My Japanese Wife
MOUSMÉ AND CYRIL. Page 79.
My
Japanese
Wife
A Japanese Idyl
By
Clive Holland
Author of
“Mousmé,” “Marcelle of the Quarter,”
“A Writer of Fiction,” etc.
New York
Frederick A. Stokes
Company
Publishers
Copyright, 1902,
By Frederick A. Stokes Company.
SECOND EDITION.
To the real Mousmé with my love
INTRODUCTION.
That the present edition of “My JapaneseWife” has been called for is a sourceof satisfaction to the writer. Of previouseditions some 60,000 copies have been sold,and it is hoped the present version willprove none the less acceptable from thefact that the story has been revised and aconsiderable amount of new matter addedto it.
The author has done this to enable thefinal form of the novel to be that inwhich it was originally written, butwhich for purposes of first publication ina particular series it was necessary toalter.
Bournemouth, England.
April 2, 1902.
MY JAPANESE WIFE.
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER I.
Mousmé is leaning over me as I write.Mousmé, a butterfly from a far Easternland, her dress of apricot silk, with a magentasatin obi (sash), a blot of brightcolour in the dulness of my English study.My Mousmé! with Dresden-china tintedcheeks, and tiny ways; playing at life, asit always seems to me, with the daintygrace of Japan, that idealised doll’s-houseland. Mousmé, who goes with me everywhere,whose bizarre clothing attractsnotice to her even when the delicatelypretty face of a child-woman with innocent,soft eyes and finely arched brows is[4]hidden behind the ever-present fan, whichshe draws from the ample folds of her obi.
My friends at Nagasaki told me that Iwas foolish to marry a mousmé, especiallyas I was to return to England so soon.
“Why not hire one for the remainingperiod of your stay?” suggested Kotmasu,who dined with me at my little toy-likevilla so often that he began