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it before there was any other candidate in the field. Of course Lady Tamakatsura has considerable claims. But I am sure that if I had known in good time I could easily have convinced his Majesty that you were something not to be missed. Even now I dare say it is not too late. You had better make haste and compose your letter of application, and write it out in your best hand. When his Majesty sees that it is full (as no doubt it will be) of conceits from the Long Poems and other such archaic compositions, he will certainly give your case very serious consideration. For he is particularly open to impressions of that sort.’ She had not the least idea that she was being made game of by a heartless and facetious parent. ‘If that’s all I have got to do,’ she answered gaily, ‘I shall manage famously. I can make Japanese poems one after another; there’s no stopping me. I get a bit mixed up about these terms of respect. But if you’ll just give me a little help with those, I’ll manage to work in something nice about you into the bargain.’ So saying she rubbed her hands with delight at the prospect of being allowed to exercise her wonderful powers of composition. The gentlewomen who were in attendance upon Lady Chūjō heard the whole of this conversation, and nearly died of suppressed laughter. Several were afflicted by so terrible a fit of the giggles that they had to be removed from the room. Lady Chūjō herself, so far from being amused, merely went hot and cold all over while this painful exhibition was in progress. Tō no Chūjō insisted upon treating the matter as a joke. ‘Whenever I feel at all depressed,’ he said to Lady Omi, ‘I shall come to you for distraction. You are an unfailing source of entertainment.’ It was, however, said at Court that Tō no Chūjō was in reality very much distressed by the girl’s silliness, and only made a joke of it in order to cover up his disappointment.