The clear moon reflected from the brook was as in a picture. Kaoru had
expected to find his friend enjoying the moonlight, and he was not disap-
pointed. Startled at the fragrance that came in on the breeze, Niou slipped
into casual court dress and otherwise put himself in order. Kaoru had
stopped midway up the stairs. Not asking him to come further, Niou
stepped out and leaned against the railing, and in these attitudes they
talked idly of this and that. The Uji affair always on his mind, he reproved
his friend for various inadequacies as a messenger. This was not at all fair,
thought Kaoru. He was incapable of seizing the first thing he wanted for
himself, and he could hardly be expected to worry about others. But then
it occurred to him that his own cause might be advanced if matters were
arranged satisfactorily for Niou, and he talked with unusual candor of
what he thought might be done.
<P 838>
A mist came in as the dawn brightened. The air was chilly, and with
the moon now hidden the shade of the trees was dark. It was a pleasant
scene despite the gloom.
"The time is coming," said the prince, "when you will not get off so
easily for leaving me behind." No doubt the gloom brought sad Uji very
near. Since Kaoru gave no evidence of eagerness, Niou offered a poem:
"All the wide field abloom with maiden flowers!
Why must you string a rope to keep us out?"
In a similarly bantering tone, Kaoru replied:
"The maiden flowers on the misty morning field
Are set aside for those who bestir themselves.
And," he said, smiling, "there are not many such enterprising people."
"How utterly shameless!"
Though long importuned by his friend, Kaoru had wondered whether
Nakanokimi could meet this most rigorous of tests. Now he knew that she
was at least the equal of her sister. He had feared, too, that her disposition
might upon close inspection prove to have its defects, and he was sure now
that there was nothing for which he need apologize. Though it might seem
cruel to go against Oigimi's wishes, his own affections did not seem pre-
pared to jump lightly to her sister. He must see that Nakanokimi went to
his friend. So he would overcome the resentment of both of them, prince
and princess.
Unaware of these thoughts, Niou was calling him shameless. It was
very amusing.
"We must remember," said Kaoru, his manner somewhat patronizing,
"that you have given us little cause to admire you for your fidelity."
"Just you wait and see," answered Niou most earnestly. "I have never
liked anyone else half as well, I swear it."
"And I see few signs that they are about to capitulate. You have given
me a formidable assignment."
Yet he proceeded to describe in great detail his thoughts about an
expedition to Uji.
The twenty-eighth, when the equinox festival ended, was a lucky
day. With great stealth, including every possible precaution against at-
tracting notice, Kaoru led his friend forth towards Uji. They would be in
trouble were Niou's mother, the empress, to learn of the excursion. She
<P 839>
would be certain to forbid it. But Niou was determined. Though Kaoru
agreed with him in wanting to make it appear that they were off for
nowhere at all, the pretense was not a simple one. They would surely be
noticed if they tried to cross the Uji River. Forgoing the splendor of Yu~giri's
villa on the south bank, therefore, Kaoru left Niou at a manor house he
happened to own near the Eighth Prince's villa and went on alone. No one
was likely to challenge them now, but it seemed that Kaoru did not want
even Wigbeard, who might be patrolling the grounds, to know of Niou's
prese, His Lordship is here, His Lordship is here! " As usual the women
bustled around getting ready to receive him. The princesses were mildly
annoyed. But surely, thought Oigimi, she had hinted broadly enough that
his affections should rest upon someone other than herself. Nakanokimi,
for her part, knew that she was not the one he was attracted to, and that
she had nothing to fear from the visit. But since that painful evening she
had not felt as close to her sister. A stiff reserve had grown up between
them, indeed, and Nakanokimi refused to communicate except through
intermediaries. How would it all end? sighed the women who carried her
messages.
Niou was led in under cover of darkness.
Kaoru summoned Bennokimi. "Let me have a single word with the
older of your ladies. I know when I have been refused, but I can't very well
just run away. And then perhaps, a little later, I may ask you to let me in
as you did the other night?"
His manner offered no cause for suspicion. It made little difference,
thought the old woman, which of the two girls she took him to. She told
Oigimi of the request. Oigimi was pleased and relieved--so his attention
had turned to her sister, just as she had hoped. She closed and barred the
door to the veranda, leaving open the door through which he would pass
on his way to her sister's; and she was ready to receive him.
"A word is all I need," he said somewhat testily, "and it is ridiculous
that I must shout it to the whole world. Open the door just a little. Can't
you guess how uncomfortable I am out here?"
"I can hear you perfectly well," she said, leaving the door closed.
Perhaps his affection for her had died and he felt it his duty to say
goodbye? They were not, after all, strangers. She must not offend him, she
concluded, having come forward a little, but she must watch the time. He
clutched at her sleeve through a crack in the door and began railing at her
as he pulled her towards him. She was outraged. What was the man not
capable of? But she must humor him and hurry him off to her sister. Her
innate gentleness came over to him. Quietly and without seeming to insist,
she asked that he be to her sister as he had thought of being to herself.
Niou meanwhile was following instructions. He made his way to the
door by which Kaoru had entered that other night. He signaled with his
fan and Bennokimi came to let him in. How amusing, he thought, that his
<P 840>
turn should have come to travel this well-traveled route. In complete
ignorance of what was happening, Oigimi still sought to hurry Kaoru on
his way. Though he could not keep back a certain exhilaration at being
party to such an escapade, he was also moved to pity. He would have no
excuse to offer when she learned how effectively she had been duped; and
so he said:
"Niou kept pestering me to bring him along, and I couldn't go on
saying no. He is here with me. I suspect that by now he will have made
his way in. You must forgive him for not having introduced himself. And
I rather imagine that talkative old woman of yours will have been asked
to show him the way. So here I am left dangling. You can all have a good
laugh over me."
This was a bit more than she had been prepared for. Indeed, she was
aghast, and wondered whether her senses might have deserted her. "Well!
I _have_ been nai%ve. Your powers of invention are so far beyond me that I
doubt if I could find words to describe them. I have let you see quite
through me, and you have learned how stupid and careless I am. This
knowledge of your superiority must give you much satisfaction."
"I have nothing to say. I could apologize all night, and little good it
would do me. Pinch me and claw me, if you are so furious. I quite under-
stand. You were aiming high, and you have learned that we are not always
masters of our fate. I am inclined to suspect that he has been drawn in
another direction all along. I do feel sorry for you, believe me. And, do you
know, I feel a little sorry for myself too, left out in the cold with requests
that have taken me nowhere at all. But be that as it may, you would do
well to accept what has happened, maybe you could even coax forth a
thought or two about us, you and me. We may know that your door is
locked, but can you imagine that other people will believe in the purity
that so distinguishes us? Do you think that my royal friend, for instance,
who persuaded me to act as his guide this evening--do you think he can
imagine the possibility of such a pointless and useless night?"
He seemed prepared to break the door in. It still seemed best to humor
him.
"This'fate' you speak of is not easy to grasp, and I cannot pretend to
know much about it. I only know that'tears block off the unknown way
ahead.' It is a nightmare, trying to guess what you mean to do next. If
people choose to remember my sister and me as some sort of case in point,
I am sure it will be to add us to the list of ridiculous women who are always
turning up in old stories. And are you prepared to tell me what your friend
means to do now that the two of you have been so clever? Please, I beg
of you, do not make things worse, do not confuse us further. If I should
survive this crisis, and I am not at all sure that I will, I may one day be
<P 841>
able to compose myself for a talk with you. At the moment I am feeling
very upset and unwell, and think I must rest. Leave me alone, if you do
not mind."
She clearly _was upset, and that she should be so rational in spite of her
distress made him feel his own inadequacy.
"I have done everything imaginable to follow your wishes, and I have
made a fool of myself every step of the way. I have done everything, and
you seem to find me insufferable. Well, I will go--disappear might be the
better expression." After a moment he continued: "But even if you are not
feeling well, we can at least go on talking through the door. Please do not
run away.
He released her sleeve and was delighted to see that she did not
withdraw very far." Just stay there and be a comfort through the night.
I would not dream of asking more."
It was a difficult, sleepless night. In the roar of the wind and water,
which seemed to rise as the night advanced, he was like a pheasant without
its mate.
The first signs of dawn came over the sky, and as always the monas-
tery bells were ringing. His late-sleeping friend had still not left Nakanoki-
mi's side. In some disquiet, Kaoru gave a summoning cough. It was an
unusual situation.
"A futile night. The guide of yestereve
Seems doomed to wander lost down the twilight road.
I cannot believe that you have heard of anything quite like it."
She replied in a voice so low that he could scarcely hear:
"You walk a road you have chosen for yourself,
While helplessly we stumble on in darkness."
All his impatience came back. "Can you not be persuaded, please, to
dismantle a few of these unnecessary defenses?"
As the sky grew brighter Niou emerged, and with him a quiet fra-
grance that cast just the right veil of delicacy over the events of the night
before. The old women were open-mouthed. But they quickly found com-
fort. The other young gentleman would surely have all the right motives
for his conduct.
Niou and Kaoru hurried back to the city before daylight overtook
them. The return journey seemed far longer than had the way to Uji.
Always aware of the obstacles that kept a man of his rank from embarking
on carefree outings, Niou had already begun to lament" the nights to
come. " The streets were still deserted when they arrived back at Nijo~.
<P 842>
Ordering the carriage drawn up at the veranda, they slipped indoors,
smiling at the strange, ladylike vehicle that had guarded their incognito.
"If you were to ask me, I would say that you had done your duty most
admirably," said Kaoru, letting fall no hint of the grotesque arrangements
he himself had made. Niou hurried off to compose a note.
The sisters were in a daze. Nakanokimi was angry and sullen: so her
sister had had these plans and had not permitted her an inkling of them.
Oigimi, for her part, unable to find a convenient way to protest her inno-
cence, could only sigh at the thought of how just this resentment was. The
old women looked from one to the other in search of an explanation for
this startling turn of events; but the lady who should have been their
strength seemed lost to the world, and they could only go on wondering.
Oigimi opened the note and showed it to her sister, but Nakanokimi
lay with her face pressed against her sleeve. "What a long time they are
taking with their answer," thought the messenger.
This was Niou's verse:
"You cannot think that a trifling urge induced me
To brave, for you, that tangled, dew-drenched path?"
The accomplished hand, ever more remarkable, had delighted them
back in the days when it had been of no particular concern to them. Now
it was a source of apprehension. Oigimi did not think it seemly to step
forward and answer in her sister's place. She limited herself to pressing the
claims of propriety, and finally persuaded Nakanokimi to put together a
note. They rewarded the messenger with a woman's robe in the wild-
aster combination and a pair of doubly lined trousers. The messenger,
a court page whom Niou often made use of and who would be unlikely
to attract notice, seemed reluctant to accept the gifts, which they therefore
wrapped in a cloth parcel and handed to his man. Having been at such
pains to make the mission inconspicuous, Niou was annoyed. He blamed
the officious old woman of the evening before.
He asked Kaoru to be his guide again that evening.
"I am really very sorry, but I have an engagement at the Reizei Palace
from which I cannot ask to be excused."
"So it is with my worthy friend--not at all interested in the most
