“Then it is true!” he said, making a movement of recoil from her.
“It is true that I am Sado-ko,” she said.
He stared at her blankly. Then suddenly he covered his face with his hands and groaned.
“The gods have pity on us both!” he said.
“Why should the gods have pity?” asked the Princess Sado-ko. “They have already blessed us. We are happy, Junzo.”
“Happy!” he repeated. “Guileless one, do you not see our happiness is so slight and dangerous a thing we cannot hold it?”
“But why may we not?”
“You are the Princess Sado-ko, and I—an artist-man.”
“You are my Junzo,” she replied, “and I am your Sado-ko. This we know, but it is a secret. The world will call me Masago, and once I am your wife—”
“Our union is impossible.”