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174 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
as is often the case, love-making was secretly
carried on by signs and gestures, correspondence,
interviews, or hours spent in each other's company.
As between Honda Jiro and Asai Hoshi, none knew
the lover's secret except the mother, to whom Hoshi
proudly confided it, and by whose assistance and
sympathy the proverbial rough path was smoothed.
Mrs. Asai would sometimes shake her head doubtfully,
as if marriage between a samurai and a
merchant's daughter were impossible ;
but she knew
she could only wait and see.
Had we been walking along the wide avenue
bordering the outer moat and wall of the ivycovered
castle of Fukui, one September morning,
a few weeks after the receipt of the love-letter
copied above, we should have seen an old lady with
head shaven in token of her intention never
to marry again. Though still fairly erect, she is
leaning upon the arm of her rosy-cheeked and
womanly granddaughter of eighteen. It is the
old lady's birthday, and a friend that very morning
had sent her a caddy of Uji tea and a lobster.
The tea was for her enjoyment, for she was a
famous connoisseur of a good brew made with
water from one of the four famous " tea-water
wells " in Fukui ;
but the crooked-tail shell-fish,
called "wheel-prawn," was the expression of a
wish in symbol. The giver meant by it, "May
you live so long that your back will be bent like
this lobster's." With her granddaughter, the old
lady was visiting the shrine of the god
of Ion-