of her own making entirely; I know that I myself had gradually drawn away from her and had neglected her as far back as I can remember."
He lapsed into another silence, his head lowered in thought, while his cigarette burned on. The lamp flickered.
"Ah, how bitter it is to think that no one would mourn for you after you are dead," he said as if to himself. After a while he raised his head and said to me, "I suppose there isn't anything that you can do. I must find something to do as soon as possible."
"Don't you have any other friends to call upon?" For I was then at the end of my own resources.
"There are still a few, but most of them are situated much as I am."
When I left Lien-shu the round moon was in the middle of the sky.
It was a very still night. Conditions in the educational world at Shan-yang were very bad. Two months after I got there I had not received a penny of my salary. I had to cut out even cigarettes. But the officers of the school, although they earned only fifteen or sixteen dollars a month, were every one of them contented men who knew their places and who worked from morning till night, in spite of their sallow faces and skinny bodies, thanks to the "copper sinews and iron bones" they had gradually cultivated. Moreover, they had to stand up every time they met their superiors. They were not people who "must have enough of food and clothing before they can be expected to know the rites and proper conduct." These things always reminded me of the words of Lien-shu when I took leave of him. His circumstances had gone from bad to worse. There was an air of diffidence about him, whereas be-
