Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan, volume 2.pdf/101

Rh whole world whom I can depend upon!” When her husband came home in this condition, his breath smelt terribly of drink, and the poor young wife, turning over and over in her bed, would scarcely get any sleep at all.

But these little incidents were soon forgotten, and the following day the couple were quite reconciled again.

As the autumn advanced, these little troubles repeated themselves more often. It was seldom she sat down to write now, and she seldom took up her pen. Her husband showed very little interest in her literary talk, and they got into a habit of discussing only such trifling matters as running the house more economically. As they sat beside their oblong brazier, they would talk of nothing but these matters, and she gradually began to see that it was the only topic that interested her husband at all. After taking their supper, the young wife often watched her husband with a bitter disappointment in her heart. On the other hand, he never for one moment seemed to notice her anxiety. As he talked, he would chew the end of his rather long moustache.

Then he grew more jolly again after a while, and sometimes he would joke with her, saying, “In the event of our having a child ….”

About this time they often saw Shunkichi’s name appearing in different literary magazines. Since her marriage Nobu-ko had ceased corresponding with him altogether, and seemed as if she had quite forgotten all about him. Lately she had been told quite a lot about his literary work, how he had graduated so