A burst of tears choked her utterance; she hastened from the room.
“May you have all success,” said Nobuyuki, as she disappeared, and then he returned to his thoughts.
V.
In the guise of a merchant’s wife, and assuming a false name, Katsuno journeyed to the castle-town of Inaba, and taking up her abode at the house of an uncle who was a farmer living in a village close to the town, watched for an opportunity to achieve her purpose.
One day, Yoshitatsu, the son of Saitō Dōzō, returning from hunting, stopped to rest at the farm-house. Katsuno waited upon him and served him with tea. Her beauty and grace of manner attracted the attention of the young nobleman. In reply to his inquiries Katsuno’s uncle told him that she had recently lost her husband, a merchant, and that she was anxious to enter the service of a daimio’s lady. Yoshitatsu undertook to engage her as maid-of-honour to his mother, and his offer was immediately accepted with joy. She was soon an inmate of the castle, where her faithful service pleased her mistress so much that she speedily became a great favourite.
A warm spring day, with the delicate blossoms of the cherry-trees filling all the land with their beauty, and the faint sweetness of their perfume. Since dawn a large number of workmen had been busily at work sweeping the courtyard of the castle, and spreading clean sand over it. Some important function must be on hand. Katsuno wondered what it was.
“Excuse my curiosity, my lady,” she said as she served her mistress with a cup of tea, “but for what are those men making such great preparations? Is anything going to take place?”
“Don’t you know? To-morrow there will be matches of mounted archery.”
“Mounted archery, my lady? What is that?” asked Katsuno, feigning ignorance.
“All the samurai who are skilled in archery will practise the art on horseback.”