‘Oh yes, very much!’

‘More than me, I think?’

‘Oh, no! You’re more … but no, I like you both.’ She shook her head as if perplexed. Suga looked put out but was captivated at the same time by the openness and straightforwardness of the girl’s nature; it was only when she was joking thus with Etsuko that she felt a clearing of the spirit as though she herself were a child once more.

That night, Tomo felt a chill run over her body when Suga brought the message for her to come to Yukitomo’s bedroom. For all his good temper after the Rokumeikan bazaar when he had told her to go home ahead of him with the shopping they had done, he had been tense and ill-tempered on his return later that night. She was used to his moodiness, and she knew from long experience that at no time was he so out of sorts and difficult as when a clear, cold gaze was contradicted by a pulsing blue vein at his temple and when the joints of his fingers seemed stiff, his thumb crooked. And at such times it was his habit, rather than seeking to disperse his tension in Suga’s company, to summon Tomo and question her in detail about the management of the family finances or the supervision of their assets. Tomo had no objection to his making an opportunity for them to talk together alone without the concubines, for at least once or twice every month there were decisions they had to make jointly, but she hated that at times when something had displeased him it should be she who received the full force of his resentment. Going into her husband’s bedroom, where two sets of quilts were set out side by side, she felt like an accountant about to have his books inspected by his superior. The thought that today when he was particularly irascible she must necessarily bring up the matter of Yumi made her still more reluctant to enter the room where he was waiting.

Two or three days previously, Tomo had received a letter from Yumi’s father tastefully written in the Chihagi style of calligraphy. Respectful inquiries after their health soon gave way to a suggestion that the unforeseen change in her circumstances that had been thrust on Yumi was somehow half Tomo’s own responsibility. Why had Shirakawa needed to violate Yumi when he had a wife and a mistress already? Though he was head of the household, to deprive a young woman of her virginity without her father’s consent was going too far. Her virginity, either way, could never be recovered, so what steps did he propose to take? He would call on Shirakawa in the near future to hear his intentions in the matter. The phraseology was obsequious but the bullying tone was unmistakable.