CHAPTER III
THE MAIDEN
In the spring of the next year[1] the National Mourning for Lady Fujitsubo came to an end. Gay colours began to appear once more at Court, and when the time for summer dresses came round it was seen that the fashions were smarter than ever; moreover, the weather was unusually agreeable and there was every prospect of a fine spell for the Kamo Festival.[2] Lady Asagao gave no outward sign of what reflections passed through her mind while she witnessed the ceremonies in which she herself had a few years ago taken the leading part. But she gazed fixedly at the laurel tree[3] in front of her window; and though there was much beauty in those lank branches, swept to and fro by the roving winds, yet it seemed as if it must be for some other cause that again and again her eyes returned to it. In her ladies, at any rate, the sight of this tree aroused a host of reminiscences and suitable reflections.
From Genji came a note in which he said: ‘Does it not give you a strange feeling to witness a Day of Cleansing in which you take no part?’ And remembering that she was still in mourning for her father, he added the poem: ‘Little thought I that, like a wave in the swirl of the flood, you
