Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/290

220 future, where you go I also go. Grant me this, Asojirō, my lord."

"It rejoices me to hear you speak like that, my dear," replied Asojirō, "but I am now on my way home charged with a weighty mission that affects the very destiny of my lord. My duty as a samurai forbids my carrying a sweetheart with me. But we cannot fail to meet again. Let us wait against that time, Miyuki."

But the girl set her face against this proposal. "If you do not grant my request," she said bitterly, "I shall find no joy in life! The best thing I can do is to make an end of living!" And with this she drew herself together to plunge into the sea. But Asojirō caught her in his arms.

"My darling," said he, "if your heart is so set upon me, I shall take you with me to my home, let the world say against me what it will! But surely it will be a great grief to your parents if you thus take to flight, all unknown to them. Had you not better leave them a letter, my dear?" As he spoke, he felt in his bosom for a pen and paper but found none.

"Ah!" he said, sorely perplexed. "I must have dropped them into the water just now,