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bursting with superabundant strength. His anger raged furiously on the surface, but it arose from the sudden creation, at the very core of his soul, of a terrible, desolate emptiness. He was overwhelmed by the bitter discovery that the world was a fraud, that his whole life until now, and all his proud boasts, had been built upon a false foundation.

For a moment he felt an urge to take the sword from his page boy’s hands and kill the two men on the spot; but the strength for such desperate resolutions was no longer within him.

Besides, it would only double his humiliation. For a lord to pride himself on false victories granted in flattery by his own retainers was shame and folly enough. But was he to cut down these two men now and reveal to his whole household that he knew of his own stupidity? Lord Tadanao fought against the tumult of emotions in his breast, and tried to consider calmly what course of action might be most fitting. But, because the experience had come upon him so unexpectedly, and because, to make matters worse, Lord Tadanao was of such an excitable disposition, his emotions continued for some considerable time longer in wild disorder, refusing to be arranged.

The page, who had been squatting at Lord Tadanao’s side all this while, as motionless as a piece of furniture, was a boy of some intelligence, and he was not unaware of the critical nature of the present situation. If, he felt, he failed to warn the two men of their master’s presence, there was no knowing what might happen. Noting in alarm the thunderous expression on his master’s face, he coughed lightly, three times.

The page boy’s coughing was, on this occasion, most efficacious. Ukon and Sadayū, realizing that someone was nearby, abruptly concluded their seditious conversation.

As if at a pre-arranged signal, the two men hurriedly departed in the direction of the great hall.

Lord Tadanao’s eyes were flashing with anger. But his cheeks were ominously pale.

The whole world of emotions in which he had lived since