SILK

The first stepped into view to look round a standing curtain and watch his men roaming about in the cool. The bright, unusual effect of leaf gold trousers with a dark gray shift no doubt suggested what she was like. Her shoulder cords were casually tied, and she carried a half-hidden rosary. Her slender height gave her a lovely carriage, and he admired the lustrous, perfectly ordered sweep of her abundant hair, which appeared to him nearly to reach the hem of her gown. Her enchanting profile, all fresh and yielding innocence, recalled the First Princess, whom he had glimpsed in passing and whom he imagined with a sigh to look very similar.

The second now slipped into view. “There is nothing in front of that sliding panel!” she said, glancing toward it with wary vigilance, and her manner seemed to him to promise real distinction. In felicitous poise and line, her head and hair conveyed a somewhat nobler grace than her sister’s.

(The Tale of Genji, chap. 46, pp. 866-868)