Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan, volume 2.pdf/97

Rh marriage been such a sacrifice? She did not like to doubt the sincerity of her younger sister’s sympathy, and yet a rather gloomy feeling took hold of her. But she tried to shake it off, and to think of pleasanter things by looking up into the bright sunshine which was tinging the tops of the pine-trees with the golden hue of the coming twilight.

For about three months Nobu-ko and her husband were as happy as most newly-married people are. He had rather an effeminate character, yet at the same time his manner was somewhat taciturn.

He always made it a rule to spend a few hours after supper with his wife. Nobu-ko, with her knitting in her hands, would discuss the latest novels and dramas which were attracting notice at the time in the literary and dramatic world. Sometimes she discussed Christian philosophy, and sometimes she would drift on to the subject of the tastes of university girl-students. Her husband, whose cheeks were slightly flushed after his dinner wine, would listen with a kindly curiosity. He would sit, with his half-read evening paper on his knees, listening to all she said, but he never by any chance ventured his opinion about anything she discussed.

Almost every Sunday the young couple visited some of the pleasure resorts in the suburbs of Osaka, and would enjoy themselves thoroughly. Nobu-ko thought the people of Osaka and the vicinity a little vulgar. They took their meals at very odd times, and something about all these people and their manner of living