You can no longer help.--Oh--life--oh, love--this too short day-- RIKI I shall stay near at hand until you return to Obaa-San. AOYAGI I shall find the path alone. RIKI I'll send the stranger-woman to you. [_Riki goes out._ AOYAGI Hai! Hai! Hai! I watched the sunrise only yesterday and I trembled with the wonder of the dew-cooled dawn. Life seemed all peace and--today--I have known a mother's love and my mother.--I have known a lover's touch--love beyond love.--I am waking from a dream. The Gaki said I'd waken--I'd be as free as one in life. Oh, what is this thing they call life? No happiness complete--a vision of a mountain top--a climbing to the goal--a bamboo glade--oh, the mist at Kyushu.--When I go back to Obaa-San--I shall love her so--but oh, the memory of Riki--the mountain gleaming in the sun-- [_She starts sadly from the path. The Gaki enters._ THE GAKI Lady, I am here again. It seemed to me that I must return to you. Something seemed to call. (_Aoyagi almost collapses_) I feed! I feed! AOYAGI I can not go! THE GAKI You seem to suffer. AOYAGI Oh--I have lost my way in life-- THE GAKI Lost your way in life? Let me help you. AOYAGI I have stood on the mountain side and I have seen the green valleys far below. THE GAKI Talk to me--as you would to yourself.--I hear but I shall not speak what I hear. AOYAGI Riki--no, I can not speak even to myself. Deep in me there is a hurt.--I can not tell-- THE GAKI A woman gives all;--the man forgets. AOYAGI But to Riki--he knows--I brought him my full belief--my all-in-all. THE GAKI Your perfect faith. AOYAGI Ay, my perfect faith.--He spoke to me and then I bowed to my august lord.--I followed him without question.--And he forgets so soon. THE GAKI Are you sure he has forgotten? AOYAGI You know--you saw the lady from Ishiyama. THE GAKI True.--I saw her. AOYAGI You did not meet him on the path. THE GAKI True.--I did not meet him on the path. AOYAGI He crossed the stream. THE GAKI Perhaps to shorten the way. AOYAGI He met her in a little glade.--Hai! THE GAKI What shall you do? AOYAGI I'll go my way. I'll return to Obaa-San. THE GAKI I'll guide you down the mountain side.--Come, we'll take the shorter way--the by-paths--across the stream--through the little glade-- AOYAGI (_She looks about once more at the scene of her happiness_) Hai! THE GAKI Come! AOYAGI No, let us go down the path.--I want to see my footprints--side by side with his. THE GAKI Perhaps they're being crushed under the feet of the lady from Ishiyama! [_Aoyagi starts a moment as though to fly along the path before the lady comes.--She sways slowly--and then falls in a pitiful little heap.--The Gaki takes her in his arms and, utterly triumphant, starts up the mountain-side._