a yellow parchment hanging on the wall just above.

Through its aged dim characters I read an edict issued in the days of
long ago, banishing from the land of fair Nippon all Christians and
Christianity. It threatened with relentless torture any attempt to
promulgate the faith, and contained an order for all citizens to appear
in the public place on a certain day for adherents of the new religion
to recant, by stamping on the Cross.

As the girl talked on, she revealed a life strangely inconsistent in a
land which to me stood for all that was highest and most beautiful. A
curious thought came to me. I wondered if the man who framed that edict
had a vision of what foreign teachings might bring in its trail?
Possibly some presentiment haunted him of the great danger that would
come to his people through contact with a country leagues removed in
customs and beliefs. Neither crucifixion nor torture had availed to keep
out the new religion. With it came wisdom and great reforms.
Misinterpretation too, had followed. Old laws were shattered, and this
girl, Zura Wingate was a product of a new order of things, the result of
broken traditions, a daughter of two countries, a representative of
neither.

Zura's conversation was mainly of her amusements and diversions.

"But how did you manage so many pleasures while you were attending
school?" I inquired.

"School?" she echoed. "Oh! that never bothered me. I had a system at
school; it worked fine. The days I felt like going, I crammed hard and
broke the average record. I also accumulated a beautiful headache. This