Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan, volume 2.pdf/64

48 * remarks, trying to smooth things over, but I’ve determined to be rather blunt with him.
 * Wife.—I suppose that will give you a feeling of satisfaction. Can I tell our friends about this summer trip? But if they come across my bathing-suit which has never been in the water, I’ll feel rather foolish!
 * Husband.—How silly! If you are afraid of such a thing, why not hold it over the steam of the kettle? You can soon make it look as if it had been used. Do you think it sounds like boasting to say that you have bathed?
 * Wife.—But, we have been very unlucky, haven’t we?
 * Husband.—Yes, rather. But for goodness sake don’t look at the dismal side of our holiday only. After all it hasn’t been so terribly unpleasant loafing about indoors during the continuous rain, and even if we haven’t been able to bathe, it is not such a very distressing story to tell anyone!
 * Wife.—But think of the good spirits you were in when we started!
 * Husband.—Naturally; but that is the case with others as well. No one would think much of us if we had started out for a holiday with glum faces as if we were expecting something unlucky to happen to us. You and your family take things too seriously altogether … your mother, your elder sister and Miss Ko …
 * (Hearing steps approaching down the corridor, they stop talking.