and he would remark jokingly, “I wonder that you can remember such little details!” As he teased her, she would only smile. But she often wondered why she remembered these little details so very plainly.
Not long after this her mother wrote to her, telling her that her younger sister’s betrothal had been definitely settled. The letter also stated that Shunkichi had built a nice house in a suburb of Tokyo which was to accomodate both Teru-ko and hereself. At once Nobu-ko hastened to write a letter of congratulation to them both. In it she remarked, “… As I am very shorthanded here, I much regret not being able to go to Tokyo for dear Teru-ko’s wedding, but …” As she wrote she found it rather hard to collect her thoughts properly. As she paused at intervals, she raised her head and looked out into the pine plantation. It seemed very dense and green in the early winter daylight.
That evening she talked to her husband about the coming marriage of her sister. As usual he listened smilingly to all she said, and was amused and delighted at the way in which she so cleverly imitated her sister’s way of talking. But somehow or other Nobu-ko always seemed to be talking to herself, for het husband seldom ventured any remarks. After listening to her for two or three hours he would rise from the side of the brazier where they had been sitting, and stroking his moustache with the tips of his fingers, he would say, “Now, my dear, let us get to bed.” Nobu-ko sat wondering what kind of a wedding-gift would be most suitable, and as she was thinking, she poked
