"What! You kept those flowers?"
Omiti raised her clear eyes to the King, revealing her soul in her face; then dropped them quickly. "Because you gave them to me," said she.
"You love me, then?" cried Fide-Yori.
"O master!" said the startled girl, "I should never have dared to confess the weakness of my heart."
"You will not confess your love? Well! I love you with all my soul, and I dare to tell you so."
"You love me?—you, the Shogun?" she exclaimed, with touching amazement.
"Yes, and I have long waited your coming, wicked one. I have sought you; I was plunged in despair; you have made me suffer cruelly! But since you are here, all is forgotten. Why did you delay so long? Had you no thought of me?"
"You were my only thought; it blossomed like a celestial flower in the midst of my sad life; without it I should have died."
"You thought of me, while I groaned at your absence; and you did not come?"
"I did not know that you had deigned to remember me. Besides, had I known it, I should not have come."