"My young lady," said the woman, "is the daughter of Mr. King, who was
a vice-president of a lower court. Her father and mother having both
visited the 'Yellow Springs' [Hades], she is now living with an aunt,
who has been blessed by the God of Wealth, and whose main object in life
is to find a husband whom her niece may be willing to marry. The
young gentleman, my young lady's cousin, is one of the richest men in
Ch'engtu. All the larger inns belong to him, and his profits are as
boundless as the four seas. He is as anxious as his mother to find a
suitable match for the young lady, and has promised that so soon as she
can make a choice he will arrange the wedding."
"I should have thought," said Jasmine, "that, being the owner of so much
wealth and beauty, the young lady would have been besieged by suitors
from all parts of the empire."
"So she is," said the woman, "and from her window yonder she espies
them, for they all put up at this inn. Hitherto she has made fun of them
all, and describes their appearance and habits in the most amusing way.
'See this one,' says she, 'with his bachelor cap on and his new official
clothes and awkward gait, looking for all the world like a barn-door
fowl dressed up as a stork; or that one, with his round shoulders,
monkey-face, and crooked legs;' and so she tells them off.
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