full length on the mats. He
buried his face in his arms. The groans which issued from the prostrate
body frightened the woman. "The honoured return; has other misfortune
fallen on the House?" A shrug of the shoulders, a shiver; then the man
half rose and faced her. She was startled at his expression. He was
facing the most dreadful, not mere thought of ruin to him and
his--"Suzuki San is liar and thief. Fifty _ryo[u]_ in hand the promise
was for abstention. Now he demands twenty _ryo[u]_ more--the interest on
the debt in full." His voice rose to a harsh scream. He laughed
despairingly. "Seventy-five _ryo[u]_ interest, for the loan of a month;
and that loan forced on this Cho[u]zaemon by Ito[u] Kwaiba! Kibei has
squandered everything. The loan comes back on the bail. If Suzuki holds
the interest in hand, he allows the principal, three hundred and fifty
_ryo[u]_, to stand for the month. Unless he has the lacking twenty-five
_ryo[u]_ by the fourth hour (9 A.M.) to-morrow, complaint is laid at the
office. As usual the interest is written into the face of the bond. The
end is certain. This Cho[u]zaemon must cut belly or suffer degradation
(_kaieki_)." He looked her over critically. The light of hope died out
of his eyes--"Ah! If this Tsuyu could but be sold, the money would be in
hand. But she is old and ugly. Pfaugh!..." How he hated her at this
moment. Some half a dozen years older than Cho[u]zaemon the marriage had
been arranged by the parents on truly financial principles. Mizoguchi
Hampei was rich, and reputed stingy and saving. Just recently he had
fallen into the Edogawa as he returned home late one night. Drunk and
surfeited with the foul waters of the stream they had fished him out
stone dead. Then it was learned that the old fellow of sixty odd years
had several concubines, of the kind to eat into house and fortune. The
reversion of the pension, of course, went to the House. In all these
years Cho[u]zaemon had never received the dower of O'Tsuyu; nor dared to
press the rich man for it, too generous to his daughter to quarrel with.
The funds eagerly looked for by Cho[u]zaemon were found to be _non est
inventus_. Probably, if alive, Mizoguchi would have argued that the
dower had been paid in instalments. In his grave difficulties Akiyama
could find no aid in his wife. She mourned her uselessness--"Willingly
would Tsuyu come to the aid of House and husband, join her daughter in
the bitter service. But past forty years.