THE Palace Matsuhaira, wherein the courteous Prince of Echizen had
housed the foreign teacher, had lost all but two of its tenants. The
odorous kitchens where but lately the army of servants had happily and
noisily labored were now quite empty. So were the vast, cool halls, and
the great, bare chambers. Like an army of rats, one and all, they had
deserted the place, leaving the Tojin-san alone, save for that unseen
one, who alternatively teased and entreated him.
Even the faithful students, who had brought about her capture, had
ceased to visit the Shiro, having vainly implored the Tojin-san to
abandon the place. With a grim and stubborn patience, he kept doggedly
to the course he had set himself.
All over the house he found traces of her. Now she had slept in this
chamber, now in that. Here she had prepared her diminutive, stolen meal
of fruit, honey, and rice.
He was aware of her constant nearness, and had he so desired, at almost
any moment, he could have again seen her; but he was taking a more
subtle means this time to entrap her. She must come forth of her own
free will; then he would know he had her confidence, that she knew him
for a friend. He found himself talking to her, sometimes sternly, in the
chiding, coaxing tone one uses to a child. He would move from screen to
screen as he talked, until he knew behind which one she pressed; but he
made no effort to force her from her hiding-place.
Never a word would she speak in response until he was seated far removed
from the sheltering screens, then she would begin reiterating the one
appealing, accusing sentence:
“Tojin-san, thou too! thou too!”
It was as if she knew no other words of her father’s language. He
pondered their meaning. What was it she asked of him? Of what accused
and reproached him? Did she hold him responsible for the manner of her
capture—its cruelty? He told her in slow, forceful words that he had
known nothing of this, and waited in anxiety for some word or sound from
her to indicate that at least she understood. She only laughed, that
soft, mocking, tremulous little laugh with its inner sound of tears.
The burning, humid days of June slipped by on drowsy wing. School was
closed for the season, and the foreign sensei was at liberty to travel
if he wished upon his vacation. The samourai body-guard were anxious to
attend him upon any expedition that would take them away from the Shiro.
Genji Negato was available, outside the place. Every cringing, fearful,
cowardly servant, who still drew wages from the Daimio’s high officer,
was anxious again to serve him. They made up deputations and committees,
which fearfully approached the mansion, and threw their messages in
little balls that pelted against the paper summer walls of the shoji and
pierced their way into the Tojin-san’s apartment. And still not once did
he venture forth.
Every sliding door and screen he had himself put in place. He did not
venture outside the house, even to step into the grounds. And a strange
restless rumor began to float about the little town below, which told of
the spell which chained the white man.
Meanwhile within the mansion itself, the Tojin-san was winning a strange
victory. Timidly, like a fascinated wild bird, now approaching, now
retreating, nearer and yet nearer, had come the fox-woman. There came a
day when, though he did not turn to look at her, fearing instantly to
lose her, she stood at last revealed. Only a few paces from him, there
of her own free will, timorous, trembling, but unafraid.
Her name was Tama (Jewel). She told it to him voluntarily, her hand upon
her breast. He had not even asked her, nor did he by the slightest
motion reveal the eager emotion her words aroused when he found they
were spoken in his own tongue. Haltingly, uncertainly, like a child for
the first time feeling for its words, she essayed to speak.
“I am Tama,” softly she said, and then, as if enchanted by her ability
to speak actual words to one who might hear and understand, she lapsed
into excited, trembling speech, wholly unintelligible to the Tojin-san,
for it was a medley of both her father and her mother tongue, neither of
which she could properly speak.
Suddenly she stopped abruptly, as if affrighted by her own bravado, and
her fears again besetting her panically she retreated behind the
screens. For the rest of that day, at least, he saw nothing further of
her. But he was well pleased with matters as they were. It was worth
waiting for this, he told himself. As he paced his chamber, he made no
effort to curb the exhilarating excitement that pervaded his whole
being.
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