Page:Mashi and Other Stories.djvu/42

34 with as much cordiality as I could summon: "That will be very nice indeed. Let us talk of something cheerful."

"The funniest thing I can think of is my own life-story. Let me tell you that."

The church clock chimed the hour of two.

"When I was in the land of the living, and young, I feared one thing like death itself, and that was my husband. My feelings can be likened only to those of a fish caught with a hook. For it was as if a stranger had snatched me away with the sharpest of hooks from the peaceful calm of my childhood's home—and from him I had no means of escape. My husband died two months after my marriage, and my friends and relations moaned pathetically on my behalf. My husband's father, after scrutinizing my face with great care, said to my mother-in-law: 'Do you not see, she has the evil eye?'— Well, are you listening? I hope you are enjoying the story?"

"Very much indeed!" said I. "The beginning is extremely humorous."

"Let me proceed then. I came back to my father's house in great glee. People tried to conceal it from me, but I knew well that I was endowed