ke to linger from the red death; I like it well!"

"Yes, lord, that is a filial duty. To die for--for--the repose of your
father's soul. But there is no need of--haste?"

"No," said the disgraceful young soldier, "there is no need of haste."

She laughed and touched his face--where he caught and held her hand.

"Perhaps, many many years?"

"Perhaps," said Arisuga.

"Until you are mi--married?"

"Perhaps until I am married."

"Beautiful!" cried the girl.

"And who would you have me marry?"

"Isonna!" laughed Hoshiko, "if you were not so great, lord. Oh, she is
most sweet to men! Often I have wondered that men do not marry her!
Isonna!"

Again the girl plunged from the next room.

"Isonna," said her mistress, "ugly little beast, you are to marry the
lord soldier when he is a trifle better."

Isonna forgot her manners in the violence of another amazement. Arisuga
shouted with happy laughter.

"Vast lord," wailed the maid, as if she believed it all, "there is the
same reason in me as in my mistress, that--"

"Sh!"

Hoshiko put her two hands violently upon the garrulous mouth of the
servant.

"You little beast! Is not once enough? I dislike to kill you. But I
suppose I must!"

When all was well again she turned to Arisuga:--

"Then you will need a servant--and I am very industrious, am I not,
Isonna?"

Isonna said nothing. This seemed safest.

"Is she industrious, Isonna?" asked the mystified young soldier. "We
will have no servants who are not industrious!"

"No," said the frightened maid to him, and "Yes" to her when she had
looked, first, the way of her mistress, then the way of the soldier.

"Do I not curl the futons, dress my hair, fill my father's pipe, clean
the sand out of his sandals, mend his bed-netting, tie his girdle, cook
his rice?"

Isonna said yes.

"I am convinced," laughed the soldier. "When I marry Isonna you shall
serve us."

"Go," said the girl to the maid, "and be ready when the lord commander
wishes."

And when she was gone the young soldier and the girl laughed again
together.

"Almost," said the girl, "she lost me my place in your household."

And one could not be certain from her words that she was not serious.

The soldier had again the impression that she had barely prevented some
momentous disclosure. It gave his gayety pause and his coquetry caution.

"Then I am not in a heaven," said he, "and--_you_ are not a heavenly
person?"

The girl dropped to he