laughed.

And he had never seemed so beautiful nor the sound of his voice so
tender. But she went on as she had planned in her sleepless night.

She was kneeling at his feet now--her head upon the mats--reaching out
to touch him.

"Dear lord, I have deceived you," she said. "My only excuse is that it
was sweet. All the sweetness I have had in my small life. Lord, I am
young. But I had scarcely smiled until you came. In Japan we were
accursed. I was beautiful and my father pitied me and brought me here
where no one knew. Lord, I am an eta."

Arisuga recoiled from the word. The instant would have been
inappreciable to measures of time. But in it the girl's heart leaped and
fell with its own understanding. In the same instant Arisuga knew all
that had so puzzled him concerning the beautiful creature at his feet.
And he understood what his saying must have been to her. For this he
would make a soldier's great reparation--and at once! That was the way
of Arisuga.

"Then you have known no one--no man but me?"

"No," whispered the girl. "I thought if I had twenty lovers, you would
wish me the more."

"And what I have foolishly taken for the advances of experience have
been innocencies!"

Not she, but Isonna, spoke out:--

"Yes, lord. It was as I said. I am here now, when men might wish her, to
see that none approach. There has been no one but you."

"Little Lady Hoshi," said Shijiro Arisuga, to her bruised heart, "there
is but one reparation I can make for yesterday. It is to wish you to
become my wife--to-day."

"But, lord, beautiful lord," cried the girl, "you did not hear what I
said. I spoke too low. I was at your feet--" and now she deliberately
raised her agonized face to his that there might be no mistake--"Lord, I
am an eta! The accursed, despised caste! To the samurai we are as
lepers! No samurai in all the thousands of years of our empire has ever
married an eta! None has ever touched one! Lord, you did not hear!"

"I heard. Pray, call me lord no more, but husband."

"Li--li--Pardon me, husband, I have been taught that I am not to expect
marriage."

"Who taught you that?"

"Even my father! My mother!"

"Gods! It shall be to-morrow."

"Yi--yes, li--li--husband," chattered Hoshiko.

"And on that day there shall be a new goddess to be worshipped, and her
name shall be called Star-Dream! And the first prayer she shall hear
will be from a very brutal soldier to be forgiven for a little start
upon