"Your servant," he pleaded, "has come at an early hour every day; and it's only to-day that I come late by one step; and I entreat your ladyship to forgive this my first offence."
While yet he spoke, she perceived the wife of Wang Hsing, of the Jung
Kuo mansion, come forward and pop her head in to see what was going on;
but lady Feng did not let this man go, but went on to inquire of Wang
Hsing's wife what she had come for.
Wang Hsing's wife drew near. "I've come," she explained, "to get an order, so as to obtain some thread to make tassels for the carriages and chairs." Saying this, she produced the permit and handed it up, whereupon lady Feng directed Ts'ai Ming to read the contents aloud. "For two large, sedan chairs," he said, "four small sedan chairs and four carriages, are neede
