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I have been told that in her day she was considered the best penwoman at Court. One is apt to forget that she is now, poor thing, a very old lady indeed. Look at that line. How terribly her hand shook!’ Then, after reading the poem through a second time: ‘What ingenuity! There is in the whole poem not a single phrase which has not some special application to to-day’s ceremony. It would be difficult to imagine lines in which so little space was wasted,’ and he smiled.

Even a man of far less hasty disposition than Tō no Chūjō would, after such a revelation as that which had recently taken place at the old Princess’s house, have awaited the day of the Initiation Ceremony with the utmost impatience. It was evident, when the time came, that the proceedings were to be attended with every possible pomp and formality. In fact the whole complexion of the affair only served to convince Tō no Chūjō more firmly than ever that his daughter had from the start been Genji’s mistress. In his capacity as Sponsor he was admitted behind her screens at the Hour of the Swine.^[1] Over and above the equipment that is customary on such occasions he noticed that her dais was furnished with a magnificence such as he had never witnessed. When the main ritual was ended and food had been served behind the screen, Genji saw to it that the Great Lamp was so disposed as to illumine this corner of the room far more clearly than usual; and it was in a flood of lamplight that father and daughter now met face to face. But merely to see her was not enough; he longed to pour upon her a thousand questions concerning her own childhood and later adventures, concerning her mother’s death, and all that had led up to the present extraordinary situation. However, it was clear that for the moment any such conversation was impossible, and he