On entering Canton, which he successfully accomplished without any unpleasant adventure, the marked absence of any dignified ostentation which had been accountable for many of Ling’s misfortunes in the past, impelled him again to reside in the same insignificant apartment that he had occupied when he first visited the city as an unknown and unimportant candidate. In consequence of this, when Ling was communicating to any person the signs by which messengers might find him, he was compelled to add, “the neighbourhood in which this contemptible person resides is that officially known as ‘the mean quarter favoured by the lower class of those who murder by treachery,’” and for this reason he was not always treated with the regard to which his attainments entitled him, or which he would have unquestionably received had he been able to describe himself as of “the partly-drained and uninfected area reserved to Mandarins and their friends.”  
It was with an ignoble feeling of mental distress that Ling exhibited himself at the Chief Office of Warlike Deeds and Arrangements on the following day; for the many disadvantageous incidents of his past life had repeated themselves before his eyes while he slept, and the not unhopeful emotions which he had felt when in the inspiring presence of Mian were now altogether absent. In spite of the fact that he reached the office during the early gong strokes of the morning, it was not until the withdrawal of light that he reached any person who was in a position to speak with him on the matter, so numerous were the lesser ones through whose chambers he had to pass in the process. At length he found himself in the presence of an upper one who had the appearance of being acquainted with the circumstances, and who received him with dignity, though not with any embarrassing exhibition of respect or servility.
 
“‘The hero of the illustrious encounter beyond the walls of Si-chow,’” exclaimed that official, reading the words from the tablet of introduction which Ling had caused to be carried into him, and at the same time examining the person in question closely. “Indeed, no such one is known to those within this office, unless the words chance to point to the courteous and unassuming Mandarin Li Keen, who, however, is at this moment recovering his health at Peking, as set forth in the amiable and impartial report which we have lately received from him.”
 
At these words Ling plainly understood that there was little hope of the last events becoming profitable on his account.
 
“Did not the report to which allusion has been made bear reference to one Ling, Commander of the Archers, who thrice led on the fighting men, and who was finally successful in causing the rebels to disperse towards the mountains?” he asked, in a voice which somewhat trembled.
 
“There is certainly reference to one of the name you mention,” said the other; “but regarding the terms—perhaps this person would better protect his own estimable time by displaying the report within your sight.”
 
With these words the upper one struck a gong several times, and after receiving from an inner chamber the parchment in question, he placed it before Ling, at the same time directing a lesser one to interpose between it and the one who read it a large sheet of transparent substance, so that destruction might not come to it, no matter in what way its contents affected the reader. Thereon Ling perceived the following facts, very skilfully inscribed with the evident purpose of inducing persons to believe, without question, that words so elegantly traced must of necessity be truthful also.
 
  A Benevolent Example of the Intelligent Arrangement by which the
  most Worthy Persons outlive those who are Incapable.
 
  The circumstances connected with the office of the valuable and
  accomplished Mandarin of Warlike Deeds and Arrangements at Si-chow
  have, in recent times, been of anything but a prepossessing order.
  Owing to the very inadequate methods adopted by those who earn a
  livelihood by conveying necessities from the more enlightened
  portions of the Empire to that place, it so came about that for a
  period of five days the Yamen was entirely unsupplied with the
  fins of sharks or even with goats’ eyes. To add to the polished
  Mandarin’s distress of mind the barbarous and slow-witted rebels
  who infest those parts took this opportunity to destroy the town
  and most of its inhabitants, the matter coming about as follows:
 
  The feeble and commonplace person named Ling who commands the
  bowmen had but recently been elevated to that distinguished
  position from a menial and degraded occupation (for which, indeed,
  his stunted intellect more aptly fitted him); and being in
  consequence very greatly puffed out in self-gratification, he
  became an easy prey to the cunning of the rebels, and allowed
  himself to be beguiled into a trap, paying for this contemptible
  stupidity with his life. The town of Si-chow was then attacked,
  and being in this manner left defenceless through the weakness—or
  treachery—of the person Ling, who had contrived to encompass the
  entire destruction of his unyielding company, it fell after a
  determined and irreproachable resistance; the Mandarin Li Keen
  being told, as, covered with the blood of the foemen, he was
  dragged away from the thickest part of the unequal conflict by his
  followers, that he was the last person to leave the town. On his
  way to Peking with news of this valiant defence, the Mandarin was
  joined by the Chief of Bowmen, who had understood and avoided the
  very obvious snare into which the stagnant-minded Commander had
  led his followers, in spite of disinterested advice to the
  contrary. For this intelligent perception, and for general
  nobility of conduct when in battle, the versatile Chief of Bowmen
  is by this written paper strongly recommended to the dignity of
  receiving the small metal Embellishment of Valour.
 
  It has been suggested to the Mandarin Li Keen that the bestowal of
  the Crystal Button would only be a fit and graceful reward for his
  indefatigable efforts to uphold the dignity of the sublime
  Emperor; but to all such persons the Mandarin has sternly replied
  that such a proposal would more fitly originate from the renowned
  and valuable Office of Warlike Deeds and Arrangements, he well
  knowing that the wise and engaging persons who conduct that
  indispensable and well-regulated department are gracefully
  voracious in their efforts to reward merit, even when it is
  displayed, as in the case in question, by one who from his
  position will inevitably soon be urgently petitioning in a like
  manner on their behalf.
 
When Ling had finished reading this elegantly arranged but exceedingly misleading parchment, he look............