THERE was a regular fracas. We had made certain of our ‘morning’ of cold fowl, rice, and the flavoury decoction; anathematised the mule-driver for his tardiness, and showered a hail-storm of harsh-sounding phrases on the bristly head of the groom, intended considerably to sharpen his sight and intellect, both of which, we had very good cause to suspect, had been materially affected by a night's gambling, and by potations of warm Samshu—alas! his Roman Catholic principles and religious education had not done much to correct these flaws in Chinese human nature.

The bill was produced, read, and negatived, to the intense disgust of the saturnine old crab-apple of a host, who had been lurking in a recess, watching us like a spider for a fly, and pounced out at the last moment with a miserable shred of common paper, on which was a cramped, confused, and botched list of all sorts of things, put down at four times the price we had paid at the other houses: this he unblushingly held up for M. to examine.

The craft of the man was sufficiently evident; he was clearly endeavouring to make us pay for the destruction of his infirm courtyard wall, levelled the evening before by the now circumspect populace, who formed a wide circle around us while the question was being discussed whether one-half of the extortionate charge would suffice, or whether we must refer the whole business to a mandarin.