drew near also the happy festival of the 15th of the 1st moon, and
Shih-yin told a servant Huo Ch'i to take Ying Lien to see the
sacrificial fires and flowery lanterns.

About the middle of the night, Huo Ch'i was hard pressed, and he
forthwith set Ying Lien down on the doorstep of a certain house. When he
felt relieved, he came back to take her up, but failed to find anywhere
any trace of Ying Lien. In a terrible plight, Huo Ch'i prosecuted his
search throughout half the night; but even by the dawn of day, he had
not discovered any clue of her whereabouts. Huo Ch'i, lacking, on the
other hand, the courage to go back and face his master, promptly made
his escape to his native village.

Shih-yin--in fact, the husband as well as the wife--seeing that their
child had not come home during the whole night, readily concluded that
some mishap must have befallen her. Hastily they despatched several
servants to go in search of her, but one and all returned to report that
there was neither vestige nor tidings of her.

This couple had only had this child, and this at the meridian of their
life, so that her sudden disappearance plunged them in such great
distress that day and night they mourned her loss to such a point as to
well nigh pay no heed to their very lives.

A month in no time went by. Shih-yin was the first to fall ill, and his
wife, Dame Feng, likewise, by dint of fretting for her daughter, was
also prostrated with sickness. The doctor was, day after day, sent for,
and the oracle consulted by means of divination.

Little did any one think that on this day, being the 15th of the 3rd