sweet. After a few mouthfuls I was about to stop eating when I caught sight of Ah Shun standing in the far corner of the room. I lost the courage to put down the bowl and chopsticks. The expression on her face was one of fear and hope, fear lest she might not have prepared it properly, and hope that we might enjoy it. I knew that if I left the greater part of the bowl, she would be disappointed and self-reproachful because she had not done better. Thereupon, I made an effort and gulped every bit down, almost as fast as Chang-fu. I learned then what it means to force down food—I remember only one other experience of the sort when as a child I had to take a bowl of brown-sugar syrup mixed with powdered vermifuge. But I did not regret it, for when Ah Shun came to take away the bowls the smile of gratification that she tried so hard to hide more than compensated for my discomfort. So although I did not sleep well that night because of the bloated feeling in my stomach and had some terrible nightmares, I still wished her lifelong happiness, still wished that the world might be changed for the better for her sake. But these thoughts were only the echoes of bygone dreams. I would smile to myself when I thought of them and would soon forget about them.
"I did not know that she had been punished once because of an artificial flower, but when my mother told me about it, I recalled the jelly episode and I became unusually diligent. I searched all over Taiyuan without success. It was not until I got to Tsinan . . . "
There came a rustling sound from outside the window as the snow fell from a camellia tree that had been bent by its weight. The branches straightened out, revealing more completely the shiny luxuriant leaves and the blood-red flowers. The leaden sky was heavier. The birds were chirping plain-
