point of fact, took it over, and with a crash she rent it in two. Close
upon this, the sound of crash upon crash became audible.

Pao-yue was standing next to her. "How nice the noise is!" he laughed.
"Tear it again and make it sound a little more!"

But while he spoke, She Yueeh was seen to walk in. "Don't," she smiled,
"be up to so much mischief!" Pao-yue, however, went up to her and
snatching her fan also from her hand, he gave it to Ch'ing Wen. Ch'ing
Wen took it and there and then likewise broke it in two. Both he and she
then had a hearty laugh.

"What do you call this?" She Yueeh expostulated. "Do you take my property
and make it the means of distracting yourselves!"

"Open the fan-box," shouted Pao-yue, "and choose one and take it away!
What, are they such fine things!"

"In that case," ventured She Yueeh, "fetch the fans and let her break as
many as she can. Won't that be nice!"

"Go and bring them at once!" Pao-yue laughed.

"I won't be up to any such tomfoolery!" She Yueeh demurred. "She hasn't
snapped her hands, so bid her go herself and fetch them!"

"I'm feeling tired," interposed Ch'ing Wen, as she laughingly leant on
the bed. "I'll therefore tear some more to-morrow again."

"An old writer says," added Pao-yue with a smile, "'that a thousand