lime
Emperor; but to all such persons the Mandarin has sternly replied
that such a proposal would more fitly originate from the renowned
and valuable Office of Warlike Deeds and Arrangements, he well
knowing that the wise and engaging persons who conduct that
indispensable and well-regulated department are gracefully
voracious in their efforts to reward merit, even when it is
displayed, as in the case in question, by one who from his
position will inevitably soon be urgently petitioning in a like
manner on their behalf.

When Ling had finished reading this elegantly arranged but exceedingly
misleading parchment, he looked up with eyes from which he vainly
endeavoured to restrain the signs of undignified emotion, and said to
the upper one:

"It is difficult employment for a person to refrain from unendurable
thoughts when his unassuming and really conscientious efforts are
represented in a spirit of no satisfaction, yet in this matter the very
expert Li Keen appears to have gone beyond himself; the Commander Ling,
who is herein represented as being slain by the enemy, is, indeed, the
person who is standing before you, and all the other statements are in a
like exactness."

"The short-sighted individual who for some hidden desire of his own is
endeavouring to present himself as the corrupt and degraded creature
Ling, has overlooked one important circumstance," said the upper one,
smiling in a very intolerable manner, at the same time causing his head
to move slightly from side to side in the fashion of one who rebukes
with assumed geniality; and, turning over the written paper, he
displayed upon the under side the Imperial vermilion Sign. "Perhaps,"
he continued, "the omniscient person will still continue in his remarks,
even with the evidence of the Emperor's unerring pencil to refute him."

At these words and the undoubted testimony of the red mark, which
plainly declared the whole of the written matter to be composed of
truth, no matter what might afterwards transpire, Ling understood that
very little prosperity remained with him.

"But the town of Si-chow," he suggested, after examining his mind; "if
any person in authority visited the place, he would inevitably find it
standing and its inhabitants in agreeable health."

"The persistent person who is so assiduously occupying my intellectual
moments with empty words seems to be unaccountably deficient in his
knowledge of the customs of refined