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EVEN LOOKING INTO the gardens at night, Laurence could not i out froold under the upturned roof-corners; the sound of laughter behind hi to his instru, a thread woven through the conversation which itself had beco uage, and the words soon lost theirfor him when so many voices joined in He could only smile at whoever addressed him and hide his incoreen, and at the first chance he stole quietly away around the corner of the terrace Out of sight, he put his cup down on the -sill half-drunk; it tasted to hi black tea full of milk, or better yet, coffee; he had not tasted coffee in twopavilion was set on a sh enough to give an odd betwixt-and-between view of the vast iround as an ordinary balcony nor so high above as Teed into reat pavilions into children&039;s toys He stepped out fro: there was a pleasant coolness to the air after the rain, and Laurence did not mind the damp, the mist on his face welcos, froly cleared away the last of the lingering storuidly upon the old, soft, rounded stones of the pathways, slick and grey and bright under a moon nearly three-quarters full, and the breeze was full of the smell of over-ripe apricots, which had fallen from the trees to sht was flickering a behind the branches, now obscured, now seen,steadily towards the shore of the nearby ornamental lake, and with it the sound of muffled footfalls Laurence could not see very much at first, but shortly a queer little procession came out into the open: a scant handful of servants bowed down under the weight of a plain wooden bier and the shrouded body lying atop; and behind the shovels and throwing anxious looks over their shoulders

Laurence stared, wondering; and then the tree-tops all gave a great shudder and yielded to Lien, pushing through into the wide clearing behind the servants, her broad-ruffed head bowed do and her wings pinned tight to her sides The sli strands of -leaves draped across her shoulders These were her only adornold had been stripped away, and she looked pale and queerly vulnerable with no jewels to relieve the white translucence of her color-leached skin; in the darkness, her scarlet eyes looked black and hollow

The servants set down their burden to dig a hole at the base of one old ain as they flung the soft dirt up, and leaving black streaks upon their pale broad faces as they labored and sweated Lien paced slowly around the circu to tear up so the straight young trees into a heap There were no otherafter Lien; there was a suggestion of familiarity about him, his walk, but Laurence could not see his face Thesilently as the servants dug; there were no flowers, nor the sort of long funerary procession Laurence had before witnessed in the streets of Peking: fa censers and spreading clouds of incense This curious night-tiht almost have been the scene of a pauper&039;s burial, save for the gold-roofed ist the trees, and Lien standing over the proceedings like a host, vast and terrible

The servants did not unwrap the body before setting it in the ground; but then it had been &039;s death This seeement for the burial of an imperial prince, even one who had conspired at murder and meant to usurp his brother&039;s throne; Laurence wondered if his burial had earlier been forbidden, or perhaps was even now clandestine The s; Lien keened once, al the back of Laurence&039;s neck and vanishing in the rustling of the trees He felt abruptly an intruder, though likely they could not see hio away again noould cause the greater disturbance

The servants had already begun to fill in the grave, scraping the heaped earth back into the hole in broad sweeps, work that went quickly; soon the ground was patted level once again under their shovels, nothing to round and the low-hanging -tree, its long trailing branches sheltering the grave The two boys went back into the trees to gather armfuls of forest-cover, old rotted leaves and needles, which they spread all over the surface until the grave could not be told fro entirely from view This labor accomplished, they stood uncertainly back: without an officiant to give the affair soave theround, drawn in upon herself At last the men shouldered their spades and drifted away into the trees, leaving the white dragon as wide a berth as they could raveside and n of the cross over his chest; as he turned away, his face caht, and abruptly Laurence knew hines, the French ainable Yongxing&039;s violent antipathy towards the influence of the West had known no favorites, nor uese, and De Guignes would never have been admitted to the prince&039;s confidence in life, nor his co aristocratic features, wholly French; his presence was at once unered yet aand spoke to Lien: inaudible at the distance, but a question by his ave hiaze fixed only upon the hidden grave, as if she would imprint the place upon her racefully and left her

She stayed unthening shadows of the trees Laurence could not regret the prince&039;s death, yet pity stirred; he did not suppose anyone else would have her as coainst the rail, until the moon traveled at last too low and she was hidden frohter and applause came around the terrace corner: the music had wound to a close