Waga sode ni
Tsutsumaba asu mo
Kimiya tomaran."



[If with my sleeve I hid the faint fair color of the dawning sun,-- then,
perhaps, in the morning my lord will remain."] [3]



Then Tomotada knew that she accepted his admiration; and he was scarcely
less surprised by the art with which she had uttered her feelings in verse,
than delighted by the assurance which the verses conveyed. He was now
certain that in all this world he could not hope to meet, much less to win,
a girl more beautiful and witty than this rustic maid before him; and a
voice in his heart seemed to cry out urgently, "Take the luck that the gods
have put in your way!" In short he was bewitched -- bewitched to such a
degree that, without further preliminary, he asked the old people to give
him their daughter in marriage,-- telling them, at the same time, his name
and lineage, and his rank in the train of the Lord of Noto.


They bowed down before him, with many exclamations of grateful
astonishment. But, after some moments of apparent hesitation, the father
replied:--


"Honored master, you are a person of high position, and likely to rise to
still higher things. Too great is the favor that you deign to offer us;--