rably arranged, it is only necessary to display the
ultimate end as it affected those persons in any way connected.

Wang Ho thus obtained a burial robe in which he was able to repose
absolute confidence. Doubtless it would have sustained him to an
advanced age had he not committed self-ending, in the ordinary way of
business, a few years later.

Shen Heng soon disposed of the returned garment for two thousand taels
to a person who had become prematurely wealthy owing to the distressed
state of the Empire. In addition he had sold, for more than two taels,
a robe which he had no real expectation of ever selling at all.

Min, made welcome at the house of Mean and Lin, removed with them to
that distant province. There she found that the remuneration for
burial robe embroidery was greater than she had ever obtained before.
With the money thus amassed she was able to marry an official of noble
rank.

The father of Cheng Lin had passed into the Upper Air many years
before the incidents with which this related narrative concerns
itself. He is thus in no way affected. But Lin did not neglect, in the
time of his prosperity, to transmit to him frequent sacrifices of
seasonable delicacies suited to his condition.

CHAPTER VIII

The Timely Disputation among Those of an
Inner Chamber of Yu-ping

For the space of three days Ming-shu remained absent from Yu-ping, and
the affections of Kai Lung and Hwa-mei prospered. On the evening of
the third day the maiden stood beneath the shutter with a more
definite look, and Kai Lung understood that a further period of
unworthy trial was now at hand.

"Behold!" she explained, "at dawn the corrupt Ming-shu will pass
within our gates again, nor is it prudent to assume that his enmity
has lessened."

"On the contrary," replied Kai Lung, "like that unnatural reptile that
lives on air, his malice will have grown upon the voidness of its
cause. As the wise Ling-kwang remarks: 'He who plants a vineyard with
one hand--'"

"Assuredly, beloved," interposed Hwa-mei dexterously. "But our
immediate need is less to describe Ming-shu's hate in terms of
classical analogy than to find a potent means of baffling its venom."

"You are all-wise as usual," confessed Kai Lung, with due humility. "I
will restrain my much too verbose tongue."

"The invading Banners from the north have for the moment failed and
those who drew swords i