is travels in the same
direction, upheld and inspired by the knowledge that henceforth he moved
under the direct influence of very powerful spirits.

CHAPTER IX. THE ILL-REGULATED DESTINY OF KIN YEN, THE PICTURE-MAKER

As recorded by himself before his sudden departure from Peking,
owing to circumstances which are made plain in the following
narrative.

There are moments in the life of a person when the saying of the wise
Ni-Hyu that "Misfortune comes to all men and to most women" is endowed
with double force. At such times the faithful child of the Sun is a prey
to the whitest and most funereal thoughts, and even the inspired
wisdom of his illustrious ancestors seems more than doubtful, while the
continued inactivity of the Sacred Dragon appears for the time to give
colour to the scoffs of the Western barbarian. A little while ago these
misgivings would have found no resting-place in the bosom of the writer.
Now, however--but the matter must be made clear from the beginning.

The name of the despicable person who here sets forth his immature story
is Kin Yen, and he is a native of Kia-Lu in the Province of Che-Kiang.
Having purchased from a very aged man the position of Hereditary
Instructor in the Art of Drawing Birds and Flowers, he gave lessons in
these accomplishments until he had saved sufficient money to journey
to Peking. Here it was his presumptuous intention to learn the art of
drawing figures in order that he might illustrate printed leaves of
a more distinguished class than those which would accept what true
politeness compels him to call his exceedingly unsymmetrical pictures
of birds and flowers. Accordingly, when the time arrived, he disposed of
his Hereditary Instructorship, having first ascertained in the interests
of his pupils that his successor was a person of refined morals and
great filial piety.

Alas! it is well written, "The road to eminence lies through the cheap
and exceedingly uninviting eating-houses." In spite of this person's
great economy, and of his having begged his way from Kia-Lu to Peking in
the guise of a pilgrim, journeying to burn incense in the sacred Temple
of Truth near that city, when once within the latter place his taels
melted away like the smile of a person of low class when he discovers
that the mandarin's stern words were not intended as a jest. Moreover,
he found that the story-makers of Peking, receiving higher rewards
than those at Kia-Lu, considered th