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138 her splendid sunshine never gave more lavish colour than this sweet, misty land of grey skies, suddenly glowing with radiant sunlight, furnishes in her many-hued Chrysanthemums; nor can any dyes compare with the red blood that courses then through the Maples, and turns their tiny starry leaves to crimson and flame-colour and scarlet.

Perhaps it should be added that the Japanese sense of the appropriateness of colour is keener than ours. Their babies are ambient bunches of flowers, toddling butterflies; but the reds and rose-colours are for the girls, the blues and golden browns for the boys (bright enough they are, however, for the most gay-minded male!). Such horror as was always aroused in the hearts of the shopkeepers when I wanted a maple-hued kimono for my brown-eyed little son, and a pink peony-ed one for my rose-cheeked smaller boy! They could only recommend such shades for girls. At seven the masculine dress becomes duller, and at twelve the feminine one, and by the time a girl is married she wears the most discreet greys, and demure, dull blues and mauves imaginable. A dear little Japanese friend, who made me a present of a lovely piece of crêpe of mauve and scarlet when I was in my twenties, tactfully excused herself for this insult to my honourable years by explaining that European ladies can wear colours which only young geisha girls wear in Japan. To