“For one thing I am very glad. Kokan and I are friends. We are coming home very soon, as soon as we can travel, but Kokan will return when he is quite well. He calls me Samurai now, and says I ‘won it with the redoubt.’ We have talked much about the old days and our homes, and even about O-Mitsu. Perhaps if you send someone to ask Kudo-san for her now he would not refuse.”
It was a different letter that Lieutenant Kudo sent to the house in Timber Street. Himself he spared not at all, and in long detail told the story of the midnight scout and described the day of battle.
“You do not know this Kutami,” he said. “He may have the name of an Eta, but he has the heart of a thousand Samurai. He has taught me a great lesson. O-Mitsu will be honored, and we too, if he still wishes to marry her.”
When Jukichi read the letter he sat a long time in silence, but O-Mitsu put her face in the cushion and wept for joy.
Two gray-haired men stood together on the landing watching the hospital ship swing into her moorings. Together they stepped down to the launch that puffed out into the bay, and as the steamer’s anchor rattled down, together they stood up and shouted “Banzai!” Together Jukichi and Chobei climbed the gangway to greet their soldier sons. That day the Gentleman had accepted the Commoner’s proposal for his daughter, and in the house in Timber Street a happy girl was awaiting the return of her lover.
XVI
