f
dark-blue gauze, ready hung for the night, falls from the ceiling with
the air of a mysterious vellum. The gilded Buddha smiles eternally
at the night-lamps burning before him; some great moth, a constant
frequenter of the house, which during the day sleeps clinging to our
ceiling, flutters at this hour under the very nose of the god, turning
and flitting round the thin, quivering flames. And, motionless on the
wall, its feelers spread out star-like, sleeps some great garden spider,
which one must not kill because it is night. "Hou!" says Chrysantheme,
indignantly, pointing it out to me with levelled finger. Quick! where is
the fan kept for the purpose, wherewith to hunt it out of doors?

Around us reigns a silence which is almost oppressive after all the
joyous noises of the town, and all the laughter, now hushed, of our band
of mousmes--a silence of the country, of some sleeping village.

CHAPTER XXVI. A QUIET SMOKE

The sound of the innumerable wooden panels, which at nightfall are
pulled and shut in every Japanese house, is one of the peculiarities of
the country which will remain longest imprinted on my memory. From our
neighbor's houses these noises reach us one after the other, floating to
us over the green gardens, more or less deadened, more or less distant.

Just below us, Madame Prune's panels move very badly, creak and make a
hideous noise in their wornout grooves.

Ours are somewhat noisy too, for the old house is full of echoes, and
there are at least twenty screens to run over long slides in order to
close in completely the kind of open hall in which we live. Usually, it
is Chrysantheme who undertakes this piece of household work, and a great
deal of trouble it gives her, for she often pinches her fingers in
the singular awkwardness of her too tiny hands, which never have been
accustomed to do any work.

Then comes her toilette for the night. With a certain grace she lets
fall the day-dress, and slips on a more simple one of blue cotton, which
has the same pagoda sleeves, the same shape all but the train, and which
she fastens round her waist with a sash of muslin of the same color.

The high head-dress remains untouched, it is needless to say--that is,
all but the pins, which are taken out and laid beside her in a lacquer
box.

Then there is the little silver pipe that must absolutely be smoked
before going to sleep; this is one of the customs which most provoke me,
but it has to be born