toda azorada se encontró siguiendo obedientemente a Genji hasta su habitación. Aquí le cerró tranquilamente la puerta en las narices, diciéndole al hacerlo: «Volverás a buscar a tu señora por la mañana».
Utsusemi misma estaba sumamente mortificada por haber sido tratada de aquel modo en presencia de su propia doncella, quien en verdad no podía sacar otra conclusión de lo que había visto. Pero a todas sus dudas y zozobras Genji, que tenía el arte de improvisar una respuesta convincente para casi cualquier pregunta, replicó con tal derroche de ingenio y tierna solicitud que por un momento quedó conforme.
Mas sintiéndose pronto inquieta de nuevo: «Todo esto debe de ser un sueño: que tú, un príncipe tan excelentísimo, te rebajes a considerar a una criatura tan humilde como yo; me abruma tanta bondad. Pero creo que has olvidado lo que soy. ¡La esposa de un Zuryō! No hay forma de cambiar eso, ¡y tú...!».
Genji now began to realize how deeply he had distressed and disquieted her by his wild behaviour, and feeling thoroughly ashamed of himself he answered:
‘I am afraid I know very little about these questions of rank and precedence. Such things are too confusing to carry in one’s head. And whatever you may have heard of me I want to tell you for some reason or other I have till this day cared nothing for gallantry nor ever practised it, and that even you cannot be more astonished at what I have done to-night than I myself am.’
With this and a score of other speeches he sought to win her confidence. But she, knowing that if once their talk became a jot less formal, she would be hard put to it to withstand his singular charm, was determined, even at the risk of seeming stiff and awkward, to show him that in trying so hard to put her at her ease he was only wasting his time, with the result that she behaved very boorishly indeed.