e is to be away
for a long time shortly. She will inform us." On his return journey
the young man passed by P'an's house. Eternal Life was at her window,
and they smiled tenderly at one another.

* * * * *

Three months had passed. Chang was sitting one morning in his library,
when his servants told him that four police officers had come with a
summons. He asked himself fearfully whether he had been mixed up in
any scandal at a pleasure house; but he had to obey. He questioned the
officers.

"It is a matter of taxes and duties," they answered.

Reassured, he changed his clothes and went with them, followed by
several of his servants. He was taken at once to the hall where
the Court sat, and, standing before the red table, he saluted the
magistrate. The latter looked at him intently, and harshly asked:

"How did you enter into an intrigue with P'an's daughter? How did you
kill her father and her mother?"

Chang was a libertine. That is to say he had neither strength nor
energy. Hearing himself thus unexpectedly accused of a double crime,
he shook from head to foot, as if a bolt had fallen on him from a calm
sky. He stammered:

"Although I had the intention of establishing a connection with her,
I have not yet succeeded in doing so. As yet I have not known her
house."

The Governor thundered:

"She has just confessed that her relation with you has lasted several
months. How dare you deny it?"

Just then Chang perceived that the young girl was kneeling close to
him. Bewildered and not knowing what to do, he turned to Eternal Life
and asked:

"How can you say that I have been intimate with you? With what object
are you trying to encompass my ruin?"

She sobbed without answering. Meanwhile the Governor called upon the
officers to apply the buskin of torture to the young man. And they
swarmed about him like ants.

Unhappily for him, Chang Loyalty had been brought up in muslin and
gauze, and had grown to manhood in a brocade. How could he endure
such torture? Hardly had he felt the pressure of the buskin before he
cried:

"I confess everything!"

The Governor had a brush and paper given to the accused, that he might
himself write out his confession. The unhappy man wept, saying:

"What must I write? I know nothing of the matter!" Then he turned to
the young girl and added: "Do you at least tell me what you have done,
so that I may write my confession."

Eternal Life answe