The Decay of the Angel - Yukio Mishima

16
SURPRISED to learn that Tōru’s birth, on March
20, 1954, came before the death of Ying Chan,
Honda ordered further investigation. He went ahead
with the adoption proceedings all the same.
He regretted that he had learned from her sister
only that her death had come in the spring, and that he
had not sought more specific information. Inquiring at
the American Embassy about the residence of the
sister, who had returned to America, he sent off two or
three queries, but not the smallest fragment of
information came in response. He had a friend in the
Foreign Office make inquiry through the Japanese
Embassy in Bangkok, but the only reply was that an
investigation was in progress. There followed silence.
He could think of any number of devices if he did
not mind the expense; but, with badly misplaced
frugality and the impatience of old age, he neglected
looking into the matter of the princess’s death even as
he pushed forward with arrangements for the
adoption. It seemed too much trouble.
The nerves of the Honda of 1944, uneasy about
classic monetary principles, were probably still young