“What picture? Oh, yes, yes. Did you do so? Now I do recall it.”
She moved toward the door to cover her confusion, then turned her head backward, smiling sweetly at the servant.
“Do not worry, maid. I am not offended.”
A moment the woman stared at her in bewilderment. Then she said with some hesitancy:
“Before you went to Kyoto, Masago, I always took the liberties with you, which since your late return you appeared not to desire. I, being long in your family service, as you know, was hurt.”
Sado-ko paused in the doorway.
“When—when did I return?” she asked, in a curious tone, as though she could not recall the exact date. “I have been away it seems—yes—I have been away; but when did I return?”
“Why, only two days since,” declared the maid, in astonishment.
“How absent is my little mind,” she laughed. “Two days ago. Why, yes, of course—and let me see, I have been gone—” She appeared to calculate the time.
“But half a year,” said the servant. “You were to have stayed one year, but your affianced, having acquired such great fame at court, your father wished to hasten on your honorable marriage.”