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pother and the old peaceful merchant looked in dismay from one to the other, and Lotus would not cease her din for one moment, so that all the men were distracted with such confusion. So it would have gone on for longer except that Wang the Third was outraged and he rose suddenly and stamped his hard leathern shoes upon the tiles and he shouted,
    “I will give it! What is a little silver? I am weary of this!”
    Now this seemed a good way out of the trouble, and the lady of Wang the Eldest said,
    “He can do it, for he is a lone man. He has no sons to think of as we have.”
    And Wang the Second smiled and shrugged himself a little and smiled his secret smile as one who says to himself, “Well, it is no affair of mine if a man is too foolish to defend his own!
    But the old merchant was very glad and he sighed and took out his kerchief and wiped his face, for he was a man who lived in a quiet house, and he was not used to such as Lotus. As for Lotus, she might have held to her din for a while longer except there was something so fierce about this third son of Wang Lung’s that she thought better of it. So she ceased her noise suddenly and sat down, well pleased with herself; and although she tried to keep her mouth drawn down and grieved, she forgot very soon and she stared freely at all the men, and she took watermelon seeds from a plate a slave held for her and cracked them between her teeth that were strong and white and sound still in spite of her age. And she was at her ease.
    Thus it was decided for Lotus. Then the old merchant looked about and he said,
    “Where is the second concubine? I see her name is written here.”
    Now this was Pear Blossom and not one of them had looked to see whether she was here or not and they looked now about the great hall and they sent slaves into the women’s courts, but she was not anywhere in that house. Then Wang the Eldest remembered he had forgot to summon her at all, and he sent for her in great haste and they waited an hour or so until she could come and they drank tea and waited and walked about, and at last she came with a maid servant to the door of the hall. But when she looked in and saw all the men she would not go in, and when she saw that soldier she went into the court again, and at last the old merchant went out to her there. He looked at her kindly and not full in the face so as to dismay her, and he saw how young she still was, a young woman still and very pale and pretty, and he said,
    “Lady, you are so young that none can blame you if your life is not over yet, and there is plenty of silver to give you a good sum and you may go to your home again and marry a good man or do as you will.”
    But she, being all unprepared for such words, thought she was being sent out somewhere and she did not understand and she cried out, her voice fluttering and weak with her fright,
    “Oh, sir, I have no home and I have no one at all except my dead lord’s fool and he left her to me and we have nowhere to go! Oh, sir, I thought we could live on in the earthen house and we eat very little and we need only cotton clothes for I shall never wear silk again, now that my lord is dead, not so long as I live, and we will not trouble anyone in the great house!”
    The old merchant went back into the hall then and he asked the eldest brother, wondering,
    “Who is this fool of whom she speaks?”
    And Wang the Eldest answered, hesitating, “It is but a poor thing, a sister of ours, who was never right from her childhood, and my father and mother did not let her starve or suffer as some do to these creatures to hasten their end and so she has lived on to this day. My father commanded this woman of his to care for her, and if she will not wed again let some silver be given her and let her do as she wishes, for she is very mild and it is true she will trouble no one.”
    At this Lotus called out suddenly, “Yes, but she need not have much, because she has ever been but a slave in this