doing there! You careless slaves, what if my lady takes cold?"
The bathhouse with its low ceiling and latticed floor was quite dark. The naked bodies of the two women gleamed through the steam, dripping with perspiration.
"Ruriko, what lovely little breasts—like small cherries!"
"You embarrass me, aunt, don't stare at me so."
"I couldn't help thinking of the days when my skin was fair like yours," Yasuko mused.
"But you're so lovely even now."
"Yes?—" said Yasuko, looking long at her own breasts.
Ruriko's words were not all flattery, but Yasuko, cupping her breasts in her hands, felt that they had lost their firmness. The tips were stained dark like the seeds of an apricot. She had borne four sons and realized that the springs of her youthfulness were running dry. She stared at the small white scars on one breast where Kiyomori in a fit of temper had bitten her when he was two or three years old.
Anger suddenly welled up in her at the thought of Kiyomori, who had struck her so cruelly—and with a retainer there! Had he not once nursed at these breasts? Was this how sons treated their mother? Were this so, then how unrewarding to be a mother! He seemed to think that he had grown to manhood without her care! Resentment filled Yasuko as she sat there motionless, her fingers curled round her breasts.
Ruriko soon left the bathhouse. She was the niece of the mistress of the mansion. It was customary for young girls to be given in marriage by the time they were thirteen or fourteen, but Ruriko, who looked more than her sixteen years, was not even affianced. Rumors were that her father, Fujiwara Tamenari, a governor in one of the provinces, was too occupied with his duties to arrange a match. It was also said, however, that he had often disobeyed the orders of the central government, and at the request of the Minister of the Left, a relative who considered his dissident cousin dangerous, had been assigned to a distant post.
Ruriko herself seemed unconcerned about her unmarried state and found that the days passed pleasantly enough. Ever since Yasuko arrived and took possession of the apartments of the east wing, Ruriko spent most of her time there, leaving her own rooms in the west wing unoccupied. She often spent the night in the east wing or took her baths with Yasuko, who passed her time gossiping with the young girl, initiating her in the use of cosmetics, airing her views on love affairs, or instructing her in the secrets of appraising men. Ruriko soon came to admire the older woman and became warmly attached to her.
The master of this mansion was one Iyenari, a good-natured nobleman in his fifties, who, on retiring from a government post, indulged a passion for cockfighting. Being childless, he had considered adopting his wife's niece, Ruriko, but a most disconcerting situation had arisen in February—Yasuko's unexpected arrival. He sounded her out on her plans for departure, but Yasuko expressed no intention of returning to Imadegawa. He appealed to her maternal feelings by reminding her of her four children, but Yasuko appeared quite indifferent to them. To shake her self-confidence he hinted that though she was still enchanting at thirty-eight, she could hardly expect to remarry. But Yasuko was deaf to such insinuations and behaved as though she had returned to the parental roof permanently. She took possession of the best rooms in the house, ordered baths in the morning, spent long hours over her toilette in the evening, and proceeded to realize for herself her notions of a high-born lady's life.
She never hesitated to use the carriages whenever she wished, ordered the servants about at her whim, while they gossiped slyly in the servants' quarters about the strange men who visited her apartments at night. If Iyenari was so tactless as to express his displeasure at her conduct, Yasuko flew into a rage, forcing him to take back his words, and assumed the haughty
The bathhouse with its low ceiling and latticed floor was quite dark. The naked bodies of the two women gleamed through the steam, dripping with perspiration.
"Ruriko, what lovely little breasts—like small cherries!"
"You embarrass me, aunt, don't stare at me so."
"I couldn't help thinking of the days when my skin was fair like yours," Yasuko mused.
"But you're so lovely even now."
"Yes?—" said Yasuko, looking long at her own breasts.
Ruriko's words were not all flattery, but Yasuko, cupping her breasts in her hands, felt that they had lost their firmness. The tips were stained dark like the seeds of an apricot. She had borne four sons and realized that the springs of her youthfulness were running dry. She stared at the small white scars on one breast where Kiyomori in a fit of temper had bitten her when he was two or three years old.
Anger suddenly welled up in her at the thought of Kiyomori, who had struck her so cruelly—and with a retainer there! Had he not once nursed at these breasts? Was this how sons treated their mother? Were this so, then how unrewarding to be a mother! He seemed to think that he had grown to manhood without her care! Resentment filled Yasuko as she sat there motionless, her fingers curled round her breasts.
Ruriko soon left the bathhouse. She was the niece of the mistress of the mansion. It was customary for young girls to be given in marriage by the time they were thirteen or fourteen, but Ruriko, who looked more than her sixteen years, was not even affianced. Rumors were that her father, Fujiwara Tamenari, a governor in one of the provinces, was too occupied with his duties to arrange a match. It was also said, however, that he had often disobeyed the orders of the central government, and at the request of the Minister of the Left, a relative who considered his dissident cousin dangerous, had been assigned to a distant post.
Ruriko herself seemed unconcerned about her unmarried state and found that the days passed pleasantly enough. Ever since Yasuko arrived and took possession of the apartments of the east wing, Ruriko spent most of her time there, leaving her own rooms in the west wing unoccupied. She often spent the night in the east wing or took her baths with Yasuko, who passed her time gossiping with the young girl, initiating her in the use of cosmetics, airing her views on love affairs, or instructing her in the secrets of appraising men. Ruriko soon came to admire the older woman and became warmly attached to her.
The master of this mansion was one Iyenari, a good-natured nobleman in his fifties, who, on retiring from a government post, indulged a passion for cockfighting. Being childless, he had considered adopting his wife's niece, Ruriko, but a most disconcerting situation had arisen in February—Yasuko's unexpected arrival. He sounded her out on her plans for departure, but Yasuko expressed no intention of returning to Imadegawa. He appealed to her maternal feelings by reminding her of her four children, but Yasuko appeared quite indifferent to them. To shake her self-confidence he hinted that though she was still enchanting at thirty-eight, she could hardly expect to remarry. But Yasuko was deaf to such insinuations and behaved as though she had returned to the parental roof permanently. She took possession of the best rooms in the house, ordered baths in the morning, spent long hours over her toilette in the evening, and proceeded to realize for herself her notions of a high-born lady's life.
She never hesitated to use the carriages whenever she wished, ordered the servants about at her whim, while they gossiped slyly in the servants' quarters about the strange men who visited her apartments at night. If Iyenari was so tactless as to express his displeasure at her conduct, Yasuko flew into a rage, forcing him to take back his words, and assumed the haughty
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