promise of a future for her. Her hair was tossed in waves like an expanded fan, and her eyes were red with weeping. The nun looked up when she saw her near, and said, 'What is the matter? Have you been quarrelling with some of the children?' As Genji looked at them, it occurred to him that there was a resemblance, and that the little girl was probably her daughter. 'Inuki has let go my sparrow that I had put under a basket,' said she dolefully. The waiting-woman exclaimed, 'He is always doing thoughtless things like that and plaguing the poor girl, all because he does not get scolded enough. I wonder where it has gone to? It had at last become so delightful, and now I'm afraid the crows have discovered it.' So saying, she went out.
"This woman's hair hung down loose and was very long. She was a pleasant-looking woman. The others called her Nurse Shōnagon, and she seemed to have charge of this child. 'Come now! be a good girl,' said the nun, 'and don't do such naughty things. You forget that my life is but for to-day or to-morrow, and you can think of nothing but your sparrow. Haven't I often told you that it was a sin [to keep birds in a cage]. You pain me greatly. Come here, child.' The little girl stood forward with a rueful expression of face, and a mist hanging round her eyebrows. The contour of her forehead, from which the hair was combed back in childish fashion, and the style of her hair itself were very lovely. 'What a charming girl she will be when she is grown up!' thought Genji, and his eyes dwelt on her with interest. She greatly resembled one to whom formerly his whole heart had been given, and at the thought his tears began to fall. The nun, stroking the little girl's head, said, 'What beautiful hair, though you think it so much trouble to have
