five o’clock in the afternoon
When all my commissions are finished , he puts up his little vehicle under a tree , and , much touched by my departure , insists upon escorting me on board the ` Triomphante ' , to watch over my final purchases in the sampan which conveys me to the ship , and to see them himself safely into my cabin . His , indeed , is the only hand I clasp with a really friendly feeling , without a suppressed smile , on quitting Japan . No doubt in this country , as in many others , there is more honest friendship and less ugliness among the simple beings devoted to purely physical work . At five o'clock in the afternoon we set sail . Along the line of the shore are two or three sampans ; in them the mousmes , shut up in the narrow cabins , peep at us through the tiny windows , half hiding their faces on account of the sailors ; these are our wives , who have wished , out of politeness , to look upon us once more . There are other sampans as well , in which other Japanese women are also watching our departure . These stand upright , under great parasols decorated with big black letters and daubed over with clouds of varied and startling colors .