17

What did it all mean? Kumoinokari was asking. He had not seemed on such very good terms with the dead lady, nor had their correspondence been of the most flourishing.

One evening as he lay gazing up at the sky she sent one of her little boys with a note on a rather ordinary bit of paper.

“Which emotion demands my sympathy,

Grief for the one or longing for the other?

“The uncertainty is most trying.”

He smiled. She had a lively imagination, though he did not think the reference to the princess's mother in very good taste. Coolly he dashed off a reply.

“I do not know the answer to your question.

The dew does not rest long upon the leaves.

“My feelings are for the world in general.”

She wished he might be a little more communicative. It was not the fleeting dews that worried her.