"Wait till he comes," added lady Feng, "when I feel certain I shall find some way."
What happened, however, when Chia Jui came has not, as yet, been ascertained, but listen, reader, to the explanation given in the next chapter.
CHAPTER XII.
Wang Hsi-feng maliciously lays a trap for Chia Jui, under pretence
that his affection is reciprocated.
Chia T'ien-hsiang gazes at the face of the mirror of Voluptuousness.
Lady Feng, it must be noticed in continuation of our narrative, was just engaged in talking with P'ing Erh, when they heard some one announce that Mr. Jui had come. Lady Feng gave orders that he should be invited to step in, and Chia Jui perceiving that he had been asked to walk in was at heart elated at the prospect of seeing her.
With a face beaming with smiles, Lady Feng inquired again and again how he was; and, with simulated tenderness she further pressed him to take a seat and urged him to have a cup of tea.
Chia Jui noticed how still more voluptuous lady Feng looked in her present costume, and, as his eyes burnt with love, "How is it," he inquired, "that my elder brother Secundus is not yet back?"
"What the reason is I cannot tell," lady Feng said by way of reply.
"May it not be," Chia Jui smilingly insinuated, "that some fair damsel has got hold of him on the way, and that he cannot brook to tear himself from her to come home?"
"That makes it plain that there are those among men who fall in love with any girl they cast their eyes on," hinted lady Feng.