"Oh, my distinguished and really immaculate sire!" cried Yang Hu, in a
voice which expressed the deepest feelings of contrition. "No oaths or
vows, however sacred, can induce this person to stretch forth his hand
against the one who stands before him."

"Nevertheless," replied Ping Siang, speaking of the matter as though
it were one which did not closely concern his own existence, "to
neglect the Unutterable Oath would inevitably involve not only the two
persons who are now conversing together, but also those before and
those who are to come after in direct line, in a much worse condition
of affairs. That is a fate which this person would by no means permit
to exist, for one of his chief desires has ever been to establish a
strong and vigorous line, to which end, indeed, he was even now
concluding a marriage arrangement with the beautiful and refined
Hiya-ai-Shao, whom he had at length persuaded into accepting his
betrothal tokens without reluctance."

"Hiya-ai-Shao!" exclaimed Yang; "she has accepted your silk-bound
gifts?"

"The matter need not concern us now," replied the Mandarin, not
observing in his complicated emotions the manner in which the name of
Hiya had affected Yang, revealing as it undoubtedly did the treachery
of his beloved one. "There only appears to be one honourable way in
which the full circumstances can be arranged, and this person will in
no measure endeavour to avoid it."

"Such an end is neither ignoble nor painful," he said, in an
unchanging voice; "nor will this one in any way shrink from so easy