ys natural. Thus he was one who was sought out by
his friends, and was best esteemed by those whose esteem was best worth
having. In outward appearance the youths were as different as their
characters were diverse. Wei was decidedly good-looking, but of a kind
of beauty which suggested neither rest nor sincerity; while in Tu's
features, though there was less grace, the want was fully compensated
for by the strength and honest firmness of his countenance.

For both these young men Jasmine had a liking, but there was no question
as to which she preferred. As she herself said, "Wei is pleasant enough
as a companion, but if I had to look to one of them for an act of true
friendship--or as a lover," she mentally added--"I should turn at once
to Tu." It was one of her amusements to compare the young men in her
mind, and one day when so occupied Tu suddenly looked up from his book
and said to her:

"What a pity it is that the gods have made us both men! If _I_ were a
woman, the object of my heart would be to be your wife, and if _you_
were a woman, there is nothing I should like better than to be your
husband."

Jasmine blushed up to the roots of her hair at having her own thoughts
thus capped, as it were; but before she could answer, Wei broke in with:

"What nonsense you talk! And why, I should like to know, should you be
the only one the 'young noble' might choose, supposing he belonged to
the other sex?"

"You are both talking nonsense," said Jasmine, who had had time to
recover her composure, "and remind me of my two old childless aunts,"
she added, laughing, "who are always quarrelling about the names they
would have given their children if the goddess Kwanyin had granted them
any half a century ago. As a matter of act, we are three friends reading
for our M.A. degrees, neither more nor less. And I will trouble you,
my elder brother," she added, turning to Tu, "to explain to me what the
poet means by the expression 'tuneful Tung' in the line:

'The greedy flames devour the tuneful Tung.'"

A learned disquisition by Tu on the celebrated musician who recognised
the sonorous qualities of a piece of Tung timber burning in the kitchen
fire effectually diverted the conversation from the inconvenient
direction it had taken, and shortly afterward Jasmine took her leave.

Haunted by the thought of what had passed, she wandered on to the
veranda of her archery pavilion, and while gazing half unconsciously
heavenward