Behind the willow tree was a red-brick warehouse; to the left and right of a company crest, an inverted “V” for mountain with a single line beneath it, two large spikes with right-angles at the end protruded from the wall. As Tsuda gazed at them vacantly with eyes that were scarcely focused and wondered what they might be for, he heard the sound of footsteps hastening up the stairs. He winced. From the headlong sound it was easy enough to surmise with some confidence whose footsteps they were.
His prevision quickly became reality. He turned toward the open door and at just that moment, clad in his newly acquired overcoat, Kobayashi strode into the room.
“How goes it?”
Kobayashi sat down on the tatami at once, his legs folded beneath him. In place of a greeting, Tsuda smiled uncomfortably. He was already wondering, seeing Kobayashi’s face, why he had come.
“Have a look,” he said, thrusting the arm of the overcoat at Tsuda. “Thanks to you, I’ll survive another winter.”
He had said exactly the same thing to O-Nobu, but Tsuda, who had received no report from her at yet, missed the irony.
“Your wife must have dropped in?” he continued.
“Of course — why wouldn’t she have?”
“She must have said something?”
Uncertain whether to reply yay nor nay, Tsuda hesitated. He wanted to know what Kobayashi had said to O-Nobu. Either response would do so long as it prompted him to repeat himself. But in the instant the choice had to be made, he couldn’t decide which was more likely to succeed. His silence affected Kobayashi in an unexpected way.
“She was hopping mad, wasn’t she? I thought so.”
Tsuda leaped at this obvious opening.
“Because you tormented her.”
“I did no such thing. I teased her a tad too much, poor thing. Did she cry?”
Tsuda was surprised a little.
“You said things that would make her cry?”
“You know me, just my usual drivel. The problem is, your missus doesn’t realize that despicable characters like me even exist — that’s what happens when you grow up in an upper-crust family like the Okamotos. So every little thing appalls her. You should teach her not to get involved with a scoundrel like me and she’ll be fine.”
“I have taught her that, I’m trying,” Tsuda countered in kind. Kobayashi laughed aloud.
“It appears she could use some more lessons.”
Tsuda changed his tone.
“But how did you tease her?”
“You must have heard from O-Nobu-san.”
“I didn’t.”
Their eyes met. It was clear they were attempting to fathom each other’s thoughts.
[117]
TSUDA’S DESIRE to induce Kobayashi to tell the truth had a special significance. He well understood the more dramatically evident aspects of O-Nobu’s disposition. Quite unlike O-Hide, while her behavior in his presence tended to be supremely compliant and supremely gentle, she was also capable of an equal degree of intractability where he was concerned. She had but one gift and deployed it equitably in both domains of her personality. In cases when she had decided there was something that he mustn’t know or that was more conveniently hidden from him, she became a wife who was altogether beyond managing. The more obedient she was, the less possible it became for Tsuda to extract anything from her. Because of the upheaval O-Hide had caused, there hadn’t been time to inquire about what had passed between her and Kobayashi the day before, but when he considered, though it hadn’t been an option, whether, in the absence of any impediment, asked by him for a report of exactly what had happened, O-Nobu would have satisfied him straight away with a reply that was deficient in no minutest detail, he had his considerable doubts. Judging from her usual behavior, Tsuda believed on the contrary that he would have been deceived. In the event that Kobayashi had indiscreetly blurted precisely what he feared, in that case in particular, O-Nobu appeared to be the sort of woman who could bypass her husband by pretending not to have heard and saying nothing. In his observation at least, she was abundantly capable of this. Assuming it was already necessary to give up on O-Nobu, Tsuda’s only access to the information he required was Kobayashi.
Kobayashi seemed somehow aware of this.
“I can tell you, I didn’t say a thing. If you don’t believe me, ask O-Nobu-san again. I did apologize on my way out because I felt bad, but the fact is even then I had no idea why I was apologizing.”
To hear him talk, he might have been oblivious. Abruptly he reached for the book open at Tsuda’s pillow side and scanned it for a minute in silence.
“This is the sort of thing you read?” he inquired in a voice that dripped contempt. Riffling the pages carelessly, he moved backward from the end toward the beginning. Discovering Okamoto’s small seal on the inside cover, he murmured, “No wonder!”
“O-Nobu-san must have brought this with her, I thought it was an odd book. By the way, I imagine Okamoto has plenty of money?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“Of course you do. It’s where O-Nobu-san grew up.”
“I didn’t marry her for his money.”
“Really?”
This simple “Really?” rang oddly in Tsuda’s head. It might have been taken to mean, “As if you’d marry without checking into Okamoto’s assets!”
“Okamoto is O-Nobu’s uncle, in case you didn’t know. It’s not as if that were her home or anything like it.”
“Really?”
Kobayashi repeated the word. Tsuda found it even more unpleasant.
“If you’re so keen on knowing what Okamoto is worth, shall I look into it for you?”
Kobayashi snickered. “When you’re poor, even other people’s money makes you suffer.”
Tsuda didn’t reply. He hoped his silence would terminate the conversation, but Kobayashi resumed at once.
“I do wonder what he’s worth. Seriously.”
This persistence was distinctly characteristic. And it was always possible to interpret his attitude in two ways. One could adjudge him a fool and there was an end to it; at the same time, once it began to seem that he was making a fool of you, there was no end to evidence of that. Tsuda found himself standing midway between credence and doubt. As a result, at times when his own shortcomings seemed latently implicated, he couldn’t help tending toward the latter interpretation, that he was being played the fool. Feeling that his only option was taking care not to grant his companion the upper hand, he merely smiled wanly.
“Shall I borrow a little for you?”
“To hell with borrowing. I’d accept a gift if you can get it — no, I don’t want a gift either; anyway, he doesn’t seem inclined. But if that’s the only choice, well, why not?” Kobayashi guffawed. “Maybe I should let Okamoto-san in on an interesting secret before I go to Korea and accept a little something from him.”
Tsuda quickly turned the conversation to Korea.
“When do you plan on leaving?”
“Not sure yet.”
“But you will be leaving?”
“I will! With or without any prompting from you, when the day comes I’ll be on my way.”