“It would have made no difference. I tell you I am well acquainted with this family of Mori. They are a proud but not ignoble race, and this new scion has shown a braver and better blood than all of his august ancestors.”
“I cannot do it,” she said, shaking her head despairingly. “So do you, pray, Sir Gen, assist me to put him in hiding somewhere.”
“Tsh! That is impossible. Why, see, he is a big fellow. We could not carry him far, and the place here is surrounded by spies. He would meet a worse fate than if—”
She became paler and shivered visibly.
“I do not like to hear you speak so,” she said.
“I do not like to see you act so, my lady,” said Gen. “What! You would desert your lover when he most needs you!”
“Oh, Gen, no! I did not say that.”
“When there is a way by which you can save his life, you refuse to do so? Very well, then; better deliver him up at once to his executioners.”
“Oh-h!”
She interrupted him with a sharp cry of fright. The sound of her voice reaching the Prince as he slept, he turned uneasily on his couch, sighing heavily. Genji and Wistaria listened to him in breathless silence. Then, with her face turned towards the Prince, Wistaria moved close to his couch, whispering tremulously: