9

At a loss for other devices, Niou tapped on the shutter.

“Who is it?” asked Ukon.

He cleared his throat. A most genteel sound, thought Ukon. It would be Kaoru. She came to the shutter.

“Raise it, if you will, please.”

“You've chosen a strange hour. It must be very late.”

“I heard from Nakanobu* that your lady would be going away, and I came running. It was a terrible trip, terrible. Do raise the shutter, please.” She obeyed, not guessing who it would be. He spoke in undertones and skillfully imitated his friend's mannerisms. “I'm all in tatters. Something really frightful happened along the way.”

“It must have been, I'm sure.” Uncertain what to do, she put the light at a distance.

“I don't want anyone to see me. Please don't wake them.”

He was a clever mimic. Since their voices were similar, he was able to give a convincing enough imitation of Kaoru that he was shown to the rear of the hall. How trying for the poor man, thought Ukon, withdrawing behind a curtain. Under rough travel guise he wore robes of a fine, soft weave. His fragrance scarcely if at all inferior to Kaoru's, he undressed as if he were in his own private rooms and lay down beside Ukifune.

“Why not where you usually sleep?”

He did not answer. Ukon spread a coverlet over her mistress, and, arousing the women nearby, asked them to lie down some slight distance away. Since it was the practice for Kaoru's men to be accommodated elsewhere, no one sensed what was happening.

“How very sweet of him, so late at night. Doesn't she understand?”

“Oh, do be quiet.” Some people understand too well, thought Ukon. “A whisper in the middle of the night can be worse than a scream.”

Ukifune was stunned. She knew that it was not Kaoru; but whoever it was had put his hand over her mouth. (If he was capable of such excesses at home, with everyone watching, what would he not be capable of here?) Had she known immediately that it was not Kaoru, she might have resisted, even a little; but now she was paralyzed. She had hurt him on an earlier occasion, he said, and she had been on his mind ever since; and so she quickly guessed who he was. Hideously embarrassed, horrified at the thought of what was being done to her sister, she could only weep. Niou too was in tears. It would not be easy to see her again. Might it have been better not to come at all?