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MISS NUMÈ OF JAPAN.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: ONOTO WATANNA.]
MISS NUMÈ OF JAPAN
A Japanese-American Romance
BY
ONOTO WATANNA
AUTHOR OF "NATSU-SAN," "YURI-SAN AND OKIKU-SAN,"
"A HALF CASTE," ETC.
[Illustration: Decoration]
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK:
RAND, McNALLY & COMPANY.
PUBLISHERS.
Copyright, 1899, by Rand, McNally & Co.
THIS BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO MY FRIEND,
HELEN M. BOWEN
BECAUSE I LOVE HER SO
INTRODUCTION.
The fate of an introduction to a book seems not only to fall short of
its purpose, but to offend those whose habit it is to criticise before
they read. Once I heard an old man say, "It is dangerous to write for
the wise. They strike warm hands with form, but shrug a cold shoulder at
originality." I do not think, though, that this book was written for the
"wise," for the men and women whose frosty judgment would freeze the
warm current of a free and almost careless soul. It was written for the
imaginative, and they alone are the true lovers of story and song. Onoto
Watanna plays upon an instrument new to our ears, quaintly Japanese, an
air at times simple and sweet, as tender as the chirrup of a bird in
love, and then as wild as the scream of a hawk. Mood has been her
teacher; impulse has dictated her style. She has inherited the spirit of
the orchard in bloom. Her art is the grace of the wild vine, under no
obligation to a gardener, but with a charm that the gardener could not
impart. A monogram wrought by nature's accident upon the golden leaf of
autumn, does not belong to the world of letters, but it inspires more
feeling and more poetry than a library squeezed out of man's tired
brain. And this book is not unlike an autumn leaf blown from a forest in
Japan.
OPIE READ.
CHICAGO, January, 1899.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PAGE.
I--Parental Ambitions, 5
II--Cleo, 10
III--Who Can Analyze a Coquette? 15
IV--The Dance on Deck, 20
V--Her Gentle Enemy, 24
VI--A Veiled Hint, 27
VII--Jealousy Without Love, 30
VIII--The Man She Did Love, 37
IX--Merely a Woman, 43
X--Watching the Night, 47
XI--At the Journey's End, 52
XII--Those Queer Japanese! 54
XIII--Takashima's Home-Coming, 59
XIV--After Eight Years, 60
XV--Numè, 64
XVI--An American Classic, 68
XVII--"Still a Child," 73
XVIII--The Meeting, 76
XIX--Confidences, 79
XX--Sinclair's Indifference, 83
XXI--"Me? I Lig' You," 86
XXII--Advice, 92
XXIII--Afraid to Answer, 95
XXIV--Visiting the Tea Houses, 99
XXV--Shattered Hopes, 104
XXVI--Conscience, 108
XXVII--Confession, 110
XXVIII--Japanese Pride, 115
XXIX--Seclusion, 117
XXX--Feminine Diplomacy, 121
XXXI--A Barbarian Dinner, 124
XXXII--The Philosophy of Love, 126
XXXIII--What Can that "Luf" Be? 130
XXXIV--Conspirators, 133
XXXV--A Respite for Sinclair, 136
XXXVI--Those Bad Jinrikisha Men, 139
XXXVII--Those Good Jinrikisha Men, 141
XXXVIII--Disproving a Proverb, 144
XXXIX--Love! 148
XL--A Passionate Declaration, 152
XLI--A Hard Subject to Handle, 156
XLII--A Story, 160
XLIII--The Truth of the Proverb, 163
XLIV--Numè Breaks Down, 167
XLV--Trying to Forget, 171
XLVI--An Observant Husband, 173
XLVII--Matsushima Bay, 176
XLVIII--A Rejected Lover, 180
XLIX--The Answer, 184
L--The Ball, 187
LI--The Fearful News, 190
LII--The Tragedy, 192
LIII--A Little Heroine, 194
LIV--Sinclair Learns the Truth at Last, 198
LV--Lovers Again, 202
LVI--The Penalty, 206
LVII--The Pity of It All, 211
LVIII--Mrs. Davis's Nerves, 214
LIX--Cleo and Numè, 217
ILLUSTRATIONS.
TITLE. PAGE.
ONOTO WATANNA, Frontispiece
NUMÈ-SAN, 29
KOTO, KIRISHIMA, AND MATSU, 101
PLAYING KARUTTA, 117
"NUMÈ BREAKS DOWN," 165
KOTO WOULD NOT MARRY, 181
SITTING TOGETHER HAND IN HAND, 197
NUMÈ AND HER TWO FRIENDS KOTO AND MATSU, 205
Miss Numè of Japan.
[Illustration: Decoration]
CHAPTER I.
PARENTAL AMBITIONS.
When Orito, son of Takashima Sachi, was but ten years of age, and Numè,
daughter of Watanabe Omi, a tiny girl of three, their fathers talked
quite seriously of betrothing them to each other, for they had been
great friends for many years, and it was the dearest wish of their lives
to see their children united in marriage. They were very wealthy men,
and the father of Orito was ambitious that his son should have an
unusually good education, so that when Orito was seventeen years of age,
he had left the public school of Tokyo and was attending the Imperial
University. About this time, and when Orito was at home on a vacation,
there came to the little town where they lived, and which was only a
very short distance from Tokyo, certain foreigners from the West, who
rented land from Sachi and became neighbors to him and to Omi.
Sachi had always taken a great deal of interest in these foreigners,
many of whom he had met quite often while on business in Tokyo, and he
was very much pleased with his new tenants, who, in spite of their
barbarous manners and dress, seemed good-natured and friendly. Often in
the evening he and Omi would walk through the valley to their neighbors'
house, and listen to them very attentively while they told them of their
home in America, which they said was the greatest country in the world.
After a time the strange men went away, though neither Sachi nor Omi
forgot them, and very often they talked of them and of their foreign
home. One day Sachi said very seriously to his friend:
"Omi, these strangers told us much of their strange land, and talked of
the fine schools there, where all manner of learning is taught. What say
you that I do send my unworthy son, Orito, to this America, so that he
may see much of the world, and also become a great scholar, and later
return to crave thy noble daughter in marriage?"
Omi was fairly delighted with this proposal, and the two friends talked
and planned, and then sent for the lad.
Orito was a youth of extreme beauty. He was tall and slender; his face
was pale and oval, with features as fine and delicate as a girl's. His
was not merely a beautiful face; there was something else in it, a
certain impassive look that rendered it almost startling in its
wonderful inscrutableness. It was not expressionless, but
unreadable--the face of one with the noble blood of the Kazoku and
Samourai--pale, refined, and emotionless.
He bowed low and courteously when he entered, and said a few words of
gentle greeting to Omi, in a clear, mellow voice that was very pleasing.
Sachi's eyes sparkled with pride as he looked on his son. Unlike Orito,
he was a very impulsive man, and without preparing the boy, he hastened
to tell him at once of their plans for his future. While his father was
speaking Orito's face did not alter from its calm, grave attention,
although he was unusually moved. He only said, "What of Numè, my
father?"
Sachi and Omi beamed on him.
"When you return from this America I will give you Numè as a bride,"
said Omi.
"And when will that be?" asked Orito, in a low voice.
"In eight years, my son, and you shall have all manner of learning
there, which cannot be acquired here in Tokyo or in Kyushu, and the
manner of learning will be different from that taught anywhere in Japan.
You will have a foreign education, as well as what you have learned here
at home. It shall be thorough, and therefore it will take some years.
You must prepare at once, my son; I desire it."
Orito bowed gracefully and thanked his father, declaring it was the
chief desire of his life to obey the will of his parent in all things.
Now Numè was a very peculiar child. Unlike most Japanese maidens, she
was impetuous and wayward. Her mother had died when she was born, and
she had never had any one to guide or direct her, so that she had grown
up in a careless, happy fashion, worshiped by her father's servants,
but depending entirely upon Orito for all her small joys. Orito was her
only companion and friend, and she believed blindly in him. She told him
all her little troubles, and he in turn tried to teach her many things,
for, although their fathers intended to betroth them to each other as
soon as they were old enough, still Numè was only a little girl of ten,
whilst Orito was a tall man-youth of nearly eighteen years. They loved
each other very dearly; Orito loved Numè because she was one day to be
his little wife, and because she was very bright and pretty; whilst Numè
loved big Orito with a pride that was pathetic in its confidence.
That afternoon Numè waited long for Orito to come, but the boy had gone
out across the valley, and was wandering aimlessly among the hills,
trying to make up his mind to go to Numè and tell her that in less than
a week he must leave her, and his beautiful home, for eight long years.
The next day a great storm broke over the little town, and Numè was
unable to go to the school, and because Orito had not come she became
very restless and wandered fretfully about the house. So she complained
bitterly to her father that Orito had not come. Then Omi, forgetting all
else save the great future in store for his prospective son-in-law, told
her of their plans. And Numè listened to him, not as Orito had done,
with quiet, calm face, for hers was stormy and rebellious, and she
sprang to her father's side and caught his hands sharply in her little
ones, crying out passionately:
"No! no! my father, do not send Orito away."
Omi was shocked at this display of unmaidenly conduct, and arose in a
dignified fashion, ordering his daughter to leave him, and Numè crept
out, too stunned to say more. About an hour after that Orito came in,
and discovered her rolled into a very forlorn little heap, with her head
on a cushion, and weeping her eyes out.
"You should not weep, Numè," he said. "You should rather smile, for see,
I will come back a great scholar, and will tell you of all I have
seen--the people I have met--the strange men and women." But at that
Numè pushed him from her, and declared she wanted not to hear of those
barbarians, and flashed her eyes wrathfully at him, whereat Orito
assured her that none of them would be half as beautiful or sweet as his
little Numè--his plum blossom; for the word Numè means plum blossom in
Japanese. Finally Numè promised to be very brave, and the day Orito left
she only wept when no one could see her.
And so Orito sailed for America, and entered a great college called
"Harvard." And little Numè remained in Japan, and because there was no
Orito now to tell her thoughts to, she grew very subdued and quiet, so
that few would have recognized in her the merry, wayward little girl who
had followed Orito around like his very shadow. But Numè never forgot
Orito for one little moment, and when every one else in the house was
sound asleep, she would lie awake thinking of him.