e red matrimonial cords."

"How can I hope for such happiness?" said Jasmine, smiling. "But please
to tell your young lady that, being only a guest at this inn, I have
nothing worthy of her acceptance to offer in return for her bounteous
gifts, and that I can only assure her of my boundless gratitude."

With many bows, and with reiterated wishes for Jasmine's happiness and
endless longevity, the woman took her leave.

"Truly this young lady has formed a most perverted attachment," said
Jasmine to herself. "She reminds me of the man in the fairy tale who
fell in love with a shadow, and, so far as I can see, she is not likely
to get any more satisfaction out of it than he did." So saying, she took
up a pencil and scribbled the following lines on a scrap of paper:

"With thoughts as ardent as a quenchless thirst,
She sends me fragrant and most luscious fruit;
Without a blush she seeks a phenix guest [a bachelor]
Who dwells alone like case-enveloped lute."

After this mental effort Jasmine went to bed. Nor had her interview with
the waiting-woman made a sufficient impression on her mind to interfere
in any way with her sleep. She was surprised, however, on coming into
her sitting-room in the morning, to meet the same messenger, who, laden
with a dish of hot eggs and a brew of tea, begged Jasmine to "deign to
look down upon her offerings."

"Many thanks," said Jasmine, "for your kind attention."

"You are putting the saddle on the wrong horse," replied the woman. "In
bringing you these I am but obeying the orders of Miss King, who herself
made the tea of leaves from Pu-erh in Yunnan, and who with her own fair
hands shelled the eggs."

"Your young lady," answered Jasmine, "is as bountiful as she is kind.
What return can I make her for her kindness to a stranger? Stay," she
said, as the thought crossed her mind that the verses she had written
the night before might prove a wholesome tonic for this effusive young
lady, "I have a few verses which I will venture to ask her to accept."
So saying, she took a piece of peach-blossom paper, on which she
carefully copied the quatrain and handed it to the woman. "May I trouble
you," said she, "to take this to your mistress?"

"If," said Jasmine to herself as the woman took her departure, "Miss
King is able to penetrate the meaning of my verses, she won't like them.
Without saying so in so many words, I have told her with sufficient
p