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Her eyes were ringed with weeping, and her face was thin and haggard. But her expression had a new look of resolution. She was no longer a child, a doll. In the space of a few hours she had grown to be a woman. They were all standing. Sadako and the lawyer had formed up behind the runaway as though to give her moral support. "Asako," said Geoffrey sternly, "what does this mean?"
There was no accompaniment to this music and no song to chime with it; for, as the Japanese say, the accompaniment for koto music is the summer night-time and its heavy fragrance, and the voice with which it harmonizes is the whisper of the breeze in the pine-branches. Long after Sadako had finished her practice, came borne upon the distance the still more melancholy pipe of a student's flute.
The central ceremony of Asako's visit was her introduction to the memory of her dead parents. Sadako, approaching, reverently opened this shrine. The interior was all gilt with a dazzling gold like that used an old manuscripts. In the centre of this glory sat a golden-faced Buddha with dark blue hair and cloak, and an aureole of golden rays.
They were standing on the balcony outside the apartment where Asako had first been received. "But where are the beds?" she asked. Sadako went to the end of the balcony, and threw open a big cupboard concealed in the outside of the house. It was full of layers of rugs, thick, dark and wadded. "These are the beds," smiled the Japanese cousin.
Next evening, when Asako had spread the two quilts on the golden matting, when she had lit the rushlight in the square andon, when the two girls were lying side by side under the heavy wadded bedclothes, Sadako said to her cousin: "Asa Chan, I do not think you like me now as much as you used to like me."
The presence of the two Japanese exasperated him. His manner was tactless and unfortunate. His tall stature in the dainty room looked coarse and brutal. Sadako and Ito were staring at his offending boots with an expression of utter horror. Geoffrey suddenly remembered that he ought to have taken them off. "Oh, damn," he thought. "Geoffrey," said his wife, "I can't come back. I am sorry.
Her hair was untidy; for she was not allowed a hairdresser. "Kusai! Kusai! The war even was used to bait Asako. Every German success was greeted with acclamation. The exploits of the Emden were loudly praised; and the tragedy of Coronel was gloated over with satisfaction. "The Germans will win because they are brave," said Sadako.
Between the double niche stood that pillar of wood which Sadako explained as being the soul of the room, the leading feature from which its character was taken, being either plain and firm, or twisted and ornate, or else still unshaped, with the bosses of amputated branches seared and black protesting against confinement.
Only in the evenings a sense of insecurity rose with the river mists, and a memory of Sadako's warning shivered through the lonely room with the bitter cold of the winter air. It was then that Asako felt for the little dagger resting hidden in her bosom just as Sadako had shown her how to wear it.
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