But a long time elapsed after these words were uttered and yet nothing
further was heard.

"Sad for what?" Feng Tzu-ying laughingly asked. "Go on and tell us at
once!"

Hsueeh P'an was much perplexed. His eyes rolled about like a bell.

"A girl is sad..."

he hastily repeated. But here again he coughed twice before he
proceeded.

"A girl is sad."

he said:

"When she marries a spouse who is a libertine."

This sentence so tickled the fancy of the company that they burst out
into a loud fit of laughter.

"What amuses you so?" shouted Hsueeh P'an, "is it likely that what I say
is not correct? If a girl marries a man, who chooses to forget all
virtue, how can she not feel sore at heart?"

But so heartily did they all laugh that their bodies were bent in two.
"What you say is quite right," they eagerly replied. "So proceed at once
with the rest."