Chapter I: Introduction

The fate of an introduction to a book seems not only to fall short of its purpose, but to offend those whose habit it is to criticise before they read. Once I heard an old man say, "It is dangerous to write for the wise. They strike warm hands with form, but shrug a cold shoulder at originality." I do not think, though, that this book was written for the "wise," for the men and women whose frosty judgment would freeze the warm current of a free and almost careless soul. It was written for the imaginative, and they alone are the true lovers of story and song. Onoto Watanna plays upon an instrument new to our ears, quaintly Japanese, an air at times simple and sweet, as tender as the chirrup of a bird in love, and then as wild as the scream of a hawk. Mood has been her teacher; impulse has dictated her style. She has inherited the spirit of the orchard in bloom. Her art is the grace of the wild vine, under no obligation to a gardener, but with a charm that the gardener could not impart. A monogram wrought by nature's accident upon the golden leaf of autumn, does not belong to the world of letters, but it inspires more feeling and more poetry than a library squeezed out of man's tired brain. And this book is not unlike an autumn leaf blown from a forest in Japan.

OPIE READ.

CHICAGO, January, 1899.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER. PAGE.
I--Parental Ambitions, 5

II--Cleo, 10

III--Who Can Analyze a Coquette? 15

IV--The Dance on Deck, 20

V--Her Gentle Enemy, 24

VI--A Veiled Hint, 27

VII--Jealousy Without Love, 30

VIII--The Man She Did Love, 37

IX--Merely a Woman, 43

X--Watching the Night, 47

XI--At the Journey's End, 52

XII--Those Queer Japanese! 54

XIII--Takashima's Home-Coming, 59

XIV--After Eight Years, 60

XV--Nume, 64

XVI--An American Classic, 68

XVII--"Still a Child," 73

XVIII--The Meeting, 76

XIX--Confidences, 79

XX--Sinclair's Indifference, 83

XXI--"Me? I Lig' You," 86

XXII--Advice, 92

XXIII--Afraid to Answer, 95

XXIV--Visiting the Tea Houses, 99

XXV--Shattered Hopes, 104

XXVI--Conscience, 108

XXVII--Confession, 110

XXVIII--Japanese Pride, 115

XXIX--Seclusion, 117

XXX--Feminine Diplomacy, 121

XXXI--A Barbarian Dinner, 124

XXXII--The Philosophy of Love, 126

XXXIII--What Can that "Luf" Be? 130

XXXIV--Conspirators, 133

XXXV--A Respite for Sinclair, 136

XXXVI--Those Bad Jinrikisha Men, 139

XXXVII--Those Good Jinrikisha Men, 141

XXXVIII--Disproving a Proverb, 144

XXXIX--Love! 148

XL--A Passionate Declaration, 152

XLI--A Hard Subject to Handle, 156

XLII--A Story, 160

XLIII--The Truth of the Proverb, 163

XLIV--Nume Breaks Down, 167

XLV--Trying to Forget, 171

XLVI--An Observant Husband, 173

XLVII--Matsushima Bay, 176

XLVIII--A Rejected Lover, 180

XLIX--The Answer, 184

L--The Ball, 187

LI--The Fearful News, 190

LII--The Tragedy, 192

LIII--A Little Heroine, 194

LIV--Sinclair Learns the Truth at Last, 198

LV--Lovers Again, 202

LVI--The Penalty, 206

LVII--The Pity of It All, 211

LVIII--Mrs. Davis's Nerves, 214

LIX--Cleo and Nume, 217

ILLUSTRATIONS.

TITLE. PAGE. ONOTO WATANNA, Frontispiece

NUME-SAN, 29

KOTO, KIRISHIMA, AND MATSU, 101

PLAYING KARUTTA, 117

"NUME BREAKS DOWN," 165

KOTO WOULD NOT MARRY, 181

SITTING TOGETHER HAND IN HAND, 197

NUME AND HER TWO FRIENDS KOTO AND MATSU, 205

Miss Nume of Japan.