CHAPTER V
GOSSIP OF THE COURT
IT was early afternoon. The ladies in the Komatzu palace were taking their noon-day siesta, and idly discussing the work of the artist, Kamura Junzo. Since he had become a favorite among them, many of the ladies wished that he could be retained in the palace a little longer.
As they sipped their amber tea indolently in one of the chambers of the palace, they gossiped with the freedom common to the women of the West rather than the East.
“Now,” said the little Countess Matsuka, handing her cup to a page, “if we were only so fortunate as to have two Imperial heroes instead of one!”
A languorous beauty, swinging lazily in a Dutch hammock, raised herself upon an elbow.
“But the heroes nowadays are all heimins” (commoners), she said with soft scorn.
“Oh, Duchess Aoi,” laughed a pretty young woman, who, more industrious, was working at an embroidery frame, “how can you say so? There are no heimins to-day.”
“Oh, true,” responded the other, crossly, “there is no caste to-day. The heimin has become the politician.”
“Yes,” said the pretty one at the frame, “and the politician rules and owns Nippon.”