Madame Chrysantheme -- Complete

sly over the white mats, striding to and fro in the great bare room, of which the thin, dry flooring cracks beneath our footsteps; we are b

o inhabit this lonely house, lost in the midst of the suburb of a totally s

ness? The waiting unnerves me, and I beguile the time by examining all the little details of the building. The woodwork of the ceiling is c

ves, who is still looki

should take us back to dine on board will be gone. Probably we shall have to sup Japanese fashion tonight,

ornamentation, and, on looking closely, one sees that the bronze is curiously chased: here is a lady fanning herself; there, in the next hole, is represented a branch of cherry in full blossom. What eccentricity there is in the taste of this people! To bestow assiduous labor on such miniature work, and then to h

es me thoroughly, and I turn my glances to the opposite side. The other end of my house, also a veranda, opens first of all upon a garden; then upon a marvellous panorama of woods and mountains, with all the venerable Japanese quarters of Nagasaki lying confusedly like a black ant-heap, six hundred feet below us. This evening, in a dull twilight, notwi

ves, "I believe-yes, I really

iven the enormous bows of the sash, the folds at the waist. Her dress is of pearl-gray silk, her obi (sash) of mauve satin; a sprig of silver flowers trembles in her black

Prune, my landlady, and her aged husband; they are a

the tea, the lamp, the embers, the little pipes for the ladies, the little bambo

are deposited on the floor, the staircase creaks gently under litt

ighbors, the whole quarter, in fact. And the entire company, on arriving, becomes confusedly engaged in reciprocal salutations: I salute you-you salute me-I salute you again, and you return it-and I re-salute you again, and I express that I shall never, never be able to return it according to your high merit-and I bang

our eyes fixed on the staircase. And at length emerges the little aigrette of silver flower

, on every fan, on every teacup with her silly air, her puffy little face, her tin

ost scruple to accept her. The wish to laugh leaves me suddenly, and instead, a profound

ion is, how to

l fours, she too, before my landlady and before my neighbors. Yves, the big Yves, who is not about to be married, stands behind me, with a comical grimac

r does not escape my visitors.

d I reply in a low voice,

won't have th

ut. And now I address my reproaches to Kangourou: "Why have you brought her to me in such pomp, before friends and neighbors of both sexes, instea

women who, not to put too fine a point upon it, have come to sell a child, they have an air I was not prepared for: I can hardly say an air of respectability (a word in use with us which is absolutely without meaning in Jap

ith the little girl?" asks M.

t the matter in the

oo white, too much like our own women. I wishe

e put on her, Monsieur! Beneath it,

toward me a

corner by the last panel; have you

narrow, but which would have been called good in any country in the world; with almost an expression, almost a thought. A coppery tint on her rounded cheeks; a straight nose; slightly thick lips, but well modelled and with pretty corners. A little o

o is that young lady ov

out of his difficulty. Then, forgetting all his politeness, all his ceremoniousness, all his Japanesery, he takes her by the hand, forces her to rise, to stand in the dying daylight, to let herself be

rou, "it can be arranged just as well with th

I have a feeling of the greatest pity, poor little soul, with her pearl-gray dress, her sprig of flower

again, who at this moment appears to me a go-betwe

on, while the various families, on whose countenances may be read every degree of astonishment, every phase of expectation, remain seated in a circle on my white

in French only, has returned for these discussions to the long formulas of his country. From time to time I

are we any nearer coming to some arra

nd he resumes his air of political econ

falls like a veil over the Japanese town, I have leisure to reflect, with as m

it has been necessa

is finally settled, and M.

ill give her up for twenty dollars a mont

ave made up my mind so quickly to link myself in ever so fleeting and transien

have placed the aigrette of flowers in her hair. There is actually some ex

of a young girl on the verge of matrimony; he had imagined nothing

brother," said he; "very p

not get over it, and remains in a maze. "Oh! this is too much," he says, and the idea o

her, it is chiefly his fault; I never should have remarked her without his observation that she was pret

h many compliments, bows, and curtseys. When it is a question of descending the stairs, no one is willing to go first

g, and employing a nautical term used

finished from one step to another in voices which gradually die away. He and I remain alone in the unfriendly, empty ap

fade away trembling in the distance, balanced at the extremity of flexible canes which they hold in their fingertips as one would hold a fishing-rod in the dark to catch night-birds. The procession of th

the air. We can still see the red lanterns of my new family, dwindling away in the distance, as

but on an opposite slope by s

acted on the hill above recurs to my mind, it seems to me th