amid this magnificence. Dependent on him for means of
life are two aged parents. A bare subsistence is secured for them.
Condescend his dismissal, that he may return to relieve their
anxieties."

The speech met with but poor reception. Gentle was the laugh of the
_himegimi_, yet a little wrinkle knitted her brow. She seemed to regard
him in a somewhat strange light. "Have no misgivings as to their fate.
An ample sum shall be sent to assure them against need. Meanwhile Nature
and the occasion has furnished forth the toilet dealer--for the lady's
toilet.... Now for the wine feast." In the scene of riot and merriment
which followed the one thought of the unfortunate trader was to escape.
There was no strict order in the banquet, no formality. The idea of the
_himegimi_ was to get the greatest pleasure out of everything to her
hand, and all vied with each other, by song and art, with voice and
musical accompaniment, by a minute attention to needs of host and guest
to make the sensual effect of the scene complete. There was not a
jarring element in the well trained bevy of women devoted to pleasure.
The toilet dealer was free, yet bound. If he would seek occasion to
leave his place, to move uneasily hither and thither in these wide
rooms, as did the women with their carelessness and ease, always he
found himself balked by their presence. Escape there was none. Soon he
found himself again by her ladyship's side, to be plied with the wine
until sense and caution gave way before the spell of the beautiful
woman. To her it was an amusing game, a stimulant to her passion, the
conquest of this reluctance in a man found to lack the brazenness and
vulgarity of his caste. In the end he could but murmur at her feet that
he was hers--to do with as she would. "Would that this dream could last
forever! In this Paradise of the wondrous Presence."

The scene was changed. Her ladyship rose. In the company of a few of the
women he was led still further into the recesses of the palace. Here he
was arrayed for the night, amid the merry jesting and admiring criticism
of his attendants. Accompanied to the bed chamber the _fusuma_ (screens)
were closed, and he could hear the fall of the bars in the outer
passages. Submission now was easy, as inevitable, as taken by the storm
of this woman's passion. With but short intervals of dozing she would
draw him to her embrace, and intoxicate him with her caresses. "When the
poison be taken--let the plate