"With thoughts as ardent as a quenchless thirst,
She sends me fragrant and most luscious fruit;
Without a blush she seeks a phenix guest [a bachelor]
Who dwells alone like case-enveloped lute."

After this mental effort Jasmine went to bed. Nor had her interview with
the waiting-woman made a sufficient impression on her mind to interfere
in any way with her sleep. She was surprised, however, on coming into
her sitting-room in the morning, to meet the same messenger, who, laden
with a dish of hot eggs and a brew of tea, begged Jasmine to "deign to
look down upon her offerings."

"Many thanks," said Jasmine, "for your kind attention."

"You are putting the saddle on the wrong horse," replied the woman. "In
bringing you these I am but obeying the orders of Miss King, who herself
made the tea of leaves from Pu-erh in Yunnan, and who with her own fair
hands shelled the eggs."

"Your young lady," answered Jasmine, "is as bountiful as she is kind.
What return can I make her for her kindness to a stranger? Stay," she
said, as the thought crossed her mind that the verses she had written
the night before might prove a wholesome tonic for this effusive young
lady, "I have a few verses which I will venture to ask her to accept."
So saying, she took a piece of peach-blossom paper, on which she
carefully copied the quatrain and handed it to the woman. "May I trouble
you," said she, "to take this to your mistress?"

"If," said Jasmine to herself as the woman took her departure, "Miss