Page:Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon (Reece).pdf/197

 in every household, and the white painted faces of the young daughters could be seen at the entrances of their houses. There were boys throwing balls. He encountered several couples, the gentlemen with thin moustaches who seemed to be government officials, accompanied by their young wives, wearing modern hairdoes, were strolling towards Kagurazaka.

As Tokio was affected by an angered mind and a drunken body, everything around him seemed to be of another world. He also felt that the houses standing on both sides of the road were in motion, the ground seemed to be sinking under his feet, and the skies over his head seemed to engulf him. He was, by nature, not a heavy drinker but as he had drunk saké recklessly, the liquor, at once, began to show its effects. He suddenly recalled the low-class Russians who were affected by liquor, falling down and sleeping by the roadside. And he recalled having discussed with a friend that the Russians were great because if they wanted to practice indulgencies, they really did so to the limit. "Nonsense! How can love discriminate between a mentor and his pupil!" These words slipped out his mouth.

When he walked up Nakanezaka, and came to Sanaizaka at the rear of the military officers' school, night had fallen. A large number of people passed by wearing light-colored kimonoes. A young wife was standing in front of a tobacco shop. The curtains of an ice shop were fluttering in the cool evening breeze. While Tokio was looking with bleary eyes at the summer evening scene, he sometimes hit a telegraph pole and nearly fell down; sometimes he fell