rl." So turning to King, she said:

"Since you, sir, and your cousin have honoured me with your regard, I
dare not altogether decline your proposal, and I would therefore beg
you, sir, to hand this," she added, producing the box of ointment, "to
your honourable cousin, as a token of the bond between us, and to convey
to her my promise that, if I don't marry her, I will never marry another
lady."

Mr. King, with the greatest delight, received the box, and handing it
to the waiting-woman, who stood expectant by, bade her carry it to her
mistress, with the news of the engagement. Jasmine now hoped that her
immediate troubles were over, but King insisted on celebrating the
event by a feast, and it was not until late in the afternoon that she
succeeded in making a start. Once on the road, her anxiety to reach
Peking was such that she travelled night and day, "feeding on wind and
lodging in water." Nor did she rest until she reached a hotel within the
Hata Gate of the capital.

Jasmine's solitary journey had given her abundant time for reflection,
and for the first time she had set herself seriously to consider
her position. She recognised that she had hitherto followed only the
impulses of the moment, of which the main one had been the desire
to escape complications by the wholesale sacrifice of truth; and she
acknowledged to herself that, if justice were evenly dealt out, there
must be a Nemesis in store for her which would bring distress
and possibly disaster upon her. In her calmer moments she felt an
instinctive foreboding that she was approaching a crisis in her fate,
and it was with mixed feelings, therefore, that on the morning after her
arrival she prepared to visit Tu and Wei, who were as yet ignorant of
her presence.

She dressed herself with more than usual care for the occasion, choosing
to attire herself in a blue silk robe and a mauve satin jacket which Tu
had once admired, topped by a brand-new cap. Altogether her appearance
as she passed through the streets justified the remark made by a
passerby: "A pretty youngster, and more like a maiden of eighteen than a
man."

The hostelry at which Tu and Wei had taken up their abode was an inn
befitting the dignity of such distinguished scholars. On inquiring at
the door, Jasmine was ushered by a servant through a courtyard to an
inner enclosure, where, under the grateful shade of a wide-spreading
cotton-tree, Tu was reclining at his ease. Jasmine's delight a