other coughed, and at last said:

"Your daughter is suffering from lack of nourishment."

Her father was staggered:

"But I have told you that she ate thirty bowls of rice yesterday."

"Yet, but your daughter is still a child. She is apparently fifteen
years old, but that is equivalent to fourteen in reality, or even to
thirteen and some months. Her food accumulates in her stomach, but
is not assimilated. From this cause arises the fever which burns her
stomach and makes her imagine herself to be always hungry. The more
she eats, therefore, the more her stomach burns. In one month it will
be too late to cure her, and she will die of hunger."

"But how is she to be cured?"

"First, I shall make her digest what she eats. Of course, she must eat
very little indeed."

He wrote his prescription and went away. The servant went to get the
drugs, which were dissolved and boiled according to direction, and
finally presented to the young girl.

She said that she would take them, and as soon as she was alone threw
them out of the port-hole. Thereafter she continued to ask for ten
bowls of rice for every meal.

Every one on the ship was now discussing this extraordinary case.
Some said that they ought to call in sorcerers. Others thought that
religious men would do better, seeing that she had certainly been
possessed by one of those starving spirits which wander without
purpose in punishment for their sins, with a needle's eye for a mouth,
seeking in vain for food.

At the next town, Ho Chang summoned another doctor. After his
examination, mention was made of the former diagnosis, and he burst
out laughing.

"Nothing of the sort. It is an internal consumption."

"But what, then, is the reason for this hunger?"

"The hot and the cold principles are at variance in her, and
the resultant fire gives her continual opsomania. It is easy to
understand."

"But she has no fever."

"Outside she is cool, but she burns within. The malady is inside the
bones; and that is why it is not visible. If she had continued to take
the drugs which you have been giving her, it would have been difficult
to save her. I shall give her something to soothe her bowels. She will
then, of her own accord, refuse all food."

It need not be said that it was the same in this case as in the other.
All the medicines went down the river.

Meanwhile the two lovers continued to profit by the silence of the
night. Naturally, the young girl was at fir