proceeded until the two women entered their house. But the young girl
came back almost at once to draw aside the big door-curtain and to
look out at him as he passed. He went on walking to and fro, as if he
had lost his senses, and did not return to his house till evening.

From that particular day Victorious-Immortal remained so strangely
affected that she was quite unable to swallow a grain of rice, or even
to touch a cake. At last, one morning, she was too weak to rise. Her
mother ran to her bed.

"My poor child," she asked, "what is the matter with you?"

"I ache all over my body. I have pains in my head and cough a little."

Her mother at once thought of calling in a doctor; but, in the absence
of the master of the house and his servant, there was no man to go
on the errand. But an old female attendant, named Kind-Welcome, was
present and observed:

"The ancient woman Wang lives, as you know, quite close at hand. She
has helped more than a hundred children into the world. She can sew,
and she can act as go-between; but she can also feel a pulse and
diagnose an illness. Everybody calls her as soon as there is anything
the matter."

"That is true. Go and fetch her quickly."

Some few moments later the healer came and the mother began a long
explanation. But the woman interrupted her: