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a page boy and, with evident distaste, communicated the request to Lord Tadanao.

Lord Tadanao’s reaction was surprisingly good-natured.

“What!” he cried. “Has Yojirō come to see me? This is indeed a welcome visit. Show him in at once! The audience is granted.” He was shouting loudly but his features were animated for the first time in many days, by a flickering, playful smile.

Moments later, Yojirō, lean and wasted like a sick dog, appeared before Lord Tadanao. The man seemed to have worn himself out in the last few days by the intensity of his anguish: he was deathly pale, and the expression on his face was sullen and murderous. His eyes were streaked with fines of red.

For the first time in his fife Lord Tadanao saw before him an Echizen retainer revealing in his looks, without any attempt at concealment, his true feelings towards him.

“So, it’s you, Yojirō. Come closer!” Lord Tadanao spoke amiably. He felt somehow that he was now dealing as one human being with another, and he was even conscious of a kind of affectionate yearning for Yojirō. It was as if the barrier separating lord from retainer had been removed, and he and Yojirō now faced each other directly, simply as fellow men.

Yojirō slid himself forward on his knees over the smooth straw matting until he was only a few steps from his master, and then cried out, in a voice which might have risen from a tormented soul in the depths of Hell:

“My lord! Even the Code of Loyalty is a trifle beside the Great Law of Humanity! You have stolen my wife, and this is how I show my hatred!”

With the speed of a swallow in flight he sprang to his feet and rushed upon Lord Tadanao. A blade gleamed in his right hand. Even so, Lord Tadanao was too agile for his attacker. He caught the upraised arm with consummate ease, twisted it, and forced Yojirō to the floor. An attendant, acting with what he imagined to be considerable tact, took Lord Tadanao’s great