The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1906-05-17
The Little
GeiSha
BY ON0T0 wATANNA.
okikusan was in trouble again.
Copyright, by Joseph b. Bowles)

lean who threw his money so lavishly
about. He had specially asked that
the girl with the red cheeks. large
for him.
The dancing mats were thrown, the
music started, and Kiku had thrus
forward one little foot and had cour-
tested to the four corners of the earth.
Then she twirled clear around on the
tips of the toes of one little foot, her
hand tapering out toward the Amer,
lean. She had started to dance with
out once glancing at the visitor. BY
chance her eye happened to fall on
him, and with sudden within she
paused in her steps and subsidized to
the mats, her little feet drawn under
her.
The American was watching the girl
with amused eyes, Then he crossed to
where she sat on the ground.
why did you stop dancing?" he
asked her, in fairly good Japanese.
She answered him in broken Eng
fish:
"Thas account | nod lig' to dance
for you'll" she told him, candidly.
The girl still sat on the mat, look
ing straight out before her, her face
unreliable in its cold indifference.
Hilton could not understand her. She
was so unlike any Japanese girl he
had ever met, for they generally were
so willing and eager to please. After
a time he broke the somewhat strained
silence to say, in his soft, drawing
fashion,
Would you not like something-er
to drink? Shall | fetch something
for your"
The question was so absurd that the
girls studied Indifference broke down.
"Tha's nod your place to waid on
mel" she said, loftily. rising to her
feet. II thing thad you Zig something
to dring. Yes? Thad git paid to
worg here. thing | bedder bring
you something to dring," she added,
stifly. Bud ! nod lig TO waid on you.
prefer vaery much waid on Japanese
gents"
There was a sibilant softness to her
voice that was bewildering in its
charm and sweetness, and her broken
English was pretuer than anything he
had ever heard.
When she brought the hot sake
back to him her face was smiling above
the dainty tray and as she knelt at his
feet while he drank 1t. he could see
that her former petulant mood was
gone, and that she was now using
every effort to please and conciliate
him.
Now you look like a Japanese sun
BEAM" he told her, softly, looking un-
utterable things at her out of his deer
gray eyes.
"Tha's account | 'fraid Citing dis
charged" she told him, calmly, still
smiling. "Mr. Takahashi tell me II
| nod vaery kin to you he goin' tc
send me long way from here"
"Ah, see. Then you arc only pre-
tending to smile?"
She shrugged her little shoulders.
Yes" she said, indifferently. "Tha's
worg for geisha girl. Whad you thing
we goin' to git paid for? Account We
frown? Or account we laugh? | thing
tha's account we laugh. Thad is my
worg. What you thing?"
THAT you are a philosopher" HI
told her, smiling, and added: "Bu
what cynic, too; | didn't expect t.
find it among Japanese women-cyn
icism."
The girl smiled a trife bitterly.
"Oa!' she said, you nod fin' that
'mong Japanese-only me! | differen
! from aeverybody else" She set thu
tray on the ground and sat down a
his feet.
How old are you?" Hilton asket
her, curiously.
twenty-five" she told him.
"You look like child"
1t was two weeks later With a rest
less fascination he could not under
stand, Hilton went every day to tn
little tea house on the hill. Always h
sought out Okikusan, and would spen,
the entire day with her, totally obliy
ious to almost all else save the girl
beauty and charm.
| And Hilton forgot MS mission II
Japan, forgot that Japanese womel
had always been merely tae plaything
of moment; that he had tired of lif
everything save the delightful, ire
sistible feelings that had awakened Il
him. What was it? Hilton was il
love, and with Japanese woman
Years ago he had married one Il
Japanese fashion, and had left hel
She had been gentle, clinging littl
woman, with whom he had passed
dreamy, sleepy summer. What coul
he do with Kiku? She was unlike an
Japanese woman he had ever known
unlike any woman he had met. Sh
was the one woman in the world h
had loved during all his long, check
cred career-a life spent in idle pun
suit of his own pleasures.
Hilton's friend, who had accompan
led him on the voyage, was beginnin
TO feel anxious about him, for, in spit
of his admission of his own weakness
for japanese women, he was far NOR
aliva IN and nuick IN scent raaI dor