She would never have mentioned the matter directly to Shirakawa, of course, yet before the night was out he had realized from the unusual shrinking of her immature body that something was wrong. Clasping her fingers that were stiff with cold one by one in the dark, he said casually, ‘Your ring’s gone,’ and her smooth white skin suddenly turned to gooseflesh and she began to tremble like a frightened mole.

‘Did you give it to somebody?’ Gently, like a father, he stroked the skin on her back and arms, and she curled herself up against him and began to sob. Then in fits and starts, hiccuping between her sobs like a scolded child, she blurted out the story of how Kazabaya had taken the ring from her.

‘Don’t be silly. There’s nothing to cry about … The young fellows often play that sort of joke. Even so, you’d better take care – that kind of thing can lead to the most dreadful trouble.’

He put an arm around her as he spoke, while with the other hand he used the sleeve of his kimono to wipe away her tears and separated strand by strand the wet hairs that clung to her cheek.

Assuming that the affair had ended that evening, Suga was horrified a few days later to hear that on a visit to Higashiyama Spa with his colleagues from the prefectural office Kazabaya had been beaten up in a drunken quarrel and had broken his hipbone. Among those who had gone with him were several police officers who were at Shirakawa’s beck and call. Ever after, when Suga saw Kazabaya come limping to Shirakawa to listen humbly to his behests, she felt a surging sense of pain. Nowadays, Kazabaya averted his eyes from her as though afraid to catch sight of even a lock of her hair.

The master was a man to be feared, she realized, a man who might do anything once his anger was aroused. From this time on, the image of Kazabaya limping along lurked somewhere in the back of her mind even when she and Shirakawa were at their most relaxed and intimate.

‘I’ve sown too many wild oats to be a father again,’ Shirakawa would say sometimes, ‘but even if I hadn’t, I’m sure with a body like yours you couldn’t have a child.’

The words branded themselves indelibly on her mind. She had no particular desire for a child by Shirakawa, yet to be dismissed as a woman who could not bear children shrouded her heart with the forlorn sensation of being on a journey through the dusk with no place to rest at the end of the road.