nting for delay, Mrs. Atkinson had addressed her
letter to "Mrs. Lafcadio Hearn," a name by which no properly constituted
Japanese postman would find himself justified in recognising Hearn's
widow. By nationalising himself a Japanese, Hearn's identity, so far as
his occidental inheritance went, had vanished forever. He and his wife
were only known at Tokyo as Mr. and Mrs. Koizumi.

Mr. Mason, like many others whom we met, was full of anecdotes about
Lafcadio, his oddities, his caprices. In days gone by he had been
extremely intimate with him, but Hearn had put a sudden end to the
friendship; Mr. Mason never knew exactly why, but imagined it was in
consequence of his neglecting to take off his footgear and put on
sandals one day before entering Hearn's house. In passing judgment on
Hearn for these sudden ruptures with friends, because of their lapses
from the punctilio of Japanese tradition, it is well to remember that
his wife came of the ancient Izumo stock, and was educated according to
Japanese rules; a dusty or muddy boot placed on her cream-white tatami
was almost an indignity. Hearn deeply resented any slight shown to her,
and, from the moment he married, observed all old habits and customs,
and insisted on his visitors doing the same.

The expression in Japan for an unceremonious or bad-mannered person is
"another than expected person"; the definition is delightfully Japanese;
it explains the traditions of the race: no one ever does anything
unexpected--all is arranged by rule and order; in any other civilised
country, considering the circumstances, Mrs. Atkinson would have taken a
Tokaido train to Tokyo, and from the Shimbasi station gone immediately
in a jinrikisha to see her sister-in-law; the two ladies would have
fallen into one another's arms, and a close intimacy would have been
begun. Not so in Japan.

[Illustration: KAZUO (HEARN'S SON, AGED ABOUT SEVENTEEN).]

"Patience is a virtue inculcated by life in the Far East," said Mr.
Mason. "Come out with me, I will show you some of the most beautiful
sights in the world, and in course of time either Mrs. Koizumi or a
letter will turn up."

Anxious not to offend the little Japanese lady by any proceeding not in
consonance with the social etiquette of her country, we took Mr. Mason's
advice.

I had been reading "Out of the East," and pleaded that our first
pilgrimage might be to the Jizo-Do Temple, scene of Lafcadio Hearn's
interview with the old Buddhist