"The water among the rocks has clouded over.
I do not think my shadow long will linger."
More aware than ever of the uncertainty of life, the lady looked back
at a house she knew she would not see again. She gazed at each twig and
branch until house and garden were quite out of sight. Though it was not
as if she were leaving a place she loved, there are always regrets for a
familiar house.
If it was an angry father who awaited her, it was a still angrier mother.
The princess had not paused to catch her breath as she told her husband
how she felt about it all. "You seem very proud to have Genji for a
son-in-law. He was born our enemy, I say, and the strength of his hostility
has never ceased to amaze me. He loses no chance to make things difficult
for our girl at court. You have said that he will change once he has taught
us a lesson for not helping him during his troubles. Other people have said
so too. I say it is odd if he is so fond of his Murasaki that he doesn't have
a thought for her family now and then. But that's only the beginning. At
<P 502>
his age he takes in a stray he knows nothing about and to keep on the right
side of his Murasaki he finds an honest upright man no breath of scandal
has ever touched and marries her off to him."
"I must ask you to hold your tongue. The world has only good things
to say of Genji and you may not permit yourself the luxury of abusing him.
I am sure you are right when you say that he wanted to get even. It was
my bad luck to give him cause. I can see that in his quiet way he has been
very efficient and intelligent about handing out rewards and punishments,
and if my punishment has been especially severe it is because we are
especially close. You will remember what an occasion he made of my
fiftieth birthday some years ago. It was more than I deserved, the talk of
the whole court. I count it among the great honors of my life."
But she was a strong-minded woman and he only made her angrier.
Her language was more and more abusive.
Higekuro learned that his wife had left him. One might have expected
such behavior, he said, from a rather younger wife. But he did not blame
her. Prince Hyo~bu was an impetuous man, and it had all been his doing.
Higekuro was sure that left to herself she would have thought of the
children and tried to keep up appearances.
"A fine thing," he said to Tamakazura. "Itwill make things easier for
us, of course, but I fear I miscalculated. She is a gentle soul and I was sure
she would just keep to herself in her corner of the house. That headstrong
father of hers is behind it all. I must go and see what has happened. I will
seem completely irresponsible if I do not."
He was handsome and dignified in a heavy robe, a singlet of white
lined with green, and gray-green brocade trousers. The women thought
that their lady had not done at all badly for herself, but this new develop-
ment did nothing to give her a happier view of her marriage. She did not
even glance at him.
He stopped by his house on his way to confront Prince Hyo~bu. Moku
and the others told him what had happened. He tried manfully to control
himself but their description of his daughter reduced him to tears.
"Your lady does not seem to see that it has been good of me to put
up with her strange ways for so long. A less indulgent man would not have
been capable of it. But we need not discuss her case further. She seems
beyond helping. The question is what she means to do with the children."
They showed him the slip of paper at the cypress pillar. Though the
hand was immature the poem touched him deeply. He wept all the way
to Prince Hyo~bu's, where it was not likely that he would be permitted to
see the girl.
"He has always been good at ingratiating himself with the right peo-
ple," said the prince to his daughter, and there was much truth in it. "I do
not think that we need be surprised. I heard several years ago that he had
lost his senses over that girl. It would be utter self-deception to hope for
<P 503 >
a recovery. You will only invite further insults if you stay with him." In
this too there was much truth.
He did not find Higekuro's addresses convincing.
"This does not seem a very civilized way to behave," said Higekuro.
"I cannot apologize enough for my own inadequacy. I was quite confident
that she would stay with me because of the children, and that was very
stupid of me. But might you not be a little more forbearing and wait until
it comes to seem that I have left her no alternative?"
He asked, though not hopefully, to see his daughter. The older son
was ten and in court service, a most likable boy. Though not remarkably
good-looking, he was intelligent and popular, and old enough to have
some sense of what was happening. The other son was a pretty child of
eight or so. Higekuro wept and stroked his hair and said that he must come
home and help them remember his sister, whom he resembled closely.
Prince Hyo~bu sent someone out to say that he seemed to be coming
down with a cold and could not receive guests. It was an awkward situa-
tion.
Higekuro presently departed, taking the boys with him. All the way
back to his house, where he left them, for he could not after all take them
to Rokujo~, he gave them his side of the story.
"Just pretend that nothing is amiss. I will look in on you from time
to time. It will be no trouble at al?"
They were yet another weight on his spirits, which revived considera-
bly, however, at the sight of his new wife, in such contrast to the queer
old wife who had left him.
He made Prince Hyo~bu's hostility his excuse for not writing. The
prince thought it rather exaggerated and extreme.
"I think it very unfair of her to be angry with me," said Murasaki.
"It is difficult for all of us," said Genji. "Tamakazura has always been
an unmanageable young lady, and now she has won me the emperor's
displeasure. I understand that Prince Hotaru has been very angry. But he
is a reasonable man, and the signs are that he has accepted my explana-
tions. Romantic affairs cannot be kept secret, whatever precautions we
may take. I am glad that I have nothing on my conscience."
The excitement she had caused did nothing to dispel Tamakazura's
gloom, which was more intense as time went by. Higekuro was worried:
the emperor was likely to hold him responsible for the abrupt change in
her plans, and Genji and To~ no Chu~jo~ would doubtless have thoughts in
the matter. It was not unprecedented for an official to have a wife in the
royal service, and so he presented her at court just before the New Year
caroling parties. The presentation ceremonies were very grand, having
behind them, besides Higekuro's own efforts, all the prestige of the two
ministers, her foster father and her real father. Yu~giri busied himself most
<P 504>
energetically in her behalf and her brothers were in lively competition to
win her favor.
She was assigned apartments on the east side of the Sho~kyo~den Pavil-
ion. Prince Hyo~bu's daughter occupied the west rooms of the same build-
ing and only a gallery separated them. In spirit they were very far apart
indeed. It was an interesting and lively time, a time of considerable rivalry
among the emperor's ladies. Besides Empress Akikonomu, they included
To~ no Chu~jo~'s daughter, this daughter of Prince Hyo~bu, and the daughter
of the Minister of the Left. As for the lesser ranks that so often figure in
untidy incidents, there were only the daughters of two councillors.
The caroling parties were very gay, all the ladies having invited their
families to be present. The array of festive sleeves was dazzling as each
lady tried to outdo the others. The crown prince was still very young, but
his mother was a lady of fashion who saw to it that his household was
no duller than the others. The carolers visited the emperor, the empress,
and the Suzaku emperor in that order. Having had to omit Rokujo~, they
returned from the Suzaku Palace to sing for the crown prince. Some of
them were rather drunk when, in the beautiful beginnings of dawn, they
came to "Bamboo River." Among the courtiers of the middle ranks To~ no
Chu~jo~'s sons, some four or five of them, were especially good-looking and
talented. His eighth son, by his principal wife, was one of his favorites,
very pretty indeed in page's livery. Tamakazura was delighted with him,
standing beside Higekuro's older son, and of course she could hardly think
him a stranger. She had already given her rooms at court a fashionable
elegance with which the better-established ladies found it hard to com-
pete. She had not ventured any startlingly new color schemes but she
managed to give a remarkable freshness to the familiar ones.
Now that she was at court she hoped to enjoy herself, and in this hope
she had the enthusiastic support of her women. The bolts of cloth with
which she rewarded the carolers were similar to those offered by the other
ladies and yet subtly different. Though she was expected to offer only light
refreshments, her rooms seemed more festive than any of the others; and
though precedent and regulation were carefully honored, great attention
had gone into all of the details, none of which was merely routine.
Higekuro had taken an active part in the arrangements.
He sent repeated messengers from his offices, all with the same mes-
sage: "We will leave together as soon as it is dark. I do not want you to
make this your occasion for establishing residence here. Indeed I would be
very upset."
She did not answer.
"The Genji minister," argued her women, "says that we needn't be in
such a hurry. He says that His Majesty has seen little of us and it is our
<P 505 >
duty to let him see more. Don't you think it would be rather abrupt and
even a little rude if we were to slip off this very night?"
"I plead with her and plead with her," said Higekuro, "and seem to
have no effect at all."
Though Prince Hotaru had come for the carols, his attention was
chiefly on Tamakazura. Unable to restrain himself, he got off a message.
Higekuro was on duty in the guards quarter. It was from his offices, said
the women, that the note had come. She glanced at it.
"You fly off wing to wing through mountain forests,
And in this nest of mine it is lonely spring.
"I hear distant, happy singing."
She flushed, fearing that she had not been kind to the prince. And how
was she to answer? just then the emperor came calling. He was unbelieva-
bly handsome in the bright moonlight, and the very image of Genji. It
seemed a miracle that there should be two such men in the world. Genji
had been genuinely fond of her, she was sure, but there had been those
unfortunate complications. There were none in the emperor's case. Gently,
he reproved her for having gone against his wishes. She hid her face behind
a fan, unable to think of an answer.
"How silent you are. I would have expected you to be grateful for
these favors. Are you quite indifferent?
"Why should I be drawn to lavender
So utterly remote and uncongenial?
"Are we likely to be treated to deeper shades of purple?"
She found his good looks intimidating, but told herself that he was
really no different from Genji. And her answer--is it to be interpreted as
thanks for having been promoted to the Third Rank before she had done
anything to deserve the honor?.
"I know not the meaning of this lavender,
Though finding in it marks of august grace.
"I shall do everything to show that I am grateful."
He smiled. "Suppose I summon a qualified judge to tell us whether it
is not perhaps a little late to be donning the colors of gratitude."
She was silent. She did not wish to seem coy, but she was confused
at evidences that he shared certain tendencies with lesser men. She did not
seem very friendly, he was thinking, but doubtless she would change as
time went by.
Higekuro was very restless indeed. She must go away with him im-
mediately, he said. Somewhat concerned about appearances herself, she
contrived a plausible excuse with the expert assistance of her father and
others and was at length able to leave.
"Goodbye, then." The emperor seemed genuinely regretful. "Do not
<P 506>
let anyone tell you that because this has happened you must not come
again. I was the first to be interested in you and I let someone else get ahead
of me. It does not seem fair that he should remain unchallenged. But there
we are. I can think of precedents."
She was far more beautiful thin distant rumor had made her. Any
man would have regretted seeing her go, and he was in a sense a rejected
suitor. Not wishing her to think him light-headed and frivolous, he ad-
dressed her most earnestly and did everything he could to make her feel
comfortable. She understood and, though awed, wished she could stay
with him.
He was still at her side when a hand carriage was brought up to take
her away. Her father's men were waiting and Higekuro was making a
nuisance of himself.
"You are guarded too closely," said the emperor.
"Invisible beyond the ninefold mists,
May not the plum blossom leave its scent behind?"
<P 507>
It may have been that the emperor's good looks made his poem seem
better than it was.
"Enamored of the fields, I had hoped to stay the night," he con-
tinued, "but I find someone impatiently reaching to pluck the flowers.
How shall I write to you?"
Sorry to have made him unhappy, she replied:
