kly picked it up
and opened it. It was the pair of embroidered slippers. He said:

"Oh! Oh! Who is the little girl who has such feet? She must be of a
very loving nature. If I could hold her to my heart for a whole night,
I should not have lived in vain. But how do these slippers come here,
for they have already been worn?"

"Give them back to me!" she cried. "There is much money in them,
which I will hand to you." And she told him the whole matter. But he
objected:

"It has been a common saying from the earliest times that acts not
committed can alone remain unknown. This P'an is a bravo. If he learns
of the matter, all the silver which you receive will be too little to
buy his silence. Our whole shop would fall into his hands."

In dismay the old woman replied:

"Your words are full of reason. I am going to give back the silver
and the slippers. I am going to let it be understood that I refuse to
embroil myself with curtain affairs."

"Where is the silver?" he asked.

The old woman took it from her sleeve, and he put it into his, saying:

"Leave all to me. If they should happen to come and seek a quarrel
with us, we shall have proofs against them. And, if nothing comes of
it, no one will dare to reclaim the money."

"But what shall I say if he asks me for news?"

"That you have not had time enough. Or even that the matter cannot be
arranged."

What could she do, she who was thus deprived of the money and the
pledge of love? She was surely obliged to lie.

As for Wu-han, he at once went out and spent the money on rich clothes
and a fine gauze bonnet.

In the evening, when his mother was asleep, he put on his pretty
clothes and set the slippers in his sleeve. As the great clock sounded
the first watch, he went out softly and made straight for the house of
P'an. Light clouds were hiding the moon. It was only half full.

He coughed before the house. The window opened, and Eternal Life
appeared. She tied a piece of silk to the frame, and let the other end
fall. He caught it and climbed up, making use of the projections of
the wall with his two feet. Then, with a thousand precautions, he
stepped over the sill. Trembling, the girl hastened to draw back the
piece of silk and to shut the window.

Then he took the child in his arms, and passion leaped up in their two
hearts. In the darkness, and in such emotion, how could that mistake
be known? The usurper drew her towards him.

Even so is the precious scen