An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro Page B

something long ago. More than once last month, I had come upon my daughters deep in discussion and noticed how they broke off guiltily before starting some fresh, rather unconvincing conversation. In fact, I can recall this happening at least three times during the course of the five days Setsuko spent here. And then just a few days ago, Noriko and I were finishing breakfast when she said to me: "I was walking past the Shimizu department store yesterday and guess who I saw standing at the tram stop? It was Jiro Miyake!" "Miyake?" I looked up from my bowl, surprised to hear Noriko mentioning the name so brazenly. "Why, that was unfortunate." "Unfortunate? Well actually, Father, I was rather pleased to see him. He seemed embarrassed though, so I didn't talk to him for long. In any case, I had to get back to the office. I was just out on an errand, you see. But did you know he's engaged to be married now?" "He told you that? What a nerve." "He didn't volunteer it, of course. I asked him. I told him I was in the middle of new negotiations now and asked him how his own marriage prospects were. I asked him just like that. His face was going scarlet! But then he came out with it and said he was all but engaged now. It's all practically settled." "Really, Noriko, you shouldn't be so indiscreet. Why did you have to mention marriage at all?" "I was curious. I"m not upset about it any more. And with the present negotiations going so well, I was just thinking the other day, what a pity it would be if Jiro Miyake was still brooding over last year. So you can imagine how pleased I was to find him practically engaged." "I see." "I hope I get to meet his bride soon. I"m sure she's very nice, aren't you, Father?" "I"m sure." We continued eating for a moment. Then Noriko said: "There was something else I almost asked him. But I didn't." She leaned forward and whispered: "I almost asked about last year. About why they pulled out." "it's just as well you didn't. Besides, they gave their reason clearly enough at the time. They felt the young man was inadequately placed to be worthy of you." "But you know that was just formality, Father. We never found out the real reason. At least, I never got to hear about it." It was at this point that something in her voice made me look up again from my bowl. Noriko was holding her chopsticks poised in the air, as though waiting for me to say something. Then, as I continued eating, she said: "Why do you suppose they pulled out? Did you ever discover about that?" "I discovered nothing. As I say, they said they felt the young man was inadequately placed. It's a perfectly good answer." "I wonder, Father, if it was simply that I didn't come up to their requirements. Perhaps I wasn't pretty enough. Do you think that's what it was?" "It wasn't anything to do with you, you know that. There are all sorts of reasons why a family pulls out of a negotiation." "Well, Father, if it wasn't to do with me, then I wonder what it could have been to make them pull out like that." It seemed to me there was something unnaturally deliberate in the way my daughter uttered those words. Perhaps I imagined it, but then a father comes to notice any small inflexions in his daughter's speech. In any case, that exchange with Noriko put me in mind again of the occasion I myself had encountered Jiro Miyake and had ended up talking with him at a tram stop. It was just over a year ago--the negotiations with the Miyake family were still going on at that point--towards the late afternoon when the city was full of people returning home after the day's work. For some reason, I had been walking through the Yokote district and was making towards the tram stop outside the Kimura Company Building. If you are familiar with the Yokote district, you will know of the numerous small, rather seedy offices that line the upper storeys of the shops there. When I encountered Jiro Miyake that day, he was emerging from one such office, having come down a narrow