In this way peace having been restored and all internal affairs of State set running smoothly, the new magistrate, who was something of a Sybarite, began to turn his attention to improvements in his yamen, and to the surrounding of himself with every luxury. He spent money freely, employing hosts of builders, carpenters, painters, and other workmen in embellishing his house and grounds, and in this way soon earned a certain popularity as a beneficent magistrate. Yeh, however, had unwittingly earned the undying hatred of the hunchback, whose filial piety would allow him to leave no stone unturned in his endeavour to avenge the—to his mind—illegal execution of his aged mother. Having beautified the interior of his yamen, the magistrate turned his attention to the spacious grounds surrounding his residence, and who more able to provide fantastic rock-work, design ornamental ponds, bridges, hills, and valleys, and complete the whole scheme with cunning dwarf trees and shrubs, than the hunchback gardener, To Tao? Accordingly, to his huge inward satisfaction, the hunchback was commanded to wait on the great man, and he failed in no way to please the magistrate with his original ideas and quaint suggestions. To Tao’s manner was all that could be desired: he grasped every idea of the magistrate almost before it was expressed, and his own politely suggested improvements so entirely corresponded with Yeh’s wishes that he completely won his employer’s confidence. No tree in To Tao’s collection was too valuable for Yeh, and soon the grounds of the yamen, under the magic of the hunchback’s witchery, became a veritable paradise. When all was completed Yeh insisted upon taking the hunchback into his permanent service as gardener-in-chief, and the cunning fellow, after a suitable demur, accepted the position in the magistrate’s household. Thus the first step in his scheme of revenge was accomplished. The hunchback was the only servant in the yamen engaged locally, the remainder of Yeh’s retinue having followed their master from a distant province where this official had previously held sway. This fact proved of the greatest value to To Tao, for as he continued to ingratiate himself with his master he was employed on various other duties in addition to gardening, and his local knowledge enabled him to carry out every commission entrusted to him with complete satisfaction to his lord. The district having now lapsed into a condition of uneventful peace and a certain amount of commercial prosperity, Yeh sought relaxation in every luxury and some small amount of dissipation. To Tao here again proved most useful and trustworthy, and he took good care to unobtrusively encourage his master in what, at first, were mild extravagances, but which with the insidious help of To Tao soon developed into vices.