“Oh, will you not tell me what has happened to him?” she cried.
“Happened to whom? You do not mean to Junzo?”
Sado-ko nodded her head and clasped her hands.
“Who else could I mean?” she asked.
“Well, nothing that we know has happened to the man,” said Ohano. “He simply would not come to his own marriage council. The reason is most plain, I think.”
“But the fog—you spoke of it—” The girl was now upon the verge of tears.
“The fog was good excuse for his absence, Masago. Yet no one of the guests believed it was the reason he did not come; and when this morning brought a guard from Aoyama, why, even the most stupid of us all—your simple mother—knew the cause of your fiancé’s absence, and why he went to Tokyo.”
The girl repeated the words dazedly. “To Tokyo!”
“So the guard declared. He said that Junzo followed the norimon of the Princess Sado-ko down to the railway station—then—”
Ohano paused at the odd exclamation which escaped the girl.