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This jocularity hid very great uneasiness, for she was powerless to restrain him. He marched in ahead of her and made his way through unfamiliar rooms to the princess's side. She was stunned. She would not have thought him capable of such impetuosity. She still had a device or two, however, and they could all scream to the world, if they wished, that she was being childish. She locked herself in a closet and prepared to spend the night there. She still felt far from secure, and she was very angry with Kosho~sho~ and the rest, who seemed to find his advances pleasing and exciting.

Yu~giri too was angry, but he persuaded himself to take the longer view. Like the mountain pheasant, he spent the night alone.*

Daylight came and the impasse remained.

“Open the door just a crack,” he said over and over again. There was no answer.

“My sorrows linger as the winter night.

The stony barrier gate is as slow to open.

“O cruelest of ladies!” In tears, he made his way out.