ou are a young girl," she said, "and you have a long life
before you. Chan is an old man by this time; no doubt he has long ago
married, and the home ties which he has formed have caused him to
forget you. But you need not be broken-hearted on that account. There
are many other men who will be more suitable for you than he could
possibly be. By-and-by we shall arrange a marriage for you, and then
life will appear to you very different from what it does now."

Instead of being comforted, however, Pearl was only the more distressed
by her mother's words. Her love, which had begun in the Land of
Shadows, and which had been growing in her heart for the last eighteen
years, was not one to be easily put aside by such plausible arguments
as those she had just listened to. The result was that she had a
relapse, and for several days her life was in great danger.

The father and mother, fearing now that their daughter would die,
determined, as there seemed no other remedy, to bring Chan to their
home, and see whether his presence would not deliver Pearl from the
danger in which the doctor declared she undoubtedly was.

The father accordingly went to the inn where he knew Chan was staying,
and to his immense surprise he found him to be a young man of about
twenty-five, highly polished in manner, and possessed of unusual
intelligence. For some time he utterly refused to believe that this
handsome young fellow was really the man with whom Pearl was so deeply
in love, and it was not until Chan had told him the romantic story of
his life that he could at all believe that he was not being imposed
upon. Eventually, however, he was so taken with Chan that he became
determined to do all in his power to bring about his marriage with his
daughter.

"Come with me at once," he said, "and see if your presence will not do
more than the cleverest doctors in the town have been able to
accomplish. Pearl has been so distressed at not seeing you that she is
now seriously ill, and we have been afraid that she would die of a
broken heart."

When they arrived at the house Chan was taken into the sick-room, and
the girl gazed into his face with a look of wonderment. "I do not seem
to recognize you," she said in a feeble voice. "You are much younger
than Chan, and although there is something about you that reminds me of
him, I cannot realize that you are the same person with whom my spirit
eighteen years ago held fellowship in the monaste