the House of Wu, now
alienated from that noble line, and henceforth and for ever an
outcast, you have made a choice and chosen as befits your rebellious
life. Between us stretches a barrier wider and deeper than the Yellow
Sea, and throughout all future time no sign shall pass from that
distant shore to this. From every record of our race your name shall
be cut out; no mention of it shall profane the Tablets, and both in
this world and the next it shall be to us as though you have never
been. As I break this bowl so are all ties broken, as I quench this
candle so are all memories extinguished, and as, when you go, the
space is filled with empty air, so shall it be."

"Ho, nameless stranger," laughed the woman from above, "here is food
and drink to bear you on your way"; and from the grille she threw a
withered fig and spat.

"The fruit is the cankered effort of a barren tree," cast back Weng
over his shoulder. "Look to your own offspring, basilisk. It is given
me to speak." Even as he spoke there was a great cry from the upper
part of the house, the sound of many feet and much turmoil, but he
went on his way without another word.

Thus it was that Weng Cho came to be cut off from the past. From his
father's house he stepped out into the streets of Kien-fi a being
without a name, destitute, and suffering the pangs of many keen
emotions. Friends whom he encountered he saluted distantly, not
desirous of sharing their affection until they should have learned his
state; but there was one who stood in his mind as removed above the
possibility of change, and to the summer-house of Tiao's home he
therefore turned his steps.

Tiao was the daughter of a minor official, an unsuccessful man of no
particular descent. He had many daughters, and had encouraged Weng's
affection, with frequent professions that he regarded only the youth's
virtuous life and discernment, and would otherwise have desired one
not so highly placed. Tiao also had spoken of rice and contentment in
a ruined pagoda. Yet as she listened to Weng's relation a new
expression gradually revealed itself about her face, and when he had
finished many paces lay between them.

"A breaker of sacred customs, a disobeyer of parents and an outcast!
How do you disclose yourself!" she exclaimed wildly. "What vile thing
has possessed you?"

"One hitherto which now rejects me," replied Weng slowly. "I had
thought that here alone I might find a familiar greeting, but that