“Well, that is so,” agreed the Prince, thoughtfully. “Nevertheless,” he added, cheerfully, “my honorable father becomes more lenient with the years. Moreover, he has but to behold his new daughter to forget all else save the fortune the gods have bestowed upon us.”
“Be assured your father shall never behold her,” said the samurai, with incisive fierceness.
“What is that?”
“You have heard.”
“But I do assure you that my marriage, though it may provoke the momentary anger of my father, will never debar my lady wife from her position in our household. You forget that my honored parent is very old, and I shall soon have the honor of becoming Prince of Mori in my own right. I shall then have no lord to deprive me of my rights, even if I had disregarded the law.”
“You may as well be made aware of the fact at once,” said Shimadzu, “that no blood of mine shall ever mingle with that of the Mori!”
“I do not understand your honorable speech. Has not our august bloods just now become united?”
“Only by the law, my lord.”
“Well—?”
“My daughter, your highness, shall never accompany her Mori husband to his home.”