The Reconciliation

Small decorative floral ornament.

There was a young Samurai of Kyoto The former capital of Japan. who had been reduced to poverty by the ruin of his lord and found himself obliged to leave his home to take service with the Governor of a distant province. Before quitting the capital, this Samurai divorced his wife—a good and beautiful woman—believing that he could better obtain promotion through a different marriage. He then married the daughter of a family of some distinction and took her with him to the district where he had been called.

But it was in the time of the thoughtlessness of youth and the sharp experience of want that the Samurai could not understand the worth of the affection so lightly cast away. His second marriage did not prove a happy one; the character of his new wife was hard and selfish; and he