8

Niou made his way softly up the stairs and leaned forward to take advantage of a crack he had found in a shutter. The rustling of an Iyo blind* gave him brief pause. The house was new and clean, and but roughly furnished. As if in confidence that no one would be looking in on them, the women inside had not bothered to cover the openings. The curtain beyond the shutter had been lifted back across its frame. In the bright light, three or four women were sewing. A pretty little maidservant was spinning thread. It was a face he had had a glimpse of in the torchlight at Nijo~. Or was he perhaps mistaken? Then he saw the young woman who had announced herself as Ukon.+ Ukifune herself lay gazing into the light, her head pillowed on her arm. Her eyes, charmingly girlish and not without a certain dignity, and her forehead, thick hair spilling down over it, reminded him astonishingly of his princess at Nijo~.

“But if you do go, I don't imagine you'll be coming back very soon.” It was Ukon, busy creasing a robe. “We had that messenger from the general yesterday, you know. The general will be coming on about the first of the month, we can be sure of it, once the business of the provincial appointments is out of the way. What has he said in his letters?”

Evidently sunk in thoughts of her own, the girl did not answer.

“It won't look at all good, running off when you know he'll be com-ing.”

“I think you ought to let him know about your plans,” said the woman facing Ukon. “It won't seem very nice to go dashing off without a word to him. And I think you ought to come back as soon as you've had time for a prayer or two. I know this is a lonely place, but it's a safe, quiet place too. Once you're used to it you'll feel more at home than you ever did in the city.”

“Don't you think the polite thing,” said another woman, whom he could not see, “would be to wait a little while? After you're in the city you can have a good visit with your mother. The old woman here is much too quick with her good ideas. Careful plans turn out best in the end. It is true now and it has always been true.”

“Why didn't you stop her? Old people are such a nuisance.” These reproaches seemed to be directed at Ukifune's nurse.

Yes, to be sure, thought Niou: there had. been a troublesome old woman with the girl. The memory of that evening had a misty, spectral quality about it.

The talk went on, so open that he was almost embarrassed. “I say the lucky one is our lady in the city. The minister throws his weight about and makes a big thing of having royalty for a son-in-law, but since our little master was born our side has had the better of it. And there aren't any nasty, pushy old women at Nijo~, and our lady can do very much as she pleases.”

“Oh, but our own lady will be doing just as well if the general keeps his promises. She'll be there with the best of them.”

“There with the best of them!” Ukifune raised herself on an elbow. “Did you have to say that? You know I don't want you comparing me with the lady at Nijo~. What if she were to hear?”

How might the two of them be related, this girl and his own lady? There was an unmistakable resemblance. The girl was no match for the other in proud, cool elegance. She was winsome and pretty, no more, and her features were delicately formed. A suggestion of less than the rarest refinement, however, was not enough to make him withdraw when he had before his eyes a girl who had been so long and persistently on his mind.

This first good look at her left him in an agony of impatience to make her his own. It would appear that she was going on a journey. And she seemed to have parents. When would he have another such chance? What might he hope to accomplish in the course of the night?

He gazed on and on, in growing agitation.

“I'm very sleepy,” said Ukon, gathering up half-sewn garments and hanging them over the curtain rack. “I don't know why, but I hardly slept at all last night. I can finish tomorrow morning. Even if your mother gets an earl y start it will be noon by the time she gets here.” Leaning on an armrest, she seemed about to doze off. The girl retired somewhat farther into the room and lay down. After disappearing into a back room for a time, Ukon reappeared and lay down at her feet. Soon she was fast asleep.