that nothing of the sort happens to this other one. The crown prince will
soon be coming of age and I have plans. But do I once again see unexpected
competition?" He sighed. "Once the daughter of this most fortunate Aka-
shi lady is at court she seems even more likely than the empress to have
everything her way."
The old lady was angry with Genji for what had happened. "Your
father was all wrapped up in his plans to send your little girl to court, and
he thought it extremely unlikely that an empress would be named from
any house but ours. It is an injustice which would not have been permitted
if he had lived."
To~no Chu~Jjo~ gazed proudly at Kumoinokari, who was indeed a pretty
little thing, in a still childish way. As she leaned over her koto the hair at
her forehead and the thick hair flowing over her shoulders seemed to him
very lovely. She turned shyly from his gaze, and in profile was every bit
as charming. As she pushed at the strings with her left hand, she was like
a delicately fashioned doll. The princess too was delighted. Gently tuning
the koto, the girl pushed it away.
To~ no Chu~jo~ took out a Japanese koto and tuned it to a minor
key, and so put an old-fashioned instrument to modern uses. It was very
pleasing indeed, the sight of a grand gentleman at home with his music.
All eager to see, the old women were crowding and jostling one another
behind screens.
"'The leaves await the breeze to scatter them,'" he sang."'It is a
gentle breeze.' My koto does not, I am sure, have the effect of that
Chinese koto, but it is a strangely beautiful evening. Would you let us have
another?"
The girl played "Autumn Winds," with her father, in fine voice,
singing the lyrics. The old lady looked affectionately from the one to the
other.
Yu~giri came in, as if to add to the joy.
"How very nice," said To~ no Chu~jo~, motioning him to a place at the
girl's curtains. "We do not see as much of you these days as we would like.
You are so fearfully deep in your studies. Your father knows as well as I
do that too much learning is not always a good thing, but I suppose he has
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his reasons. Still it seems a pity that you should be in solitary confinement.
You should allow yourself diversions from time to time. Music too has a
proper and venerable tradition, you know." He offered Yu~giri a flute.
There was a bright, youthful quality about the boy's playing. To~ no
Chu~jo~ put his koto aside and quietly beat time with a fan. "My sleeves
were stained from the hagi," he hummed.
"Your father so loves music. He has abandoned dull affairs of state.
Life is a gloomy enough business at best, and I would like to follow his
lead and do nothing that I do not want to."
He ordered wine. Presently it was dark. Lamps were lighted and
dinner was brought.
He sent Kumoinokari off to her rooms. Yu~giri had not even been
permitted to hear her koto. No good would come of these stern measures,
the old women whispered.
Pretending to leave, To~ no Chu~jo~ went to call on a lady to whom he
was paying court. When, somewhat later, he made his stealthy way out,
he heard whispering. He stopped to listen. He himself proved to be the
subject.
"He thinks he is so clever, but he is just like any other father. Unhap-
piness will come of it all, you can be very sure. The ancients did not know
what they were talking about when they said that a father knows
best."
They were nudging one another to emphasize their points.
Well, now. Most interesting. He had not been without suspicions, but
he had not been enough on his guard. He had said that they were still
children. It was a complicated world indeed. He slipped out, giving no hint
of what he had heard and surmised.
The women were startled by the shouts of outrunners. "Just leaving?
Where can he have been hiding himself? A little old for such things, I
would have thought."
The whisperers were rather upset. "There was that lovely perfume?"
said one of them, "but we thought it would be the young gentleman. How
awful. You don't suppose he heard? He can be difficult."
To~ no Chu~jo~ deliberated the problem as he rode home. A marriage
between cousins was not wholly unacceptable, of course, but people would
think it at best uninteresting. It had not been pleasant to have his other
daughter so unconditionally defeated by Genji's favorite, and he had been
telling himself that this one must be a winner. Though he and Genji were
and had long been good friends, echoes of their old rivalry persisted. He
spent a sleepless night. His mother no doubt knew what was going on and
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had let her darlings have their way. He had overheard enough to be angry.
He had a straightforward masculinity about him and the anger was not
easy to control.
Two days later he called on his mother. Delighted to be seeing so
much of him, she had someone touch up her nun's coiffure and chose her
cloak with great care. He was such a handsome man that he made her feel
a little fidgety, even though he was her own son, and she let him see her
only in profile.
He was very much out of sorts. "I know what your women are saying
and I do not feel at all comfortable about visiting you. I am not a man of
very great talent, I know, but I had thought that as long as I lived I would
do what I could for you. I had thought that we would always be close and
that I would always keep watch over your health and comfort." He
brushed away a tear. "Now it has become necessary for me to speak about
a matter that greatly upsets me. I would much prefer to keep it to myself."
Omiya gazed at him in astonishment. Under her powder she changed
color. "Whatever can it be? Whatever can I have done in my old age to
make you so angry?"
He felt a little less angry but went on all the same. "I have grievously
neglected her ever since she was a tiny child. I have thought that I could
leave everything to you. I have been worried about the not entirely happy
situation of the girl in the palace and have busied myself doing what I can
for her, confident that I could leave the other to you. And now something
very surprising and regrettable has come to my attention. He may be a
talented and erudite young man who knows more about history than
anyone else at court, but even the lower classes think it a rather dull and
common thing for cousins to marry. It will do him no more good than her.
He would do far better to find a rich and stylish bride a little farther afield.
I am sure that Genji will be no more pleased than I am. In any event, I
would have been grateful if you had kept me informed. Do please try a
little harder to keep us from looking ridiculous. I must emphasize my
astonishment that you have been so careless about letting them keep
company."
This was news to Omiya. "You are right to be annoyed. I had not
suspected anything, and I am sure that I have a right to feel even more put
upon than you do. But I do not think you should accuse me of collusion.
I have been very fond of the children ever since you left them with me,
and I have worked very hard to bring out fine points that you yourself
might not be entirely aware of. They are children, and I have not, I must
assure you, been blinded by affection into wanting to rush them into each
other's arms. But be that as it may, who can have told you such awful
things? I do not find it entirely admirable of you to gather common gossip
and make a huge issue of it. Nothing so very serious has happened, of that
I am sure, and you are doing harm to the girl's good name."
"Not quite nothing. All of your women are laughing at us, and I do
not find it pleasant." And he left.
<P 370>
The better-informed women were very sorry for the young people.
The whisperers were of course the most upset of all.
To~ no Chu~jo~ looked in on his daughter, whom he found at play with
her dolls, so pretty that he could not bring himself to scold her. "Yes," he
said to her woman," she is still very young and innocent; but I fear that
in my own innocence, making my own plans for her, I failed to recognize
the degree of her innocence."
They defended themselves, somewhat uncertainly. "In the old ro-
mances even the emperor's daughter will sometimes make a mistake. There
always seems to be a lady-in-waiting who knows all the secrets and finds
ways to bring the young people together. Our case is quite different. Our
lady has been with the two of them morning and night over all these years,
and it would not be proper for us to intrude ourselves and try to separate
them more sternly than she has seen fit to, and so we did not worry. About
two years ago she does seem to have changed to a policy of keeping them
apart. There are young gentlemen who take advantage of the fact that
people still think them boys and do odd and mischievous things. But not
the young master. There has not been the slightest suggestion of anything
improper in his behavior. What you say comes as a surprise to us."
"Well, what is done is done. The important thing now is to see that
the secret does not get out. These things are never possible to keep com-
pletely secret, I suppose, but you must pretend that it is a matter of no
importance and that the gossips do not know what they are talking about.
I will take the child home with me. My mother is the one I am angry with.
I do not imagine that any of you wanted things to turn out as they have."
It was sad for the girl, thought the women, but it could have been
worse. "Oh, yes, sir, you may be sure that you can trust us to keep the
secret. What if the Lord Inspector were to hear? The young master is a very
fine boy, but it is not after all as if he were a prince."
The girl still seemed very young indeed. However many stem injunc-
tions he might hand down, it did not seem likely that she would see their
real import. The problem was to protect her. He discussed it with her
women, and his anger continued to be at his mother.
Princess Omiya was fond of both her grandchildren, but it seems
likely that the boy was her favorite. She had thought his attentions toward
his cousin altogether charming, and here To~ no Chu~jo~ was talking as if they
were a crime and a scandal. He understood nothing, nothing at all. He had
paid very little attention to the girl and it was only after Omiya herself had
done so much that he had commenced having grand ideas about making
her crown princess. If his plans went astray and the girl was after all to
marry a commoner, where was she likely to find a better one? Where
indeed, all through the court, was his equal in intelligence and looks? No,
the case was the reverse of what her good son took it to be: the boy was
the one who, if he chose, could marry into the royal family. Wounded
affection now impelled her to return her son's anger ih good measure. He
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would no doubt have been even angrier if he had known what she was
thinking.
Ignorant of this commotion, Yu~giri came calling. He chose evening for
his visit. There had been such a crowd that earlier evening that he had been
unable to exchange words with Kumoinokari, and so his longing was
stronger.
His grandmother was usually all smiles when she received him, but
this evening she was stern. "I have been put in a difficult position because
your uncle is displeased with you," she said, after solemn prefatory re-
marks. "You have brought trouble because it seems you have ambitions
which it would not do for people to hear about. I would have preferred
not to bring the matter up, but it seems necessary to ask whether you have
anything on your conscience."
He flushed scarlet, knowing at once what she was referring to. "What
could it be? I wonder. I have been shut up with my books and I have seen
no one. I cannot think of anything that Might have upset him."
He was unable to look at her. She thought his confusion both sad and
endearing. "Very well. But do be careful, please." And she moved on to
other matters.
He saw that it would be difficult even to exchange notes with his
cousin. Dinner was brought but he had no appetite. He lay down in his
grandmother's room, unable to sleep. When all was quiet he tried the door
to the girl's room. Unlocked most nights, it was tightly locked tonight. No
one seemed astir. He leaned against the door, feeling very lonely. She too
was awake, it seemed. The wind rustled sadly through the bamboo thickets
and from far away came the call of a wild goose.
"The wild goose in the clouds--as sad as I am?" Her voice, soft and
girlish, spoke of young longing.
"Open up, please. Is Kojiju~ there?" Kojiju~ was her nurse's daughter.
She had hidden her face under a quilt, embarrassed that she had been
overheard. But love, relentless pursuer, would be after her however she
might try to hide. With her women beside her she was afraid to make the
slightest motion.
"The midnight call to its fellows in the clouds
Comes in upon the wind that rustles the reeds,
and sinks to one's very bones."
Sighing, he went back and lay down beside his grandmother. He tried
not to move lest he awaken her.
Not up to conversation, he slipped back to his own room very early
the next morning. He wrote a letter to the girl but was unable to find Kojiju~
and have it delivered, and of course he was unable to visit the girl's room.
Though vaguely aware of the reasons for the whole stir, the girl was
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not greatly disturbed about her future or about the gossip. Pretty as ever,
she could not bring herself to do what seemed to be asked of her and
dislike her cousin. She did not herself think that she had behaved so
