noon
If , as Shen Heng never ceased to declare , Min was still somewhere alive , let her be produced and a fitting token of reconciliation would be forthcoming ; otherwise , although with the acutest reluctance , it would be necessary to carry the claim to the court of the chief District Mandarin , and -LRB- Cheng Lin trembled at the sacrilegious thought -RRB- it would be impossible to conceal the fact that Shen Heng employed persons of inauspicious omen , and the high repute of coffin cloths from the Golden Abacus would be lost . The hint arrested Shen Heng 's fingers in the act of tearing out a handful of his beautiful pigtail . For the first time he noticed , with intense self-reproach , that Lin was not reclining on a couch . The amiable discussion that followed , conducted with discriminating dignity by Shen Heng and conscientious humility on the part of Cheng Lin , extended from one gong-stroke before noon until close upon the time for the evening rice . The details arrived at were that Shen Heng should deliver to Lin eight-hundred and seventy-five taels against the return of the robe . He would also press upon that person a silk purse with an onyx clasp , containing twenty-five taels , as a deliberate mark of his individual appreciation and quite apart from anything to do with the transaction on hand . All suggestions of anything other than the strictest high-mindedness were withdrawn from both sides .