Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/344

270 The puzzled samurai scanned his visitor narrowly and caught sight of a beautiful young woman hiding bashfully behind Sekisuké. What need to tell that this was Miyuki?

"Are you indeed Sekisuké? I have often heard of you," said Jirōzayémon, with a show of familiarity, holding his emotion in check. "For all the trouble you have taken for Miyuki's sake I owe you hearty thanks. I am happy indeed to see you again, Miyuki. When, a few days ago, I chanced to fall in with you at Shimada I had a great desire to make myself known to you. But to my great mortification, I could not do so in the presence of my travelling companion. I beg you to overlook my apparent unkindness. I take it that the restoration of your eyesight is due to the specific that I left with Tokuyémon for you. Nothing could give me greater joy, my dear!"

Miyuki could no longer control her emotion. She burst into tears and through her sobs no words would come. So Sekisuké spoke in her stead and related all that had befallen her. "As she is now quite restored to health," he went on, "I have brought her here without delay, and I am