people by your haughtiness!"

When Yang Su heard him speak in this fashion he collected himself,
rose from his place, and spoke to him in a friendly manner.

Li Dsing handed him a memorial, and Yang Su entered into talk with him
concerning all sorts of things. A serving-maid of extraordinary beauty
stood beside them. She held a red flabrum in her hand, and kept her
eyes fixed on Li Dsing. The latter at length took his leave and
returned to his inn.

Later in the day some one knocked at his door. He looked out, and
there, before the door, stood a person turbaned and gowned in purple,
and carrying a bag slung from a stick across his shoulder.

Li Dsing asked who it was and received the answer: "I am the
fan-bearer of Yang Su!"

With that she entered the room, threw back her mantle and took off her
turban. Li Dsing saw that she was a maiden of eighteen or nineteen.

She bowed to him, and when he had replied to her greeting she began:
"I have dwelt in the house of Yang Su for a long time and have seen
many famous people, but none who could equal you. I will serve you
wherever you go!"

Li Dsing answered: "The minister is powerful. I am afraid that we will
plunge ourselves into misfortune."

"He is a living corpse, in whom the breath of life grows scant," said
the fan-bearer, "and we need not fear him."

He asked her name, and she said it was Dschang, and that she was the
oldest among her brothers and sisters.

And when he looked at her, and considered her courageous behavior and
her sensible words, he realized that she was a girl of heroic cast,
and they agreed to marry and make their escape from the city in
secret. The fan-bearer put on men's clothes, and they mounted horses
and rode away. They had determined to go to Taiyuanfu.

On the following day they stopped at an inn. They had their room put
in order and made a fire on the hearth to cook their meal. The
fan-bearer was combing her hair. It was so long that it swept the
ground, and so shining that you could see your face in it. Li Dsing
had just left the room to groom the horses. Suddenly a man who had a
long curling mustache like a dragon made his appearance. He came along
riding on a lame mule, threw down his leather bag on the ground in
front of the hearth, took a pillow, made himself comfortable on a
couch, and watched the fan-bearer as she combed her hair. Li Dsing saw
him and grew angry; but the fan-bearer had at once seen through the
stranger. She