“All the more reason why I should quail now, your lordship.”
“You are a most obstinate fellow! Why will you never do as I tell you?”
Terumasa took hold of the man’s collar and twisted his face upwards. Looking calmly and critically at it for a moment or two he observed complacently.
Terumasa took hold of the man’s collar and twisted his face upwards
“Well, Nagai Naokatsu, it affords me much gratification to look at you. I have been told that you have the best appearance of all the men in the service of Lord Tokugawa. My informant was right—you are undoubtedly a very handsome man, though at the present moment you do not appear to the best advantage.... It is a satisfaction to know that my father met his death at the hands of so creditable a soldier. Without doubt he went the less reluctantly to the spirit world. So far, well, Nagai.”
Naokatsu gave himself up for lost. Though far from being a coward at ordinary times, the stern aspect and speech of Terumasa whom he had so greatly, though inadvertently, wronged, awed and intimidated him.
The four retainers stood prepared to interfere at the last moment should it be necessary, and they too thought Nagai’s doom was sealed.
Still keeping his grip on the collar of his victim’s garment, Terumasa continued to gaze at him thoughtfully. Then turning to the other men he asked abruptly:—
“What annual stipend does he receive at the present time?”