‘Don’t be silly. It’s only a day or two since you were in bed with a headache, isn’t it? You don’t want to make yourself giddy, do you?’ He wrested the broom from Suga’s hand and briskly began to sweep.

For a while Suga’s eyes were fixed on the ground, from which arose a scent of grass stirred up by Konno’s energetic movements with the broom, then she said without looking up:

‘You mustn’t call me Mrs. Shirakawa again, Mr. Konno.’

‘Oh lord!’ muttered Konno to himself and stopped wielding the broom. ‘I’m sorry – really. I must have got into the habit.

Even so, there’s nobody around, so it doesn’t matter, does it?’

‘Even if there’s not, you’ll soon hear about it from somebody. It makes it difficult for me.’

‘I suppose I shall be told again that there aren’t two mistresses in this house. Someone said she was just like the Empress of China. Unpleasant old woman, isn’t she?’

‘ “Old woman”! Really, Mr. Konno, to call the mistress of the house …!’

‘There’s only one head of this house, and that’s the master. I hate hearing that old woman talking to you as if you were a maid. They keep on calling her the “mistress,” but nowadays she has nothing to do with the master, does she? Surely it’s you who’s the real mistress?’

Suga stood with one hand on the plum tree, her white toes idly playing with her garden clog as she listened to Konno’s protestations. The words uttered by the young pharmacology student affected her mind with a pleasurable pain.

‘You shouldn’t say such things. The mistress is a great deal more strong-willed underneath than the master. However things may look, he’s got a healthy respect for her. You won’t stay in this house long, either, if she takes a dislike to you.’

‘Fat lot I care!’ With a sulky look Konno flung aside the broom with which he had just finished the sweeping.

‘You’re too docile, Suga. You ought to have a word in the master’s ear and get him to put that old woman in her place.’

‘What an idea – as if I could!’ muttered Suga, opening wide her great, gloomy eyes in which pale blue specks were visible.

Two or three days previously, Tomo had sent Konno to the local ward office for some papers which, as she was out when he returned, he had given to Suga instead of handing them to her personally. Later, Tomo had called to Konno as he was walking along the corridor.

‘Mr. Konno – did you do what I asked at the ward office?’

‘Yes, I brought the papers but you were out, so I gave them to the mistress.’

Konno, who habitually went rather tense when spoken to by Tomo, hunched his shoulders together deferentially and spoke formally, as usual.