“You know why I did it,” said Toro, ready to forswear everything at her demand.
Again he sought her hand, but still she denied him.
“Oh, not so fast, my lord. Let me whisper to you a report I have heard.”
“A report—concerning me?” said Toro, in bewilderment.
“Concerning a certain Catzu gentleman who recently awaited an audience with the Prince Mori. He was placed in a certain interior chamber, which happened to adjoin the apartments of the daughter of a certain prince of prominence. This Catzu gentleman, it is said, disappeared into this lady’s private apartments. Since which time the lady has been banished to Satsuma by her own father.”
“Lady,” said Toro, in a great state of mingled fear and bewilderment, “I pray thee repeat not such a story, even to the flowers.”
With a scornful and angry little laugh, the Lady Hollyhock, who had inwardly hoped for a denial by her lover, stepped away.
“I am not likely,” she said, “to tell of my own supplanting.”
She drew the doors sharply between them.
Toro, alone, mused upon the imputation of her words.