"
As it might be some time before another story so suitable should be
offered, or one which would afford so good an opportunity of wafting
incense to Tien, and of displaying her incomparable outline in
dignified and magnanimous attitudes, this was eagerly accepted, and
for the next week this obscure person spent all his days and nights in
picturing the lovely Tien and his debased self in the characters of
the nobly-born young priest of Fo and Wu Ping. The pictures finished,
he caused them to be carefully conveyed to the office, and then,
sitting down, spent many hours in composing the following letter, to
be sent to Tien, accompanying a copy of the printed leaves wherein the
story and his drawing should appear:
"When the light has for a period been hidden from a person, it is no
uncommon thing for him to be struck blind on gazing at the sun;
therefore, if the sublime Tien values the eyes of Kin Yen, let her
hide herself behind a gauze screen on his approach.
"The trembling words of Tien have sunk deep into the inside of Kin Yen
and become part of his being. Never again can he depict persons of the
quality and in the position he was wont to do.
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