looked for a moment only, Ming-Y could not avoid discerning the
loveliness of her face, the golden purity of her complexion, and the
brightness of her long eyes, that sparkled under a pair of brows as
daintily curved as the wings of the silkworm butterfly outspread. Ming-Y
at once turned his gaze away, and, rising quickly, proceeded on his
journey. But so much embarrassed did he feel at the idea of those
charming eyes peeping at him through the leaves, that he suffered the
money he had been carrying in his sleeve to fall, without being aware of
it. A few moments later he heard the patter of light feet running behind
him, and a woman's voice calling him by name. Turning his face in great
surprise, he saw a comely servant-maid, who said to him, "Sir, my
mistress bade me pick up and return you this silver which you dropped
upon the road." Ming-Y thanked the girl gracefully, and requested her to
convey his compliments to her mistress. Then he proceeded on his way
through the perfumed silence, athwart the shadows that dreamed along the
forgotten path, dreaming himself also, and feeling his heart beating
with strange quickness at the thought of the beautiful being that he had
seen.

* * * * *

It was just such another day when Ming-Y, returning by the same path,
paused once more at the spot where the gracious figure had momentarily
appeared before him. But this time he was surprised to perceive, through
a long vista of immense trees, a dwelling that had previously escaped
his notice,--a country residence, not large, yet elegant to an unusual
degree. The bright blue tiles of its curved and serrated double roof,
rising above the foliage, seemed to blend their color with the luminous
azure of the day; the green-and-gold designs of its carven porticos were
exquisite artistic mockeries of leaves and flowers bathed in sunshine.