lsed with sobbing.

"I am glad," she said, "that I am to be born once more and live amongst
men, but I cannot bear the thought of having to be separated for so
long from you. Let us not grieve too much, however. It is our fate,
and we may not rebel against it. Yam-lo has been kinder to me than he
has ever been to any one in the past, for he has revealed to me the
family into which I am to be born and the place where they live, so if
you come to me in eighteen years you will find me waiting for you.
Your love has been so great that it has entered into my very soul, and
there is nothing that can ever efface it from my heart. A thousand
re-births may take place, but never shall I love any one as I love you."

Chan professed that he was greatly comforted by this confession of her
love, but all the same he felt in despair when he thought of the future.

"When next I shall see you," he said with a sigh, "I shall be getting
so old that you, a young girl in the first flush of womanhood, will not
care to look at me. My hair will have turned grey and my face will be
marked with wrinkles, and in the re-birth you will have forgotten all
that took place in the Land of Shadows, and the memory of me will have
vanished from your heart for ever."

Willow looked with loving but sorrowful eyes upon her lover as he was
expressing his concern about the future, but quickly assured him that
nothing in the world would ever cause her to cease to remember him with
the tenderest affection.

"In order to comfort you," she said, "let me tell you of two things
that the dread Yam-lo, out of consideration for your love for me, has
granted me--two things which he has never bestowed upon any other
mortal who has come within the region of his rule. The first is, he
has allowed me to inspect the book of Life and Death, in which is
recorded the history of every human being, with the times of their
re-births and the places in which they are to be born. I want you this
very minute to write down the secret which has been revealed to me as
to my new name and family and the place where I shall reside, so that
you will have no difficulty in finding me, when eighteen years hence
you shall come to claim me as your wife.

"The next is a gift so precious that I have no words in which to
express my gratitude for its having been bestowed upon me. It is this.
I am given the privilege of not forgetting what has taken place during
my stay in the Land of Sha