百五十九

　小林は言葉を継ぐ前に、洋盃(コップ)を下へ置いて、まず室内を見渡した。女伴(おんなづ)れの客のうち、一組の相手は洗指盆(フィンガーボール)の中へ入れた果物を食ったあとの手を、袂(たもと)から出した美くしい手帛(ハンカチ)で拭いていた。彼の筋向こうに席を取って、さっきから時々自分たちの方を盗むようにして見る二十五六の方は、珈琲茶碗(コーヒーぢゃわん)を手にしながら、男の吹かす煙草の煙を眺めて、しきりに芝居の話をしていた。両方とも彼らより先に来ただけあって、彼らより先に席を立つ順序に、食事の方の都合も進行しているらしく見えた時、小林は言った。

「やあちょうどいい。まだいる」

　津田はまたはっと思った。小林はきっと彼らの気を悪くするようなことを、彼らに聴こえよがしに言うに違いなかった。

「おいもういい加減によせよ」

「まだ何も言いやしないじゃないか」

「だから注意するんだ。僕の攻撃はいくらでも我慢するが、縁もゆかりもない人の悪口などは、ちっと慎んでくれ、こんな所へ来て」

「まあそうだ」

「まあそうだなら、僕のごとき無頼漢をこんな所へ招待するのが間違いだ」

「じゃ勝手にしろ」

「口で勝手にしろと言いながら、内心ひやひやしているんだろう」

　津田は黙ってしまった。小林は面白そうに笑った。

「勝ったぞ、勝ったぞ。どうだ降参したろう」

「それで勝ったつもりなら、勝手に勝ったつもりでいるがいい」

「その代わり今後ますます貴様を軽蔑してやるからそう思えだろう。僕は君の軽蔑なんか屁(へ)とも思っちゃいないよ」

「思わなきゃ思わないでもいいさ。うるさい男だな」

　小林はむっとした津田の顔を覗き込むようにして見つめながら言った。

「どうだわかったか、おい。これが実戦というものだぜ。いくら余裕があったって、金持ちに交際があったって、いくら気位を高く構えたって、実戦において敗北すりゃそれまでだろう。だから僕がさっきから言うんだ、実地を踏んで鍛え上げない人間は、木偶(でく)の坊と同じことだって」

「そうだそうだ。世の中ですれっからしと酔っ払いにかなうものは一人もいないんだ」

　何か言うはずの小林は、この時返事をする代わりにまた女伴(おんなづ)れの方を一順見廻したあとで、言った。

「じゃいよいよ第三だ。あの女の立たないうちに話してしまわないと気が済まない。いいかね、君、さっきの続きだぜ」

　津田は黙って横を向いた。小林は一向構わなかった。

「第三にはだね。すなわち換言すると、本論にはいって言えばだね。僕はさっきあすこにいる女たちを捕まえて、ありゃ芸者かって君に聴いて叱れらたね。君は貴婦人に対する礼義(れいぎ)を心得ない野人として僕を叱ったんだろう。よろしい僕は野人だ。野人だから芸者と貴婦人との区別がわからないんだ。それで僕は君に訊いたね、一体芸者と貴婦人はどこがどう違うんだって」

　小林はこう言いながら、三度目の視線をまた女伴れの方に向けた。手帛(ハンカチ)で手を拭いていた人は、それを合図のように立ち上がった。残る一人も給仕を呼んで勘定を払った。

「とうとう立っちまった。もう少し待ってると面白いところへ来るんだがな、惜しいことに」

　小林は出て行く女伴れの後ろ影を見送った。

「おやおやもう一人も立つのか。じゃ仕方がない、相手はやっぱり君だけだ」

彼は再び津田の方へ向き直った。

「問題はそこだよ、君。僕が仏蘭西(フランス)料理と英吉利(イギリス)料理を食い分けることが出来ずに、糞(くそ)と味噌をいっしょにして自慢すると、君は相手にしない。たかが口腹(こうふく)の問題だという顔をして高を括っている。しかし内容は一つにものだぜ、君。この味覚が発達しないのも、芸者と貴婦人を混同するのも」

　津田はそれがどうしたと言わぬばかりの眼を翻(ひるがえ)して小林を見た。

「だから結論も一つの所へ帰着しなければならないというのさ。僕は味覚の上において、君に軽蔑されながら、君より幸福だと主張するごとく、婦人を識別する上においても、君に軽蔑されながら、君より自由な境遇に立っていると断言して憚(はばか)らないのだ。つまり、あれは芸者だ、これは貴婦人だなんて鑑識があればあるほど、その男の苦痛は増して来るというんだ。なぜといって見給え。しまいには、あれもいや、これもいやだろう。あるいはこれでなくっちゃいけない、あれでなくっちゃいけないだろう。窮屈千万じゃないか」

「しかしその窮屈千万が好きなら仕方なかろう」

「来たな、とうとう。食い物だと相手にしないが、女のことになると、やっぱり黙っていられなくなると見えるね。

そこだよ、そこを実際問題について、これから僕が論じようというんだ」

「もうたくさんだ」

「いやたくさんじゃないらしいぜ」

　二人は顔を合わせて苦笑いした。

159

  Before Kobayashi continued, he first put his glass down, and looked around the room. The woman at one table was wiping her hands with a beautiful handkerchief she had take out of her pocket after having eaten her portion of fruit, and having dipped her fingers in her finger-bowl. The other woman, about twenty-five or twenty-six, who had taken a seat opposite Kobayashi and had for some time been trying to steal an occasional glance at him and Tsuda, was holding a coffee cup as she watched the smoke from her male partner’s cigarette and was talking intently about the theatre. When it become clear to Kobayashi that the meal was progressing in an orderly fashion, and he perceived that both groups of customers, which had arrived before they had, would therefore leave before the would, he spoke out:

  ‘Well, everything’s just fine. They’re still here.’

  Tsuda was again taken aback. Kobayashi was undoubtedly going to say something which he wanted them to hear and which would certainly offend them.

  ‘Come on now, stop it, will you.’

  ‘I haven’t said a thing yet, have I?’

  ‘That’s why I’m warning you. I’ll put up with any attack you want to make against me, but be a bit careful about making nasty remarks about complete strangers now that you’re in this sort of a place.’

  ‘You certainly are timid, aren’t you? You probably mean that I shouldn’t confuse this place with some cheap bar, don’t you?’

  ‘Well, yes I do.’

  ‘Well, if that’s the case, you were wrong in inviting a good-for-nothing like me to such a place.’

  ‘All right, do as you like.’

  ‘You may say that, but inwardly you’re quite nervous, aren’t you?’

  Tsuda said nothing. Kobayashi chuckled.

  ‘I’ve put one over on you, haven’t I? How about it? You’ve capitulated, haven’t you?’

  ‘Well, if you think you’ve won, go right ahead and think so if you want to.’

  ‘What you really mean is that you’ll despise me even more. But I don’t give a damn about what you think of me.’

  ‘If you don’t, that’s all right with me. My, but you’re exasperating!’

  While Kobayashi stared at Tsuda as if to make out his expression of indignation, he spoke to him:

  ‘Hey, how about it? Have you finally understood? This is what I’d call putting things into practice. And no matter how much leisure you have, no matter how many rich people you know, no matter how high an opinion you have of yourself, if you’re defeated in actual practice that’s all there is to it. That’s why I’ve been saying this all along: A man who’s not trained in the area of actual practice is nothing more than a dunce.’

  ‘All right, have it your way. There’s not a man in the world who can stand up to any ruffian or drunken roustabout.’

  Instead of saying anything in response immediately, as he might have been expected to, Kobayashi looked around again at the two couples, and then spoke:

  ‘Well, we’re finally at point number three: I won’t be satisfied unless I say everything I want to say before those women leave. Are you with me? It’s a continuation of what I was saying earlier.’

  Tsuda was silent and looked to one side. Kobayashi did not pay any attention to this.

  ‘So under point three, or, in other words. if I now enter the main point of the argument, let me say this: You were annoyed with me a while ago, weren’t you, when I pointed out those women over there and asked you whether they were geishas? You were annoyed, I suppose, because you considered me a boor who doesn’t know the courtesies due to ladies. All right, I am a boor. And because I’m a boor I don’t know the difference between geishas and ladies. Therefore I asked you, didn’t I? I asked you tell me how in the world geishas and ladies are different.’

  As Kobayashi spoke, for the third time he looked over at the couples. The woman who had been wiping her hands with a handkerchief rose as if that were a sort of signal.

Her companion called the waiter and paid the bill.

  ‘They’ve finally got up. If they’d waited a bit longer they’d have come to an interesting section. Too bad for them!’

  Kobayashi looked after the couple as they went out.

  ‘Oh my, is the other woman going to get up too? Well, it can’t be helped. You’ll be the only one left to listen.’

  He turned back to look again at Tsuda.

  ‘That’s the problem, you see. Since I can’t distinguish between French and English cooking, and I’m proud that I confuse slop with some rare delicacy, you won’t have anything to do with me. I place not importance on such things and consider it all to be just a problem of filling one’s stomach. And yet in essence it’s the same as the other,

whether it’s a matter of my taste being undeveloped or of confusing geishas and ladies.’

  Tsuda turned his eyes and looked at Kobayashi with an expression which as much as asked him what conclusion he drew from his remarks.

  ‘Therefore my conclusion must be reduced to one point too. I don’t hesitate to assert that just as in the matter of taste, where, while I’m despised by you I’m happier than you, so too in the matter of distinguishing among women, while I’m despised by you I’m in a freer position than you. In other words, I’m saying that the more a man discriminates among women, and says this one’s a geisha and that one’s a lady, the more trouble he has. See why this is true. Finally neither one will please him. Or else he’ll say that it has to be this one or that one. He’ll be burdened with a million concerns, won’t he?’

  ‘But if he like to be burdened with those million concerns, there’s nothing much you can do about it, it there?’

  ‘All right, you’ve finally scored a point. Well, I won’t argue with you on the matter of food, but when it comes to women then it seems I can’t keep quiet. And on that point,

as concerns an actual problem, I’d now like to argue with you.’

  ‘That’s quite enough already.’

  ‘No, it seems that it isn’t.’

  They looked at each other and smiled wryly.