28

It was as if he had come with a prepared speech. Ukifune listened in sorrow and fascination to a story as from another life. The talk went on for a time, and the governor left. It touched her to know that she had not been forgotten. Again the thought of her mother's sorrow came first. But she did not want to be seen in this unbecoming dress. She watched the women at work preparing clothes—in memory of herself! She said not a word about the strangeness of it all.

A nun came to her with a singlet. “Suppose you do this for us. We've seen how good you are at turning a hem.”

But the thought was somehow repellent. “I'm afraid I'm not feeling well.” She lay with her back turned upon all the activity.

“What is the matter?” The bishop's sister anxiously put aside her work.

Another nun held up a red singlet and a damask robe with a cherry-blossom pattern in the weave. “If only we could ask you to try this on for us. It seems such a waste that you should always be in grays and blacks.”

“Shall I, having taken the habit of the nun,

Now change to robes of remembrance, think of the past?”

The girl sighed as she jotted down her poem. This world kept no secrets, and if she were to die and the bishop's sister to learn the truth, her secretive ways would no doubt seem cold and unfeeling.

“I have forgotten everything,” she said, “but when I see you at this sort of work something does seem to come back, and make me very sad.”

“I have no doubt that you remember something, indeed a great many things, and it does you no good to go on hiding them. I have forgotten a great many things myself. The bright colors they wear down in the city, for example; and so I have lost my touch for this kind of work. If my daughter had only lived! Surely there is someone who is to you as I was to her? I saw her remains right there before my eyes, and I went on believing that she had to be alive, somewhere, and wanted to run off and look for her. And you just vanished—surely there is someone out looking for you?”

“Yes, I did have a mother, back when I was a part of it all. But I rather think she died not long ago.” She sought to hide her tears. “It hurts to try to remember, and I really have nothing at all to tell you. Do please believe that I am not trying to keep things from you.” Always a girl of deep reserve, she fell silent.