Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/166

RV 161 (LADY T'AI CHÊN) He pressed her to him. "You dwell in my heart."

Kao Li-shih stepped forward. "Your Majesty," he said, "may I suggest that something be done to commemorate this unusual moment, when even dice bow to your will."

"A splendid idea," agreed the Emperor. "Therefore, it is my will that from this moment forth and forever after all dice shall have the fours colored red in exactly the same manner as aces. All other numbers shall be in black."

And so it was done. The dice are so marked even unto the present day.

The road upon which the Imperial lovers trod was extremely rocky and disturbed by storms. The battles that took place in the Palace gardens shook the highly emotional persons of the eunuchs until they were scarcely able to eat. When they forced themselves to do so, they were annoyed beyond endurance by disgusting regurgitation. They sighed and wept. Why, oh why, could not the Emperor have become infatuated with a girl of more even temperament?

Strangely enough, the Emperor made little complaint. Those hours of rapture in her arms afterwards, when the storms were over, were beyond the limitations of poetry or music.

However, on one occasion, the Emperor's nerves, on which she had played so incessantly, suddenly snapped. RV 161 (161)