saw them off at Tokyo Station, Nobu-ko seemed very cheerful indeed. Her face beamed with smiles, and she was kindly trying to console her younger sister who would be left alone in Tokyo. The younger girl seemed to be feeling the parting very much, and her eyes brimmed with tears.
Nobu-ko’s friends all wondered. A mixture of relief and spiteful jealousy took the place of their former feelings. A few of them still had faith in Nobu-ko, and attributed her sudden change of mind to the influence of her mother. There were some, however, who doubted her and talked in an unkind way about her fickleness. But they all realised that their opinions were nothing but mere supposition.
Why didn’t she marry Shunkichi? This was the chief topic of conversation between all her friends for a long time afterwards. Whenever they met they discussed it over and over again as if it were quite a serious and important matter to them. After two or three months, however, they gradually began to forget all about it, and they even forgot to mention about the novel their friend had written.
In the meanwhile Nobu-ko settled in her new home which was in one of the suburbs of Osaka, and she rather anticipated a blissful married life. The house was built right in the centre of a grove of high pine-trees, and she enjoyed their fragrance as it was wafted into the open windows with the bright sunlight which flooded the rooms of her newly-built, two-storied house.
When she had nothing to do during the absence
