One night, Asako awoke to find that the bed beside her was empty, and that the paper shoji was pushed aside. Nervous and anxious, she rose and stood in the dark veranda outside the room. A cold wind was blowing in from some aperture in the amado. This was unusual, for a Japanese house in its night attire is hermetically sealed.
Suddenly Sadako appeared from the direction of the wind. Her hair was disheveled. She wore a dark cloak over her parti-coloured night kimono. By the dim light of the andon (a rushlight in a square paper box), Asako could see that the cloak was spotted with rain.
"I have been to benjo," said Sadako nervously.
"You have been out in the rain," contradicted her cousin. "You are wet through. You will catch cold."
"Sa! Damaré! (Be quiet!)" whispered Sadako, as she threw her cloak aside, "do not talk so loud. See!" She drew from her breast a short sword in a sheath of shagreen. "If you speak one word, I kill you with this."
"What have you done?" asked Asako, trembling.
"What I wished to do," was the sullen answer.
"You have been with Sekiné?" Asako mentioned the student's name.
Sadako nodded in assent. Then she began to cry, hiding her face in her kimono sleeve.
"Do you love him?" Asako could not help asking.