ascertain their whereabouts? As regards the Jung-kuo branch in
particular, their names are in fact inscribed on the same register as
our own, but rich and exalted as they are, we have never presumed to
claim them as our relatives, so that we have become more and more
estranged."

"Don't make any such assertions," Tzu-hsing remarked with a sigh, "the
present two mansions of Jung and Ning have both alike also suffered
reverses, and they cannot come up to their state of days of yore."

"Up to this day, these two households of Ning and of Jung," Yue-ts'un
suggested, "still maintain a very large retinue of people, and how can
it be that they have met with reverses?"

"To explain this would be indeed a long story," said Leng Tzu-hsing.
"Last year," continued Yue-ts'un, "I arrived at Chin Ling, as I
entertained a wish to visit the remains of interest of the six
dynasties, and as I on that day entered the walled town of Shih T'ou, I
passed by the entrance of that old residence. On the east side of the
street, stood the Ning Kuo mansion; on the west the Jung Kuo mansion;
and these two, adjoining each other as they do, cover in fact well-nigh
half of the whole length of the street. Outside the front gate
everything was, it is true, lonely and deserted; but at a glance into
the interior over the enclosing wall, I perceived that the halls,
pavilions, two-storied structures and porches presented still a majestic
and lofty appearance. Even the flower garden, which extends over the
whole area of the back grounds, with its trees and rockeries, also
possessed to that day an air of luxuriance and freshness, which betrayed
no signs of a ruined or decrepid establishment."