“This girl is a valuable asset to our country,” he had explained to the Minister.  “She is married to an Englishman, who will one day be a peer in England.  This was a marriage of political importance.  It was a proof of the equal civilisation of our Japan with the great countries of Europe.  It is most important that this Asako should be sent back to England as soon as possible, and that she should speak good things about Japan.”

So Asako was released from the procurator’s clutches; and she was given a charming little bedroom of her own in the European wing of the Saito mansion.  The house stood on a high hill; and Asako, seated at the window, could watch the multiplex activity of the streets below, the jolting tramcars, the wagons, the barrows and the rickshaws.  To the left was a labyrinth of little houses of clean white wood, bright and new, like toys, with toy evergreens and pine-trees bursting out of their narrow gardens.  This was a geisha quarter, whence the sound of samisen music and quavering songs resounded all day long.  To the right was a big grey-boarded primary school, which, with the regular movement of tides, sucked in and belched out its flood of blue-cloaked boys and magenta-skirted maidens.

Count and Countess Saito, despite their immense wealth and their political importance, were simple, unostentatious people, who seemed to devote most of their thoughts to their children, their garden, their dwarf trees, and their breed of cocker spaniels.  They took their social duties lightly, though their home was a Mecca for needy relatives on the search for jobs.  They gave generously; they entertained hospitably.  Good-humour ruled the household; for husband and wife were old partners and devoted friends.

Count Saito brought his nephew and secretary, a most agreeable young man, to see Asako.  The Count said,—­

“Asa Chan, I want you to tell Mr. Sakabe all about the Fujinami house and the way of life there.”

So Asako told her story to this interested listener.  Fortunately, perhaps, she could not read the Japanese newspapers; for most of her adventures reappeared in the daily issues almost word for word.  From behind the scenes, Count Saito was directing the course of the famous trial which had come to be known as the Fujinami Affair.  For the Count had certain political scores of his own to pay off; and Asako proved to be a godsend.

Tanaka was tried for murder; but it was established that he had killed Ito in defending his mistress’s honour; and the court let him off with a year’s hard labour.  But the great Fujinami bribery case which developed out of the murder trial, ruined a Cabinet Minister, a local governor, and a host of minor officials.  It reacted on the Yoshiwara regulations.  The notoriety of the case has gone far towards putting an end to public processions of oiran, and to the display of prostitutes in the windows of their houses.  Indeed, it is probably only a question of time for the great pleasure quarters to be closed down, and for vice to be driven into secrecy.  Mr. Fujinami Gentaro was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for causing bribes to be distributed.