10

      Yu~giri meanwhile had refurbished the northeast quarter at Rokujo~, exhausting his very considerable resources to make it acceptable to the most demanding of bridegrooms. The moon of the sixteenth night had long since risen and still Yu~giri and his family waited. All very embarrassing, thought Yu~giri as he sent off a messenger. The evidence was too clear that the match had failed to delight Niou.

“He left the palace earlier in the evening,” reported the man, “and it is said that he went back to Nijo~.”

Yu~giri was not at all pleased. Ordinary decency asked that this night of all nights the prince put other women from his thoughts. But the world would be all too ready to laugh if they passed the night in waiting, and so he sent off a message to Nijo~ with one of his sons, a guards captain:

“Even the moon deigns to come to this dwelling of mine.

The night draws on, we await a sign of you.”

Niou had not wished to upset Nakanokimi further by having her see him depart for Rokujo~. He therefore sent a message from the palace; but her reply, whatever it might have been, seems to have given him pause. He did, after all, slip off to Nijo~. Once there, he felt no need for other company. The captain arrived as the two of them were looking out at the moon and Niou, seeking desperately to comfort her, was pouring forth a stream of vows. Determined not to let her unhappiness show, she managed an appearance of composure and serenity. Her refusal to chide him was far more moving than clear evidence of injured feelings could possibly have been. The arrival of the captain reminded him that the girl at Rokujo~ might

be unhappy too.

“I shall be back in no time. You are not to sit here looking at the moon.* And you must remember how empty the hours will be until I am with you again.” A most uncomfortable situation, he said to himself as he made his way to the main hall by an inconspicuous route.

Meanwhile, her eyes on the retreating figure, Nakanokimi was telling herself that a lady did not surrender to unworthy emotions. Her pillow might threaten to float away,+ but her heart must be kept under tight control.