing her lips to enunciate the word.
Then Hyacinth fluttered in gay ly, and
the light of her smile fell upon them
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
like a shaft of sunlight, to be dissipated,
a moment later, by the enshrouding mist.
She paused in her tripping pilgrimage
of pride across the room, glanced flur-
riedly at the guests, then sat down has-
tily beside Madame Aoi. The next
moment she was as quiet and still as
Madame Yamashiro herself. Her eyes
were cast down, as became her age, but
even when cast down they gazed in girl-
ish pleasure on the splendor of the new
sash.
"Madame Aoi," said Yamashiro, the
elder, ' ' we come to-day not upon a visit
of pleasure, but for a purpose."
Madame Aoi inclined her head atten-
vely.
You may not, perhaps, have heard
the latest news of the town. We are to
have an invasion of the barbarians
Western people, in fact."
"Ah, indeed!" Aoi's eyebrows were
raised in surprise. " No, I have not heard
the report."
Yamashiro breathed heavil;
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Well, this matter brings us to the
object of our visit. It has been brought
to my knowledge that such an invasion
will be sure to affect the townspeople,
particularly those who have hitherto
mingled with these people."
Aoi flushed faintly.
"You allude to the mission people?"
she asked.
"Yes, madame."
Aoi bowed. Hyacinth elevated her
head ever so slightly. She leaned for-
ward, and her eyes, the lids downcast,
Were glancing upward sidewise beneath
them.
"Such of our people," continued
Yamashiro, "as have chosen to affiliate
with the foreigners already permitted
here are likely to be intimately associ-
ated with the new arrivals, especially
those who have married among them."
He paused, and coughed in his hand.
"You perceive that the bad effect of
such association must be felt by those
of us who will not deign to give them
112
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
our friendship. Therefore, madame,
knowing that your honorable daughter
has spent much time with these people,
we desire that hereafter she shall de-
cline all such intimacy."
Aoi bowed her head almost to the
"It shall be as your excellency de-
sires," she said.
Then, raising her head, she asked;
"When do the honorable ones come,
and why do they come?"
"They may be here already," replied
Yamashiro, "and the reason why they
come is because some witless members
of our community have advertised in
the open ports the unusual beauty of
Sendai as a summer resort. The foreign-
ers come out of curiosity. It is very
unpleasant."
"Yet, excellency," said the girl, with
her candid gaze upon him, "were you
net the pioneer in Sendai of those who
induced intercourse with these barba-
18?"
wm
/ k
K
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"The wares of Sendai," replied the
other, coldly, "were placed in Tokyo for
the foreigner to purchase. We did not
invite the foreigner to our city."
"Sendai is not an open port," inter-
posed Aoi, speaking so that her daughter
might cease with grace. " How can the
foreigners, then, invade it?"
"They have no legal rights, but their
consuls, always rapacious, have power
with his Imperial Majesty. They have
obtained his sanction just as did these
missionaries."
"Too bad," said Aoi.
Hyacinth fidgeted. After a moment,
looking fully at Yoshida, she asked:
"Are their women beautiful?"
"No, abominably ugly," he returned,
frowning contemptuously.
A small, roguish smile dimpled the
girl's lips.
"Perhaps," said she, "I am also like
unto them."
"Never!" said Yoshida, angrily.
were," said his father, "you
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
would never be wife to a Yamashiro.
No Yamashiro would marry a white
barbarian."
The Yamashiro family believed Hy-
acinth half English. This fact galled
them, but they ignored it.
Hastily, nervously, Aoi moved closer
to her daughter, laying her hand upon
the little ones in the girl's lap.
"Please, little one," she said, "bring
for the august ones the pipes and the
tobacco-bon."
Outside the closed shoji the girl paused
and drew from her sleeve the little hand
mirror. She looked deeply into it, her
eyes wide open now.
"Perhaps," she said, "I am like unto
them. They are not abominably ugly,
if they look like me. No, for Komazawa
is also of their blood, and I and those
clothes were Engleesh."
XIII
Two strangers to Sendai, tall and un-
couth-appearing foreigners, came down
the main street, walking in the swift,
swinging fashion peculiar to the West-
erner, so totally unlike the shuffling
slide of the native.
They seemed both amused and irri-
tated at the sensation they were creat-
ing, for a veritable little procession fol-
lowed at their heels. Small, solemn,
and mystified Japanese boys they were
for the most part, who regarded them
with the same awesome curiosity they
would have bestowed on a wild beast.
A round -eyed, startled little boy of
twelve had followed them all the way
from the station, through which they
had entered the city. Others had quick-
ly joined him, until gradually the follow-
116
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
ing had increased uncomfortably for the
foreigners, since these astonished and cu-
rious Japanese ran sometimes ahead of
them, to stand in their track and gaze
up at their faces.
Annoyed, the strangers quickened
their speed to a rapid gait, which forced
the sandal-wearers into a run in order
to keep pace with them.
It was noonday and very warm. No
jinrikishas were in sight. The strangers
would have welcomed the piping cries of
the numerous jinrikisha men of Tokyo,
who had pestered and swarmed about
them there like flies. Here in the City
of Sendai there appeared to be no public
jinrikisha stand as yet, and the "tavern "
to which they had been directed had not
as yet dawned upon their vision.
"We seem to be on the chief street,"
said one of them. "Better turn here."
They turned swiftly down a cross-
street which seemed rather a long road,
on the sides of which tall bamboos
sprang upward to a great height, bend-
117
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
ing at the top into an arch which cast
its shade below. The houses were set
back some distance from the road,
though garden walls, in which were small
bamboo gates, isolated each dwelling.
The foreigners had now slackened their
speed. Their following had diminished
considerably, and those who remained
were now keeping at a respectful dis-
tance from the heavy cane which one
of the two swung back and forth in
his hand with apparent carelessness.
There was a hideous head on the knob
of this stick. Was it possible that this
might be a fiend whose touch would
kill any little boy venturing too near?
So the strangers, less troubled by their
dwindled following, began to look about
them with some interest.
The street upon which they found
themselves appeared cool and refreshing
because of its shadowing trees. There
was an atmosphere of refinement and
aestheticism about it that delighted the
appreciative foreigners.
118
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Do you see where it leads?" said the
one of the cane, pointing with his stick
down the thoroughfare.
"Straight down to the water. What
a wonderful sight!"
At a point where the street curved up-
ward to a slight elevation, Matsushima,
still at a good distance from them, burst
upon their view. The visitors stood as
if entranced. One of them lifted a pair
of field-glasses to his eyes. After a full
minute's use of the glasses, he passed
them silently to his companion. The
other regarded the scene with equal ad-
miration.
"We must go up there to-morrow
without fail," he said, waving his hand
towards the heights on the opposite
shore.
"Yes," assented the other; "I under-
stand there's quite a party coming along
to-morrow."
"Yes, some Tokyo priest is escorting
them. Well, a tourist might well visit.
the cemetery of his household."
119
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
The other regarded him with some be-
wilderment.
"The cemetery of his household?" he
repeated.
"This is the place where, three hun-
dred years ago, a Japanese feudal lord,
named Date, I believe, sent an envoy
to Rome acknowledging the Catholic su-
premacy. This is practically the birth-
place of Catholicism in Japan."
"Well, this is all very interesting, I
must say. Yet I understand the only
mission here, at present, is Presbyte-
rian."
" Exactly. Catholicism has been prac-
tically stamped out. There was a hor-
rible massacre of the Jesuits here at one
time, I believe. This visit by the priest
and the party may do something for the
place."
They resumed their walk in silence.
"I don't fancy," said the elder one,
"that it will be possible for us to shake
off this little herd behind us. The thing
for us to do is to find that will-o'-the-wisp
1 20
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
of a tavern or the mission-house. Where
do you suppose the place is?"
"The mission-house, rest assured, is
elevated on some hill. Suppose we turn
upward and "
He broke off, at the same time stop-
ping abruptly in his walk.
They were before a little garden com-
posed of white stones and fantastic-
spreading trees, seeming to bend their
boughs over the miniature lake as if to
regard their own reflected beauty. But
it was not the distinction of the gar-
den which attracted and startled the
strangers, but the little figure which
leaned over the gate.
Filtering through the tree-top by the
gate, the sun slanted full upon the head
of the girlish form, bronzing the hair
almost to the color of deep gold. The
girl's eyes were wide open as if with faint
surprise, her lips were apart, and she
was plainly flushed with some unwonted
excitement. She wore a plum-colored
kimono,
About
-*$^
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
her waist was an old-gold obi, and there
was a flower ornament in her hair. The
wings of her sleeves fell backward, dis-
closing arms of perfect whiteness and
little hands which clung in tremulous
excitement to the bamboo railing of the
gate.
The tourists had been some months in
Japan. One of them was an attache* to
an American consulate. Well acquaint-
ed as they were with the soft - eyed,
cherry -lipped beauty of young Japan-
ese girls, they stood speechless, startled,
before the picture that Hyacinth pre-
sented, as she in her turn gazed in wide-
eyed astonishment at them. The mis-
sion-house folk were the only Westerners
she had ever seen. These strangers did
not at all resemble the Reverend Blount
or his friends who came at different
times to visit him. Even their clothes
had a different cut, and their pleasant
faces, in spite of their light eyes, to
which she could never become accus-
tomed, were shaven smooth and clean.
122
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
No devils, thought Hyacinth quickly,
would have such countenances. A mis-
take had been made in the popular im-
pression. Nevertheless, the strangers
were certainly odd curiosities.
She blushed all rosy red, even her
little ears and neck tingling with pink,
as they paused before her. Half un-
consciously she bent her head and made
a timid little motion of greeting to them.
The younger man, the one with the
huge stick, said, in an undertone, "I'm
going to speak to her," and he went a
pace nearer.
"Can you tell me where the Dewdrop
Tavern is?" he asked, in atrocious Jap-
anese.
For a moment she hesitated. Then
the faintest smile lurked at the corners
of her mouth and a dimple peeped out in
her chin. Her voice was sweet and
low.
"The humble one cannot understand
such language," she said, pretending ig-
norance of his words, and secretly hoping
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
that she might provoke further speech
from these strange men.
Before the stranger could frame his
question in plainer language, Aoi ap-
peared in the path, hastening down
anxiously to the gate. She was over-
whelmed with distress, she declared,
that the august ones were followed so
rudely by the children of the community.
Would not the excellencies condescend
to pardon the little ones? They must
appreciate how strange they appeared
to them. But as for her, Madame Aoi,
she was well acquainted with their peo-
ple, since her own lord had been Eng-
lish also.
The two men looked at each other and
then at the young girl, as though under-
standing now her strange beauty.
"What," asked Aoi, "is it the ex-
cellencies desire that they have deigned
to halt before our insignificant abode?"
"We wish to be directed to some
tavern some place where we can secure
accommodation. ' '
124
THE HEART
"Ah, yes, exactly. In the village on
the shore of Matsushima there is the
Dewdrop Tavern, but that is some dis-
tance away. If the excellencies will fol-
low the street for a little while longer
they will come to the Snowdrop Hos-
telry. There the honorable ones would
be welcomed with august hospitality."
The strangers lingered a moment,
watching the two figures at the gate, now
courtesying very deeply. Then they
turned slowly and resumed their walk.
Hyacinth turned to Aoi in great ex-
citement.
"I am going to follow them also,
mother. I wish to hear them speak
again. What strange, deep voices! It
was enough to make a maiden jump
ten feet with fright. And how the gods
have blasted their countenances! Did
you notice, mother, how their skins were
bleached like white linen?"
She shuddered.
Aoi smiled indulgently.
"When one becomes accustomed to
125
f
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
the white skin, little one, it appears ve
beautiful."
"Ah, not on a man!" said the girl, with
immeasurable disgust. "But perhaps
it is a custom of their country. Who
knows! They are barbarians, are they
not? Perhaps these men whiten or
chalk their skins like the priestesses at
the temple."
"Nay, it is all natural."
But Hyacinth shook her head, still
uncertain. Such beings were unnatural,
more so even than the Reverend Blount
or the mission men. Curiosity stirred
within her. She must know if the
strangers acted as the human beings she
knew. Quickly she formed a plan. She
would follow them at a distance and slip
in at the back entrance of the Snowdrop
Hostelry. Then surely her friend, Miss
Perfume, the daughter of the proprietor
of the tavern, would permit her to listen
behind the shoji, and to watch these
curious strangers, unperceived, through
peep-holes in the wall.
126
XIV
THE Snowdrop Hostelry was as quaint
and refreshing as its name. Here the
low -voiced, shy -faced mistress over-
whelmed the strangers with expressions
of welcome, while her maidens vied with
one another in caring for their comfort.
The strangers were accustomed to the
eccentricities of the country, and so with
resignation they seated themselves upon
the floor, where or* little, brightly polish-
ed lacquer trays the waiting-maids set
out for them an inviting and delightful
repast. Upon one tray was fresh and
fragrant tea; egg, fish, rice, and soup on
another; fruit persimmons and plums
on a third; and on a fourth slender,
long-stemmed pipes and huge tobacco-
bons.
"Now," said the younger of the two,
127
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"we can talk with some degree of com-
fort and privacy."
At his companion's slight glance of
uneasiness towards the waiting -maids,
the other assured him they could not
understand English.
"Let us go over the entire matter
from the beginning, then," said the other
man. "Mr. Matheson, our consul, as-
sured me that you would give me all the
assistance and information you could."
"Oh, certainly; but you must remem-
ber, Mr. Knowles, that I am entirely in
ignorance as to what information you
desire. Mr. Matheson gave me a num-
ber of papers in the Lorrimer affair, and
I presume this case is in some way con-
nected with yours."
"Exactly. I am Mr. Lorrimer's at-
torney, and have been four months in
Japan looking up this matter."
"Yes?"
"You already know the circum-
stances?"
"No, not at all. Except that a letter
128
_
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
from some missionary started Mr.
Matheson on an investigation which
brought to light a letter written about
seventeen years ago to the Nagasaki
consul. He was an awful fool the
consul, you know let everything take
care of itself; so this matter was clean
forgotten, or rather ignored. It seems
his successor was a brighter fellow, and
nt the correspondence from Sendai
Nagasaki on to Tokyo."
"Yes, and I believe the letters you
hold will supply the missing links. Let
me tell you the facts of the case that
is so far as I know them. About
eighteen years ago, Mr. Lorrimer was
married to a Miss Barbara Woodward,
a Boston girl. The marriage was one of
those unfortunate, hasty, society affairs
in which the parents play the leading
parts."
"I understand," the other nodded.
" They were mismated," continued the
narrator ' ' unsuited to each other in
every way. Their temperaments con-
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
stantly jarred; they had few interests in
common. Life became a burden to
them. Time, however, did much to
heal the breach, and finally Mrs. Lor-
rimer expected to become a mother.
They were in Japan at the time, and
she had a fancy that the child should be
born here. In spite of her happy ex-
pectations, she became excessively mor-
bid and pessimistic. She began to have
hallucinations, to suspect my client of
impossible things infidelity and so forth
and hence acted as only a thoroughly
unreasonable woman would. She con-
ceived an unreasoning dislike for a Miss
Farrell, and, I understand, accused her
husband of being in love with the lady.
Doubtless, fancying she was wronged,
the poor, misguided thing left her hus-
band in short, ran away from him.
Mr. Lorrimer took steps to ascertain
her whereabouts, but was unsuccessful.
Under the circumstances he returned to
Boston, secured a divorce, and ah
married Miss Farrell."
130
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
The younger man frowned and cleared
his throat slightly.
"Ugly affair," he simply essayed,
quietly.
"Yes, it was. Average woman a fool.
But now I come to my point. There
was a child."
The young man whistled softly.
"I see. And the father wants it?"
"Naturally."
"And the law gives it to him?"
"Certainly. But we have reason,
fortunately, to believe that in this case
the power of the law will not be nec-
essary. The mother, we believe, is
dead."
"Ah!"
"Now I come to the papers in your
hand."
"Oh yes; here they are. I haven't
even looked at them."
"Ah!" The sheet trembled in the
lawyer's hand. Adjusting his glasses,
he read the paper carefully, and then
struck it sharply with his hand.
f
nv*l
< 0-^^*4 ^^vS/l
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"This is exactly what we want," he
said; "it is enough in itself."
"Yes," said the other, laconically.
"It gives us the subsequent history
of the wife and practically the where-
abouts of the child at that time. Good!"
"I can't see why it is necessary for
me to come. It's devilish hot," said the
her, mopping his brow complainingly.
My good fellow, you are lent to me by
our consul. I believe you can assist me
in the work of finding the child. It-
she is here in Sendai, it seems or
she was. Let's see what the other mis-
sionary writes."
He unfolded the letter and read:
"American Consul, Tokyo:
"I take the liberty of addressing this letter
to the various English, American, and German
consuls in Japan. I wish to advise you that
there is a white child in Sendai, the adopted
daughter of a Japanese woman, concerning
whose parentage there appears to be some
mystery. The child has been brought up
entirely as a Japanese girl, and does not know
as yet of her true nationality. She is soon
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
to be married to a Japanese youth, a Buddhist
by religion. As she is a minor, and I con-
sider this an outrage, I am of the opinion
that steps should be taken to ascertain the
parentage of this young white girl.
"I am, with respect,
"(Rev.) JAMES BLOUNT."
4 ' Whew !" said the younger man . ' ' We
must be hot on the girl's trail. It would
be a coincidence, wouldn't it, though, if
she proved to be the same."
"The former missionary also wrote
from Sendai," said the lawyer. "There
is not the smallest doubt in my mind
that the child is the same."
There was a slight stir behind the
paper shoji beside them, causing the two
men to glance towards it quickly. Then,
with slight frowns, they nodded com-
prehendingly to each other.
"One of the unpleasant things of this
country," said the younger man, "is
that privacy is an unknown quantity.
As you perceive, we have had not only
watchers but auditors."
133
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
He indicated with a nod of his head
a few little holes in the shoji, through
one of which a little rosy-tipped finger
protruded, as it carefully and cautiously
widened the opening. The next mo-
ment the finger withdrew, and an eye,
withdrawn from a smaller hole above,
was applied to the larger hole. And the
eye was blue!
"Christmas!" cried the attorney,
springing to his feet indignantly. "Our
listeners are not merely Japanese, it
seems."
In vexation he strode to the shoji,
shook it angrily, and then savagely
pushed it aside.
There was a great fluttering from
within. The sliding - doors were now
pushed wide apart, showing the inner
apartment in its entirety. A bright-
hued kimono was disappearing around
an angle which led to a long hall, and
close upon its heels a girl in a plum-
colored kimono tripped and fell to the
floor in a heap. Over to her strode the
THE HEART OF
ACINTH
two men. She put her head to the mats
and crouched in speechless fear and
shame.
"What do you want?" the elder one
demanded; "and what do you mean by
listening at the door like this?"
She spoke with her head still bent to
the floor.
"The insignificant one wished only to
listen to the voices of the excellencies."
The peculiar quality of her voice
struck the men with a familiar tone.
It was a voice they had heard but a lit-
tle time since but where ?
"But some white somebody with
blue eyes was here, too somebody not
Japanese."
"Excellency is augustly mistaken."
Excellency was not augustly mistaken,
and if she did not explain immediately,
excellency said he would raise the roof.
Whereat she got to her feet very
slowly, and lifted her face in strangely
tremulous appeal to them. They rec-
ognized her instantly.
135
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Those abominable blue eyes," she
said, "alas, belong unto me." She bow-
ed in humble deprecation.
"What were you doing?"
"Pray, pardon the foolish one. I did
follow you to gaze upon you," she said.
Flattered against their will, and fasci-
nated by the girl's peculiar beauty, the
men smiled upon her.
' ' And why did you wish to gaze upon
us?"
"Because, excellencies, the humble
one wanted to satisfy herself whether
the illustrious ones were gods or
She retreated from them ever so
slightly.
" or," the younger man repeated
or what?"
"Devils," she said, in a whisper.
They burst into laughter. All their
good-nature was restored in a moment.
"And what are we?" inquired the
elder man.
"Neither," she said, looking at their
136
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
faces very earnestly. "You only just
plain men just like me same thing."
"How is it you could not understand
our Japanese before, yet you answer us
now?"
" My ears were stupid then. They are
brighter now," was her paradoxical re-
sponse.
The elder man turned to the other.
"I've an idea; let's question her.
She's a half-caste, apparently, and may
be able to help us in the search for the
Lorrimer child."
"Good idea?*_
"Give me the first letter. Better
make sure of the woman's name. Ah,
here it is Madame A peculiar, unpro-
nounceable name."
"'Hollyhock' in English," said the
younger, looking over his shoulder.
The girl suddenly turned to the
strangers.
" Excellencies, I also understand liddle
bit Engleesh," she said.
"You do?"
'37
:/w
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Yes. And I also listen to that con-
versation."
"Which was a very wrong thing to
do"
She seemed serious and regarded them
with an appealing expression in her
eyes.
" Is there really liddle Engleesh girl at
Sendai?"
"Yes. Do you know her?"
She shook her head.
"But," she said, "I extremely sorry
for her."
"Why?"
"Soach a wicked f adder!"
"Oh no. He's a very fine man."
She continued to shake her head.
"He's got nudder wife now?" she
suddenly asked.
"Yes."
"Then he don' also wan' his liddle
girl?"
"Oh, but he does. He has no other
children and is crazy to find this one."
Hyacinth sighed.
138
THE HEART O
"Well, I think I go home,
lencies will pardon me."
"One minute. Do you know some-
body a woman named how in the
deuce is this pronounced, Madame
A o "
"Madame A-o," she repeated, softly.
"No, I do not know such name but
but my mother, her august name is
liddle like that Madame A-o-i."
The two men started, the same idea
occurring in a flash to each.
"Jove!" said the younger, "our search
is ended."
The girl stared at them with puzzled
eyes. The elder man went a step nearer
to her, bent down, and looked very
closely at her face.
"Do you know," he said, slowly, "I
have a strong suspicion that you you
are the child we are looking for?"
"Me!" she stammered.
With sudden fright her lips parted.
She became snow-white, the color ebbing
out from her face under their very eyes.
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Her little hand was placed almost un-
consciously over her heart.
"Me!" she repeated, faintly, "that
that liddle Engleesh child! Excel-
lencies make august mistake. You ex-
cuse yourselves, if you please! You "
Trembling she turned from them and
moved towards the exit rear. As they
followed her she turned her head, look-
ing back at them over her shoulder,
fright in her eyes.
Suddenly she made a quick dash for-
ward and plunged blindly into the dark
inner corridor. Her footfalls were so
light they scarce could hear them, even
with their ears strained, but, hastening
to the window, they saw her fleeing up
the street.
XV
HYACINTH did not slacken her pace
ntil she was before her home. Then,
ith trembling fingers, she undid the
ate, sped up the little adobe path, and
urst breathlessly into the guest-cham-
r, where Aoi was quietly and pensively
arranging blossoms in a vase.
Aoi turned with mild surprise at the
girl's entry, but when she saw her face
the mother hastened towards her.
"Why, something has affrighted the
little one. Are* moshi, moshi. Well,
she should not have followed the
strangers. There, tell it all to the
mother."
She drew the trembling girl to the
soft -padded floor and placed her arm
reassuringly about her. But Hyacinth
seieed both her foster-mother's hands
141
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
and held them in a spasmodic, almost
fierce, clasp.
"They going to come for me! Oh
yes, yes. They will take me away. Oh,
what can I do ? What They tell me
Oh-h "
She broke down utterly, her throat
choked with her sobs.
"Why, what does the little one
mean?"
She could not respond. She clung
to Aoi fearfully.
There were heavy, quick steps coming
up the garden-path. Then a pause be-
fore the door. The next moment loud
raps.
The young girl's trembling fear com-
municated itself to Aoi, and the two now
clung together fearfully, listening, with
strained ears, to every sound. They
heard the shuffling sound of Mume's feet
in the hall, then the gruff, deep voices of
the callers, and a few moments later
the men were ushered into the guest*
chamber of Madame Aoi.
142
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Their mission was soon explained.
They understood that seventeen years
ago an American lady had died in her
home, which was then in a village on the
shore of the bay. She, Madame Aoi,
they understood, had adopted the child,
having failed to find the father. He, on
his part, had only just succeeded in
tracing the child's whereabouts. It was
believed that she, Madame Aoi, was still
in possession of her.
Although Aoi made no denial, she
made no admission. She looked at the
girl she had brought up as her own child
with dry eyes and quivering lips. The
young girl looked back at her with
piteous, imploring eyes. Aoi closed her
lips and refused even to answer the
strangers. But after a space the girl
herself stepped towards them and, rais-
ing Her face defiantly, said:
" Foreigners, you make ridiculous mis-
take. Yet, supposing you do not make
mistake, what will you do?"
"Send immediately for the father."
143
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"And then?"
"He is your legal and natural guar-
dian. You, of course, would have to go
with him."
The lawyer did not hesitate to pro-
nounce her the one for whom they had
sought.
"Leave Japan?" she asked, her
bosom heaving.
"You are not Japanese. You see, I
take it for granted you are the girl in
question."
"Yes," she said, "I am that girl in
question. My mother's clothes they
are Engleesh. Excellencies do not
make mistake. I I foolish to deny
that. But but what he that fa-
ther going to do if I will not go with
him?"
"You are under age," said the lawyer.
"He can force you."
"Force me to leave my home?" she
said, softly. ' ' Force me to leave Japan ?
No!"
' ' You belong to his home. It is some
144
,
THE HEART OF
fatal and horrible msa
that has cast your destiny among this
alien people."
"Not alien!" she said, fiercely.
"My people my She broke off,
and almost staggered towards Aoi,
against whom she leaned, as if for sup-
port.
"Go away, go!" she cried to them.
"Excuse our rudeness, but but, alas,
' we are in sorrow."
She sank to the ground, burying her
face and sobbing piteously.
Aoi stepped falteringly towards them.
"Good -bye, excellencies. Pray you
e to-morrow instead. We will be in
good health then. Good-bye."
Silently the two men left the house.
They were quite far down the street be-
fore either spoke again. Then:
"Good Heavens! It is grotesque, im-
possible, horrible," said the younger
man.
"She is more Japanese than anything
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"But her face it by George! I
haven't words to express myself. I
thought to render a splendid service to
the little girl, yet now well I feel like
a criminal."
XVI
AFTER the departure of the strangers,
Aoi and Hyacinth, clinging to each other,
had gone to the young girl's chamber,
where they had shut themselves in
alone. The suddenness of the blow had
robbed them of the power of even talk-
ing it over. The tension of the strain
might have been relieved had they done
so. But they sat in silence together
throughout the night. Aoi appeared to
be dazed, stunned, while the feelings of
the giri were mixed. The phantoms of
her ever-active mind were tangled, but
painful. She was to be torn by force
from her home to be taken away from
all she loved she would never see Aoi
again Aoi, her mother, whom she loved
deeply, devotedly.
She would be carried away to a
147
THE
OF HYACINTH
country where the people lived like
barbarians and beasts a country barren
of beauty cold, cruel. All this the
misguided sensei had told her more than
once. She felt sure she would languish
and become mortally sick there, if she
ever reached that distant country. But
how would she cross the great, horrible
ocean that lay between? Yes, she was
quite sure she would die before she
reached that America; and she did not
want to die. Life had been very sweet
for her, and she was so young.
Slow tears of self-pity slipped from
her eyes and dropped upon her little,
clasped hands. She looked across at
the immovable figure of Aoi sitting in
the dusky room before her like a statue.
She wondered vaguely what Aoi was
thinking about. How she did love that
dear, small mother. She moved a pace
closer to her. Aoi parted her lips as if
to speak, then closed them, as though
words failed her. Hyacinth covered her
face with her hands.
"
148
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
How long they sat thus together she
could not have told. Her thoughts had
become blurred and distant.
Later, whet* Aoi roused herself from
her own painful self-communings, she
perceived that the young girl had fallen
asleep. Her little head rested uncer-
tainly against the wall - panelling, and
Aoi saw the undried tears still upon the
white, childish face. She gently placed
a pillow beneath the girl's head, and
softly threw over her the slumber-robe.
Then she extinguished the one andon
which had dimly lighted the room. She
did not, however, retire to her own
chamber that night, but lay down be-
side the girl, creeping under the same
robe which covered her.
The following morning brought one of
the unwelcome strangers again to the
house of Madame Aoi. He was the
younger one of the two, and had stood
by silently while his companion explain-
ed the motive of their call.
Mume had seen him lingering and
149
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
hesitating at the gate of the garden for
some time before he suddenly pushed
it open and walked a few paces swiftly
up the path, paused in thought a mo-
ment, and then continued to the house.
He had evidently expected at least a
polite reception, and was much discon-
certed when the scowling face of the
now hostile Mume confronted him at the
threshold. This Oriental virago deigned
at first no word of question as to the
desire of the caller, but when he had
stammeringly stated in uncertain Japan-
ese that the object of his visit was to see
Madame Aoi, she broke out into vigor-
ous and violent Japanese abuse.
What did this devil of a barbarian
want ? How dared he soil the threshold
of her august mistress's house. All the
fiends of Hades were pestering them
lately, it seemed, but she, Mume, was not
to be frightened by any such fiends as
he. He had scared the little one and her
mother quite speechless. She, Mume,
would defend them from further violence
150
HYACINTH
at his hands, and he had better begone
at once, or she would set the whole com-
munity upon him and have him stoned
and beaten.
In the midst of this harangue she
was interrupted by the interposition of
Hyacinth, who had arrived upon the
scene and had stood silently in the
background for some time quietly lis-
tening to the fluent Mume. Then she
stepped forward and spoke a few, low
words in Japanese to Mume. The young
man could not have told from the ex-
pression of her face whether she had
reproved the servant or not. When the
angry Mume, muttering and scowling
at every retreating step, had disappear-
ed, the girl turned questioningly to the
caller. She did not invite him to enter,
and though her words were courteous,
he thought her eyes antagonistic. He
noticed, too, that there were shadows
beneath the eyes, and that she was very
pale. As he continued to gaze at her
face she slowly and unwillingly flushed.
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Your business, honorable sir; what
is it you desire?"
"You'll excuse me, I'm sure, but I
came over er I came over by request
of Mr. Knowles. You remember Mr.
Knowles?"
He paused to gain time, still hoping
she would bid him enter. But the ex-
pression of her face was coldly forbid-
ding, and at his question she merely
inclined her head with the faintest, most
frigid smile on her lips. It seemed to
the anxious young man that she must
see through his flimsy ruse. As a mat-
ter of fact, all she thought was that here
again was that odious stranger. Were
the gods going to pester her forever with
their company ? The thought nauseated
and embittered her.
"You see Miss er if you will al-
low me a moment of your time," the
young man stammered, " I can easily
explain."
Again she inclined her head without
speaking, as though she conceded the
152
THE HEART OF HYACINT
moment of time, but had no intention
that it should be granted anywhere else.
He marvelled that the deliciously blush-
ing and ingenuously coquettish girl of
the previous day could have changed to
this cold and impassive little stiff figure
with the dignity of a woman.
"Mr. Knowles, you see, being a great
friend of your father and mine we
naturally feel that er we both wish
to express our our respects for his
daughter."
"Thangs," she said, laconically.
"And if you would do me the honor,"
he added, taking courage from the one
word she had allowed herself, " we would
like very much to have you and of
course your Madame A -ah " he
floundered, hopelessly.
' ' Madame Aoi," said the girl, distantly.
He could not have told how he had
happened to invite them to dinner. Cer-
tainly it wouldn't do to have them come
at once. There was the attorney to
considered Mr. Knowles who kn
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THE HEART OF HYACINTH
nothing of his visit, and might, after all,
disapprove of it.
"We'll send you word just when to
come," he concluded, lamely.
He saw her lip curl disdainfully, and
guessed aright that she was thinking him
atrociously uncouth and rude in deliv-
ering so ambiguous an invitation. She
said:
"We are ten million times grateful
but we don' can come "
She paused ominously a moment, then
slightly moving backward into the hall,
she said:
"That's all your business yes?"
"Yes," he said, confounded.
She closed the sliding-doors between
and left him standing there facing it
without.
XVII
MELANCHOLY now took up its morbid
abode in the house of Madame Aoi.
Even Mume felt the pall of its heavy
weight, and went about her work no lon-
ger complaining loudly, but muttering to
herself shuddering at the silence and
shadow that had fallen upon the house.
For Aoi, to keep out unwelcome callers,
kept the shutters and shoji closed at all
times, and the house assumed the aspect
of one wherein was illness or sorrow.
But Hyacinth sought solace among her
flowers. She kept sedulously to the
back of the house, where she knew
she would be safe from intrusion. Along
the little, white - pebbled paths, which
she and Aoi had so cunningly planned
among the flower-beds, between the
twisted and fantastic trees affected by
155
9-
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Japanese - garden lovers, she aimlessly
wandered.
Meanwhile, the young American at-
tache' fairly haunted the vicinity of
Madame Aoi's house. He would spend
sometimes an entire morning strolling
up and down the street before the house.
Indeed, so familiar had his figure be-
come to the neighborhood children that
he no longer was molested by them.
He had told Mr. Knowles that he was
enchanted by the view of the bay
Matsushima, but since it was too ener-
vating to walk in the heat such a dis-
tance, he preferred watching it afar
from the Pinetree Street, whence he ob-
tained the best view possible. The
attorney, deep in the preparation of a
report and opinion to follow his cable to
Mr. Lorrimer, had merely looked up
him keenly a moment, and, marking
the ingenuous coloring that flooded the
face of the boy, stuck his tongue in his
cheek and softly winked. Mr. Knowles
was very well satisfied, since young
156
: to
at
mg
thf
Saunders would cease to complain
against his enforced stay in this little
inland town, so far away from the gay
metropolis.
For a week Saunders patiently waited
and watched for a glimpse of Hyacinth.
But though, in his repeated pilgrimages
up and down the street, his pace fell to
almost a crawl when he would pass her
home, and though he did not, after the
first day, hesitate to crane his neck eager-
ly, and try to see beyond the bushes and
trees in the front garden to the portioi
behind, no glimpse, as yet, had he ob-
tained of the object of his desire. The
house, indeed, seemed closed, and but
for the fact that once or twice he had
seen the fat form of Mum& issue forth
on apparent shopping errands, he would
have thought the house deserted. Once
he had attempted to speak to Mume, but
she had indignantly opened an aggres-
sive parasol squarely in his face, the
points of which he had barely escaped.
Saunders became desperate. He told
157
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
himself that he had no intention what-
ever of allowing a fat little servant to
stand in his way, nor was he to be
abashed by the haughty dignity of one
so completely bewitching as was this
Httle Hyacinth.
Hence, one morning in June, Mr.
Saunders came down the Pinetree Street
with a much swifter and more dogged
step than usual. Reaching Madame Aoi's
house, he did not even linger, but, push-
ing the gate aside, intrepidly entered the
hostile country. He was cautious, how-
ever, and, mindful of his previous visit, he
turned aside from the path which led to
the front threshold, and made his way
softly around the side of the house.
His bravery was usually short-lived, and,
though possibly he would not have ad-
mitted it, his heart was thumping, and
he bore the aspect of a thief, as, creep-
ing stealthily in the shadow of the trees,
he plunged ahead. He had had a pur-
pose in mind when he started the brave
one of penetrating the back of the house.
158
m
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Experience had taught him that the
Japanese practically lived in this part
of their house, and that the garden, un-
seen from the front, was where they were
likely to be found. Yet he had the nat-
ural contempt of the Japanese idea of
privacy. He could not accept the fact
that in most personal matters of life
they appeared to be almost ignorant of
the word privacy.
His surmises were correct. He came
upon a member of the family almost as
soon as he reached the back garden.
Hyacinth was sitting on the moss-
grown shelf of an old well and looking
at the reflection of her face listlessly,
perhaps unseeingly, in the dark water
beneath. She made a pretty picture,
as, startled by the sudden appearance
of the young man, she slipped to the
ground and faced him. Her eyes were
wide, half with fright, half with growing
anger, and from being pale she flushed
vividly red. Her voice was harsh and
strained when , after a moment , she spoke .
'59
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"What do you want?"
This time she did not even give him
the title of "honorable sir."
" I wanted to see you," he said, truth-
fully.
"You come like a thief," she said.
" Is that the custom of the barba-
rian?"
"I beg your pardon, but really the
fact is I hoped this way to avoid an
encounter with your servant."
She made a scornful movement tow-
ards the house, but he sprang before her
and barred her passage.
"See here Miss Lorrimer I hope
you will listen to me. I know I seem
to have acted atrociously, but really "
" Have you some business to speak to
my honorable mother?" she inquired,
boldly.
"No I confess I have not but I
wanted to become acquainted with
you."
After that an uncomfortable pause
ensued. The girl appeared to be turn-
160
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
ing the matter over in her mind. Then
she said:
"Why do you wish make acquaint-
ance with me?"
Simple as her question was, it appear-
ed to have glowing possibilities to the
eager Saunders.
" Because," he said, " you are so lovely.
Do you know "
She interrupted him.
"Is that the manner in which your
country people address maidens?" she
asked, with more curiosity than offence.
"Yes that is, sometimes when they
mean it, and the girl is lovely, as you
are."
"But," she said, "it is augustly rude
to tell me so."
"Oh no; you wouldn't think so if you
understood."
"I understand," she said.
" I mean, if you understood our point
of view."
"Understand it," she repeated, "but
I <k jiight pause,
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
very earnestly: "I am a Japanese; we
are not so uncouth and rude in our in-
tercourse with strangers."
" I wish you would not regard me as a
stranger."
She looked puzzled.
"Not regard you as a stranger!" she
repeated.
" No. I wish you'd look upon me as a
friend ; one who admires you and wants
to to do something for you."
"But you are not my friend," she
said. Then, catching her breath a mo-
ment, she added, "You are an enemy."
"I!" He was very much pained. He
an enemy to this charming young girl!
"Yes, yes," she said, with some ve-
hemence. "You come here into our
peaceful home and in one day one
minute you break it all up, bring dis-
tress and pain upon us. You have no
fine sense; you cannot even be insulted.
You come again, again, perhaps again,
though your presence we do not de-
\\lt2Sf7
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
She stopped short suddenly ; her un-
derlip quivered, and she bit it nervously
with little, white teeth. She turned her
back half towards young Saunders, and
he could see from her trembling that
she was on the verge of tears. He could
only falter very earnestly :
" I am very sorry very sorry."
She did not speak again, and for some
time they stood in silence, she with her
head drooping away from him and he
watching her eagerly. He knew she was
waiting for him to go, and he was wait-
ing for her to turn to him again. He
wanted to see her eyes, those eyes which
had flashed at him so wrathfully and
then had become so suddenly misty and
iteous.
"Will you not at least tell me," he
said, "that you will pardon forgive me
for for my intrusion "
"I am very unhappy," she said, still
with her face turned from him. " I am
not in condition to see any one friends
strangers any one. You have made
"*
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
me so miserable I I pray to the gods
sometimes that I might die."
She slipped to the ground and buried
her face in her arms on the little stone
shelf of the well.
Now, the young attache* was really a
good -hearted boy, in spite of his fri-
volity; and the sight of the little, sob-
bing figure touched him. He stood in
a confusion of discomfort and remorse,
while strange little waves and thrills of
tender emotion swept over him and
rendered him still more helpless.
He was too stupid to comprehend the
cause of the girl's wretchedness, and he
was very young. Consequently, he act-
ually experienced a thrill of vague pleas-
ure at the thought that in some way his
attractive personality was responsible for
Hyacinth's distress.
But while he stood hesitating and
perspiring from sheer excitement, he
became suddenly conscious of the fact
that some one was coming from the
hbus'e towards them. Aoi came hur-
164
i
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
riedly across the grass. She paused a
moment, startled at the sight of the
young foreigner in their private gar-
dens. Then she saw the crouching girl,
and in a moment comprehended the sit-
uation.
Poor, simple, amiable Aoi! Possibly
never in all her life before had such vio-
lent feelings assailed her. She turned
upon the intruder with flashing eyes.
"You come here! You make my
daughter weep ! You are bad lot. Leave
my grounds or I will have you arrested!"
"Madame Aoi," he protested," I assure
you that I meant no offence, but "
Hyacinth had slowly risen to her feet.
She put her arm gently about Aoi's
shoulder.
"Do not speak the words to
mother," she said, in Japanese,
did not mean to make me weep."
Aoi was quieted in an instant,
still looked uncertainly, however, at the
stranger.
A sudden idea seemed to come to her
165
him,
"He
She
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
/ fl rJ Itr
mind. She went a hesitating step
er to Saunders and raised her face to his,
while her eyes searched his face. She
said:
"You come to see me, august sir, or
or my daughter?"
"Your that is"
He flushed uncomfortably, but indi-
cated, with a slight nod of his head, the
young girl.
Aoi's eyes narrowed curiously. Her
trembling lips compressed themselves
into a stiff, rigid line. When she spoke
her voice was quite hoarse.
"In Japan," she said, "a young man
does not visit a maiden unless he is her
lover."
Saunders swung his stick uneasily.
" I am an American," he said, lamely.
"Yes," said Aoi. "You are American,
and because that is so your visit to my
daughter is an insult."
"No, I protest," he said, warmly.
"You came for business?"
"No but "
166
RT OF HYACINTH
"You came to make that love to her
yes it is so?"
" Yes but er "
Aoi stretched out her slim arm and
pointed to the path leading to the front
of the house. The gesture could have
but one meaning. Young Saunders
flushed angrily.
"This is a deuce of a way to take a
fellow's attentions," he said, half to him-
self. "Why, I declare, I meant no
harm."
Aoi smiled incredulously.
"I am old," she said, slowly; and at
her flushed, almost youthful, face the
young man smiled involuntarily. But
she repeated her words: " I am old with
experience, Mister sir and because I
was the wife of an Englishman, I know
from him the evil meant by such atten-
tion as yours to a maiden of Japan."
"But she is not Japanese," he burst
out; "I never for a moment thought of
her as such."
His words staggered Aoi. In her zeal
167
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
to protect the girl from the overtures of
this foreigner she had forgotten the
facts of the girl's birth. She became
agitated. Her hands fell helplessly to
her knees as she bent brokenly forward.
With her head bowed, she spoke in a
plaintive voice:
"The humble one craves the pardon
of the illustrious sir. But will he not
condescend to depart?"
Somewhat irritated and provoked,
rather sulkily he turned towards the
path and slowly, unwillingly, left the
garden.
XVIII
A MONTH and a half had gone by since
the American attorney had cabled to his
client in Europe of the success of his
mission. Richard Lorrimer's immediate
response had been that he was leaving
at once for Japan. Any day now he
might arrive in Sendai.
In the meanwhile, Aoi sought to
comfort and strengthen the despairing
Hyacinth. She contrived to break up
their retirement, and sought to divert
her mind by taking her out each day.
The girl had acquired a peculiar loath-
ing and horror for the "white people,"
of whom the little town of Sendai had
now quite a plague.
The women went about in hideous
garments, with what appeared to be
heavy flower-baskets upon their heads.
383s
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
The men gazed at her and made in-
sinuating efforts to speak to her.
Hyacinth was sure all these foreigners
carried knives, because they were con-
stantly chipping off pieces of the tombs
and the temples. They were sacrilegious
beasts, she thought, who had not rever-
ence even for the dead. Everywhere in
the city she found them. Sometimes
they were even on the heights of Mat-
sushima, where they laughed and talked
in loud voices to one another under the
very shadows of the holy temples. She
hated them all, she told herself. Most
of all she loathed this man who was said
to be her father, who had broken her
mother's heart and married a woman her
mother despised, and who now sought to
drag her by force from those she loved.
Yet the visiting foreigners in Sendai
possessed a more friendly spirit towards
her than she knew. Knowing her his-
tory, they were prompted by pity and
curiosity to seek an acquaintance, which
was always met by the darkest and
170
THE HEART OF
CINTH
haughtiest of frowns and disdainful
glances. When they addressed her, she
stared stonily before her. Once, when
a too-curious woman persisted in annoy-
ing her with numerous questions, Hya-
cinth had raised her voice suddenly and
shrieked to a score of little urchins play-
ing in the street. In an instant they
had rushed into the road, whence they
threw sticks and mud at the indignant
foreigner. Whereat Hyacinth had burst
into a wild peal of shrill, defiant laughter.
Then she had rushed headlong into the
house, where she flung herself on the
floor, giving vent to a tempest of tears.
In these days she could not bear Aoi
out of her sight, and even old Mum& re-
ceived an unusual share of affection. The
thought of leaving them caused her deep
sorrow. The passage of the days added
not one whit to her resignation. If she
must go, she would go battling at every
step. But, before the time should come,
maybe the gods would intervene, and she
might die.
*
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Strangely enough, in these days she
forgot, or refused to remember, all she
had learned at the mission-house. In-
stead, she would climb wearily the long
way to one of the temples on the hill,
where she sought the old priest who kept
the fire of the gods perpetually burning,
and bitterly she poured out at his feet
all the anguish of her heart.
She was a Japanese girl, she asserted
Japanese in thought, in feeling, in heart,
in soul. How could she leave her be-
loved home and people to go away with
these cold, white ones, whom she could
never, never learn to know or under-
stand.
And the priest promised to give her
counsel and help when the time should
come. From day to day he would
admonish :
' ' A little longer wait ! The gods will
find a way."
But the days passed with more than
natural speed of time. Then came a
telegram to Sendai. The lawyer, Mr.
172
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Knowles, brought it to Aoi's house. It
was from Mr. Lorrimer. He had ar-
rived in Tokyo. He would start at once
for Sendai.
Then desperation seized upon Hya-
cinth. Unmindful of the pleadings of
Aoi, she besought the Yamashiro family
for help.
Now, the Yamashiro family had al-
been ashamed of the fact tha
Hyacinth was half English. They had
more than once declared that if she had
been wholly so a union with their son
would have been an impossible thing.
Consequently, Madame Yamashiro re-
ceived the young girl frigidly. She
considered it both hoydenish and rude
for a girl to pay a visit to her be-
trothed's parents alone. But the mo-
ment Hyacinth began to speak, Madame
Yamashiro became so frightened that
she trembled.
The girl, in a breath, told her of the
discovery of her true parentage. She
implored Madame Yamsashiro to hasten
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
her marriage with Yoshida, so that s
might not be forced to leave Japan. For
could this foreign father then tear her
from her husband? No, all the laws o
Japan would prevent him.
So rapid was her utterance that one
word tripped against another.
In her agitation, Madame Yamashiro
thought the girl insane. She clapped
her hands so loudly that half a dozen
maidens came to answer at once.
"The master!" she cried; and never
had the Yamashiro servants seen their
mistress so perturbed.
Not a word did she speak to Hyacinth
after that until her husband and son
entered the room; then faithfully she
repeated the words of the girl.
Like a little stupid animal the boy's
round face became vacant. He stared
at the girl out of a pair of small, amazed
eyes. She tapped her foot impatiently
upon the floor, and then turned to the
father, her two little hands outstretched.
"Oh, good Yamashiro, will you not
r
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
hasten this marriage? I am ready, will-
ing, to wed at once to-day this
minute."
"If it be true," said Yamashiro,
heavily, "that you are an Engleesh, it is
quite impossible. My son could not
marry with such."
"But we are betrothed," she cried,
piteously. " Yamashiro Yoshida is my
affianced. Oh, you will not cast me
off!"
She turned pitifully from one to the
other. They were all quite silent.
Then she spoke to Yoshida. Her voice
was clear and hard.
"You Yoshida, you would not cast
me off? You swore you adored me.
It is not my fault I am Engleesh. I am
Japanese here."
She placed her hands over her heart.
"If you will marry me," she said, "I
will be Japanese altogether."
"My son," said Yamashiro the elder,
"will obey his father's august will in all
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
The girl spoke slowly, scornfully.
"I make a fool of myself to come to
you with such a request. I would not
marry you, Yoshida no, not though the
white people killed me."
Drawing the doors sharply behind her,
Hyacinth left the house unattended to
the gate.
"Ah, what an escape we have had!"
burst from Madame Yamashiro.
Her husband scowled.
Yoshida slowly moved to the shoji
and stared out dimly at the little figure
hurrying down the path.
XIX
" YAMASHIRO YOSHIDA will not marry
me. He has cast me off," Hyacinth
told Aoi.
"And to-night," said Aoi, helplessly,
"the father will arrive."
The girl pressed her hands tightly to-
gether. Aoi laid a timid, comforting
hand upon her shoulder.
"Little one," she said, in a pleading
voice, "pray thee to take cheer. It is
your duty to go to your father. You
have not forgotten all I have taught
you. Filial submission to the parent is
the most important of all."
"And have I not always shown such
respect and devotion to you, dear
mother?"
"To me? Ah, yes, little one, and I
THE HEART OF
would that I were, indeed, your own
mother."
"You are, you are," cried the girl,
crushing down the sob that rose in her
throat, and then dashing her hand
against her eyes. "Ah," she cried,
"this is not time to weep. We must
think must think of some way. Yama-
shiro has failed us. Ah! Who could
have expected else? They were always
despicable."
"Try and follow my counsel," said
Aoi ; ' ' accept the inevitable. The father
is coming; he is your rightful guardian.
Bow to his will and give him what
affection you can."
4 ' I can give him not one grain of af-
fection," said the girl, bitterly. "Did
he not cast off my mother for that other
woman ? Ah, I have heard all the story.
What I could not understand that first
day I have learned since, and you also.
Did you not tell me that my mother died
shuddering at his memory?"
Aoi sighed helplessly. The girl threw
178
^yr
n
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
herself down on the floor, and, resting
her chin upon her hand, stared out be-
fore her at the street without. There
had been a little rain, and the bamboo
trees across the street were shining with
the drops which had not yet dried upon
them.
Looking down the street, she could see
the dim outline of the country beyond,
the cloud-shaped mountains, the sheen
of the water beneath. She turned back
to Aoi, who had silently seated herself
beside her.
" Mother," she said, " I am going away
alone."
"Alone! Ah, you make my heart
stand still with fear."
"Listen. All Matsushima is known
to me, and the priests at the temple are
kind and love me. If I need food they
will give it to me. Do they not feed
even the birds which alight upon their
temples?"
"Oh, child, I cannot think what it is
you contemplate."
179
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
" I will not leave our Japan," she cried,
passionately. "It is the only home I
have known."
"But what can you do?"
"I will hide," said the girl.
"Ah, alas, you could not, for these
foreigners are everywhere here. They
would find you."
"Yet there are places among the
tombs of Date of wh.ch they know
naught. Koma and I alone knew of
them, and the good priest of the temple
Zuiganjii. There is one place but I
will not tell even you."
Aoi wrung her hands.
"Oh, daughter, they will seek every-
where for you till they find you. You
do not know the stubborn nature of
these people."
"Ah, but I do, my mother, for that
nature is in me, too. If they seek
stubbornly, I, too, can hide as well."
Arising, she stood c. moment, looking
down thoughtfully upon Aoi.
"To-night," she said, "they will come.
1 80
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
There is little time to lose. When
they ask for me, you will say, 'She fear-
ed to gaze upon the augustness of her
parent, and so fled.' When they ask
you, 'Where fled?' you will say, 'Only
the gods know whither." 1
xx I I
THE great red sun had finished its day
of travel and had dropped deep into the
waters far off in the gilded western sky.
How very still were the approaching
shadows, how phantom-like they seem-
ed to creep, spreading, though they
scarcely stirred. The glow of the sun
was still upon the land, reflecting the
light on the dew-damped trees and the
upturned faces of the nameless flowers,
which seemed to raise their heads,
hungry, as though loath to part with the
light.
Not a sound was heard on Mat-
sushima. The birds were voiceless, the
waters moved with a soundless motion,
licking rather than beating against the
rocks, stirring lazily, as if in slumber.
Upon the silence there tenderly stole
182
THE
HYACINTH
the gentle, mellow pealing of a temple
bell. Its even-song was soft and sweetly
muffled, so that one would have thought
it came from afar off.
Hyacinth, heartsick and footsore, was
weary when she reached the bay. With
a little cry she caught her breath, as
for the first time she looked about her,
awakened from her apathy by the sud-
den tone of the bell.
The light of day was disappearing. Al-
ready the hills up which she must climb
looked dark and in ghostly contrast to
the still light and shining bay. Yet
the girl lingered on the shfcre, her hand
shading her eyes, watching yearningly
the sunset. The beauty of the passing
day hurt her. She was in a condition
to feel acutely. The temple bell
ceased its song. With the departure of
the sun, the silence seemed more op-
pressive.
Shuddering now, she looked up fear-
fully at the hills. Not since she was a
very little child had she visited these
183
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
particular hills at night, and even then
she had not been alone.
Yet in those days she could have
found her way blindfolded among the
rocks, stupendously projecting and fac-
ing the silent bay. She had assured
Aoi that she knew every inch of the
land hereabouts. Yet now, as she turn-
ed from the shore of the bay and began
to climb upward, she stumbled uncer-
tainly. Her hands, outstretched before
her, revealed the fact that she was
blindly feeling her way, and wandering
along paths she did not know.
"It will be all right soon," she kept
repeating to herself. "I am not lost;
only a little dazed, and I am tired
tired. Wait, I will find the great rock
soon, and then all will be well with me."
She wandered about hither and thither
the darkness. Gigantic rocks were
about her on all sides, now shutting out
the light of the bay. Behind her the
hills loomed up into enormous moun-
tains, steep and impenetrable.
M
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
The darkness about her, accentuated
by the shadows of the rocks, awed and
terrified her. She raised her face ap-
pealingly to the sky. Only one star
shone out in its firmanent, bright, soft,
and luminous.
"It is becoming lighter," she said.
"Ah, will the moon never arise?"
And, as she spoke, the lazy moon crept
upward beyond the black mountains, a
train of stars following in her wake.
Her light was bright, and reflected in a
silver gleam upon the upturned face of
Hyacinth.
Light was all about her. The black
shadows had evaporated like the mist,
and clean cut about her the familiar
cliffs and rocks outjutted, and the
white tombs of the great feudal lords
of Sendai shone out like strange, un-
earthly mirrors. She stood in their
midst, close by the deserted Zuiganjii.
And the rock against which she leaned
grew suddenly white and dazzling.
Gazing with awed, wondering eyes upon
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
it, she thought that some kindly goddess
had guided her wandering footsteps in
the dark to the very refuge she sought.
Yet she did not enter the cavern be-
neath, though she was weary. She was
watching, with reverential emotion, one
of the phenomena of nature. As she
looked upward she knew that this sight
would bring that evening to Mat-
sushima's shore hundreds of banquet-
ers, for the Japanese never fail to
celebrate the Milky Way. They call it
the Heavenly River, in which goddesses
wash their robes in the month of
August.
Mechanically, and almost unconscious-
ly, she climbed to the surface of the rock.
From her height she now looked down
upon the bay. Across the waters on
the other shore the temples were illumi-
nated. The white sails of some fishing-
boats were floating like white birds gen-
tly swimming.
For a time she stood quietly on the
great rock. The silence and stillness
186
THE HEART O
of the night possessed her, and she be-
came drowsy. She stooped and touch-
ed the surface of the rock, and found
that it was covered with some soft moss.
"It is so dark inside," she said, plain-
tively, "and I am so weary. The gods
will give me sleep without."
In a little while her tired little body
had relaxed its tension. She lay there
on the rock, upon her back, her arms
stretched far out on either side, like the
wings of a bird, her face upturned to the
white-flecked sky.
Thus, among the tombs of the ancient
lords of Sendai, upon the very rock
where the Date lords met to raise their
voices in allegiance to the religion of her
ancestors, this little Caucasian maiden
slept alone.
XI
MADAME Aoi was fluttering from room
to room, her face anxious, her whole
being disturbed and agitated. Although
she knew that the expected guests might
arrive at any minute, she could not
remain still a moment.
In and out of Hyacinth's chamber
she wandered, distracted, and with the
yearning pain of a mother wringing her
heart. The little room, with its dainty,
pretty mattings, its exquisite panellings,
seemed to reflect the personality of the
loved one who had left her to bitter
loneliness. Even the sunlight seemed
less golden now that she was gone, and
the dressing-table, with its mirror,
propped up by a lacquer stick behind it,
had a forlorn appearance.
Everything about the chamber, about
188
(V
THE HEART OF HYACIN
the whole house, bore a deserted aspect.
Aoi was not one given to the indulgence
of tears, but her quiet pain was all the
more acute. Her appealing face was
drawn and devoid of all color. The
anguish of her heart was manifest in her
eyes and in her quivering lips.
Once she opened the panelling and
looked for a moment within at the
clothes of the dead mother. She drew
back the panel almost sharply. The
sight of those dumb, silent articles
struck her with a nameless horror.
Woman-like, she recalled the face of the
one to whom they had belonged. Then
she began to conjure up fancies of
what this mother would have desired
her to do with her child. And the face
which returned to her memory seemed,
somehow, to reproach her with its sad
and melancholy eyes.
For the first time since she had adopt-
ed Hyacinth, poor, childish Aoi began
to doubt whether she had done right.
Did not the little one, after all, belong to
189
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
these people? Was it not, therefore,
wrong to have kept her in ignorance of
them, and permitted her to grow to
maidenhood after the fashion of a
Japanese girl? This emotional arraign-
ment caused Aoi anguish.
Time now hung heavily upon her; the
minutes seemed to creep. She stared
out at the graying sky, and wondered
where the little one was now. At that
moment Hyacinth had halted in her
pilgrimage on the shore of the bay to
gaze upon the same sunset, wistfully,
yearningly.
The sight of the fading day aroused a
fear in the breast of the watching Aoi.
She sprang to her feet, smoothed her
gown with hasty, trembling hands, and
moved towards the street door.
She would go to the mission-house
people and tell her story. They might
assist her, advise her what course to
pursue. They had always taken deep
interest in the little one. Perhaps they,
too, loved her. Oh, if anything should
190
]
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
happen to her, out there in the dark-
ness of the hills!
Aoi had hardly reached the foot of the
little spiral stairs when there were sharp
rappings upon the door. With her hand
pressed tight to her fluttering heart, she
hastened forward. Without waiting for
the slow Mum& to answer the summons,
she pushed the door aside.
Then she stood still, dumbly, on the
threshold. The next instant Komaza-
wa had seized her in his arms and was
covering her face with kisses. Against
her son's breast she began to sob in a
helpless, hopeless fashion, piteous to
see.
He, with his arm close about her, com-
forted softly, and then turning to the
strangers who were with him, he said,
quietly :
"You see my unexpected arrival has
upset my mother. You must excuse
the welcome. But, come, let us en-
ter."
The man and woman, exchanging
191
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
glances, followed the young man and his
mother into the guest-room.
The woman was tall and had once
been pretty. She was faded now, and
her blond hair was dull and streaked,
showing the effects of having once been
bleached. The man was well preserved,
but bore the evidence of rich living in
the somewhat reddened and bloated ap-
pearance of eyes and cheeks. His hair
was gray and he wore a short imperial.
Just now his expression was one of
extreme uneasiness. His lips twitched
nervously, and his brow was drawn.
He had long, slender, white hands, the
fingers nicotine stained. He had a
straight, military figure, and was dress-
ed in a rather outr manner.
Aoi regarded him with undisguised
fearfulness. She had no notion who
these strangers could be, yet there was
something in the man's restless attitude
that aroused her apprehensions. She
turned anxiously to her son. He was
grave and pale.
192
THE HEART OF HYACI
"Mother," he said, "this is
Mrs. Lorrimer. You have been expect-
ing them, I believe."
Aoi was so moved that she could only
bow feebly to her visitors.
Her son's voice was low and, to her
agitated fancy, strained.
"Mother," he said, "why was I not
informed of the claims made by Mr.
Lorrimer?"
"Oh, son, I feared to tell you," she
replied, tremulously; "the little one be-
sought me not to do so."
"It was only by accident," he said,
that I learned the facts. We happened
to cross on the same steamer, and, some-
how, Mr. Lorrimer confided in me."
Aoi clung to her son's hand, but she
did not speak. Her face was raised to
his as though she listened eagerly to ev-
ery word he uttered.
" I came back to Japan," he said, " for
another purpose to prevent, if I could,
Hyacinth's marriage. It was entirely
approval. I Consider her
*-.
.
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
little more than a child. However, I
shortly discovered that I had no right
to dictate to her even in this matter.
Her father " He indicated, slightly,
Mr. Lorrimer, who seized the opportu-
nity to step forward.
He spoke jerkily and somewhat im-
patiently.
' ' It seems to me that we are wasting
time. You will, I am sure, perceive my
intense anxiety to see my er daugh-
ter."
" I beg your pardon for detaining you.
It was very stupid of me." Komazawa
turned back to Aoi.
"Where is she, mother?" he asked,
simply.
Silently Aoi shook her drooped head.
She could not speak.
"Where is she?" repeated Koma, now
with a slight thrill of apprehension in his
voice.
Still that silent, drooping little figure,
with its bowed fread and lips that re-
fused to speak.
194
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
The shadows deepened in the room,
and without the skies were darkening.
Aoi raised her head, shivered, and
looked about her dazedly. Then sud-
denly she clapped her hands mechani-
cally.
She was sending for the girl, thought
the other three, as they waited in tense
silence for a response to her summons.
But when Mume thrust in her fat,
reddened face, Aoi only mechanically
said :
"Lights, honorable maid."
Koma placed his hand heavily on her
shoulder.
" Mother," he said, "you do not make
me answer. Where is Hyacinth?"
"Gone," said Aoi, faintly.
4 ' Gone ! What do you mean ? ' '
"Ah, excellencies," she cried, turning
to the visitors and speaking in broken
English, "the liddle one's heart broke at
thought of leaving her home. She is
still but a child, and she had a child's
fear of meeting of meeting strangers.
195
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
and so and so she went, excellencies,
she "
" Ran away," said the woman. "Well,
what do you think of that?" She turn-
ed her lip ever so slightly, pushing the
point of her parasol into Aoi's immac-
ulate matting. "Runs in the family,
apparently," she said.
Ignoring her utterly, Mr. Lorrimer ad-
dressed Aoi in a hoarse voice:
"When did she go, and where? You
must know."
" She went, illustrious excellency, only
a little while ago."
"Where? You know?"
"Nay, I do not know, save that she
has gone to the hills. But, oh, excel-
lency, there are so many hills, so large,
so dense! Can we find the one ant by
searching in its hill? Who can find the
little one among the monstrous hills?"
"I can," said Komazawa, stepping
forward suddenly.
Aoi rushed to him frantically.
"Oh, son," she cried, in Japanese, "do
196
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
not assist these strangers. Do not track
the little one to give her to them. You
will not take part with them against
us?"
"Mother," he answered, in Japanese,
"you do wrong in speaking thus. You
misjudge me. It is not to assist these
people I would search for her. No,
though they had a thousand claims on
her. But I must go to save her from
herself. The cliffs on the hills are
perilous, and the night would frighten
the little one. It is for that reason I
would seek her."
He caught up his hat and made to
leave the room, but again his mother
stayed him.
"Oh, son, in such a garb you would
frighten the little one."
He paused in thought a moment, then
turned in the opposite direction.
" It is true. My room it is as ever?"
"As ever, son. Always awaiting thy
return."
He vanished through the folding-
197
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
doors. They heard him speeding rapid-
ly up the stairs.
"Where has he gone?" asked Mrs.
Lorrimer, sharply.
"To arrange his dress," the Japanese
woman answered, without raising her
head.
"Oh, such folly!" she cried, angrily.
"There is no time to be lost. He
should start at once. What shall we
do?"
This last question she shot at her
husband, who was staring miserably be-
fore him.
" I don't know, I'm sure," he said, de-
jectedly. "I declare, I'm quite quite
done up."
"Well, I know what to do," she said.
"We must look up those mission-house
people and have a search-party sent out
at once. We can get no satisfaction
from these people.. Come."
XXII
IT was nearly midnight when Koma-
zawa passed along the shore of Mat-
sushima and began to climb towards
the tombs. He knew every inch of the
land. Unlike poor, wandering Hyacinth,
he passed steadily ahead without the
slightest hesitation. He had reached
the small cliff path which led to the
great Date-rock cavern. Now he was
before the rock itself.
Without pausing an instant, holding
the lighted lantern he carried above
his head, he entered the cavern beneath
the rock. Every inch of the ground
within he examined, feeling about with
his hands in the darkened corners where
his lantern could not penetrate. Over
and over the same ground he went, fear
urging him forward. When the certain-
199
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
ty that she was not within the cavern
forced itself upon him his shaking frame
testified to his agitation.
He had been so certain that the girl
would come here. This was the great
secret cave he himself had shown to her,
where they had spent their childhood
together in defiance of the mild re-
monstrance of the temple priests.
Very slowly now Koma crawled from
out the cavern. The lantern he set
upon the ground at the mouth of the
cave. Then he stood still, uncertain
what to do, a great despair coming upon
him.
Only a few paces away, he knew, were
other tombs and caverns, but these were
built in the slanting cliffs, down which
no maiden could have gone in safety.
Of them he would not think. He dared
not look at them, lest he become dizzy
with horror. And so Komazawa raised
'his face upward to the sky, just as
Hyacinth had done.
Then he saw, far up above his head,
200
"HI. KNKLT IN A KAI'T MI INK
mr
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
something dark and still outstretched
upon the surface of the rock. He caught
his breath, then covered his mouth with
his hands lest a cry escape him. Slowly
and carefully he climbed up to the
surface of the rock. A moment, on its
edge, he paused irresolute, then crept
on his knees towards the sleeping girl.
For a long time he knelt in a rapt
silence beside her, his eyes fixed, en-
tranced, upon her face.
She was slumbering as calmly as
a child, and her upturned face, with
the moon-rays upon it, was wondrous-
ly, ethereally beautiful. Awed, reveren-
tial, Koma gazed upon the picture, then
soundlessly he crept back to the edge
of the rock and clambered down. Once
more he stood on the ground below,
face had a strange, strained ex-
pression, and in his eyes gleamed a new
light.
"I cannot awaken her," he said to
himself, "and oh, ye gods! how beautiful
she has grown!"
201
yf
J>J>;,
>>\I V
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
For a time he stood there without
moving, plunged in reverie. Then his
eyes, wandering mechanically towards
the bay, fell on a series of lights on the
shore below. They were one behind the
other, and swung back and forth. In an
instant he recognized them. The next
moment he had thrust his own light
into the cavern.
"They will not come, this way," he
assured himself. "This ancient path
is little known save to the priests. Yet
if they should!"
He clinched his hands tensely at his
side and stood off a few paces, looking
up at the top of the rock.
"It is very high up, and they might
not see. As I did they might pass
by."
He leaned far over, straining his eyes
to pierce through the shadows beneath.
The lights below flashed a moment from
out some foliage, disappeared behind
some rocks, reappeared again, and then
plunged into a forest path which led,
202
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Koma knew, far from his present po-
sition.
He heaved a great sigh of relief.
"Ah, it is well well," he said; "yet,
nevertheless, I must watch I must
guard her."
XXIII
WITH stealing step morning crept up
on Matsushima. The sky had scarcely
paled to a slumberous gray ere the soft,
yellow streaks of the sun shot upward
in the east, tinting all the land with its
glow. The morning star was poised
on high, as though lingering to watch
the sun's awakening. Then, softly, it
twinkled out into the vapor.
Hyacinth stirred on her strange couch,
her eyelashes quivered sleepily against
her cheeks. One little hand opened a
moment, then clutched the dew -wet
moss. The touch of the unfamiliar
grass against her hand startled her, and
the girl opened her eyes. They looked
upward at the softly bluing sky. A
breeze of morning swept across her
brow, moving a little truant curl. She
204
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
sat up and stared about her wonder-
ingly. Then remembrance coming to
her, she sat still, silently watching the
sunrise. For some moments she re-
mained in this absorbed silence. Then
mechanically she raised her hands to her
head and sought to smooth the soft hair
hat the breeze had ruffled.
How still it is!" she said. Then, a
moment after, ' ' Heu ! the rock is so hard,
and it is chilly." She shivered.
Then moving along the rock, she came
to the edge and began to clamber down.
There were clefts in the rock which
Koma had cut as a boy, and she had no
difficulty in descending. She dropped
to the ground as lightly as a bird. Turn-
ing about, a sudden little cry escaped her
lips.
She stood as if rooted to the ground,
regarding with dilated eyes the figure
before her. He did not speak. His
eyes were upon her face, and he was
watching her startled expression with
an eager glance. Then she took a step
205
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
towards him, holding out both her
hands.
"Komazawa!" she cried. " It is you!"
He did not touch her outstretched
hands, and she shrank back as if struck.
"You, too!" she said, and her hand
sought her head bewilderedly.
"I, too?" he repeated, stupidly.
"Yes," she cried. "I understand
why you are here, why you do not
speak to me and embrace me as of old.
Ah, it is all very plain."
"What is very plain?" he asked, still
keeping his distance from her.
"Why you are here. They have sent
you to find me, to give me over to those
strangers. It is cruel, cruel!" she cried,
covering her face with her hands.
"It is not true!" he cried, going to
her and taking her hands from her face
and holding them closely in his own.
She did not seek to release them, but
permitted them to remain passively in
his, as she looked up into his face
through her tears.
206
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
" It is not true," he repeated, softly.
"Yet you were not glad to see me,"
she said, tremulously.
"Ah, but I was," he replied, in that
same soft, subtle voice which, somehow,
vaguely thrilled her.
"You did not speak to me."
"Your face your sudden appearance
startled me; I could not speak for a
moment," he said.
"Yet even now," she said, catch-
ing her breath, "you do not embrace
me."
He dropped her hands slowly and
drew back a pace.
"It would not be right now," he
said, huskily.
"I do not understand," she said.
"Have we not always embraced each
other?"
"We were children before," he said,
"but now embraces are for for lovers
only."
She looked at him a long moment in
wondering silence, a slow, pink glow
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
spreading gradually over her face. Then
she repeated, slowly, almost falteringly:
"For for lovers!"
He turned his eyes away from her face.
She put a timid hand upon his arm.
"Yet," she said, " Yamashiro Yoshi-
da was my lover, and and we did not
embrace."
"Ah, no, thank the Heavens!" he
cried, impetuously, again possessing
himself of her hands. "You were safe
from such things here, little one. Yet
you have much to learn much, and
I " His eyes became purple and his
chin squared in strong resolution. "I'm
going to teach you," he said.
"Teach me?" she faltered. "What
will you teach me?"
"The meaning of love," he said, the
words escaping him as if he could not
control them.
"You will be my lover?" she said,
timid wonder in her eyes.
He could not speak for some moments.
208
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Ah, what have I been saying? Little
one, you do not know, you cannot
dream of the extent of your own in-
nocence. I would be less than man
if your words did not pierce my heart
and thrill my whole being. Yet I am not
altogether selfish no though I have
spent years of my life among those who
were so. I will not take advantage of
the little one. She shall have every op-
portunity her birth, her beauty, demands.
You will go with your father, Hyacinth.
Nay, do not interrupt me. It will be
for your good. You must see this other
world, to which you rightfully belong.
Then when you have come to years of
womanhood you can decide for yourself."
"I am already a woman," she said,
tremulously.
"Only a child a little girl, "he said,
softly; "a poor little one who has been
imprisoned so long she has come to be-
lieve her own cage is gilded, and will not
take her freedom when the doors are
opened."
THE HEART O
Earnestly she looked into his face.
"And if I go to the West country,
you, too, will go with me, will you not,
Koma?"
He shook his head, smiling sadly.
"No. I would not have the right."
" I will not go, then," she said, simply.
"If they should force me I can be as
brave as others. I would take my life."
"No, you would not do so, for then
you would break our hearts."
"Yet you have no pity for mine,*
she said, near to tears now.
"Poor little heart!" he whispered,
tenderly.
After a moment she inquired, quietly:
"And did you come with my august
parent, then?"
" On the same steamer yes. It was
an accidental meeting."
"Ah, then you did not come back for
the purpose of helping them?"
" No, I had another purpose. I came
break your betrothal with Yamashiro
oshida."
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Well, they have saved you that
trouble," she said, sighing.
He regarded her keenly.
"Why do you sigh? You have re-
grets?""
"Yes," she admitted, "for if they had
not cast me off I could have remained
in Japan. Now " Her voice faltered
and she turned her head away.
"Now?" he repeated.
"Ah, yes," she said, "I begin to see
there is nothing else to be done. I am
resigned."
"You are resigned," he repeated, dis-
appointment showing in his transparent
face.
"Yes," she said, with a fleeting up-
ward glance at his face.
She suddenly laughed quite merrily.
"Come," she said, "let us go home.
I must humbly submit myself to the
august will of my honorable parent."
Koma said never a word. Manlike,
he was regretting his late words of ad-
vised self-sacrifice.
211
XXIV
IT was a slow pilgrimage homeward
that these two young people made, for
they stopped at every familiar place on
the hills and by the bay that they had
known as children. And, like children,
they dipped their faces in the shining
water of the little brook that wound its
way around the hills and fell in a tiny -
waterfall below into the bay.
They slipped into a darkened temple,
touching with reverent, loving fingers
the deserted images within. At the '
little village on the shore, where they
had lived together as children, they
halted and lunched at a tiny tavern
whose garden was the shore of the bay.
And when they had struck the road that
led to Sendai they turned their stej
212
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
backward and wandered along the white
beach of Matsushima.
The girl, whose heart had been so
heavy for days with the thought of
leaving her home, now with the light-
heartedness of a child seemed to have
forgotten all her troubles and to revel
in the joy of living.
But a gentle melancholy was upon
Komazawa. It was with something of
reproach that he answered the merry
chatter of his companion.
"Yonder," she said, pointing across
the bay, while her long sleeve, falling
back, disclosed her soft, dimpled arm,
"is the naked island Hadakajima. See,
it is not changed at all, Koma. Do
you remember those times when you
would carry me on your shoulder
and step from rock to rock in the
bay until you had reached Hadaka-
jima?"
"Yes," he said, watching her eyes.
She looked up at him sideways, then
drooped her lashes downward.
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
" You would not do the same to-day?"
she said.
"You are not the same child," he
replied.
"Ah, no," she sighed. " I am changed,
alas!"
"Why 'alas'?"
"The change does not please you,"
she said.
"Ah, but it does."
"Yet you were kinder to me then."
He did not reply. She raised her
face.
"Is it not so?"
"Perhaps," he replied.
Then you must have loved me more
then," she said.
"No, that is not true."
"No? Do you still love me, then?"
" I cannot answer you," he said. " If
I were to tell you my heart you would
not believe me, because you would not
understand."
"Ah, but I would, indeed," she said,
softly.
214
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"You are innocent," he said, regard-
ing her thoughtfully, "but you are a
coquette by nature."
"What is that ?' :
"One who makes a jest of love."
"And what is love?"
"Your heart will tell you some day."
"Yet I would have your heart tell me
now."
"Love is a rosy pain of the heart."
"Then I do not feel it," she said,
stretching out her little, pink fingers over
her heart, "for mine thrills and beats
with joyous palpitations. Yet" she
looked up at him seriously "perhaps
that, too, is another of the moods of this
love."
"Perhaps," he said. "Love is capri-
cious."
Hyacinth sighed and looked out wist-
fully across the bay.
"It is a strange word," she said,
vaguely.
"Yes, strange," he said. "I have
lived years in England, but I had to
2I S
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
return to Nippon to learn its mean-
ing."
" Yet you have been back but a day,"
she said, tremulously.
"And love is born in a moment," he
whispered, and took her hand softly in
his own.
She withdrew it quickly, and turned
from him in a sudden panic of in-
comprehensible fear, the morning had
wrought such a change in her.
"We must be going home," she said.
"Nay, we must hurry."
And after that they walked home-
ward swiftly in silence, each afraid to
speak to the other.
A
XXV
As Hyacinth passed up the little gar-
den-path she saw a familiar face at the
open shoji of the guest-room.
"It is Yamashiro Yoshida," she said
to Koma.
" What does he want?" her companion
demanded, with such unexpected harsh-
ness that the girl broke into a silvery
peal of laughter.
The gods alone know. We shall see.
Ah, but he is welcome!"
Aoi met them at the door. Her poor,
little, anxious face hurt the girl more
than if she had heaped her with re-
proaches. With an unwonted tender-
ness she threw her arms -about the
mother's neck and pressed her face
against hers, whispering over and over
again.
217
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"How I love you! It is so good to
see you again."
"Yoshida is within," said Aoi, when
the girl had released her. "He comes
alone."
"What!" she cried, in mock sur-
prise. "The brave Yoshida ventures
out alone ? Well, and what does he
want?"
"Nay, he would not tell me. He
will speak only to you, little one."
"Very well. Let him speak," and
she pushed the doors gayly aside and
entered the oxashishi. She was not
aware that Koma had entered also un-
til, following the glance of Yoshida, she
perceived Koma behind her. Then her
voice rippled merrily, and she spoke
affectionately to Yamashiro Yoshida.
"Why, Yamashiro Yoshida, what
brings you here? I had not dreamed
of the blessings the gods had in store
for me. I am so affected by the light
of your presence that I am rendered
speechless," which last was quite un-
218
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
true, as both the young men could have
attested.
Yoshida bowed himself to the ground ;
and now, oblivious of the presence of the
intruder, Koma, replied:
"Ah, beauteous one, I am come to
bring you a most insignificant present,
and to beseech you to pardon the rude-
ness of my family and to permit our
betrothal to continue."
The girl took the gift slowly and held
it on the palm of her hand. It was a
very exquisitely lacquered box, and she
knew without opening it that it con-
tained some very valuable complexion
powder. Her lover, however, could not
have told from her face the effect of his
words and gift upon her.
Her eyes were inscrutable, her lips
pressed closely together. She seemed
to be examining the box with critical
eyes, as though she were weighing its
value.
Without a word of response, she sud
denly crossed to the tokonona and dre
219
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
out from underneath it a fairly large
box. Its contents she removed slowly,
setting the articles in a semicircle on
the floor about her. Soon she was quite
encircled by the contents. Then, with
one little, pointing finger, she spoke:
"This obi, Yamashiro Yoshida, was
your first gift. It was given on the day
of our betrothal. I have never worn
it. It was too rich for one so small
as I."
She looked full into the face of Yo-
shida, and then with a fleeting glance
she saw the face of Koma. She smiled
ever so sweetly.
"These pins, Yoshida, are costly, but
murderous appearing. Once they prick-
ed my head."
She stuck them into the sash of the
"These bracelets," she said, "are just
exactly like the ones you gave to the
geisha Morning Glory."
She laid them beside the pins.
"This kimono, honorable Yoshida, is
220
^
,
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
so heavy its weight would break the
back of one so humble as I."
"Lady," said Yamashiro Yoshida,
haughtily, " you make a jest of my gifts.
I assure you I do not appreciate it.
Why do you thus enumerate them? Is
it not ungracious?"
Sweetly the girl swept all of the gifts
into a heap together, then, rising with
them in her arms, she crossed to Yoshida.
"Yamashiro Yoshida," she said, " I
never loved you, yet I betrothed myself
to you because of the magnificence of
your gifts. I was an ignorant child.
Then you and your august parents cast
me off because of my honorable origin,
which you despised. Now you come
to attempt to buy me with another
gift. But I am no longer a silly child,
and I give you back not only that new
gift, but all all all all. Take them
take them quickly."
She thrust them into his arms. An-
grily he attempted to refuse them . They
fell crashing to the floor. A man's rich
221
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
voice suddenly broke out into laugh-
ter.
"It is an insult!" cried Yamashiro
Yoshida, furiously, trampling upon his
gifts, half by accident, half blindly.
He glared at the sweetly smiling face of
the girl glared at the laughing Koma-
zawa; then he clapped his hands vio-
lently.
"My shoes!" he fairly shouted at
Mume, as she answered his summons.
He kicked his feet into his shoes,
stamped on the floor furiously, then
turned on his heel and left the house in
a fine rage.
I
CJ&
XXVI
As the irate Yoshida vanished through
the doors, Hyacinth clapped her hands
with a childish gesture of delight. She
looked at Koma, now regarding her
gravely, then, with a dimpling smile, she
sat down on the mats among the de-
spised gifts. These she tossed about
gayly.
"He has gone away," she said, "mad
as three devils of Osaka, but what
matter? He has left the gifts! Such
a silly lover, such a foolish one!"
She began to collect the gifts, folding
the obi and the rich kimono.
"You are not going to keep them?"
said Koma, standing over her and look-
ing down at her gravely.
" Not going to keep them? Why, the
lover refused to accept their return."
223
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Yes, but you don't want them."
" But I do," she protested, patting the
folded obi lovingly.
"Why, you told him you did not."
"Oh," she said, airily. "That's just
foolish pride. I was just talking
through my head."
She laughed mischievously.
"That's liddle slang I learned at mis-
sion-house," she said.
"I want you to send those presents
back to this Yamashiro."
1 ' Send all those lovely presents back ? ' '
She shook her head.
"Could not do it," she said. "Too
great sacrifice."
"I will buy you all the things you
want."
She stared up at him amazedly.
"You?"
"Yes," he replied, flushing, "I why
not?"
" Well, but "she regarded him doubt-
fully "you are not rich like Yamashiro
Yoshida."
224
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"How do you know?" he asked, qui-
etly.
She regarded him dubiously.
"When I get those presents from
you," she said, "then I will return these.
That right?"
He pulled the box over to the centre
of the floor, and thrust the gifts into it,
snapping the lid down tightly. Then,
going to the door, he called for Mum6 to
take the box at once to the Yamashiros.
Having disposed of this question, he
turned his attention again to Hyacinth.
She was sitting in the centre of the room,
her chin on her hand, pensively regard-
him.
"How," she said, "are you going to
make me those gifts if I am to go away
to that West country, and you will not
go with me?"
" You are going to stay here," he said;
and she knew from the expression in his
eyes and the tone of his voice that he
meant what he said.
"But what of my august parent?"
[$':'
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Will you follow my advice exactly?"
She nodded in assent.
"When he comes you are to make a
request of him."
"Yes?"
"Ask him beg him even to permit
you to remain one month in Sendai with
us. Then tell him that after that you
will go wherever your rightful guardian
shall direct."
"He will not consent," she said, de-
pression seizing upon her ' ' these august
barbarians are hard as rock. They
never move no, never."
"Who told you that?"
"Nobody," she said, "but I observe."
"Where did you observe it?" he per-
sisted.
She looked at him sideways a moment
without replying. Then she dimpled and
smiled.
"In the mission-house people and in
you, Koma," she said.
"Promise me that you will make the
request?"
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Very well, I will make that foolish
promise. But " she thrust out a lit-
tle red underlip in a bewitching pout
"one month will soon come to an end,
and after that?"
"After that you will leave the rest to
me," he said.
\ >H9^^I
XXVII
IN the guest-room of Madame Aoi's
house, the Lorrimers had waited fully a
half-hour. Their patience was wellnigh
exhausted. Lorrimer's nervousness and
anxiety threatened to result in utter
collapse. The events of the last few
months, through which this dissipated
man of the world had suddenly found
himself to be the father of a child he
had never seen, and by the woman his
conscience had never ceased to tell him
he had wronged, were having their effect
upon him.
He was a weak-natured man, easily
ruled through his affections ; but he was
not bad-hearted. Many years ago the
woman who was now his wife had pre-
vailed upon him to divorce another
wife that he might marry her. Richard
228
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
Lorrimer's affection for his second wife
had evaporated during the honeymoon,
and was flameless and dead in twelve
months. Since then his life with her
had been dull, aimless, purposeless,
broken in its monotony only at inter-
vals by the woman's spasmodic efforts
to fan the flame into life.
Now a strange and novel emotion was
stirring the soul if soul it could be
called in such a nature of Richard
Lorrimer. He had a feverish, almost
childish, longing to see, to possess, this
child his own. He was too sluggish
and indolent by nature to have an im-
agination which would have pictured
her in his mind. He had a hazy idea
that she would be like any other Amer-
ican child, that she would, of course, be
shy of him at first, but that the natural
feeling of a child for its father would
assert its power. He felt certain that
she would prove a source of pleasure and
comfort to him.
Nervously he paced the floor, with
220
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
irregular, broken strides, stopping now
and then to look about him, or to answer
the impatient remarks that escaped his
wife's lips.
"This is beautiful," she said. " I sup-
pose we are to wait here all day."
Lorrimer glanced about the room.
"Do you suppose there's a bell some-
where?" he asked, fretfully.
" What a question! Did you ever see
a bell in a Japanese house?"
"The hotels all have them," he an-
swered.
"This is not a hotel."
Lorrimer winced at her retorts. He
said, a trifle apologetically:
"You see, my dear, the woman said
she was dressing, or something like that . "
' ' Then we may as well go back to Mt^
Blount's. These Japanese women are
inordinately vain, and spend hours in .
dressing."
"My daughter is not Japanese," said
her husband, mildly.
The woman pursed her lips.
230
ACINTH
4 ' I wonder what you really expect to
see, Dick?" she said, looking at him
curiously. "You're all unstrung."
Just then Aoi appeared at the door.
She came towards them in a state of
repressed excitement, and she welcomed
her guests with stammering and un-
certain words, though she courtesied so
repeatedly that the visitors became un-
easy.
"My daughter?" inquired Lorrimer,
as soon as Aoi had ceased her kow-
towing.
"She will come in a moment. The
illustrious ones will pardon the child's
nervousness."
"It is only natural," said Lorrimer,
quietly, biting his underlip in his own
restlessness.
Aoi's face, with its humble smile, sud-
denly appeared alert. She seemed to be
listening.
"Ah, now she is coming, augustness,"
she said, as she crossed to the doors and
slowly pushed them aside.
231
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
The Lorrimers had not heard the soft
patter of the little feet in the matted
hall, for a Japanese girl's tread in the
house is almost soundless. Hence, when
Aoi drew the sliding-doors apart, they
had not expected to see the girl on the
very threshold.
They started, simultaneously, at sight
of the little figure. With drooping head,
Hyacinth softly entered the room. At
first glance she seemed no different from
any other Japanese girl, save that she
was somewhat taller. She was dressed
in kimono and obi, her hair freshly ar-
ranged and shining in its smooth butter-
fly mode. Her face was bent to the
floor, so that they could scarcely see
more than its outline.
She hesitated a moment before them;
then, as though unaware of the im-
petuous motion towards her of the man
she knew was her father, she subsided
to the mats and bowed her head at his
feet.
The silence that ensued was painful.
232
THE HEART OP HYACINTH
Then Mrs. Lorrimer gasped, hysteri-
cally:
"This is not not she?"
Lorrimer stooped gently down to the
little figure and lifted her to her feet.
She raised her face, and for a moment
these two whose lives were so strangely
connected looked into each other's faces.
The father could not speak for some
time, so intense were the emotions that
assailed him. When he did find his
voice, it was broken and trembling.
"My my dear little daughter!" he
said.
Then he bent and kissed her. She
stood still, almost stonily, under his
caress, but she did not return his em-
brace. She quietly withdrew her hands
from his.
" It is unnatural horrible," said Mrs.
Lorrimer, beneath her breath. Low as
was her voice, it broke the spell of
silence, which rested like a pall in
the room. Lorrimer turned to her
quietly.
.,,.,
'M
m
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
is
"And this," he said to Hyacinth,
your your mother."
She turned her eyes slowly upon the
woman, and looked at hei steadily.
Then she said, in clear English:
"You make mistake. My mother is
dead."
Again an embarrassed silence and con-
straint fell upon them all. This time it
was Aoi who broke it. She turned her
head from them as she spoke.
"Little one, it is your duty to accept
the Engleesh lady as your mother."
For the first time the girl's unnatural
calmness deserted her. She ran to Aoi,
throwing her arms passionately about
her.
"No, no," she cried. "You are the
only mother I know. I will never have
another. No!"
"What are they saying to each other?"
asked Mrs. Lorrimer, watching them cu-
riously.
"My knowledge of Japanese is limit-
ed," said her husband, heavily.
234
THE HEART OF
"The whole thing's a farce," she said.
" Do you find it so?" he asked, smiling
bitterly.
"Oh, Dick, we can't be expected to
understand a girl like that."
"She is my daughter," was his quiet
reply; and there was a new dignity in
his voice.
"Yes, but she is different from us,
so utterly alien. Just look at her.
Would any one believe she was your
daughter?"
He looked over at the little figure
now soothing the weeping Aoi, and his
wife's words found a hollow echo within
him.
"Yet," said Mrs. Lorrimer, thought-
fully, "she is still very young and quite
pretty. A few years in the West may
make a great change in her. Who
knows, we may make quite a little
civilized modern out of her yet. She
is Richard Lorrimer's daughter."
As though she knew they were talking
about her, Hyacinth left Aoi and came
235
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
towards them, though she was careful
to keep at a distance.
"Will my honorable father excuse
our presence for to-day?" she said, in
English.
"But you are going with us at once,"
said Mrs. Lorrimer.
With a movement that in a Western
girl would have seemed rudeness, Hya-
cinth turned her back slowly towards
her step-mother and addressed her words
solely to her father.
"If it please you, august father,"
she said, "will you not deign to per-
mit me to remain here with my my
friends till the time comes to leave
Sendai?"
Her form of speech hurt her father
N strangely. He watched her face unlov-
ing, emotionless, it seemed, when turn-
ed to his and his own grew wistful.
He was more than anxious to indulge
her.
"Yes, yes, certainly," he said. "I
appreciate your feelings. By all means
236
THE HEART OF
HYACI
stay here if you wish. How long be-
fore"
"Will you not permit me to remain
one month?" she said, somewhat tim-
idly, and her eyes suddenly fell. She
could not tell why, but a flood of
emotions seemed to fill her heart, so that
she could no longer contain herself
she must look into the face of h
father.
"We expected to leave at once," he
said, gently; "but if it is your wish to
remain longer, understand, I want you
to have your desires gratified."
She went towards him falteringly a
few steps. She held out her hands un-
certainly.
He took them quickly in his own.
She raised her face to his, and suddenly
her eyes became blinded with tears ; but,
when he stooped to kiss her, she slipped
to the floor at his feet.
He clasped his slender, nervous hands
together and looked down at the queer
little figure, now seeming to bow to him
237
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
after the strange fashion of the Japanese
in bidding adieu. Then he turned to
his wife.
"We had better go now," he said,
huskily.
1 *
XXVIII
ON an early morning in the month
of August, two young people were drift-
ing in a light sail-boat in and out of the
waters surrounding the rock islands of
Matsushima. They might have been
new lovers, they were so silent, and al-
ways they were gazing into each other's
faces, flushing and trembling when their
eyes met.
The boy, for he seemed still very
young, was graceful, and of grave,
bre beauty. He was tall and dark,
and the expression of his deep-brown
eyes was tender and piercing. His
limbs were well formed, and his strong
arms, as he handled the boat, showed
that he was no mean athlete. He was
dressed in a gray hakama, the sleeves
rolled back. His head was bare, and the
239
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
wind, lifting the soft,, dark locks, showed
his high, fine bro.w.
The girl was small. Her hair, though
brown, had a strangely sunny sheen to
it, and her eyes were gray-blue, dreamy,
and wistful. Koma, as he watched
the changing expressions of her face,
thought her fairer and lovelier than all
the women of the great world he had
seen.
There was a little padded seat in the
boat, and against this she leaned back,
trailing her hand in the still water, and
watching now the sky, now the bay, now
the hills on either side, and sometimes
Komazawa.
They drifted about the bay in this
silent, thrilling fashion for some time;
then she suddenly spoke. Koma drop-
ped the oar and sat forward.
"Do you know what the days seem
like to me now?" she asked.
"No," he said, his eyes wandering in-
constantly over her face.
"They are like a lotos bloom," she
240
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
said, "always pink and gold, and so
beautiful that they are sure to fade."
For a moment he did not reply, then,
leaning on his oar, he said:
"And if the day must fade, will not
the morrow be as beautiful?"
"Ah, no," she said, sadly; "besides,
we are not acquainted with the morrow.
We only know the to-day, and so the
heart breaks at the thought of parting
from what is with us now."
" You are sad to-day. Yesterday you
were merry."
"I was not merry at heart," she said,
plaintively. "You are very clever,
Koma, but, ah, you do not know every-
thing."
He watched her face in silence.
"You think because I laugh and say
gay things that my heart, too, is light."
"No, I do not think that," he said,
earnestly; "but why should you not be
happy and gay? You are only a maid-
en. You cannot know tears yet little
one." He added the old, familiar term
16 241
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"little one" so softly that she strained
her ears to hear it.
She held a lotos blossom close to
her face, and looked down into its
heart.
"See," she said, holding it towards
him, "there is one drop of dew in the
heart of the lotos. It is like a tear. It,
too, poor flower, must fade away with
the summer."
"Why do you say ' it, too ' ?"
"Like me," she said; "I will not be
here when the summer has passed."
Her voice broke. "You said I should
not go. Yet yet the days pass so
swiftly. Only one week more and
after that ? Ah, I cannot bear to
think of it."
" Do you, then, love this Japan of ours
so dearly?"
She looked about her, her eyes filled
with tears. She clasped her little hands
together.
"Ah, yes," she said.
"And you would not even be content
242
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
co go to the home of your ancestors for
for a little while?"
"I am afraid," she said, simply
" afraid to leave the land of gods and go
out into the unknown. It is the un-
known that has such horror for me.
And the great seas are flat and bottom-
less. I could not have courage to cross
them unless I were forced to do so."
"But you would not be afraid to
cross them with me, would you, little
one?"
" No not with you, Koma," she said,
looking into his eyes.
Leaning across, he took one of her
little hands, held it a space between
both his own, then lifted it to his lips.
" Never was there such faith as yours,
and in one one who is not worthy to
touch you."
" When you talk like that, Koma," she
said, with tears in her voice, "you make
me sadder still, because when I am gone
from you I must recall those words."
"Then if such words make you sad, I
243
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
will not speak them again. Nothing
but joy and sunshine should dwell in
your face. So let us talk of happier
things. See how near to the shore we
are coming. Shall we land?"
"No. Let us drift on."
"Look how the sunbeams are gliding
down the pine trunks. See how they,
too, have tinted the green leaves to
gold."
"There are no no pine-trees in
America. No more And there are
no sunbeams there. The sensei told
me so."
"The sensei is ignorant. The sun is
generous. He scatters his gifts all over
the world."
"But he favors Nippon."
"Yes," he repeated, "he favors Nip-
pon all nature does so."
"And that America is cold."
"It has its summers, little one."
"Look, "she said; "see, there is a little
white fox on the hill there. It is look-
ing at us. Ah, it is gone!"
244
HYACINTH
iat is a good omen, is it not?" said
Koma, smiling.
"Oh, surely. The foxes are sacred.
Every one believes so except the mission-
house people."
"We do not belong to the mission-
house. We will believe so."
" How cheerful you are, Koma. You
are not sorry to see me go?"
"You are not gone yet."
"But there is only one week left," she
said, "and despair craves company. Do
you, therefore, give me your sympathy ?"
"Wait till the week is gone," he said,
"and then if you still wish it, none will
be sadder with you than I."
XXIX
A PEW days later. It is early evening
and the crickets are making a great
bustle in the grasses, while a small, gray
ape, swinging in a bamboo, is mingling
its chattering with the cawing of the
crows in the camphor-trees.
"Summer is passing," said Hyacinth,
"for everything is complaining."
I do not complain," said Koma.
'No; life will always be summer for
you. You are not going away from
Nippon."
jAre you?" he asked.
"There is no help for me," she said.
"I grow more melancholy each day."
'Is it only Japan you care about
leaving?"
"Japan holds all all that is dear to
me."
246
HEART OF HYACINTH
"And can you enumerate them the
things that are dear to you?"
She shook her head drearily.
"No," she said, "I cannot."
"Yet you could stay here if you
wished."
"No. How could I?"
"Did not that young American from
the consulate in Tokyo ask you to marry
him? He lives here in Japan, necessa-
rily."
She laughed.
"Was he not kind?" she said.
"Why did you refuse him?"
"Oh, for many reasons."
"Tell me them."
"He belongs to the West country,
after all."
"He does- not think so. For your
sake he would forswear even that."
"Ah, but he does so, nevertheless.
The gods no, his God fashioned him
for his own land."
"And was that the only reason wh
you refused him?"
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
1 ' No. I do do not " She hesitated ,
and turned her head droopingly from
him. "I do not love him," she said,
simply.
"You did not love Yamashiro Yo-
shida, yet you would have married him."
"I did not know better," she said,
faintly.
" But it is only a little while since."
"A month," she said; "since you re-
turned."
"Confess to me," he said, his eyes
gleaming, "that it was I who made
you know the meaning of love, and I
will tell you why you are not going to
America to-morrow no, nor the day
after, nor until you shall go with me."
"What can I confess?" she said,
tremulously. "I do not know what
you wish, dear Koma." She was
trembling now.
"Confess to me," he said, "else I can-
not speak, for fear I should wrong you,
my little one. I will not try to urge
you to stay here with me unless "
248
THE HEART O
HYA<
"I I cannot speak," she said. "I
know not what to say."
"Then I will speak," he said. " I love
you, I love you, Hyacinth; with all the
life that throbs within me, I love you.
Do you understand? No, do not speak
unless you can answer my heart with
your own. I want you for my own. Ah,
I know I have won you! It is not a
delusion, for I see it in your eyes, your
lips. You do not know it yet, you are
so innocent and pure, but I ah, I am
sure of it!"
She raised her quivering face to his
in the moonlight. Then suddenly her
head fell upon her clasped hands.
"Ah, is this love?" she said.
He lifted her face and kissed her
lips, her eyes, then her little, trembling
hands.
"This is love and this, and this."
Later they came to a hidden path
arched on either side by the drooping
bamboos. The moon was above them,
making a silver pathway for their feet.
249
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
"Whither do we go?" she tremulously
whispered.
"I know the way," said he, gently
leading her onward.
They came to an open space, a narrow
field. And on the grass, the winds, gently
blowing, moved back and forth in the
moonlight strange wisps of white paper.
" It is the Path of Prayer," said Koma.
She understood, and was dumb with
the thrilling of her emotions.
"Here," he said, "the Goddess of
Mercy walks nightly. Though we are
no longer sad, let us leave our prayer
here among these sad petitions for her
to read."
"Yes," she said, " and we will pray to
Kuannon for those less fortunate than
we."
Kneeling there in the silver light, they
wrote on fragments of paper their simple
prayers. Did the Heavenly Lady, when
trailing her robes of mercy through the
Path of Prayer, read also the petitions
of the lovers?
250
THE HEART OF HYACINTH
They left the Path of Prayer and
climbed to the summit of the hill.
Softly they turned their feet towards
the mission-house.
"We have said our prayers to Kuan-
non now we will turn to the God of our
fathers," he whispered.
They paused a moment on the mis-
sionary's doorstep. She raised her face
to his.
"The Reverend Blount may refuse,"
she said.
"He will not," he assured her, "sin
he has promised me. Come!"
THB END
f
PS Babcock, Winnifred (Eaton)
8453 The heart of Hyacinth
A33H4
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