Page:Tayama Katai and His Novel Entitled Futon (Reece).pdf/277

 one of his precious possessions was very similar to the feelings Tokio had had when he first met Tanaka.

After adjusting the pleats of his, Tanaka sat the whole time in an upright position, staring most of the time at a point about two feet in front of him on the. His attitude clearly indicated resistance rather than an air of obedience. He was much too stiff, and seemed to feel he had a certain right to possess Yoshiko of his own free will.

Their talk was serious and heated. The old man did not dare to accuse Tanaka to his face for his shameless behavior, but from time to time he spoke to him with occasional irony. At the start Tokio took command of the talk, but later the discussion was mainly taken up by Tanaka and the old man. Yoshiko's father's intonation was very skillful as would be expected of a former member of a prefectural assembly; even Tanaka, who was well accustomed to oratory, was once in a while silenced. The question of whether or not to permit Yoshiko and Tanaka's marriage was raised but it was rejected by the old man on the grounds that this subject should not be taken up at this time; their talk turned to the more pressing problem of Tanaka's return to Kyoto.

This separation appeared to very hard for these two lovers--especially for the young man. Tanaka insisted repeatedly that it was impossible for him to return to his home on the grounds that he had completely lost his faith in religion, that he had no house to live in there and no home town to go to, and that he could not bear to give up his hopes when he saw a bright future after two to three months of suffering in Tokyo.