his purse and trinkets, when Jasmine burst into the young men's study,
looking deadly pale and bearing traces of acute mental distress on her
usually bright and joyous countenance.

"What is the matter?" cried Tu, with almost as much agitation as was
shown by Jasmine. "Tell me what has happened."

"Oh, my father, my poor father!" sobbed Jasmine.

"What is the matter with your father? He is not dead, is he?" cried the
young men in one breath.

"No, it is not so bad as that," said Jasmine, "but a great and bitter
misfortune has come upon us. As you know, some time ago my father had
a quarrel with the military intendant, and that horrid man has, out of
spite, brought charges against him for which he was carried off this
morning to prison."

The statement of her misery and the shame involved in it completely
unnerved poor Jasmine, who, true to her inner sex, burst into tears
and rocked herself to and fro in her grief. Tu and Wei, on their knees
before her, tried to pour in words of consolation. With a lack of reason
which might be excused under the circumstances, they vowed that her
father was innocent before they knew the nature of the charges against
him, and they pledged themselves to rest neither day nor night until
they had rescued him from his difficulty. When, under the influence of
their genuine sympathy, Jasmine recovered some composure, Tu begged her
to tell him of what her father was accused.

"The villain," said Jasmine, through her tears, "has dared to say