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 3i 8 CHINESE LITERATURE

ask you to seek what you require at some other estab- lishment. It is quite impossible for me to execute your commands.'

"T'ang was again expressing his astonishment at this extraordinary reversal of the platitudes of trade, when the would-be purchaser replied, ' For you, sir, to ask such a low sum for these first-class goods, and then to turn round and accuse me of over-considering your interests, is indeed a sad breach of etiquette. Trade could not be carried on at all if 'all the advantages were on one side and the losses on the other ; neither am I more devoid of brains than the ordinary run of people that I should fail to understand this principle and let you catch me in a trap.'

"So they went on wrangling and jangling, the stall- keeper refusing to charge any more and the runner insisting on paying his own price, until the latter made a show of yielding and put down the full sum demanded on the counter, but took only half the amount of goods. Of course the stall-keeper would not consent to this, and they would both have fallen back upon their original positions had not two old gentlemen who happened to be passing stepped aside and arranged the matter for them, by deciding that the runner was to pay the full price but to receive only four-fifths of the goods.

"T'ang and his companions walked on in silence, meditating upon the strange scene they had just wit- nessed ; but they had not gone many steps when they came across a soldier similarly engaged in buying things at an open shop-window. He was saying, 'When I asked the price of these goods, you, sir, begged me to take them at my own valuation ; but now that I am willing to do so, you complain of the large sum I offer,

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