“When he comes you are to make a request of him.”
“Yes?”
“Ask him—beg him even—to permit you to remain one month in Sendai with us. Then tell him that after that you will go wherever your rightful guardian shall direct.”
“He will not consent,” she said, depression seizing upon her—“these august barbarians are hard as rock. They never move—no, never.”
“Who told you that?”
“Nobody,” she said, “but I observe.”
“Where did you observe it?” he persisted.
She looked at him sideways a moment without replying. Then she dimpled and smiled.
“In the mission-house people and in—you, Koma,” she said.
“Promise me that you will make the request?”