know who the writer might be. He took up the other. It too was, as she
had said, in a woman's hand.
"And how will our lady be, now that the New Year has come? I have
no doubt that you yourself have a long list of blessings to count over. This
is a beautiful house and we are well taken care of, and yet it seems a pity
that the young lady should be shut away in the mountains. I have been
telling her that she must stop brooding, that she must pick herself up and
visit you from time to time; but she refuses because of that awful thing
and goes on brooding. She is sending streamers to decorate the little
prince's room. Please show them to him when his father is away."
It was not a very pleasing letter. It was wordy and complaining and
not at all in keeping with the happy season. Puzzled, he read it again.
"You must tell me everything. Who is it from?"
"I am told that the daughter of a woman who was in service with us
at Uji has been obliged to go back there."
But it did not seem the hand of an ordinary maidservant, and the
mention of "that awful thing" was a valuable hint. The streamers were
charming, obviously the work of someone with a great deal of spare time,
<P 975>
perhaps, indeed, too much. A branch at a fork in the pine had been strung
with artificial red berries, and a poem attached to it:
"Our seedling pine has not known many years.
I see for it, withal, a pine's long life."
It was not a particularly distinguished poem. Yet he continued to read
it over, sensing that it would be from a lady who had been much on his
mind.
"Send off an answer. You must not be rude, and I see no need for
secrecy." He turned to go. "I have no choice but to leave you when you
are in one of your moods."
The princess summoned her women. "A great pity," she said softly.
"You had to let them fall into the hands of an infant, did you?"
"You surely don't think we wanted it that way! No, that child is
cheeky and forward and not as bright as she might be. It doesn't take long
to sort out the ones with possibilities. The quiet ones are the ones to
watch."
"Oh, don't be angry with her," said Nakanokimi. "She's so young."
<P 976>
The child had been put into Nakanokimi's service the winter before.
She was a pretty little thing and Niou was fond of her.
<N 5>
All very strange, thought Niou, back in his own rooms. Having had
reports that Kaoru continued to visit Uji, and a further report that he
occasionally spent the night there, he had smiled and said to himself that
his friend had strange ways, even granting the associations that Uji had for
him. So a lady was hidden there!
Niou remembered a certain official, a privy secretary, who had been
of service to him in scholarly matters and who had close friends among
Niou's retainers. He asked the man to bring anthologies for a game of
rhyme guessing.
"Just leave them in the cabinet over there, if you will. By the way:
they tell me that the general is still making trips to Uji. His monastery must
be very splendid--I only wish I could go have a look at it."
"Very splendid indeed, I understand, very dignified. Especially the
Chapel of the Holy Name, people tell me. I understand that he has been
going more often since last fall, and his men have been spreading rumors
about a lady there, someone he does not find at all unattractive, I'm sure.
He's told the people at his manor to do everything they can for her, and
they post guards every night, and then he keeps sending out secret supply
wagons from town. A very lucky lady--but she must be lonely and bored
off there in the mountains. That's what they say, or were saying along
towards the end of last year."
What a delightful piece of intelligence!" They haven't said who she
might be? I've heard that he visits a nun who's lived there for a very long
time."
"The nun lives in a gallery. The lady herself is in the main hall, the
new one. She gets by comfortably, I believe, with acceptable enough
women to wait on her."
"Very, very interesting. What plans might he have for her? And what
sort of woman is she? He has his ways, you know, not at all like yours and
mine. I hear that his good brother is always after him for overdoing the
religious thing and spending his nights off in mountain temples. And
people say that he could find plenty of other places to be religious in if he
had to, and needn't go sneaking off to Uji. It has to be because of the late
princess, people say. So here we are. Interesting, do you not think? The
saint who is so much better than the rest of us does have his little secrets."
It was _very_ interesting. The secretary was the son-in-law of Kaoru's
steward and so was apprised of very intimate matters. Niou wondered how
to go about learning for certain whether it was the girl he had seen at Nijo~.
She must in any case be unusual if she had caught Kaoru's eye. And why
should she be close to Nakanokimi? It so irritated him that he could think
of nothing else, the quite evident fact that Kaoru and Nakanokimi had
spirited the girl away.
<N 6>
The archery meet and the literary banquet were over and there were
<P 977>
no great demands on his time. The provincial appointments that created
such a stir on certain levels were no concern of his. He could think only
of slipping off to Uji. The secretary from whom he had learned Kaoru's
secret had certain ambitions, and was adept at currying favor. Niou did
nothing to discourage him.
"Suppose I were to ask something really difficult of you," he said one
day. "Would you do it for me?"
The man bowed deeply.
"Well, here we are then, and I hope I won't shock you. I've learned
that the lady at Uji might be someone I knew for a very little while a long
time ago. She disappeared, and I've had reports that the general may have
taken her away. I can't be really sure. I'd like to do a bit of sleuthing. Do
you think something might be arranged without attracting notice?"
This would be difficult, thought the man. Still he could not refuse.
"The road leads through wild mountains, but not so very far, really. If you
leave in the evening you should be there by a little after ten. And it might
be best to be home by dawn. No one needs to know except the men who
go with you, and not even they need to know everything.
"My feelings exactly. I've made the trip before--but do try to keep
it secret. There are always gossips who seem to think that people like me
should stay at home."
<N 7>
Though he knew that he was being reckless, it was now too late to
withdraw. He took along two or three men who had been with him on
other trips to Uji, this secretary, and the son of his old nurse, a young man
who had just been promoted to the Fifth Rank for his work as a privy
secretary. They were all among his closer confidants. The secretary had
orders to inquire carefully into comings and goings at Sanjo~, and was
certain that Kaoru would not be visiting Uji in the next day or two.
Memories came flooding back. Niou found himself pulled in several
directions at once. In the old days he had felt remarkably close to Kaoru,
who had taken him by the hand and led him off to Uji. It bothered him
a little to think what he was now doing to his good friend, and he was a
little frightened too, for he was a prince, and even in the city his adventures
were never secrets. Such were his thoughts as, in drab incognito, he
mounted his horse; but he was of an impressionable, eagerly responsive
nature. His heart rose as they pushed deeper into the mountains. Would
it be much longer? Would she let him see her? A tragedy indeed if he were
denied even a glimpse of her!
He had come by carriage as far as the Ho~sho~ji Temple and from there
on horseback. Making very good time, he was in Uji by perhaps eight in
the evening. The secretary having questioned an attendant of Kaoru's who
was familiar with the arrangements at Uji, they were able to pull up at an
unguarded spot to the west of the house. Breaking through the reed fence,
they slipped inside. The secretary himself was somewhat uncertain, not
really knowing his way about, but the grounds did not seem to be heavily
<P 978>
guarded. He saw a dim light and heard a rustling of garments at the south
front of the house.
"There still seem to be people up. Come this way, please, if you will."
<N 8>
Niou made his way softly up the stairs and leaned forward to take
advantage of a crack he had found in a shutter. The rustling of an Iyo blind
gave him brief pause. The house was new and clean, and but roughly
furnished. As if in confidence that no one would be looking in on them,
the women inside had not bothered to cover the openings. The curtain
beyond the shutter had been lifted back across its frame. In the bright light,
three or four women were sewing. A pretty little maidservant was spinning
thread. It was a face he had had a glimpse of in the torchlight at Nijo~. Or
was he perhaps mistaken? Then he saw the young woman who had an-
nounced herself as Ukon. Ukifune herself lay gazing into the light, her
head pillowed on her arm. Her eyes, charmingly girlish and not without
a certain dignity, and her forehead, thick hair spilling down over it, re-
minded him astonishingly of his princess at Nijo~.
"But if you do go, I don't imagine you'll be coming back very soon."
It was Ukon, busy creasing a robe. "We had that messenger from the
general yesterday, you know. The general will be coming on about the first
of the month, we can be sure of it, once the business of the provincial
appointments is out of the way. What has he said in his letters?"
Evidently sunk in thoughts of her own, the girl did not answer.
"It won't look at all good, running off when you know he'll be com-
ing."
"I think you ought to let him know about your plans," said the
woman facing Ukon. "It won't seem very nice to go dashing off without
a word to him. And I think you ought to come back as soon as you've had
time for a prayer or two. I know this is a lonely place, but it's a safe, quiet
place too. Once you're used to it you'll feel more at home than you ever
did in the city."
"Don't you think the polite thing," said another woman, whom he
could not see, "would be to wait a little while? After you're in the city you
can have a good visit with your mother. The old woman here is much too
quick with her good ideas. Careful plans turn out best in the end. It is true
now and it has always been true."
"Why didn't you stop her? Old people are such a nuisance." These
reproaches seemed to be directed at Ukifune's nurse.
Yes, to be sure, thought Niou: there had. been a troublesome old
woman with the girl. The memory of that evening had a misty, spectral
quality about it.
The talk went on, so open that he was almost embarrassed. "I say the
lucky one is our lady in the city. The minister throws his weight about and
<P 979>
makes a big thing of having royalty for a son-in-law, but since our little
master was born our side has had the better of it. And there aren't any
nasty, pushy old women at Nijo~, and our lady can do very much as she
pleases."
"Oh, but our own lady will be doing just as well if the general keeps
his promises. She'll be there with the best of them."
"There with the best of them!" Ukifune raised herself on an elbow.
"Did you have to say that? You know I don't want you comparing me with
the lady at Nijo~. What if she were to hear?"
How might the two of them be related, this girl and his own lady?
There was an unmistakable resemblance. The girl was no match for the
other in proud, cool elegance. She was winsome and pretty, no more, and
her features were delicately formed. A suggestion of less than the rarest
refinement, however, was not enough to make him withdraw when he had
before his eyes a girl who had been so long and persistently on his mind.
This first good look at her left him in an agony of impatience to make
her his own. It would appear that she was going on a journey. And she
seemed to have parents. When would he have another such chance? What
might he hope to accomplish in the course of the night?
He gazed on and on, in growing agitation.
<P 980>
"I'm very sleepy," said Ukon, gathering up half-sewn garments and
hanging them over the curtain rack. "I don't know why, but I hardly slept
at all last night. I can finish tomorrow morning. Even if your mother gets
an earl y start it will be noon by the time she gets here." Leaning on an
armrest, she seemed about to doze off. The girl retired somewhat farther
into the room and lay down. After disappearing into a back room for a
time, Ukon reappeared and lay down at her feet. Soon she was fast asleep.
<N 9>
At a loss for other devices, Niou tapped on the shutter.
"Who is it?" asked Ukon.
He cleared his throat. A most genteel sound, thought Ukon. It would
be Kaoru. She came to the shutter.
"Raise it, if you will, please."
"You've chosen a strange hour. It must be very late."
"I heard from Nakanobu that your lady would be going away, and
I came running. It was a terrible trip, terrible. Do raise the shutter, please."
She obeyed, not guessing who it would be. He spoke in undertones and
skillfully imitated his friend's mannerisms. "I'm all in tatters. Something
