Page:Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon (Reece).pdf/223

 lavatory or lay down on the ground. Nevertheless, Tokio's manner was not an intentional act of pretence during his lectures. Whenever he sat facing her, he did his best to court her favor.

And Yoshiko trusted her mentor. She even thought that when the time came for her to divulge her love affair to her parents, she would be satisfied if she could obtain the consent from such a kind mentor even if the old-fashioned ideas of her parents and her modern thoughts collided.

September was over, October set in. A lonely wind was whistling through the forest in back of the house, the color of the sky was deep blue, sunlight penetrated through the crystal clear air, and the evening shadows had begun to become darker. All day long the rain was steadily falling on the few remaining leaves of the sweet potatoes; mushrooms appeared on the greengrocer's shelves. Chirping sounds near his fence died away; the leaves of the paulownia tree in his garden were falling. For one hour in the morning, from nine to ten, he lectured on novels of Turgenev; Yoshiko gave attention to the long, long story of Turgenev's while seated sidewise at her desk under her mentor's intense eyes. How much was she moved on hearing of Elena's ardent passion and strong-willed character and of her tragic death! Comparing herself with Elena in the love story, Yoshiko put herself in the heroine's place. The heroine's merciless fate in love, without any possibility of seeing her lover, and the entrusting of her whole life into the hands of a stranger, was exactly the same as Yoshiko's present emotions. She had never dreamed that a post card depicting a lily which she had received unexpectedly at Suma Beach would lead to her present fate.