And Pan Chao did--and rightly so, for the maintuy was delicious--while
Doctor Tio-King contented himself with the lightest dish on the bill of
fare. It appeared from what Major Noltitz said that these maintuys
fried in fat are even more savory. And why should they not be,
considering that they take the name of "zenbusis," which signifies
"women's kisses?"

When Caterna heard this flattering phrase, he expressed his regret that
zenbusis did not figure on the breakfast table. To which his wife
replied by so tender a look that I ventured to say to him:

"You can find zenbusis elsewhere than in Central Asia, it seems to me."

"Yes," he replied, "they are to be met with wherever there are lovable
women to make them."

And Pan Chao added, with a laugh:

"And it is again at Paris that they make them the best."

He spoke like a man of experience, did my young Celestial.

I looked at Pan Chao; I admired him.

How he eats! What an appetite! Not of much use to him are the
observations of the doctor on the immoderate consumption of his radical
humidity.

The breakfast continued pleasantly. Conversation turned on the work of
the Russians in Asia. Pan Chao seemed to me well posted up in their