spoken. An image had come in secret to this very house, she let it be
known.
This was exciting news. He longed to be shown to the girl's presence,
but feared that he might seem capricious.
<P 951>
"It would indeed be a comfort if an idol were to come at my command.
But a bad conscience would only muddy the waters."
"It is not easy to be a saint." She laughed a soft laugh which the
governor's wife found charming.
"But you might at least describe my feelings to them. I am reminded
of an earlier case of evasion and it does not bode well for the future." There
were tears in his voice, which he sought to cover with a playful poem.
"The permanent loan, if you please, of a useful image,
A handy memento, to take away the gloom."
"To float downstream afresh at each atonement,
And yet to have forever at your side?
No, there are too many hands tugging at you. I would fear for the poor
girl."
"You know very well which shoal I shall come upon in the end. Please
do not pretend that you do not. I am like the foam that sinks and rises
again, and I find your talk of being floated downstream very much to the
point. Where will the foam come to rest?"
It was growing dark, and she had her guests to think about. "I do seem
to have some people with me at the moment, and must have a thought or
two for appearances. Suppose you go home early, this one time."
"You might tell her, if it would not be too much trouble, that these
feelings have been with me for some years, and that it would be wrong
of her to think herself the victim of a sudden whim. But I tend to be
wrapped up in myself, and handle these matters clumsily."
And he went out.
The governor's wife thought him splendid, indeed quite flawless.
Bennokimi had on more than one occasion spoken of a possibility which
she had dismissed as altogether too remote; but now she thought that one
could easily wait a whole year to bathe in the light of such a star. She was
determined that her daughter go to no ordinary man; and she was aghast
at her want of discrimination (for she had long kept company with rough
East Country people) in thinking the lieutenant acceptable. As for the
perfume left at the cypress pillar and upon the cushion, she despaired of
finding words to describe it.
<P 952>
And those who knew him well had to praise him afresh. "The good
books tell us that a strong perfume is one of the real signs of grace. It must
be true. There's that sandalwood from Oxhead Mountain (awful name)
that the Lotus Sutra makes so much of. The first whiff of him and you
know what it means. He's been at his books and beads ever since he was
a little boy."
And another: "What I'd like to know is what he was up to in other
lives to deserve it all."
The governor's wife listened smiling.
Nakanokimi relayed certain of his remarks. "And once he has made
up his mind to something, it becomes an obsession with him. Nothing can
budge him. Yes, I know that his life is complicated; but if you really have
thought of sending her off to a nunnery, you have nothing to lose by giving
him a try."
"Yes, it is true that I've thought of sending her where'no birds fly
singing overhead.' I've thought of it as the only way to protect her. But
now I see that just being near him, just being one of his servants, would
give new meaning to life; and if that is the effect he has upon me, think
what he must do to a young girl. But I don't know--she is such an
unattractive little thing--we might just be asking for trouble. Life is not
good to us women. All of us, high and low, have to live with unhappiness,
in this life and all the others. I want to weep, just thinking about it. But
I leave everything to you. I know you will do the right thing."
"As I have said, he has been honesty itself through the years."
Nakanokimi sighed. This new responsibility was not entirely welcome.
"But we can never be sure of the future." She said no more.
The next morning a carriage came for the governor's wife, and with
it a strongly worded letter. The governor was angry.
"I shouldn't, I know, but I do leave everything to you. Keep her
hidden for a while. She is useless, but keep her with you, and teach her
what she needs to know. I'll be thinking what to do with her, whether to
send her oft to some cave among the rocks, or what." She was in tears
as she got into her carriage.
This was Ukifune's first separation from her mother, and she was of
course sad; and yet the prospect of living with her sister for a time in a
bright, fashionable house was not unpleasing.
The carriage left at dawn. Niou and his retinue, on their way from
court, were just then coming in the gate. Having slipped away for a quiet
visit with his son, he had few attendants and his carriage was plainer than
<P 953>
his rank called for. The governor's wife had her carriage pulled aside while
his was brought up to a gallery. He glared at the other party suspiciously.
And who would they be, sneaking away in the night? So it was, he said
to himself, that an adventurer made his escape. He had a not very lovable
way of judging others by himself.
One of her attendants identified her as "a noble person from Hitachi."
"A noble person from Hitachi!" His young men roared with laughter.
"Suppose we give them a bit of the real thing for their troubles."
Yes, sighed the governor's wife, it had been a poor choice of words;
in such company she was scarcely to be called noble. And she so longed
to make a decent match for her daughter, who certainly deserved a better
than ordinary husband.
Niou made his way inside. "And so you have had a noble person from
Hitachi with you? A carriage and guard disappearing in the night--I think
most people would find it suspicious."
He was impossible. She turned away in a show of annoyance which
he thought charming.
"It was an old friend of Tayu~'s--no one interesting enough for _you_ to
concern yourself with. Why must you always put the wrong meaning on
things? You seem absolutely intent on turning people against me."
He slept on as if the sun had not risen. Presently a party of courtiers
arrived, and he went to receive them in the main hall. The empress was
better, it seemed, her indisposition not having been serious. Thus relieved
of court duties, he passed several pleasant hours with Yu~giri's sons and
others, in such pursuits as Go and rhyme guessing.
In the evening he returned to the princess's rooms. She was having her
hair washed. Most of her women had withdrawn. He sent a little girl in
with a message: "A very nice time you have chosen for laundering your
hair. I don't suppose you expect me to watch? And so I am to sit with my
boredom?"
"Yes, it is unfortunate," agreed Tayu~. "She usually washes her hair
while you are away, but she has been putting it off and putting it off. This
is the last good day before the end of the month, and of course she can't
do it next month or the month after. And so I have been at work on it."
Several women were putting the baby prince to bed. Wandering rest-
lessly here and there, Niou came upon a girl whom he had not seen before,
out towards the west veranda. A new maidservant, perhaps? Midway
along the partition a door was slightly open. About a foot beyond he saw
a screen, and beside it a curtain backed by a blind. One section had been
folded over the frame. From beneath protruded the sleeves of a bright
lavender robe and a cloak of greenish yellow. He could see without being
<P 954>
seen, for one panel of the screen was folded back. He softly opened the
door a few inches more and edged closer to the mysterious lady. The
garden, enclosed by a gallery, was in the best of taste, a profusion of
flowers with high rocks along a brook. The girl was at the edge of the
veranda, leaning on an armrest and gazing out. He opened the door yet a
little more and peered from behind the screen. She was very pretty indeed
as she looked up, thinking that one of the women had come in. Never one
to hold back on such occasions, he clutched at her skirt. He pushed the
door shut with his other hand and seated himself beside the screen. Aware
now that there was something unusual about the visitor, she brought a fan
to her face, and, very engaging in her shyness, turned to see who he might
be. He took the hand that held the fan.
What was she to do? And who might he be? He had caught her quite
unawares. His face averted, he was sitting in the shadow of the screen. The
gentleman who had expressed such an improbable interest in her, perhaps?
The fragrance suggested as much.
Her nurse, sensing the presence of the invader, pushed aside the
screen. "What is going on in here? Something very odd is going on in
here."
But he was not to be put off by so minor a reproof. Though the
<P 955>
encounter had been quite unplanned, he was at no loss for words. He
talked of this and that, and soon it was evening.
"What is your name? I won't let you go till you tell me."
He stretched out familiarly beside her. The nurse was horrified, for she
had at length guessed who he was.
Lamps were being lighted at the eaves. The maids announced that
Nakanokimi's toilet was finished and that she had returned to the main
room. From other parts of the hall came the sound of shutters being closed.
Ukifune's quarters, in a remote corner, were furnished with but a pair of
highboys. Crated screens lay about in much disorder. A door had been left
open for routine comings and goings. Ukon, a daughter of Tayu~ also in
Nakanokimi's service, was closing the shutters, gradually nearer.
"My, but it's dark in here. No one has brought you a light? Well just
look at this, will you. I've been in such a rush getting these things shut that
I don't even know where I am." She opened a shutter she had just closed.
Niou was mildly disconcerted.
"Come here and listen to what _I_ have to tell you." The nurse was an
emphatic woman. "The most dreadful thing has been going on in here. I've
worn myself out keeping watch. I haven't been able to budge from this
spot."
Ukon groped her way through the darkness, and came upon a fra-
grantly reclining figure in a man's singlet. So he was at it again! She knew
immediately that he did not have Ukifune's permission.
"It most certainly _is_ dreadful. What shall I do? Go this minute and tell
our lady?"
She started off. No, said the other, that would hardly be the proper
thing to do. Niou was not in the least worried. But he was puzzled. Here
was this wonderfully attractive girl, and he could tell from Ukon's manner
that she was more than a new maidservant. At great length, he tried to coax
her from her silence. There was nothing ill-natured or disagreeable about
it, but he could see that she was near distraction. He was genuinely sorry
and put much feeling into his efforts to comfort her.
Ukon hurried off to tell Nakanokimi. "Very sad, very sad," she said.
"I can imagine how the poor girl feels."
"That awful habit of his. Her mother will think it very careless of us.
I don't know how many times she told me to take care of the child."
But what was she to do? He had a remarkable way of spying out
everyone in the household who was even moderately young and attractive.
How had he learned that the girl was here? She fell into an outraged
silence.
Ukon had gone on to take a woman named Sho~sho~ into her confi-
dence.
"Usually when he's at games with those fine gentlemen they play on
into the night. And so he caught us off guard. There we were, sprawled
all over the house. But the question is what to do now."
"That nurse of hers is quite a woman. Nothing could make her budge
<P 956>
an inch. I almost thought she was going to separate them by main force."
Just then a messenger arrived from court with the news that the
empress had suffered a relapse. She had been in great pain since earlier in
the evening.
"How very inconsiderate of her, when he was having such a good
time." Ukon started in with the message.
"What's done is done," said Sho~sho~. "Don't go scolding him and
making yourself look silly."
"But I doubt if it _is_ quite done."
They were whispering busily to each other. And what would all the
rest be thinking? sighed Nakanokimi. People with an ordinary sense of
propriety would be reproving her as well as Niou.
Ukon relayed the message, embroidering upon it somewhat.
"And who was the august messenger?" he asked, showing no disposi-
tion to move. "I'm sure he overdid it."
"A chamberlain to Her Majesty who announced himself as Taira no
Shigetsune."
He was in no hurry to go, whatever all the others might be thinking.
Ukon went for the messenger, who came to the west veranda. With him
was the man who had earlier brought in his message.
"Prince Nakatsukasa is already at court, and I saw Her Majesty's
chamberlain leaving his house."
She did from time to time have these seizures. He started out, leaving
behind many complaints and promises. It would not do to be thought
unfilial.
Soaked in perspiration, Ukifune sat with bowed head. It was as if she
had awakened from a nightmare. Her nurse was beside her, wielding a fan
as she offered her views in the matter.
"This place is not for us. We have no defenses, none at all, and it will
