Their faces were painted and their eyebrows
formed into slender and perfect arches whence the soul of man
might well slip to perdition, and a breath of sweet odor followed
each wherever she moved. Every one might have been the Empress of
some lesser kingdom; but though rumours reached the Son of Heaven
from time to time of their charms, - especially when some new
blossom was added to the Imperial bouquet,- he had dismissed them
from his august thoughts, and they languished in a neglect so
complete that the Great Cold Palaces of the Moon were not more
empty than their hearts. They remained under the supervision of
the Princess of Han, August Aunt of the Emperor, knowing that
their Lord considered the company of sleeve-dogs and macaws more
pleasant than their own. Nor had he as yet chosen an Empress, and
it was evident that without some miracle, such as the
intervention of the Municipal God, no heir to the throne could be
hoped for.
Yet the Emperor one day remembered his imprisoned beauties, and
it crossed the Imperial thoughts that even these inferior
creatures might afford such interest as may be found in the
gambols of trained fleas or other insects of no natural
attainments.
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