"This is no matter for you to give advice in. I have told you to get
me the girl, and you must obey."
Chokichi, seeing that all that he could say would be of no avail,
thought over in his mind how to bring about a meeting between
Genzaburô and O Koyo, and replied--
"Sir, I am afraid when I think of the liberty that I have taken. I
will go to Kihachi's house, and will use my best endeavours with him
that I may bring the girl to you. But for to-day, it is getting late,
and night is coming on; so I will go and speak to her father
to-morrow."
Genzaburô was delighted to find Chokichi willing to serve him.
"Well," said he, "the day after to-morrow I will await you at the
tea-house at Oji, and you can bring O Koyo there. Take this present,
small as it is, and do your best for me."
With this he pulled out three riyos from his pocket and handed them to
Chokichi. who declined the money with thanks, saying that he had
already received too much, and could accept no more; but Genzaburô
pressed him, adding, that if the wish of his heart were accomplished
he would do still more for him. So Chokichi, in great glee at the good
luck which had befallen him, began to revolve all sorts of schemes in
his mind; and the two parted.
But O Koyo, who had fallen in love at first sight with Genzaburô on
the Adzuma Bridge, went home and could think of nothing but him. Sad
and melancholy she sat, and her friend O Kuma tried to comfort her in
various ways; but O Koyo yearned, with all her heart, for Genzaburô;
and the more she thought over the matter, the better she perceived
that she, as the daughter of an Eta, was no match for a noble
Hatamoto. And yet, in spite of this, she pined for him, and bewailed
her own vile condition.
Now it happened that her friend O Kuma was in love with Chokichi, and
only cared for thinking and speaking of him; one day, when Chokichi
went to pay a visit at the house of Kihachi the Eta chief, O Kuma,
seeing him come, was highly delighted, and received him very politely;
and Chokichi, interrupting her, said--
"O Kuma, I want you to answer me a question: where has O Koyo gone to
amuse herself to-day?"
"Oh, you know the gentleman who was talking with you the other day, at
the Adzuma Bridge? Well, O Koyo has fallen desperately in love with
him, and she says that she is too low-spirited and out of sorts to get
up yet."