His family connections were very exalted.  All his relatives belonged to the Tse,—­the learned and governing class.  His father had been one of the Tootche-yuen, a censor of the highest board, and was still a member of the council of ministerial Mandarins.  His uncle was a personal noble, a prince, higher in rank than the best of the Mandarins, and directed the deliberations of the Ping-pu, the Council of War.  Thus his station gave him access to all the best society.  His career was a path of roses.  He never knew a sorrow.  All were friendly to him, even the jealous, because it was the fashion.  The doors of the mighty opened at his approach, and the smiles of the noble greeted him.  He lived in an atmosphere of adulation, and yet resisted the more intoxicating influences of his dangerous elevation.  Young as he was, he had penetrated the social surface, and, marking its many uncertainties, had laid out for himself a system of diplomacy which he believed best calculated to fortify him in his agreeable position of master of modes and dictator of fashionable public opinion.

The course he adopted was thoroughly effective.  His sway was never disputed for a moment.  He knew his personal charms, and determined to enhance their value by displaying them sparingly.  Accordingly, he began by refusing forty-nine out of every fifty public invitations,—­his former habit having been to refuse but one in five.  He appeared on the promenade only twice in three weeks, but on these occasions he always artfully contrived to throw the community into the wildest excitement.  One day, he appeared arrayed from head to foot in yellow Nankin, a color always considered a special abomination in Pekin, but which was nevertheless instantly adopted by all the gallants about town,—­a proceeding which caused so much scandal that an imperial edict had to be issued, forbidding the practice in future.  Another time, he came out with an unparalleled twist to his tail, the construction of which had occupied his mind for some days, and which occasioned the death by suicide of three over-ambitious youths who found themselves unable to survive the mortification of an unsuccessful attempt to imitate it.  Again, to the infinite horror of the Mandarins, he paraded himself one afternoon with decacuminated finger-nails, and came very near producing a riot by his unwillingness to permit them to grow again, besides calling forth another imperial decree, threatening ignominious death to all nobles throughout the empire who should encourage the practice.  All these eccentricities served only to add to the consequence of the multipotent Mien-yaun.  Then again, he was gifted with a bewitching smile; but he steadily refrained from making any use of it oftener than once a month, at which times the enthusiasm of his adherents knew no bounds, and it might have been supposed that all Pekin had administered unto itself a mild preparation of laughing-gas, so universal were the grimaces.  On very rare and distinguished occasions, Mien-yaun permitted himself to be persuaded to sing; but as ladies sometimes swooned under his melodious influence, the natural goodness of his heart prevented him from frequent indulgence in the exercise of this accomplishment.