ts that precious sentence was never completed.

Still the Lady Ma groveled behind the Dragon Couch as the Son of
Heaven, left alone, approached the veranda and apostrophizing the moon,
murmured--

"O loveliest pale watcher of the destinies of men, illuminate the beauty
of the Lady A-Kuei, and grant that I who have never seen that beauty may
never see it, but remain its constant admirer!" So saying, he sought
his solitary couch and slept, while the Lady Ma, in a torment of
bewilderment, glided from the room.

The matter remained in suspense for several days. The White Jade
Concubine was the next lady commanded to the Dragon Chamber, and again
the Lady Ma was in her post of observation. Much she heard, much she
saw that was not to the point, but the scene ended as before by the
dismissal of the lady in tears, and the departure of the Lady Ma in
ignorance of the secret.

The Emperor's peace was ended.

The singular circumstance was that the Lady A-Kuei was never summoned
by the Yellow Emperor. Eagerly as the Empress watched, no token of
affection for her was ever visible. Nothing could be detected. It was
inexplicable. Finally, devoured by curiosity that gave her no respite,
she resolved on a stratagem that should dispel the mystery, though it
carried with it a risk on which she trembled to reflect. It was the
afternoon of a languid summer day, and the Yellow Emperor, almost
unattended, had come to pay a visit of filial respect to the Pearl
Empress. She received him with the ceremony due to her sovereign in the
porcelain pavilion of the Eastern Gardens, with the lotos fish ponds
before them, and a faint breeze occasionally tinkling the crystal
wind-bells that decorated the shrubs on the cloud and dragon-wrought
slopes of the marble approach. A bird of brilliant plumage uttered a cry
of reverence from its gold cage as the Son of Heaven entered. As was
his occasional custom, and after suitable inquiries as to his parent's
health, the attendants were all dismissed out of earshot and the Emperor
leaned on his cushions and gazed reflectively into the sunshine
outside. So had the Court Artist represented him as "The Incarnation of
Philosophic Calm."

"These gardens are fair," said the Empress after a respectful silence,
moving her fan illustrated with the emblem of Immortality--the Ho Bird.

"Fair indeed," returned the Emperor.--"It might be supposed that all
sorrow and disturbance would be shut without the Forbidden Pre