e,--wearing no ornament of any sort, nor even shoes upon her feet.
And before he had yet spoken to her, they came before the ancestral
tablets; and there she knelt with him and prayed, and pledged him in a
cup of wine,--brought he knew not from whence,--and together they
worshipped Heaven and Earth. Thus she became his wife.

* * * * *

A mysterious marriage it seemed, for neither on that day nor at any
future time could Tong venture to ask his wife the name of her family,
or of the place whence she came, and he could not answer any of the
curious questions which his fellow-laborers put to him concerning her;
and she, moreover, never uttered a word about herself, except to say
that her name was Tchi. But although Tong had such awe of her that while
her eyes were upon him he was as one having no will of his own, he loved
her unspeakably; and the thought of his serfdom ceased to weigh upon him
from the hour of his marriage. As through magic the little dwelling had
become transformed: its misery was masked with charming paper
devices,--with dainty decorations created out of nothing by that pretty
jugglery of which woman only knows the secret.

Each morning at dawn the young husband found a well-prepared and ample
repast awaiting him, and each evening also upon his return; but the wife
all day sat at her loom, weaving silk after a fashion unlike anything
which had ever been seen before in that province. For as she wove, the
silk flowed from the loom like a slow current of glossy gold, bearing
upon its undulations strange forms of violet and crimson and
jewel-green: shapes of ghostly horsemen riding upon horses, and of
phantom chariots dragon-drawn, and of standards of trailing cloud. In
every dragon's beard glimmered the mystic pearl; in every rider's helmet
sparkled the gem of rank. And each day Tchi would weave a great piece
of such figured silk; and the fame of her weaving spread abroad. From
far and near people thronged to see the marvellous work; and the
silk-merchants of great cities heard of it, and they sent messengers to
Tchi, asking her that she should weave for them and teach them her
secret. Then she wove for them, as they desired, in return for the
silver cubes which they brought her; but when they prayed her to teach
them, she laughed and said, "Assuredly I could never teach you, for no
one among you has fingers like mine." And indeed no man could discern
her fingers when she w