Uhn Hah during all this time had been progressing in a quiet way as a
girl should, but she also was quite the wonder of her neighborhood. All
this time she had had many, if not constant, dreams of the handsome
youth she had met by the roadside. She had lived over the incident
time and again, and many a time did she take down and gaze upon the
beautiful fan, which, however, opened and closed in such a manner
that, ordinarily, the characters were concealed. At last, however,
she discovered them, and great was her surprise and delight at the
message. She dwelt on it much, and finally concluded it was a heaven
arranged union, and as the lad had pledged his faith to her, she vowed
she would be his, or never marry at all. This thought she nourished,
longing to see Pang Noo, and wondering how she should ever find him,
till she began to regard herself as really the wife of her lover.
About this time one of His Majesty's greatest generals, who had
a reputation for bravery and cruelty as well, came to stop at his
country holding near by, and hearing of the remarkable girl, daughter
of the retired, but very honorable, brother official, he made a call
at the house of Mr. Cho, and explained that he was willing to betroth
his son to Cho's daughter. The matter was considered at length,
and Cho gave his willing consent. Upon the departure of the General,
the father went to acquaint his daughter with her good fortune. Upon
hearing it, she seemed struck dumb, and then began to weep and moan,
as though some great calamity had befallen her. She could say nothing,
nor bear to hear any more said of the matter. She could neither eat nor
sleep, and the roses fled from her tear-bedewed cheeks. Her parents
were dismayed, but wisely abstained from troubling her. Her mother,
however, betimes lovingly coaxed her daughter to confide in her,
but it was long before the girl could bring herself to disclose a
secret so peculiar and apparently so unwomanly. The mother prevailed
at last, and the whole story of the early infatuation eventually came
forth. "He has pledged himself to me," she said, "he recognized me at
sight as his heaven-sent bride, and I have pledged myself to him. I
cannot marry another, and, should I never find him on earth, this
fan shall be my husband till death liberates my spirit to join his
in the skies." She enumerated his great charms of manner and person,
and begged her mother not to press this other marriage upon her,
but rather let her die, insisting, however, that should she die her
mother must tell Pang Noo how true she had been to him.
The father was in a great dilemma. "Why did you not tell this to your
mother before? Here the General has done me the honor to ask that our
families be united, and I have consented. Now I must decline, and his
anger will be so great that he will ruin me at the Capitol. And then,
after all, this is but an absurd piece of childish foolishness. Your
fine young man, had he half the graces you give him, would have been
betrothed long before this."
"No! No!" she exclaimed, "he has pledged himself, and I know he is
even now coming to me. He will not marry another, nor can I. Would you
ask one woman to marry two men? Yet that is what you ask in this, for
I am already the wife of Pang Noo in my heart. Kill me, if you will,
but spare me this, I beg and entreat," and she writhed about on her
cot, crying till the mat was saturated with her tears.
The parents loved her too well to withstand her pleadings, and
resigning themselves to the inevitable persecution that must result,
they dispatched a letter to the General declining his kind offer,
in as unobjectionable a manner as possible. It had the result that
was feared. The General, in a towering rage, sent soldiers to arrest
Mr. Cho, but before he could go further, a messenger arrived from
Seoul with despatches summoning him to the Capitol immediately, as
a rebellion had broken out on the borders. Before leaving, however,
he instructed the local magistrate to imprison the man and not
release him till he consented to the marriage. It chanced that the
magistrate was an honest man and knew the General to be a very cruel,
relentless warrior. He therefore listened to Cho's story, and believed
the strange case. Furthermore, his love for the girl softened his
heart, and he bade them to collect what they could and go to another
province to live. Cho did so, with deep gratitude to the magistrate,
while the latter wrote to the General that the prisoner had avoided
arrest and fled to unknown parts, taking his family with him.