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jobs which the charwomen and scullery-maids would not touch. She could be seen at any hour of the day running at full speed hither and thither (but generally in the wrong direction) with a zest never equalled in the annals of this ancient house. Whenever she met her sister she called out to her: ‘Now you will recommend me, won’t you, for that post at Court?’ Lady Chūjō resented this continual persecution, but thought it better to make no reply.

The story of Ōmi’s misguided aspiration reached Tō no Chūjō’s ears and diverted him extremely. He went straight to Lady Chūjō’s apartments and called for the Lady of Ōmi to be sent to him. She was not far off, and hearing her own name uttered she at once replied with a loud whoop and came flouncing into the room. ‘You seem to have plenty to do nowadays,’ he said. ‘If you put the same energy into this Palace work that I hear you are asking for, you would certainly be setting a new precedent! But why did you not tell me before that you wanted this place? I have only this moment heard about it.’ Her father at any rate was not making fun of her, she said to herself with great satisfaction. ‘I did hope you would hear about it,’ she answered Tō no Chūjō; ‘but Madam my sister or some one else promised me they would tell you, and I thought it was all in safe hands. Indeed, I’d counted on it so, that when I found out this Lady Tamakatsura was after my place and every one seemed to think she’d get it, I felt like the poor tinker who dreamed of millions, and was so put about I didn’t know, as the saying goes, whether my hands grew out of my arms or my chest.’ There was no denying that she expressed herself with considerable vigour. Tō no Chūjō found it hard to maintain his gravity, but he succeeded in saying at last: ‘I wish you had taken me into your confidence. If only I had known that you wanted this post I could have put in for