saw the palm of his own hand.

[1] A.D. 742-56.

Starting from P`i-ling[2] he reached Ch`ang-an in a few weeks and took a
house in the Pu-cheng1 quarter. One day he was coming back from a
visit to the Eastern Market. He entered the City by the eastern gate of
P`ing-k`ang and was going to visit a friend who lived in the
south-western part of the town. When he reached the Ming-k`o Bend, he
saw a house of which the gate and courtyard were rather narrow; but the
house itself was stately and stood well back from the road. One of the
double doors was open, and at it stood a lady, attended by her
maid-servant. She was of exquisite, bewitching beauty, such as the world
has seldom produced.

[2] In Kiang-su, near Ch`ang-chou.

When he saw her, the young man unconsciously reined in his horse and
hesitated. Unable to leave the spot, he purposely let his whip fall to
the ground and waited for his servant to pick it up, all the time
staring at the lady in the doorway. She too was staring and met his gaze
with a look that seemed to be an answer to his admiration. But in the
end he went away without daring to speak to her.

But he could not put the thought of her out of his mind and secretly
begged those of his friends who were most expert in the pleasures of
Ch`ang-an to tell him what they knew of the girl. He learnt from them
that the house belonged to a low and unprincipled woman named Li. When
he asked what chance he had of winning the daughter, they answered: "The
woman Li is possessed of considerable property, for her previous
dealings have been with wealthy and aristocratic families, from whom she
has received enormous sums. Unless you are willing to spend many
thousand pounds, the daughter will have nothing to do with you."

The young man answered: "All I care about is to win her. I do not mind
if she costs a million pounds." The next day he set out in his best
clothes, with many servants riding behind him, and knocked at the door
of Mrs. Li's house. Immediately a page-boy drew the bolt. The young man
asked, "Can you tell me whose house this is?" The boy did not answer,
but ran back into the house and called out at the top of his voice,
"Here is the gentleman who dropped his whip the other day!"

Miss Li was evidently very much pleased. He heard her saying, "Be sure
not to let him go away. I am just going to do my hair and change my
clothes; I will be back in a minute." The young man, in high spirits,
followed the pa