him his second cup of tea, and asked him whether the
mother could not control her daughter. It set him going.

"Her mother!" he scoffed. "Madam, if her mother had been blest with the
backbone of a jellyfish she would never have married a man whose people
were not her people, whose customs are as far removed from hers as the
East is from the West. My daughter was young. Had she married one of
her own country, all would have been well. Her will would have been
directed by her mother-in-law. She was trained to obedience. See what
the teachings of your country do to our women! In a letter she wrote
telling me she had gone, she thanked me for teaching her the laws of
submission. It helped her to bow to the commands of this man when he
bade her marry him, and she loved him! Love! as if that had anything to
do with marriage. Now comes the result of this accursed union--a
troublesome girl who is neither one thing nor the other, who laughs at
the customs of my country and upsets the peace of my house, who boldly
declares she is an American. She need not herald it. In dress and
manners she wears the marks of her training."

I offered no comment, but every moment served to deepen my interest in
this girl who could defy a will which had ruled a whole island for half
a century.

My silence seemed to irritate him. He turned fiercely upon me.

"Tell me, what kind of girls does America produce? What is your boasted
freedom for women but license? Is their place never taught them? Have
they no understanding of the one great law for women?"

I had been absent from my country many long years, and while neither the
best nor the worst had come my way, America was my country, her people
my people, and they stood to me for all that was great and honorable and
righteous. The implication of Kishimoto's question annoyed me all the
more, because I knew him to be a keen observer and not hasty in his
conclusions.

"Softly, Kishimoto San. You answered your own question a few moments
ago. The customs of the two countries are as wide apart as the East is
from the West. Tastes differ in manners as well as religion. If there
are things in America that do not please you, so there are many laws in
Japan that are repugnant to Americans. You are unjust to hold my country
responsible for your woes."

"But I do hold it responsible. My granddaughter comes of its teaching. I
meditate what kind of religion it is that permits a girl to question her
elder'