Barbara glimpsed it, the very spirit of beauty, between the whirling shadows of pine and camphor trees, between tiled walls guarding thatched temples, flights of gray pigeons and spurts of pink cherry-blossom. As she leaned out, and the pines bowed rhythmically, and the water-wheels turned in the furrows, and the yellow-green of the bamboo, the purple-indigo of the hills and the golden-pink of the cherries lifting, above the hedges, went by like raveling skeins of a tapestry--that majestic Presence, ghostly and splendid above the wild contour of hill and mountain, seemed to call to her. And across the gorgeous landscape, rejoicing from every rift and crevice of its moist soil, in its colors of rich red earth and green foliage, in the grace and vigor of its springing, resilient bamboo groves and the cardinal pride of its flowering camelias, Barbara's heart answered the call. CHAPTER IV UNDER THE RED SUNSET The slowing of the train awoke Barbara from her reverie. The three boy students got out, casting sidelong glances at her. More Japanese entered, and two foreigners--a bright-faced girl on the arm of a keen-eyed, soldierly man with bristling white hair, a mustache like a walrus, and a military button. The girl's hands were full of cherry-branches, whose bunches of double blossoms, incredibly thick and heavy, filled the car with a delicate fragrance. The bishop folded his newspaper and put it into his pocket. As he did so the owner of the expansive waistcoat leaned across the aisle and addressed him. "Say, my friend," he said, "you've lived out here some time, I understand." "Yes," the bishop replied. "Twenty-five years." "Well, I take it, then, you ought to know this country right down to the ground; and if you don't mind, I'd like to ask a question or two." "Do," said the bishop. "I'll be glad to answer if I can." The other got up and took a seat opposite. "You see," he pursued confidentially, "I came on this trip just for a rest and to settle the bills for the curios my wife"--he indicated the lady, who had now moved up beside him--"thinks she'd like to look at back home. But I've been getting interested by the minute. It's quite some time since I went to school, and I guess there hadn't so much happened then to Japan. I wish you'd run down the scale for me--just to hit the high places. Now there was a big rumpus here, I remember, at the time of our Civil War. They chose a new Emperor, didn't they?" "No. The dynasty has been unbroken for two thousand years." "Two thousand years!" cried the lady. "Why, that's before Christ!" "When our ancestors, Martha, were painting themselves up in yellow ochre and carrying clubs--what was the row about, then?"