CHAPTER VII

Not Concerned with any Particular Attribute of
Those who are Involved

Unendurable was the intermingling of hopes and fears with which Kai
Lung sought the shutter on the next occasion after the avowal of
Hwa-mei's devoted strategy. While repeatedly assuring himself that it
would have been better to submit to piecemeal slicing without a
protesting word rather than that she should incur so formidable a
risk, he was compelled as often to admit that when once her mind had
formed its image no effort on his part would have held her back.
Doubtless Hwa-mei readily grasped the emotion that would possess the
one whose welfare was now her chief concern, for without waiting to
gum her hair or to gild her lips she hastened to the spot beneath the
wall at the earliest moment that Kai Lung could be there.

"Seven marble tombstones are lifted from off my chest!" exclaimed the
story-teller when he could greet her. "How did your subterfuge
proceed, and with what satisfaction was the history of Weng Cho
received?"

"That," replied Hwa-mei modestly, "will provide the matter for an
autumn tale, when seated around a pine-cone fire. In the meanwhile
this protracted ordeal takes an ambiguous bend."

"To what further end does the malignity of the ill-made Ming-shu now
shape itself? Should it entail a second peril to your head--"

"The one whom you so justly name fades for a moment out of our
concern. Burdened with a secret mission he journeys to Hing-poo, nor
does the Mandarin Shan Tien hold another court until the day of his
return."

"That gives a breathing space of time to our ambitions?"

"So much is assured. Yet even in that a subtle danger lurks. Certain
contingencies have become involved in the recital of your admittedly
ingenious stories which the future unfolding of events may not always
justify. For instance, the very speculative Shan Tien, casting his
usual moderate limit to the skies, has accepted the Luminous Insect as
a beckoning omen, and immersed himself deeply in the chances of every
candidate bearing the name of Lao, Ting, Li, Tzu, Sung, Chu, Wang or
Chin. Should all these fail incapably at the trials a very undignified
period in the Mandarin's general manner of expressing himself may
intervene."

"Had the time at the disposal of this person been sufficiently
enlarged he would not have omitted the various maxims arising from the
ta