"
"Oh, my peacock-eyed one!" exclaimed Ling, in immeasurable distress,
"so proficient an exhibition of virtuous grief crushes this misguided
person completely to the ground. Rather would he uncomplainingly lose
his pigtail than--"
"Such a course," said a discordant voice, as the unpresentable person
Wang stepped forth from behind a hanging curtain, where, indeed, he
had stood concealed during the entire conversation, "is especially
forbidden by the twenty-third detail of the things to be done and not
to be done."
"What new adversity is this?" cried Mian, pressing to Ling with a
still closer embrace. "Having disposed of your incomparable body after
death, surely an adequate amount of liberty and seclusion remains to
us during life."
"Nevertheless," interposed the dog-like Wang, "the refined person in
question must not attempt to lose or to dispose of his striking and
invaluable pigtail; for by such an action he would be breaking through
his spoken and written word whereby he undertook to be ruled by the
things to be done and not to be done; and he would also be robbing the
ingenious-minded Chang-ch'un."
"Alas!" lamented the unhappy Ling, "that which appeared to be the end
of all this person's troubles is obviously simply the commencement of
a new and more extensive variety.
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