claimed the lovely Tiao, when this person had made an
end of speaking, 'how expertly and in what a proficient manner do you
express yourself, uttering even the sentiments which this person has
felt inwardly, but for which she has no words. Why, indeed, do you not
inscribe them in a book?'

"Under her elevating influence it had already occurred to this
illiterate individual that it would be a more dignified and, perhaps,
even a more profitable course for him to write out and dispose of, to
those who print such matters, the versatile and high-minded expressions
which now continually formed his thoughts, rather than be dependent upon
the concise sentence for which, indeed, he was indebted to the wisdom of
a remote ancestor. Tiao's spoken word fully settled his determination,
so that without delay he set himself to the task of composing a story
which should omit the usual sentence, but should contain instead a large
number of his most graceful and diamond-like thoughts. So engrossed did
this near-sighted and superficial person become in the task (which daily
seemed to increase rather than lessen as new and still more sublime
images arose within his mind) that many months passed before the
matter was complete. In the end, instead of a story, it had assumed the
proportions of an important and many-volumed book; while Tiao had in the
meantime accepted the wedding gifts of an objectionable and excessively
round-bodied individual, who had amassed an inconceivable number of
taels by inducing persons to take part in what at first sight appeared
to be an ingenious but very easy competition connected with the order in
which certain horses should arrive at a given and clearly defined spot.
By that time, however, this unduly sanguine story-teller had become
completely entranced in his work, and merely regarded Tiao-Ts'un as a
Heaven-sent but no longer necessary incentive to his success. With
every hope, therefore, he went forth to dispose of his written leaves,
confident of finding some very wealthy person who would be in a
condition to pay him the correct value of the work.

"At the end of two years this somewhat disillusionized but still
undaunted person chanced to hear of a benevolent and unassuming body of
men who made a habit of issuing works in which they discerned merit,
but which, nevertheless, others were unanimous in describing as 'of no
good.' Here this person was received with gracious effusion, and
being in a position to