g our
arms and voices to our true parents, the gods of storm and wind. They
will lean to us, beloved,--they will rush downward in a great passion
of joy, catching us and straining us to immortality!"

By this they were from sight and hearing of the river, and had begun to
thread the maze of narrow city streets in which now lamps and tiny
electric bulbs and the bobbing lanterns of hurrying jinrikisha men had
begun to twinkle. In the darker alleys the couple walked side by side.
Ume, at times, even rested a small hand on her husband's sleeve. In
the broad, well-lighted thoroughfares he strode on some paces in
advance while Ume followed, in decorous humility, as a good wife
should. Few words passed between them. The incident at the willow
tree had left a gloomy aftermath of thought.

In the Kano home the simple night meal of rice, tea, soup, and pickled
vegetables was already prepared. Mata motioned them to their places in
the main room where old Kano was already seated, and served them in the
gloomy silence which was part of the general strain. Throughout the
whole place reproach hung like a miasma.

This evening, almost for the first time, Tatsu reflected, in full
measure, the despondency of his companions. The elder man, glancing
now and again toward him, evidently restrained with difficulty a flow
of bitter words. Once he spoke to his daughter, fixing sunken eyes
upon her. "The crimson lacquered wedding-chest that was your mother's,
to-day has been sold to buy us food." Ume clenched her little hands
together, then bowed far over, in token that she had heard. There were
no words to say. For weeks now they had lived upon such money as
this,--namida-kane,--"tear-money" the Japanese call it.

Tatsu, helpless in his place, scowled and muttered for a moment, then
rose and hurried out, leaving the meal unfinished. Ume watched him
sadly, but did not follow. This was so unusual a thing that Tatsu,
alone in their chamber, was at first astonished, then alarmed. For ten
minutes or more he paced up and down the narrow space, pride urging him
to await his wife's dutiful appearance. In a short while more he felt
the tension to be unbearable. A sinister silence flooded the house.
He hurried back to the main room to find that Ume and old Kano were not
there. He began searching the house, all but the kitchen.
Instinctively he avoided old Mata's domain, knowing it to be the lair
of an enemy. At last necessity drov