To this place, with such circumstances, Shibusawa was carried, and for the first time in his life entered there; a coming hoped and looked for, an ambition cherished and nursed by his father until it had become his constant dream; and yet that coming was to be when the spark of life seemed all but dead. Maido hastened to the family shrine and there prayed the good god Dajiza to grant him power to ward off death's evil hand.
Shibusawa's rooms were at the upper side of the main court building (a rambling red-lacquered structure, with curled tile roof) overlooking the greensward and battlement, toward where Kinsan's cottage nestled in the nearby woodland. Here he lay for a long time, battling against death, till science and care had overcome danger, then his vigorous constitution rapidly brought on a complete and permanent recovery. While convalescing he would often sit chatting with his father, or dreaming of things now fast crowding upon him: the poverty and the toil; the suffering and the patriotism; the dormant power and the helplessness of the people which he had everywhere seen; his own new-born love; the ruthless force of an officer--all these were weighing heavily upon his young conscience, which already flamed with ambition.
Shibusawa did not dwell upon these things, though, while conversing with his father; and he asked no questions. But never before did he understand so well the whole philosophy of his parent's teachings, nor grasp so firmly the force of his logic and the meaning of all their institutions. And there, and alone, while the vigour of youth yet fired the contact of life, after the bloom of knowledge, the polish of intercourse, the inspiration of travel, he determined his course.
Time began, after a while, to drag heavily and Shibusawa thirsted for a change. The day Chayo, moon festival (in the latter part of September), had already come, and while sitting in the evening with his favourite sister, Nehachibana, he half spoke, half meditated:
"Do you think I could go out to see the moon rise to-night? You know it is Chayo, and I want to wander off by myself and see the 'grand three.' It will enable me to start under a good omen. Pray come, don't say 'No,' for I fear I shall have to go anyway."