6

Genji conducted mock examinations with the usual people in attendance, To~ no Chu~jo~, Sadaiben, Shikibu no Tayu~, Sachu~ben,* and the rest. The boy's chief tutor was invited as well. Yu~giri was asked to read passages from The Grand History on which he was likely to be challenged. He did so without hesitation, offering all the variant theories as to the meaning, and leaving no smudgy question marks behind. Everyone was delighted, and indeed tears of delight might have been observed. It had been an outstanding performance, though not at all unexpected. How he wished, said To~ no Chu~jo~, that the old chancellor could have been present.

Genji was not completely successful at hiding his pride. “There is a sad thing that I have more than once witnessed, a father who grows stupider as his son grows wiser. So here it is happening to me, and I am not so very old. It is the way of the world.” His pleasure and pride were a rich reward for the tutor.

The drinks which To~ no Chu~jo~ pressed on this gentleman seemed to make him ever leaner. He was an odd man whose scholarly attainments had not been put to proper use, and life had not been good to him. Sensing something unusual in him, Genji had put him in charge of Yu~giri's studies. These rather overwhelming attentions made him feel that life had begun again, and no doubt a limitless future seemed to open for him.