A Servant of Satan: Romantic Career of Prado the Assassin — page 143: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A SERVANT OF SATAN, | 135 should be added that this particular fish, the dai, is only good when eaten alive. The moment it is dead the flesh becomes opaque, tough, and starchy. ‘I'he wine consisted of warm ‘‘sakke” and other kinds of liquor distilled from rice. | Toward the end of the repast, which lasted several hours, a sliding panel was stddenly drawn aside and an elderly Japanese lady made her appearance, crawling on her hands and knees. She was followed by a considerably younger lookiag woman and two little girls. . On Frederick looking inquiringly at his host, the latter, with a contemptuous jerk backward of his thumb, said: ‘Oh! my wife,” at which words the good lady touched the floor with her forehead. ‘The younger woman was equally briefly introduced as ‘‘Okamisan,” and was the second wife of the worthy host. Of the two little girls one was a daughter by the first wife and the other by Okamisan, who all dwelt on the best of terms together. Both Frederick and Nina were about to rise from the cushions on which they were sitting on the floor in order to greet the ladies, but they were forced by their entertainer to keep their places, while with an important wave of the hand he dismissed his family. On her way home that night Nina complained of feeling very ill, but attributing it to the effects of the extraordinary and mysterious dishes of which she had partaken, she at- tached no particular importance thereto. On the following day she was but little better, and from that time forth was scarcely ever well. Her languor and loss of appetite increased day by day. At Frederick’s sug- gestion one of the best Huropean doctors at Yokohama was summoned to attend to her case, but the remedies which he prescribed proved of no avail. She was rarely able to leave the grounds of the villa, and grew more feeble as the time <s) €o 5 e ys Gomirchboo