o gain her. He
must be patient, put a curb upon his moods! This was a fearful task
for one like him, but he would strive for self-control just as one
throws down a tree to bridge a torrent. After the Dragon Maid was
won,--well then,--this halting insect man need not trouble them. They
left the house together, Tatsu in scowling silence at the unwelcomed
comradeship, Kano hard put to it to match his steps with the boy's
long, swinging mountain stride.

"What am I to do with this wild falcon for a month?" thought Kano, half
in despair, yet smiling, also, at the humor. "He must be clothed,--but
how? I would sooner sheathe a mountain cat in silks! The one hope of
existence during this interval is to get him engrossed in painting; but
where is he to paint? I dare not keep him in the house with Ume, nor
with old Mata, neither, for she might poison him. If only Ando Uchida
had not gone away, leaving no address!"

Meantime, in the Kano home, Mata and Ume moved about in different
planes of consciousness. The elder was still irritated by the
morning's event. She considered it a personal indignity, a family
outrage, that her master should walk the streets of Yeddo with a
vagabond possessing neither hat nor shoes, and only half a kimono.

Each tended, as usual, her allotted household tasks. There was no
change in the outer performance of the hours, but Mata remained alert,
disturbed, and the girl tranquilly oblivious. The old face searching
with keen eyes the young noted with troubled frown the frequent smile,
the intervals of listless dreaming, the sudden starts, as by the prick
of memory still new, and dipped in honey. There seemed to be in Ume-ko
a gentle yearning for a human presence, though, to speak truly, Mata
could not be certain that she was either heard or seen for fully one
half of the time. The hour had almost reached the shadowless one of
noon. Ume-ko's work was done. She had taken up her painting, only to
put it listlessly to one side. The pretty embroidery frame met the
same indignity. She sat now on the kitchen ledge, while Mata made the
fire and washed the rice, toying idly with a white pebble chosen for
its beauty from thousands on the garden path. Something in the
childlike attitude, the placid, irresponsible face, brought the old
servant's impatience to a climax. She deliberately hurled a dart.

"I suppose you know, Miss Ume, that your father may actually adopt this
goblin from Kiu Shiu!"