The Wild Geese Read Online Free PDF Page A

relatives. And I've had a lonely time of it without my wife. She was over thirty when our first child was born. Our first and last. I kept Otama alive after her mother died in childbirth by taking her to different women in the neighborhood. They gave her their milk. And I had other troubles. When Otama was four, she had the measles during the Edo epidemic. The doctor said she'd die, but I didn't believe him. I took care of her. I saved her life. I let my business go, everything, watching over her. What a year! All sorts of terrible things happened two years after Lord Ii was killed. In that year some Westerners were beheaded at Namamugi. I couldn't even keep up my shop. More than once I was going to kill myself and Otama too. But how could I harm Otama? You should have seen her then. She had the smallest hands. How they poked at my chest! And she smiled at me with the widest eyes! We barely managed to live from one day to the next. I don't think many others could have gone through what we did. I wasn't a young man then. I was forty-five when she was born and, what with the cares I had, must have looked older. Still, I could have started over. One of my friends kept repeating the old proverb: ‘When a single man can't live, two can.' Then he said he knew a widow who was looking for a husband. And he'd recommend me. Oh, she had money too! But I would have had to give my child away to someone else. How could I? I refused the offer flat.”
    Suddenly the old man paused, but a moment later he continued: “You don't know how I want to curse! You can't know what it is to feel that you've been tricked! Being poor made me a dull old man! I was there when that policeman made a plaything out of Otama. Yet she's not a bad girl, and they still speak of her as a fine daughter. You know, I'd like to marry her to a good man in the right way. That's the truth. But who to? No one's willing to take me along with her. I often said to myself: ‘Don't give her away as a mistress! Don't!' But you say your master's a good man, an honest man, one we can trust? And a gentleman too? You see, I have to remember that Otama will be twenty next year. She has to marry soon. They say that the young shoot must be eaten before it withers. I'm trying to understand your offer. You see, I'm going to give away one so dear to me. You see, she's my only child. She's all I care about. I've got to meet this gentleman myself!”
    When the go-between repeated these words to Suezo, he was disappointed at the old man's insistence that he be present at the interview. Suezo had planned to dismiss the go-between as soon as she had brought Otama to the restaurant. He expected no one to interfere. But if the father came, what a formal scene it would be! True, Suezo's mind bordered on formality, but it extended only to himself, as though he deserved recognition and praise for bringing the meeting about and for taking the first step in satisfying his secret passion. For the event a tête-à-tête was essential. But the presence of a father would completely alter the tone of the holiday.
    Previously the go-between had told him: “What a virtuous pair they are! At first they said no. They wouldn't even listen to me. But I got the girl alone and talked about duty, duty to her father. ‘Your hard-working father,' I said. ‘Too old to keep earning his living.' And that made her listen. She agreed to it all right. She got her father to agree!”
    When Suezo learned this, his spirits soared, for he admired the tenderness and obedience of the person he was to own. Yet finding that both were pillars of purity, he felt that this important meeting would be like that of a bridegroom in front of his father-in-law. And the thought that the celebration might shift in that direction made him feel as though someone were pouring a dipper of ice water on his overheated head.
    But he knew he had to be consistent, that he had to show his wealth and generosity.