A Dark Night's Passing by Naoya Shiga

Author:Naoya Shiga [Shiga, Naoya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

3

“It is some time since I last wrote to you. I trust you are well. I enjoyed reading your last letter, and was happy to hear that Kyoto suited you. Have you found a house that you like? You must be looking forward to the autumn. How nice it will be then. No doubt you intend to come to Tokyo for a visit once you have settled in your new house there, but there is something Oei wants you to think about in the meantime.

“The day before yesterday I got a letter from her asking me to stop by at the house on my next trip to Tokyo. She wanted my advice on a certain matter, she said. So yesterday I went to Tokyo to see her.

“I’m sure you know that a cousin of hers, a woman by the name of Osai, has been staying with her in Ōmori. Oei doesn’t like to talk much about her cousin, but one can guess that she, too, has a demimonde background. What the woman is doing now, I can’t say exactly. All I know is that she is supposed to be running some sort of restaurant in Tientsin. I suspect that her ‘restaurant’ isn’t quite like the ordinary Tokyo restaurant.

“Oei began by expressing her uneasiness over her present situation. Her original intention, she said, of staying with you until you found a nice wife and set up your own household had become confused of late because of the recent complications between you and father. She wasn’t so sure any more, she said, that she ought to go on living with you. You may not like my bringing this matter up again, but I believe that Oei has a point.

“Now this cousin of hers—they hadn’t seen each other for ten years, apparently—wants Oei to go back to Tientsin with her and help her run the restaurant. Of course by ‘help’ she means money mostly. At any rate, Oei seems rather enthusiastic about the idea. You seem happy in Kyoto and seem to want to live there, she has some money saved up—over a thousand yen, she says—and if neither you nor I have objections, she would like to go to Tientsin with Osai.

Incidentally, she has no intention of asking for money from the family in Hongō.

“Well, that’s the gist of it. We can talk about it in greater detail when you come up to Tokyo. But please think about it in the meantime. I for my part will try to find out exactly what kind of person this Osai is and what kind of business she is trying to involve Oei in.

“I shall also think a little more about the question of money for Oei. I want you if possible to leave that up to me.

“When do you think you might be coming up? It would be nice if you could stop at Kamakura on the way. I look forward to seeing you soon.”

In some confusion Kensaku put down the letter. Go to

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