do you not go to sleep at once?’ Leaving her at such a moment to go back to his room he felt all the reluctance of one who is setting out upon a long and perilous journey.
It constantly happened that at the last minute he thus decided to stay with her. It was natural that some report of his new pre-occupation should leak out into the world and be passed on to the Great Hall. ‘Who can it be?’ said one of Aoi’s ladies. ‘It is really the most inexplicable business. How can he have suddenly become entirely wrapped up in someone whom we had never heard the existence of before? It cannot in any case be a person of much breeding or self-respect. It is probably some girl employed at the Palace whom he has taken to live with him in order that the affair may be hushed up. No doubt he is circulating the story that she is a child merely in order to put us off the scent.’ And this opinion was shared by the rest.
The Emperor too had heard that there was someone living with Genji and thought it a great pity. ‘You are treating the Minister very badly,’ he said. ‘He has shown the greatest possible devotion to you ever since you were a mere baby and now that you are old enough to know better you behave like this toward him and his family! It is really most ungrateful.’
Genji listened respectfully, but made no reply. The Emperor began to fear that his marriage with Aoi had proved a very unhappy one and was sorry that he had arranged it. ‘I do not understand you,’ he said. ‘You seem to have no taste for gallantry and do not, so far as I can see, take the slightest interest in any of the ladies-in-waiting whom one might expect you to find attractive, nor do you bother yourself about the various beauties who in one part of the town or another are now in request; but instead you must needs pick up some creature from no
