rely just the
kind of texture which a man of letters ought to wear!"--with the
prominent eyes, intellectual brow, and sensitive mouth, squatting "in
the ancient, patient manner" on his _zabuton_--smoking his _kiseru_, or
standing at the high desk, his nose close to the paper, covering sheets
and sheets with his delicate handwriting, every now and then turning
over the leaves of the quarto, calf-bound, American edition of Webster's
Dictionary that stood on a stand next his desk.

There was an atmosphere of daintiness, of refined clean manners, of a
sense of beauty and purity in the room; with its stillness, almost eerie
stillness, offering an arresting contrast to the multitudinous rush and
clamour of the city outside--it gave an impression of restfulness, of
calm, almost of regeneration, with its cool, colourless, stainless
matting and delicate grey walls, lighted by the clear light of the
Japanese day that fell beneath the verandah through the window panels
that, like the _fusima_, ran in grooves on the garden side of the room.
I understood from Mrs. Koizumi that when Hearn had added on the study
and guest-room to the existing house, glass had been substituted for
paper in these window panels. He, who had so devoutly hoped years before
that glass would never replace paper in the window panels of Japanese
houses! Not only that, but an American stove, with a stove pipe, had
occupied the corner where now stands the _Butsudan_, contaminating that
wonderful Japanese atmosphere he had raved about, that "translucent,
crystalline atmosphere" unsullied by the faintest breath of coal smoke.
These hardy folk told us that they were always catching coughs and colds
when they had the stove and glass windows, so they took both out, and
put back the paper _shoji_ and the charcoal brazier.

It was illuminating indeed to see many western innovations against which
Hearn had railed in his earlier days in Japan, in various parts of his
study. The _andon_--tallow-candle--stuck in a paper shade--national
means of lighting a room--had apparently been discarded, and a Queen's
reading lamp stood in all its electro-plated hideousness on a little
table in the corner. On another was an electric bell with india-rubber
tube.

Japanese rooms are never encumbered by ornament, a single _kakemono_, or
piece of fine lacquer or china appearing for a few days, and then making
room for something else; but here, the oriental and occidental thought
and lif