"Why be so angry? I am playing no double game." Then she asked why I had not brought you, Taraukuwazhiya, with me; and on my telling her the reason why you had remained at home, "Poor fellow!" said she, "how lonely he must be all by himself! Never was there a handier lad at everything than he, though doubtless it is a case of the mugwort planted among the hemp, which grows straight without need of twisting, and of the sand mixed with the mud, which gets black without need of dyeing,[177] and it is his having been bound to you from a boy that has made him so genteel and clever. Please always be a kind master to him." Yes, those are the things you have said of you when Hana is the speaker. As for my old vixen, she wouldn't let as much fall from her mug in the course of a century, I'll warrant! [_Violent shaking under the blanket._] Then she asked me to pass into the inner room to rest awhile. So in we went to the inner room, hand in hand. And then she brought out wine and food, and pressed me to drink, so that what with drinking one's self, and passing the cup to her, and pressing each other to drink, we kept feasting until quite far into the night, when at her suggestion another room was sought and a little repose taken. But soon day began to break, and I said I would go home. Then Hana exclaimed:-- "Methought that when I met thee, dearest heart! I'd tell thee all that swells within my breast:-- But now already 'tis the hour to part, And oh! how much still lingers unexpress'd! Please stay and rest a little longer!" "But no!" said I, "I must get home. All the temple-bells are a-ringing." "And heartless priests they are," cried she, "that ring them! Horrid wretches to begin their ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, when it is still the middle of the night!" But for all her entreaties, and for all my own regrets, I remembered that "meeting is but parting," and, Tearing me loose, I made to go; farewell! Farewell a thousand times, like ocean sands Untold! and followed by her distant gaze I went; but as I turn'd me round, the moon, A slender rim, sparkling remain'd behind, And oh! what pain it was to me to part! [_He sheds tears._] And so I came home. Oh! isn't it a pity? [_Weeping again._] Ah well! out of my heart's joy has flamed all this long history, and meanwhile you must be very uncomfortable. Take off that "abstraction blanket." Take it off, for I have nothing more to tell you. Gracious goodness! what a stickler you are! Well, then! I must pull it off myself. I _will_ have it off, man! do you hear me? [_He pulls off the blanket, and up jumps his wife._ WIFE.--Oh! how furious I am! Oh! how furious I am! To hoax me and go off to Hana in that manner! HUSBAND.--Oh! not at all, not at all! I never went to Hana. I have been performing my devotions, indeed I have.