t belonged to another world. The following morning he entered his
mother's house, and as he did so, heard a girl's voice beneath the
window saying: "Your son has come back again!" The voice sounded like
the voice of Rose of Evening, and when she came to greet him at his
mother's side, sure enough, it was Rose of Evening herself.

And in that hour the joy of these two who were so fond of each other
overcame all their sorrow. But in the mother's mind sorrow and doubt,
terror and joy mingled in constant succession in a thousand different
ways.

When Rose of Evening had been in the palace of the river-king, and had
come to realize that she would never see Aduan again, she determined
to die, and flung herself into the waters of the stream. But she was
carried to the surface, and the waves carried and cradled her till a
ship came by and took her aboard. They asked whence she came. Now Rose
of Evening had originally been a celebrated singing girl of Wu, who
had fallen into the river and whose body had never been found. So she
thought to herself that, after all, she could not return to her old
life again. So she answered: "Madame Dsiang, in Dschen-Giang is my
mother-in-law." Then the travelers took passage for her in a ship
which brought her to the place she had mentioned. The widow Dsiang
first said she must be mistaken, but the girl insisted that there was
no mistake, and told Aduan's mother her whole story. Yet, though the
latter was charmed by her surpassing loveliness, she feared that Rose
of Evening was too young to live a widow's life. But the girl was
respectful and industrious, and when she saw that poverty ruled in her
new home, she took her pearls and sold them for a high price. Aduan's
old mother was greatly pleased to see how seriously the girl took her
duties.

Now that Aduan had returned again Rose of Evening could not control
her joy. And even Aduan's old mother cherished the hope that, after
all, perhaps her son had not died. She secretly dug up her son's
grave, yet all his bones were still lying in it. So she questioned
Aduan. And then, for the first time, the latter realized that he was a
departed spirit. Then he feared that Rose of Evening might regard him
with disgust because he was no longer a human being. So he ordered his
mother on no account to speak of it, and this his mother promised.
Then she spread the report in the village that the body which had been
found in the river had not been that of her