As expected, Iwamoto fell in happily with Tomo’s skillfully phrased effort at matchmaking. Born in Kumamoto into the family of a samurai with a small stipend, and accustomed from childhood to hearing tales of attendants receiving as wives serving-women whom the lord had already deflowered, or of chief retainers’ concubines being married off to lower-ranking samurai, Iwamoto had no sense of either insult or disgust at the idea of taking in marriage a woman who had been mistress of a man to whom he was obliged both as uncle and as benefactor.

Yumi’s own family too were delighted that the Shirakawas should show so much concern over what happened to their daughter, since a marriage to Iwamoto, who was Mrs. Shirakawa’s nephew, would mean a new and close tie with the family. Yumi was young enough to be Shirakawa’s daughter, and in addition to the wife there was another concubine called Suga who had preceded her, so her position in the household had from the outset been more like that of a chambermaid. In appearance, though, she had a refinement that fitted her better than Suga to be mistress of a household and, together with the absence of the pettiness and suspicion so often found in women, saved her from any trace of the shadow that usually hung over a concubine.

In the same way Yumi herself agreed without fuss to the match with Iwamoto. Since she had often talked and laughed about Iwamoto’s clumsy Kyushu Speech and his prim, methodical movements, Suga found it strange that these should bother her so little now that she was going to marry him, and said to Yukitomo:

‘I wonder whether Yumi will make a go of it with Mr. Iwamoto?’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Yukitomo, carelessly, a smile obviously free of all ill-feeling creasing his cheeks, on which faint liver spots were visible. ‘Yumi could settle down with anybody.’

‘Nothing seems to bother you, does it?’ said Suga in a disgruntled tone, fixing Yukitomo with a gloomy stare.

‘Do you want to get married too? I expect you get tired of tending to the needs of an old man like me, don’t you?’

‘I don’t have the initiative for anything else anyway …’