Masks Read Online Free PDF

she said, “Toyoki Mikamé says certain things to me now and then. I’ve never given him any encouragement, but do you suppose that if I did make up my mind to leave the Toganō family, he’d marry me?”
    “Mikamé?” Struck momentarily dumb, Ibuki stared at Yasuko’s face, at once guilty and coquettish, as she sat with arms outstretched before her. “Of course. Gladly, I’m sure. He’s a bit of a ladies’ man, and he enjoys a good time; but he has strong likes and dislikes, and his taste is good. I’ve known him a long time, and I have no doubt he’s head over heels in love with you.” Ibuki became silent so abruptly that it was as if a lamp had gone out. After a pause he said, in a different, quiet voice, “But why?” Then he added peevishly, “I’m against it.”
    “Against it? You are?”
    “Mikamé is no better a man than I am, I happen to think, and what’s more, I happen to think you care more for me than you do for him.”
    “It’s true, I do…I do, but…” She floundered. “It wouldn’t work. Because if anything happened between you and me, I…that would only make it harder for me to get out of the situation I’m in.”
    “Oh? How so?” Ibuki was able, despite the critical turn in the conversation, to sound coolly objective, the shadow of a smile even crossing his face. “Because I’m married, you mean? Because I have a family already, so I can’t ask you to be my wife? But I don’t believe that married life is whatyou really want. That’s one thing about you I’ve always liked: you don’t seem infatuated with the idea of marriage for its own sake.”
    “True. The marriage ritual has no intrinsic appeal for me at all. It’s only that—” She would have gone on, but just then an American couple came in from the dining car and sat down across the aisle. The young man, whose short-cropped hair resembled the fur of a small animal, sat with one arm around the woman and said something to her in a nasal voice, all the while fondling her hand as if loath to give it up even for a moment. Ibuki glanced coldly in their direction before completing Yasuko’s unfinished statement.
    “Only what? You don’t like committing yourself without a promissory note, is that it?”
    “No.” Yasuko shook her head slowly and gave him a pensive look. “Our marriage was short, but Akio and I were happy together, and if I became independent now, I’m sure I could earn at least enough to support myself. So you see, even if I did care for you—even supposing we were lovers—I’d never show such lack of good sense as to ask you to leave your wife for me.”
    “Take me that lightly, and I might be the one to lose my good sense.” He laughed, even as he felt something in him flinch at the suggestion.
    “No, you aren’t that brave, and I know it. That possibility wouldn’t worry me. As far as marrying Mikamé goes, there are two reasons: first, I’m not in love with him, and secondly, that way once and for all I can dissolve my ties to the Toganō family, and Mieko.”
    “And why is that so vital?”
    Yasuko made no reply, only turned her eyes wordlessly in his direction.
    “As long as you don’t remarry, what harm is there in keeping the Toganō name? Or is Mieko so old-fashionedthat she expects you to belong to Akio forever and never to anyone else? She doesn’t seem to me to think that way, but who knows? Maybe it would offend her if you started seeing another man. I don’t pretend to understand a woman’s feelings. Mikamé talks as if he did, but he doesn’t fool me.”
    “Well, speaking as another woman, I’m certainly very far from understanding how she feels myself.” With her eyes on the hands folded in her lap, Yasuko went on slowly and deliberately. “But I do understand more than I once did, and that’s why I think now is the time to leave. It’s not that she pries into my affairs, really; nothing of the kind. She’s hardly that small-minded. She has a peculiar power to