The Decay of the Angel - Yukio Mishima

Shimizu and installed her in the garden cottage.
“Her? Oh, she’s a very sad case. In my Shimizu
days she helped me this way and that. She wanted to
come to Tokyo because at home everybody made fun
of her and the children were always chasing after her
and shouting at her. So I persuaded her parents to let
me have her. They’d kill her if they put her in an
asylum. Yes, she’s crazy, no doubt about it, but she’s
harmless.”
Casual acquaintances among the elders of the
family were much taken by Tōru, but they were
courteously and skillfully turned away when they
sought to enter his life. They were inclined to lament
that a man once so keen and intelligent as Honda
should have fallen so hopelessly into senile delusions.
They had long memories, remembering that windfall
of more than twenty years before. Envy was at work.
A day in Tōru’s life.
There was no longer a need to look at the sea and
await ships.
There was no need to attend classes either, but
Tōru did so to inspire confidence. He went by
automobile, despite the fact that the university was a
ten-minute walk away.
The habit of rising early had not left him. Judging