Death in Midsummer and Other Stories

  Fortunately Mrs Yamamoto was gazing out of the window and did not appear to have noticed her companion's momentary start of surprise.

  Caught off balance by this sudden turn of events, Mrs Matsumura did not pause to consider how the pearl had found its way into her bag, but immediately became a prisoner of her own private brand of school-captain morality. It was unlikely -

  she thought - that she would do a thing like this, even in a moment of abstraction. But since, by some chance, the object had found its way into her handbag, the proper course was to return it at once. If she failed to do so, it would weigh heavily upon her conscience. The fact that it was a pearl, too - an article you could neither call all that expensive nor yet all that cheap - only made her position more ambiguous.

  At any rate, she was determined that her companion, Mrs Yamamoto, should know nothing of this incomprehensible development - especially when the affair had been so nicely rounded off, thanks to the selflessness of Mrs Azuma. Mrs Matsumura felt she could remain in the taxi not a moment longer, and, on the pretext of remembering a promise to visit a sick relative on her way back, she made the driver set her down at once, in the middle of a quiet residential district.

  Mrs Yamamoto, left alone in the taxi, was a little surprised that her practical joke should have moved Mrs. Matsumura to such abrupt action. Having watched Mrs Matsumura's 172

  reflection in the window just now, she had clearly seen her draw the pearl from her bag.

  At the party Mrs Yamamoto had been the very first to receive a slice of cake. Adding to her plate a silver ball which had spilled on to the table, she had returned to her seat - again before any of the others - and there had noticed that the silver ball was a pearl. At this discovery she had at once conceived a malicious plan. While all the others were preoccupied with the cake, she had quickly slipped the pearl into the handbag left on the next chair by that insufferable hypocrite Mrs Matsumura.

  Stranded in the middle of a residential district where there was little prospect of a taxi, Mrs Matsumura fretfully gave her mind to a number of reflections on her position.

  First, no matter how necessary it might be for the relief of her own conscience, it would be a shame indeed, when people had gone to such lengths to settle the affairs satisfactorily, to go and stir up things all over again; and it would be even worse if in the process - because of the inexplicable nature of the circumstances - she were to direct unjust suspicions upon herself.

  Secondly - notwithstanding these considerations - if she did not make haste to return the pearl now, she would forfeit her opportunity for ever. Left till tomorrow (at the thought Mrs Matsumura blushed) the returned pearl would be an object of rather disgusting speculation and doubt. Concerning this possibility Mrs Azuma herself had dropped a hint.

  It was at this point that there occurred to Mrs Matsumura, greatly to her joy, a master scheme which would both salve her conscience and at the same time involve no risk of exposing her character to any unjust suspicion. Quickening her step, she emerged at length on to a comparatively busy thoroughfare, where she hailed a taxi and told the driver to take her quickly to a certain celebrated pearl shop on the Ginza. There she took the pearl from her bag and showed it to the attendant, asking to see a pearl of slightly larger size and clearly superior quality.

  Having made her purchase, she proceeded once more, by taxi, to Mrs Sasaki's house.

  Mrs Matsumura's plan was to present this newly purchased 173

  pearl to Mrs Sasaki, saying that she had found it in her jacket pocket. Mrs Sasaki would accept it and later attempt to fit it into the ring. However, being a pearl of a different size, it would not fit into the ring, and Mrs Sasaki - puzzled - would try to return it to Mrs Matsumura, but Mrs Matsumura would refuse to have it returned. Thereupon Mrs Sasaki would have no choice but to reflect as follows: The woman has behaved in this way in order to protect someone else. Such being the case, it is perhaps safest simply to accept the pearl and forget the matter.

  Mrs Matsumura has doubtless observed one of the three ladies in the act of stealing the pearl. But at least, of my four guests, I can now be sure that Mrs Matsumura, if no one else, is completely without guilt. Whoever heard of a thief stealing something and then replacing it with a similar article of greater value?

  By this device Mrs Matsumura proposed to escape for ever the infamy of suspicion, and equally - by a small outlay of cash

  - the pricks of an uneasy conscience.

  To return to the other ladies. After reaching home, Mrs Kasuga continued to feel painfully upset by Mrs Azuma's cruel teasing. To clear herself of even a ridiculous charge like this -

  she knew - she must act before tomorrow or it would be too late.

  That is to say, in order to offer positive proof that she had not eaten the pearl it was above all necessary for the pearl itself to be somehow produced. And, briefly, if she could show the pearl to Mrs Azuma immediately, her innocence on the gastronomic count (if not on any other) would be firmly established. But if she waited until tomorrow, even though she managed to produce the pearl, the shameful and hardly mentionable suspicion would inevitably have intervened.

  The normally timid Mrs Kasuga, inspired with the courage of impetuous action, burst from the house to which she had so recently returned, sped to a pearl shop in the Ginza, and selected and bought a pearl which, to her eye, seemed of roughly the same size as those silver balls on the cake. She then telephoned Mrs Azuma. On returning home, she explained, she had discovered in the folds of the bow of her sash the pearl which Mrs 174

  Sasaki had lost, but, since she felt too ashamed to return it by herself, she wondered if Mrs Azuma would be so kind as to go with her, as soon as possible. Inwardly Mrs Azuma considered the story a little unlikely, but since it was the request of a good Mend she agreed to go.

  Mrs Sasaki accepted the pearl brought to her by Mrs Matsumura and, puzzled at its failure to fit the ring, fell obligingly into that very train of thought for which Mrs Matsumura had prayed; but it was a surprise to her when Mrs Kasuga arrived about an hour later, accompanied by Mrs Azuma, and returned another pearl.

  Mrs Sasaki hovered perilously on the brink of discussing Mrs Matsumura's prior visit, but checked herself at the last moment and accepted the second pearl as unconcernedly as she could.

  She felt sure that this one at any rate would fit, and as soon as the two visitors had taken their leave she hurried to try it in the ring. But it was too small, and wobbled loosely in the socket. At this discovery Mrs Sasaki was not so much surprised as dumbfounded.

  On the way back in the car both ladies found it impossible to guess what the other might be thinking, and, though normally relaxed and loquacious in each other's company, they now lapsed into a long silence.

  Mrs Azuma, who believed she could do nothing without her own full knowledge, knew for certain that she had not swal*

  lowed the pearl herself. It was simply to save everyone from embarrassment that she had cast shame aside and made that declaration at the party - more particularly it was to save the situation for her friend, who had been fidgeting about and looking conspicuously guilty. But what was she to think now? Be*

  neath the peculiarity of Mrs Kasuga's whole attitude, and beneath this elaborate procedure of having herself accompany her as she returned the pearl, she sensed that there lay something much deeper. Could it be that Mrs Azuma's intuition had touched upon a weakness in her friend's make-up which it was forbidden to touch upon, and that by thus driving her friend into a corner she had transformed an unconscious, impulsive 175

  kleptomania into a deep mental derangement beyond all cure?

  Mrs Kasuga, for her part, still retained the suspicion that Mrs Azuma had genuinely swallowed the pearl and that her confession at the party had been the truth. If that was so, it had been unforgivable of Mrs Azuma, when everything was smoothly settled, to tease her so cruelly on the way back from the party, shifting the guilt on to herself. As a result, timid creature that she was, she
had been panic-stricken, and besides spending good money had felt obliged to act out that little play

  - and was it not exceedingly ill-natured of Mrs Azuma, that, even after all this, she still refused to confess it was she who had eaten the pearl? And if Mrs Azuma's innocence was all pretence, she herself - acting her part so painstakingly - must appear in Mrs Azuma's eyes as the most ridiculous of third-rate comedians.

  To return to Mrs Matsumura. That lady, on her way back from obliging Mrs Sasaki to accept the pearl, was feeling now more at ease in her mind and had the notion to make a leisurely reinvestigation, detail by detail, of the events of the recent incident. When going to collect her portion of cake, she had most certainly left her handbag on the chair. Then, while eating the cake, she had made liberal use of the paper napkin - so there could have been no necessity to take a handkerchief from her bag. The more she thought about it the less she could remember having opened her bag until she touched up her face in the taxi on the way home. How was it, then, that a pearl had rolled into a handbag which was always shut?

  She realized now how stupid she had been not to have remarked this simple fact before, instead of flying into a panic at the mere sight of the pearl. Having progressed this far, Mrs Matsumura was struck by an amazing thought. Someone must purposely have placed the pearl in her bag in order to incriminate her. And of the four guests at the party the only one who would do such a thing was, without doubt, the detestable Mrs Yamamoto. Her eyes glinting with rage, Mrs Matsumura hurried towards the house of Mrs Yamamoto.

  From her first glimpse of Mrs Matsumura standing in the 176

  doorway, Mrs Yamamoto knew at once what had brought her.

  She had already prepared ho- line of defence.

  However, Mrs Matsumura's cross-examination was unexpectedly severe, and from the start it was clear that she would accept no evasions.

  'It was you, I know. No one but you could do such a thing,'

  began Mrs Matsumura, deductively.

  'Why choose me? What proof have you? If you can say a thing like that to my face, I suppose you've come with pretty conclusive proof, have you?' Mrs Yamamoto was at first icily composed.

  To this Mrs Matsumura replied that Mrs Azuma, having so nobly taken the blame on herself, clearly stood in an incom-patible relationship with mean and despicable behaviour of this nature; and as for Mrs Kasuga, she was much too weak-kneed for such dangerous work; and that left only one person - yourself. Mrs Yamamoto kept silent, her mouth shut tight like a clam-shell. On the table before her gleamed the pearl which Mrs Matsumura had set there. In the excitement she had not even had time to raise a teaspoon, and the Ceylon tea she had so thoughtfully provided was beginning to get cold.

  'I had no idea you hated me so.' As she said this, Mrs Yamamoto dabbed at the corners of her eyes, but it was plain that Mrs Matsumura's resolve not to be deceived by tears was as firm as ever.

  'Well, then,' Mrs Yamamoto continued, 'I shall say what I had thought I must never say. I shall mention no names, but one of the guests...'

  'By that, I suppose, you can only mean Mrs Azuma or Mrs Kasuga?'

  'Please, I beg at least that you allow me to omit the name. As I say, one of the guests had just opened your bag and was dropping something inside when I happened to glance in her direction. You can imagine my amazement! Even if I had felt able to warn you, there would have been no chance. My heart just throbbed and throbbed, and on the way back in the taxi -

  oh, how awful not to be able to speak even then! If we had been 177

  good friends, of course, I could have told you quite frankly, but since I knew of your apparent dislike for me...'

  'I see. You have been very considerate, I'm sure. Which means, doesn't it, that you have now cleverly shifted the blame on to Mrs Azuma and Mrs Kasuga?'

  'Shifted the blame? Oh, how can I get you to understand my feelings? I only wanted to avoid hurting anyone.'

  'Quite. But you didn't mind hurting me, did you? You might at least have mentioned this in the taxi.'

  •And if you had been frank with me when you found the pearl in your bag. I would probably have told you, at that moment, everything I had seen - but no, you chose to leave the taxi at once, without saying a word!'

  'Well, then. Can I get you to understand? I wanted no one to be hurt.'

  Mrs Matsumura was filled with an even more intense rage.

  'If you are going to tell a string of lies like that,' she said, 'I must ask you to repeat them, tonight if you wish, in my presence, before Mrs Azuma and Mrs Kasuga.'

  At this Mrs Yamamoto started to weep.

  'And thanks to you,' she sobbed reprovingly, 'all my efforts to avoid hurting anyone will have come to nothing.'

  It was a new experience for Mrs Matsumura to see Mrs Yamamoto crying, and, though she kept reminding herself not to be taken in by tears, she could not altogether dismiss the feeling that perhaps somewhere, since nothing in this affair could be proved, there might be a modicum of truth even in the assertions of Mrs Yamamoto.

  In the first place - to be a little more objective - if one accepted Mrs Yamamoto's story as true, then her reluctance to disclose the name of the guilty party, whom she had observed in the very act, argued some refinement of character. And just as one could not say for sure that the gentle and seemingly timid Mrs Kasuga would nev^r be moved to an act of malice, so even the undoubtedly bad feeling between Mrs Yamamoto and her*

  self could, by one way of looking at things, be taken as actually lessening the likelihood of Mrs Yamamoto's guilt. For if she were to do a thing like this, with their relationship as it was, Mrs Yamamoto would be the first to come under suspicion, 178

  •We have differences in our natures,' Mrs Yamamoto continued tearfully, 'and I cannot deny that there are things about yourself which I dislike. But, for all that, it is really too bad that you should suspect me of such a petty trick to get the better of you. ... Still, on thinking it over, to submit quietly to your accusations might well be the course most consistent with what I have felt in this matter all along. In this way I alone shall bear the guilt, and no other will be hurt.'

  After this pathetic pronouncement Mrs Yamamoto lowered her face to the table and abandoned herself to uncontrolled weeping.

  Watching her, Mrs Matsumura came by degrees to reflect upon the impulsiveness of her own behaviour. Detesting Mrs Yamamoto as she had, there had been times in her castigation of that lady when she had allowed herself to be blinded by emotion.

  When Mrs Yamamoto raised her head again after this prolonged bout of weeping, the look of resolution on her face, somehow remote and pure, was apparent even to her visitor.

  Mrs Matsumura, a little frightened, drew herself upright in her chair.

  'This thing should never have been. When it is gone, everything will be as before.' Speaking in riddles, Mrs Yamamoto pushed back her dishevelled hair and fixed a terrible, yet haunt-ingly beautiful gaze upon the top of the table. In an instant she had snatched up the pearl from before her, and, with a gesture of no ordinary resolve, tossed it into her mouth. Raising her cup by the handle, her little finger elegantly extended, she washed the pearl down her throat with one gulp of cold Ceylon tea.

  Mrs Matsumura watched in horrified fascination. The affair was over before she had time to protest. This was the first time in her life she had seen a person swallow a pearl, and there was in Mrs Yamamoto's manner something of that desperate finality one might expect to see in a person who had just drunk poison.

  However, heroic though the action was, it was above all a touching incident, and not only did Mrs Matsumura find her anger vanished into thin air, but so impressed was she by Mrs Yamamoto's simplicity and purity that she could only think of 179

  that lady as a saint. And now Mrs Matsumura's eyes too began to fill with tears, and she took Mrs Yamamoto by the hand.

  'Please forgive me, please forgive me,' she said. 'It was wrong of me.'

  For a while they wept together, holding each other's hands and
vowing to each other that henceforth they would be the firmest of friends.

  When Mrs Sasaki heard rumours that the relationship between Mrs Yamamoto and Mrs Matsumura, which had been so strained, had suddenly improved, and that Mrs Azuma and Mrs Kasuga, who had been such good friends, had suddenly fallen out, she was at a loss to understand the reasons and contented herself with the reflection that nothing was impossible in this world.

  However, being a woman of no strong scruples, Mrs Sasaki requested a jeweller to refashion her ring and to produce a design into which two new pearls could be set, one large and one small, and this she wore quite openly, without further mishap.

  Soon she had completely forgotten the small commotion on her birthday, and when anyone asked her age she would give the same untruthful answers as ever.

  Translated by Geoffrey W. Sargent

  Swaddling Clothes

  He was always busy, Toshiko's husband. Even tonight he had to dash off to an appointment, leaving her to go home alone by taxi. But what else could a woman expect when she married an actor - an attractive one? No doubt she had been foolish to hope that he would spend the evenings with her. And yet he must have known how she dreaded going back to their house, unhomely with its Western-style furniture and with the bloodstains still showing on the floor.

  Toshiko had been oversensitive since girlhood: that was her nature. As the result of constant worrying she never put on weight, and now, an adult woman, she looked more like a transparent picture than a creature of flesh and blood. Her delicacy of spirit was evident to her most casual acquaintance.

  Earlier that evening, when she had joined her husband at a night club, she had been shocked to find him entertaining friends with an account of 'the incident'. Sitting there in his American-style suit, puffing at a cigarette, he had seemed to her almost a stranger.