"Don't ask questions," said the enraptured Tu. "Let it be enough for you
to know that Wei is as eager for the possession of Miss King as he
was for your sister, and that he has promised to be my best man at our
wedding to-morrow."

And Wei was as good as his word. With every regard to ceremony and
ancient usage, the marriage of Tu and Jasmine was celebrated in the
presence of relatives and friends, who, attracted by the novelty of the
antecedent circumstances, came from all parts of the country to witness
the nuptials. By Tu's especial instructions also a prominence was
allowed to Wei, which gratified his vanity and smoothed down the ruffled
feathers of his conceit.

Jasmine thought that no time should be lost in reducing Miss King to the
same spirit of acquiescence to which Wei had been brought, and on the
evening of her wedding-day she broached the subject to Tu.

"I shall not feel, Tu, dear," she said, "that I have gained absolution
for my many deceptions until that very forward Miss King has been talked
over into marrying Wei; and I insist, therefore," she added, with an
amount of hesitancy which reduced the demand to the level of a plaintive
appeal, "that we start to-morrow for Ch'engtu to see the young woman."

"Ho! ho!" replied Tu, intensely amused at her attempted bravado.
"These are brave words, and I suppose that I must humbly register your
decrees."

"O Tu, you know what I mean. You know that, like a child who takes a
delight in conquering toy armies, I love to fancy that I can command so