about father sending for you to go out."

"I presume," Pao-yue smiled, "that some one must have heard wrong, for he
never sent for me."

"I've again managed to save during the last few months," added T'an
Ch'un with another smile, "fully ten tiaos, so take them and bring me,
when at any time you stroll out of doors, either some fine writings or
some ingenious knicknack."

"Much as I have roamed inside and outside the city walls," answered
Pao-yue, "and seen grand establishments and large temples, I've never
come across anything novel or pretty. One simply sees articles made of
gold, jade, copper and porcelain, as well as such curios for which we
could find no place here. Besides these, there are satins, eatables, and
wearing apparel."

"Who cares for such baubles!" exclaimed T'an Ch'un. "How could they come
up to what you purchased the last time; that wee basket, made of willow
twigs, that scent-box, scooped out of a root of real bamboo, that
portable stove fashioned of glutinous clay; these things were, oh, so
very nice! I was as fond of them as I don't know what; but, who'd have
thought it, they fell in love with them and bundled them all off, just
as if they were precious things."

"Is it things of this kind that you really want?" laughed Pao-yue. "Why,
these are worth nothing! Were you to take a hundred cash and give them
to the servant-boys, they could, I'm sure, bring two cart-loads of
them."