and actually fought for the French, While on a brief leave in the south of France he met a Parisienne, a irl of the upper middle class. His friendship reciprocated, and soon after, far from the roar of cannon, the two were made and wite according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church.
The war over, Baron Shigeno returned to Japan, bringing with him his French wife. The family of the Baron were none too pleased, but, so long as the Baron was alive, no serious differences of opinion occurred. Soon after their arrival in Japan, Baron Shigeno was presented with a son and heir, His fe bore another son to him, soon fter which Baron Shigeno did.
the death of the Baron The mother-in-law at first refused to recognize that children, by. his French could succeed to the title, considerable bickering, which Baron Shidehara, the Foreign Minister, and M. Paul Claudel, French ambassador in Tokyo ferred, the Imperial Househol portment agreed to regard the Faron's offspring by his second wife as perfectly legitimate. The nother-in-law was not so easily: won over, however, and insisted that the right of succession should go to a daughter whom Baron Shigeno had by his frst (Japanese) wife. The la being heir noble title direct, but, said the mother-in-law, id not forbid her husband from legitimately. becoming the next Baron, and a. husband for the girl, now 16 of age, could be easily found, a ed the mother of Baron Shigeno.
The French wife thereupon put up a strenuous fight for her children's rights, and, to make a long story short. won' in the end. The Imperial Household Department ogreed that her children were the rightful heirs to their father's title. But another obstacle then interposed. This was as regards the telucation of the children, 'The French lady wanted them to he educated in France, but her husband's people laughed at the idea. Imagine, they said, a member of Japan's' nobility not know-Japanese properly, not_knowing anything about the manners ind customs of this land! The next Baron Shizeno would be a Frenchman, not a Japanese. Utter-impossible!
For a long time, the question of where the children must be brought up was the shuttle-cock for the Lattledores of the mother and th: children's grandmother. At last, the French wife, for the sake of her offspring, had to give in. In Japan the custom is, in case a couple are separated, or the- husband dies, to leave the male issue with the family of the husband and the female issue with that of the wife, '"Jeanne-san"' was the name by which the French wife was know) toher family. The title of Baroness war never conferred on her. Her ildren are to live in the baronial unnsion with their grandmother, but "Jeanne-san" lives separate, 4 little cottage, erected for her_on the grounds of the estate. She will be able to see her children every day, but will have no great part in their upbringing and in their education.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.