d
even an equal could not trip her with lewd talk. Much less may she be
won through the stratagems of a maid-servant. But she is skilled in
composition, and often when she has made a poem or essay, she is
restless and dissatisfied for a long while after. You must try to
provoke her by a love-poem. There is no other way."

Chang was delighted and at once composed two Spring Poems to send her.
Hung-niang took them away and came back the same evening with a coloured
tablet, which she gave to Chang, saying, "This is from my mistress." It
bore the title "The Bright Moon of the Fifteenth Night." The words ran:

_To wait for the moon I am sitting in the western parlour;
To greet the wind, I have left the door ajar.
When a flower's shadow stirred and brushed the wall,
For a moment I thought it the shadow of a lover coming._

Chang could not doubt her meaning. That night was the fourth after the
first decade of the second month. Beside the eastern wall of Ts`ui's
apartments there grew an apricot-tree; by climbing it one could cross
the wall. On the next night (which was the night of the full moon) Chang
used the tree as a ladder and crossed the wall. He went straight to the
western parlour and found the door ajar. Hung-niang lay asleep on the
bed. He woke her, and she cried in a voice of astonishment, "Master
Chang, what are you doing here?" Chang answered, half-truly: "Ts`ui's
letter invited me. Tell her I have come." Hung-niang soon returned,
whispering, "She is coming, she is coming." Chang was both delighted and
surprised, thinking that his salvation was indeed at hand.

At last Ts`ui entered.

Her dress was sober and correct, and her face was stern. She at once
began to reprimand Chang, saying, "I am grateful for the service which
you rendered to my family. You gave support to my dear mother when she
was at a loss how to save her little boy and young daughter. How came
you to send me a wicked message by the hand of a low maid-servant? In
protecting me from the license of others, you acted nobly. But now that
you wish to make me a partner to your own licentious desires, you are
asking me to accept one wrong in exchange for another.

"How was I to repel this advance? I would gladly have hidden your
letter, but it would have been immoral to harbour a record of illicit
proposals. Had I shown it to my mother, I should ill have requited the
debt we owe you. Were I to entrust a message of refusal to a servant