ud: "The seasons change
from one to the other without fuss or feather and obey the laws of
nature. All mens change from one thing to other by spontaneous
combustion and obey the universal laws of God."

My companion was still laughing at this remarkable statement and I
puzzling over its meaning when Kishimoto San was announced. I found a
possible translation of the sentence in his appearance. "Spontaneous
combustion" nearly fitted the state of mind he disclosed to me. The
change in him was startling. I had only seen the school superintendent
outside his home. In times of difficulty when his will could not
prevail, which was seldom, he dismissed the matter at once, and found
refuge in that fatalistic word "Shikataganai" (it can't be helped).

But now his fort of stoicism was being besieged, and the walls breached
by a girl-child in his home, who was proving a redoubtable foe to his
will and his calm, for of course the trouble was Zura. I learned this
after he had finished acknowledging his introduction to Page. The
bowing, bending, and indrawing of breath, demanded by this ceremony,
took time. But it had to be.

Then I asked after the general prosperity of his ancestors, the health
of his relatives, finally working my way down to Zura.

[Illustration: The bowing, bending, and indrawing of breath]

Ordinarily Kishimoto San would have scorned to mention his affairs
before a stranger, but his world of tradition was upside down. In his
haste to right it he broke other laws of convention. Page had withdrawn
into the shadow of the window seat after the introduction, but listened
intently to the conversation and soon caught the drift of it.

From accounts the situation between Kishimoto San and his granddaughter
was not a happy one. The passing weeks had not brought reconciliation to
them nor to the conditions. It had come almost to open warfare. "And,"
declared the troubled man, "if she does not render obedience I will
reduce her to bread and water, and subject her to a lonely place, till
she comprehends who is the master and acknowledges filial piety."

I protested that such a measure would only urge to desperation a girl of
Zura's temperament and that, to my mind, people could not be made good
by law, but by love.

The master of many women looked at me pityingly. "Madam, would you
condescend to inform my ignorance how love is joined to obedience?
Speaks the one great book of this land written for the guidance of
wom