nswered:--

"Yes, lord."

And again that night she wept--not an hour--many hours. For you will
have observed that Shijiro Arisuga did not say that he would marry--but
only take her. (There is a difference in Japan.) And he did not ask her
parents.

"You see, he knows!" she sobbed to the faithful maid. "Oh, it was so
sweet--so sweet--that I forgot that I must not. And when I thought he
loved me I was sure he would say 'I will marry you,' even if he did not
mean it. But he only said, 'I will take you.' So--he does not love
me--no! Well, Isonna, he shall have me. And I will enter his very soul!
And then, some day, he will regret those awful words, and when he does I
will die where he can see me afterward. You shall dress my hair in the
shimada fashion, with flowers."

"He does _not_ know," said the maid. "And he does love you. It is the
result of telling him that you have had twenty lovers!"

"Ah, Isonna, do not make my sorrow heavier. That would be worse. He
would not dare to say that to even me--if I were not what I am."

The maid still insisted.

"Then to-morrow I will tell him. If he would say that to a lady, who he
thinks has dismissed many suitors for him, he shall know that he has
said it to one who is not a lady and who has had no suitor but him
alone."

"And one who has parents to be consulted! Not like one who goes to
Geisha street without the leave of parents or uncles," advised the maid,
with great severity.

"Yes," sobbed the girl. "Geisha street! Refuge of the forsaken! Oh, love
exalts, as we do our parents. It does not demean. So, there is no love,
no love! No matter what I am, however low, no matter what he is, however
high, if he loved me he would ask my parents for leave to marry me--even
if he only meant to take me. And I thought he loved me! Do you remember
how, only a little while ago, I wished him only to know well that he
loved me! Alas, he knows now that I love him, but he has told me
odiously, odiously, that he does _not_ love me! Yes, Isonna, he shall
have me. Then I will die."

THE MAKING OF A GODDESS

XVI

THE MAKING OF A GODDESS

So she said the next day, not now with the aplomb of a lady, but as a
servant:--

"Lord, there is a reason why you cannot--even--" she choked in her
throat--"take me. Do you not know it?"

"Do not call me lord," he said, "as if you were a servant and I your
master."

"It is right that I should do so, lord."

"I won't have it," he