she hinted with deprecating sweetness, might do
much if only allowed to follow her own loving instincts. But Kano had
lost confidence in his daughter and bluntly told her so. Tatsu had
been adopted and married in order to make him paint, and paint he
should! Also it was Ume-ko's duty to influence him in whatever way and
method her father thought best. Let her succeed,--that was her sole
responsibility. So blustered Kano to himself and Mata, and not even
the malicious twinkle of the old servant's eye pointed the way to
wisdom.

Naturally Ume-ko did not succeed. Tatsu merely laughed at her flagrant
efforts at duplicity. He felt no need of painting, no desire to paint.
He had won the Dragon Maiden. Life could give him no more! There was
no anger or resentment in his feeling toward Kano, or even the old
scourge Mata. No, he was too happy! To lie dreaming on the fragrant,
matted floor near Ume, where he could listen to her soft breathing and
at times pull her closer by a silken sleeve,--this was enough for
Tatsu. Nothing had power to arouse in him a sense of duty, of
obligation to himself, or to his adopted father. He would not argue
about it, and could scarcely be said to listen. He lived and moved and
breathed in love as in a fourth dimension. To the old man's frequent
remonstrances he would turn a gentle, deprecating face. He had
promised Ume-ko never again to speak rudely to their father. Besides,
why should he? The outer world was all so beautiful and sad and
unimportant. A sunset cloud, or a bird swinging from a hagi spray
could bring sharp, swift tears to his eyes. Beauty could move him, but
not old Kano's genuine sufferings. Yet, the old man, bleating from the
arid rocks of age, was doubtless a pathetic spectacle, and must be
listened to kindly.

Finding the boy thus obdurate, Kano turned the full force of his
discontent on Ume-ko. She endured in silence the incessant railing.
Each new device urged by the distracted Kano she carried out with
scrupulous care, though even with the performance of it she knew
hopelessness to be involved. For hours she remained away from home,
hidden in a neighbor's house or in the temple on the hill, it being
Kano's thought that perhaps, in this temporary loss of his idol, Tatsu
might seek solace in the paint room. But Tatsu, raging against the
conditions which made such tyranny possible, stormed, on such
occasions, through the little house, and up and down the