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