“What scared him? Why, he, the priest, was in the temple assisting the abbot in the afternoon service. Then all of a sudden, the woman rushed into the temple.... Lord, she must be off a great deal.”
“Did she do anything?”
“‘If I am so dear to you, come let us make love before our all mighty Buddha,’ she said and hugged him by the neck!”
“Ho?”
“Consternation was no word, for poor Taian, the priest. He got all the shame he wanted by writing to a lunatic, and, disappearing that night, he died.”
“Died?”
“At least I think he must have killed himself. He could not have outlived the shame.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Maybe he is still living somewhere. Death would not have come out so well, the other party being a mad woman.”
“Very interesting, indeed.”