OF the once flourishing and numerous family of the Saito, there were but
two male members living, Saito Gonji, and his father, Saito Ichigo. The
relatives of the Lady Saito were, however, numerous, and, like the
mother of Gonji, they possessed stern and domineering dispositions. In
contrast, her husband was easy-going and genial, and it had been an easy
matter, in consequence, thus far, for the relatives to rule the head of
the illustrious house. Lord Ichigo had even followed their counsel in
the matter of the education of his boy, although it had cut him to the
heart to resign his cherished son at so tender an age to the severe
tutors chosen for him by his wife’s relatives.
When Ohano had been selected as a wife for the youth, the father of
Gonji had offered no objection. In fact, there was little that he could
have found to object to in this particular matter. The girl was of a
family equally honorable; her health was excellent; she had shown no
traits of character objectionable in a woman. Indeed, she appeared to be
an honorable and desirable vehicle to hand down the race of Saito of
imperishable fame. And that, of course, was the main idea of marriage.
It was a matter of duty to the ancestors, and not of desire of the
individuals. So the peace-loving elder Lord Saito believed, at the time
of the betrothal, that he had safely disposed of a most vexing problem.
He was dumbfounded, panic-stricken, at the turn events had taken. On all
sides, harangued by that insistent lady, his wife, and also by her many
relatives, he found it, nevertheless, impossible to turn a deaf ear to
the impassioned pleading of the young man himself. Day and night Gonji
desperately beset his father, ignoring utterly all other members of the
family.
His vigil of many days before the gates of the House of Slender Pines
had but strengthened the young man’s resolve. At any cost—yes, at the
sacrifice of the ancestors’ honor even—he was determined to possess the
Spider. Since he was assured that his passion was returned—and the
assurance came through the lips of the little Omi, who had screeched the
words impishly in his ear, as if in derision, that those about them
might not suspect—Gonji determined to marry the geisha not alone in the
thousand vague lives yet to come, but in the present one, too. He must
have her now. It was impossible to wait, he told his father. If the
cruel laws forbade their union, then they would go to the gods, and the
less harsh heart of the river would receive them in a bridal night that
would never pass away.
It is not an easy matter for a youth in Japan to marry without the full
consent of his parents. Every possible obstacle had been thrown into the
path of the despairing Gonji. Even his revenue was cut off completely,
so that, even had he been able to move the stony heart of the
geisha-keeper from the position he had taken at the behest of the
powerful family, Gonji had not the means to purchase the girl’s freedom
from her bonds. There was nothing, therefore, left for the unfortunate
Gonji save to focus all his energies upon his father; and day and night
he besieged the unhappy Ichigo.
The latter had listened, without comment, to the law as laid down by
Takedo Isami, the uncle of Ohano. He had listened to the urgings of the
many other relatives of his wife that he remain firm throughout the
ordeal they realized he was passing through. He had given an equally
attentive ear to the besieging relatives and to the stern Lady Saito,
who was confident of the powerful influence of the tongue upon her lord.
Then he had hearkened in silence, with drawn, averted face, to the
desperate pleading of his only son, the one creature in the world that
he truly loved.
While the father miserably debated the matter within himself, Gonji
suddenly ceased to importune his parent. Retiring to his own chamber, he
closed and fastened the doors against all possible intruders.
The relatives regarded this latest act of their fractious young kinsman
as an evidence that at last his impetuous young will was breaking. They
congratulated themselves upon their firmness at this time, and advised
Lord Saito Ichigo to retain an unbending attitude in the matter.
The abrupt retirement of his son, however, had a strange effect upon
Ichigo. He could think of nothing save the youth’s last words. He dared
not confide his fears even to his wife, who was already sufficiently
distracted by her task of caring for Ohano and her anxiety about her
son.
Against the advice of the relatives that Gonji be left alone to fight
out the battle by himself, his father forced his way into the boy’s
presence. Gonji responded neither to his knocking nor to his father’s
imperative call. So Lord Ichigo forced the screens apart.
In one glance the father of Gonji saw what it was the desperate young
man now contemplated, for he had robed himself from head to foot in the
white garments of the dead. His face was, moreover, as fixed and white
as though already he had started upon the journey.
“Gonji—my dear son!”
The elder Lord Saito scarce knew his own voice, so hoarse and full of
anguished emotion was it. He stood close by the kneeling Gonji and
rested his hands heavily upon the boy’s slender shoulders. Gonji looked
up slowly and met his father’s gaze. A mist came before his eyes, but he
spoke steadily, gently:
“It is better this way. I pray you to pardon me. I am unable to serve
the ancestors.”
“It is not of the ancestors I think,” said Lord Saito, gruffly, “but of
you—you only, my son!”
Gonji looked at him strangely now, as though he sought to fathom the
mind of his father; but he turned away, perplexed and distressed.
“You must believe that,” went on his father, brokenly. “What is best for
your happiness, that is my wish, above all things. If happiness is only
possible for you by giving you what is your heart’s desire, then”—a
smile broke over the grave, pain-racked features of his father, as
though a weight were suddenly lifted from his heart at the sudden
resolve that had come to him—“then,” he continued, “it shall be!”
With a cry, Gonji gripped at his parent’s hands, his eyes turned
imploringly upon Lord Saito’s face.
“You mean—ah, you promise, then—” He could not speak the words that
rushed in a flood to his lips.
“Hé! (Yes!)” said Lord Ichigo, solemnly. “It is a promise.”
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