Mah Su was a Manchu lady, and in addition to considerable beauty of face possessed a remarkable vivacity and cheerfulness, and had not had her feet bound in her childhood. Lao Ng Tau loved his wife dearly, was charmed with her wit and accomplishments; and she was no less pleased with her husband, and the presents of pearls, gold, and jade that he lavished upon her. So for two years these two lived in the greatest serenity at Sung Ying Fu. Mah Su’s lips were the reddest and her teeth the whitest in the world, and these latter were shown to remarkable advantage when biting some sweetmeat or fruit at the same time as she chattered and laughed with her husband. She possessed a very marked penchant for nectarines, and having eaten about half a coolie-load of these one day, she was taken ill towards nightfall with severe pains near the lower edge of her embroidered jacket. Her husband was distracted at the sight of his incomparable wife rolling from side to side on her honourable bed, and occasionally assuming distressingly inelegant attitudes when a more excruciating twinge caused her for an instant to forget the refined deportment so necessary in the wife of a mandarin of Lao Ng Tau’s importance. The greatly and properly distressed husband saw at once the necessity of consulting a doctor, but his honourable mind was undecided whether to summon the foreign missionary doctor or the wise and justly reverenced Wing Fung. In earlier days Lao Ng Tau had resided in Hankow, and there had made great friends with an Englishman, of whose education and knowledge of the world he held a very high opinion. When the question of foreign missionaries arose in Lao’s mind, he would always recall the words of his old friend that “missionaries frequently did as much good as harm.” This thought rather inclined his acute mind towards the seeking of advice from the missionary doctor in Sung Ying Fu, but then, what of the renowned Wing Fung? When the cholera attacked the city of Sung Ying, was it not Wing Fung who lit small fires on the stomachs of those affected, had he not even done so to the meanest and most degraded of his patients, even supplying the firewood from his own store in some cases? Then, again, had he not cured the honourable Ah Wong of a most distressing and undignified skin disease by administering pills cunningly concocted of crabs’ eyes? Had not the noble Phat Cheong been relieved of an aggravating sprained ankle by rest and the occasional swallowing of live lob-worms soaked in honey? Again, had not the honourable wife of Sung Yee Hoy been restored to health after a careful diet of the thumb nails of the bald-faced monkey? Taking all things into consideration, Lao decided on employing the renowned and careful Wing Fung on this soul-moving and entirely discomposing occasion. Herein he was ill-advised, for had he consulted the missionary doctor he would at the least have secured a correct diagnosis, for the beautiful Mah Su lay