Pleasantly impressed by the resolute benevolence of the one who had a
greater store of wealth than he could, by his own unaided efforts,
dispose of, I arranged myself unobtrusively at his side, and
maintaining an exhibition of my most polished and genial conversation,
I sought to penetrate deeply into his esteem.

"Gaze in this direction, Kong," he said at length, calling me by name
with auspicious familiarity; "I am a benighted stranger in this hyer
city, and so are you, I rek'n. Suppose we liquor up, and then take a
few of the side shows together."

"The suggestion is one against which I will erect no ill-disposed
barrier," I at once replied, so inflexibly determined not to lose
sight of a person possessing such engaging attributes as to be
cheerfully prepared even to consume my rice spirit in the inverted
position which his words implied if the display was persisted in.
"Nevertheless," I added, with a resourceful prudence, "although by no
means undistinguished among the highest literary and competitive
circles of his native Yuen-ping, the one before you is incapable of
walking in the footsteps of a person whose accumulations are greater
than he himself can appreciably diminish."

"That's all right, Kong," exclaimed the one whom my last words
fittingly described, striking the recess of his lower garment with a
gesture of graceful significance. "When I take a fancy to any one it
isn't a matter of dollars. I usually carry a trifle of five hundred
or a thousand pounds in my pocket-book, and if we can get through
that--why, there's plenty more waiting at the bank. Say, though, I
hope you don't keep much about you; it isn't really safe."