couring the distressed and the
forlorn, had sent the bonze to make arrangements to meet a certain
calamitous crisis which was soon to take place in the home of the
wealthy merchant.

A few months after the good bonze had left them, a series of disasters
fell with crushing effect upon the house of Meng. Several firms which
owed him very large sums of money suddenly failed, and he found himself
in such financial difficulties that it was utterly impossible for him
to pay his debts.

In consequence, Meng was utterly ruined, and after paying out all that
he possessed, even to the uttermost cash, found himself absolutely
penniless. This so wrought upon his mind that he became seriously ill,
and after a few days of intense agony, his spirit vanished into the
Land of Shadows, and his wife and son were left desolate and bereaved.

After a time Chin bethought himself of the wealthy and distinguished
man who had been so anxious to recognize him as a son-in-law, and after
consultation with his mother, who was completely broken-hearted, he set
off for the distant city in which his proposed father-in-law lived.
Chin hoped that the latter's heart would be moved by the disasters
which had befallen his father, and that he would be willing to extend
him a helping hand in his hour of dire sorrow, when even Heaven itself
seemed to have abandoned him and to have heaped upon his head
calamities such as do not often occur to the vilest of men.

Weary and worn with the long journey, which he had been compelled to
make on foot, he arrived one day about noon at the gates which led into
the spacious courtyard of the palatial mansion in which his
father-in-law lived. The doors, however, were shut and barred, as
though some enemy was expected to storm them and carry off the property
within.

Chin called loudly to the porter to open them for him, but to his
amazement he was told that orders had been received from the master of
the house that he was not to be admitted on any terms whatsoever.

"But are you aware who I am?" he asked. "Do you not know that the man
who owns this building is my father-in-law, and that his daughter is my
promised wife? It ill becomes you therefore to keep me standing here,
when I should be received with all the honours that a son-in-law can
claim."

"But I have been specially warned against you," replied the surly
gatekeeper. "You talk of being a son-in-law, but you are greatly
mistaken if you imagine that