Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/393

 awaiting him, and at that moment many familiar faces crowded round him, but as he gazed at them in recogni- tion, they changed into grinning goblins. At length he reached a spot where there was a beautiful crimson flower in an enclosure, so carefully tended that neither bees nor butterflies were allowed to settle upon it. It was a flower, he was told, which_had beento fulfil a mission upon~earth, and had recently returnecTto the Infinite. He was now taken to see Tai-yii. A bamboo screen which hung before the entrance to a room was raised, and there before him stood his heart's idol, his lost Tai-yii. Stretching forth his hands, he was about to speak to her, when suddenly the screen was hastily dropped. The priest gave him a shove, and he fell backwards, awaking as though from a dream.

Once more he had regained a new hold upon life ; once more he had emerged from the very jaws of death. This time he was a changed man. He devoted himself to reading for the great public examination, in the hope of securing the much coveted degree of Master of Arts. Nevertheless, he talks little, and seems to care less, about the honours and glory of this world; and what is stranger than all, he appears to have very much lost his taste for the once fascinating society of women. For a time he seems to be under the spell of a religious craze, and is always arguing with Pao-ch'ai upon the advantages of devoting one's life to the service of Buddha. But shortly before the examination he burned all the books he had collected which treated of immortality and a future state, and concentrated every thought upon the great object before him.

At length the day comes, and Pao-yii, accompanied by a nephew who is also a candidate, prepares to enter the

�� �