Suga was referring to Yukitomo’s infatuation with his daughter-in-law Miya. Miya had stayed with them in the big house until she had safely borne her first child, a period of several years during which Tomo had suffered agonies at the thought of the trouble that would occur should Michimasa ever realize the relationship between his father and his wife. Since she was too far estranged from Yukitomo herself to do anything, she had said any number of times to Suga:

‘I’d like you to keep an eye on them. Miya is one case where nothing can be done openly about the relationship, so I look to you and Yumi to see he doesn’t get too fond of her.’

Each time, Suga had shaken her head fiercely.

‘What can I do about it?’ she demanded balefully. ‘The young mistress is the type that was born to be a geisha or a courtesan. She knows exactly how to make the master fond of her, and how to play up to him. Yumi and I are no match for her.’

Like most men of an amorous nature Yukitomo seemed in fact to find a particular stimulus in an illicit affair, and was showing for Miya a passion no less intense than he had shown for Suga in those early days after he first made her his own. Miya too seemed far happier to be loved by her father-in-law, with his skill in dealing with women, than by her ineffectual and degenerate husband, and whenever Yukitomo had Suga or Yumi by him and was distant in his manner she would become noticeably bad-tempered and vent her feelings on Tomo and Suga.

Things had eventually become too much, apparently, even for Yukitomo, who on Tomo’s indirectly given advice had last year moved the young married couple to Tsunamachi in the Mita district, where he could go to visit them from time to time. When he went he always took with him Takao and Takao’s nurse. At such times Michimasa would receive a generous allowance of pocket money from his father and would go off happily to the theater or on an overnight trip. The nurse and the maids too would go off elsewhere to amuse themselves, bearing the baby with them. That left Yukitomo and Miya alone together. The women might realize what was afoot, but the unexpectedly generous tips made them if anything look forward to the visits of the master from the big house, while Michimasa, provided he was doing something he liked, was like a small child with not the slightest suspicion concerning the relationship between his father and his wife.

Much of this had reached the ears of Suga and Yumi via Takao’s nurse and Maki, and thanks largely to Suga were conveyed in turn to Tomo.