The Prince looked at him, surprised at this sigh, and expecting a confidence; but the young man blushed slightly, and changed the conversation.
"You see," said he, opening a volume which he held on his knee, "I am studying the book of the laws; I am looking to see if it does not need softening and altering."
"It contains one article which I would advise you to suppress," said Nagato.
"Which?"
"That which treats of mutual suicide for love."
"How does it run?" said Fide-Yori, turning over the leaves. "Ah! here it is:—
"'If two lovers swear to die together, and commit hara-kiri, their bodies shall be handed over to the officers of justice. If one of them be not mortally wounded, he or she is to be treated as the murderer of the other. If both survive the attempt, they shall be ranked as reprobates.'"
"That is shameful," said Nagato; "hasn't one a right to escape by death from a grief too heavy to be endured?"
"There is a religion which says not," murmured Fide-Yori.
"That of the European bonzes! That whose doctrines public rumor says you have accepted," said Nagato, striving to read his friend's face.