not refrain from beating the measure and sometimes even joining in the words. Whereupon the priest would pause in his playing and listen with an expression of respectful rapture.
Fruit and other refreshments were then served, all with the greatest taste and elegance. The old priest insisted upon every one present drinking endless cups of wine, though the night itself was of a beauty so intoxicating that the dull realities of life had long ago faded from their minds. As the night wore on a cool wind began to blow among the trees, and the moon, who in her higher course had been somewhat overcast, now at her setting shone out of a cloudless sky. When the company was grown a little quieter, the priest began gradually to tell the whole story of his life on this shore, together with his reasons for settling there and a voluminous account of his vows and religious observances; when without difficulty he led the conversation towards the topic of his daughter. She certainly sounded very interesting, and despite the old man’s volubility Genji found himself listening with pleasure at any rate to this part of the discourse. ‘It seems a strange thing to say, his host went on, ‘but I sometimes wonder whether, humble old cleric though I be, my own prayers are not really responsible for your Highness’s excursion to these remote parts! You will say that if this is so I have done you a very bad turn. … But let me explain what I mean. For the last eighteen years I have put myself under the special protection of the God of Sumiyoshi. From my daughter’s earliest childhood I have been very much exercised in mind regarding her future, and every year in the spring and autumn I have taken her with me to the shrine of that deity, where praying day and night I have performed the offices of the Six Divisions,[1] with no other desire at
- ↑ A service performed at dawn, sunrise, midday, sunset, dusk and nightfall.
