Page:Strange stories from a Chinese studio.djvu/52

A CHINESE STUDIO 23

Some six months had passed away, when one day Mr. K'ung took it into his head that he would like to go out for a stroll in the country. The entrance, however, was carefully closed ; and on asking the reason, the young man told him that his father wished to receive no guests for fear of causing interruption to his studies. So K'ung thought no more about it ; and by-and-by, when the heat of summer came on, they moved their study to a pavilion in the garden. At this time Mr. K'ung had a swelling on the chest about as big as a peach, which, in a single night, increased to the size of a bowl. There he lay groaning with the pain, while his pupil waited upon him day and night. He slept badly and took hardly any food ; and in a few days the place got so much worse that he could neither eat nor drink. The old gentleman also came in, and he and his son lamented over him together. Then the young man said, '* I was thinking last night that my sister, Chiao-no, would be able to cure Mr. K'ung, and accordingly I sent over to my grandmother's asking her to come. She ought to be here by now." At that moment a servant entered and announced Miss Chiao-no, who had come with her cousin, having been at her aunt's house. Her father and brother ran out to meet her, and then brought her in to see Mr. K'ung. She was between thirteen and fourteen years old, and had beautiful eyes with a very intelligent expression in them, and a most graceful figure besides. No sooner had Mr. K'ung beheld this lovely creature than he quite forgot to groan, and began to brighten up. Mean- while the young man was sajdng, " This respected friend of mine is the same to me as a brother. Try, sister, to cure him." Miss Chiao-no immediately dismissed her blushes, and rolling up her long sleeves approached the bed to feel his pulse.* As she was grasping his wrist, K'ujig became conscious of a perfume more delicate than that of the epidendrum ; and then she laughed, saying, " This illness was to be expected ; for the heart is touched. Though it is severe, a cure can be effected ; but, as there is already a swelling, not without using the knife." Then

• Volumes have been written by Chinese doctors on the subject

of the pulse. They profess to distinguish as many as twenty-four different kinds, among which is one well known to our own prac- titioners — ^namely, the *' thready " pulse ; they, moreover, make a point of feeling the pulses of both wrists,