"I'll show you. It's very easy. Besides, Yaé really knows more about
it than I do."
So Geoffrey after a short lesson in steering, tacking, and the
manipulation of the centreboard, piloted his host safely over to
British Bay, the exclusive precinct of the temporary Embassy on the
opposite shore of the lake. He then made his way round French Cape
past Russia Cove to the wooden landing-stage of the Lakeside Hotel.
There he found Yaé, sitting on a bench and throwing pebbles at the
geese.
She wore the blue and white cotton kimono, which is the summer dress
of Japanese women. It is a cheap garment, but most effective--so clean
and cool in the hot weather. Silk kimonos soon become stale-looking;
but this cotton dress always seems to be fresh from the laundry. A
rope of imitation pearls was entwined in her dark hair; and her broad
sash of deep blue was secured in front with an old Chinese ornament of
jade.
"Oh, big captain," she cried, "I am so glad it is you. I heard you
were coming."
She stepped into the boat, and took over the tiller and the command.
Geoffrey explained his friend's absence.
"The bad boy," she said, "he wants to get away from me in order to
think about a lot of music. But I don't care!"
Under a steady wind they sheered through the water. On the right hand
was Chuzenji village, a Swiss effect of brown chalets dwarfed to utter
insignificance by the huge wooded mountain dome of Nantai San which
rose behind it. On the left the forest was supreme already, except
where in small clearings five or six houses, tenanted by foreign
diplomats, stood out above the lake. A little farther on a Buddhist
temple slumbered above a flight of broad stone steps. The sacred
buildings were freshly lacquered, and red as a new toy. In front, on
the slope of golden sand, its base bathed by the tiny waves, stood
the _torii_, the wooden archway which is Japan's universal religious
symbol. Its message is that of the Wicket Gate in the Pilgrim's
Progress. Wherever it is to be seen--and it is to be seen
everywhere--it stands for the entering in of the Way, whether that way
be "_Shinto_" (The Way of the Gods), or "_Butsudo_" (The Way of the
Buddhas), or "_Bushido_" (The Way of the Warriors).
There was plenty of breeze. The boat shot down the length of the
lake at a delicious speed. The two voyagers reached at last a little
harbour, Sh[=o]bu-ga-Hama--The Beach of the Lilies--a muddy shore with
slimy rocks, a few brown cottages and a saw-mill.
"Let's go and see the waterfall," suggested Yaé, "it's only a few
minutes."
They walked together up a steep winding lane. The fresh air and the
birch trees, the sight of real Alderney cows grazing on patches
of real grass, the distant rumble of the cataract brought back to
Geoffrey a feeling of strength and well-being to which he had for
weeks been a stranger.
If only the real Asako had been with him instead of this enigmatic and
disquieting image of her!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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