BOTCHAN
Masuya. I opened the shoji of the room and Porcupine greeted me with his Idaten-like face suddenly radiant, saying:
“Say, there’s hope! There’s hope!” Up to last night, he had been downcast, and even I felt gloomy. But at his cheerful countenance, I too became cheerful, and before hearing anything, I cried, “Hooray! Hooray!”
“About half past seven this evening,” he said, “that geisha named Kosuzu has gone into Kadoya.”
“With Red Shirt?”
“No.”
“That’s no good then.”
“There were two geishas… seems to me somewhat hopeful.”
“How?”
“How? Why, the sly old fox is likely to send his girls shead, and sneak round behind later.”
“That may be the case. About nine now, isn’t it?”
–259–
