adowy distance, and with a
rush Chan found himself safely landed at the door of the temple from
which he had taken his departure for his amazing journey to the Western
Heaven.

Whilst these wonderful things were taking place, Willow--or rather
Precious Pearl, as she had been named by her new parents, who of course
had no knowledge of her previous history--had grown up to be a most
beautiful and fascinating woman.

During all these years she had never ceased to look forward with an
anxious heart to the day when she would once more meet the man to whom
she had betrothed herself eighteen years ago. Latterly she had begun
to count the days that must still elapse before she could see him
again. She never forgot the night in the temple when she bade him
"Good-bye" just before she was reborn into this world. The day and the
hour had been stamped upon her memory, and since then the years had
seemed to travel with halting, leaden feet, as though they were loth to
move on. But now only a few months remained, and no doubt ever entered
her brain that Chan would fail her.

Just about this time her mother had an offer of marriage for her from a
very wealthy and distinguished family, and contrary to the usual custom
of mothers in China she asked her daughter what she thought of the
proposal. Pearl was distressed beyond measure, and prayed and
entreated her mother on no account to broach the subject to her again,
as she could never entertain any proposition of the kind.

Amazed at such a statement, her mother begged her to explain her reason
for such strange views. "Girls at your age," she said, "are usually
betrothed and are thinking of having homes of their own. This is the
universal custom throughout the Empire, and therefore there must be
some serious reason why you will not allow me to make arrangements for
your being allied to some respectable family."

Pearl had been feeling that the time was drawing near when she would
have to divulge the secret of her love affair, and she considered that
now was the best opportunity for doing so. To the astonishment
therefore of her mother, who believed that she was romancing, she told
her the whole story of the past; how Chan had fallen in love with her,
and how after she had died and had come under the control of Yam-lo in
the Land of Shadows, that dread lord had permitted her spirit to visit
her lover in the temple where her body had been laid until a lucky
resting-place could