ou!... No? No?" She was about
to throw herself on O'Iwa, to cast her into the street. Then her
passion, to outward appearance, cooled. She was the woman of her
business, malevolent and without pity. "O'Kin! O'Kin!" The others now
gathered around O'Iwa. O'Haru and the girl O'Take plead with her to
obey. They tried to hustle her off by force. Said O'Haru--"Report had to
be made. This Haru acted for the best. Truly such obstinacy deserves
punishment. But Haru is filled with pity. Deign to obey. Go forth to the
service. The result of refusal is terrible." O'Iwa shook her
head--"O'Haru San is free from blame. Iwa is grateful for the kind
words. To go out to this service is impossible." The woman O'Kin strode
into the room; a big, strapping wench, and the understudy of O'Matsu in
her husband's affections. "A new recruit?" She spoke in inquiry--"Yes:
and obstinate. It is a matter of punishment in the _semeba_.... Now! Out
with you all! No dawdling!" The irate woman turned on her flock. They
fled like sheep into the open.

CHAPTER XIV

THE PUNISHMENT

O'Iwa did not move. The two women approached and laid hands on her. Her
yielding made no difference in the roughness of their treatment.
Dragged, hustled, shoved, with amplitude of blows, she was already much
bruised on reaching the place of punishment--the _semeba_, to use the
technical term of these establishments "for the good of the community."
During a temporary absence of the mistress, a ray of kindliness seemed
to touch the woman O'Kin. She pointed to the square of some six feet, to
the rings fastened in the rafters. "Don't carry self-will to extremes.
Here you are to be stripped, hauled up to those rings, and beaten until
the bow breaks. Look at it and take warning. Kin is no weakling." She
shoved back her sleeve, showing an arm as hard and brawny as that of a
stevedore. With disapproval she observed O'Iwa. The latter stood
unresisting, eyes on the ground. Only the lips twitched from time to
time. As the only person in the house, male or female, not to fear the
Okamisan, O'Kin could only put down the courage to ignorance. She
shrugged her shoulders with contempt. "A man would cause you no pain.
The same cannot be said of Kin. You shall have the proof." Perhaps
severity would be more merciful, by quickly breaking down this
obstinacy.

The wife returned with the instrument of torture, a bow of bamboo wound
with rattan to strengthen it. O'Kin took it, ostentatiou