While those who occupied honourable and remunerative
positions very earnestly entreated the Mandarin to act in the manner
which had been suggested by the first speaker, others--who had, in the
meantime, made use of imagined figures, and thereby discovered that
the proposed change would be greatly to their advantage--raised shouts
of encouragement towards the proposal of the pigtail-maker, urging the
noble Mandarin not to become small in the face towards the
insignificant few who were ever opposed to enlightened reform, but to
maintain an unflaccid upper lip, and carry the entire matter through
to its destined end. In the course of this very unseemly tumult, which
soon involved all persons present in hostile demonstrations towards
each other, both the Mandarin and the official from the Fireworks and
Coloured Lights Department found an opportunity to pass away secretly,
the former to consider well the various sides of the matter, towards
which he became better disposed with every thought, the latter to find
a purchaser of his appointment and leave Fow Hou before the likelihood
of Chan Hung's scheme became generally known.
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