"O-mi-to-fu!" ejaculated Mrs. Chao with a sigh, "were I a little better
off, I'd also come often and offer gifts; but though my will be
boundless, my means are insufficient!"

"Don't trouble your mind on this score," suggested Ma, the Taoist
matron. "By and bye, when Mr. Huan has grown up into a man and obtained
some official post or other, will there be then any fear of your not
being able to afford such offerings as you might like to make?"

At these words Mrs. Chao gave a smile. "Enough, enough!" she cried.
"Don't again refer to such contingencies! the present is a fair
criterion. For up to whom in this house can my son and I come? Pao-yue is
still a mere child; but he is such that he wins people's love. Those big
people may be partial to him, and love him a good deal, I've nothing to
say to it; but I can't eat humble pie to this sort of mistress!"

While uttering this remark, she stretched out her two fingers.

Ma, the Taoist matron, understood the meaning she desired to convey.
"It's your lady Secunda, Lien, eh?" she forthwith asked.

Mrs. Chao was filled with trepidation. Hastily waving her hand, she got
to her feet, raised the portiere, and peeped outside. Perceiving that
there was no one about, she at length retraced her footsteps.
"Dreadful!" she then said to the Taoist matron. "Dreadful! But speaking
of this sort of mistress, I'm not so much as a human being, if she
doesn't manage to shift over into her mother's home the whole of this
family estate."