January noon
In spite of her dislike for Tatsu , the lonely woman found herself watching , with some impatience , for the day of his actual return . Successive postponements had fretted her , and sharpened curiosity . She had not seen him since his illness . Upon that January noon when his kuruma rolled slowly in under the gate-roof , followed by anxious Kano and one of the male nurses from the hospital , she had turned toward him the old look of resentment : but , instead of the brief and chilling glance she had thought to use , found herself staring , gaping , in amazement and incredulity . She did not believe , for the first moment , that the wreck she saw was Tatsu . This bowed and shrunken ghost of suffering , -- this loose , pallid semblance of a man , the beautiful , defiant , compelling demigod of the mountains that had swept down upon them ! No !