18
Eminent Authors of Japan
- Osayo.—It must be the fox!
- Kakutaro.—Who has been telling you such foolish things?
- Osayo.—My mother told me, and not only she, but also everyone of the villagers says the same thing; and when the light shines in there, the fox is always within, and anyone who peeps there will surely be enchanted by him. We must never look upon him while he is there, they say.
- Kakutaro.—(Laughs) Ha, ha, ha! The villagers know nothing about it. She is no fox! Osayo-chan, I will tell you a secret about this woman. Don’t you know that a foreign woman is now staying at that villa on the cliffs avobe the abyss of Chigo-ga-fuchi?
- Osayo.—(Looking sadly at him) But, Kaku-chan, you lie to me, because no foreign woman would come here at this time. I think you must be out of your senses to believe it!
- Kakutaro.—I tell you that all European women hate entering the bath in the presence of others, so that is the reason she comes here at this time, so that she can be alone.
- Osayo.—But where she is staying they have a bathroom where quantities of hot water enter by a pipe from this same spring.
- Kakutaro.—But, she is afflicted with some awful disease, and it cannot be cured except by the spring water, so she comes here secretly. I am sure that none of the villagers know about it.
