IGO. No. OSONO. Is he away? IGO. No. OSONO. What is it? IGO. I don’t know myself what it is; but early in the evening lots of people came and cried, “I have caught you, I have caught you,” as if a cat had caught a rat. I drew my quilt over my head and went to sleep. And now he is drinking with those men in the inner room, and they are having great fun. OSONO. Well, I cannot make it out. And the boy, is he asleep? IGO. Yes, he is fast asleep. OSONO. Did he go to sleep with master? IGO. No. OSONO. Did he sleep with you? IGO. No; he went to sleep by himself. OSONO. Why did you not keep him company and send him to sleep? IGO. I would have; but he kept on crying, for he could not, he said, get milk from either master or me. OSONO. Ah, poor fellow! I suppose so. That, of all things, must be true. RECITATIVE. She bursts into tears at the door; and no sleeve of hers is dry in the rain that falls not from the sky. GIHEI. (within) Hi, hi, Igo, where are you? RECITATIVE. Thus calling, out comes the master, Gihei. IGO. Yes, I am here. RECITATIVE. He runs within, and Gihei looks aslant at his departing form. GIHEI. You fool, go in and wait upon the gentlemen. RECITATIVE. As he scolds him and then closes the door, Osono holds to it. OSONO. Wait, master. I have something to say. Please, open. GIHEI. No, I have nothing to hear or say. You inhuman woman, you pollute the place. Go away. OSONO. No, here is a proof that I am not in league with my father. Look at it and dispel your doubts. RECITATIVE. Through the crevice of the door she throws in a letter. As Gihei picks it up, his wife pushes herself in. He glances at the letter. GIHEI. Why, this is the letter of divorce I wrote a while ago. What do you mean to do by returning it? OSONO. It is too cruel of you to ask what I mean to do. You have always known the evil-mindedness of my father Ryochiku; and whatever may have happened, why did you give the letter of divorce? When he brought it home, he told me that he was making preparations to have me married. I put on a happy look to put him off his guard, and then stole the letter of divorce from his pocket-book and escaped here. Do you not love Yoshimatsu? Do you mean to divorce me and bring him under a stepmother? How cruel you are! RECITATIVE. She clings to him, weeping.