But when they had arrived at the shadiest part of the road, where the
perfumes were most sweet and the mosses were greenest, and the fruits of
the wild peach flushed most pinkly, Ming-Y, gazing through the groves,
uttered a cry of dismay. Where the azure-tiled roof had risen against
the sky, there was now only the blue emptiness of air; where the
green-and-gold facade had been, there was visible only the flickering of
leaves under the aureate autumn light; and where the broad terrace had
extended, could be discerned only a ruin,--a tomb so ancient, so deeply
gnawed by moss, that the name graven upon it was no longer decipherable.
The home of Sië had disappeared!

All suddenly the High Commissioner smote his forehead with his hand,
and turning to Pelou, recited the well-known verse of the ancient poet
Tching-Kou:--

"_Surely the peach-flowers blossom over
the tomb of SIË-THAO._"

"Friend Pelou," continued Tchang, "the beauty who bewitched your son was
no other than she whose tomb stands there in ruin before us! Did she not
say she was wedded to Ping-Khang? There is no family of that name, but
Ping-Khang is indeed the name of a broad alley in the city near. There
was a dark riddle in all that she said. She called herself Sië of
Moun-Hiao: there is no person of that name; there is no street of that
name; but the Chinese characters _Moun_ and _hiao_, placed together,
form the character 'Kiao.' Listen! The alley Ping-Khang, situated in
the street Kiao, was the place where dwelt the great courtesans of the
dynasty of Thang! Did she not sing the songs of Kao-pien? And upon the
brush-case and the paper-weight she gave your son, are there not
characters which read, '_Pure object of art belonging to Kao, of the