ABSTRACT
Councillor Pi, realising that he had both swindled out of his money and robbed of a wife, was seething with rage and determined to have his revenge. Councillor Pi's grievance was banished and for the moment he took no further steps against the Grand Mistress. And when, one night, Steaming Waters suggested that he should keep her permanently as lid for the pot and arrange for her release from the flower-garden, that pillow of bitterness, he agreed without hesitation. As soon as Councillor Pi's back was turned, the Grand Mistress began to intrigue against him. She invited the Police Prefect Po to a secret conclave at her house, and offered him Steaming Waters as his mistress for a whole year without payment, a most generous gesture. The lot which awaited the Grand Mistress in that strange northern clime, by the side of the brave septuagenarian, might well have been tolerable.
