The attendant was before the door, and she asked him very politely:

"Ten thousand happinesses! Is not this the house of Fan and Erh-lang?"

"Certainly it is, small lady."

"Could you not lead me to him?"

"Assuredly," he answered.

He showed her the way, calling from the door to his masters; but when
Erh-lang, in the pale light of the paper lanterns, recognized the
white face of his betrothed, he cried out in dismay: "Ghost! Ghost!"

Confident in her love, she advanced toward him piteously repeating:

"Elder brother! Elder brother! I am alive!"

But he kept recoiling in terror, and crying: "Help! Help!"

How could he fail to believe himself in the presence of a ghost, when
he had witnessed the funeral, and had, that very evening, encountered
the wife of Chou in mourning garments?

As she was about to touch him and, cringing against the wall, he could
retreat no further, his terror redoubled. Not knowing what he did, he
picked up a heavy stool and struck his dear visitor on the head with
it. She fell back, and her head sounded dully on the stone flags.

Fan ran up at the noise of this. He saw the woman on the ground, and