Japanese that in America people often marry against
their parents' consent is to puzzle him, and make him believe Carlyle's
saying about Americans without having heard it. If a man who marries
against his parents' wish is not a triple-dyed ingrate, he must be a
downright fool. Beyond this idea the normal Japanese cannot go; and you
might as well try to make a blind man understand that "celestial rosy
red" was "Love's proper hue" as to convince him that a good man ever
marries against his parents' wishes. Such ideas and practices are
convincing evidences to him of the vast moral inferiority of Western
nations when compared with that of the people descended from the gods.

Resuming our narrative, we must mention that Kiku's father had once had
an offer from one Matsui, a wealthy retainer of the Wakasa clan, through
that young nobleman's middleman or agent, which he refused, to the
disgust of both middleman and suitor. The latter had seen Kiku walking
with her mother while going to the temple at Shiba, and, being struck
with her beauty, inquired who she was. Having come of age and wishing a
wife, he had sued for Kiku to her father, who, for reasons of his own,
refused the request, on the ground that Kiku was too young, being then
but fifteen years old. The truth was, that the Wakasa samurai was a wild
young fellow, and bore a reputation for riotous living that did not
promise to make him a proper life-companion for Nakayama's refined and
cultured daughter. Between Nakayama, Kiku's father, and Yamashiro, the
retainer of the Echizen clan, whose home we spoke of in the opening of
our sketch, had long existed a warm friendship and a mutual high regard.
Yamashiro, though more fond of society and good living than Nakayama,
was nevertheless, like him, a high-spirited and well-read man. He had
four children, two sons and two daughters. The oldest son, named Taro,
was now twenty years old, of manly figure, diligent in study, and had
lately acted as a high page, attending daily upon the person of
Hitotsu-bashi, the then reigning Sho-gun, and the last of his line that
held or will hold regal power in Japan. Taro, being the oldest son of
his father, was the heir to his house, office, rank and revenue. Taro
wanted a wife. He wished to taste the sweets of love and wedded joy. He
had long thought of Kiku. Of course he asked his father, and his father
"was willing." He told Taro to go to Nakayama's house. Taro went. He
talked to Nakayama,