Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan, volume 2.pdf/127

Rh expression of intense relief showed itself in his face. But looking at the Naigu he remarked,

“Once it is boiled again, it will be perfectly satisfactory.” The Naigu’s expression was anything but pleasing, and he contracted his eyebrows into a frown. But he again did as his disciple had bidden him, and put his nose back into the boiling water.

Now, when it had been boiled well a second time, he removed it from the vessel, and certainly it was much shorter than it had been before, but its shape was not so very different from that of any ordinary nose. Stroking it gently, the Naigu looked shyly and hesitatingly into the mirror which his disciple passed to him. His nose, which once had hung down beneath his jaw as if it had been something unreal, now had the appearance of a mere “skeleton” of a nose growing from above his upper lip. As to its red appearance and the motley dots and spots which decorated it, he thought perhaps that they were only the traces left of the recent hard pressing it had undergone.

After all, having such a nose as this would never cause laughter from others. The Naigu thought this as he viewed his face again in the mirror, and he blinked his eyes contentedly.

That day, however, he experienced the anxiety that perhaps his nose might grow long again. As he read his sutras, or when taking his meals, he would very often touch the end of his nose with his hands. The nose, however, still sat neatly above his upper lip, and there was no indication so far that it would grow