TRYING TO FORGET.
Sinclair had become suddenly attached to his work. He deserted the
country for the city, remaining sometimes quite late in the evening in
his office, attending to certain matters that had collected during his
absences from the office. One was the case of an American missionary who
had been arrested for attempting to bribe school boys to become
Kirishitans (Christians). The charge against him was that he had caused
dissension in several of the public schools by bribing certain of the
poorer children to leave their schools, and, in some cases, their homes,
and attend the missionary school in Tokyo. It was said that he had
become a terror to parents in the district, who were afraid of losing
their children, for he generally got them to accompany him by paying
them small sums of money.
One deserter who had been converted to the Christian belief by a bright
silver yen, was accredited with having told him after he had become a
backslider and the missionary had reproached him: "You pay me ten more
sen I go to church--you pay me twenty sen I love Jesus."
On the other hand, the missionary declared he had merely interfered and
protested at the harsh treatment Christian children received at the
hands of their playmates in the schools, and which he declared was
encouraged by the teachers. In this way he had antagonized some bitter
Japanese against him, who had had him unjustly arrested and thrown into
prison.
The case was quite a serious one, as the missionary was a well-known man
in America. It gave Sinclair plenty of thought and work, and he was
untiring in his endeavor to obtain his discharge.
He had seen nothing of Numè since that day in the woods, when she had
told him she had never cared for him. In spite of constant visitors and
the volume of his work, which he tried personally to superintend for the
time being, Sinclair could not forget Numè. The moment he was left to
himself his mind would revert to the girl, to the dreamy days he had
spent with her in the woods, to little things she had said that lingered
in his mind like Japanese music. In spite of himself he could not hate
her. Had she been an ordinary woman it might have been different, but
with Numè could he cherish anything harsher against her than regret?
He tried to assure himself that he had put her from his mind altogether,
that after all she was unworthy of his pain, but every incident that
came up which reminded him of her, found him wandering back to the dear
dead days he had spent with her, days that were tinged with bitterness
and regret now.