126
"They're calling you."
"I know it, but how can I face my father?" She was crying.
"But it has been a long time since you've seen your father. In any case, you can't avoid meeting him. Come now, you don't need to worry so much. You'll have no trouble."
"That's what you say, but Oku-san...."
"I assure you everything will be all right. Come, come, pull yourself together, and talk to your father frankly. I promise you there'll be no trouble."
At last Yoshiko presented herself to her father. On seeing her father's beloved bushy-beared face which looked dignified, though there was something tender-hearted in his apparence, Yoshiko could not hold back her tears. Her father was an old-fashioned and stubborn man who did not understand the feelings of young people; nevertheless, he was her tender-hearted father. Her mother was attentive about everything and took good care of Yoshiko's needs, but somehow Yoshiko liked her father more than her mother. Yoshiko surmised that her father might be moved in her favor if she appealed to him about her present predicament and explained at great length the seriousness of her love affair.
"Yoshiko, It's been a long time since I last saw you. Are you in good health?"
"Father...." Her voice choked in her throat.
“When I was coming up," her father turned to Tokio,who was seated beside him, "something happened to the train between Sano and Gotenba, and we were detained for about two hours. I heard that the engine had broken down.
