<P 945>
in the daughter to whom her father had to the end denied recognition? And
on the other hand it would not be easy to look away while her sister
suffered and perhaps went to ruin. Nor would it do honor to the memory
of her father if, for no good reason, the two were to become strangers.
What was she to do?
In an agony of indecision, she appealed to the woman Tayu~.
"She must have her reasons," said Tayu~. "Please do not answer in a
way that might strike her as even slightly unfriendly. Daughters of low-
ranking mistresses are always keeping company with daughters of proper
wives. Your good father was altogether too inflexible."
The princess sent off her answer: "We have a place in the west wing
where she may hide. It will be uncomfortable, I am sure, but if she can bear
with it she is most welcome."
The mother was delighted, and the two of them, mother and daughter,
slipped out of the house. Ukifune was by now rather happy at her misfor-
tune, because it offered a chance for new intimacy with her sister.
The governor had been determined that his new son-in-law be re-
<P 946>
ceived with the utmost splendor; but the restraint that makes for true
brilliance was foreign to him. He scattered East Country silks in all direc-
tions, and at the banquet, a clamorous affair, the dishes threatened to
crowd one another off the tables. The underlings were delighted at all this
largesse, and even the lieutenant was pleased. It had been clever of him to
woo the governor. The governor's wife suffered in silence, acquiescing in
her husband's demands, for she could hardly be absent from the festivities.
This room was to be for the lieutenant, those over there for his attendants,
and in the end scarcely a room was left in the whole vast house. The
Minamoto councillor occupied the east wing, and the governor had many
sons. Himegimi having taken over Ukifune's west wing, Ukifune herself
would have to make do with a corner of a gallery somewhere.
It was in these desperate circumstances that the governor's wife
thought of Nakanokimi. With no powerful relatives, poor Ukifune would
suffer increasing scorn and abuse. The governor's wife did not find it easy
to seek the help of a lady whose father had refused to accept his respon-
sibilities.
The girl's nurse and two or three young attendants went with them.
A room had been prepared at the northwest corner of the west wing,
remote from the main activities of the house. They had lived far apart over
the years, the princess and the governor's wife, but they were not, after
all, complete strangers. The princess received her guests warmly. Used to
a different sort of company, the governor's wife thought her charming. Yet
envy at the young mother and child before her was mixed in with the
pleasure. Was she herself so utterly inferior to the wife of the Eighth
Prince? No, he had refused to accept her only because she had been in
domestic service. There could be no other reason for such scorn. Forcing
her daughter upon the princess had not been easy for her. Word having
been sent out that the girl was in retreat, no one came to her room. The
mother stayed for several days, quietly studying the household.
Niou appeared one day. Overcome with curiosity, the governor's wife
looked out through a crack between two doors, and thought him radiant
as a cherry in full bloom. Numerous courtiers of the Fourth and Fifth ranks
waited upon him, far superior in manner and appearance to the husband
upon whom she depended, and whom, maddening though he might be,
she did not mean to reject. Nakanokimi's stewards came in to discuss this
and that problem in their several domains. Among the young courtiers of
the Fifth Rank were many whom she did not recognize. Her own stepson,
a secretary in the ministry of rites, came with a message from court, but
he was of too inferior a rank to address the prince. What glory, she
thought; and what happiness to be near him! Why should an outsider like
herself have thought that, grand though he might be, he meant unhappi-
ness for his princess? She should have known better. So remarkable were
his face and his bearing as he took the child in his arms that any woman
<P 947>
should be delighted at the meager prospect of an annual interview, like the
stars at their midsummer meeting. The princess was behind a low curtain,
which he pushed aside as he spoke to her. They were a perfect match. The
governor's wife thought of the Eighth Prince and the lonely life he had led,
and knew that there were princes and there were princes.
Niou withdrew to the bedchamber. Nurses and young serving women
were left in charge of the child. Visitors came in swarms, but he said that
he was not feeling well and stayed in bed until nightfall. The elegance of
each small detail quite dazzled the governor's wife. She had thought her-
self dedicated to the pursuit of good taste, and she saw now that there was
a certain point beyond which ordinary people could not go. But she had
one daughter, at least, who could mix with the best of them. They too were
her daughters, the girls the governor talked of buying ministries and
thrones for; yet how different! She must not give up, she must persist with
her high ambitions. She lay awake all night, thinking of the future.
The sun was high when Niou arose. The empress was again indis-
posed, he said, changing to court dress, and he must inquire after her. Still
consumed with curiosity, the governor's wife looked out through the same
aperture. In formal dress he was incomparable. He sat dandling the child,
clearly reluctant to leave; but finally, after a light breakfast, he made his
way out. His escort had emerged from the barracks. Among them was one
who, though dressed well enough (he had on a lined robe and wore a
sword), had not one mark of real distinction. Indeed, he was rather homely.
Before the prince he shrank to a cipher.
The women were talking.
"That's the lieutenant, the governor of Hitachi's son-in-law. He was
supposed to marry our new guest, but he thought he'd do better for himself
if he married one of the governor's daughters. So he got himself a little
dwarf of a thing."
"The lady hasn't said a word."
"But we have our ways. We have our spies over there."
Only half listening, the governor's wife was suddenly attentive, and
startled. So that was who the man was! What a fool she had been to think
him even remotely acceptable! She had only contempt for him now.
On hands and knees, the little prince was peering from under a blind.
Niou came back and gave him another bouncing.
"If the empress is feeling better, I'll come straight home. Otherwise
I suppose I'll have to stay until morning. I do hate to be away for even a
single night."
The governor's wife gazed on and on until finally he made his depar-
ture, and when he was gone she was somehow lonely.
She could not find strong enough words of praise. Nakanokimi smiled,
thinking the lack of restraint a bit countrified.
<P 948>
"You were a mere infant when your mother died. All of us, and your
father too, wondered what would become of you. You were born under
lucky stars. That's why you could grow up way off in the mountains and
still be the fine young lady you are. What a tragedy that your sister had
to leave us."
She was in tears, and Nakanokimi's eyes were moist. "A person lives
on, and there are times when anger and resentment seem very far away.
I have become resigned to a great many things--that I was fated to live
longer than those who were most important to me, that I was not meant
to know my own mother. But I do go on weeping for my sister. Why did
she have to die, when a man like the general, a man of real feeling, could
not take his mind from her?"
"But isn't he just a little _too_ pleased with himself, now that the emperor
has singled him out for special attention? If your sister were still alive,
there would be the other princess standing between them."
"I wonder. We would have been alike, you mean, with the whole
world laughing at us? You may be right. It may be better that she died.
He goes on grieving, I suppose, because she never let him come near. But
it is more than that. He seems completely unable to forget--it is very odd,
<P 949>
really. And he has taken care of all the memorial services for Father." She
did not mention the more troublesome aspects of their relationship.
"He seems to have told the nun at Uji that he would like to have my
daughter, useless little thing, in place of your poor dead sister. It is not for
me to say it, I know, but there are'those lavender grasses.'"
In tears, she went on to tell of Ukifune's troubles. Thinking that
Nakanokimi might have heard of the affair, though not perhaps in detail,
she spoke obliquely of how the girl had been wronged by her stepfather
and the lieutenant.
"While I am alive we can somehow get by, I suppose. I can take care
of her after a fashion, and we can be a comfort to each other. But what
awful things will happen to her when I die and leave her behind? I worry,
and have almost decided that it would be best to give up the idea of finding
a husband for her, and put her in a nunnery somewhere off in the moun-
tains."
"Yes, it is very sad. But we who have been left behind must learn to
live with insults. It was not possible for my sister and me to go into a
nunnery, and so Father chose the next-best thing, and taught us to live
alone, away from the world. And here I am, living this strange life, right
in the middle of the city. No, you mustn't think of it. I couldn't bear to
see her in those awful blacks and grays."
It had been spoken with care and gravity, and the governor's wife was
much comforted. Though no longer young, she dressed with modest good
taste. She had not, however, been able to control a tendency toward fleshi-
ness, and her generous proportions made her an admirable match for His
Eminence of Hitachi.
"Your esteemed father was not kind to her, I have always thought,
and that is why the world chooses to treat her as if she were less than
human; but what you have said does a great deal to help me forget the old
sorrow." She talked of her life over the years and of places she had seen,
wild, remote places like Ukishima." I was'left alone to think these dismal
thoughts,' and now I find such pleasure in your company that I would like
to stay on and on, and possibly give you some idea of what it is like to
live at the foot of Tsukuba, where there is no one, literally no one, to talk
to. But all those other tiresome children will be raising a great stir, I know,
and I am, after all, a little restless. I know better than most what it means
to lose your proper place in the world, and so I shall leave her with you,
and say no more."
The list of her grievances stretched on. Nakanokimi did indeed hope
that something could be done for the girl, who was certainly attractive and
seemed to have a pleasant disposition. She was quiet and composed and
yet not excessively shy, and her way of avoiding the scrutiny of even
<P 950>
Nakanokimi's women suggested that she was not wanting in intelligence.
Her speech was astonishingly reminiscent of Oigimi's. Yes, thought
Nakanokimi, remembering that there had been talk of a statue of her sister.
She would like to have him see _this_ image.
And just then there came a shouting. "The general is here, the general
is here?"
The usual care went into arranging the curtains.
"I must have a look at him," said the governor's wife. "Everyone says
he's wonderfully handsome, but of course he can't possibly be as hand-
some as the prince."
"We don't know about _that_," replied the women. "We'd be hard put
to choose between them."
"When they are side by side," said Nakanokimi, "my husband seems
rather short on good looks; but when they are apart it really is impossible
to decide which one is the better-looking. The way good looks have of
blotting out everyone else can be rather annoying."
"This is just talk," laughed one of her women. "It would take a very
extraordinary man to blot out Prince Niou."
Now he was getting out of his carriage, came the report; but he was
concealed by his retinue, shouting to clear the way. Then they saw him
approaching. Yes, thought the governor's wife: these were not the showy
kind of good looks, but the impression was of a gentle elegance such as
to make one feel rather common. She smoothed her hair at the forehead.
He had a large retinue, for he was on his way home from court.
"I was told last night that Her Majesty was ill. She seemed lonely
without her children, and so I stayed on in place of the prince. He was late
this morning too. You must be charged with responsibility for these delin-
quencies, I fear."
"Very kind of you," she answered simply, "I am sure."
He of course had something on his mind, for he had come at a time
when he knew that Niou would be at court. His manner was, as always,
affectionately nostalgic. He spoke with circumspection of his inability to
forget the past and his unhappiness with his marriage. How, she won-
dered, could he go on forever thinking of her sister? Or was there an
element of pretense in his tenacity? Having been so ardent at the outset,
he would not have it thought that he had forgotten? But he seemed so open
with her that, not being a log or a stone, she had presently to recognize
the genuineness of his sorrow. She sighed. Then, perhaps hoping to wash
away part of the pain, she mentioned the "image" of which they had
