CHAPTER III
THE DEGRADED PERSISTENCE OF THE EFFETE MING-SHU
At about the same gong-stroke as before Kai Lung again stood at the open shutter, and to him presently came the maiden Hwa-mei, bearing in her hands a gift of fruit.
"The story of the much-harassed merchant Wong Ts'in and of the assiduous youth Wei Chang has reached this person's ears by a devious road, and though it doubtless lost some of the subtler qualities in the telling, the ultimate tragedy had a convincing tone," she remarked pleasantly.
"It is scarcely to be expected that one who has spent his life beneath an official umbrella should have at his command the finer analogies of light and shade," tolerantly replied Kai Lung. "Though by no means comparable with the unapproachable history of the Princess Taik and the minstrel Ch'eng as a means for conveying the unexpressed aspirations of the one who relates towards the one who is receptive, there are many passages even in the behaviour of Wei Chang into which this person could infuse an unmistakable stress of significance were he but given the opportunity."
"The day of that opportunity has not yet dawned," replied the Golden Mouse; "nor has the night pre-
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