ITO SODA. I will place this screen, thus. [_Goes to screen L. and opens it so as to form a hiding place between the sleeping mat and the door L._] So will I wait the moment. PRINCE. So be it. It is a good plan And on the one road. Let us about it. [_Exits L. followed by_ BUZEN _and_ RUITEN. ITO SODA _goes behind the screen._ O TOYO _is heard singing in the garden._] O TOYO. [_Outside._] Moonlit convulvus Through the night hours Wan are their faces Ghostly sweet. Richer by daylight Drinking of sunshine As thirsty souls drink At a shrine. Fair are the faces Glassed in the quiet pools Maidens low-bending Vain ones. [_The singing stops abruptly._] Kashiku, is not that a cat Stealing stealthily there? She snarls--quick--[O TOYO _enters B. C. quickly and very frightened, turns and looks back, hurries_ KASHIKU _in._ KASHIKU _follows much less disturbed at any fear of a cat than over her mistress' fright._] KASHIKU. [_Shuts the shoji R. C. and comes to_ O TOYO.] You are all atremble. O TOYO. Quick, let me be safe in slumber. [_Crosses to dressing table._] KASHIKU. [_Follows her and attends to her hair while_ O TOYO _kneels before the glass._] Several nights lately have I heard my lady moaning As though even in sleep were she troubled. The worry over your honorable lord hath disturbed thee. O TOYO. Your ears are over keen. I am happy when I sleep. How can I moan, being happy? You are dull. KASHIKU. Perhaps it was the wind or the echo of my lord's moaning. O TOYO. Moaning or was it singing? I would it were singing For singing is sweeter On the lips of those dying. KASHIKU. Dying? O TOYO. When those whom we love are passing-- Even under our hands are passing-- And our love weans them from life And our kisses suck out the blood-life, Then would we touch them no more, Then would we kiss them no more, But a power greater than we And a power that we fear Forces us on in our love-killing. KASHIKU. There is in your voice a vibration, as even the winds in the pine-tops When, in the autumn, they echo the summer's death-song; There is in your eyes a strange light as if the soul of another Looked out from your curtaining lashes and dimmed the sweet light there abiding. Oh, mistress, surely you are different than what you once were. O TOYO. [_Crosses C. slowly._] Even now comes the hour and the struggle And I do the bidding of that which is in me. How I hate the feel of his flesh Quivering under my lips And the loathsome taste of the blood-drops Thick on my lips that would soothe him and cannot.