Page:Modern Japanese Stories.pdf/79

 whatever money he has to offer and let her go? He’ll be lucky if it lasts till the cherries bloom.’

“ ‘Whatever happened to that Shinnai man, Shimezō?’

“ ‘The master here is only worried about you, sir, and has said nothing about Shimezō. I haven’t gone to look for him. I suppose he’s the same as ever.’

“ ‘Has she been called out to a party?’

“ ‘She’s been away on a trip for several days, I’m told. The other two girls say that before they’ll let her be their mistress they’ll move away. I found a place for one of them yesterday in this same district, and I think I’ll have a spot for the other at Omori before the end of the year.’

“ ‘I see,’ I said. ‘I had thought I’d have a talk with her before I decided what to do, but what you say makes it clear that I’ll only lose face the more time I let go by. Suppose I just withdraw and leave you to do what you can. Come and see me in Honjō when you find the time.’

“I spoke quietly, and went out into the snow. In the course of the conversation I had made up my mind. I had of course known what to expect when I let her become a geisha again. If a patron had ransomed her I would have had nothing to say, though I might very well have been annoyed. But to give herself to her master and, without a thought for her debts, to take her place by the brazier and play the grand lady—that I could not allow. I bought a knife as I came out on the main Ningyō-chō street. Meaning to take advantage of the snow and hunt her down in the course of the night, I walked the district until my hands and feet were frozen. I found no trace of her. I went back to Honjō to rest, started out again in the morning, and spent the next days and nights on her trail. All in vain. Maybe she had sensed what was happening. To throw her off guard, I withdrew for several days.

“It was the twenty-eighth, three nights from the end of the year. Tonight I would surely find her. I started out as if to have a look at the street stalls, and when the lights were on I did every alley and every lane in all Yoshi-chō. Not a trace of her. The