"What's its title?" old lady Chia inquired.

"It's called: 'A Feng seeks a Luan in marriage': (the male phoenix asks the female phoenix in marriage)," one of the girls answered.

"The title is all very well," dowager lady Chia proceeded, "but why I wonder was it ever given to it. First tell us its general purport, and if it's interesting, you can continue."

"This story," the girl explained, "treats of the time when the T'ang dynasty was extinguished. There lived then one of the gentry, who had originally been a denizen of Chin Ling. His name was Wang Chun. He had been minister under two reigns. He had, about this time, pleaded old age and returned to his home. He had about his knees only one son, called Wang Hsi-feng."

When the company heard so far, they began to laugh.

"Now isn't this a duplicate of our girl Feng's name?" old lady Chia laughingly exclaimed.

A married woman hurried up and pushed (the girl). "That's the name of your lady Secunda," she said, "so don't use it quite so heedlessly!"

"Go on with your story!" dowager lady Chia shouted.

The girl speedily stood up, smiling the while. "We do deserve death!" she observed. "We weren't aware that it was our lady's worthy name."

"Why should you be in such fear and trembling?" lady Feng laughed. "Go on! There are many duplicate names and duplicate surnames."