“My wife?” he demanded. “Speak, woman, where is she!”
She smiled inscrutably, but as he went nearer to her the sneering lines about her face deepened, revealing all her bitter detestation of the Kirishitan.
“You will be punished if you have injured her,” he said.
“What will the wise and mighty Excellency do?”
“I will have you arrested. You will be forced to answer.”
“So!”
She drew in her breath with the hissing sound peculiar to the Japanese. Then she drew the skirt of her kimona closely about her, and turned to re-enter the house. He caught and held her by the sleeve and then she stood still, her eyes half closed.
“Answer me!” he cried.
“It is not I who am the keeper of the outcast. You come to the wrong house, sei-yo-gin. Seek elsewhere.”
Still he held her, and she could not free herself, though she made effort to do so. Thus held, in angry durance she stood.