After hesitating, I answered at last:—
"Yes."
"What kind of a person?" Goto asked.
I answered:—
"If I had felt myself able to look at him long enough to form any opinion, I would not have put mother to the trouble of going with me."
"Ané-San [Elder Sister]!" he exclaimed,—"then what was the use of going to see him at all?... But," he added, in a more pleasant tone, "let me wish you luck."
"Anyhow," I said, "to-morrow it will be."
And I returned home.
*
Now the appointed day having come—the twenty-eighth day of the ninth month—I had so much to do that I did not know how I should ever be able to get ready. And as it had been raining for several days, the roadway was very bad, which made matters worse for me—though, luckily, no rain fell on that day. I had to buy some little things; and I could not well ask mother to do anything for me,—much as I wished for her help,—because her feet had become very weak by reason of her great age. So I got up very early and went out alone, and did the best I could: nevertheless, it was two o'clock in the afternoon before I got everything ready.