buke-sama_), who then favours Yodo?" He spoke, as being again
himself--the military man, and no less a person than the chamberlain of
Aoyama Shu[u]zen Sama, _hatamoto_ with a _yashiki_ in the Bancho[u].
"Perhaps then a serving maid called O'Kiku is known to the honoured sir."
Again Chu[u]dayu's doubts were raised at evident resemblance--to be
reassured. "No kin: we knew each other well in early life. The father was
a great criminal, and O'Kiku, it was heard, was condemned to be a slave
for life. Entered in this business nothing has been seen of each other.
She is well--in mind and body?" The question was timid, and Chu[u]dayu
did not notice the unnatural eagerness. "In Kiku's place mind and body
are assured their lot; to undergo no change." Captivated by this beauty
he was now eager for his good fortune. Reluctant and with misgiving she
allowed him to draw her close.

CHAPTER XXVI

SAMPEI DONO

He was poor; coarsely and scantily clad as he came on his return through
the darkness and snowflakes now coming down wet and moist, whirling and
twisting under the increasing gale and gradually turning into a
penetrating chilling sleet against which the straw raincoat was poor
protection. In this guise Wataru Sampei was the gardener, making a
precarious living at which his skill was accidental and vicarious. In
his shabby home he was the _samurai_, his two swords treasured,
carefully wrapped and put away in the closet; struggling to live in
order to bring up this boy Jumatsu in his own cult, to better times and
retribution on the upstarts from the South. This night too had been part
of his _samurai's_ duty, in its _sankei_ or pilgrimage to the Asakusa
Kwannon. O'Kiku believed in efficacy of prayer to the goddess of mercy.
A hasty word, implied rather than spoken, as to a passer by during the
first sight of her, and the gesture of acquiescence on his part who had
little faith. But the gesture was as strong in its obligation as an oath
written and signed in blood.

On approaching his home with surprise he noted a woman by the door. She
seemed to be in the act of coming or going. Surely he could not mistake
that figure; nay, throwing the light of his lantern ahead a glimpse of
the white wan face startled him. His heart leaped within him--"Is it
Kiku? How comes the wife here at this hour? How has exit from the
_yashiki_ been permitted?" But the woman answered not. Instead she moved
away from him, into the darkness. More a