“He likes ordinary hot water better than tea. But my father would have him. Poor thing, he must have had a hard half hour of it. I would have let him go before the party rose, if I were there.”
“Where have you been? The priest was asking after you—if you were out again on one of your lonely walks?”
“Yes, I was. I made a round of Kagamiga Ike pond and neighbourhood.”
“I should myself like to go and see that pond.”
“Do, by all means, Sensei.”
“Will it make a good picture?”
“It is a good place for drowning yourself.”
“I have no idea of ending my life in water for some time to come.”
“I may, before long.”
Too bold a joke for a woman, and I looked up into her eyes. She seemed quite sound, more herself than I expected.