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Eminent Authors of Japan

to the bath before you. If your father returns soon, please come, and I will see you again there.

  • Tsugi.—Very well, I shall come presently.
  • Wife.—Good-bye, then. (She goes out, looking up to the sky.) Oh, what a gloomy sky it is!
  • Tsugi.—Is it raining again?
  • Wife.—No, it is not raining, but it is very cloudy and dark. The weather is very uncertain during the cherry-blossom season. Goodbye, Miss Tsugi.
  • Tsugi.—Good-bye. (After a short silence Koyama, the policeman, comes in from his office.)
  • Tsugi.—Oh, Papa, you are back again. Will you change your clothes first, or will you have your supper? (She goes to get his kimono, which is hung from a hook on the wall.)
  • Koyama.—I will have my supper first, for I feel very hungry.
  • Tsugi.—Yes, your supper was interrupted by the sudden coming of that man, and I knew that you would be very hungry when you returned, so I kept it for you.
    (Tsugi pushes out the table again before Koyama, and fids his bowl with rice. Koyama begins his supper, with his back to the audience.)
  • Tsugi.—Papa, has the woman who buried her baby been arrested?
  • Koyama.—Not yet. It was only a little while ago that the corpse was found,—but I think that the criminal will soon be caught. Such a heartless wretch could not be allowed by God to escape.