respect her father, was unable to regard the marriage with anything
but abhorrence. Perhaps this was not altogether the fault of Li Ting,
for on the evening of the day on which she had received his present,
she walked in the rice fields, and sitting down at the foot of a
funereal cypress, whose highest branches pierced the Middle Air, she
cried aloud:

"'I cannot control my bitterness. Of what use is it that I should be
called the "White Pigeon among Golden Lilies," if my beauty is but for
the hog-like eyes of the exceedingly objectionable Li Ting? Ah, Yung
Chang, my unfortunate lover! what evil spirit pursues you that you
cannot pass your examination for the second degree? My noble-minded
but ambitious boy, why were you not content with an agricultural or
even a manufacturing career and happiness? By aspiring to a literary
degree, you have placed a barrier wider than the Whang Hai between
us.'

"'As the earth seems small to the soaring swallow, so shall
insuperable obstacles be overcome by the heart worn smooth with a
fixed purpose,' said a voice beside her, and Yung Chang stepped from
behind the cypress tree, where he had been waiting for Ning. 'O one
more symmetrical than the chrysanthemum,' he continued, 'I shall yet,
with the aid of my ancestors, pass the second degree, and even obtain
a position of high trust in the public office at Peking.'

"'And in the meantime,' pouted Ning, 'I shall have partaken of the
wedding-cake of the utterly unpresentable Li Ting.' And she exhibited
the bracelets which she had that day received.

"'Alas!' said Yung Chang, 'there are times when one is tempted to