Hoshiko did not know. But Arisuga suspected that they were close behind the fusuma listening with staring eyes and gaping mouths.
He suddenly pushed aside the slides—and there they were.
"To-morrow I wed your daughter," he said to them with his soldier's savagery.
He respectfully gave them time for an answer—but he meant them to understand that they dare not refuse. And together, when they had the breath for it, they bowed to the very earth and said:—
"Yea, august lord!"
Arisuga bowed haughtily in return, and closed the slides upon them.
"You see," he said to Hoshiko, "there is nothing but the three times three between us and our earth-heaven, goddess!"
"Yes, lord," she shivered.
She begged for delay, but he would not grant it, so all that night, while he slept near, she and Isonna in the next room strove to make a trousseau out of her shroud.