Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan, volume 2.pdf/71

Rh * you. Before we came you couldn’t say enough to me about the wonders of the seaside during summer, and now, listen to you! It is an extraodinary contradiction!
 * Husband.—I only say it to comfort you.
 * Wife.—I would feel better pleased if you were a little disappointed! Such pretence does neither of us much good. It would be far better if we both showed a little regret.
 * Husband.—All right! Now that you feel like that, the problem is solved. Let us therefore put the excursion behind us as a failure, and instead, let us live in hopes of making up for it in some other way before long! Do you agree to that, my dear?
 * Wife.—(does not answer.)
 * Husband.—Aren’t you anxious to hear what I mean?
 * Wife.—I know it.
 * Husband.—Then, what is it?
 * Wife.—There is no need to say!
 * Husband.—You’ve misunderstood me, or do you mean this … you remember the other day our neighbour asked us to take care of his phonograph for him while he was away from home? … Now he has asked us to keep it in order for him so that it will not get rusty.
 * Wife.—Yes.
 * Husband.—Do you remember how we used to set it going night after night, playing each record one by one? And how we learnt the “Song of the Volga Boatman” from memory?