Ichiko was still at the vanity in the bedroom, arranging her hair. She
didn’t usually bother with it very much, so it took time to get it into the
shape she wanted. She would have to change clothes as well. Most
mornings Ichiko would simply wash her face and put a bathrobe on over
her pajamas—she seldom put on makeup—and then see Chiba off to work.
She would stay dressed like this until the afternoon. Now that autumn was
under way and it was growing chilly, she’d change into a pair of Chiba’s
old pants and an old sweater.
But earlier, gazing down at Takako from the bedroom window, Ichiko
had found her so extremely beautiful that she had seemed almost sacred. It
was for this reason that she planned to change her sweater for a nicer one,
tossing all her sweaters out onto the double bed.
Ichiko touched up her eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil. Her eyebrows
were so full naturally that she could hardly add to them.
Then she went down to the living room.
“Oh, I’ni sorry—1 didn’t mean the maid to show you into this mess.
Shall we go into the sitting room?” Ichiko asked, but then she sat down in
front of Takako, crossed her legs, and lifted the lid of the cigarette box on
the table. The box commemorated the completion of a construction project.
“Doesn’t Mr. Chiba work in this room?”
“That’s right. He was up working in here until about three-thirty last
night. Things seem to come together better for him at night.”
“It must be rough for you, too.”
“Oh no—I go to bed. And once I’m asleep I don’t wake up again until
the next morning.”
Ichiko noticed that Takako was uncomfortable— no doubt she sensed
something of Chiba in the room. The thought filled Ichiko with a prankish
