XIX
ISTARIA” said the Prince Keiki, with a very firm clasp of her hand, “just now I insisted that the samurai Genji should cease his futile deception by useless prevarication. And now I ask you, I beg you, not to hide under a cloak of levity any secret trouble which you may have, and which I, as your future husband, am entitled to know.”
The mirror slipped from the girl’s hand. She stared at it hopelessly.
“Now answer me,” continued her lover, insistently. “Is it not true that you are in trouble?”
“Yes,” she said, in a low voice; “yes, but—” Her voice broke, and she turned her face from his gaze. “But, alas, I cannot tell it to you, my lord.”
“Nay, do so,” he entreated, with such pleading in his voice that she came back to his arms and nestled against his breast with a little wounded cry.
“I am waiting,” he said, softly.
“I cannot tell you,” she murmured against his breast.
“Why not?” he inquired, quietly.