Ohano turned white with despair. She clutched at her throat as though she were choking and clung for a moment to the screens, her anguished face turned back toward her mother-in-law.
“It is a crime!” she gasped. “The Spider will come for her child!”
“Let her come,” darkly rejoined Lady Saito. “Who will take the word of a public geisha against that of the honorable ladies of the house of Saito?”
“The man—he himself—will betray—it is not possible to close the tongue of one of the choum class.”
“He is well paid. Moreover, in committing the act he places himself under the ban of the law. Will he betray himself?”
Lady Saito moved with a curious sense of hunger toward the doors, outside which, she knew, was the son of her son. For the moment at least she had forgotten Ohano; but when she found the girl barred her passage she thrust her ruthlessly aside. Ohano fell upon her knees by the shoji, and, with her face hidden upon the floor, she began to pray to the gods.
CHAPTER XXI
MEANWHILE in the House of Slender Pines there was pandemonium. The frightened, panic-stricken geishas and maidens fled wildly about, seeking in every nook and corner of the place for the lost child, while above their chattering and awe-stricken whispers rose the shrill, hysterical laughter of the Okusama.