Before I knew what I was doing I burst out laughing. It all seemed so funny to me, although I can’t explain why. I covered my mouth in confusion, but when I looked at the lady I saw that she was also laughing unaccountably, and then her husband could not help but laugh too.

“No, it is really no laughing matter, but I’m so fed up that I feel like laughing. Really, if he used all his ability in some other direction, he could become a cabinet minister or a Ph.D. or anything else he wanted. When Akichan was still friends with Mr. Otani she used to brag about him all the time. First of all, she said, he came from a terrific family. He was the younger son of Baron Otani. It is true that he had been disinherited because of his conduct, but when his father, the present baron, died, he and his elder brother were to divide the estate. He was brilliant, a genius in fact. In spite of his youth he was the best poet in Japan. What’s more, he was a great scholar, who had gone from the Peers’ School to the First High School and the Tokyo Imperial University. He was a perfect demon at German and French. To hear Akichan talk, he was a kind of god, and the funny thing was that she didn’t make it all up. Other people also said that he was the younger son of Baron Otani and a famous poet. As a result even my wife, who is getting along in years, was as wild about him as Akichan. She used to tell me what a difference it makes when people have been well brought up. And the way she pined for him to come was quite unbearable. They say the day of the nobility is over, but until the war ended I can tell you that nobody had his way with the women like that disinherited son of the aristocracy. It was unbelievable how they fell for him. I suppose it was what people would nowadays call ‘slave mentality.’

“For my part, I’m a man, and at that a very cool sort of man, and I don’t think that some little peer—if you will pardon the expression—some member of the country gentry who is only a younger son, is all that different from myself. I never for a moment got worked up about him in so sickening a way. But all the same, that gentleman was my weak spot. No matter how firmly I resolved not to give him any liquor the next time, when he suddenly appeared at some unexpected hour, looking like a hunted man, and I saw how relieved he was at last to have reached our place, my resolution weakened, and I ended up by giving him the liquor. Even when he got drunk he never made any special nuisance of himself, and if only he had paid the bill he would have been a good customer. He never advertised himself and didn’t take any silly pride in being a genius or anything of the sort. When Akichan or somebody else would sit beside him and sound off to us about his greatness, he would either change the subject completely or say, ‘I want some money so I can pay the bill,’ throwing a wet blanket over everything.