32

Kaoru meanwhile was wringing his hands. Was his friend less trust-worthy than his observations had led him to believe? Had he been wrong all along? He rarely visited Niou's apartments these days, but he sent frequent messengers to inquire after Oigimi's health. He learned that she had improved somewhat since the first of the Eleventh Month. It being a season when he had all manner of business, public and private, he let five or six days go by without further inquiry. Then, suddenly alarmed, he shook off all these urgent affairs and rushed to Uji.

He had given instructions that the services be continued until her complete recovery, but she had said that she was much better and dis-missed the abbot. There were very few people in attendance upon her. He summoned Bennokimi and asked for a full report.

“There are no alarming symptoms, really. It is just that she refuses to eat. She has always been more delicate than most people, and you would hardly recognize her now. Ever since the Niou affair she hasn't let the smallest bit of fruit pass her lips. I am beginning to wonder if anything can save her. I have not had an easy life, and it has gone on too long, that I should live to see these things. I only want to die before she does.” She was in tears, as she had every right to be, even before she had finished speaking.

“But why didn't you tell me? I have been busy at court and at the Reizei Palace and it has worried me terribly that I am not able to look in on her.”

He went to the sickroom and knelt at Oigimi's bedside. She scarcely had strength to answer him.

“No one, no one at all, came to tell me. I have been worried, but what good does that do now?”

He summoned the abbot and other priests whose prayers were in high repute. With rites to begin the following morning, he sent to the city for some of his people, and the Uji villa was alive with courtiers high and low. The women forgot their loneliness. At dusk they brought him a light supper and sought once again to take him to a distant wing of the house. He replied that he wished to be where he could be useful. The priests having occupied the south room, he put up screens in the east room, somewhat nearer Oigimi. Nakanokimi was much upset, but the women, relieved to see that he had not after all abandoned them, had given up their efforts to take him away. Continuous reading of the Lotus Sutra began in the evening, most impressively, twelve priests of the finest voice taking turns. There was a light in Kaoru's room, and the inner room, where Oigimi lay, was dark; and so he raised a curtain and slipped a few inches inside. Two or three women knelt beside her, Nakanokimi having withdrawn to the rear of the room. It was a lonely scene.

“Can't you say just one word to me?”

He took her hand. Startled, she replied in a barely audible whisper. “I would like very much to speak to you, believe me. But it is such an effort. You had not visited me for so long that I feared I might die without seeing you again.”

“I am furious with myself.” He was sobbing aloud. He felt her brow, which seemed fevered. “And what sort of misconduct, do you suppose, is responsible for this? Making someone unhappy, perhaps?” He leaned very near and seemed prepared to talk on and on. The merest wisp of a figure, she covered her face. He could not imagine how it would be if she were to die.

“I am sure you are exhausted,” he said to Nakanokimi. “I am on duty tonight. Suppose you get some rest.”

Hesitantly, Nakanokimi withdrew deeper into the room. Oigimi still hid her face, but he was beside her, and that was some comfort to him. She strove to dispel her embarrassment with the thought that a bond from a former life must account for their being so near. When she compared his calm gentleness with Niou's heartless behavior, she had to admit that the contrast was startling. And she did not want to be remembered for her coldness. She could not send him away. All through the night he had women at work brewing medicines, but she quite refused to take them. He was beside himself. The crisis was real, that much was clear. And what could be done to save her?