2-716-814 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Sawaichi, turning his sightless face towards the altar, repeated the Buddhist invocation: "Namu Amida Butsu", 1919. "Listen, Sawaichi," said O Sato, earnestly, "this night let us stay together here and pray through the night without ceasing." Then they both began to pray. The chanting of their supplication rose up clearly in the stillness of the evening hour, and it seemed as if the sand of Tsubosaka might become the golden streets of Paradise. Suddenly Sawaichi stopped and clutched hold of his wife. "O Sato," he said, "I must tell you the truth. I cannot believe. I came simply because it was your wish. But I shall never recover my sight, of that I feel sure." Illustration to "Tsubosaka", a story in "Romances of Old Japan", by Madame Yukio Ozaki. [Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd, London, 1919]