nd gather
in the prize-money.

Any scruple on the girl's part will be relentlessly and carelessly
brushed aside as a bothersome insect. If she persists, there is
always force. He fears nothing from me. I am a foreigner--from
his standpoint too crudely frank to be clever.

He doubtless argues, if he gives it any thought, that if I could I
would not dare interfere. And then I am so absorbed in
color-prints! So I am, and, I pray Heaven, in some way to his
undoing. The child has no other friend. Shrinkingly she told me
of her one attempt to make friends with some high-class people, and
the uncompromising rebuff she had received upon their discovering
she was an Eurasian. The pure aristocrats seldom lower the social
bars to those of mixed blood. I wonder, Mate, if the ghost of
failure, who was her father, could see the inheritance of
inevitable suffering he has left his child, what his message would
be to those who would recklessly dare a like marriage?

Sada goes to Kioto in the morning. She promises not to show
resistance, but to keep quiet and alert, writing me at every
opportunity.

I am sure Uncle's delight in securing so rich a prize as Hara will
burst forth in a big wedding-feast and many rich clothes for the
trousseau. I hope so. Preparation will take time. I would rather
gain time than treasure.

I put Sada to bed. Tucked her in and cuddled her to sleep as if
she had been my own daughter.

There she lies now. Her face startlingly white against the mass of
black hair. The only sign of her troubled day is a frequent
half-sob and the sadness of her mouth, which is constantly reading
the riot act to her laughing eyes in the waking hours.

Poor girl! She is only one of many whose hopes wither like
rose-leaves in a hot sun when met by authority in the form of
tyrannical relatives.

The arched sky over the mountain of "Two Leaves" is all a-shimmer
with the coming day. Thatched roof and bamboo grove are daintily
etched against the amber dawn. Lights begin to twinkle and thrifty
tradesmen cheerfully call their wares.

It is a land of peace, a country and people of wondrous charm, but
incomprehensible is the spirit of some of the laws that rule its
daughters.

_Mate dear_:

One of my girls, when attached with the blues, invariably says in
her written apology for a poor lesson, "Please excuse my frivolous
with your imagination, for my heart is warmly." So say I.

I am sending you the c