Cho-Cho-San did not even smile.
"And her father, you say, was on the emperor's side in the Satsuma rebellion?"
The marriage-broker satisfied his client to the last particular of her father's bloody sacrificial end at Jokoji.
"And you have told her faithfully of me?" He paused on the last word to note its effect upon Cho-Cho-San. There was none, and he hastened to add cumulatively, "And my august family?" He paused again. But again there was no sign from the lady of the house. She was staring out over his head. "And have offered her my miserable presents?"
To each of these the broker answered lugubriously yes. "Then why, in the name of the gods, does she wait?" The nakodo explained with a sigh that she had declined his presents.
"I will send her others. They shall be a thousand times more valuable. Since I have seen her I know that the first must have been an affront."
She kept her eyes up, but Yamadori unquestionably smiled in the direction of Cho-Cho-San—as if she were a woman of joy!
