"But that would be a mortal sin," she said. "Then you could never be happy." "We cannot be happy. We are Fujinami," said Sadako gravely. "We are cursed. The old woman of Akabo said that it is a very bad curse. I do not believe superstition. But I believe there is a curse. You also, you have been unhappy, and your father and mother. We are cursed because of the women. We have made so much money from poor women. They are sold to men, and they suffer in pain and die so that we become rich. It is a very bad _ingé_. So they say in Akabo, that we Fujinami have a fox in our family. It brings us money; but it makes us unhappy. In Akabo, even poor people will not marry with the Fujinami, because we have the fox." It is a popular belief, still widely held in Japan, that certain families own spirit foxes, a kind of family banshee who render them service, but mark them with a curse. "I do not understand," said Asako, afraid of this wild talk. "Do you know why the Englishman went away?" said her cousin brutally. It was Asako's turn to cry. "Oh, I wish I had gone with him. He was so good to me, always so kind and so gentle!" "When he married you," said Sadako, "he did not know that you had the curse. He ought not to have come to Japan with you. Now he knows you have the curse. So he went away. He was wise." "What do you mean by the curse?" asked Asako. "You do not know how the Fujinami have made so much money?" "No," said Asako. "It used to come for me from Mr. Ito. He had shares or something." "Yes. But a share that means a share of a business. Do you not know what is our business?" "No," said Asako again. "You have seen the Yoshiwara, where girls are sold to men. That is our business. Do you understand now?" "No."