ir armours.

"In China," said Pan-Chao, "it is not the bullfinch but the mandarin
duck that symbolizes fidelity in marriage."

"Ducks or bullfinches, it is all one," said Caterna philosophically.

The ceremony is over. We compliment the newly married pair. We return
to our occupation, Ephrinell to his accounts, Mrs. Ephrinell to her
work. Nothing is changed in the train. There are only two more married
people.

Major Noltitz, Pan-Chao and I go out and smoke on one of the platforms,
leaving to their preparations the Caternas, who seem to be having a
sort of rehearsal in their corner. Probably it is the surprise for the
evening.

There is not much variety in the landscape. All along is this
monotonous desert of Gobi with the heights of the Humboldt mountains on
the right reaching on to the ranges of Nan Chan. The stations are few
and far between, and consist merely of an agglomeration of huts, with
the signal cabin standing up among them like a monument. Here the
tender fills up with water and coal. Beyond the Kara Nor, where a few
towns appear, the approach to China Proper, populous and laborious,
becomes more evident.

This part of the desert of Gobi has little resemblance to the regions
of Eastern Turkestan we crossed on leaving Kachgar. These regions are
as new to Pan-Chao and Doctor Tio-King as to us Europeans.

I should say that Faruskiar no longer disdains to mingle in our
conversation. He is a charming man, well informed and witty, with whom
I shall become better acquainted when we reach Pekin. He has already
invited me to visit him at his yamen, and I will then have an
opportunity of putting him to the question--that is, to the interview.
He has traveled a good deal, and seems to have an especially good
opinion of French journalists. He will not refuse to subscribe to the
_Twentieth Century._ I am sure--Paris, 48 francs, Departments, 56,
Foreign, 76.

While the train is running at full speed we talk of one thing and
another. With regard to Kachgaria, which had been mentioned, Faruskiar
gave us a few very interesting details regarding the province, which
had been so greatly troubled by insurrectionary movements. It was at
this epoch that the capital, holding out against Chinese covetousness,
had not yet submitted to Russian domination. Many times numbers of
Celestials had been massacred in the revolts of the Turkestan chiefs,
and the garrison had taken refuge in the fortress of Yanghi-Hissar.

Among th