"No, Benten," whispered the girl, now answering his laugh with a smile. "And she will grant other prayers of ours—Isonna and me—will she not, Isonna, you little beast? Why do you not speak?"
Isonna corroborated her mistress by a deep prostration.
"And so we have asked for long life for you, very long, until the pebbles grow to boulders and the moss grows to your shoulders—"
Arisuga laughed, in frank joy of her.
"And suppose, you who are so powerful with the goddess of beauty—for which I do not blame the goddess—suppose I have sworn to die the great death, to release my father's soul from the Meido so that he can be born again, and for the glory of the emperor?"
"Oh!" gasped the girl.
The soldier went on.
"—what will the other gods think of me, saving Benten, if I stop here and forget to die because a woman has hands, a voice, and eyes?"
"No, no!" cried Isonna, in sudden strange anguish.
Then she prostrated herself in abjection.