think it so
serious why should you go to him at all?"

"Yet, how can I disobey his commands to go back?" exclaimed the boy,
and so he returned to Genji without any written answer to him.

"I was weary of waiting for you. Perhaps you, too, had forgotten me,"
said Genji, when he saw the boy, who was, however, silent and blushed.
"And what answer have you brought me?" continued Genji, and then the
boy replied in the exact words which his sister had used.

"What?" cried Genji: and continued, "Perhaps you may not know, so I
will tell you. I knew your sister before she knew Iyo. But she likes
to treat me so because she thinks she has got a very good friend in
Iyo; but do you be like a brother to me. The days of Iyo will be
probably fewer than mine."

He now returned to the Palace taking Komini with him, and, going to
his dressing-room, attired him nicely in the Court style; in a word,
he treated him as a parent would do.

By the boy's assistance several more letters were conveyed to his
sister. Her resolution, however, remained unshaken.

"If one's heart were once to deviate from the path," she reflected,
"the only end we could expect would be a damaged reputation and misery
for life: the good and the bad result from one's self!"

Thus thinking, she resolved to return no answer. She might, indeed,
have admired the person of Genji, and probably did so, yet, whenever
such feelings came into her mind, the next thought that suggested
itself was, "What is the use of such idle admiration?"

Meanwhile, Genji was often thinking of paying a visit to the house
where she was staying, but he did not consider it becoming to do so,
without some reasonable pretext, more especially as he would have been
sorry, and for her sake more than his own, to draw a suspicion upon
her.

It happened, however, after a prolonged residence at the Court, that
another occasion of closing the Palace in the certain celestial line
of direction arrived. Catching at this opportunity he left the Palace,
and suddenly turning out of his road, went straight to Ki-no-Kami's
residence, with the excuse that he had just discovered the above fact
on his way. Ki-no-Kami surprised at this unexpected visit, had only to
bow before him, and acknowledge the honor of his presence. The boy,
Kokimi, was already there before him, having been secretly informed of
his intention beforehand, and he attended on him as usual in his
apartment on his arrival.

The lady, who h