RIKIYA. Snow, sir, is scattered when it falls by the least wind; and yet, though it is light, it becomes, when it is pressed into a ball, as you see there, as hard as a stone, for rocks are split by snow that is blown down from a peak. Weighty is loyalty. But neither that weighty loyalty nor this ball of snow must be kept too long. Is that your meaning, sir? YURANOSUKE. No, no. Yuranosuke, his son, Hara Goemon, and the rest of the forty-seven confederates are all masterless and live in the shade. Snow, too, will not melt if it is kept in the shade; and it warns us against haste. It is in the sun here, take it into the yard behind the house. When they collected fireflies or piled snow[2] for light to read by, it showed the patience of scholars. Let the servant open the garden-gate from inside. I will write the letter to Sakai; when the messenger comes, let me know. RECITATIVE. The servant opens the garden-gate; the snow is rolled in and the gate is shut. The sliding-door is opened and they all go in. She who now comes to this retreat in Yamashina, as far removed from the world as the recesses of the heart, is Tonase, the wife of Kakogawa Honzo Yukikuni. She makes the palanquin which has come with her wait near her; and alone she girds two swords and, strict in deportment, she calls at the door of the retreat. TONASE. If you please. RECITATIVE. Hearing her voice, the servant Rin slips off her _tasuki_[3] and rushes to the door, which formerly would have been answered by an usher. TONASE. Is this Master Oboshi Yuranosuke’s home? If so, pray, tell him that I am Tonase, Kakogawa Honzo’s wife; I have long neglected to call; but I have come a great distance to-day as there is something for which I desire to see him. RECITATIVE. Then she turns round and makes the bearers bring the palanquin beside her. She calls her daughter. And with such a smile as smiles the bush-warbler when he flies out of the depths of the valley to find the plum-tree all a-flower, out comes Konami, with a head-covering almost concealing her eyes. KONAMI. Are we already at Master Rikiya’s home? I feel too shy. RECITATIVE. The room is put in order, and the servant comes to the door to bid them enter. TONASE. The palanquin-bearers may now go home. Please, show us in. RECITATIVE. Konami keeps close to her mother and sits down with her; and the next moment Oishi calmly enters to meet them. OISHI. You ladies are welcome. I should have called long ago; but you have no doubt heard of our present condition, and I am ashamed to be visited in such a home. TONASE. You are too formal. Though we see each other for the first time to-day, since your son, Master Rikiya and my daughter Konami were betrothed, you and I are now connections, and we need not stand upon ceremony to each other.