“Alas, Great Sir, it is true, I have been unfortunate——”
“Go get her at once, at once,” interrupted the mandarin excitedly.
“How can I, how can I?” asked the old man, bowing with trepidation.
“How can you?” mocked the mandarin scornfully. “How can you? Because I ordered it. I, Ho Ling, Mandarin of the Fifth Rank.” And Ho Ling, Mandarin of the Fifth Rank, scowling with dignity, stepped back and folded his hands majestically on his stomach.
When the farmer returned he bowed mutely before the mandarin.
“Well?” he demanded.
“I told her; yes, yes,” cried Ma Shue, “she is coming.”
“When?”
“She said,” and the old farmer looked uneasily at the feet of the mandarin, “she said——”
“Well?”