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BLUE TROUSERS

than the lady from whom a cruel fate divided him), for a moment he felt that he had been a fool not to guess the truth and use the opportunities that chance had provided. But no sooner had this idea crossed his mind than he rejected it with horror. Could it be that even in thought he had for an instant been disloyal to the love upon which his whole life was founded?

When the day of the ceremony came round, a messenger arrived from the Sanjō palace bearing presents from the old Princess. There was the usual lacquered box in which to lay the severed lock, and though there had been very little time for preparation, both this and the other presents were of the handsomest kind imaginable. In her letter she said: ‘I am not certain that it is proper[1] for me even to write upon such an occasion as this. I should not in any case have been able to witness the proceedings, for I am far too ill to leave my bed; and if a few presents and a letter from me are unprecedented in such a case, so too is the age which I have now reached, and it is clear that the ordinary rules must not be applied to me. In accordance with surprising and delightful information which I have just received, I long to address you as my grand-daughter, but hesitated to do so except at your express command. . . . “Since son and son-in-law both clain you, a double reason have I to greet you as a long-lost scion of my race”’[2]

Letter and poem were written in a very aged and trembling hand. Genji was present when the messenger arrived, having come across to Tamakatsura’s apartments to make the final arrangements for the ceremony. ‘The style to which she was brought up looks to us very quaint and old-fashioned,’ he said, inspecting the writing; ‘but

  1. ↑ She had taken Buddhist orders, and this was a Shintō occasion.
  2. ↑ An ingenious poem in which every word has some allusion to the ceremony in hand. For example futa = ‘both’ and ‘cover of the box’; kakego = ‘hidden child’ and ‘nest of boxes, fitting one into the other.’
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