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The Decay of the Angel - Yukio Mishima

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12<br />

HONDA WAS SILENT through dinner, and Keiko<br />

was too startled to talk.<br />

“Are you coming to my room?” she asked as <strong>the</strong>y<br />

left <strong>the</strong> table. “Or shall I go to yours?”<br />

Always when <strong>the</strong>y traveled toge<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y went after<br />

dinner to <strong>the</strong> room <strong>of</strong> one or <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r and talked over<br />

whiskey. If ei<strong>the</strong>r pleaded fatigue <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r<br />

understood.<br />

“I’m not feeling as tired as I did. I’ll be with you in<br />

maybe a half hour.” He took her wrist and looked at<br />

<strong>the</strong> number on her key. She found endlessly amusing<br />

<strong>the</strong> pride he took in this little public display <strong>of</strong><br />

intimacy. He could be amusingly intimate one instant<br />

and somberly, threateningly judicial <strong>the</strong> next.<br />

She changed clo<strong>the</strong>s. She would make fun <strong>of</strong> him.<br />

But she reconsidered. She saw that she could make<br />

fun <strong>of</strong> him without restraint when <strong>the</strong> matter was a<br />

serious one; but it was a law between <strong>the</strong>m that <strong>the</strong><br />

frivolous must always be serious.<br />

<strong>The</strong>y sat at <strong>the</strong> small table by <strong>the</strong> window. Honda<br />

ordered <strong>the</strong> usual bottle <strong>of</strong> Cutty Sark. Keiko was<br />

looking at <strong>the</strong> swirls <strong>of</strong> mist outside. She took out a

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