And he had never seemed so beautiful nor the sound of his voice so tender. But she went on as she had planned in her sleepless night.
She was kneeling at his feet now—her head upon the mats—reaching out to touch him.
"Dear lord, I have deceived you," she said. "My only excuse is that it was sweet. All the sweetness I have had in my small life. Lord, I am young. But I had scarcely smiled until you came. In Japan we were accursed. I was beautiful and my father pitied me and brought me here where no one knew. Lord, I am an eta."
Arisuga recoiled from the word. The instant would have been inappreciable to measures of time. But in it the girl's heart leaped and fell with its own understanding. In the same instant Arisuga knew all that had so puzzled him concerning the beautiful creature at his feet. And he understood what his saying must have been to her. For this he would make a soldier's great reparation—and at once! That was the way of Arisuga.
"Then you have known no one—no man but me?"
"No," whispered the girl. "I thought if I had twenty lovers, you would wish me the more."
"And what I have foolishly taken for the advances of experience have been innocencies!"
Not she, but Isonna, spoke out:—
"Yes, lord. It was as I said. I am here now, when men might wish her, to see that none approach. There has been no one but you."
"Little Lady Hoshi," said Shijiro Arisuga, to her bruised heart, "there is but one reparation I can make for yesterday. It is to wish you to become my wife—to-day."