If Michimasa had been a normal young man who happened to be rejected by his father, Tomo would naturally have covertly taken his side, and this in turn would have deepened the love between mother and son, but only too often Michimasa’s speech and behavior were such that even his mother was seized by the same loathing as Yukitomo.

When Tomo considered that it was she herself who had given birth to Michimasa, that the father was unmistakably Yukitomo, it seemed absurd that Michimasa’s heart should harbor no trace of love for any living creature other than himself, that he should be fated not to inspire love in any other person, and she quailed at the hopelessness of doing anything about that absurdity.

Why should they have had such a child? Could it be a punishment for having let him grow up away from them that he had turned into such a man?

When Tomo saw the sons of her relatives and acquaintances growing up into young men who, if not outstanding, were at least average, she would compare them with Michimasa and examine once more her own behavior in the past. But apart from the fact that she had let him spend his childhood years with his aunt and uncle in the country she could not believe that she, at least, had created any unfavorable circumstances such as might have fostered such a special nature in him. Unwilling to let the children be influenced by their father’s self-indulgence, she had never once complained of him to Michimasa or Etsuko. The blame for the eternal immaturity of Michimasa’s nature could only, in the long run, be attributed to the immaturity of her own body at fifteen when she had given birth to him. Conceived in a womb imperfectly matured, he had been born with a mind incapable of growth. Could any child, indeed, be more unfortunate?

In theory, however much everyone else shunned Michimasa, Yukitomo and Tomo, as his mother and father, should have enfolded him in a love given without stint. In fact, though, even his mother could not lavish affection on Michimasa as he wandered aimlessly through life like a lost child, apathetically, with a mind refusing to mature inside the body of a full-grown adult. The idea inspired Tomo with a violent distaste for the unwillingness to suffer fools gladly that was so stubbornly rooted within her own character.

At the very least, then, she wanted to find him a wife so that he could have children and lead a life like other men. Her secret wish had perhaps conveyed itself tacitly to Yukitomo, for a few years earlier Michimasa had finally taken his first wife – whereupon, partly from consideration of how things would look to the bride, he had at last come to be treated, on the surface at least, as the young master of the Shirakawa household.