her face O'Iwa than
Taki in a rage." He laughed--"The attenuated hands of a ghost and the
thick fist of Taki, the choice is not uncertain. From the lady mild and
merciful there is nothing to fear. Evidently she has settled matters
once and for all in the Warigesui. But at the tenement--there it is
another affair. This Cho[u]bei will fortify himself against the shock. A
drink; then another, and still more. The scoldings will fall on a
blunted mind wandering in some dreamland. Time will soothe her rage.
To-morrow Cho[u]bei wakes, to find the storm has passed and Taki his
obedient serving wench." Near the Adzumabashi, following his
prescription against domestic enlivenment, he entered a grog shop; to
turn his good coin into wine.

The quarter at Hanagawado[u] in Asakusa was in an uproar. What had
occurred was this--There was an old woman--"Baba" in the native parlance
for Dame Gossip--a seller of the dried seaweed called _nori_ (sloke or
laver), still called Asakusa _nori_, though even at that time gathered
at Shinagawa, Omori, and more distant places. This old trot had
returned, to make her last sales to the excellent metal dealer who lived
opposite her own home in the _nagaya_, in which she lived next door to
the Cho[u]bei, husband and wife. The tongue of the _doguya_ was still in
full swing of the recital, not only of his own experiences, but of the
revelations of O'Taki. He was only too willing for this twenty-first
time to repeat the tale to the _nori_ seller, his good neighbour. The
good wife and wives listened again with open mouths. The Baba was the
most interested of them all. This choice morsel of gossip was to be
gathered at the primal source, from the lips of O'Taki herself. She was
all sympathy in her curiosity--ranging in the two cases of Cho[u]bei and
wife on the one part, and the metal dealer and his insulted household on
the other part. Away she stepped quickly from the assembly of ward
gossips. At the door of Cho[u]bei's quarters she stopped--"Okamisan!
Okamisan!... Strange: is she not at home? Is she so angered that no
answer is given? However, this Baba fears no one.... Nesan! Nesan!" She
passed the room entrance and went into the area. Glancing into the
kitchen--"Oya! Oya! The meal is burnt to a crisp. It has become a soppy,
disgusting mass. Nesan! Nesan! The rain falls, the roof window
(_hikimado_) is open." She put down her empty tubs in order to play the
good neighbour. The first thing was to close