“It is true that I deserve your blame;—but I had no wish to cause you anger. The reason that the _o-fuda_ has not been taken away is that my wife and I are able to live only by the help of Hagiwara Sama, and that we cannot expose him to any danger without bringing misfortune upon ourselves. But if we could obtain the sum of a hundred _ryō_ in gold, we should be able to please you, because we should then need no help from anybody. Therefore if you will give us a hundred _ryō_, I can take the _o-fuda_ away without being afraid of losing our only means of support.” When he had uttered these words, O-Yoné and O-Tsuyu looked at each other in silence for a moment. Then O-Yoné said:— “Mistress, I told you that it was not right to trouble this man, —as we have no just cause of ill will against him. But it is certainly useless to fret yourself about Hagiwara Sama, because his heart has changed towards you. Now once again, my dear young lady, let me beg you not to think any more about him!” But O-Tsuyu, weeping, made answer:— “Dear Yone, whatever may happen, I cannot possibly keep myself from thinking about him! You know that you can get a hundred _ryō_ to have the _o-fuda_ taken off…. Only once more, I pray, dear Yone!—only once more bring me face to face with Hagiwara Sama,—I beseech you!” And hiding her face with her sleeve, she thus continued to plead. “Oh! why will you ask me to do these things?” responded O-Yoné. “You know very well that I have no money. But since you will persist in this whim of yours, in spite of all that I can say, I suppose that I must try to find the money somehow, and to bring it here to-morrow night….” Then, turning to the faithless Tomozō, she said:—“Tomozō, I must tell you that Hagiwara Sama now wears upon his body a _mamori_ called by the name of _Kai-On-Nyōrai_, and that so long as he wears it we cannot approach him. So you will have to get that _mamori_ away from him, by some means or other, as well as to remove the _o-fuda_.” Tomozō feebly made answer:— “That also I can do, if you will promise to bring me the hundred _ryō_.” “Well, mistress,” said O-Yoné, “you will wait,—will you not,—until to-morrow night?” “Oh, dear Yoné!” sobbed the other,—“have we to go back to-night again without seeing Hagiwara Sama? Ah! it is cruel!” And the shadow of the mistress, weeping, was led away by the shadow of the maid. X