s about his
son. "The physician says that from the character of his bones he ought
to become very tall. He is very dark. He has my nose and promises to
have the Hearn eyebrows; but he has the Oriental eye. Whether he will be
handsome or ugly, I can't tell: his little face changes every day;--he
has already looked like five different people. When first born, I
thought him the prettiest creature I ever saw. But that did not last. I
am so inexperienced in the matter of children that I cannot trust myself
to make any predictions. Of course I find the whole world changed about
me....

"My wife," he goes on, "is quite well. Happily the old military caste to
which she belongs is a strong one, but how sacred and terrible a thing
is maternity. When it was all over I felt very humble and grateful to
the Unknowable Power which had treated us so kindly. The possibility of
men being cruel to the women who bear their children seemed at the
moment to darken existence.

"I have received your last beautiful photograph--or I should say
two:--the vignette is, of course, the most lovable, but both are very,
very nice. I gave the full-figure one to Setsu. She would like to have
her boy grow up looking either like you or like Posey--but most like
you. (Thanks also for the pretty photo of yourself and Posey: Posey is
decidedly handsome.) But I fear my son can never be like either of you.
He is altogether Oriental so far,--looks at me with the still calm
Buddhist eyes of the Far East, and the soul of another race. Even his
nose will never declare his Western blood; for the finest class of the
Japanese offer many strongly aquiline faces. Setsu is a Samurai, and
though her own features are the reverse of aquiline, there are aquiline
faces among the kindred.

"I am awfully anxious that the boy should get to be like you. I have had
your most beautiful photograph copied by a clever photographer here and
have sent the copies to friends, saying, 'this is my sister; and this is
the boy. I want him to look like her.' You see I am proud of you,--not
only as to the ghostly, but also as to the material part of you.
Physiologically I am all Latin and Pagan,--even though my little boy's
eyes are bright blue.

"... It is really nonsense, sending such a thing as his photo at
fifty-five days old, because the child changes so much every week. But
you are my little sister. I have called him Leopold Kazuo Hearn--for
European use and custom. Kazuo, in Japanes