ed her
violently away. "Scrawny wench! What impudence to show your face here!
Ah! To the last moment, waking and in dreams, she pursues this Kwaiba. I
sold you. 'Tis true--I sold you for a night-hawk--to Toemon of Honjo[u].
Does Kwaiba consort with wenches of such ilk?" Raising his fist he dealt
her blow after blow, all the time shouting--"O'Iwa! O'Iwa! The O'Bake
solicits Kwaiba. Broken loose from Hell and the waters of Warigesui she
would force away Kwaiba. Help! Help! Aid for Kwaiba! Away with the
O'Bake!" The old man again had broken into his mad fit. The shouts of
Kibei brought Kakusuke. Kwaiba's hands were detached from the masses of
O'Hana's hair. The wounds on her face were not so deep as those
inflicted on her mind. At last the secret was out. In bare feet she fled
along the muddy street toward the Samoncho[u] house.

It was true that the vileness of the disease, the vileness of Kwaiba's
tongue, had driven the women from attendance in the sick room to the
remotest quarters of the house. But there was a deterrent even to their
now limited service. All said the place where Kwaiba lay was haunted.
Under press of necessity a maid had brought needed medicaments to the
sick man's room. Putting down the light she carried on the _ro[u]ka_,
she pushed open the _sho[u]ji_ to enter the outer chamber. Her robe
caught as she did so.

Turning to release it she gave a fearful shriek. Standing in the
corridor, at the open screen behind her, were two tall figures robed in
black. With dishevelled hair, broad white flat faces, bulging brows,
eyelids swollen and sightless, yet they gazed through and through the
onlooker and into the farther room. One creature, even more hideous with
drooping lid and baldness extending far back, half moved, half fell
toward the frightened maid. The woman's screams now were mingled with
wild laughter. Kibei came rushing out, sword drawn, to find her in a fit
of mad hysterics. Catching the drift of her broken phrases he went out
on the _ro[u]ka_. There was no one there. _Haori_ and _kimono_, hung up
there to dry, rustled and moved a little in the draft. Had these
frightened the woman? Kakusuke carried her back to her companions.
Henceforth no one would enter that part of the building occupied by the
sick man. Kibei as son, Kakusuke the old and faithful attendant, were
isolated in their nursing.

Kibei noted the sick man's face. "Father, why the forehead so wrinkled?
Is pain condescended?" Said Kwa