Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan, volume 2.pdf/88

68 save only himself, and to realise that his shameful malice had been rewarded only by his falling headlong back again into Hell!

But the beautiful lotuses in the Pond of Paradise did not seem to heed these things at all. The pearly-white flowers waved their calyces gracefully at Buddha’s feet, and as they quivered, an indescribably exquisite fragrance rose perpetually from their golden pistils.

It was already noon in Paradise.