is more useful. That is two
killings for you!"

"But I did not know, mistress! Perhaps I do not know love."

"You do not, Isonna. For it has been right under your nose these two
weeks. After all, I will not tell my father. For he might give me a maid
who would not be as pretty as you," and she hugged Isonna, who was not
pretty at all. "And in exchange for my mercy you must not be odious,
but recognize that it is too late. Is it a bargain?"

Well, any bargain the lovely Hoshi might propose to the plain Isonna
would meet with her approval, though it should mean her death the next
instant, and so this one was approved.

ANGEL OF THE EARTH-HEAVEN

XI

ANGEL OF THE EARTH-HEAVEN

Now, the next day, Arisuga, laughing, greeted her with that very
word--"angel"! Perhaps he did hear a bit of their talk. For the walls
between them were very thin. This was the way of it: He clapped his
hands so early in the morning that he was amazed at the despatch with
which she arrived. But we are not. For we know that she was waiting just
outside of his screens to be called. She meant to dissemble and pretend
that she was at a distance. But you can fancy how instantly she forgot
that when he called:--

"Angel! Angel of my earth-heaven!" Though there are no angels in the
Japanese heavens.

You have seen that, in her presence, he had forgotten his caution!
Observe, now, that he did likewise in her absence! What end but one
could there be to such recklessness!

"Stand there! I want to look at you!" he cried when she came. For the
light of the morning was in her face--and the light of love, too! "By
your Jizo," he said, then, "I am glad you are _not_ an angel!

"Cherry blooms are very pink,
But not so pink as you are!"

he sang, laughing, and her heart was so choked with ecstasy that she had
to put both hands to her face and run from the room hearing him still
call "Angel" after her.

"O Benten," she cried to the goddess of beauty in her room, "that is
different! He is not careful now--he is awake to-day! _We_ must beware
of him! There is danger!"

And at once she returned--with the water for his bath!

For, that was always her way: when he would say something to make her
heart leap into her mouth, to fly from him in the direst panic, suborn
the goddess, then hasten back to have it happen again.

"A heart is a strange thing," she laughed to him. "Sometimes it is here
(at the proper place for it), sometime