Complete Story. The Romance of Yono-San.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue XIV, 2 April 1904, Page 11

Complete Story. The Romance of Yono-San.

By

JOHN W. WOOD.

Yonder, across the beautiful valley, Fuji-san raised its head in majestic grandeur. Upon the winding paths and verdured slopes were perched picturesque little houses, and a toy-like bridge spanned the white foaming waters that were fed from the eternal snows that frosted Fuji-san’s stately head. The waters sang merrily as they coursed down the ravines, and irrigated the verdure upon the parched plains below. The picture was poetic and beautiful, and yet Jack Barnaby sat looking at it gloomily within the sliding screen that formed the side of his room. He wondered why he had come to Omiya, and having come, why he remained. The sweet scent of almond and cherry blossoms that was wafted in tt> him, the song of the robin and thrush, the chirping of Cicadas, the drone of the honeybee were alike unnoted; while the hoarse cries of the jinrikisha men, trotting nimbly on their toilsome ways, across the little bridge and up the steep mountain ascents, irritated him more than usual. Jack had often, during the past week, fallen into the same line of reflection, and repeated to himself the game inward query. He had more than once resolved to pack his belongings and get him over to Yokohama or Tokio, where, in the bustling contact with many men, he could the easier forget his trouble and heartache. Yet such is the perversity of mankind, that Jack Barnaby had sought the quiet of this idyllic spot to escape the very thing which he now resolved to seek once more.

In brief retrospect, let us say, that a certain young lady of San. Francisco had with deplorable inconsiderateness entangled poor" Jack’s heart. Reciprocating hisi affection, the two became engaged. Jack was rich; the young lady adorable, though gay and fiekle. Coquetry did not suit Jack’s ideas after he became engaged, half so well as before, and as the young lady’s natural tendencies made it difficult for her to refrain, he became unreasonably jealous, perhaps, and she unnecessarily resentful. The result was that ere long the dream was over; and Jack, desiring to forget as soon as possible, set out for Japan. In Yokohama he met Milly’s cousin, and being thus unpleasantly reminded of San Francisco, lie went to Tokio. In Tokio he met her uncle, turned missionary, and in vexation he Sought for a retired spot where relatives came not, and so it happened he went to Omiya, where, after - having resided for a month, lie found himself still uncured. A dull month it had been, watching these adult children, as they seemed to him, making a pleasing job of life, and as this was contrary to his own uncheerful feelings he felt annoyed and irritated.

Presently, as he sat in darksome despondency, there fell upon his hearing the soft tumpety-tum-tum of a samisen. accompanied by a sweet-little voice that drifted through the lattice into his room. At first, scarcely listening, he presently became fully attentive, for the voice -was wonderfully sweet and melodious. He arose lazily and looked from his window to the pretty garden below. The words that were wafted up to him were distinct and pure, their burden an invocation to the god of love. This was inter.i'tipg at all events, and the young man listened in admiration. .It is true that as yet Jack knew little -of the native tongue, but that little rendered by so sweet a voice was'well worth hearing. The garden was neat and trim with its bordered walks "and little beds of* bright hyacinths, and other pretty flowers, and in the centre a tiny fountain threw out a stream of sparkling Water. In one corner, beneath a blossoming cherry tree, there was an arbour Of wisteria, and from this cord refuge Issued the sounds that had attracted Jack’s attention. As he stood watching and listening, the music continued, now in light' and merry cadence, then sinking low and soft, dying away and mingl-. ing with the murmuring of the splashing

fountain. Eager to miss no note. Jack leaned far out of the casement, resting his shoulder so heavily upon the sliding frame that, just at the finish of a fine diminuendo, it shot back and sent a potted oleander spinning to the garden walk below, where it fell with a loud crash.

The music came to an abrupt ending; there was a rustling within the arbour, and Jack caught a glimpse of a brightrobed female hurrying up the pathway on the other side. With a quick turn of the head, the young lady cast a startled look upward, then disappeared with a half-smothered laugh amidst the umbrageous oleanders. “Well, she’s a beauty,” mentally commented Jack, and for the moment ho forgot his late doleful humour. As he had no particular object in hurrying away from the place he postponed his packing, put away his valise and sat down by the window to smoke. Perhaps he expected a reappearance of the fair musician, but if he did it was not vouchsafed him that evening, although he sat there long after the sun had sunk below Fuji-san’s snowy head. But he would inquire, and he had a plan already arranged, when old Naka-San, the woman who served his meals, came with his evening tea. “Oh, Naka-San,” he said, interrupting the humble prostration which anticipated her departure—“Naka-San, I love music much; I love sweet voices much, and yet you have their very possessor here and you send her not to me. Do you tire of pleasing the stranger, NakaSan?” Jack had intended to be diplomatic.

. “Oh, noble Sir,” and Naka-San courtesied to the floor, “you would have a geisha to sing and dance? Then it must be so, even this very night.” ’ “No, no, Naka; I want no geisha. Is it a geisha who sings in the garden below of an afternoon?”

“What! a geisha sings in the garden there? Impossible, O Sir!” Ah, she would see about that—no geisha could be thus allowed to disturb his excellency. The little angular eyes snapped, angrily perhaps. Jack surmiaed that she knew more than she cared to tell, and this piqued his curiosity the more of course. He would await developments.

The next afternoon he was on the watch, but intending to be more discreet. Presently, as he peeped through the closed screen, there was a flutter of a silken robe in the avenue of oleanders beyond, and a young girl came down softly and timorously, as if anticipating an inquisitor upon her retreat. She glanced curiously upward to Jack’s closed window, and then, as if satisfied that it had no ruthless spy, sped into the vine-covered arbour, and soon the thum of the samisen and its sweet accompaniment silenced the shrill chatter of the cockatoo that was perched yonder upon the prune tree. The wisteria hung low, yet but partially concealed a trim little figure, its -soft flowing robes -enhancing its rounding-curves of beauty. Jack sat long behind the half drawn shojio (screen) listening and watching. After a time the music ceased, and the musician leaned back in her seat as if in contemplation of the clustering flowers above- Then, as if by the hypnotic power of Jack’s steady gaze, her eyes were drawn tdw’nrd the screen where, he sat. Half unconsciously he had opened the sash, and as she looked she discovered him with a confusion that sent a thousand blushes across her face. A ‘half coquettish smile broke forth, and then, as if conscious of her imprudence she leaped to her feet and was gone in a twinkling. J»ck, ■impulsively and with grave lack of forethought, leaped thiough the low sasli •and quickly dashed after her. for what purpose he scarcely could have explained,, then. He only succeeded in getting a final glimpse of her flowing robes ns she disappeared behind (the shojio of a cottage on the other side of the

grove. “‘lt must be there she lives," thought Jack, as he returned to his room, considerably ashamed of his impulsive quest. Who could she be? Although lie had been sojourning in the house of Naka-San for three weeks, never before ha I he encountered the maid of the simisen. and he determined to discover who she was. At all events he could try the persuasive power of gold upon old Naka. So, when that toothless dame came to serve his tea that evening as usual, he met he. - with an affable and friendly manner that surprised her.

He asked many questions concerning the neighbourhood and neighbours,, which Naka answered cheerfully, but carefully. She was also diplomatic. Yes, she knew every one thereabouts, but mentioned no young l.tlv that corresponded in description to the one in whom Jack was Interested. As she was about to remove the little tray containing the tea-cup, she discovered a piece of gold therein. Naka started and looked interestedly about the room; her gaze rested upon the little pot of chrysanthemums, upon the bracke.t on the wall, upon the littie wooden god that posed upon the stand iu the corner, and finally settled upon Jack, who had patiently watched the workings of the charm upon the untutored Naka-San. Then lifting the pie.e of gold from the teacup, NJ>l.a, aftergazing for some time upon the coin, slowly handed it to Jack. But Jack pushed her hand away.

“It is yours., Naka-San; yours for a keepsake. When 1 go away you will buy lots of pretty things with it.” Naka’s face relaxed into a grim smile, and she made a courtesy to the very floor. “Oh, excellency,” she broke in, “my memory so bad. Never can I remember some things. Let me think; yes. there is another—t here is one more. She arrived day before yesterday; the little Yono-San, I mean. She and her aunt, who is a far off cousin of mine, lives there—in the little cottage. She has lived for two years at Tokio. There she went to school, and learned everything, everything.” Naka-San’s tongue was now loosened, and it ran as a mill race. Behold the power of gold!

Jack learned too that Yono-S.V was descended from an illustrious race; her grandfather was a daimio of the province of Yamashire. She was even distantly connected with a Shogun. No, there was no plebianism in pretty Yono’s blood, no indeed! Another gold piece concluded the recital, and Naka even promised to effect a proper introduction to the granddaughter of the daimio.

The next day Yono-San failed to appear in the garden, whereat Jack was much east down, but in the evening, he was gratified to learn from Naka-San that the fair Yono’s Aunt Shorisha would be pleased to meet the young American stranger. Two hours later fouii* Jack comfortably seated in the pretty little drawingroom of Aunt Shorisha, a stiff and formal old lady who smiled at stated intervals, and sipped tea continuously. But Jack did not mind this; his attention was chiefly devoted to the little Yono. “Yono is demure and beautiful, sweet and charming,” thought he, as he noted her pretty dimples and graceful motions.

Her eyes glowed with interest as he described his country, its cities, and the thousand and one things heretofore cGnudered by him so commonplace. The diffidence with which she at first met him wore off, and the English she had learned at the school at Tokio now proved useful to her. Then she played at his request upon her beloved samisen, and sang ever so many pretty little airs of her country in her own native tongue. The soft, spicy breeze that blew gently through the open casements came from tropical gardens like a sensuous caress. The halflighted interior, with its grotesque bronzes and its old lacquer decorations, the striking, stately figure of Aunt Shorisha. and the pretty little figure that played upon the stringed instrument and sang those wild, quaint songs, seemed to Jack a dream of orientalism, and he thought long about it that, night ere he fell asleep. And this was the beginning.

After that -Tack came often; and often he and Yono sat in the garden in the cool summer-like afternoons and evenings, listening while Yono sang, or else bringing out his own favourite guitar. and playing thereon the old songs that had been silent to him for many years. And thus passed many weeks; weeks of listless pleasure to Jack; who had by this time ceased to remember the unpleasant past, or merely thought, of it as a vexatious episode, lie almost forgot San Francisco and every one there, and became imbued to the soul with the soft and dreamy atmosphere of this lotus land, ever redolent with perfume—the l.ind of nover-care. And lie welcomed its ensnaring sensuousness with eagerness, and delighted in a life that carried with it no (rouble, no exertion, no pain. And Yono — who could tell? Jack himself could not analyse the changeful hut always charming humours (hat animated her, as many and as pleasing as the prismatie colours that broke from the sun.beams falling upon the snowy summit, of Fuji-San. yonder. At one time playful, bubbling over with merry wilfulness; again, sedate in her studied decorum and conventional stateliness, and then melting into grave and changeful moods. Sometimes her dark eyes softened into a fascinating intimation of fondness that made Jack’s heart beat with keen pleasure, only to change suddenly to pain and anxiety as he studied upon the future.

r Jhey took many walks together amidst the magnificent old groves of cryptomerin that abounded. They inspected parks and gardens and drank sake from tiny cups served by pretty damsels. They visited Koi i shops and drank tea, and sometimes Yono herself officiated in the brewing of It.. J&ek declared it nectar—although he had evH bated tea before—and drank many cupfuls. They visited the. little shops and bazaars that beset his wav, and he purchased all manner of pretty and interesting things for Yono.

On a certain day the Feast of the Cherry Blossoms--they started with light, hearts to a bower at the foot of Fuji, where some of the exercises of the day were to be held. Aunt Shorisha. also went, hut being fat and elderly elected to (ravel in a kurunia, but Jack and Yono would (ravel afoot, albeit it

was no more than a ri distant. The morning was beautiful, the air soft and fragrant, and the birds melodious on the wayside. Yono was as a child on a holiday from school. She chased the great blue and gold butterflies, and when at last she caught one, tied it by its struggling wings to Jack’s hat. He gathered blossoms and mosses and strung them into garlands which he wound about .Yono-San’s neck.

I’resently Jack espied a gorgeous cluster of rarely beautiful flower hanging high from a moss grown cryptomeria’s projecting limb. Yono wanted it, of course, and of course, too, she must have it, although it was with no little difficulty that Jack climbed the great trunk to the depending blossoms. He was about to pluek the coveted flower when the slender bough upon which he stood, snapped short and he fell heavily to the ground below. The distance was not great, but the shock was sufficient to stun his senses. Yono screamed with true fenrninity as he fell, and seeing him lying upon the ground, his white face upturned, and his eyes closed, went at once into a spasm of wailing, believing him dead or at least fatally injured. Tenderly she drew his head upon her lap and fell to caressing his face with her hands, while tears fell from her pretty eyes. And thus it happened, when Jack’s scattered senses presently returned, he found his head reposing softly and comfortably, and Vone’s eyes looking into his with a mixture of tenderness and grief. And was he correct in the surmise that he had felt the warm pressure of a kiss upon his forehead? At all events he dosed his eyes again, quite unnecessarily, and felt quite comfortable and contented, albeit he was aware of a sharp pain in his ankle. lie almost forgot to rise until Yono inquired with affectionate solicitude whether he was hurt; then he discovered that he was unable to move without pain. Yono aided him to a reclining position against the offending tree, and presently Aunt Shorisha came along, and also soon a jinrikisha that was empty. Into this latter Jack was carefully placed, with the help of its attendants, and they started homeward, Yono-San walking mournfully at the side of the jinrikisha and constantly adjuring the carriers to select the smoothest part of the road.

It might have been a hardship for Jack to be laid up in his room thus disabled, but he found that there was a compensation in being the object of solicitude from the whole household, and particularly that Yono had constituted herself his almost sole nurse and attendant. A native physician felt of the injured member, and assured him that only rest, together with frequent applications of a magical lotion he himself prepared, were required for a speedy recovery. And it was Yono’s fair hands that deftly applied the medicament and tenderly wound the bandages, and there seemed to be so much hypnotism about her soft hands that Jack was ever asking for repeated treatment! Then she attended his many other wants, filled his pipe and even lit it for him. She sang in her sweet way many songs, and wrote invocations in verse to the gods upon fragile bits of rice paper, asking for his speedy recovery. These she threw from the window’ from time to time, where they were taken up by the breeze and wafted far away on their missions of mercy. ’Twas thus the season wore on in happy abandonment. Aunt Shorisha came from time to time upon the scene, and seemed quite happy at the condition of affairs.

About three weeks after the accident, and when Jack had recovered sufficiently to walk about with the slight assistance of a cane, he sat one afternoon upon the little trellised piazza, looking in content and comfort upon the beautiful scene surrounding him and watching the graceful figure of Yono San as she flitted about the garden, engaged in the pleasing pursuit of manufacturing a bouquet of japonieas and roses—for himself, as he well knew. He had almost forgotten the other world from whence h i came, nor indeed did 1m desire to reuall it. Why not take up his permanent abode here,in this quiet paradise? The world would not. miss him, neither eared he for it. This part of it was strange in its paradoxes—a kingdom of opposites—but a happy, don’t-care j.t'o suited his temper now. And then with Yono San he might be truly content and happy—who could say?

His meditations were interrupted by a footstep. It was the little bare-legged man who ran errands, did chores, and occasionally served as a carrier of let-

ters. This time he came trotting up to the piasza where Jack sat, and suddenly dropped upon all fours before him, dipped so low that his forehead touched the ground, and the little bald spot upon the top of his head came prominently into view. Then he quickly arose, and, handing Jack a buff envelope, nimbly ran away. Jack knsw it was a telegram, and hesitated to open it, for he knew its portent could hardly be less than an interruption to his pleasant summer. He looked at Yono coming up the path, v.aiing a great bouquet over her head, then slowly opened the missive. As he feared, it was important, for it announced that a rich aunt in San Francico was ill and besought his presence, as she feared her days were numbered. Poor Aunt I'anny! Jack had more than ordinary affection for his Aunt Fanny; besides he expected to be the chief heir to her great fortune.

He looked again at Yono-San, who was coining to him, her eyes bright and sparkling, her cherry lips parted with a smile that disclosed her pearly teeth. His heart grew tender, and he wondered what she would say when he told her. But it must be done, and at once. As Yono tripped lightly up the steps she noticed the little slip of paper in his hand, and glancing up at his sober face instantly divined trouble.

“What is it, Sir Jaek?” she inquired anxiously. “Bad news, Yono; bad news indeed. I must go home.” Yono grew white and let fall the bouquet.

“You go away? Home —to leave me—• us? Oh, you cannot mean it, Jack?’’ Leaning heavily upon him, poor Y’ono closed her eyes and sighed deeply, her bosom heaving convulsively in her pain. Jack, hardly knowing what else to do, kissed her tenderly upon her cherry lips. Half opening her eyes, she endeavoured to stand unaided. “Don’t go, Jaek,” she murmured, “don’t leave me.”

“But, Yono, said Jack, and there was self-reproach within him- —"Y’ono, I will come back. Yes, in the spring, when the cherry trees bloom again, I’ll De here.” And he meant it, too. This revived Yono-San, and she tried to look happy. Then Jack went on to explain his connection with Aunt Fanny, financially and otherwise.

What Jack meant to do when he “came back” he eould just then have hardly explained to himself. He tried to define his future relationship to Y’ono late that night, as he sat outside his room smoking, as was his habit when a problem was to be solved. The garden below was in obscurity, the remittent lighting of June bugs appearing in that dark space like a rapidly moving constellation. The soft perfume floated dreamily about him with its semi-iiitoxieating influence, and as he gazed pensively upon the thin crescent moon that hung like a silver scimeter above Fuji San, he thought that nowhere else eould he live so contentedly. Yts, he would return.

Next day Jack was ready to go. As a keepsake at parting ho gave Yono a fine diamond brooch, and fastened it himself at her pretty throat. Then lie jumped into the waiting jinrikisha, and with a last kiss and word of promise, was ofl‘. Y’ono stood a long time at the wicket, watching the disappearing vehicle as it sped down the road among the lowboughed plum trees. At the bend of the road, leaning far out of the conveyance, he threw her a farewell kiss, to which she responded by a sad waving of bethand, and, as he Was lost to view, she burst into tears, and going within the house consecrated gifts to Jizo, the travellers’ diety.

Jack was petulant and cheerless during the whole journey. Ere he reached his destination his Aunt Fanny had died, leaving him a handsome legacy, together with an unfinished lawsuit that seemed boundless in its harassing tardiness. Worse than all, it demanded his personal attendance, and what with this and other business necessary in the final adjustment of Aunt Fany’s estate, the whole winter was consumed. The glitter and blaze of the city, the artificiality of the drawing-room, as he designated it, palled upon kirn. The smirking young men and the frivolous young women made him sigh for the gardens ami freedom of Omiya again. And then Nfilly Benson was married, and although he was glad of it, he felt grieved and injured because she seemed happy and almost forgetful of their past mutual tenderness. At last, there seemed a prospect of getting through with it nil, and jtist when he was congratulating

himself upon this prospect, he fell ill of fever, and lay for many long weeks unable to think consecutively upon any subject.

When convalescence came at last, the summer had almost passed. Many hours he had spent dreaming of the flower land across the Pacific. His thoughts dwelt with pleasure upon the green fields, the water-falls, the gardens of Omiya, and upon Y’ono-San. “Poor Yono,” thought he, “what would she think of him and his promise now!” More than a year had passed since that day he left her, and he had promised to return in the spring. But at last he was able to travel. The swift speeding steamer was none too fast for his thoughts, that dwelt in the gardens at the foot of Fuji-San. One afternoon he found himself ascending the road amid the rows of plum trees that ended at Yono-San’s dwelling. He had come for a purpose, and YonoSan was a part of that—the whole of it —for he would remain here always. That he had decided at last. He knocked impatiently upon the door, once, twice, ere his knock was answered by a picturesque looking kato, a stranger to him, who with abject prostrations desired to know what the stranger wanted. Jack, who expected to be met by old Naka-San, or perhaps by Yono herself, was displeased. The strange servant knew no English, but he understood that Jack was inquiring for Yono. But Jaek, in his impatience making no progress with that name (for his inquiries were met with a blank stare) asked for Naka-San. A look of happy intelligence overspread the kato's face, who made a low obeisance and hastily departed. Presently the panel slid baek and old Neka dropped upon her knees before him, and tapped the polished floor with her head. “ Rise, Naka,” said Jaek, “I’ve come back to see Yono-San—to stay here forever ! Where is Yono-San, Naka ?” A troubled look overspread old Nako’s face.

“Alas, poor Naka, Angel of light,” Naka moaned sadly; "Yono gone—Yono dead! Ah these many moons!’ The words came to Jack with a rude shock. Dead! he never had dreamed of anything like that! She might have gone away; she might even have been given in marriage ■ —but to die! Instead of the shy, smiling face of Yono, the old beldame stood there, telling him that Yono was den'tl, end beating her shrunken breast as if that would appease him. The sun seemed clouded, the sweetly perfumed air grew rank and unpleasant to him as he sat there desolate and ehoeked at the sudden termination to his dreams of the past months. At last, the exuberance of his grief being exhausted, Naka-San was induced to tell the story. Long after his excellency had gone, Yono had pined like a wilted flower. Daily she had picked the choicest of Jack’s favourite flowers and decorated his old room. In the spring she had brightened match, she sang gaily, and stood often at the wicket by the road looking in the distance. Summer came, and her eyes became more wistful; she grew pale and thin, but she

still w.tehed down the road. Then at the eudaif the summer some dreadful fever came, and she lay very ill for a long while, pining slowly, uncomplainingly away. At last she died, clasping in her thin little hands the precious hrooeh she had worn constantly since Jack had given it to her —she even begged that it might be buried with her and her wish was granted. That was all. It was enough for poor Jack. After a time old Naka sorrowfully led him out through the garden where he had spent so many happy, careless days. Through a long lane running therefrom, and over a little mountain path, within an enclosure of bamboo bushes where the shadow of Fuji-San fell at twilight, they came to a little mound on which loving hands had planted lotus flowers in abundance. Here Jack found the grave of Yono-San.