8

Genji gave orders for finishing the house. Since word had been sent that he would be at his Katsura villa, people had gathered from all his nearby manors, and presently sought him out at Oi. He set them to clearing the garden.

“What a jumble. It could be a rather distinguished garden—but why take the trouble? It is not as if you meant to spend the rest of your life here, and you know better than most what a mistake it is to get too attached to a place.”

He was so open, so sure of himself. She was more in love with him than ever.

The old nun grinned upon them. All her worries had departed. Per-sonally supervising the work of clearing the brook that ran from under the east gallery, Genji had thrown off his cloak. The old lady thought him charming in his undersleeves. The holy vessels reminded him that she too had come. He was being rude. He sent immediately for his cloak.

“I am sure it is your prayers that have made our little girl into such perfection,” he said, coming up to her curtains. “I am very grateful. And I must thank you too, most sincerely, that you have left peace and serenity for what must be the ugliest sort of confusion. You left your saintly husband behind, all by himself, with nothing to occupy him but thoughts of you. It must have been very difficult.”

“Yes, I thought I had given all this up, and it was a little confusing. But your kindness and understanding make me feel that I am being rewarded for having lived so long.” There were tears in her voice. “I worried about the seedling pine on those unfriendly coasts. Its prospects have improved enormously, and yet I am afraid. Its roots are so very shallow.” She spoke in soft, courtly tones.

He asked her about the villa as it had been in Prince Nakatsukasa's day. The brook, now cleared of weeds and litter, seemed to have found the moment to announce itself.

“The mistress, long gone, is lost upon her return

To find that the brook has quite usurped her claims.”

A voice can seem affected as it trails off at the end of a poem, but the old nun's was genteel and courtly.

“Clean waters, bringing back the distant past

To one who comes to them in somber habit.”

As he stood gazing meditatively out over the scene, he seemed to the old nun the ultimate in noble dignity.