le to give all her time to her beloved Japanese home.
Geoffrey was a darling, but he was so uninterested in everything.

"It will only be for a few days," she said, "you want the change; and
when you come back it will be like being married again."

CHAPTER XVIII

AMONG THE NIKKO MOUNTAINS

_Io chikaki
Tsumagi no michi ya
Kure-nuramu;
Nokiba ni kudaru
Yama-bito no koye_!

Dusk, it seems, has come
To the wood-cutter's track
That is near my hut;
The voices of the mountainmen
Going down to the shed!

Geoffrey left early one morning in a very doubtful frame of mind,
after having charged Tanaka to take the greatest care of his lady, and
to do exactly what she told him.

It was not until half-way up the steep climb between Nikko and
Chuzenji that his lungs suddenly seemed to break through a thick film,
and he breathed fresh air again. Then he was glad that he had come.

He was afoot. A coolie strode on before him with his suit-case
strapped on his back. They had started in pouring rain, a long tramp
through narrow gorges. Geoffrey could feel the mountains around him;
but their forms were wrapped in cloud. Now the mist was lifting;
and although in places it still clung to the branches like wisps of
cotton-wool, the precipitous slopes became visible; and overhead,
peeping through the clouds at impossible elevations, pieces of the
mountain seemed to be falling from the grey sky. Everything was bathed
in rain. The sandstone cliffs gleamed like marble, the luxuriant
foliage like polished leather. The torrent foamed over its wilderness
of grey boulders with a splendid rush of liberty.

Country people passed by, dressed in straw overcoats which looked
like bee-hives, or with thin capes of oiled paper, saffron or
salmon-coloured. The kimono shirts were girt up like fishers--both
men and women--showing gnarled and muscular limbs. The complexions
of these mountain folk were red like fruit; the Mongolian yellow was
hardly visible.

Some were leading long files of lean-shanked horses, with bells to
their bridles and high pack-saddles like cradles, painted red. Rough
girls rode astride in tight blue trunk-hose. It was with a start that
Geoffrey recognised their sex; and he wondered vaguely whether men
could fall in love with them, and fondle them. They were on their
way to fetch provision for the lake settlements, or for remote
mining-camps way beyond the mountains.

The air was full of the c