"Get as close as you can, to this monkey-faced tyrant," continued she, "and some unlooked-for riddance may discreetly arise. On the way, I shall, with your permission, pay Yodogima a visit: I think I can unearth the likelihood: her scheme we already know. You are rich and powerful now; Yedo has thrived beyond their knowledge, though Hideyoshi is said once upon a time to have seen without eyes. I tell you, the Tokugawa (Ieyasu's family: its name) is a possibility. Trust me, Ieyasu; will you not, just this once?" Ieyasu hesitated, yet waited. True he had risen to the topmost rank as a daimyo, outstripping any other in wealth and strength, but this he believed due more to his own patient plodding and dogged persistence than to what with Esyo's brilliant scheming and multitudinous plans. Still he respected her; perhaps because Yodogima, however set aside, had constantly borne deeper into his affections; Saji proved a bore, from the start, as expected, and Esyo's mentality, always agreeable, failed of heart. A deeper interest gripped him, would not let go, but wait he must. Those cold, hard-studied assurances, not flattery, of Esyo's, did not, however, displease Ieyasu. Yet they failed to move him; and when he did, at last, start on that journey, which was forever to open his eyes to larger contemplation, it had been on other grounds; Ieyasu feared Hideyoshi; he dared not disregard the command, and went as others did: to save their necks, and reap the beggarly bounty gratuitously suffered. Once at Nagoya, however, Hideyoshi's temporary headquarters, Ieyasu again rapidly rose in favor; he apparently had no axe of his own to grind, and the taiko believed him capable. "I shall leave you in charge, at home, and myself cross the channel, into Korea," threatened Hideyoshi, upon receipt of bad news from the field; "this Hidaye is making a mess of it, and what is left of the advance shall have more need of my presence, before the river Ta-dong is crossed and Chinese soil has inspired them to renewed effort. Do you accept this responsibility of a free will?" Possibly Hideyoshi had sooner surmised, hence inquired the truth, for Ieyasu again hesitated; he had previously counselled with Oyea, and now possessed fresh intelligence at Esyo's hands. "Let him go," proposed she; and, if he had gone, Yodogima's further troubles were saved--not, it is true, as Esyo planned. Upon visiting Yodogima, as permitted, Esyo had found not only the one but the other of her sisters there--portending, to her way of thinking, somewhat, if not dreadfully, suspicious circumstances.