The meeting between Ling and Mian was affecting to such an extent that the blind and deaf attendants wept openly without reproach, notwithstanding the fact that neither could become possessed of more than a half of the occurrence.  Eagerly the two reunited ones examined each other’s features to discover whether the separation had brought about any change in the beloved and well-remembered lines.  Ling discovered upon Mian the shadow of an anxious care at his absence, while the disappointments and trials which Ling had experienced in Canton had left traces which were plainly visible to Mian’s penetrating gaze.  In such an entrancing occupation the time was to them without hours until a feeling of hunger recalled them to lesser matters, when a variety of very select foods and liquids was placed before them without delay.  After this elegant repast had been partaken of, Mian, supporting herself upon Ling’s shoulder, made a request that he would disclose to her all the matters which had come under his observation both within the city and during his journey to and from that place.  Upon this encouragement, Ling proceeded to unfold his mind, not withholding anything which appeared to be of interest, no matter how slight.  When he had reached Canton without any perilous adventure, Mian breathed more freely; as he recorded the interview at the Office of Warlike Deeds and Arrangements, she trembled at the insidious malignity of the evil person Li Keen.  The conversation with the wise reader of the future concerning the various states of such as be officially dead almost threw her into the rigid sickness, from which, however, the wonderful circumstance of the discovered properties of the gold fluid quickly recalled her.  But to Ling’s great astonishment no sooner had he made plain the exceptional advantages which he had derived from the circumstances, and the nature of the undertaking at which he had arrived with Chang-ch’un, than she became a prey to the most intolerable and unrestrained anguish.

“Oh, my devoted but excessively ill-advised lover,” she exclaimed wildly, and in tones which clearly indicated that she was inspired by every variety of affectionate emotion, “has the unendurable position in which you and all your household will be placed by the degrading commercial schemes and instincts of the mercenary-souled person Chang-ch’un occupied no place in your generally well-regulated intellect?  Inevitably will those who drink our almond tea, in order to have an opportunity of judging the value of the appointments of the house, pass the jesting remark that while the Lings assuredly have ’a dead person’s bones in the secret chamber,’ at the present they will not have one in the family graveyard by reason of the death of Ling himself.  Better to lose a thousand limbs during life than the entire person after death; nor would your adoring Mian hesitate to clasp proudly to her organ of affection the veriest trunk that had parted with all its attributes in a noble and sacrificing endeavour to preserve at least some dignified proportions to embellish the Ancestral Temple and to receive the worship of posterity.”