if ohano’s relatives were aware of the manner of her death, they gave no sign. such of the male members of the family and of her husband’s as were not serving in the war stolidly attended the funeral of their kinswoman, and shortly ohano was honorably interred in the mortuary halls of the saito ancestors.
there had been expressions of sorrow over her passing, but these were largely perfunctory. ohano had been an orphan; and, as she had lived all of her life in the saito house, her husband’s people had really been nearer to her than her own family. her uncle, takedo isami, was possibly the only one of her relatives who had known the girl with any degree of intimacy, and at this time he too had entered the war service.
many offerings and prayers were put up for ohano, and in the end the relatives quietly dispersed to their homes, leaving the silent and prim old lady saito alone in the now almost deserted mansion. she shut herself into the chamber of the dead girl, and for several days not even her personal maid was permitted to intrude upon her voluntary retirement. whatever were the thoughts that tormented and haunted the mother-in-law of ohano, she emerged, in the end, still resolute and stern, though her hair had turned as white as snow.
from day to day now the aged lady crouched over the kotatsu, warming her withered old fingers, lighting and relighting her pipe, and always seeming to listen, to watch for some one she expected to return.
couriers and agents had been despatched by her orders to the city in search of moonlight and her child. there was nothing left for the dowager saito to do, save to wait. not for a moment had she considered the possibility that her servants might be unable to find the one they sought, or, having found her, fail to induce the geisha to return to the house of the saitos. to keep her mind from brooding over ohano, she endeavored to force it to remain fixed upon one matter only—the recovery of her son’s child.
but the days passed away, the chill season of hoar frost swept the trees bare of leaf and color, and the silently moving servants set the winter amado (wooden sliding walls) in place; and still, with a stony, frozen look upon her face, the lady saito waited.
gradually the proud and strong spirit within her began to weaken under the strain. supported by a maid on either side, she toiled up the mountain slope to visit the temple endowed by her family, and to seek advice and comfort there. in broken words, her voice stammering and shaking, she whispered a confession to the chief priest, and entreated him to help her with spiritual advice and prayers.
though the lives of the priests are devoted largely to meditation and the study of the sacred books, they are by no means ignorant of what passes about them. the chief priest of the saito temple knew every detail of the casting out of the first wife; he knew, moreover, what had been the end of ohano. as the family had not, up to the present, however, sought his advice in the matter, he had expressed no opinion.
an acolyte had quite recently come to the chief priest with a strange story. it concerned a very beautiful geisha who seemed in deep distress, who, with her maiden clinging to her skirt and a baby upon her back, had asked the boy to direct them toward a certain small temple where an ancient priestess of the nichi sect had lived. the acolyte had been unable to direct the geisha; and, to his surprise and distress, the two had climbed higher up the mountain slope, with the evident intention of penetrating farther into the interior. both the priest and the acolyte had waited anxiously for the return of the wanderers, for they knew there were no sheltering places in the direction the pair had taken, and the weather had turned very cold. it was not the season for an infant to be abroad. now the chief priest called the acolyte before him and requested the boy to repeat his story to the lady saito ichigo.
she listened with mixed feelings; and when the boy was through he chanced, timidly, to raise his eyes to the face of the exalted patroness of the temple, and, as he afterward informed the priest, he saw that great tears ran down the stern and furrowed cheeks of the lady, nor could she speak for the sobs that tore her.
