He had indeed merely lain down on the same couch; but she, in her inexperience, imagined that in so doing he had taken advantage of her to the utmost possible extent. On returning to the room her gentlewomen at once noticed that she was looking very distraught, and pestered her with tiresome enquiries about her health. No sooner had they withdrawn than Ateki,[1] the daughter of her old nurse, began (irritatingly enough) to congratulate her upon her guardian’s extraordinary kindness: ‘How gratifying it is,’ she said, ‘that his Excellency is so admirably attentive to you! With all respect to your own father, I very much doubt whether he would put himself to half as much trouble on your account…. Prince Genji seems to take a positive pleasure in looking after you.” But Tamakatsura had been too much surprised and shocked by Genji’s conduct to feel, for the moment, any gratitude for the more than parental solicitude by which Ateki was so deeply impressed. She had no desire whatever to see him again, and yet in his absence felt strangely lonely and depressed.
- ↑ See above p. 159. Ateki of course knew the secret of Tamakatsura’s birth.
