keep my visit as
private as possible, nevertheless I will come now to your master."
Thereupon the priest himself soon made his appearance, and, after
briefly relating the circumstances which had occasioned his retirement
to this locality, he offered to escort Genji to his house, saying, "My
dwelling is but a rustic cottage, but still I should like you to see,
at least, the pretty mountain streamlet which waters my garden."

Genji accepted the offer, thinking as he went, "I wonder what the
priest has said at home about myself to those to whom I have not yet
been introduced. But it will be pleasant to see them once more."

The night was moonless. The fountain was lit up by torches, and many
lamps also were lighted in the garden. Genji was taken to an airy room
in the southern front of the building, where incense which was burning
threw its sweet odors around. The priest related to him many
interesting anecdotes, and also spoke eloquently of man's future
destiny. Genji as he heard him, felt some qualms of conscience, for he
remembered that his own conduct was far from being irreproachable. The
thought troubled him that he would never be free from the sting of
these recollections through his life, and that there was a world to
come, too! "Oh, could I but live in a retreat like this priest!" As he
thus thought of a retreat, he was involuntarily taken by a fancy, that
how happy would he be if accompanied to such a retreat by such a girl
as he had seen in the evening, and with this fancy her lovely face
rose up before him.

Suddenly he said to the priest, "I had once a dream which made me
anxious to know who was living in this house, and here to-day that
dream has again come back to my memory!" The priest laughed, and said,
"A strange dream! even were you to obtain your wish it might not
gratify you. The late Lord Azechi Dainagon died long ago, and perhaps
you know nothing about him. Well! his widow is my sister, and since
her husband's death her health has not been satisfactory, so lately
she has been living here in retirement."

"Ah, yes," said Genji, venturing upon a guess, "and I heard that she
bore a daughter to Dainagon."

"Yes, she had a daughter, but she died about ten years ago. After her
father's death the sole care of her fell upon her widowed mother
alone. I know not how it came to pass, but she became secretly
intimate with Prince Hiobkio. But the Prince's wife was very jealous
and severe, so she had much t