Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/144

RV 139 (LADY T'AI CHÊN)

Ming Huang and his party continued onward, day after day, camping by night. Sometimes they stopped a few hours to hunt. Action beyond everything else was essential, so that the Emperor would sleep from sheer weariness. Even so, it was hard to forget Lady T'ai Chên. Her fragrance eclipsed the breath of flowers.

"Wherever she walks," he said, "flowers grow in her footsteps."

Finally they arrived on the famed Road to Shu about which poets have written so rapturously. Now, indeed, would there be good hunting. Used to luxurious living even on tour, the party partook of the finest of foods, for several of the Palace cooks were with them. But none of the nobles, the ministers or the soldiers brought their women and so their natural forces were abated hunting the wily hare. Only Kao, who, as usual, traveled with his Emperor, was unconscious of disturbance.

One day in the excitement of hunting, Ming Huang and a small group of his followers became separated from the main party. Tired, hungry, disgusted and disappointed, for the hare had escaped, they stopped by the roadside to rest. Near by was the small house of a retired scholar. Humbly he came across the fields and invited the Emperor in to eat and rest.

Ming Huang accepted at once. The house was little more than the crudest grass hut. It reflected extreme RV 139 (139)