40

At an extraordinary levee toward the end of the Second Month, he was appointed General of the Right and given a supernumerary seat on the council. (A vacancy had been created when the Minister of the Right,* who had also been General of the Left, resigned the latter position.) He went about making the courtesy calls which this happy event demanded, and in the course of them visited the Nijo~ mansion. Knowing that Nakanokimi would have Niou with her in this difficult time, he went directly to her apartments. In some confusion, Niou informed him that the place was swarming with priests and that the main hall might be more appropriate. Changing to court dress slightly less formal than Kaoru's, he received his caller at the foot of the stairs, and the scene the two presented was dignity itself. Kaoru was giving a banquet that evening for officers of the guard, he said, and would be most honored if Niou might be present. Because of Nakanokimi's condition, Niou did not commit himself.

The banquet took place at Rokujo~, where everything had been done to insure an affair no less grand than a similar one on the occasion of Yu~giri's becoming a minister. * Princes of the blood and high courtiers were present in numbers no fewer than at the earlier banquet. Some, indeed, might have argued for less display. Niou did put in an appearance, but hurried back to Nijo~ before the festivities were over. Yu~giri and his family were not pleased. The princess at Nijo~ was of as high a rank as Yu~giri's Rokunokimi, but nearness to the sources of power sometimes has a heady effect on people.