she sat quietly fanning herself. Yes, she had a certain manner.
"You'll only wear yourselves out. Just take it as it is." The smile was
charming, and he recognized the voice of the lady he had called upon.
The others were at length having some success with the ice. They
would probably not have put chunks of it quite so indiscriminately to
foreheads and bosoms had they known that they were being observed.
Kosaisho~ wrapped ice in paper for herself and for the princess. The hands
the princess held out were white and delicately modeled.
"I think not, thank you. See how I'm dripping already."
So low that he almost failed to catch it, her voice excited him enor-
mously. He had seen her once before, when they were both children, and
been delighted with her. Since then he had not been admitted to her
presence. What supernatural powers, he wondered, would have arranged
this secret audience? Or might it be only for purposes of adding to his
torments?
Just then a servant who had been cooling herself on the north veranda
came scampering back. She evidently remembered that, having slid the
door open for some momentarily urgent reason, she had forgotten to close
it again. She would be taken to task if someone were to notice and make
use of it. And, dear me, there was a man in casual court dress! She ran down
the veranda, oblivious to the fact that she was quite exposed herself.
Somewhat guiltily Kaoru slipped out of sight. How embarrassing, thought
the woman. He had been able to look past the curtains, almost any dis-
tance! Who might he have been? One of Yu~giri's sons, probably. Strangers
would hardly have penetrated to these forbidden corners. She must not let
her dereliction be found out, for there would be reprisals. The man's robe
and trousers had been of raw silk, it seemed, and she could be fairly certain
that no one had heard.
<P 1032>
Kaoru fled the scene in great disquiet. Headed resolutely down the
road to enlightenment, he had gone astray, and now woman after woman
made demands upon his attention. If he had renounced the world when
the thought had first come to him, he would now be off in some deep
mountain retreat, away from all this torment. Why had he so longed over
the years for another glimpse of the First Princess? Well, now he had seen
her, and found for himself further pain and frustration.
The Second Princess was looking unusually fresh and radiant when
she arose the next morning. She would have been by no means out of place
in a contest with her sister, and yet despite a certain family resemblance
they did not really look alike. For clean beauty and elegance, no one, he
was sure, could quite match the princess he had seen so briefly at Rokujo~;
but perhaps he had so idealized her over the years that his eyes had played
him false, and perhaps the moment had been right.
"It is very warm," he said to the Second Princess. "Suppose you put
on something lighter. Something you don't ordinarily wear. It can make
things more interesting, you know." And to one of the women: "Go have
Daini do up something in gossamer."
Her women were pleased. She was at her best, and gossamer would
surely become her.
It was his usual practice to retire late in the morning for prayers. When
he appeared again at noon, the gossamer robe was hanging over a curtain
rack.
"Do try it on. You will feel half undressed, I know, with all these
ladies around, but don't let them worry you."
He held the new robe for her to slip into. Her trousers were scarlet,
as her sister's had been, and, like her sister's, her hair fell in long, thick
cascades. But not one of us is like any other. The effect was very different.
Still not ready to admit defeat, he sent for ice. Some men find comfort in
pictures, and his princess should have afforded far more comfort than any
picture. He permitted himself a sigh. How he would have liked to join that
party yesterday, and gaze on and on, quite openly, at the First Princess.
"Are you in correspondence with your sister?"
"I wrote occasionally when I was in the palace. His Majesty said I
should. But I haven't now in a very long time."
"Do you suppose she has stopped writing because you married a
commoner? That would make me unhappy. I shall tell Her Majesty you
resent it very much."
"Resent it? What is there to resent? No, please don't."
"I shall tell her that your sister is arrogant. I shall say that she treats
you like an underling."
He stayed at home that day and the next morning went again to be
in attendance upon the empress. Niou was also at Rokujo~. He had on a thin
saffron singlet and over it an informal blue robe, in the very best of taste.
No less well favored than his sister, he was handsomer for the pallor and
loss of weight. Yes, the resemblance was extraordinary, sighed Kaoru.
<P 1033>
Remembering himself, he sought to control these wayward thoughts, and
found the effort very considerable. Niou had brought along a number of
pictures, most of which he sent off to his sister's quarters. He followed
shortly himself. Kaoru congratulated the empress upon the faultless han-
dling of the ceremonies, and they exchanged reminiscences of old times.
"My princess at Sanjo~," he said, taking up the pictures that had been
left behind, "is rather despondent at having, as they say, descended from
the clouds. I feel very sorry for her. She thinks her sister has dropped her
now that things have been arranged so unsatisfactorily for her. It would
be nice if she had pictures to look at from time to time, but of course it
would not be the same if I were to take them to her myself."
"Why should her sister do any such thing? They had rooms very near
each other in the palace, and I believe they exchanged notes. No, it is just
that they live farther apart now. I shall see that she writes. And there is
no need for your own princess to hold back."
"No, I suppose not. You have not been very friendly yourself, you
know, but after all she is now your own sister-in-law, and it would please
me enormously if you might find it possible to favor her with a little of
your attention. The two of them were once so close. It would be a pity if
they were to drift apart."
The empress did not guess his motives.
He passed in front of the main hall and went on to the west wing,
thinking to call on Kosaisho~. Hidden behind blinds, the women looked out
upon a most stately and graceful figure. Even the gallery walls, he was
thinking, might somehow bring comfort.
Yu~giri's sons seemed to be in possession of the gallery. Kaoru came
up to a side door.
"I am of course often in attendance upon Her Majesty," he said to the
women, looking off towards the assembly of nephews. "But it seems that
I do not see you as often as I would like. And so time has gone by, and
here I am feeling like an old man. I thought this might be a good chance
for a talk, though I'm sure you are wishing the old man would go away."
"Oh, we'll take years off your age, just give us a chance." Even when
they were far from serious, they did not take leave of the peculiar refine-
ment that was their lady's. Talking of this and that (he had no real busi-
ness), he began to feel rather close to them, and stayed longer than he had
planned.
The First Princess had gone to her mother.
"But the general seems to be over in your wing," said Her Majesty.
"I think Kosaisho~ will keep him entertained," said one Dainagon, a
lady-in-waiting to the princess.
"A woman has to know what she is doing," replied the empress,
"when a solemn and resolute young man takes up the pursuit. He will see
through all her pertness if she isn't careful. But I think that Kosaisho~ can
take care of herself."
Though they were brother and sister, she did not feel at ease with
<P 1034>
Kaoru, and evidently she was warning her women against any appearance
of impropriety.
"It's always Kosaisho~'s room that he goes to. They talk on and on, all
by themselves, and sometimes he is there till very late. But it doesn't seem
to be what one might expect. She has a low opinion of Prince Niou, and
won't even answer his letters." Dainagon laughed. "Believe me, I wouldn't
be wasting such an opportunity."
The empress too was amused. "Yes, she can be relied upon to take care
of herself if she sees what is wrong with my good son. Is there no way to
reform him? You must know, I am sure, how uncomfortable it makes me
to have him come into the conversation."
"I heard something interesting the other day. The lady who died at
Uji seems to have been the younger sister of his princess at Nijo~. A half
sister, actually. Some say that the wife of a governor of Hitachi is her
mother, some say that she's an aunt. I don't know which to believe. Prince
Niou visited the girl secretly, very secretly, they say. The general seems
to have had thoughts of his own, and he learned of the prince's visits. He
had plans for bringing her to the city. So he posted guards and gave them
very strict orders. The prince went off on another of his secret visits, and
they kept him outside on his horse (I can't imagine that it was very
dignified) and then trundled him back to the city. And very suddenly she
disappeared. It may be that she died of longing. Her nurse and the others
think she may have thrown herself into the river. I am told that they are
quite out of their minds, the poor dears."
The empress was scandalized. "Wherever did you hear such a thing?
It is sad and it is horrible. But perhaps it isn't true. Word of anything so
unusual is bound to get out, and I would have expected my brother to say
something. But he just goes on mooning about how things change, and
says what a pity it is that people seem to live such short lives at Uj?"
"You can't really believe servants. But a little girl who was in service
at Uji has been with Kosaisho~'s family, and she spoke of it as solid fact.
The Uji lady picked such a strange way to disappear that I gather they
don't want people to know. It all sounded like a curse, really, and I can
believe that they would want it kept secret. It may be that they did not
even tell the general."
"That girl is not to say another word about it." The empress was
openly perturbed. "A foolish boy who ruined himself over women--that's
what the talk will be, you can be sure."
The Second Princess had a note from her sister. The hand, delicate but
sure, delighted Kaoru. He should have thought of this device sooner. The
empress sent interesting paintings to the Second Princess and Kaoru gath-
ered even finer ones for the First Princess. One of the finest called to mind
his own situation: consumed with desire for the First Princess, the son of
the Serikawa general is out walking of an autumn evening. If only the real
princess might be as generous as the princess in the story.
<P 1035>
"The autumn wind that brings the dew to the rushes,
It chills, it saddens most when evening comes."
He would have like to jot down his poem beside the painting, but it
would not do to give the smallest hint of his feelings. Always he came to
the same useless conclusion: Oigimi would have had the whole of his
affection. He would not have taken a royal princess for his bride. Indeed,
if the emperor had heard of the events at Uji he would probably not have
wanted Kaoru for a son-in-law. She was the source of all his sorrow, the
lady at the bridge!
His thoughts jumped to Nakanokimi, and presently the jumble of
longing and resentment and frustration began to seem ridiculous even to
him; and so he moved on to the third Uji sister, who had died such a
terrible death. She was to be taxed with a kind of childishness, with
rashness and indiscretion, but she had suffered. Sensing a change in Kao-
ru's own feelings, she had had a very bad conscience to live with. He
thought of her last days. A lovable sort of companion she might have been,
someone not to be taken very seriously or offered too exalted a place. He
no longer felt angry with Niou, and he could no longer reprove the girl.
He had only his own erratic ways to blame.
Such thoughts occupied much of his time.
If they could prey upon a man so carefully in control of himself, they
found a far easier victim in Niou, who had no one to share his memories
with, no one to tell of his quest for solace. Nakanokimi did speak now and
then of Ukifune's sad lot; but the sisters had not grown up together, and
their acquaintance had been short. There was a limit to the grief one might
expect from her. Besides, the affair that was the source of his loneliness
rested uncomfortably between them.
He sent again for Jiju~.
The Uji house was by now almost deserted. Nurse and Ukon and Jiju~,
who had been especially close to the dead girl, were reluctant to leave her
last dwelling behind. Though the outsider, Jiju~ remained a part of the
company even when most of the others had left. But that savage river,
which she had somehow lived with while there had been a prospect of
happier shoals, had at last become unendurable. She had recently moved
to a shabby little place in the city. Niou searched her out and once again
offered her a position at Nijo~, but again she declined. She was grateful for
the invitation, but there would be gossip if she took service in the house
that had been at the beginning of the whole sad story. She said that she
would prefer a position with Her Majesty.
"Splendid. We needn't tell anyone our little secret."
And so, in her loneliness and the insecurity of her life, Jiju~ went
