Heir-apparent also were present. The ceremony of burial was performed
with all solemnity and pathos.

Thus the modest and virtuous Lady Aoi passed away forever.

Genji forthwith confined himself to his apartment in the grand mansion
of Sadaijin, for mourning and consolation. To-no-Chiujio, who was now
elevated to the title of Sammi, constantly bore him company, and
conversed with him both on serious and amusing subjects. Their
struggle in the apartment of Gen-naishi, and also their rencontre in
the garden of the "Saffron Flower," were among the topics of their
consoling conversation.

It was on one of these occasions that a soft shower of rain was
falling. The evening was rendered cheerless, and To-no-Chiujio came to
see him, walking slowly in his mourning robes of a dull color. Genji
was leaning out of a window, his cheek resting on his hand; and,
looking out upon the half-fading shrubberies, was humming--

"Has she become rain or cloud?
'Tis now unknown."

To-no-Chiujio gently approached him. They had, as usual, some pathetic
conversation, and then the latter hummed, as if to himself--

"Beyond the cloud in yonder sky,
From which descends the passing rain,
Her gentle soul may dwell,
Though we may cease to trace its form in vain."

This was soon responded to by Genji:--

"That cloudy shrine we view on high,
Where my lost love may dwell unseen,
Looks gloomy now to this sad eye
That looks with tears on what has been."

There was among the faded plants of the garden a solitary
Rindo-nadeshko.[85] When To-no-Chiujio had gone, Genji picked this
flower, and sent it to his mother-in-law by the nurse of the infant
child, with the following:--

"In bowers where all beside are dead
Survives alone this lovely flower,
Departed autumn's cherished gem,
Symbol of joy's departed hour."[86]

Genji still felt lonely. He wrote a letter to the Princess Momo-zono
(peach-gardens). He had known her long. He admired her, too. She had
been a spectator, with her father, on the day of the consecration of
the Saiin, and was one of those to whom the appearance of Genji was
most welcome. In his letter he stated that she might have a little
sympathy with him in his sorrow, and he also sent with it the
following:--

"Many an autumn have I past
In gloomy thought, but none I ween
Has been so mournful as the last,
Which rife with grief and chan