30

It was midmorning when Yu~giri returned to Sanjo~. Pretty little boys immediately commenced climbing all over him. Kumoinokari was resting and did not look up when he came behind her curtains. He could see that she was very much put out with him. She had every right to be, but he could only pretend that he had nothing to be ashamed of.

“Do you know where you are?” she said finally. “You are in hell. You have always known that I am a devil, and I have merely come home.”

“In spirit worse than a devil,” he replied cheerfully, “but in appearance not at all unpleasant.”

She snorted and sat up. “I know that I do not go very well with your own fine looks, and I would prefer just to be out of sight. I have wasted so many years. Please do not remember me as I am now.”

He thought her anger, which had turned her a fresh, clean scarlet, very charming.

“I am used to you and am not at all terrified of you. Indeed, I might almost wish for something a little more awesome.”

“That will do. Just disappear, please, if you do not mind, and I will hurry and do the same. I do not like the sight of you and I do not like the sound of you. My only worry is that I may die first and leave you happily behind.”

He found her more and more amusing. “Oh, but you would still hear about me. How do you propose to avoid that unpleasantness? Is the point of your remarks that there would seem to be a strong bond between us? It will hold, I think. We are fated to move on to another world in quick succession.”

He sought to dismiss it as an ordinary marital spat. She was a good-natured lady in spite of everything, youthful and forgiving, and though she knew very well what he was doing her anger presently left her.

He was sorry for her, to the extent that his unsettled state of mind permitted. The princess did not strike him as a willful or arbitrary sort, but if she were this time to insist on having her way and become a nun he would look very silly indeed. He must not let her spend many nights alone, he nervously concluded. Evening approached, and again it became apparent that he would not hear from her. Dinner was brought in. Kumoinokari ate very little, and Yu~giri himself had eaten nothing at all since the day before.

“I remember all the years when I thought of no one but you, and your father would not have me. Thanks to him the whole world was laughing at me. But I persevered and bore the unbearable, and refused all the other young ladies who were offered to me. I remember how my friends all laughed. Not even a woman was expected to be so constant and steadfast, they all said. And indeed I can see that my solemn devotion must have been rather funny. You may be angry with me at the moment, but before you think of leaving me think of all the little ones you can have no intention of leaving. They are threatening to crowd us out of the house. You are not that angry, surely?” He dabbed at his eyes. “Do give the matter a moment's thought. Life is very uncertain.”

She thought how remarkably happy their marriage had been, and concluded that they must indeed have brought a strong bond from other lives.

He changed his rumpled house clothes for exquisitely perfumed new finery. Seeing him off, a dazzlingly handsome figure in the torchlight, she burst into tears and reached for one of the singlets he had discarded.

“I do not complain that I am used and rejected.

Let me but go and join them at Matsushima.*

“I do not think I can possibly be expected to continue as I am.”

Though she spoke very softly, he heard and turned back.

“You do seem to be in a mood.

“Robes of Matsushima, soggy and worn,

For even them you may be held to account.”

It was an impromptu effort and not a very distinguished one.