each other. But the strict rules allowed no confusion in the
ranks, so they could only gaze and let their souls go out to each
other.

Now the butterfly dance followed the others. This was danced by the
boys and girls together, and the pairs were equal in size, age and the
color of their garments. When all the dances had ended, the dancers
marched out with the goose-step. The willow-spray dancers followed the
swallow dancers, and Aduan hastened in advance of his company, while
Rose of Evening lingered along after hers. She turned her head, and
when she spied Aduan she purposely let a coral pin fall from her hair.
Aduan hastily hid it in his sleeve.

When he had returned, he was sick with longing, and could neither eat
nor sleep. Mother Hia brought him all sorts of dainties, looked after
him three or four times a day, and stroked his forehead with loving
care. But his illness did not yield in the least. Mother Hia was
unhappy, and yet helpless.

"The birthday of the King of the Wu River is at hand," said she. "What
is to be done?"

In the twilight there came a boy, who sat down on the edge of Aduan's
bed and chatted with him. He belonged to the butterfly dancers, said
he, and asked casually: "Are you sick because of Rose of Evening?"
Aduan, frightened, asked him how he came to guess it. The other boy
said, with a smile: "Well, because Rose of Evening is in the same case
as yourself."

Disconcerted, Aduan sat up and begged the boy to advise him. "Are you
able to walk?" asked the latter. "If I exert myself," said Aduan, "I
think I could manage it."

So the boy led him to the South. There he opened a gate and they
turned the corner, to the West. Once more the doors of the gate flew
open, and now Aduan saw a lotus field about twenty acres in size. The
lotus flowers were all growing on level earth, and their leaves were
as large as mats and their flowers like umbrellas. The fallen blossoms
covered the ground beneath the stalks to the depth of a foot or more.
The boy led Aduan in and said, "Now first of all sit down for a little
while!" Then he went away.

After a time a beautiful girl thrust aside the lotus flowers and came
into the open. It was Rose of Evening. They looked at each other with
happy timidity, and each told how each had longed for the other. And
they also told each other of their former life. Then they weighted the
lotus-leaves with stones so that they made a cozy retreat, in which
they could be toge