be even worse now that he knows you are here. I'm terrified. He may be
a royal highness and all that sort of thing, but his conduct is inexcusable.
No--you must find someone outside the family. Your own brother-in-law
--why the shame of it had me glowering at him like a proper devil. I can't
have been a pretty sight, and I think I possibly had him a little frightened.
He gave my hand a playful little tweak. I almost had to laugh at that.
"There was a battle at the other house today. His Honor the governor
said your mother only cared about you and had as good as abandoned all
the others. It was a complete disgrace for her to be out of the house, he
said, just when they had this new bridegroom coming in. For a minute or
so they thought he might hit her. They heard it all, and they were all on
her side. It was that lieutenant's fault, they said. If it hadn't been for him
and his grand ideas, they said, well, there might have been a little fighting
in the family from time to time, but things would have gone on pretty
much the same."
<P 957>
But the girl was beyond worrying about her mother. Added to tenor
such as she had not known before was concern for Nakanokimi's feelings.
She sat weeping, her head bowed.
The nurse now commenced painting a brighter picture. "Oh, come
now--there's no need for all these tears. It's all _so_ much sadder for a girl
who has no mother. People may have a way of looking down on a girl with
no father, but there's nothing worse, let me tell you, than a nasty step-
mother. You have your mother to look after you, and she'll do it too,
somehow. So stop this carrying on. You've been to Hatsuse time after time
and you're not used to traveling, and the Blessed One is sure to have
noticed. People may be mean to you now, but I'm praying for the day when
you'll make a marriage that will startle them all. You'll have the last laugh,
I know you will."
Niou hurried out. As he went through this west gate, which seemed
to be nearer the palace, he was singing some of his favorites from the
anthologies. He had an uncommonly good voice, but it did not please her.
His retinue was simple, some ten guardsmen on plainly fitted horses.
Nakanokimi guessed what Ukifune would be going through and sent
for her as if nothing had happened. "The prince has gone to inquire after
Her Majesty and will probably not be back tonight. Washing my hair
somehow depresses me and I am still up. Do come over and keep me
company. You must be bored.?"
Ukifune sent her nurse with a reply. "I am not feeling well myself. I
think I should rest for a while."
Another message came immediately. "And what will the trouble be?"
"Nothing in particular, really. It is just that I am not quite myself."
Ukon and Sho~sho~ exchanged glances. They knew what was the matter,
and the fact that all the others knew too did not help.
It was really too sad for the poor girl, Nakanokimi was thinking.
Kaoru had indicated an interest in her, and he would have little admiration
for her failure to defend herself. As for Niou, he was outrageous, always
sniffing out scandals in her life when his own was riddled with them,
always making baseless charges while conveniently overlooking his own
vulnerability. And Kaoru, keeping his bitter counsels, of such gravity and
restraint as to make one despair of ever reaching a similar level--he now
had Ukifune to worry about. She and Ukifune had lived apart over the
years, but now that they had met nothing must separate them. Yes, it was
all very sad. The world was full of the most remarkable complications. She
had her own troubles, but she must count herself among the lucky ones.
She had seemed destined for just such misfortunes, but something had
kept her from falling the whole distance. If she could but see that infatua-
tion of Kaoru's smoothly transferred elsewhere, her troubles would be
over. Her hair, thick and long, was very slow to dry. She had lain down,
a winsome, delicate figure in a white singlet.
<P 958>
Ukifune was still in a daze. Her nurse, though sympathetic, urged her
to action. "This will not do at all. She will think that something really
happened. Pull yourself together, do, and go in to her. I will tell Ukon
everything." She went to the door. "I would like to speak to Ukon, please."
"This horrible affair has left her running a fever," she continued when
Ukon had come out," and she is in a bad state. Have your lady comfort
her, please, if you will. She has not done a thing to apologize for, and here
she is all guilt and regrets. That's how she is--a little more experience and
she would think nothing of it." She went on fussing over the girl and
presently saw her to the princess's rooms.
Ukifune was in an agony of embarrassment. What would they all be
thinking? Almost too docile and yielding, she allowed herself to be led off.
She sat turned away from the light, lest they see that her hair was wet
from tears. The women had thought their mistress unique, but here was
her match. She could not very well hide herself from her own sister, and
the two women, Ukon and Sho~sho~, were able to have a good look at her.
They shuddered to think what would happen if Niou were to give her his
full attention. He was always being attracted to new women who had far
less to recommend them.
"You are to think of this as your own house, and you are not to be
forever on your guard," said Nakanokimi in intimate, affectionate tones.
"I have not for one moment stopped mourning for my sister, and I have
been angry at myself for living on without her. You are a great joy and
comfort--you do so look like her. There is no one who really cares for me.
It would please me enormously if you could learn to think of me as she
did."
Ukifune was shy and still somewhat countrified, and had trouble
finding an answer. Finally she said in an almost childlike voice: "All those
years I thought of you, miles and miles away. It is a great comfort for me
too, seeing you after so long."
The princess took out illustrations to old romances, which they exam-
ined while Ukon read from the texts. Absorbed now in the pictures and
facing her sister in the lamplight, Ukifune had a delicate, girlish beauty
that was perfection of its kind. The quiet elegance of the face, with a slight
glow about the eyes and at the forehead, was so like Oigimi that
Nakanokimi herself was paying little attention to the pictures. A longing
for the past flooded over her. She compared the two in her mind. How
could they be so alike? No doubt the girl took after their father. Old
women long in the Eighth Prince's service had said that Oigimi looked like
her father, Nakanokimi herself like her mother. What affection and yearn-
ing she did call up, this girl so like the two now gone! Nakanokimi felt tears
coming to her eyes. Oigimi had been a lady of cold, proud nobility, but
she had had an affectionate strain and could be docile and accommodating
to excess. Ukifune still had not outgrown a certain childish awkwardness,
and perhaps because of it and because of her shyness one would have had
<P 959>
to put her down as rather inferior to Oigimi in the sort of undeniable
beauty that immediately catches the eye. Given a certain mellowing and
deepening, however, she would not seem in any degree a mismatch for
Kaoru. Nakanokimi was beginning to behave like an elder sister.
They talked until dawn, when they lay down side by side to sleep.
Nakanokimi spoke of her father, though at no great length, and of the life
they had lived at Uji. Ukifune sighed that she had not been allowed to
share it.
Meanwhile others who knew something of what had happened were
also talking.
"How far do you suppose it went? She really is very pretty--and what
horrid luck! Our lady may be fond of her, but small good that will do her
now."
"Oh, I don't think it went far at all," replied Ukon. They were con-
versing in whispers." That nurse of hers pulled me in and had a few things
to say, but she didn't make it sound as if she had allowed much to happen.
And then the prince was reciting the poem about'meeting and not meet-
ing' when he went out. But I don't know--maybe he did it to put me off
the track. You never can tell. But remember how calm and cool she was
when she was sitting with our lady? She certainly didn't look like someone
with a great deal to hide."
The nurse borrowed a carriage and went to the governor's house. The
governor's wife was stunned. The whole Nijo~ house would be scandalized
--and what of Nakanokimi herself? jealousy favored no particular rank,
she knew from her own experience. She rushed off to Nijo~ that night. It
was a great relief to find Niou away.
"She is still a child. I thought she would be safe here. But with the
cat away, as they say. All those silly people at home are at me day and
night."
"Oh, she's not all that much of a child," laughed Nakanokimi. "The
trouble is having you off there watching us, like the cat you say is
away."
This calm beauty only stirred new doubts. What would she really be
thinking? The governor's wife could not of course ask.
"I thought I had finally found what I had been hunting for all these
years, and told myself that no one would ever look down on us again." She
was weeping. "I see now that I should not have come to you. I was right
the first time. She must go into a nunnery."
"What is it that worries you so?" Nakanokimi was deeply moved.
"You would have cause to object if I seemed not to want her here. Yes,
<P 960>
I know there is a man who is not as much in control of himself as he might
be and who occasionally misbehaves; but everyone knows about him and
keeps watch. I will see to it myself that nothing happens to her. What can
have turned you against me?"
"I certainly do not accuse you of behaving as if you did not want her.
Why should I hold you responsible for the way your father treated us? No,
I turned to you not because of him but because of that other bond between
us." There was deep urgency in her voice. "In any case, she must be in
retreat tomorrow and the next day. She must see no one. I have a very quiet
place in mind for her. I will bring her again one day soon."
And she took the girl off with her.
All most unfortunate, thought Nakanokimi, seeking to detain her no
further. The governor's wife was so badly shaken that she rushed out with
scarcely a word of farewell.
She had a cottage for use when the stars demanded a change of
direction. It was a tasteful place, modestly furnished and still in process
of construction.
"What a time I do have trying to find you a home. It is better for a
woman to die young, when the whole world seems against her. I would
not mind the worst sort of loneliness and humiliation and degradation if
I had only myself to think of; but here we are friends again after all the
years of bitterness. The world would roar with laughter if anything were
to go wrong. It's all very sad, but anyway--" She was picking herself up
to depart. "This isn't a very elegant place, I know, but bear with it for a
while, and don't let anyone see you. I'll think of something else one of
these days, I promise you."
The girl was a sad little figure, weeping tears of utter dejection, sorry
even to be alive. Matters were no better with the governor's wife. It would
be a shame to waste such beauty, she had told herself. She had hoped that
the girl, seen safely to womanhood, might make a good marriage for
herself. And now they had the scorn of the world to look forward to, and
must face charges of rashness and frivolity. She was not an insensitive
woman, but she tended to be headstrong and somewhat erratic. Though
it would not have been impossible to hide Ukifune in a corner of the
governor's mansion, she had dismissed the thought as too unfeeling. They
had always been together and the separation was cruel for both of them.
"This place won't be really safe either until it is finished. Do be
careful. I've sent some women to look after you and given orders to the
guards. But I know I'll go on worrying--and everyone at the other house
is furious."
The governor had gained in the lieutenant what was for him a price-
less jewel. He was still out of sorts. His wife might be a little more helpful,
he complained.
<P 961>
But it was because of the man's callousness that all the trouble had
arisen, that the daughter she so doted upon had fallen into disgrace. She
would have nothing to do with him. The poor figure he had cut in Niou's
presence had so filled her with contempt that she had no wish to wait upon
him as a mother-in-law might be expected to. Still she was curious. She
had not yet had a good look at him. It was high noon of a day when she
knew he would be at his ease in the west wing. She hurried over and took
up a position behind a screen. He was near the edge of the veranda, looking
out at the garden. He had on a singlet of soft white brocade and a robe of
deep pink beaten to a rich glow on the fulling blocks. He did not seem so
inferior after all. Indeed, he was rather handsome. Her daughter, leaning
on an armrest beside him, was a mere child. They could hardly have
competed with Niou and his Uji princess, and yet as he exchanged quips
with the women he was not at all the colorless figure she had seen at Nijo~.
Might it have been another lieutenant?
"The _hagi_ at Prince Niou's is especially good," he was saying. "I
wonder where he found the seeds. It comes in the usual shapes, but
