She found it somehow frightening, and at first refused to leave the carriage,
which had been pulled up at a veranda. What a foolish child, said her
women, who could not think what to do.
Yu~giri had taken the main room of the east wing for his own use.
There were whispers of astonishment back at Sanjo~. "When can it all have
begun?"
This most proper of gentlemen was showing unexpected tendencies.
Everyone concluded that he must have kept the affair secret for months
and years. It did not occur to people that in fact the princess was still
defending her virtue. The gossip and Yu~giri's continuing attentions made
her very unhappy indeed.
It was not the best possible time for nuptial measures, but he pro-
ceeded to the princess's rooms when dinner was over and the house was
quiet, and demanded that Kosho~sho~ admit him.
"Please, sir. If your affection seems likely to last awhile longer, please
do her the kindness of waiting a day or two. It may seem to you that she
has come home, but she feels utterly lost and is lying there as if she might
be on the point of expiring. She tells me I am being heartless when I try
to rouse her. I would find it almost impossible to say more than I have
already said even if I were arguing my own case."
<P 703>
"How very strange. She is a sillier goose than I had imagined." All
over again, he assured Kosho~sho~ that his motives were unassailable.
"Please, sir, I beg of you. I do almost fear that I might have another
dead lady on my hands, and your reasoned arguments are beyond me.
Please, please do nothing rash or violent."
"Now this is a unique situation. I have been put at the bottom of the
list, and I would like to call in judges and ask whether I deserve to be
there." He fell silent.
Kosho~sho~ smiled. "If you think it unique, then you are confessing that
you have not had much experience in these matters. We must by all means
call in judges."
This jocularity hid very great uneasiness, for she was powerless to
restrain him. He marched in ahead of her and made his way through
unfamiliar rooms to the princess's side. She was stunned. She would not
have thought him capable of such impetuosity. She still had a device or
two, however, and they could all scream to the world, if they wished, that
she was being childish. She locked herself in a closet and prepared to spend
the night there. She still felt far from secure, and she was very angry with
Kosho~sho~ and the rest, who seemed to find his advances pleasing and
exciting.
<P 704>
Yu~giri too was angry, but he persuaded himself to take the longer
view. Like the mountain pheasant, he spent the night alone.
Daylight came and the impasse remained.
"Open the door just a crack," he said over and over again. There was
no answer.
"My sorrows linger as the winter night.
The stony barrier gate is as slow to open.
"O cruelest of ladies!" In tears, he made his way out.
He rested for a time at Rokujo~.
"We have heard from To~ no Chu~jo~'s people," said the lady of the
orange blossoms, "that you have moved the Second Princess back to Ichijo~.
What can it mean?" He could see her, calm and gentle, through the cur-
tains.
"Yes, it is the sort of thing people like to talk about. Her mother quite
refused to agree to anything of the sort, but towards the end she let it be
known--possibly her resolution had weakened, or possibly the thought of
leaving the princess all alone was too much for her--she let it be known
that I was the one the princess was to turn to. These thoughts fitted
perfectly with my own intentions. And so I suppose each of the gossips
has his own conclusion to the story." He laughed. "How righteous and
confident people can be in disposing of these trivialities. The princess
herself says only that she wants to become a nun. I have very little hope
of dissuading her. The rumors will go on in any event, and I only hope that
my fidelity to her mother's dying wishes outlasts them. So I have made
such arrangements as I have made. When you next see Father you might
try to explain all of this to him. I have managed to keep his respect over
the years, I think, and I would hate to lose it now." He lowered his voice.
"It is curious how irrelevant all the advice and all the promptings of your
own conscience can sometimes seem."
"I had not believed it. There is nothing so unusual about it, I suppose,
though I do feel sorry for your lady at Sanjo~. She has had such a good life
all these years."
"'Your lady'--that is kind of you.'Your ogre' might be more to the
point. But surely you cannot imagine that I would not do the right thing?
You will think it impertinent of me to say so, but consider for a moment
the arrangements you have here at Rokujo~. Yes, the tranquil life is what
we all want. A man may dodge a noisy woman and make all the allow-
ances, but in the end he wants to be quietly rid of her. The noise may die
down but the irritation remains. Murasaki seems in many ways a very rare
sort of lady. And when it comes to sweetness and docility you do not have
many rivals yourself."
She smiled. "This sort of praise makes me feel that my shortcomings
must show very clearly. One thing does strike me as odd: your good father
seems to think that no one has the smallest suspicion of his own delin-
quencies, and that yours give him a right to lecture when you are here and
<P 705>
criticize when you are not. We have heard of sages whose wisdom does
not include themselves."
"Yes, he does lecture, indefatigably. And I am a rather careful person
even in the absence of his wise advice."
He went to Genji's rooms. Genji too had heard of these new develop-
ments, but he saw no point in saying so. Waiting for Yu~giri to speak, he
did not see how anyone could reprove such a handsome young man, at the
very best time of life, for occasionally misbehaving. Surely the most intol-
erant of the powers above must feel constrained to forgive him. And he
was not a child. His younger years had been blameless, and, yes, he could
be forgiven these little affairs. The remarkable thing, if Genji did say so
about his own son, was that the image he saw in the mirror did not give
him the urge to go out and make conquest after conquest.
It was midmorning when Yu~giri returned to Sanjo~. Pretty little boys
immediately commenced climbing all over him. Kumoinokari was resting
and did not look up when he came behind her curtains. He could see that
she was very much put out with him. She had every right to be, but he
could only pretend that he had nothing to be ashamed of.
"Do you know where you are?" she said finally. "You are in hell. You
have always known that I am a devil, and I have merely come home."
"In spirit worse than a devil," he replied cheerfully, "but in appear-
ance not at all unpleasant."
She snorted and sat up. "I know that I do not go very well with your
own fine looks, and I would prefer just to be out of sight. I have wasted
so many years. Please do not remember me as I am now."
He thought her anger, which had turned her a fresh, clean scarlet, very
charming.
"I am used to you and am not at all terrified of you. Indeed, I might
almost wish for something a little more awesome."
"That will do. Just disappear, please, if you do not mind, and I will
hurry and do the same. I do not like the sight of you and I do not like the
sound of you. My only worry is that I may die first and leave you happily
behind."
He found her more and more amusing. "Oh, but you would still hear
about me. How do you propose to avoid that unpleasantness? Is the point
of your remarks that there would seem to be a strong bond between us?
It will hold, I think. We are fated to move on to another world in quick
succession."
He sought to dismiss it as an ordinary marital spat. She was a good-
natured lady in spite of everything, youthful and forgiving, and though
she knew very well what he was doing her anger presently left her.
He was sorry for her, to the extent that his unsettled state of mind
permitted. The princess did not strike him as a willful or arbitrary sort, but
if she were this time to insist on having her way and become a nun he
would look very silly indeed. He must not let her spend many nights alone,
he nervously concluded. Evening approached, and again it became appar-
<P 706>
ent that he would not hear from her. Dinner was brought in. Kumoinokari
ate very little, and Yu~giri himself had eaten nothing at all since the day
before.
"I remember all the years when I thought of no one but you, and your
father would not have me. Thanks to him the whole world was laughing
at me. But I persevered and bore the unbearable, and refused all the other
young ladies who were offered to me. I remember how my friends all
laughed. Not even a woman was expected to be so constant and steadfast,
they all said. And indeed I can see that my solemn devotion must have
been rather funny. You may be angry with me at the moment, but before
you think of leaving me think of all the little ones you can have no
intention of leaving. They are threatening to crowd us out of the house.
You are not that angry, surely?" He dabbed at his eyes. "Do give the matter
a moment's thought. Life is very uncertain."
She thought how remarkably happy their marriage had been, and
concluded that they must indeed have brought a strong bond from other
lives.
He changed his rumpled house clothes for exquisitely perfumed new
finery. Seeing him off, a dazzlingly handsome figure in the torchlight, she
burst into tears and reached for one of the singlets he had discarded.
"I do not complain that I am used and rejected.
Let me but go and join them at Matsushima.
"I do not think I can possibly be expected to continue as I am."
Though she spoke very softly, he heard and turned back.
"You do seem to be in a mood.
"Robes of Matsushima, soggy and worn,
For even them you may be held to account."
It was an impromptu effort and not a very distinguished one.
Again he found the princess locked in a closet.
"What a silly child you are," said one of her women. "People will
think it very, very strange. Do please come out and receive him in a more
conventional sort of room."
She knew that they were right, but she hated him for the unhappiness
he had caused and for all the gossip to come. She had not asked for these
attentions, and she hated them. She spent another night in her closet.
"Astounding," said he. "At first I thought you were joking."
Her women agreed with him completely. "She says, my lord, that she
is certain to feel a little more herself one of these days, and perhaps she
can talk with you then if you still wish it. She is much concerned, however,
that nothing be allowed to disturb the period of mourning. She knows that
unpleasant rumors seem to be making the rounds, and they have upset her
enormously."
<P 707>
"My feelings and intentions are such that she has no right to feel upset
in the least. Please ask her to come out of that closet. She can keep curtains
between us if she insists. I am prepared to wait years and years." His
petition was lengthy but unsuccessful.
"It is unkind of you to add to my troubles," she sent back. "The
rumors are sensational. They make me unhappy, but I must grant that they
are well founded. Your behavior is indefensible."
He must act. The rumors were not at all surprising, and he was begin-
ning to feel uncomfortable before these women.
"Let us consider another possibility," he said to Kosho~sho~. "Let us
make it seem that she has accepted me, even though we are guilty of
deception. People must be very curious to know whether she has or has
not. And think how much worse the damage would be from her point of
view if I were to stop coming. This grim determination is both sad and
foolish."
Kosho~sho~ agreed, and could not hold out against so ill-used and so
estimable a gentleman. The closet had a back door through which servants
were admitted. She led him to it.
The princess was angry and bewildered, and helpless. Such was hu-
man nature, it appeared. No doubt she could expect even worse in the
future.
Sometimes eloquently and sometimes jokingly, he sought to teach her
the natural and, he should have thought, universally recognized ways of
the world. But she was very angry and very sorry for herself.
"You have put me in my place. I only wish I had been cool enough
to see from the outset what an unlikely affection it was. But here we are.
What good is your proud name now? Forget about it, please, and accept
what must be. One hears of people who in desperation throw themselves
into the deep. Think of it as a simile: my love is a deep pool into which
you may throw yourself."
She sat with her face in her hands and a singlet pulled over her head
and bowed shoulders. Far from being "proud," she was utterly forlorn,
capable only of weeping aloud. He looked at her in wonderment, unable
to do more. It was a fine predicament. Why did she so dislike him? They
had long passed the point at which an ordinary woman would have given
in, however much she disliked a man. The princess was as unyielding as
a rock or a tree. He had heard that these antipathies are sometimes formed
in other lives. Might it be so with the princess?
He thought of Kumoinokari, for whom it would be a lonely night, and
