Late one morning toward the end of the month, Taeko appeared again. Sachiko was listening to the radio.
"Yukiko?" Taeko pulled a chair up to the fire.
"She has gone to Dr. Kushida's."
"An injection?"
"Yes." Sachiko had been taking down recipes said to be good for the season. Now someone was reciting a Nō play.
"Would you turn it off, please, Koi-san?"
"Wait. Look at Bell." Taeko pointed her jaw at the cat, asleep by Sachiko's feet.
Bell was drowsing happily in the warmth from the stove. Taeko had noticed that its ears twitched at each drum beat. Only the ears were affected, it seemed, by a reflex of no concern to the rest of the cat.
"What do you suppose does it?"
"Very strange."
They watched, fascinated, as the ears twitched an accompaniment to the Nō, and when the Nō was finished Taeko turned off the radio.
Junichirō Tanizaki, The Makioka Sisters, page 385.
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