Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan.pdf/78

64 Not an unlawful child, you say? Your husband’s child!—But you told me a few minutes ago that you had lost your husband? What do you mean by lying?
 * Asa.—(In a very low voice) It is quite true that he died, but it was only three months ago.
 * Koyama.—Died three months ago? Then are you sure it was your husband’s child that you have killed?
 * Asa.—(In a voice full of grief) Yes, Sir.
 * KoaymaKoyama [sic].—Then you are more cruel than any beast. You are not a human being. To kill your own child! It is horrible! Have you no human love in you?
 * Asa.—(She weeps silently and piteously.)
 * Koyama.—Only the other day I lost my own child. He died of sickness. I grieve bitterly over my loss, so how could any woman with motherly instincts kill her own child?
 * Asa.—The young are very precious indeed, Sir; I sympathize with you if you have lost your child, too.
 * Koyama.—Don’t speak to me of sympathy, for it sounds unnatural from you.—You can’t possibly understand what it is to love one’s own child; your heart is too cruel to understand anything!
 * Asa.—Sir, poor as I am, I have as much maternal love in me as any other woman.
 * Koyama.—Then why did you kill your child, I say? You are only trying now to arouse my sympathy. You are trying to move me with false words.