FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98  
99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   >>  
ve a message from--her--" "No, no," moaned the boy, his wound opening anew. "Do not speak it. I was beginning to feel a little peace from pain. Do not speak of her. You can have no message." "I have known Kano Ume-ko her whole life long," persisted the holy man. "She is worthy of a nobler love than this you are giving her." "There may be love more noble, but none--none--more terrible than mine," wailed out the sick man. "I cannot even die. I am quickened by the flames that burn me; fed by the viper, Life, that feeds on my despair. My flesh cankers with a self-renewing sore! Could I but bathe my wounds in death!" "Poor suffering one, this flesh is only the petal fallen from a perfected bloom! Whether her tender body, or this racked and twitching frame upon your bed, all flesh is illusion. Think of your soul and its immortal lives! Think of your wife's pure soul, and for its sake make effort to defy and vanquish this demon of self-destruction." "Was not her own deed that of self-destruction?" challenged Tatsu, his sunken eyes set in bitter triumph upon the abbot. "I shall but go upon the road she went." "To compare your present motives with your wife's is blasphemy," cried the other. "Her deed held the glory of self-sacrifice, that you might gain enlightenment; while you, railing impotently here, giving out affront against the gods, are as the wild beast on the mountain that cannot bear the arrow in its side." "And it is true," said Tatsu, "I cannot bear the arrow,--I cannot endure this pain. Show me the way to death, if you have true pity. Let me go to her who waits me in the Meido-land." "She does not wait you there, oh, grief deluded boy," then said the priest. "The message that I brought is this: bound still to earth by her great love for you her soul is near you,--in this room,--now, as I speak, seeking an entrance to your heart, and these wild railings hold her from you." Tatsu half started from his pillow, and sank back. "I believe you not. You trick me as you would a child," he moaned. The priest knelt slowly by the bed. "In the name of Shaka,--whom I worship,--these words of mine are true. Here, in this room, at this moment, your Ume-ko is waiting." "But I want her too," whispered the piteous lips. "Not only her aerial spirit! I want her smile,--her little hands to touch me, the golden echo of her laughter,--I want my wife, I say! Oh, you gods, demons, preta of a thou
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98  
99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   >>  



Top keywords:
message
 

destruction

 

priest

 

moaned

 

giving

 
laughter
 
deluded
 

worship

 
golden
 

endure


affront

 

impotently

 
enlightenment
 

railing

 
mountain
 

demons

 
started
 
pillow
 

slowly

 

railings


piteous

 

whispered

 

moment

 

waiting

 

entrance

 

brought

 

aerial

 

spirit

 

seeking

 

flames


quickened

 
wailed
 

wounds

 

suffering

 

despair

 
cankers
 

renewing

 
terrible
 

beginning

 
opening

nobler
 

worthy

 
persisted
 
triumph
 

bitter

 

challenged

 
sunken
 

sacrifice

 
compare
 

present