“even a calamity, left alone, may turn into a fortune,” quoted lady saito ichigo, devoutly, as with her hand trembling with excitement she filled her pipe.

ohano listlessly extended the taper to her mother-in-law, and the latter took several puffs and inhaled with intense satisfaction.

there was something peculiarly still and strange about the attitude of ohano. her eyes seemed almost closed, her lips were a single colorless line, and there was not a vestige of color in her face. almost she seemed like some automaton that was unable to move save when touched. one of ohano’s arms was shorter than the other, and this had always been a sensitive matter to her, so that generally she had carried it hidden in her sleeve. now she nursed it mechanically, almost as if it pained, and twice she extended the lame arm for the taper. whatever there was about the girl’s expression or attitude, it aroused the irritation of the older woman, and she said sharply:

“you perceive the wisdom of the proverb, my girl, do you not?”

ohano said slowly, as though the words came from her with an effort:

“it is not apropos to our case at all. i do not at all see either the calamity or the fortune, for that matter.”

her mother-in-law took her pipe from her mouth and stared at her amazedly a moment. then she enumerated events upon her fingers.

“calamity,” she said, “when my son met the spider woman. almost it seemed as if the gods had forsaken their favorites. what a fate for the illustrious ancestors—the last of the race married to a geisha!”

ohano shrugged her shoulders, then averted her face. she had bitten her lips so that now they seemed to be blistered, and pushed out, thick and swollen.

“well,” resumed her mother, triumphantly, “you perceive the workings of the gods undoubtedly in what followed. the war came like a veritable miracle. think; had it come but a few—one or two—months later even, the spider would still have been in our house, and, what is more, ohano, elevated! oh, there would have been no enduring the dancer. it is said”—and she lowered her voice confidently—“that the arrogance and pride of women of her class is an intolerable thing when once aroused. an excellent actress was this spider. let us admit it. she was prepared to—wait! she entreated patience for only a few months longer. but, as i have said, the gods intervened. the war arose! it was found imperative to return her at once! hoom! that is right. you may well smile, my girl, since your turn had come!”

ohano’s mask-like countenance had broken into a rigid smile of reminiscence. she recalled the days of her supreme triumph—the casting out of the one she hated, her own elevation as the wife of the lord saito gonji. a faint color stole into her cheeks.

“i’ll confess,” continued the mother-in-law, humorously, “that you proved a less docile and filial daughter.” she chuckled reminiscently. “it is impossible to forget the humility of the spider!” she looked at ohano fondly. “i will tell you, my girl, i always desired you for my daughter. your mother and i were cousins, and do you know—i will tell you, now that my lord is honorably absent—that it was originally planned that your father and i should marry.” she scowled and blinked her eyes, sighing heavily. “well, schemes fall through!”

for a time she was silent, drowsily pulling at her pipe, which ohano mechanically filled and refilled.

presently lady saito laid her pipe down on the hibachi and resumed as if she had not stopped.

“so much for the calamity—the intervention of the gods that followed. now look you, my girl. all the expensive offerings heaped at the shrines have been in vain. it is my opinion that if you supplicated the gods till doomsday and drank of the last drop of the kiyomidzu waters, you would not now become a mother! superstitions are for the ignorant. these are enlightened days, when we fight and beat—and beat, ohano!—the western nations! so, now, we supplicate the gods for a solution of the tragic problem facing us—the extinction of the illustrious race of saito. it is impossible for such a race to die!”

ohano moved uneasily. she had picked up her embroidery frame, and was attempting to work, but her lips were moving and her hands trembled. partly to hide her expression from her mother-in-law, she bent her head far over the frame. lady saito began to laugh quite loudly.

“never—no, not within the entire span of a lifetime—have i even heard of such favor of the gods! just think, ohano, without the pains and labors of a mother, they put into your honorable arms a most noble descendant of the august ancestors. why, you should extend your arms in perpetual thanks to all the gods. was ever such mercy?”

said ohano, with her face still hidden by the frame:

“it is said, as you know, that it is easier to beget children than to care for them!”

silence a moment. then she added with sudden passionate vehemence:

“i loathe the task you set me, mother-in-law. it is not possible for me to carry out your wishes.”

the expression on the older woman’s face should have warned her. the thin lips drew back in a line as cruel as when previously she had looked at the hapless moonlight. her voice was, if possible, harsher.

“it is better to nourish a dog than an unfaithful child!” she cried, got to her feet, and, drawing her skirts about her, moved away in stately dudgeon.

ohano leaped up also, anxious to repair the injury she had done.

“mother!” she cried out, chokingly, “put yourself in my place. would it be possible for you to cherish in your bosom the child of one you abhorred?”

slowly the outraged and angry look faded from lady saito’s face. it seemed pinched and haggard. her voice was curiously gentle:

“that is possible, ohano. i have given you an instance in my own honorable house, for as deeply as i hated your mother, so i have loved you!”

ohano’s breath came in gasps. she was losing control of the icy nerve that had hitherto upheld her. she longed to fling herself upon the breast of her mother-in-law, who, despite her austere bearing to all, had always been kind to ohano. even as the two looked into each other’s face the cry of the one they were expecting to arrive was heard outside the screens. matsuda had kept his word!

ohano turned white with despair. she clutched at her throat as though she were choking and clung for a moment to the screens, her anguished face turned back toward her mother-in-law.

“it is a crime!” she gasped. “the spider will come for her child!”

“let her come,” darkly rejoined lady saito. “who will take the word of a public geisha against that of the honorable ladies of the house of saito?”

“the man—he himself—will betray—it is not possible to close the tongue of one of the choum class.”

“he is well paid. moreover, in committing the act he places himself under the ban of the law. will he betray himself?”

lady saito moved with a curious sense of hunger toward the doors, outside which, she knew, was the son of her son. for the moment at least she had forgotten ohano; but when she found the girl barred her passage she thrust her ruthlessly aside. ohano fell upon her knees by the shoji, and, with her face hidden upon the floor, she began to pray to the gods.