‘What an unspeakable thing she has done!’ the old Chūnagon said, when he had learned all the details. ‘Living here, everyone looks on her as our daughter. This fellow is of the Sixth Court Rank, but he is not even an Kurōdo official. The fellow has no rank. How could he have done such a thing! I thought of marrying her off to a Provincial Governor, without explaining the circumstances of her birth. What a shame!’
‘It is a great pity,’ agreed the Kita no Kata, ‘I suggest that you shut her up in a room before her scandalous conduct becomes known to everyone. Otherwise, in her love she will run away with him. Later, you can do what you like with her.’
’Yes, that is a good plan. Drive her out of her room and shut her up in the store-room of the North Wing. Give her nothing to eat. Starve her to death!’ he said, speaking with the ignorance of one in his second childhood.
The Kita no Kata was very pleased. She picked up her skirts, went to the Lower Room and confronted the Lady. ‘What an unspeakable thing you have done!’ she said. ‘The Great Lord is very angry indeed at your disgracing our daughters like this. He said to me, “Do not let her live in the Lower Room any longer. Confine her strictly somewhere at once, where I can watch her. Drive her here at once.” Come with me now then.’
The Lady was grieved, frightened, disgusted; she could do nothing but weep. She wondered what her father could have heard, any words would be foolishly inadequate to describe her state of mind.
Kicking things out of the way, the Kita no Kata, holding the Lady’s sleeves in her hand as if she were arresting a runaway thief, forced her to walk in front of her.
