escaping or recovering from the many deadly pestilences which
invariably reduce that city at this season of the year, he shall
triumphantly return. Assuredly there is a highly-polished surface
united to every action in life, no matter how funereal it may at first
appear. Indeed, there are many incidents compared with which death
itself is welcome, and to this end Mian has reserved a farewell gift."

Speaking in this manner the devoted and magnanimous maiden placed in
Ling's hands the transparent vessel of liquid which the magician had
grasped when he fell. "This person," she continued, speaking with
difficulty, "places her lover's welfare incomparably before her own
happiness, and should he ever find himself in a situation which is
unendurably oppressive, and from which death is the only escape--such
as inevitable tortures, the infliction of violent madness, or the
subjection by magic to the will of some designing woman--she begs him
to accept this means of freeing himself without regarding her anguish
beyond expressing a clearly defined last wish that the two persons in
question may be in the end happily reunited in another existence."

Assured by this last evidence of affection, Ling felt that he had no
longer any reason for internal heaviness; his spirits were
immeasurably raised by the fragrant incense of Mian's great devotion,
and under its influence he was even able to breathe towards her a few
words of similar comfort as he left the spot and began his journey.


IX

On entering Canton, which he successfully accomplished without any
unpleasant adventure, the marked absence of any dignified ostentation