"
Impressed by the mien and unquestionable earnestness of the remover of
hair, Ling took the matter which had occasioned these various emotions
in his hand and examined it. His amazement was still greater when he
perceived that--in spite of the fact that it presented every
appearance of having been cut from his own person--none of the
qualities of hair remained in it; it was hard and wire-like,
possessing, indeed, both the nature and the appearance of a metal.
As he gazed fixedly and with astonishment, there came back into the
remembrance of Ling certain obscure and little-understood facts
connected with the limitless wealth possessed by the Yellow Emperor--
of which the great gold life-like image in the Temple of Internal
Symmetry at Peking alone bears witness now--and of his lost secret.
Many very forcible prophecies and omens in his own earlier life, of
which the rendering and accomplishment had hitherto seemed to be dark
and incomplete, passed before him, and various matters which Mian had
related to him concerning the habits and speech of the magician took
definite form within his mind. Deeply impressed by the exact manner in
which all these circumstances fitted together, one into another, Ling
rewarded the person before him greatly beyond his expectation, and
hurried without delay to his own chamber.
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