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 had taken in order to win Yoshiko's favors. The chief purpose of the letter which he had sent to her father in Bitchū was to do all he could to protect their love and persuade her father to grant Yoshiko and Tanaka's wishes. Tokio knew that Yoshiko's parents would never consent to her desires. He had hoped that his suggestion would be flatly rejected by her parents. As he expected, her parents were still dead set against Tokio's suggestion. They even said that if she did not obey their orders they would disinherit her. This meant that the two lovers had received a just reward due to them. Tokio defended Yoshiko with all his might, saying that their love was not for indecent purposes, and asked one of her parents to be sure to come up to Tokyo to solve this problem. However, her parents back home rejected his request saying it would be of no use to come up to Tokyo--that Tokio who was supervising Yoshiko had a fixed opinion in the young couple's favor, and that they could never personally permit this marriage.

Tokio deliberated about the letter sent to him by Yoshiko.

By this time, the situation of the two lovers had become precarious. Tokio sensed that there were a large number of alarming elements in the bold words which indicated Yoshiko's desire to leave his supervision and live with Tanaka. Nay, he thought they might have already gone one step further. On the other hand, he became furious by her decision to disregard his whole-hearted efforts and good will on her behalf and he thought it was best to let her have her own way since she was ungrateful and senseless. Trying to calm his emotions, Tokio took a walk along a bank of the Tone River under a dimly-shining moon. Even though it was winter, it was rather warm when the moon had rings