t any conceit which might have been
engendered in the school-house was speedily counteracted when she got
within the portals of the colonel's domain. Coming into the presence of
her father and his wife, with all the incense of kindness, affection,
and, it must be confessed, flattery, with which she was surrounded by
her school-fellows, fresh about her, was like stepping into a cold bath.
Wholesome and invigorating the change may have been, but it was very
unpleasant, and Jasmine often longed to be alone to give vent to her
feelings in tears.

One deep consolation she had, however: she was a devoted student, and in
the society of her books she forgot the callousness of her parents, and,
living in imagination in the bygone annals of the empire, she was able
to take part, as it were, in the great deeds which mark the past history
of the state, and to enjoy the converse and society of the sages and
poets of antiquity. When the time came that she had gained all the
knowledge which the old schoolmaster could impart to her, she left the
school, and formed a reading-party with two youths of her own age.
These lads, by name Wei and Tu, had been her school-fellows, and were
delighted at obtaining her promise to join them in their studies. So
industriously were these pursued that the three friends succeeded in
taking their B.A. degree at the next examination, and, encouraged by
this success, determined to venture on a struggle for a still higher
distinction.

Though at one in their affection for Jasmine, Tu and Wei were unlike
in everything else, which probably accounted for the friendship which
existed between them. Wei was the more clever of the two. He wrote
poetry with ease and fluency, and his essays were marked by correctness
of style and aptness of quotation. But there was a want of strength in
his character. He was exceedingly vain, and was always seeking to excite
admiration among his companions. This unhappy failing made him very
susceptible of adverse criticism, and at the same time extremely jealous
of any one who might happen to excel him in any way. Tu, on the other
hand, though not so intellectually favoured, had a rough kind of
originality, which always secured for his exercises a respectful
attention, and made him at all times an agreeable companion. Having
no exaggerated ideas of his capabilities, he never strove to appear
otherwise than he was, and being quite independent of the opinions of
others, he was alwa