be found for it on the hillside. She also
explained how it had been agreed between them that she was to wait for
him until after the lapse of eighteen years, when she would be old
enough to become his wife. "In a few months the time will be up," she
concluded, "and so I beseech you not to speak of my being betrothed to
any one else, for I feel that if I am compelled to marry any other than
Chan I shall die."

The mother was thunderstruck at this wonderful story which her daughter
told her. She could only imagine that Pearl had in some way or another
been bewitched, and was under a fatal delusion that she was in love
with some hero of romance, to whom she believed she was betrothed.
Still, her daughter had always been most loving and devoted to her, and
had shown more brightness and ability than Chinese girls of her age
usually possessed. Her mother did not like, therefore, to reprove her
for what she considered her ridiculous ideas, so she determined to try
another plan to cure her of her folly.

"What age was this man Chan," she asked, "when you entered into this
engagement with him?"

"He was just thirty," Pearl replied. "He was of very good family and a
scholar, and had distinguished himself for his proficiency in the
ancient literature of China."

"Oh! then he must be nearly fifty now. A fine mate he would make for
you, a young girl of only eighteen! But who knows how he may have
changed since last you saw him? His hair must be turning grey, and his
teeth may have fallen out; and for anything you know he may have been
dead and buried so long ago that by this time they have taken up his
bones, and nothing is left of him but what the funeral urn may contain
of his ashes."

"Oh! I do pray that nothing of that kind has happened to him," cried
Pearl, in a tone of voice which showed the anguish she was suffering.
"Let us leave the question for a few months, and then when he comes for
me, as I know he will, you will find by personal knowledge what a
splendid man he is, and how entirely worthy he is of being your
son-in-law."

On the day which had been appointed under such romantic circumstances
eighteen years before, Chan arrived in the town, and after taking a
room in an inn and making certain enquiries, he made his way to the
home where he believed that Willow resided. On his arrival, however,
he was roughly told by the servant that no such person as Willow lived
there, and that they did not like stran