Hideyoshi colored, and bowed only the lower: his eyes shifted about reluctantly, and useless.
Shame! threatened she, advancing a step.
I am advised of no better means than— began Hideyoshi, cold with suspense.
A bluff? How often have you practiced this sort of ennui upon others, perhaps more tolerant? I would set a better example, interposed Yodogima, snapping his weapon against the ground and casting the fragments away.
Well done, promised he, recovering somewhat his composure. But havent you oversaid yourself, a bit? The tables turned, however, may be more becoming; I can prove my valor: a broken heart is less easily mended. I need not suggest, of course, that you yourself might name—the terms?
No, no, gasped Yodogima, as the possible fate of Ieyasu flashed into mind.
Then it is really quite unnecessary to arrange it—yet I had sooner meet a worthy man than fall begging of a pretty woman. Come; I shall take you whether you will or not, with or without the means, before or after the test, temptation or provocation. Let us be off, to Azuchi, where the muses hold their tongues and order wins fairly the heart.
Captivity implies compulsion—in some instances; but our lords behavior convinces me that I might have fallen into less—considerate hands.
Hideyoshi led the way down along the winding incline and back into the very place which she had but a short hour thence deserted; in a more hopeful, if less certain, mood. The same walls enclosed the front and sides, the outlet at the rear had not changed at all; humanity seemed continuing its blind rush toward an ideal bolstered with ten thousand times ten thousand conjured notions: the breath of ages smelled as sweet and wholesome as it did before she had quitted there and gone to the mountains crest: her heart beat as warmly for her own chosen lord as ever; but something within, a silent mover of the senses and regulator of the mind, told her that were that love to ripen and shed its fruit something better than waiting and a thing more potent than might must intervene to stay the hand of probability—and together with consciousness came the sting.
Then the will arose, calling loudly upon the often fickle, but now most worthy, God of Constancy to lead her truly and deliver her aright unto the man she believed incapable of design; much more, fully competent to make the rescue.