Page:Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan.djvu/245

 suspecting that she was yielding to the earnest desires of the Prince and going to live at the palace.

She was sad, but could not write to him. She was ashamed to think of what the Prince might have heard. The Prince, seeing that she did not explain herself, wrote to her again:

These words opened [i.e. lightened] her bosom a little. She wanted to know what he had heard and suddenly the wish to see him came to her.

The Prince wrote back:

She thought he was teasing her, yet it saddened her, and she replied:

He returned:

Her answer:

In the evening the Prince came. He said: "I wrote to you not believing the story. If you wish not to have such things said of you, come!" Rh