"And your honourable second name?"
"My humble name is Ia-koh" (James).
"What an extraordinary name! I never heard it before. How do you write it?"
I told him, and added, "It is a common name in the district from which I come."
"And may I ask whence you come and whither you are going?"
"I am journeying from Shanghai to Ningpo, by way of Hang-chau."
"What may be your honourable profession?"
"I heal the sick."
"Oh! you are a physician," the landlord remarked; and to my intense relief closed the book. His wife, however, took up the conversation.
"You are a physician, are you?" said she; "I am glad of that, for I have a daughter afflicted with leprosy. If you will cure her, you shall have your supper and bed for nothing."