“So have you a wife; and, what is more, my husband is willing; and, I am sure, you can’t say as much; and, better still, Esyo wants her daughter to marry Kyogoku—don’t you think you could use him; he is as good as forty women, at that?”

“Kyogoku! Perhaps—he may know more about them than I do,” sighed the shogun, hopelessly entangled, undoing the riddle she had unwound for his special edification. “I’ll let you off, however; though, I ought to send you as company for Takiyama.”

“Send me? I’d like to see you do it; banish me, if you dare!”

“I’ll harness the whole of you, if you don’t mind your p’s and q’s. And to convince you that I mean just what I say I am this very day going to send the infant daughter of Hidetada, together with a retinue, to Ozaka. No doubt you yourself will have advised Hideyori—whom I have had appointed Nai-dai-jin—in advance something of my expectations so that he may be prepared to take my granddaughter as wife upon arrival. I shall, out of consideration for you, forego any more forceful intelligence.”

“He shall do nothing of the kind, is not a nai-dai-jin, nor will Yodogima harbor your spies—not if I can prevent it. Neither do I care to be bored with your concern for me.”

“Oh, ho—there are worse lovers.”

“None as inane, whom I know.”

“Tut, tut—louder and more of it.”

“You haven’t begun to hear from me.”

“No?”