asant had been his journey to this point. From his master's
_yashiki_ in Ichigaya to the shop of the sandal maker Sukebei in lower
Kanda it had been one long and easy descent. Sukebei had gratified Rokuzo
with the desired and well established commission or "squeeze." Orders for
sandals in the _yashiki_ of a nobleman were no small item. Rokuzo was
easily satisfied. Though of a scant thirty years in age he had not the
vice of women, the exactions of whom were the prime source of rascality in
the sphere of _chu[u]gen_, as well as in the glittering train of the
palace. At the turn of the road ahead Rokuzo could eye the massive walls
of the moat, which hid the fortress and seraglio built up by the skilful
hands of Kasuga no Tsubone in her earnest efforts to overcome the woman
hating propensities of the San-dai-ke, the third prince of the Tokugawa
line, Iyemitsu Ko[u]. Rokuzo was a _chu[u]gen_, servant in attendance on
his master Endo[u] Saburo[u]zaemon, _hatamoto_ or immediate vassal of the
commander-in-chief, the Sho[u]gun or real ruler in the land of Nippon
since the long past days of Taira Kiyomori.

Rokuzo had no great lady in charge of his domestic arrangements, one
whose obsession it was to overcome his dislike of man's natural mate.
Nor had he such mate to administer reproof for his decided liking for
the sherry-like rice wine called _sake_. Sukebei had rigidly performed
his part in the matter of the "squeeze"; but Rokuzo considered him
decidedly stingy in administration of the wine bottle--or bottles.
Willingly would he have sacrificed the commission for an amplitude of
the wine. But even _chu[u]gen_ had their formulae of courtesy, and such
reflection on his host would have been too gross. With a sigh therefore
he had set out from the shop of the sandal maker, eyeing the wine shops
passed from time to time, but not fortunate enough to chance upon any
acquaintance whose services he could call upon in facing him over a
glass. Rokuzo had the virtue of not drinking alone.

Kanda village once passed, the _yashiki_ walls hemmed in the highway
which ran through a district now one of the busiest quarters of the
city. This sloping ground was popularly known as Ichimenhara, to
indicate its uniformity of surface. There was not a hint of the great
university, the long street of book-stores close packed side by side for
blocks. Their site was covered by the waters of the marsh, almost lake,
of the Kanda River, then being slowly d