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part of it: that girl’s mother was no better than mine!’ All this was blurted out at her usual high pitch, and without a thought of the effect which she was producing. Lady Chūjō, upon whom these outbursts made a painful impression,did not answer. Kashiwagi thought it his duty to say severely, ‘It is quite true that Lady Tamakatsura is our father’s child. There were reasons why it was more convenient that she should be brought up by Prince Genji. But it is undesirable that this should be talked about. I cannot understand how you came to hear of it at all; and still more surprised that you should regard it as a piece of news that can be shouted all over the house. However, as I know by experience, several of our gentlewomen are particularly bad at holding their tongues, and one of them might possibly have overheard. . . .’ The Lady from Ōmi laughed boisterously: ‘Well, I never!’ she said. ‘What a silly fuss to make! Why, no one talks of anything else! And look here! They say she thinks she’s going to be Lady-of-the-Bedchamber. Now listen to me all of you. I wouldn’t ever have come to fetch and carry for my sister in these grand rooms and do all the jobs that the rest of you thought yourselves too good for, if I hadn’t been told she would put in a word for me when she got the chance. I could be Lady-of-the-Bedchamber to-morrow, yes, so I could, if my sister didn’t choose to let a stranger get off with the job.’ This outburst provoked peals of laughter. ‘I don’t know why you should have got it into your head,’ said some one at last, ‘that if there was a vacancy for the post of Lady-of-the-Bedchamber, the choice should lie between you and Lady Tamakatsura.’ ‘It’s no good your trying to make fun of me,’ she shouted angrily. ‘I know quite well what it is: you think I’m not fit to live among such grand people as you. And whose fault is it, pray, that I came at all? Master Kashiwagi here thought it was