14

He found Ono hard to pass by on his descent to the city.

The nun was prepared this time, and so lavish with her hospitality that he was reminded of other years. Though Sho~sho~ no longer wore the bright robes of old, she was still a woman of taste. The bishop's sister was in tears as she received him.

“And who,” he asked nonchalantly, “is the young lady you have hidden away?”

She was startled. But a moment's consideration told her that he had seen the girl and that evasion would do her no good. “My sins went on accumulating because I was unable to forget my daughter, and for several months now I have had another girl to look after, and she has brought a certain comfort. I do not know the details myself, but she seems to have rather dreadful problems, and does not even want it known that she is alive. I thought surely these mountain fastnesses would be safe from prying eyes. How do you happen to know about her?”

She had not completely satisfied his curiosity. “Even if my motives were less than honorable, I might, I think, claim a certain measure of credit for having braved these mountain roads. I had expected a better reward. You are being somewhat ungenerous if you insist on hiding the facts and treating me as if they were no concern of mine. If she serves as a substitute for my lamented wife, then I think I may say that they are. Why is she so set against the world? It is just possible that I might offer comfort.” And he indited a poem on a piece of notepaper he had with him:

“O maiden flower, bend not to Adashino's gales.

I came the long road to make for you a windbreak.” *

The bishop's sister saw the note, which he sent in through Sho~sho~. “You must answer, you really must. He is an honest and serious young man, and you have nothing to worry about.”

But the girl would not be moved. “I write so dreadfully,” she said.

Not wanting him to go off annoyed, the nun herself sent an answer. “I have warned you that she is eccentric, and we may not reasonably expect conventional behavior of her.

“We have brought the maiden flower to a hut of grass

Away from the world, and yet the world torments it.”