10

The empress was in provisional mourning at Rokujo~. Her second son had become minister of rites and seldom found time to visit. Niou came often, seeking to beguile his sorrows in the apartments of his sister, the First Princess. It annoyed him that so many of the beauties surrounding her should be so skillful at concealing themselves. Among them was one Kosaisho~, famous for her elegance and grace, of whom Kaoru had with some difficulty made the secret acquaintance. He admired her for her artistic accomplishments. When she struck up a melody on koto or lute the sound was somehow different, and she had her own style too when she jotted down a poem or granted an interview. Niou had not failed to make note of the name she was acquiring for herself, and once again he considered devices for thwarting his friend. Kosaisho~ had turned him coldly away. She was not among those who came running, she let it be known. Yes, thought Kaoru, she was unusual.

Unable to remain silent in the face of such grief, she wrote to him on paper that only a lady of great refinement could have selected.

“Pray think me not less feeling than the others.

But I am no one. Silent pass my days.

“And were I she, would sorrow then...?” *

She had somehow known that it would be for him an evening of unusual melancholy.

“Yes, I know the sadness that all is fleeting.

But I did not mean that you should hear my sighs.”

And immediately he went to see her, to tell her how much her delicate sense of timing had meant to him. He was so solemn and withdrawn, and her rooms were not meant for receiving men of rank; and indeed he did seem ridiculously confined, over in a corner by the door. There was no suggestion of obsequiousness, however, in her answers. She _did_ have something, a certain depth and gravity, that one seldom found in serving women. He wondered why she had gone into the service of even a princess. He did not know, but he wished that something more appropriate might be arranged. No hint of these thoughts was allowed to slip into the conversation.