Then we knew that the time had come to start.
"But whither go you?
Whither go you ?" asked the old abbot in dismay.
"Are you not happy here?
Do you not make great strides along the Path, as may be known by your pious conversation?
Is not everything that we have your own?
Oh! why would you leave us ?" "We are wanderers," we answered, "and when we see mountains in front of us we must cross them." Kou-en looked at us shrewdly, then asked--"What do you seek beyond the mountains?
And, my brethren, what merit is gathered by hiding the truth from an old man, for such concealments are separated from falsehoods but by the length of a single barleycorn.

Tell me, that at least my prayers may accompany you." "Holy abbot," I said, "awhile ago yonder in the library you made a certain confession to us." "Oh! remind me not of it," he said, holding up his hands.

"Why do you wish to torment me ?" "Far be the thought from us, most kind friend and virtuous man," I answered.

"But, as it chances, your story is very much our own, and we think that we have experience of this same priestess." "Speak on," he said, much interested.
So I told him the outlines of our tale; for an hour or more I told it while he sat opposite to us swaying his head like a tortoise and saying nothing.

At length it was done.
"Now," I added, "let the lamp of your wisdom shine upon our darkness.