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A Japanese miscellany - University of Oregon

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Of a Promise Broken 21<br />

Next morning, when the samurai returned from<br />

the castle, his young wife prostrated herself before<br />

him in supplication —<br />

:<br />

" 1 beseech you," she said, " to pardon my in-<br />

gratitude and my great rudeness in thus addressing<br />

you : but I want to go home — ; I want to go<br />

away at once."<br />

" Are you not happy here ? " he asked, in sin-<br />

cere surprise.<br />

to you during my absence ?<br />

" "<br />

" Has any one dared to be unkind<br />

" It is not that — " she answered, sobbing.<br />

" Everybody here has been only too good to me.<br />

. . . But I cannot continue to be your wife ; —<br />

I must go away. . . ."<br />

"My dear," he exclaimed, in great astonish-<br />

ment, " it is very painful to know that you have<br />

had any cause for unhappiness in this house. But<br />

I cannot even imagine why you should want to<br />

go away— unless somebody has been very un-<br />

kind to you. . . . Surely you do not mean that<br />

you wish for a divorce ?<br />

die !<br />

"<br />

She responded, trembling and weeping, —<br />

" If you do not give me a divorce, I shall<br />

He remained for a little while silent, — vainly<br />

trying to think <strong>of</strong> some cause for this amazing

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