Page:Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon (Reece).pdf/163

 For about the first month Yoshiko temporarily stayed at his home. What contrast to his former solitary life it was to have around her gay voice and her charming figure! She helped his wife, who had just recovered from her confinement, by knitting baby socks and mufflers, sewing kimonoes and playing with the children. Tokio felt as he had during his early marriage, and his heart beat excitedly every evening as he drew near his front gate of his house. As he opened the front door, there would be Yoshiko's pleasing smile and her gaily-clad figure. What a contrast--up to now his wife had always slept awkwardly under an absurdly bright electric lamp in a six-mat room with their children, which situation had all the more increased his loneliness. But, now the situation has changed. No matter how late he returned, Yoshiko would be waiting up for him under the lamp, her white hands skillfully moving, and a colorful ball of yarn on her knees. Joyful laughter filled the brushwood-wattle-fenced premises in the residential district of Ushigome.

However, in less than a month, Tokio realized that he could not have this charming pupil stay any longer under his roof. His obedient wife did not dare to complain about Yoshiko, nor did she show her feelings, but she gradually became moody. He noticed a feeling of anxiety creeping into her laughter. Tokio became aware that their problem was being discussed among his wife's relatives.

After serious consideration, Tokio finally decided that Yoshiko was to stay, for a time, with his wife's sister, who was a soldier's widow living on a pension and earning additional money by sewing, and he had Yoshiko commute from that house to a women's college in Kōjimachi.