-"Why?
Why? Eh! You pretend ignorance. You pretend ignorance of the joyful
result. By the artifice of Koume, of parent and child, in unison with
Suian, a poisonous drug has been given me to drink. By this means I am
made unrecognizable. Would that never I had been born, to live so
deformed ... all due to the feeling aroused in these people. Sa! Sa! Sa!
Restore my former appearance! Bewitched, seized by anxious care, it
remains but to withdraw."

_Iemon_--"Ya! What mad talk! In my absence, loosening the cord of the
_obi_, secretly you indulge your lewdness. Detected by the master's eye,
disloyal as you are, death is the weighty punishment. Make ready!" At
hearing the unjust proposal the upright Kosuke with tears held tight his
knees.

_Kosuke_--"Heigh! Danna Sama. Iya! I say, Iemon Dono! This Kosuke an
adulterous fellow? Heigh-ho! It is unreasonable! Unreasonable!
Unreasonable! You speak for your own purpose. I, the mere servant, have
been to call the honoured priest to the Yotsuya. Returning home I found
the Okusama unconscious. When she learned the true state of affairs the
Okusama would have rushed forth. To stop her I seized the end of the
_obi_. And that is to be unchaste! Iya! A paramour--heigh-ho! That is
too much! Too much! Too much! It is to go to excess. Truly, truly, for
these years and months you have gone forth in the world. Such has been
your conduct. You have allowed a sight of you--at the Bon Matsuri, at
the New Year, in accidental meetings on the street when on some mission.
Why! The very dogs bark--the honoured constables of the night watch--eh!
they administer reproof."

_O'Iwa_--"Lamentable the distress. How many times! Sleepless the
nights--the time when one should slumber. But this does not move him.
Hence the unkindness of his speech."

_Kosuke_--"Eh! He don't listen. Danna Dono, beating the _tatami_ one
weeps with regret."

O'Iwa forthwith sprang up in haste--sprang up--sprang up.

"Superior is the concubine to the lady wife. Below the basely mean is
one placed. In the relation of husband and wife, the thought is to treat
the husband with respect. Such is the duty of woman. To you the poverty
and distress are not displayed. Obtaining her means to live by washing
and occasional tasks, yet the wife is discarded. The sum total of the
sunshine transforms the flowers; invisible their change. Regardless of
self-distrust of the past is put aside. But you act with cruel motive; a
grudge as lasting