Part 10 (1/2)
”No,” said the disgraceful young soldier, ”there is no need of haste.”
She laughed and touched his face--where he caught and held her hand.
”Perhaps, many many years?”
”Perhaps,” said Arisuga.
”Until you are mi--married?”
”Perhaps until I am married.”
”Beautiful!” cried the girl.
”And who would you have me marry?”
”Isonna!” laughed Hos.h.i.+ko, ”if you were not so great, lord. Oh, she is most sweet to men! Often I have wondered that men do not marry her!
Isonna!”
Again the girl plunged from the next room.
”Isonna,” said her mistress, ”ugly little beast, you are to marry the lord soldier when he is a trifle better.”
Isonna forgot her manners in the violence of another amazement. Arisuga shouted with happy laughter.
”Vast lord,” wailed the maid, as if she believed it all, ”there is the same reason in me as in my mistress, that--”
”s.h.!.+”
Hos.h.i.+ko put her two hands violently upon the garrulous mouth of the servant.
”You little beast! Is not once enough? I dislike to kill you. But I suppose I must!”
When all was well again she turned to Arisuga:--
”Then you will need a servant--and I am very industrious, am I not, Isonna?”
Isonna said nothing. This seemed safest.
”Is she industrious, Isonna?” asked the mystified young soldier. ”We will have no servants who are not industrious!”
”No,” said the frightened maid to him, and ”Yes” to her when she had looked, first, the way of her mistress, then the way of the soldier.
”Do I not curl the futons, dress my hair, fill my father's pipe, clean the sand out of his sandals, mend his bed-netting, tie his girdle, cook his rice?”
Isonna said yes.