cannot possibly, in fact, ever sink so low as to become runners or
menials, or contentedly brook to be of the common herd or to be driven
and curbed like a horse in harness. They will become, for a certainty,
either actors of note or courtesans of notoriety; as instanced in former
years by Hsue Yu, T'ao Ch'ien, Yuan Chi, Chi Kang, Liu Ling, the two
families of Wang and Hsieh, Ku Hu-t'ou, Ch'en Hou-chu, T'ang Ming-huang,
Sung Hui-tsung, Liu T'ing-chih, Wen Fei-ching, Mei Nan-kung, Shih
Man-ch'ing, Lui C'hih-ch'ing and Chin Shao-yu, and exemplified
now-a-days by Ni Yuen-lin, T'ang Po-hu, Chu Chih-shan, and also by Li
Kuei-men, Huang P'an-cho, Ching Hsin-mo, Cho Wen-chuen; and the women
Hung Fu, Hsieh T'ao, Ch'ue Ying, Ch'ao Yuen and others; all of whom were
and are of the same stamp, though placed in different scenes of action."

"From what you say," observed Tzu-hsing, "success makes (a man) a duke
or a marquis; ruin, a thief!"

"Quite so; that's just my idea!" replied Yue-ts'un; "I've not as yet let
you know that after my degradation from office, I spent the last couple
of years in travelling for pleasure all over each province, and that I
also myself came across two extraordinary youths. This is why, when a
short while back you alluded to this Pao-yue, I at once conjectured, with
a good deal of certainty, that he must be a human being of the same
stamp. There's no need for me to speak of any farther than the walled
city of Chin Ling. This Mr. Chen was, by imperial appointment, named
Principal of the Government Public College of the Chin Ling province. Do
you perhaps know him?"

"Who doesn't know him?" remarked Tzu-hsing. "This Chen family is an old
connection of the Chia family. These two families were on terms of great
intimacy, and I myself likewise enjoyed the pleasure of their friendship