“Did I? How awful of me”
“Are you out shopping alone?”
“No. I just came to pick up this coat.”
“Well.” Hirata leaned back and looked at Ichiko’s coat again. “It’s nice,
isn’t it? Shall we go sit down somewhere, maybe have some tea?”
“To tell the truth, rather than tea, I’m dreadfully hungry. A woman can’t
go into a restaurant alone, you know.”
“You ought to have asked Takako to come along.” “Yes, I should have.
But I left this morning, I had to leave Yoko with my mother. If you don’t
mind perhaps I’U ask her along next time.”
“I hope you will.”
Ichiko seemed completely unsuspicious of Chiba and Takako.
“I hope you’ll let me pay,” said Ichiko brightly. “There’s a marvelous
French restaurant that Chiba goes to all the time—shall we go there?”
‘‘I’d love to—though the timing seems a bit odd, doesn’t it?” Hirata’s
round face filled with a smile. He hardly knew how to account for the
pleasure that came bubbling up inside of him. “Certainly a lucky meeting,
don’t you think?”
