Page:Mrs. Spring Fragrance - Far - 1912.djvu/208

 "You have been mine now for over two weeks," said Koan-lo the Second. "Do you still love me, Sie?"

"Look into mine eyes and see,'* she answered.

"And are you happy?"

"Happy! Yes, and this is the happiest day of all, because today my father obtains his freedom."

"How is that, Sie?"

"Why, Koan-lo, you know. Does not my father receive today the balance of the price you pay for me, and is not that, added to what you sent in advance, sufficient to purchase my father's freedom? My dear, good father — he has worked so hard all these years. He has ever been so kind to me. How glad am I to think that through me the God of Restoration has decreed that he shall no longer be a slave. Yes, I am the happiest woman in the world today."

Sie kissed her husband's hand.

He drew it away and hid with it his face.

"Ah, dear husband!" cried Sie. "You are very sick."

"No, not sick," replied the miserable Koan-lo—"but, Sie, I must tell you that I am a very poor man, and we have got to leave this pretty house in the country and go to some