5

She was still shy about addressing him, however, and sent back her answers through Saisho~.

“I rather think that Father expected the message to go directly to my sister and not to travel these impossible distances. Why otherwise would he have chosen me for his messenger? You must forgive me if I seem insistent. I may not be a very important man, but it is a well-known fact that the bond between us is one which we could not cut even if we wished to. But enough. I sound like a complaining old man. Let me only add that your lady has been important to me.”

Again the answer came back through Saisho~. “Yes, it would have been good to have a long talk about things that have happened over the years. Unfortunately I have not been feeling well these last few days and would not be good company if I were to drag myself out and receive you. You _are_ being rather insistent, and you make me feel shy and uncomfortable.”

“If you are ill, may I not come to your bedside? But you are right: I must watch my manners.” He lowered his voice as he transmitted his father's message. Saisho~ did not think that he compared at all badly with her suitors. “Though Father is not as well informed as he might be in the matter of your court appointment, there are perhaps confidential matters which you will wish to discuss with him. He feels that he is being watched, he says, and that it would be even more difficult than it might once have been to see you.” And he added a few words of his own: “l shall not forget myself again, even though your refusal to be friendly bothers me a great deal. Look at us now, for instance. I should have hoped for the privilege of your north porch at least, where I might have made the acquaintance of some of your less well-known ladies, however odd Saisho~ might have thought me. Where do you find a precedent for this unfriendliness? We are, after all, fairly close to each other.”

Saisho~ found his complaints rather endearing She liked his bemused way of cocking his head to one side as he contemplated his unhappiness. She passed the message on to her lady.

“It is as you have suggested.” The answer was to the point “Too long an interview would without doubt attract attention, and so I must for the moment forgo the pleasure of a long conversation about my years of obscurity.”

Somewhat intimidated, he offered only a verse in reply:

“I did not know it was Sibling Mountain we climbed,

And came to a halt on hostile Odae Bridge.” *

It was a futile complaint about unhappiness of his own making.

This was her answer:

“Not knowing that you did not know, I found

Your tracks uP Sibling Mountain strange indeed.”

“Your remarks seem to have puzzled my lady,” said Saisho~. “She is very much concerned about appearances. Though I do not doubt that matters will presently change, she finds it impossible to speak with you furthe?”

She was right, of course. “Yes, I suppose it is still too early for a good conversation,” he said, getting up to leave. “I shall come again when a complaint about the debt for my accumulated services seems called for.”

There was a bright moon high in the sky, which was a lovely one. He was very handsome in lively, informal court dress. Though not perhaps as handsome as Yu~giri, said the women, he was certainly handsomer than most of them. Such remarkable good looks as did run in that family!