But eventually a change took place in this back-street house. The
wheeled stall vanished from its set place under the eaves. And the
house and its surroundings, which were always modest, seemed suddenly
attacked by what was then fashionably called “civilization,” for new
boards over the ditch replaced the broken and warped ones, and a new
lattice door had been installed at the entrance.
Once Suezo noticed a pair of Western shoes in the doorway. Soon
after, a new name plate bearing a policeman's title was put up. Suezo
also made certain, while shopping on the neighboring streets and yet
without seeming to pry, that the old candy dealer had acquired a
son-in-law.
To the old man, who loved his daughter more than sight itself, the
loss of Otama to a policeman with terrifying looks was like having her
carried off by a monster with a long nose and a red face. Otama's
father had feared the discomfort he would incur by the intrusion of
such a formidable son-in-law, and after meeting the suitor, had
consulted with several confidants, but none of them had told him to
reject the offer.
Someone said: “You see, I told you so, didn't I? When I took the
trouble to arrange a good match, you were too particular, saying you
couldn't part with your only child, so that finally a son-in-law you
couldn't say no to is going to move in on you!”
And another said threateningly: “If you can't stand the man, the only
other solution is to move far away, but since he's a policeman, he'll
be able to catch up with you and make his offer again. There's no
escaping him.”
A wife who had a reputation for using her head was believed to have
told the old man: “Didn't I advise you to sell her off to a geisha
house since her looks were good and her samisen master praised her
skill? A policeman without a wife can go from door to door, and when he
finds a pretty face, he takes her off whether you like it or not. You
can't do anything but make the best of the bad luck that such a man
took a fancy to your daughter.”
No more than three months after Suezo had heard these rumors, he
discovered one morning that the doors of the old candy dealer's house
were locked and that an attached piece of paper gave notice that the
house was for rent. Then, on inquiring further into the neighbors' talk
while shopping, Suezo heard that the policeman had in his own native
place a wife and children who had turned up on a surprise visit,
whereupon a fight followed, and Otama ran from the house. A neighbor
who overheard the quarrel stopped the girl from doing something rash.
Not one of the old man's friends had enough knowledge about legal
matters, so the old man had been quite indifferent about seeing if the
marriage had been legally registered, and when the son-in-law told him
he would completely handle the legal end of the marriage, the old man
had had no suspicions or fears.
A girl at Kitazumi's grocery said to Suezo: “I really feel sorry for
Taa-chan—she's honest and she had no doubt about the policeman, but he
said he was only looking for a place to live.”
And with his hand circling his cropped head of hair, the storekeeper
interrupted her: “It's a pity about the old man too. He moved away
because he couldn't stand meeting his neighbors and he couldn't stay
here as before. But he still sells candy where he used to, saying he
can't do business in places where there are no little customers. A
while back he sold his stall, but now he has it again from the
secondhand dealer, after telling him the situation. I think he's got
financial troubles because of the moving and such. It's as though the
old man lived for only a short time in a world of dreams, freeing
himself into easy retirement and keeping company with the policeman,
who drank saké, acting like a god, while, in fact, he starved his wife
and children in the country.”
After that, the candy dealer's daughter slipped from Suezo's mind, but
when he became financially well off and could do more of what he
wanted, he happened to remember the girl.
Adventure
