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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: he searched for it in vain. He then examined the monument. It bore the
personal name "Akiko," (3) together with an unfamiliar family name, and an
inscription stating that Akiko had died at the age of eighteen. Apparently
the tomb had been erected about fifty years previously: moss had begun to
gather upon it. But it had been well cared for: there were fresh flowers
before it; and the water-tank had recently been filled.
On returning to the sick room, the young man was shocked by the
announcement that his uncle had ceased to breathe. Death had come to the
sleeper painlessly; and the dead face smiled.
The young man told his mother of what he had seen in the cemetery.
"Ah!" exclaimed the widow, "then it must have been Akiko!"...
Kwaidan | 
