The Way of the Gods

ys later-and this "Dream-of-a-Star," as he at once ca

e what I thoug

d death, which he thought he had suff

what the surgeon had said, that when he came out

that the earth-heavens

om Miss S

erstand me, since you

apanese!" answered the lips of Hoshiko, wh

suppose here all

rts: Russians, Germans

inking of

ks like

nterior which

think it

precisely like the p

id puzzle

n the heavens with the things whi

tted near, and the same thing made him conn

f course, she was incorporeal, and, while patent to

he window, then, at

ighting here now,"

," agreed

dden City

r it. How long ha

thirtee

e than three or four when y

ko at last did.

not dead, and you are not. I am not

be endured. He ended by also laughing. "But you must excuse the mist

e girl, he was not sure. That is wha

ouch you?"

easure which challenged his attentio

eed, when he had passed his

are not dead," breathed the

still in the brain of Shijiro Arisuga, he could not help knowing both of these things: her innocence ha

-" The soldier stopped to sigh. "Good for o

ttle whil

he mere hyperbol

ul, with long white hair and perhaps a beard

and caught a h

! I have thus far made it to be. When they brought you the

oned her maid with

a, com

almost certain, she had lain with her ear to the fu

u-wept for you; you were so beautiful and bloody. And Benten-see, I have Bent

onna my life," la

a smile. "And she will grant other prayers of ours-Isonna and m

d her mistress by

, very long, until the pebbles grow to boul

hed, in fran

blame the goddess-suppose I have sworn to die the great death, to release my father'

asped t

ldier

ng Benten, if I stop here and forget to die

Isonna, in sudde

trated hersel

on his elbow

w?" he wondered. "Let me see. It was

mistress and

the maid wh

any beauty in my mistress's eyes and hands and voi

beauty there?" smile

, lord-" the maid

of her heart with both hands, cried out to t

beast! What do you do h

r feet, still gasping with ecstasy and terror together. Then she at

. Do not listen-do not observe the ugly

er own in some so

leased you also

he is for. That is why my father keeps her. That she may bear my distemper

ted with her

be well!" and she came with another laugh and knelt a

oves me, wicked as I am to her,

d. "Or any one,

his wonder at the scene he had just witnessed

question?"

ed," sai

said-you

suga. "The eyes, t

ot beau

not s

nds ar

see that they were not. The sold

s right. I find

they are only

," begged t

him. It was very hard for Shijiro looking into t

innocent mirth, "why, if I am not beautiful,

the soldier, with a

uch so my hands, listen s

heaven, and that you were

ew that you were

gave up wi

ery good friends," he sai

I do not know wheth

ve the impression that I h

the girl, between

sh it-what

sh to be as beautiful as the sun-

It was as if she c

ON