Without a word or a cry, Shinsuké sprang upon the floor from his place on the kitchen ground; he wound his arms round the officer’s right hand.
“All your anger is just; but she is not to blame! Spare her life, I beg!”
“Who are you?” the officer asked, as he turned to look, lowering the weapon. He discovered there a man with features of clear-cut, handsome lines, clean shaved, about thirty four or five years of age, dressed in a habutai silk suit of dark russet colour, and a sash of black velvet, altogether an appearance of neat respectability.
“I am a page sent out from the Naka-cho to fetch back Somékichi san. Be what it will, that has brought things to this pass, you are a man of too honoured a name and position. Please be lenient and save her—and your good self from unnecessary scandal! I pray you to put that sword back in its sheath!”
“You shall be spared this night.” Thrusting her off, Ashizawa said: “And the money—whatever it is—you shall keep, for I shall call it a separation fee. And never let me see you again about here!”
“Bosh! See you again?— Not likely if you begged me, you clown!” Tsuya hurled her abuse back at him, with bitter hatred.
The footman was missed, and was looked for in vain. There was only Tokubey squatting on the threshold, his wounded head between his hands, groaning in his agony. In addition to his head, he had suffered deep cuts in his upper arms and another across his thigh. Not like a man of strong nerves and grit that he usually was, he twitched and writhed like a moribund heap of flesh.
“Tsuya! Tsuya!” he called, gasping in a faint voice. “My wounds are serious and I’m losing so much blood that I’ll never pull through. That dog Ashizawa! Get Shinsuké san to help you, and hack that miserable dog down for me! Take that vengeance for me!”
“Don’t be silly! What a song you sing with only those scratches,—you will disgrace yourself! That rascal of a servant seems to have gone off somewhere. No time to lose, get hold of me and we shall get away before the officers show up!”
Tsuya took Tokubey by the hand and, in a manner none too soft or sparing, lift him stoutly to his feet, putting his arm across her shoulder.