"That is a bad job," said Chôbei, who felt pity for the lad. "However,
if you will excuse my boldness in making such an offer, being but a
wardsman, until you shall have taken service I would fain place my
poor house at your disposal."

Gompachi accepted the offer of his new but trusty friend with thanks;
so Chôbei led him to his house, where he lodged him and hospitably
entertained him for some months. And now Gompachi, being idle and
having nothing to care for, fell into bad ways, and began to lead a
dissolute life, thinking of nothing but gratifying his whims and
passions; he took to frequenting the Yoshiwara, the quarter of the
town which is set aside for tea-houses and other haunts of wild young
men, where his handsome face and figure attracted attention, and soon
made him a great favourite with all the beauties of the neighbourhood.

About this time men began to speak loud in praise of the charms of
Komurasaki, or "Little Purple," a young girl who had recently come to
the Yoshiwara, and who in beauty and accomplishments outshone all her
rivals. Gompachi, like the rest of the world, heard so much of her
fame that he determined to go to the house where she dwelt, at the
sign of "The Three Sea-coasts," and judge for himself whether she
deserved all that men said of her. Accordingly he set out one day, and
having arrived at "The Three Sea-coasts," asked to see Komurasaki; and
being shown into the room where she was sitting, advanced towards her;
but when their eyes met, they both started back with a cry of
astonishment, for this Komurasaki, the famous beauty of the Yoshiwara,
proved to be the very girl whom several months before Gompachi had
rescued from the robbers' den, and restored to her parents in Mikawa.
He had left her in prosperity and affluence, the darling child of a