Having in this able and conscientious manner completely proved the
misleading nature of the disgraceful statements which the Mandarin had
spread abroad concerning him, Ling turned his footsteps towards Mian,
whose entrancing joy at his safe return was judged by both persons to
be a sufficient reward for the mental distress with which their
separation had been accompanied.


XV

After the departure of Ling from Canton, the commercial affairs of
Chang-ch'un began, from a secret and undetectable cause, to assume an
ill-regulated condition. No venture which he undertook maintained a
profitable attitude, so that many persons who in former times had been
content to display the printed papers setting forth his name and
virtues in an easily-seen position in their receiving-rooms, now
placed themselves daily before his house in order to accuse him of
using their taels in ways which they themselves had not sufficiently
understood, and for the purpose of warning passers-by against his
inducements. It was in vain that Chang proposed new undertakings, each
of an infallibly more prosperous nature than those before; the persons
who had hitherto supported him were all entrusting their money to one
named Pung Soo, who required millions where Chang had been content
with thousands, and who persistently insisted on greeting the sacred
Emperor as an equal.

In this unenviable state Chang's mind continually returned to thoughts
of Ling, whose lifeless body would so opportunely serve to dispel the
embarrassing perplexities of existence which were settling thickly
about him. Urged forward by a variety of circumstances which placed