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Speaker 1: The reconciliation by leaf kati O Herne. There was a

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young samurai of Kuiyoto who had been reduced to poverty

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by the ruin of his lord, and found himself obliged

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to leave his home and take service with the governor

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of a distant province. Before quitting the capital, this samurai

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divorced his wife, a good and beautiful woman, under the

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belief that he could better obtain promotion by another alliance.

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He then married the daughter of a family of some distinction,

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and took her with him to the district whither he

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had been called. But it was in the time of

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the thoughtlessness of youth and the sharp experience of want,

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that the samurai could not understand the worth of the

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affection so lightly cast away. His second marriage did not

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prove a happy one. The character of his new wife

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was hard and selfish, and he soon found every cause

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to think with the regret of Kyoto days. Then he

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discovered that he still loved his first wife, loved her

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more than he could ever love the second, and he

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began to feel how unjust and thankless he had been.

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Gradually his repentance deepened into a remorse that left him

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no peace of mind. Memories of the woman he had wronged.

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Her gentle speech, her smiles, her dainty, pretty ways, her

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faultless patience constantly haunted him. Sometimes in dreams he saw

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her at her loom, weaving, as when she toiled night

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and day to help him during the years of their distress.

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More often he saw her kneeling alone in the desolate

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little room where he had left her, veiling her tears

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with her poor worn sleeve. Even in the hours of

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official duty, his thoughts would wander back to her. Then

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he would ask himself how she was living, what she

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was doing. Something in his heart assured him that she

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could not accept another husband, and that she would never

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refuse to pardon him, and he secretly resolved to seek

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her out as soon as he could return to Kyoto,

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then to beg her forgiveness, to take her back, to

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do everything that a man could do to make atonement.

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But the years went by. At last, the governor's official

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term expired and the samurai was free. Now I will

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go back to my dear one, he vowed to himself. Ah,

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what a cruelty, what a folly, to have divorced her.

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He sent his second wife to her own people. She

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had given him no children, and hurrying to Kyoto, he

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went at once to seek his former companion, not allowing

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himself even the time to change his traveling garb. When

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he reached the street where she used to live, it

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was late in the night, the night of the tenth

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day of the ninth month, and the city was silent

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as a cemetery. But a bright moon made everything visible,

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and he found the house without difficulty. It had a

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deserted look. Tall weeds were growing on the roof. He

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knocked at the sliding doors and no one answered. Then,

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finding that the doors had not been fastened from within,

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he pushed them open and entered. The front room was

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matless and empty. A chilly wind was blowing through crevices

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in the planking, and the moon shone through a ragged

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break in the wall of the alcove. Other rooms presented

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a like forlorn condition. The house, to all seeming, was unoccupied. Nevertheless,

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the samurai determined to visit one other apartment at the

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further end of the dwelling, a very small room that

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had been his wife's favorite resting place. Approaching the sliding

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screen that closed it, he was startled to perceive a

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glow within. He pushed the screen aside and uttered a

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cry of joy, for he saw her there, sewing by

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the light of a paper lantern. Her eyes at the

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same instant met his own, and with a happy smile,

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she greeted him, asking, only when did you come back

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to Kyoto? How did you find your way here to me?

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Through all those black rooms? The years had not changed her.

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Still she seemed as fair and young as in his

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fondest memory of her. But sweeter than any memory. There

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came to him the music of her voice, with its

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trembling of pleased wonder. Then joyfully he took his place

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beside her and told her all how deeply he repented

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his selfishness, how wretched he had been without her, how

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constantly he had regretted her, how long he had hoped

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and planned to make amends. Caressing her the while and

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asking her forgiveness over and over again. She answered him

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with loving gentleness, according to his heart's desire, entreating him

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to cease all self reproach. It was wrong. She said

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that he should have allowed himself to suffer on her account.

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She had always felt that she was not worthy to

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be his wife. She knew that he had separated from her,

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notwithstanding only because of poverty, and while he lived with her,

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he had always been kind, and she had never ceased

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to pray for his happiness. But even if there had

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been a reason for speaking of amends, this honorable visit

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would be ample amends. What greater happiness than this to

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see him again, though it were only for a moment,

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Only for a moment, he answered, with a glad laugh, say, rather,

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for the time of seven existences, my loved one, unless

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you forbid, I am coming back to live with you, always, always, always,

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Nothing shall ever separate us again. Now I have means

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and friends, we need not fear poverty. To morrow my

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goods will be brought here, and my servants will come

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to wait upon you, and we shall make this house

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beautiful tonight, he added apologetically. I came thus late, without

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even changing my dress, only because of the longing I

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had to see you, and to tell you this. She

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seemed greatly pleased by these words, and in her turn,

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she told about all that had happened in Kyoto since

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the time of his departure, excepting her own sorrows, of

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which she sweetly refused to speak. They chatted far into

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the night. Then she conducted him to a warmer room

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facing south, a room that had been their bridal chamber

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in former time. Have you no one in the house

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to help you, he asked, as she began to prepare

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the couch for him. No, she answered, laughing cheerfully. I

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could not afford a servant, so I have been living

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all alone. You will have plenty of servants tomorrow, he said,

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Good servants, and everything else that you need. They lay

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down to rest, not to sleep. They had too much

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to tell each other, and they talked of the past

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and the present and the future until the dawn was gray. Then,

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involuntarily the samurai closed his eyes and slept. When he awoke,

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the daylight was streaming through the chinks of the sliding shutters,

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and he found himself, to his utter amazement, lying upon

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the naked boards of a moldering floor. Had he only

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dreamed a dream? No, she was there, she slept. He

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bent above her and looked and shrieked, for the sleeper

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had no face before him. Wrapped in its grave sheet,

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only lay the corpse of a woman, a corpse so

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wasted that little remained save the bones and the long,

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black tangled hair. Slowly as he stood, shuddering and sickening

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in the sun, the icy horror yielded to a despair

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so intolerable, a pain so atrocious, that he clucked at

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the mocking shadow of a doubt. Feigning ignorance of the neighborhood,

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he ventured to ask his way to the house in

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which his wife had lived. There is no one in

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that house, said the person questioned. It used to belong

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to the wife of a samurai who left the city

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several years ago. Horster in order to marry another woman

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before he went away, and she fretted a great deal,

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and so became sick. She had no relatives in Kyoto

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and nobody to care for her, and she died in

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the autumn of the same year, on the tenth day

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of the ninth month, end of the reconciliation