disadvantage. And on the other hand, for the sake of his good name, he felt that he would not like to be called miserly. Besides, a pure gold pipe was by no means a difficult thing for him to obtain. When these two motives became one, his hand of itself placed the pipe before Kōchiyama.
“Certainly I’ll give it to you. Take it along.”
“Thank you.”
Sōshun took the pipe and, raising it reverentially to his head, hastily withdrew again beyond the sliding door with Seiōbo on it. Then just as he turned to go away, somebody pulled at his sleeve from behind. He looked round, and there was Ryōtetsu with a grin on his pockmarked face pointing covetously at the pipe resting on Sōshun’s palm.
“Here, have a look,” whispered Kōchiyama, holding the bowl of the pipe under Ryōtetsu’s nose.
“You finally got it out of him, didn’t you?”
“Didn’t I tell you? It’s no use your being envious now.”
“Next I’ll go and get him to give me one.”
“H’m, do as you like.”
Kōchiyama tried the weight of the pipe once and then, with a glance toward Narihiro beyond the sliding door, again shrugged his shoulders and laughed derisively.