‘She’s like her father,’ added Toshi. It was true: the face with its graceful cheekline and the delicate set of the neck were more like Shirakawa himself than his wife. Etsuko seemed to fear the disapproval of her mother, who had only to utter the one word ‘Etsuko!’ in a low voice for the girl to seem suddenly to shrink into herself and come to sit by her side.

‘How nice that you could just up and come to Tokyo like this,’ said Kin as she bustled about making tea and serving it to them. ‘I hear your husband’s an important figure these days, almost the same as the governor. It must be very wearing for you.’

‘Oh no, I know nothing about his official work nowadays …’ She replied unaffectedly, with no trace of bragging or self-importance such as might confirm the talk Kin had heard of Mr. Shirakawa’s living like a feudal lord in the prefecture where he worked.

For a while the talk flowed freely, chiefly of life in Tokyo: how certain areas were getting busy; how hairstyles had changed in the few years Tomo had been away; of the play they were doing now at the Shintomi Theater; till finally Tomo said, ‘And we’re to enjoy ourselves this time without hurrying back … Though, to tell the truth, there is a little business mixed up with it too …’ As she spoke, she turned to reset a red comb for Etsuko, who was by her side. So casual was the phrasing that Kin paid no attention, but to Toshi it meant that, as she herself had inferred, Tomo had some important business in Tokyo. Unruffled and gracious though Tomo’s manner was, there seemed to be some unnatural burden weighing her down from within.

The next day Toshi, who was normally a stay-at-home, showed their gratitude for the presents they had received by asking Etsuko to go with her to visit the great temple of Kannon at Asakusa, and Yoshi the maid and Etsuko both set off happily in her company.

‘On your way home, buy her a picture book or something at the arcade in front of the temple,’ Kin told her daughter as she went to the gate to see them off. Going indoors, she went straight upstairs where she found Tomo sitting in the anteroom, putting clothes into a wicker hamper that they had brought with them and taking out fresh ones. The sky with its scattered white clouds, reflected in the waters of the river below, filled the two rooms where Tomo sat with a spacious white light.

‘Well – at work so soon?’ exclaimed Kin, kneeling on the wooden floor of the veranda just outside the room.