Page:Eminent Authors of Contemporary Japan.pdf/143

Rh anger, even though she had been lashed so cruelly, for, in her great love for him, she had forgotten all her bodily pain. What a heavenly heart! What bravery! How different from the selfishness of the world, and of the people who said pretty things to him when he was rich, and who cut him so cruelly when he was poor. Then Tu Tzuchun, regardless of the old man’s orders, ran to the side of his mother, and took the neck of the dying horse in his arms, and as the tears streamed down his face, he could hold out no longer and he cried:

“Mother! …”

All of a sudden everything seemed to change, and he found himself standing at the western gate of the city of Loyang, gazing absent-mindedly at the setting sun. The sky was hazy, and a white new moon shone in the sky above him. Surging past was an incessant stream of men and vehicles … he saw just the same scene as before.

“Young man, do you know that you can never be a magician, even though you become one of my pupils?”

Looking up he beheld the old man with the squint eye. He was smiling.

“No, I cannot, but I am rather glad of it.”

Tu Tzuchun, with tears in his eyes, took the old man’s hands in his and held them. His voice shook with passion:

“It was impossible to keep silent when I saw my dear parents being tortured in the palace of Senlotien, even though I may never become a great magician.”