Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/173

RV 168 (LADY T'AI CHÊN) earth particles and polished by hand for a month. Then a yellow silk cord had been passed through a knob in the center and it was ready for Ming Huang to give to his beloved.

Her hand shook as she took it from him. She was immensely superstitious; not even to retain her exalted position would she have dared to break a mirror. This was the first bronze mirror she had ever owned. Up to that time she had treasured a small jade mirror, a gift from her uncle, and many times she had gazed into the water mirror of nature as she walked through the garden. Now as she took the gift, she said, "I hope it is a mirror in which I may appear beautiful."

"Have no fear of that," Ming Huang assured her. "Its power was tried on twenty canaries. Every single one of them sang when he beheld his reflection."

"Perhaps it is a magic mirror," she whispered breathlessly.

And the Emperor said, "With your face in it, it is magic enough for me."

Near by stood Chang Kui-ling, one of the Ministers of State, a poet of distinction, a man of lofty disposition, faithful but saddened by the decadence that was creeping into the Court. He was opposed to licentiousness and misrule. All his sensibilities were offended by the appointment of Kuo-chung. And so, as he gazed on the breath-taking loveliness of Yang Kuei-fei gazing into her mirror, he whispered, "By having ourselves reflected in a mirror, we see a face; by having ourselves reflected in mankind, we see the future." RV 168 (168)