“Haw, haw, but you may see her. She will come out, I am sure, to receive you, if you put up at the hot-spring hotel of Nakoi.”
“Why, then, is she back in her father’s house, now? I wonder if I could see her in her bridal dress, with her hair done up in the shimada.”
“Only ask her; she will most likely oblige you by appearing in the dress of her bridal tour.”
Impossible! I thought, but my bah-san[(13)] was quite in earnest. After all, my “unhuman” tour would be insipid, if it were all common-place with no such characters. My good woman went on:
“There is so much alike between the Jo-sama and Nagarano Otome.”
“You mean in their looks?”
“No, I mean in their life.”
“But who is this Nagarano Otome?”
“Long, long ago, there was the maid of Nagara, the beautiful daughter of a rich man, and the pride of this village.”
“Yes?”