“Why, no, I do not so regard it.”
“You do not? Then what am I to do?”
“Marry him at once.”
“But, indeed, I cannot do so.”
“Why not?”
“Oh, Gen, it would be too humiliating for him to debase himself. I could not be so false as to deceive him and drag him down from his high estate. I could not do it.”
“Pugh! You overrate the ignominy of the Eta. In the old days when your father married among them the prejudice was at its bitterest. He is not aware of the changes which are rapidly taking place in the thought of the people of Japan to-day, nor does he know that this very prince represents to the people that new era which is about to dawn wherein all men will have equal rights and privileges. Your honorable father has lived only in his own sorrows, knowing little of what is taking place in his country. Take advantage of his ignorance, I advise you.”
“But he would never forgive me,” she said.
“Who? Your prince? Never forgive you for marrying him! Why, I thought he had wooed you for that purpose!”
“Yes,” she sighed, “but he did not know the truth then. Perhaps if he had known of my lowly station—”