‘Is she as handsome as her mother?’ Genji then asked. ‘I did not at all expect that she would be,’ answered Ukon. ‘But I must say that I have seldom seen…’ ‘I am sure she is pretty,’ he said. ‘I wonder whether you mean anything more than that. Compared with my Lady…?’ and he nodded towards Lady Murasaki. ‘No, indeed,’ said Ukon hastily; ‘that would be going too far….’ ‘Come,’ he said; ‘it would not be going much farther than you go yourself. I can see that by your face. For my part, I must own to the usual vanity of parents. I hope that I shall be able to see in her some slight resemblance to myself.’ He said this because he intended to pass off the girl as his own child, and was afraid that part of the conversation had been overheard. Having learnt so much, he could not resist the temptation to hear the whole of Ukon’s story, and presently he took her into a side-room, where they could discuss the matter undisturbed. ‘Well,’ he said, when Ukon had satisfied his curiosity, ‘I have quite made up my mind what to do with her. She shall come and live with me here. For years past I have constantly wondered what had become of her, and dreaded lest she should be throwing away her youth in some dismal, unfrequented place. I am delighted indeed that you have re-discovered her. My only misgiving concerns her father. I suppose I ought at once to tell him of her return. But I do not quite see how to set about it; for he knows nothing of my connection with Lady Yūgao, and I have never been able to see that there was any use in enlightening him. He has already more children than he knows what to do with, and the arrival in his house of a fully-grown girl, whom he has not set eyes on since she was a child-in-arms, would merely be a nuisance to him. It seems much simpler that I, who have so small a family, should take charge of her; and it is easy enough to give out that she is a daughter
