retty! So clever at playing the guitar.
It is an irreparable misfortune; she was engaged only yesterday by a
Russian officer."

"Ah! Mdlle. Abricot!--Would she suit me, Mdlle. Abricot? She is the
daughter of a wealthy China merchant in the Decima Bazaar, a person of
the highest merit; but she would be very dear: her parents, who think
a great deal of her, will not let her go under a hundred yen[A] a
month. She is very accomplished, thoroughly understands commercial
writings, and has at her finger ends more than two thousand characters
of learned writing. In a poetical competition she gained the first
prize with a sonnet composed in praise of _'the blossoms of the
black-thorn hedges seen in the dew of early morning.'_ Only, she is
not very pretty: one of her eyes is smaller than the other, and she
has a hole in her cheek, resulting from an illness of her childhood."

[Footnote A: A yen is equal to four shillings.]

"Oh no! on no account that one! Let us seek amongst a less
distinguished class of young persons, but without scars. And how about
those on the other side of the screen, in those fine gold-embroidered
dresses? For instance, the dancer with the specter mask, M. Kangourou?
or again she who sings in so dulcet a strain and has such a charming
nape to her neck?"

He does not, at first, understand my drift; then when he gathers my
meaning, he shakes his head almost in a joking way, and says:

"No, sir, no! Those are only _Guechas_,[B] sir--_Guechas!_"

[Footnote B: _Guechas_ are professional dancers and singers trained at
the Yeddo Conservatory.]

"Well, but why not a _Guecha_? What odds can it be to me, whether they
are _Guechas_ or not?" Later on, no doubt, when I understand Japanese
affairs better, I shall appreciate myself the enormity of my proposal:
one would really suppose I had talked of marrying the devil.

At this point M. Kangourou suddenly calls to mind one Mdlle. Jasmin.
Heavens! how was it he did not think of her at once; she is absolutely
and exactly what I want; he will go to-morrow or this very evening, to
make the necessary overtures to the parents of this young person who
live a long way off, on the opposite hill, in the suburb of
Diou-djen-dji. She is a very pretty girl of about fifteen. She can
probably be engaged for about eighteen or twenty dollars a month, on
condition of presenting her with a few dresses of the best fashion,
and of lodging her in a pleasant and well-situated house,--