“I shall be sorry to leave you,” she replied.
“But more glad than sad,” said the old man. “Sie, your husband is now a fine fellow. He has changed wonderfully during his years of probation.”
“Then I shall neither know nor love him,” said Sie mischievously. “Why, here he—”
“My sweet one!”
“My husband!”
“My children, take my blessing; be good and be happy. I go to my pipe, to dream of bliss if not to find it.”
With these words Koan-lo the First retired.
“Is he not almost as a god?” said Sie.
“Yes,” answered her husband, drawing her on to his knee. “He has been better to me than I have deserved. And you—ah, Sie, how can you care for me when you know what a bad fellow I have been?”
“Well,” said Sie contentedly, “it is always our best friends who know how bad we are.”