4

The storm quieted toward dawn, though there were still intermittent showers. Reports came that several of the outbuildings at Rokujo~ had collapsed. Yu~giri was worried about the lady of the orange blossoms. The Rokujo~ grounds were vast and the buildings grand, and Genji's southeast quarter would without question have been well guarded. Less well guarded, the lady of the orange blossoms must have had a perilous time in her northeast quarter. He set off for Rokujo~ before it was yet full daylight. The wind was still strong enough to drive a chilly rain through the carriage openings. Under unsettled skies, he felt very unsettled himself, as if his spirit had flown off with the winds. Another source of disquiet had been added to what had seemed sufficient disquiet already, and it was of a strange and terrible kind, pointing the way to insanity.

He went first to the northeast quarter, where he found the lady of the orange blossoms in a state of terror and exhaustion. He did what he could to soothe her and gave orders for emergency repairs. Then he went to Genji's southeast quarter. The shutters had not yet been raised Leaning against the balustrade of the veranda, he surveyed the damage. Trees had been uprooted on the hillocks and branches lay strewn over the garden. The flowers were an almost complete loss. The garden was a clutter of shingles and tiles and shutters and fences. The wan morning light was caught by raindrops all across the sad expanse. Black clouds seethed and boiled overhead. He coughed to announce his presence.

“Yu~giri is with us already.” It was Genji's voice. “And here it is not yet daylight.”

There was a reply which Yu~giri did not catch, and Genji laughed and said: “Not even in our earliest days together did you know the parting at dawn so familiar to other ladies. You may find it painful at first.”

This sort of bedroom talk had a very disturbing effect on a young man. Yu~giri could not hear Murasaki's answers, but Genji's jocular manner gave a sense of a union so close and perfect that no wedge could enter.

Genji himself raised the shutters. Yu~giri withdrew a few steps, not wishing to be seen quite so near at hand.

“And how were things with your grandmother? I imagine she was very pleased to see you.”

“She did seem pleased. She weeps much too easily, and I had rather a time of it.”

Genji smiled. “She does not have many years left ahead of her. You must be good to her. She complains about that son of hers. He lacks the finer qualities of sympathy and understanding, she says. He does have a flamboyant strain and a way of brushing things impatiently aside. When it comes to demonstrating filial piety he puts on almost too good a show, and one senses a certain carelessness in the small things that really matter. But I do not wish to speak ill of him. He is a man of superior intelligence and insight, and more talented than this inferior age of ours deserves. He can be a bother at times, but there are not many men with so few faults. But what a storm. I wonder if Her Majesty's men took proper care of her.”