‘Now Etsuko’s getting older she insists on taking this and that with her,’ said Tomo, speaking slowly as she put away kimonos one by one in the hamper. ‘It’s made traveling anywhere quite a bother.’ She paused. ‘Mrs. Kusumi … I wonder if you’re busy just at the moment?’

She had just leaned forward in order to put a yellow silk, lined kimono of Etsuko’s deep down inside the hamper, and her face was not visible. It was precisely for the sake of a chat that Kin had come upstairs, but suddenly Tomo’s words made her feel somehow awkward at having come up at all.

‘No … Why, is there something I can do for you?’

‘If you’re busy, of course, it doesn’t have to be now, but since Etsuko was out I thought … Either way, why don’t you come in here for a while?’

Speaking in the same leisurely tone as ever, she brought a cushion and placed it on the tatami mats near the veranda.

‘You see – to tell the truth, there’s something I’d very much like you to do for me while I’m here.’

‘Now I wonder what that could be? If it’s anything in my power I’ll gladly do it, of course …’

Kin made a show of speaking heartily yet wondered desperately what Tomo was about to confide in her as she sat there so correctly with hands clasped in her lap and eyes downcast. The faintest of lines, like a very slight smile, extended from the edge of her gently curving cheek down to the corner of her mouth.

‘It’s a rather peculiar business, I’m afraid,’ she said, raising her hand to touch her sidelock. Hating even a single strand to be out of place, she had a habit of running a hand over her hair from time to time even though, in keeping with the whole of her personal appearance, it was always immaculately groomed.

At this point it dawned on Kin that, somewhere, a woman must be involved. When Shirakawa had been in Tokyo, women had always been coming to the house; it had worried Tomo, Kin knew, and now that he had reached his present position the likelihood of such an affair was all the greater. She deliberately maintained her inquiring expression nevertheless, since to probe into such a private matter as though she had already guessed its nature would have conflicted with her innate, townswoman’s sense of etiquette.

‘What is it? Don’t hesitate to tell me,’ she said.

‘Well, since I shall have to ask your help at any rate …’ Again the smile, elusive as the smile on a No mask, played about the corners of Tomo’s mouth.

‘The fact is, you see, I’d like to find a maid to take back with me. Aged somewhere between fifteen and, say, seventeen or eighteen. From a respectable family, if possible … but she must be good-looking.’