broom.' [wife] His interview with
you has, he may say, shown him the wisdom of his cousin's choice, and he
cannot imagine a pair better suited for one another, or more likely to
be happy, than your Excellency and his cousin."

"I dare not be anything but straightforward with your worship," said
Jasmine, "and I am grateful for the extraordinary affection your cousin
has been pleased to bestow upon me; but I cannot forget that she belongs
to a family which is entitled to pass through the gate of the palace [a
family of distinction], and I fear that my rank is not sufficient for
her. Besides, my father is at present under a cloud, and I am now on
my way to Peking to try to release him from his difficulties. It is no
time, therefore, for me to be binding myself with promises."

"As to your Excellency's first objection," replied King, "you are
already the wearer of a hat with a silken tassel, and a man need not be
a prophet to foretell that in time to come any office, either civil or
military, will be within your reach. No doubt, also, your business in
Peking will be quickly brought to a satisfactory conclusion, and there
can be no objection, therefore, to our settling the preliminaries now,
and then, on your return from the capital, we can celebrate the wedding.
This will give rest and composure to my cousin's mind, which is now like
a disturbed sea, and will not interfere, I venture to think, with the
affair which calls you to Peking."

As King proceeded, Jasmine felt that her difficulties were on the
increase. It was impossible that she should explain her position in
full, and she had no sufficient reason at hand to give for rejecting the
proposal made her, though, as the same time, her annoyance was not small
at having such a matter forced upon her at a moment when her mind was
filled with anxieties. "Then," she thought to herself, "there is ahead
of me that explanation which must inevitably come with Wei; so that,
altogether, if it were not for the deeply rooted conviction which I have
that Tu will be mine at last, when he knows what I really am, life would
not be worth having. As for this inn-proprietor, if he has so little
delicacy as to push his cousin upon me at this crisis, I need not have
any compunction regarding him; so perhaps my easiest way of getting out
of the present hobble will be to accept his proposal and to present the
box of precious ointment handed me by Wei for my sister to this ogling
love-sick gi