When Ling had finished reading this elegantly arranged but exceedingly
misleading parchment, he looked up with eyes from which he vainly
endeavoured to restrain the signs of undignified emotion, and said to
the upper one:
"It is difficult employment for a person to refrain from unendurable
thoughts when his unassuming and really conscientious efforts are
represented in a spirit of no satisfaction, yet in this matter the
very expert Li Keen appears to have gone beyond himself; the Commander
Ling, who is herein represented as being slain by the enemy, is,
indeed, the person who is standing before you, and all the other
statements are in a like exactness."
"The short-sighted individual who for some hidden desire of his own is
endeavouring to present himself as the corrupt and degraded creature
Ling, has overlooked one important circumstance," said the upper one,
smiling in a very intolerable manner, at the same time causing his
head to move slightly from side to side in the fashion of one who
rebukes with assumed geniality; and, turning over the written paper,
he displayed upon the under side the Imperial vermilion Sign.
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