find fault with my royal granddaughter. I hope she will have everything
she needs to make her way smoothly through life. Ladies of lower rank can
find husbands to look after them, but it is not always so with a princess."
"I certainly mean to do what I can for as long as I can. But, "she added
wistfully, "I am not sure that it will be very much." She envied these other
ladies, free to lose themselves in religion.
"Nun's dress must feel rather new to her and she may not have caught
the knack quite yet. Might I ask you to have something done for her?
Surplices and that sort of thing--how do you go about making them? Do
what you can, in any event, and I will ask the lady in the northeast quarter
at Rokujo~ to see what she can do. Nothing too elaborate, I should think.
Something tasteful and womanly all the same."
Murasaki now turned her attention to green-drab robes, and needle-
women were summoned from the palace and put to quiet but carefully
supervised work on the cushions and quilts and curtains a nun should
have.
The visit to the Suzaku emperor had been postponed until autumn.
Since the anniversary of Princess Omiya's death came in the Eighth
Month, Yu~giri had no time for musicians and rehearsals. In the Ninth
Month came the anniversary of the death of Kokiden, the Suzaku em-
<P 629>
peror's mother. So the Tenth Month had been fixed upon. The Third
Princess was not well, however, and another postponement was necessary.
The Second Princess, Kashiwagi's wife, did that month visit her fa-
ther. To~ no Chu~jo~, now the retired chancellor, saw to it that the arrange-
ments outdid all precedents. Kashiwagi was now almost an invalid, but he
forced himself to go along.
The Third Princess too had been in seclusion, alone with her troubles.
It was perhaps in part because of them that she was having a difficult
pregnancy. Genji could not help worrying about her, so tiny and fragile.
He began almost to fear the worst. It had been for him a year of prayers
and religious services.
Reports of the Third Princess had reached her father's mountain re-
treat. He longed to see her. Someone told him that Genji was living at Nijo~
and rarely visited her. What could it mean? He was deeply troubled and
knew again how uncertain married life can be. Reports that Genji had quite
refused to leave Murasaki's side all through her illness had upset the
Suzaku emperor, and now he learned that Murasaki had recovered and
Genji still saw little of the Third Princess. Had something happened, not
by the princess's own choice but through the machinations of women in
her household? During his years at court ugly rumors had sometimes
disturbed the decorous life of the women's quarters. Perhaps his daughter
was the victim of something of the sort? He had dismissed worldly trivia
from his life, but he was still a father.
He wrote to the Third Princess in long and troubled detail. "I have
neglected you because I have had no reason to write, and I hate to think
how much time has gone by. I have heard that you are not well. You are
in my thoughts even when they should be on my prayers. And how in fact
are you? You must be patient, whatever happens and however lonely you
may be. It is unseemly to show displeasure when the facts of a matter are
less than clear."
"How sad," said Genji, who chanced to be with her.
The Suzaku emperor could not possibly have learned the horrid secret.
He must have Genji's negligence in mind.
"And how do you mean to answer?" asked Genji after a time. "I am
very sorry indeed to have such melancholy tidings. I may have certain
causes for dissatisfaction but I think I may congratulate myself on having
said nothing about them. Where can his information have come from?"
The princess looked away in embarrassment. Though she had lost
weight because of her worries, she was more delicately beautiful than ever.
"He worries about leaving you behind when you are so very young
and innocent. I fear that I worry too. I hope that you are being careful. I
say so because I am very sorry indeed that things may not seem to be going
as he would have wished and because I want at least you to understand.
You are not as self-reliant as you might be and you are easily influenced,
and so you may think that I have not behaved well. And of course--of this
<P 630>
I have no doubt--I am much too old to be very interesting. Neither of these
facts makes me happy, but neither of them should keep you from putting
up with me for as long as your father lives. And perhaps you can try not
to be too contemptuous of the old man who was, after all, your father's
choice.
"Women are commonly thought to be weak and undependable, but
women have preceded me down the road I have long wanted to go. How-
ever slow and indecisive I may be, there is not much that need hold me
back. But I was moved and pleased that I should have been your father's
choice when he resolved to leave the world. If now I should seem to be
following his precedent I am sure I will stand charged with failing to
respect his wishes.
"No one among the other ladies who have been important to me need
stand in my way. I do not of course know with certainty how things will
be for my daughter, but she is having children one after another, and if
I see to her needs for as long as I can, I need have no fear about what will
happen to her afterwards. My other ladies are all at an age when they need
arouse no very sharp regrets if after their several conveniences they too
leave the world. I find myself without worries in that regard.
"It does not seem likely that your father will live a great deal longer.
He has always been a sickly man and he has recently been in poor spirits
as well, and I hope you will be careful that no unpleasant rumors come to
him at this late date to disturb his retirement. We shall not worry too much
about this world, for it is not worth worrying about. But it would be a
terrible sin to stand in the way of his salvation."
Though he had spoken with careful indirection, tears were streaming
from her eyes and she was in acute discomfort. Presently Genji too was
in tears. And he was beginning to feel a little ashamed of himself.
"Senile meanderings. I am unhappy when I have them from other
people and here I am making you listen to them. You must think me a
noisy, tiresome old fool."
He pushed an inkstone towards her and himself ground the ink and
chose the paper on which she was to reply to her father. Her hand was
trembling so violently that she could not write. He doubted that she had
had such difficulty in replying to the long and detailed letter he had
discovered. Though no longer very sorry for her, he told her what to say.
"And your visit? We are almost at the end of the month and your
sister has already paid what I am told was a very elaborate visit. I should
imagine that in your present condition you will invite unfortunate com-
parisons. I have memorial services coming up next month and the end of
the year is always busy and confused. He may be upset when he sees you,
but we cannot put it off forever. Do please try to look a little more cheerful
and a little less tired."
She was in spite of everything very pretty.
Genji had always sent for Kashiwagi when something interesting or
important came up, but in recent months there had been no summonses.
<P 631>
Though Genji feared that people would think his silence odd, he squirmed
at the thought of appearing before the man who had cuckolded him and
doubted that he would be able to conceal his distaste. He was by no means
unhappy that Kashiwagi stayed away. The rest of the court thought only
that Kashiwagi was not well and that there had been no good parties at
Rokujo~ recently. Yu~giri alone suspected that something was amiss. He
suspected that Kashiwagi, a susceptible youth, had not been able to sup-
press the excitement aroused by the view that spring evening to which
Yu~giri had also been treated. He did not of course know that anything so
extremely scandalous had occurred.
The Twelfth Month came and the visit was scheduled for the middle
of the month. The Rokujo~ mansion echoed with music. Eager to see the
rehearsals, Murasaki returned from Nijo~. The Akashi princess, who had
had another son, was also at Rokujo~. Passing whole days with his grand-
children, delightful little creatures all of them, Genji had ample reason to
think that a long life can be happy. Tamakazura too came for the rehears-
als. Since Yu~giri had been conducting preliminary rehearsals in the
northeast quarter, the lady of the orange blossoms did not feel left out of
things.
The affair would not be complete without Kashiwagi, and his absence
would seem very strange indeed. He at first declined Genji's invitation on
grounds of poor health. Nerves, thought Genji, hearing that there were no
very clear symptoms and sending off a warmer and more intimate invita-
tion.
"You are refusing?" said To~ no Chu~jo~. "But he will think it unfriendly
of you, and you do not seem so very unwell. You must go, even if it takes
a little out of you."
Reluctantly, when these urgings had been added to several invitations
from Rokujo~, Kashiwagi set out.
The most important guests had not yet arrived. He was as always
admitted to Genji's drawing room. He looked every bit as ill as reports had
him. He had always been a solemn, melancholy youth, overshadowed by
his lively brothers. Today he was quieter than usual. Most people would
have said that he was in every way qualified to be a royal son-in-law, but
to Genji (and he felt rather the same about the princess) he was a callow
young person who did not know how to behave.
Though Genji turned on him what seemed a strong eye, the words
were gentle enough. "It has been a very long time. I have had nothing to
ask your advice about and we have had sick people on our hands. Indeed,
I have had little time for anything else. Our princess here has all along
thought of doing something in honor of her father, but we have had delay
after delay and now the year is almost over. Though not at all what we
would really like to do, we hope to put together a minor sort of banquet
in keeping with his new position. No, that is too grand a word for it--but
we do have our little princes to show off, and so we have had them at
dance practice. In that, at least, we should not disappoint him.
<P 632>
I have thought and thought and been able to think of no one but you to
take charge of the rehearsals. And so I shall not scold you for having
neglected me so."
There was nothing in Genji's manner to suggest innuendos and hid-
den meanings. Kashiwagi was acutely uncomfortable all the same, and
afraid that his embarrassment might show.
"I was much troubled," he finally managed to say, "at the news that
first one of your ladies and then another was ill, but since spring I have
had such trouble with my legs that I have hardly been able to walk. It
has been worse all the time and I have been living like a hermit and not
even going to court. Now we have the Suzaku emperor's jubilee. Father
says, quite rightly, that the event should be of more concern to us than
anyone else. He has resigned his offices and should not be indulging in
ceremonies and celebrations, he says, but in spite of my own insignificance
we must give some evidence that my gratitude is as deep as his own. And
so I forced myself to go with the rest of them.
"His Majesty has withdrawn more and more from the vulgar world
and we were sure that he would not welcome an elaborate display. The
<P 633>
simple, intimate sort of visit you have in mind seems to me exactly the
right thing."
Genji thought it well mannered of him not to dwell on the details of
the Second Princess's visit, which he knew had been more than elaborate.
"You can see how little we mean to do. I had feared that people might
think us wanting in respect and esteem, and to have the approval of the
one who understands these things best is very reassuring. Yu~giri seems to
be doing modestly well with his work, but he would seem by nature to
be little inclined toward the more elegant things. As for the Suzaku em-
peror, there is not a single one of them at which he is not an expert, but
music has always been his chief love and there is little that he does not
know about it. He has as you say left the vulgar world behind and it would
seem that he has given up music too, but I think that precisely because of
the quiet and serenity in which it will be received we must give most
careful attention to what we offer. Do please add your efforts to Yu~giri's
and see that the lads are well prepared and in a proper frame of mind as
well. I do not doubt that the professionals know what they are doing, but
somehow the last touch seems missing."
He could not have been more courteous and friendly, and Kashiwagi
was of course grateful; but he was in acute discomfort all the same. He said
little and wanted only to escape. It was far from the easy and pleasant
converse of other years, and he did presently slip away.
In the northeast quarter he had suggestions to make about the cos-
tumes and the like which Yu~giri had chosen. Though in many ways they
already exhausted the possibilities, he showed that he deserved Genji's
high praise by adding new touches.
It was only a rehearsal, but Genji did not want his ladies to be disap-
pointed. On the day of the visit itself the dancers were to wear red robes
and lavender singlets. Today they wore green singlets and pink robes lined
with red. Seats for thirty musicians, all dressed in white, had been put out
on the gallery which led to the angling pavilion, to the southeast of the
main buildings. The dancers emerged from beyond the hillock to the
