At last, Asako said helplessly:  “Is he dead?”

The cook, a man, was glad of the opportunity to escape.

“I go and call doctor,” he said.

“No, stay with me,” said Asako; “I am afraid.  O Hana can go for the doctor.”

Asako and the cook waited by the open shoji, staring blankly at the body of Ito.  Presently the cook said that he must go and get something.  He did not return.  Asako called to him to come.  There was no answer.  She went to look for him in his little three-mat room near the kitchen.  It was empty.  He had packed his few chattels in his wicker basket and had decamped.

Asako resumed her watch at the sitting-room door, an unwilling Rizpah.  It was as though she feared that, if she left her post, somebody might come in and steal Ito.  But she could have hardly approached the corpse even under compulsion.  Sometimes it seemed to move, to try to rise; but it was stuck fast to the matting by the resinous flow of purple blood.  Sometimes it seemed to speak: 

“Mistletoe!  Mistletoe!  Kiss me, Asa San!”

Gusts of cold wind came in from the open windows, touching the dead man curiously, turning over his kimono sleeves.  Outside, the bamboo grove was rattling like bones; and the caked snow fell from the roof in heavy thuds.

* * * * *

O Hana returned with a doctor and a policeman.  The doctor loosened Ito’s kimono, and at once shook his head.

The policeman wore a blue uniform and cape; and a sword dragged at his side.  He had produced a notebook and a pencil from a breast pocket.

“What is your name?” he asked Asako; “what is your age? your father’s and mother’s name?  What is your address?  Are you married?  Where is your husband?  How long have you known this man?  Were you on familiar terms?  Did you kill him?  How did you kill him?  Why did you kill him?”

The questions buzzed round Asako’s head like a swarm of hornets.  It had never occurred to the unfortunate girl that any suspicion could fall upon her.  Three more policemen had arrived.

“Every one in this house is arrested,” announced the first policeman.

“Put out your hands,” he ordered Asako.  Rusty handcuffs were slipped over her delicate wrists.  One of the policemen had produced a coil of rope, which he proceeded to tie round her waist and then round the waist of O Hana.

“But what have I done?” asked Asako plaintively.

The policeman took no notice.  She could hear two of them upstairs in her bedroom, talking and laughing, knocking open her boxes and throwing things about.

Asako and her maid were led out of the house like two performing animals.  It was bitterly cold, and Asako had no cloak.  The road was already full of loafers.  They stared angrily at Asako.  Some laughed.  Some pulled at her kimono as she passed.  She heard one say: 

“It is a geisha; she has murdered her sweetheart.”