carefully away in a drawer of her cupboard, and waited until Jiuyémon
should express a wish to eat some macaroni.

One day, towards the time of the New Year, when O Hiyaku had gone out
to a party with a few of her friends, it happened that Jiuyémon, being
alone in the house, was in want of some little thing, and, failing to
find it anywhere, at last bethought himself to look for it in O
Hiyaku's cupboard; and as he was searching amongst the odds and ends
which it contained, he came upon the fatal letter. When he read the
scheme for putting poison in his macaroni, he was taken aback, and
said to himself, "When I caught those two beasts in their wickedness I
spared them, because their blood would have defiled my sword; and now
they are not even grateful for my mercy. Their crime is beyond all
power of language to express, and I will kill them together."

So he put back the letter in its place, and waited for his wife to
come home. So soon as she made her appearance he said--

"You have come home early, O Hiyaku. I feel very dull and lonely this
evening; let us have a little wine."

And as he spoke without any semblance of anger, it never entered O
Hiyaku's mind that he had seen the letter; so she went about her
household duties with a quiet mind.

The following evening, as Jiuyémon was sitting in his shop casting up
his accounts, with his counting-board[44] in his hand, Takaségawa
passed by, and Jiuyémon called out to him, saying:--

"Well met, Takaségawa! I was just thinking of drinking a cup of wine