"
By this time Ling plainly comprehended that he had been marked out
from the beginning--perhaps for all the knowledge which he had to the
opposite effect, from a period in the life of a far-removed ancestor--
to be an object of marked derision and the victim of all manner of
malevolent demons in whatever actions he undertook. In this condition
of understanding his mind turned gratefully to the parting gift of
Mian whom he had now no hope of possessing; for the intolerable
thought of uniting her to so objectionable a being as himself would
have been dismissed as utterly inelegant even had he been in a manner
of living to provide for her adequately, which itself seemed clearly
impossible. Disregarding all similar emotions, therefore, he walked
without pausing to his abode, and stretching his body upon the rushes,
drank the entire liquid unhesitatingly, and prepared to pass beyond
with a tranquil mind entirely given up to thoughts and images of Mian.
X
Upon a certain occasion, the particulars of which have already been
recorded, Ling had judged himself to have passed into the form of a
spirit on beholding the ethereal form of Mian bending over him.
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