mountains."

"Nevertheless," exclaimed the Mandarin, whose countenance was
lightened with an interest and a benevolent emotion which had never
been seen there before, "beyond all possibility of doubting, you are
this person's lost and greatly-desired son, stolen away many years ago
by the treacherous conduct of an unworthy woman, yet now happily and
miraculously restored to cherish his declining years and perpetuate an
honourable name and race."

"Happily!" exclaimed Yang, with fervent indications of uncontrollable
bitterness. "Oh, my illustrious sire, at whose venerated feet this
unworthy person now prostrates himself with well-merited marks of
reverence and self-abasement, has the errand upon which an ignoble son
entered--the every memory of which now causes him the acutest agony of
the lost, but which nevertheless he is pledged to Tung Fel by the
Unutterable Oath to perform--has this unnatural and eternally cursed
thing escaped your versatile mind?"

"Tung Fel!" cried Ping Siang. "Is, then, this blow also by the hand of
that malicious and vindictive person? Oh, what a cycle of events and
interchanging lines of destiny do your words disclose!"

"Who, then, is Tung Fel, my revered Father?" demanded Yang.

"It is a matter which must be made clear from the beginning," replied
Ping Siang. "At one time this person and Tung Fel were, by nature and
endowments, united in the most amiable bonds of an inseparable
friendship. Presently Tung Fel signed the preliminary contract of a
marriage with one who seemed to be endowed with every variety of