hundred ounces within ten days. Even if you have spent all that your
family gave you for your journey, you have still some friends or
relations from whom you can borrow. Then you will have me entirely to
yourself, and I shall never again have to endure that woman's anger."

"Since I became obsessed by our love, my friends and relations have
ceased to recognize me. But perhaps, if I asked them to help me to pay
for my journey I might make up the sum."

In the morning, when he had arranged his hair and, clothed himself,
and was about to leave Shih-niang, she said to him:

"Do your uttermost, and come back to me with good news."

He went to all his relations and friends, pretending that he was
taking leave of them before his departure. They all congratulated him;
but when he spoke of the expenses of the journey and asked for a
loan, all, without exception, told him that they could do nothing. His
friends knew the weakness of his character, and that he was besotted
with love for some "Flower-in-the-Mist" or other. He had remained in
Peking, up to that time, they knew, not daring to face his father's
anger. Was this departure genuine, now, or but pretended? If he spent
the borrowed money on "tinted faces," would not his father bear a
grudge against those who lent it? The most he could get together was
from ten to twenty ounces.

Ashamed of his failure after a full three days of endeavor, he did not
dare to return to Shih-niang; yet, since he used to spend every night
with his mistress, he had no other lodging. After the first evening,
therefore, he went and asked shelter from his fellow-countryman, the