torted little soul, was thinking that it must be
worth the years of slavery and the humiliation of disease to have that
one day of complete triumph, to be the representative of Beauty upon
earth, to feel the admiration and the desire of that vast concourse of
men rising round one's body like a warm flood.

Geoffrey stared fascinated, wondering to see the fact of prostitution
advertised so unblushingly as a public spectacle, his hatred and
contempt breaking over the heads of the swine-faced men who followed
the harlot, and picked their livelihood out of her shame.

Reggie was wondering what might be the thoughts of those little
creatures muffled in such splendour that their personality, like that
of infant queens, was entirely hidden by the significance of what they
symbolized. Not a smile, not a glance of recognition passed over the
unnatural whiteness of their faces. Yet they could not be, as they
appeared to be, sleep-walkers. Were they proud to wear such finery?
Were they happy to be so acclaimed? Did their heart beat for one man,
or did their vanity drink in the homage of all? Did their mind turn
back to the mortgaged farm and the work in the paddy-fields, to
the thriftless shop and the chatter of the little town, to the
_sake_-sodden father who had sold them in the days of their innocence,
to the first numbing shock of that new life? Perhaps; or perhaps they
were too taken up with maintaining their equilibrium on their high
shoes, or perhaps they thought of nothing at all. Reggie, who had a
poor opinion of the intellectual brightness of uneducated Japanese
women, thought that the last alternative was highly probable.

"I wonder what those little houses are where they pay their visits,"
Reggie said.

"Oh, those are the _hikite chaya_" said Yae glibly, "the Yoshiwara
tea-houses."

"Do they live there?" asked Asako.

"Oh, no; rich men who come to the Yoshiwara do not go to the big
houses where the _oiran_ live. They go to the tea-houses; and they
order food and _geisha_ to sing, and the _oiran_ to be brought from
the big house. It is more private. So the tea-houses are called
_hikite chaya_, 'tea-houses which lead by the hand.'"

"Yae," said Reggie, "you know a lot about it."

"Yes," said Miss Smith, "my brothers have told me. They tell me lots
of things."

After a stay of about half an hour, the _oiran_ left their tea-houses.
The processions reformed; and they slowly tottered back to the places
whence the