"They tell me there is another young man who will spend the night here with us. He is from Wakasa the same as you; he's a peddler of lacquerware. He is just a young fellow, but a good man and very serious.

"As I have already told you at the beginning of my story, I encountered a very different sort of young man once when I was crossing the Hida mountains. He was a medicine peddler from Toyama whom I met at a tea house at the foot of the mountains. He was rather offensive and an altogether unsavory young character.