to be part of them and to emanate as perfume from the rose, as color from a sunset.
We were absorbed in this song. The girl who took it upon herself to instruct me was most vivacious and attractive. I almost forgot my surroundings, and paid no attention to those coming or going. Suddenly, into the monotony of the dancing and the singing came a little girl. She was just fourteen. Her silks and embroideries were fabulous, and the artificially white skin was solid and fresh. She was a tiny thing, and should be forgiven if the gorgeous raiment made her think-of herself and feel happy. She came in with the usual bow, sat down quietly, but the gaze of everyone of us was instantly upon her, and the faces of the other geisha showed both satisfaction and envy. The little thing felt happy, and yet dared not find expression for that happiness; so that every little while a smile would turn on her lips and contract or be suppressed. She was happy, but still it must have hurt her not to be happy girlishly.
Six months or more later, I met her at another geisha party. She did not recognize me, but finally recalled the evening. But what a change! She was already the favorite of a foreigner, with all the tricks and self-conscious indifference of her profession.
One evening Mr. Suzuki and I decided to go to see more of geisha life. I could see that his wife did not approve of it, but he was master and no argument was necessary. The geisha takes the place of the club and no woman will dare deny that to her husband. The geisha is not his companion—she is merely a specialist in the entertainment of men. The wife entertains him at home, the geisha, abroad, and if he wants a concubine or two, there is no law prohibiting it. The present Emperor, himself the son by a side wife, the lady Yanagiwara, is the first to have adopted monogamy, but his father had five wives.
We moved along our way through the vast crowd which had swarmed the streets on its way to a temple, and took to a back street or roadway along the bank of the Minatogawa. There were neither lights nor pavements, and the dust raised by the scraping of the geta (clogs) was distressing. The dark, starlit night did not minister to Japanese atmosphere; only the strangeness was real.
We dropped down among the shacks, the dirty ratty places, wandered through narrow alleys amidst squalor and poverty. Not our
