rding to her several moods. Peach-bloom held against her
cheek withers incapably by comparison. Her feet, if indeed she has
such commonplace attributes at all, are smaller--"

"Yet," interrupted the hag, in a changed and quite melodious voice,
"if it is possible to delude the imagination of one whose longing eyes
dwell so constantly on these threadbare charms, what then will be the
position of the obtuse Ming-shu and the superficial Mandarin Shan
Tien, burdened as they now are by outside cares?"

"There are times when the classical perfection of our graceful tongue
is strangely inadequate to express emotion," confessed Kai Lung,
colouring deeply, as Hwa-mei stood revealed before him. "It is truly
said: 'The ingenuity of a guileless woman will undermine nine
mountains.' You have cut off all the words of my misgivings."

"To that end have I wrought, for in this I also need your skill.
Listen well and think deeply as I speak. Everywhere the outcome of the
strife grows more uncertain day by day and no man really knows which
side to favour yet. In this emergency each plays a double part. While
visibly loyal to the Imperial cause, the Mandarin Shan Tien fans the
whisper that in secret he upholds the rebellious banners. Ming-shu now
openly avers that if this and that are thus and thus the rising has
justice in its ranks, while at the same time he has it put abroad that
this is but a cloak the better to serve the state. Thus every man
maintains a double face in the hope that if the one side fails the
other will preserve him, and as a band all pledge to save (or if need
be to betray) each other."

"This is the more readily understood as it is the common case on every
like occasion."

"Then doubtless there are instances waiting on your lips. Teach me
such a story whereby the hope of those who are thus swayed may be
engaged and leave the rest to my arranging hand."

On the following day at the appointed hour a bent and forbidding hag
was brought before Shan Tien, and the nature of her offence
proclaimed.

"It is possible to find an excuse for almost everything, regarding it
from one angle or another," remarked the Mandarin impartially; "but
the crime of destroying a husband--and by a means so unpleasantly
insinuating--really seems to leave nothing to be said."

"Yet, imperishable, even a bad coin must have two sides," replied the
hag. "That I should be guilty and yet innocent would be no more
wonderful than the case of W