IT was a happy day in the Kamura household when the cheerful and rapid-moving foreign doctor pronounced the patient strong enough to leave his room to sit a little while upon the balcony. His brothers were eager to assist the weak and emaciated Junzo to the soft seat they had prepared for him. He protested that he was able to walk alone, but finally admitted that the light, guiding hand of his fiancée was a sufficient support.
So leading him with careful step, the young girl aided her lover, while all his brothers, and his young sister Haru-no, watched the pretty picture with moistened eyes. The gentle mother slipped from the room to weep alone at what she called “the goodness of the gods.”
Once upon the balcony, the modest maiden quickly bent her head over her embroidery frame, feigning ignorance of the eyes upon her. While the convalescent absently answered the questions of his brothers, concerning his comfort, his eyes scarcely left the face of the quiet girl so close at hand.
A certain wistful wonder seemed to lurk within the eyes of Junzo in these days. Yet a sense of rest and quiet pervaded his whole being. His lately racked heart and mind seemed to have found a strange, sustaining balm.
Now on this lovely day in early September, with the odor of the gardens permeating the atmosphere, and the sweet breath of the country about, Junzo’s mind went vaguely over the late events of his life, while his eyes rested in wondering content upon the drooped face of his fiancée.
The artist, in his illness, had been attended by one he called “Sado-ko.” When fever left him and partial sense and reason crept back to his weakened brain, growing daily with the strength of his physical body, he marvelled over that exquisite face that bent above him.
And then one day his sister, Haru-no, had called her by name—Masago! A light broke through the dazzled brain of Junzo. She who nursed him with tender care was not a princess, but a simple maiden of his own class, and, most marvellous, she was his own betrothed, the virtuous maid Masago! Reason was restored, and physical strength increased daily.
Through the many days when he was forced to obey the will of the insistent foreign doctor, Junzo did not fret at his enforced confinement. Such an existence was fraught with dreamful possibilities of happiness. As Junzo’s thoughts became clear, this was his solution of what he termed his recent madness: He had loved Masago from the first, he told himself. The very gods had planned their union. Before he had known fully the heart of his betrothed, she was sent away to school. By chance this Princess Sado-ko crossed his path, the image of the maid Masago. It was because of this he had thought he loved her, while it was the other he loved. This was proved by the fact that with a lover’s adoration he was now drawn to Masago.
These were the thoughts of Junzo. Still more curious was his way of comparing the princess and the maiden, with a weight of favor for the latter. In her constant presence Junzo thought darkly of the falsity of Sado-ko, and with ecstasy of the charming simplicity of this girl of lowly birth.
As she sat with her pretty head dropped over her work, he thought her lovelier than ever he had dreamed the Princess Sado-ko.