FRUITLESS NEGOTIATIONS 
125 
I fell in love—it was always happening in those 
days—with a nice-looking Japanese girl, a student 
in a certain missionary school. She was of a rather 
romantic disposition, and I remember we used to 
talk about the stars a good deal in our moonlight 
rambles through the pine-groves on the slope of the 
hill called Hakodate Head. She could speak, read, 
and write English very creditably. Some of her 
letters were very quaintly worded. One, written 
just after my return from a ten-days trip up the 
coast, was as follows : 
44 My dear S.-san, 
44 1 am very glad to hear you come back ; 
when you are away I think of you every day, and 
sometimes twice a day. If you will come to the 
Hachiman temple to-night at half-past eight, I will 
sit on the top step. 
44 Yours with love.” 
Needless to say, I went to the temple and sat 
on the top step. Later on our affection cooled, 
after which we did not see so much of each other. 
One afternoon I received a note worded thus : 
44 My dear S.-saist, 
44 1 want to see you very much. If you 
come my house at ten o’clock to-morrow morning, 
my parents will be all a/bsence.” 
Now, this was awkward, as I had been summoned 
at that hour to the British Consulate to sit on a 
court of inquiry into the loss of the chief engineer 
of a British steamer then in port. I set out about 
