cincts.
Yet it is not so. And though the figures of my ladies moving among the
flowers appear at this distance instinct with joy, yet--"

He was silent.

"They know not," said the Empress with solemnity "that death entered the
Forbidden Precincts but last night. A disembodied spirit has returned to
its place and doubtless exists in bliss." "Indeed?" returned the Yellow
Emperor with indifference--"yet if the spirit is absorbed into the
Source whence it came, and the bones have crumbled into nothingness,
where does the Ego exist? The dead are venerable, but no longer of
interest."

"Not even when they were loved in life?" said the Empress, caressing the
bird in the cage with one jewelled finger, but attentively observing
her son from the corner of her august eye. "They were; they are not," he
remarked sententiously and stifling a yawn; it was a drowsy afternoon.
"But who is it that has abandoned us? Surely not the Lady Ma--your
Majesty's faithful foster-mother?"

"A younger, a lovelier spirit has sought the Yellow Springs," replied
the trembling Empress. "I regret to inform your Majesty that a sudden
convulsion last night deprived the Lady A-Kuei of life. I would not
permit the news to reach you lest it should break your august night's
rest."

There was a silence, then the Emperor turned his eyes serenely upon his
Imperial Mother. "That the statement of my august Parent is merely--let
us say--allegoric--does not detract from its interest. But had the Lady
A-Kuei in truth departed to the Yellow Springs I should none the less
have received the news without uneasiness. What though the sun set--is
not the memory of his light all surpassing?"

No longer could the Pearl Empress endure the excess of her curiosity.
Deeply kowtowing, imploring pardon, with raised hands and tears which no
son dare neglect, she besought the Emperor to enlighten her as to this
mystery, recounting his praises of the lady and his admission that he
had never beheld her, and all the circumstances connected with this
remarkable episode. She omitted only, (from considerations of delicacy
and others,) the vigils of the Lady Ma in the Dragon Chamber. The
Emperor, sighing, looked upon the ground, and for a time was silent.
Then he replied as follows:

"Willingly would I have kept silence, but what child dare withstand the
plea of a parent? Is it necessary to inform the Heavenly Empress that
beauty seen is beauty made familiar and that familiarity is