The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-02-01

suspicion he had harbored became a
cold and lifeless thing in his breast
A sense of shame rushed through him
as he saw her gaze wander about the
interior with it's veneer of the for
eign; to the disordered desk-the
lounge and it's litter of books-the
photographs on the wall-the open
panel with it's champagne bottles. In
her glance distaste had grown to a
quick question. The coarse sugges,
tons of the place were yelling over
her. Whose house was this? Had
Haru seen her and was she hiding
from her?
Suddenly she saw the mans cap
and gauntlet in the corner. Her cheeks
rushed into flame. She seemed to see
Harus innocent face smiling at her
over the throbbing samisen. All at
once she took an abrupt step forward.
She was looking at the round glass
lantern just outside the doorway,
painted with Japanese characters.
She chilled as if ether had been
poured in her veins. The name they
stood for-Daunt-had been her first
lesson in Japanese-which Haru had
taught her! She snatched up one Of
the volumes from a chair. 1t was
Lillienthal's Conquest of the Air She
opened it to the title page.
Ware, watching, saw with surprise
that she was trembling violently. She
had grown pale to the lips. The book
slipped from her fingers and crashed
on the tatame. 1t lay there, open as
she had held it, and he saw what was
written across the white leaf. 1t was
Daunt's name.
His thought leaped as if at the flick
Of lash. Daunt's book! What was
she thinking? The piteous pallor that
swept her face like an icy wave an
swered him. Why she was there-her
interest in this Japanese girl who fed
from her-he could not guess. But it
was clear that she had not known
the house was Daunt's, and that with
the knowledge, she was face to face
with what must seem a damning COM
plicity. Perhaps some hint of this re-
treat had come to her-he knew how
gossip feathered its shafts!-some
covert allusion, some laughing ouidire,
to which her coming had now given
such verify. Phil was the deus eX
machina of the situation. His Japa-
nese amour she was now laying at
Daunts door! All this flashed through
his mind in an instant. He watched
her intently.
Over Barbara was sweeping hide
Gus chaos of hooking voices, bits of
recollection barbed with agony. The
little house near Aoyama parade
ground-the carriage had passed the
great empty plaza few moments ago
that he had kept from sentiment"
The house she had asked him to show
her, when he had evaded the request.
And Haru! A feeling of physical
anguish like that Of death came to.
her; dull pain was in her temples
and the floor seemed to be rising UP
with her toward the ceiling. Daunt:
He whose lips had lain on hers, whose
letter was in her bosom-it burned
her flesh now like live coal! There
has never been another woman to me,
Barbara. There never will be!' The
words seemed to launch themselves
from the air, singing like fiery jave
Inns.
Behind the shikiri a weird, malevo-
lent clamOr was shouting through
Wares brain. He stood alone with
his temptation. What had he to do
with Daunt, or with her belief in him?
She had accepted his own advances,
beckoned him half around the world
for what? To discard him for this
man whom she had known but hand
full of days! Chance had arranged
this mise en- scene. Was he to tell
her the truth-and lose her? The key
to the situation was in his hand. He
had only to keep silence!
At that moment he felt crumble
down in some crude gulf within the
fabric of his self-esteem-the high
built structure of years. Something
colder, formless and malignant, came
to sit on it's riven foundations. A saw
age citation grew in him.
Suddenly a shikiri was flung aside.
Haru stood there, her face deathly
pale, her hands wrenching and tearing
at her sleeves She laughed. a high
gasping, unnatural treble.
5000, Ojo-San! You come make
visiting-ne?" The shrill voice rang
through the silent room. MY new
house now, an mos bes' MASTER No
more Christian! My bad-oh, ve-ree
bad Janan oirl'" With another neal