d sit chin in
palm, dark, luminous eyes gazing out into space as if she saw some
wonderful picture. I suppose most girls do this. I never had time, but I
made it possible for Zura to have her dreams. She should have all that I
had missed, if I could give it to her--even a lover in years to come. I
did not share these thoughts with Jane, for it is plain human to be
irritated when we see our weaknesses reflected in another, and
encouragement was the last thing Jane's sentimental soul needed. I
failed to make out what had come over my companion these days; she would
fasten her eyes on Zura and smile knowingly, as if telling herself a
happy secret, sighing softly the while. And poetry! We ate, lived and
slept to the swing of some love ditty.

Once I found Zura in a mood of gentle brooding. I suggested to her that,
as the year was drawing to a close, it would be wise to start the new
one with a clean bill of conscience. Did she not think it would be well
for her to write to her grandfather and tell him she could see now that
she had made it most difficult for him? That while she didn't want to be
taken back she would like to be friends with him?

At once she was alert, but not aggressively so as in the past. "Ursula,
I'll do it if you insist; but it wouldn't be honest and I couldn't be
polite. I do not want to be friends with that old man who labels
everybody evil that doesn't think as he does. We'd never think alike in
a thousand years. What's the use of poking up a tiger when he's quiet?"

I persuaded.

She evaded by saying at last: "Well, some time--maybe. I have too much
on my mind now."

"What, Zura?"

"Oh, my future--and a few other things."

* * * * *

Kishimoto San had never honored me with a visit since his granddaughter
had been an inmate of my house. Whenever a business conference was
necessary, I was requested, by mail, to "assemble" in the audience
chamber of the Normal School.

The man was beginning to look old and broken but he still faithfully
carried out his many duties of office and religion.

He never retreated one inch in his fight against all innovations that
would make the country the less Japanese or his faith less Buddhistic.
More often than not he stood alone and faced the bitter opposition of
the progressives. In no one thing did he so prove his unconquerable
spirit and his great ideals for his country as the patience with which
he endured the ridicule of