nd silently went toward the bed.

Drunken with joy, Wu-ban was already disrobing himself of his clothes,
when, in the stillness of the night, his ears caught the sound of two
people breathing, instead of one. He listened with controlled breath.
Unmistakably the rough breathing of a man was mingled with the softer
murmur of a woman.

He was suddenly blinded with violent anger:

"This is why she did not answer my signal. The vile child has another
man within. It was to get rid of me that she told me of her father's
suspicion!"

In his jealous madness he drew his knife and gently felt for the man's
throat. With a clean blow he drove the weapon into the flesh, and
before the woman could move, he cut her throat also, almost beheading
her.

He wiped the knife and his hands on the blanket, opened the window,
and descended. He had closed the catches. Once outside, he ran to
replace the ladder, and went back to his house. Denounced by his
mother and brought before the Court, Wu-ban tried to deny the
accusation. But the officers, on uncovering his shoulder, brought
a scar to view. Eternal Life recognized his voice and his body. The
first tortures overcame his obstinacy, and he confessed all.

The murderer was condemned to slow death.

Eternal Life was strangled, as was old Lu.

Chang, whose lecherous intentions had been the cause of all, was
sentenced to a heavy fine. In dismay, and half ruined, he no more
left his study chamber. Not long afterwards, he was carried off by a
lassitude and a languor.

_Lu Wu-han yin liu ho chin hsieh (Lu Wi-han keeps
an Embroidered Slipper to his scathe) Hsing
Shih heng yen (1627), 16th Tale._

THE COUNTERFEIT OLD WOMAN

During the Ch'eng-Hua period of our dynasty, there lived at Shantung
a young man named Flowering Mulberry, whose parents possessed a
sufficient fortune. He had just bound up his hair beneath his man's
bonnet; his fresh and rosy complexion added to the delicate charm of
his features.

One day, as he was going to visit an uncle in a neighboring village,
he was overtaken on the way by a heavy storm of rain, and ran for
shelter into a disused temple; and there, seated on the ground waiting
for the rain to stop, was an old woman. Flowering Mulberry sat down
and, since the storm grew more violent, resigned himself to wait.

Finding him beautiful, the old woman began to converse and ingratiate
herself with him, until at length she came across to him, and finally