For when his eyes next rested upon the
exceedingly contradictory Liao, he was seated in the open space before
the house in which Ts'ain dwelt, playing upon an instrument of
stringed woods, and chanting verses into which the names of the two
persons in question had been skilfully introduced without restraint,
his whole manner of behaving being with the evident purpose of
attracting the maiden's favourable attention. After an absence of many
days, spent in this graceful and complimentary manner, Liao returned
suddenly to the house of his father, and, prostrating his body before
him, made a specific request for his assistance.
"'As regards Ts'ain and myself,' he continued, 'all things are
arranged, and but for the unfortunate coincidence of this person's
poverty and of her father's cupidity, the details of the wedding
ceremony would undoubtedly now be in a very advanced condition. Upon
these entrancing and well-discussed plans, however, the shadow of the
grasping and commonplace Ah-Ping has fallen like the inopportune
opium-pipe from the mouth of a person examining substances of an
explosive nature; for the one referred to demands a large and utterly
unobtainable amount of taels before he will suffer his
greatly-sought-after daughter to accept the gifts of irretrievable
intention.
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