tonishment. "What! Is there argument from wife to
husband? This insolence of behaviour crowns the insult of refusal. The
very sight of your face is enough to make one sick at the stomach. Boors
and _bakemono_ are shut out at the Hakone barrier. But you--the guards
have been put to sleep, and you have slipped through. Shut up! Get the
money, or...." O'Iwa crouched at the _sho[u]ji_, in terror and surprise.
The insulting words heaped on her pained and tortured. Now she felt the
sharp sting of a hand forcibly applied to her cheek. Without a word she
left the room. Returning she brought thirty _ryo[u]_ in gold on a
salver. Timidly prostrate she presented it to Iemon. "Condescend to
pardon Iwa. That she is ugly and incompetent she knows. Did not Iemon
accept her?" The man stuffed the gold in his girdle. In reply--"No:
Iemon was cheated by Kondo[u] and Cho[u]bei. A plain woman--perhaps; but
a monster, a worse than _rokurokubi_, was never thought of even in a
dream. Compensation is to be found. Iemon likes gambling. He will
gamble. Have a care to supply the needed funds; and don't interfere."
Roughly he shoved her out of the way, and left the house.

For long O'Iwa saw nothing of Iemon; but she heard from him. In fact he
was living in semi-secrecy at the house of Rokuro[u]bei. Now this
messenger, then that, would come to O'Iwa. "If there is no money--sell
something. The bearer will indicate. A supply must be found." Thus one
thing after another left the house--to be stored in the godown of
Kondo[u] Rokuro[u]bei, to whose clever suggestion was due this way of
stripping O'Iwa of all she possessed. With goods and clothes went the
servants. In the course of a few weeks O'Iwa was living in one room,
furnished with three _tatami_ in lieu of the usual twelve in number.
Hibachi, _andon_ (night lamp), the single garment she wore, this was all
she possessed in the house. Then at last she saw him. The light dawned
on a cold snowy morning of early March. O'Iwa rose, opened the _amado_,
and started her day. About the fourth hour (9 A.M.) the _sho[u]ji_ were
pushed aside and Iemon entered. He looked as if fresh from a night's
debauch. His garments were dirty and disordered. His face was sallow,
the eyes deep set and weary, his manner listless. O'Iwa gave him the
only cushion in the room. Seated before the _hibachi_ (brazier) after
some time he said--"A million pardons: the luck has been very bad....
Ah! The place here seems in disorder. It i