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Updated: June 17, 2025
Fujinami Gennosuké had warned his irreligious son most gravely against the danger of tampering with the testament of Asako's father, and of provoking thereby a visitation of his "rough spirit." Tomo ni narite Onaji minato wo Izuru fune no Yuku-ye mo shirazu Kogi-wakari-nuru! Those ships which left The same harbour Side by side Towards an unknown destination Have rowed away from one another!
The wide kitchen was impregnated with a smell already familiar to Asako's nose, one of the most typical odours of Japan, the smell of native cooking, humid, acrid and heavy like the smell of wood smoke from damp logs, with a sour and rotten flavour to it contributed by a kind of pickled horse-radish called Daikon or the Great Root, dear to the Japanese palate.
Before leaving Paris, they paid a visit to the Auteuil villa, which had been Asako's home for so many years.
Only the first surprise of the girl's kiss had startled his loyalty. With the ostrich-like obtuseness, which our continental neighbours call our hypocrisy, he buried his head in his principles. As Asako's husband, he could not flirt with another woman. As Reggie's friend, he would not flirt with Reggie's sweetheart.
An interpreter was sent for; and the questions were all repeated in English. The procurator was annoyed at Asako's refusal to speak in Japanese. He thought that it was obstinacy, or that she was trying to fool him. He seemed quite convinced that she was guilty. "I can't answer any more questions. I really can't. I am sick," said Asako, in tears.
Meanwhile Countess Saito had been in correspondence with Lady Everington in England. On one bright March morning, she came into Asako's room with a small flowerpot in her hands. "See, Asa Chan," she said in her strange hoarse voice, "the first flower of the New Year, the plum-blossom. It is the flower of hope and patience.
It was Count Saito, the Japanese Ambassador. She cornered him as he was admiring the presents, and whisked him away to the silence and twilight of her husband's study. "I am so glad you were able to come, Count Saito," she began. "I suppose you know the Fujinamis, Asako's relatives in Tokyo?" "No, I do not know them."
The lucky coincidence of having been born in the hour of the Bird and the day of the Bird set her apart from the rest of womankind as an exceptionally fortunate individual. But, unhappily, the malignant influence of the Dog Year was against her nativity. When once this disaffected animal had been conquered and cast out, Asako's future should be a very bright one.
"Indeed, okusan, there must be reduction. Thirty yen; take it, please." He pressed the little box into Asako's hand. "Twenty yen," she bargained, holding out two notes. "It is loss! It is loss!" he murmured; but he shuffled back to his stall again, very well content. "I shall send it to Geoffrey," thought Asako; "it will bring him good luck. Perhaps he will write to me and thank me.
He had never had a long talk with a Japanese man before; but he felt that if they were all like that, so formal, so unnatural, so secretive, then he had better keep out of the range of Asako's relatives. He wondered what his wife really thought of the Muratas, and during the return to their hotel, he asked, "Well, little girl, do you want to go back again and live at Auteuil?" She shook her head.
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