XV
“To what are you listening, Tama?”
He had come upon her pressed closely against a latticed screen, whose opening looked out upon the river leading to the city below.
She started at his coming, and turned toward him, her back against the screen.
“I listen to the noise of thad river,” she said, and there was a conciliating, pleading note in her voice.
“You cannot hear the river from here. It is very shallow—barely stirs. There is something else you are listening to?”
“It is the uguisu,” she said quickly, as though she sought to disarm his fears. “It no longer sings, Tojin-san. I listen for hees voice again.”