"Dear me, Master Takaségawa, can that be you! What a long time it is since we have met! Pray come in, and have a chat."
"Thank you, I am much obliged to you; but as I do not like the sort of scene we had the other day, I think I had rather not accept your invitation."
"Pray do not talk in such a cowardly manner. Next year, when Jiuyémon goes back to his own country, he is sure to give me this house, and then you and I can marry and live as happily as possible."
"I don't like being in too great a hurry to accept fair offers."[43]
"Nonsense! There's no need for showing such delicacy about accepting what is given you."
And as she spoke, she caught the wrestler by the hand and led him into the house. After they had talked together for some time, she said:—
"Listen to me, Master Takaségawa. I have been thinking over all this for some time, and I see no help for it but to kill Jiuyémon and make an end of him."
"What do you want to do that for?"
"As long as he is alive, we cannot be married. What I propose is that you should buy some poison, and I will put it secretly into his food. When he is dead, we can be happy to our hearts' content."
At first Takaségawa was startled and bewildered by the audacity of their scheme; but forgetting the gratitude which he owed to Jiuyémon for sparing his life on the previous occasion, he replied:—