* * * * *

It was in the Period of the Eleventh Moon: the flowers had passed away,
the perfume of the summer had flown, the winds were growing chill, and
in Tong's home the evening fires were lighted. Long the husband and wife
sat in the mellow glow,--he speaking much of his hopes and joys, and of
his son that was to be so grand a man, and of many paternal projects;
while she, speaking little, listened to his words, and often turned her
wonderful eyes upon him with an answering smile. Never had she seemed so
beautiful before; and Tong, watching her face, marked not how the night
waned, nor how the fire sank low, nor how the wind sang in the leafless
trees without.

All suddenly Tchi arose without speaking, and took his hand in hers and
led him, gently as on that strange wedding-morning, to the cradle where
their boy slumbered, faintly smiling in his dreams. And in that moment
there came upon Tong the same strange fear that he knew when Tchi's eyes
had first met his own,--the vague fear that love and trust had calmed,
but never wholly cast out, like unto the fear of the gods. And all
unknowingly, like one yielding to the pressure of mighty invisible
hands, he bowed himself low before her, kneeling as to a divinity. Now,
when he lifted his eyes again to her face, he closed them forthwith in
awe; for she towered before him taller than any mortal woman, and there
was a glow about her as of sunbeams, and the light of her limbs shone
through her garments. But her sweet voice came to him with all the
tenderness of other hours, saying: "_Lo! my beloved, the moment has come
in which I must forsake thee; for I was never of mortal born, and the
Invisible may incarnate themselves for a time only. Yet I leave with
thee the pledge of our love,--this fair son, who shall ever be to thee
as faithful and as fond as thou thyself hast been. Know, my beloved,
that I was sent to thee even by the Master of Heaven, in reward of thy
filial piety, and that I must now return to the glory of His house:
I AM THE GODDESS TCHI-NIU._"

Even as she ceased to speak, the great glow faded; and Tong, re-opening
his eyes, knew that she had passed away forever,--mysteriously as pass
the winds of heaven, irrevocably as the light of a flame blown out. Yet
all the doors were barred, all the windows unopened. Still the child
slept, smiling in his sleep. Outside, the darkness was breaking; the sky
was brightening swiftly; the nig