THE MARRIAGE MAKER 155 



and I have to thank him for everything. He has treated 

 me as his own daughter, and vows that I brought him good 

 luck, for things have prospered with him ever since. Look ! 

 this is where I was struck," she exclaimed suddenly as she, 

 pushed aside a pretty pearl ornament that dangled coquet- 

 tishly over her forehead to hide the scar. "I always cover 

 it with something because it's rather disfiguring." 



Wei Ku stared in blank amazement. The emotions that 

 swept over him like a mountainous wave made him gasp for 

 breath. He knew he was responsible for that scar. The 

 scene in that dingy quarter at Sungkiang he had vainly tried 

 to> forget; it now returned to* him with startling vividness. 

 He had lived under the shadow of a crime ; had played the part 

 of an honest man when the guilt of a cowardly murder was 

 ever before his eyes. But, after all these years, when it- 

 was to be least expected, and on his wedding day too, his 

 supposed victim stands before him in the person of his wife, 

 and tells him there had been no murder. The guilt that had 

 haunted him like a spectre, and filled his conscience with 

 unrelenting remorse, was driven from him for ever by his 

 wife's simple story. What a load fell from his shoulders. 



Ch'un Lai, not understanding her husband's silence, 

 asked him dejectedlv, "Do you repent having married me, 

 Wei Ku?" 



"No, my priceless jewel," he murmured, "no indeed! 

 You have crowned my life; you have changed me from a 

 miserable villain to the honest man that I have tried to* be. 

 I am thankful, oh, so thankful, that you were spared!" 



As he gave this gentle answer, and reflected how in- 

 scrutable are the ways of the Gods, he seemed to hear a 

 thousand spirit voices shouting in his ears those memorable 

 words of the old man in the moonlight : "What must be, must 

 he : you cannot escape that which the Gods have ordained 

 for your' and simultaneously there rose up before him a 

 vision of a distant lonely scene where in the dazzling pal- 

 pitating moonlight, sat an old man with gleaming silvery 

 hair. And the face of the old man slowly turned towards 

 him, and as it did so, its solemn expression suddenly changed 

 to one of pleased recognition, for the old man's eyes sparkled 

 with merriment and he rubbed his hands and chuckled to 

 himself. Then he shook his head reprovingly, and Wei Ku 

 heard him say: "You foolish mortals, can you ever escape 

 the decrees of Fate ! " . . . And ever since, the Chinese 

 have called their match-makers Yueh-hsia lao-jen, "old 

 people who appear in the moonlight." 



