would be only too ready to call me mother. But snapping my fingers at
them, I to-day exalt you."

"I wasn't laughing about that," Hsiao Hung answered with a smiling face.
"I was amused by the mistake your ladyship made about our generations.
Why, my mother claims to be your daughter, my lady, and are you now
going to recognise me too as your daughter?"

"Who's your mother?" Lady Feng exclaimed.

"Don't you actually know her?" put in Li Kung-ts'ai with a smile. "She's
Lin Chih-hsiao's child."

This disclosure greatly surprised lady Feng. "What!" she consequently
cried, "is she really his daughter?"

"Why Lin Chih-hsiao and his wife," she resumed smilingly, "couldn't
either of them utter a sound if even they were pricked with an awl.
I've always maintained that they're a well-suited couple; as the one is
as deaf as a post, and the other as dumb as a mute. But who would ever
have expected them to have such a clever girl! By how much are you in
your teens?"

"I'm seventeen," replied Hsia Hung.

"What is your name?" she went on to ask.

"My name was once Hung Yue." Hsiao Hung rejoined. "But as it was a
duplicate of that of Master Secundus, Mr. Pao-yue, I'm now simply called
Hsiao Hung."