it was not till her own menservants come to the rescue that, after a tremendous shouldering and hoisting, a passage was cleared through which she could enter the grounds. What did one do next? Even such a heap of gimcrack ruins as this presumably had some apertures which were conventionally recognized as doors and windows. A lattice door on the southern side of the house was half open and here the visitors halted. It did not seem possible that any human being was within hail; but to their astonishment, from behind a smoke-stained, tattered screen-of-state the maid Jijū suddenly appeared. She was looking very haggard, but though age and suffering had greatly changed her, she was still a well-made, pleasing woman; ‘at any rate far more presentable than her mistress,’ thought the visitors. ‘We are just starting,’ cried out the aunt to the lady of the house, who, as she guessed, was seated behind this sooty screen: ‘I have come to take Jijū away. I am afraid you will find it very difficult to get on without her, but even if you will not deign to have any dealings with us yourself, I am sure you will not be so inconsiderate as to stand in this poor creature’s way….’ She put in so moving a plea on behalf of Jijū that there ought by rights to have been tears in her eyes. But she was in such high spirits at the prospect of travelling as a provincial governor’s wife that a smile of pleasant anticipation played upon her lips all the while. ‘I know quite well,’ she continued, ‘that the late prince was not at all proud of his connexion with us, and I am sure it was quite natural that when you were a child you should pick up his way of thinking and feeling. But that is a long time ago now. You may say that it was my fault we did not meet. But really while celebrities such as Prince Genji were frequenting the house I was not at all sure that humble people like ourselves would be welcome. However, one of the advan-
