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could not get accustomed to it. The police came to the house quite often now, but she was just as alarmed as she had been the first time.

Her husband’s comrades from the trade union used to come to the house, and Okee would bring them tea. She often heard her husband say, “Yes, but I can’t alter my wife all at once.”

“I suppose you realize, comrade, that the revolution will have to go through the kitchen too,” someone said, “but you are too soft.”

“Well, that’s true, maybe, but you can’t do much with my wife. She’s rather backward.”

“You’re too easy-going, that’s what it is,” his comrades taunted him.

Rinkichi gave an embarrassed snigger. He was a little ashamed of his weakness.

One morning Rinkichi was cleaning his teeth, and his wife was standing by pouring warm water into the wash-basin, he asked suddenly, with the tooth-brush still in his mouth, “Do you know who Rosa was?”

“Rosa—a man or a woman?”

“Rosa.”