So this was what the gossips were saying; and what if, in it all, there was
evidence that rumors of his real love had spread abroad? But the talk
seemed harmless enough, and after a time he wearied of it. Someone
misquoted a poem he had sent to his cousin Asagao, attached to a morning
glory. Their standards seemed not of the most rigorous. A misquoted
poem for every occasion. He feared he might be disappointed when he saw
the woman.
The governor had more lights set out at the eaves, and turned up those
in the room. He had refreshments brought.
"And are the curtains all hung?" asked Genji. "You hardly qualify
as a host if they are not."
"And what will you feast upon?" rejoined the governor, somewhat
stiffly. "Nothing so very elaborate, I fear."
Genji found a cool place out near the veranda and lay down. His men
were quiet. Several young boys were present, all very sprucely dressed,
sons of the host and of his father, the governor of Iyo. There was one
particularly attractive lad of perhaps twelve or thirteen. Asking who were
the sons of whom, Genji learned that the boy was the younger brother of
the host's stepmother, son of a guards officer no longer living. His father
had had great hopes for the boy and had died while he was still very
young. He had come to this house upon his sister's marriage to the gover-
nor of Iyo. He seemed to have some aptitude for the classics, said the host,
and was of a quiet, pleasant disposition; but he was young and without
backing, and his prospects at court were not good.
"A pity. The sister, then, is your stepmother?"
"Yes."
"A very young stepmother. My father had thought of inviting her to
court. He was asking just the other day what might have happened to her.
Life," he added with a solemnity rather beyond his years, "is uncertain."
"It happened almost by accident. Yes, you are right: it is a very
uncertain world, and it always has been, particularly for women. They are
like bits of driftwood."
"Your father is no doubt very alert to her needs. perhaps, indeed, one
has trouble knowing who is the master?"
"He quite worships her. The rest of us are not entirely happy with the
arrangements he has made."
"But you cannot expect him to let you young gallants have every-
thing. He has a name in that regard himself, you know. And where might
the lady be?"
"They have all been told to spend the night in the porter's lodge, but
they don't seem in a hurry to go."
The wine was having its effect, and his men were falling asleep on the
veranda.
Genji lay wide awake, not pleased at the prospect of sleeping alone.
He sensed that there was someone in the room to the north. It would be
the lady of whom they had spoken. Holding his breath, he went to the
door and listened.
"Where are you?" The pleasantly husky voice was that of the boy
who had caught his eye.
"Over here." It would be the sister. The two voices, very sleepy,
resembled each other. "And where is our guest? I had thought he might
be somewhere near, but he seems to have gone away."
"He's in the east room." The boy's voice was low. " I saw him. He is
every bit as handsome as everyone says."
"If it were daylight I might have a look at him myself." The sister
yawned, and seemed to draw the bedclothes over her face.
Genji was a little annoyed. She might have questioned her brother
more energetically.
"I'll sleep out toward the veranda. But we should have more light."
The boy turned up the lamp. The lady apparently lay at a diagonal remove
from Genji. "And where is Chu~jo~? I don't like being left alone."
"She went to have a bath. She said she'd be right back." He spoke
from out near the veranda.
All was quiet again. Genji slipped the latch open and tried the doors.
They had not been bolted. A curtain had been set up just inside, and in
the dim light he could make out Chinese chests and other furniture scat-
tered in some disorder. He made his way through to her side. She lay by
herself, a slight little figure. Though vaguely annoyed at being disturbed,
she evidently took him for the woman Chu~jo~ until he pulled back the
covers.
"I heard you summoning a captain," he said, "and I thought my
prayers over the months had been answered.
She gave a little gasp. It was muffled by the bedclothes and no one else
heard.
"You are perfectly correct if you think me unable to control myself.
But I wish you to know that I have been thinking of you for a very long
time. And the fact that I have finally found my opportunity and am taking
advantage of it should show that my feelings are by no means shallow."
His manner was so gently persuasive that devils and demons could not
have gainsaid him. The lady would have liked to announce to the world
that a strange man had invaded her boudoir.
"I think you have mistaken me for someone else," she said, outraged,
though the remark was under her breath.
The little figure, pathetically fragile and as if on the point of expiring
from the shock, seemed to him very beautiful.
"I am driven by thoughts so powerful that a mistake is completely out
of the question. It is cruel of you to pretend otherwise. I promise you that
I will do nothing unseemly. I must ask you to listen to a little of what is
on my mind."
She was so small that he lifted her easily. As he passed through the
doors to his own room, he came upon the Chu~jo~ who had been summoned
earlier. He called out in surprise. Surprised in turn, Chu~jo~ peered into the
darkness. The perfume that came from his robes like a cloud of smoke told
her who he was. She stood in confusion, unable to speak. Had he been a
more ordinary intruder she might have ripped her mistress away by main
force. But she would not have wished to raise an alarm all through the
house.
She followed after, but Genji was quite unmoved by her pleas.
"Come for her in the morning," he said, sliding the doors closed.
The lady was bathed in perspiration and quite beside herself at the
thought of what Chu~jo~, and the others too, would be thinking. Genji had
to feel sorry for her. Yet the sweet words poured forth, the whole gamut
of pretty devices for making a woman surrender.
She was not to be placated. "Can it be true? Can I be asked to believe
that you are not making fun of me? Women of low estate should have
husbands of low estate."
He was sorry for her and somewhat ashamed of himself, but his
answer was careful and sober. "You take me for one of the young profli-
gates you see around? I must protest. I am very young and know nothing
of the estates which concern you so. You have heard of me, surely, and
you must know that I do not go in for adventures. I must ask what
unhappy entanglement imposes this upon me. You are making a fool of
me, and nothing should surprise me, not even the tumultuous emotions
that do in fact surprise me."
But now his very splendor made her resist. He might think her obsti-
nate and insensitive, but her unfriendliness must make him dismiss her
from further consideration. Naturally soft and pliant, she was suddenly
firm. It was as with the young bamboo: she bent but was not to be broken.
She was weeping. He had his hands full but would not for the world have
missed the experience.
"Why must you so dislike me?" he asked with a sigh, unable to stop
the weeping. "Don't you know that the unexpected encounters are the
ones we were fated for? Really, my dear, you do seem to know altogether
too little of the world."
"If I had met you before I came to this," she replied, and he had to
admit the truth of it, "then I might have consoled myself with the thought
--it might have been no more than self-deception, of course--that you
would someday come to think fondly of me. But this is hopeless, worse
than I can tell you. Well, it has happened. Say no to those who ask if you
have seen me."
One may imagine that he found many kind promises with which to
comfort her.
The first cock was crowing and Genji's men were awake.
"Did you sleep well? I certainly did."
"Let's get the carriage ready."
Some of the women were heard asking whether people who were
avoiding taboos were expected to leave again in the middle of the night.
Genji was very unhappy. He feared he could not find an excuse for
another meeting. He did not see how he could visit her, and he did not see
how they could write. Chu~jo~ came out, also very unhappy. He let the lady
go and then took her back again.
"How shall I write to you? Your feelings and my own--they are not
shallow, and we may expect deep memories. Has anything ever been so
strange?" He was in tears, which made him yet handsomer. The cocks were
now crowing insistently. He was feeling somewhat harried as he composed
his farewell verse:
"Why must they startle with their dawn alarums
When hours are yet required to thaw the ice?"
The lady was ashamed of herself that she had caught the eye of a man
so far above her. His kind words had little effect. She was thinking of her
husband, whom for the most part she considered a clown and a dolt. She
trembled to think that a dream might have told him of the night's happen-
ings.
This was the verse with which she replied:
"Day has broken without an end to my tears.
To my cries of sorrow are added the calls of the cocks."
It was lighter by the moment. He saw her to her door, for the house
was coming to life. A barrier had fallen between them. In casual court
dress, he leaned for a time against the south railing and looked out at the
garden. Shutters were being raised along the west side of the house.
Women seemed to be looking out at him, beyond a low screen at the
veranda. He no doubt brought shivers of delight. The moon still bright in
the dawn sky added to the beauty of the morning. The sky, without heart
itself, can at these times be friendly or sad, as the beholder sees it. Genji
was in anguish. He knew that there would be no way even to exchange
notes. He cast many a glance backward as he left.
At Sanjo~ once more, he was unable to sleep. If the thought that they
would not meet again so pained him, what must it do to the lady? She was
no beauty, but she had seemed pretty and cultivated. Of the middling
rank, he said to himself. The guards officer who had seen them all knew
what he was talking about.
Spending most of his time now at Sanjo~, he thought sadly of the
unapproachable lady. At last he summoned her stepson, the governor of
Kii.
"The boy I saw the other night, your foster uncle. He seemed a
promising lad. I think I might have a place for him. I might even introduce
him to my father."
"Your gracious words quite overpower me. Perhaps I should take the
matter up with his sister."
Genji's heart leaped at the mention of the lady. "Does she have
children?"
"No. She and my father have been married for two years now, but I
gather that she is not happy. Her father meant to send her to court."
"How sad for her. Rumor has it that she is a beauty. Might rumor be
correct?"
"Mistaken, I fear. But of course stepsons do not see a great deal of
stepmothers."
Several days later he brought the boy to Genji. Examined in detail the
boy was not perfect, but he had considerable charm and grace. Genji
addressed him in a most friendly manner, which both confused and
pleased him. Questioning him about his sister, Genji did not learn a great
deal. The answers were ready enough while they were on safe ground, but
the boy's self-possession was a little disconcerting. Genji hinted rather
broadly at what had taken place. The boy was startled. He guessed the
truth but was not old enough to pursue the matter.
Genji gave him a letter for his sister. Tears came to her eyes. How
much had her brother been told? she wondered, spreading the letter to hide
her flushed cheeks.
It was very long, and concluded with a poem:
"I yearn to dream again the dream of that night.
The nights go by in lonely wakefulness.
"There are no nights of sleep."
The hand was splendid, but she could only weep at the yet stranger
turn her life had taken.
The next day Genji sent for the boy.
Where was her answer? the boy asked his sister.
"Tell him you found no one to give his letter to."
"Oh, please." The boy smiled knowingly. "How can I tell him that?
I have learned enough to be sure there is no mistake."
She was horrified. It was clear that Genji had told everything.
"I don't know why you must always be so clever. Perhaps it would
be better if you didn't go at all."
"But he sent for me." And the boy departed.
The governor of Kii was beginning to take an interest in his pretty
young stepmother, and paying insistent court. His attention turned to the
brother, who became his frequent companion.
"I waited for you all day yesterday," said Genji. "Clearly I am not as
much on your mind as you are on mine."
The boy flushed.
"Where is her answer?" And when the boy told him: "A fine messen-
ger. I had hoped for something better."
There were other letters.
"But didn't you know?" he said to the boy. "I knew her before that
old man she married. She thought me feeble and useless, it seems, and
