Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan, volume 2.pdf/114

94 miscellaneous trees growing by the roadside drifted slowly past her. The only immovable thing to be seen through that small, murky, celluloid window was the clear, cool sky of early autumn, relieved have and there by streaks of downy cloud.

Nobu-ko's mind was now tranquil enough, but it came from a kind of cool resignation, not from actual peace of mind.

After Teru-ko’s fit of crying had subsided, the two young woman soon smoothed things over, and were again the same loving sisters as they had always been before. But the fact that they had quarrelled still remained a reality in the mind of the elder woman. When she had hurriedly settled herself in her rickshaw, without waiting for Shunkichi’s return, a cold, irritated feeling of determination came upon her that she would henseforthhenceforth [sic] become a stranger to her sister. Her heart seemed frozen and cold.

While she was being carried along she happened to lift her eyes, and through the window of the vehicle she saw Shunkichi, stick in hand, coming along the dusty road towards her. Her heart beat violently as she watched him coming nearer. Should she stop her rickshaw, or should she pass on unnoticed? She tried hard to check the violent throbbing of her heart as she sat hidden under the cover of her rickshaw. The distance between them had now lessened considerably, and she watched him carefully picking his way along the road between the numerous puddles. Just as he reached the rickshaw she almost cried out, “Mr.