KUEI PING, struggling against the sense of walls that shut her off from life and any understanding of it, spoke quick words of rebellion when Chang An urged upon her a more frequent attendance at the temple of Buddha. Borne in upon the heart of Kuei Ping came a desire to pierce through and beyond the walls that menaced her, to force her way through the shadowy darkness she could no longer tolerate and find the way to the light of which Miss Porter had spoken in early morning chapel long ago.
In her earlier times of need she had instinctively turned to worship of the Merciful One, but now she could force her blinding eyes to see nothing save the smirking smile on the face of the lacquer god. The routine of prayers seemed but a mockery; the burning of incense faggots before the fat squatting creature but added to the ugliness of his already over-smoked and oily figure. Peace she no longer brought upon herself in the temple, because peace was no longer what she wanted.
Out and beyond herself and all of the women of her race she wanted to go, out to find and serve that God whom she had heard called the God of Life and of Light. Turning through her slender book of translations from the western Bible she marked, as she read, all the phrases which called her out to service, marked them until they stood in bold relief upon the pages overshadowing with their prominence all the other words.
Little Bo Te played unheeded at her feet. Heavier and heavier upon her husband sank the evils of consumption, and it was to his long slender pipe he turned feverishly for relief from pain and doubt.
Unlit, the candles of the house furnished no glow for those who dwelt within.