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Show 221 On reaching Miyazu they found the town silent in the noonday sun. The shops were open, the interiors dark, the owners motionless as idols. Groups of children ran down the street, their qeta clopping; than their laughtter died away around the somnolent corners. Beyond the center of the town they turned and began to climb. Pines and maples clustered at the edge of the road; op3 nings in the trees revealed the roofs below, the dock where the fishing-boats were tied up, the Bridge itself and, farther out, the bay, blue and twinkling. At the top they passed the entrance to the Wada-ya; it was quiet too: if there were to be guests they had not arrived. Circling through a grove of firs they came seaward again, into the courtyard of the inn itself. The drive circled a rock-garden island surmounted by a concrete light-pillar, delicate lemon-colored chrysanthemums peeping out among the stones. "Irasshaij Irasshai!" The maids' welcomes echoed down the halls. One stood in the door bowing, and by the time the cars stopped, Sato-san himself had come out of the darkness. "Wercome! Wercome!" His golden teeth shone against the dimness of the vestibule, Stepping out, the guests stretched their legs. The women walked to tha edge of the ravine and admired the view; then they entered the vestibule and, stepping out of their shoes into paper slippers, were shown to their rooms. Thereafter they scattered to various pleasures. Some made the pilgrimage to the "ridge; some swam; some looked through the |