University of Virginia Library

14. Chapter XIV

Much to her lover's surprise and rueful disappointment, Spring-morning did not take kindly to his suggestion that they marry at once. She was in fact secretly dismayed by his proposal. She had not really thought of marriage as a solution of the difficulties in which she had involved the Tyrrell household. She could not see anything wrong in continuing to live in the same house with her lover. The going of the Okusama had caused her some regret, and even remorse, but she was ready philosophically to adapt herself to the

new, and certainly joyous, circumstances.

The Eijin-san's passion for her (the word love in Japanese means merely passion), Spring-morning most ardently returned, and to be with him, touched and caressed by him constantly, was the sum total of her desire at the present time. But the idea of actually marrying the man had not occurred to her. She considered herself truly married to Omi. Her relations with the American by no means represented to the Japanese girl unfaithfulness to her husband, any more than residence in the Yoshiwara would have done—and indeed the girl childishly and even joyously made little offerings to the good Daikoku, God of Fortune, who had given her to this wonderful Eijin-san instead of the dreadful Hell-city.

When Jamison, after the going of his mother, insisted upon their immediate marriage, the girl demurred. She was not brave or honest enough to confess to her lover the fact of her Japanese marriage, and hence was unable to explain her reluctance now to marry him. Previously she had faithfully carried out her mother-in-law's injunction to refrain from telling anyone of her marriage, since, as a maiden, her services would prove of more value. Now she found herself in a difficult position. Her lover was demanding, impetuously and insistently, why, if she loved him, she would not marry him; and, seeking for a dozen excuses, all of which, elaborate and solemn as they might have seemed in Japanese eyes, met only the derision of the young white man, she finally, firmly and naively stated she was too young! This aroused his mirth, and between laughter and embraces he finally coaxed from her the grudging consent to go with him the following day to their friend, the good old Catholic priest.

Spring-morning was vastly relieved that he had not suggested a nakoda—go-between—to marry them in Japanese fashion. The idea of going merely to this “Kirishitan” priest was not so terrifying to the Japanese girl. Accordingly, the following morning, a smiling and even eager Spring-morning, arrayed in her prettiest of kimonos, a bright new plum-colored sash about her waist, a flower in her hair and a gay little scarlet parasol above her, appeared in the ozashiki ready to accompany Mr. Tyrrell whithersoever he desired.

She had wrestled the matter out most triumphantly with herself the previous night. Omi, she assured herself, would never return. Japanese soldiers always died for the Emperor- -certainly brave ones like the honorable Omi would be sure to seek and find that desired death. Even if Omi should return to Japan, this Kirishitan (Christian) ceremony was not, after all, a Japanese marriage. Strangely enough, the girl did not think of this marriage as something permanent, despite the labored and patient explanations of Father Daly, who first received the submissive and smiling girl into the church and baptized her before the marriage ceremony.

Whatever were her thoughts, as she stood before the quaint little mission altar, with only the strangely silent Miss Latimer as a witness, and dully repeated the words of the marriage service, cannot be said; but when it was over she asked somewhat tremulously whether Jamison did not wish to make also a Japanese marriage with her.

He said that was entirely unnecessary. All he wanted, so he joyfully assured her, was to make her his wife, according to the custom and the laws of his own country, and by the religion he and his family professed, and which was now also Spring-morning's.

“I wanted to have our marriage—right, Spring-morning,” he said.

She appeared to debate his explanation for quite a little while, and her next question shocked, while it amused both her happy husband and Miss Latimer. She asked:

“This kind of marriage for jos' liddle bit while?”

“It's for always,” declared her husband earnestly.

Spring-morning looked up at him at that with a very wise expression of such sheer scepticism that he was obliged to laugh. Then she sighed and said:

“Some time Japanese girl mek marriage for liddle while. By an' by she gettin' dee-vorce; bud me—I don' ting I never do those unto you!” And she

smiled up at him in such an arch and charming way that he promptly kissed her, unmindful of the presence of Miss Latimer and the priest. Miss Latimer, too, kissed the little bride; then quickly gripping the hand of the deluded bridegroom, she said she must hurry back to his mother, and she promised to do everything in her power to induce Mrs. Tyrrell to remain in Japan and to become reconciled to her son's marriage.

Now Spring-morning had heard, as most Japanese girls do, that most foreigners in Japan marry the native girls for only the brief season of their sojourn in Japan. She had considered the possibility that her happiness with the white man might be of only short duration and she knew that when the time of parting should arrive, it would be a heart- wrenching period for her. Nevertheless, she was truly Japanese in her philosophy. A little happiness for even a little while, she believed, was better than no happiness at all; and she promised herself that she would ingratiate the gods to such an extent that they would generously extend the length of her joy. She did not at all realize that Jamison Tyrrell had done the unusual thing in making her his wife according to the laws of his own country and church, and not by Japanese ceremony, which no foreigner in Japan considers binding upon him.

However it be, things were rushing along in too swift succession to give the girl much time for reflection or alarm. With her husband's strong, ardent arm about her, his beaming face above her own, she felt herself drawn irresistibly into this powerful and fascinating emotion which he called “Love.” Kisses, the close embrace and murmuring words of passion and endearment, the caresses that fell like soft rain continually upon her, if she so much as turned her face toward him, or lifted her hands—these were all new things to a Japanese girl—things she could not even have imagined or dreamed were possible. All the more they absorbed, obsessed and intoxicated her, and she learned, joyously and quickly, to return each kiss and caress bestowed upon her.

They lingered a week in the Tyrrell house, in Yokohama, in the hope of winning the forgiveness of his mother; and when this was not forthcoming, they set out upon that long, enchanted “honeymoon,” where, under the guidance of and with almost the sensitive vision of his Japanese wife, the white man was to see Divine Japan in all its subtle, penetrating charm and magical allurement. Like poetic seekers after only the fairest and choicest jewels of nature, they journeyed to the famous points of beauty, or penetrated daringly into the interior of the provinces on voyages of discovery of their own.

At Amatautsu the full moon showed its wide, radiant face. They lingered in the exquisite teahouses of Iro and saw the famous dragon's light phosphorescence upon the seashore. She likened the white sails of the floating junks at eventide[10] to the spirit craft of unhappy lovers who had mated at last upon the vast river of souls. And fairylike and weird indeed they seemed, as under the light of the moon they seemed to blow like fluttering shadows over the gleaming waters.