that each might be granted ten
thousand blessings, Jasmine said, smiling:

"Do you recognise Mr. Wen?"

Miss King looked at her, and seeing in her a likeness to her beloved,
said:

"What relation are you to him, lady?"

"I am his very self!" said Jasmine.

Miss King opened her eyes wide at this startling announcement, and gazed
earnestly at her.

"_Haiyah!_" cried her maid, clapping her hands, "I thought there was
a wonderful likeness between the lady and Mr. Wen. But who would have
thought that she was he?"

"But what made you disguise yourself in that fashion?" asked Miss King,
in an abashed and somewhat vexed tone.

"My father was in difficulties," said Jasmine, "and as it was necessary
that I should go to Peking to plead for him, I dressed as a man for the
convenience of travel. You will remember that in the first instance I
declined your flattering overtures, but when I found that you persisted
in your proposal, not being able to explain the truth, I thought the
best thing to do was to hand you my friend's betrothal present which I
had with me, intending to return and explain matters. And you will admit
that in one thing I was truthful."

"What was that?" asked the maid.

"Why," answered Jasmine, "I said that if I did not marry your lady I
would never marry any woman."

"Well, yes," said the maid, laughing, "you have kept your faith royally
there."

"The friend I speak of," continued Jasmine, "has now taken his doctor's
degree, and this stupid husband and wife have come from Mienchu to make
you a proposal on his behalf."

Miss King was not one who could readily take in an entirely new and
startling idea, and she sat with a half-dazed look, staring at
Jasmine without uttering a word. If it had not been for the maid, the
conversation would have ceased; but that young woman was determined to
probe the matter to the bottom.

"You have not told us," she said, "the gentleman's name. And will you
explain why you call him your friend? How could you be on terms of
friendship with him?"

"From my childhood," said Jasmine, "I have always dressed as a boy. I
went to a boy's school--"

"_Haiyah!_" interjected the maid.

"And afterward I joined my husband and this gentleman, Mr. Wei, in a
reading-party."

"Didn't they discover your secret?"

"No."

"Never?"

"Never."

"That's odd," said the maid. "But will you tell us something about this
Mr. Wei?"

Upon this, Jasmine launched out in a glowing