"Tell him to come to see me again."
"And you will be as kind to him as you have been to me?"
"No," smiled the colonel. "He doesn't deserve it. He doesn't deserve you." But, then, seeing that she did not quite understand his pleasantry, he added: "I shall be as kind to him as I can be, as I am permitted to be, for your sake. And you are to tell him that!"
"Shaka, and all the augustnesses bless you!"
He held the tiny hands a moment at parting.
"Once I knew a little lady like you. It was long ago, and there is a tomb for her in Asakusa. Perhaps she was not like you, not as lovely. But so it seems now—after the years. If she had not died, I would not have been a soldier."
And no one had ever heard the grizzled colonel's voice so soft.
She sent Arisuga back. But she did not tell him that.