THE DRAGON PAINTER
sunken vessel, cut sharp lines into the crimson light.
Tatsu flung himself full length upon the bank. He patted the soil with its springing grasses, and felt his heart flow out in love to it. Then he reached up, caught at the drifting gauze of Umè's sleeve, and made as if to pull her down. Umè clasped the tree more tightly.
"Tatsu," she said, "I implore you not to think always of me. Look, beloved, the thin white sails of the rice-boats pass, and, over yonder, children in scarlet petticoats dance beneath the trees."
"I have eyes but for my wife," said wilful Tatsu.
Umè-ko drew the sleeve away. She would not meet his smile. "Alas, shall I forever obscure beauty!"
"There is no beauty now but in you! You are the sacred mirror which reflects for me all loveliness."
"Dear lord, those words are almost blas-
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