Page:Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon (Reece).pdf/175

, helpless before the power of her glance. Although they exchanged a few words about unimportant matters, they both seemed to realize that their idle chatter was not so idle at all. What would have happened to them, if they had kept on talking together for another fifteen minutes? Her expressive eyes twinkled; her words were captivating; and her deportment was indeed extraordinary.

"You are made up very prettily tonight, aren't you?" Hehe [sic] said deliberately.

"Thank you, I just had my bath a short time ago."

"No, I mean your face is made up so white. . . ."

"Oh! Please stop joking, Sensei!" she smiled coquettishly inclining her body.

Soon Tokio left. Yoshiko asked him to stay a little longer, but as he insisted on going home, she regretfully saw him off, accompanying him for a short distance under the moonlight. He was sure that her white face reflected something mysterious and profound.

Sometime in April Yoshiko turned pale from an illness and developed an extreme case of nerves. She complained that she could not sleep well, even though she was taking large quantities of potassium bromide. Ceaseless desires and the force for reproduction entice a marriageable woman without let up. Yoshiko made a habitual practice of taking various kinds of medicine.

She returned home in late April, then came back to Tokyo in September. It was then that the event of present concern took place.

What is called the event of present concern is nothing more than that Yoshiko found a lover. On her return to Tokyo, she had