This is my advice,--freely given,--make of the
youth her jinrikisha man, but not her husband!"

"Impertinent old witch!" cried Kano. "You are asked for nothing but
the earliest possible date for the marriage!"

"Do you give yourself so tamely to a dangerous wild creature from the
hills?" Mata demanded of the girl.

"Yes, yes, she'll marry him," said Kano, before her words could come.
"The date,--the earliest possible hour! Will two weeks be too soon?"

"Two weeks!" shrieked the old dame, and staggered backward. "Is it of
the scavenger's daughter that you speak?"

"Four weeks, then,--a month. It cannot be more. I tell you, woman,
for a longer time than this I cannot keep the youth at bay. Is a month
decent in convention's eyes?"

Mata began to sob loudly in her upraised sleeve.

"I see that it is at least permissible," said Kano, grimly. "What a
weak set of social idiots we are, after all. Tatsu is right to scorn
us! Well, well, a month from this date, deep in the golden heart of
autumn, will the wedding be."

"If the day be propitious and the stars in harmony," supplemented Mata.
"She shall not be married in the teeth of evil fortune, if I have to
murder the Dragon Painter with my fish-knife!"

"Oh, go; have the stars arranged to suit you. Here's money for it!"
He fumbled in his belt for a purse of coin, threw it to the mats, and,
over the old dame's stooping back, motioned Ume-ko permission to
withdraw. The girl went swiftly, thankful for the release.

"A good child,--a daughter to thank the gods for," chuckled Kano, as
she left.

Mata looked sharply about, then leaned to her master's ear. "You are
blind; you are an earth-rat, Kano Indara. This is not the usual
submission of a silly girl. Ume is thinking things we know nothing of.
Did you not see that her face was as a bean-curd in its whiteness? She
kept so still, only because she was shaking in all directions at once.
There, look at her now! She is fleeing to the garden with the
uncertain step of one drunk with deep foreboding!"

"Bah! you are an old raven croaking in a fog! Go back to your pots. I
can manage my own child!"

"You have never yet managed her or yourself either," was the spoiled
old servant's parting shaft.

Kano sat watching the slender, errant figure in the garden. Yes, she
had taken it calmly,--more calmly than he could have hoped. How
beautiful was the poise, even at this distance, of the delicate throat,
and th