Free The House of the Sleeping Beauties by Yasunari Kawabata Page B

atrocities rose in him: destroy this house, destroy his own life too, because the girl tonight was not what could have been called a regular featured beauty, because he felt close to him a pretty girl with her broad bosom exposed. He felt something like contrition turned upon itself. And there was contrition too for a life that seemed likely to have a timid ending. He did not have the courage of his youngest daughter, with whom he had gone to see the camellia. He closed his eyes again.
    Two butterflies were sporting in low shrubbery along the stepping stones of a garden. They disappeared in the shrubbery, they brushed against it, they seemed to be enjoying themselves. They flew slightly higher and danced lightly in and out, and another butterfly appeared from the leaves, and another. Two sets of mates, he thought… and then there were five, all whirling about together. Was it a flight? But butterflies appeared one after another from the shrubbery, and the garden was a dancing swarm of white butterflies, close to the ground. The down swept branches of a maple waved in a wind that did not seem to exist. The twigs were delicate and, because the leaves were large, sensitive to the wind. The swarm of butterflies had so grown that it was like a field of white flowers, The maple leaves here had quite fallen. A few shriveled leaves might still be clinging to the branches, but tonight it was sleeting.
    Eguchi had forgotten the cold of the sleet. Was that dancing swarm of white butterflies brought by the ample white bosom of the girl, spread put here beside him? Was there something in the girl to quiet the bad impulses in an old man? He opened his eyes. He gazed at the small pink nipples. They were like a symbol of good. He put a cheek to them. The back of his eyelids seemed to warm. He wanted to leave his mark on the girl. Of he were to violate the rule of the house, she would be in dismay when she awoke. He left on her breasts several marks the color of blood. He shivered.
    "You'll be cold." He pulled up the quilt. He drank down both of the tablets at his pillow. "A bit heavy in the lower parts." He reached down and pulled her toward him.
    The next morning he was twice around by the woman of the house. The first time she rapped in the door.
    "It's nine o'clock, sir."
    "I'm getting up. I imagine it's cold out there."
    "I lit the stove early.'
    "What about the sleet?"
    "It's cloudy, but the sleet has stopped."
    "Oh!"
    "I've had your breakfast ready for some time."
    "I see." With this indifferent answer, he closed his eyes again. "A devil will be coming for you…" he said. He brought himself against the remarkable skin of the girl.
    In no more than ten minutes the woman come again.
    "Sir!" This time she rapped sharply. "Are you back in bed?" Her voice too was sharp.
    "The door isn't locked." he said. The woman came in. Sluggishly, he pulled himself up. She helped him into his clothes. She even put on his socks, but her touch was unpleasant. In the next room the tea was, as always, good. As he sipped at it, she turned a cold, suspicious eye on him.
    "And how was she? Did you like her?"
    "Well enough, I suppose."
    "That's good. And did you have pleasant dreams?"
    "Dreams? None at all. I just slept. It's been a long time since I slept so well." He yawned openly. "I'm still not wide awake."
    "I imagine you were tired last night."
    "It was her fault. Does she come here often?"
    The woman looked down, her expression severe.
    "I have a special request." he said. His manner was serious. "When I've finished breakfast, will you let me have some more sleeping medicine? I'll pay extra. Not that I know when the girl will awake up."
    "Completely out of question." The woman's face had taken on a muddy pallor, and her shoulders were rigid. "You're really going too far."
    "Too far?" He tried to laugh, but the laugh refused to come.
    Perhaps suspecting that Eguchi had done something to the girl, she went hastily into the room.

5
    The new year came, the