ils of white ships were glimpsing where the sunlight struck the
water; and from round the rock promontory she could catch the shimmer
of the Prince's galleon with its high poop and stern covered with
solid gold. He was on his way to rescue the lady who was immured in
the top of the red pagoda on the opposite hill.

Asako's legs were getting numb. She had been sitting on them
in correct Japanese fashion all this time. She was proud of the
accomplishment, which she considered must be hereditary, but she could
not keep it up for much longer than half an hour. Sadako's mother
entered.

"Asa San is welcome."

Much bowing began, in which Asako felt her disadvantage. The long
lines of the kimono, with the big sash tied behind, lend themselves
with peculiar grace to the squatting bow of Japanese intercourse. But
Asako, in the short blue jacket of her tailor-made serge, felt that
her attitude was that of the naughty little boys in English picture
books, bending over for castigation.

Mrs. Fujinami wore a perfectly plain kimono, blackish-brown in colour,
with a plain gold sash. It is considered correct for middle-aged
ladies in Japan to dress with modesty and reserve. She was tall for a
Japanese woman and big-boned, with a long lantern-face, and an almost
Jewish nose. The daughter was of her mother's build. But her face was
a perfect oval, the melon-seed shape which is so highly esteemed in
her country. The severity of her appearance was increased, by her
blue-tinted spectacles; and like so many Japanese women, her teeth
were full of gold stopping. She was resplendent in blue, the blue of
the Mediterranean, with fronds of cherry-blossom and floating pink
petals designed round her skirts and at the bottom of the long
exaggerated sleeves. The sash of broad stiff brocade shone with light
blue and silver in a kind of conventional wave pattern. This was tied
at the back with a huge bow, which seemed perched upon its wearer like
a gigantic butterfly alighting on a cornflower. Her straight black
hair was parted on one side in "foreign" style. But her mother wore
the helmet-like _marumage_, the edifice of conservative taste in
married women, which looks more like a wig than like natural hair.

Rings sparkled on Sadako's fingers, and she wore a diamond ornament
across her sash; but neither their taste nor their quality impressed
her cousin. Her face was of the same ivory tint as Asako's, but it
was hidden under a lavish coating of l