ted on an
innocent family, he only became more hard-hearted in his treatment of
those who were within his power. He never dreamed of making any
reparation for the acts of cruelty by which he had driven his wife to
hang herself in order to escape his tyranny. But the steps of Fate
were still moving on towards him. Leaden-footed they might be and
slow, but with unerring certainty they were travelling steadily on to
carry out the vengeance of the gods.

By-and-by the room in which Pearl had died became haunted. Her
spectral figure could be seen in the gloaming, flitting about and
peering out of the door with a look of agony on her face. Sometimes
she would be seen in the early dawn, restless and agitated, as though
she had been wandering up and down the whole night; and again she would
flit about in the moonlight and creep into the shadow of the houses,
but always with a ghost of the old look that had made her face so
winning and so charming when she was alive.

When it was realized that it was her spirit which was haunting the
house, the greatest alarm and terror were evinced by every one in it.
There is nothing more terrible than the appearance of the spirits of
those who have been wronged, for they always come with some vengeful
purpose. No matter how loving the persons themselves may have been in
life, with death their whole nature changes and they are filled with
the most passionate desire to inflict injury and especially death upon
the object of their hatred.

The course of ill-usage which her husband Shung had cruelly adopted in
order to drive Pearl to commit suicide was known to every one, and that
she should now appear to wreak vengeance on him was not considered at
all wonderful; but still every one was mortally afraid lest they should
become involved in the punishment that was sure to be meted out.

As the ghost continued to linger about and showed no signs of
disappearing, Shung was at last seized with apprehension lest some
calamity was about to fall upon his house. In order to protect himself
from any unexpected attack from the spirit that wandered and fluttered
about in the darkest and most retired rooms in his home, he provided
himself with a sword which he had ground down to a very sharp edge and
which he carried in his hand ready uplifted to lunge at Pearl should
she dare to attack him.

One evening, unaware that his concubine was sitting in a certain room
on which the shadows had thickly fal