Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/314

242 yourself. Good-bye." With that she was taking her departure when an idea seemed to strike her; she softly retraced her steps and sat down before the shed, still and silent. All unaware of this Miyuki rushed out and stood with sightless eyes straining in the direction in which she supposed her nurse had gone.

"Oh, Asaka! My own Asaka!" she wailed, "All was false that I told you just now! I am that very Miyuki for whom you are searching. How I should rejoice to be able to tell you this! but in this wretched state how can I dare to reveal myself? Selfish, yes, I am very selfish not to disclose the truth to you who have come hundreds of miles in search of me! But I have not courage enough to tell you my name. Forgive me, Asaka! Oh, forgive me!"

Then the tears, which all that time she had restrained, burst forth in bitter torrents, so that Asaka, upon whom none of this soliloquy had been lost, could no longer control her emotion. In spite of herself, a loud cry of sympathy escaped her.

All aghast at this, Miyuki was in act to run away; but Asaka followed her fleeing footsteps