and in
time, under pressure from her people, the girl married another man; but
she never forgot. She lived with her husband quite happily; he was good
to her, as most Burmese husbands are, and they got along well enough
together. But there were no children.

After some years, four or five, I believe, the former lover returned to
his village. He thought that after this lapse of time he would be safe
from prosecution, and he was, moreover, very ill.

He was so ill that very soon he died, without ever seeing again the girl
he was so fond of; and when she heard of his death she was greatly
distressed, so that the desire of life passed away from her. It so
happened that at this very time she found herself enceinte with her
first child, and not long before the due time came for the child to be
born she had a dream.

She dreamt that her soul left her body, and went out into space and met
there the soul of her lover who had died. She was rejoiced to meet him
again, full of delight, so that the return of her soul to her body, her
awakening to a world in which he was not, filled her with despair. So
she prayed her lover, if it was now time for him again to be incarnated,
that he would come to her--that his soul would enter the body of the
little baby soon about to be born, so that they two might be together in
life once more.

And in the dream the lover consented. He would come, he said, into the
child of the woman he loved.

When the woman awoke she remembered it all, and the desire of life
returned to her again, and all the world was changed because of the new
life she felt within her. But she told no one then of the dream or of
what was to happen.

Only she took the greatest care of herself; she ate well, and went
frequently to the pagoda with flowers, praying that the body in which
her lover was about to dwell might be fair and strong, worthy of him who
took it, worthy of her who gave it.

In due time the baby was born. But alas and alas for all her hopes! The
baby came but for a moment, to breathe a few short breaths, to cry, and
to die; and a few hours later the woman died also. But before she went
she told someone all about it, all about the dream and the baby, and
that she was glad to go and follow her lover. She said that her baby's
soul was her lover's soul, and that as he could not stay, neither would
she; and with these words on her lips she followed him out into the
void.

The story was kept a secret until