Big Liang's grandmother was not sure about that. Some people say that consumptives lose their power of speech before their death.
"But His Excellency was a very strange man," she said suddenly, lowering her voice. "He would not try to save anything, but spent his money like water. His Honor Thirteen is inclined to think that we have gotten something out of him. But the truth is that we never got even a whiff of his money. He spent everything no one knows how or on what. He would buy something one day and sell it the next. Or he would destroy what he bought—no one knows how or why. When he died he left nothing. He had squandered everything. Otherwise it would not be so quiet around here now . . .
"Yes, he was a reckless one. He would not think about the most important things in life. I have tried to advise him that he should get married, at his age. It would have been easy for him to find a good match in his recent circumstances. He might at least have bought a couple of concubines, if he could not find a suitable match. One must try to be respectable. But he only laughed at me saying, 'Old wench, are you still trying to be a matchmaker?' He took nothing seriously and would not heed any advice no matter how sincerely it was offered. If he had listened to my words, he would not have to feel his way around in the other world all by himself. At the very least he would have some dear one to mourn for him."
A store clerk arrived with a package of clothes. The relatives of the deceased took out the clothes and went behind the mourning curtains. Presently the curtains were pulled back. The underclothes had been changed; now they proceeded to put on the outer garments. These occasioned some
