g beggar-woman
stood timidly at the front door, gazing with wistful looks into the
room which faced the street. Not a sound did she utter, not a single
word escaped her lips to indicate that she had come there to obtain
charity.

In a few minutes Chin's mother came out from a room beyond. When she
saw this ragged, forlorn creature standing silently as though she were
afraid that some word of scorn and reproach would be hurled at her, she
was filled with a great and overmastering pity, and stepping up to her
she began to comfort her in loving, gentle language.

To her astonishment this draggled, uncleanly object became violently
affected by the tender, motherly way in which she was addressed. Great
tear-drops trickled down her grimy face, leaving a narrow, snow-like
line in their wake. Presently she was convulsed with sobs that shook
her whole body, whilst she wrung her hands as though some great sorrow
was gripping her heart.

Mrs. Meng was deeply affected by the sight of this unhappy woman, and
whilst she was gazing at her with a look of profound sympathy, the
broad patch which had concealed and at the same time disfigured the
beggar's countenance, suddenly dropped to the ground.

The effect of this was most startling, for a pair of as beautiful black
eyes as ever danced in a woman's head were now revealed to Mrs. Meng's
astonished gaze. Looking at the stranger more intently, she saw that
her features were exquisitely perfect, and had the grace and the poetry
which the great painters of China have attributed to the celebrated
beauties of the Empire.

"Tell me who you are," she cried, as she laid her hand tenderly and
affectionately on her shoulder, "for that you are a common beggar-woman
I can never believe. You must be the daughter of some great house, and
have come here in this disguise in order to escape some great evil.

"Confide in me," she continued, "and everything that one woman can do
for another, I am willing to do for you. But come in, dear child, and
let us talk together and devise some plan by which I can really help
you, for I feel my heart drawn towards you in a way I have never felt
for any stranger before."

Mrs. Meng then led her into her bedroom, where Water-Lily threw off the
outer garments in which she had appeared to the public as a beggar, and
telling her wonderful story to Chin's mother, she revealed herself as
her daughter-in-law.

But though her romantic arrival into this gloo