ry where my body lay
unburied."

Chan proceeded to explain the mystery. "For years," he said, "my mind
was troubled about the difference between our ages. I was afraid that
when you saw me with grey hairs and with wrinkles on my face, your love
would receive a shock, and you might regret that you had ever pledged
yourself to me. Although you had vanished from my sight, my prayers
still continued to be offered to the Goddess of Mercy. She had heard
them for you, you remember, when you were in the Land of Shadows, and
through her intercession Yam-lo had forgiven your sins, and had made
life easier for you in that gloomy country.

"I still continued to pray to her, hoping in some vague way that she
would intervene to bring about the desire of my heart, and that when in
due time I should meet you again, every obstacle to our mutual love
would be for ever removed.

"One day a fairy came into the very room where your spirit had often
conversed with me. He carried me away with him to the Western Heaven
and brought me into the very presence of the Goddess of Mercy. She
gave directions for me to bathe in the 'Fountain of Eternal Youth,' and
I became young again. That is why you see me now with a young face and
a young nature, but my heart in its love for you has never changed, and
never will as long as life lasts."

As he was telling this entrancing story, a look of devoted love spread
over the beautiful countenance of Pearl. She gradually became instinct
with life, and before he had finished speaking, the lassitude and
exhaustion which had seemed to threaten her very life entirely
disappeared. A rosy look came over her face, and her coal-black eyes
flashed with hidden fires.

"Now I know," she cried, "that you are Chan. You are so changed that
when I first caught sight of you my heart sank within me, for I had
pictured an older man, and I could not at once realize that you were
the same Chan who showed such unbounded love for me in the years gone
by.

"It was not that I should have loved you less even though you had
really been older. My heart would never have changed. It was only my
doubt as to your reality that made me hesitate, but now my happiness is
indeed great; for since through the goodness of the Goddess you have
recovered your youth, I need not fear that the difference between our
years may in the near future bring to us an eternal separation."

In a few days Pearl was once more herself again. He