her lord no more till she learned that he had forgotten his marriage vow,
and was, in fact, Another's. As to how Tin-tun-ling contracted a
matrimonial alliance in France, the evidence is a little confusing. It
seems certain that after the death of his first employer, Callery, he was
in destitution; that M. Theophile Gautier, with his well-known kindness
and love of curiosities, took him up, and got him lessons in Chinese, and
it seems equally certain that in February, 1872, he married a certain
Caroline Julie Liegeois. In the act of marriage, Tin-tun-ling described
himself as a baron, which we know that he was not, for in his country he
did not rejoice in buttons and other insignia of Chinese nobility. As
Caroline Julie Ling (_nee_ Liegeois) denounced her lord for bigamy in
1873, and succeeded, as has been seen, in proving that he was husband of
Quzia-Tom-Alacer, it may seem likely that she found out the spurious
honours of the pretended title. But whatever may be thought of the
deceitful conduct of Ling, there is little doubt apparently that Caroline
is really his. He stated in court that by Chinese law a husband who has
not heard of his wife for three years may consider that his marriage has
legally ceased to be binding. Madame Mendes proved from the volume Ta-
Tsilg-Leu-Lee, the penal code of China, that Ling's law was correct. It
also came out in court that Quzia-Tom-Alacer had large feet. The jury,
on hearing this evidence, very naturally acquitted Tin-tun-ling, whom
Madame Mendes embraced, it is said, with the natural fervour of a
preserver of innocence. Whether Tin-tun-ling is now a bachelor, or
whether he is irrevocably bound to Caroline Julie, is a question that
seems to have occurred to no one.

The most mysterious point in this dark business is the question, How did
Tin-tun-ling, who always spoke of his first marriage with terror, happen
to involve himself in the difficulties of a second? Something more than
the common weakness of human nature must have been at work here. Madame