been great," she said, "and so I wish to make special
offerings in this temple to the Goddess of Mercy and implore her to
send down to the other world a good report of me to Yam-lo, and
intercede with him to forgive the sins of which I have been guilty. If
you will do this for me, I promise that after I have been born again
into the world I will never forget you, and if you like to wait for me
I shall willingly become your wife and serve you with the deepest
devotion of which my heart is capable, as long as Heaven will permit
you and me to live together as husband and wife."

From this time, much to the astonishment of the priests in the
monastery, Chan began to show unwonted enthusiasm for the service of
the Goddess, and would sometimes spend hours before her image and
repeat long prayers to her. This was all the more remarkable, as the
scholar had rarely if ever shown any desire to have anything to do with
the numerous gods which were enshrined in various parts of the temple.

After some months of this daily appeal to the Goddess of Mercy, Willow
informed him that his prayers had been so far successful that the
misery of her lot in the Land of Shadows had been greatly mitigated.
The pleadings of the Goddess with Yam-lo had so influenced his heart
towards Willow that she believed her great sin in the destruction of
animal life had been forgiven, and there were signs that the dread
ruler of the Underworld was looking upon her with kindness.

Chan was delighted with this news, and his prayers and offerings became
still more frequent and more fervent. He little dreamed that his
devotion to the Goddess would be the means of his speedy separation
from Willow, but so it was. One evening she came as usual to see him,
but instead of entering with smiling face and laughter in her eyes, she
was weeping bitterly as though she were in the direst sorrow.

Chan was in the greatest distress when he saw this and asked her to
explain the reason for her grief. "The reason for my tears," she said,
"is because after this evening I shall not see you again. Your
petitions to the Goddess have had such a powerful effect upon her mind
that she has used all her influence with Yam-lo to induce him to set me
free from the misery of the Land of Shadows, and so I am to leave that
sunless country and to be born again into life in this upper world."

As she uttered these words her tears began to flow once more and her
whole frame was convu