Page:Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon (Reece).pdf/221

 the ultramodern actions of this new group, he could not help but frown at their behavior.

A post card bearing a Kōzu cancellation arrived from Tanaka informing her he was en route home and was delivered the next day to Yoshiko by her former landlady at Sanban-Chō. Whenever Yoshiko was called, she came at once from her living room upstairs. They enjoyed her company at their daily meals. At night seated around a bright lamp, they merrily conversed in a lively manner. She knit socks for them. At all times she had a pleasant smile. Having completely taken charge of Yoshiko, Tokio, in any case, felt a sense of relief and satisfaction. His wife, on finding out that Yoshiko now had a lover, was completely relieved of any feelings of danger and anxiety.

Yoshiko could not endure living apart from her lover. She wished that he lived in Tokyo where she could see his face and talk to him from time to time. But she knew that, at this time, it was nearly impossible. She thought that she should concentrate on her studies, supported by an occasional letter from him, until he graduated from Dōshisha in a couple of years. In the afternoons she attended, as before, a certain private school that taught English; Tokio, as usual, went to his office.

In the evening Tokio called Yoshiko from time to time to his study and lectured on literature, novels, and love. And he gave Yoshiko warnings against possible dangers. During his lectures, his manner was unbiased, straightforward, and sympathetic, and no one could ever think of him as a man who had been drunk, slept in a