Part 39

She raised her long, slim arms from out the graceful sleeves. Her hands she clasped behind her head.

“Oh, what a glorious dream it is!” she said; then, in quick alarm, “A dream? Say that it is not all a dream.”

But Sado-ko sat staring quietly into the future. When she raised her eyes, they softly gleamed.

“A dream it is—a dream, and yet—Oh, Kuonnon, let us not awake!”

“Ah, how can you be so glad—you who are to stay here only Masago?”

“Masago,” repeated the other, softly. “That is well.” She raised a flushing face. “I am like a bird set free, Masago. My very voice is sore to sing.”

Masago threw herself upon the floor beside her.

“That is how I feel, also,” she said.

They smiled into each other’s faces, then drew closer together, their sympathy for each other growing.

“Here is some homely counsel,” said Masago. “Confide small matters to my mother, and lead her on to gossip much with you. She will tell you everything there is to know. She is so simple—so foolish. A little wit upon your part will quickly disarm any suspicion she might have. But be not free in speech with Yamada Kwacho, your new father. A cold and constrained space has always been between us. Do not let the children disturb you with their prattle, and oh, also, pray you show some pride to certain neighbors, for none in all the town have had the same up-bringing as Masago.”

“And is that all,—these simple facts that I must heed to be Masago?”

“All. It is a dull and simple life.”

“And you. Pray trust not the ladies of my suite. They do most heartily detest the Princess Sado-ko, who is given to seclusion, which has often deprived them of much gay pleasures of the new court.”

“But I will change all that,” said Masago.

“That is true.” She sighed. “Well, then, there is nothing else to say. But stay! My maiden, Natsu-no. Oh, pray you, dear Masago, treat her with the greatest kindness, will you not?”

“I will.”

“She is even now without this room, waiting for me, with that dear patience with which she watches and guards me at all times. You know, Masago, she has been with me since I was but a baby. Alas, I shall suffer for her loss!”

Tears for a moment dimmed the eyes of Sado-ko.

“What more?” asked Masago, surveying with delight the width and beauty of her obi.

“What else? Well, Masago, there is one other matter. In the garden of the Palace Nijo there hangs an open cage, just without my chamber. It is the home of my dear nightingale.”

“A bird?”

“A little bird. Listen, there is a pretty story you would like to hear. Once in the spring, while I was yet a little girl, and grieving for my most beloved grandmother, his Majesty, the Emperor, sent me as a gift of consolation a nightingale within a golden cage. It sang so sweetly to me that I was entranced with delight, and when the days were warm would hang the cage upon my balcony. The garden close at hand was fragrant with the odor of the cherry and the plum, and allured many other nightingales to make their home there. The little birds noticed their play-mate in the cage, and when, at evening, they saw no one in sight—for I was hidden behind my shoji screen—they would approach the cage, and sing all merrily together. These honorably sweet serenades gave me double joy, as you may imagine, and I soon learned to distinguish the voices without and that one within the cage. At first I thought the song of my own bird within the cage sounded sweeter even than those without. Then in a little while it became hard to distinguish them, and at last I could not hear the voice of my small nightingale at all.”

She paused a moment, as though in thought, then resumed, her eyes sweet with moisture.

“I pondered over this odd change, Masago, and then I thought that it must be because those without enjoyed their freedom in the open air, while my poor little bird was shut within the narrow limits of its cage.”

Her eyes became more tender still as she proceeded.

“So I opened wide the door, Masago, and let my little bird go free.”

“Why, then,” spoke the other, “it is gone. How foolish you were, Sado-ko.”

The princess shook her head.