“You are feeling so tired? It is the weather does it. Spring makes you feel lazy. Have a smoke. You must feel lonesome, Danna, stopping alone at Shiota? You must drop in to see me. The Tokyo-born likes the Tokyo-born. Your talk won’t fall in with others. Does the O-Jo-san come out to say nice things to you? The trouble with her is she is all mixed up about right and wrong.”
“You were going to say something about O-Jo-san, and then you went about scrubbing my head and I felt as it was coming off.”
“That was so. My head is so empty and I skip about so. I was going to say that the priest fell head over ears in love with her.”
“The priest? What priest?”
“The priestling of Kaikanji, of course.”
“You haven’t said a word about a priest, full-fledged or half fledged.”
“Haven’t I? I am so hasty, Danna. The priest, that priestling, was good in looks, of a cast that girls like. This bozu[(25)] became, I tell you, smitten by her of Shiota and at last wrote her a love letter.... Wait a bit, did he go at it himself? No, it was, he wrote.... Let me see.... I am getting mixed up.... No, I am all right, I’ve got it ... so was in fright and consternation.”
“Who was in fright and consternation?”
“The woman, of course.”
“By receiving the letter?”