ble temple, which was to
be entirely covered on the outside with silver paper, and on the inside
with gold-leaf--he did not fail to observe the various conditions of
Liao's existence, and the changing emotions which from time to
time possessed him. Therefore, when the person in question, without
displaying any signs of internal sickness, and likewise persistently
denying that he had lost any considerable sum of money, disclosed a
continuous habit of turning aside with an unaffected expression of
distaste from all manner of food, and passed the entire night in
observing the course of the great sky-lantern rather than in sleep, the
sage and discriminating Quen took him one day aside, and asked him, as
one who might aid him in the matter, who the maiden was, and what class
and position her father occupied.

"'Alas!' exclaimed Liao, with many unfeigned manifestations of an
unbearable fate, 'to what degree do the class and position of her
entirely unnecessary parents affect the question? or how little hope
can this sacrilegious one reasonably have of ever progressing as far as
earthly details of a pecuniary character in the case of so adorable and
far-removed a Being? The uttermost extent of this wildly-hoping person's
ambition is that when the incomparably symmetrical Ts'ain learns of
the steadfast light of his devotion, she may be inspired to deposit an
emblematic chrysanthemum upon his tomb in the Family Temple. For such a
reward he will cheerfully devote the unswerving fidelity of a lifetime
to her service, not distressing her gentle and retiring nature by the
expression of what must inevitably be a hopeless passion, but patiently
and uncomplainingly guarding her footsteps as from a distance.'

"Being in this manner made aware of the reason of Liao's frequent and
unrestrained exclamations of intolerable despair, and of his fixed
determination with regard to the maiden Ts'ain (which seemed, above
all else, to indicate a resolution to shun her presence) Quen could not
regard the immediately-following actions of his son with anything but an
emotion of confusion. For when his eyes next rested upon the exceedingly
contradictory Liao, he was seated in the open space before the house in
which Ts'ain dwelt, playing upon an instrument of stringed woods, and
chanting verses into which the names of the two persons in question
had been skilfully introduced without restraint, his whole manner of
behaving being with the evident purpo