"Since the occasion," laughed Feng Tzu-ying, "on which I wounded
lieutenant-colonel Ch'ou's son, I've borne the lesson in mind, and never
lost my temper. So how is it you say that I've again been boxing? This
thing on my face was caused, when I was out shooting the other day on
the T'ieh Wang hills, by a flap from the wing of the falcon."

"When was that?" asked Pao-yue.

"I started," explained Tzu-ying, "on the 28th of the third moon and came
back only the day before yesterday."

"It isn't to be wondered at then," observed Pao-yue, "that when I went
the other day, on the third and fourth, to a banquet at friend Shen's
house, I didn't see you there. Yet I meant to have inquired about you;
but I don't know how it slipped from my memory. Did you go alone, or did
your venerable father accompany you?"

"Of course, my father went," Tzu-ying replied, "so I had no help but to
go. For is it likely, forsooth, that I've gone mad from lack of anything
to do! Don't we, a goodly number as we are, derive enough pleasure from
our wine-bouts and plays that I should go in quest of such kind of
fatiguing recreation! But in this instance a great piece of good fortune
turned up in evil fortune!"

Hsueeh P'an and his companions noticed that he had finished his tea.
"Come along," they one and all proposed, "and join the banquet; you can
then quietly recount to us all your experiences."

At this suggestion Feng Tzu-ying there and then rose to his feet.
"According to etiquette," he said. "I should join you in drinking a few