4

She had emerged from mourning. Since the Ninth Month would not be propitious for her court debut,+ a date in the Tenth Month was fixed upon. The emperor was very impatient and her suitors were beside them-selves. Tearfully, they besought their intermediaries to forestall the event. They might as well have requested the damming of Yoshinorea11s.* Word came back that the prospect was next to hopeless.

Regretting his earlier loquacity, Yu~giri had made Tamakazura's business his own. He hoped that impersonal services, a wide variety of which he now undertook, would correct the unfavorable impression he must surely have made. He was in firm control of himself. No indiscretion would be permitted.

Her brothers were of course no longer among her suitors. They waited impatiently for her appearance at court, when they might be of service to her. The change in Kashiwagi, until but yesterday the picture of desolate yearning, amused her women. He came calling one moonlit night and took shelter under a laurel tree,+ no public announcement having yet been made of her identity, as he sent in word that he had brought a message from his father. Received at the south door, he smiled wryly as he thought how she had refused even to accept his letters.