The Omuros in question were an old family, said to date back to the Edo period, and the present head was engaged in chemical research on spinning thread. He was a man of property, owning mills in three different places, as well as dabbling in calligraphy, painting, and art-collecting.
              "Do you think the whole household was wiped out , then?" said Shigeko.
             I did not reply. It was a scene of cruel desolation.
             Beside the trunk of the thickest of the three stood a narrow, square pillar of stone. Why it alone should have remained standing was a mystery. Mr. Omuro had once told me that an ancestor of his, several generations back, had had it erected there. It was somewhat over ten feet tall, and instead of the usual long inscription it had the single character "Dream" carved on it, about two and a half feet from the top. Some high ranking Priest was said to have written the original, and the effect was doubtless considered stylish and rather sophisticated in its day, but at present, stle and sophistication alike failed utterly.

 
CHAPTER SEVEN