g persons that Chang-ch'un owed the beginning of his prosperity
to finding a written parchment connected with a Mandarin of exalted rank
and a low caste attendant at the Ti-i tea-house among the paper
heaps, which it was at that time his occupation to assort into various
departments according to their quality and commercial value. Such
printed leaves freely and unhesitatingly predicted that the day on which
he would publicly lose face was incomparably nearer than that on which
the Imperial army would receive its back pay, and in a quaint and
gravity-removing manner advised him to protect himself against an
obscure but inevitable poverty by learning the accomplishment of
chair-carrying--an occupation for which his talents and achievements
fitted him in a high degree, they remarked.

In spite of these evilly intentioned remarks, and of illustrations
representing him as being bowstrung for treacherous killing, being
seized in the action of secretly conveying money from passers-by to
himself and other similar annoying references to his private life,
Chang-ch'un did not fail to prosper, and his undertakings succeeded to
such an extent that without inquiry into the detail many persons were
content to describe as "gold-lined" anything to which he affixed his
sign, and to hazard their savings for staking upon the ventures. In all
other departments of life Chang was equally successful; his chief wife
was the daughter of one who stood high in the Emperor's favour; his
repast table was never unsupplied with sea-snails, rats' tongues,
or delicacies of an equally expensive nature, and it was confidently
maintained that there was no official in Canton, not even putting aside
the Taotai, who dare neglect to fondle Chang's hand if he publicly
offered it to him for that purpose.

It was at the most illustrious point of his existence--at the time,
indeed, when after purchasing without money the renowned and proficient
charm-water Ho-Ko for a million taels, he had sold it again for
ten--that Chang was informed by his brother of the circumstances
connected with Ling. After becoming specially assured that the matter
was indeed such as it was represented to be, Chang at once discerned
that the venture was of too certain and profitable a nature to be put
before those who entrusted their money to him in ordinary and doubtful
cases. He accordingly called together certain persons whom he was
desirous of obliging, and informing them privately an