nged for and regarded as enduring to the whiteness of the
hair thus is reduced to the wave of a hand. The chaste wife suffers not
the embrace of two men. Oh! Husband! Son!" Weeping O'Kiku hid her face
in her sleeves as she made her plea.

Harsh and triumphant was the voice of Shu[u]zen as he pressed on this
newly discovered weakness. "Then you lied; Jinnai lied, in calling you a
maid. This Sampei and Jumatsu rightly are gallows-birds, doomed to the
execution ground. Shu[u]zen has but to say the word. Seized they are put
to the torture; the child to know the bitterness of the scourge. Such a
tiny body will be cut to ribbons. Listen well! Obey the command of this
Shu[u]zen. 'Tis the choice between the jewelled palanquin of the
favoured mistress, or torture for these two. The kind offices of the bed
for Shu[u]zen, or the rottenness of the jail for these two criminals.
The gift of Kiku's chastity secures for them oblivion.... You would ask
time? To-morrow night, after the counting of the plates, the answer will
be received." He ceased--to turn to Chu[u]dayu, who for a little time
had stood by, as one waiting on a matter of business. O'Kiku, face white
and drawn, tottered away to her room.

She had played false, and at a cast lost all. Gloomy, the long hair
framing the distraught and unhappy face, she sat. "Unhappy the lot of
this Kiku. The sisters left without a father's sanction, to witness the
shadow on the mother's life; to know that father but as criminal ready
to be sent to the execution ground; and now, by rashness of the tongue,
to condemn husband and infant son to such a hideous fate! Remedy there
is none. Perchance the life of this Kiku in sacrifice for both arouses
kindness to pardon; or at least secures them in ignorance." Now she was
all decision. Rapidly she loosed the girdle of her sash. The safety of
her beloved was at stake, and no father's command held. The feet bound
she seated herself before the mirror, took up the dagger and felt its
keen point, then the morbid soft flesh of the neck. As she raised her
arm it was seized at her side. Noiseless Chu[u]dayu had entered and
acted in prevention. With a grunt he bent down and severed the sash cord
which restrained her. Then holding the dagger daintily he spoke his
will--"Is not this madness, O'Kiku Dono? The Tono Sama has issued his
summons, and the heart does not conform. The secret thought is known to
this Chu[u]dayu. Turn therefore to a friend. Safety is not