Page:Ernest Bramah - Kai Lungs Golden Hours.djvu/172

 grasping and self-indulgent father has in the past been pressed to a too conspicuous front, at the expense of the harmonious relation that should exist between a comfortably positioned servant and a generous and benevolent master. Now in the matter of these two coffin cloths"

"My ears are widely opened towards your auspicious words, benevolence," replied Lin.

"You, Cheng Lin, are still too young to be concerned with the question of Passing Beyond; your imperishable father is, one is compelled to say, already old enough to go. As regards both persons, therefore, the assumed virtue of one burial robe above another should be merely a matter of speculative interest. Now if some arrangement should be suggested, not unprofitable to yourself, by which one robe might be imperceptibly substituted for another and, after all, one burial robe is very like another"

"The prospect of deceiving a trustful and venerated sire is so ignoble that scarcely any material gain would be a fitting compensation were it not for the fact that an impending loss of vision renders the deception somewhat easy to accomplish. Proceed, therefore, munificence, towards a precise statement of your open-handed prodigality."

Indescribable was the bitterness of Shen Heng's throat when Cheng Lin unfolded his burden and revealed the Wang Ho thousand-tael burial robe, with an unassuming request for the return of the purchase money, either in gold or honourable paper, as the article was found unsuitable. Shen Heng shook the rafters of the Golden Abacus with indignation,