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Page 24
As the upper one ceased speaking, four strokes sounded upon the gong,
and Ling immediately found himself carried into the street by the
current of both lesser and upper ones who poured forth at the signal.
The termination of this conversation left Ling in a more unenviable
state of dejection than any of the many preceding misfortunes had
done, for with enlarged inducements to possess himself of a competent
appointment he seemed to be even further removed from this attainment
than he had been at any time in his life. He might, indeed, present
himself again for the public examinations; but in order to do even
that it would be necessary for him to wait almost a year, nor could he
assure himself that his efforts would again be likely to result in an
equal success. Doubts also arose within his mind of the course which
he should follow in such a case; whether to adopt a new name,
involving as it would certain humiliation and perhaps disgrace if
detection overtook his footsteps, or still to possess the title of one
who was in a measure dead, and hazard the likelihood of having any
prosperity which he might obtain reduced to nothing if the fact should
become public.
As Ling reflected upon such details he found himself without intention
before the house of a wise person who had become very wealthy by
advising others on all matters, but chiefly on those connected with
strange occurrences and such events as could not be settled definitely
either one way or the other until a remote period had been reached.
Becoming assailed by a curious desire to know what manner of evils
particularly attached themselves to such as were officially dead but
who nevertheless had an ordinary existence, Ling placed himself before
this person, and after arranging the manner of reward related to him
so many of the circumstances as were necessary to enable a full
understanding to be reached, but at the same time in no way betraying
his own interest in the matter.
"Such inflictions are to no degree frequent," said the wise person
after he had consulted a polished sphere of the finest red jade for
some time; "and this is in a measure to be regretted, as the hair of
these persons--provided they die a violent death, which is invariably
the case--constitutes a certain protection against being struck by
falling stars, or becoming involved in unsuccessful law cases. The
persons in question can be recognized with certainty in the public
ways by the unnatural pallor of their faces and by the general
repulsiveness of their appearance, but as they soon take refuge in
suicide, unless they have the fortune to be removed previously by
accident, it is an infrequent matter that one is gratified by the
sight. During their existence they are subject to many disorders from
which the generality of human beings are benevolently preserved; they
possess no rights of any kind, and if by any chance they are detected
in an act of a seemingly depraved nature, they are liable to judgment
at the hands of the passers-by without any form whatever, and to
punishment of a more severe order than that administered to
commonplace criminals. There are many other disadvantages affecting
such persons when they reach the Middle Air, of which the chief--"
"This person is immeasurably indebted for such a clear explanation of
the position," interrupted Ling, who had a feeling of not desiring to
penetrate further into the detail; "but as he perceives a line of
anxious ones eagerly waiting at the door to obtain advice and
consolation from so expert and amiable a wizard, he will not make
himself uncongenial any longer with his very feeble topics of
conversation."
By this time Ling plainly comprehended that he had been marked out
from the beginning--perhaps for all the knowledge which he had to the
opposite effect, from a period in the life of a far-removed ancestor--
to be an object of marked derision and the victim of all manner of
malevolent demons in whatever actions he undertook. In this condition
of understanding his mind turned gratefully to the parting gift of
Mian whom he had now no hope of possessing; for the intolerable
thought of uniting her to so objectionable a being as himself would
have been dismissed as utterly inelegant even had he been in a manner
of living to provide for her adequately, which itself seemed clearly
impossible. Disregarding all similar emotions, therefore, he walked
without pausing to his abode, and stretching his body upon the rushes,
drank the entire liquid unhesitatingly, and prepared to pass beyond
with a tranquil mind entirely given up to thoughts and images of Mian.
X
Upon a certain occasion, the particulars of which have already been
recorded, Ling had judged himself to have passed into the form of a
spirit on beholding the ethereal form of Mian bending over him. After
swallowing the entire liquid, which had cost the dead magician so much
to distil and make perfect, it was with a well-assured determination
of never again awakening that he lost the outward senses and floated
in the Middle Air, so that when his eyes next opened upon what seemed
to be the bare walls of his own chamber, his first thought was a
natural conviction that the matter had been so arranged either out of
a charitable desire that he should not be overcome by a too sudden
transition to unparalleled splendour, or that such a reception was the
outcome of some dignified jest on the part of certain lesser and more
cheerful spirits. After waiting in one position for several hours,
however, and receiving no summons or manifestation of a celestial
nature, he began to doubt the qualities of the liquid, and applying
certain tests, he soon ascertained that he was still in the lower
world and unharmed. Nevertheless, this circumstance did not tend in
any way to depress his mind, for, doubtless owing to some hidden
virtue of the fluid, he felt an enjoyable emotion that he still lived;
all his attributes appeared to be purified, and he experienced an
inspired certainty of feeling that an illustrious and highly-
remunerative future lay before one who still had an ordinary existence
after being both officially killed and self-poisoned.
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