"What's this?" he asked, mystified.
"You appear quite unshaken by it. In fact, that's quite like you. I heard you had an encounter with one of the Genji last night. That's the rumor, at least."
"Ah? Yes, of course, that," Kiyomori countered.
"Precisely."
"So it's all over the Court, is it?"
"Yes, it caused quite a sensation when they heard that your assailant was Yoshihira of the Genji. You will have to be more discreet about going out at night," Koremichi added with a meaningful look.
"These spring nights, you know, are—irresistible." Kiyomori laughed, but the warning took effect and Kiyomori returned straight home that night, only to be met by Tokiko's reproaches.
"At your time of life, too! I must ask you not to repeat this again—this stealing out at night by the rear gate of the rose court!"
"When did I ever—"
"Do you think I don't know what has been going on? Aren't Shigemori and our other sons the heads of families, too, with their own households and retainers, and with posts at Court?"
"But what does that have to do with me?"
"I don't see how you can go on pretending to be innocent. With everyone looking up to you as the master of Rokuhara, I really can't understand how you can go off every night with that disreputable Red-Nose to visit your enemy's widow. Don't you realize what a scandalous performance that is? Nor am I saying this out of jealousy."
"Yes, you begin to resemble her more and more."
"Do you think I am joking?"
"No, I'm listening to you quite seriously, and that's why I'm sighing. If you become more like my stepmother, just where am I going to find peace?"
"I have no objections whatever to your keeping a mistress in the rose court, or the other new apartments. There's not much that a wife can do when a man's fancy runs in that direction. But of all women—Yoshitomo's widow!"
"Enough. I understand."
"If only you promise not to behave as you've been doing, I won't say a word more. But how can you expect me not to be upset when I hear that one of the Genji tried to murder you?"
"Ah, so you too are one of those virtuous wives. ... I begin to find something in favor of such women as the Lady of Gion."
"What are you mumbling to yourself now? If you refuse to take me seriously I shall ask your stepmother to come and speak to you herself. She can decide whether I'm being unreasonable or not."
"No, I humbly beg pardon, but don't for all the world ask her to come here."
"Then you'll give up this disgraceful carrying-on with Tokiwa, I take it? And you'll raise no objections if I speak to Itogo and Bamboku myself?"
"Whatever you wish," Kiyomori replied pettishly.
That night Kiyomori sat at the window of his wife's boudoir, gazing moodily at the misted moon. He had made a surprising discovery: Tokiko, so long preoccupied with the care of their children, who rarely questioned his coming and going, was inordinately jealous.
The following day Tokiko summoned her brother, Tokitada, to her room. It may have been the warm spring weather that caused it, but Tokitada thought his sister appeared rather flushed.
"Tokitada, I wish you to be very firm with Itogo. I have my husband's full consent to this."
"Itogo? What do you wish me to do?"
"Needless to say, it's about Tokiwa. Her three children are taken care of, and there's no reason why she should stay here in Rokuhara any longer."
"But that's hardly a matter for me to decide."
"But you're in charge of the Criminal Department here, and you can't very well say that you're not responsible for her. Tell Itogo to free her, or else send her to a nunnery and see that she takes the vows. See that there is an end to this disgraceful gossip."
"Ah, now I begin to understand. But, Tokiko, you must admit that you're partly to blame for Kiyomori's philandering."
"You think so, do you, Tokitada? You will do me the favor of telling me why you think I'm to blame."
"Well, Tokiko, you have without realizing it become old— let yourself fade, and with never a thought of how you might repair the ravages of the years in order to hold your spouse. What's happened was more or less to be expected."
"When a woman has had several children, it's only natural that she fades. Is it her fault that she is no longer—attractive?"
"No, Tokiko," Tokitada laughed, "you mustn’t lose your temper like that. I only speak to you with such frankness because you are my sister. I'm simply warning you that a woman must— no, a wife—must learn new graces as she grows older, if she doesn't wish to be cast off by her husband later on."
"Then what do you propose that I do?"
"Despite the years, evoke a subtle aroma of something fresh and exciting."
"I'm no dancing-girl, if that's what you mean!"
"Now that's exactly the kind of thinking common to shrews. What I say is true not only of Kiyomori, but of me. Anyway, when a man reaches his forties, he's ready to make his impression on the world, but suddenly discovers that his wife cuts a poor figure beside him."
"That's probably all you men find to talk about when you're together!"
"As a matter of fact, we do. The complaint seems to be general that, though we love our wives, they do age and stagnate."
"Pure egotism. . . ."
"You're right. We men are a selfish lot, but a man's ego must have a chance to stretch under his own roof before he can face the world and fight its battles. There's an old saying that a man begins to fall prey to doubts when he reaches his forties. We seem to be facing that stage just now, but Kiyomori is about to do great things, take my word for it."
"Do you expect me to believe that? You're another of those who encourage him in such delusions."
"No, you'll find that when he makes a name for himself, you, in spite of yourself, will have to assume those graces and accomplishments which will make you a fit mate, or otherwise fade into a nonentity when his star is rising."
"I've had enough of your talk. You will please leave me now."
"Just one thing more."
"What is it?"
"Wasn't it you who encouraged that merchant Bamboku to come here? It was a great mistake on your part to trust that vulgar fellow. I understand that the Nose has been performing the office of an intermediary in this affair with Tokiwa. As a matter of fact, that night when Yoshihira attacked Kiyomori, Norimori shook his head over the whole affair because that rascal was also there."
Tokitada made the best of his opportunity to tell his sister what he thought of her, and Tokiko retreated into silence, gazing resentfully at the faint smile playing on Tokitada's face. Quarrels between them took place from time to time and Tokiko usually came off the loser, but there was a tightening of her lips now which showed her determination to have the last word this time.
"Yes, I shall deal with Bamboku myself. Meanwhile, I wish you to see Itogo and find out what he intends to do with Tokiwa. You will please see that there is no delay."
"In any case, I understand."
"Not 'in any case'—I want it understood that those are my husband's orders," Tokiko said sharply, recalling as she did so the gossip about Tokiwa's undimmed loveliness. She, the wife, rudely shaken out of her complacency, realized that the world sympathized not with her, but with Tokiwa, whom she now examined with the critical eye of a rival.
That same day Red-Nose also was summoned by Tokiko.
"You may consider yourself unwelcome here. I order you to stop coming from now on."
"Yes—" the usually quick-witted Nose answered lamely, and after a pause added: "Have I done anything to offend you, my lady?"
"Your conscience can best tell you that."
"If I have displeased you, I can only right matters by cutting my throat."
"Do so, then. You know better than anyone else that you have good cause to do so. Here I've let you come and go in my house because I found you amusing, and all you've done is take advantage of me. You've been making a fool
of my husband by abetting him in this intrigue with Tokiwa."
"Dear me, that—" the Nose exclaimed, clapping a hand to his head and struggling to remonstrate with Tokiko. But Tokiko had already risen to her feet and swept out of the room with an angry swish of her robes.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE CROW
Bamboku sent one of his clerks to the western section of the capital where a modest villa, built by some nobleman for his mistress, stood vacant. The clerk had been instructed to purchase the villa without delay. This took place on the day following Red-Nose's dismissal from Rokuhara, and by evening the house was ready for a new occupant. Bamboku had more than enough domestic help to accomplish this quickly, not to mention
carriages, ox-carts, and handcarts on which were loaded bedding, kitchen equipment, boudoir furnishings, and the like. The Nose himself spent the entire afternoon arranging the garden to his taste, turning out rooms and even sweeping them, and by dark every screen stood in place in the main rooms; curtains depended where they belonged and even a small oratory and elegant writing-table had been installed in one of the smaller rooms.
"Well, well, this has been a busy day! Come to think of it, we haven't done badly at all. This should certainly please her," the Nose sighed contentedly, looking around at his handiwork by the light from a tall lampstand.
A gentleman alighted from his carriage, leaving it with his attendants in a small grove a discreet distance from the villa. It was Kiyomori.
"Excellent, excellent, indeed! Very quiet here, too. A nice garden, small—and a stream running through it," Kiyomori remarked as he passed down the halls, glancing here and there.
"How do you find this, my lord?"
"Very nicely done indeed, and all in such a short time."
"Those words, my lord, are ample reward for the Nose. I find myself in disgrace with her ladyship, and you do nothing but harry me with orders to get this done quickly and in utmost secrecy. ... I haven't slept a wink these two nights and days."
"This will do for the present. Now what about Tokiwa?"
"That will have to wait until late tonight when the streets are deserted. I'll see that she's brought here then."
"I see. That's off my mind, then. Now I leave it to you to fix matters with people—explanations and the rest, you know. And you'll be sure that she needs nothing."
"Leaving already?"
"I shan't be around for some time perhaps—difficulties at home," Kiyomori admitted wryly, though he departed with a pleased air.
As he had himself predicted, Kiyomori did not appear at the villa again. It was easy to believe that Tokiko's vigilance would continue for some time to come. More than that, however, he could not see how his duties at the Court would end early enough for an evening's drive to the villa on his way home.
The Nose, however, was punctual in his morning and evening visits to the villa, where he made his regular inquiries after Tokiwa's health and comfort. He was solicitude itself.
"My lady, has Lord Kiyomori not yet paid you a single call? No? Tut-tut, a fickle one indeed!"
Tokiwa had not forgotten Yoshitomo. From her window she could see the outlines of Kurama Mountain and the sky over that distant spot where her children now were. The comfort which now surrounded her daily grew oppressive. No day went by that she did not kneel at her oratory before the image of the Kannon, praying for her children's safety, and commending them to the Kannon's care. It was a small silver image that Yoshitomo had given her in those happy days long ago, and to look on it was to recall not only her children, but Yoshitomo's face and his gentle ways. For Tokiwa the sweetest moments of the day were when she knelt at her prayers.
Yet there were times when she grew hot with shame and was tortured by self-recriminations. What caused her to sit and wait as though she expected someone to come? The villa lay at the edge of a wood by a little-used road on the edge of the capital, and the rare grinding of wheels on the road always startled her into an awareness that made every nerve taut with hope. Her heart would beat wildly, expectant, and then she would sink back once more.
Was she evil to feel as she did, she asked herself. What was this mad thing that possessed her? This aching body, these torturing thoughts from which she could find no escape? And often through the warm spring nights her tears wetted her pillow as her heart ached for her children and for Yoshitomo, while her body waited strangely for Kiyomori, whom she desired and hated.
"Is it true, Shika?"
"I swear to it, and that's why I came back as fast as my legs would carry me."
The Nose groaned, and then said: "Good! I'm glad you told me. I'll go myself to make sure. Now you lead the way."
"But there's no telling whether we'll find anyone in now."
"Well anyway, a little reconnoitering," the Nose said briskly, and with a great show of spirit he started out from his shop on Fifth Avenue.
The cherries were beginning to shed their petals and the leaf-buds to show red on the boughs. The wind smelled of April.
"Down that side-street—there," said Shika, pointing in the direction of an open field on whose farther side a settlement of small houses had lately sprung up.
"How many houses down that side-street?"
"The fifth or the sixth, but you can't tell anything from looking at it as you go by. It has a hedge and small wicket gate, but they're all pretty much alike in that row of Heike houses."
"Yes, I know . . ." the Nose said, pinching his chin reflectively.
This was what his chief clerk, Shika, had heard while passing through the settlement: a nondescript soldier called Rokuro, living in one of the houses there, had taken in a lodger since early spring. The fellow in question seemed to be a young warrior, short but well-built, from some out-of-the-way place, who went about telling people that he was Rokuro's cousin from Tamba and looking for employment as a servant at Rokuhara. No post, the lodger said, was too menial. There seemed to be nothing wrong with him and people did not question his story until an elderly woman, who washed and mended for Rokuro, a widower, spread a tale of strange doings under Rokuro's roof. It was purely by chance, she claimed, that she saw Rokuro's cousin at breakfast one morning. There was nothing unusual in that, except that she had seen Rokuro waiting respectfully on his cousin; what was more, Rokuro gave his cousin the choicest bits of food, while he consumed cold morsels of whatever remained. An extraordinary performance among the half-starved common people.
When Shika heard this, he recalled that the Nose had several times mentioned his search for a "little fellow." Shika could only conclude that this was he—Yoshihira of the Genji. He had then gone to Rokuro's house, confirmed his suspicions, and flown back to the shop on Fifth Avenue with the news.
"Shika, you wait here in this field. Two of us would make it conspicuous."
"Standing here would be just as bad."
"Stroll around a bit then, while I take a look at that house myself."
Bamboku made off for a side-street. "Fifth—sixth—?" He came to a stop. Warriors were warriors, no matter how poor, and each house had its screening hedge and a small wicket gate, but no name-plate. "Let me see—" The Nose stood in a quandary, until he heard a high-pitched laugh. A tallish soldier accompanied by a rather short companion stepped out from a near-by gate and threw the Nose a searching stare as he passed him.
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