Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/483

 V

the old lady had been received into the castle, Lady Kinshō took her into an inner apartment, where she welcomed her as warmly, and treated her as kindly, as if she had been her real mother.

Presently General Kanki returned in high spirits. He had that day been promoted to the rank of commander of a regiment of 100,000 cavalry; been made a councillor of state, and raised to the peerage. Kinshō met him at the porch with great reverence, and, after greeting him, told him of all that had happened. She gave an account of how her father, stepmother, and stepbrother had come from Japan to ask a favour of him, but how, according to the royal command, she had bade her father and brother go away and only admitted her mother bound with cords.

Kanki praised her for her thoughtfulness, and said that he would see his mother-in-law immediately. The old woman came in. After expressing his great joy at meeting her, he told her that 393