rienced, in this whirlwind of passion Shimo was
but a leaf driven by the storm. The assignment to duty in the _yashiki_
never came. There was the daily report for duty at her ladyship's
rising, the cold and curt reception, the quick dismissal. O'Hagi Dono
was past her thirtieth year. Of the great Doi House, she brought to her
husband a dower of influence and prestige. Older than her husband the
love passion had never taken root. An ugly woman, there was small
chance for other good qualities to secure a fictitious esteem with a man
so easily captivated by beauty as Shu[u]zen Sama. Furthermore her
ladyship did not possess such amiable traits. She was a proud, hard,
jealous woman; with the natural graft of a bad temper. Soon abandoned to
a lonely bed she was no longer treated as a wife. Though the marriage
had endured some five years there was no child, and little prospect of
one. On occasions of ceremony the _okugata_ presided at his lordship's
wine feasts, attended by her band of furies. With the exception of
O'Han, who possessed the freshness of youth, none of them had any
pretence to good looks. Outwardly all due respect was paid to his
lordship, but the private apartments (_oku_) were in league against him.
For weeks the contact was through the _yo[u]nin_, Nishioka Shintaro[u],
who acted as messenger of his lord's commands, and conveyed to his
lordship any intimation of the wishes of her ladyship. Hence Shu[u]zen
Sama knew and cared little as to what passed in the inner apartments of
his wife. She knew everything which passed in those of his lordship.
This tacit divorce appeared welcome to both.

The object of his lordship's passion, in a household in which one side
or the other of the existing feud must be taken, the position of this
Shimo was quickly determined. Not by her, for short experience of her
ladyship inspired a terror which would even have counselled cooler
treatment from his lordship in one more experienced. The other girls
were all honey, to disguise the bitterness of gall. There was not one of
them who would not gladly have obeyed her lord's call to Shimo's place.
Hence to partisanship was added jealousy. At the daily tasks there was
but one topic of conversation--O'Shimo's favour with her lord. The
charms she used were evident enough, for Nature had been lavish with the
kind to meet his lordship's wishes. How was it their own parents had
spawned such incapacity? "Deign, O'Shimo Dono, to teach the art so