or there you will meet your
future wife," said Pin-Too.

"I was not thinking of a wife," observed Pei-Hang, with some dismay.

And Pin-Too wrinkled up his eyes and laughed.

"All the better!" he said. "Because, when you have once seen her, you
will be able to think of nothing else."

It was very hot weather, and Pei-Hang ought to have started early in
the morning; but he sat so long over his books the night before his
journey that he fell fast asleep just before sunrise, and slept all
through the coolest hours of the day.

When he awoke, the sun was blazing down upon the streets of
Chang-ngan, and making the town like a furnace.

However, Pei-Hang took up his stick and set off, because he had
promised his father and mother to start that day.

"I will rest a little at the Indigo Bridge, and walk on again in the
cool of the evening," he said to himself.

But on the bridge he fell asleep again, so tired was he with the many
sleepless nights he had spent in study.

While he slept he had a dream, in which a tall and beautiful maiden
appeared to him, and showed him her right foot, round which a red cord
was bound.

"What is the meaning of it?" asked Pei-Hang, who could hardly take his
eyes away from her face to look at her foot.

"What is the meaning of the red cord around your foot, too?" replied
the girl.

Then Pei-Hang glanced at his right foot, and saw that his foot and the
girl's were tied together by the same thin red cord; and by this he
knew that she must be his future wife.

"I have heard my mother say," he said, "that when a boy is born, the
Fairy of the Moon ties an invisible red cord round his right foot, and
the other end of the cord round the foot of the girl-baby whom he is
to marry."

"That is quite true," said the maiden; "and _this_ is an invisible
cord to people who are awake. Now I will tell you my name, and
remember it when you hear it again. It is Yun-Ying."

"And I will tell you mine," began Pei-Hang, but Yun-Ying stopped him,
smiling.

"Ah, I know yours, and all about you," she said.

This surprised Pei-Hang very much; but he need not have been greatly
astonished, for everyone in Chang-ngan knew that Pei-Hang was the
handsomest and wisest and best loved pupil the wise Pin-Too had ever
had.

And Yun-Ying lived quite close to the city, and had often seen
Pei-Hang walking through the streets with his books.

When Pei-Hang awoke, he found, as she had said, that there was no red
c