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+Title: Hung Lou Meng, Book II
+
+Author: Cao Xueqin
+
+Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9604]
+[This file was first posted on October 9, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, HUNG LOU MENG, BOOK II ***
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+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland and Project Gutenberg Distributed
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+Editors note: This novel is divided into two books, of which this is
+ Book II. Book I (7hlm110.txt, 7hlm110.zip, 8hlm110.txt,
+ or 8hllm110.zip) will be found in our etext05 directory
+ (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext05/).
+
+
+
+
+HUNG LOU MENG, BOOK II
+
+OR, THE DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER, A CHINESE NOVEL IN TWO BOOKS
+
+BY
+
+CAO XUEQIN
+
+Translated by H. BENCRAFT JOLY
+
+H.B.M. CONSULAR SERVICE, CHINA.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+ By a demoniacal art, a junior uncle and an elder brother's wife
+ (Pao-yue and lady Feng) come across five devils.
+ The gem of Spiritual Perception meets, in a fit of torpor, the two
+ perfect men.
+
+
+Hsiao Hung, the story continues, was much unsettled in her mind. Her
+thoughts rolled on in one connected string. But suddenly she became
+drowsy, and falling asleep, she encountered Chia Yuen, who tried to carry
+out his intention to drag her near him. She twisted herself round, and
+endeavoured to run away; but was tripped over by the doorstep. This gave
+her such a start that she woke up. Then, at length, she realised that it
+was only a dream. But so restlessly did she, in consequence of this
+fright, keep on rolling and tossing that she could not close her eyes
+during the whole night. As soon as the light of the next day dawned, she
+got up. Several waiting-maids came at once to tell her to go and sweep
+the floor of the rooms, and to bring water to wash the face with. Hsiao
+Hung did not even wait to arrange her hair or perform her ablutions;
+but, turning towards the looking-glass, she pinned her chevelure up
+anyhow; and, rinsing her hands, and, tying a sash round her waist, she
+repaired directly to sweep the apartments.
+
+Who would have thought it, Pao-yue also had set his heart upon her the
+moment he caught sight of her the previous day. Yet he feared, in the
+first place, that if he mentioned her by name and called her over into
+his service, Hsi Jen and the other girls might feel the pangs of
+jealousy. He did not, either in the second place, have any idea what her
+disposition was like. The consequence was that he felt downcast; so much
+so, that when he got up at an early hour, he did not even comb his hair
+or wash, but simply remained seated, and brooded in a state of
+abstraction. After a while, he lowered the window. Through the gauze
+frame, from which he could distinctly discern what was going on outside,
+he espied several servant-girls, engaged in sweeping the court. All of
+them were rouged and powdered; they had flowers inserted in their hair,
+and were grandly got up. But the only one, of whom he failed to get a
+glimpse, was the girl he had met the day before.
+
+Pao-yue speedily walked out of the door with slipshod shoes. Under the
+pretence of admiring the flowers, he glanced, now towards the east; now
+towards the west. But upon raising his head, he descried, in the
+southwest corner, some one or other leaning by the side of the railing
+under the covered passage. A crab-apple tree, however, obstructed the
+view and he could not see distinctly who it was, so advancing a step
+further in, he stared with intent gaze. It was, in point of fact, the
+waiting-maid of the day before, tarrying about plunged in a reverie. His
+wish was to go forward and meet her, but he did not, on the other hand,
+see how he could very well do so. Just as he was cogitating within
+himself, he, of a sudden, perceived Pi Hen come and ask him to go and
+wash his face. This reminder placed him under the necessity of betaking
+himself into his room. But we will leave him there, without further
+details, so as to return to Hsiao Hung.
+
+She was communing with her own thoughts. But unawares perceiving Hsi Jen
+wave her hand and call her by name, she had to walk up to her.
+
+"Our watering-pot is spoilt," Hsi Jen smiled and said, "so go to Miss
+Lin's over there and find one for us to use."
+
+Hsiao Hung hastened on her way towards the Hsiao Hsiang Kuan.
+
+When she got as far as the Ts'ui Yen bridge, she saw, on raising her
+head and looking round, the mounds and lofty places entirely shut in by
+screens, and she bethought herself that labourers were that day to plant
+trees in that particular locality.
+
+At a great distance off, a band of men were, in very deed, engaged in
+digging up the soil, while Chia Yuen was seated on a boulder on the hill,
+superintending the works. The time came for Hsiao Hung to pass by, but
+she could not muster the courage to do so. Nevertheless she had no other
+course than to quietly proceed to the Hsiao Hsiang Kuan. Then getting
+the watering-pot, she sped on her way back again. But being in low
+spirits, she retired alone into her room and lay herself down. One and
+all, however, simply maintained that she was out of sorts, so they did
+not pay any heed to her.
+
+A day went by. On the morrow fell, in fact, the anniversary of the birth
+of Wang Tzu-t'eng's spouse, and some one was despatched from his
+residence to come and invite dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang. Madame
+Wang found out however that dowager lady Chia would not avail herself of
+the invitation, and neither would she go. So Mrs. Hsueeh went along with
+lady Feng, and the three sisters of the Chia family, and Pao-ch'ai and
+Pao-yue, and only returned home late in the evening.
+
+Madame Wang was sitting in Mrs. Hsueeh's apartments, whither she had just
+crossed, when she perceived Chia Huan come back from school, and she
+bade him transcribe incantations out of the Chin Kang Canon and intonate
+them. Chia Huan accordingly came and seated himself on the stove-couch,
+occupied by Madame Wang, and, directing a servant to light the candles,
+he started copying in an ostentatious and dashing manner. Now he called
+Ts'ai Hsia to pour a cup of tea for him. Now he asked Yu Ch'uan to take
+the scissors and cut the snuff of the wick. "Chin Ch'uan!" he next
+cried, "you're in the way of the rays of the lamp."
+
+The servant-girls had all along entertained an antipathy for him, and
+not one of them therefore worried her mind about what he said. Ts'ai
+Hsia was the only one who still got on well with him, so pouring a cup
+of tea, she handed it to him. But she felt prompted to whisper to him:
+"Keep quiet a bit! what's the use of making people dislike you?"
+
+"I know myself how matters stand," Chia Huan rejoined, as he cast a
+steady glance at her; "so don't you try and befool me! Now that you are
+on intimate terms with Pao-yue, you don't pay much heed to me. I've also
+seen through it myself."
+
+Ts'ai Hsiao set her teeth together, and gave him a fillip on the head.
+"You heartless fellow!" she cried. "You're like the dog, that bit Lue
+T'ung-pin. You have no idea of what's right and what's wrong!"
+
+While these two nagged away, they noticed lady Feng and Madame Wang
+cross together over to them. Madame Wang at once assailed him with
+questions. She asked him how many ladies had been present on that day,
+whether the play had been good or bad, and what the banquet had been
+like.
+
+But a brief interval over, Pao-yue too appeared on the scene. After
+saluting Madame Wang, he also made a few remarks, with all decorum; and
+then bidding a servant remove his frontlet, divest him of his long gown
+and pull off his boots, he rushed head foremost, into his mother's lap.
+
+Madame Wang caressed and patted him. But while Pao-yue clung to his
+mother's neck, he spoke to her of one thing and then another.
+
+"My child," said Madame Wang, "you've again had too much to drink; your
+face is scalding hot, and if you still keep on rubbing and scraping it,
+why, you'll by and bye stir up the fumes of wine! Don't you yet go and
+lie down quietly over there for a little!"
+
+Chiding him the while, she directed a servant to fetch a pillow. Pao-yue
+therefore lay himself down at the back of Madame Wang, and called Ts'ai
+Hsia to come and stroke him.
+
+Pao-yue then began to bandy words with Ts'ai Hsia. But perceiving that
+Ts'ai Hsia was reserved, and, that instead of paying him any attention,
+she kept her eyes fixed upon Chia Huan, Pao-yue eagerly took her hand.
+"My dear girl!" he said; "do also heed me a little;" and as he gave
+utterance to this appeal, he kept her hand clasped in his.
+
+Ts'ai Hsia, however, drew her hand away and would not let him hold it.
+"If you go on in this way," she vehemently exclaimed, "I'll shout out at
+once."
+
+These two were in the act of wrangling, when verily Chia Huan overheard
+what was going on. He had, in fact, all along hated Pao-yue; so when on
+this occasion, he espied him up to his larks with Ts'ai Hsia, he could
+much less than ever stifle feelings of resentment in his heart. After
+some reflection, therefore, an idea suggested itself to his mind, and
+pretending that it was by a slip of the hand, he shoved the candle,
+overflowing with tallow, into Pao-yue's face.
+
+"Ai ya!" Pao-yue was heard to exclaim. Every one in the whole room was
+plunged in consternation. With precipitate haste, the lanterns, standing
+on the floor, were moved over; and, with the first ray of light, they
+discovered that Pao-yue's face was one mass of tallow.
+
+Madame Wang gave way to anger as well as anxiety. At one time, she
+issued directions to the servants to rub and wash Pao-yue clean. At
+another, she heaped abuse upon Chia Huan.
+
+Lady Feng jumped on to the stone-couch by leaps and bounds. But while
+intent upon removing the stuff from Pao-yue's face, she simultaneously
+ejaculated: "Master Tertius, are you still such a trickster! I'll tell
+you what, you'll never turn to any good account! Yet dame Chao should
+ever correct and admonish him."
+
+This single remark suggested the idea to Madame Wang, and she lost no
+time in sending for Mrs. Chao to come round.
+
+"You bring up," she berated her, "such a black-hearted offspring like
+this, and don't you, after all, advise and reprove him? Time and again I
+paid no notice whatever to what happened, and you and he have become
+more audacious, and have gone from worse to worse!"
+
+Mrs. Chao had no alternative but to suppress every sense of injury,
+silence all grumblings, and go herself and lend a hand to the others in
+tidying Pao-yue. She then perceived that a whole row of blisters had
+risen on the left side of Pao-yue's face, but that fortunately no injury
+had been done to his eyes.
+
+When Madame Wang's attention was drawn to them she felt her heart sore.
+It fell a prey to fears also lest when dowager lady Chia made any
+inquiries about them she should find it difficult to give her any
+satisfactory reply. And so distressed did she get that she gave Mrs.
+Chao another scolding. But while she tried to comfort Pao-yue, she, at
+the same time, fetched some powder for counteracting the effects of the
+virus, and applied it on his face.
+
+"It's rather sore," said Pao-yue, "but it's nothing to speak of. Tomorrow
+when my old grandmother asks about it, I can simply explain that I
+scalded it myself; that will be quite enough to tell her."
+
+"If you say that you scalded it yourself," lady Feng observed, "why,
+she'll also call people to task for not looking out; and a fit of rage
+will, beyond doubt, be the outcome of it all."
+
+Madame Wang then ordered the servants to take care and escort Pao-yue
+back to his room. On their arrival, Hsi Jen and his other attendants saw
+him, and they were all in a great state of flurry.
+
+As for Lin Tai-yue, when she found that Pao-yue had gone out of doors, she
+continued the whole day a prey to ennui. In the evening, she deputed
+messengers two and three times to go and inquire about him. But when she
+came to know that he had been scalded, she hurried in person to come and
+see him. She then discovered Pao-yue all alone, holding a glass and
+scanning his features in it; while the left side of his face was
+plastered all over with some medicine.
+
+Lin Tai-yue imagined that the burn was of an extremely serious nature,
+and she hastened to approach him with a view to examine it. Pao-yue,
+however, screened his face, and, waving his hand, bade her leave the
+room; for knowing her usual knack for tidiness he did not feel inclined
+to let her get a glimpse of his face. Tai-yue then gave up the attempt,
+and confined herself to asking him: "whether it was very painful?"
+
+"It isn't very sore," replied Pao-yue, "if I look after it for a day or
+two, it will get all right."
+
+But after another short stay, Lin Tai-yue repaired back to her quarters.
+
+The next day Pao-yue saw dowager lady Chia. But in spite of his
+confession that he himself was responsible for the scalding of his face,
+his grandmother could not refrain from reading another lecture to the
+servants who had been in attendance.
+
+A day after, Ma, a Taoist matron, whose name was recorded as Pao-yue's
+godmother, came on a visit to the mansion. Upon perceiving Pao-yue, she
+was very much taken aback, and asked all about the circumstances of the
+accident. When he explained that he had been scalded, she forthwith
+shook her head and heaved a sigh; then while making with her fingers a
+few passes over Pao-yue's face, she went on to mutter incantations for
+several minutes. "I can guarantee that he'll get all right," she added,
+"for this is simply a sadden and fleeting accident!"
+
+Turning towards dowager lady Chia: "Venerable ancestor," she observed,
+"Venerable Buddha! how could you ever be aware of the existence of the
+portentous passage in that Buddhistic classic, 'to the effect that a son
+of every person, who holds the dignity of prince, duke or high
+functionary, has no sooner come into the world and reached a certain age
+than numerous evil spirits at once secretly haunt him, and pinch him,
+when they find an opportunity; or dig their nails into him; or knock his
+bowl of rice down, during, meal-time; or give him a shove and send him
+over, while he is quietly seated.' So this is the reason why the
+majority of the sons and grandsons of those distinguished families do
+not grow up to attain manhood."
+
+Dowager lady Chia, upon hearing her speak in this wise, eagerly asked:
+"Is there any Buddhistic spell, by means of which to check their
+influence or not?"
+
+"This is an easy job!" rejoined the Taoist matron Ma, "all one need do
+is to perform several meritorious deeds on his account so as to
+counteract the consequences of retribution and everything will then be
+put right. That canon further explains: 'that in the western part of the
+world there is a mighty Buddha, whose glory illumines all things, and
+whose special charge is to cast his lustre on the evil spirits in dark
+places; that if any benevolent man or virtuous woman offers him
+oblations with sincerity of heart, he is able to so successfully
+perpetuate the peace and quiet of their sons and grandsons that these
+will no more meet with any calamities arising from being possessed by
+malevolent demons.'"
+
+"But what, I wonder," inquired dowager lady Chia, "could be offered to
+this god?"
+
+"Nothing of any great value," answered the Taoist matron, Ma. "Exclusive
+of offerings of scented candles, several catties of scented oil can be
+added, each day, to keep the lantern of the Great Sea alight. This
+'Great Sea' lantern is the visible embodiment and Buddhistic
+representation of this divinity, so day and night we don't venture to
+let it go out!"
+
+"For a whole day and a whole night," asked dowager lady Chia, "how much
+oil is needed, so that I too should accomplish a good action?"
+
+"There is really no limit as to quantity. It rests upon the goodwill of
+the donor," Ma, the Taoist matron, put in by way of reply. "In my
+quarters, for instance, I have several lanterns, the gifts of the
+consorts of princes and the spouses of high officials living in various
+localities. The consort of the mansion of the Prince of Nan Au has been
+prompted in her beneficence by a liberal spirit; she allows each day
+forty-eight catties of oil, and a catty of wick; so that her 'Great Sea'
+lamp is only a trifle smaller than a water-jar. The spouse of the
+marquis of Chin Hsiang comes next, with no more than twenty catties a
+day. Besides these, there are several other families; some giving ten
+catties; some eight catties; some three; some five; subject to no fixed
+rule; and of course I feel bound to keep the lanterns alight on their
+behalf."
+
+Dowager lady Chia nodded her head and gave way to reflection.
+
+"There's still another thing," continued the Taoist matron, Ma. "If it
+be on account of father or mother or seniors, any excessive donation
+would not matter. But were you, venerable ancestor, to bestow too much
+in your offering for Pao-yue, our young master won't, I fear, be equal to
+the gift; and instead of being benefited, his happiness will be snapped.
+If you therefore want to make a liberal gift seven catties will do; if a
+small one, then five catties will even be sufficient."
+
+"Well, in that case," responded dowager lady Chia, "let us fix upon five
+catties a day, and every month come and receive payment of the whole
+lump sum!"
+
+"O-mi-to-fu!" exclaimed Ma, the Taoist matron, "Oh merciful, and mighty
+P'u Sa!"
+
+Dowager lady Chia then called the servants and impressed on their minds
+that whenever Pao-yue went out of doors in the future, they should give
+several strings of cash to the pages to bestow on charity among the
+bonzes and Taoist priests, and the poor and needy they might meet on the
+way.
+
+These directions concluded, the Taoist matron trudged into the various
+quarters, and paid her respects, and then strolled leisurely about.
+Presently, she entered Mrs. Chao's apartments. After the two ladies had
+exchanged salutations, Mrs. Chao bade a young servant-girl hand her
+guest a cup of tea. While Mrs. Chao busied herself pasting shoes, Ma,
+the Taoist matron, espied, piled up in a heap on the stove-couch, sundry
+pieces of silks and satins. "It just happens," she consequently
+remarked, "that I have no facings for shoes, so my lady do give me a few
+odd cuttings of silk and satin, of no matter what colour, to make myself
+a pair of shoes with."
+
+Mrs. Chao heaved a sigh. "Look," she said, "whether there be still among
+them any pieces good for anything. But anything that's worth anything
+doesn't find its way in here. If you don't despise what's worthless,
+you're at liberty to select any two pieces and to take them away, and
+have done."
+
+The Taoist matron, Ma, chose with alacrity several pieces and shoved
+them in her breast.
+
+"The other day," Mrs. Chao went on to inquire, "I sent a servant over
+with five hundred cash; have you presented any offerings before the god
+of medicine or not?"
+
+"I've offered them long ago for you," the Taoist matron Ma rejoined.
+
+"O-mi-to-fu!" ejaculated Mrs. Chao with a sigh, "were I a little better
+off, I'd also come often and offer gifts; but though my will be
+boundless, my means are insufficient!"
+
+"Don't trouble your mind on this score," suggested Ma, the Taoist
+matron. "By and bye, when Mr. Huan has grown up into a man and obtained
+some official post or other, will there be then any fear of your not
+being able to afford such offerings as you might like to make?"
+
+At these words Mrs. Chao gave a smile. "Enough, enough!" she cried.
+"Don't again refer to such contingencies! the present is a fair
+criterion. For up to whom in this house can my son and I come? Pao-yue is
+still a mere child; but he is such that he wins people's love. Those big
+people may be partial to him, and love him a good deal, I've nothing to
+say to it; but I can't eat humble pie to this sort of mistress!"
+
+While uttering this remark, she stretched out her two fingers.
+
+Ma, the Taoist matron, understood the meaning she desired to convey.
+"It's your lady Secunda, Lien, eh?" she forthwith asked.
+
+Mrs. Chao was filled with trepidation. Hastily waving her hand, she got
+to her feet, raised the portiere, and peeped outside. Perceiving that
+there was no one about, she at length retraced her footsteps.
+"Dreadful!" she then said to the Taoist matron. "Dreadful! But speaking
+of this sort of mistress, I'm not so much as a human being, if she
+doesn't manage to shift over into her mother's home the whole of this
+family estate."
+
+"Need you tell me this!" Ma, the Taoist matron, at these words, remarked
+with a view to ascertain what she implied. "Haven't I, forsooth,
+discovered it all for myself? Yet it's fortunate that you don't trouble
+your minds about her; for it's far better that you should let her have
+her own way."
+
+"My dear woman," rejoined Mrs. Chao, "Not let her have her own way! why,
+is it likely that any one would have the courage to tell her anything?"
+
+"I don't mean to utter any words that may bring upon me retribution,"
+added Ma, the Taoist matron, "but you people haven't got the wits. But
+it's no matter of surprise. Yet if you daren't openly do anything, why,
+you could stealthily have devised some plan. And do you still tarry up
+to this day?"
+
+Mrs. Chao realised that there lurked something in her insinuation, and
+she felt an inward secret joy. "What plan could I stealthily devise?"
+she asked. "I've got the will right enough, but I'm not a person gifted
+with this sort of gumption. So were you to impart to me some way or
+other, I would reward you most liberally."
+
+When the Taoist matron, Ma, heard this, she drew near to her.
+"O-mi-to-fu! desist at once from asking me!" she designedly exclaimed.
+"How can I know anything about such matters, contrary as they are to
+what is right?"
+
+"There you are again!" Mrs. Chao replied. "You're one ever most ready to
+succour those in distress, and to help those in danger, and is it likely
+that you'll quietly look on, while some one comes and compasses my death
+as well as that of my son? Are you, pray, fearful lest I shouldn't give
+you any reward?"
+
+Ma, the Taoist matron, greeted this remark with a smile. "You're right
+enough in what you say," she ventured, "of my being unable to bear the
+sight of yourself and son receiving insult from a third party; but as
+for your mention of rewards, why, what's there of yours that I still
+covet?"
+
+This answer slightly reassured Mrs. Chao's mind. "How is it," she
+speedily urged, "that an intelligent person like you should have become
+so dense? If, indeed, the spell prove efficacious, and we exterminate
+them both, is there any apprehension that this family estate won't be
+ours? and when that time comes, won't you get all you may wish?"
+
+At this disclosure, Ma, the Taoist matron, lowered her head for a long
+time. "When everything," she observed, "shall have been settled
+satisfactorily, and when there'll be, what's more, no proof at all, will
+you still pay any heed to me?"
+
+"What's there hard about this?" remarked Mrs. Chao. "I've saved several
+taels from my own pin-money, and have besides a good number of clothes
+and head-ornaments. So you can first take several of these away with
+you. And I'll further write an I.O.U., and entrust it to you, and when
+that time does come, I'll pay you in full."
+
+"That will do!" answered the Taoist matron, Ma.
+
+Mrs. Chao thereupon dismissed even a young servant-girl, who happened to
+be in the room, and hastily opening a trunk, she produced several
+articles of clothing and jewelry, as well as a few odd pieces of silver
+from her own pocket-money. Then also writing a promissory note for fifty
+taels, she surrendered the lot to Ma, the Taoist matron. "Take these,"
+she said, "in advance for presents in your temple."
+
+At the sight of the various articles and of the promissory note, the
+Taoist matron became at once unmindful of what was right and what was
+wrong; and while her mouth was full of assent, she stretched out her
+arm, and first and foremost laid hold of the hard cash, and next
+clutched the I.O.U. Turning then towards Mrs. Chao, she asked for a
+sheet of paper; and taking up a pair of scissors, she cut out two human
+beings and gave them to Mrs. Chao, enjoining her to write on the upper
+part of them the respective ages of the two persons in question. Looking
+further for a sheet of blue paper, she cut out five blue-faced devils,
+which she bade her place together side by side with the paper men, and
+taking a pin she made them fast. "When I get home," she remarked, "I'll
+have recourse to some art, which will, beyond doubt, prove efficacious."
+
+When she however had done speaking, she suddenly saw Madame Wang's
+waiting-maid make her appearance inside the room. "What! my dame, are
+you in here!" the girl exclaimed. "Why, our lady is waiting for you!"
+
+The two dames then parted company.
+
+But passing them over, we will now allude to Lin Tai-y mu. As Pao-yue had
+scalded his face, and did not go out of doors very much, she often came
+to have a chat with him. On this particular day she took up, after her
+meal, some book or other and read a couple of pages out of it. Next, she
+busied herself a little with needlework, in company with Tzu Chuan. She
+felt however thoroughly dejected and out of sorts. So she strolled out
+of doors along with her. But catching sight of the newly sprouted bamboo
+shoots, in front of the pavilion, they involuntarily stepped out of the
+entrance of the court, and penetrated into the garden. They cast their
+eyes on all four quarters; but not a soul was visible. When they became
+conscious of the splendour of the flowers and the chatter of the birds,
+they, with listless step, turned their course towards the I Hung court.
+There they found several servant-girls baling out water; while a bevy of
+them stood under the verandah, watching the thrushes having their bath.
+They heard also the sound of laughter in the rooms.
+
+The fact is that Li Kung-ts'ai, lady Feng, and Pao-ch'ai were assembled
+inside. As soon as they saw them walk in, they with one voice shouted,
+smiling: "Now, are not these two more!"
+
+"We are a full company to-day," laughed Tai-yue, "but who has issued the
+cards and invited us here?"
+
+"The other day," interposed lady Feng, "I sent servants with a present
+of two caddies of tea for you, Miss Lin; was it, after all, good?"
+
+"I had just forgotten all about it," Tai-yue rejoined, "many thanks for
+your kind attention!
+
+"I tasted it," observed Pao-yue. "I did not think it anything good. But I
+don't know how others, who've had any of it, find it."
+
+"Its flavour," said Tai-yue, "is good; the only thing is, it has no
+colour."
+
+"It's tribute tea from the Laos Kingdom," continued lady Feng. "When I
+tried it, I didn't either find it anything very fine. It's not up to
+what we ordinarily drink."
+
+"To my taste, it's all right," put in Tai-yue. "But what your palates are
+like, I can't make out."
+
+"As you say it's good," suggested Pao-yue, "you're quite at liberty to
+take all I have for your use."
+
+"I've got a great deal more of it over there," lady Feng remarked.
+
+"I'll tell a servant-girl to go and fetch it," Tai-yue replied.
+
+"No need," lady Feng went on. "I'll send it over with some one. I also
+have a favour to ask of you to-morrow, so I may as well tell the servant
+to bring it along at the same time."
+
+When Lin Tai-yue heard these words, she put on a smile. "You just mark
+this," she observed. "I've had to-day a little tea from her place, and
+she at once begins making a tool of me!"
+
+"Since you've had some of our tea," lady Feng laughed, "how is it that
+you have not yet become a wife in our household?"
+
+The whole party burst out laughing aloud. So much so, that they found it
+difficult to repress themselves. But Tai-yue's face was suffused with
+blushes. She turned her head the other way, and uttered not a word.
+
+"Our sister-in-law Secunda's jibes are first-rate!" Pao-ch'ai chimed in
+with a laugh.
+
+"What jibes!" exclaimed Tai-yue; "they're purely and simply the prattle
+of a mean mouth and vile tongue! They're enough to evoke people's
+displeasure!"
+
+Saying this, she went on to sputter in disgust.
+
+"Were you," insinuated lady Feng, "to become a wife in my family, what
+is there that you would lack?" Pointing then at Pao-yue, "Look here!" she
+cried--"Is not this human being worthy of you? Is not his station in
+life good enough for you? Are not our stock and estate sufficient for
+you? and in what slight degree can he make you lose caste?"
+
+Tai-yue rose to her feet, and retired immediately. But Pao-ch'ai shouted
+out: "Here's P'in Erh in a huff! Don't you yet come back? when you've
+gone, there will really be no fun!"
+
+While calling out to her, she jumped up to pull her back. As soon,
+however, as she reached the door of the room, she beheld Mrs. Chao,
+accompanied by Mrs. Chou; both coming to look up Pao-yue. Pao-yue and his
+companions got up in a body and pressed them into a seat. Lady Feng was
+the sole person who did not heed them.
+
+But just as Pao-ch'ai was about to open her lips, she perceived a
+servant-girl, attached to Madame Wang's apartments, appear on the scene.
+"Your maternal uncle's wife has come," she said, "and she requests you,
+ladies and young ladies, to come out and see her."
+
+Li Kung-ts'ai hurriedly walked away in company with lady Feng. The two
+dames, Mrs. Chao and Mrs. Chou, in like manner took their leave and
+quitted the room.
+
+"As for me, I can't go out," Pao-yue shouted. "But whatever you do, pray,
+don't ask aunt to come in here." "Cousin Lin," he went on to say, "do
+stay on a while; I've got something to tell you."
+
+Lady Feng overheard him. Turning her head towards Lin Tai-yue, "There's
+some one," she cried; "who wants to speak to you." And forthwith laying
+hold of Lin Tai-yue, she pushed her back and then trudged away, along
+with Li Kung-ts'ai.
+
+During this time, Pao-yue clasped Tai-yue's hand in his. He did nothing
+than smile. But not a word did he utter. Tai-yue naturally, therefore,
+got crimson in the face, and struggled to escape his importunities.
+
+"Ai-ya!" exclaimed Pao-yue. "How my head is sore!"
+
+"It should be!" rejoined Tai-yue. "O-mi-to-fu."
+
+Pao-yue then gave vent to a loud shout. His body bounced three or four
+feet high from the ground. His mouth was full of confused shrieks. But
+all he said was rambling talk.
+
+Tai-yue and the servant-girls were full of consternation, and, with all
+possible haste, they ran and apprised Madame Wang and dowager lady Chia.
+
+Wang Tzu-t'eng's wife was, at this time, also with them, so they all
+came in a body to see him. Pao-yue behaved more and more as if determined
+to clutch a sword or seize a spear to put an end to his existence. He
+raged in a manner sufficient to subvert the heavens and upset the earth.
+
+As soon as dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang caught sight of him, they
+were struck with terror. They trembled wildly like a piece of clothing
+that is being shaken. Uttering a shout of: "My son," and another of: "My
+flesh," they burst out into a loud fit of crying. Presently, all the
+inmates were seized with fright. Even Chia She, Madame Hsing, Chia
+Cheng, Chia Chen, Chia Lien, Chia Jung, Chia Yuen, Chia P'ing, Mrs.
+Hsueeh, Hsueeh P'an, Chou Jui's wife, and the various members of the
+household, whether high or low, and the servant-girls and married women
+too, rushed into the garden to see what was up.
+
+The confusion that prevailed was, at the moment, like entangled flax.
+Every one was at a loss what to do, when they espied lady Feng dash into
+the garden, a glistening sword in hand, and try to cut down everything
+that came in her way, ogle vacantly whomsoever struck her gaze, and make
+forthwith an attempt to despatch them. A greater panic than ever broke
+out among the whole assemblage. But placing herself at the head of a
+handful of sturdy female servants, Chou Jui's wife precipitated herself
+forward, and clasping her tight, they succeeded in snatching the sword
+from her grip, and carrying her back into her room.
+
+P'ing Erh, Feng Erh, and the other girls began to weep. They invoked the
+heavens and appealed to the earth. Even Chia Cheng was distressed at
+heart. One and all at this stage started shouting, some, one thing;
+some, another. Some suggested exorcists. Some cried out for the
+posture-makers to attract the devils. Others recommended that Chang, the
+Taoist priest, of the Yue Huang temple, should catch the evil spirits. A
+thorough turmoil reigned supreme for a long time. The gods were
+implored. Prayers were offered. Every kind of remedy was tried, but no
+benefit whatever became visible.
+
+After sunset, the spouse of Wang Tzu-t'eng said good-bye and took her
+departure. On the ensuing day, Wang Tzu-t'eng himself also came to make
+inquiries. Following closely upon him, arrived, in a body, messengers
+from the young marquis Shih, Madame Hsing's young brother, and their
+various relatives to ascertain for themselves how (lady Feng and Pao-yue)
+were progressing. Some brought charm-water. Some recommended bonzes and
+Taoist priests. Others spoke highly of doctors. But that young fellow
+and his elder brother's wife fell into such greater and greater stupor
+that they lost all consciousness. Their bodies were hot like fire. As
+they lay prostrate on their beds, they talked deliriously. With the fall
+of the shades of night their condition aggravated. So much so, that the
+matrons and servant-girls did not venture to volunteer their attendance.
+They had, therefore, to be both moved into Madame Wang's quarters, where
+servants were told off to take their turn and watch them.
+
+Dowager lady Chia, Madame Wang, Madame Hsing and Mrs. Hsueeh did not
+budge an inch or a step from their side. They sat round them, and did
+nothing but cry. Chia She and Chia Cheng too were a prey, at this
+juncture, to misgivings lest weeping should upset dowager lady Chia. Day
+and night oil was burnt and fires were, mindless of expense, kept
+alight. The bustle and confusion was such that no one, either master or
+servant, got any rest.
+
+Chia She also sped on every side in search of Buddhist and Taoist
+priests. But Chia Cheng had witnessed how little relief these things
+could afford, and he felt constrained to dissuade Chia She from his
+endeavours. "The destiny," he argued, "of our son and daughter is
+entirely dependent upon the will of Heaven, and no human strength can
+prevail. The malady of these two persons would not be healed, even were
+every kind of treatment tried, and as I feel confident that it is the
+design of heaven that things should be as they are, all we can do is to
+allow it to carry out its purpose."
+
+Chia She, however, paid no notice to his remonstrances and continued as
+hitherto to fuss in every imaginable way. In no time three days elapsed.
+Lady Feng and Pao-yue were still confined to their beds. Their very
+breaths had grown fainter. The whole household, therefore, unanimously
+arrived at the conclusion that there was no hope, and with all despatch
+they made every necessary preparation for the subsequent requirements of
+both their relatives.
+
+Dowager lady Chia, Madame Wang, Chia Lien, P'ing Erh, Hsi Jen and the
+others indulged in tears with keener and keener anguish. They hung
+between life and death. Mrs. Chao alone was the one who assumed an
+outward sham air of distress, while in her heart she felt her wishes
+gratified.
+
+The fourth day arrived. At an early hour Pao-yue suddenly opened his eyes
+and addressed himself to his grandmother Chia. "From this day forward,"
+he said, "I may no longer abide in your house, so you had better send me
+off at once!"
+
+These words made dowager lady Chia feel as if her very heart had been
+wrenched out of her. Mrs. Chao, who stood by, exhorted her. "You
+shouldn't, venerable lady," she said, "indulge in excessive grief. This
+young man has been long ago of no good; so wouldn't it be as well to
+dress him up and let him go back a moment sooner from this world. You'll
+also be thus sparing him considerable suffering. But, if you persist, in
+not reconciling yourself to the separation and this breath of his is not
+cut off, he will lie there and suffer without any respite...."
+
+Her arguments were scarcely ended, when she was spat upon by dowager
+lady Chia. "You rotten-tongued, good-for-nothing hag!" she cried
+abusively. "What makes you fancy him of no good! You wish him dead and
+gone; but what benefit will you then derive? Don't give way to any
+dreams; for, if he does die, I'll just exact your lives from you! It's
+all because you've been continuously at him, inciting and urging him to
+read and write, that his spirit has become so intimidated that, at the
+sight of his father, he behaves just like a rat trying to get out of the
+way of a cat! And is not all this the result of the bullying of such a
+mean herd of women as yourselves! Could you now drive him to death, your
+wishes would immediately be fulfilled; but which of you will I let off?"
+
+Now she shed tears; now she gave vent to abuse.
+
+Chia Cheng, who stood by, heard these invectives; and they so enhanced
+his exasperation that he promptly shouted out and made Mrs. Chao
+withdraw. He then exerted himself for a time to console (his senior) by
+using kindly accents. But suddenly some one came to announce that the
+two coffins had been completed. This announcement pierced, like a
+dagger, dowager lady Chia to the heart; and while weeping with despair
+more intense, she broke forth in violent upbraidings.
+
+"Who is it,"--she inquired; "who gave orders to make the coffins? Bring
+at once the coffin-makers and beat them to death!"
+
+A stir ensued sufficient to convulse the heavens and to subvert the
+earth. But at an unforeseen moment resounded in the air the gentle
+rapping of a 'wooden fish' bell. A voice recited the sentence: "Ave!
+Buddha able to unravel retribution and dispel grievances! Should any
+human being lie in sickness, and his family be solicitous on his
+account; or should any one have met with evil spirits and come across
+any baleful evils, we have the means to effect a cure."
+
+Dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang at once directed servants to go out
+into the street and find out who it was. It turned out to be, in fact, a
+mangy-headed bonze and a hobbling Taoist priest. What was the appearance
+of the bonze?
+
+ His nose like a suspended gall; his two eyebrows so long,
+ His eyes, resembling radiant stars, possessed a precious glow,
+ His coat in tatters and his shoes of straw, without a home;
+ Rolling in filth, and, a worse fate, his head one mass of boils.
+
+And the Taoist priest, what was he like?
+
+ With one leg perched high he comes, with one leg low;
+ His whole frame drenching wet, bespattered all with mud.
+ If you perchance meet him, and ask him where's his home,
+ "In fairyland, west of the 'Weak Water,' he'll say."
+
+Chia Cheng ordered the servants to invite them to walk in. "On what
+hill," he asked those two persons, "do you cultivate the principles of
+reason?
+
+"Worthy official!" the bonze smiled, "you must not ask too many
+questions! It's because we've learnt that there are inmates of your
+honourable mansion in a poor state of health that we come with the
+express design of working a cure."
+
+"There are," explained Chia Cheng, "two of our members, who have been
+possessed of evil spirits. But, is there, I wonder, any remedy by means
+of which they could he healed?"
+
+"In your family," laughingly observed the Taoist priest, "you have ready
+at hand a precious thing, the like of which is rare to find in the
+world. It possesses the virtue of alleviating the ailment, so why need
+you inquire about remedies?"
+
+Chia Cheng's mind was forthwith aroused. "It's true," he consequently
+rejoined, "that my son brought along with him, at the time of his birth,
+a piece of jade, on the surface of which was inscribed that it had the
+virtue of dispelling evil influences, but we haven't seen any efficacy
+in it."
+
+"There is, worthy officer," said the bonze, "something in it which you
+do not understand. That precious jade was, in its primitive state,
+efficacious, but consequent upon its having been polluted by music,
+lewdness, property and gain it has lost its spiritual properties. But
+produce now that valuable thing and wait till I have taken it into my
+hands and pronounced incantations over it, when it will become as full
+of efficacy as of old!"
+
+Chia Cheng accordingly unclasped the piece of jade from Pao-yue's neck,
+and handed it to the two divines. The Buddhist priest held it with
+reverence in the palm of his hand and heaving a deep sigh, "Since our
+parting," he cried, "at the foot of the Ch'ing Keng peak, about thirteen
+years have elapsed. How time flies in the mortal world! Thine earthly
+destiny has not yet been determined. Alas, alas! how admirable were the
+qualities thou did'st possess in those days!
+
+ "By Heaven unrestrained, without constraint from Earth,
+ No joys lived in thy heart, but sorrows none as well;
+ Yet when perception, through refinement, thou did'st reach,
+ Thou went'st among mankind to trouble to give rise.
+ How sad the lot which thou of late hast had to hear!
+ Powder prints and rouge stains thy precious lustre dim.
+ House bars both day and night encage thee like a duck.
+ Deep wilt thou sleep, but from thy dream at length thou'lt wake,
+ Thy debt of vengeance, once discharged, thou wilt depart."
+
+At the conclusion of this recital, he again rubbed the stone for a
+while, and gave vent to some nonsensical utterances, after which he
+surrendered it to Chia Cheng. "This object," he said, "has already
+resumed its efficacy; but you shouldn't do anything to desecrate it.
+Hang it on the post of the door in his bed-room, and with the exception
+of his own relatives, you must not let any outside female pollute it.
+After the expiry of thirty-three days, he will, I can guarantee, be all
+right."
+
+Chia Cheng then gave orders to present tea; but the two priests had
+already walked away. He had, however, no alternative but to comply with
+their injunctions, and lady Feng and Pao-yue, in point of fact, got
+better from day to day. Little by little they returned to their senses
+and experienced hunger. Dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang, at length,
+felt composed in their minds. All the cousins heard the news outside.
+Tai-yue, previous to anything else, muttered a prayer to Buddha; while
+Pao-ch'ai laughed and said not a word.
+
+"Sister Pao," inquired Hsi Ch'un, "what are you laughing for?"
+
+"I laugh," replied Pao-ch'ai, "because the 'Thus-Come' Joss has more to
+do than any human being. He's got to see to the conversion of all
+mankind, and to take care of the ailments, to which all flesh is heir;
+for he restores every one of them at once to health; and he has as well
+to control people's marriages so as to bring them about through his aid;
+and what do you say, has he ample to do or not? Now, isn't this enough
+to make one laugh, eh?"
+
+Lin Tai-yue blushed. "Ts'ui!" she exclaimed; "none of you are good
+people. Instead of following the example of worthy persons, you try to
+rival the mean mouth of that hussey Feng."
+
+As she uttered these words, she raised the portiere and made her exit.
+
+But, reader, do you want to know any further circumstances? If so, the
+next chapter will explain them to you.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+ On the Feng Yao bridge, Hsiao Hung makes known sentimental matters in
+ equivocal language.
+ In the Hsiao Hsiang lodge, Tai-yue gives, while under the effects of
+ the spring lassitude, expression to her secret feelings.
+
+
+After thirty days' careful nursing, Pao-yue, we will now notice, not only
+got strong and hale in body, but the scars even on his face completely
+healed up; so he was able to shift his quarters again into the garden of
+Broad Vista.
+
+But we will banish this topic as it does not deserve any additional
+explanations. Let us now turn our attention elsewhere. During the time
+that Pao-yue was of late laid up in bed, Chia Yuen along with the young
+pages of the household sat up on watch to keep an eye over him, and both
+day and night, they tarried on this side of the mansion. But Hsiao Hung
+as well as all the other waiting-maids remained in the same part to
+nurse Pao-yue, so (Chia Yuen) and she saw a good deal of each other on
+several occasions, and gradually an intimacy sprung up between them.
+
+Hsiao Hung observed that Chia Yuen held in his hand a handkerchief very
+much like the one she herself had dropped some time ago and was bent
+upon asking him for it, but she did, on the other hand, not think she
+could do so with propriety. The unexpected visit of the bonze and Taoist
+priest rendered, however, superfluous the services of the various male
+attendants, and Chia-yuen had therefore to go again and oversee the men
+planting the trees. Now she had a mind to drop the whole question, but
+she could not reconcile herself to it; and now she longed to go and ask
+him about it, but fears rose in her mind lest people should entertain
+any suspicions as to the relations that existed between them. But just
+as she faltered, quite irresolute, and her heart was thoroughly
+unsettled, she unawares heard some one outside inquire: "Sister, are you
+in the room or not?"
+
+Hsiao Hung, upon catching this question, looked out through a hole in
+the window; and perceiving at a glance that it was no one else than a
+young servant-girl, attached to the same court as herself, Chia Hui by
+name, she consequently said by way of reply: "Yes, I am; come in!"
+
+When these words reached her ear, Chia Hui ran in, and taking at once a
+seat on the bed, she observed with a smile: "How lucky I've been! I was
+a little time back in the court washing a few things, when Pao-yue cried
+out that some tea should be sent over to Miss Lin, and sister Hua handed
+it to me to go on the errand. By a strange coincidence our old lady had
+presented some money to Miss Lin and she was engaged at the moment in
+distributing it among their servant-girls. As soon therefore as she saw
+me get there, Miss Lin forthwith grasped two handfuls of cash and gave
+them to me; how many there are I don't know, but do keep them for me!"
+
+Speedily then opening her handkerchief, she emptied the cash. Hsiao Hung
+counted them for her by fives and tens at a time. She was beginning to
+put them away, when Chia Hui remarked: "How are you, after all, feeling
+of late in your mind? I'll tell you what; you should really go and stay
+at home for a couple of days. And were you to ask a doctor round and to
+have a few doses of medicine you'll get all right at once!"
+
+"What are you talking about?" Hsiao Hung replied. "What shall I go home
+for, when there's neither rhyme nor reason for it!"
+
+"Miss Lin, I remember, is naturally of a weak physique, and has
+constantly to take medicines," Chia Hui added, "so were you to ask her
+for some and bring them over and take them, it would come to the same
+thing."
+
+"Nonsense!" rejoined Hsiao Hung, "are medicines also to be recklessly
+taken ?"
+
+"You can't so on for ever like this," continued Chia Hui; "you're
+besides loth to eat and loth to drink, and what will you be like in the
+long run?"
+
+"What's there to fear?" observed Hsiao Hung; "won't it anyhow be better
+to die a little earlier? It would be a riddance!"
+
+"Why do you deliberately come out with all this talk?" Chia Hui
+demurred.
+
+"How could you ever know anything of the secrets of my heart?" Hsiao
+Hung inquired.
+
+Chia Hui nodded her head and gave way to reflection. "I don't think it
+strange on your part," she said after a time; "for it is really
+difficult to abide in this place! Yesterday, for instance, our dowager
+lady remarked that the servants in attendance had had, during all the
+days that Pao-yue was ill, a good deal to put up with, and that now that
+he has recovered, incense should be burnt everywhere, and the vows
+fulfilled; and she expressed a wish that those in his service should,
+one and all, be rewarded according to their grade. I and several others
+can be safely looked upon as young in years, and unworthy to presume so
+high; so I don't feel in any way aggrieved; but how is it that one like
+you couldn't be included in the number? My heart is much annoyed at it!
+Had there been any fear that Hsi Jen would have got ten times more, I
+could not even then have felt sore against her, for she really deserves
+it! I'll just tell you an honest truth; who else is there like her? Not
+to speak of the diligence and carefulness she has displayed all along,
+even had she not been so diligent and careful, she couldn't have been
+set aside! But what is provoking is that that lot, like Ch'ing Wen and
+Ch'i Hsia, should have been included in the upper class. Yet it's
+because every one places such reliance on the fine reputation of their
+father and mother that they exalt them. Now, do tell me, is this
+sufficient to anger one or not?"
+
+"It won't do to be angry with them!" Hsiao Hung observed. "The proverb
+says: 'You may erect a shed a thousand _li_ long, but there is no
+entertainment from which the guests will not disperse!' And who is it
+that will tarry here for a whole lifetime? In another three years or
+five years every single one of us will have gone her own way; and who
+will, when that time comes, worry her mind about any one else?"
+
+These allusions had the unexpected effect of touching Chia Hui to the
+heart; and in spite of herself the very balls of her eyes got red. But
+so uneasy did she feel at crying for no reason that she had to exert
+herself to force a smile. "What you say is true," she ventured. "And
+yet, Pao-yue even yesterday explained how the rooms should be arranged by
+and bye; and how the clothes should be made, just as if he was bound to
+hang on to dear life for several hundreds of years."
+
+Hsiao Hung, at these words, gave a couple of sardonic smiles. But when
+about to pass some remark, she perceived a youthful servant-girl, who
+had not as yet let her hair grow, walk in, holding in her hands several
+patterns and two sheets of paper. "You are asked," she said, "to trace
+these two designs!"
+
+As she spoke, she threw them at Hsiao Hung, and twisting herself round,
+she immediately scampered away.
+
+"Whose are they, after all?" Hsiao Hung inquired, addressing herself
+outside. "Couldn't you wait even so much as to conclude what you had to
+say, but flew off at once? Who is steaming bread and waiting for you? Or
+are you afraid, forsooth, lest it should get cold?"
+
+"They belong to sister Ch'i," the young servant-girl merely returned for
+answer from outside the window; and raising her feet high, she ran
+tramp-tramp on her way back again.
+
+Hsiao Hung lost control over her temper, and snatching the designs, she
+flung them on one side. She then rummaged in a drawer for a pencil, but
+finding, after a prolonged search, that they were all blunt; "Where did
+I," she thereupon ejaculated, "put that brand-new pencil the other day?
+How is it I can't remember where it is?"
+
+While she soliloquised, she became wrapt in thought. After some
+reflection she, at length, gave a smile. "Of course!" she exclaimed,
+"the other evening Ying Erh took it away." And turning towards Chia Hui,
+"Fetch it for me," she shouted.
+
+"Sister Hua," Chia Hui rejoined, "is waiting for me to get a box for
+her, so you had better go for it yourself!"
+
+"What!" remarked Hsiao Hung, "she's waiting for you, and are you still
+squatting here chatting leisurely? Hadn't it been that I asked you to go
+and fetch it, she too wouldn't have been waiting for you; you most
+perverse vixen!"
+
+With these words on her lips, she herself walked out of the room, and
+leaving the I Hung court, she straightway proceeded in the direction of
+Pao-ch'ai's court. As soon, however, as she reached the Hsin Fang
+pavilion, she saw dame Li, Pao-yue's nurse, appear in view from the
+opposite side; so Hsiao Hung halted and putting on a smile, "Nurse Li,"
+she asked, "where are you, old dame, bound for? How is it you're coming
+this way?"
+
+Nurse Li stopped short, and clapped her hands. "Tell me," she said, "has
+he deliberately again gone and fallen in love with that Mr. something or
+other like Yun (cloud), or Yue (rain)? They now insist upon my bringing
+him inside, but if they get wind of it by and bye in the upper rooms, it
+won't again be a nice thing."
+
+"Are you, old lady," replied Hsiao Hung smiling, "taking things in such
+real earnest that you readily believe them and want to go and ask him in
+here?"
+
+"What can I do?" rejoined nurse Li.
+
+"Why, that fellow," added Hsiao Hung laughingly, "will, if he has any
+idea of decency, do the right thing and not come."
+
+"Besides, he's not a fool!" pleaded nurse Li; "so why shouldn't he come
+in?"
+
+"Well, if he is to come," answered Hsiao Hung, "it will devolve upon
+you, worthy dame, to lead him along with you; for were you by and bye to
+let him penetrate inside all alone and knock recklessly about, why, it
+won't do at all."
+
+"Have I got all that leisure," retorted nurse Li, "to trudge along with
+him? I'll simply tell him to come; and later on I can despatch a young
+servant-girl or some old woman to bring him in, and have done."
+
+Saying this, she continued her way, leaning on her staff.
+
+After listening to her rejoinder, Hsiao Hung stood still; and plunging
+in abstraction, she did not go and fetch the pencil. But presently, she
+caught sight of a servant-girl running that way. Espying Hsiao Hung
+lingering in that spot, "Sister Hung," she cried, "what are you doing in
+here?"
+
+Hsiao Hung raised her head, and recognised a young waiting-maid called
+Chui Erh. "Where are you off too?" Hsiao Hung asked.
+
+"I've been told to bring in master Secundus, Mr. Yuen," Chui Erh replied.
+After which answer, she there and then departed with all speed.
+
+Hsiao Hung reached, meanwhile, the Feng Yao bridge. As soon as she
+approached the gateway, she perceived Chui Erh coming along with Chia
+Yuen from the opposite direction. While advancing Chia Yuen ogled Hsiao
+Hung; and Hsiao Hung too, though pretending to be addressing herself to
+Chui Erh, cast a glance at Chia Yuen; and their four eyes, as luck would
+have it, met. Hsiao Hung involuntarily blushed all over; and turning
+herself round, she walked off towards the Heng Wu court. But we will
+leave her there without further remarks.
+
+During this time, Chia Yuen followed Chui Erh, by a circuitous way, into
+the I Hung court. Chui Erh entered first and made the necessary
+announcement. Then subsequently she ushered in Chia Yuen. When Chia Yuen
+scrutinised the surroundings, he perceived, here and there in the court,
+several blocks of rockery, among which were planted banana-trees. On the
+opposite side were two storks preening their feathers under the fir
+trees. Under the covered passage were suspended, in a row, cages of
+every description, containing all sorts of fairylike, rare birds. In the
+upper part were five diminutive anterooms, uniformly carved with, unique
+designs; and above the framework of the door was hung a tablet with the
+inscription in four huge characters--"I Hung K'uai Lue, the happy red and
+joyful green."
+
+"I thought it strange," Chia Yuen argued mentally, "that it should be
+called the I Hung court; but are these, in fact, the four characters
+inscribed on the tablet!"
+
+But while he was communing within himself, he heard some one laugh and
+then exclaim from the inner side of the gauze window: "Come in at once!
+How is it that I've forgotten you these two or three months?"
+
+As soon as Chia Yuen recognised Pao-yue's voice, he entered the room with
+hurried step. On raising his head, his eye was attracted by the
+brilliant splendour emitted by gold and jade and by the dazzling lustre
+of the elegant arrangements. He failed, however, to detect where Pao-yue
+was ensconced. The moment he turned his head round, he espied, on the
+left side, a large cheval-glass; behind which appeared to view, standing
+side by side, two servant-girls of fifteen or sixteen years of age.
+"Master Secundus," they ventured, "please take a seat in the inner
+room."
+
+Chia Yuen could not even muster courage to look at them straight in the
+face; but promptly assenting, he walked into a green gauze
+mosquito-house, where he saw a small lacquered bed, hung with curtains
+of a deep red colour, with clusters of flowers embroidered in gold.
+Pao-yue, wearing a house-dress and slipshod shoes, was reclining on the
+bed, a book in hand. The moment he perceived Chia Yuen walk in, he
+discarded his book, and forthwith smiled and raised himself up. Chia Yuen
+hurriedly pressed forward and paid his salutation. Pao-yue then offered
+him a seat; but he simply chose a chair in the lower part of the
+apartment.
+
+"Ever since the moon in which I came across you," Pao-yue observed
+smilingly, "and told you to come into the library, I've had, who would
+have thought it, endless things to continuously attend to, so that I
+forgot all about you."
+
+"It's I, indeed, who lacked good fortune!" rejoined Chia Yuen, with a
+laugh; "particularly so, as it again happened that you, uncle, fell ill.
+But are you quite right once more?"
+
+"All right!" answered Pao-yue. "I heard that you've been put to much
+trouble and inconvenience on a good number of days!"
+
+"Had I even had any trouble to bear," added Chia Yuen, "it would have
+been my duty to bear it. But your complete recovery, uncle, is really a
+blessing to our whole family."
+
+As he spoke, he discerned a couple of servant-maids come to help him to
+a cup of tea. But while conversing with Pao-yue, Chia Yuen was intent upon
+scrutinising the girl with slim figure, and oval face, and clad in a
+silvery-red jacket, a blue satin waistcoat and a white silk petticoat
+with narrow pleats.
+
+At the time of Pao-yue's illness, Chia Yuen had spent a couple of days in
+the inner apartments, so that he remembered half of the inmates of note,
+and the moment he set eyes upon this servant-girl he knew that it was
+Hsi Jen; and that she was in Pao-yue's rooms on a different standing to
+the rest. Now therefore that she brought the tea in herself and that
+Pao-yue was, besides, sitting by, he rose to his feet with alacrity and
+put on a smile. "Sister," he said, "how is it that you are pouring tea
+for me? I came here to pay uncle a visit; what's more I'm no stranger,
+so let me pour it with my own hands!"
+
+"Just you sit down and finish!" Pao-yue interposed; "will you also behave
+in this fashion with servant-girls?"
+
+"In spite of what you say;" remarked Chia Yuen smiling, "they are young
+ladies attached to your rooms, uncle, and how could I presume to be
+disorderly in my conduct?"
+
+So saying, he took a seat and drank his tea. Pao-yue then talked to him
+about trivial and irrelevant matters; and afterwards went on to tell him
+in whose household the actresses were best, and whose gardens were
+pretty. He further mentioned to him in whose quarters the servant-girls
+were handsome, whose banquets were sumptuous, as well as in whose home
+were to be found strange things, and what family possessed remarkable
+objects. Chia Yuen was constrained to humour him in his conversation; but
+after a chat, which lasted for some time, he noticed that Pao-yue was
+somewhat listless, and he promptly stood up and took his leave. And
+Pao-yue too did not use much pressure to detain him. "To-morrow, if you
+have nothing to do, do come over!" he merely observed; after which, he
+again bade the young waiting-maid, Chui Erh, see him out.
+
+Having left the I Hung court, Chia Yuen cast a glance all round; and,
+realising that there was no one about, he slackened his pace at once,
+and while proceeding leisurely, he conversed, in a friendly way, with
+Chui Erh on one thing and another. First and foremost he inquired of her
+what was her age; and her name. "Of what standing are your father and
+mother?" he said, "How many years have you been in uncle Pao's
+apartments? How much money do you get a month? In all how many girls are
+there in uncle Pao's rooms?"
+
+As Chui Erh heard the questions set to her, she readily made suitable
+reply to each.
+
+"The one, who was a while back talking to you," continued Chia Yuen, "is
+called Hsiao Hung, isn't she?"
+
+"Yes, her name is Hsiao Hung!" replied Chui Erh smiling; "but why do you
+ask about her?"
+
+"She inquired of you just now about some handkerchief or other,"
+answered Chia Yuen; "well, I've picked one up."
+
+Chui Erh greeted this response with a smile. "Many are the times," she
+said; "that she has asked me whether I had seen her handkerchief; but
+have I got all that leisure to worry my mind about such things? She
+spoke to me about it again to-day; and she suggested that I should find
+it for her, and that she would also recompense me. This she told me when
+we were just now at the entrance of the Heng Wu court, and you too, Mr.
+Secundus, overheard her, so that I'm not lying. But, dear Mr. Secundus,
+since you've picked it up, give it to me. Do! And I'll see what she will
+give me as a reward."
+
+The truth is that Chia Yuen had, the previous moon when he had come into
+the garden to attend to the planting of trees, picked up a handkerchief,
+which he conjectured must have been dropped by some inmate of those
+grounds; but as he was not aware whose it was, he did not consequently
+presume to act with indiscretion. But on this occasion, he overheard
+Hsiao Hung make inquiries of Chui Erh on the subject; and concluding
+that it must belong to her, he felt immeasurably delighted. Seeing,
+besides, how importunate Chui Erh was, he at once devised a plan within
+himself, and vehemently producing from his sleeve a handkerchief of his
+own, he observed, as he turned towards Chui Erh with a smile: "As for
+giving it to you, I'll do so; but in the event of your obtaining any
+present from her, you mustn't impose upon me."
+
+Chui Erh assented to his proposal most profusely; and, taking the
+handkerchief, she saw Chia Yuen out and then came back in search of Hsiao
+Hung. But we will leave her there for the present.
+
+We will now return to Pao-yue. After dismissing Chia Yuen, he lay in such
+complete listlessness on the bed that he betrayed every sign of being
+half asleep. Hsi Jen walked up to him, and seated herself on the edge of
+the bed, and pushing him, "What are you about to go to sleep again," she
+said. "Would it not do your languid spirits good if you went out for a
+bit of a stroll?"
+
+Upon hearing her voice, Pao-yue grasped her hand in his. "I would like to
+go out," he smiled, "but I can't reconcile myself to the separation from
+you!"
+
+"Get up at once!" laughed Hsi Jen. And as she uttered these words, she
+pulled Pao-yue up.
+
+"Where can I go?" exclaimed Pao-yue. "I'm quite surfeited with
+everything."
+
+"Once out you'll be all right," Hsi Jen answered, "but if you simply
+give way to this languor, you'll be more than ever sick of everything at
+heart."
+
+Pao-yue could not do otherwise, dull and out of sorts though he was, than
+accede to her importunities. Strolling leisurely out of the door of the
+room, he amused himself a little with the birds suspended under the
+verandah; then he wended his steps outside the court, and followed the
+course of the Hsin Fang stream; but after admiring the golden fish for a
+time, he espied, on the opposite hillock, two young deer come rushing
+down as swift as an arrow. What they were up to Pao-yue could not
+discern; but while abandoning himself to melancholy, he caught sight of
+Chia Lan, following behind, with a small bow in his hand, and hurrying
+down hill in pursuit of them.
+
+As soon as he realised that Pao-yue stood ahead of him, he speedily
+halted. "Uncle Secundus," he smiled, "are you at home? I imagined you
+had gone out of doors!"
+
+"You are up to mischief again, eh?" Pao-yue rejoined. "They've done
+nothing to you, and why shoot at them with your arrows?"
+
+"I had no studies to attend to just now, so, being free with nothing to
+do," Chia Lan replied laughingly, "I was practising riding and archery."
+
+"Shut up!" exclaimed Pao-yue. "When are you not engaged in practising?"
+
+Saying this, he continued his way and straightway reached the entrance
+of a court. Here the bamboo foliage was thick, and the breeze sighed
+gently. This was the Hsiao Hsiang lodge. Pao-yue listlessly rambled in.
+He saw a bamboo portiere hanging down to the ground. Stillness
+prevailed. Not a human voice fell on the ear. He advanced as far as the
+window. Noticing that a whiff of subtle scent stole softly through the
+green gauze casement, Pao-yue applied his face closely against the frame
+to peep in, but suddenly he caught the faint sound of a deep sigh and
+the words: "Day after day my feelings slumber drowsily!" Upon
+overhearing this exclamation, Pao-yue unconsciously began to feel a prey
+to inward longings; but casting a second glance, he saw Tai-yue
+stretching herself on the bed.
+
+"Why is it," smiled Pao-yue, from outside the window, "that your feelings
+day after day slumber drowsily?" So saying, he raised the portiere and
+stepped in.
+
+The consciousness that she had not been reticent about her feelings made
+Tai-yue unwittingly flush scarlet. Taking hold of her sleeve, she
+screened her face; and, turning her body round towards the inside, she
+pretended to be fast asleep. Pao-yue drew near her. He was about to pull
+her round when he saw Tai-yue's nurse enter the apartment, followed by
+two matrons.
+
+"Is Miss asleep?" they said. "If so, we'll ask her over, when she wakes
+up."
+
+As these words were being spoken, Tai-yue eagerly twisted herself round
+and sat up. "Who's asleep?" she laughed.
+
+"We thought you were fast asleep, Miss," smiled the two or three matrons
+as soon as they perceived Tai-yue get up. This greeting over, they called
+Tzu Chuean. "Your young mistress," they said, "has awoke; come in and
+wait on her!"
+
+While calling her, they quitted the room in a body. Tai-yue remained
+seated on the bed. Raising her arms, she adjusted her hair, and
+smilingly she observed to Pao-yue, "When people are asleep, what do you
+walk in for?"
+
+At the sight of her half-closed starlike eyes and of her fragrant
+cheeks, suffused with a crimson blush, Pao-yue's feelings were of a
+sudden awakened; so, bending his body, he took a seat on a chair, and
+asked with a smile: "What were you saying a short while back?"
+
+"I wasn't saying anything," Tai-yue replied.
+
+"What a lie you're trying to ram down my throat!" laughed Pao-yue. "I
+heard all."
+
+But in the middle of their colloquy, they saw Tzu Chuean enter. Pao-yue
+then put on a smiling face. "Tzu Chuean!" he cried, "pour me a cup of
+your good tea!"
+
+"Where's the good tea to be had?" Tzu Chuean answered. "If you want good
+tea, you'd better wait till Hsi Jen comes."
+
+"Don't heed him!" interposed Tai-yue. "Just go first and draw me some
+water."
+
+"He's a visitor," remonstrated Tzu Chuean, "and, of course, I should
+first pour him a cup of tea, and then go and draw the water."
+
+With this answer, she started to serve the tea.
+
+"My dear girl," Pao-yue exclaimed laughingly, "If I could only share the
+same bridal curtain with your lovable young mistress, would I ever be
+able (to treat you as a servant) by making you fold the covers and make
+the beds."
+
+Lin Tai-yue at once drooped her head. "What are you saying?" she
+remonstrated.
+
+"What, did I say anything?" smiled Pao-yue.
+
+Tai-yue burst into tears. "You've recently," she observed, "got into a
+new way. Whatever slang you happen to hear outside you come and tell me.
+And whenever you read any improper book, you poke your fun at me. What!
+have I become a laughing-stock for gentlemen!"
+
+As she began to cry, she jumped down from bed, and promptly left the
+room. Pao-yue was at a loss how to act. So agitated was he that he
+hastily ran up to her, "My dear cousin," he pleaded, "I do deserve
+death; but don't go and tell any one! If again I venture to utter such
+kind of language, may blisters grow on my mouth and may my tongue waste
+away!"
+
+But while appealing to her feelings, he saw Hsi Jen approach him. "Go
+back at once," she cried, "and put on your clothes as master wants to
+see you."
+
+At the very mention of his father, Pao-yue felt suddenly as if struck by
+lightning. Regardless of everything and anything, he rushed, as fast as
+possible, back to his room, and changing his clothes, he came out into
+the garden. Here he discovered Pei Ming, standing at the second gateway,
+waiting for him.
+
+"Do you perchance know what he wants me for?" Pao-yue inquired.
+
+"Master, hurry out at once!" Pei Ming replied. "You must, of course, go
+and see him. When you get there, you are sure to find out what it's all
+about."
+
+This said, he urged Pao-yue on, and together they turned past the large
+pavilion. Pao-yue was, however, still labouring under suspicion, when he
+heard, from the corner of the wall, a loud outburst of laughter. Upon
+turning his head round, he caught sight of Hsueeh P'an jump out, clapping
+his hands. "Hadn't I said that my uncle wanted you?" he laughed. "Would
+you ever have rushed out with such alacrity?"
+
+Pei Ming also laughed, and fell on his knees. But Pao-yue remained for a
+long time under the spell of utter astonishment, before he, at length,
+realised that it was Hsueeh P'au who had inveigled him to come out.
+
+Hsueeh P'an hastily made a salutation and a curtsey, and confessed his
+fault. He next gave way to entreaties, saying: "Don't punish the young
+servant, for it is simply I who begged him go."
+
+Pao-yue too had then no other alternative but to smile. "I don't mind
+your playing your larks on me; but why," he inquired, "did you mention
+my father? Were I to go and tell my aunt, your mother, to see to the
+rights and the wrongs of the case, how would you like it?"
+
+"My dear cousin," remarked Hsueeh P'an vehemently, "the primary idea I
+had in view was to ask you to come out a moment sooner and I forgot to
+respectfully shun the expression. But by and bye, when you wish to chaff
+me, just you likewise allude to my father, and we'll thus be square."
+
+"Ai-ya!" exclaimed Pao-yue. "You do more than ever deserve death!!" Then
+turning again towards Pei Ming, "You ruffian!" he said, "what are you
+still kneeling for?"
+
+Pei Ming began to bump his head on the ground with vehemence.
+
+"Had it been for anything else," Hsueeh P'an chimed in, "I wouldn't have
+made bold to disturb you; but it's simply in connection with my birthday
+which is to-morrow, the third day of the fifth moon. Ch'eng Jih-hsing,
+who is in that curio shop of ours, unexpectedly brought along, goodness
+knows where he fished them from, fresh lotus so thick and so long, so
+mealy and so crisp; melons of this size; and a Siamese porpoise, that
+long and that big, smoked with cedar, such as is sent as tribute from
+the kingdom of Siam. Are not these four presents, pray, rare delicacies?
+The porpoise is not only expensive, but difficult to get, and that kind
+of lotus and melon must have cost him no end of trouble to grow! I lost
+no time in presenting some to my mother, and at once sent some to your
+old grandmother, and my aunt. But a good many of them still remain now;
+and were I to eat them all alone, it would, I fear, be more than I
+deserve; so I concluded, after thinking right and left, that there was,
+besides myself, only you good enough to partake of some. That is why I
+specially invite you to taste them. But, as luck would have it, a young
+singing-boy has also come, so what do you say to you and I having a
+jolly day of it?"
+
+As they talked, they walked; and, as they walked, they reached the
+interior of the library. Here they discovered a whole assemblage
+consisting of Tan Kuang, Ch'eng Jih-hsing, Hu Ch'i-lai, Tan T'ing-jen
+and others, and the singing-boy as well. As soon as these saw Pao-yue
+walk in, some paid their respects to him; others inquired how he was;
+and after the interchange of salutations, tea was drunk. Hsueeh P'an then
+gave orders to serve the wine. Scarcely were the words out of his mouth
+than the servant-lads bustled and fussed for a long while laying the
+table. When at last the necessary arrangements had been completed, the
+company took their seats.
+
+Pao-yue verily found the melons and lotus of an exceptional description.
+"My birthday presents have not as yet been sent round," he felt impelled
+to say, a smile on his lips, "and here I come, ahead of them, to
+trespass on your hospitality."
+
+"Just so!" retorted Hsueeh P'an, "but when you come to-morrow to
+congratulate me we'll consider what novel kind of present you can give
+me."
+
+"I've got nothing that I can give you," rejoined Pao-yue. "As far as
+money, clothes, eatables and other such articles go, they are not really
+mine: all I can call my own are such pages of characters that I may
+write, or pictures that I may draw."
+
+"Your reference to pictures," added Hsueeh P'an smiling, "reminds me of a
+book I saw yesterday, containing immodest drawings; they were, truly,
+beautifully done. On the front page there figured also a whole lot of
+characters. But I didn't carefully look at them; I simply noticed the
+name of the person, who had executed them. It was, in fact, something or
+other like Keng Huang. The pictures were, actually, exceedingly good!"
+
+This allusion made Pao-yue exercise his mind with innumerable
+conjectures.
+
+"Of pictures drawn from past years to the present, I have," he said,
+"seen a good many, but I've never come across any Keng Huang."
+
+After considerable thought, he could not repress himself from bursting
+out laughing. Then asking a servant to fetch him a pencil, he wrote a
+couple of words on the palm of his hand. This done, he went on to
+inquire of Hsueeh. P'an: "Did you see correctly that it read Keng Huang?"
+
+"How could I not have seen correctly?" ejaculated Hsueeh P'an.
+
+Pao-yue thereupon unclenched his hand and allowed him to peruse, what was
+written in it. "Were they possibly these two characters?" he remarked.
+"These are, in point of fact, not very dissimilar from what Keng Huang
+look like?"
+
+On scrutinising them, the company noticed the two words T'ang Yin, and
+they all laughed. "They must, we fancy, have been these two characters!"
+they cried. "Your eyes, Sir, may, there's no saying, have suddenly grown
+dim!"
+
+Hsueeh P'an felt utterly abashed. "Who could have said," he smiled,
+"whether they were T'ang Yin or Kuo Yin, (candied silver or fruit
+silver)."
+
+As he cracked this joke, however, a young page came and announced that
+Mr. Feng had arrived. Pao-yue concluded that the new comer must be Feng
+Tzu-ying, the son of Feng T'ang, general with the prefix of Shen Wu."
+
+"Ask him in at once," Hsueeh P'an and his companions shouted with one
+voice.
+
+But barely were these words out of their mouths, than they realised that
+Feng Tzu-ying had already stepped in, talking and laughing as he
+approached.
+
+The company speedily rose from table and offered him a seat.
+
+"That's right!" smiled Feng Tzu-ying. "You don't go out of doors, but
+remain at home and go in for high fun!"
+
+Both Pao-yue and Hsueeh P'an put on a smile. "We haven't," they remarked,
+"seen you for ever so long. Is your venerable father strong and hale?"
+
+"My father," rejoined Tzu-ying, "is, thanks to you, strong and hale; but
+my mother recently contracted a sudden chill and has been unwell for a
+couple of days."
+
+Hsueeh P'an discerned on his face a slight bluish wound. "With whom have
+you again been boxing," he laughingly inquired, "that you've hung up
+this sign board?"
+
+"Since the occasion," laughed Feng Tzu-ying, "on which I wounded
+lieutenant-colonel Ch'ou's son, I've borne the lesson in mind, and never
+lost my temper. So how is it you say that I've again been boxing? This
+thing on my face was caused, when I was out shooting the other day on
+the T'ieh Wang hills, by a flap from the wing of the falcon."
+
+"When was that?" asked Pao-yue.
+
+"I started," explained Tzu-ying, "on the 28th of the third moon and came
+back only the day before yesterday."
+
+"It isn't to be wondered at then," observed Pao-yue, "that when I went
+the other day, on the third and fourth, to a banquet at friend Shen's
+house, I didn't see you there. Yet I meant to have inquired about you;
+but I don't know how it slipped from my memory. Did you go alone, or did
+your venerable father accompany you?"
+
+"Of course, my father went," Tzu-ying replied, "so I had no help but to
+go. For is it likely, forsooth, that I've gone mad from lack of anything
+to do! Don't we, a goodly number as we are, derive enough pleasure from
+our wine-bouts and plays that I should go in quest of such kind of
+fatiguing recreation! But in this instance a great piece of good fortune
+turned up in evil fortune!"
+
+Hsueeh P'an and his companions noticed that he had finished his tea.
+"Come along," they one and all proposed, "and join the banquet; you can
+then quietly recount to us all your experiences."
+
+At this suggestion Feng Tzu-ying there and then rose to his feet.
+"According to etiquette," he said. "I should join you in drinking a few
+cups; but to-day I have still a very urgent matter to see my father
+about on my return so that I truly cannot accept your invitation."
+
+Hsueeh P'an, Pao-yue and the other young fellows would on no account
+listen to his excuses. They pulled him vigorously about and would not
+let him go.
+
+"This is, indeed, strange!" laughed Feng Tzu-ying. "When have you and I
+had, during all these years, to have recourse to such proceedings! I
+really am unable to comply with your wishes. But if you do insist upon
+making me have a drink, well, then bring a large cup and I'll take two
+cups full and finish."
+
+After this rejoinder, the party could not but give in. Hsueeh P'an took
+hold of the kettle, while Pao-yue grasped the cup, and they poured two
+large cups full. Feng Tzu-ying stood up and quaffed them with one
+draught.
+
+"But do, after all," urged Pao-yue, "finish this thing about a piece of
+good fortune in the midst of misfortune before you go."
+
+"To tell you this to-day," smiled Feng Tzu-ying, "will be no great fun.
+But for this purpose I intend standing a special entertainment, and
+inviting you all to come and have a long chat; and, in the second place,
+I've also got a favour to ask of you."
+
+Saying this, he pushed his way and was going off at once, when Hsueeh
+P'an interposed. "What you've said," he observed, "has put us more than
+ever on pins and needles. We cannot brook any delay. Who knows when you
+will ask us round; so better tell us, and thus avoid keeping people in
+suspense!"
+
+"The latest," rejoined Feng Tzu-ying, "in ten days; the earliest in
+eight." With this answer he went out of the door, mounted his horse, and
+took his departure.
+
+The party resumed their seats at table. They had another bout, and then
+eventually dispersed.
+
+Pao-yue returned into the garden in time to find Hsi Jen thinking with
+solicitude that he had gone to see Chia Cheng and wondering whether it
+foreboded good or evil. As soon as she perceived Pao-yue come back in a
+drunken state, she felt urged to inquire the reason of it all. Pao-yue
+told her one by one the particulars of what happened.
+
+"People," added Hsi Jen, "wait for you with lacerated heart and anxious
+mind, and there you go and make merry; yet you could very well, after
+all, have sent some one with a message."
+
+"Didn't I purpose sending a message?" exclaimed Pao-yue. "Of course, I
+did! But I failed to do so, as on the arrival of friend Feng, I got so
+mixed up that the intention vanished entirely from my mind."
+
+While excusing himself, he saw Pao-ch'ai enter the apartment. "Have you
+tasted any of our new things?" she asked, a smile curling her lips.
+
+"Cousin," laughed Pao-yue, "you must have certainly tasted what you've
+got in your house long before us."
+
+Pao-ch'ai shook her head and smiled. "Yesterday," she said, "my brother
+did actually make it a point to ask me to have some; but I had none; I
+told him to keep them and send them to others, so confident am I that
+with my mean lot and scanty blessings I little deserve to touch such
+dainties."
+
+As she spoke, a servant-girl poured her a cup of tea and brought it to
+her. While she sipped it, she carried on a conversation on irrelevant
+matters; which we need not notice, but turn our attention to Lin Tai-yue.
+
+The instant she heard that Chia Cheng had sent for Pao-yue, and that he
+had not come back during the whole day, she felt very distressed on his
+account. After supper, the news of Pao-yue's return reached her, and she
+keenly longed to see him and ask him what was up. Step by step she
+trudged along, when espying Pao-ch'ai going into Pao-yue's garden, she
+herself followed close in her track. But on their arrival at the Hsin
+Fang bridge, she caught sight of the various kinds of water-fowl,
+bathing together in the pond, and although unable to discriminate the
+numerous species, her gaze became so transfixed by their respective
+variegated and bright plumage and by their exceptional beauty, that she
+halted. And it was after she had spent some considerable time in
+admiring them that she repaired at last to the I Hung court. The gate
+was already closed. Tai-yue, however, lost no time in knocking. But
+Ch'ing Wen and Pi Hen had, who would have thought it, been having a
+tiff, and were in a captious mood, so upon unawares seeing Pao-ch'ai
+step on the scene, Ch'ing Wen at once visited her resentment upon
+Pao-ch'ai. She was just standing in the court giving vent to her wrongs,
+shouting: "You're always running over and seating yourself here, whether
+you've got good reason for doing so or not; and there's no sleep for us
+at the third watch, the middle of the night though it be," when, all of
+a sudden, she heard some one else calling at the door. Ch'ing Wen was
+the more moved to anger. Without even asking who it was, she rapidly
+bawled out: "They've all gone to sleep; you'd better come to-morrow."
+
+Lin Tai-yue was well aware of the natural peculiarities of the
+waiting-maids, and of their habit of playing practical jokes upon each
+other, so fearing that the girl in the inner room had failed to
+recognise her voice, and had refused to open under the misconception
+that it was some other servant-girl, she gave a second shout in a higher
+pitch. "It's I!" she cried, "don't you yet open the gate?"
+
+Ch'ing Wen, as it happened, did not still distinguish her voice; and in
+an irritable strain, she rejoined: "It's no matter who you may be; Mr.
+Secundus has given orders that no one at all should be allowed to come
+in."
+
+As these words reached Lin Tai-yue's ear, she unwittingly was overcome
+with indignation at being left standing outside. But when on the point
+of raising her voice to ask her one or two things, and to start a
+quarrel with her; "albeit," she again argued mentally, "I can call this
+my aunt's house, and it should be just as if it were my own, it's, after
+all, a strange place, and now that my father and mother are both dead,
+and that I am left with no one to rely upon, I have for the present to
+depend upon her family for a home. Were I now therefore to give way to a
+regular fit of anger with her, I'll really get no good out of it."
+
+While indulging in reflection, tears trickled from her eyes. But just as
+she was feeling unable to retrace her steps, and unable to remain
+standing any longer, and quite at a loss what to do, she overheard the
+sound of jocular language inside, and listening carefully, she
+discovered that it was, indeed, Pao-yue and Pao-ch'ai. Lin Tai-yue waxed
+more wroth. After much thought and cogitation, the incidents of the
+morning flashed unawares through her memory. "It must, in fact," she
+mused, "be because Pao-yue is angry with me for having explained to him
+the true reasons. But why did I ever go and tell you? You should,
+however, have made inquiries before you lost your temper to such an
+extent with me as to refuse to let me in to-day; but is it likely that
+we shall not by and bye meet face to face again?"
+
+The more she gave way to thought, the more she felt wounded and
+agitated; and without heeding the moss, laden with cold dew, the path
+covered with vegetation, and the chilly blasts of wind, she lingered all
+alone, under the shadow of the bushes at the corner of the wall, so
+thoroughly sad and dejected that she broke forth into sobs.
+
+Lin Tai-yue was, indeed, endowed with exceptional beauty and with charms
+rarely met with in the world. As soon therefore as she suddenly melted
+into tears, and the birds and rooks roosting on the neighbouring willow
+boughs and branches of shrubs caught the sound of her plaintive tones,
+they one and all fell into a most terrific flutter, and, taking to their
+wings, they flew away to distant recesses, so little were they able to
+listen with equanimity to such accents. But the spirits of the flowers
+were, at the time, silent and devoid of feeling, the birds were plunged
+in dreams and in a state of stupor, so why did they start? A stanza
+appositely assigns the reason:--
+
+ P'in Erh's mental talents and looks must in the world be rare--.
+ Alone, clasped in a subtle smell, she quits her maiden room.
+ The sound of but one single sob scarcely dies away,
+ And drooping flowers cover the ground and birds fly in dismay.
+
+Lin Tai-yue was sobbing in her solitude, when a creaking noise struck her
+ear and the door of the court was flung open. Who came out, is not yet
+ascertained; but, reader, should you wish to know, the next chapter will
+explain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+ In the Ti Ts'ui pavilion, Pao-ch'ai diverts herself with the
+ multi-coloured butterflies.
+ Over the mound, where the flowers had been interred, Tai-yue bewails
+ their withered bloom.
+
+
+Lin Tai-yue, we must explain in taking up the thread of our narrative,
+was disconsolately bathed in tears, when her ear was suddenly attracted
+by the creak of the court gate, and her eyes by the appearance of
+Pao-ch'ai beyond the threshold. Pao-yue, Hsi Jen and a whole posse of
+inmates then walked out. She felt inclined to go up to Pao-yue and ask
+him a question; but dreading that if she made any inquiries in the
+presence of such a company, Pao-yue would be put to the blush and placed
+in an awkward position, she slipped aside and allowed Pao-ch'ai to
+prosecute her way. And it was only after Pao-yue and the rest of the
+party had entered and closed the gate behind them that she at last
+issued from her retreat. Then fixing her gaze steadfastly on the
+gateway, she dropped a few tears. But inwardly conscious of their utter
+futility she retraced her footsteps and wended her way back into her
+apartment. And with heavy heart and despondent spirits, she divested
+herself of the remainder of her habiliments.
+
+Tzu Chuean and Hsueeh Yen were well aware, from the experience they had
+reaped in past days, that Lin Tai-yue was, in the absence of anything to
+occupy her mind, prone to sit and mope, and that if she did not frown
+her eyebrows, she anyway heaved deep sighs; but they were quite at a
+loss to divine why she was, with no rhyme or reason, ever so ready to
+indulge, to herself, in inexhaustible gushes of tears. At first, there
+were such as still endeavoured to afford her solace; or who, suspecting
+lest she brooded over the memory of her father and mother, felt
+home-sick, or aggrieved, through some offence given her, tried by every
+persuasion to console and cheer her; but, as contrary to all
+expectations, she subsequently persisted time and again in this dull
+mood, through each succeeding month and year, people got accustomed to
+her eccentricities and did not extend to her the least sympathy. Hence
+it was that no one (on this occasion) troubled her mind about her, but
+letting her sit and sulk to her heart's content, they one and all turned
+in and went to sleep.
+
+Lin Tai-yue leaned against the railing of the bed, clasping her knees
+with both hands, her eyes suffused with tears. She looked, in very
+truth, like a carved wooden image or one fashioned of mud. There she sat
+straight up to the second watch, even later, when she eventually fell
+asleep.
+
+The whole night nothing remarkable transpired. The morrow was the 26th
+day of the fourth moon. Indeed on this day, at one p.m., commenced the
+season of the 'Sprouting seeds,' and, according to an old custom, on the
+day on which this feast of 'Sprouting seeds' fell, every one had to lay
+all kinds of offerings and sacrificial viands on the altar of the god of
+flowers. Soon after the expiry of this season of 'Sprouting seeds'
+follows summertide, and us plants in general then wither and the god of
+flowers resigns his throne, it is compulsory to feast him at some
+entertainment, previous to his departure.
+
+In the ladies' apartments this custom was observed with still more
+rigour; and, for this reason, the various inmates Of the park of Broad
+Vista had, without a single exception, got up at an early hour. The
+young people either twisted flowers and willow twigs in such a way as to
+represent chairs and horses, or made tufted banners with damask,
+brocaded gauze and silk, and bound them with variegated threads. These
+articles of decoration were alike attached on every tree and plant; and
+throughout the whole expanse of the park, embroidered sashes waved to
+and fro, and ornamented branches nodded their heads about. In addition
+to this, the members of the family were clad in such fineries that they
+put the peach tree to shame, made the almond yield the palm, the swallow
+envious and the hawk to blush. We could not therefore exhaustively
+describe them within our limited space of time.
+
+Pao-ch'ai, Ying Ch'un, T'an Ch'un, Hsi Ch'un, Li Wan, lady Feng and
+other girls, as well as Ta Chieh Erh, Hsiang Ling and the waiting-maids
+were, one and all, we will now notice, in the garden enjoying
+themselves; the only person who could not be seen was Lin Tai-yue.
+
+"How is it," consequently inquired Ying Ch'un, "that I don't see cousin
+Liu? What a lazy girl! Is she forsooth fast asleep even at this late
+hour of the day?"
+
+"Wait all of you here," rejoined Pao-ch'ai, "and I'll go and shake her
+up and bring her."
+
+With these words, she speedily left her companions and repaired
+straightway into the Hsiao Hsiang lodge.
+
+While she was going on her errand, she met Wen Kuan and the rest of the
+girls, twelve in all, on their way to seek the party. Drawing near, they
+inquired after her health. After exchanging a few commonplace remarks,
+Pao-ch'ai turned round and pointing, said: "you will find them all in
+there; you had better go and join them. As for me, I'm going to fetch
+Miss Lin, but I'll be back soon."
+
+Saying this, she followed the winding path, and came to the Hsiao Hsiang
+lodge. Upon suddenly raising her eyes, she saw Pao-yue walk in. Pao-ch'ai
+immediately halted, and, lowering her head, she gave way to meditation
+for a time. "Pao-yue and Lin Tai-yue," she reflected, "have grown up
+together from their very infancy. But cousins, though they be, there are
+many instances in which they cannot evade suspicion, for they joke
+without heeding propriety; and at one time they are friends and at
+another at daggers drawn. Tai-yue has, moreover, always been full of
+envy; and has ever displayed a peevish disposition, so were I to follow
+him in at this juncture, why, Pao-yue would, in the first place, not feel
+at ease, and, in the second, Tai-yue would give way to jealousy. Better
+therefore for me to turn back."
+
+At the close of this train of thought, she retraced her steps. But just
+as she was starting to join her other cousins, she unexpectedly
+descried, ahead of her, a pair of jade-coloured butterflies, of the size
+of a circular fan. Now they soared high, now they made a swoop down, in
+their flight against the breeze; much to her amusement.
+
+Pao-ch'ai felt a wish to catch them for mere fun's sake, so producing a
+fan from inside her sleeve, she descended on to the turfed ground to
+flap them with it. The two butterflies suddenly were seen to rise;
+suddenly to drop: sometimes to come; at others to go. Just as they were
+on the point of flying across the stream to the other side, the
+enticement proved too much for Pao-ch'ai, and she pursued them on tiptoe
+straight up to the Ti Ts'ui pavilion, nestling on the bank of the pond;
+while fragrant perspiration dripped drop by drop, and her sweet breath
+panted gently. But Pao-ch'ai abandoned the idea of catching them, and
+was about to beat a retreat, when all at once she overheard, in the
+pavilion, the chatter of people engaged in conversation.
+
+This pavilion had, it must be added, a verandah and zig-zag balustrades
+running all round. It was erected over the water, in the centre of a
+pond, and had on the four sides window-frames of carved wood work, stuck
+with paper. So when Pao-ch'ai caught, from without the pavilion, the
+sound of voices, she at once stood still and lent an attentive ear to
+what was being said.
+
+"Look at this handkerchief," she overheard. "If it's really the one
+you've lost, well then keep it; but if it isn't you must return it to
+Mr. Yuen."
+
+"To be sure it is my own," another party observed, "bring it along and
+give it to me."
+
+"What reward will you give me?" she further heard. "Is it likely that
+I've searched all for nothing!"
+
+"I've long ago promised to recompense you, and of course I won't play
+you false," some one again rejoined.
+
+"I found it and brought it round," also reached her ear, "and you
+naturally will recompense me; but won't you give anything to the person
+who picked it up?"
+
+"Don't talk nonsense," the other party added, "he belongs to a family of
+gentlemen, and anything of ours he may pick up it's his bounden duty to
+restore to us. What reward could you have me give him?"
+
+"If you don't reward him," she heard some one continue, "what will I be
+able to tell him? Besides, he enjoined me time after time that if there
+was to be no recompense, I was not to give it to you."
+
+A short pause ensued. "Never mind!" then came out again to her, "take
+this thing of mine and present it to him and have done! But do you mean
+to let the cat out of the bag with any one else? You should take some
+oath."
+
+"If I tell any one," she likewise overheard, "may an ulcer grow on my
+mouth, and may I, in course of time, die an unnatural death!"
+
+"Ai-ya!" was the reply she heard; "our minds are merely bent upon
+talking, but some one might come and quietly listen from outside;
+wouldn't it be as well to push all the venetians open. Any one seeing us
+in here will then imagine that we are simply chatting about nonsense.
+Besides, should they approach, we shall be able to observe them, and at
+once stop our conversation!"
+
+Pao-ch'ai listened to these words from outside, with a heart full of
+astonishment. "How can one wonder," she argued mentally, "if all those
+lewd and dishonest people, who have lived from olden times to the
+present, have devised such thorough artifices! But were they now to open
+and see me here, won't they feel ashamed. Moreover, the voice in which
+those remarks were uttered resembles very much that of Hung Erh,
+attached to Pao-yue's rooms, who has all along shown a sharp eye and a
+shrewd mind. She's an artful and perverse thing of the first class! And
+as I have now overheard her peccadilloes, and a person in despair rebels
+as sure as a dog in distress jumps over the wall, not only will trouble
+arise, but I too shall derive no benefit. It would be better at present
+therefore for me to lose no time in retiring. But as I fear I mayn't be
+in time to get out of the way, the only alternative for me is to make
+use of some art like that of the cicada, which can divest itself of its
+_exuviae_."
+
+She had scarcely brought her reflections to a close before a sound of
+'ko-chih' reached her ears. Pao-ch'ai purposely hastened to tread with
+heavy step. "P'in Erh, I see where you're hiding!" she cried out
+laughingly; and as she shouted, she pretended to be running ahead in
+pursuit of her.
+
+As soon as Hsiao Hung and Chui Erh pushed the windows open from inside
+the pavilion, they heard Pao-ch'ai screaming, while rushing forward; and
+both fell into a state of trepidation from the fright they sustained.
+
+Pao-ch'ai turned round and faced them. "Where have you been hiding Miss
+Lin?" she smiled.
+
+"Who has seen anything of Miss Lin," retorted Chui Erh.
+
+"I was just now," proceeded Pao-ch'ai, "on that side of the pool, and
+discerned Miss Lin squatting down over there and playing with the water.
+I meant to have gently given her a start, but scarcely had I walked up
+to her, when she saw me, and, with a _detour_ towards the East, she
+at once vanished from sight. So mayn't she be concealing herself in
+there?"
+
+As she spoke, she designedly stepped in and searched about for her. This
+over, she betook herself away, adding: "she's certain to have got again
+into that cave in the hill, and come across a snake, which must have
+bitten her and put an end to her."
+
+So saying, she distanced them, feeling again very much amused. "I have
+managed," she thought, "to ward off this piece of business, but I wonder
+what those two think about it."
+
+Hsiao Hung, who would have anticipated, readily credited as gospel the
+remarks she heard Pao-ch'ai make. But allowing just time enough to
+Pao-ch'ai to got to a certain distance, she instantly drew Chui Erh to
+her. "Dreadful!" she observed, "Miss Lin was squatting in here and must
+for a certainty have overheard what we said before she left."
+
+Albeit Chui Erh listened to her words, she kept her own counsel for a
+long time. "What's to be done?" Hsiao Hung consequently exclaimed.
+
+"Even supposing she did overhear what we said," rejoined Chui Erh by way
+of answer, "why should she meddle in what does not concern her? Every
+one should mind her own business."
+
+"Had it been Miss Pao, it would not have mattered," remarked Hsiao Hung,
+"but Miss Lin delights in telling mean things of people and is, besides,
+so petty-minded. Should she have heard and anything perchance comes to
+light, what will we do?"
+
+During their colloquy, they noticed Wen Kuan, Hsiang Ling, Ssu Ch'i,
+Shih Shu and the other girls enter the pavilion, so they were compelled
+to drop the conversation and to play and laugh with them. They then
+espied lady Feng standing on the top of the hillock, waving her hand,
+beckoning to Hsiao Hung. Hurriedly therefore leaving the company, she
+ran up to lady Feng and with smile heaped upon smile, "my lady," she
+inquired, "what is it that you want?"
+
+Lady Feng scrutinised her for a time. Observing how spruce and pretty
+she was in looks, and how genial in her speech, she felt prompted to
+give her a smile. "My own waiting-maid," she said, "hasn't followed me
+in here to-day; and as I've just this moment bethought myself of
+something and would like to send some one on an errand, I wonder whether
+you're fit to undertake the charge and deliver a message faithfully."
+
+"Don't hesitate in entrusting me with any message you may have to send,"
+replied Hsiao Hung with a laugh. "I'll readily go and deliver it. Should
+I not do so faithfully, and blunder in fulfilling your business, my
+lady, you may visit me with any punishment your ladyship may please, and
+I'll have nothing to say."
+
+"What young lady's servant are you," smiled lady Feng? "Tell me, so that
+when she comes back, after I've sent you out, and looks for you, I may
+be able to tell her about you."
+
+"I'm attached to our Master Secundus,' Mr. Pao's rooms," answered Hsiao
+Hung.
+
+"Ai-ya!" ejaculated lady Feng, as soon as she heard these words. "Are
+you really in Pao-yue's rooms! How strange! Yet it comes to the same
+thing. Well, if he asks for you, I'll tell him where you are. Go now to
+our house and tell your sister P'ing that she'll find on the table in
+the outer apartment and under the stand with the plate from the Ju kiln,
+a bundle of silver; that it contains the one hundred and twenty taels
+for the embroiderers' wages; and that when Chang Ts'ai's wife comes, the
+money should be handed to her to take away, after having been weighed in
+her presence and been given to her to tally. Another thing too I want.
+In the inner apartment and at the head of the bed you'll find a small
+purse, bring it along to me."
+
+Hsiao Hung listened to her orders and then started to carry them out. On
+her return, in a short while, she discovered that lady Feng was not on
+the hillock. But perceiving Ssu Ch'i egress from the cave and stand
+still to tie her petticoat, she walked up to her. "Sister, do you know
+where our lady Secunda is gone to?" she asked.
+
+"I didn't notice," rejoined Ssu Ch'i.
+
+At this reply, Hsiao Hung turned round and cast a glance on all four
+quarters. Seeing T'an Ch'un and Pao-ch'ai standing by the bank of the
+pond on the opposite side and looking at the fish, Hsiao Hung advanced
+up to them. "Young ladies," she said, straining a smile, "do you
+perchance have any idea where our lady Secunda is gone to now?"
+
+"Go into your senior lady's court and look for her!" T'an Ch'un
+answered.
+
+Hearing this, Hsiao Hung was proceeding immediately towards the Tao
+Hsiang village, when she caught sight, just ahead of her, of Ch'ing Wen,
+Ch'i Hsia, Pi Hen, Ch'iu Wen, She Yueeh, Shih Shu, Ju Hua, Ying Erh and
+some other girls coming towards her in a group.
+
+The moment Ch'ing Wen saw Hsiao Hung, she called out to her. "Are you
+gone clean off your head?" she exclaimed. "You don't water the flowers,
+nor feed the birds or prepare the tea stove, but gad about outside!"
+
+"Yesterday," replied Hsiao Hung, "Mr. Secundus told me that there was no
+need for me to water the flowers to-day; that it was enough if they were
+watered every other day. As for the birds, you're still in the arms of
+Morpheus, sister, when I give them their food."
+
+"And what about the tea-stove?" interposed Pi Hen.
+
+"To-day," retorted Hsiao Hung, "is not my turn on duty, so don't ask me
+whether there be any tea or not!"
+
+"Do you listen to that mouth of hers!" cried Ch'i Hsia, "but don't you
+girls speak to her; let her stroll about and have done!"
+
+"You'd better all go and ask whether I've been gadding about or not,"
+continued Hsiao Hung. "Our lady Secunda has just bidden me go and
+deliver a message, and fetch something."
+
+Saying this, she raised the purse and let them see it; and they, finding
+they could hit upon nothing more to taunt her with, trudged along
+onwards.
+
+Ch'ing Wen smiled a sarcastic smile. "How funny!" she cried. "Lo, she
+climbs up a high branch and doesn't condescend to look at any one of us!
+All she told her must have been just some word or two, who knows! But is
+it likely that our lady has the least notion of her name or surname that
+she rides such a high horse, and behaves in this manner! What credit is
+it in having been sent on a trifling errand like this! Will we, by and
+bye, pray, hear anything more about you? If you've got any gumption,
+you'd better skedaddle out of this garden this very day. For, mind, it's
+only if you manage to hold your lofty perch for any length of time that
+you can be thought something of!"
+
+As she derided her, she continued on her way.
+
+During this while, Hsiao Hung listened to her, but as she did not find
+it a suitable moment to retaliate, she felt constrained to suppress her
+resentment and go in search of lady Feng.
+
+On her arrival at widow Li's quarters, she, in point of fact, discovered
+lady Feng seated inside with her having a chat. Hsiao Hung approached
+her and made her report. "Sister P'ing says," she observed, "that as
+soon as your ladyship left the house, she put the money by, and that
+when Chang Ts'ai's wife went in a little time to fetch it, she had it
+weighed in her presence, after which she gave it to her to take away."
+
+With these words, she produced the purse and presented it to her.
+"Sister P'ing bade me come and tell your ladyship," she added,
+continuing, "that Wang Erh came just now to crave your orders, as to who
+are the parties from whom he has to go and (collect interest on money
+due) and sister P'ing explained to him what your wishes were and sent
+him off."
+
+"How could she tell him where I wanted him to go?" Lady Feng laughed.
+
+"Sister P'ing says," Hsiao Hung proceeded, "that our lady presents her
+compliments to your ladyship (widow Li) here-(_To lady Feng_) that
+our master Secundus has in fact not come home, and that albeit a delay
+of (a day) or two will take place (in the collection of the money), your
+ladyship should, she begs, set your mind at ease. (_To Li Wan_).
+That when lady Quinta is somewhat better, our lady will let lady Quinta
+know and come along with her to see your ladyship. (_To lady
+Feng_). That lady Quinta sent a servant the day before yesterday to
+come over and say that our lady, your worthy maternal aunt, had
+despatched a letter to inquire after your ladyship's health; that she
+also wished to ask you, my lady, her worthy niece in here, for a couple
+of 'long-life-great-efficacy-full-of-every-virtue' pills; and that if
+you have any, they should, when our lady bids a servant come over, be
+simply given her to bring to our lady here, and that any one bound
+to-morrow for that side could then deliver them on her way to her
+ladyship, your aunt yonder, to take along with her."
+
+"Ai-yo-yo!" exclaimed widow Li, before the close of the message. "It's
+impossible for me to make out what you're driving at! What a heap of
+ladyships and misters!"
+
+"It's not to be wondered at that you can't make them out," interposed
+lady Feng laughing. "Why, her remarks refer to four or five distinct
+families."
+
+While speaking, she again faced Hsiao Hung. "My dear girl," she smiled,
+"what a trouble you've been put to! But you speak decently, and unlike
+the others who keep on buzz-buzz-buzz, like mosquitoes! You're not
+aware, sister-in-law, that I actually dread uttering a word to any of
+the girls outside the few servant-girls and matrons in my own immediate
+service; for they invariably spin out, what could be condensed in a
+single phrase, into a long interminable yarn, and they munch and chew
+their words; and sticking to a peculiar drawl, they groan and moan; so
+much so, that they exasperate me till I fly into a regular rage. Yet how
+are they to know that our P'ing Erh too was once like them. But when I
+asked her: 'must you forsooth imitate the humming of a mosquito, in
+order to be accounted a handsome girl?' and spoke to her, on several
+occasions, she at length improved considerably."
+
+"What a good thing it would be," laughed Li Kung-ts'ai, "if they could
+all be as smart as you are."
+
+"This girl is first-rate!" rejoined lady Feng, "she just now delivered
+two messages. They didn't, I admit, amount to much, yet to listen to
+her, she spoke to the point."
+
+"To-morrow," she continued, addressing herself to Hsiao Hung smilingly,
+"come and wait on me, and I'll acknowledge you as my daughter; and the
+moment you come under my control, you'll readily improve."
+
+At this news, Hsiao Hung spurted out laughing aloud.
+
+"What are you laughing for?" Lady Feng inquired. "You must say to
+yourself that I am young in years and that how much older can I be than
+yourself to become your mother; but are you under the influence of a
+spring dream? Go and ask all those people older than yourself. They
+would be only too ready to call me mother. But snapping my fingers at
+them, I to-day exalt you."
+
+"I wasn't laughing about that," Hsiao Hung answered with a smiling face.
+"I was amused by the mistake your ladyship made about our generations.
+Why, my mother claims to be your daughter, my lady, and are you now
+going to recognise me too as your daughter?"
+
+"Who's your mother?" Lady Feng exclaimed.
+
+"Don't you actually know her?" put in Li Kung-ts'ai with a smile. "She's
+Lin Chih-hsiao's child."
+
+This disclosure greatly surprised lady Feng. "What!" she consequently
+cried, "is she really his daughter?"
+
+"Why Lin Chih-hsiao and his wife," she resumed smilingly, "couldn't
+either of them utter a sound if even they were pricked with an awl.
+I've always maintained that they're a well-suited couple; as the one is
+as deaf as a post, and the other as dumb as a mute. But who would ever
+have expected them to have such a clever girl! By how much are you in
+your teens?"
+
+"I'm seventeen," replied Hsia Hung.
+
+"What is your name?" she went on to ask.
+
+"My name was once Hung Yue." Hsiao Hung rejoined. "But as it was a
+duplicate of that of Master Secundus, Mr. Pao-yue, I'm now simply called
+Hsiao Hung."
+
+Upon hearing this explanation, lady Feng raised her eyebrows into a
+frown, and turning her head round: "It's most disgusting!" she remarked,
+"Those bearing the name Yue would seem to be very cheap; for your name is
+Yue, and so is also mine Yue. Sister-in-law," she then observed; "I never
+let you know anything about it, but I mentioned to her mother that Lai
+Ta's wife has at present her hands quite full, and that she hasn't
+either any notion as to who is who in this mansion. 'You had better,' (I
+said), 'carefully select a couple of girls for my service.' She assented
+unreservedly, but she put it off and never chose any. On the contrary,
+she sent this girl to some other place. But is it likely that she
+wouldn't have been well off with me?"
+
+"Here you are again full of suspicion!" Li Wan laughed. "She came in
+here long before you ever breathed a word to her! So how could you bear
+a grudge against her mother?"
+
+"Well, in that case," added lady Feng, "I'll speak to Pao-yue to-morrow,
+and induce him to find another one, and to allow this girl to come along
+with me. I wonder, however, whether she herself is willing or not?"
+
+"Whether willing or not," interposed Hsiao Hung smiling, "such as we
+couldn't really presume to raise our voices and object. We should feel
+it our privilege to serve such a one as your ladyship, and learn a
+little how to discriminate when people raise or drop their eyebrows and
+eyes (with pleasure or displeasure), and reap as well some experience in
+such matters as go out or come in, whether high or low, great and
+small."
+
+But during her reply, she perceived Madame Wang's waiting-maid come and
+invite lady Feng to go over. Lady Feng bade good-bye at once to Li
+Kung-ts'ai and took her departure.
+
+Hsiao Hung then returned into the I Hung court, where we will leave her
+and devote our attention for the present to Lin Tai-yue.
+
+As she had had but little sleep in the night, she got up the next day at
+a late hour. When she heard that all her cousins were collected in the
+park, giving a farewell entertainment for the god of flowers, she
+hastened, for fear people should laugh at her for being lazy, to comb
+her hair, perform her ablutions, and go out and join them. As soon as
+she reached the interior of the court, she caught sight of Pao-yue,
+entering the door, who speedily greeted her with a smile. "My dear
+cousin," he said, "did you lodge a complaint against me yesterday? I've
+been on pins and needles the whole night long."
+
+Tai-yue forthwith turned her head away. "Put the room in order," she
+shouted to Tzu Chuean, "and lower one of the gauze window-frames. And
+when you've seen the swallows come back, drop the curtain; keep it down
+then by placing the lion on it, and after you have burnt the incense,
+mind you cover the censer."
+
+So saying she stepped outside.
+
+Pao-yue perceiving her manner, concluded again that it must be on account
+of the incident of the previous noon, but how could he have had any idea
+about what had happened in the evening? He kept on still bowing and
+curtseying; but Lin Tai-yue did not even so much as look at him straight
+in the face, but egressing alone out of the door of the court, she
+proceeded there and then in search of the other girls.
+
+Pao-yue fell into a despondent mood and gave way to conjectures.
+
+"Judging," he reflected, "from this behaviour of hers, it would seem as
+if it could not be for what transpired yesterday. Yesterday too I came
+back late in the evening, and, what's more, I didn't see her, so that
+there was no occasion on which I could have given her offence."
+
+As he indulged in these reflections, he involuntarily followed in her
+footsteps to try and catch her up, when he descried Pao-ch'ai and
+T'an-ch'un on the opposite side watching the frolics of the storks.
+
+As soon as they saw Tai-yue approach, the trio stood together and started
+a friendly chat. But noticing Pao-yue also come up, T'an Ch'un smiled.
+"Brother Pao," she said, "are you all right. It's just three days that I
+haven't seen anything of you?"
+
+"Are you sister quite well?" Pao-yue rejoined, a smile on his lips. "The
+other day, I asked news of you of our senior sister-in-law."
+
+"Brother Pao," T'an Ch'un remarked, "come over here; I want to tell you
+something."
+
+The moment Pao-yue heard this, he quickly went with her. Distancing
+Pao-ch'ai and Tai-yue, the two of them came under a pomegranate tree.
+"Has father sent for you these last few days?" T'an Ch'un then asked.
+
+"He hasn't," Pao-yue answered laughingly by way of reply.
+
+"Yesterday," proceeded T'an Ch'un, "I heard vaguely something or other
+about father sending for you to go out."
+
+"I presume," Pao-yue smiled, "that some one must have heard wrong, for he
+never sent for me."
+
+"I've again managed to save during the last few months," added T'an
+Ch'un with another smile, "fully ten tiaos, so take them and bring me,
+when at any time you stroll out of doors, either some fine writings or
+some ingenious knicknack."
+
+"Much as I have roamed inside and outside the city walls," answered
+Pao-yue, "and seen grand establishments and large temples, I've never
+come across anything novel or pretty. One simply sees articles made of
+gold, jade, copper and porcelain, as well as such curios for which we
+could find no place here. Besides these, there are satins, eatables, and
+wearing apparel."
+
+"Who cares for such baubles!" exclaimed T'an Ch'un. "How could they come
+up to what you purchased the last time; that wee basket, made of willow
+twigs, that scent-box, scooped out of a root of real bamboo, that
+portable stove fashioned of glutinous clay; these things were, oh, so
+very nice! I was as fond of them as I don't know what; but, who'd have
+thought it, they fell in love with them and bundled them all off, just
+as if they were precious things."
+
+"Is it things of this kind that you really want?" laughed Pao-yue. "Why,
+these are worth nothing! Were you to take a hundred cash and give them
+to the servant-boys, they could, I'm sure, bring two cart-loads of
+them."
+
+"What do the servant-boys know?" T'an Ch'un replied. "Those you chose
+for me were plain yet not commonplace. Neither were they of coarse make.
+So were you to procure me as many as you can get of them, I'll work you
+a pair of slippers like those I gave you last time, and spend twice as
+much trouble over them as I did over that pair you have. Now, what do
+you say to this bargain?"
+
+"Your reference to this," smiled Pao-yue, "reminds me of an old incident.
+One day I had them on, and by a strange coincidence, I met father, whose
+fancy they did not take, and he inquired who had worked them. But how
+could I muster up courage to allude to the three words: my sister
+Tertia, so I answered that my maternal aunt had given them to me on the
+recent occasion of my birthday. When father heard that they had been
+given to me by my aunt, he could not very well say anything. But after a
+while, 'why uselessly waste,' he observed, 'human labour, and throw away
+silks to make things of this sort!' On my return, I told Hsi Jen about
+it. 'Never mind,' said Hsi Jen; but Mrs. Chao got angry. 'Her own
+brother,' she murmured indignantly, 'wears slipshod shoes and socks in
+holes, and there's no one to look after him, and does she go and work
+all these things!'"
+
+T'an Ch'un, hearing this, immediately lowered her face. "Now tell me,
+aren't these words utter rot!" she shouted. "What am I that I have to
+make shoes? And is it likely that Huan Erh hasn't his own share of
+things! Clothes are clothes, and shoes and socks are shoes and socks;
+and how is it that any grudges arise in the room of a mere servant-girl
+and old matron? For whose benefit does she come out with all these
+things! I simply work a pair or part of a pair when I am at leisure,
+with time on my hands. And I can give them to any brother, elder or
+younger, I fancy; and who has a right to interfere with me? This is just
+another bit of blind anger!"
+
+After listening to her, Pao-yue nodded his head and smiled. "Yet," he
+said, "you don't know what her motives may be. It's but natural that she
+should also cherish some expectations."
+
+This apology incensed T'an Ch'un more than ever, and twisting her head
+round, "Even you have grown dull!" she cried. "She does, of course,
+indulge in expectations, but they are actuated by some underhand and
+paltry notion! She may go on giving way to these ideas, but I, for my
+part, will only care for Mr. Chia Cheng and Madame Wang. I won't care a
+rap for any one else. In fact, I'll be nice with such of my sisters and
+brothers, as are nice to me; and won't even draw any distinction between
+those born of primary wives and those of secondary ones. Properly
+speaking, I shouldn't say these things about her, but she's
+narrow-minded to a degree, and unlike what she should be. There's
+besides another ridiculous thing. This took place the last time I gave
+you the money to get me those trifles. Well, two days after that, she
+saw me, and she began again to represent that she had no money and that
+she was hard up. Nevertheless, I did not worry my brain with her goings
+on. But as it happened, the servant-girls subsequently quitted the room,
+and she at once started finding fault with me. 'Why,' she asked, 'do I
+give you my savings to spend and don't, after all, let Huan Erh have
+them and enjoy them?' When I heard these reproaches, I felt both
+inclined to laugh, and also disposed to lose my temper; but I there and
+then skedaddled out of her quarters, and went over to our Madame Wang."
+
+As she was recounting this incident, "Well," she overheard Pao-ch'ai
+sarcastically observe from the opposite direction, "have you done
+spinning your yarns? If you have, come along! It's quite evident that
+you are brother and sister, for here you leave every one else and go and
+discuss your own private matters. Couldn't we too listen to a single
+sentence of what you have to say?"
+
+While she taunted them, T'an Ch'un and Pao-yue eventually drew near her
+with smiling faces.
+
+Pao-yue, however, failed to see Lin Tai-yue and he concluded that she had
+dodged out of the way and gone elsewhere. "It would be better," he
+muttered, after some thought, "that I should let two days elapse, and
+give her temper time to evaporate before I go to her." But as he drooped
+his head, his eye was attracted by a heap of touch-me-nots, pomegranate
+blossom and various kinds of fallen flowers, which covered the ground
+thick as tapestry, and he heaved a sigh. "It's because," he pondered,
+"she's angry that she did not remove these flowers; but I'll take them
+over to the place, and by and bye ask her about them."
+
+As he argued to himself, he heard Pao-ch'ai bid them go out. "I'll join
+you in a moment," Pao-yue replied; and waiting till his two cousins had
+gone some distance, he bundled the flowers into his coat, and ascending
+the hill, he crossed the stream, penetrated into the arbour, passed
+through the avenues with flowers and wended his way straight for the
+spot, where he had, on a previous occasion, interred the peach-blossoms
+with the assistance of Lin Tai-yue. But scarcely had he reached the mound
+containing the flowers, and before he had, as yet, rounded the brow of
+the hill, than he caught, emanating from the off side, the sound of some
+one sobbing, who while giving way to invective, wept in a most
+heart-rending way.
+
+"I wonder," soliloquised Pao-yue, "whose servant-girl this is, who has
+been so aggrieved as to run over here to have a good cry!"
+
+While speculating within himself, he halted. He then heard, mingled with
+wails:--
+
+ Flowers wither and decay; and flowers do fleet; they fly all o'er the
+ skies;
+ Their bloom wanes; their smell dies; but who is there with them to
+ sympathise?
+ While vagrant gossamer soft doth on fluttering spring-bowers bind its
+ coils,
+ And drooping catkins lightly strike and cling on the embroidered
+ screens,
+ A maiden in the inner rooms, I sore deplore the close of spring.
+ Such ceaseless sorrow fills my breast, that solace nowhere can I find.
+ Past the embroidered screen I issue forth, taking with me a hoe,
+ And on the faded flowers to tread I needs must, as I come and go.
+ The willow fibres and elm seeds have each a fragrance of their own.
+ What care I, peach blossoms may fall, pear flowers away be blown;
+ Yet peach and pear will, when next year returns, burst out again in
+ bloom,
+ But can it e'er be told who will next year dwell in the inner room?
+ What time the third moon comes, the scented nests have been already
+ built.
+ And on the beams the swallows perch, excessive spiritless and staid;
+ Next year, when the flowers bud, they may, it's true, have ample to
+ feed on:
+ But they know not that when I'm gone beams will be vacant and nests
+ fall!
+ In a whole year, which doth consist of three hundred and sixty days,
+ Winds sharp as swords and frost like unto spears each other rigorous
+ press,
+ So that how long can last their beauty bright; their fresh charm how
+ long stays?
+ Sudden they droop and fly; and whither they have flown, 'tis hard to
+ guess.
+ Flowers, while in bloom, easy the eye attract; but, when they wither,
+ hard they are to find.
+ Now by the footsteps, I bury the flowers, but sorrow will slay me.
+ Alone I stand, and as I clutch the hoe, silent tears trickle down,
+ And drip on the bare twigs, leaving behind them the traces of blood.
+ The goatsucker hath sung his song, the shades lower of eventide,
+ So with the lotus hoe I return home and shut the double doors.
+ Upon the wall the green lamp sheds its rays just as I go to sleep.
+ The cover is yet cold; against the window patters the bleak rain.
+ How strange! Why can it ever be that I feel so wounded at heart!
+ Partly, because spring I regret; partly, because with spring I'm
+ vexed!
+ Regret for spring, because it sudden comes; vexed, for it sudden goes.
+ For without warning, lo! it comes; and without asking it doth fleet.
+ Yesterday night, outside the hall sorrowful songs burst from my mouth,
+ For I found out that flowers decay, and that birds also pass away.
+ The soul of flowers, and the spirit of birds are both hard to
+ restrain.
+ Birds, to themselves when left, in silence plunge; and flowers, alone,
+ they blush.
+ Oh! would that on my sides a pair of wings could grow,
+ That to the end of heaven I may fly in the wake of flowers!
+ Yea to the very end of heaven,
+ Where I could find a fragrant grave!
+ For better, is it not, that an embroidered bag should hold my
+ well-shaped bones,
+ And that a heap of stainless earth should in its folds my winsome
+ charms enshroud.
+ For spotless once my frame did come, and spotless again it will go!
+ Far better than that I, like filthy mire, should sink into some drain!
+ Ye flowers are now faded and gone, and, lo, I come to bury you.
+ But as for me, what day I shall see death is not as yet divined!
+ Here I am fain these flowers to inter; but humankind will laugh me as
+ a fool.
+ Who knows, who will, in years to come, commit me to my grave!
+ Mark, and you'll find the close of spring, and the gradual decay of
+ flowers,
+ Resemble faithfully the time of death of maidens ripe in years!
+ In a twinkle, spring time draws to a close, and maidens wax in age.
+ Flowers fade and maidens die; and of either nought any more is known.
+
+After listening to these effusions, Pao-yue unconsciously threw himself
+down in a wandering frame of mind.
+
+But, reader, do you feel any interest in him? If you do, the subsequent
+chapter contains further details about him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+ Chiang Yue-han lovingly presents a rubia-scented silk sash.
+ Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai blushingly covers her musk-perfumed string of red
+ beads.
+
+
+Lin Tai-yue, the story goes, dwelt, after Ch'ing Wen's refusal, the
+previous night, to open the door, under the impression that the blame
+lay with Pao-yue. The following day, which by another remarkable
+coincidence, happened to correspond with the season, when the god of
+flowers had to be feasted, her total ignorance of the true
+circumstances, and her resentment, as yet unspent, aroused again in her
+despondent thoughts, suggested by the decline of spring time. She
+consequently gathered a quantity of faded flowers and fallen petals, and
+went and interred them. Unable to check the emotion, caused by the decay
+of the flowers, she spontaneously recited, after giving way to several
+loud lamentations, those verses which Pao-yue, she little thought,
+overheard from his position on the mound. At first, he did no more than
+nod his head and heave sighs, full of feeling. But when subsequently his
+ear caught:
+
+ "Here I am fain these flowers to inter, but humankind will laugh me as
+ a fool;
+ Who knows who will, in years to come, commit me to my grave!
+ In a twinkle springtime draws to an end, and maidens wax in age.
+ Flowers fade and maidens die; and of either naught any more is known."
+
+he unconsciously was so overpowered with grief that he threw himself on
+the mound, bestrewing the whole ground with the fallen flowers he
+carried in his coat, close to his chest. "When Tai-yue's flowerlike
+charms and moon-like beauty," he reflected, "by and bye likewise reach a
+time when they will vanish beyond any hope of recovery, won't my heart
+be lacerated and my feelings be mangled! And extending, since Tai-yue
+must at length some day revert to a state when it will be difficult to
+find her, this reasoning to other persons, like Pao-ch'ai, Hsiang Ling,
+Hsi Jen and the other girls, they too are equally liable to attain a
+state beyond the reach of human search. But when Pao-ch'ai and all the
+rest have ultimately reached that stage when no trace will be visible of
+them, where shall I myself be then? And when my own human form will have
+vanished and gone, whither I know not yet, to what person, I wonder,
+will this place, this garden and these plants, revert?"
+
+From one to a second, and from a second to a third, he thus pursued his
+reflections, backwards and forwards, until he really did not know how he
+could best, at this time and at such a juncture, dispel his fit of
+anguish. His state is adequately described by:
+
+ The shadow of a flower cannot err from the flower itself to the left
+ or the right.
+ The song of birds can only penetrate into the ear from the east or the
+ west.
+
+Lin Tai-yue was herself a prey to emotion and agitation, when unawares
+sorrowful accents also struck her ear, from the direction of the mound.
+"Every one," she cogitated, "laughs at me for labouring under a foolish
+mania, but is there likely another fool besides myself?" She then raised
+her head, and, casting a glance about her, she discovered that it was
+Pao-yue. "Ts'ui!" eagerly cried Tai-yue, "I was wondering who it was; but
+is it truly this ruthless-hearted and short-lived fellow!"
+
+But the moment the two words "short-lived" dropped from her mouth, she
+sealed her lips; and, heaving a deep sigh, she turned herself round and
+hurriedly walked off.
+
+Pao-yue, meanwhile, remained for a time a prey to melancholy. But
+perceiving that Tai-yue had retired, he at once realised that she must
+have caught sight of him and got out of his way; and, as his own company
+afforded him no pleasure, he shook the dust off his clothes, rose to his
+feet and descending the hill, he started for the I Hung court by the
+path by which he had come. But he espied Tai-yue walking in advance of
+him, and with rapid stride, he overtook her. "Stop a little!" he cried.
+"I know you don't care a rap for me; but I'll just make one single
+remark, and from this day forward we'll part company."
+
+Tai-yue looked round. Observing that it was Pao-yue, she was about to
+ignore him; hearing him however mention that he had only one thing to
+say, "Please tell me what it is," she forthwith rejoined.
+
+Pao-yue smiled at her. "If I pass two remarks will you listen to me; yes
+or no?" he asked.
+
+At these words, Tai-yue twisted herself round and beat a retreat. Pao-yue
+however followed behind.
+
+"Since this is what we've come to now," he sighed, "what was the use of
+what existed between us in days gone by?"
+
+As soon as Tai-yue heard his exclamation, she stopped short impulsively.
+Turning her face towards him, "what about days gone by," she remarked,
+"and what about now?"
+
+"Ai!" ejaculated Pao-yue, "when you got here in days gone by, wasn't I
+your playmate in all your romps and in all your fun? My heart may have
+been set upon anything, but if you wanted it you could take it away at
+once. I may have been fond of any eatable, but if I came to learn that
+you too fancied it, I there and then put away what could be put away, in
+a clean place, to wait, Miss, for your return. We had our meals at one
+table; we slept in one and the same bed; whatever the servant-girls
+could not remember, I reminded them of, for fear lest your temper, Miss,
+should get ruffled. I flattered myself that cousins, who have grown up
+together from their infancy, as you and I have, would have continued,
+through intimacy or friendship, either would have done, in peace and
+harmony until the end, so as to make it palpable that we are above the
+rest. But, contrary to all my expectations, now that you, Miss, have
+developed in body as well as in mind, you don't take the least heed of
+me. You lay hold instead of some cousin Pao or cousin Feng or other from
+here, there and everywhere and give them a place in your affections;
+while on the contrary you disregard me for three days at a stretch and
+decline to see anything of me for four! I have besides no brother or
+sister of the same mother as myself. It's true there are a couple of
+them, but these, are you not forsooth aware, are by another mother! You
+and I are only children, so I ventured to hope that you would have
+reciprocated my feelings. But, who'd have thought it, I've simply thrown
+away this heart of mine, and here I am with plenty of woes to bear, but
+with nowhere to go and utter them!"
+
+While expressing these sentiments, tears, unexpectedly, trickled from
+his eyes.
+
+When Lin Tai-yue caught, with her ears, his protestations, and noticed
+with her eyes his state of mind, she unconsciously experienced an inward
+pang, and, much against her will, tears too besprinkled her cheeks; so,
+drooping her head, she kept silent.
+
+Her manner did not escape Pao-yue's notice. "I myself am aware," he
+speedily resumed, "that I'm worth nothing now; but, however imperfect I
+may be, I could on no account presume to become guilty of any
+shortcoming with you cousin. Were I to ever commit the slightest fault,
+your task should be either to tender me advice and warn me not to do it
+again, or to blow me up a little, or give me a few whacks; and all this
+reproof I wouldn't take amiss. But no one would have ever anticipated
+that you wouldn't bother your head in the least about me, and that you
+would be the means of driving me to my wits' ends, and so much out of my
+mind and off my head, as to be quite at a loss how to act for the best.
+In fact, were death to come upon me, I would be a spirit driven to my
+grave by grievances. However much exalted bonzes and eminent Taoist
+priests might do penance, they wouldn't succeed in releasing my soul
+from suffering; for it would still be needful for you to clearly explain
+the facts, so that I might at last be able to come to life."
+
+After lending him a patient ear, Tai-yue suddenly banished from her
+memory all recollection of the occurrences of the previous night. "Well,
+in that case," she said, "why did you not let a servant-girl open the
+door when I came over?"
+
+This question took Pao-yue by surprise. "What prompts you to say this?"
+he exclaimed. "If I have done anything of the kind, may I die at once."
+
+"Psha!" cried Tai-yue, "it's not right that you-should recklessly broach
+the subject of living or dying at this early morn! If you say yea, it's
+yea; and nay, it's nay; what use is there to utter such oaths!"
+
+"I didn't really see you come over," protested Pao-yue. "Cousin Pao-ch'ai
+it was, who came and sat for a while and then left."
+
+After some reflection, Lin Tai-yue smiled. "Yes," she observed, "your
+servant-girls must, I fancy, have been too lazy to budge, grumpy and in
+a cross-grained mood; this is probable enough."
+
+"This is, I feel sure, the reason," answered Pao-yue, "so when I go back,
+I'll find out who it was, call them to task and put things right."
+
+"Those girls of yours;" continued Tai-yue, "should be given a lesson, but
+properly speaking it isn't for me to mention anything about it. Their
+present insult to me is a mere trifle; but were to-morrow some Miss Pao
+(precious) or some Miss Pei (jewel) or other to come, and were she to be
+subjected to insult, won't it be a grave matter?"
+
+While she taunted him, she pressed her lips, and laughed sarcastically.
+
+Pao-yue heard her remarks and felt both disposed to gnash his teeth with
+rage, and to treat them as a joke; but in the midst of their colloquy,
+they perceived a waiting-maid approach and invite them to have their
+meal.
+
+Presently, the whole body of inmates crossed over to the front.
+
+"Miss," inquired Madame Wang at the sight of Tai-yue, "have you taken any
+of Dr. Pao's medicines? Do you feel any better?"
+
+"I simply feel so-so," replied Lin Tai-yue, "but grandmother Chia
+recommended me to go on taking Dr. Wang's medicines."
+
+"Mother," Pao-yue interposed, "you've no idea that cousin Lin's is an
+internal derangement; it's because she was born with a delicate physique
+that she can't stand the slightest cold. All she need do is to take a
+couple of closes of some decoction to dispel the chill; yet it's
+preferable that she should have medicine in pills."
+
+"The other day," said Madame Wang, "the doctor mentioned the name of
+some pills, but I've forgotten what it is."
+
+"I know something about pills," put in Pao-yue; "he merely told her to
+take some pills or other called 'ginseng as-a-restorative-of-the-system.'"
+
+"That isn't it," Madame Wang demurred.
+
+"The 'Eight-precious-wholesome-to-mother' pills," Pao-yue proceeded, "or
+the 'Left-angelica' or 'Right-angelica;' if these also aren't the ones,
+they must be the 'Eight-flavour Rehmannia-glutinosa' pills."
+
+"None of these," rejoined Madame Wang, "for I remember well that there
+were the two words chin kang (guardians in Buddhistic temples)."
+
+"I've never before," observed Pao-yue, clapping his hands, "heard of the
+existence of chin kang pills; but in the event of there being any chin
+kang pills, there must, for a certainty, be such a thing as P'u Sa
+(Buddha) powder."
+
+At this joke, every one in the whole room burst out laughing. Pao-ch'ai
+compressed her lips and gave a smile. "It must, I'm inclined to think,"
+she suggested, "be the 'lord-of-heaven-strengthen-the-heart' pills!"
+
+"Yes, that's the name," Madame Wang laughed, "why, now, I too have
+become muddle-headed."
+
+"You're not muddle-headed, mother," said Pao-yue, "it's the mention of
+Chin kangs and Buddhas which confused you."
+
+"Stuff and nonsense!" ejaculated Madame Wang. "What you want again is
+your father to whip you!"
+
+"My father," Pao-yue laughed, "wouldn't whip me for a thing like this."
+
+"Well, this being their name," resumed Madame Wang, "you had better tell
+some one to-morrow to buy you a few."
+
+"All these drugs," expostulated Pao-yue, "are of no earthly use. Were
+you, mother, to give me three hundred and sixty taels, I'll concoct a
+supply of pills for my cousin, which I can certify will make her feel
+quite herself again before she has finished a single supply."
+
+"What trash!" cried Madame Wang. "What kind of medicine is there so
+costly!"
+
+"It's a positive fact," smiled Pao-yue. "This prescription of mine is
+unlike all others. Besides, the very names of those drugs are quaint,
+and couldn't be enumerated in a moment; suffice it to mention the
+placenta of the first child; three hundred and sixty ginseng roots,
+shaped like human beings and studded with leaves; four fat tortoises;
+full-grown polygonum multiflorum; the core of the Pachyma cocos, found
+on the roots of a fir tree of a thousand years old; and other such
+species of medicines. They're not, I admit, out-of-the-way things; but
+they are the most excellent among that whole crowd of medicines; and
+were I to begin to give you a list of them, why, they'd take you all
+quite aback. The year before last, I at length let Hsueeh P'an have this
+recipe, after he had made ever so many entreaties during one or two
+years. When, however, he got the prescription, he had to search for
+another two or three years and to spend over and above a thousand taels
+before he succeeded in having it prepared. If you don't believe me,
+mother, you are at liberty to ask cousin Pao-ch'ai about it."
+
+At the mention of her name, Pao-ch'ai laughingly waved her hand. "I know
+nothing about it," she observed. "Nor have I heard anything about it, so
+don't tell your mother to ask me any questions."
+
+"Really," said Madame Wang smiling, "Pao-ch'ai is a good girl; she does
+not tell lies."
+
+Pao-yue was standing in the centre of the room. Upon hearing these words,
+he turned round sharply and clapped his hands. "What I stated just now,"
+he explained, "was the truth; yet you maintain that it was all lies."
+
+As he defended himself, he casually looked round, and caught sight of
+Lin Tai-yue at the back of Pao-ch'ai laughing with tight-set lips, and
+applying her fingers to her face to put him to shame.
+
+But Lady Feng, who had been in the inner rooms overseeing the servants
+laying the table, came out at once, as soon as she overheard the
+conversation. "Brother Pao tells no lies," she smilingly chimed in,
+"this is really a fact. Some time ago cousin Hsueeh P'an came over in
+person and asked me for pearls, and when I inquired of him what he
+wanted them for, he explained that they were intended to compound some
+medicine with; adding, in an aggrieved way, that it would have been
+better hadn't he taken it in hand for he never had any idea that it
+would involve such a lot of trouble! When I questioned him what the
+medicine was, he returned for answer that it was a prescription of
+brother Pao's; and he mentioned ever so many ingredients, which I don't
+even remember. 'Under other circumstances,' he went on to say, 'I would
+have purchased a few pearls, but what are absolutely wanted are such
+pearls as have been worn on the head; and that's why I come to ask you,
+cousin, for some. If, cousin, you've got no broken ornaments at hand, in
+the shape of flowers, why, those that you have on your head will do as
+well; and by and bye I'll choose a few good ones and give them to you,
+to wear.' I had no other course therefore than to snap a couple of twigs
+from some flowers I have, made of pearls, and to let him take them away.
+One also requires a piece of deep red gauze, three feet in length of the
+best quality; and the pearls must be triturated to powder in a mortar."
+
+After each sentence expressed by lady Feng, Pao-yue muttered an
+invocation to Buddha. "The thing is as clear as sunlight now," he
+remarked.
+
+The moment lady Feng had done speaking, Pao-yue put in his word.
+"Mother," he added, "you should know that this is a mere makeshift, for
+really, according to the letter of the prescription, these pearls and
+precious stones should, properly speaking, consist of such as had been
+obtained from, some old grave and been worn as head-ornaments by some
+wealthy and honourable person of bygone days. But how could one go now
+on this account and dig up graves, and open tombs! Hence it is that such
+as are simply in use among living persons can equally well be
+substituted."
+
+"O-mi-to-fu!" exclaimed Madame Wang, after listening to him throughout.
+"That will never do, and what an arduous job to uselessly saddle one's
+self with; for even though there be interred in some graves people,
+who've been dead for several hundreds of years, it wouldn't be a
+propitious thing were their corpses turned topsy-turvey now and the
+bones abstracted; just for the sake of preparing some medicine or
+other."
+
+Pao-yue thereupon addressed himself to Tai-yue. "Have you heard what was
+said or not?" he asked. "And is there, pray, any likelihood that cousin
+Secunda would also follow in my lead and tell lies?"
+
+While saying this, his eyes were, albeit his face was turned towards Lin
+Tai-yue, fixed upon Pao-ch'ai.
+
+Lin Tai-yue pulled Madame Wang. "You just listen to him, aunt," she
+observed. "All because cousin Pao-ch'ai would not accommodate him by
+lying, he appeals to me."
+
+"Pao-yue has a great knack," Madame Wang said, "of dealing contemptuously
+with you, his cousin."
+
+"Mother," Pao-yue smilingly protested, "you are not aware how the case
+stands. When cousin Pao-ch'ai lived at home, she knew nothing whatever
+about my elder cousin Hsueeh P'an's affairs, and how much less now that
+she has taken up her quarters inside the garden? She, of course, knows
+less than ever about them! Yet, cousin Lin just now stealthily treated
+my statements as lies, and put me to the blush."
+
+These words were still on his lips, when they perceived a waiting-maid,
+from dowager lady Chia's apartments, come in quest of Pao-yue and Lin
+Tai-yue to go and have their meal. Lin Tai-yue, however, did not even call
+Pao-yue, but forthwith rising to her feet, she went along, dragging the
+waiting-maid by the hand.
+
+"Let's wait for master Secundus, Mr. Pao, to go along with us," demurred
+the girl.
+
+"He doesn't want anything to eat," Lin Tai-yue replied; "he won't come
+with us, so I'll go ahead." So saying she promptly left the room.
+
+"I'll have my repast with my mother to-day," Pao-yue said.
+
+"Not at all," Madame Wang remarked, "not at all. I'm going to fast
+to-day, so it's only right and proper that you should go and have your
+own."
+
+"I'll also fast with you then," Pao-yue retorted.
+
+As he spoke, he called out to the servant to go back, and rushing up to
+the table, he took a seat.
+
+Madame Wang faced Pao-ch'ai and her companions. "You, girls," she
+observed, "had better have your meal, and let him have his own way!"
+
+"It's only right that you should go," Pao-ch'ai smiled. "Whether you
+have anything to eat or not, you should go over for a while to keep
+company to cousin Lin, as she will be quite distressed and out of
+spirits."
+
+"Who cares about her!" Pao-yue rejoined, "she'll get all right again
+after a time."
+
+Shortly, they finished their repast. But Pao-yue apprehended, in the
+first place, that his grandmother Chia, would be solicitous on his
+account, and longed, in the second, to be with Lin Tai-yue, so he
+hurriedly asked for some tea to rinse his mouth with.
+
+"Cousin Secundus," T'an Ch'un and Hsi Ch'un interposed with an ironic
+laugh, "what's the use of the hurry-scurry you're in the whole day long!
+Even when you're having your meals, or your tea, you're in this sort of
+fussy helter-skelter!"
+
+"Make him hurry up and have his tea," Pao-ch'ai chimed in smiling, "so
+that he may go and look up his cousin Lin. He'll be up to all kinds of
+mischief if you keep him here!"
+
+Pao-yue drank his tea. Then hastily leaving the apartment, he proceeded
+straightway towards the eastern court. As luck would have it, the moment
+he got near lady Feng's court, he descried lady Feng standing at the
+gateway. While standing on the step, and picking her teeth with an
+ear-cleaner, she superintended about ten young servant-boys removing the
+flower-pots from place to place. As soon as she caught sight of Pao-yue
+approaching, she put on a smiling face. "You come quite opportunely,"
+she said; "walk in, walk in, and write a few characters for me."
+
+Pao-yue had no option but to follow her in. When they reached the
+interior of her rooms, lady Feng gave orders to a servant to fetch a
+pen, inkslab and paper.
+
+"Forty rolls of deep red ornamented satin," she began, addressing
+herself to Pao-yue, "forty rolls of satin with dragons; a hundred rolls
+of gauzes of every colour, of the finest quality; four gold
+necklaces...."
+
+"What's this?" Pao-yue shouted, "it is neither a bill; nor is it a list
+of presents, and in what style shall I write it?"
+
+Lady Feng remonstrated with him. "Just you go on writing," she said,
+"for, in fact, as long as I can make out what it means, it's all that is
+needed."
+
+Pao-yue at this response felt constrained to proceed with the writing.
+
+This over lady Feng put the paper by. As she did so, "I've still
+something more to tell you," she smilingly pursued, "but I wonder
+whether you will accede to it or not. There is in your rooms a
+servant-maid, Hsiao Hung by name, whom I would like to bring over into
+my service, and I'll select several girls to-morrow to wait on you; will
+this do?"
+
+"The servants in my quarters," answered Pao-yue, "muster a large crowd,
+so that, cousin, you are at perfect liberty to send for any one of them,
+who might take your fancy; what's the need therefore of asking me about
+it?"
+
+"If that be so," continued lady Feng laughingly, "I'll tell some one at
+once to go and bring her over."
+
+"Yes, she can go and fetch her," acquiesced Pao-yue.
+
+While replying, he made an attempt to take his leave. "Come back,"
+shouted lady Feng, "I've got something more to tell you."
+
+"Our venerable senior has sent for me," Pao-yue rejoined; "if you have
+anything to tell me you must wait till my return."
+
+After this explanation, he there and then came over to his grandmother
+Chia's on this side, where he found that they had already got through
+their meal.
+
+"Have you had anything nice to eat with your mother?" old lady Chia
+asked.
+
+"There was really nothing nice," Pao-yue smiled. "Yet I managed to have a
+bowl of rice more than usual."
+
+"Where's cousin Lin?" he then inquired.
+
+"She's in the inner rooms," answered his grandmother.
+
+Pao-yue stepped in. He caught sight of a waiting-maid, standing below,
+blowing into an iron, and two servant-girls seated on the stove-couch
+making a chalk line. Tai-yue with stooping head was cutting out something
+or other with a pair of scissors she held in her hand.
+
+Pao-yue advanced further in. "O! what's this that you are up to!" he
+smiled. "You have just had your rice and do you bob your head down in
+this way! Why, in a short while you'll be having a headache again!"
+
+Tai-yue, however, did not heed him in the least, but busied herself
+cutting out what she had to do.
+
+"The corner of that piece of satin is not yet right," a servant-girl put
+in. "You had better iron it again!"
+
+Tai-yue threw down the scissors. "Why worry yourself about it?" she said;
+"it will get quite right after a time."
+
+But while Pao-yue was listening to what was being said, and was inwardly
+feeling in low spirits, he became aware that Pao-ch'ai, T'an Ch'un and
+the other girls had also arrived. After a short chat with dowager lady
+Chia, Pao-ch'ai likewise entered the apartment to find out what her
+cousin Lin was up to. The moment she espied Lin Tai-yue engaged in
+cutting out something: "You have," she cried, "attained more skill than
+ever; for there you can even cut out clothes!"
+
+"This too," laughed Tai-yue sarcastically, "is a mere falsehood, to
+hoodwink people with, nothing more."
+
+"I'll tell you a joke," replied Pao-ch'ai smiling, "when I just now said
+that I did not know anything about that medicine, cousin Pao-yue felt
+displeased." "Who cares!" shouted Lin Tai-yue. "He'll get all right
+shortly."
+
+"Our worthy grandmother wishes to play at dominoes," Pao-yue thereupon
+interposed directing his remarks to Pao-ch'ai; "and there's no one there
+at present to have a game with her; so you'd better go and play with
+her."
+
+"Have I come over now to play dominoes!" promptly smiled Pao-ch'ai when
+she heard his suggestion. With this remark, she nevertheless at once
+quitted the room.
+
+"It would be well for you to go," urged Lin Tai-yue, "for there's a tiger
+in here; and, look out, he might eat you up."
+
+As she spoke, she went on with her cutting.
+
+Pao-yue perceived how both she was to give him any of her attention, and
+he had no alternative but to force a smile and to observe: "You should
+also go for a stroll! It will be time enough by and bye to continue your
+cutting."
+
+But Tai-yue would pay no heed whatever to him. Pao-yue addressed himself
+therefore to the servant-girls. "Who has taught her how to cut out these
+things?" he asked.
+
+"What does it matter who taught me how to cut?" Tai-yue vehemently
+exclaimed, when she realised that he was speaking to the maids. "It's no
+business of yours, Mr. Secundus."
+
+Pao-yue was then about to say something in his defence when he saw a
+servant come in and report that there was some one outside who wished to
+see him. At this announcement, Pao-yue betook himself with alacrity out
+of the room.
+
+"O-mi-to-fu!" observed Tai-yue, turning outwards, "it wouldn't matter to
+you if you found me dead on your return!"
+
+On his arrival outside, Pao-yue discovered Pei Ming. "You are invited,"
+he said, "to go to Mr. Feng's house."
+
+Upon hearing this message, Pao-yue knew well enough that it was about the
+project mooted the previous day, and accordingly he told him to go and
+ask for his clothes, while he himself wended his steps into the library.
+
+Pei Ming came forthwith to the second gate and waited for some one to
+appear. Seeing an old woman walk out, Pei Ming went up to her. "Our
+Master Secundus, Mr. Pao," he told her, "is in the study waiting for his
+out-door clothes; so do go in, worthy dame, and deliver the message."
+
+"It would be better," replied the old woman, "if you did not echo your
+mother's absurdities! Our Master Secundus, Mr. Pao, now lives in the
+garden, and all the servants, who attend on him, stay in the garden; and
+do you again come and bring the message here?"
+
+At these words, Pei Ming smiled. "You're quite right," he rejoined, "in
+reproving me, for I've become quite idiotic."
+
+So saying, he repaired with quick step to the second gate on the east
+side, where, by a lucky hit, the young servant-boys on duty, were
+kicking marbles on the raised road. Pei Ming explained to them the
+object of his coming. A young boy thereupon ran in. After a long
+interval, he, at length, made his appearance, holding, enfolded in his
+arms, a bundle of clothes, which he handed to Pei Ming, who then
+returned to the library. Pao-yue effected a change in his costume, and
+giving directions to saddle his horse, he only took along with him the
+four servant-boys, Pei Ming, Chu Lo, Shuang Jui and Shou Erh, and
+started on his way. He reached Feng Tzu-ying's doorway by a short cut. A
+servant announced his arrival, and Feng Tzu-ying came out and ushered
+him in. Here he discovered Hsueeh P'an, who had already been waiting a
+long time, and several singing-boys besides; as well as Chiang Yue-han,
+who played female roles, and Yuen Erh, a courtesan in the Chin Hsiang
+court. The whole company exchanged salutations. They next had tea. "What
+you said the other day," smiled Pao-yue, raising his cup, "about good
+fortune coming out of evil fortune has preyed so much upon my mind, both
+by day and night, that the moment I received your summons I hurried to
+come immediately."
+
+"My worthy cousins," rejoined Feng Tzu-ying smiling. "You're all far too
+credulous! It's a mere hoax that I made use of the other day. For so
+much did I fear that you would be sure to refuse if I openly asked you
+to a drinking bout, that I thought it fit to say what I did. But your
+attendance to-day, so soon after my invitation, makes it clear, little
+though one would have thought it, that you've all taken it as pure
+gospel truth."
+
+This admission evoked laughter from the whole company. The wines were
+afterwards placed on the table, and they took the seats consistent with
+their grades. Feng Tzu-ying first and foremost called the singing-boys
+and offered them a drink. Next he told Yuen Erh to also approach and have
+a cup of wine.
+
+By the time, however, that Hsueeh P'an had had his third cup, he of a
+sudden lost control over his feelings, and clasping Yuen Erh's hand in
+his: "Do sing me," he smiled, "that novel ballad of your own
+composition; and I'll drink a whole jar full. Eh, will you?"
+
+This appeal compelled Yuen Erh to take up the guitar. She then sang:
+
+ Lovers have I two.
+ To set aside either I cannot bear.
+ When my heart longs for thee to come,
+ It also yearns for him.
+ Both are in form handsome and fair.
+ Their beauty to describe it would be hard.
+ Just think, last night, when at a silent hour, we met in secret, by
+ the trellis
+ frame laden with roses white,
+ One to his feelings stealthily was giving vent,
+ When lo, the other caught us in the act,
+ And laying hands on us; there we three stood like litigants before the
+ bar.
+ And I had, verily, no word in answer for myself to give.
+
+At the close of her song, she laughed. "Well now," she cried, "down with
+that whole jar!"
+
+"Why, it isn't worth a jarful," smiled Hsueeh P'an at these words.
+"Favour us with some other good song!"
+
+"Listen to what I have to suggest," Pao-yue interposed, a smile on his
+lips. "If you go on drinking in this reckless manner, we will easily get
+drunk and there will be no fun in it. I'll take the lead and swallow a
+large cupful and put in force a new penalty; and any one of you who
+doesn't comply with it, will be mulcted in ten large cupfuls, in quick
+succession!"
+
+Speedily rising from the banquet, he poured the wine for the company.
+Feng Tzu-ying and the rest meanwhile exclaimed with one voice: "Quite
+right! quite right!"
+
+Pao-yue then lifted a large cup and drained it with one draught. "We will
+now," he proposed, "dilate on the four characters, 'sad, wounded, glad
+and joyful.' But while discoursing about young ladies, we'll have to
+illustrate the four states as well. At the end of this recitation, we'll
+have to drink the 'door cup' over the wine, to sing an original and
+seasonable ballad, while over the heel taps, to make allusion to some
+object on the table, and devise something with some old poetical lines
+or ancient scrolls, from the Four Books or the Five Classics, or with
+some set phrases."
+
+Hsueeh P'an gave him no time to finish. He was the first to stand up and
+prevent him from proceeding. "I won't join you, so don't count me; this
+is, in fact, done in order to play tricks upon me."
+
+Yuen Erh, however, also rose to her feet and shoved him down into his
+seat.
+
+"What are you in such a funk for?" she laughed. "You're fortunate enough
+to be able to drink wine daily, and can't you, forsooth, even come up to
+me? Yet I mean to recite, by and bye, my own share. If you say what's
+right, well and good; if you don't, you will simply have to swallow
+several cups of wine as a forfeit, and is it likely you'll die from
+drunkenness? Are you, pray, going now to disregard this rule and to
+drink, instead, ten large cups; besides going down to pour the wine?"
+
+One and all clapped in applause. "Well said!" they shouted.
+
+After this, Hueeh P'an had no way out of it and felt compelled to resume
+his seat.
+
+They then heard Pao-yue recite:
+
+ A girl is sad,
+ When her spring-time of life is far advanced and she still occupies a
+ vacant inner-room.
+ A girl feels wounded in her heart,
+ When she regrets having allowed her better half to go abroad and win a
+ marquisdom.
+ A girl is glad,
+ When looking in the mirror, at the time of her morning toilette, she
+ finds her colour fair.
+ A girl is joyful,
+ What time she sits on the frame of a gallows-swing, clad in a thin
+ spring gown.
+
+Having listened to him, "Capital!" one and all cried out in a chorus.
+Hsueeh P'an alone raised his face, shook his head and remarked: "It isn't
+good, he must be fined."
+
+"Why should he be fined?" demurred the party.
+
+"Because," retorted Hsueeh P'an, "what he says is entirely unintelligible
+to me. So how can he not be fined?"
+
+Yuen Erh gave him a pinch.--"Just you quietly think of yours," she
+laughed; "for if by and bye you are not ready you'll also have to bear a
+fine."
+
+In due course Pao-yue took up the guitar. He was heard to sing:
+
+ "When mutual thoughts arise, tears, blood-stained, endless drop, like
+ lentiles sown broadcast.
+ In spring, in ceaseless bloom nourish willows and flowers around the
+ painted tower.
+ Inside the gauze-lattice peaceful sleep flies, when, after dark, come
+ wind and rain.
+ Both new-born sorrows and long-standing griefs cannot from memory ever
+ die!
+ E'en jade-fine rice, and gold-like drinks they make hard to go down;
+ they choke the throat.
+ The lass has not the heart to desist gazing in the glass at her wan
+ face.
+ Nothing can from that knitted brow of hers those frowns dispel;
+ For hard she finds it patient to abide till the clepsydra will have
+ run its course.
+ Alas! how fitly like the faint outline of a green hill which nought
+ can screen;
+ Or like a green-tinged stream, which ever ceaseless floweth onward far
+ and wide!"
+
+When the song drew to an end, his companions with one voice cried out:
+"Excellent!"
+
+Hsueeh P'an was the only one to find fault. "There's no metre in them,"
+he said.
+
+Pao-yue quaffed the "opening cup," then seizing a pear, he added:
+
+ "While the rain strikes the pear-blossom I firmly close the door,"
+
+and thus accomplished the requirements of the rule.
+
+Feng Tzu-ying's turn came next.
+
+ "A maid is glad."
+
+he commenced:
+
+ When at her first confinement she gives birth to twins, both sons.
+ A maid is joyful,
+ When on the sly she to the garden creeps crickets to catch.
+ A maid is sad,
+ When her husband some sickness gets and lies in a bad state.
+ A maiden is wounded at heart,
+ When a fierce wind blows down the tower, where she makes her toilette.
+
+Concluding this recitation, he raised the cup and sang:
+
+ "Thou art what one could aptly call a man.
+ But thou'rt endowed with somewhat too much heart!
+ How queer thou art, cross-grained and impish shrewd!
+ A spirit too, thou couldst not be more shrewd.
+ If all I say thou dost not think is true,
+ In secret just a minute search pursue;
+ For then thou'lt know if I love thee or not."
+
+His song over, he drank the "opening cup" and then observed:
+
+ "The cock crows when the moon's rays shine upon the thatched inn."
+
+After his observance of the rule followed Yuen Erh's turn.
+
+ A girl is sad,
+
+Yuen Erh began,
+
+ When she tries to divine on whom she will depend towards the end of
+ life.
+
+"My dear child!" laughingly exclaimed Hsueeh P'an, "your worthy Mr. Hsueeh
+still lives, and why do you give way to fears?"
+
+"Don't confuse her!" remonstrated every one of the party, "don't muddle
+her!"
+
+ "A maiden is wounded at heart."
+
+Yuen Erh proceeded:
+
+ "When her mother beats and scolds her and never for an instant doth
+ desist."
+
+"It was only the other day," interposed Hsueeh P'an, "that I saw your
+mother and that I told her that I would not have her beat you."
+
+"If you still go on babbling," put in the company with one consent,
+"you'll be fined ten cups."
+
+Hsueeh P'an promptly administered himself a slap on the mouth. "How you
+lack the faculty of hearing!" he exclaimed. "You are not to say a word
+more!"
+
+ "A girl is glad,"
+
+Yuen Erh then resumed:
+
+ When her lover cannot brook to leave her and return home.
+ A maiden is joyful,
+ When hushing the pan-pipe and double pipe, a stringed instrument she
+ thrums.
+
+At the end of her effusion, she at once began to sing:
+
+ "T'is the third day of the third moon, the nutmegs bloom;
+ A maggot, lo, works hard to pierce into a flower;
+ But though it ceaseless bores it cannot penetrate.
+ So crouching on the buds, it swing-like rocks itself.
+ My precious pet, my own dear little darling,
+ If I don't choose to open how can you steal in?"
+
+Finishing her song, she drank the "opening cup," after which she added:
+"the delicate peach-blossom," and thus complied with the exigencies of
+the rule.
+
+Next came Hsueeh P'an. "Is it for me to speak now?" Hsueeh P'an asked.
+
+ "A maiden is sad..."
+
+But a long time elapsed after these words were uttered and yet nothing
+further was heard.
+
+"Sad for what?" Feng Tzu-ying laughingly asked. "Go on and tell us at
+once!"
+
+Hsueeh P'an was much perplexed. His eyes rolled about like a bell.
+
+ "A girl is sad..."
+
+he hastily repeated. But here again he coughed twice before he
+proceeded.
+
+ "A girl is sad."
+
+he said:
+
+ "When she marries a spouse who is a libertine."
+
+This sentence so tickled the fancy of the company that they burst out
+into a loud fit of laughter.
+
+"What amuses you so?" shouted Hsueeh P'an, "is it likely that what I say
+is not correct? If a girl marries a man, who chooses to forget all
+virtue, how can she not feel sore at heart?"
+
+But so heartily did they all laugh that their bodies were bent in two.
+"What you say is quite right," they eagerly replied. "So proceed at once
+with the rest."
+
+Hsueeh P'an thereupon stared with vacant gaze.
+
+ "A girl is grieved...."
+
+he added:
+
+But after these few words he once more could find nothing to say.
+
+"What is she grieved about?" they asked.
+
+ "When a huge monkey finds its way into the inner room."
+
+Hsueeh P'an retorted.
+
+This reply set every one laughing. "He must be mulcted," they cried, "he
+must be mulcted. The first one could anyhow be overlooked; but this line
+is more unintelligible."
+
+As they said this, they were about to pour the wine, when Pao-yue
+smilingly interfered. "The rhyme is all right," he observed.
+
+"The master of the rules," Hsueeh P'an remarked, "approves it in every
+way, so what are you people fussing about?"
+
+Hearing this, the company eventually let the matter drop.
+
+"The two lines, that follow, are still more difficult," suggested Yuen
+Erh with a smile, "so you had better let me recite for you."
+
+"Fiddlesticks!" exclaimed Hsueeh P'an, "do you really fancy that I have
+no good ones! Just you listen to what I shall say.
+
+ "A girl is glad,
+ When in the bridal room she lies, with flowery candles burning, and
+ she is loth to rise at morn."
+
+This sentiment filled one and all with amazement. "How supremely
+excellent this line is!" they ejaculated.
+
+ "A girl is joyful,"
+
+Hsueeh P'an resumed,
+
+ "During the consummation of wedlock."
+
+Upon catching this remark, the party turned their heads away, and
+shouted: "Dreadful! Dreadful! But quick sing your song and have done."
+
+Forthwith Hsueeh P'an sang:
+
+ "A mosquito buzzes heng, heng, heng!"
+
+Every one was taken by surprise. "What kind of song is this?" they
+inquired.
+
+But Hsueeh P'an went on singing:
+
+ "Two flies buzz weng, weng, weng."
+
+"Enough," shouted his companions, "that will do, that will do!"
+
+"Do you want to hear it or not?" asked Hsueeh P'an, "this is a new kind
+of song, called the 'Heng, heng air,' but if you people are not disposed
+to listen, let me off also from saying what I have to say over the
+heel-taps and I won't then sing."
+
+"We'll let you off! We'll let you off," answered one and all, "so don't
+be hindering others."
+
+ "A maiden is sad,"
+
+Chiang Yue-han at once began,
+
+ When her husband leaves home and never does return.
+ A maiden is disconsolate,
+ When she has no money to go and buy some _olea frangrans_ oil.
+ A maiden is glad,
+ When the wick of the lantern forms two heads like twin flowers on one
+ stem.
+ A maiden is joyful,
+ When true conjugal peace prevails between her and her mate.
+
+His recital over, he went on to sing:
+
+ "How I love thee with those seductive charms of thine, heaven-born!
+ In truth thou'rt like a living fairy from the azure skies!
+ The spring of life we now enjoy; we are yet young in years.
+ Our union is, indeed, a happy match!
+ But. lo! the milky way doth at its zenith soar;
+ Hark to the drums which beat around in the watch towers;
+ So raise the silver lamp and let us soft under the nuptial curtain
+ steal."
+
+Finishing the song, he drank the "opening cup." "I know," he smiled,
+"few poetical quotations bearing on this sort of thing. By a stroke of
+good fortune, however, I yesterday conned a pair of antithetical
+scrolls; of these I can only remember just one line, but lucky enough
+for me the object it refers to figures as well on this festive board."
+
+This said he forthwith drained the wine, and, picking up a bud of a
+diminutive variety of _olea fragrans_, he recited:
+
+ "When the perfume of flowers wafts (hsi jen) itself into a man, he
+ knows the day is warm."
+
+The company unanimously conceded that the rule had been adhered to. But
+Hsueeh P'an once again jumped up. "It's awful, awful!" he bawled out
+boisterously; "he should be fined, he should be made to pay a forfeit;
+there's no precious article whatever on this table; how is it then that
+you introduce precious things?"
+
+"There was nothing about precious things!" Chiang Yue-han vehemently
+explained.
+
+"What I are you still prevaricating?" Hsueeh P'an cried, "Well, repeat it
+again!"
+
+Chiang Yue-han had no other course but to recite the line a second time.
+"Now is not Hsi Jen a precious thing?" Hsueeh P'an asked. "If she isn't,
+what is she? And if you don't believe me, you ask him about it,"
+pointing, at the conclusion of this remark, at Pao-yue.
+
+Pao-yue felt very uncomfortable. Rising to his feet, "Cousin," he
+observed, "you should be fined heavily."
+
+"I should be! I should be!" Hsueeh P'an shouted, and saying this, he took
+up the wine and poured it down his throat with one gulp.
+
+Feng Tzu-ying, Chiang Yue-han and their companions thereupon asked him to
+explain the allusion. Yuen Erh readily told them, and Chiang Yue-han
+hastily got up and pleaded guilty.
+
+"Ignorance," the party said with one consent, "does not amount to
+guilt."
+
+But presently Pao-yue quitted the banquet to go and satisfy a natural
+want and Chiang Yue-han followed him out. The two young fellows halted
+under the eaves of the verandah, and Chiang Yue-han then recommenced to
+make ample apologies. Pao-yue, however, was so attracted by his handsome
+and genial appearance, that he took quite a violent fancy to him; and
+squeezing his hand in a firm grip. "If you have nothing to do," he
+urged, "do let us go over to our place. I've got something more to ask
+you. It's this, there's in your worthy company some one called Ch'i
+Kuan, with a reputation extending at present throughout the world; but,
+unfortunately, I alone have not had the good luck of seeing him even
+once."
+
+"This is really," rejoined Chiang Yue-han with a smile, "my own infant •
+name."
+
+This disclosure at once made Pao-yue quite exuberant, and stamping his
+feet he smiled. "How lucky! I'm in luck's way!" he exclaimed. "In very
+truth your reputation is no idle report. But to-day is our first
+meeting, and what shall I do?"
+
+After some thought, he produced a fan from his sleeve, and, unloosening
+one of the jade pendants, he handed it to Ch'i Kuan. "This is a mere
+trifle," he said. "It does not deserve your acceptance, yet it will be a
+small souvenir of our acquaintance to-day."
+
+Ch'i Kuan received it with a smile. "I do not deserve," he replied,
+"such a present. How am I worthy of such an honour! But never mind, I've
+also got about me here a strange thing, which I put on this morning; it
+is brand-new yet, and will, I hope, suffice to prove to you a little of
+the feeling of esteem which I entertain for you."
+
+With these protestations, he raised his garment, and, untying a deep red
+sash, with which his nether clothes were fastened, he presented it to
+Pao-yue. "This sash," he remarked, "is an article brought as tribute from
+the Queen of the Hsi Hsiang Kingdom. If you attach this round you in
+summer, your person will emit a fragrant perfume, and it will not
+perspire. It was given to me yesterday by the Prince of Pei Ching, and
+it is only to-day that I put it on. To any one else, I would certainly
+not be willing to present it. But, Mr. Secundus, please do unfasten the
+one you have on and give it to me to bind round me."
+
+This proposal extremely delighted Pao-yue. With precipitate haste, he
+accepted his gift, and, undoing the dark brown sash he wore, he
+surrendered it to Ch'i Kuan. But both had just had time to adjust their
+respective sashes when they heard a loud voice say: "Oh! I've caught
+you!" And they perceived Hsueeh P'an come out by leaps and bounds.
+Clutching the two young fellows, "What do you," he exclaimed, "leave
+your wine for and withdraw from the banquet. Be quick and produce those
+things, and let me see them!"
+
+"There's nothing to see!" rejoined the two young fellows with one voice.
+
+Hsueeh P'an, however, would by no means fall in with their views. And it
+was only Feng Tzu-ying, who made his appearance on the scene, who
+succeeded in dissuading him. So resuming their seats, they drank until
+dark, when the company broke up.
+
+Pao-yue, on his return into the garden, loosened his clothes, and had
+tea. But Hsi Jen noticed that the pendant had disappeared from his fan
+and she inquired of him what had become of it.
+
+"I must have lost it this very moment," Pao-yue replied.
+
+At bedtime, however, descrying a deep red sash, with spots like specks
+of blood, attached round his waist, Hsi Jen guessed more or less the
+truth of what must have transpired. "As you have such a nice sash to
+fasten your trousers with," Hsi Jen consequently said, "you'd better
+return that one of mine."
+
+This reminder made the fact dawn upon Pao-yue that the sash had
+originally been the property of Hsi Jen, and that he should by rights
+not have parted with it; but however much he felt his conscience smitten
+by remorse, he failed to see how he could very well disclose the truth
+to her. He could therefore only put on a smiling expression and add,
+"I'll give you another one instead."
+
+Hsi Jen was prompted by his rejoinder to nod her head and sigh. "I felt
+sure;" she observed; "that you'd go again and do these things! Yet you
+shouldn't take my belongings and bestow them on that low-bred sort of
+people. Can it be that no consideration finds a place in your heart?"
+
+She then felt disposed to tender him a few more words of admonition, but
+dreading, on the other hand, lest she should, by irritating him, bring
+the fumes of the wine to his head, she thought it best to also retire to
+bed.
+
+Nothing worth noticing occurred during that night. The next day, when
+she woke up at the break of day, she heard Pao-yue call out laughingly:
+"Robbers have been here in the night; are you not aware of it? Just you
+look at my trousers."
+
+Hsi Jen lowered her head and looked. She saw at a glance that the sash,
+which Pao-yue had worn the previous day, was bound round her own waist,
+and she at once realised that Pao-yue must have effected the change
+during the night; but promptly unbinding it, "I don't care for such
+things!" she cried, "quick, take it away!"
+
+At the sight of her manner, Pao-yue had to coax her with gentle terms.
+This so disarmed Hsi Jen, that she felt under the necessity of putting
+on the sash; but, subsequently when Pao-yue stepped out of the apartment,
+she at last pulled it off, and, throwing it away in an empty box, she
+found one of hers and fastened it round her waist.
+
+Pao-yue, however, did not in the least notice what she did, but inquired
+whether anything had happened the day before.
+
+"Lady Secunda," Hsi Jen explained, "dispatched some one and fetched
+Hsiao Hung away. Her wish was to have waited for your return; but as I
+thought that it was of no consequence, I took upon myself to decide, and
+sent her off."
+
+"That's all right!" rejoined Pao-yue. "I knew all about it, there was no
+need for her to wait."
+
+"Yesterday," resumed Hsi Jen, "the Imperial Consort deputed the Eunuch
+Hsia to bring a hundred and twenty ounces of silver and to convey her
+commands that from the first to the third, there should be offered, in
+the Ch'ing Hsu temple, thanksgiving services to last for three days and
+that theatrical performances should be given, and oblations presented:
+and to tell our senior master, Mr. Chia Chen, to take all the gentlemen,
+and go and burn incense and worship Buddha. Besides this, she also sent
+presents for the dragon festival."
+
+Continuing, she bade a young servant-maid produce the presents, which
+had been received the previous day. Then he saw two palace fans of the
+best quality, two strings of musk-scented beads, two rolls of silk, as
+fine as the phoenix tail, and a superior mat worked with hibiscus. At
+the sight of these things, Pao-yue was filled with immeasurable
+pleasure, and he asked whether the articles brought to all the others
+were similar to his.
+
+"The only things in excess of yours that our venerable mistress has,"
+Hsi Jen explained, "consist of a scented jade sceptre and a pillow made
+of agate. Those of your worthy father and mother, our master and
+mistress, and of your aunt exceed yours by a scented sceptre of jade.
+Yours are the same as Miss Pao's. Miss Lin's are like those of Misses
+Secunda, Tertia and Quarta, who received nothing beyond a fan and
+several pearls and none of all the other things. As for our senior lady,
+Mrs. Chia Chu, and lady Secunda, these two got each two rolls of gauze,
+two rolls of silk, two scented bags, and two sticks of medicine."
+
+After listening to her enumeration, "What's the reason of this?" he
+smiled. "How is it that Miss Lin's are not the same as mine, but that
+Miss Pao's instead are like my own? May not the message have been
+wrongly delivered?"
+
+"When they were brought out of the palace yesterday," Hsi Jen rejoined,
+"they were already divided in respective shares, and slips were also
+placed on them, so that how could any mistake have been made? Yours were
+among those for our dowager lady's apartments. When I went and fetched
+them, her venerable ladyship said that I should tell you to go there
+to-morrow at the fifth watch to return thanks.
+
+"Of course, it's my duty to go over," Pao-yue cried at these words, but
+forthwith calling Tzu Chuean: "Take these to your Miss Lin," he told her,
+"and say that I got them, yesterday, and that she is at liberty to keep
+out of them any that take her fancy."
+
+Tzu Chuean expressed her obedience and took the things away. After a
+short time she returned. "Miss Lin says," she explained, "that she also
+got some yesterday, and that you, Master Secundus, should keep yours."
+
+Hearing this reply, Pao-yue quickly directed a servant to put them away.
+But when he had washed his face and stepped out of doors, bent upon
+going to his grandmother's on the other side, in order to pay his
+obeisance, he caught sight of Lin Tai-yue coming along towards him, from
+the opposite direction. Pao-yue hurriedly walked up to her, "I told you,"
+he smiled, "to select those you liked from my things; how is it you
+didn't choose any?"
+
+Lin Tai-yue had long before banished from her recollection the incident
+of the previous day, which had made her angry with Pao-yue, and was only
+exercised about the occurrence of this present occasion. "I'm not gifted
+with such extreme good fortune," she consequently answered, "as to be
+able to accept them. I can't compete with Miss Pao, in connection with
+whom something or other about gold or about jade is mentioned. We are
+simply beings connected with the vegetable kingdom."
+
+The allusion to the two words "gold and jade," aroused, of a sudden,
+much emotion in the heart of Pao-yue. "If beyond what people say about
+gold or jade," he protested, "the idea of any such things ever crosses
+my mind, may the heavens annihilate me, and may the earth extinguish me,
+and may I for ten thousand generations never assume human form!"
+
+These protestations convinced Lin Tai-yue that suspicion had been aroused
+in him. With all promptitude, she smiled and observed, "They're all to
+no use! Why utter such oaths, when there's no rhyme or reason! Who cares
+about any gold or any jade of yours!"
+
+"It would be difficult for me to tell you, to your face, all the secrets
+of my heart," Pao-yue resumed, "but by and bye you'll surely come to know
+all about them! After the three--my old grandmother, my father and my
+mother--you, my cousin, hold the fourth place; and, if there be a
+fifth, I'm ready to swear another oath."
+
+"You needn't swear any more," Lin Tai-yue replied, "I'm well aware that
+I, your younger cousin, have a place in your heart; but the thing is
+that at the sight of your elder cousin, you at once forget all about
+your younger cousin."
+
+"This comes again from over-suspicion!" ejaculated Pao; "for I'm not at
+all disposed that way."
+
+"Well," resumed Lin Tai-yue, "why did you yesterday appeal to me when
+that hussey Pao-ch'ai would not help you by telling a story? Had it been
+I, who had been guilty of any such thing, I don't know what you wouldn't
+have done again."
+
+But during their _tete-a-tete_, they espied Pao-ch'ai approach from
+the opposite direction, so readily they beat a retreat. Pao-ch'ai had
+distinctly caught sight of them, but pretending she had not seen them,
+she trudged on her way, with lowered head, and repaired into Madame
+Wang's apartments. After a short stay, she came to this side to pay
+dowager lady Chia a visit. With her she also found Pao-yue.
+
+Pao-ch'ai ever made it a point to hold Pao-yue aloof as her mother had in
+days gone by mentioned to Madame Wang and her other relatives that the
+gold locket had been the gift of a bonze, that she had to wait until
+such time as some suitor with jade turned up before she could be given
+in marriage, and other similar confidences. But on discovery the
+previous day that Yuean Ch'un's presents to her alone resembled those of
+Pao-yue, she began to feel all the more embarrassed. Luckily, however,
+Pao-yue was so entangled in Lin Tai-yue's meshes and so absorbed in heart
+and mind with fond thoughts of his Lin Tai-yue that he did not pay the
+least attention to this circumstance. But she unawares now heard Pao-yue
+remark with a smile: "Cousin Pao, let me see that string of scented
+beads of yours!"
+
+By a strange coincidence, Pao-ch'ai wore the string of beads round her
+left wrist so she had no alternative, when Pao-yue asked her for it, than
+to take it off. Pao-ch'ai, however, was naturally inclined to
+embonpoint, and it proved therefore no easy matter for her to get the
+beads off; and while Pao-yue stood by watching her snow-white arm,
+feelings of admiration were quickly stirred up in his heart. "Were this
+arm attached to Miss Lin's person," he secretly pondered, "I might,
+possibly have been able to caress it! But it is, as it happens, part and
+parcel of her body; how I really do deplore this lack of good fortune."
+
+Suddenly he bethought himself of the secret of gold and jade, and he
+again scanned Pao-ch'ai's appearance. At the sight of her countenance,
+resembling a silver bowl, her eyes limpid like water and almond-like in
+shape, her lips crimson, though not rouged, her eyebrows jet-black,
+though not pencilled, also of that fascination and grace which presented
+such a contrast to Lin Tai-yue's style of beauty, he could not refrain
+from falling into such a stupid reverie, that though Pao-ch'ai had got
+the string of beads off her wrist, and was handing them to him, he
+forgot all about them and made no effort to take them. Pao-ch'ai
+realised that he was plunged in abstraction, and conscious of the
+awkward position in which she was placed, she put down the string of
+beads, and turning round was on the point of betaking herself away, when
+she perceived Lin Tai-yue, standing on the door-step, laughing
+significantly while biting a handkerchief she held in her mouth. "You
+can't resist," Pao-ch'ai said, "a single puff of wind; and why do you
+stand there and expose yourself to the very teeth of it?"
+
+"Wasn't I inside the room?" rejoined Lin Tai-yue, with a cynical smile.
+"But I came out to have a look as I heard a shriek in the heavens; it
+turned out, in fact, to be a stupid wild goose!"
+
+"A stupid wild goose!" repeated Pao-ch'ai. "Where is it, let me also see
+it!"
+
+"As soon as I got out," answered Lin Tai-yue, "it flew away with a
+'t'e-rh' sort of noise."
+
+While replying, she threw the handkerchief, she was holding, straight
+into Pao-yue's face. Pao-yue was quite taken by surprise. He was hit on
+the eye. "Ai-yah!" he exclaimed.
+
+But, reader, do you want to hear the sequel? In that case, listen to the
+circumstances, which will be disclosed in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+ A happy man enjoys a full measure of happiness, but still prays for
+ happiness.
+ A beloved girl is very much loved, but yet craves for more love.
+
+
+Pao-yue, so our story runs, was gazing vacantly, when Tai-yue, at a moment
+least expected, flung her handkerchief at him, which just hit him on the
+eyes, and frightened him out of his wits. "Who was it?" he cried.
+
+Lin Tai-yue nodded her head and smiled. "I would not venture to do such a
+thing," she said, "it was a mere slip of my hand. As cousin Pao-ch'ai
+wished to see the silly wild goose, I was pointing it out to her, when
+the handkerchief inadvertently flew out of my grip."
+
+Pao-yue kept on rubbing his eyes. The idea suggested itself to him to
+make some remonstrance, but he could not again very well open his lips.
+
+Presently, lady Feng arrived. She then alluded, in the course of
+conversation, to the thanksgiving service, which was to be offered on
+the first, in the Ch'ing Hsue temple, and invited Pao-ch'ai, Pao-yue,
+Tai-yue and the other inmates with them to be present at the theatricals.
+
+"Never mind," smiled Pao-ch'ai, "it's too hot; besides, what plays
+haven't I seen? I don't mean to come."
+
+"It's cool enough over at their place," answered lady Feng. "There are
+also two-storied buildings on either side; so we must all go! I'll send
+servants a few days before to drive all that herd of Taoist priests out,
+to sweep the upper stories, hang up curtains, and to keep out every
+single loafer from the interior of the temple; so it will be all right
+like that. I've already told our Madame Wang that if you people don't
+go, I mean to go all alone, as I've been again in very low spirits these
+last few days, and as when theatricals come off at home, it's out of the
+question for me to look on with any peace and quiet."
+
+When dowager lady Chia heard what she said, she smiled. "Well, in that
+case," she remarked, "I'll go along with you."
+
+Lady Feng, at these words, gave a smile. "Venerable ancestor," she
+replied, "were you also to go, it would be ever so much better; yet I
+won't feel quite at my ease!"
+
+"To-morrow," dowager lady Chia continued, "I can stay in the two-storied
+building, situated on the principal site, while you can go to the one on
+the side. You can then likewise dispense with coming over to where I
+shall be to stand on any ceremonies. Will this suit you or not?"
+
+"This is indeed," lady Feng smiled, "a proof of your regard for me, my
+worthy senior."
+
+Old lady Chia at this stage faced Pao-ch'ai. "You too should go," she
+said, "so should your mother; for if you remain the whole day long at
+home, you will again sleep your head off."
+
+Pao-ch'ai felt constrained to signify her assent. Dowager lady Chia then
+also despatched domestics to invite Mrs. Hsueeh; and, on their way, they
+notified Madame Wang that she was to take the young ladies along with
+her. But Madame Wang felt, in the first place, in a poor state of
+health, and was, in the second, engaged in making preparations for the
+reception of any arrivals from Yuean Ch'un, so that she, at an early
+hour, sent word that it was impossible for her to leave the house. Yet
+when she received old lady Chia's behest, she smiled and exclaimed: "Are
+her spirits still so buoyant!" and transmitted the message into the
+garden that any, who had any wish to avail themselves of the
+opportunity, were at liberty to go on the first, with their venerable
+senior as their chaperonne. As soon as these tidings were spread abroad,
+every one else was indifferent as to whether they went or not; but of
+those girls who, day after day, never put their foot outside the
+doorstep, which of them was not keen upon going, the moment they heard
+the permission conceded to them? Even if any of their respective
+mistresses were too lazy to move, they employed every expedient to
+induce them to go. Hence it was that Li Kung-ts'ai and the other inmates
+signified their unanimous intention to be present. Dowager lady Chia, at
+this, grew more exultant than ever, and she issued immediate directions
+for servants to go and sweep and put things in proper order. But to all
+these preparations, there is no necessity of making detailed reference;
+sufficient to relate that on the first day of the moon, carriages stood
+in a thick maze, and men and horses in close concourse, at the entrance
+of the Jung Kuo mansion.
+
+When the servants, the various managers and other domestics came to
+learn that the Imperial Consort was to perform good deeds and that
+dowager lady Chia was to go in person and offer incense, they arranged,
+as it happened that the first of the moon, which was the principal day
+of the ceremonies, was, in addition, the season of the dragon-boat
+festival, all the necessary articles in perfect readiness and with
+unusual splendour. Shortly, old lady Chia and the other inmates started
+on their way. The old lady sat in an official chair, carried by eight
+bearers: widow Li, lady Feng and Mrs. Hsueeh, each in a four-bearer
+chair. Pao-ch'ai and Tai-yue mounted together a curricle with green cover
+and pearl tassels, bearing the eight precious things. The three sisters,
+Ying Ch'un, T'an Ch'un, and Hsi Ch'un got in a carriage with red wheels
+and ornamented hood. Next in order, followed dowager lady Chia's
+waiting-maids, Yuean Yang, Ying Wu, Hu Po, Chen Chu; Lin Tai-yue's
+waiting-maids Tzu Chuean, Hsueeh Yen, and Ch'un Ch'ien; Pao-ch'ai's
+waiting-maids Ying Erh and Wen Hsing; Ying Ch'un's servant-girls Ssu
+Ch'i and Hsiu Chue; T'an Ch'un's waiting-maids Shih Shu and Ts'ui Mo; Hsi
+Ch'un's servant-girls Ju Hua and Ts'ai P'ing; and Mrs. Hsueeh's
+waiting-maids T'ung Hsi, and T'ung Kuei. Besides these, were joined to
+their retinue: Hsiang Ling and Hsiang Ling's servant-girl Ch'in Erh;
+Mrs. Li's waiting-maids Su Yuen and Pi Yueeh; lady Feng's servant-girls
+P'ing Erh, Feng Erh and Hsiao Hung, as well as Madame Wang's two
+waiting-maids Chin Ch'uan and Ts'ai Yuen. Along with lady Feng, came a
+nurse carrying Ta Chieh Erh. She drove in a separate carriage, together
+with a couple of servant-girls. Added also to the number of the suite
+were matrons and nurses, attached to the various establishments, and the
+wives of the servants of the household, who were in attendance out of
+doors. Their carriages, forming one black solid mass, therefore, crammed
+the whole extent of the street.
+
+Dowager lady Chia and other members of the party had already proceeded a
+considerable distance in their chairs, and yet the inmates at the gate
+had not finished mounting their vehicles. This one shouted: "I won't sit
+with you." That one cried: "You've crushed our mistress' bundle." In the
+carriages yonder, one screamed: "You've pulled my flowers off." Another
+one nearer exclaimed: "You've broken my fan." And they chatted and
+chatted, and talked and laughed with such incessant volubility, that
+Chou Jui's wife had to go backward and forward calling them to task.
+"Girls," she said, "this is the street. The on-lookers will laugh at
+you!" But it was only after she had expostulated with them several times
+that any sign of improvement became at last visible.
+
+The van of the procession had long ago reached the entrance of the
+Ch'ing Hsue Temple. Pao-yue rode on horseback. He preceded the chair
+occupied by his grandmother Chia. The throngs that filled the streets
+ranged themselves on either side.
+
+On their arrival at the temple, the sound of bells and the rattle of
+drums struck their ear. Forthwith appeared the head-bonze Chang, a stick
+of incense in hand; his cloak thrown over his shoulders. He took his
+stand by the wayside at the head of a company of Taoist priests to
+present his greetings. The moment dowager lady Chia reached, in her
+chair, the interior of the main gate, she descried the lares and
+penates, the lord presiding over that particular district, and the clay
+images of the various gods, and she at once gave orders to halt. Chia
+Chen advanced to receive her acting as leader to the male members of the
+family. Lady Feng was well aware that Yuean Yang and the other attendants
+were at the back and could not overtake their old mistress, so she
+herself alighted from her chair to volunteer her services. She was about
+to hastily press forward and support her, when, by a strange accident, a
+young Taoist neophyte, of twelve or thirteen years of age, who held a
+case containing scissors, with which he had been snuffing the candles
+burning in the various places, just seized the opportunity to run out
+and hide himself, when he unawares rushed, head foremost, into lady
+Feng's arms. Lady Feng speedily raised her hand and gave him such a slap
+on the face that she made the young fellow reel over and perform a
+somersault. "You boorish young bastard!" she shouted, "where are you
+running to?"
+
+The young Taoist did not even give a thought to picking up the scissors,
+but crawling up on to his feet again, he tried to scamper outside. But
+just at that very moment Pao-ch'ai and the rest of the young ladies were
+dismounting from their vehicles, and the matrons and women-servants were
+closing them in so thoroughly on all sides that not a puff of wind or a
+drop of rain could penetrate, and when they perceived a Taoist neophyte
+come rushing headlong out of the place, they, with one voice, exclaimed:
+"Catch him, catch him! Beat him, beat him!"
+
+Old lady Chia overheard their cries. She asked with alacrity what the
+fuss was all about. Chia Chen immediately stepped outside to make
+inquiries. Lady Feng then advanced and, propping up her old senior, she
+went on to explain to her that a young Taoist priest, whose duties were
+to snuff the candles, had not previously retired out of the compound,
+and that he was now endeavouring to recklessly force his way out."
+
+"Be quick and bring the lad here," shouted dowager lady Chia, as soon as
+she heard her explanation, "but, mind, don't frighten him. Children of
+mean families invariably get into the way of being spoilt by
+over-indulgence. How ever could he have set eyes before upon such
+display as this! Were you to frighten him, he will really be much to be
+pitied; and won't his father and mother be exceedingly cut up?"
+
+As she spoke, she asked Chia Chen to go and do his best to bring him
+round. Chia Chen felt under the necessity of going, and he managed to
+drag the lad into her presence. With the scissors still clasped in his
+hand, the lad fell on his knees, and trembled violently.
+
+Dowager lady Chia bade Chia Chen raise him up. "There's nothing to
+fear!" she said reassuringly. Then she asked him how old he was.
+
+The boy, however, could on no account give vent to speech.
+
+"Poor boy!" once more exclaimed the old lady. And continuing: "Brother
+Chen," she added, addressing herself to Chia Chen, "take him away, and
+give him a few cash to buy himself fruit with; and do impress upon every
+one that they are not to bully him."
+
+Chia Chen signified his assent and led him off.
+
+During this time, old lady Chia, taking along with her the whole family
+party, paid her devotions in storey after storey, and visited every
+place.
+
+The young pages, who stood outside, watched their old mistress and the
+other inmates enter the second row of gates. But of a sudden they espied
+Chia Chen wend his way outwards, leading a young Taoist priest, and
+calling the servants to come, say; "Take him and give him several
+hundreds of cash and abstain from ill-treating him." At these orders,
+the domestics approached with hurried step and led him off.
+
+Chia Chen then inquired from the terrace-steps where the majordomo was.
+At this inquiry, the pages standing below, called out in chorus,
+"Majordomo!"
+
+Lin Chih-hsiao ran over at once, while adjusting his hat with one hand,
+and appeared in the presence of Chia Chen.
+
+"Albeit this is a spacious place," Chia Chen began, "we muster a good
+concourse to-day, so you'd better bring into this court those servants,
+who'll be of any use to you, and send over into that one those who
+won't. And choose a few from among those young pages to remain on duty,
+at the second gate and at the two side entrances, so as to ask for
+things and deliver messages. Do you understand me, yes or no? The young
+ladies and ladies have all come out of town to-day, and not a single
+outsider must be permitted to put his foot in here."
+
+"I understand," replied Lin Chih-hsiao hurriedly signifying his
+obedience. Next he uttered several yes's.
+
+"Now," proceeded Chia Chen; "you can go on your way. But how is it, I
+don't see anything of Jung Erh?" he went on to ask.
+
+This question was barely out of his lips, when he caught sight of Jung
+Erh running out of the belfry. "Look at him," shouted Chia Chen. "Look
+at him! I don't feel hot in here, and yet he must go in search of a cool
+place. Spit at him!" he cried to the family servants.
+
+The young pages were fully aware that Chia Chen's ordinary disposition
+was such that he could not brook contradiction, and one of the lads
+speedily came forward and sputtered in Chia Jung's face. But Chia Chen
+still kept his gaze fixed on him, so the young page had to inquire of
+Chia Jung: "Master doesn't feel hot here, and how is it that you, Sir,
+have been the first to go and get cool?"
+
+Chia Jung however dropped his arms, and did not venture to utter a
+single sound. Chia Yuen, Chia P'ing, Chia Ch'in and the other young
+people overheard what was going on and not only were they scared out of
+their wits, but even Chia Lien, Chia Pin, Chia Ch'ung and their
+companions were stricken with intense fright and one by one they quietly
+slipped down along the foot of the wall.
+
+"What are you standing there for?" Chia Chen shouted to Chia Jung.
+"Don't you yet get on your horse and gallop home and tell your mother
+that our venerable senior is here with all the young ladies, and bid
+them come at once and wait upon them?"
+
+As soon as Chia Jung heard these words, he ran out with hurried stride
+and called out repeatedly for his horse. Now he felt resentment, arguing
+within himself: "Who knows what he has been up to the whole morning,
+that he now finds fault with me!" Now he went on to abuse the young
+servants, crying: "Are your hands made fast, that you can't lead the
+horse round?" And he felt inclined to bid a servant-boy go on the
+errand, but fearing again lest he should subsequently be found out, and
+be at a loss how to account for his conduct he felt compelled to proceed
+in person; so mounting his steed, he started on his way.
+
+But to return to Chia Chen. Just as he was about to be take himself
+inside, he noticed the Taoist Chang, who stood next to him, force a
+smile. "I'm not properly speaking," he remarked, "on the same footing as
+the others and should be in attendance inside, but as on account of the
+intense heat, the young ladies have come out of doors, I couldn't
+presume to take upon myself to intrude and ask what your orders, Sir,
+are. But the dowager lady may possibly inquire about me, or may like to
+visit any part of the temple, so I shall wait in here."
+
+Chia Chen was fully cognisant that this Taoist priest, Chang, had, it is
+true, in past days, stood as a substitute for the Duke of the Jung Kuo
+mansion, but that the former Emperor had, with his own lips, conferred
+upon him the appellation of the 'Immortal being of the Great Unreal,'
+that he held at present the seal of 'Taoist Superior,' that the reigning
+Emperor had raised him to the rank of the 'Pure man,' that the princes,
+now-a-days, dukes, and high officials styled him the "Supernatural
+being," and he did not therefore venture to treat him with any
+disrespect. In the second place, (he knew that) he had paid frequent
+visits to the mansions, and that he had made the acquaintance of the
+ladies and young ladies, so when he heard his present remark he
+smilingly rejoined. "Do you again make use of such language amongst
+ourselves? One word more, and I'll take that beard of yours, and outroot
+it! Don't you yet come along with me inside?"
+
+"Hah, hah," laughed the Taoist Chang aloud, as he followed Chia Chen in.
+Chia Chen approached dowager lady Chia. Bending his body he strained a
+laugh. "Grandfather Chang," he said, "has come in to pay his respects."
+
+"Raise him up!" old lady Chia vehemently called out.
+
+Chia Chen lost no time in pulling him to his feet and bringing him over.
+
+The Taoist Chang first indulged in loud laughter. "Oh Buddha of
+unlimited years!" he then observed. "Have you kept all right and in good
+health, throughout, venerable Senior? Have all the ladies and young
+ladies continued well? I haven't been for some time to your mansion to
+pay my obeisance, but you, my dowager lady, have improved more and
+more."
+
+"Venerable Immortal Being!" smiled old lady Chia, "how are you; quite
+well?"
+
+"Thanks to the ten thousand blessings he has enjoyed from your hands,"
+rejoined Chang the Taoist, "your servant too continues pretty strong and
+hale. In every other respect, I've, after all, been all right; but I
+have felt much concern about Mr. Pao-yue. Has he been all right all the
+time? The other day, on the 26th of the fourth moon, I celebrated the
+birthday of the 'Heaven-Pervading-Mighty-King;' few people came and
+everything went off right and proper. I told them to invite Mr. Pao to
+come for a stroll; but how was it they said that he wasn't at home?"
+
+"It was indeed true that he was away from home," remarked dowager lady
+Chia. As she spoke, she turned her head round and called Pao-yue.
+
+Pao-yue had, as it happened, just returned from outside where he had been
+to make himself comfortable, and with speedy step, he came forward. "My
+respects to you, grandfather Chang," he said.
+
+The Taoist Chang eagerly clasped him in his arms and inquired how he was
+getting on. Turning towards old lady Chia, "Mr. Pao," he observed, "has
+grown fatter than ever."
+
+"Outwardly, his looks," replied dowager lady Chia, "may be all right,
+but, inwardly, he is weak. In addition to this, his father presses him
+so much to study that he has again and again managed, all through this
+bullying, to make his child fall sick."
+
+"The other day," continued Chang the Taoist, "I went to several places
+on a visit, and saw characters written by Mr. Pao and verses composed by
+him, all of which were exceedingly good; so how is it that his worthy
+father still feels displeased with him, and maintains that Mr. Pao is
+not very fond of his books? According to my humble idea, he knows quite
+enough. As I consider Mr. Pao's face, his bearing, his speech and his
+deportment," he proceeded, heaving a sigh, "what a striking resemblance
+I find in him to the former duke of the Jung mansion!" As he uttered
+these words, tears rolled down his cheeks.
+
+At these words, old lady Chia herself found it hard to control her
+feelings. Her face became covered with the traces of tears. "Quite so,"
+she assented, "I've had ever so many sons and grandsons, and not one of
+them betrayed the slightest resemblance to his grandfather; and this
+Pao-yue turns out to be the very image of him!"
+
+"What the former duke of Jung Kuo was like in appearance," Chang, the
+Taoist went on to remark, addressing himself to Chia Chen, "you
+gentlemen, and your generation, were, of course, needless to say, not in
+time to see for yourselves; but I fancy that even our Senior master and
+our Master Secundus have but a faint recollection of it."
+
+This said, he burst into another loud fit of laughter. "The other day,"
+he resumed, "I was at some one's house and there I met a young girl, who
+is this year in her fifteenth year, and verily gifted with a beautiful
+face, and I bethought myself that Mr. Pao must also have a wife found
+for him. As far as looks, intelligence and mental talents, extraction
+and family standing go, this maiden is a suitable match for him. But as
+I didn't know what your venerable ladyship would have to say about it,
+your servant did not presume to act recklessly, but waited until I could
+ascertain your wishes before I took upon myself to open my mouth with
+the parties concerned."
+
+"Some time ago," responded dowager lady Chia, "a bonze explained that it
+was ordained by destiny that this child shouldn't be married at an early
+age, and that we should put things off until he grew somewhat in years
+before anything was settled. But mark my words now. Pay no regard as to
+whether she be of wealthy and honourable stock or not, the essential
+thing is to find one whose looks make her a fit match for him and then
+come at once and tell me. For even admitting that the girl is poor, all
+I shall have to do will be to bestow on her a few ounces of silver; but
+fine looks and a sweet temperament are not easy things to come across."
+
+When she had done speaking, lady Feng was heard to smilingly interpose:
+"Grandfather Chang, aren't you going to change the talisman of 'Recorded
+Name' of our daughter? The other day, lucky enough for you, you had
+again the great cheek to send some one to ask me for some satin of
+gosling-yellow colour. I gave it to you, for had I not, I was afraid
+lest your old face should have been made to feel uneasy."
+
+"Hah, hah," roared the Taoist Chang, "just see how my eyes must have
+grown dim! I didn't notice that you, my lady, were in here; nor did I
+express one word of thanks to you! The talisman of 'Recorded Name' is
+ready long ago. I meant to have sent it over the day before yesterday,
+but the unforeseen visit of the Empress to perform meritorious deeds
+upset my equilibrium, and made me quite forget it. But it's still placed
+before the gods, and if you will wait I'll go and fetch it."
+
+Saying this, he rushed into the main hall. Presently, he returned with a
+tea-tray in hand, on which was spread a deep red satin cover, brocaded
+with dragons. In this, he presented the charm. Ta Chieh-erh's nurse took
+it from him.
+
+But just as the Taoist was on the point of taking Ta Chieh-erh in his
+embrace, lady Feng remarked with a smile: "It would have been sufficient
+if you'd carried it in your hand! And why use a tray to lay it on?"
+
+"My hands aren't clean," replied the Taoist Chang, "so how could I very
+well have taken hold of it? A tray therefore made things much cleaner!"
+
+"When you produced that tray just now," laughed lady Feng, "you gave me
+quite a start; I didn't imagine that it was for the purpose of bringing
+the charm in. It really looked as if you were disposed to beg donations
+of us."
+
+This observation sent the whole company into a violent fit of laughter.
+Even Chia Chen could not suppress a smile.
+
+"What a monkey!" dowager lady Chia exclaimed, turning her head round.
+"What a monkey you are! Aren't you afraid of going down to that Hell,
+where tongues are cut off?"
+
+"I've got nothing to do with any men whatever," rejoined lady Feng
+laughing, "and why does he time and again tell me that it's my bounden
+duty to lay up a store of meritorious deeds; and that if I'm remiss, my
+life will be short?"
+
+Chang, the Taoist, indulged in further laughter. "I brought out," he
+explained, "the tray so as to kill two birds with one stone. It wasn't,
+however, to beg for donations. On the contrary, it was in order to put
+in it the jade, which I meant to ask Mr. Pao to take off, so as to carry
+it outside and let all those Taoist friends of mine, who come from far
+away, as well as my neophytes and the young apprentices, see what it's
+like."
+
+"Well, since that be the case," added old lady Chia, "why do you, at
+your age, try your strength by running about the whole day long? Take
+him at once along and let them see it! But were you to have called him
+in there, wouldn't it have saved a lot of trouble?"
+
+"Your venerable ladyship," resumed Chang, the Taoist, "isn't aware that
+though I be, to look at, a man of eighty, I, after all, continue, thanks
+to your protection, my dowager lady, quite hale and strong. In the
+second place, there are crowds of people in the outer rooms; and the
+smells are not agreeable. Besides it's a very hot day and Mr. Pao
+couldn't stand the heat as he is not accustomed to it. So were he to
+catch any disease from the filthy odours, it would be a grave thing!"
+
+After these forebodings old lady Chia accordingly desired Pao-yue to
+unclasp the jade of Spiritual Perception, and to deposit it in the tray.
+The Taoist, Chang, carefully ensconced it in the folds of the wrapper,
+embroidered with dragons, and left the room, supporting the tray with
+both his hands.
+
+During this while, dowager lady Chia and the other inmates devoted more
+of their time in visiting the various places. But just as they were on
+the point of going up the two-storied building, they heard Chia Chen
+shout: "Grandfather Chang has brought back the jade."
+
+As he spoke, the Taoist Chang was seen advancing up to them, the tray in
+hand. "The whole company," he smiled, "were much obliged to me. They
+think Mr. Pao's jade really lovely! None of them have, however, any
+suitable gifts to bestow. These are religious articles, used by each of
+them in propagating the doctrines of Reason, but they're all only too
+ready to give them as congratulatory presents. If, Mr. Pao, you don't
+fancy them for anything else, just keep them to play with or to give
+away to others."
+
+Dowager lady Chia, at these words, looked into the tray. She discovered
+that its contents consisted of gold signets, and jade rings, or
+sceptres, implying: "may you have your wishes accomplished in
+everything," or "may you enjoy peace and health from year to year;" that
+the various articles were strung with pearls or inlaid with precious
+stones, worked in jade or mounted in gold; and that they were in all
+from thirty to fifty.
+
+"What nonsense you're talking!" she then exclaimed. "Those people are
+all divines, and where could they have rummaged up these things? But
+what need is there for any such presents? He may, on no account, accept
+them."
+
+"These are intended as a small token of their esteem," responded Chang,
+the Taoist, smiling, "your servant cannot therefore venture to interfere
+with them. If your venerable ladyship will not keep them, won't you make
+it patent to them that I'm treated contemptuously, and unlike what one
+should be, who has joined the order through your household?"
+
+Only when old lady Chia heard these arguments did she direct a servant
+to receive the presents.
+
+"Venerable senior," Pao-yue smilingly chimed in. "After the reasons
+advanced by grandfather Chang, we cannot possibly refuse them. But
+albeit I feel disposed to keep these things, they are of no avail to me;
+so would it not be well were a servant told to carry the tray and to
+follow me out of doors, that I may distribute them to the poor?
+
+"You are perfectly right in what you say!" smiled dowager lady Chia.
+
+The Taoist Chang, however, went on speedily to use various arguments to
+dissuade him. "Mr. Pao," he observed, "your intention is, it is true, to
+perform charitable acts; but though you may aver that these things are
+of little value, you'll nevertheless find among them several articles
+you might turn to some account. Were you to let the beggars have them,
+why they will, first of all, be none the better for them; and, next, it
+will contrariwise be tantamount to throwing them away! If you want to
+distribute anything among the poor, why don't you dole out cash to
+them?"
+
+"Put them by!" promptly shouted Pao-yue, after this rejoinder, "and when
+evening comes, take a few cash and distribute them."
+
+These directions given, Chang, the Taoist, retired out of the place.
+
+Dowager lady Chia and her companions thereupon walked upstairs and sat
+in the main part of the building. Lady Feng and her friends adjourned
+into the eastern part, while the waiting-maids and servants remained in
+the western portion, and took their turns in waiting on their
+mistresses.
+
+Before long, Chia Chen came back. "The plays," he announced, "have been
+chosen by means of slips picked out before the god. The first one on the
+list is the 'Record of the White Snake.'"
+
+"Of what kind of old story does 'the record of the white snake,' treat?"
+old lady Chia inquired.
+
+"The story about Han Kao-tsu," replied Chia Chen, "killing a snake and
+then ascending the throne. The second play is, 'the Bed covered with
+ivory tablets.'"
+
+"Has this been assigned the second place?" asked dowager lady Chia. "Yet
+never mind; for as the gods will it thus, there is no help than not to
+demur. But what about the third play?" she went on to inquire.
+
+"The Nan Ko dream is the third," Chia Chen answered.
+
+This response elicited no comment from dowager lady Chia. Chia Chen
+therefore withdrew downstairs, and betook himself outside to make
+arrangements for the offerings to the gods, for the paper money and
+eatables that had to be burnt, and for the theatricals about to begin.
+So we will leave him without any further allusion, and take up our
+narrative with Pao-yue.
+
+Seating himself upstairs next to old lady Chia, he called to a
+servant-girl to fetch the tray of presents given to him a short while
+back, and putting on his own trinket of jade, he fumbled about with the
+things for a bit, and picking up one by one, he handed them to his
+grandmother to admire. But old lady Chia espied among them a unicorn,
+made of purplish gold, with kingfisher feathers inserted, and eagerly
+extending her arm, she took it up. "This object," she smiled, "seems to
+me to resemble very much one I've seen worn also by the young lady of
+some household or other of ours."
+
+"Senior cousin, Shih Hsiang-yuen," chimed in Pao-ch'ai, a smile playing
+on her lips, "has one, but it's a trifle smaller than this."
+
+"Is it indeed Yuen-erh who has it?" exclaimed old lady Chia.
+
+"Now that she lives in our house," remarked Pao-yue, "how is it that even
+I haven't seen anything of it?"
+
+"Cousin Pao-ch'ai," rejoined T'an Ch'un laughingly, "has the power of
+observation; no matter what she sees, she remembers."
+
+Lin Tai-yue gave a sardonic smile. "As far as other matters are
+concerned," she insinuated, "her observation isn't worth speaking of;
+where she's extra-observant is in articles people may wear about their
+persons."
+
+Pao-chai, upon catching this sneering remark, at once turned her head
+round, and pretended she had not heard. But as soon as Pao-yue learnt
+that Shih Hsiang-yuen possessed a similar trinket, he speedily picked up
+the unicorn, and hid it in his breast, indulging, at the same time, in
+further reflection. Yet, fearing lest people might have noticed that he
+kept back that particular thing the moment he discovered that Shih
+Hsiang-yuen had one identical with it, he fixed his eyes intently upon
+all around while clutching it. He found however that not one of them was
+paying any heed to his movements except Lin Tai-yue, who, while gazing at
+him was, nodding her head, as if with the idea of expressing her
+admiration. Pao-yue, therefore, at once felt inwardly ill at ease, and
+pulling out his hand, he observed, addressing himself to Tai-yue with an
+assumed smile, "This is really a fine thing to play with; I'll keep it
+for you, and when we get back home, I'll pass a ribbon through it for
+you to wear." "I don't care about it," said Lin Tai-yue, giving her head
+a sudden twist.
+
+"Well," continued Pao-yue laughingly, "if you don't like it, I can't do
+otherwise than keep it myself."
+
+Saying this, he once again thrust it away. But just as he was about to
+open his lips to make some other observation, he saw Mrs. Yu, the spouse
+of Chia Chen, arrive along with the second wife recently married by Chia
+Jung, that is, his mother and her daughter-in-law, to pay their
+obeisance to dowager lady Chia.
+
+"What do you people rush over here for again?" old lady Chia inquired.
+
+"I came here for a turn, simply because I had nothing to do."
+
+But no sooner was this inquiry concluded than they heard a messenger
+announce: "that some one had come from the house of general Feng."
+
+The family of Feng Tzu-ying had, it must be explained, come to learn the
+news that the inmates of the Chia mansion were offering a thanksgiving
+service in the temple, and, without loss of time, they got together
+presents of pigs, sheep, candles, tea and eatables and sent them over.
+The moment lady Feng heard about it she hastily crossed to the main part
+of the two-storied building. "Ai-ya;" she ejaculated, clapping her hands
+and laughing. "I never expected anything of the sort; we merely said
+that we ladies were coming for a leisurely stroll and people imagined
+that we were spreading a sumptuous altar with lenten viands and came to
+bring us offerings! But it's all our old lady's fault for bruiting it
+about! Why, we haven't even got any slips of paper with tips ready."
+
+She had just finished speaking, when she perceived two matrons, who
+acted as house-keepers in the Feng family, walk upstairs. But before the
+Feng servants could take their leave, presents likewise arrived, in
+quick succession, from Chao, the Vice-President of the Board. In due
+course, one lot of visitors followed another. For as every one got wind
+of the fact that the Chia family was having thanksgiving services, and
+that the ladies were in the temple, distant and close relatives,
+friends, old friends and acquaintances all came to present their
+contributions. So much so, that dowager lady Chia began at this juncture
+to feel sorry that she had ever let the cat out of the bag. "This is no
+regular fasting," she said, "we simply have come for a little change;
+and we should not have put any one to any inconvenience!" Although
+therefore she was to have remained present all day at the theatrical
+performance, she promptly returned home soon after noon, and the next
+day she felt very loth to go out of doors again.
+
+"By striking the wall, we've also stirred up dust," lady Feng argued.
+"Why we've already put those people to the trouble so we should only be
+too glad to-day to have another outing."
+
+But as when dowager lady Chia interviewed the Taoist Chang, the previous
+day, he made allusion to Pao-yue and canvassed his engagement, Pao-yue
+experienced, little as one would have thought it, much secret
+displeasure during the whole of that day, and on his return home he flew
+into a rage and abused Chang, the rationalistic priest, for harbouring
+designs to try and settle a match for him. At every breath and at every
+word he resolved that henceforward he would not set eyes again upon the
+Taoist Chang. But no one but himself had any idea of the reason that
+actuated him to absent himself. In the next place, Lin Tai-yue began
+also, on her return the day before, to ail from a touch of the sun, so
+their grandmother was induced by these two considerations to remain firm
+in her decision not to go. When lady Feng, however, found that she would
+not join them, she herself took charge of the family party and set out
+on the excursion.
+
+But without descending to particulars, let us advert to Pao-yue. Seeing
+that Lin Tai-yue had fallen ill, he was so full of solicitude on her
+account that he even had little thought for any of his meals, and not
+long elapsed before he came to inquire how she was.
+
+Tai-yue, on her part, gave way to fear lest anything should happen to
+him, (and she tried to re-assure him). "Just go and look at the plays,"
+she therefore replied, "what's the use of boxing yourself up at home?"
+
+Pao-yue was, however, not in a very happy frame of mind on account of the
+reference to his marriage made by Chang, the Taoist, the day before, so
+when he heard Lin Tai-yue's utterances: "If others don't understand me;"
+he mused, "it's anyhow excusable; but has she too begun to make fun of
+me?" His heart smarted in consequence under the sting of a mortification
+a hundred times keener than he had experienced up to that occasion. Had
+he been with any one else, it would have been utterly impossible for her
+to have brought into play feelings of such resentment, but as it was no
+other than Tai-yue who spoke the words, the impression produced upon him
+was indeed different from that left in days gone by, when others
+employed similar language. Unable to curb his feelings, he
+instantaneously lowered his face. "My friendship with you has been of no
+avail" he rejoined. "But, never mind, patience!"
+
+This insinuation induced Lin Tai-yue to smile a couple of sarcastic
+smiles. "Yes, your friendship with me has been of no avail," she
+repeated; "for how can I compare with those whose manifold qualities
+make them fit matches for you?"
+
+As soon as this sneer fell on Pao-yue's ear he drew near to her. "Are you
+by telling me this," he asked straight to her face, "deliberately bent
+upon invoking imprecations upon me that I should be annihilated by
+heaven and extinguished by earth?"
+
+Lin Tai-yue could not for a time fathom the import of his remarks. "It
+was," Pao-yue then resumed, "on account of this very conversation that I
+yesterday swore several oaths, and now would you really make me repeat
+another one? But were the heavens to annihilate me and the earth to
+extinguish me, what benefit would you derive?"
+
+This rejoinder reminded Tai-yue of the drift of their conversation on the
+previous day. And as indeed she had on this occasion framed in words
+those sentiments, which should not have dropped from her lips, she
+experienced both annoyance and shame, and she tremulously observed: "If
+I entertain any deliberate intention to bring any harm upon you, may I
+too be destroyed by heaven and exterminated by earth! But what's the use
+of all this! I know very well that the allusion to marriage made
+yesterday by Chang, the Taoist, fills you with dread lest he might
+interfere with your choice. You are inwardly so irate that you come and
+treat me as your malignant influence."
+
+Pao-yue, the fact is, had ever since his youth developed a peculiar kind
+of mean and silly propensity. Having moreover from tender infancy grown
+up side by side with Tai-Yue, their hearts and their feelings were in
+perfect harmony. More, he had recently come to know to a great extent
+what was what, and had also filled his head with the contents of a
+number of corrupt books and licentious stories. Of all the eminent and
+beautiful girls that he had met too in the families of either distant or
+close relatives or of friends, not one could reach the standard of Lin
+Tai-yue. Hence it was that he commenced, from an early period of his
+life, to foster sentiments of love for her; but as he could not very
+well give utterance to them, he felt time and again sometimes elated,
+sometimes vexed, and wont to exhaust every means to secretly subject her
+heart to a test.
+
+Lin Tai-yue happened, on the other hand, to possess in like manner a
+somewhat silly disposition; and she too frequently had recourse to
+feigned sentiments to feel her way. And as she began to conceal her true
+feelings and inclinations and to simply dissimulate, and he to conceal
+his true sentiments and wishes and to dissemble, the two unrealities
+thus blending together constituted eventually one reality. But it was
+hardly to be expected that trifles would not be the cause of tiffs
+between them. Thus it was that in Pao-yue's mind at this time prevailed
+the reflection: "that were others unable to read my feelings, it would
+anyhow be excusable; but is it likely that you cannot realise that in my
+heart and in my eyes there is no one else besides yourself. But as you
+were not able to do anything to dispel my annoyance, but made use,
+instead, of the language you did to laugh at me, and to gag my mouth,
+it's evident that though you hold, at every second and at every moment,
+a place in my heart, I don't, in fact, occupy a place in yours." Such
+was the construction attached to her conduct by Pao-yue, yet he did not
+have the courage to tax her with it.
+
+"If, really, I hold a place in your heart," Lin Tai-yue again reflected,
+"why do you, albeit what's said about gold and jade being a fit match,
+attach more importance to this perverse report and think nothing of what
+I say? Did you, when I so often broach the subject of this gold and
+jade, behave as if you, verily, had never heard anything about it, I
+would then have seen that you treat me with preference and that you
+don't harbour the least particle of a secret design. But how is it that
+the moment I allude to the topic of gold and jade, you at once lose all
+patience? This is proof enough that you are continuously pondering over
+that gold and jade, and that as soon as you hear me speak to you about
+them, you apprehend that I shall once more give way to conjectures, and
+intentionally pretend to be quite out of temper, with the deliberate
+idea of cajoling me!"
+
+These two cousins had, to all appearances, once been of one and the same
+mind, but the many issues, which had sprung up between them, brought
+about a contrary result and made them of two distinct minds.
+
+"I don't care what you do, everything is well," Pao-yue further argued,
+"so long as you act up to your feelings; and if you do, I shall be ever
+only too willing to even suffer immediate death for your sake. Whether
+you know this or not, doesn't matter; it's all the same. Yet were you to
+just do as my heart would have you, you'll afford me a clear proof that
+you and I are united by close ties and that you are no stranger to me!"
+
+"Just you mind your own business," Lin Tai-yue on her side cogitated. "If
+you will treat me well, I'll treat you well. And what need is there to
+put an end to yourself for my sake? Are you not aware that if you kill
+yourself, I'll also kill myself? But this demonstrates that you don't
+wish me to be near to you, and that you really want that I should be
+distant to you."
+
+It will thus be seen that the desire, by which they were both actuated,
+to strive and draw each other close and ever closer became contrariwise
+transformed into a wish to become more distant. But as it is no easy
+task to frame into words the manifold secret thoughts entertained by
+either, we will now confine ourselves to a consideration of their
+external manner.
+
+The three words "a fine match," which Pao-yue heard again Lin Tai-yue
+pronounce proved so revolting to him that his heart got full of disgust
+and he was unable to give utterance to a single syllable. Losing all
+control over his temper, he snatched from his neck the jade of Spiritual
+Perception and, clenching his teeth, he spitefully dashed it down on the
+floor. "What rubbishy trash!" he cried. "I'll smash you to atoms and put
+an end to the whole question!"
+
+The jade, however, happened to be of extraordinary hardness, and did
+not, after all, sustain the slightest injury from this single fall. When
+Pao-yue realised that it had not broken, he forthwith turned himself
+round to get the trinket with the idea of carrying out his design of
+smashing it, but Tai-yue divined his intention, and soon started crying.
+"What's the use of all this!" she demurred, "and why, pray, do you
+batter that dumb thing about? Instead of smashing it, wouldn't it be
+better for you to come and smash me!"
+
+But in the middle of their dispute, Tzu Chuean, Hsueeh Yen and the other
+maids promptly interfered and quieted them. Subsequently, however, they
+saw how deliberately bent Pao-yue was upon breaking the jade, and they
+vehemently rushed up to him to snatch it from his hands. But they failed
+in their endeavours, and perceiving that he was getting more troublesome
+than he had ever been before, they had no alternative but to go and call
+Hsi Jen. Hsi Jen lost no time in running over and succeeded, at length,
+in getting hold of the trinket.
+
+"I'm smashing what belongs to me," remarked Pao-yue with a cynical smile,
+"and what has that to do with you people?"
+
+Hsi Jen noticed that his face had grown quite sallow from anger, that
+his eyes had assumed a totally unusual expression, and that he had never
+hitherto had such a fit of ill-temper and she hastened to take his hand
+in hers and to smilingly expostulate with him. "If you've had a tiff
+with your cousin," she said, "it isn't worth while flinging this down!
+Had you broken it, how would her heart and face have been able to bear
+the mortification?"
+
+Lin Tai-yue shed tears and listened the while to her remonstrances. Yet
+these words, which so corresponded with her own feelings, made it clear
+to her that Pao-yue could not even compare with Hsi Jen and wounded her
+heart so much more to the quick that she began to weep aloud. But the
+moment she got so vexed she found it hard to keep down the potion of
+boletus and the decoction, for counter-acting the effects of the sun,
+she had taken only a few minutes back, and with a retch she brought
+everything up. Tzu Chuean immediately pressed to her side and used her
+handkerchief to stop her mouth with. But mouthful succeeded mouthful,
+and in no time the handkerchief was soaked through and through.
+
+Hsueeh Yen then approached in a hurry and tapped her on the back.
+
+"You may, of course, give way to displeasure," Tzu Chuean argued; "but
+you should, after all, take good care of yourself Miss. You had just
+taken the medicines and felt the better for them; and here you now begin
+vomitting again; and all because you've had a few words with our master
+Secundus. But should your complaint break out afresh how will Mr. Pao
+bear the blow?"
+
+The moment Pao-yue caught this advice, which accorded so thoroughly with
+his own ideas, he found how little Tai-yue could hold her own with Tzu
+Chuean. And perceiving how flushed Tai-yue's face was, how her temples
+were swollen, how, while sobbing, she panted; and how, while crying, she
+was suffused with perspiration, and betrayed signs of extreme weakness,
+he began, at the sight of her condition, to reproach himself. "I
+shouldn't," he reflected, "have bandied words with her; for now that
+she's got into this frame of mind, I mayn't even suffer in her stead!"
+
+The self-reproaches, however, which gnawed his heart made it impossible
+for him to refrain from tears, much as he fought against them. Hsi Jen
+saw them both crying, and while attending to Pao-yue, she too unavoidably
+experienced much soreness of heart. She nevertheless went on rubbing
+Pao-yue's hands, which were icy cold. She felt inclined to advise Pao-yue
+not to weep, but fearing again lest, in the first place, Pao-yue might be
+inwardly aggrieved, and nervous, in the next, lest she should not be
+dealing rightly by Tai-yue, she thought it advisable that they should all
+have a good cry, as they might then be able to leave off. She herself
+therefore also melted into tears. As for Tzu-Chuean, at one time, she
+cleaned the expectorated medicine; at another, she took up a fan and
+gently fanned Tai-yue. But at the sight of the trio plunged in perfect
+silence, and of one and all sobbing for reasons of their own, grief,
+much though she did to struggle against it, mastered her feelings too,
+and producing a handkerchief, she dried the tears that came to her eyes.
+So there stood four inmates, face to face, uttering not a word and
+indulging in weeping.
+
+Shortly, Hsi Jen made a supreme effort, and smilingly said to Pao-yue:
+"If you don't care for anything else, you should at least have shown
+some regard for those tassels, strung on the jade, and not have wrangled
+with Miss Lin."
+
+Tai-yue heard these words, and, mindless of her indisposition, she rushed
+over, and snatching the trinket, she picked up a pair of scissors, lying
+close at hand, bent upon cutting the tassels. Hsi Jen and Tzu Chuean were
+on the point of wresting it from her, but she had already managed to
+mangle them into several pieces.
+
+"I have," sobbed Tai-yue, "wasted my energies on them for nothing; for he
+doesn't prize them. He's certain to find others to string some more fine
+tassels for him."
+
+Hsi Jen promptly took the jade. "Is it worth while going on in this
+way!" she cried. "But this is all my fault for having blabbered just now
+what should have been left unsaid."
+
+"Cut it, if you like!" chimed in Pao-yue, addressing himself to Tai-yue.
+"I will on no account wear it, so it doesn't matter a rap."
+
+But while all they minded inside was to create this commotion, they
+little dreamt that the old matrons had descried Tai-yue weep bitterly and
+vomit copiously, and Pao-yue again dash his jade on the ground, and that
+not knowing how far the excitement might not go, and whether they
+themselves might not become involved, they had repaired in a body to the
+front, and reported the occurrence to dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang,
+their object being to try and avoid being themselves implicated in the
+matter. Their old mistress and Madame Wang, seeing them make so much of
+the occurrence as to rush with precipitate haste to bring it to their
+notice, could not in the least imagine what great disaster might not
+have befallen them, and without loss of time they betook themselves
+together into the garden and came to see what the two cousins were up
+to.
+
+Hsi Jen felt irritated and harboured resentment against Tzu Chuean,
+unable to conceive what business she had to go and disturb their old
+mistress and Madame Wang. But Tzu Chuean, on the other hand, presumed
+that it was Hsi Jen, who had gone and reported the matter to them, and
+she too cherished angry feelings towards Hsi Jen.
+
+Dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang walked into the apartment. They found
+Pao-yue on one side saying not a word. Lin Tai-yue on the other uttering
+not a sound. "What's up again?" they asked. But throwing the whole blame
+upon the shoulders of Hsi Jen and Tzu Chuean, "why is it," they inquired,
+"that you were not diligent in your attendance on them. They now start a
+quarrel, and don't you exert yourselves in the least to restrain them?"
+
+Therefore with obloquy and hard words they rated the two girls for a
+time in such a way that neither of them could put in a word by way of
+reply, but felt compelled to listen patiently. And it was only after
+dowager lady Chia had taken Pao-yue away with her that things quieted
+down again.
+
+One day passed. Then came the third of the moon. This was Hsueeh Pan's
+birthday, so in their house a banquet was spread and preparations made
+for a performance; and to these the various inmates of the Chia mansion
+went. But as Pao-yue had so hurt Tai-yue's feelings, the two cousins saw
+nothing whatever of each other, and conscience-stricken, despondent and
+unhappy, as he was at this time could he have had any inclination to be
+present at the plays? Hence it was that he refused to go on the pretext
+of indisposition.
+
+Lin Tai-yue had got, a couple of days back, but a slight touch of the sun
+and naturally there was nothing much the matter with her. When the news
+however reached her that he did not intend to join the party, "If with
+his weakness for wine and for theatricals," she pondered within herself,
+"he now chooses to stay away, instead of going, why, that quarrel with
+me yesterday must be at the bottom of it all. If this isn't the reason,
+well then it must be that he has no wish to attend, as he sees that I'm
+not going either. But I should on no account have cut the tassels from
+that jade, for I feel sure he won't wear it again. I shall therefore
+have to string some more on to it, before he puts it on."
+
+On this account the keenest remorse gnawed her heart.
+
+Dowager lady Chia saw well enough that they were both under the
+influence of temper. "We should avail ourselves of this occasion," she
+said to herself, "to go over and look at the plays, and as soon as the
+two young people come face to face, everything will be squared."
+Contrary to her expectations neither of them would volunteer to go. This
+so exasperated their old grandmother that she felt vexed with them. "In
+what part of my previous existence could an old sufferer like myself,"
+she exclaimed, "have incurred such retribution that my destiny is to
+come across these two troublesome new-fledged foes! Why, not a single
+day goes by without their being instrumental in worrying my mind! The
+proverb is indeed correct which says: 'that people who are not enemies
+are not brought together!' But shortly my eyes shall be closed, this
+breath of mine shall be snapped, and those two enemies will be free to
+cause trouble even up to the very skies; for as my eyes will then loose
+their power of vision, and my heart will be void of concern, it will
+really be nothing to me. But I couldn't very well stifle this breath of
+life of mine!"
+
+While inwardly a prey to resentment, she also melted into tears.
+
+These words were brought to the ears of Pao-yue and Tai-yue. Neither of
+them had hitherto heard the adage: "people who are not enemies are not
+brought together," so when they suddenly got to know the line, it seemed
+as if they had apprehended abstraction. Both lowered their heads and
+meditated on the subtle sense of the saying. But unconsciously a stream
+of tears rolled down their cheeks. They could not, it is true, get a
+glimpse of each other; yet as the one was in the Hsiao Hsiang lodge,
+standing in the breeze, bedewed with tears, and the other in the I Hung
+court, facing the moon and heaving deep sighs, was it not, in fact, a
+case of two persons living in two distinct places, yet with feelings
+emanating from one and the same heart?
+
+Hsi Jen consequently tendered advice to Pao-yue. "You're a million times
+to blame," she said, "it's you who are entirely at fault! For when some
+time ago the pages in the establishment, wrangled with their sisters, or
+when husband and wife fell out, and you came to hear anything about it,
+you blew up the lads, and called them fools for not having the heart to
+show some regard to girls; and now here you go and follow their lead.
+But to-morrow is the fifth day of the moon, a great festival, and will
+you two still continue like this, as if you were very enemies? If so,
+our venerable mistress will be the more angry, and she certainly will be
+driven sick! I advise you therefore to do what's right by suppressing
+your spite and confessing your fault, so that we should all be on the
+same terms as hitherto. You here will then be all right, and so will she
+over there."
+
+Pao-yue listened to what she had to say; but whether he fell in with her
+views or not is not yet ascertained; yet if you, reader, choose to know,
+we will explain in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+ Pao-ch'ai avails herself of the excuse afforded her by a fan to
+ administer a couple of raps.
+ While Ch'un Ling traces, in a absent frame of mind, the outlines of
+ the character Ch'iang, a looker-on appears on the scene.
+
+
+Lin Tai-yue herself, for we will now resume our narrative, was also, ever
+since her tiff with Pao-yue, full of self-condemnation, yet as she did
+not see why she should run after him, she continued, day and night, as
+despondent as she would have been had she lost some thing or other
+belonging to her.
+
+Tzu Chuean surmised her sentiments. "As regards what happened the other
+day," she advised her, "you were, after all, Miss, a little too hasty;
+for if others don't understand that temperament of Pao-yue's, have you
+and I, surely, also no idea about it? Besides, haven't there been
+already one or two rows on account of that very jade?"
+
+"Ts'ui!" exclaimed Tai-yue. "Have you come, on behalf of others, to find
+fault with me? But how ever was I hasty?"
+
+"Why did you," smiled Tzu Chuean, "take the scissors and cut that tassel
+when there was no good reason for it? So isn't Pao-yue less to blame than
+yourself, Miss? I've always found his behaviour towards you, Miss,
+without a fault. It's all that touchy disposition of yours, which makes
+you so often perverse, that induces him to act as he does."
+
+Lin Tai-yue had every wish to make some suitable reply, when she heard
+some one calling at the door. Tzu Chuean discerned the tone of voice.
+"This sounds like Pao-yue's voice," she smiled. "I expect he's come to
+make his apologies."
+
+"I won't have any one open the door," Tai-yue cried at these words.
+
+"Here you are in the wrong again, Miss," Tzu Chuean observed. "How will
+it ever do to let him get a sunstroke and come to some harm on a day
+like this, and under such a scorching sun?"
+
+Saying this, she speedily walked out and opened the door. It was indeed
+Pao-yue. While ushering him in, she gave him a smile. "I imagined," she
+said, "that you would never again put your foot inside our door, Master
+Secundus. But here you are once more and quite unexpectedly!"
+
+"You have by dint of talking," Pao-yue laughed, "made much ado of
+nothing; and why shouldn't I come, when there's no reason for me to keep
+away? Were I even to die, my spirit too will come a hundred times a day!
+But is cousin quite well?"
+
+"She is," replied Tzu Chuean, "physically all right; but, mentally, her
+resentment is not quite over."
+
+"I understand," continued Pao-yue with a smile. "But resentment, for
+what?"
+
+With this inquiry, he wended his steps inside the apartment. He then
+caught sight of Lin Tai-yue reclining on the bed in the act of crying.
+Tai-yue had not in fact shed a tear, but hearing Pao-yue break in upon
+her, she could not help feeling upset. She found it impossible therefore
+to prevent her tears from rolling down her cheeks.
+
+Pao-yue assumed a smiling expression and drew near the bed. "Cousin, are
+you quite well again?" he inquired.
+
+Tai-yue simply went on drying her tears, and made no reply of any kind.
+
+Pao-yue approached the bed, and sat on the edge of it. "I know," he
+smiled, "that you're not vexed with me. But had I not come, third
+parties would have been allowed to notice my absence, and it would have
+appeared to them as if we had had another quarrel. And had I to wait
+until they came to reconcile us, would we not by that time become
+perfect strangers? It would be better, supposing you wish to beat me or
+blow me up, that you should please yourself and do so now; but whatever
+you do, don't give me the cold shoulder!"
+
+Continuing, he proceeded to call her "my dear cousin" for several tens
+of times.
+
+Tai-yue had resolved not to pay any more heed to Pao-yue. When she,
+however, now heard Pao-yue urge: "don't let us allow others to know
+anything about our having had a quarrel, as it will look as if we had
+become thorough strangers," it once more became evident to her, from
+this single remark, that she was really dearer and nearer to him than
+any of the other girls, so she could not refrain from saying sobbingly:
+"You needn't have come to chaff me! I couldn't presume henceforward to
+be on friendly terms with you, Master Secundus! You should treat me as
+if I were gone!"
+
+At these words, Pao-yue gave way to laughter. "Where are you off to?" he
+inquired.
+
+"I'm going back home," answered Tai-yue.
+
+"I'll go along with you then," smiled Pao-yue.
+
+"But if I die?" asked Tai-yue.
+
+"Well, if you die," rejoined Pao-yue, "I'll become a bonze."
+
+The moment Tai-yue caught this reply, she hung down her head. "You must,
+I presume, be bent upon dying?" she cried. "But what stuff and nonsense
+is this you're talking? You've got so many beloved elder and younger
+cousins in your family, and how many bodies will you have to go and
+become bonzes, when by and bye they all pass away! But to-morrow I'll
+tell them about this to judge for themselves what your motives are!"
+
+Pao-yue was himself aware of the fact that this rejoinder had been
+recklessly spoken, and he was seized with regret. His face immediately
+became suffused with blushes. He lowered his head and had not the
+courage to utter one word more. Fortunately, however, there was no one
+present in the room.
+
+Tai-yue stared at him for ever so long with eyes fixed straight on him,
+but losing control over her temper, "Ai!" she shouted, "can't you
+speak?" Then when she perceived Pao-yue reduced to such straits as to
+turn purple, she clenched her teeth and spitefully gave him, on the
+forehead, a fillip with her finger. "Heug!" she cried gnashing her
+teeth, "you, this......" But just as she had pronounced these two words,
+she heaved another sigh, and picking up her handkerchief, she wiped her
+tears.
+
+Pao-yue treasured at one time numberless tender things in his mind, which
+he meant to tell her, but feeling also, while he smarted under the sting
+of self-reproach (for the indiscretion he had committed), Tai-yue give
+him a rap, he was utterly powerless to open his lips, much though he may
+have liked to speak, so he kept on sighing and snivelling to himself.
+With all these things therefore to work upon his feelings, he
+unwillingly melted into tears. He tried to find his handkerchief to dry
+his face with, but unexpectedly discovering that he had again forgotten
+to bring one with him, he was about to make his coat-sleeve answer the
+purpose, when Tai-yue, albeit her eyes were watery, noticed at a glance
+that he was going to use the brand-new coat of grey coloured gauze he
+wore, and while wiping her own, she turned herself round, and seized a
+silk kerchief thrown over the pillow, and thrust it into Pao-yue's lap.
+But without saying a word, she screened her face and continued sobbing.
+
+Pao-yue saw the handkerchief she threw, and hastily snatching it, he
+wiped his tears. Then drawing nearer to her, he put out his hand and
+clasped her hand in his, and smilingly said to her: "You've completely
+lacerated my heart, and do you still cry? But let's go; I'll come along
+with you and see our venerable grandmother."
+
+Tai-yue thrust his hand aside. "Who wants to go hand in hand with you?"
+she cried. "Here we grow older day after day, but we're still so full of
+brazen-faced effrontery that we don't even know what right means?"
+
+But scarcely had she concluded before she heard a voice say aloud:
+"They're all right!"
+
+Pao-yue and Tai-yue were little prepared for this surprise, and they were
+startled out of their senses. Turning round to see who it was, they
+caught sight of lady Feng running in, laughing and shouting. "Our old
+lady," she said, "is over there, giving way to anger against heaven and
+earth. She would insist upon my coming to find out whether you were
+reconciled or not. 'There's no need for me to go and see,' I told her,
+'they will before the expiry of three days, be friends again of their
+own accord.' Our venerable ancestor, however, called me to account, and
+maintained that I was lazy; so here I come! But my words have in very
+deed turned out true. I don't see why you two should always be
+wrangling! For three days you're on good terms and for two on bad. You
+become more and more like children. And here you are now hand in hand
+blubbering! But why did you again yesterday become like black-eyed
+fighting cocks? Don't you yet come with me to see your grandmother and
+make an old lady like her set her mind at ease a bit?"
+
+While reproaching them, she clutched Tai-yue's hand and was trudging
+away, when Tai-yue turned her head round and called out for her
+servant-girls. But not one of them was in attendance.
+
+"What do you want them for again?" lady Feng asked. "I am here to wait
+on you!"
+
+Still speaking, she pulled her along on their way, with Pao-yue following
+in their footsteps. Then making their exit out of the garden gate, they
+entered dowager lady Chia's suite of rooms. "I said that it was
+superfluous for any one to trouble," lady Feng smiled, "as they were
+sure of themselves to become reconciled; but you, dear ancestor, so
+little believed it that you insisted upon my going to act the part of
+mediator. Yet when I got there, with the intention of inducing them to
+make it up, I found them, though one did not expect it, in each other's
+company, confessing their faults, and laughing and chatting. Just like a
+yellow eagle clutching the feet of a kite were those two hanging on to
+each other. So where was the necessity for any one to go?"
+
+These words evoked laughter from every one in the room. Pao-ch'ai,
+however, was present at the time so Lin Tai-yue did not retort, but went
+and ensconced herself in a seat near her grandmother.
+
+When Pao-yue noticed that no one had anything to say, he smilingly
+addressed himself to Pao-ch'ai. "On cousin Hsueeh P'an's birth-day," he
+remarked, "I happened again to be unwell, so not only did I not send him
+any presents, but I failed to go and knock my head before him. Yet
+cousin knows nothing about my having been ill, and it will seem to him
+that I had no wish to go, and that I brought forward excuses so as to
+avoid paying him a visit. If to-morrow you find any leisure, cousin, do
+therefore explain matters for me to him."
+
+"This is too much punctiliousness!" smiled Pao-ch'ai. "Even had you
+insisted upon going, we wouldn't have been so arrogant as to let you put
+yourself to the trouble, and how much less when you were not feeling
+well? You two are cousins and are always to be found together the whole
+day; if you encourage such ideas, some estrangement will, after all,
+arise between you."
+
+"Cousin," continued Pao-yue smilingly, "you know what to say; and so long
+as you're lenient with me all will be all right. But how is it," he went
+on to ask, "that you haven't gone over to see the theatricals?"
+
+"I couldn't stand the heat" rejoined Pao-ch'ai. "I looked on while two
+plays were being sung, but I found it so intensely hot, that I felt
+anxious to retire. But the visitors not having dispersed, I had to give
+as an excuse that I wasn't feeling up to the mark, and so came away at
+once."
+
+Pao-yue, at these words, could not but feel ill at ease. All he could do
+was to feign another smile. "It's no wonder," he observed, "that they
+compare you, cousin, to Yang Kuei-fei; for she too was fat and afraid of
+hot weather."
+
+Hearing this, Pao-ch'ai involuntarily flew into a violent rage. Yet when
+about to call him to task, she found that it would not be nice for her
+to do so. After some reflection, the colour rushed to her cheeks.
+Smiling ironically twice, "I may resemble," she said, "Yang Kuei-fei,
+but there's not one of you young men, whether senior or junior, good
+enough to play the part of Yang Kuo-chung."
+
+While they were bandying words, a servant-girl Ch'ing Erh, lost sight of
+her fan and laughingly remarked to Pao-ch'ai: "It must be you, Miss Pao,
+who have put my fan away somewhere or other; dear mistress, do let me
+have it!"
+
+"You'd better be mindful!" rejoined Pao-ch'ai, shaking her finger at
+her. "With whom have I ever been up to jokes, that you come and suspect
+me? Have I hitherto laughed and smirked with you? There's that whole lot
+of girls, go and ask them about it!"
+
+At this suggestion, Ch'ing Erh made her escape.
+
+The consciousness then burst upon Pao-yue, that he had again been
+inconsiderate in his speech, in the presence of so many persons, and he
+was overcome by a greater sense of shame than when, a short while back,
+he had been speaking with Lin Tai-yue. Precipitately turning himself
+round, he went, therefore, and talked to the others as well.
+
+The sight of Pao-yue poking fun at Pao-ch'ai gratified Tai-yue immensely.
+She was just about to put in her word and also seize the opportunity of
+chaffing her, but as Ch'ing Erh unawares asked for her fan and Pao-ch'ai
+added a few more remarks, she at once changed her purpose. "Cousin
+Pao-ch'ai," she inquired, "what two plays did you hear?"
+
+Pao-ch'ai caught the expression of gratification in Tai-yue's
+countenance, and concluded that she had for a certainty heard the
+raillery recently indulged in by Pao-yue and that it had fallen in with
+her own wishes; and hearing her also suddenly ask the question she did,
+she answered with a significant laugh: "What I saw was: 'Li Kuei blows
+up Sung Chiang and subsequently again tenders his apologies'."
+
+Pao-yue smiled. "How is it," he said, "that with such wide knowledge of
+things new as well as old; and such general information as you possess,
+you aren't even up to the name of a play, and that you've come out with
+such a whole string of words. Why, the real name of the play is:
+'Carrying a birch and begging for punishment'".
+
+"Is it truly called: 'Carrying a birch and begging for punishment'"?
+Pao-ch'ai asked with laugh. "But you people know all things new and old
+so are able to understand the import of 'carrying a birch and begging
+for punishment.' As for me I've no idea whatever what 'carrying a birch
+and begging for punishment' implies."
+
+One sentence was scarcely ended when Pao-yue and Tai-yue felt guilty in
+their consciences; and by the time they heard all she said, they were
+quite flushed from shame. Lady Feng did not, it is true, fathom the gist
+of what had been said, but at the sight of the expression betrayed on
+the faces of the three cousins, she readily got an inkling of it. "On
+this broiling hot day," she inquired laughing also; "who still eats raw
+ginger?"
+
+None of the party could make out the import of her insinuation. "There's
+no one eating raw ginger," they said.
+
+Lady Feng intentionally then brought her hands to her cheeks, and
+rubbing them, she remarked with an air of utter astonishment, "Since
+there's no one eating raw ginger, how is it that you are all so fiery in
+the face?"
+
+Hearing this, Pao-yue and Tai-yue waxed more uncomfortable than ever. So
+much so, that Pao-ch'ai, who meant to continue the conversation, did not
+think it nice to say anything more when she saw how utterly abashed
+Pao-yue was and how changed his manner. Her only course was therefore to
+smile and hold her peace. And as the rest of the inmates had not the
+faintest notion of the drift of the remarks exchanged between the four
+of them, they consequently followed her lead and put on a smile.
+
+In a short while, however, Pao-ch'ai and lady Feng took their leave.
+
+"You've also tried your strength with them," Tai-yue said to Pao-yue
+laughingly. "But they're far worse than I. Is every one as simple in
+mind and dull of tongue as I am as to allow people to say whatever they
+like."
+
+Pao-yue was inwardly giving way to that unhappiness, which had been
+occasioned by Pao-ch'ai's touchiness, so when he also saw Tai-yue
+approach him and taunt him, displeasure keener than ever was aroused in
+him. A desire then asserted itself to speak out his mind to her, but
+dreading lest Tai-yue should he in one of her sensitive moods, he,
+needless to say, stifled his anger and straightway left the apartment in
+a state of mental depression.
+
+It happened to be the season of the greatest heat. Breakfast time too
+was already past, and masters as well as servants were, for the most
+part, under the influence of the lassitude felt on lengthy days. As
+Pao-yue therefore strolled, from place to place, his hands behind his
+back he heard not so much as the caw of a crow. Issuing out of his
+grandmother's compound on the near side, he wended his steps westwards,
+and crossed the passage, on which lady Feng's quarters gave. As soon as
+he reached the entrance of her court, he perceived the door ajar. But
+aware of lady Feng's habit of taking, during the hot weather, a couple
+of hours' siesta at noon, he did not feel it a convenient moment to
+intrude. Walking accordingly through the corner door, he stepped into
+Madame Wang's apartment. Here he discovered several waiting-maids,
+dosing with their needlework clasped in their hands. Madame Wang was
+asleep on the cool couch in the inner rooms. Chin Ch'uan-erh was sitting
+next to her massaging her legs. But she too was quite drowsy, and her
+eyes wore all awry. Pao-yue drew up to her with gentle tread. The moment,
+however, that he unfastened the pendants from the earrings she wore,
+Chin Ch'uan opened her eyes, and realised that it was no one than
+Pao-yue.
+
+"Are you feeling so worn out!" he smilingly remarked in a low tone of
+voice.
+
+Chin Ch'uan pursed up her lips and gave him a smile. Then waving her
+hand so as to bid him quit the room, she again closed her eyes.
+
+Pao-yue, at the sight of her, felt considerable affection for her and
+unable to tear himself away, so quietly stretching his head forward, and
+noticing that Madame Wang's eyes were shut, he extracted from a purse,
+suspended about his person, one of the 'scented-snow-for-moistening-mouth
+pills,' with which it was full, and placed it on Chin Ch'uan-erh's lips.
+Chin Ch'uan-erh, however, did not open her eyes, but simply held (the
+pill) in her mouth. Pao-yue then approached her and took her hand in his.
+"I'll ask you of your mistress," he gently observed smiling, "and you and
+I will live together."
+
+To this Chin Ch'uan-erh said not a word.
+
+"If that won't do," Pao-yue continued, "I'll wait for your mistress to
+wake and appeal to her at once."
+
+Chin Ch'uan-erh distended her eyes wide, and pushed Pao-yue off. "What's
+the hurry?" she laughed. "'A gold hair-pin may fall into the well; but
+if it's yours it will remain yours only.' Is it possible that you don't
+even see the spirit of this proverb? But I'll tell you a smart thing.
+Just you go into the small court, on the east side, and you'll find for
+yourself what Mr. Chia Huau and Ts'ai Yun are up to!"
+
+"Let them be up to whatever they like," smiled Pao-yue, "I shall simply
+stick to your side!"
+
+But he then saw Madame Wang twist herself round, get up, and give a slap
+to Chin Ch'uan-erh on her mouth. "You mean wench!" she exclaimed,
+abusing her, while she pointed her finger at her, "it's you, and the
+like of you, who corrupt these fine young fellows with all the nice
+things you teach them!"
+
+The moment Pao-yue perceived Madame Wang rise, he bolted like a streak of
+smoke. Chin Ch'uan-erh, meanwhile, felt half of her face as hot as fire,
+yet she did not dare utter one word of complaint. The various
+waiting-maids soon came to hear that Madame Wang had awoke and they
+rushed in in a body.
+
+"Go and tell your mother," Madame Wang thereupon said to Yue Ch'uan-erh,
+"to fetch your elder sister away."
+
+Chin Ch'uan-erh, at these words, speedily fell on her knees. With tears
+in her eyes: "I won't venture to do it again," she pleaded. "If you,
+Madame, wish to flog me, or to scold me do so at once, and as much as
+you like but don't send me away. You will thus accomplish an act of
+heavenly grace! I've been in attendance on your ladyship for about ten
+years, and if you now drive me away, will I be able to look at any one
+in the face?"
+
+Though Madame Wang was a generous, tender-hearted person, and had at no
+time raised her hand to give a single blow to any servant-girl, she,
+however, when she accidentally discovered Chin Ch'uan-erh behave on this
+occasion in this barefaced manner, a manner which had all her lifetime
+been most reprehensible to her, was so overcome by passion that she gave
+Chin Ch'uan-erh just one slap and spoke to her a few sharp words. And
+albeit Chin Ch'uan-erh indulged in solicitous entreaties, she would not
+on any account keep her in her service. At length, Chin Ch'uan-erh's
+mother, Dame Pao, was sent for to take her away. Chin Ch'uan-erh
+therefore had to conceal her disgrace, suppress her resentment, and quit
+the mansion.
+
+But without any further reference to her, we will now take up our story
+with Pao-yue. As soon as he saw Madame Wang awake, his spirits were
+crushed. All alone he hastily made his way into the Ta Kuan garden. Here
+his attention was attracted by the ruddy sun, shining in the zenith, the
+shade of the trees extending far and wide, the song of the cicadas,
+filling the ear; and by a perfect stillness, not even broken by the echo
+of a human voice. But the instant he got near the trellis, with the
+cinnamon roses, the sound of sobs fell on his ear. Doubts and surmises
+crept into Pao-yue's mind, so halting at once, he listened with
+intentness. Then actually he discerned some one on the off-side of the
+trellis. This was the fifth moon, the season when the flowers and
+foliage of the cinnamon roses were in full bloom. Furtively peeping
+through an aperture in the fence, Pao-yue saw a young girl squatting
+under the flowers and digging the ground with a hair-pin she held in her
+hand. As she dug, she silently gave way to tears.
+
+"Can it be possible," mused Pao-yue, "that this girl too is stupid? Can
+she also be following P'in Erh's example and come to inter flowers? Why
+if she's likewise really burying flowers," he afterwards went on to
+smilingly reflect, "this can aptly be termed: 'Tung Shih tries to
+imitate a frown.' But not only is what she does not original, but it is
+despicable to boot. You needn't," he meant to shout out to the girl, at
+the conclusion of this train of thought, "try and copy Miss Lin's
+example." But before the words had issued from his mouth, he luckily
+scrutinised her a second time, and found that the girl's features were
+quite unfamiliar to him, that she was no menial, and that she looked
+like one of the twelve singing maids, who were getting up the plays. He
+could not, however, make out what _roles_ she filled: scholars,
+girls, old men, women, or buffoons. Pao-yue quickly put out his tongue
+and stopped his mouth with his hand. "How fortunate," he inwardly
+soliloquised, "that I didn't make any reckless remark! It was all
+because of my inconsiderate talk on the last two occasions, that P'in
+Erh got angry with me, and that Pao-ch'ai felt hurt. And had I now given
+them offence also, I would have been in a still more awkward fix!"
+
+While wrapt in these thoughts, he felt much annoyance at not being able
+to recognise who she was. But on further minute inspection, he noticed
+that this maiden, with contracted eyebrows, as beautiful as the hills in
+spring, frowning eyes as clear as the streams in autumn, a face, with
+transparent skin, and a slim waist, was elegant and beautiful and almost
+the very image of Lin Tai-yue. Pao-yue could not, from the very first,
+make up his mind to wrench himself away. But as he stood gazing at her
+in a doltish mood, he realised that, although she was tracing on the
+ground with the gold hair-pin, she was not digging a hole to bury
+flowers in, but was merely delineating characters on the surface of the
+soil. Pao-yue's eyes followed the hair-pin from first to last, as it went
+up and as it came down. He watched each dash, each dot and each hook. He
+counted the strokes. They numbered eighteen. He himself then set to work
+and sketched with his finger on the palm of his hand, the lines, in
+their various directions, and in the order they had been traced a few
+minutes back, so as to endeavour to guess what the character was. On
+completing the sketch, he discovered, the moment he came to reflect,
+that it was the character "Ch'iang," in the combination, 'Ch'iang Wei,'
+representing cinnamon roses.
+
+"She too," pondered Pao-yue, "must have been bent upon writing verses, or
+supplying some line or other, and at the sight now of the flowers, the
+idea must have suggested itself to her mind. Or it may very likely be
+that having spontaneously devised a couplet, she got suddenly elated and
+began, for fear it should slip from her memory, to trace it on the
+ground so as to tone the rhythm. Yet there's no saying. Let me see,
+however, what she's going to write next."
+
+While cogitating, he looked once more. Lo, the girl was still tracing.
+But tracing up or tracing down, it was ever the character "Ch'iang."
+When he gazed again, it was still the self-same Ch'iang.
+
+The one inside the fence fell, in fact, from an early stage, into a
+foolish mood, and no sooner was one 'Ch'iang,' finished than she started
+with another; so that she had already written several tens of them. The
+one outside gazed and gazed, until he unwittingly also got into the same
+foolish mood. Intent with his eyes upon following the movements of the
+pin, in his mind, he communed thus with his own thoughts: "This girl
+must, for a certainty, have something to say, or some unspeakable
+momentous secret that she goes on like this. But if outwardly she
+behaves in this wise, who knows what anguish she mayn't suffer at heart?
+And yet, with a frame to all appearances so very delicate, how could she
+ever resist much inward anxiety! Woe is me that I'm unable to transfer
+some part of her burden on to my own shoulders!"
+
+In midsummer, cloudy and bright weather are uncertain. A few specks of
+clouds suffice to bring about rain. Of a sudden, a cold blast swept by,
+and tossed about by the wind fell a shower of rain. Pao-yue perceived
+that the water trickling down the girl's head saturated her gauze attire
+in no time. "It's pouring," Pao-yue debated within himself, "and how can
+a frame like hers resist the brunt of such a squall." Unable therefore
+to restrain himself, he vehemently shouted: "Leave off writing! See,
+it's pouring; you're wet through!"
+
+The girl caught these words, and was frightened out of her wits. Raising
+her head, she at once descried some one or other standing beyond the
+flowers and calling out to her: "Leave off writing. It's pouring!" But
+as Pao-yue was, firstly, of handsome appearance, and as secondly the
+luxuriant abundance of flowers and foliage screened with their boughs,
+thick-laden with leaves, the upper and lower part of his person, just
+leaving half of his countenance exposed to view, the maiden simply
+jumped at the conclusion that he must be a servant girl, and never for a
+moment dreamt that it might be Pao-yue. "Many thanks, sister, for
+recalling me to my senses," she consequently smiled. "Yet is there
+forsooth anything outside there to protect you from the rain?"
+
+This single remark proved sufficient to recall Pao-yue to himself. With
+an exclamation of "Ai-yah," he at length became conscious that his whole
+body was cold as ice. Then drooping his head, he realised that his own
+person too was drenched. "This will never do," he cried, and with one
+breath he had to run back into the I Hung court. His mind, however,
+continued much exercised about the girl as she had nothing to shelter
+her from the rain.
+
+As the next day was the dragon-boat festival, Wen Kuan and the other
+singing girls, twelve in all, were given a holiday, so they came into
+the garden and amused themselves by roaming everywhere and anywhere. As
+luck would have it, the two girls Pao-Kuan, who filled the _role_
+of young men and Yue Kuan, who represented young women, were in the I
+Hung court enjoying themselves with Hsi Jen, when rain set in and they
+were prevented from going back, so in a body they stopped up the drain
+to allow the water to accumulate in the yard. Then catching those that
+could be caught, and driving those that had to be driven, they laid hold
+of a few of the green-headed ducks, variegated marsh-birds and coloured
+mandarin-ducks, and tying their wings they let them loose in the court
+to disport themselves. Closing the court Hsi Jen and her playmates stood
+together under the verandah and enjoyed the fun. Pao-yue therefore found
+the entrance shut. He gave a rap at the door. But as every one inside
+was bent upon laughing, they naturally did not catch the sound; and it
+was only after he had called and called, and made a noise by thumping at
+the door, that they at last heard. Imagining, however, that Pao-yue could
+not be coming back at that hour, Hsi Jen shouted laughing: "who's it now
+knocking at the door? There's no one to go and open."
+
+"It's I," rejoined Pao-yue.
+
+"It's Miss Pao-ch'ai's tone of voice," added She Yueeh.
+
+"Nonsense!" cried Ch'ing Wen. "What would Miss Pao-ch'ai come over to do
+at such an hour?"
+
+"Let me go," chimed in Hsi Jen, "and see through the fissure in the
+door, and if we can open, we'll open; for we mustn't let her go back,
+wet through."
+
+With these words, she came along the passage to the doorway. On looking
+out, she espied Pao-yue dripping like a chicken drenched with rain.
+
+Seeing him in this plight, Hsi Jen felt solicitous as well as amused.
+With alacrity, she flung the door wide open, laughing so heartily that
+she was doubled in two. "How could I ever have known," she said,
+clapping her hands, "that you had returned, Sir! Yet how is it that
+you've run back in this heavy rain?"
+
+Pao-yue had, however, been feeling in no happy frame of mind. He had
+fully resolved within himself to administer a few kicks to the person,
+who came to open the door, so as soon as it was unbarred, he did not try
+to make sure who it was, but under the presumption that it was one of
+the servant-girls, he raised his leg and give her a kick on the side.
+
+"Ai-yah!" ejaculated Hsi Jen.
+
+Pao-yue nevertheless went on to abuse. "You mean things!" he shouted.
+"It's because I've always treated you so considerately that you don't
+respect me in the least! And you now go to the length of making a
+laughing-stock of me!"
+
+As he spoke, he lowered his head. Then catching sight of Hsi Jen, in
+tears, he realised that he had kicked the wrong person. "Hallo!" he
+said, promptly smiling, "is it you who've come? Where did I kick you?"
+
+Hsi Jen had never, previous to this, received even a harsh word from
+him. When therefore she on this occasion unexpectedly saw Pao-yue gave
+her a kick in a fit of anger and, what made it worse, in the presence of
+so many people, shame, resentment, and bodily pain overpowered her and
+she did not, in fact, for a time know where to go and hide herself. She
+was then about to give rein to her displeasure, but the reflection that
+Pao-yue could not have kicked her intentionally obliged her to suppress
+her indignation. "Instead of kicking," she remarked, "don't you yet go
+and change your clothes?"
+
+Pao-yue walked into the room. As he did so, he smiled. "Up to the age
+I've reached," he observed, "this is the first instance on which I've
+ever so thoroughly lost control over my temper as to strike any one;
+and, contrary to all my thoughts, it's you that happened to come in my
+way?"
+
+Hsi Jen, while patiently enduring the pain, effected the necessary
+change in his attire. "I've been here from the very first," she
+simultaneously added, smilingly, "so in all things, whether large or
+small, good or bad, it has naturally fallen to my share to bear the
+brunt. But not to say another word about your assault on me, why,
+to-morrow you'll indulge your hand and star-beating others!"
+
+"I did not strike you intentionally just now," retorted Pao-yue.
+
+"Who ever said," rejoined Hsi Jen, "that you did it intentionally! It
+has ever been the duty of that tribe of servant-girls to open and shut
+the doors, yet they've got into the way of being obstinate, and have
+long ago become such an abomination that people's teeth itch to revenge
+themselves on them. They don't know, besides, what fear means. So had
+you first assured yourself that it was they and given them a kick, a
+little intimidating would have done them good. But I'm at the bottom of
+the mischief that happened just now, for not calling those, upon whom it
+devolves, to come and open for you."
+
+During the course of their conversation, the rain ceased, and Pao Kuan
+and Yue Kuan had been able to take their leave. Hsi Jen, however,
+experienced such intense pain in her side, and felt such inward
+vexation, that at supper she could not put a morsel of anything in her
+mouth. When in the evening, the time came for her to have her bath, she
+discovered, on divesting herself of her clothes, a bluish bruise on her
+side of the size of a saucer and she was very much frightened. But as
+she could not very well say anything about it to any one, she presently
+retired to rest. But twitches of pain made her involuntarily moan in her
+dreams and groan in her sleep.
+
+Pao-yue did, it is true, not hurt her with any malice, but when he saw
+Hsi Jen so listless and restless, and suddenly heard her groan in the
+course of the night, he realised how severely he must have kicked her.
+So getting out of bed, he gently seized the lantern and came over to
+look at her. But as soon as he reached the side of her bed, he perceived
+Hsi Jen expectorate, with a retch, a whole mouthful of phlegm. "Oh me!"
+she gasped, as she opened her eyes. The presence of Pao-yue startled her
+out of her wits. "What are you up to?" she asked.
+
+"You groaned in your dreams," answered Pao-yue, "so I must have kicked
+you hard. Do let me see!"
+
+"My head feels giddy," said Hsi Jen. "My throat foul and sweet; throw
+the light on the floor!"
+
+At these words, Pao-yue actually raised the lantern. The moment he cast
+the light below, he discerned a quantity of fresh blood on the floor.
+
+Pao-yue was seized with consternation. "Dreadful!" was all he could say.
+At the sight of the blood, Hsi Jen's heart too partly waxed cold.
+
+But, reader, the next chapter will reveal the sequel, if you really have
+any wish to know more about them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+ Pao-yue allows the girl Ch'ing Wen to tear his fan so as to afford her
+ amusement.
+ A wedding proves to be the result of the descent of a unicorn.
+
+
+But to proceed. When she saw on the floor the blood, she had brought up,
+Hsi Jen immediately grew partly cold. What she had often heard people
+mention in past days 'that the lives of young people, who expectorate
+blood, are uncertain, and that although they may live long, they are,
+after all, mere wrecks,' flashed through her mind. The remembrance of
+this saying at once completely scattered to the winds the wish, she had
+all along cherished, of striving for honour and of being able to boast
+of glory; and from her eyes unwittingly ran down streams of tears.
+
+When Pao-yue saw her crying, his heart was seized with anguish. "What's
+it that preys on your mind?" he consequently asked her.
+
+Hsi Jen strained every nerve to smile. "There's no rhyme or reason for
+anything," she replied, "so what can it be?"
+
+Pao-yue's intention was to there and then give orders to the servant to
+warm some white wine and to ask them for a few 'Li-T'ung' pills
+compounded with goat's blood, but Hsi Jen clasped his hand tight. "My
+troubling you is of no matter," she smiled, "but were I to put ever so
+many people to inconvenience, they'll bear me a grudge for my impudence.
+Not a soul, it's clear enough, knows anything about it now, but were you
+to make such a bustle as to bring it to people's notice, you'll be in an
+awkward fix, and so will I. The proper thing, therefore, is for you to
+send a page to-morrow to request Dr. Wang to prepare some medicine for
+me. When I take this I shall be all right. And as neither any human
+being nor spirit will thus get wind of it, won't it be better?"
+
+Pao-yue found her suggestion so full of reason that he thought himself
+obliged to abandon his purpose; so approaching the table, he poured a
+cup of tea, and came over and gave it to Hsi Jen to rinse her mouth
+with. Aware, however, as Hsi Jen was that Pao-yue himself was not feeling
+at ease in his mind, she was on the point of bidding him not wait upon
+her; but convinced that he would once more be certain not to accede to
+her wishes, and that the others would, in the second place, have to be
+disturbed, she deemed it expedient to humour him. Leaning on the couch,
+she consequently allowed Pao-yue to come and attend to her.
+
+As soon as the fifth watch struck, Pao-yue, unmindful of combing or
+washing, hastily put on his clothes and left the room; and sending for
+Wang Chi-jen, he personally questioned him with all minuteness about her
+ailment.
+
+Wang Chi-jen asked how it had come about. "It's simply a bruise; nothing
+more," (he said), and forthwith he gave him the names of some pills and
+medicines, and told him how they were to be taken, and how they were to
+be applied.
+
+Pao-yue committed every detail to memory, and on his return into the
+garden, the treatment was, needless for us to explain, taken in hand in
+strict compliance with the directions.
+
+This was the day of the dragon-boat festival. Cat-tail and artemisia
+were put over the doors. Tiger charms were suspended on every back. At
+noon, Madame Wang got a banquet ready, and to this midday feast, she
+invited the mother, daughter and the rest of the members of the Hsueeh
+household.
+
+Pao-yue noticed that Pao-ch'ai was in such low spirits that she would not
+even speak to him, and concluded that the reason was to be sought in the
+incident of the previous day. Madame Wang seeing Pao-yue in a sullen
+humour jumped at the surmise that it must be due to Chin Ch'uan's affair
+of the day before; and so ill at ease did she feel that she heeded him
+less than ever. Lin Tai-yue, detected Pao-yue's apathy, and presumed that
+he was out of sorts for having given umbrage to Pao-ch'ai, and her
+manner likewise assumed a listless air. Lady Feng had, in the course of
+the previous evening, been told by Madame Wang what had taken place
+between Pao-yue and Chin Ch'uan, and when she came to know that Madame
+Wang was in an unhappy frame of mind she herself did not venture to chat
+or laugh, but at once regulated her behaviour to suit Madame Wang's
+mood. So the lack of animation became more than ever perceptible; for
+the good cheer of Ying Ch'un and her sisters was also damped by the
+sight of all of them down in the mouth. The natural consequence
+therefore was that they all left after a very short stay.
+
+Lin Tai-yue had a natural predilection for retirement. She did not care
+for social gatherings. Her notions, however, were not entirely devoid of
+reason. She maintained that people who gathered together must soon part;
+that when they came together, they were full of rejoicing, but did they
+not feel lonely when they broke up? That since this sense of loneliness
+gave rise to chagrin, it was consequently preferable not to have any
+gatherings. That flowers afforded an apt example. When they opened, they
+won people's admiration; but when they faded, they added to the feeling
+of vexation; so that better were it if they did not blossom at all! To
+this cause therefore must be assigned the fact that when other people
+were glad, she, on the contrary, felt unhappy.
+
+Pao-yue's disposition was such that he simply yearned for frequent
+gatherings, and looked forward with sorrow to the breaking up which must
+too soon come round. As for flowers, he wished them to bloom repeatedly
+and was haunted with the dread of their dying in a little time. Yet
+albeit manifold anguish fell to his share when banquets drew to a close
+and flowers began to fade, he had no alternative but to practice
+resignation.
+
+On this account was it that, when the company cheerlessly broke up from
+the present feast, Lin Tai-yue did not mind the separation; and that
+Pao-yue experienced such melancholy and depression, that, on his return
+to his apartments, he gave way to deep groans and frequent sighs.
+
+Ch'ing Wen, as it happened, came to the upper quarters to change her
+costume. In an unguarded moment, she let her fan slip out of her hand
+and drop on the ground. As it fell, the bones were snapped. "You stupid
+thing!" Pao-yue exclaimed, sighing, "what a dunce! what next will you be
+up to by and bye? When, in a little time, you get married and have a
+home of your own, will you, forsooth, still go on in this happy-go-lucky
+careless sort of way?"
+
+"Master Secundus," replied Ch'ing Wen with a sardonic smile, "your
+temper is of late dreadfully fiery, and time and again it leaks out on
+your very face! The other day you even beat Hsi Jen and here you are
+again now finding fault with us! If you feel disposed to kick or strike
+us, you are at liberty, Sir, to do so at your pleasure; but for a fan to
+slip on the ground is an everyday occurrence! How many of those crystal
+jars and cornelian bowls were smashed the other time, I don't remember,
+and yet you were not seen to fly into a tantrum; and now, for a fan do
+you distress yourself so? What's the use of it? If you dislike us, well
+pack us off and select some good girls to serve you, and we will quietly
+go away. Won't this be better?"
+
+This rejoinder so exasperated Pao-yue that his whole frame trembled
+violently. "You needn't be in a hurry!" he then shouted. "There will be
+a day of parting by and bye."
+
+Hsi Jen was on the other side, and from an early period she listened to
+the conversation between them. Hurriedly crossing over, "what are you up
+to again?" she said to Pao-yue, "why, there's nothing to put your monkey
+up! I'm perfectly right in my assertion that when I'm away for any
+length of time, something is sure to happen."
+
+Ch'ing Wen heard these remarks. "Sister," she interposed smiling
+ironically, "since you've got the gift of the gab, you should have come
+at once; you would then have spared your master his fit of anger. It's
+you who have from bygone days up to the present waited upon master;
+we've never had anything to do with attending on him; and it's because
+you've served him so faithfully that he repaid you yesterday with a kick
+on the stomach. But who knows what punishment mayn't be in store for us,
+who aren't fit to wait upon him decently!"
+
+At these insinuations, Hsi Jen felt both incensed and ashamed. She was
+about to make some response but Pao-yue had worked himself into such
+another passion as to get quite yellow in the face, and she was obliged
+to rein in her temper. Pushing Ch'ing Wen, "Dear sister," she cried,
+"you had better be off for a stroll! it's really we, who are to blame!"
+
+The very mention of the word "we" made it certain to Ch'ing Wen that she
+implied herself and Pao-yue, and thus unawares more fuel was added again
+to her jealous notions. Giving way to several loud smiles, full of
+irony: "I can't make out," she insinuated, "who you may mean. But don't
+make me blush on your account! Even those devilish pranks of yours can't
+hoodwink me! How and why is it that you've started styling yourself as
+'we?' Properly speaking, you haven't as yet so much as attained the
+designation of 'Miss!' You're simply no better than I am, and how is it
+then that you presume so high as to call yourself 'we.'"
+
+Hsi Jen's face grew purple from shame. "The fact is," she reflected,
+"that I've said more than I should."
+
+"As one and all of you are ever bearing her malice," Pao-yue
+simultaneously observed, "I'll actually raise her to-morrow to a higher
+status!"
+
+Hsi Jen quickly snatched Pao-yue's hand. "She's a stupid girl," she said,
+"what's the use of arguing with her? What's more, you've so far borne
+with them and overlooked ever, so many other things more grievous than
+this; and what are you up to to-day?"
+
+"If I'm really a stupid girl," repeated Ch'ing Wen, smiling
+sarcastically, "am I a fit person for you to hold converse with? Why,
+I'm purely and simply a slave-girl; that's all."
+
+"Are you, after all," cried Hsi Jen, at these words, "bickering with me,
+or with Master Secundus? If you bear me a grudge, you'd better then
+address your remarks to me alone; albeit it isn't right that you should
+kick up such a hullaballoo in the presence of Mr. Secundus. But if you
+have a spite against Mr. Secundus, you shouldn't be shouting so
+boisterously as to make thousands of people know all about it! I came
+in, a few minutes back, merely for the purpose of setting matters right,
+and of urging you to make up your quarrels so that we should all be on
+the safe side; and here I have the unlucky fate of being set upon by
+you, Miss! Yet you neither seem to be angry with me, nor with Mr.
+Secundus! But armed _cap-a-pie_ as you appear to be, what is your
+ultimate design? I won't utter another word, but let you have your say!"
+
+While she spoke, she was hurriedly wending her way out.
+
+"You needn't raise your dander." Pao-yue remarked to Ch'ing Wen. "I've
+guessed the secret of your heart, so I'll go and tell mother that as
+you've also attained a certain age, she should send you away. Will this
+please you, yes or no?"
+
+This allusion made Ch'ing Wen unwittingly feel again wounded at heart.
+She tried to conceal her tears. "Why should I go away?" she asked. "If
+even you be so prejudiced against me as to try and devise means to pack
+me off, you won't succeed."
+
+"I never saw such brawling!" Pao-yue exclaimed. "You're certainly bent
+upon going! I might as well therefore let mother know so as to bundle
+you off!"
+
+While addressing her, he rose to his feet and was intent upon trudging
+off at once. Hsi Jen lost no time in turning round and impeding his
+progress. "Where are you off to?" she cried.
+
+"I'm going to tell mother," answered Pao-yue.
+
+"It's no use whatever!" Hsi Jen smiled, "you may be in real earnest to
+go and tell her, but aren't you afraid of putting her to shame? If even
+she positively means to leave, you can very well wait until you two have
+got over this bad blood. And when everything is past and gone, it won't
+be any too late for you to explain, in the course of conversation, the
+whole case to our lady, your mother. But if you now go in hot haste and
+tell her, as if the matter were an urgent one, won't you be the means of
+making our mistress give way to suspicion?"
+
+"My mother," demurred Pao-yue, "is sure not to entertain any suspicions,
+as all I will explain to her is that she insists upon leaving."
+
+"When did I ever insist upon going?" sobbed Ch'ing Wen. "You fly into a
+rage, and then you have recourse to threats to intimidate me. But you're
+at liberty to go and say anything you like; for as I'll knock my brains
+out against the wall, I won't get alive out of this door."
+
+"This is, indeed, strange!" exclaimed Pao-yue. "If you won't go, what's
+the good of all this fuss? I can't stand this bawling, so it will be a
+riddance if you would get out of the way!"
+
+Saying this, he was resolved upon going to report the matter. Hsi Jen
+found herself powerless to dissuade him. She had in consequence no other
+resource but to fall on her knees.
+
+Pi Hen, Ch'iu Wen, She Yueeh and the rest of the waiting-maids had
+realised what a serious aspect the dispute had assumed, and not a sound
+was to be heard to fall from their lips. They remained standing outside
+listening to what was going on. When they now overheard Hsi Jen making
+solicitous entreaties on her knees, they rushed into the apartment in a
+body; and with one consent they prostrated themselves on the floor.
+
+Pao-yue at once pulled Hsi Jen up. Then with a sigh, he took a seat on
+the bed. "Get up," he shouted to the body of girls, "and clear out! What
+would you have me do?" he asked, addressing himself to Hsi Jen. "This
+heart of mine has been rent to pieces, and no one has any idea about
+it!"
+
+While speaking, tears of a sudden rolled down his cheek. At the sight of
+Pao-yue weeping, Hsi Jen also melted into a fit of crying. Ch'ing Wen was
+standing by them, with watery eyes. She was on the point of reasoning
+with them, when espying Lin Tai-yue step into the room, she speedily
+walked out.
+
+"On a grand holiday like this," remonstrated Lin Tai-yue smiling, "how is
+it that you're snivelling away, and all for nothing? Is it likely that
+high words have resulted all through that 'dumpling' contest?"
+
+Pao-yue and Lin Tai-yue blurted out laughing.
+
+"You don't tell me, cousin Secundus," Lin Tai-yue put in, "but I know all
+about it, even though I have asked no questions."
+
+Now she spoke, and now she patted Hsi Jen on the shoulder. "My dear
+sister-in-law," she smiled, "just you tell me! It must surely be that
+you two have had a quarrel. Confide in me, your cousin, so that I might
+reconcile you."
+
+"Miss Lin," rejoined Hsi Jen, pushing her off, "what are you fussing
+about? I am simply one of our servant-girls; you're therefore rather
+erratic in your talk!"
+
+"You say that you're only a servant-girl," smilingly replied Tai-yue,
+"and yet I treat you like a sister-in-law."
+
+"Why do you," Pao-yue chimed in, "give her this abusive epithet? But
+however much she may make allowance for this, can she, when there are so
+many others who tell idle tales on her account, put up with your coming
+and telling her all you've said?"
+
+"Miss Lin," smiled Hsi Jen, "you're not aware of the purpose of my
+heart. Unless my breath fails and I die, I shall continue in his
+service."
+
+"If you die," remarked Lin Tai-yue smiling, "what will others do, I
+wonder? As for me, I shall be the first to die from crying."
+
+"Were you to die," added Pao-yue laughingly, "I shall become a bonze."
+
+"You'd better be a little more sober-minded!" laughed Hsi Jen. "What's
+the good of coming out with all these things?"
+
+Lin Tai-yue put out two of her fingers, and puckered up her lips. "Up to
+this," she laughed, "he's become a bonze twice. Henceforward, I'll try
+and remember how many times you make up your mind to become a Buddhist
+priest!"
+
+This reminded Pao-yue that she was referring to a remark he had made on a
+previous occasion, but smiling to himself, he allowed the matter to
+drop.
+
+After a short interval, Lin Tai-yue went away. A servant then came to
+announce that Mr. Hsueeh wanted to see him, and Pao-yue had to go. The
+purpose of this visit was in fact to invite him to a banquet, and as he
+could not very well put forward any excuse to refuse, he had to remain
+till the end of the feast before he was able to take his leave. The
+result was that, on his return, in the evening, he was to a great extent
+under the effect of wine. With bustling step, he wended his way into his
+own court. Here he perceived that the cool couch with a back to it, had
+already been placed in the yard, and that there was some one asleep on
+it. Prompted by the conviction that it must be Hsi Jen, Pao-yue seated
+himself on the edge of the couch. As he did so, he gave her a push, and
+inquired whether her sore place was any better. But thereupon he saw the
+occupant turn herself round, and exclaim: "What do you come again to
+irritate me for?"
+
+Pao-yue, at a glance, realised that it was not Hsi Jen, but Ch'ing Wen.
+Pao-yue then clutched her and compelled her to sit next to him. "Your
+disposition," he smiled, "has been more and more spoilt through
+indulgence. When you let the fan drop this morning, I simply made one or
+two remarks, and out you came with that long rigmarole. Had you gone for
+me it wouldn't have mattered; but you also dragged in Hsi Jen, who only
+interfered with every good intention of inducing us to make it up again.
+But, ponder now, ought you to have done it; yes or no?"
+
+"With this intense heat," remonstrated Ch'ing Wen, "why do you pull me
+and toss me about? Should any people see you, what will they think? But
+this person of mine isn't meet to be seated in here."
+
+"Since you yourself know that it isn't meet," replied Pao-yue with a
+smile, "why then were you sleeping here?"
+
+To this taunt Ch'ing Wen had nothing to say. But she spurted out into
+fresh laughter. "It was all right," she retorted, "during your absence;
+but the moment you come, it isn't meet for me to stay! Get up and let me
+go and have my bath. Hsi Jen and She Yueeh have both had theirs, so I'll
+call them here!"
+
+"I've just had again a good deal of wine," remarked Pao-yue, laughingly;
+"so a wash will be good for me. And since you've not had your bath, you
+had better bring the water and let's both have it together."
+
+"No, no!" smiled Ch'ing Wen, waving her hand, "I cannot presume to put
+you to any trouble, Sir. I still remember how when Pi Hen used to look
+after your bath you occupied fully two or three hours. What you were up
+to during that time we never knew. We could not very well walk in. When
+you had however done washing, and we entered your room, we found the
+floor so covered with water that the legs of the bed were soaking and
+the matting itself a regular pool. Nor could we make out what kind of
+washing you'd been having; and for days afterwards we had a laugh over
+it. But I've neither any time to get the water ready; nor do I see the
+need for you to have a wash along with me. Besides, to-day it's chilly,
+and as you've had a bath only a little while back, you can very well
+just now dispense with one. But I'll draw a basin of water for you to
+wash your face, and to shampoo your head with. Not long ago, Yuean Yang
+sent you a few fruits; they were put in that crystal bowl, so you'd
+better tell them to bring them to you to taste."
+
+"Well, in that case." laughed Pao-yue, "you needn't also have a bath.
+Just simply wash your hands, and bring the fruit and let's have some
+together."
+
+"I'm so shaky," smiled Ch'ing Wen "that even fans slip out of my hands,
+and how could I fetch the fruit for you. Were I also to break the dish,
+it will be still more dreadful!"
+
+"If you want to break it, break it!" smiled Pao-yue. "These things are
+only intended for general use. You like this thing; I fancy that; our
+respective tastes are not identical. The original use of that fan, for
+instance, was to fan one's self with; but if you chose to break it for
+fun, you were quite at liberty to do so. The only thing is, when you get
+angry don't make it the means of giving vent to your temper! Just like
+those salvers. They are really meant for serving things in. But if you
+fancy that kind of sound, then deliberately smash them, that will be all
+right. But don't, when you are in high dudgeon avail yourself of them to
+air your resentment! That's what one would call having a fancy for a
+thing!"
+
+Ch'ing Wen greeted his words with a smile.
+
+"Since that be so," she said, "bring me your fan and let me tear it.
+What most takes my fancy is tearing!"
+
+Upon hearing this Pao-yue smilingly handed it to her. Ch'ing Wen, in
+point of fact, took it over, and with a crash she rent it in two. Close
+upon this, the sound of crash upon crash became audible.
+
+Pao-yue was standing next to her. "How nice the noise is!" he laughed.
+"Tear it again and make it sound a little more!"
+
+But while he spoke, She Yueeh was seen to walk in. "Don't," she smiled,
+"be up to so much mischief!" Pao-yue, however, went up to her and
+snatching her fan also from her hand, he gave it to Ch'ing Wen. Ch'ing
+Wen took it and there and then likewise broke it in two. Both he and she
+then had a hearty laugh.
+
+"What do you call this?" She Yueeh expostulated. "Do you take my property
+and make it the means of distracting yourselves!"
+
+"Open the fan-box," shouted Pao-yue, "and choose one and take it away!
+What, are they such fine things!"
+
+"In that case," ventured She Yueeh, "fetch the fans and let her break as
+many as she can. Won't that be nice!"
+
+"Go and bring them at once!" Pao-yue laughed.
+
+"I won't be up to any such tomfoolery!" She Yueeh demurred. "She hasn't
+snapped her hands, so bid her go herself and fetch them!"
+
+"I'm feeling tired," interposed Ch'ing Wen, as she laughingly leant on
+the bed. "I'll therefore tear some more to-morrow again."
+
+"An old writer says," added Pao-yue with a smile, "'that a thousand
+ounces of gold cannot purchase a single laugh'! What can a few fans
+cost?"
+
+After moralising, he went on to call Hsi Jen. Hsi Jen had just finished
+the necessary change in her dress so she stepped in; and a young
+servant-girl, Chiao Hui, crossed over and picked up the broken fans.
+Then they all sat and enjoyed the cool breeze. But we can well dispense
+with launching into any minute details.
+
+On the morrow, noon found Madame Wang, Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai, Lin Tai-yue, and
+the rest of the young ladies congregated in dowager lady Chia's suite of
+rooms. Some one then brought the news that: "Miss Shih had arrived." In
+a little time they perceived Shih Hsiang-yun make her appearance in the
+court, at the head of a bevy of waiting-maids and married women.
+Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yu and her other cousins, quickly ran down the steps to
+meet her and exchange greetings. But with what fervour girls of tender
+years re-unite some day after a separation of months need not, of
+course, be explained. Presently, she entered the apartments, paid her
+respects and inquired how they all were. But after this conventional
+interchange of salutations, old lady Chia pressed her to take off her
+outer garments as the weather was so close. Shih Hsiang-yuen lost no time
+in rising to her feet and loosening her clothes. "I don't see why,"
+Madame Wang thereupon smiled, "you wear all these things!'
+
+"It's entirely at aunt Secunda's bidding," retorted Shih Hsiang-yuen,
+"that I put them on. Why, would any one of her own accord wear so many
+things!"
+
+"Aunt," interposed Pao-ch'ai, who stood by, with a smile, "you're not
+aware that what most delights her in the matter of dress is to don other
+people's clothes! Yes, I remember how, during her stay here in the third
+and fourth moons of last year, she used to wear cousin Pao's pelisses.
+She even put on his shoes, and attached his frontlets as well round her
+head. At a casual glance, she looked the very image of cousin Pao; what
+was superfluous was that pair of earrings of hers. As she stood at the
+back of that chair she so thoroughly took in our venerable ancestor that
+she kept on shouting: 'Pao-yue, come over! Mind the tassels suspended on
+that lamp; for if you shake the dust off, it may get into your eyes!'
+But all she did was to laugh; she did not budge; and it was only after
+every one found it hard to keep their countenance that our worthy senior
+also started laughing. 'You do look well in male habiliments!' she said
+to her."
+
+"What about that!" cried Lin Tai-yue, "why, she had scarcely been here
+with us a couple of days in the first moon of last year, when we sent
+and fetched her, that we had a fall of snow. You, venerable senior, and
+her maternal aunt had on that day, I remember so well, just returned
+from worshipping the images of our ancestors, and a brand-new deep red
+felt wrapper of yours, dear grandmother, had been lying over there, when
+suddenly it disappeared. But, lo, she it was who had put it on! Being,
+however, too large and too long for her, she took a couple of
+handkerchiefs, and fastened them round her waist. She was then trudging
+into the back court with the servant-girls to make snow men when she
+tripped and fell flat in front of the drain, and got covered all over
+with mud."
+
+As she narrated this incident, every one recalled the circumstances to
+mind, and had a good laugh.
+
+"Dame Chou," Pao-ch'ai smilingly inquired of nurse Chou, "is your young
+lady always as fond of pranks as ever or not?"
+
+Nurse Chou then also gave a laugh.
+
+"Pranks are nothing," Ying Ch'un smiled. "What I do detest is her
+fondness for tittle-tattle! I've never seen any one who, even when
+asleep, goes on chatter-chatter; now laughing, and now talking, as she
+does. Nor can I make out where she gets all those idle yarns of hers."
+
+"I think she's better of late," interposed Madame Wang. "The other day
+some party or other came and they met; so she's to have a mother-in-law
+very soon; and can she still be comporting herself like that!"
+
+"Are you going to stay to-day," dowager lady Chia then asked, "or going
+back home?"
+
+Nurse Chou smiled. "Your venerable ladyship has not seen what an amount
+of clothes we've brought," she replied. "We mean, of course, to stay a
+couple of days."
+
+"Is cousin Pao-yue not at home?" inquired Hsiang-yuen."
+
+"There she's again! She doesn't think of others," remarked Pao-ch'ai
+smiling significantly. "She only thinks of her cousin Pao-yue. They're
+both so fond of larks! This proves that she hasn't yet got rid of that
+spirit of mischief."
+
+"You're all now grown up," observed old lady Chia; "and you shouldn't
+allude to infant names."
+
+But while she was chiding them, they noticed Pao-yue arrive.
+
+"Cousin Yuen, have you come?" he smiled. "How is it that you wouldn't
+come the other day when some one was despatched to fetch you?"
+
+"It's only a few minutes," Madame Wang said, "since our venerable senior
+called that one to task, and now here he comes and refers to names and
+surnames!"
+
+"Your cousin Pao," ventured Lin Tai-yue, "has something good, which he
+has been waiting to give you."
+
+"What good thing is it?" asked Hsiang-yuen.
+
+"Do you believe what she says?" observed Pao-yue laughingly. "But how
+many days is it that I have not seen you, and you've grown so much
+taller!"
+
+"Is cousin Hsi Jen all right?" inquired Hsiang-yuen.
+
+"She's all right," answered Pao-yue. "Many thanks for your kind thought
+of her."
+
+"I've brought something nice for her," resumed Hsiang-yuen.
+
+Saying this, she produced her handkerchief, tied into a knot.
+
+"What's this something nice?" asked Pao-yue. "Wouldn't it have been
+better if you'd brought her a couple of those rings with streaked stones
+of the kind you sent the other day?"
+
+"Why, what's this?" exclaimed Hsiang-yuen laughing, opening, as she
+spoke, the handkerchief.
+
+On close scrutiny, they actually found four streaked rings, similar to
+those she had previously sent, tied up in the same packet.
+
+"Look here!" Lin Tai-yue smiled, "what a girl she is! Had you, when
+sending that fellow the other day to bring ours, given him these also to
+bring along with him, wouldn't it have saved trouble? Instead of that,
+here you fussily bring them yourself to-day! I presumed that it was
+something out of the way again; but is it really only these things? In
+very truth, you're a mere dunce!"
+
+"It's you who behave like a dunce now!" Shih Hsiang-yuen smiled.
+
+"I'll speak out here and let every one judge for themselves who is the
+dunce. The servant, deputed to bring the things to you, had no need to
+open his mouth and say anything; for, as soon as they were brought in,
+it was of course evident, at a glance, that they were to be presented to
+you young ladies. But had he been the bearer of these things for them, I
+would have been under the necessity of explaining to him which was
+intended for this servant-girl, and which for that. Had the messenger
+had his wits about him, well and good; but had he been at all stupid he
+wouldn't have been able to remember so much as the names of the girls!
+He would have made an awful mess of it, and talked a lot of nonsense. So
+instead of being of any use he would have even muddled,
+hickledy-pickledy, your things. Had a female servant been despatched, it
+would have been all right. But as it happened, a servant-boy was again
+sent the other day, so how could he have mentioned the names of the
+waiting-girls? And by my bringing them in person to give them to them,
+doesn't it make things clearer?"
+
+As she said this, she put down the four rings. "One is for sister Hsi
+Jen," she continued, "one is for sister Yuean Yang. One for sister Chin
+Ch'uan-erh, and one for sister P'ing Erh. They are only for these four
+girls; but would the servant-boys too forsooth have remembered them so
+clearly!"
+
+At these words, the whole company smiled. "How really clear!" they
+cried.
+
+"This is what it is to be able to speak!" Pao-yue put in. "She doesn't
+spare any one!"
+
+Hearing this, Lin Tai-yue gave a sardonic smile. "If she didn't know how
+to use her tongue," she observed, "would she deserve to wear that
+unicorn of gold!"
+
+While speaking, she rose and walked off.
+
+Luckily, every one did not hear what she said. Only Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai
+pursed up her lips and laughed. Pao-yue, however, had overheard her
+remark, and he blamed himself for having once more talked in a heedless
+manner. Unawares his eye espied Pao-ch'ai much amused, and he too could
+not suppress a smile. But at the sight of Pao-yue in laughter, Pao-ch'ai
+hastily rose to her feet and withdrew. She went in search of Tai-yue, to
+have a chat and laugh with her.
+
+"After you've had tea," old lady Chia thereupon said to Hsiang-yuen,
+"you'd better rest a while and then go and see your sisters-in-law.
+Besides, it's cool in the garden, so you can walk about with your
+cousins."
+
+Hsiang-yuen expressed her assent, and, collecting the three rings, she
+wrapped them up, and went and lay down to rest. Presently, she got up
+with the idea of paying visits to lady Feng and her other relatives.
+Followed by a whole bevy of nurses and waiting-maids, she repaired into
+lady Feng's quarters on the off side. She bandied words with her for a
+while and then coming out she betook herself into the garden of Broad
+Vista, and called on Li Kung-ts'ai. But after a short visit, she turned
+her steps towards the I Hung court to look up Hsi Jen. "You people
+needn't," she said, turning her head round, "come along with me! You may
+go and see your friends and relatives. It will be quite enough if you
+simply leave Ts'ui Lue to wait upon me."
+
+Hearing her wishes, each went her own way in quest of aunts, or
+sisters-in-law. There only remained but Hsiang-yuen and Ts'ui Lue.
+
+"How is it," inquired Ts'ui Lue, "that these lotus flowers have not yet
+opened?"
+
+"The proper season hasn't yet arrived," rejoined Shih Hsiang-yuen.
+
+"They too," continued Ts'ui Lue, "resemble those in our pond; they are
+double flowers."
+
+"These here," remarked Hsiang-yuen, "are not however up to ours."
+
+"They have over there," observed Ts'ui Lue, "a pomegranate tree, with
+four or five branches joined one to another, just like one storey raised
+above another storey. What trouble it must have cost them to rear!"
+
+"Flowers and plants," suggested Shih Hsiang-yuen, "are precisely like the
+human race. With sufficient vitality, they grow up in a healthy
+condition."
+
+"I can't credit these words," replied Ts'ui Lue, twisting her face round.
+"If you maintain that they are like human beings, how is it that I
+haven't seen any person, with one head growing over another."
+
+This rejoinder evoked a smile from Hsiang-yuen. "I tell you not to talk,"
+she cried, "but you will insist upon talking! How do you expect people
+to be able to answer every thing you say! All things, whether in heaven
+or on earth come into existence by the co-operation of the dual powers,
+the male and female. So all things, whether good or bad, novel or
+strange, and all those manifold changes and transformations arise
+entirely from the favourable or adverse influence exercised by the male
+and female powers. And though some things seldom seen by mankind might
+come to life, the principle at work is, after all, the same."
+
+"In the face of these arguments," laughed Ts'ui Lue, "everything, from
+old till now, from the very creation itself, embodies a certain
+proportion of the Yin and Yang principles."
+
+"You stupid thing!" exclaimed Hsiang-yuen smiling, "the more you talk,
+the more stuff and nonsense falls from your lips! What about everything
+embodying a certain proportion of the principles Yin and Yang! Besides,
+the two words Yin and Yang are really one word; for when the Yang
+principle is exhausted, it becomes the Yin; and when the Yin is
+exhausted, it becomes Yang. And it isn't that, at the exhaustion of the
+Yin, another Yang comes into existence; and that, at the exhaustion of
+the Yang, a second Yin arises."
+
+"This trash is sufficient to kill me!" ejaculated Ts'ui Lue. "What are
+the Yin and Yang? Why, they are without substance or form! But pray,
+Miss, tell me what sort of things these Yin and Yang can be!"
+
+"The Yin and Yang," explained Hsiang-yuen, "are no more than spirits, but
+anything affected by their influence at once assumes form. The heavens,
+for instance, are Yang, and the earth is Yin; water is Yin and fire is
+Yang; the sun is Yang and the moon Yin."
+
+"Quite so! quite so!" cried out Ts'ui Lue, much amused by these
+explanations, "I've at length attained perception! It isn't strange then
+that people invariably call the sun 'T'ai-yang.' While astrologers keep
+on speaking of the moon as 'T'ai-yin-hsing,' or something like it. It
+must be on account of this principle."
+
+"O-mi-to-fu!" laughed Hsiang-yuen, "you have at last understood!"
+
+"All these things possess the Yin and Yang; that's all right." T'sui Lue
+put in. "But is there any likelihood that all those mosquitoes, flees
+and worms, flowers, herbs, bricks and tiles have, in like manner,
+anything to do with the Yin and Yang?"
+
+"How don't they!" exclaimed Hsiang-yuen. "For example, even the leaves of
+that tree are distinguished by Yin and Yang. The side, which looks up
+and faces the sun, is called Yang; while that in the shade and looking
+downwards, is called Yin."
+
+"Is it really so!" ejaculated T'sui Lue, upon hearing this; while she
+smiled and nodded her head. "Now I know all about it! But which is Yang
+and which Yin in these fans we're holding."
+
+"This side, the front, is Yang," answered Hsiang-yuen; "and that, the
+reverse, is Yin."
+
+Ts'ui Lue went on to nod her head, and to laugh. She felt inclined to
+apply her questions to several other things, but as she could not fix
+her mind upon anything in particular, she, all of a sudden, drooped her
+head. Catching sight of the pendant in gold, representing a unicorn,
+which Hsiang-yuen had about her person, she forthwith made allusion to
+it. "This, Miss," she said smiling, "cannot likely also have any Yin and
+Yang!"
+
+"The beasts of the field and the birds of the air," proceeded
+Hsiang-yuen, "are, the cock birds, Yang, and the hen birds, Yin. The
+females of beasts are Yin; and the males, Yang; so how is there none?"
+
+"Is this male, or is this female?" inquired Ts'ui Lue.
+
+"Ts'ui!" exclaimed Hsiang-yuen, "what about male and female! Here you are
+with your nonsense again."
+
+"Well, never mind about that," added Ts'ui Lue, "But how is it that all
+things have Yin and Yang, and that we human beings have no Yin and no
+Yang?"
+
+Hsiang-yuen then lowered her face. "You low-bred thing!" she exclaimed.
+"But it's better for us to proceed on our way, for the more questions
+you ask, the nicer they get."
+
+"What's there in this that you can't tell me?" asked Ts'ui Lue, "But I
+know all about it, so there's no need for you to keep me on pins and
+needles."
+
+Hsiang-yuen blurted out laughing. "What do you know?" she said.
+
+"That you, Miss, are Yang, and that I'm Yin," answered Ts'ui Lue.
+
+Hsiang-yuen produced her handkerchief, and, while screening her mouth
+with it, burst out into a loud fit of laughter.
+
+"What I say must be right for you to laugh in this way," Ts'ui Lue
+observed.
+
+"Perfectly right, perfectly right!" acquiesced Hsiang-yuen.
+
+"People say," continued Ts'ui Lue, "that masters are Yang, and that
+servant-girls are Yin; don't I even apprehend this primary principle?"
+
+"You apprehend it thoroughly," responded Hsiang-yuen laughingly. But
+while she was speaking, she espied, under the trellis with the cinnamon
+roses, something glistening like gold. "Do you see that? What is it?"
+Hsiang-yuen asked pointing at it.
+
+Hearing this, Ts'ui Lue hastily went over and picked up the object. While
+scrutinising it, she observed with a smile, "Let us find out whether
+it's Yin or Yang!"
+
+So saying, she first laid hold of the unicorn, belonging to Shih
+Hsiang-yuen, and passed it under inspection.
+
+Shih Hsiang-yuen longed to be shown what she had picked up, but Ts'ui Lue
+would not open her hand.
+
+"It's a precious gem," she smiled. "You mayn't see it, Miss. Where can
+it be from? How very strange it is! I've never seen any one in here with
+anything of the kind."
+
+"Give it to me and let me look at it," retorted Hsiang-yuen.
+
+Ts'ui Lue stretched out her hand with a dash. "Yes, Miss, please look at
+it!" she laughed.
+
+Hsiang-yuen raised her eyes. She perceived, at a glance, that it was a
+golden unicorn, so beautiful and so bright; and so much larger and
+handsomer than the one she had on. Hsiang-yuen put out her arm and,
+taking the gem in the palm of her hand, she fell into a silent reverie
+and uttered not a word. She was quite absent-minded when suddenly Pao-yue
+appeared in the opposite direction.
+
+"What are you two," he asked smiling, "doing here in the sun? How is it
+you don't go and find Hsi Jen?"
+
+Shih Hsiang-yuen precipitately concealed the unicorn. "We were just
+going," she replied, "so let us all go together."
+
+Conversing, they, in a company, wended their steps into the I Hung
+court. Hsi Jen was leaning on the balustrade at the bottom of the steps,
+her face turned to the breeze. Upon unexpectedly seeing Hsiang-yuen
+arrive she with alacrity rushed down to greet her; and taking her hand
+in hers, they cheerfully canvassed the events that had transpired during
+their separation, while they entered the room and took a seat.
+
+"You should have come earlier," Pao-yue said. "I've got something nice
+and was only waiting for you."
+
+Saying this, he searched and searched about his person. After a long
+interval, "Ai-ya!" he ejaculated. "Have you perchance put that thing
+away?" he eagerly asked Hsi Jen.
+
+"What thing?" inquired Hsi Jen.
+
+"The unicorn," explained Pao-yue, "I got the other day."
+
+"You've daily worn it about you, and how is it you ask me?" remarked Hsi
+Jen.
+
+As soon as her answer fell on his ear, Pao-yue clapped his hands. "I've
+lost it!" he cried. "Where can I go and look for it!" There and then, he
+meant to go and search in person; but Shih Hsiang-yuen heard his
+inquiries, and concluded that it must be he who had lost the gem. "When
+did you too," she promptly smiled, "get a unicorn?"
+
+"I got it the other day, after ever so much trouble;" rejoined Pao-yue,
+"but I can't make out when I can have lost it! I've also become quite
+addle-headed."
+
+"Fortunately," smiled Shih Hsiang-yuen, "it's only a sort of a toy!
+Still, are you so careless?" While speaking, she flung open her hand.
+"Just see," she laughed, "is it this or not?"
+
+As soon as he saw it, Pao-yue was seized with unwonted delight. But,
+reader, if you care to know the cause of his delight, peruse the
+explanation contained in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+ Hsi Jen and Hsiang-yuen tell their secret thoughts.
+ Tai-yue is infatuated with the living Pao-yue.
+
+
+While trying to conceal her sense of shame and injury Chin Ch'uan is
+driven by her impetuous feelings to seek death.
+
+But to resume our narrative. At the sight of the unicorn, Pao-yue was
+filled with intense delight. So much so, that he forthwith put out his
+hand and made a grab for it. "Lucky enough it was you who picked it up!"
+he said, with a face beaming with smiles. "But when did you find it?"
+
+"Fortunately it was only this!" rejoined Shih Hsiang-yuen laughing. "If
+you by and bye also lose your seal, will you likely banish it at once
+from your mind, and never make an effort to discover it?"
+
+"After all," smiled Pao-yue, "the loss of a seal is an ordinary
+occurrence. But had I lost this, I would have deserved to die."
+
+Hsi Jen then poured a cup of tea and handed it to Shih Hsiang-yuen. "Miss
+Senior," she remarked smilingly, "I heard that you had occasion the
+other day to be highly pleased."
+
+Shih Hsiang-yuen flushed crimson. She went on drinking her tea and did
+not utter a single word.
+
+"Here you are again full of shame!" Hsi Jen smiled. "But do you remember
+when we were living, about ten years back, in those warm rooms on the
+west side and you confided in me one evening, you didn't feel any shame
+then; and how is it you blush like this now?"
+
+"Do you still speak about that!" exclaimed Shih Hsiang-yuen laughingly.
+"You and I were then great friends. But when our mother subsequently
+died and I went home for a while, how is it you were at once sent to be
+with my cousin Secundus, and that now that I've come back you don't
+treat me as you did once?"
+
+"Are you yet harping on this!" retorted Hsi Jen, putting on a smile.
+"Why, at first, you used to coax me with a lot of endearing terms to
+comb your hair and to wash your face, to do this and that for you. But
+now that you've become a big girl, you assume the manner of a young
+mistress towards me, and as you put on these airs of a young mistress,
+how can I ever presume to be on a familiar footing with you?"
+
+"O-mi-to-fu," cried Shih Hsiang-yuen. "What a false accusation! If I be
+guilty of anything of the kind, may I at once die! Just see what a
+broiling hot day this is, and yet as soon as I arrived I felt bound to
+come and look you up first. If you don't believe me, well, ask Lue Erh!
+And while at home, when did I not at every instant say something about
+you?"
+
+Scarcely had she concluded than Hsi Jen and Pao-yue tried to soothe her.
+"We were only joking," they said, "but you've taken everything again as
+gospel. What! are you still so impetuous in your temperament!"
+
+"You don't say," argued Shih Hsiang-yuen, "that your words are hard
+things to swallow, but contrariwise, call people's temperaments
+impetuous!"
+
+As she spoke, she unfolded her handkerchief and, producing a ring, she
+gave it to Hsi Jen.
+
+Hsi Jen did not know how to thank her enough. "When;" she consequently
+smiled, "you sent those to your cousin the other day, I got one also;
+and here you yourself bring me another to-day! It's clear enough
+therefore that you haven't forgotten me. This alone has been quite
+enough to test you. As for the ring itself, what is its worth? but it's
+a token of the sincerity of your heart!"
+
+"Who gave it to you?" inquired Shih Hsiang-yuen.
+
+"Miss Pao let me have it." replied Hsi Jen.
+
+"I was under the impression," remarked Hsiang-yuen with a sigh, "that it
+was a present from cousin Lin. But is it really cousin Pao, that gave it
+to you! When I was at home, I day after day found myself reflecting that
+among all these cousins of mine, there wasn't one able to compare with
+cousin Pao, so excellent is she. How I do regret that we are not the
+offspring of one mother! For could I boast of such a sister of the same
+flesh and blood as myself, it wouldn't matter though I had lost both
+father and mother!"
+
+While indulging in these regrets, her eyes got quite red.
+
+"Never mind! never mind!" interposed Pao-yue. "Why need you speak of
+these things!"
+
+"If I do allude to this," answered Shih Hsiang-yuen, "what does it
+matter? I know that weak point of yours. You're in fear and trembling
+lest your cousin Lin should come to hear what I say, and get angry with
+me again for eulogising cousin Pao! Now isn't it this, eh!"
+
+"Ch'ih!" laughed Hsi Jen, who was standing by her. "Miss Yuen," she said,
+"now that you've grown up to be a big girl you've become more than ever
+openhearted and outspoken."
+
+"When I contend;" smiled Pao-yue, "that it is difficult to say a word to
+any one of you I'm indeed perfectly correct!"
+
+"My dear cousin," observed Shih Hsiang-yuen laughingly, "don't go on in
+that strain! You'll provoke me to displeasure. When you are with me all
+you are good for is to talk and talk away; but were you to catch a
+glimpse of cousin Lin, you would once more be quite at a loss to know
+what best to do!"
+
+"Now, enough of your jokes!" urged Hsi Jen. "I have a favour to crave of
+you."
+
+"What is it?" vehemently inquired Shih Hsiang-yuen.
+
+"I've got a pair of shoes," answered Hsi Jen, "for which I've stuck the
+padding together; but I'm not feeling up to the mark these last few
+days, so I haven't been able to work at them. If you have any leisure,
+do finish them for me."
+
+"This is indeed strange!" exclaimed Shih Hsiang-yuen. "Putting aside all
+the skilful workers engaged in your household, you have besides some
+people for doing needlework and others for tailoring and cutting; and
+how is it you appeal to me to take your shoes in hand? Were you to ask
+any one of those men to execute your work, who could very well refuse to
+do it?"
+
+"Here you are in another stupid mood!" laughed Hsi Jen. "Can it be that
+you don't know that our sewing in these quarters mayn't be done by these
+needleworkers."
+
+At this reply, it at once dawned upon Shih Hsiang-yuen that the shoes
+must be intended for Pao-yue. "Since that be the case," she in
+consequence smiled; "I'll work them for you. There's however one thing.
+I'll readily attend to any of yours, but I will have nothing to do with
+any for other people."
+
+"There you are again!" laughed Hsi Jen. "Who am I to venture to trouble
+you to make shoes for me? I'll tell you plainly, however, that they are
+not mine. But no matter whose they are, it is anyhow I who'll be the
+recipient of your favour; that is sufficient."
+
+"To speak the truth," rejoined Shih Hsiang-yuen, "you've put me to the
+trouble of working, I don't know how many things for you. The reason why
+I refuse on this occasion should be quite evident to you!"
+
+"I can't nevertheless make it out!" answered Hsi Jen.
+
+"I heard the other day," continued Shih Hsiang-yuen, a sardonic smile on
+her lip, "that while the fan-case, I had worked, was being held and
+compared with that of some one else, it too was slashed away in a fit of
+high dudgeon. This reached my ears long ago, and do you still try to
+dupe me by asking me again now to make something more for you? Have I
+really become a slave to you people?
+
+"As to what occurred the other day," hastily explained Pao-yue smiling,
+"I positively had no idea that that thing was your handiwork."
+
+"He never knew that you'd done it," Hsi Jen also laughed. "I deceived
+him by telling him that there had been of late some capital hands at
+needlework outside, who could execute any embroidery with surpassing
+beauty, and that I had asked them to bring a fan-case so as to try them
+and to see whether they could actually work well or not. He at once
+believed what I said. But as he produced the case and gave it to this
+one and that one to look at, he somehow or other, I don't know how,
+managed again to put some one's back up, and she cut it into two. On his
+return, however, he bade me hurry the men to make another; and when at
+length I explained to him that it had been worked by you, he felt, I
+can't tell you, what keen regret!"
+
+"This is getting stranger and stranger!" said Shih Hsiang-yuen. "It
+wasn't worth the while for Miss Lin to lose her temper about it. But as
+she plies the scissors so admirably, why, you might as well tell her to
+finish the shoes for you."
+
+"She couldn't," replied Hsi Jen, "for besides other things our venerable
+lady is still in fear and trembling lest she should tire herself in any
+way. The doctor likewise says that she will continue to enjoy good
+health, so long as she is carefully looked after; so who would wish to
+ask her to take them in hand? Last year she managed to just get through
+a scented bag, after a whole year's work. But here we've already reached
+the middle of the present year, and she hasn't yet taken up any needle
+or thread!"
+
+In the course of their conversation, a servant came and announced 'that
+the gentleman who lived in the Hsing Lung Street had come.' "Our
+master," he added, "bids you, Mr. Secundus, come out and greet him."
+
+As soon as Pao-yue heard this announcement, he knew that Chia Yue-ts'un
+must have arrived. But he felt very unhappy at heart. Hsi Jen hurried to
+go and bring his clothes. Pao-yue, meanwhile, put on his boots, but as he
+did so, he gave way to resentment. "Why there's father," he
+soliloquised, "to sit with him; that should be enough; and must he, on
+every visit he pays, insist upon seeing me!"
+
+"It is, of course, because you have such a knack for receiving and
+entertaining visitors that Mr. Chia Cheng will have you go out,"
+laughingly interposed Shih Hsiang-yuen from one side, as she waved her
+fan.
+
+"Is it father's doing?" Pao-yue rejoined. "Why, it's he himself who asks
+that I should be sent for to see him."
+
+"'When a host is courteous, visitors come often,'" smiled Hsiang-yuen,
+"so it's surely because you possess certain qualities, which have won
+his regard, that he insists upon seeing you."
+
+"But I am not what one would call courteous," demurred Pao-yue. "I am, of
+all coarse people, the coarsest. Besides, I do not choose to have any
+relations with such people as himself."
+
+"Here's again that unchangeable temperament of yours!" laughed
+Hsiang-yuen. "But you're a big fellow now, and you should at least, if
+you be loth to study and go and pass your examinations for a provincial
+graduate or a metropolitan graduate, have frequent intercourse with
+officers and ministers of state and discuss those varied attainments,
+which one acquires in an official career, so that you also may be able
+in time to have some idea about matters in general; and that when by and
+bye you've made friends, they may not see you spending the whole day
+long in doing nothing than loafing in our midst, up to every imaginable
+mischief."
+
+"Miss," exclaimed Pao-yue, after this harangue, "pray go and sit in some
+other girl's room, for mind one like myself may contaminate a person who
+knows so much of attainments and experience as you do."
+
+"Miss," ventured Hsi Jen, "drop this at once! Last time Miss Pao too
+tendered him this advice, but without troubling himself as to whether
+people would feel uneasy or not, he simply came out with an ejaculation
+of 'hai,' and rushed out of the place. Miss Pao hadn't meanwhile
+concluded her say, so when she saw him fly, she got so full of shame
+that, flushing scarlet, she could neither open her lips, nor hold her
+own counsel. But lucky for him it was only Miss Pao. Had it been Miss
+Lin, there's no saying what row there may not have been again, and what
+tears may not have been shed! Yet the very mention of all she had to
+tell him is enough to make people look up to Miss Pao with respect. But
+after a time, she also betook herself away. I then felt very unhappy as
+I imagined that she was angry; but contrary to all my expectations, she
+was by and bye just the same as ever. She is, in very truth,
+long-suffering and indulgent! This other party contrariwise became quite
+distant to her, little though one would have thought it of him; and as
+Miss Pao perceived that he had lost his temper, and didn't choose to
+heed her, she subsequently made I don't know how many apologies to him."
+
+"Did Miss Lin ever talk such trash!" exclaimed Pao-yue. "Had she ever
+talked such stuff and nonsense, I would have long ago become chilled
+towards her."
+
+"What you say is all trash!" Hsi Jen and Hsiang-yuen remarked with one
+voice, while they shook their heads to and fro and smiled.
+
+Lin Tai-yue, the fact is, was well aware that now that Shih Hsiang-yuen
+was staying in the mansion, Pao-yue too was certain to hasten to come and
+tell her all about the unicorn he had got, so she thought to herself:
+"In the foreign traditions and wild stories, introduced here of late by
+Pao-yue, literary persons and pretty girls are, for the most part,
+brought together in marriage, through the agency of some trifling but
+ingenious nick-nack. These people either have miniature ducks, or
+phoenixes, jade necklets or gold pendants, fine handkerchiefs or elegant
+sashes; and they have, through the instrumentality of such trivial
+objects, invariably succeeded in accomplishing the wishes they
+entertained throughout their lives." When she recently discovered, by
+some unforeseen way, that Pao-yue had likewise a unicorn she began to
+apprehend lest he should make this circumstance a pretext to create an
+estrangement with her, and indulge with Shih Hsiang-yuen as well in
+various free and easy flirtations and fine doings. She therefore quietly
+crossed over to watch her opportunity and take such action as would
+enable her to get an insight into his and her sentiments. Contrary,
+however, to all her calculations, no sooner did she reach her
+destination, than she overheard Shih Hsiang-yuen dilate on the topic of
+experience, and Pao-yue go on to observe: "Cousin Lin has never indulged
+in such stuff and nonsense. Had she ever uttered any such trash, I would
+have become chilled even towards her!" This language suddenly produced,
+in Lin Tai-yue's mind, both surprise as well as delight; sadness as well
+as regret. Delight, at having indeed been so correct in her perception
+that he whom she had ever considered in the light of a true friend had
+actually turned out to be a true friend. Surprise, "because," she said
+to herself: "he has, in the presence of so many witnesses, displayed
+such partiality as to speak in my praise, and has shown such affection
+and friendliness for me as to make no attempt whatever to shirk
+suspicion." Regret, "for since," (she pondered), "you are my intimate
+friend, you could certainly well look upon me too as your intimate
+friend; and if you and I be real friends, why need there be any more
+talk about gold and jade? But since there be that question of gold and
+jade, you and I should have such things in our possession. Yet, why
+should this Pao-ch'ai step in again between us?" Sad, "because," (she
+reflected), "my father and mother departed life at an early period; and
+because I have, in spite of the secret engraven on my heart and
+imprinted on my bones, not a soul to act as a mentor to me. Besides, of
+late, I continuously feel confusion creep over my mind, so my disease
+must already have gradually developed itself. The doctors further state
+that my breath is weak and my blood poor, and that they dread lest
+consumption should declare itself, so despite that sincere friendship I
+foster for you, I cannot, I fear, last for very long. You are, I admit,
+a true friend to me, but what can you do for my unfortunate destiny!"
+
+Upon reaching this point in her reflections, she could not control her
+tears, and they rolled freely down her cheeks. So much so, that when
+about to enter and meet her cousins, she experienced such utter lack of
+zest, that, while drying her tears she turned round, and wended her
+steps back in the direction of her apartments.
+
+Pao-yue, meanwhile, had hurriedly got into his new costume. Upon coming
+out of doors, he caught sight of Lin Tai-yue, walking quietly ahead of
+him engaged, to all appearances, in wiping tears from her eyes. With
+rapid stride, he overtook her.
+
+"Cousin Lin," he smiled, "where are you off to? How is it that you're
+crying again? Who has once more hurt your feelings?"
+
+Lin Tai-yue turned her head round to look; and seeing that it was Pao-yue,
+she at once forced a smile. "Why should I be crying," she replied, "when
+there is no reason to do so?"
+
+"Look here!" observed Pao-yue smilingly. "The tears in your eyes are not
+dry yet and do you still tell me a fib?"
+
+Saying this, he could not check an impulse to raise his arm and wipe her
+eyes, but Lin Tai-yue speedily withdrew several steps backwards. "Are you
+again bent," she said, "upon compassing your own death! Then why do you
+knock your hands and kick your feet about in this wise?"
+
+"While intent upon speaking, I forgot," smiled Pao-yue, "all about
+propriety and gesticulated, yet quite inadvertently. But what care I
+whether I die or live!"
+
+"To die would, after all" added Lin Tai-yue, "be for you of no matter;
+but you'll leave behind some gold or other, and a unicorn too or other;
+and what would they do?"
+
+This insinuation was enough to plunge Pao-yue into a fresh fit of
+exasperation. Hastening up to her: "Do you still give vent to such
+language?" he asked. "Why, it's really tantamount to invoking
+imprecations on me! What, are you yet angry with me!"
+
+This question recalled to Lin Tai-yue's mind the incidents of a few days
+back, and a pang of remorse immediately gnawed her heart for having been
+again so indiscreet in her speech. "Now don't you distress your mind!"
+she observed hastily, smiling. "I verily said what I shouldn't! Yet what
+is there in this to make your veins protrude, and to so provoke you as
+to bedew your whole face with perspiration?"
+
+While reasoning with him, she felt unable to repress herself, and,
+approaching him, she extended her hand, and wiped the perspiration from
+his face.
+
+Pao-yue gazed intently at her for a long time. "Do set your mind at
+ease!" he at length observed.
+
+At this remark, Lin Tai-yue felt quite nervous. "What's there to make my
+mind uneasy?" she asked after a protracted interval. "I can't make out
+what you're driving at; tell me what's this about making me easy or
+uneasy?"
+
+Pao-yue heaved a sigh. "Don't you truly fathom the depth of my words?" he
+inquired. "Why, do you mean to say that I've throughout made such poor
+use of my love for you as not to be able to even divine your feelings?
+Well, if so, it's no wonder that you daily lose your temper on my
+account!"
+
+"I actually don't understand what you mean by easy or uneasy," Lin
+Tai-yue replied.
+
+"My dear girl," urged Pao-yue, nodding and sighing. "Don't be making a
+fool of me! For if you can't make out these words, not only have I ever
+uselessly lavished affection upon you, but the regard, with which you
+have always treated me, has likewise been entirely of no avail! And it's
+mostly because you won't set your mind at ease that your whole frame is
+riddled with disease. Had you taken things easier a bit, this ailment of
+yours too wouldn't have grown worse from day to day!"
+
+These words made Lin Tai-yue feel as if she had been blasted by thunder,
+or struck by lightning. But after carefully weighing them within
+herself, they seemed to her far more fervent than any that might have
+emanated from the depths of her own heart, and thousands of sentiments,
+in fact, thronged together in her mind; but though she had every wish to
+frame them into language, she found it a hard task to pronounce so much
+as half a word. All she therefore did was to gaze at him with vacant
+stare.
+
+Pao-yue fostered innumerable thoughts within himself, but unable in a
+moment to resolve from which particular one to begin, he too absently
+looked at Tai-yue. Thus it was that the two cousins remained for a long
+time under the spell of a deep reverie.
+
+An ejaculation of "Hai!" was the only sound that issued from Lin
+Tai-yue's lips; and while tears streamed suddenly from her eyes, she
+turned herself round and started on her way homeward.
+
+Pao-yue jumped forward, with alacrity, and dragged her back. "My dear
+cousin," he pleaded, "do stop a bit! Let me tell you just one thing;
+after that, you may go."
+
+"What can you have to tell me?" exclaimed Lin Tai-yue, who while wiping
+her tears, extricated her hand from his grasp. "I know." she cried, "all
+you have to say."
+
+As she spoke, she went away, without even turning her head to cast a
+glance behind her.
+
+As Pao-yue gazed at her receding figure, he fell into abstraction.
+
+He had, in fact, quitted his apartments a few moments back in such
+precipitate hurry that he had omitted to take a fan with him: and Hsi
+Jen, fearing lest he might suffer from the heat, promptly seized one and
+ran to find him and give it to him. But upon casually raising her head,
+she espied Lin Tai-yue standing with him. After a time, Tai-yue walked
+away; and as he still remained where he was without budging, she
+approached him.
+
+"You left," she said, "without even taking a fan with you. Happily I
+noticed it, and so hurried to catch you up and bring it to you."
+
+But Pao-yue was so lost in thought that as soon as he caught Hsi Jen's
+voice, he made a dash and clasped her in his embrace, without so much as
+trying to make sure who she was.
+
+"My dear cousin," he cried, "I couldn't hitherto muster enough courage
+to disclose the secrets of my heart; but on this occasion I shall make
+bold and give utterance to them. For you I'm quite ready to even pay the
+penalty of death. I have too for your sake brought ailments upon my
+whole frame. It's in here! But I haven't ventured to breathe it to any
+one. My only alternative has been to bear it patiently, in the hope that
+when you got all right, I might then perchance also recover. But whether
+I sleep, or whether I dream, I never, never forget you."
+
+These declarations quite dumfoundered Hsi Jen. She gave way to incessant
+apprehensions. All she could do was to shout out: "Oh spirits, oh
+heaven, oh Buddha, he's compassing my death!" Then pushing him away from
+her, "what is it you're saying?" she asked. "May it be that you are
+possessed by some evil spirit! Don't you quick get yourself off?"
+
+This brought Pao-yue to his senses at once. He then became aware that it
+was Hsi Jen, and that she had come to bring him a fan. Pao-yue was
+overpowered with shame; his whole face was suffused with scarlet; and,
+snatching the fan out of her hands, he bolted away with rapid stride.
+
+When Hsi Jen meanwhile saw Pao-yue effect his escape, "Lin Tai-yue," she
+pondered, "must surely be at the bottom of all he said just now. But
+from what one can see, it will be difficult, in the future, to obviate
+the occurrence of some unpleasant mishap. It's sufficient to fill one
+with fear and trembling!"
+
+At this point in her cogitations, she involuntarily melted into tears,
+so agitated was she; while she secretly exercised her mind how best to
+act so as to prevent this dreadful calamity.
+
+But while she was lost in this maze of surmises and doubts, Pao-ch'ai
+unexpectedly appeared from the off side. "What!" she smilingly
+exclaimed, "are you dreaming away in a hot broiling sun like this?"
+
+Hsi Jen, at this question, hastily returned her smiles. "Those two
+birds," she answered, "were having a fight, and such fun was it that I
+stopped to watch them."
+
+"Where is cousin Pao off to now in such a hurry, got up in that fine
+attire?" asked Pao-ch'ai, "I just caught sight of him, as he went by. I
+meant to have called out and stopped him, but as he, of late, talks
+greater rubbish than ever, I didn't challenge him, but let him go past."
+
+"Our master," rejoined Hsi Jen, "sent for him to go out."
+
+"Ai-yah!" hastily exclaimed Pao-ch'ai, as soon as this remark reached
+her ears. "What does he want him for, on a scalding day like this? Might
+he not have thought of something and got so angry about it as to send
+for him to give him a lecture!"
+
+"If it isn't this," added Hsi Jen laughing, "some visitor must, I
+presume, have come and he wishes him to meet him."
+
+"With weather like this," smiled Pao-ch'ai, "even visitors afford no
+amusement! Why don't they, while this fiery temperature lasts, stay at
+home, where it's much cooler, instead of gadding about all over the
+place?"
+
+"Could you tell them so?" smiled Hsi Jen.
+
+"What was that girl Hsiang-yuen doing in your quarters?" Pao-ch'ai then
+asked.
+
+"She only came to chat with us on irrelevant matters." Hsi Jen replied
+smiling. "But did you see the pair of shoes I was pasting the other day?
+Well, I meant to ask her to-morrow to finish them for me."
+
+Pao-chai, at these words, turned her head round, first on this side, and
+then on the other. Seeing that there was no one coming or going: "How is
+it," she smiled, "that you, who have so much gumption, don't ever show
+any respect for people's feelings? I've been of late keeping an eye on
+Miss Yuen's manner, and, from what I can glean from the various rumours
+afloat, she can't be, in the slightest degree, her own mistress at home!
+In that family of theirs, so little can they stand the burden of any
+heavy expenses that they don't employ any needlework-people, and
+ordinary everyday things are mostly attended to by their ladies
+themselves. (If not), why is it that every time she has come to us on a
+visit, and she and I have had a chat, she at once broached the subject
+of their being in great difficulties at home, the moment she perceived
+that there was no one present? Yet, whenever I went on to ask her a few
+questions about their usual way of living, her very eyes grew red, while
+she made some indistinct reply; but as for speaking out, she wouldn't.
+But when I consider the circumstances in which she is placed, for she
+has certainly had the misfortune of being left, from her very infancy,
+without father and mother, the very sight of her is too much for me, and
+my heart begins to bleed within me."
+
+"Quite so! Quite so!" observed Hsi Jen, clapping her hands, after
+listening to her throughout. "It isn't strange then if she let me have
+the ten butterfly knots I asked her to tie for me only after ever so
+many days, and if she said that they were coarsely done, but that I
+should make the best of them and use them elsewhere, and that if I
+wanted any nice ones, I should wait until by and bye when she came to
+stay here, when she would work some neatly for me. What you've told me
+now reminds me that, as she had found it difficult to find an excuse
+when we appealed to her, she must have had to slave away, who knows how
+much, till the third watch in the middle of the night. What a stupid
+thing I was! Had I known this sooner, I would never have told her a word
+about it."
+
+"Last time;" continued Pao-ch'ai, "she told me that when she was at home
+she had ample to do, that she kept busy as late as the third watch, and
+that, if she did the slightest stitch of work for any other people, the
+various ladies, belonging to her family, did not like it."
+
+"But as it happens," explained Hsi Jen, "that mulish-minded and
+perverse-tempered young master of ours won't allow the least bit of
+needlework, no matter whether small or large, to be made by those
+persons employed to do sewing in the household. And as for me, I have no
+time to turn my attention to all these things."
+
+"Why mind him?" laughed Pao-ch'ai. "Simply ask some one to do the work
+and finish."
+
+"How could one bamboozle him?" resumed Hsi Jen. "Why, he'll promptly
+find out everything. Such a thing can't even be suggested. The only
+thing I can do is to quietly slave away, that's all."
+
+"You shouldn't work so hard," smiled Pao-ch'ai. "What do you say to my
+doing a few things for you?"
+
+"Are you in real earnest!" ventured Hsi Jen smiling. "Well, in that
+case, it is indeed a piece of good fortune for me! I'll come over myself
+in the evening."
+
+But before she could conclude her reply, she of a sudden noticed an old
+matron come up to her with precipitate step. "Where does the report come
+from," she interposed, "that Miss Chin Ch'uan-erh has gone, for no rhyme
+or reason, and committed suicide by jumping into the well?"
+
+This bit of news startled Hsi Jen. "Which Chin Ch'uan-erh is it," she
+speedily inquired.
+
+"Where are two Chin Ch'uan-erhs to be found!" rejoined the old matron.
+"It's the one in our Mistress,' Madame Wang's, apartments, who was the
+other day sent away for something or other, I don't know what. On her
+return home, she raised her groans to the skies and shed profuse tears,
+but none of them worried their minds about her, until, who'd have
+thought it, they could see nothing of her. A servant, however, went just
+now to draw water and he says that 'while he was getting it from the
+well in the south-east corner, he caught sight of a dead body, that he
+hurriedly called men to his help, and that when they fished it out, they
+unexpectedly found that it was she, but that though they bustled about
+trying to bring her round, everything proved of no avail'"
+
+"This is odd!" Pao-ch'ai exclaimed.
+
+The moment Hsi Jen heard the tidings, she shook her head and moaned. At
+the remembrance of the friendship, which had ever existed between them,
+tears suddenly trickled down her cheeks. And as for Pao-ch'ai, she
+listened to the account of the accident and then hastened to Madame
+Wang's quarters to try and afford her consolation.
+
+Hsi Jen, during this interval, returned to her room. But we will leave
+her without further notice, and explain that when Pao-ch'ai reached the
+interior of Madame Wang's home, she found everything plunged in perfect
+stillness. Madame Wang was seated all alone in the inner chamber
+indulging her sorrow. But such difficulties did Pao-ch'ai experience to
+allude to the occurrence, that her only alternative was to take a seat
+next to her.
+
+"Where do you come from?" asked Madame Wang.
+
+"I come from inside the garden," answered Pao-ch'ai.
+
+"As you come from the garden," Madame Wang inquired, "did you see
+anything of your cousin Pao-yue?"
+
+"I saw him just now," Pao-ch'ai replied, "go out, dressed up in his
+fineries. But where he is gone to, I don't know."
+
+"Have you perchance heard of any strange occurrence?" asked Madame Wang,
+while she nodded her head and sighed. "Why, Chin Ch'uan Erh jumped into
+the well and committed suicide."
+
+"How is it that she jumped into the well when there was nothing to make
+her do so?" Pao-ch'ai inquired. "This is indeed a remarkable thing!"
+
+"The fact is," proceeded Madame Wang, "that she spoilt something the
+other day, and in a sudden fit of temper, I gave her a slap and sent her
+away, simply meaning to be angry with her for a few days and then bring
+her in again. But, who could have ever imagined that she had such a
+resentful temperament as to go and drown herself in a well! And is not
+this all my fault?"
+
+"It's because you are such a kind-hearted person, aunt," smiled
+Pao-ch'ai, "that such ideas cross your mind! But she didn't jump into
+the well when she was in a tantrum; so what must have made her do so was
+that she had to go and live in the lower quarters. Or, she might have
+been standing in front of the well, and her foot slipped, and she fell
+into it. While in the upper rooms, she used to be kept under restraint,
+so when this time she found herself outside, she must, of course, have
+felt the wish to go strolling all over the place in search of fun. How
+could she have ever had such a fiery disposition? But even admitting
+that she had such a temper, she was, after all, a stupid girl to do as
+she did; and she doesn't deserve any pity."
+
+"In spite of what you say," sighed Madame Wang, shaking her head to and
+fro, "I really feel unhappy at heart."
+
+"You shouldn't, aunt, distress your mind about it!" Pao-ch'ai smiled.
+"Yet, if you feel very much exercised, just give her a few more taels
+than you would otherwise have done, and let her be buried. You'll thus
+carry out to the full the feelings of a mistress towards her servant."
+
+"I just now gave them fifty taels for her," pursued Madame Wang. "I also
+meant to let them have some of your cousin's new clothes to enshroud her
+in. But, who'd have thought it, none of the girls had, strange
+coincidence, any newly-made articles of clothing; and there were only
+that couple of birthday suits of your cousin Lin's. But as your cousin
+Lin has ever been such a sensitive child and has always too suffered and
+ailed, I thought it would be unpropitious for her, if her clothes were
+also now handed to people to wrap their dead in, after she had been told
+that they were given her for her birthday. So I ordered a tailor to get
+a suit for her as soon as possible. Had it been any other servant-girl,
+I could have given her a few taels and have finished. But Chin
+Ch'uan-erh was, albeit a servant-maid, nearly as dear to me as if she
+had been a daughter of mine."
+
+Saying this, tears unwittingly ran down from her eyes.
+
+"Aunt!" vehemently exclaimed Pao-ch'ai. "What earthly use is it of
+hurrying a tailor just now to prepare clothes for her? I have a couple
+of suits I made the other day and won't it save trouble were I to go and
+bring them for her? Besides, when she was alive, she used to wear my old
+clothes. And what's more our figures are much alike."
+
+"What you say is all very well," rejoined Madame Wang; "but can it be
+that it isn't distasteful to you?"
+
+"Compose your mind," urged Pao-ch'ai with a smile. "I have never paid
+any heed to such things."
+
+As she spoke, she rose to her feet and walked away.
+
+Madame Wang then promptly called two servants. "Go and accompany Miss
+Pao!" she said.
+
+In a brief space of time, Pao-ch'ai came back with the clothes, and
+discovered Pao-yue seated next to Madame Wang, all melted in tears.
+Madame Wang was reasoning with him. At the sight of Pao-ch'ai, she, at
+once, desisted. When Pao-ch'ai saw them go on in this way, and came to
+weigh their conversation and to scan the expression on their
+countenances, she immediately got a pretty correct insight into their
+feelings. But presently she handed over the clothes, and Madame Wang
+sent for Chin Ch'uan-erh's mother, to take them away.
+
+But, reader, you will have to peruse the next chapter for further
+details.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+ A brother is prompted by ill-feeling to wag his tongue a bit.
+ A depraved son receives heavy blows with a rattan cane.
+
+
+Madame Wang, for we shall now continue our story, sent for Chin
+Ch'uan-erh's mother. On her arrival, she gave her several hair-pins and
+rings, and then told her that she could invite several Buddhist priests
+as well to read the prayers necessary to release the spirit from
+purgatory. The mother prostrated herself and expressed her gratitude;
+after which, she took her leave.
+
+Indeed, Pao-yue, on his return from entertaining Yue-ts'un, heard the
+tidings that Chin Ch'uan-erh had been instigated by a sense of shame to
+take her own life and he at once fell a prey to grief. So much so, that,
+when he came inside, and was again spoken to and admonished by Madame
+Wang, he could not utter a single word in his justification. But as soon
+as he perceived Pao-ch'ai make her appearance in the room, he seized the
+opportunity to scamper out in precipitate haste. Whither he was
+trudging, he himself had not the least idea. But throwing his hands
+behind his back and drooping his head against his chest, he gave way to
+sighs, while with slow and listless step he turned towards the hall.
+Scarcely, however, had he rounded the screen-wall, which stood in front
+of the door-way, when, by a strange coincidence, he ran straight into
+the arms of some one, who was unawares approaching from the opposite
+direction, and was just about to go towards the inner portion of the
+compound.
+
+"Hallo!" that person was heard to cry out, as he stood still.
+
+Pao-yue sustained a dreadful start. Raising his face to see, he
+discovered that it was no other than his father. At once, he
+unconsciously drew a long breath and adopted the only safe course of
+dropping his arms against his body and standing on one side.
+
+"Why are you," exclaimed Chia Cheng, "drooping your head in such a
+melancholy mood, and indulging in all these moans? When Yue-ts'un came
+just now and he asked to see you, you only put in your appearance after
+a long while. But though you did come, you were not in the least
+disposed to chat with anything like cheerfulness and animation; you
+behaved, as you ever do, like a regular fool. I detected then in your
+countenance a certain expression of some hidden hankering and sadness;
+and now again here you are groaning and sighing! Does all you have not
+suffice to please you? Are you still dissatisfied? You've no reason to
+be like this, so why is it that you go on in this way?"
+
+Pao-yue had ever, it is true, shown a glib tongue, but on the present
+occasion he was so deeply affected by Chin Ch'uan-erh's fate, and vexed
+at not being able to die that very instant and follow in her footsteps
+that although he was now fully conscious that his father was speaking to
+him he could not, in fact, lend him an ear, but simply stood in a timid
+and nervous mood. Chia Cheng noticed that he was in a state of trembling
+and fear, not as ready with an answer as he usually was, and his sorry
+plight somewhat incensed him, much though he had not at first borne him
+any ill-feeling. But just as he was about to chide him, a messenger
+approached and announced to him: "Some one has come from the mansion of
+the imperial Prince Chung Shun, and wishes to see you, Sir." At this
+announcement, surmises sprung up in Chia Cheng's mind. "Hitherto," he
+secretly mused, "I've never had any dealings with the Chung Shun
+mansion, and why is it that some one is despatched here to-day?" As he
+gave way to these reflections. "Be quick," he shouted, "and ask him to
+take a seat in the pavilion," while he himself precipitately entered the
+inner room and changed his costume. When he came out to greet the
+visitor, he discovered that it was the senior officer of the Chung Shun
+mansion. After the exchange of the salutations prescribed by the rites,
+they sat down and tea was presented. But before (Chia Cheng) had had
+time to start a topic of conversation, the senior officer anticipated
+him, and speedily observed: "Your humble servant does not pay this visit
+to-day to your worthy mansion on his own authority, but entirely in
+compliance with instructions received, as there is a favour that I have
+to beg of you. I make bold to trouble you, esteemed Sir, on behalf of
+his highness, to take any steps you might deem suitable, and if you do,
+not only will his highness remember your kindness, but even I, your
+humble servant, and my colleagues will feel extremely grateful to you."
+
+Chia Cheng listened to him, but he could not nevertheless get a clue of
+what he was driving at. Promptly returning his smile, he rose to his
+feet. "You come, Sir," he inquired, "at the instance of his royal
+highness, but what, I wonder, are the commands you have to give me? I
+hope you will explain them to your humble servant, worthy Sir, in order
+to enable him to carry them out effectively."
+
+The senior officer gave a sardonic smile.
+
+"There's nothing to carry out," he said. "All you, venerable Sir, have
+to do is to utter one single word and the whole thing will be effected.
+There is in our mansion a certain Ch'i Kuan, who plays the part of young
+ladies. He hitherto stayed quietly in the mansion; but for the last
+three or five days or so no one has seen him return home. Search has
+been instituted in every locality, yet his whereabouts cannot be
+discovered. But throughout these various inquiries, eight out of the ten
+tenths of the inhabitants of the city have, with one consent, asserted
+that he has of late been on very friendly terms with that honourable son
+of yours, who was born with the jade in his mouth. This report was told
+your servant and his colleagues, but as your worthy mansion is unlike
+such residences as we can take upon ourselves to enter and search with
+impunity, we felt under the necessity of laying the matter before our
+imperial master. 'Had it been any of the other actors,' his highness
+also says, 'I wouldn't have minded if even one hundred of them had
+disappeared; but this Ch'i Kuan has always been so ready with pat
+repartee, so respectful and trustworthy that he has thoroughly won my
+aged heart, and I could never do without him.' He entreats you,
+therefore, worthy Sir, to, in your turn, plead with your illustrious
+scion, and request him to let Ch'i Kuan go back, in order that the
+feelings, which prompt the Prince to make such earnest supplications,
+may, in the first place, be satisfied: and that, in the next, your mean
+servant and his associates may be spared the fatigue of toiling and
+searching."
+
+At the conclusion of this appeal, he promptly made a low bow. As soon as
+Chia Cheng found out the object of his errand, he felt both astonishment
+and displeasure. With all promptitude, he issued directions that Pao-yue
+should be told to come out of the garden. Pao-yue had no notion whatever
+why he was wanted. So speedily he hurried to appear before his father.
+
+"What a regular scoundrel you are!" Chia Cheng exclaimed. "It is enough
+that you won't read your books at home; but will you also go in for all
+these lawless and wrongful acts? That Ch'i Kuan is a person whose
+present honourable duties are to act as an attendant on his highness the
+Prince of Chung Shun, and how extremely heedless of propriety must you
+be to have enticed him, without good cause, to come away, and thus have
+now brought calamity upon me?"
+
+These reproaches plunged Pao-yue in a dreadful state of consternation.
+With alacrity he said by way of reply: "I really don't know anything
+about the matter! To what do, after all, the two words Ch'i Kuan refer,
+I wonder! Still less, besides, am I aware what entice can imply!"
+
+As he spoke, he started crying.
+
+But before Chia Cheng could open his month to pass any further remarks,
+"Young gentleman," he heard the senior officer interpose with a sardonic
+smile: "you shouldn't conceal anything! if he be either hidden in your
+home, or if you know his whereabouts, divulge the truth at once; so that
+less trouble should fall to our lot than otherwise would. And will we
+not then bear in mind your virtue, worthy scion!"
+
+"I positively don't know." Pao-yue time after time maintained. "There
+must, I fear, be some false rumour abroad; for I haven't so much as seen
+anything of him."
+
+The senior officer gave two loud smiles, full of derision. "There's
+evidence at hand," he rejoined, "so if you compel me to speak out before
+your venerable father, won't you, young man, have to suffer the
+consequences? But as you assert that you don't know who this person is,
+how is it that that red sash has come to be attached to your waist?"
+
+When Pao-yue caught this allusion, he suddenly felt quite out of his
+senses. He stared and gaped; while within himself, he argued: "How has
+he come to hear anything about this! But since he knows all these secret
+particulars, I cannot, I expect, put him off in other points; so
+wouldn't it be better for me to pack him off, in order to obviate his
+blubbering anything more?" "Sir," he consequently remarked aloud, "how
+is it that despite your acquaintance with all these minute details, you
+have no inkling of his having purchased a house? Are you ignorant of an
+essential point like this? I've heard people say that he's, at present,
+staying in the eastern suburbs at a distance of twenty li from the city
+walls; at some place or other called Tzu T'an Pao, and that he has
+bought there several acres of land and a few houses. So I presume he's
+to be found in that locality; but of course there's no saying."
+
+"According to your version," smiled the senior officer, as soon as he
+heard his explanation, "he must for a certainty be there. I shall
+therefore go and look for him. If he's there, well and good; but if not,
+I shall come again and request you to give me further directions."
+
+These words were still on his lips, when he took his leave and walked
+off with hurried step.
+
+Chia Cheng was by this time stirred up to such a pitch of indignation
+that his eyes stared aghast, and his mouth opened in bewilderment; and
+as he escorted the officer out, he turned his head and bade Pao-yue not
+budge. "I have," (he said), "to ask you something on my return."
+Straightway he then went to see the officer off. But just as he was
+turning back, he casually came across Chia Huan and several servant-boys
+running wildly about in a body. "Quick, bring him here to me!" shouted
+Chia Cheng to the young boys. "I want to beat him."
+
+Chia Huan, at the sight of his father, was so terrified that his bones
+mollified and his tendons grew weak, and, promptly lowering his head, he
+stood still."
+
+"What are you running about for?" Chia Cheng asked. "These menials of
+yours do not mind you, but go who knows where, and let you roam about
+like a wild horse! Where are the attendants who wait on you at school?"
+he cried.
+
+When Chia Huan saw his father in such a dreadful rage, he availed
+himself of the first opportunity to try and clear himself. "I wasn't
+running about just now" he said. "But as I was passing by the side of
+that well, I caught sight, for in that well a servant-girl was drowned,
+of a human head that large, a body that swollen, floating about in
+really a frightful way and I therefore hastily rushed past."
+
+Chia Cheng was thunderstruck by this disclosure. "There's been nothing
+up, so who has gone and jumped into the well?" he inquired. "Never has
+there been anything of the kind in my house before! Ever since the time
+of our ancestors, servants have invariably been treated with clemency
+and consideration. But I expect that I must of late have become remiss
+in my domestic affairs, and that the managers must have arrogated to
+themselves the right of domineering and so been the cause of bringing
+about such calamities as violent deaths and disregard of life. Were
+these things to reach the ears of people outside, what will become of
+the reputation of our seniors? Call Chia Lien and Lai Ta here!" he
+shouted.
+
+The servant-lads signified their obedience, with one voice. They were
+about to go and summon them, when Chia Huan hastened to press forward.
+Grasping the lapel of Chia Cheng's coat, and clinging to his knees, he
+knelt down. "Father, why need you be angry?" he said. "Excluding the
+people in Madame Wang's rooms, this occurrence is entirely unknown to
+any of the rest; and I have heard my mother mention...." At this point,
+he turned his head, and cast a glance in all four quarters.
+
+Chia Cheng guessed his meaning, and made a sign with his eyes. The young
+boys grasped his purpose and drew far back on either side.
+
+Chia Huan resumed his confidences in a low tone of voice. "My mother,"
+he resumed, "told me that when brother Pao-yue was, the other day, in
+Madame Wang's apartments, he seized her servant-maid Chin Ch'uan-erh
+with the intent of dishonouring her. That as he failed to carry out his
+design, he gave her a thrashing, which so exasperated Chin Ch'uan-erh
+that she threw herself into the well and committed suicide...."
+
+Before however he could conclude his account, Chia Cheng had been
+incensed to such a degree that his face assumed the colour of silver
+paper. "Bring Pao-yue here," he cried. While uttering these orders, he
+walked into the study. "If any one does again to-day come to dissuade
+me," he vociferated, "I shall take this official hat, and sash, my home
+and private property and surrender everything at once to him to go and
+bestow them upon Pao-yue; for if I cannot escape blame (with a son like
+the one I have), I mean to shave this scanty trouble-laden hair about my
+temples and go in search of some unsullied place where I can spend the
+rest of my days alone! I shall thus also avoid the crime of heaping,
+above, insult upon my predecessors, and, below, of having given birth to
+such a rebellious son."
+
+At the sight of Chia Cheng in this exasperation, the family companions
+and attendants speedily realised that Pao-yue must once more be the cause
+of it, and the whole posse hastened to withdraw from the study, biting
+their fingers and putting their tongues out.
+
+Chia Cheng panted with excitement. He stretched his chest out and sat
+bolt upright on a chair. His whole face was covered with the traces of
+tears. "Bring Pao-yue! Bring Pao-yue!" he shouted consecutively. "Fetch a
+big stick; bring a rope and tie him up; close all the doors! If any one
+does communicate anything about it in the inner rooms, why, I'll
+immediately beat him to death."
+
+The servant-boys felt compelled to express their obedience with one
+consent, and some of them came to look after Pao-yue.
+
+As for Pao-yue, when he heard Chia Cheng enjoin him not to move, he
+forthwith became aware that the chances of an unpropitious issue
+outnumbered those of a propitious one, but how could he have had any
+idea that Chia Huan as well had put in his word? There he still stood in
+the pavilion, revolving in his mind how he could get some one to speed
+inside and deliver a message for him. But, as it happened, not a soul
+appeared. He was quite at a loss to know where even Pei Ming could be.
+His longing was at its height, when he perceived an old nurse come on
+the scene. The sight of her exulted Pao-yue, just as much as if he had
+obtained pearls or gems; and hurriedly approaching her, he dragged her
+and forced her to halt. "Go in," he urged, "at once and tell them that
+my father wishes to beat me to death. Be quick, be quick, for it's
+urgent, there's no time to be lost."
+
+But, first and foremost, Pao-yue's excitement was so intense that he
+spoke with indistinctness. In the second place, the old nurse was, as
+luck would have it, dull of hearing, so that she did not catch the drift
+of what he said, and she misconstrued the two words: "it's urgent," for
+the two representing jumped into the well. Readily smiling therefore:
+"If she wants to jump into the well, let her do so," she said. "What's
+there to make you fear, Master Secundus?"
+
+"Go out," pursued Pao-yue, in despair, on discovering that she was deaf,
+"and tell my page to come."
+
+"What's there left unsettled?" rejoined the old nurse. "Everything has
+been finished long ago! A tip has also been given them; so how is it
+things are not settled?"
+
+Pao-yue fidgetted with his hands and feet. He was just at his wits' ends,
+when he espied Chia Cheng's servant-boys come up and press him to go
+out.
+
+As soon as Chia Cheng caught sight of him, his eyes got quite red.
+Without even allowing himself any time to question him about his gadding
+about with actors, and the presents he gave them on the sly, during his
+absence from home; or about his playing the truant from school and
+lewdly importuning his mother's maid, during his stay at home, he simply
+shouted: "Gag his mouth and positively beat him till he dies!"
+
+The servant-boys did not have the boldness to disobey him. They were
+under the necessity of seizing Pao-yue, of stretching him on a bench, and
+of taking a heavy rattan and giving him about ten blows.
+
+Pao-yue knew well enough that he could not plead for mercy, and all he
+could do was to whimper and cry.
+
+Chia Cheng however found fault with the light blows they administered to
+him. With one kick he shoved the castigator aside, and snatching the
+rattan into his own hands, he spitefully let (Pao-yue) have ten blows and
+more.
+
+Pao-yue had not, from his very birth, experienced such anguish. From the
+outset, he found the pain unbearable; yet he could shout and weep as
+boisterously as ever he pleased; but so weak subsequently did his
+breath, little by little, become, so hoarse his voice, and so choked his
+throat that he could not bring out any sound.
+
+The family companions noticed that he was beaten in a way that might
+lead to an unpropitious end, and they drew near with all despatch and
+made earnest entreaties and exhortations. But would Chia Cheng listen to
+them?
+
+"You people," he answered, "had better ask him whether the tricks he has
+been up to deserve to be overlooked or not! It's you who have all along
+so thoroughly spoilt him as to make him reach this degree of depravity!
+And do you yet come to advise me to spare him? When by and bye you've
+incited him to commit parricide or regicide, you will at length, then,
+give up trying to dissuade me, eh?"
+
+This language jarred on the ears of the whole party; and knowing only
+too well that he was in an exasperated mood, they fussed about
+endeavouring to find some one to go in and convey the news.
+
+But Madame Wang did not presume to be the first to inform dowager lady
+Chia about it. Seeing no other course open to her, she hastily dressed
+herself and issued out of the garden. Without so much as worrying her
+mind as to whether there were any male inmates about or not, she
+straightway leant on a waiting-maid and hurriedly betook herself into
+the library, to the intense consternation of the companions, pages and
+all the men present, who could not manage to clear out of the way in
+time.
+
+Chia Cheng was on the point of further belabouring his son, when at the
+sight of Madame Wang walking in, his temper flared up with such
+increased violence, just as fire on which oil is poured, that the rod
+fell with greater spite and celerity. The two servant-boys, who held
+Pao-yue down, precipitately loosened their grip and beat a retreat.
+Pao-yue had long ago lost all power of movement. Chia Cheng, however, was
+again preparing to assail him, when the rattan was immediately locked
+tightly by Madame Wang, in both her arms.
+
+"Of course, of course," Chia Cheng exclaimed, "what you want to do
+to-day is to make me succumb to anger!"
+
+"Pao-yue does, I admit, merit to be beaten," sobbed Madame Wang; "but you
+should also, my lord, take good care of yourself! The weather, besides,
+is extremely hot, and our old lady is not feeling quite up to the mark.
+Were you to knock Pao-yue about and kill him, it would not matter much;
+but were perchance our venerable senior to suddenly fall ill, wouldn't
+it be a grave thing?"
+
+"Better not talk about such things!" observed Chia Cheng with a listless
+smile. "By my bringing up such a degenerate child of retribution I have
+myself become unfilial! Whenever I've had to call him to account, there
+has always been a whole crowd of you to screen him; so isn't it as well
+for me to avail myself of to-day to put an end to his cur-like existence
+and thus prevent future misfortune?"
+
+As he spoke, he asked for a rope to strangle him; but Madame Wang lost
+no time in clasping him in her embrace, and reasoning with him as she
+wept. "My lord and master," she said, "it is your duty, of course, to
+keep your son in proper order, but you should also regard the
+relationship of husband and wife. I'm already a woman of fifty and I've
+only got this scapegrace. Was there any need for you to give him such a
+bitter lesson? I wouldn't presume to use any strong dissuasion; but
+having, on this occasion, gone so far as to harbour the design of
+killing him, isn't this a fixed purpose on your part to cut short my own
+existence? But as you are bent upon strangling him, be quick and first
+strangle me before you strangle him! It will be as well that we, mother
+and son, should die together, so that if even we go to hell, we may be
+able to rely upon each other!"
+
+At the conclusion of these words, she enfolded Pao-yue in her embrace and
+raised her voice in loud sobs.
+
+After listening to her appeal, Chia Cheng could not restrain a deep
+sigh; and taking a seat on one of the chairs, the tears ran down his
+cheeks like drops of rain.
+
+But while Madame Wang held Pao-yue in her arms, she noticed that his face
+was sallow and his breath faint, and that his green gauze nether
+garments were all speckled with stains of blood, so she could not check
+her fingers from unloosening his girdle. And realising that from the
+thighs to the buttocks, his person was here green, there purple, here
+whole, there broken, and that there was, in fact, not the least bit,
+which had not sustained some injury, she of a sudden burst out in bitter
+lamentations for her offspring's wretched lot in life. But while
+bemoaning her unfortunate son, she again recalled to mind the memory of
+Chia Chu, and vehemently calling out "Chia Chu," she sobbed: "if but you
+were alive, I would not care if even one hundred died!"
+
+But by this time, the inmates of the inner rooms discovered that Madame
+Wang had gone out, and Li Kung-ts'ai, Wang Hsi-feng and Ting Ch'un and
+her sisters promptly rushed out of the garden and came to join her.
+
+While Madame Wang mentioned, with eyes bathed in tears, the name of Chia
+Chu, every one listened with composure, with the exception of Li
+Kung-ts'ai, who unable to curb her feelings also raised her voice in
+sobs. As soon as Chia Cheng heard her plaints, his tears trickled down
+with greater profusion, like pearls scattered about. But just as there
+seemed no prospect of their being consoled, a servant-girl was unawares
+heard to announce: "Our dowager lady has come!" Before this announcement
+was ended, her tremulous accents reached their ears from outside the
+window. "If you were to beat me to death and then despatch him," she
+cried, "won't you be clear of us!"
+
+Chia Cheng, upon seeing that his mother was coming, felt distressed and
+pained. With all promptitude, he went out to meet her. He perceived his
+old parent, toddling along, leaning on the arm of a servant-girl,
+wagging her head and gasping for breath.
+
+Chia Cheng drew forward and made a curtsey. "On a hot broiling day like
+this," he ventured, forcing a smile, "what made you, mother, get so
+angry as to rush over in person? Had you anything to enjoin me, you
+could have sent for me, your son, and given me your orders."
+
+Old lady Chia, at these words, halted and panted. "Are you really
+chiding me?" she at the same time said in a stern tone. "It's I who
+should call you to task! But as the son, I've brought up, isn't worth a
+straw, to whom can I go and address a word?"
+
+When Chia Cheng heard language so unlike that generally used by her, he
+immediately fell on his knees. While doing all in his power to contain
+his tears: "The reason why," he explained, "your son corrects his
+offspring is a desire to reflect lustre on his ancestors and splendour
+on his seniors; so how can I, your son, deserve the rebuke with which
+you greet me, mother?"
+
+At this reply, old lady Chia spurted contemptuously. "I made just one
+remark," she added, "and you couldn't stand it, and can Pao-yue likely
+put up with that death-working cane? You say that your object in
+correcting your son is to reflect lustre on your ancestors and splendour
+on your seniors, but in what manner did your father correct you in days
+gone by?"
+
+Saying this, tears suddenly rolled down from her eyes also.
+
+Chia Cheng forced another smile. "Mother;" he proceeded, "you shouldn't
+distress yourself! Your son did it in a sudden fit of rage, but from
+this time forth I won't touch him again."
+
+Dowager lady Chia smiled several loud sneering smiles. "But you
+shouldn't get into a huff with me!" she urged. "He's your son, so if you
+choose to flog him, you can naturally do so, but I cannot help thinking
+that you're sick and tired of me, your mother, of your wife and of your
+son, so wouldn't it be as well that we should get out of your way, the
+sooner the better, as we shall then be able to enjoy peace and quiet?"
+
+So speaking, "Go and look after the chairs." she speedily cried to a
+servant. "I and your lady as well as Pao-yue will, without delay, return
+to Nanking."
+
+The servant had no help but to assent.
+
+Old lady Chia thereupon called Madame Wang over to her. "You needn't
+indulge in sorrow!" she exhorted her. "Pao-yue is now young, and you
+cherish him fondly; but does it follow that when in years to come he
+becomes an official, he'll remember that you are his mother? You mustn't
+therefore at present lavish too much of your affection upon him, so that
+you may by and bye, spare yourself, at least, some displeasure."
+
+When these exhortations fell on Chia Cheng's ear, he instantly
+prostrated himself before her. "Your remarks mother," he observed, "cut
+the ground under your son's very feet."
+
+"You distinctly act in a way," cynically smiled old lady Chia,
+"sufficient to deprive me of any ground to stand upon, and then you, on
+the contrary, go and speak about yourself! But when we shall have gone
+back, your mind will be free of all trouble. We'll see then who'll
+interfere and dissuade you from beating people!"
+
+After this reply, she went on to give orders to directly get ready the
+baggage, carriages, chairs and horses necessary for their return.
+
+Chia Cheng stiffly and rigidly fell on his knees, and knocked his head
+before her, and pleaded guilty. Dowager lady Chia then addressed him
+some words, and as she did so, she came to have a look at Pao-yue. Upon
+perceiving that the thrashing he had got this time was unlike those of
+past occasions, she experienced both pain and resentment. So clasping
+him in her arms, she wept and wept incessantly. It was only after Madame
+Wang, lady Feng and the other ladies had reasoned with her for a time
+that they at length gradually succeeded in consoling her.
+
+But waiting-maids, married women, and other attendants soon came to
+support Pao-yue and take him away. Lady Feng however at once expostulated
+with them. "You stupid things," she exclaimed, won't you open your eyes
+and see! How ever could he be raised and made to walk in the state he's
+in! Don't you yet instantly run inside and fetch some rattan slings and
+a bench to carry him out of this on?
+
+At this suggestion, the servants rushed hurry-scurry inside and actually
+brought a bench; and, lifting Pao-yue, they placed him on it. Then
+following dowager lady Chia, Madame Wang and the other inmates into the
+inner part of the building, they carried him into his grandmother's
+apartments. But Chia Cheng did not fail to notice that his old mother's
+passion had not by this time yet abated, so without presuming to consult
+his own convenience, he too came inside after them. Here he discovered
+how heavily he had in reality castigated Pao-yue. Upon perceiving Madame
+Wang also crying, with one breath, "My flesh;" and, with another, saying
+with tears: "My son, if you had died sooner, instead of Chu Erh, and
+left Chu Erh behind you, you would have saved your father these fits of
+anger, and even I would not have had to fruitlessly worry and fret for
+half of my existence! Were anything to happen now to make you forsake
+me, upon whom will you have me depend?" And then after heaping
+reproaches upon herself for a time, break out afresh in lamentations for
+her, unavailing offspring, Chia Cheng was much cut up and felt conscious
+that he should not with his own hand have struck his son so ruthlessly
+as to bring him to this state, and he first and foremost directed his
+attention to consoling dowager lady Chia.
+
+"If your son isn't good," rejoined the old lady, repressing her tears,
+"it is naturally for you to exercise control over him. But you shouldn't
+beat him to such a pitch! Don't you yet bundle yourself away? What are
+you dallying in here for? Is it likely, pray, that your heart is not yet
+satisfied, and that you wish to feast your eyes by seeing him die before
+you go?"
+
+These taunts induced Chia Cheng to eventually withdraw out of the room.
+By this time, Mrs. Hsueeh together with Pao-ch'ai, Hsiang Ling, Hsi Jen,
+Shih Hsiang-yuen and his other cousins had also congregated in the
+apartments. Hsi Jen's heart was overflowing with grief; but she could
+not very well give expression to it. When she saw that a whole company
+of people shut him in, some pouring water over him, others fanning him;
+and that she herself could not lend a hand in any way, she availed
+herself of a favourable moment to make her exit. Proceeding then as far
+as the second gate, she bade the servant-boys go and fetch Pei-Ming. On
+his arrival, she submitted him to a searching inquiry. "Why is it," she
+asked, "that he was beaten just now without the least provocation; and
+that you didn't run over soon to tell me a word about it?"
+
+"It happened," answered Pei Ming in great perplexity, "that I wasn't
+present. It was only after he had given him half the flogging that I
+heard what was going on, and lost no time in ascertaining what it was
+all about. It's on account of those affairs connected with Ch'i Kuan and
+that girl Chin Ch'uan."
+
+"How did these things come to master's knowledge?" inquired Hsi Jen.
+
+"As for that affair with Ch'i Kuan," continued Pei Ming, "it is very
+likely Mr. Hsueeh P'an who has let it out; for as he has ever been
+jealous, he may, in the absence of any other way of quenching his
+resentment, have instigated some one or other outside, who knows, to
+come and see master and add fuel to his anger. As for Chin Ch'uan-erh's
+affair it has presumably been told him by Master Tertius. This I heard
+from the lips of some person, who was in attendance upon master."
+
+Hsi Jen saw how much his two versions tallied with the true
+circumstances, so she readily credited the greater portion of what was
+told her. Subsequently, she returned inside. Here she found a whole
+crowd of people trying to do the best to benefit Pao-yue. But after they
+had completed every arrangement, dowager lady Chia impressed on their
+minds that it would be better were they to carefully move him into his
+own quarters. With one voice they all signified their approval, and with
+a good deal of bustling and fussing, they speedily transferred Pao-yue
+into the I Hung court, where they stretched him out comfortably on his
+own bed. Then after some further excitement, the members of the family
+began gradually to disperse. Hsi Jen at last entered his room, and
+waited upon him with singleness of heart.
+
+But, reader, if you feel any curiosity to hear what follows, listen to
+what you will find divulged in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+ Tai-yue loves Pao-yue with extreme affection; but, on account of this
+ affection, her female cousin gets indignant.
+ Hsueeh P'an commits a grave mistake; but Pao-ch'ai makes this mistake a
+ pretext to tender advice to her brother.
+
+
+When Hsi Jen saw dowager lady Chia, Madame Wang and the other members of
+the family take their leave, our narrative says, she entered the room.
+and, taking a seat next to Pao-yue, she asked him, while she did all she
+could to hide her tears: "How was it that he beat you to such extremes?"
+
+Pao-yue heaved a sigh. "It was simply," he replied, "about those trifles.
+But what's the use of your asking me about them? The lower part of my
+body is so very sore! Do look and see where I'm bruised!"
+
+At these words, Hsi Jen put out her hand, and inserting it gently under
+his clothes, she began to pull down the middle garments. She had but
+slightly moved them, however, when Pao-yue ground his teeth and groaned
+"ai-ya." Hsi Jen at once stayed her hand. It was after three or four
+similar attempts that she, at length, succeeded in drawing them down.
+Then looking closely, Hsi Jen discovered that the upper part of his legs
+was all green and purple, one mass of scars four fingers wide, and
+covered with huge blisters.
+
+Hsi Jen gnashed her teeth. "My mother!" she ejaculated, "how is it that
+he struck you with such a ruthless hand! Had you minded the least bit of
+my advice to you, things wouldn't have come to such a pass! Luckily, no
+harm was done to any tendon or bone; for had you been crippled by the
+thrashing you got, what could we do?"
+
+In the middle of these remarks, she saw the servant-girls come, and they
+told her that Miss Pao-ch'ai had arrived. Hearing this, Hsi Jen saw well
+enough that she had no time to put him on his middle garments, so
+forthwith snatching a double gauze coverlet, she threw it over Pao-yue.
+This done, she perceived Pao-ch'ai walk in, her hands laden with pills
+and medicines.
+
+"At night," she said to Hsi Jen, "take these medicines and dissolve them
+in wine and then apply them on him, and, when the fiery virus from that
+stagnant blood has been dispelled, he'll be all right again."
+
+After these directions, she handed the medicines to Hsi Jen. "Is he
+feeling any better now?" she proceeded to inquired.
+
+"Thanks!" rejoined Pao-yue. "I'm feeling better," he at the same time
+went on to say; after which, he pressed her to take a seat.
+
+Pao-ch'ai noticed that he could open his eyes wide, that he could speak
+and that he was not as bad as he had been, and she felt considerable
+inward relief. But nodding her head, she sighed. "If you had long ago
+listened to the least bit of the advice tendered to you by people things
+would not have reached this climax to-day," she said. "Not to speak of
+the pain experienced by our dear ancestor and aunt Wang, the sight of
+you in this state makes even us feel at heart...."
+
+Just as she had uttered half of the remark she meant to pass, she
+quickly suppressed the rest; and smitten by remorse for having spoken
+too hastily, she could not help getting red in the face and lowering her
+head.
+
+Pao-yue was realising how affectionate, how friendly and how replete with
+deep meaning were the sentiments that dropped from her month, when, of a
+sudden, he saw her seal her lips and, flashing crimson, droop her head,
+and simply fumble with her girdle. Yet so fascinating was she in those
+timid blushes, which completely baffle description, that his feelings
+were roused within him to such a degree, that all sense of pain flew at
+once beyond the empyrean. "I've only had to bear a few blows," he
+reflected, "and yet every one of them puts on those pitiful looks
+sufficient to evoke love and regard; so were, after all, any mishap or
+untimely end to unexpectedly befall me, who can tell how much more
+afflicted they won't be! And as they go on in this way, I shall have
+them, were I even to die in a moment, to feel so much for me; so there
+will indeed be no reason for regret, albeit the concerns of a whole
+lifetime will be thus flung entirely to the winds!"
+
+While indulging in these meditations, ha overheard Pao-ch'ai ask Hsi
+Jen: "How is it that he got angry, without rhyme or reason, and started
+beating him?" and Hsi Jen tell her, in reply, the version given to her
+by Pei Ming.
+
+Pao-yue had, in fact, no idea as yet of what had been said by Chia Huan,
+and, when he heard Hsi Jen's disclosures, he eventually got to know what
+it was; but as it also criminated Hsueeh P'an, he feared lest Pao-ch'ai
+might feel unhappy, so he lost no time in interrupting Hsi Jen.
+
+"Cousin Hsueeh," he interposed, "has never been like that; you people
+mustn't therefore give way to idle surmises!"
+
+These words were enough to make Pao-ch'ai see that Pao-yue had thought it
+expedient to say something to stop Hsi Jen's mouth, apprehending that
+her suspicions might get roused; and she consequently secretly mused
+within herself: "He has been beaten to such a pitch, and yet, heedless
+of his own pains and aches, he's still so careful not to hurt people's
+feelings. But since you can be so considerate, why don't you take a
+little more care in greater concerns outside, so that your father should
+feel a little happier, and that you also should not have to suffer such
+bitter ordeals! But notwithstanding that the dread of my feeling hurt
+has prompted you to interrupt Hsi Jen in what she had to tell me, is it
+likely that I am blind to the fact that my brother has ever followed his
+fancies, allowed his passions to run riot, and never done a thing to
+exercise any check over himself? His temperament is such that he some
+time back created, all on account of that fellow Ch'in Chung, a rumpus
+that turned heaven and earth topsy-turvy; and, as a matter of course,
+he's now far worse than he was ever before!"
+
+"You people," she then observed aloud, at the close of these
+cogitations, "shouldn't bear this one or that one a grudge. I can't help
+thinking that it's, after all, because of your usual readiness, cousin
+Pao-yue, to hobnob with that set that your father recently lost control
+over his temper. But assuming that my brother did speak in a careless
+manner and did casually allude to you cousin Pao-yue, it was with no
+design to instigate any one! In the first place, the remarks he made
+were really founded on actual facts; and secondly, he's not one to ever
+trouble himself about such petty trifles as trying to guard against
+animosities. Ever since your youth up, Miss Hsi, you've simply had
+before your eyes a person so punctilious as cousin Pao-yue, but have you
+ever had any experience of one like that brother of mine, who neither
+fears the powers in heaven or in earth, and who readily blurts out all
+he thinks?"
+
+Hsi Jen, seeing Pao-yue interrupt her, at the bare mention of Hsueeh P'an,
+understood at once that she must have spoken recklessly and gave way to
+misgivings lest Pao-ch'ai might not have been placed in a false
+position, but when she heard the language used by Pao-ch'ai, she was
+filled with a keener sense of shame and could not utter a word. Pao-yue
+too, after listening to the sentiments, which Pao-ch'ai expressed, felt,
+partly because they were so magnanimous and noble, and partly because
+they banished all misconception from his mind, his heart and soul throb
+with greater emotion then ever before. When, however, about to put in
+his word, he noticed Pao-ch'ai rise to her feet.
+
+"I'll come again to see you to-morrow," she said, "but take good care of
+yourself! I gave the medicines I brought just now to Hsi Jen; let her
+rub you with them at night and I feel sure you'll get all right."
+
+With these recommendations, she walked out of the door.
+
+Hsi Jen hastened to catch her up and escorted her beyond the court.
+"Miss," she remarked, "we've really put you to the trouble of coming.
+Some other day, when Mr. Secundus is well, I shall come in person to
+thank you."
+
+"What's there to thank me for?" replied Pao-ch'ai, turning her head
+round and smiling. "But mind, you advise him to carefully tend his
+health, and not to give way to idle thoughts and reckless ideas, and
+he'll recover. If there's anything he fancies to eat or to amuse himself
+with, come quietly over to me and fetch it for him. There will be no use
+to disturb either our old lady, or Madame Wang, or any of the others;
+for in the event of its reaching Mr. Chia Cheng's ear, nothing may, at
+the time, come of it; but if by and bye he finds it to be true, we'll,
+doubtless, suffer for it!"
+
+While tendering this advice, she went on her way.
+
+Hsi Jen retraced her steps and returned into the room, fostering genuine
+feelings of gratitude for Pao-ch'ai. But on entering, she espied Pao-yue
+silently lost in deep thought, and looking as if he were asleep, and yet
+not quite asleep, so she withdrew into the outer quarters to comb her
+hair and wash.
+
+Pao-yue meanwhile lay motionless in bed. His buttocks tingled with pain,
+as if they were pricked with needles, or dug with knives; giving him to
+boot a fiery sensation just as if fire were eating into them. He tried
+to change his position a bit, but unable to bear the anguish, he burst
+into groans. The shades of evening were by this time falling. Perceiving
+that though Hsi Jen had left his side there remained still two or three
+waiting-maids in attendance, he said to them, as he could find nothing
+for them to do just then, "You might as well go and comb your hair and
+perform your ablutions; come in, when I call you."
+
+Hearing this, they likewise retired. During this while, Pao-yue fell into
+a drowsy state. Chiang Yue-han then rose before his vision and told him
+all about his capture by men from the Chung Shun mansion. Presently,
+Chin Ch'uan-erh too appeared in his room bathed in tears, and explained
+to him the circumstances which drove her to leap into the well. But
+Pao-yue, who was half dreaming and half awake, was not able to give his
+mind to anything that was told him. Unawares, he became conscious of
+some one having given him a push; and faintly fell on his ear the
+plaintive tones of some person in distress. Pao-yue was startled out of
+his dreams. On opening his eyes, he found it to be no other than Lin
+Tai-yue. But still fearing that it was only a dream, he promptly raised
+himself, and drawing near her face he passed her features under a minute
+scrutiny. Seeing her two eyes so swollen, as to look as big as peaches,
+and her face glistening all over with tears: "If it is not Tai-yue," (he
+thought), "who else can it be?"
+
+Pao-yue meant to continue his scrutiny, but the lower part of his person
+gave him such unbearable sharp twitches that finding it a hard task to
+keep up, he, with a shout of "Ai-yo," lay himself down again, as he
+heaved a sigh. "What do you once more come here for?" he asked. "The
+sun, it is true, has set; but the heat remaining on the ground hasn't
+yet gone, so you may, by coming over, get another sunstroke. Of course,
+I've had a thrashing but I don't feel any pains or aches. If I behave in
+this fashion, it's all put on to work upon their credulity, so that they
+may go and spread the reports outside in such a way as to reach my
+father's ear. Really it's all sham; so you mustn't treat it as a fact!"
+
+Though Lin Tai-yue was not giving way at the time to any wails or loud
+sobs, yet the more she indulged in those suppressed plaints of hers, the
+worse she felt her breath get choked and her throat obstructed; so that
+when Pao-yue's assurances fell on her ear, she could not express a single
+sentiment, though she treasured thousands in her mind. It was only after
+a long pause that she at last could observe, with agitated voice: "You
+must after this turn over a new leaf."
+
+At these words, Pao-yue heaved a deep sigh. "Compose your mind," he
+urged. "Don't speak to me like this; for I am quite prepared to even lay
+down my life for all those persons!"
+
+But scarcely had he concluded this remark than some one outside the
+court was heard to say: "Our lady Secunda has arrived."
+
+Lin Tai-yue readily concluded that it was lady Feng coming, so springing
+to her feet at once, "I'm off," she said; "out by the back-court. I'll
+look you up again by and bye."
+
+"This is indeed strange!" exclaimed Pao-yue as he laid hold of her and
+tried to detain her. "How is it that you've deliberately started living
+in fear and trembling of her!"
+
+Lin Tai-yue grew impatient and stamped her feet. "Look at my eyes!" she
+added in an undertone. "Must those people amuse themselves again by
+poking fun at me?"
+
+After this response, Pao-yue speedily let her go.
+
+Lin Tai-yue with hurried step withdrew behind the bed; and no sooner had
+she issued into the back-court, than lady Feng made her appearance in
+the room by the front entrance.
+
+"Are you better?" she asked Pao-yue. "If you fancy anything to eat, mind
+you send some one over to my place to fetch it for you."
+
+Thereupon Mrs. Hsueeh also came to pay him a visit. Shortly after, a
+messenger likewise arrived from old lady Chia (to inquire after him).
+
+When the time came to prepare the lights, Pao-yue had a couple of
+mouthfuls of soup to eat, but he felt so drowsy and heavy that he fell
+asleep.
+
+Presently, Chou Jui's wife, Wu Hsin-teng's wife and Cheng Hao-shih's
+wife, all of whom were old dames who frequently went to and fro, heard
+that Pao-yue had been flogged and they too hurried into his quarters.
+
+Hsi Jen promptly went out to greet them. "Aunts," she whispered,
+smiling, "you've come a little too late; Master Secundus is sleeping."
+Saying this, she led them into the room on the opposite side, and,
+pressing then to sit down, she poured them some tea.
+
+After sitting perfectly still for a time, "When Master Secundus awakes"
+the dames observed, "do send us word!"
+
+Hsi Jen assured them that she would, and escorted them out. Just,
+however, as she was about to retrace her footsteps, she met an old
+matron, sent over by Madame Wang, who said to her: "Our mistress wants
+one of Master Secundus attendants to go and see her."
+
+Upon hearing this message, Hsi Jen communed with her own thoughts. Then
+turning round, she whispered to Ch'ing Wen, She Yueeh, Ch'iu Wen, and the
+other maids: "Our lady wishes to see one of us, so be careful and remain
+in the room while I go. I'll be back soon."
+
+At the close of her injunctions, she and the matron made their exit out
+of the garden by a short cut, and repaired into the drawing-room.
+
+Madame Wang was seated on the cool couch, waving a banana-leaf fan. When
+she became conscious of her arrival: "It didn't matter whom you sent,"
+she remarked, "any one would have done. But have you left him again?
+Who's there to wait on him?"
+
+At this question, Hsi Jen lost no time in forcing a smile. "Master
+Secundus," she replied, "just now fell into a sound sleep. Those four or
+five girls are all right now, they are well able to attend to their
+master, so please, Madame, dispel all anxious thoughts! I was afraid
+that your ladyship might have some orders to give, and that if I sent
+any of them, they might probably not hear distinctly, and thus occasion
+delay in what there was to be done."
+
+"There's nothing much to tell you," added Madame Wang. "I only wish to
+ask how his pains and aches are getting on now?"
+
+"I applied on Mr. Secundus," answered Hsi Jen, "the medicine, which Miss
+Pao-ch'ai brought over; and he's better than he was. He was so sore at
+one time that he couldn't lie comfortably; but the deep sleep, in which
+he is plunged now, is a clear sign of his having improved."
+
+"Has he had anything to eat?" further inquired Madame Wang.
+
+"Our dowager mistress sent him a bowl of soup," Hsi Jen continued, "and
+of this he has had a few mouthfuls. He shouted and shouted that his
+mouth was parched and fancied a decoction of sour plums, but remembering
+that sour plums are astringent things, that he had been thrashed only a
+short time before, and that not having been allowed to groan, he must,
+of course, have been so hard pressed that fiery virus and heated blood
+must unavoidably have accumulated in the heart, and that were he to put
+anything of the kind within his lips, it might be driven into the
+cardiac regions and give rise to some serious illness; and what then
+would we do? I therefore reasoned with him for ever so long and at last
+succeeded in deterring him from touching any. So simply taking that
+syrup of roses, prepared with sugar, I mixed some with water and he had
+half a small cup of it. But he drank it with distaste; for, being
+surfeited with it, he found it neither scented nor sweet."
+
+"Ai-yah!" ejaculated Madame Wang. "Why didn't you come earlier and tell
+me? Some one sent me the other day several bottles of scented water. I
+meant at one time to have given him some, but as I feared that it would
+be mere waste, I didn't let him have any. But since he is so sick and
+tired of that preparation of roses, that he turns up his nose at it,
+take those two bottles with you. If you just mix a teaspoonful of it in
+a cup of water, it will impart to it a very strong perfume."
+
+So saying, she hastened to tell Ts'ai Yuen to fetch the bottles of
+scented water, which she had received as a present a few days before.
+
+"Let her only bring a couple of them, they'll be enough!" Hsi Jen chimed
+in. "If you give us more, it will be a useless waste! If it isn't
+enough, I can come and fetch a fresh supply. It will come to the same
+thing!"
+
+Having listened to all they had to say, Ts'ai Yuen left the room. After
+some considerable time, she, in point of fact, returned with only a
+couple of bottles, which she delivered to Hsi Jen.
+
+On examination, Hsi Jen saw two small glass bottles, no more than three
+inches in size, with screwing silver stoppers at the top. On the
+gosling-yellow labels was written, on one: "Pure extract of _olea
+fragrans_," on the other, "Pure extract of roses."
+
+"What fine things these are!" Hsi Jen smiled. "How many small bottles
+the like of this can there be?"
+
+"They are of the kind sent to the palace," rejoined Madame Wang. "Didn't
+you notice that gosling-yellow slip? But mind, take good care of them
+for him; don't fritter them away!"
+
+Hsi Jen assented. She was about to depart when Madame Wang called her
+back. "I've thought of something," she said, "that I want to ask you."
+
+Hsi Jen hastily came back.
+
+Madame Wang made sure that there was no one in the room. "I've heard a
+faint rumour," she then inquired, "to the effect that Pao-yue got a
+thrashing on this occasion on account of something or other which
+Huan-Erh told my husband. Have you perchance heard what it was that he
+said? If you happen to learn anything about it, do confide in me, and I
+won't make any fuss and let people know that it was you who told me."
+
+"I haven't heard anything of the kind," answered Hsi Jen. "It was
+because Mr. Secundus forcibly detained an actor, and that people came
+and asked master to restore him to them that he got flogged."
+
+"It was also for this," continued Madame Wang as she nodded her head,
+"but there's another reason besides."
+
+"As for the other reason, I honestly haven't the least idea about it,"
+explained Hsi Jen. "But I'll make bold to-day, and say something in your
+presence, Madame, about which I don't know whether I am right or wrong
+in speaking. According to what's proper...."
+
+She had only spoken half a sentence, when hastily she closed her mouth
+again.
+
+"You are at liberty to proceed," urged Madame Wang.
+
+"If your ladyship will not get angry, I'll speak out," remarked Hsi Jen.
+
+"Why should I get angry?" observed Madame Wang. "Proceed!"
+
+"According to what's proper," resumed Hsi Jen, "our Mr. Secundus should
+receive our master's admonition, for if master doesn't hold him in
+check, there's no saying what he mightn't do in the future."
+
+As soon as Madame Wang heard this, she clasped her hands and uttered the
+invocation, "O-mi-to-fu!" Unable to resist the impulse, she drew near
+Hsi Jen. "My dear child," she added, "you have also luckily understood
+the real state of things. What you told me is in perfect harmony with my
+own views! Is it likely that I don't know how to look after a son? In
+former days, when your elder master, Chu, was alive, how did I succeed
+in keeping him in order? And can it be that I don't, after all, now
+understand how to manage a son? But there's a why and a wherefore in it.
+The thought is ever present in my mind now, that I'm already a woman
+past fifty, that of my children there only remains this single one, that
+he too is developing a delicate physique, and that, what's more, our
+dear senior prizes him as much as she would a jewel, that were he kept
+under strict control, and anything perchance to happen to him, she
+might, an old lady as she is, sustain some harm from resentment, and
+that as the high as well as the low will then have no peace or quiet,
+won't things get in a bad way? So I feel prompted to spoil him by
+over-indulgence. Time and again I reason with him. Sometimes, I talk to
+him; sometimes, I advise him; sometimes, I cry with him. But though, for
+the time being, he's all right, he doesn't, later on, worry his mind in
+any way about what I say, until he positively gets into some other mess,
+when he settles down again. But should any harm befall him, through
+these floggings, upon whom will I depend by and bye?"
+
+As she spoke, she could not help melting into tears.
+
+At the sight of Madame Wang in this disconsolate mood, Hsi Jen herself
+unconsciously grew wounded at heart, and as she wept along with her,
+"Mr. Secundus," she ventured, "is your ladyship's own child, so how
+could you not love him? Even we, who are mere servants, think it a piece
+of good fortune when we can wait on him for a time, and all parties can
+enjoy peace and quiet. But if he begins to behave in this manner, even
+peace and quiet will be completely out of the question for us. On what
+day, and at what hour, don't I advise Mr. Secundus; yet I can't manage
+to stir him up by any advice! But it happens that all that crew are ever
+ready to court his friendship, so it isn't to be wondered that he is
+what he is! The truth is that he thinks the advice we give him is not
+right and proper! As you have to-day, Madame, alluded to this subject,
+I've got something to tell you which has weighed heavy on my mind. I've
+been anxious to come and confide it to your ladyship and to solicit your
+guidance, but I've been in fear and dread lest you should give way to
+suspicion. For not only would then all my disclosures have been in vain,
+but I would have deprived myself of even a piece of ground wherein my
+remains could be laid."
+
+Madame Wang perceived that her remarks were prompted by some purpose.
+"My dear child," she eagerly urged; "go on, speak out! When I recently
+heard one and all praise you secretly behind your back, I simply fancied
+that it was because you were careful in your attendance on Pao-yue; or
+possibly because you got on well with every one; all on account of minor
+considerations like these; (but I never thought it was on account of
+your good qualities). As it happens, what you told me just now concerns,
+in all its bearings, a great principle, and is in perfect accord with my
+ideas, so speak out freely, if you have aught to say! Only let no one
+else know anything about it, that is all that is needed."
+
+"I've got nothing more to say," proceeded Hsi Jen. "My sole idea was to
+solicit your advice, Madame, as to how to devise a plan to induce Mr.
+Secundus to move his quarters out of the garden by and bye, as things
+will get all right then."
+
+This allusion much alarmed Madame Wang. Speedily taking Hsi Jen's hand
+in hers: "Is it likely," she inquired, "that Pao-yue has been up to any
+mischief with any one?"
+
+"Don't be too suspicious!" precipitately replied Hsi Jen. "It wasn't at
+anything of the kind that I was hinting. I merely expressed my humble
+opinion. Mr. Secundus is a young man now, and the young ladies inside
+are no more children. More than that, Miss Lin and Miss Pao may be two
+female maternal first cousins of his, but albeit his cousins, there is
+nevertheless the distinction of male and female between them; and day
+and night, as they are together, it isn't always convenient, when they
+have to rise and when they have to sit; so this cannot help making one
+give way to misgivings. Were, in fact, any outsider to see what's going
+on, it would not look like the propriety, which should exist in great
+families. The proverb appositely says that: 'when there's no trouble,
+one should make provision for the time of trouble.' How many concerns
+there are in the world, of which there's no making head or tail, mostly
+because what persons do without any design is construed by such
+designing people, as chance to have their notice attracted to it, as
+having been designedly accomplished, and go on talking and talking till,
+instead of mending matters, they make them worse! But if precautions be
+not taken beforehand, something improper will surely happen, for your
+ladyship is well aware of the temperament Mr. Secundus has shown all
+along! Besides, his great weakness is to fuss in our midst, so if no
+caution be exercised, and the slightest mistake be sooner or later
+committed, there'll be then no question of true or false: for when
+people are many one says one thing and another, and what is there that
+the months of that mean lot will shun with any sign of respect? Why, if
+their hearts be well disposed, they will maintain that he is far
+superior to Buddha himself. But if their hearts be badly disposed, they
+will at once knit a tissue of lies to show that he cannot even reach the
+standard of a beast! Now, if people by and bye speak well of Mr.
+Secundus, we'll all go on smoothly with our lives. But should he
+perchance give reason to any one to breathe the slightest disparaging
+remark, won't his body, needless for us to say, be smashed to pieces,
+his bones ground to powder, and the blame, which he might incur, be made
+ten thousand times more serious than it is? These things are all
+commonplace trifles; but won't Mr. Secundus' name and reputation be
+subsequently done for for life? Secondly, it's no easy thing for your
+ladyship to see anything of our master. A proverb also says: 'The
+perfect man makes provision beforehand;' so wouldn't it be better that
+we should, this very minute, adopt such steps as will enable us to guard
+against such things? Your ladyship has much to attend to, and you
+couldn't, of course, think of these things in a moment. And as for us,
+it would have been well and good, had they never suggested themselves to
+our minds; but since they have, we should be the more to blame did we
+not tell you anything about them, Madame. Of late, I have racked my
+mind, both day and night on this score; and though I couldn't very well
+confide to any one, my lamp alone knows everything!"
+
+After listening to these words, Madame Wang felt as if she had been
+blasted by thunder and struck by lightning; and, as they fitted so
+appositely with the incident connected with Chin Ch'uan-erh, her heart
+was more than ever fired with boundless affection for Hsi Jen. "My dear
+girl," she promptly smiled, "it's you, who are gifted with enough
+foresight to be able to think of these things so thoroughly. Yet, did I
+not also think of them? But so busy have I been these several times that
+they slipped from my memory. What you've told me to-day, however, has
+brought me to my senses! It's, thanks to you, that the reputation of me,
+his mother, and of him, my son, is preserved intact! I really never had
+the faintest idea that you were so excellent! But you had better go now;
+I know of a way. Yet, just another word. After your remarks to me, I'll
+hand him over to your charge; please be careful of him. If you preserve
+him from harm, it will be tantamount to preserving me from harm, and I
+shall certainly not be ungrateful to you for it."
+
+Hsi Jen said several consecutive yes's, and went on her way. She got
+back just in time to see Pao-yue awake. Hsi Jen explained all about the
+scented water; and, so intensely delighted was Pao-yue, that he at once
+asked that some should be mixed and brought to him to taste. In very
+deed, he found it unusually fragrant and good. But as his heart was a
+prey to anxiety on Tai-yue's behalf, he was full of longings to despatch
+some one to look her up. He was, however, afraid of Hsi Jen. Readily
+therefore he devised a plan to first get Hsi Jen out of the way, by
+despatching her to Pao-ch'ai's, to borrow a book. After Hsi Jen's
+departure, he forthwith called Ch'ing Wen. "Go," he said, "over to Miss
+Lin's and see what she's up to. Should she inquire about me, all you
+need tell her is that I'm all right."
+
+"What shall I go empty-handed for?" rejoined Ch'ing Wen. "If I were, at
+least, to give her a message, it would look as if I had gone for
+something."
+
+"I have no message that you can give her," added Pao-yue.
+
+"If it can't be that," suggested Ch'ing Wen; "I might either take
+something over or fetch something. Otherwise, when I get there, what
+excuse will I be able to find?"
+
+After some cogitation, Pao-yue stretched out his hand and, laying hold of
+a couple of handkerchiefs, he threw them to Ch'ing Wen. "These will do,"
+he smiled. "Just tell her that I bade you take them to her."
+
+"This is strange!" exclaimed Ch'ing Wen. "Will she accept these two half
+worn-out handkerchiefs! She'll besides get angry and say that you were
+making fun of her."
+
+"Don't worry yourself about that;" laughed Pao-yue. "She will certainly
+know what I mean."
+
+Ch'ing Wen, at this rejoinder, had no help but to take the handkerchiefs
+and to go to the Hsiao Hsiang lodge, where she discovered Ch'un Hsien in
+the act of hanging out handkerchiefs on the railings to dry. As soon as
+she saw her walk in, she vehemently waved her hand. "She's gone to
+sleep!" she said. Ch'ing Wen, however, entered the room. It was in
+perfect darkness. There was not even so much as a lantern burning, and
+Tai-yue was already ensconced in bed. "Who is there?" she shouted.
+
+"It's Ch'ing Wen!" promptly replied Ch'ing Wen.
+
+"What are you up to?" Tai-yue inquired.
+
+"Mr. Secundus," explained Ch'ing Wen, "sends you some handkerchiefs,
+Miss."
+
+Tai-yue's spirits sunk as soon as she caught her reply. "What can he have
+sent me handkerchiefs for?" she secretly reasoned within herself. "Who
+gave him these handkerchiefs?" she then asked aloud. "They must be fine
+ones, so tell him to keep them and give them to some one else; for I
+don't need such things at present."
+
+"They're not new," smiled Ch'ing Wen. "They are of an ordinary kind, and
+old."
+
+Hearing this, Lin Tai-yue felt downcast. But after minutely searching her
+heart, she at last suddenly grasped his meaning and she hastily
+observed: "Leave them and go your way."
+
+Ch'ing Wen was compelled to put them down; and turning round, she betook
+herself back again. But much though she turned things over in her mind
+during the whole of her way homewards, she did not succeed in solving
+their import.
+
+When Tai-yue guessed the object of the handkerchief, her very soul
+unawares flitted from her. "As Pao-yue has gone to such pains," she
+pondered, "to try and probe this dejection of mine, I have, on one hand,
+sufficient cause to feel gratified; but as there's no knowing what my
+dejection will come to in the future there is, on the other, enough to
+make me sad. Here he abruptly and deliberately sends me a couple of
+handkerchiefs; and, were it not that he has divined my inmost feelings,
+the mere sight of these handkerchiefs would be enough to make me treat
+the whole thing as ridiculous. The secret exchange of presents between
+us," she went on to muse, "fills me also with fears; and the thought
+that those tears, which I am ever so fond of shedding to myself, are of
+no avail, drives me likewise to blush with shame."
+
+And by dint of musing and reflecting, her heart began, in a moment, to
+bubble over with such excitement that, much against her will, her
+thoughts in their superabundance rolled on incessantly. So speedily
+directing that a lamp should be lighted, she little concerned herself
+about avoiding suspicion, shunning the use of names, or any other such
+things, and set to work and rubbed the ink, soaked the pen, and then
+wrote the following stanzas on the two old handkerchiefs:
+
+ Vain in my eyes the tears collect; those tears in vain they flow,
+ Which I in secret shed; they slowly drop; but for whom though?
+ The silk kerchiefs, which he so kindly troubled to give me,
+ How ever could they not with anguish and distress fill me?
+
+The second ran thus:
+
+ Like falling pearls or rolling gems, they trickle on the sly.
+ Daily I have no heart for aught; listless all day am I.
+ As on my pillow or sleeves' edge I may not wipe them dry,
+ I let them dot by dot, and drop by drop to run freely.
+
+And the third:
+
+ The coloured thread cannot contain the pearls cov'ring my face.
+ Tears were of old at Hsiang Chiang shed, but faint has waxed each
+ trace.
+ Outside my window thousands of bamboos, lo, also grow,
+ But whether they be stained with tears or not, I do not know.
+
+Lin Tai-yue was still bent upon going on writing, but feeling her whole
+body burn like fire, and her face scalding hot, she advanced towards the
+cheval-glass, and, raising the embroidered cover, she looked in. She saw
+at a glance that her cheeks wore so red that they, in very truth, put
+even the peach blossom to the shade. Yet little did she dream that from
+this date her illness would assume a more serious phase. Shortly, she
+threw herself on the bed, and, with the handkerchiefs still grasped in
+her hand, she was lost in a reverie.
+
+Putting her aside, we will now take up our story with Hsi Jen. She went
+to pay a visit to Pao-ch'ai, but as it happened, Pao-ch'ai was not in
+the garden, but had gone to look up her mother. Hsi Jen, however, could
+not very well come back with empty hands so she waited until the second
+watch, when Pao-ch'ai eventually returned to her quarters.
+
+Indeed, so correct an estimate of Hsueeh P'an's natural disposition did
+Pao-ch'ai ever have, that from an early moment she entertained within
+herself some faint suspicion that it must have been Hsueeh P'an, who had
+instigated some person or other to come and lodge a complaint against
+Pao-yue. And when she also unexpectedly heard Hsi Jen's disclosures on
+the subject, she became more positive in her surmises. The one, who had,
+in fact, told Hsi Jen was Pei Ming. But Pei Ming too had arrived at the
+conjecture in his own mind, and could not adduce any definite proof, so
+that every one treated his statements as founded partly on mere
+suppositions, and partly on actual facts; but, despite this, they felt
+quite certain that it was (Hsueeh P'an) who had intrigued.
+
+Hsueeh P'an had always enjoyed this reputation; but on this particular
+instance the harm was not, actually, his own doing; yet as every one,
+with one consent, tenaciously affirmed that it was he, it was no easy
+matter for him, much though he might argue, to clear himself of blame.
+
+Soon after his return, on this day, from a drinking bout out of doors,
+he came to see his mother; but finding Pao-ch'ai in her rooms, they
+exchanged a few irrelevant remarks. "I hear," he consequently asked,
+"that cousin Pao-yue has got into trouble; why is it?"
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh was at the time much distressed on this score. As soon
+therefore as she caught this question, she gnashed her teeth with rage,
+and shouted: "You good-for-nothing spiteful fellow! It's all you who are
+at the bottom of this trouble; and do you still have the face to come
+and ply me with questions?"
+
+These words made Hsueeh P'an wince. "When did I stir up any trouble?" he
+quickly asked.
+
+"Do you still go on shamming!" cried Mrs. Hsueeh. "Every one knows full
+well that it was you, who said those things, and do you yet
+prevaricate?"
+
+"Were every one," insinuated Hsueeh P'an, "to assert that I had committed
+murder, would you believe even that?"
+
+"Your very sister is well aware that they were said by you." Mrs. Hsueeh
+continued, "and is it likely that she would accuse you falsely, pray?"
+
+"Mother," promptly interposed Pao-ch'ai, "you shouldn't be brawling with
+brother just now! If you wait quietly, we'll find out the plain and
+honest truth." Then turning towards Hsueeh P'an: "Whether it's you, who
+said those things or not," she added, "it's of no consequence. The whole
+affair, besides, is a matter of the past, so what need is there for any
+arguments; they will only be making a mountain of a mole-hill! I have
+just one word of advice to give you; don't, from henceforward, be up to
+so much reckless mischief outside; and concern yourself a little less
+with other people's affairs! All you do is day after day to associate
+with your friends and foolishly gad about! You are a happy-go-lucky sort
+of creature! If nothing happens well and good; but should by and bye
+anything turn up, every one will, though it be none of your doing,
+imagine again that you are at the bottom of it! Not to speak of others,
+why I myself will be the first to suspect you!"
+
+Hsueeh P'an was naturally open-hearted and plain-spoken, and could not
+brook anything in the way of innuendoes, so, when on the one side,
+Pao-ch'ai advised him not to foolishly gad about, and his mother, on the
+other, hinted that he had a foul tongue, and that he was the cause that
+Pao-yue had been flogged, he at once got so exasperated that he jumped
+about in an erratic manner and did all in his power, by vowing and
+swearing, to explain matters. "Who has," he ejaculated, heaping abuse
+upon every one, "laid such a tissue of lies to my charge! I'd like to
+take the teeth of that felon and pull them out! It's clear as day that
+they shove me forward as a target; for now that Pao-yue has been flogged
+they find no means of making a display of their zeal. But, is Pao-yue
+forsooth the lord of the heavens that because he has had a thrashing
+from his father, the whole household should be fussing for days? The
+other time, he behaved improperly, and my uncle gave him two whacks. But
+our venerable ancestor came, after a time, somehow or other, I don't
+know how, to hear about it, and, maintaining that it was all due to Mr.
+Chia Chen, she called him before her, and gave him a good blowing up.
+And here to-day, they have gone further, and involved me. They may drag
+me in as much as they like, I don't fear a rap! But won't it be better
+for me to go into the garden, and take Pao-yue and give him a bit of my
+mind and kill him? I can then pay the penalty by laying down my life for
+his, and one and all will enjoy peace and quiet!"
+
+While he clamoured and shouted, he looked about him for the bar of the
+door, and, snatching it up, he there and then was running off, to the
+consternation of Mrs. Hsueeh, who clutched him in her arms. "You
+murderous child of retribution!" she cried. "Whom would you go and beat?
+come first and assail me?"
+
+From excitement Hsueeh P'an's eyes protruded like copper bells. "What are
+you up to," he vociferated, "that you won't let me go where I please,
+and that you deliberately go on calumniating me? But every day that
+Pao-yue lives, the longer by that day I have to bear a false charge, so
+it's as well that we should both die that things be cleared up?"
+
+Pao-ch'ai too hurriedly rushed forward. "Be patient a bit!" she exhorted
+him. "Here's mamma in an awful state of despair. Not to mention that it
+should be for you to come and pacify her, you contrariwise kick up all
+this rumpus! Why, saying nothing about her who is your parent, were even
+a perfect stranger to advise you, it would be meant for your good! But
+the good counsel she gave you has stirred up your monkey instead."
+
+"From the way you're now speaking," Hsueeh P'an rejoined, "it must be
+you, who said that it was I; no one else but you!"
+
+"You simply know how to feel displeased with me for speaking," argued
+Pao-ch'ai, "but you don't feel displeased with yourself for that
+reckless way of yours of looking ahead and not minding what is behind!"
+
+"You now bear me a grudge," Hsueeh P'an added, "for looking to what is
+ahead and not to what is behind; but how is it you don't feel indignant
+with Pao-yue for stirring up strife and provoking trouble outside?
+Leaving aside everything else, I'll merely take that affair of Ch'i
+Kuan-erh's, which occurred the other day, and recount it to you as an
+instance. My friends and I came across this Ch'i Kuan-erh, ten times at
+least, but never has he made a single intimate remark to me, and how is
+it that, as soon as he met Pao-yue the other day, he at once produced his
+sash, and gave it to him, though he did not so much as know what his
+surname and name were? Now is it likely, forsooth, that this too was
+something that I started?"
+
+"Do you still refer to this?" exclaimed Mrs. Hsueeh and Pao-ch'ai, out of
+patience. "Wasn't it about this that he was beaten? This makes it clear
+enough that it's you who gave the thing out."
+
+"Really, you're enough to exasperate one to death!" Hsueeh P'an
+exclaimed. "Had you confined yourselves to saying that I had started the
+yarn, I wouldn't have lost my temper; but what irritates me is that such
+a fuss should be made for a single Pao-yue, as to subvert heaven and
+earth!"
+
+"Who fusses?" shouted Pao-ch'ai. "You are the first to arm yourself to
+the teeth and start a row, and then you say that it's others who are up
+to mischief!"
+
+Hsueeh P'an, seeing that every remark, made by Pao-ch'ai, contained so
+much reasonableness that he could with difficulty refute it, and that
+her words were even harder for him to reply to than were those uttered
+by his mother, he was consequently bent upon contriving a plan to make
+use of such language as could silence her and compel her to return to
+her room, so as to have no one bold enough to interfere with his
+speaking; but, his temper being up, he was not in a position to weigh
+his speech. "Dear Sister!" he readily therefore said, "you needn't be
+flying into a huff with me! I've long ago divined your feelings. Mother
+told me some time back that for you with that gold trinket, must be
+selected some suitor provided with a jade one; as such a one will be a
+suitable match for you. And having treasured this in your mind, and seen
+that Pao-yue has that rubbishy thing of his, you naturally now seize
+every occasion to screen him...."
+
+However, before he could finish, Pao-ch'ai trembled with anger, and
+clinging to Mrs. Hsueeh, she melted into tears. "Mother," she observed,
+"have you heard what brother says, what is it all about?"
+
+Hsueeh P'an, at the sight of his sister bathed in tears, became alive to
+the fact that he had spoken inconsiderately, and, flying into a rage, he
+walked away to his own quarters and retired to rest. But we can well
+dispense with any further comment on the subject.
+
+Pao-ch'ai was, at heart, full of vexation and displeasure. She meant to
+give vent to her feelings in some way, but the fear again of upsetting
+her mother compelled her to conceal her tears. She therefore took leave
+of her parent, and went back all alone. On her return to her chamber,
+she sobbed and sobbed throughout the whole night. The next day, she got
+out of bed, as soon as it dawned; but feeling even no inclination to
+comb her chevelure or perform her ablutions, she carelessly adjusted her
+clothes and came out of the garden to see her mother.
+
+As luck would have it, she encountered Tai-yue standing alone under the
+shade of the trees, who inquired of her: "Where she was off to?"
+
+"I'm going home," Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai replied. And as she uttered these
+words, she kept on her way.
+
+But Tai-yue perceived that she was going off in a disconsolate mood; and,
+noticing that her eyes betrayed signs of crying, and that her manner was
+unlike that of other days, she smilingly called out to her from behind:
+"Sister, you should take care of yourself a bit. Were you even to cry so
+much as to fill two water jars with tears, you wouldn't heal the wounds
+inflicted by the cane."
+
+But as what reply Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai gave is not yet known to you, reader,
+lend an ear to the explanation contained in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+ Pai Yue-ch'uan tastes too the lotus-leaf soup.
+ Huang Chin-ying skilfully plaits the plum-blossom-knotted nets.
+
+
+Pao ch'ai had, our story goes, distinctly heard Lin Tai-yue's sneer, but
+in her eagerness to see her mother and brother, she did not so much as
+turn her head round, but continued straight on her way.
+
+During this time, Lin Tai-yue halted under the shadow of the trees. Upon
+casting a glance, in the distance towards the I Hung Yuean, she observed
+Li Kung-ts'ai, Ying Ch'un, T'an Ch'un, Hsi Ch'un and various inmates
+wending their steps in a body in the direction of the I Hung court; but
+after they had gone past, and company after company of them had
+dispersed, she only failed to see lady Feng come. "How is it," she
+cogitated within herself, "that she doesn't come to see Pao-yue? Even
+supposing that there was some business to detain her, she should also
+have put in an appearance, so as to curry favour with our venerable
+senior and Madame Wang. But if she hasn't shown herself at this hour of
+the day, there must certainly be some cause or other."
+
+While preoccupied with conjectures, she raised her head. At a second
+glance, she discerned a crowd of people, as thick as flowers in a
+bouquet, pursuing their way also into the I Hung court. On looking
+fixedly, she recognised dowager lady Chia, leaning on lady Feng's arm,
+followed by Mesdames Hsing and Wang, Mrs. Chou and servant-girls,
+married women and other domestics. In a body they walked into the court.
+At the sight of them, Tai-yue unwittingly nodded her head, and reflected
+on the benefit of having a father and mother; and tears forthwith again
+bedewed her face. In a while, she beheld Pao-ch'ai, Mrs. Hsueeh and the
+rest likewise go in.
+
+But at quite an unexpected moment she became aware that Tzu Chuean was
+approaching her from behind. "Miss," she said, "you had better go and
+take your medicine! The hot water too has got cold."
+
+"What do you, after all, mean by keeping on pressing me so?" inquired
+Tai-yue. "Whether I have it or not, what's that to you?"
+
+"Your cough," smiled Tzu Chuean, "has recently got a trifle better, and
+won't you again take your medicine? This is, it's true, the fifth moon,
+and the weather is hot, but you should, nevertheless, take good care of
+yourself a bit! Here you've been at this early hour of the morning
+standing for ever so long in this damp place; so you should go back and
+have some rest!"
+
+This single hint recalled Tai-yue to her senses. She at length realised
+that her legs felt rather tired. After lingering about abstractedly for
+a long while, she quietly returned into the Hsiao Hsiang lodge,
+supporting herself on Tzu Chuean. As soon as they stepped inside the
+entrance of the court, her gaze was attracted by the confused shadows of
+the bamboos, which covered the ground, and the traces of moss, here
+thick, there thin, and she could not help recalling to mind those two
+lines of the passage in the Hsi Hsiang Chi:
+
+ "In that lone nook some one saunters about,
+ White dew coldly bespecks the verdant moss."
+
+"Shuang Wen," she consequently secretly communed within herself, as she
+sighed, "had of course a poor fate; but she nevertheless had a widowed
+mother and a young brother; but in the unhappy destiny, to which I,
+Tai-yue, am at present doomed, I have neither a widowed mother nor a
+young brother."
+
+At this point in her reflections, she was about to melt into another fit
+of crying, when of a sudden, the parrot under the verandah caught sight
+of Tai-yue approaching, and, with a shriek, he jumped down from his
+perch, and made her start with fright.
+
+"Are you bent upon compassing your own death!" she exclaimed. "You've
+covered my head all over with dust again!"
+
+The parrot flew back to his perch. "Hsueeh Yen," he kept on shouting,
+"quick, raise the portiere! Miss is come!"
+
+Tai-yue stopped short and rapped on the frame with her hand. "Have his
+food and water been replenished?" she asked.
+
+The parrot forthwith heaved a deep sigh, closely resembling, in sound,
+the groans usually indulged in by Tai-yue, and then went on to recite:
+
+ "Here I am fain these flowers to inter, but humankind will laugh me as
+ a fool."
+ Who knows who will in years to come commit me to my grave.
+
+As soon as these lines fell on the ear of Tai-yue and Tzu Chuean, they
+blurted out laughing.
+
+"This is what you were repeating some time back, Miss." Tzu Chuean
+laughed, "How did he ever manage to commit it to memory?"
+
+Tai-yue then directed some one to take down the frame and suspend it
+instead on a hook, outside the circular window, and presently entering
+her room, she seated herself inside the circular window. She had just
+done drinking her medicine, when she perceived that the shade cast by
+the cluster of bamboos, planted outside the window, was reflected so far
+on the gauze lattice as to fill the room with a faint light, so green
+and mellow, and to impart a certain coolness to the teapoys and mats.
+But Tai-yue had no means at hand to dispel her ennui, so from inside the
+gauze lattice, she instigated the parrot to perform his pranks; and
+selecting some verses, which had ever found favour with her, she tried
+to teach them to him.
+
+But without descending to particulars, let us now advert to Hsueeh
+Pao-ch'ai. On her return home, she found her mother alone combing her
+hair and having a wash. "Why do you run over at this early hour of the
+morning?" she speedily inquired when she saw her enter.
+
+"To see," replied Pao-ch'ai, "whether you were all right or not, mother.
+Did he come again, I wonder, after I left yesterday and make any more
+trouble or not?"
+
+As she spoke, she sat by her mother's side, but unable to curb her
+tears, she began to weep.
+
+Seeing her sobbing, Mrs. Hsueeh herself could not check her feelings, and
+she, too, burst out into a fit of crying. "My child," she simultaneously
+exhorted her, "don't feel aggrieved! Wait, and I'll call that child of
+wrath to order; for were anything to happen to you, from whom will I
+have anything to hope?"
+
+Hsueeh P'an was outside and happened to overhear their conversation, so
+with alacrity he ran over, and facing Pao-ch'ai he made a bow, now to
+the left and now to the right, observing the while: "My dear sister,
+forgive me this time. The fact is that I took some wine yesterday; I
+came back late, as I met a few friends on the way. On my return home, I
+hadn't as yet got over the fumes, so I unintentionally talked a lot of
+nonsense. But I don't so much as remember anything about all I said. It
+isn't worth your while, however, losing your temper over such a thing!"
+
+Pao-ch'ai was, in fact, weeping, as she covered her face, but the moment
+this language fell on her ear, she could scarcely again refrain from
+laughing. Forthwith raising her head, she sputtered contemptuously on
+the ground. "You can well dispense with all this sham!" she exclaimed,
+"I'm well aware that you so dislike us both, that you're anxious to
+devise some way of inducing us to part company with you, so that you may
+be at liberty."
+
+Hsueeh P'an, at these words, hastened to smile. "Sister," he argued,
+"what makes you say so? once upon a time, you weren't so suspicious and
+given to uttering anything so perverse!"
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh hurriedly took up the thread of the conversation. "All you
+know," she interposed, "is to find fault with your sister's remarks as
+being perverse; but can it be that what you said last night was the
+proper thing to say? In very truth, you were drunk!"
+
+"There's no need for you to get angry, mother!" Hsueeh P'an rejoined,
+"nor for you sister either; for from this day, I shan't any more make
+common cause with them nor drink wine or gad about. What do you say to
+that?"
+
+"That's equal to an acknowledgment of your failings," Pao-ch'ai laughed.
+
+"Could you exercise such strength of will," added Mrs. Hsueeh, "why, the
+dragon too would lay eggs."
+
+"If I again go and gad about with them," Hsueeh P'an replied, "and you,
+sister, come to hear of it, you can freely spit in my face and call me a
+beast and no human being. Do you agree to that? But why should you two
+be daily worried; and all through me alone? For you, mother, to be angry
+on my account is anyhow excusable; but for me to keep on worrying you,
+sister, makes me less then ever worthy of the name of a human being! If
+now that father is no more, I manage, instead of showing you plenty of
+filial piety, mamma, and you, sister, plenty of love, to provoke my
+mother to anger, and annoy my sister, why I can't compare myself to even
+a four-footed creature!"
+
+While from his mouth issued these words, tears rolled down from his
+eyes; for he too found it hard to contain them.
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh had not at first been overcome by her feelings; but the
+moment his utterances reached her ear, she once more began to experience
+the anguish, which they stirred in her heart.
+
+Pao-ch'ai made an effort to force a smile. "You've already," she said,
+"been the cause of quite enough trouble, and do you now provoke mother
+to have another cry?"
+
+Hearing this, Hsueeh P'an promptly checked his tears. As he put on a
+smiling expression, "When did I," he asked, "make mother cry? But never
+mind; enough of this! let's drop the matter, and not allude to it any
+more! Call Hsiang Ling to come and give you a cup of tea, sister!"
+
+"I don't want any tea." Pao-ch'ai answered. "I'll wait until mother has
+finished washing her hands and then go with her into the garden."
+
+"Let me see your necklet, sister," Hsueeh P'an continued. "I think it
+requires cleaning."
+
+"It is so yellow and bright," rejoined Pao-ch'ai, "and what's the use of
+cleaning it again?"
+
+"Sister," proceeded Hsueeh P'an, "you must now add a few more clothes to
+your wardrobe, so tell me what colour and what design you like best."
+
+"I haven't yet worn out all the clothes I have," Pao-ch'ai explained,
+"and why should I have more made?"
+
+But, in a little time, Mrs. Hsueeh effected the change in her costume,
+and hand in hand with Pao-ch'ai, she started on her way to the garden.
+
+Hsueeh P'an thereupon took his departure. During this while, Mrs. Hsueeh
+and Pao-ch'ai trudged in the direction of the garden to look up Pao-yue.
+As soon as they reached the interior of the I Hung court, they saw a
+large concourse of waiting-maids and matrons standing inside as well as
+outside the antechambers and they readily concluded that old lady Chia
+and the other ladies were assembled in his rooms. Mrs. Hsueeh and her
+daughter stepped in. After exchanging salutations with every one
+present, they noticed that Pao-yue was reclining on the couch and Mrs.
+Hsueeh inquired of him whether he felt any better.
+
+Pao-yue hastily attempted to bow. "I'm considerably better;" he said.
+"All I do," he went on, "is to disturb you, aunt, and you, my cousin,
+but I don't deserve such attentions."
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh lost no time in supporting and laying him down. "Mind you
+tell me whatever may take your fancy!" she proceeded.
+
+"If I do fancy anything," retorted Pao-yue smilingly, "I shall certainly
+send to you, aunt, for it."
+
+"What would you like to eat," likewise inquired Madame Wang, "so that I
+may, on my return, send it round to you?"
+
+"There's nothing that I care for," smiled Pao-yue, "though the soup made
+for me the other day, with young lotus leaves, and small lotus cores
+was, I thought, somewhat nice."
+
+"From what I hear, its flavour is nothing very grand," lady Feng chimed
+in laughingly, from where she stood on one side. "It involves, however,
+a good deal of trouble to concoct; and here you deliberately go and
+fancy this very thing."
+
+"Go and get it ready!" cried dowager lady Chia several successive times.
+
+"Venerable ancestor," urged lady Feng with a smile, "don't you bother
+yourself about it! Let me try and remember who can have put the moulds
+away!" Then turning her head round, "Go and bid," she enjoined an old
+matron, "the chief in the cook-house go and apply for them!"
+
+After a considerable lapse of time, the matron returned. "The chief in
+the cook-house," she explained, "says that the four sets of moulds for
+soups have all been handed up."
+
+Upon hearing this, lady Feng thought again for a while. "Yes, I
+remember," she afterwards remarked, "they were handed up, but I can't
+recollect to whom they were given. Possibly they're in the tea-room."
+
+Thereupon, she also despatched a servant to go and inquire of the keeper
+of the tea-room about them; but he too had not got them; and it was
+subsequently the butler, entrusted with the care of the gold and silver
+articles, who brought them round.
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh was the first to take them and examine them. What, in fact,
+struck her gaze was a small box, the contents of which were four sets of
+silver moulds. Each of these was over a foot long, and one square inch
+(in breadth). On the top, holes were bored of the size of beans. Some
+resembled chrysanthemums, others plum blossom. Some were in the shape of
+lotus seed-cases, others like water chestnuts. They numbered in all
+thirty or forty kinds, and were ingeniously executed.
+
+"In your mansion," she felt impelled to observe smilingly to old lady
+Chia and Madame Wang, "everything has been amply provided for! Have you
+got all these things to prepare a plate of soup with! Hadn't you told
+me, and I happened to see them, I wouldn't have been able to make out
+what they were intended for!"
+
+Lady Feng did not allow time to any one to put in her word. "Aunt," she
+said, "how could you ever have divined that these were used last year
+for the imperial viands! They thought of a way by which they devised,
+somehow or other, I can't tell how, some dough shapes, which borrow a
+little of the pure fragrance of the new lotus leaves. But as all mainly
+depends upon the quality of the soup, they're not, after all, of much
+use! Yet who often goes in for such soup! It was made once only, and
+that at the time when the moulds were brought; and how is it that he has
+come to think of it to-day?" So speaking, she took (the moulds), and
+handed them to a married woman, to go and issue directions to the people
+in the cook-house to procure at once several fowls, and to add other
+ingredients besides and prepare ten bowls of soup.
+
+"What do you want all that lot for?" observed Madame Wang.
+
+"There's good reason for it," answered lady Feng. "A dish of this kind
+isn't, at ordinary times, very often made, and were, now that brother
+Pao-yue has alluded to it, only sufficient prepared for him, and none for
+you, dear senior, you, aunt, and you, Madame Wang, it won't be quite the
+thing! So isn't it better that this opportunity should be availed of to
+get ready a whole supply so that every one should partake of some, and
+that even I should, through my reliance on your kind favour, taste this
+novel kind of relish."
+
+"You are sharper than a monkey!" Dowager lady Chia laughingly exclaimed
+in reply to her proposal. "You make use of public money to confer boons
+upon people."
+
+This remark evoked general laughter.
+
+"This is a mere bagatelle!" eagerly laughed lady Feng. "Even I can
+afford to stand you such a small treat!" Then turning her head round,
+"Tell them in the cook-house," she said to a married woman, "to please
+make an extra supply, and that they'll get the money from me."
+
+The matron assented and went out of the room.
+
+Pao-ch'ai, who was standing near, thereupon interposed with a smile.
+"During the few years that have gone by since I've come here, I've
+carefully noticed that sister-in-law Secunda, cannot, with all her
+acumen, outwit our venerable ancestor."
+
+"My dear child!" forthwith replied old lady Chia at these words. "I'm
+now quite an old woman, and how can there still remain any wit in me!
+When I was, long ago, of your manlike cousin Feng's age, I had far more
+wits about me than she has! Albeit she now avers that she can't reach
+our standard, she's good enough; and compared with your aunt Wang, why,
+she's infinitely superior. Your aunt, poor thing, won't speak much!
+She's like a block of wood; and when with her father and mother-in-law,
+she won't show herself off to advantage. But that girl Feng has a sharp
+tongue, so is it a wonder if people take to her."
+
+"From what you say," insinuated Pao-yue with a smile, "those who don't
+talk much are not loved."
+
+"Those who don't speak much," resumed dowager lady Chia, "possess the
+endearing quality of reserve. But among those, with glib tongues,
+there's also a certain despicable lot; thus it's better, in a word, not
+to have too much to say for one's self."
+
+"Quite so," smiled Pao-yue, "yet though senior sister-in-law Chia Chu
+doesn't, I must confess, talk much, you, venerable ancestor, treat her
+just as you do cousin Feng. But if you maintain that those alone, who
+can talk, are worthy of love, then among all these young ladies, sister
+Feng and cousin Lin are the only ones good enough to be loved."
+
+"With regard to the young ladies," remarked dowager lady Chia, "it isn't
+that I have any wish to flatter your aunt Hsueeh in her presence, but it
+is a positive and incontestable fact that there isn't, beginning from
+the four girls in our household, a single one able to hold a candle to
+that girl Pao-ch'ai."
+
+At these words, Mrs. Hsueeh promptly smiled. "Dear venerable senior!" she
+said, "you're rather partial in your verdict."
+
+"Our dear senior," vehemently put in Madame Wang, also smiling, "has
+often told me in private how nice your daughter Pao-ch'ai is; so this is
+no lie."
+
+Pao-yue had tried to lead old lady Chia on, originally with the idea of
+inducing her to speak highly of Lin Tai-yue, but when unawares she began
+to eulogise Pao-ch'ai instead the result exceeded all his thoughts and
+went far beyond his expectations. Forthwith he cast a glance at
+Pao-chai, and gave her a smile, but Pao-chai at once twisted her head
+round and went and chatted with Hsi Jen. But of a sudden, some one came
+to ask them to go and have their meal. Dowager lady Chia rose to her
+feet, and enjoined Pao-yue to be careful of himself. She then gave a few
+directions to the waiting-maids, and resting her weight on lady Feng's
+arm, and pressing Mrs. Hsueeh to go out first, she, and all with her,
+left the apartment in a body. But still she kept on inquiring whether
+the soup was ready or not. "If there's anything you might fancy to eat,"
+she also said to Mrs. Hsueeh and the others, "mind you, come and tell me,
+and I know how to coax that hussey Feng to get it for you as well as
+me."
+
+"My venerable senior!" rejoined Mrs. Hsueeh, "you do have the happy knack
+of putting her on her mettle; but though she has often got things ready
+for you, you've, after all, not eaten very much of them."
+
+"Aunt," smiled lady Feng, "don't make such statements! If our worthy
+senior hasn't eaten me up it's purely and simply because she dislikes
+human flesh as being sour. Did she not look down upon it as sour, why,
+she would long ago have gobbled me up!"
+
+This joke was scarcely ended, when it so tickled the fancy of old lady
+Chia and all the inmates that they broke out with one voice in a
+boisterous fit of laughter. Even Pao-yue, who was inside the room, could
+not keep quiet.
+
+"Really," Hsi Jen laughed, "the mouth of our mistress Secunda is enough
+to terrify people to death!"
+
+Pao-yue put out his arm and pulled Hsi Jen. "You've been standing for so
+long," he smiled, "that you must be feeling tired."
+
+Saying this, he dragged her down and made her take a seat next to him.
+
+"Here you've again forgotten!" laughingly exclaimed Hsi Jen. "Avail
+yourself now that Miss Pao-ch'ai is in the court to tell her to kindly
+bid their Ying Erh come and plait a few girdles with twisted cords."
+
+"How lucky it is you've reminded me?" Pao-yue observed with a smile. And
+putting, while he spoke, his head out of the window: "Cousin Pao-ch'ai,"
+he cried, "when you've had your repast, do tell Ying Erh to come over. I
+would like to ask her to plait a few girdles for me. Has she got the
+time to spare?"
+
+Pao-ch'ai heard him speak; and turning round: "How about no time?" she
+answered. "I'll tell her by and bye to come; it will be all right."
+
+Dowager lady Chia and the others, however, failed to catch distinctly
+the drift of their talk; and they halted and made inquiries of Pao-ch'ai
+what it was about. Pao-ch'ai gave them the necessary explanations.
+
+"My dear child," remarked old lady Chia, "do let her come and twist a
+few girdles for your cousin! And should you be in need of any one for
+anything, I have over at my place a whole number of servant-girls doing
+nothing! Out of them, you are at liberty to send for any you like to
+wait on you!"
+
+"We'll send her to plait them!" Mrs. Hsueeh and Pao-ch'ai observed
+smilingly with one consent. "What can we want her for? she also daily
+idles her time way and is up to every mischief!"
+
+But chatting the while, they were about to proceed on their way when
+they unexpectedly caught sight of Hsiang-yuen, P'ing Erh, Hsiang Lin and
+other girls picking balsam flowers near the rocks; who, as soon as they
+saw the company approaching, advanced to welcome them.
+
+Shortly, they all sallied out of the garden. Madame Wang was worrying
+lest dowager lady Chia's strength might be exhausted, and she did her
+utmost to induce her to enter the drawing room and sit down. Old lady
+Chia herself was feeling her legs quite tired out, so she at once nodded
+her head and expressed her assent. Madame Wang then directed a
+waiting-maid to hurriedly precede them, and get ready the seats. But as
+Mrs. Chao had, about this time, pleaded indisposition, there was only
+therefore Mrs. Chou, with the matrons and servant-girls at hand, so they
+had ample to do to raise the portieres, to put the back-cushions in
+their places, and to spread out the rugs.
+
+Dowager lady Chia stepped into the room, leaning on lady Feng's arm. She
+and Mrs. Hsueeh took their places, with due regard to the distinction
+between hostess and visitors; and Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai and Shih Hsiang-yuen
+seated themselves below. Madame Wang then came forward, and presented
+with her own hands tea to old lady Chia, while Li Kung-ts'ai handed a
+cup to Mrs. Hsueeh.
+
+"You'd better let those young sisters-in law do the honours,"
+remonstrated old lady Chia, "and sit over there so that we may be able
+to have a chat."
+
+Madame Wang at length sat on a small bench. "Let our worthy senior's
+viands," she cried, addressing herself to lady Feng, "be served here.
+And let a few more things be brought!"
+
+Lady Feng acquiesced without delay, and she told a servant to cross over
+to their old mistress' quarters and to bid the matrons, employed in that
+part of the household, promptly go out and summon the waiting-girls. The
+various waiting-maids arrived with all despatch. Madame Wang directed
+them to ask their young ladies round. But after a protracted absence on
+the errand, only two of the girls turned up: T'an Ch'un and Hsi Ch'un.
+Ying Ch'un, was not, in her state of health, equal to the fatigue, or
+able to put anything in her mouth, and Lin Tai-yue, superfluous to add,
+could only safely partake of five out of ten meals, so no one thought
+anything of their non-appearance. Presently the eatables were brought,
+and the servants arranged them in their proper places on the table.
+
+Lady Feng took a napkin and wrapped a bundle of chopsticks in it.
+"Venerable ancestor and you, Mrs. Hsueeh," she smiled, standing the while
+below, "there's no need of any yielding! Just you listen to me and I'll
+make things all right."
+
+"Let's do as she wills!" old lady Chia remarked to Mrs. Hsueeh
+laughingly.
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh signified her approval with a smile; so lady Feng placed, in
+due course, four pairs of chopsticks on the table; the two pairs on the
+upper end for dowager lady Chia and Mrs. Hsueeh; those on the two sides
+for Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai and Shih Hsiang-yuen. Madame Wang, Li Kung-ts'ai and
+a few others, stood together below and watched the attendants serve the
+viands. Lady Feng first and foremost hastily asked for clean utensils,
+and drew near the table to select some eatables for Pao-yue. Presently,
+the soup _a la_ lotus leaves arrived. After old lady Chia had well
+scrutinised it, Madame Wang turned her head, and catching sight of Yue
+Ch'uan-erh, she immediately commissioned her to take some over to
+Pao-yue.
+
+"She can't carry it single-handed," demurred lady Feng.
+
+But by a strange coincidence, Ying Erh then walked into the room along
+with Hsi Erh, and Pao-ch'ai knowing very well that they had already had
+their meal forthwith said to Ying Erh: "Your Master Secundus, Mr.
+Pao-yue, just asked that you should go and twist a few girdles for him;
+so you two might as well proceed together!"
+
+Ying Erh expressed her readiness and left the apartment, in company with
+Yue Ch'uan-erh.
+
+"How can you carry it, so very hot as it is, the whole way there?"
+observed Ying Erh.
+
+"Don't distress yourself!" rejoined Yue Ch'uan smiling. "I know how to do
+it."
+
+Saying this, she directed a matron to come and place the soup, rice and
+the rest of the eatables in a present box; and bidding her lay hold of
+it and follow them, the two girls sped on their way with empty hands,
+and made straight for the entrance of the I Hung court. Here Yue
+Ch'uan-erh at length took the things herself, and entered the room in
+company with Ying Erh. The trio, Hsi Jen, She Yueeh and Ch'iu Wen were at
+the time chatting and laughing with Pao-yue; but the moment they saw
+their two friends arrive they speedily jumped to their feet. "How is
+it," they exclaimed laughingly, "that you two drop in just the nick of
+time? Have you come together?"
+
+With these words on their lips, they descended to greet them. Yue Ch'uan
+took at once a seat on a small stool. Ying Erh, however, did not presume
+to seat herself; and though Hsi Jen was quick enough in moving a
+foot-stool for her, Ying Erh did not still venture to sit down.
+
+Ying Erh's arrival filled Pao-yue with intense delight. But as soon as he
+noticed Yue Ch'uan-erh, he recalled to memory her sister Chin Ch'uan-erh,
+and he felt wounded to the very heart, and overpowered with shame. And,
+without troubling his mind about Ying Erh, he addressed his remarks to
+Yue Ch'uan-erh.
+
+Hsi Jen saw very well that Ying Erh failed to attract his attention and
+she began to fear lest she felt uncomfortable; and when she further
+realised that Ying Erh herself would not take a seat, she drew her out
+of the room and repaired with her into the outer apartment, where they
+had a chat over their tea.
+
+She Yueeh and her companions had, in the meantime, got the bowls and
+chopsticks ready and came to wait upon (Pao-yue) during his meal. But
+Pao-yue would not have anything to eat. "Is your mother all right," he
+forthwith inquired of Yue Ch'uan-erh.
+
+An angry scowl crept over Yue Ch'uan-erh's face. She did not even look
+straight at Pao-yue. And only after a long pause was it that she at last
+uttered merely the words, "all right," by way of reply. Pao-yue,
+therefore, found talking to her of little zest. But after a protracted
+silence he felt impelled to again force a smile, and to ask: "Who told
+you to bring these things over to me?"
+
+"The ladies," answered Yue Chuan-erh.
+
+Pao-yue discerned the mournful expression, which still beclouded her
+countenance and he readily jumped at the conclusion that it must be
+entirely occasioned by the fate which had befallen Chin Ch'uan-erh, but
+when fain to put on a meek and unassuming manner, and endeavour to cheer
+her, he saw how little he could demean himself in the presence of so
+many people, and consequently he did his best and discovered the means
+of getting every one out of the way. Afterwards, straining another
+smile, he plied her with all sorts of questions.
+
+Yue Ch'uan-erh, it is true, did not at first choose to heed his advances,
+yet when she observed that Pao-yue did not put on any airs, and, that in
+spite of all her querulous reproaches, he still continued pleasant and
+agreeable, she felt disconcerted and her features at last assumed a
+certain expression of cheerfulness. Pao-yue thereupon smiled. "My dear
+girl," he said, as he gave way to entreaties, "bring that soup and let
+me taste it!"
+
+"I've never been in the habit of feeding people," Yue Ch'uan-erh replied.
+"You'd better wait till the others return; you can have some then."
+
+"I don't want you to feed me," laughed Pao-yue. "It's because I can't
+move about that I appeal to you. Do let me have it! You'll then get back
+early and be able, when you've handed over the things, to have your
+meal. But were I to go on wasting your time, won't you feel upset from
+hunger? Should you be lazy to budge, well then, I'll endure the pain and
+get down and fetch it myself."
+
+As he spoke, he tried to alight from bed. He strained every nerve, and
+raised himself, but unable to stand the exertion, he burst out into
+groans. At the sight of his anguish, Yue Ch'uan-erh had not the heart to
+refuse her help. Springing up, "Lie down!" she cried. "In what former
+existence did you commit such evil that your retribution in the present
+one is so apparent? Which of my eyes however can brook looking at you
+going on in that way?"
+
+While taunting him, she again blurted out laughing, and brought the soup
+over to him.
+
+"My dear girl;" smiled Pao-yue, "if you want to show temper, better do so
+here! When you see our venerable senior and madame, my mother, you
+should be a little more even-tempered, for if you still behave like
+this, you'll at once get a scolding!"
+
+"Eat away, eat away!" urged Yue Ch'uan-erh. "There's no need for you to
+be so sweet-mouthed and honey-tongued with me. I don't put any faith in
+such talk!"
+
+So speaking, she pressed Pao-yue until he had two mouthfuls of soup. "It
+isn't nice, it isn't nice!" Pao-yue purposely exclaimed.
+
+"Omi-to-fu!" ejaculated Yue Ch'uan-erh. "If this isn't nice, what's
+nice?"
+
+"There's no flavour about it at all," resumed Pao-yue. "If you don't
+believe me taste it, and you'll find out for yourself."
+
+Yue Ch'uan-erh in a tantrum actually put some of it to her lips.
+
+"Well," laughed Pao-yue, "it is nice!"
+
+This exclamation eventually enabled Yue Ch'uan to see what Pao-yue was
+driving at, for Pao-yue had in fact been trying to beguile her to have a
+mouthful.
+
+"As, at one moment, you say you don't want any," she forthwith observed,
+"and now you say it is nice, I won't give you any."
+
+While Pao-yue returned her smiles, he kept on earnestly entreating her to
+let him have some.
+
+Yue Ch'uan-erh however would still not give him any; and she, at the same
+time, called to the servants to fetch what there was for him to eat. But
+the instant the waiting-maid put her foot into the room, servants came
+quite unexpectedly to deliver a message.
+
+"Two nurses," they said, "have arrived from the household of Mr. Fu,
+Secundus, to present his compliments. They have now come to see you, Mr.
+Secundus." As soon as Pao-yue heard this report, he felt sure that they
+must be nurses sent over from the household of Deputy Sub-Prefect, Fu
+Shih.
+
+This Fu Shih had originally been a pupil of Chia Cheng, and had, indeed,
+had to rely entirely upon the reputation enjoyed by the Chia family for
+the realisation of his wishes. Chia Cheng had, likewise, treated him
+with such genuine regard, and so unlike any of his other pupils, that he
+(Fu Shih) ever and anon despatched inmates from his mansion to come and
+see him so as to keep up friendly relations.
+
+Pao-yue had at all times entertained an aversion for bold-faced men and
+unsophisticated women, so why did he once more, on this occasion, issue
+directions that the two matrons should be introduced into his presence?
+There was, in fact, a reason for his action. It was simply that Pao-yue
+had come to learn that Fu Shih had a sister, Ch'iu-fang by name, a girl
+as comely as a magnificent gem, and perfection itself, the report of
+outside people went, as much in intellect as in beauty. He had, it is
+true, not yet seen anything of her with his own eyes, but the
+sentiments, which made him think of her and cherish her, from a
+distance, were characterised by such extreme sincerity, that dreading
+lest he should, by refusing to admit the matrons, reflect discredit upon
+Fu Ch'iu-fang, he was prompted to lose no time in expressing a wish that
+they should be ushered in.
+
+This Fu Shih had really risen from the vulgar herd, so seeing that
+Ch'iu-fang possessed several traits of beauty and exceptional
+intellectual talents, Fu Shih arrived at the resolution of making his
+sister the means of joining relationship with the influential family of
+some honourable clan. And so unwilling was he to promise her lightly to
+any suitor that things were delayed up to this time. Therefore Fu
+Ch'iu-fang, though at present past her twentieth birthday, was not as
+yet engaged. But the various well-to-do families, belonging to
+honourable clans, looked down, on the other hand, on her poor and mean
+extraction, holding her in such light esteem, as not to relish the idea
+of making any offer for her hand. So if Fu Shih cultivated intimate
+terms with the Chia household, he, needless to add, did so with an
+interested motive.
+
+The two matrons, deputed on the present errand, completely lacked, as it
+happened, all knowledge of the world, and the moment they heard that
+Pao-yue wished to see them, they wended their steps inside. But no sooner
+had they inquired how he was, and passed a few remarks than Yue
+Ch'uan-erh, becoming conscious of the arrival of strangers, did not
+bandy words with Pao-yue, but stood with the plate of soup in her hands,
+engrossed in listening to the conversation. Pao-yue, again, was absorbed
+in speaking to the matrons; and, while eating some rice, he stretched
+out his arm to get at the soup; but both his and her (Yue Ch'uan-erh's)
+eyes were rivetted on the women, and as he thoughtlessly jerked out his
+hand with some violence, he struck the bowl and turned it clean over.
+The soup fell over Pao-yue's hand. But it did not hurt Yue Ch'uan-erh. She
+sustained, however, such a fright that she gave a start.
+
+"How did this happen!" she smilingly shouted with vehemence to the
+intense consternation of the waiting-maids, who rushed up and clasped
+the bowl. But notwithstanding that Pao-yue had scalded his own hand, he
+was quite unconscious of the accident; so much so, that he assailed Yue
+Ch'uan-erh with a heap of questions, as to where she had been burnt, and
+whether it was sore or not.
+
+Yue Ch'uan-erh and every one present were highly amused.
+
+"You yourself," observed Yue Ch'uan-erh, "have been scalded, and do you
+keep on asking about myself?"
+
+At these words, Pao-yue became at last aware of the injury he had
+received. The servants rushed with all promptitude and cleared the mess.
+But Pao-yue was not inclined to touch any more food. He washed his hands,
+drank a cup of tea, and then exchanged a few further sentences with the
+two matrons. But subsequently, the two women said good-bye and quitted
+the room. Ch'ing Wen and some other girls saw them as far as the bridge,
+after which, they retraced their steps.
+
+The two matrons perceived, that there was no one about, and while
+proceeding on their way, they started a conversation.
+
+"It isn't strange," smiled the one, "if people say that this Pao-yue of
+theirs is handsome in appearance, but stupid as far as brains go. Nice
+enough a thing to look at but not to put to one's lips; rather idiotic
+in fact; for he burns his own hand, and then he asks some one else
+whether she's sore or not. Now, isn't this being a regular fool?"
+
+"The last time I came," the other remarked, also smiling, "I heard that
+many inmates of his family feel ill-will against him. In real truth he
+is a fool! For there he drips in the heavy downpour like a water fowl,
+and instead of running to shelter himself, he reminds other people of
+the rain, and urges them to get quick out of the wet. Now, tell me,
+isn't this ridiculous, eh? Time and again, when no one is present, he
+cries to himself, then laughs to himself. When he sees a swallow, he
+instantly talks to it; when he espies a fish, in the river, he forthwith
+speaks to it. At the sight of stars or the moon, if he doesn't groan and
+sigh, he mutters and mutters. Indeed, he hasn't the least bit of
+character; so much so, that he even puts up with the temper shown by
+those low-bred maids. If he takes a fancy to a thing, it's nice enough
+even though it be a bit of thread. But as for waste, what does he mind?
+A thing may be worth a thousand or ten thousand pieces of money, he
+doesn't worry his mind in the least about it."
+
+While they talked, they reached the exterior of the garden, and they
+betook themselves back to their home; where we will leave them.
+
+As soon as Hsi Jen, for we will return to her, saw the women leave the
+room, she took Ying Erh by the hand and led her in, and they asked
+Pao-yue what kind of girdle he wanted made.
+
+"I was just now so bent upon talking," Pao-yue smiled to Ying Erh, "that
+I forgot all about you. I put you to the trouble of coming, not for
+anything else, but that you should also make me a few nets."
+
+"Nets! To put what in?" Ying Erh inquired.
+
+Pao-yue, at this question, put on a smile. "Don't concern yourself about
+what they are for!" he replied. "Just make me a few of each kind!"
+
+Ying Erh clapped her hand and laughed. "Could this ever be done!" she
+cried, "If you want all that lot, why, they couldn't be finished in ten
+years time."
+
+"My dear girl," smiled Pao-yue, "work at them for me then whenever you
+are at leisure, and have nothing better to do."
+
+"How could you get through them all in a little time?" Hsi Jen
+interposed smilingly. "First choose now therefore such as are most
+urgently needed and make a couple of them."
+
+"What about urgently needed?" Ying-Erh exclaimed, "They are merely used
+for fans, scented pendants and handkerchiefs."
+
+"Nets for handkerchiefs will do all right." Pao-yue answered.
+
+"What's the colour of your handkerchief?" inquired Ying Erh.
+
+"It's a deep red one." Pao-yue rejoined.
+
+"For a deep red one," continued Ying Erh, "a black net will do very
+nicely, or one of dark green. Both these agree with the colour."
+
+"What goes well with brown?" Pao-yue asked.
+
+"Peach-red goes well with brown." Ying Erh added.
+
+"That will make them look gaudy!" Pao-yue observed. "Yet with all their
+plainness, they should be somewhat gaudy."
+
+"Leek-green and willow-yellow are what are most to my taste," Ying Erh
+pursued.
+
+"Yes, they'll also do!" Pao-yue retorted. "But make one of peach-red too
+and then one of leek-green."
+
+"Of what design?" Ying Erh remarked.
+
+"How many kinds of designs are there?" Pao-yue said.
+
+"There are 'the stick of incense,' 'stools upset towards heaven,' 'part
+of elephant's eyes,' 'squares,' 'chains,' 'plum blossom,' and 'willow
+leaves." Ying Erh answered.
+
+"What was the kind of design you made for Miss Tertia the other day?"
+Pao-yue inquired.
+
+"It was the 'plum blossom with piled cores,'" Ying Erh explained in
+reply.
+
+"Yes, that's nice." Pao-yue rejoined.
+
+As he uttered this remark, Hsi Jen arrived with the cords. But no sooner
+were they brought than a matron cried, from outside the window: "Girls,
+your viands are ready!"
+
+"Go and have your meal," urged Pao-yue, "and come back quick after you've
+had it."
+
+"There are visitors here," Hsi Jen smiled, "and how can I very well go?"
+
+"What makes you say so?" Ying Erh laughed, while adjusting the cords.
+"It's only right and proper that you should go and have your food at
+once and then return."
+
+Hearing this, Hsi Jen and her companions went off, leaving behind only
+two youthful servant-girls to answer the calls.
+
+Pao-yue watched Ying Erh make the nets. But, while keeping his eyes
+intent on her, he talked at the same time of one thing and then another,
+and next went on to ask her how far she was in her teens.
+
+Ying Erh continued plaiting. "I'm sixteen," she simultaneously rejoined.
+
+"What was your original surname?" Pao-yue added.
+
+"It was Huang;" answered Ying Erh.
+
+"That's just the thing," Pao-yue smiled; "for in real truth there's the
+'Huang Ying-erh;' (oriole)."
+
+"My name, at one time, consisted of two characters," continued Ying Erh.
+"I was called Chin Ying; but Miss Pao-ch'ai didn't like it, as it was
+difficult to pronounce, and only called me Ying Erh; so now I've come to
+be known under that name."
+
+"One can very well say that cousin Pao-ch'ai is fond of you!" Pao-yue
+pursued. "By and bye, when she gets married, she's sure to take you
+along with her."
+
+Ying Erh puckered up her lips, and gave a significant smile.
+
+"I've often told Hsi Jen," Pao-yue smiled, "that I can't help wondering
+who'll shortly be the lucky ones to win your mistress and yourself."
+
+"You aren't aware," laughed Ying Erh, "that our young mistress possesses
+several qualities not to be found in a single person in this world; her
+face is a second consideration."
+
+Pao-yue noticed how captivating Ying Erh's tone of voice was, how
+complaisant she was, and how simpleton-like unaffected in her language
+and smiles, and he soon felt the warmest affection for her; and
+particularly so, when she started the conversation about Pao-ch'ai.
+"Where do her qualities lie?" he readily inquired. "My dear girl, please
+tell me!"
+
+"If I tell you," said Ying Erh, "you must, on no account, let her know
+anything about it again."
+
+"This goes without saying," smiled Pao-yue.
+
+But this answer was still on his lips, when they overheard some one
+outside remark: "How is it that everything is so quiet?"
+
+Both gazed round to see who possibly it could be. They discovered,
+strange enough, no one else than Pao-ch'ai herself.
+
+Pao-yue hastily offered her a seat. Pao-ch'ai seated herself, and then
+wanted to know what Ying Erh was busy plaiting. Inquiring the while, she
+approached her and scrutinised what she held in her hands, half of which
+had by this time been done. "What's the fun of a thing like this?" she
+said. "Wouldn't it be preferable to plait a net, and put the jade in
+it?"
+
+This allusion suggested the idea to Pao-yue. Speedily clapping his hands,
+he smiled and exclaimed: "Your idea is splendid, cousin. I'd forgotten
+all about it! The only thing is what colour will suit it best?"
+
+"It will never do to use mixed colours," Pao-ch'ai rejoined. "Deep red
+will, on one hand, clash with the colour; while yellow is not pleasing
+to the eye; and black, on the other hand, is too sombre. But wait, I'll
+try and devise something. Bring that gold cord and use it with the black
+beaded cord; and if you twist one of each together, and make a net with
+them, it will look very pretty!"
+
+Upon hearing this, Pao-yue was immeasurably delighted, and time after
+time he shouted to the servants to fetch the gold cord. But just at that
+moment Hsi Jen stepped in, with two bowls of eatables. "How very strange
+this is to-day!" she said to Pao-yue. "Why, a few minutes back, my
+mistress, your mother, sent some one to bring me two bowls of viands."
+
+"The supply," replied Pao-yue smiling, "must have been so plentiful
+to-day, that they've sent some to every one of you."
+
+"It isn't that," continued Hsi Jen, "for they were distinctly given to
+me by name. What's more, I wasn't bidden go and knock my head; so this
+is indeed remarkable!"
+
+"If they're given to you," Pao-yue smiled, "why, you had better go and
+eat them. What's there in this to fill you with conjectures?"
+
+"There's never been anything like this before," Hsi Jen added, "so, it
+makes me feel uneasy."
+
+Pao-ch'ai compressed her lips. "If this," she laughed; "makes you fell
+uneasy, there will be by and bye other things to make you far more
+uneasy."
+
+Hsi Jen realised that she implied something by her insinuations, as she
+knew from past experience that Pao-ch'ai was not one given to lightly
+and contemptuously poking fun at people; and, remembering the notions
+entertained by Madame Wang on the last occasion she had seen her, she
+dropped at once any further allusions to the subject and brought the
+eatables up to Pao-yue for his inspection. "I shall come and hold the
+cords," she observed, "as soon as I've rinsed my hands."
+
+This said, she immediately quitted the apartment. After her meal, she
+washed her hands and came inside to hold the gold cords for Ying Erh to
+plait the net with.
+
+By this time, Pao-ch'ai had been called away by a servant, despatched by
+Hsueeh P'an. But while Pao-yue was watching the net that was being made he
+caught sight, at a moment least expected, of two servant-girls, who came
+from the part of Madame Hsing of the other mansion, to bring him a few
+kinds of fruits, and to inquire whether he was able to walk. "If you can
+go about," they told him, "(our mistress) desires you, Mr. Pao-yue, to
+cross over to-morrow and have a little distraction. Her ladyship really
+longs to see you."
+
+"Were I able to walk," Pao-yue answered with alacrity, "I would feel it
+my duty to go and pay my respects to your mistress! Anyhow, the pain is
+better than before, so request your lady to allay her solicitude."
+
+As he bade them both sit down, he, at the same time, called Ch'iu Wen.
+"Take," he said to her, "half of the fruits, just received, to Miss Lin
+as a present."
+
+Ch'iu Wen signified her obedience, and was about to start on her errand,
+when she heard Tai-yue talking in the court, and Pao-yue eagerly shout
+out: "Request her to walk in at once!"
+
+But should there be any further particulars, which you, reader, might
+feel disposed to know, peruse the details given in the following
+chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+ While Hsi Jen is busy embroidering mandarin ducks, Pao-yue receives, in
+ the Chiang Yuen Pavilion, an omen from a dream.
+ Pao-yue apprehends that there is a destiny in affections, when his
+ feelings are aroused to a sense of the situation in the Pear
+ Fragrance court.
+
+
+Ever since dowager lady Chia's return from Madame Wang's quarters, for
+we will now take up the string of our narrative, she naturally felt
+happier in her mind as she saw that Pao-yue improved from day to day; but
+nervous lest Chia Cheng should again in the future send for him, she
+lost no time in bidding a servant summon a head-page, a constant
+attendant upon Chia Cheng, to come to her, and in impressing upon him
+various orders. "Should," she enjoined him, "anything turn up
+henceforward connected with meeting guests, entertaining visitors and
+other such matters, and your master mean to send for Pao-yue, you can
+dispense with going to deliver the message. Just you tell him that I say
+that after the severe thrashing he has had, great care must be first
+taken of him during several months before he can be allowed to walk; and
+that, secondly, his constellation is unpropitious and that he could not
+see any outsider, while sacrifices are being offered to the stars; that
+I won't have him therefore put his foot beyond the second gate before
+the expiry of the eighth moon."
+
+The head-page listened patiently to her instructions, and, assenting to
+all she had to say, he took his leave.
+
+Old lady Chia thereupon also sent for nurse Li, Hsi Jen and the other
+waiting-maids and recommended them to tell Pao-yue about her injunctions
+so that he might be able to quiet his mind.
+
+Pao-yue had always had a repugnance for entertaining high officials and
+men in general, and the greatest horror of going in official hat and
+ceremonial dress, to offer congratulations, or express condolences, to
+pay calls, return visits, or perform other similar conventionalities,
+but upon receipt on the present occasion of this message, he became so
+much the more confirmed in his dislikes that not only did he suspend all
+intercourse with every single relative and friend, but even went so far
+as to study more than he had ever done before, his own caprices in the
+fulfilment of those morning and evening salutations due to the senior
+members of his family. Day after day he spent in the garden, doing
+nothing else than loafing about, sitting down here, or reclining there.
+Of a morning, he would, as soon as it was day, stroll as far as the
+quarters of dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang, to repair back, however,
+in no time. Yet ever ready was he every day that went by to perform
+menial services for any of the waiting-maids. He, in fact, wasted away
+in the most complete _dolce far niente_ days as well as months. If
+perchance Pao-ch'ai or any other girl of the same age as herself found
+at any time an opportunity to give him advice, he would, instead of
+taking it in good part, fly into a huff. "A pure and spotless maiden,"
+he would say, "has likewise gone and deliberately imitated those
+persons, whose aim is to fish for reputation and to seek praise; that
+set of government thieves and salaried devils. This result entirely
+arises from the fact that there have been people in former times, who
+have uselessly stirred up trouble and purposely fabricated stories with
+the primary object of enticing the filthy male creatures, who would
+spring up in future ages, to follow in their steps! And who would have
+thought it, I have had the misfortune of being born a masculine being!
+But, even those beautiful girls, in the female apartments, have been so
+contaminated by this practice that verily they show themselves
+ungrateful for the virtue of Heaven and Earth, in endowing them with
+perception, and in rearing them with so much comeliness."
+
+Seeing therefore what an insane mania possessed him, not one of his
+cousins came forward to tender him one proper word of counsel. Lin
+Tai-yue was the only one of them, who, from his very infancy, had never
+once admonished him to strive and make a position and attain fame, so
+thus it was that he entertained for Tai-yue profound consideration. But
+enough of minor details.
+
+We will now turn our attention to lady Feng. Soon after the news of Chin
+Ch'uan-erh's death reached her, she saw that domestics from various
+branches of the family paid her frequent visits at most unexpected
+hours, and presented her a lot of things, and that they courted her
+presence at most unseasonable moments, to pay their compliments and
+adulate her, and she begun to harbour suspicions, in her own mind, as
+she little knew what their object could possibly be. On this date, she
+again noticed that some of them had brought their gifts, so, when
+evening arrived, and no one was present, she felt compelled to inquire
+jocosely of P'ing Erh what their aim could be.
+
+"Can't your ladyship fathom even this?" P'ing Erh answered with a
+sardonic smile. "Why, their daughters must, I fancy, be servant-girls in
+Madame Wang's apartments! For her ladyship's rooms four elderly girls
+are at present allotted with a monthly allowance of one tael; the rest
+simply receiving several hundreds of cash each month; so now that Chin
+Ch'uan-erh is dead and gone, these people must, of course, be anxious to
+try their tricks and get this one-tael job!"
+
+Hearing this, lady Feng smiled a significant smile. "That's it. Yes,
+that's it!" she exclaimed. "You've really suggested the idea to my mind!
+From all appearances, these people are a most insatiable lot; for they
+make quite enough in the way of money! And as for any business that
+requires a little exertion, why they are never ready to bear a share of
+it! They make use of their girls as so many tools to shove their own
+duties upon. Yet one overlooks that. But must they too have designs upon
+this job? Never mind! These people cannot easily afford to spend upon me
+the money they do. But they bring this upon their own selves, so I'll
+keep every bit of thing they send. I've, after all, resolved how to act
+in the matter!"
+
+Having arrived at this decision, lady Feng purely and simply protracted
+the delay until all the women had sent her enough to satisfy her, when
+she at last suited her own convenience and spoke to Madame Wang (on the
+subject of the vacant post).
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh and her daughter were sitting one day, at noon, in Madame
+Wang's quarters, together with Lin Tai-yue and the other girls, when lady
+Feng found an opportunity and broached the topic with Madame Wang. "Ever
+since," she said, "sister Chin Ch'uan-erh's death, there has been one
+servant less in your ladyship's service. But you may possibly have set
+your choice upon some girl; if so, do let me know who it is, so that I
+may be able to pay her her monthly wages."
+
+This reminder made Madame Wang commune with her own self. "I fancy," she
+remarked; "that the custom is that there should be four or five of them;
+but as long as there are enough to wait upon me, I don't mind, so we can
+really dispense with another."
+
+"What you say is, properly speaking, perfectly correct," smiled lady
+Feng; "but it's an old established custom. There are still a couple to
+be found in other people's rooms and won't you, Madame, conform with the
+rule? Besides, the saving of a tael is a small matter."
+
+After this argument, Madame Wang indulged in further thought. "Never
+mind," she then observed, "just you bring over this allowance and pay it
+to me. And there will be no need to supply another girl. I'll hand over
+this tael to her younger sister, Yue Ch'uan-erh, and finish with it. Her
+elder sister came to an unpleasant end, after a long term of service
+with me; so if the younger sister, she leaves behind in my employ,
+receives a double share, it won't be any too excessive."
+
+Lady Feng expressed her approval and turning round she said smilingly to
+Yue Ch'uan-erh: "I congratulate you, I congratulate you!"
+
+Yue Ch'uan-erh thereupon crossed over and prostrated herself.
+
+"I just want to ask you," Madame Wang went on to inquire, "how much Mrs.
+Chao and Mrs. Chou are allowed monthly?"
+
+"They have a fixed allowance," answered lady Feng, "each of them draws
+two taels. But Mrs. Chao gets two taels for cousin Chia Huan, so hers
+amounts in all to four taels; besides these, four strings of cash."
+
+"Are they paid in full month after month?" Madame Wang inquired.
+
+Lady Feng thought the question so very strange that she hastened to
+exclaim by way of reply: "How are they not paid in full?"
+
+"The other day," Madame Wang proceeded, "I heard a faint rumour that
+there was some one, who complained in an aggrieved way that she had got
+a string short. How and why is this?"
+
+"The monthly allowances of the servant-girls, attached to the secondary
+wives," lady Feng hurriedly added with a smile, "amounted originally to
+a tiao each, but ever since last year, it was decided, by those people
+outside, that the shares of each of those ladies' girls should be
+reduced by half, that is, each to five hundred cash; and, as each lady
+has a couple of servant-girls, they receive therefore a tiao short. But
+for this, they can't bear me a grudge. As far as I'm concerned, I would
+only be too glad to let them have it; but our people outside will again
+disallow it; so is it likely that I can authorise any increase, pray? In
+this matter of payments I merely receive the money, and I've nothing to
+do with how it comes and how it goes. I nevertheless recommended, on two
+or three occasions, that it would be better if these two shares were
+again raised to the old amount; but they said that there's only that
+much money, so that I can't very well volunteer any further suggestions!
+Now that the funds are paid into my hands, I give them to them every
+month, without any irregularity of even so much as a day. When payments
+hitherto were effected outside, what month were they not short of money?
+And did they ever, on any single instance, obtain their pay at the
+proper time and date?"
+
+Having heard this explanation, Madame Wang kept silent for a while.
+Next, she proceeded to ask, how many girls there were with dowager lady
+Chia drawing one tael.
+
+"Eight of them," rejoined lady Feng, "but there are at present only
+seven; the other one is Hsi Jen."
+
+"Quite right," assented Madame Wang. "But your cousin Pao-yue hasn't any
+maid at one tael; for Hsi Jen is still a servant belonging to old lady
+Chia's household."
+
+"Hsi Jen," lady Feng smiled, "is still our dear ancestor's servant;
+she's only lent to cousin Pao-yue; so that she still receives this tael
+in her capacity of maid to our worthy senior. Any proposal, therefore,
+that might now be made, that this tael should, as Hsi Jen is Pao-yue's
+servant, be curtailed, can, on no account, be entertained. Yet, were it
+suggested that another servant should be added to our senior's staff,
+then in this way one could reduce the tael she gets. But if this be not
+curtailed, it will be necessary to also add a servant in cousin Chia
+Huan's rooms, in order that there should be a fair apportionment. In
+fact, Ch'ing Wen, She Yueeh and the others, numbering seven senior maids,
+receive each a tiao a month; and Chiao Hui and the rest of the junior
+maids, eight in all, get each five hundred cash per mensem; and this was
+recommended by our venerable ancestor herself; so how can any one be
+angry and feel displeasure?"
+
+"Just listen," laughed Mrs. Hsueeh, "to that girl Feng's mouth! It
+rattles and rattles like a cart laden with walnuts, which has turned
+topsy-turvy! Yet, her accounts are, from what one can gather, clear
+enough, and her arguments full of reason."
+
+"Aunt," rejoined lady Feng smiling, "was I likely, pray, wrong in what I
+said?"
+
+"Who ever said you were wrong?" Mrs. Hsueeh smiled. "But were you to talk
+a little slower, wouldn't it be a saving of exertion for you?"
+
+Lady Feng was about to laugh, but hastily checking herself, she lent an
+ear to what Madame Wang might have to tell her.
+
+Madame Wang indulged in thought for a considerable time. Afterwards,
+facing lady Feng, "You'd better," she said, "select a waiting-maid
+tomorrow and send her over to our worthy senior to fill up Hsi Jen's
+place. Then, discontinue that allowance, which Hsi Jen draws, and keep
+out of the sum of twenty taels, allotted to me monthly, two taels and a
+tiao, and give them to Hsi Jen. So henceforward what Mrs. Chao and Mrs.
+Chou will get, Hsi Jen will likewise get, with the only difference that
+the share granted to Hsi Jen, will be entirely apportioned out of my own
+allowance. Mind, therefore, there will be no necessity to touch the
+public funds!"
+
+Lady Feng acquiesced to each one of her recommendations, and, pushing
+Mrs. Hsueeh, "Aunt," she inquired, "have you heard her proposal? What
+have I all along maintained? Well, my words have actually come out true
+to-day!"
+
+"This should have been accomplished long ago," Mrs. Hsueeh answered. "For
+without, of course, making any allusion to her looks, her way of doing
+business is liberal; her speech and her relations with people are always
+prompted by an even temper, while inwardly she has plenty of singleness
+of heart and eagerness to hold her own. Indeed, such a girl is not easy
+to come across!"
+
+Madame Wang made every effort to conceal her tears. "How could you
+people ever rightly estimate Hsi Jen's qualities?" she observed. "Why,
+she's a hundred times better than my own Pao-yue. How fortunate, in
+reality, Pao-yue is! Well would it be if he could have her wait upon him
+for the whole length of his life!"
+
+"In that case," lady Feng suggested, "why, have her face shaved at once,
+and openly place her in his room as a secondary wife. Won't this be a
+good plan?"
+
+"This won't do!" Madame Wang retorted. "For first and foremost he's of
+tender years. In the second place, my husband won't countenance any such
+thing! In the third, so long as Pao-yue sees that Hsi Jen is his
+waiting-maid, he may, in the event of anything occurring from his having
+been allowed to run wild, listen to any good counsel she might give him.
+But were she now to be made his secondary wife, Hsi Jen would not
+venture to tender him any extreme advice, even when it's necessary to do
+so. It's better, therefore, to let things stand as they are for the
+present, and talk about them again, after the lapse of another two or
+three years."
+
+At the close of these arguments, lady Feng could not put in a word, by
+way of reply, to refute them, so turning round, she left the room. She
+had no sooner, however, got under the verandah, than she discerned the
+wives of a number of butlers, waiting for her to report various matters
+to her. Seeing her issue out of the room, they with one consent smiled.
+"What has your ladyship had to lay before Madame Wang," they remarked,
+"that you've been talking away this length of time? Didn't you find it
+hot work?"
+
+Lady Feng tucked up her sleeves several times. Then resting her foot on
+the step of the side door, she laughed and rejoined: "The draft in this
+passage is so cool, that I'll stop, and let it play on me a bit before I
+go on. You people," she proceeded to tell them, "say that I've been
+talking to her all this while, but Madame Wang conjured up all that has
+occurred for the last two hundred years and questioned me about it; so
+could I very well not have anything to say in reply? But from this day
+forth," she added with a sarcastic smile, "I shall do several mean
+things, and should even (Mrs. Chao and Mrs. Chou) go, out of any
+ill-will, and tell Madame Wang, I won't know what fear is for such
+stupid, glib-tongued, foul-mouthed creatures as they, who are bound not
+to see a good end! It isn't for them to indulge in those fanciful dreams
+of becoming primary wives, for there, will come soon a day when the
+whole lump sum of their allowance will be cut off! They grumble against
+us for having now reduced the perquisites of the servant-maids, but they
+don't consider whether they deserve to have so many as three girls to
+dance attendance on them!"
+
+While heaping abuse on their heads, she started homewards, and went all
+alone in search of some domestic to go and deliver a message to old lady
+Chia.
+
+But without any further reference to her, we will take up the thread of
+our narrative with Mrs. Hsueeh, and the others along with her. During
+this interval they finished feasting on melons. After some more gossip,
+each went her own way; and Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yue and the rest of the cousins
+returned into the garden. Pao-ch'ai then asked Tai-yue to repair with her
+to the O Hsiang Arbour. But Tai-yue said that she was just going to have
+her bath, so they parted company, and Pao-ch'ai walked back all by
+herself. On her way, she stepped into the I Hung Yuean, to look up Pao-yue
+and have a friendly hobnob with him, with the idea of dispelling her
+mid-day lassitude; but, contrary to her expectations, the moment she put
+her foot into the court, she did not so much as catch the caw of a crow.
+Even the two storks stood under the banana trees, plunged in sleep.
+Pao-ch'ai proceeded along the covered passage and entered the rooms.
+Here she discovered the servant-girls sleeping soundly on the bed of the
+outer apartment; some lying one way, some another; so turning round the
+decorated screen, she wended her steps into Pao-yue's chamber. Pao-yue was
+asleep in bed. Hsi Jen was seated by his side, busy plying her needle.
+Next to her, lay a yak tail. Pao-ch'ai advanced up to her. "You're
+really far too scrupulous," she said smilingly in an undertone. "Are
+there still flies or mosquitos in here? and why do yet use that fly-flap
+for, to drive what away?"
+
+Hsi Jen was quite taken by surprise. But hastily raising her head, and
+realising that it was Pao-ch'ai, she hurriedly put down her needlework.
+"Miss," she whispered with a smile, "you came upon me so unawares that
+you gave me quite a start! You don't know, Miss, that though there be no
+flies or mosquitoes there is, no one would believe it, a kind of small
+insect, which penetrates through the holes of this gauze; it is scarcely
+to be detected, but when one is asleep, it bites just like ants do!"
+
+"It isn't to be wondered at," Pao-ch'ai suggested, "for the back of
+these rooms adjoins the water; the whole place is also one mass of
+fragrant flowers, and the interior of this room is, too, full of their
+aroma. These insects grow mostly in the core of flowers, so no sooner do
+they scent the smell of any than they at once rush in."
+
+Saying this, she cast a look on the needlework she (Hsi Jen) held in her
+hands. It consisted, in fact, of a belt of white silk, lined with red,
+and embroidered on the upper part with designs representing mandarin
+ducks, disporting themselves among some lotus. The lotus flowers were
+red, the leaves green, the ducks of variegated colours.
+
+"Ai-yah!" ejaculated Pao-ch'ai, "what very beautiful work! For whom is
+this, that it's worth your while wasting so much labour on it?"
+
+Hsi Jen pouted her lips towards the bed.
+
+"Does a big strapping fellow like this," Pao-ch'ai laughed, "still wear
+such things?"
+
+"He would never wear any before," Hsi Jen smiled, "that's why such a
+nice one was specially worked for him, in order that when he was allowed
+to see it, he should not be able to do otherwise than use it. With the
+present hot weather, he goes to sleep anyhow, but as he has been coaxed
+to wear it, it doesn't matter if even he doesn't cover himself well at
+night. You say that I bestow much labour upon this, but you haven't yet
+seen the one he has on!"
+
+"It is a lucky thing," Pao-ch'ai observed, smiling, "that you're gifted
+with such patience."
+
+"I've done so much of it to-day," remarked Hsi Jen, "that my neck is
+quite sore from bending over it. My dear Miss," she then urged with a
+beaming countenance, "do sit here a little. I'll go out for a turn. I'll
+be back shortly."
+
+With these words, she sallied out of the room.
+
+Pao-ch'ai was intent upon examining the embroidery, so in her
+absentmindedness, she, with one bend of her body, settled herself on the
+very same spot, which Hsi Jen had recently occupied. But she found, on
+second scrutiny, the work so really admirable, that impulsively picking
+up the needle, she continued it for her. At quite an unforeseen
+moment--for Lin Tai-yue had met Shih Hsiang-yuen and asked her to come
+along with her and present her congratulations to Hsi Jen--these two
+girls made their appearance in the court. Finding the whole place
+plunged in silence, Hsiang-yuen turned round and betook herself first
+into the side-rooms in search of Hsi Jen. Lin Tai-yue, meanwhile, walked
+up to the window from outside, and peeped in through the gauze frame. At
+a glance, she espied Pao-yue, clad in a silvery-red coat, lying
+carelessly on the bed, and Pao-ch'ai, seated by his side, busy at some
+needlework, with a fly-brush resting by her side.
+
+As soon as Lin Tai-yue became conscious of the situation, she immediately
+slipped out of sight, and stopping her mouth with one hand, as she did
+not venture to laugh aloud, she waved her other hand and beckoned to
+Hsiang-yuen. The moment Hsiang-yuen saw the way she went on, she concluded
+that she must have something new to impart to her, and she approached
+her with all promptitude. At the sight, which opened itself before her
+eyes, she also felt inclined to laugh. Yet the sudden recollection of
+the kindness, with which Pao-ch'ai had always dealt towards her, induced
+her to quickly seal her lips. And knowing well enough that Tai-yue never
+spared any one with her mouth, she was seized with such fear lest she
+should jeer at them, that she immediately dragged her past the window.
+"Come along!" she observed. "Hsi Jen, I remember, said that she would be
+going at noon to wash some clothes at the pond. I presume she's there
+already so let's go and join her."
+
+Tai-yue inwardly grasped her meaning, but, after indulging in a couple of
+sardonic smiles, she had no alternative but to follow in her footsteps.
+
+Pao-ch'ai had, during this while, managed to embroider two or three
+petals, when she heard Pao-yue begin to shout abusingly in his dreams.
+"How can," he cried, "one ever believe what bonzes and Taoist priests
+say? What about a match between gold and jade? My impression is that
+it's to be a union between a shrub and a stone!"
+
+Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai caught every single word uttered by him and fell
+unconsciously in a state of excitement. Of a sudden, however, Hsi Jen
+appeared on the scene. "Hasn't he yet woke up?" she inquired.
+
+Pao-ch'ai nodded her head by way of reply.
+
+"I just came across," Hsi Jen smiled, "Miss Lin and Miss Shih. Did they
+happen to come in?"
+
+"I didn't see them come in," Pao-ch'ai answered. "Did they tell you
+anything?" she next smilingly asked of Hsi Jen.
+
+Hsi Jen blushed and laughed significantly. "They simply came out with
+some of those jokes of theirs," she explained. "What decent things could
+such as they have had to tell me?"
+
+"They made insinuations to-day," Pao-ch'ai laughed, "which are anything
+but a joke! I was on the point of telling you them, when you rushed away
+in an awful hurry."
+
+But no sooner had she concluded, than she perceived a servant, come over
+from lady Feng's part to fetch Hsi Jen. "It must be on account of what
+they hinted," Pao-ch'ai smilingly added.
+
+Hsi Jen could not therefore do otherwise than arouse two servant-maids
+and go. She proceeded, with Pao-ch'ai, out of the I Hung court, and then
+repaired all alone to lady Feng's on this side. It was indeed to
+communicate to her what had been decided about her, and to explain to
+her, as well, that though she could go and prostrate herself before
+Madame Wang, she could dispense with seeing dowager lady Chia. This news
+made Hsi Jen feel very awkward; to such an extent, that no sooner had
+she got through her visit to Madame Wang, than she returned in a hurry
+to her rooms.
+
+Pao-yue had already awoke. He asked the reason why she had been called
+away, but Hsi Jen temporised by giving him an evasive answer. And only
+at night, when every one was quiet, did Hsi Jen at length give him a
+full account of the whole matter. Pao-yue was delighted beyond measure.
+"I'll see now," he said, with a face beaming with smiles, "whether
+you'll go back home or not. On your return, after your last visit to
+your people, you stated that your brother wished to redeem you, adding
+that this place was no home for you, and that you didn't know what would
+become of you in the long run. You freely uttered all that language
+devoid of feeling and reason, and enough too to produce an estrangement
+between us, in order to frighten me; but I'd like to see who'll
+henceforward have the audacity to come and ask you to leave!"
+
+Hsi Jen, upon hearing this, smiled a smile full of irony. "You shouldn't
+say such things!" she replied. "From henceforward I shall be our Madame
+Wang's servant, so that, if I choose to go I needn't even breathe a word
+to you. All I'll have to do will be to tell her, and then I shall be
+free to do as I like."
+
+"But supposing that I behaved improperly," demurred Pao-yue laughingly,
+"and that you took your leave after letting mother know, you yourself
+will be placed in no nice fix, when people get wind that you left on
+account of my having been improper."
+
+"What no nice fix!" smiled Hsi Jen. "Is it likely that I am bound to
+serve even highway robbers? Well, failing anything else, I can die; for
+human beings may live a hundred years, but they're bound, in the long
+run, to fall a victim to death! And when this breath shall have
+departed, and I shall have lost the sense of hearing and of seeing, all
+will then be well!"
+
+When her rejoinder fell on his ear, Pao-yue promptly stopped her mouth
+with both his hands. "Enough! enough! that will do," he shouted.
+"There's no necessity for you to utter language of this kind."
+
+Hsi Jen was well aware that Pao-yue was gifted with such a peculiar
+temperament, that he even looked upon flattering or auspicious phrases
+with utter aversion, treating them as meaningless and consequently
+insincere, so when, after listening to those truths, she had spoken with
+such pathos, he, lapsed into another of his melancholy moods, she blamed
+herself for the want of consideration she had betrayed. Hastily
+therefore putting on a smile, she tried to hit upon some suitable
+remarks, with which to interrupt the conversation. Her choice fell upon
+those licentious and immodest topics, which had ever been a relish to
+the taste of Pao-yue; and from these the conversation drifted to the
+subject of womankind. But when, subsequently, reference was made to the
+excellency of the weak sex, they somehow or other also came to touch
+upon the mortal nature of women, and Hsi Jen promptly closed her lips in
+silence.
+
+Noticing however that now that the conversation had reached a point so
+full of zest for him, she had nothing to say for herself, Pao-yue
+smilingly remarked: "What human being is there that can escape death?
+But the main thing is to come to a proper end! All that those abject
+male creatures excel in is, the civil officers, to sacrifice their lives
+by remonstrating with the Emperor; and, the military, to leave their
+bones on the battlefield. Both these deaths do confer, after life is
+extinct, the fame of great men upon them; but isn't it, in fact, better
+for them not to die? For as it is absolutely necessary that there should
+be a disorderly Emperor before they can afford any admonition, to what
+future fate do they thus expose their sovereign, if they rashly throw
+away their lives, with the sole aim of reaping a fair name for
+themselves? War too must supervene before they can fight; but if they go
+and recklessly lay down their lives, with the exclusive idea of gaining
+the reputation of intrepid warriors, to what destiny will they abandon
+their country by and bye? Hence it is that neither of these deaths can
+be looked upon as a legitimate death."
+
+"Loyal ministers," Hsi Jen argued, "and excellent generals simply die
+because it isn't in their power to do otherwise."
+
+"Military officers," Pao-yue explained, "place such entire reliance upon
+brute force that they become lax in their stratagems and faulty in their
+plans. It's because they don't possess any inherent abilities that they
+lose their lives. Could one therefore, pray, say that they had no other
+alternative? Civil officials, on the other hand, can still less compare
+with military officers. They read a few passages from books, and commit
+them to memory; and, on the slightest mistake made by the Emperor,
+they're at once rash enough to remonstrate with him, prompted by the
+sole idea of attaining the fame of loyalty and devotion. But, as soon as
+their stupid notions have bubbled over, they forfeit their lives, and is
+it likely that it doesn't lie within their power to do otherwise? Why,
+they should also bear in mind that the Emperor receives his decrees from
+Heaven; and, that were he not a perfect man, Heaven itself would, on no
+account whatever, confer upon him a charge so extremely onerous. This
+makes it evident therefore that the whole pack and parcel of those
+officers, who are dead and gone, have invariably fallen victims to their
+endeavours to attain a high reputation, and that they had no knowledge
+whatever of the import of the great principle of right! Take me as an
+instance now. Were really mine the good fortune of departing life at a
+fit time, I'd avail myself of the present when all you girls are alive,
+to pass away. And could I get you to shed such profuse tears for me as
+to swell out into a stream large enough to raise my corpse and carry it
+to some secluded place, whither no bird even has ever wended its flight,
+and could I become invisible like the wind, and nevermore from this
+time, come into existence as a human being, I shall then have died at a
+proper season."
+
+Hsi Jen suddenly awoke to the fact that he was beginning to give vent to
+a lot of twaddle, and speedily, pleading fatigue, she paid no further
+notice to him. This compelled Pao-yue to at last be quiet and go to
+sleep. By the morrow, all recollection of the discussion had vanished
+from his mind.
+
+One day, Pao-yue was feeling weary at heart, after strolling all over the
+place, when remembering the song of the "Peony Pavilion," he read it
+over twice to himself; but still his spirits continued anything but
+joyous. Having heard, however, that among the twelve girls in the Pear
+Fragrance Court there was one called Ling Kuan, who excelled in singing,
+he purposely issued forth by a side gate and came in search of her. But
+the moment he got there, he discovered Pao Kuan, and Yue Kuan in the
+court. As soon as they caught sight of Pao-yue, they, with one consent,
+smiled and urged him to take a seat. Pao-yue then inquired where Ling
+Kuan was. Both girls explained that she was in her room, so Pao-yue
+hastened in. Here he found Ling Kuan alone, reclining against a pillow.
+Though perfectly conscious of his arrival, she did not move a muscle.
+Pao-yue ensconced himself next to her. He had always been in the habit of
+playing with the rest of the girls, so thinking that Ling Kuan was like
+the others, he felt impelled to draw near her and to entreat her, with a
+forced smile, to get up and sing part of the "Niao Ch'ing Ssu." But his
+hopes were baffled; for as soon as Ling Kuan perceived him sit down, she
+impetuously raised herself and withdrew from his side. "I'm hoarse," she
+rejoined with a stern expression on her face. "The Empress the other day
+called us into the palace; but I couldn't sing even then."
+
+Seeing her sit bolt upright, Pao-yue went on to pass her under a minute
+survey. He discovered that it was the girl, whom he had, some time ago
+beheld under the cinnamon roses, drawing the character "Ch'iang." But
+seeing the reception she accorded him, who had never so far known what
+it was to be treated contemptuously by any one, he blushed crimson,
+while muttering some abuse to himself, and felt constrained to quit the
+room.
+
+Pao Kuan and her companion could not fathom why he was so red and
+inquired of him the reason. Pao-yue told them. "Wait a while," Pao Kuan
+said, "until Mr. Ch'iang Secundus comes; and when he asks her to sing,
+she is bound to sing."
+
+Pao-yue at these words felt very sad within himself. "Where's brother
+Ch'iang gone to?" he asked.
+
+"He's just gone out," Pao Kuan answered. "Of course, Ling Kuan must have
+wanted something or other, and he's gone to devise ways and means to
+bring it to her."
+
+Pao-yue thought this remark very extraordinary. But after standing about
+for a while, he actually saw Chia Ch'iang arrive from outside, carrying
+a cage, with a tiny stage inserted at the top, and a bird as well; and
+wend his steps, in a gleeful mood, towards the interior to join Ling
+Kuan. The moment, however, he noticed Pao-yue, he felt under the
+necessity of halting.
+
+"What kind of bird is that?" Pao-yue asked. "Can it hold a flag in its
+beak, or do any tricks?"
+
+"It's the 'jade-crested and gold-headed bird,'" smiled Chia Ch'iang.
+
+"How much did you give for it?" Pao-yue continued.
+
+"A tael and eight mace," replied Chia Ch'iang.
+
+But while replying to his inquiries, he motioned to Pao-yue to take a
+seat, and then went himself into Ling Kuan's apartment.
+
+Pao-yue had, by this time, lost every wish of hearing a song. His sole
+desire was to find what relations existed between his cousin and Ling
+Kuan, when he perceived Chia Ch'iang walk in and laughingly say to her,
+"Come and see this thing."
+
+"What's it?" Ling Kuan asked, rising.
+
+"I've bought a bird for you to amuse yourself with," Chia Ch'iang added,
+"so that you mayn't daily feel dull and have nothing to distract
+yourself with. But I'll first play with it and let you see."
+
+With this prelude, he took a few seeds and began to coax the bird, until
+it, in point of fact, performed various tricks, on the stage, clasping
+in its beak a mask and a flag.
+
+All the girls shouted out: "How nice;" with the sole exception of Ling
+Kuan, who gave a couple of apathetic smirks, and went in a huff to lie
+down. Again Chia Ch'iang, however, kept on forcing smiles, and inquiring
+of her whether she liked it or not.
+
+"Isn't it enough," Ling Kuan observed, "that your family entraps a fine
+lot of human beings like us and coops us up in this hole to study this
+stuff and nonsense, but do you also now go and get a bird, which
+likewise is, as it happens, up to this sort of thing? You distinctly
+fetch it to make fun of us, and mimick us, and do you still ask me
+whether I like it or not?"
+
+Hearing this reproach, Chia Ch'iang of a sudden sprang to his feet with
+alacrity and vehemently endeavoured by vowing and swearing to establish
+his innocence. "How ever could I have been such a fool to-day," he
+proceeded, "as to go and throw away a tael or two to purchase this bird?
+I really did it in the hope that it would afford you amusement. I never
+for a moment entertained such thoughts as those you credit me with. But
+never mind; I'll let it go, and save you all this misery!"
+
+So saying, he verily gave the bird its liberty; and, with one blow, he
+smashed the cage to atoms.
+
+"This bird," still argued Ling Kuan, "differs, it's true, from a human
+being; but it too has a mother and father in its nest, and could you
+have had the heart to bring it here to perform these silly pranks? In
+coughing to-day, I expectorated two mouthfuls of blood, and Madame Wang
+sent some one here to find you so as to tell you to ask the doctor round
+to minutely diagnose my complaint, and have you instead brought this to
+mock me with? But it so happens that I, who have not a soul to look
+after me, or to care for me, also have the fate to fall ill!"
+
+Chia Ch'iang listened to her. "Yesterday evening," he eagerly explained,
+"I asked the doctor about it. He said that it was nothing at all, that
+you should take a few doses of medicine, and that he would be coming
+again in a day or two to see how you were getting on. But who'd have
+thought it, you have again to-day expectorated blood. I'll go at once
+and invite him to come round."
+
+Speaking the while, he was about to go immediately when Ling Kuan cried
+out and stopped him. "Do you go off in a tantrum in this hot broiling
+sun?" she said. "You may ask him to come, but I won't see him."
+
+When he heard her resolution, Chia Ch'iang had perforce to stand still.
+
+Pao-yue, perceiving what transpired between them, fell unwittingly in a
+dull reverie. He then at length got an insight into the deep import of
+the tracing of the character "Ch'iang." But unable to bear the ordeal
+any longer, he forthwith took himself out of the way. So absorbed,
+however, was Chia Ch'iang's whole mind with Ling Kuan that he could not
+even give a thought to escorting any one; and it was, in fact, the rest
+of the singing-girls who saw (Pao-yue) out.
+
+Pao-yue's heart was gnawed with doubts and conjectures. In an imbecile
+frame of mind, he came to the I Hung court. Lin Tai-yue was, at the
+moment, sitting with Hsi Jen, and chatting with her. As soon as Pao-yue
+entered his quarters, he addressed himself to Hsi Jen, with a long sigh.
+"I was very wrong in what I said yesterday evening," he remarked. "It's
+no matter of surprise that father says that I am so narrow-minded that I
+look at things through a tube and measure them with a clam-shell. I
+mentioned something last night about having nothing but tears, shed by
+all of you girls, to be buried in. But this was a mere delusion! So as I
+can't get the tears of the whole lot of you, each one of you can
+henceforward keep her own for herself, and have done."
+
+Hsi Jen had flattered herself that the words he had uttered the previous
+evening amounted to idle talk, and she had long ago dispelled all
+thought of them from her mind, but when Pao-yue unawares made further
+allusion to them, she smilingly rejoined: "You are verily somewhat
+cracked!"
+
+Pao-yue kept silent, and attempted to make no reply. Yet from this time
+he fully apprehended that the lot of human affections is, in every
+instance, subject to predestination, and time and again he was wont to
+secretly muse, with much anguish: "Who, I wonder, will shed tears for
+me, at my burial?"
+
+Lin Tai-yue, for we will now allude to her, noticed Pao-yue's behaviour,
+but readily concluding that he must have been, somewhere or other, once
+more possessed by some malignant spirit, she did not feel it advisable
+to ask many questions. "I just saw," she consequently observed, "my
+maternal aunt, who hearing that to-morrow is Miss Hsueeh's birthday, bade
+me come at my convenience to ask you whether you'll go or not, (and to
+tell you) to send some one ahead to let them know what you mean to do."
+
+"I didn't go the other day, when it was Mr. Chia She's birthday, so I
+won't go now." Pao-yue answered. "If it is a matter of meeting any one, I
+won't go anywhere. On a hot day like this to again don my ceremonial
+dress! No, I won't go. Aunt is not likely to feel displeased with me!"
+
+"What are you driving at?" Hsi Jen speedily ventured. "She couldn't be
+put on the same footing as our senior master! She lives close by here.
+Besides she's a relative. Why, if you don't go, won't you make her
+imagine things? Well, if you dread the heat, just get up at an early
+hour and go over and prostrate yourself before her, and come back again,
+after you've had a cup of tea. Won't this look well?"
+
+Before Pao-yue had time to say anything by way of response, Tai-yue
+anticipated him. "You should," she smiled, "go as far as there for the
+sake of her, who drives the mosquitoes away from you."
+
+Pao-yue could not make out the drift of her insinuation. "What about
+driving mosquitoes away?" he vehemently inquired.
+
+Hsi Jen then explained to him how while he was fast asleep the previous
+day and no one was about to keep him company, Miss Pao-ch'ai had sat
+with him for a while.
+
+"It shouldn't have been done!" Pao-yue promptly exclaimed, after hearing
+her explanations. "But how did I manage to go to sleep and show such
+utter discourtesy to her? I must go to-morrow!" he then went on to add.
+But while these words were still on his lips, he unexpectedly caught
+sight of Shih Hsian-yuen walk in in full dress, to bid them adieu, as she
+said that some one had been sent from her home to fetch her away.
+
+The moment Pao-yue and Tai-yue heard what was the object of her visit,
+they quickly rose to their feet and pressed her to take a seat. But Shih
+Hsiang-yuen would not sit down, so Pao-yue and Tai-yue were compelled to
+escort her as far as the front part of the mansion.
+
+Shih Hsiang-yuen's eyes were brimming with tears; but realising that
+several people from her home were present, she did not have the courage
+to give full vent to her feelings. But when shortly Pao-ch'ai ran over
+to find her, she felt so much the more drawn towards them, that she
+could not brook to part from them. Pao-ch'ai, however, inwardly
+understood that if her people told her aunt anything on their return,
+there would again be every fear of her being blown up, as soon as she
+got back home, and she therefore urged her to start on her way. One and
+all then walked with her up to the second gate, and Pao-yue wished to
+accompany her still further outside, but Shih Hsiang-yuen deterred him.
+Presently, they turned to go back. But once more, she called Pao-yue to
+her, and whispered to him in a soft tone of voice: "Should our venerable
+senior not think of me do often allude to me, so that she should depute
+some one to fetch me."
+
+Pao-yue time after time assured her that he would comply with her wishes.
+And having followed her with their eyes, while she got into her curricle
+and started, they eventually retraced their steps towards the inner
+compound. But, reader, if you like to follow up the story, peruse the
+details contained in the chapter below.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+ In the Study of Autumnal Cheerfulness is accidentally formed the
+ Cydonia Japonica Society.
+ In the Heng Wu Court, the chrysanthemum is, on a certain night,
+ proposed as a subject for verses.
+
+
+But to continue. After Shih Hsiang-yuen's return home, Pao-yue and the
+other inmates spent their time, as of old, in rambling about in the
+garden in search of pleasure, and in humming poetical compositions. But
+without further reference to their doings, let us take up our narrative
+with Chia Cheng.
+
+Ever since the visit paid to her home by the imperial consort, he
+fulfilled his official duties with additional zeal, for the purpose of
+reverently making requital for the grace shown him by the Emperor. His
+correct bearing and his spotless reputation did not escape His Majesty's
+notice, and he conferred upon him the special appointment of Literary
+Chancellor, with the sole object of singling out his true merit; for
+though he had not commenced his career through the arena of public
+examinations, he belonged nevertheless to a family addicted to letters
+during successive generations. Chia Cheng had, therefore, on the receipt
+of the imperial decree, to select the twentieth day of the eighth moon
+to set out on his journey. When the appointed day came, he worshipped at
+the shrines of his ancestors, took leave of them and of dowager lady
+Chia, and started for his post. It would be a needless task, however, to
+recount with any full particulars how Pao-yue and all the inmates saw him
+off, how Chia Cheng went to take up his official duties, and what
+occurred abroad, suffice it for us to notice that Pao-yue, ever since
+Chia Cheng's departure, indulged his caprices, allowed his feelings to
+run riot, and gadded wildly about. In fact, he wasted his time, and
+added fruitless days and months to his age.
+
+On this special occasion, he experienced more than ever a sense of his
+lack of resources, and came to look up his grandmother Chia and Madame
+Wang. With them, he whiled away some of his time, after which he
+returned into the garden. As soon as he changed his costume, he
+perceived Ts'ui Mo enter, with a couple of sheets of fancy notepaper, in
+her hand, which she delivered to him.
+
+"It quite slipped from my mind," Pao-yue remarked. "I meant to have gone
+and seen my cousin Tertia; is she better that you come?"
+
+"Miss is all right," Ts'ui Mo answered. "She hasn't even had any
+medicine to-day. It's only a slight chill."
+
+When Pao-yue heard this reply, he unfolded the fancy notepaper. On
+perusal, he found the contents to be: "Your cousin, T'an Ch'un,
+respectfully lays this on her cousin Secundus' study-table. When the
+other night the blue sky newly opened out to view, the moon shone as if
+it had been washed clean! Such admiration did this pure and rare
+panorama evoke in me that I could not reconcile myself to the idea of
+going to bed. The clepsydra had already accomplished three turns, and
+yet I roamed by the railing under the dryandra trees. But such poor
+treatment did I receive from wind and dew (that I caught a chill), which
+brought about an ailment as severe (as that which prevented the man of
+old from) picking up sticks. You took the trouble yesterday to come in
+person and cheer me up. Time after time also did you send your
+attendants round to make affectionate inquiries about me. You likewise
+presented me with fresh lichees and relics of writings of Chen Ch'ing.
+How deep is really your gracious love! As I leant to-day on my table
+plunged in silence, I suddenly remembered that the ancients of
+successive ages were placed in circumstances, in which they had to
+struggle for reputation and to fight for gain, but that they
+nevertheless acquired spots with hills and dripping streams, and,
+inviting people to come from far and near, they did all they could to
+detain them, by throwing the linch-pins of their chariots into wells or
+by holding on to their shafts; and that they invariably joined
+friendship with two or three of the same mind as themselves, with whom
+they strolled about in these grounds, either erecting altars for song,
+or establishing societies for scanning poetical works. Their meetings
+were, it is true, prompted, on the spur of the moment, by a sudden fit
+of good cheer, but these have again and again proved, during many years,
+a pleasant topic of conversation. I, your cousin, may, I admit, be
+devoid of talent, yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy your company
+amidst streams and rockeries, and to furthermore admire the elegant
+verses composed by Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai and Lin Tai-yue. When we were in the
+breezy hall and the moonlit pavilion, what a pity we never talked about
+poets! But near the almond tree with the sign and the peach tree by the
+stream, we may perhaps, when under the fumes of wine, be able to fling
+round the cups, used for humming verses! Who is it who opines that
+societies with any claim to excellent abilities can only be formed by
+men? May it not be that the pleasant meetings on the Tung Shan might
+yield in merit to those, such as ourselves, of the weaker sex? Should
+you not think it too much to walk on the snow, I shall make bold to ask
+you round, and sweep the way clean of flowers and wait for you.
+Respectfully written."
+
+The perusal of this note filled Pao-yue unawares with exultation.
+Clapping his hands; "My third cousin," he laughed, "is the one eminently
+polished; I'll go at once to-day and talk matters over with her."
+
+As he spoke, he started immediately, followed by Ts'ui Mo. As soon as
+they reached the Hsin Fang pavilion, they espied the matron, on duty
+that day at the back door of the garden, advancing towards them with a
+note in her hand. The moment she perceived Pao-yue she forthwith came up
+to meet him. "Mr. Yuen," she said, "presents his compliments to you. He
+is waiting for you at the back gate. This is a note he bade me bring
+you."
+
+Upon opening the note, Pao-yue found it to read as follows: "An unfilial
+son, Yuen, reverently inquires about his worthy father's boundless
+happiness and precious health. Remembering the honour conferred upon me
+by your recognising me, in your heavenly bounty, as your son, I tried
+both day as well as night to do something in evidence of my pious
+obedience, but no opportunity could I find to perform anything filial.
+When I had, some time back, to purchase flowers and plants, I succeeded,
+thanks to your vast influence, venerable senior, in finally making
+friends with several gardeners and in seeing a good number of gardens.
+As the other day I unexpectedly came across a white begonia, of a rare
+species, I exhausted every possible means to get some and managed to
+obtain just two pots. If you, worthy senior, regard your son as your own
+very son, do keep them to feast your eyes upon! But with this hot
+weather to-day, the young ladies in the garden will, I fear, not be at
+their ease. I do not consequently presume to come and see you in person,
+so I present you this letter, written with due respect, while knocking
+my head before your table. Your son, Yuen, on his knees, lays this
+epistle at your feet. A joke!"
+
+After reading this note, Pao-yue laughed. "Has he come alone?" he asked.
+"Or has he any one else with him?"
+
+"He's got two flower pots as well," rejoined the matron.
+
+"You go and tell him," Pao-yue urged, "that I've informed myself of the
+contents of his note, and that there are few who think of me as he does!
+If you also take the flowers and, put them in my room, it will be all
+right."
+
+So saying, he came with Ts'ui Mo into the Ch'iu Shuang study, where he
+discovered Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yue, Ying Ch'un and Hsi Ch'un already
+assembled. When they saw him drop in upon them, they all burst out
+laughing. "Here comes still another!" they exclaimed.
+
+"I'm not a boor," smiled T'an Ch'un, "so when the idea casually crossed
+my mind, I wrote a few notes to try and see who would come. But who'd
+have thought that, as soon as I asked you, you would all come."
+
+"It's unfortunately late," Pao-yue smilingly observed. "We should have
+started this society long ago."
+
+"You can't call this late!" Tai-yue interposed, "so why give way to
+regret! The only thing is, you must form your society, without including
+me in the number; for I daren't be one of you."
+
+"If you daren't," Ying Ch'un smiled, "who can presume to do so?"
+
+"This is," suggested Pao-yue, "a legitimate and great purpose; and we
+should all exert our energies. You shouldn't be modest, and I yielding;
+but every one of us, who thinks of anything, should freely express it
+for general discussion. So senior cousin Pao-ch'ai do make some
+suggestion; and you junior cousin Lin Tai-yue say something."
+
+"What are you in this hurry for?" Pao-ch'ai exclaimed. "We are not all
+here yet."
+
+This remark was barely concluded, when Li Wan also arrived. As soon as
+she crossed the threshold, "It's an excellent proposal," she laughingly
+cried, "this of starting a poetical society. I recommend myself as
+controller. Some time ago in spring, I thought of this, 'but,' I mused,
+'I am unable to compose verses, so what's the use of making a mess of
+things?' This is why I dispelled the idea from my mind, and made no
+mention about it. But since it's your good pleasure, cousin Tertia, to
+start it, I'll help you to set it on foot."
+
+"As you've made up your minds," Tai-yue put in, "to initiate a poetical
+society, every one of us will be poets, so we should, as a first step,
+do away with those various appellations of cousin and uncle and aunt,
+and thus avoid everything that bears a semblance of vulgarity."
+
+"First rate," exclaimed Li Wan, "and why should we not fix upon some new
+designations by which to address ourselves? This will be a far more
+refined way! As for my own, I've selected that of the 'Old farmer of Tao
+Hsiang;' so let none of you encroach on it."
+
+"I'll then call myself the 'resident-scholar of the Ch'iu Shuang,' and
+have done," T'an Ch'un observed with a smile.
+
+"'Resident-scholar or master' is, in fact, not to the point. It's
+clumsy, besides," Pao-yue interposed. "The place here is full of dryandra
+and banana trees, and if one could possibly hit upon some name bearing
+upon the dryandra and banana, it would be preferable."
+
+"I've got one," shouted T'an Ch'un smilingly. "I'll style myself 'the
+guest under the banana trees.'"
+
+"How uncommon!" they unanimously cried. "It's a nice one!"
+
+"You had better," laughed Tai-yue, "be quick and drag her away and stew
+some slices of her flesh, for people to eat with their wine."
+
+No one grasped her meaning, "Ch'uang-tzu," Tai-yue proceeded to explain,
+smiling, "says: 'The banana leaves shelter the deer,' and as she styles
+herself the guest under the banana tree, is she not a deer? So be quick
+and make pieces of dried venison of her."
+
+At these words, the whole company laughed.
+
+"Don't be in a hurry!" T'an Ch'un remarked, as she laughed. "You make
+use of specious language to abuse people; but I've thought of a fine and
+most apposite name for you!" Whereupon addressing herself to the party,
+"In days gone by," she added, "an imperial concubine, Nue Ying, sprinkled
+her tears on the bamboo, and they became spots, so from olden times to
+the present spotted bamboos have been known as the 'Hsiang imperial
+concubine bamboo.' Now she lives in the Hsiao Hsiang lodge, and has a
+weakness too for tears, so the bamboos over there will by and bye, I
+presume, likewise become transformed into speckled bamboos; every one
+therefore must henceforward call her the 'Hsiao Hsiang imperial
+concubine' and finish with it."
+
+After listening to her, they one and all clapped their hands, and cried
+out: "Capital!" Lin Tai-yue however drooped her head and did not so much
+as utter a single word.
+
+"I've also," Li Wan smiled, "devised a suitable name for senior cousin,
+Hsueeh Pao-chai. It too is one of three characters."
+
+"What's it?" eagerly inquired the party.
+
+"I'll raise her to the rank of 'Princess of Heng Wu,'" Li Wan rejoined.
+"I wonder what you all think about this."
+
+"This title of honour," T'an Ch'un observed, "is most apposite."
+
+"What about mine?" Pao-yue asked. "You should try and think of one for me
+also!"
+
+"Your style has long ago been decided upon," Pao-ch'ai smiled. "It
+consists of three words: 'fussing for nothing!' It's most pat!"
+
+"You should, after all, retain your old name of 'master of the flowers
+in the purple cave,'" Li Wan suggested. "That will do very well."
+
+"Those were some of the doings of my youth; why rake them up again?"
+Pao-yue laughed.
+
+"Your styles are very many," T'an Ch'un observed, "and what do you want
+to choose another for? All you've got to do is to make suitable reply
+when we call you whatever takes our fancy."
+
+"I must however give you a name," Pao-ch'ai remarked. "There's a very
+vulgar name, but it's just the very thing for you. What is difficult to
+obtain in the world are riches and honours; what is not easy to combine
+with them is leisure. These two blessings cannot be enjoyed together,
+but, as it happens, you hold one along with the other, so that we might
+as well dub you the 'rich and honourable idler.'"
+
+"It won't do; it isn't suitable," Pao-yue laughed. "It's better that you
+should call me, at random, whatever you like."
+
+"What names are to be chosen for Miss Secunda and Miss Quarta?" Li Wan
+inquired.
+
+"We also don't excel in versifying; what's the use consequently of
+giving us names, all for no avail?" Ying Ch'un said.
+
+"In spite of this," argued T'an Ch'un, "it would be well to likewise
+find something for you!"
+
+"She lives in the Tzu Ling Chou, (purple caltrop Isle), so let us call
+her 'Ling Chou,'" Pao-ch'ai suggested. "As for that girl Quarta, she
+lives in the On Hsiang Hsieh, (lotus fragrance pavilion); she should
+thus be called On Hsieh and have done!"
+
+"These will do very well!" Li Wan cried. "But as far as age goes, I am
+the senior, and you should all defer to my wishes; but I feel certain
+that when I've told you what they are, you will unanimously agree to
+them. We are seven here to form the society, but neither I, nor Miss
+Secunda, nor Miss Quarta can write verses; so if you will exclude us
+three, we'll each share some special duties."
+
+"Their names have already been chosen," T'an Ch'un smilingly demurred;
+"and do you still keep on addressing them like this? Well, in that case,
+won't it be as well for them to have no names? But we must also decide
+upon some scale of fines, for future guidance, in the event of any
+mistakes."
+
+"There will be ample time to fix upon a scale of fines after the society
+has been definitely established." Li Wan replied. "There's plenty of
+room over in my place so let's hold our meetings there. I'm not, it is
+true, a good hand at verses, but if you poets won't treat me
+disdainfully as a rustic boor, and if you will allow me to play the
+hostess, I may certainly also gradually become more and more refined. As
+for conceding to me the presidentship of the society, it won't be
+enough, of course, for me alone to preside; it will be necessary to
+invite two others to serve as vice-presidents; you might then enlist
+Ling Chou and Ou Hsieh, both of whom are cultured persons. The one to
+choose the themes and assign the metre, the other to act as copyist and
+supervisor. We three cannot, however, definitely say that we won't write
+verses, for, if we come across any comparatively easy subject and metre,
+we too will indite a stanza if we feel so disposed. But you four will
+positively have to do so. If you agree to this, well, we can proceed
+with the society; but, if you don't fall in with my wishes, I can't
+presume to join you."
+
+Ying Ch'un and Hsi Ch'un had a natural aversion for verses. What is
+more, Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai and Lin Tai-yue were present. As soon therefore as
+they heard these proposals, which harmonised so thoroughly with their
+own views, they both, with one voice, approved them as excellent. T'an
+Ch'un and the others were likewise well aware of their object, but they
+could not, when they saw with what willingness they accepted the charge
+insist, with any propriety, upon their writing verses, and they felt
+obliged to say yes.
+
+"Your proposals," she consequently said, "may be right enough; but in my
+views they are ridiculous. For here I've had the trouble of initiating
+this idea of a society, and, instead of my having anything to say in the
+matter, I've been the means of making you three come and exercise
+control over me."
+
+"Well then," Pao-yue suggested, "let's go to the Tao Hsiang village."
+
+"You're always in a hurry!" Li Wan remarked. "We're here to-day to
+simply deliberate. So wait until I've sent for you again."
+
+"It would be well," Pao-ch'ai interposed, "that we should also decide
+every how many days we are to meet."
+
+"If we meet too often," argued T'an Ch'un, "there won't be fun in it. We
+should simply come together two or three times in a month."
+
+"It will be ample if we meet twice or thrice a month," Pao-ch'ai added.
+"But when the dates have been settled neither wind nor rain should
+prevent us. Exclusive, however, of these two days, any one in high
+spirits and disposed to have an extra meeting can either ask us to go
+over to her place, or you can all come to us; either will do well
+enough! But won't it be more pleasant if no hard-and-fast dates were
+laid down?"
+
+"This suggestion is excellent," they all exclaimed.
+
+"This idea was primarily originated by me," T'an Ch'un observed, "and I
+should be the first to play the hostess, so that these good spirits of
+mine shouldn't all go for nothing."
+
+"Well, after this remark," Li Wan proceeded, "what do you say to your
+being the first to convene a meeting to-morrow?"
+
+"To-morrow," T'an Ch'un demurred, "is not as good as to-day; the best
+thing is to have it at once! You'd better therefore choose the subjects,
+while Ling Chou can fix the metre, and Ou Hsieh act as supervisor."
+
+"According to my ideas," Ying Ch'un chimed in, "we shouldn't yield to
+the wishes of any single person in the choice of themes and the
+settlement of the rhythm. What would really be fair and right would be
+to draw lots."
+
+"When I came just now," Li Wan pursued, "I noticed them bring in two
+pots of white begonias, which were simply beautiful; and why should you
+not write some verses on them?"
+
+"Can we write verses," Ying Ch'un retorted, "before we have as yet seen
+anything of the flowers?"
+
+"They're purely and simply white begonias," Pao-chai answered, "and is
+there again any need to see them before you put together your verses?
+Men of old merely indited poetical compositions to express their good
+cheer and conceal their sentiments; had they waited to write on things
+they had seen, why, the whole number of their works would not be in
+existence at present!"
+
+"In that case," Ying Ch'un said, "let me fix the metre."
+
+With these words, she walked up to the book-case, and, extracting a
+volume, she opened it, at random, at some verses which turned out to be
+a heptameter stanza. Then handing it round for general perusal,
+everybody had to compose lines with seven words in each. Ying Ch'un next
+closed the book of verses and addressed herself to a young waiting-maid.
+"Just utter," she bade her, "the first character that comes to your
+mouth."
+
+The waiting-maid was standing, leaning against the door, so readily she
+suggested the word "door."
+
+"The rhyme then will be the word 'door,'" Ying Ch'un smiled, "under the
+thirteenth character 'Yuan.' The final word of the first line is
+therefore 'door'."
+
+Saying this, she asked for the box with the rhyme slips, and, pulling
+out the thirteenth drawer with the character "Yuan," she directed a
+young waiting-maid to take four words as they came under her hand. The
+waiting-maid complied with her directions, and picked out four slips, on
+which were written "p'en, hun, hen and hun," pot, spirit, traces and
+dusk.
+
+"The two characters pot and door," observed Pao-yue, "are not very easy
+to rhyme with."
+
+But Shih Shu then got ready four lots of paper and pens, share and share
+alike, and one and all quietly set to work, racking their brains to
+perform their task, with the exception of Tai-yue, who either kept on
+rubbing the dryandra flowers, or looking at the autumnal weather, or
+bandying jokes as well with the servant-girls; while Ying Ch'un ordered
+a waiting-maid to light a "dream-sweet" incense stick.
+
+This "dream-sweet" stick was, it must be explained, made only about
+three inches long and about the thickness of a lamp-wick, in order to
+easily burn down. Setting therefore her choice upon one of these as a
+limit of time, any one who failed to accomplish the allotted task, by
+the time the stick was consumed, had to pay a penalty.
+
+Presently, T'an Ch'un was the first to think of some verses, and, taking
+up her pen, she wrote them down; and, after submitting them to several
+alterations, she handed them up to Ying Ch'un.
+
+"Princess of Heng Wu," she then inquired of Pao-ch'ai, "have you
+finished?"
+
+"As for finishing, I have finished," Pao-ch'ai rejoined; "but they're
+worth nothing."
+
+Pao-yue paced up and down the verandah with his hands behind his back.
+"Have you heard?" he thereupon said to Tai-yue, "they've all done!"
+
+"Don't concern yourself about me!" Tai-yue returned for answer.
+
+Pao-yue also perceived that Pao-ch'ai had already copied hers out.
+"Dreadful!" he exclaimed. "There only remains an inch of the stick and
+I've only just composed four lines. The incense stick is nearly burnt
+out," he continued, speaking to Tai-yue, "and what do you keep squatting
+on that damp ground like that for?"
+
+But Tai-yue did not again worry her mind about what he said.
+
+"Well," Pao-yue added, "I can't be looking after you! Whether good or
+bad, I'll write mine out too and have done."
+
+As he spoke, he likewise drew up to the table and began putting his
+lines down.
+
+"We'll now peruse the verses," Li Wan interposed, "and if by the time
+we've done, you haven't as yet handed up your papers, you'll have to be
+fined."
+
+"Old farmer of Tao Hsiang," Pao-yue remarked, "you're not, it is true, a
+good hand at writing verses, but you can read well, and, what's more,
+you're the fairest of the lot; so you'd better adjudge the good and bad,
+and we'll submit to your judgment."
+
+"Of course!" responded the party with one voice.
+
+In due course, therefore, she first read T'an Ch'un's draft. It ran as
+follows:--
+
+ Verses on the Begonia.
+
+ What time the sun's rays slant, and the grass waxeth cold, close the
+ double doors.
+ After a shower of rain, green moss plenteously covers the whole pot.
+ Beauteous is jade, but yet with thee in purity it cannot ever vie.
+ Thy frame, spotless as snow, from admiration easy robs me of my wits
+ Thy fragrant core is like unto a dot, so full of grace, so delicate!
+ When the moon reacheth the third watch, thy comely shade begins to
+ show itself.
+ Do not tell me that a chaste fairy like thee can take wings and pass
+ away.
+ How lovely are thy charms, when in thy company at dusk I sing my lay!
+
+After she had read them aloud, one and all sang their praise for a time.
+She then took up Pao-ch'ai's, which consisted of:
+
+ If thou would'st careful tend those fragrant lovely flowers, close of
+ a day the doors,
+ And with thine own hands take the can and sprinkle water o'er the
+ mossy pots.
+ Red, as if with cosmetic washed, are the shadows in autumn on the
+ steps.
+ Their crystal snowy bloom invites the dew on their spirits to heap
+ itself.
+ Their extreme whiteness mostly shows that they're more comely than all
+ other flowers.
+ When much they grieve, how can their jade-like form lack the traces of
+ tears?
+ Would'st thou the god of those white flowers repay? then purity
+ need'st thou observe.
+ In silence plunges their fine bloom, now that once more day yields to
+ dusk.
+
+"After all," observed Li Wan, "it's the Princess of Heng Wu, who
+expresses herself to the point."
+
+Next they bestowed their attention on the following lines, composed by
+Pao-yue:--
+
+ Thy form in autumn faint reflects against the double doors.
+ So heaps the snow in the seventh feast that it filleth thy pots.
+ Thy shade is spotless as Tai Chen, when from her bath she hails.
+ Like Hsi Tzu's, whose hand ever pressed her heart, jade-like thy soul.
+ When the morn-ushering breeze falls not, thy thousand blossoms grieve.
+ To all thy tears the evening shower addeth another trace.
+ Alone thou lean'st against the coloured rails as if with sense imbued.
+ As heavy-hearted as the fond wife, beating clothes, or her that sadly
+ listens to the flute, thou mark'st the fall of dusk.
+
+When they had perused his verses, Pao-yue opined that T'an Ch'un's
+carried the palm. Li Wan was, however, inclined to concede to the
+stanza, indited by Pao-ch'ai, the credit of possessing much merit. But
+she then went on to tell Tai-yue to look sharp.
+
+"Have you all done?" Tai-yue asked.
+
+So saying, she picked up a pen and completing her task, with a few
+dashes, she threw it to them to look over. On perusal, Li Wan and her
+companions found her verses to run in this strain:--
+
+ Half rolled the speckled portiere hangs, half closed the door.
+ Thy mould like broken ice it looks, jade-like thy pot.
+
+This couplet over, Pao-yue took the initiative and shouted: "Capital."
+But he had just had time to inquire where she had recalled them to mind
+from, when they turned their mind to the succeeding lines:
+
+ Three points of whiteness from the pear petals thou steal'st;
+ And from the plum bloom its spirit thou borrowest.
+
+"Splendid!" every one (who heard) them conned over, felt impelled to
+cry. "It is a positive fact," they said, "that her imagination is,
+compared with that of others, quite unique."
+
+But the rest of the composition was next considered. Its text was:
+
+ The fairy in Selene's cavity donneth a plain attire.
+ The maiden, plunged in autumn grief, dries in her room the prints of
+ tears.
+ Winsome she blushes, in silence she's plunged, with none a word she
+ breathes;
+ But wearily she leans against the eastern breeze, though dusk has long
+ since fall'n.
+
+"This stanza ranks above all!" they unanimously remarked, after it had
+been read for their benefit.
+
+"As regards beauty of thought and originality, this stanza certainly
+deserves credit," Li Wan asserted; "but as regards pregnancy and
+simplicity of language, it, after all, yields to that of Heng Wu."
+
+"This criticism is right." T'an Ch'un put in. "That of the Hsiao Hsiang
+consort must take second place."
+
+"Yours, gentleman of I Hung," Li Wan pursued, "is the last of the lot.
+Do you agreeably submit to this verdict?"
+
+"My stanza," Pao-yue ventured, "isn't really worth a straw. Your
+criticism is exceedingly fair. But," he smilingly added, "the two poems,
+written by Heng Wu and Hsiao Hsiang, have still to be discussed."
+
+"You should," argued Li Wan, "fall in with my judgment; this is no
+business of any of you, so whoever says anything more will have to pay a
+penalty."
+
+Pao-yue at this reply found that he had no alternative but to drop the
+subject.
+
+"I decide that from henceforward," Li Wan proceeded, "we should hold
+meetings twice every month, on the second and sixteenth. In the
+selection of themes and the settlement of the rhymes, you'll all have
+then to do as I wish. But any person who may, during the intervals, feel
+so disposed, will be at perfect liberty to choose another day for an
+extra meeting. What will I care if there's a meeting every day of the
+moon? It will be no concern of mine, so long as when the second and
+sixteenth arrive, you do, as you're bound to, and come over to my
+place."
+
+"We should, as is but right," Pao-yue suggested, "choose some name or
+other for our society."
+
+"Were an ordinary one chosen, it wouldn't be nice," T'an Ch'un
+explained, "and anything too new-fangled, eccentric or strange won't
+also be quite the thing! As luck would have it, we've just started with
+the poems on the begonia, so let us call it the 'Begonia Poetical
+Society.' This title is, it's true, somewhat commonplace; but as it's
+positively based on fact, it shouldn't matter."
+
+After this proposal of hers, they held further consultation; and
+partaking of some slight refreshments, each of them eventually retired.
+Some repaired to their quarters. Others went to dowager lady Chia's or
+Madame Wang's apartments. But we will leave them without further
+comment.
+
+When Hsi Jen, for we will now come to her, perceived Pao-yue peruse the
+note and walk off in a great flurry, along with Ts'ui Mo, she was quite
+at a loss what to make of it. Subsequently, she also saw the matrons, on
+duty at the back gate, bring two pots of begonias. Hsi Jen inquired of
+them where they came from. The women explained to her all about them. As
+soon as Hsi Jen heard their reply, she at once desired them to put the
+flowers in their proper places, and asked them to sit down in the lower
+rooms. She then entered the house, and, weighing six mace of silver, she
+wrapped it up properly, and fetching besides three hundred cash, she
+came over and handed both the amounts to the two matrons. "This silver,"
+she said, "is a present for the boys, who carried the flowers; and these
+cash are for you to buy yourselves a cup of tea with."
+
+The women rose to their feet in such high glee that their eyebrows
+dilated and their eyes smiled; but, though they waxed eloquent in the
+expression of their deep gratitude, they would not accept the money. It
+was only after they had perceived how obstinate Hsi Jen was in not
+taking it back that they at last volunteered to keep it.
+
+"Are there," Hsi Jen then inquired, "any servant-boys on duty outside
+the back gate?"
+
+"There are four of them every day," answered one of the matrons.
+"They're put there with the sole idea of attending to any orders that
+might be given them from inside. But, Miss, if you've anything to order
+them to do, we'll go and deliver your message."
+
+"What orders can I have to give them?" Hsi Jen laughed. "Mr. Pao, our
+master Secundus, was purposing to send some one to-day to the young
+marquis' house to take something over to Miss Shih. But you come at an
+opportune moment so you might, on your way out, tell the servant-boys at
+the back gate to hire a carriage; and on its return you can come here
+and get the money. But don't let them rush recklessly against people in
+the front part of the compound!"
+
+The matrons signified their obedience and took their leave. Hsi Jen
+retraced her steps into the house to fetch a tray in which to place the
+presents intended for Shih Hsiang-yuen, but she discovered the shelf for
+trays empty. Upon turning round, however, she caught sight of Ch'ing
+Wen, Ch'iu Wen, She Yueeh and the other girls, seated together, busy with
+their needlework. "Where is the white cornelian tray with twisted
+threads gone to?" Hsi Jen asked.
+
+At this question, one looked at the one, and the other stared at the
+other, but none of them could remember anything about it. After a
+protracted lapse of time, Ch'ing Wen smiled. "It was taken to Miss
+Tertia's with a present of lichees," she rejoined, "and it hasn't as yet
+been returned."
+
+"There are plenty of articles," Hsi Jen remarked, "for sending over
+things on ordinary occasions; and do you deliberately go and carry this
+off?"
+
+"Didn't I maintain the same thing?" Ch'ing Wen retorted. "But so well
+did this tray match with the fresh lichees it contained, that when I
+took it over, Miss T'an Ch'un herself noticed the fact. 'How splendid,'
+she said, and lo, putting even the tray by, she never had it brought
+over. But, look! hasn't the pair of beaded vases, which stood on the
+very top of that shelf, been fetched as yet?"
+
+"The mention of these vases," Ch'iu Wen laughed, "reminds me again of a
+funny incident. Whenever our Mr. Pao-yue's filial piety is aroused, he
+shows himself filial over and above the highest degree! The other day,
+he espied the olea flowers in the park, and he plucked two twigs. His
+original idea was to place them in a vase for himself, but a sudden
+thought struck him. 'These are flowers,' he mused, 'which have newly
+opened in our garden, so how can I presume to be the first to enjoy
+them?' And actually taking down that pair of vases, he filled them with
+water with his own hands, put the flowers in, and, calling a servant to
+carry them, he in person took one of the vases into dowager lady Chia's,
+and then took the other to Madame Wang's. But, as it happens, even his
+attendants reap some benefit, when once his filial feelings are stirred
+up! As luck would have it, the one who carried the vases over on that
+day was myself. The sight of these flowers so enchanted our venerable
+lady that there was nothing that she wouldn't do. 'Pao-yue,' she said to
+every one she met, 'is the one, after all, who shows me much attention.
+So much so, that he has even thought of bringing me a twig of flowers!
+And yet, the others bear me a grudge on account of the love that I
+lavish on him!' Our venerable mistress, you all know very well, has
+never had much to say to me. I have all along not been much of a
+favourite in the old lady's eyes. But on that occasion she verily
+directed some one to give me several hundreds of cash. 'I was to be
+pitied,' she observed, 'for being born with a weak physique!' This was,
+indeed, an unforeseen piece of good luck! The several hundreds of cash
+are a mere trifle; but what's not easy to get is this sort of honour!
+After that, we went over into Madame Wang's. Madame Wang was, at the
+time, with our lady Secunda, Mrs. Chao, and a whole lot of people;
+turning the boxes topsy-turvey, trying to find some coloured clothes her
+ladyship had worn long ago in her youth, so as to give them to some one
+or other. Who it was, I don't know. But the moment she saw us, she did
+not even think of searching for any clothes, but got lost in admiration
+for the flowers. Our lady Secunda was also standing by, and she made
+sport of the matter. She extolled our master Pao, for his filial piety
+and for his knowledge of right and wrong; and what with what was true
+and what wasn't, she came out with two cart-loads of compliments. These
+things spoken in the presence of the whole company so added to Madame
+Wang's lustre and sealed every one's mouth, that her ladyship was more
+and more filled with gratification, and she gave me two ready-made
+clothes as a present. These too are of no consequence; one way or
+another, we get some every year; but nothing can come up to this sort of
+lucky chance!"
+
+"Psha!" Ch'ing Wen ejaculated with a significant smile, "you are indeed
+a mean thing, who has seen nothing of the world! She gave the good ones
+to others and the refuse to you; and do you still pat on all this side?"
+
+"No matter whether what she gave me was refuse or not," Ch'iu Wen
+protested, "it's, after all, an act of bounty on the part of her
+ladyship."
+
+"Had it been myself," Ch'ing Wen pursued, "I would at once have refused
+them! It wouldn't have mattered if she had given me what had been left
+by some one else; but we all stand on an equal footing in these rooms,
+and is there any one, forsooth, so much the more exalted or honorable
+than the other as to justify her taking what is good and bestowing it
+upon her and giving me what is left? I had rather not take them! I might
+have had to give offence to Madame Wang, but I wouldn't have put up with
+such a slight!"
+
+"To whom did she give any in these rooms?" Ch'iu Wen vehemently
+inquired. "I was unwell and went home for several days, so that I am not
+aware to whom any were given. Dear sister, do tell me who it is so that
+I may know."
+
+"Were I to tell you," Ch'ing Wen rejoined, "is it likely that you would
+return them at this hour to Madame Wang?"
+
+"What nonsense," Ch'iu Wen laughed. "Ever since I've heard about it,
+I've been delighted and happy. No matter if she even bestowed upon me
+what remained from anything given to a dog in these rooms, I would have
+been thankful for her ladyship's kindness. I wouldn't have worried my
+mind with anything else!"
+
+After listening to her, everybody laughed. "Doesn't she know how to jeer
+in fine style!" they ejaculated unanimously; "for weren't they given to
+that foreign spotted pug dog?"
+
+"You lot of filthy-tongued creatures!" Hsi Jen laughed, "when you've got
+nothing to do, you make me the scapegoat to crack your jokes, and poke
+your fun at! But what kind of death will, I wonder, each of you have!"
+
+"Was it verily you, sister, who got them?" Ch'iu Wen asked with a smile.
+"I assure you I had no idea about it! I tender you my apologies."
+
+"You might be a little less domineering!" Hsi Jen remarked smilingly.
+"The thing now is, who of you will go and fetch the tray."
+
+"The vases too," Shih Yueeh suggested, "must be got back when there's any
+time to spare; for there's nothing to say about our venerable mistress'
+quarters, but Madame Wang's apartments teem with people and many hands.
+The rest are all right; but Mrs. Chao and all that company will, when
+they see that the vase hails from these rooms, surely again foster evil
+designs, and they won't feel happy until they've done all they can to
+spoil it! Besides, Madame Wang doesn't trouble herself about such
+things. So had we not as well bring it over a moment sooner?"
+
+Hearing this, Ch'ing Wen threw down her needlework. "What you say is
+perfectly right," she assented, "so you'd better let me go and fetch
+it."
+
+"I'll, after all, go for it." Ch'iu Wen cried. "You can go and get that
+tray of yours!"
+
+"You should let me once go for something!" Ch'ing Wen pleaded. "Whenever
+any lucky chance has turned up, you've invariably grabbed it; and can it
+be that you won't let me have a single turn?"
+
+"Altogether," She Yueeh said laughingly, "that girl Ch'iu Wen got a few
+clothes just once; can such a lucky coincidence present itself again
+today that you too should find them engaged in searching for clothes?"
+
+"Albeit I mayn't come across any clothes," Ch'ing Wen rejoined with a
+sardonic smile, "our Madame Wang may notice how diligent I am, and
+apportion me a couple of taels out of her public expenses; there's no
+saying." Continuing, "Don't you people," she laughed, "try and play your
+pranks with me; for is there anything that I don't twig?"
+
+As she spoke, she ran outside. Ch'iu Wen too left the room in her
+company; but she repaired to T'an Ch'un's quarters and fetched the tray.
+
+Hsi Jen then got everything ready. Calling an old nurse attached to the
+same place as herself, Sung by name, "Just go first and wash, comb your
+hair and put on your out-of-door clothes," she said to her, "and then
+come back as I want to send you at once with a present to Miss Shih."
+
+"Miss," urged the nurse Sung, "just give me what you have; and, if you
+have any message, tell it me; so that when I've tidied myself I may go
+straightway."
+
+Hsi Jen, at this proposal, brought two small twisted wire boxes; and,
+opening first the one in which were two kinds of fresh fruits,
+consisting of caltrops and "chicken head" fruit, and afterwards
+uncovering the other, containing a tray with new cakes, made of chestnut
+powder, and steamed in sugar, scented with the olea, "All these fresh
+fruits are newly plucked this year from our own garden," she observed;
+"our Mr. Secundus sends them to Miss Shih to taste. The other day, too,
+she was quite taken with this cornelian tray so let her keep it for her
+use. In this silk bag she'll find the work, which she asked me some time
+ago to do for her. (Tell her) that she mustn't despise it for its
+coarseness, but make the best of it and turn it to some account. Present
+respects to her from our part and inquire after her health on behalf of
+Mr. Pao-yue; that will be all there's to say."
+
+"Has Mr. Pao, I wonder, anything more for me to tell her?" the nurse
+Sung added, "Miss, do go and inquire, so that on my return, he mayn't
+again say that I forgot."
+
+"He was just now," Hsi Jen consequently asked Ch'iu Wen, "over there in
+Miss Tertia's rooms, wasn't he?"
+
+"They were all assembled there, deliberating about starting some
+poetical society or other," Ch'iu Wen explained, "and they all wrote
+verses too. But I fancy he's got no message to give you; so you might as
+well start."
+
+After this assurance, nurse Sung forthwith took the things, and quitted
+the apartment. When she had changed her clothes and arranged her hair,
+Hsi Jen further enjoined them to go by the back door, where there was a
+servant-boy, waiting with a curricle. Nurse Sung thereupon set out on
+her errand. But we will leave her for the present.
+
+In a little time Pao-yue came back. After first cursorily glancing at the
+begonias for a time, he walked into his rooms, and explained to Hsi Jen
+all about the poetical society they had managed to establish, Hsi Jen
+then told him that she had sent the nurse Sung along with some things,
+to Shih Hsiang-yuen. As soon as Pao-yue heard this, he clapped his hands.
+"I forgot all about her!" he cried. "I knew very well that I had
+something to attend to; but I couldn't remember what it was! Luckily,
+you've alluded to her! I was just meaning to ask her to come, for what
+fun will there be in this poetical society without her?"
+
+"Is this of any serious import?" Hsi Jen reasoned with him. "It's all,
+for the mere sake of recreation! She's not however able to go about at
+her own free will as you people do. Nor can she at home have her own
+way. When you therefore let her know, it won't again rest with her,
+however willing she may be to avail herself of your invitation. And if
+she can't come, she will long and crave to be with you all, so isn't it
+better that you shouldn't be the means of making her unhappy?"
+
+"Never mind!" responded Pao-yue. "I'll tell our venerable senior to
+despatch some one to bring her over."
+
+But in the middle of their conversation, nurse Sung returned already
+from her mission, and expressed to him, (Hsiang-yuen's) acknowledgment;
+and to Hsi Jen her thanks for the trouble. "She also inquired," the
+nurse proceeded, "what you, master Secundus, were up to, and I told her
+that you had started some poetical club or other with the young ladies
+and that you were engaged in writing verses. Miss Shih wondered why it
+was, if you were writing verses, that you didn't even mention anything
+to her; and she was extremely distressed about it."
+
+Pao-yue, at these words, turned himself round and betook himself
+immediately into his grandmother's apartments, where he did all that lay
+in his power to urge her to depute servants to go and fetch her.
+
+"It's too late to-day," dowager lady Chia answered; "they'll go
+tomorrow, as soon as it's daylight."
+
+Pao-yue had no other course but to accede to her wishes. He, however,
+retraced his steps back to his room with a heavy heart. On the morrow,
+at early dawn, he paid another visit to old lady Chia and brought
+pressure to bear on her until she sent some one for her. Soon after
+midday, Shih Hsiang-yuen arrived. Pao-yue felt at length much relieved in
+his mind. Upon meeting her, he recounted to her all that had taken place
+from beginning to end. His purpose was likewise to let her see the
+poetical composition, but Li Wan and the others remonstrated. "Don't,"
+they said, "allow her to see them! First tell her the rhymes and number
+of feet; and, as she comes late, she should, as a first step, pay a
+penalty by conforming to the task we had to do. Should what she writes
+be good, then she can readily be admitted as a member of the society;
+but if not good, she should be further punished by being made to stand a
+treat; after which, we can decide what's to be done."
+
+"You've forgotten to ask me round," Hsiang-yuen laughed, "and I should,
+after all, fine you people! But produce the metre; for though I don't
+excel in versifying, I shall exert myself to do the best I can, so as to
+get rid of every slur. If you will admit me into the club, I shall be
+even willing to sweep the floors and burn the incense."
+
+When they all saw how full of fun she was, they felt more than ever
+delighted with her and they reproached themselves, for having somehow or
+other managed to forget her on the previous day. But they lost no time
+in telling her the metre of the verses.
+
+Shih Hsiang-yuen was inwardly in ecstasies. So much so, that she could
+not wait to beat the tattoo and effect any alterations. But having
+succeeded, while conversing with her cousins, in devising a stanza in
+her mind, she promptly inscribed it on the first piece of paper that
+came to hand. "I have," she remarked, with a precursory smile, "stuck to
+the metre and written two stanzas. Whether they be good or bad, I cannot
+say; all I've kept in view was to simply comply with your wishes."
+
+So speaking, she handed her paper to the company.
+
+"We thought our four stanzas," they observed, "had so thoroughly
+exhausted everything that could be imagined on the subject that another
+stanza was out of the question, and there you've devised a couple more!
+How could there be so much to say? These must be mere repetitions of our
+own sentiments."
+
+While bandying words, they perused her two stanzas. They found this to
+be their burden:
+
+No. 1.
+
+ The fairies yesterday came down within the city gates,
+ And like those gems, sown in the grassy field, planted one pot.
+ How clear it is that the goddess of frost is fond of cold!
+ It is no question of a pretty girl bent upon death!
+ Where does the snow, which comes in gloomy weather, issue from?
+ The drops of rain increase the prints, left from the previous night.
+ How the flowers rejoice that bards are not weary of song!
+ But are they ever left to spend in peace a day or night?
+
+No. 2.
+
+ The "heng chih" covered steps lead to the creeper-laden door.
+ How fit to plant by the corner of walls; how fit for pots?
+ The flowers so relish purity that they can't find a mate.
+ Easy in autumn snaps the soul of sorrow-wasted man.
+ The tears, which from the jade-like candle drip, dry in the wind.
+ The crystal-like portiere asunder rends Selene's rays.
+ Their private feelings to the moon goddess they longed to tell,
+ But gone, alas! is the lustre she shed on the empty court!
+
+Every line filled them with wonder and admiration. What they read, they
+praised. "This," they exclaimed, with one consent, "is not writing
+verses on the begonia for no purpose! We must really start a Begonia
+Society!"
+
+"To-morrow," Shih Hsiang-yuen proposed, "first fine me by making me stand
+a treat, and letting me be the first to convene a meeting; may I?"
+
+"This would be far better!" they all assented. So producing also the
+verses, composed the previous day, they submitted them to her for
+criticism.
+
+In the evening, Hsiang-yuen came at the invitation of Pao-ch'ai, to the
+Heng Wu Yuean to put up with her for the night. By lamplight, Hsiang-yuen
+consulted with her how she was to play the hostess and fix upon the
+themes; but, after lending a patient ear to all her proposals for a long
+time, Pao-ch'ai thought them so unsuitable for the occasion, that
+turning towards her, she raised objections. "If you want," she said, "to
+hold a meeting, you have to pay the piper. And albeit it's for mere fun,
+you have to make every possible provision; for while consulting your own
+interests, you must guard against giving umbrage to people. In that case
+every one will afterwards be happy and contented. You count for nothing
+too in your own home; and the whole lump sum of those few tiaos, you
+draw each month, are not sufficient for your own wants, and do you now
+also wish to burden yourself with this useless sort of thing? Why, if
+your aunt gets wind of it, won't she be more incensed with you than
+ever! What's more, even though you might fork out all the money you can
+call your own to bear the outlay of this entertainment with, it won't be
+anything like enough, and can it possibly be, pray, that you would go
+home for the express purpose of requisitioning the necessary funds? Or
+will you perchance ask for some from in here?"
+
+This long tirade had the effect of bringing the true facts of the case
+to Hsiang-yuen's notice, and she began to waver in a state of
+uncertainty.
+
+"I have already fixed upon a plan in my mind," Pao-ch'ai resumed.
+"There's an assistant in our pawnshop from whose family farm come some
+splendid crabs. Some time back, he sent us a few as a present, and now,
+starting from our venerable senior and including the inmates of the
+upper quarters, most of them are quite in love with crabs. It was only
+the other day that my mother mentioned that she intended inviting our
+worthy ancestor into the garden to look at the olea flowers and partake
+of crabs, but she has had her hands so full that she hasn't as yet asked
+her round. So just you now drop the poetical meeting, and invite the
+whole crowd to a show; and if we wait until they go, won't we be able to
+indite as many poems as we like? But let me speak to my brother and ask
+him to let us have several baskets of the fattest and largest crabs he
+can get, and to also go to some shop and fetch several jars of luscious
+wine. And if we then lay out four or five tables with plates full of
+refreshments, won't we save trouble and all have a jolly time as well?"
+
+As soon as Hsiang-yuen heard (the alternative proposed by Pao-ch'ai,) she
+felt her heart throb with gratitude and in most profuse terms she
+praised her for her forethought.
+
+"The proposal I've made." Pao-ch'ai pursued smilingly; "is prompted
+entirely by my sincere feelings for you; so whatever you do don't be
+touchy and imagine that I look down upon you; for in that case we two
+will have been good friends all in vain. But if you won't give way to
+suspicion, I'll be able to tell them at once to go and get things
+ready."
+
+"My dear cousin," eagerly rejoined Hsiang-yuen, a smile on her lips, "if
+you say these things it's you who treat me with suspicion; for no matter
+how foolish a person I may be, as not to even know what's good and bad,
+I'm still a human being! Did I not regard you, cousin, in the same light
+as my own very sister, I wouldn't last time have had any wish or
+inclination to disclose to you every bit of those troubles, which
+ordinarily fall to my share at home."
+
+After listening to these assurances, Pao-ch'ai summoned a matron and
+bade her go out and tell her master, Hsueeh P'an, to procure a few
+hampers of crabs of the same kind as those which were sent on the
+previous occasion. "Our venerable senior," (she said,) "and aunt Wang
+are asked to come to-morrow after their meal and admire the olea
+flowers, so mind, impress upon your master to please not forget, as I've
+already to-day issued the invitations."
+
+The matron walked out of the garden and distinctly delivered the
+message. But, on her return, she brought no reply.
+
+During this while, Pao-ch'ai continued her conversation with Hsiang-yuen.
+"The themes for the verses," she advised her, "mustn't also be too
+out-of-the-way. Just search the works of old writers, and where will you
+find any eccentric and peculiar subjects, or any extra difficult metre!
+If the subject be too much out-of-the-way and the metre too difficult,
+one cannot get good verses. In a word, we are a mean lot and our verses
+are certain, I fear, to consist of mere repetitions. Nor is it advisable
+for us to aim at excessive originality. The first thing for us to do is
+to have our ideas clear, as our language will then not be commonplace.
+In fact, this sort of thing is no vital matter; spinning and needlework
+are, in a word, the legitimate duties of you and me. Yet, if we can at
+any time afford the leisure, it's only right and proper that we should
+take some book, that will benefit both body and mind, and read a few
+chapters out of it."
+
+Hsiang-yuen simply signified her assent. "I'm now cogitating in my mind,"
+she then laughingly remarked, "that as the verses we wrote yesterday
+treated of begonias, we should, I think, compose on this occasion some
+on chrysanthemums, eh? What do you say?"
+
+"Chrysanthemums are in season," Pao-ch'ai replied. "The only objection
+to them is that too many writers of old have made them the subject of
+their poems."
+
+"I also think so," Hsiang-yuen added, "so that, I fear, we shall only be
+following in their footsteps."
+
+After some reflection, Pao-ch'ai exclaimed, "I've hit upon something! If
+we take, for the present instance, the chrysanthemums as a secondary
+term, and man as the primary, we can, after all, select several themes.
+But they must all consist of two characters: the one, an empty word; the
+other, a full one. The full word might be chrysanthemums; while for the
+empty one, we might employ some word in general use. In this manner, we
+shall, on one hand, sing the chrysanthemum; and, on the other, compose
+verses on the theme. And as old writers have not written much in this
+style, it will be impossible for us to drift into the groove of their
+ideas. Thus in versifying on the scenery and in singing the objects, we
+will, in both respects, combine originality with liberality of thought."
+
+"This is all very well," smiled Hsiang-yuen. "The only thing is what kind
+of empty words will, I wonder, be best to use? Just you first think of
+one and let me see."
+
+Pao-ch'ai plunged in thought for a time, after which she laughingly
+remarked: "Dream of chrysanthemums is good."
+
+"It's positively good!" Hsiang-yuen smiled. "I've also got one: 'the
+Chrysanthemum shadow,' will that do?"
+
+"Well enough," Pao-ch'ai answered, "the only objection is that people
+have written on it; yet if the themes are to be many, we might throw
+this in. I've got another one too!"
+
+"Be quick, and tell it!" Hsiang-yuen urged.
+
+"What do you say to 'ask the Chrysanthemums?'" Pao-ch'ai observed.
+
+Hsiang-yuen clapped her hand on the table. "Capital," she cried. "I've
+thought of one also." She then quickly continued, "It is, search for
+chrysanthemums; what's your idea about it?"
+
+Pao-ch'ai thought that too would do very well. "Let's choose ten of them
+first," she next proposed; "and afterwards note them down!"
+
+While talking, they rubbed the ink and moistened the pens. These
+preparations over, Hsiang-yuen began to write, while Pao-ch'ai enumerated
+the themes. In a short time, they got ten of them.
+
+"Ten don't form a set," Hsiang-yuen went on to smilingly suggest, after
+reading them over. "We'd better complete them by raising their number to
+twelve; they'll then also be on the same footing as people's pictures
+and books."
+
+Hearing this proposal, Pao-ch'ai devised another couple of themes, thus
+bringing them to a dozen. "Well, since we've got so far," she pursued,
+"let's go one step further and copy them out in their proper order,
+putting those that are first, first; and those that come last, last."
+
+"It would be still better like that," Hsiang-yuen acquiesced, "as we'll
+be able to make up a 'chrysanthemum book.'"
+
+"The first stanza should be: 'Longing for chrysanthemums,'" Pao-chai
+said, "and as one cannot get them by wishing, and has, in consequence,
+to search for them, the second should be 'searching for chrysanthemums.'
+After due search, one finds them, and plants them, so the third must be:
+'planting chrysanthemums.' After they've been planted, they, blossom,
+and one faces them and enjoys them, so the fourth should be 'facing the
+chrysanthemums.' By facing them, one derives such excessive delight that
+one plucks them and brings them in and puts them in vases for one's own
+delectation, so the fifth must be 'placing chrysanthemums in vases.' If
+no verses are sung in their praise, after they've been placed in vases,
+it's tantamount to seeing no point of beauty in chrysanthemums, so the
+sixth must be 'sing about chrysanthemums.' After making them the burden
+of one's song, one can't help representing them in pictures. The seventh
+place should therefore be conceded to 'drawing chrysanthemums.' Seeing
+that in spite of all the labour bestowed on the drawing of
+chrysanthemums, the fine traits there may be about them are not yet, in
+fact, apparent, one impulsively tries to find them out by inquiries, so
+the eighth should be 'asking the chrysanthemums.' As any perception,
+which the chrysanthemums might display in fathoming the questions set
+would help to make the inquirer immoderately happy, the ninth must be
+'pinning the chrysanthemums in the hair.' And as after everything has
+been accomplished, that comes within the sphere of man, there will
+remain still some chrysanthemums about which something could be written,
+two stanzas on the 'shadow of the chrysanthemums,' and the 'dream about
+chrysanthemums' must be tagged on as numbers ten and eleven. While the
+last section should be 'the withering of the chrysanthemums' so as to
+bring to a close the sentiments expressed in the foregoing subjects. In
+this wise the fine scenery and fine doings of the third part of autumn,
+will both alike be included in our themes."
+
+Hsiang-yuen signified her approval, and taking the list she copied it out
+clean. But after once more passing her eye over it, she went on to
+inquire what rhymes should be determined upon.
+
+"I do not, as a rule, like hard-and-fast rhymes," Pao-ch'ai retorted.
+"It's evident enough that we can have good verses without them, so
+what's the use of any rhymes to shackle us? Don't let us imitate that
+mean lot of people. Let's simply choose our subject and pay no notice to
+rhymes. Our main object is to see whether we cannot by chance hit upon
+some well-written lines for the sake of fun. It isn't to make this the
+means of subjecting people to perplexities."
+
+"What you say is perfectly right," Hsiang-yuen observed. "In this manner
+our poetical composition will improve one step higher. But we only
+muster five members, and there are here twelve themes. Is it likely that
+each one of us will have to indite verses on all twelve?"
+
+"That would be far too hard on the members!" Pao-ch'ai rejoined. "But
+let's copy out the themes clean, for lines with seven words will have to
+be written on every one, and stick them to-morrow on the wall for
+general perusal. Each member can write on the subject which may be most
+in his or her line. Those, with any ability, may choose all twelve.
+While those, with none, may only limit themselves to one stanza. Both
+will do. Those, however, who will show high mental capacity, combined
+with quickness, will be held the best. But any one, who shall have
+completed all twelve themes, won't be permitted to hasten and begin over
+again; we'll have to fine such a one, and finish."
+
+"Yes, that will do," assented Hsiang-yuen. But after settling everything
+satisfactorily, they extinguished the lamp and went to bed.
+
+Reader, do you want to know what subsequently took place? If you do,
+then listen to what is contained in the way of explanation in the
+following chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+ Lin Hsiao-Hsiang carries the first prize in the poems on
+ chrysanthemums.
+ Hsueh Heng-wu chaffs Pao-yue by composing verses in the same style as
+ his on the crabs.
+
+
+After Pao-ch'ai and Hsiang-yuen, we will now explain, settled everything
+in their deliberations, nothing memorable occurred, the whole night,
+which deserves to be put on record.
+
+The next day, Hsiang-yuen invited dowager lady Chia and her other
+relatives to come and look at the olea flowers. Old lady Chia and every
+one else answered that as she had had the kind attention to ask them,
+they felt it their duty to avail themselves of her gracious invitation,
+much though they would be putting her to trouble and inconvenience. At
+twelve o'clock, therefore, old lady Chia actually took with her Madame
+Wang and lady Feng, as well as Mrs. Hsueeh and other members of her
+family whom she had asked to join them, and repaired into the garden.
+
+"Which is the best spot?" old lady Chia inquired.
+
+"We are ready to go wherever you may like, dear senior," Madame Wang
+ventured in response.
+
+"A collation has already been spread in the Lotus Fragrance Arbour,"
+lady Feng interposed. "Besides, the two olea plants, on that hill,
+yonder, are now lovely in their full blossom, and the water of that
+stream is jade-like and pellucid, so if we sit in the pavilion in the
+middle of it, won't we enjoy an open and bright view? It will be
+refreshing too to our eyes to watch the pool."
+
+"Quite right!" assented dowager lady Chia at this suggestion; and while
+expressing her approbation, she ushered her train of followers into the
+Arbour of Lotus Fragrance.
+
+This Arbour of Lotus Fragrance had, in fact, been erected in the centre
+of the pool. It had windows on all four sides. On the left and on the
+right, stood covered passages, which spanned the stream and connected
+with the hills. At the back, figured a winding bridge.
+
+As the party ascended the bamboo bridge, lady Feng promptly advanced and
+supported dowager lady Chia. "Venerable ancestor," she said, "just walk
+boldly and with confident step; there's nothing to fear; it's the way of
+these bamboo bridges to go on creaking like this."
+
+Presently, they entered the arbour. Here they saw two additional bamboo
+tables, placed beyond the balustrade. On the one, were arranged cups,
+chopsticks and every article necessary for drinking wine. On the other,
+were laid bamboo utensils for tea, a tea-service and various cups and
+saucers. On the off side, two or three waiting-maids were engaged in
+fanning the stove to boil the water for tea. On the near side were
+visible several other girls, who were trying with their fans to get a
+fire to light in the stove so as to warm the wines.
+
+"It was a capital idea," dowager lady Chia hastily exclaimed laughingly
+with vehemence, "to bring tea here. What's more, the spot and the
+appurtenances are alike so spick and span!"
+
+"These things were brought by cousin Pao-ch'ai," Hsiang-yuen smilingly
+explained, "so I got them ready."
+
+"This child is, I say, so scrupulously particular," old lady Chia
+observed, "that everything she does is thoroughly devised."
+
+As she gave utterance to her feelings, her attention was attracted by a
+pair of scrolls of black lacquer, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, suspended
+on the pillars, and she asked Hsiang-yuen to tell her what the mottoes
+were.
+
+The text she read was:
+
+ Snapped is the shade of the hibiscus by the fragrant oar of a boat
+ homeward bound.
+ Deep flows the perfume of the lily and the lotus underneath the bamboo
+ bridge.
+
+After listening to the motto, old lady Chia raised her head and cast a
+glance upon the tablet; then turning round: "Long ago, when I was
+young," she observed, addressing herself to Mrs. Hsueeh, "we likewise had
+at home a pavilion like this called 'the Hall reclining on the russet
+clouds,' or some other such name. At that time, I was of the same age as
+the girls, and my wont was to go day after day and play with my sisters
+there. One day, I, unexpectedly, slipped and fell into the water, and I
+had a narrow escape from being drowned; for it was after great
+difficulty, that they managed to drag me out safe and sound. But my head
+was, after all, bumped about against the wooden nails; so much so, that
+this hole of the length of a finger, which you can see up to this day on
+my temple, comes from the bruises I sustained. All my people were in a
+funk that I'd be the worse for this ducking and continued in fear and
+trembling lest I should catch a chill. 'It was dreadful, dreadful!' they
+opined, but I managed, little though every one thought it, to keep in
+splendid health."
+
+Lady Feng allowed no time to any one else to put in a word; but
+anticipating them: "Had you then not survived, who would now be enjoying
+these immense blessings!" she smiled. "This makes it evident that no
+small amount of happiness and long life were in store for you, venerable
+ancestor, from your very youth up! It was by the agency of the spirits
+that this hole was knocked open so that they might fill it up with
+happiness and longevity! The old man Shou Hsing had, in fact, a hole in
+his head, which was so full of every kind of blessing conducive to
+happiness and long life that it bulged up ever so high!"
+
+Before, however, she could conclude, dowager lady Chia and the rest were
+convulsed with such laughter that their bodies doubled in two.
+
+"This monkey is given to dreadful tricks!" laughed old lady Chia. "She's
+always ready to make a scapegoat of me to evoke amusement. But would
+that I could take that glib mouth of yours and rend it in pieces."
+
+"It's because I feared that the cold might, when you by and bye have
+some crabs to eat, accumulate in your intestines," lady Feng pleaded,
+"that I tried to induce you, dear senior, to have a laugh, so as to make
+you gay and merry. For one can, when in high spirits, indulge in a
+couple of them more with impunity."
+
+"By and bye," smiled old lady Chia, "I'll make you follow me day and
+night, so that I may constantly be amused and feel my mind diverted; I
+won't let you go back to your home."
+
+"It's that weakness of yours for her, venerable senior," Madame Wang
+observed with a smile, "that has got her into the way of behaving in
+this manner, and, if you go on speaking to her as you do, she'll soon
+become ever so much the more unreasonable."
+
+"I like her such as she is," dowager lady Chia laughed. "Besides, she's
+truly no child, ignorant of the distinction between high and low. When
+we are at home, with no strangers present, we ladies should be on terms
+like these, and as long, in fact, as we don't overstep propriety, it's
+all right. If not, what would he the earthly use of making them behave
+like so many saints?"
+
+While bandying words, they entered the pavilion in a body. After tea,
+lady Feng hastened to lay out the cups and chopsticks. At the upper
+table then seated herself old lady Chia, Mrs. Hsueeh, Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yue
+and Pao-yue. Round the table, on the east, sat Shih Hsiang-yuen, Madame
+Wang, Ying Ch'un, T'an Ch'un and Hsi Ch'un. At the small table, leaning
+against the door on the west side, Li Wan and lady Feng assigned
+themselves places. But it was for the mere sake of appearances, as
+neither of them ventured to sit down, but remained in attendance at the
+two tables, occupied by old lady Chia and Madame Wang.
+
+"You'd better," lady Feng said, "not bring in too many crabs at a time.
+Throw these again into the steaming-basket! Only serve ten; and when
+they're eaten, a fresh supply can be fetched!"
+
+Asking, at the same time, for water, she washed her hands, and, taking
+her position near dowager lady Chia, she scooped out the meat from a
+crab, and offered the first help to Mrs. Hsueeh.
+
+"They'll be sweeter were I to open them with my own hands," Mrs. Hsueeh
+remarked, "there's no need for any one to serve me."
+
+Lady Feng, therefore, presented it to old lady Chia and handed a second
+portion to Pao-yue.
+
+"Make the wine as warm as possible and bring it in!" she then went on to
+cry. "Go," she added, directing the servant-girls, "and fetch the
+powder, made of green beans, and scented with the leaves of
+chrysanthemums and the stamens of the olea fragrans; and keep it ready
+to rinse our hands with."
+
+Shih Hsiang-yuen had a crab to bear the others company, but no sooner had
+she done than she retired to a lower seat, from where she helped her
+guests. When she, however, walked out a second time to give orders to
+fill two dishes and send them over to Mrs. Chao, she perceived lady Feng
+come up to her again. "You're not accustomed to entertaining," she said,
+"so go and have your share to eat. I'll attend to the people for you
+first, and, when they've gone, I'll have all I want."
+
+Hsiang-yuen would not agree to her proposal. But giving further
+directions to the servants to spread two tables under the verandah on
+the off-side, she pressed Yuean Yang, Hu Po, Ts'ai Hsia, Ts'ai Yuen and
+P'ing Erh to go and seat themselves.
+
+"Lady Secunda," consequently ventured Yuean Yang, "you're in here doing
+the honours, so may I go and have something to eat?"
+
+"You can all go," replied lady Feng; "leave everything in my charge, and
+it will be all right."
+
+While these words were being spoken, Shih Hsiang-yuen resumed her place
+at the banquet. Lady Feng and Li Wan then took hurry-scurry something to
+eat as a matter of form; but lady Feng came down once more to look after
+things. After a time, she stepped out on the verandah where Yuean Yang
+and the other girls were having their refreshments in high glee. As soon
+as they caught sight of her, Yuan Yang and her companions stood up.
+"What has your ladyship come out again for?" they inquired. "Do let us
+also enjoy a little peace and quiet!"
+
+"This chit Yuean Yang is worse than ever!" lady Feng laughed. "Here I'm
+slaving away for you, and, instead of feeling grateful to me, you bear
+me a grudge! But don't you yet quick pour me a cup of wine?"
+
+Yuean Yang immediately smiled, and filling a cup, she applied it to lady
+Feng's lips. Lady Feng stretched out her neck and emptied it. But Hu Po
+and Ts'ai Hsia thereupon likewise replenished a cup and put it to lady
+Feng's mouth. Lady Feng swallowed the contents of that as well. P'ing
+Erh had, by this time, brought her some yellow meat which she had picked
+out from the shell. "Pour plenty of ginger and vinegar!" shouted lady
+Feng, and, in a moment, she made short work of that too. "You people,"
+she smiled, "had better sit down and have something to eat, for I'm off
+now."
+
+"You brazen-faced thing," exclaimed Yuean Yang laughingly, "to eat what
+was intended for us!"
+
+"Don't be so captious with me!" smiled lady Feng. "Are you aware that
+your master Secundus, Mr. Lien, has taken such a violent fancy to you
+that he means to speak to our old lady to let you be his secondary
+wife!"
+
+Yuean Yang blushed crimson. "Ts'ui!" she shouted. "Are these really words
+to issue from the mouth of a lady! But if I don't daub your face all
+over with my filthy hands, I won't feel happy!"
+
+Saying this, she rushed up to her. She was about to besmear her face,
+when lady Feng pleaded: "My dear child, do let me off this time!"
+
+"Lo, that girl Yuean," laughed Hu Po, "wishes to smear her, and that
+hussey P'ing still spares her! Look here, she has scarcely had two
+crabs, and she has drunk a whole saucerful of vinegar!"
+
+P'ing Erh was holding a crab full of yellow meat, which she was in the
+act of cleaning. As soon therefore as she heard this taunt, she came,
+crab in hand, to spatter Hu Po's face, as she laughingly reviled her.
+"I'll take you minx with that cajoling tongue of yours" she cried,
+"and...."
+
+But, Hu Po, while also indulging in laughter, drew aside; so P'ing Erh
+beat the air, and fell forward, daubing, by a strange coincidence, the
+cheek of lady Feng. Lady Feng was at the moment having a little
+good-humoured raillery with Yuean Yang, and was taken so much off her
+guard, that she was quite startled out of her senses. "Ai-yah!" she
+ejaculated. The bystanders found it difficult to keep their countenance,
+and, with one voice, they exploded into a boisterous fit of laughter.
+Lady Feng as well could not help feeling amused, and smilingly she
+upbraided her. "You stupid wench!" she said; "Have you by gorging lost
+your eyesight that you recklessly smudge your mistress' face?"
+
+P'ing Erh hastily crossed over and wiped her face for her, and then went
+in person to fetch some water.
+
+"O-mi-to-fu," ejaculated Yuean Yang, "this is a distinct retribution!"
+
+Dowager lady Chia, though seated on the other side, overheard their
+shouts, and she consecutively made inquiries as to what they had seen to
+tickled their fancy so. "Tell us," (she urged), "what it is so that we
+too should have a laugh."
+
+"Our lady Secunda," Yuean Yang and the other maids forthwith laughingly
+cried, "came to steal our crabs and eat them, and P'ing Erh got angry
+and daubed her mistress' face all over with yellow meat. So our mistress
+and that slave-girl are now having a scuffle over it."
+
+This report filled dowager lady Chia, Madame Wang and the other inmates
+with them with much merriment. "Do have pity on her," dowager lady Chia
+laughed, "and let her have some of those small legs and entrails to eat,
+and have done!"
+
+Yuan Yang and her companions assented, much amused. "Mistress Secunda,"
+they shouted in a loud tone of voice, "you're at liberty to eat this
+whole tableful of legs!"
+
+But having washed her face clean, lady Feng approached old lady Chia and
+the other guests and waited upon them for a time, while they partook of
+refreshments.
+
+Tai-yue did not, with her weak physique, venture to overload her stomach,
+so partaking of a little meat from the claws, she left the table.
+Presently, however, dowager lady Chia too abandoned all idea of having
+anything more to eat. The company therefore quitted the banquet; and,
+when they had rinsed their hands, some admired the flowers, some played
+with the water, others looked at the fish.
+
+After a short stroll, Madame Wang turned round and remarked to old lady
+Chia: "There's plenty of wind here. Besides, you've just had crabs; so
+it would be prudent for you, venerable senior, to return home and rest.
+And if you feel in the humour, we can come again for a turn to-morrow."
+
+"Quite true!" acquiesced dowager lady Chia, in reply to this suggestion.
+"I was afraid that if I left, now that you're all in exuberant spirits,
+I mightn't again be spoiling your fun, (so I didn't budge). But as the
+idea originates from yourselves do go as you please, (while I retire).
+But," she said to Hsiang-yuen, "don't allow your cousin Secundus, Pao-yue,
+and your cousin Lin to have too much to eat." Then when Hsiang-yuen had
+signified her obedience, "You two girls," continuing, she recommended
+Hsiang-yuen and Pao-ch'ai, "must not also have more than is good for you.
+Those things are, it's true, luscious, but they're not very wholesome;
+and if you eat immoderately of them, why, you'll get stomachaches."
+
+Both girls promised with alacrity to be careful; and, having escorted
+her beyond the confines of the garden, they retraced their steps and
+ordered the servants to clear the remnants of the banquet and to lay out
+a new supply of refreshments.
+
+"There's no use of any regular spread out!" Pao-yue interposed. "When you
+are about to write verses, that big round table can be put in the centre
+and the wines and eatables laid on it. Neither will there be any need to
+ceremoniously have any fixed seats. Let those who may want anything to
+eat, go up to it and take what they like; and if we seat ourselves,
+scattered all over the place, won't it be far more convenient for us?"
+
+"Your idea is excellent!" Pao-ch'ai answered.
+
+"This is all very well," Hsiang-yuen observed, "but there are others to
+be studied besides ourselves!"
+
+Issuing consequently further directions for another table to be laid,
+and picking out some hot crabs, she asked Hsi Jen, Tzu Chuean, Ssu Ch'i,
+Shih Shu, Ju Hua, Ying Erh, Ts'ui Mo and the other girls to sit together
+and form a party. Then having a couple of flowered rugs spread under the
+olea trees on the hills, she bade the matrons on duty, the waiting-maids
+and other servants to likewise make themselves comfortable and to eat
+and drink at their pleasure until they were wanted, when they could come
+and answer the calls.
+
+Hsiang-yuen next fetched the themes for the verses and pinned them with a
+needle on the wall. "They're full of originality," one and all exclaimed
+after perusal, "we fear we couldn't write anything on them."
+
+Hsiang-yuen then went onto explain to them the reasons that had prompted
+her not to determine upon any particular rhymes.
+
+"Yes, quite right!" put in Pao-yue. "I myself don't fancy hard and fast
+rhymes!"
+
+But Lin Tai-yue, being unable to stand much wine and to take any crabs,
+told, on her own account, a servant to fetch an embroidered cushion;
+and, seating herself in such a way as to lean against the railing, she
+took up a fishing-rod and began to fish. Pao-ch'ai played for a time
+with a twig of olea she held in her hand, then resting on the
+window-sill, she plucked the petals, and threw them into the water,
+attracting the fish, which went by, to rise to the surface and nibble at
+them. Hsiang-yuen, after a few moments of abstraction, urged Hsi Jen and
+the other girls to help themselves to anything they wanted, and beckoned
+to the servants, seated at the foot of the hill, to eat to their heart's
+content. Tan Ch'un, in company with Li Wan and Hsi Ch'un, stood
+meanwhile under the shade of the weeping willows, and looked at the
+widgeons and egrets. Ying Ch'un, on the other hand, was all alone under
+the shade of some trees, threading double jasmine flowers, with a needle
+specially adapted for the purpose. Pao-yue too watched Tai-yue fishing for
+a while. At one time he leant next to Pao-ch'ai and cracked a few jokes
+with her. And at another, he drank, when he noticed Hsi Jen feasting on
+crabs with her companions, a few mouthfuls of wine to keep her company.
+At this, Hsi Jen cleaned the meat out of a shell, and gave it to him to
+eat.
+
+Tai-yue then put down the fishing-rod, and, approaching the seats, she
+laid hold of a small black tankard, ornamented with silver plum flowers,
+and selected a tiny cup, made of transparent stone, red like a begonia,
+and in the shape of a banana leaf. A servant-girl observed her
+movements, and, concluding that she felt inclined to have a drink, she
+drew near with hurried step to pour some wine for her.
+
+"You girls had better go on eating," Tai-yue remonstrated, "and let me
+help myself; there'll be some fun in it then!"
+
+So speaking, she filled for herself a cup half full; but discovering
+that it was yellow wine, "I've eaten only a little bit of crab," she
+said, "and yet I feel my mouth slightly sore; so what would do for me
+now is a mouthful of very hot distilled spirit."
+
+Pao-yue hastened to take up her remark. "There's some distilled spirit,"
+he chimed in. "Take some of that wine," he there and then shouted out to
+a servant, "scented with acacia flowers, and warm a tankard of it."
+
+When however it was brought Tai-yue simply took a sip and put it down
+again.
+
+Pao-ch'ai too then came forward, and picked up a double cup; but, after
+drinking a mouthful of it, she lay it aside, and, moistening her pen,
+she walked up to the wall, and marked off the first theme: "longing for
+chrysanthemums," below which she appended a character "Heng."
+
+"My dear cousin," promptly remarked Pao-yue. "I've already got four lines
+of the second theme so let me write on it!"
+
+"I managed, after ever so much difficulty, to put a stanza together,"
+Pao-ch'ai smiled, "and are you now in such a hurry to deprive me of it?"
+
+Without so much as a word, Tai-yue took a pen and put a distinctive sign
+opposite the eighth, consisting of: "ask the chrysanthemums;" and,
+singling out, in quick succession, the eleventh: "dream of
+chrysanthemums," as well, she too affixed for herself the word "Hsiao"
+below. But Pao-yue likewise got a pen, and marked his choice, the twelfth
+on the list: "seek for chrysanthemums," by the side of which he wrote
+the character "Chiang."
+
+T'an Ch'un thereupon rose to her feet. "If there's no one to write on
+'Pinning the chrysanthemums'" she observed, while scrutinising the
+themes, "do let me have it! It has just been ruled," she continued,
+pointing at Pao-yue with a significant smile, "that it is on no account
+permissible to introduce any expressions, bearing reference to the inner
+chambers, so you'd better be on your guard!"
+
+But as she spoke, she perceived Hsiang-yuen come forward, and jointly
+mark the fourth and fifth, that is: "facing the chrysanthemums," and
+"putting chrysanthemums in vases," to which she, like the others,
+appended a word, Hsiang."
+
+"You too should get a style or other!" T'an Ch'un suggested.
+
+"In our home," smiled Hsiang-yuen, "there exist, it is true, at present
+several halls and structures, but as I don't live in either, there'll be
+no fun in it were I to borrow the name of any one of them!"
+
+"Our venerable senior just said," Pao-ch'ai observed laughingly, "that
+there was also in your home a water-pavilion called 'leaning on russet
+clouds hall,' and is it likely that it wasn't yours? But albeit it
+doesn't exist now-a-days, you were anyhow its mistress of old."
+
+"She's right!" one and all exclaimed.
+
+Pao-yue therefore allowed Hsiang-yuen no time to make a move, but
+forthwith rubbed off the character "Hsiang," for her and substituted
+that of "Hsia" (russet).
+
+A short time only elapsed before the compositions on the twelve themes
+had all been completed. After they had each copied out their respective
+verses, they handed them to Ying Ch'un, who took a separate sheet of
+snow-white fancy paper, and transcribed them together, affixing
+distinctly under each stanza the style of the composer. Li Wan and her
+assistants then began to read, starting from the first on the list, the
+verses which follow:
+
+"Longing for chrysanthemums," by the "Princess of Heng Wu."
+
+ With anguish sore I face the western breeze, and wrapt in grief, I
+ pine for you!
+ What time the smart weed russet turns, and the reeds white, my heart
+ is rent in two.
+ When in autumn the hedges thin, and gardens waste, all trace of you is
+ gone.
+ When the moon waxeth cold, and the dew pure, my dreams then know
+ something of you.
+ With constant yearnings my heart follows you as far as wild geese
+ homeward fly.
+ Lonesome I sit and lend an ear, till a late hour to the sound of the
+ block!
+ For you, ye yellow flowers, I've grown haggard and worn, but who doth
+ pity me,
+ And breathe one word of cheer that in the ninth moon I will soon meet
+ you again?
+
+"Search for chrysanthemums," by the "Gentleman of I Hung:"
+
+ When I have naught to do, I'll seize the first fine day to try and
+ stroll about.
+ Neither wine-cups nor cups of medicine will then deter me from my
+ wish.
+ Who plants the flowers in all those spots, facing the dew and under
+ the moon's rays?
+ Outside the rails they grow and by the hedge; but in autumn where do
+ they go?
+ With sandals waxed I come from distant shores; my feelings all
+ exuberant;
+ But as on this cold day I can't exhaust my song, my spirits get
+ depressed.
+ The yellow flowers, if they but knew how comfort to a poet to afford,
+ Would not let me this early morn trudge out in vain with my cash-laden
+ staff.
+
+"Planting chrysanthemums," by the Gentleman of "I Hung:"
+
+ When autumn breaks, I take my hoe, and moving them myself out of the
+ park,
+ I plant them everywhere near the hedges and in the foreground of the
+ halls.
+ Last night, when least expected, they got a good shower, which made
+ them all revive.
+ This morn my spirits still rise high, as the buds burst in bloom
+ bedecked with frost.
+ Now that it's cool, a thousand stanzas on the autumn scenery I sing.
+ In ecstasies from drink, I toast their blossom in a cup of cold, and
+ fragrant wine.
+ With spring water. I sprinkle them, cover the roots with mould and
+ well tend them,
+ So that they may, like the path near the well, be free of every grain
+ of dirt.
+
+"Facing the chrysanthemums," by the "Old friend of the Hall reclining on
+the russet clouds."
+
+ From other gardens I transplant them, and I treasure them like gold.
+ One cluster bears light-coloured bloom; another bears dark shades.
+ I sit with head uncovered by the sparse-leaved artemesia hedge,
+ And in their pure and cool fragrance, clasping my knees, I hum my
+ lays.
+ In the whole world, methinks, none see the light as peerless as these
+ flowers.
+ From all I see you have no other friend more intimate than me.
+ Such autumn splendour, I must not misuse, as steadily it fleets.
+ My gaze I fix on you as I am fain each moment to enjoy!
+
+"Putting chrysanthemums in vases," by the "Old Friend of the hall
+reclining on the russet clouds."
+
+ The lute I thrum, and quaff my wine, joyful at heart that ye are meet
+ to be my mates.
+ The various tables, on which ye are laid, adorn with beauteous grace
+ this quiet nook.
+ The fragrant dew, next to the spot I sit, is far apart from that by
+ the three paths.
+ I fling my book aside and turn my gaze upon a twig full of your autumn
+ (bloom).
+ What time the frost is pure, a new dream steals o'er me, as by the
+ paper screen I rest.
+ When cold holdeth the park, and the sun's rays do slant, I long and
+ yearn for you, old friends.
+ I too differ from others in this world, for my own tastes resemble
+ those of yours.
+ The vernal winds do not hinder the peach tree and the pear from
+ bursting forth in bloom.
+
+"Singing chrysanthemums," by the "Hsiao Hsiang consort."
+
+ Eating the bread of idleness, the frenzy of poetry creeps over me both
+ night and day.
+ Round past the hedge I wend, and, leaning on the rock, I intone verses
+ gently to myself.
+ From the point of my pencil emanate lines of recondite grace, so near
+ the frost I write.
+ Some scent I hold by the side of my mouth, and, turning to the moon, I
+ sing my sentiments.
+ With self-pitying lines pages I fill, so as utterance to give to all
+ my cares and woes.
+ From these few scanty words, who could fathom the secrets of my heart
+ about the autumntide?
+ Beginning from the time when T'ao, the magistrate, did criticise the
+ beauty of your bloom,
+ Yea, from that date remote up to this very day, your high renown has
+ ever been extolled.
+
+"Drawing chrysanthemums," by the "Princess of Heng Wu."
+
+ Verses I've had enough, so with my pens I play; with no idea that I am
+ mad.
+ Do I make use of pigments red or green as to involve a task of
+ toilsome work?
+ To form clusters of leaves, I sprinkle simply here and there a
+ thousand specks of ink.
+ And when I've drawn the semblance of the flowers, some spots I make to
+ represent the frost.
+ The light and dark so life-like harmonise with the figure of those
+ there in the wind,
+ That when I've done tracing their autumn growth, a fragrant smell
+ issues under my wrist.
+ Do you not mark how they resemble those, by the east hedge, which you
+ leisurely pluck?
+ Upon the screens their image I affix to solace me for those of the
+ ninth moon.
+
+"Asking the chrysanthemums," by the "Hsiao Hsiang consort."
+
+ Your heart, in autumn, I would like to read, but know it no one could!
+ While humming with my arms behind my back, on the east hedge I rap.
+ So peerless and unique are ye that who is meet with you to stay?
+ Why are you of all flowers the only ones to burst the last in bloom?
+ Why in such silence plunge the garden dew and the frost in the hall?
+ When wild geese homeward fly and crickets sicken, do you think of me?
+ Do not tell me that in the world none of you grow with power of
+ speech?
+ But if ye fathom what I say, why not converse with me a while?
+
+"Pinning the chrysanthemums in the hair," by the "Visitor under the
+banana trees."
+
+ I put some in a vase, and plant some by the hedge, so day by day I
+ have ample to do.
+ I pluck them, yet don't fancy they are meant for girls to pin before
+ the glass in their coiffure.
+ My mania for these flowers is just as keen as was that of the squire,
+ who once lived in Ch'ang An.
+ I rave as much for them as raved Mr. P'eng Tse, when he was under the
+ effects of wine.
+ Cold is the short hair on his temples and moistened with dew, which on
+ it dripped from the three paths.
+ His flaxen turban is suffused with the sweet fragrance of the autumn
+ frost in the ninth moon.
+ That strong weakness of mine to pin them in my hair is viewed with
+ sneers by my contemporaries.
+ They clap their hands, but they are free to laugh at me by the
+ roadside as much us e'er they list.
+
+"The shadow of the chrysanthemums," by the "Old Friend of the hall
+reclining on the russet clouds."
+
+ In layers upon layers their autumn splendour grows and e'er thick and
+ thicker.
+ I make off furtively, and stealthily transplant them from the three
+ crossways.
+ The distant lamp, inside the window-frame, depicts their shade both
+ far and near.
+ The hedge riddles the moon's rays, like unto a sieve, but the flowers
+ stop the holes.
+ As their reflection cold and fragrant tarries here, their soul must
+ too abide.
+ The dew-dry spot beneath the flowers is so like them that what is said
+ of dreams is trash.
+ Their precious shadows, full of subtle scent, are trodden down to
+ pieces here and there.
+ Could any one with eyes half closed from drinking, not mistake the
+ shadow for the flowers.
+
+"Dreaming of chrysanthemums," by the "Hsiao Hsiang consort."
+
+ What vivid dreams arise as I dose by the hedge amidst those autumn
+ scenes!
+ Whether clouds bear me company or the moon be my mate, I can't
+ discern.
+ In fairyland I soar, not that I would become a butterfly like Chang.
+ So long I for my old friend T'ao, the magistrate, that I again seek
+ him.
+ In a sound sleep I fell; but so soon as the wild geese cried, they
+ broke my rest.
+ The chirp of the cicadas gave me such a start that I bear them a
+ grudge.
+ My secret wrongs to whom can I go and divulge, when I wake up from
+ sleep?
+ The faded flowers and the cold mist make my feelings of anguish know
+ no bounds.
+
+"Fading of the chrysanthemums," by the "Visitor under the banana trees."
+
+ The dew congeals; the frost waxes in weight; and gradually dwindles
+ their bloom.
+ After the feast, with the flower show, follows the season of the
+ 'little snow.'
+ The stalks retain still some redundant smell, but the flowers' golden
+ tinge is faint.
+ The stems do not bear sign of even one whole leaf; their verdure is
+ all past.
+ Naught but the chirp of crickets strikes my ear, while the moon shines
+ on half my bed.
+ Near the cold clouds, distant a thousand li, a flock of wild geese
+ slowly fly.
+ When autumn breaks again next year, I feel certain that we will meet
+ once more.
+ We part, but only for a time, so don't let us indulge in anxious
+ thoughts.
+
+Each stanza they read they praised; and they heaped upon each other
+incessant eulogiums.
+
+"Let me now criticise them; I'll do so with all fairness!" Li Wan
+smiled. "As I glance over the page," she said, "I find that each of you
+has some distinct admirable sentiments; but in order to be impartial in
+my criticism to-day, I must concede the first place to: 'Singing the
+chrysanthemums;' the second to: 'Asking the chrysanthemums;' and the
+third to: 'Dreaming of chrysanthemums.' The original nature of the
+themes makes the verses full of originality, and their conception still
+more original. But we must allow to the 'Hsiao Hsiang consort' the
+credit of being the best; next in order following: 'Pinning
+chrysanthemums in the hair,' 'Facing the chrysanthemums,' 'Putting the
+chrysanthemums, in vases,' 'Drawing the chrysanthemums,' and 'Longing
+for chrysanthemums,' as second best."
+
+This decision filled Pao-yue with intense gratification. Clapping his
+hands, "Quite right! it's most just," he shouted.
+
+"My verses are worth nothing!" Tai-yue remarked. "Their fault, after all,
+is that they are a little too minutely subtile."
+
+"They are subtile but good," Li Wan rejoined; "for there's no
+artificialness or stiffness about them."
+
+"According to my views," Tai-yue observed, "the best line is:
+
+ "'When cold holdeth the park and the sun's rays do slant, I long and
+ yearn for you, old friends.'
+
+"The metonomy:
+
+ "'I fling my book aside and turn my gaze upon a twig of autumn.'
+
+is already admirable! She has dealt so exhaustively with 'putting
+chrysanthemums in a vase' that she has left nothing unsaid that could be
+said, and has had in consequence to turn her thought back and consider
+the time anterior to their being plucked and placed in vases. Her
+sentiments are profound!"
+
+"What you say is certainly so," explained Li Wan smiling; "but that line
+of yours:
+
+ "'Some scent I hold by the side of my mouth,....'
+
+"beats that."
+
+"After all," said T'an Ch'un, "we must admit that there's depth of
+thought in those of the 'Princess of Heng Wu' with:
+
+ "'...in autumn all trace of you is gone;'
+
+"and
+
+ "'...my dreams then know something of you!'
+
+"They really make the meaning implied by the words 'long for' stand out
+clearly."
+
+"Those passages of yours:
+
+ "'Cold is the short hair on his temples and moistened....'
+
+"and
+
+ "'His flaxen turban is suffused with the sweet fragrance....;'"
+
+laughingly observed Puo-ch'ai, "likewise bring out the idea of 'pinning
+the chrysanthemums in the hair' so thoroughly that one couldn't get a
+loop hole for fault-finding."
+
+Hsiang-yuen then smiled.
+
+ "'...who is meet with you to stay'"
+
+she said, "and
+
+ "'...burst the last in bloom.'
+
+"are questions so straight to the point set to the chrysanthemums, that
+they are quite at a loss what answer to give."
+
+"Were what you say:
+
+ "'I sit with head uncovered....'
+
+"and
+
+ "'...clasping my knees, I hum my lays....'
+
+"as if you couldn't, in fact, tear yourself away for even a moment from
+them," Li Wan laughed, "to come to the knowledge of the chrysanthemums,
+why, they would certainly be sick and tired of you."
+
+This joke made every one laugh.
+
+"I'm last again!" smiled Pao-yue. "Is it likely that:
+
+ "'Who plants the flowers?....
+ ...in autumn where do they go?
+ With sandals waxed I come from distant shores;....
+ ...and as on this cold day I can't exhaust my song;....'
+
+"do not all forsooth amount to searching for chrysanthemums? And that
+
+ "'Last night they got a shower....
+ And this morn ... bedecked with frost,'
+
+"don't both bear on planting them? But unfortunately they can't come up
+to these lines:
+
+ "'Some scent I hold by the side of my mouth and turning to the moon I
+ sing my sentiments.'
+ 'In their pure and cool fragrance, clasping my knees I hum my lays.'
+ '...short hair on his temples....'
+ 'His flaxen turban....
+ ...golden tinge is faint.
+ ...verdure is all past.
+ ...in autumn ... all trace of you is gone.
+ ...my dreams then know something of you.'
+
+"But to-morrow," he proceeded, "if I have got nothing to do, I'll write
+twelve stanzas my self."
+
+"Yours are also good," Li Wan pursued, "the only thing is that they
+aren't as full of original conception as those other lines, that's all."
+
+But after a few further criticisms, they asked for some more warm crabs;
+and, helping themselves, as soon as they were brought, from the large
+circular table, they regaled themselves for a time.
+
+"With the crabs to-day in one's hand and the olea before one's eyes, one
+cannot help inditing verses," Pao-yue smiled. "I've already thought of a
+few; but will any of you again have the pluck to devise any?"
+
+With this challenge, he there and then hastily washed his hands and
+picking up a pen he wrote out what, his companions found on perusal, to
+run in this strain:
+
+ When in my hands I clasp a crab what most enchants my heart is the
+ cassia's cool shade.
+ While I pour vinegar and ground ginger, I feel from joy as if I would
+ go mad.
+ With so much gluttony the prince's grandson eats his crabs that he
+ should have some wine.
+ The side-walking young gentleman has no intestines in his frame at
+ all.
+ I lose sight in my greediness that in my stomach cold accumulates.
+ To my fingers a strong smell doth adhere and though I wash them yet
+ the smell clings fast.
+ The main secret of this is that men in this world make much of food.
+ The P'o Spirit has laughed at them that all their lives they only seek
+ to eat.
+
+"I could readily compose a hundred stanzas with such verses in no time,"
+Tai-yue observed with a sarcastic smile.
+
+"Your mental energies are now long ago exhausted," Pao-yue rejoined
+laughingly, "and instead of confessing your inability to devise any, you
+still go on heaping invective upon people!"
+
+Tai-yue, upon catching this insinuation, made no reply of any kind; but
+slightly raising her head she hummed something to herself for a while,
+and then taking up a pen she completed a whole stanza with a few dashes.
+
+The company then read her lines. They consisted of--
+
+ E'en after death, their armour and their lengthy spears are never cast
+ away.
+ So nice they look, piled in the plate, that first to taste them I'd
+ fain be.
+ In every pair of legs they have, the crabs are full of tender
+ jade-like meat.
+ Each piece of ruddy fat, which in their shell bumps up, emits a
+ fragrant smell.
+ Besides much meat, they have a greater relish for me still, eight feet
+ as well.
+ Who bids me drink a thousand cups of wine in order to enhance my joy?
+ What time I can behold their luscious food, with the fine season doth
+ accord
+ When cassias wave with fragrance pure, and the chrysanthemums are
+ decked with frost.
+
+Pao-yue had just finished conning it over and was beginning to sing its
+praise, when Tai-yue, with one snatch, tore it to pieces and bade a
+servant go and burn it.
+
+"As my compositions can't come up to yours," she then observed, "I'll
+burn it. Yours is capital, much better than the lines you wrote a little
+time back on the chrysanthemums, so keep it for the benefit of others."
+
+"I've likewise succeeded, after much effort, in putting together a
+stanza," Pao-ch'ai laughingly remarked. "It cannot, of course, be worth
+much, but I'll put it down for fun's sake."
+
+As she spoke, she too wrote down her lines. When they came to look at
+them, they read--
+
+ On this bright beauteous day, I bask in the dryandra shade, with a cup
+ in my hand.
+ When I was at Ch'ang An, with drivelling mouth, I longed for the ninth
+ day of the ninth moon.
+ The road stretches before their very eyes, but they can't tell between
+ straight and transverse.
+ Under their shells in spring and autumn only reigns a vacuum, yellow
+ and black.
+
+At this point, they felt unable to refrain from shouting: "Excellent!"
+"She abuses in fine style!" Pao-yue shouted. "But my lines should also be
+committed to the flames."
+
+The company thereupon scanned the remainder of the stanza, which was
+couched in this wise:
+
+ When all the stock of wine is gone, chrysanthemums then use to scour
+ away the smell.
+ So as to counteract their properties of gath'ring cold, fresh ginger
+ you should take.
+ Alas! now that they have been dropped into the boiling pot, what good
+ do they derive?
+ About the moonlit river banks there but remains the fragrant aroma of
+ corn.
+
+At the close of their perusal, they with one voice, explained that this
+was a first-rate song on crab-eating; that minor themes of this kind
+should really conceal lofty thoughts, before they could be held to be of
+any great merit, and that the only thing was that it chaffed people
+rather too virulently.
+
+But while they were engaged in conversation, P'ing Erh was again seen
+coming into the garden. What she wanted is not, however, yet known; so,
+reader, peruse the details given in the subsequent chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+ The tongue of the village old dame finds as free vent as a river that
+ has broken its banks.
+ The affectionate cousin makes up his mind to sift to the very bottom
+ the story told by old goody Liu.
+
+
+Upon seeing, the story explains, P'ing Erh arrive, they unanimously
+inquired, "What is your mistress up to? How is it she hasn't come?"
+
+"How ever could she spare the time to get as far as here?" P'ing Erh
+smiled and replied. "But, she said, she hasn't anything good to eat, so
+she bade me, as she couldn't possibly run over, come and find out
+whether there be any more crabs or not; (if there be), she enjoined me
+to ask for a few to take to her to eat at home."
+
+"There are plenty!" Hsiang-yuen rejoined; and directing, with alacrity, a
+servant to fetch a present box, she put in it ten of the largest crabs.
+
+"I'll take a few more of the female ones," P'ing Erh remarked.
+
+One and all then laid hands upon P'ing Erh and tried to drag her into a
+seat, but P'ing Erh would not accede to their importunities.
+
+"I insist upon your sitting down," Li Wan laughingly exclaimed, and as
+she kept pulling her about, and forcing her to sit next to her, she
+filled a cup of wine and put it to her lips. P'ing Erh hastily swallowed
+a sip and endeavoured immediately to beat a retreat.
+
+"I won't let you go," shouted Li Wan. "It's so evident that you're only
+got that woman Feng in your thoughts as you don't listen to any of my
+words!"
+
+Saying this, she went on to bid the nurses go ahead, and take the box
+over. "Tell her," she added, "that I've kept P'ing Erh here."
+
+A matron presently returned with a box. "Lady Secunda," she reported,
+"says that you, lady Chu, and our young mistresses must not make fun of
+her for having asked for something to eat; and that in this box you'll
+find cakes made of water-lily powder, and rolls prepared with chicken
+fat, which your maternal aunt, on the other side, just sent for your
+ladyship and for you, young ladies, to taste. That she bids you," (the
+matron) continued, turning towards P'ing Erh, "come over on duty, but
+your mind is so set upon pleasure that you loiter behind and don't go
+back. She advises you, however, not to have too many cups of wine."
+
+"Were I even to have too much," P'ing Erh smiled, "what could she do to
+me?"
+
+Uttering these words, she went on with her drink; after which she
+partook of some more crab.
+
+"What a pity it is," interposed Li Wan, caressing her, "that a girl with
+such good looks as you should have so ordinary a fortune as to simply
+fall into that room as a menial! But wouldn't any one, who is not
+acquainted with actual facts, take you for a lady and a mistress?"
+
+While she went on eating and drinking with Pao-ch'ai, Hsiang-yuen and the
+other girls, P'ing Erh turned her head round. "Don't rub me like that!"
+she laughed, "It makes me feel quite ticklish."
+
+"Ai-yo!" shouted Li Wan. "What's this hard thing?"
+
+"It's a key," P'ing Erh answered.
+
+"What fine things have you got that the fear lest people should take it
+away, prompts you to carry this about you? I keep on, just for a laugh,
+telling people the whole day long that when the bonze T'ang was fetching
+the canons, a white horse came and carried him! That when Liu Chih-yuean
+was attacking the empire, a melon-spirit appeared and brought him a coat
+of mail, and that in the same way, where our vixen Feng is, there you
+are to be found! You are your mistress' general key; and what do you
+want this other key for?"
+
+"You've primed yourself with wine, my lady," P'ing Erh smiled, "and here
+you once more chaff me and make a laughing-stock of me."
+
+"This is really quite true," Pao-ch'ai laughed. "Whenever we've got
+nothing to do, and we talk matters over, (we're quite unanimous) that
+not one in a hundred could be picked out to equal you girls in here. The
+beauty is that each one of you possesses her own good qualities!"
+
+"In every thing, whether large or small, a heavenly principle rules
+alike," Li Wan explained. "Were there, for instance, no Yuean Yang in our
+venerable senior's apartments, how would it ever do? Commencing with
+Madame Wang herself, who is it who could muster sufficient courage to
+expostulate with the old lady? Yet she plainly has the pluck to put in
+her remonstrances with her; and, as it happens, our worthy ancestor
+lends a patient ear to only what she says and no one else. None of the
+others can remember what our old senior has in the way of clothes and
+head-ornaments, but she can remember everything; and, were she not there
+to look after things, there is no knowing how many would not be swindled
+away. That child besides is so straightforward at heart, that, despite
+all this, she often puts in a good word for others, and doesn't rely
+upon her influence to look down disdainfully upon any one!"
+
+"It was only yesterday," Hsi Ch'un observed with a smile, "that our dear
+ancestor said that she was ever so much better than the whole lot of
+us!"
+
+"She's certainly splendid!" P'ing Erh ventured. "How could we rise up to
+her standard?"
+
+"Ts'ai Hsia," Pao-yue put in, "who is in mother's rooms, is a good sort
+of girl!"
+
+"Of course she is!" T'an Ch'un assented. "But she's good enough as far
+as external appearances go, but inwardly she's a sly one! Madame Wang is
+just like a joss; she does not give her mind to any sort of business;
+but this girl is up to everything; and it is she who in all manner of
+things reminds her mistress what there is to be done. She even knows
+everything, whether large or small, connected with Mr. Chia Cheng's
+staying at home or going out of doors; and when at any time Madame Wang
+forgets, she, from behind the scenes, prompts her how to act."
+
+"Well, never mind about her!" Li Wan suggested. "But were," she pursued,
+pointing at Pao-yue, "no Hsi Jen in this young gentleman's quarters, just
+you imagine what a pitch things would reach! That vixen Feng may truly
+resemble the prince Pa of the Ch'u kingdom; and she may have two arms
+strong enough to raise a tripod weighing a thousand catties, but had she
+not this maid (P'ing Erh), would she be able to accomplish everything so
+thoroughly?"
+
+"In days gone by," P'ing Erh interposed, "four servant-girls came along
+with her, but what with those who've died and those who've gone, only I
+remain like a solitary spirit."
+
+"You're, after all, the fortunate one!" Li Wan retorted, "but our hussey
+Feng too is lucky in having you! Had I not also once, just remember, two
+girls, when your senior master Chu was alive? Am I not, you've seen for
+yourselves, a person to bear with people? But in such a surly frame of
+mind did I find them both day after day that, as soon as your senior
+master departed this life, I availed myself of their youth (to give them
+in marriage) and to pack both of them out of my place. But had either of
+them been good for anything and worthy to be kept, I would, in fact,
+have now had some one to give me a helping hand!"
+
+As she spoke, the very balls of her eyes suddenly became quite red.
+
+"Why need you again distress your mind?" they with one voice, exclaimed.
+"Isn't it better that we should break up?"
+
+While conversing, they rinsed their hands; and, when they had agreed to
+go in a company to dowager lady Chia's and Madame Wang's and inquire
+after their health, the matrons and servant-maids swept the pavilion and
+collected and washed the cups and saucers.
+
+Hsi Jen proceeded on her way along with P'ing Erh. "Come into my room,"
+said Hsi Jen to P'ing Erh, "and sit down and have another cup of tea."
+
+"I won't have any tea just now," P'ing Erh answered. "I'll come some
+other time."
+
+So saying, she was about to go off when Hsi Jen called out to her and
+stopped her.
+
+"This month's allowances," she asked, "haven't yet been issued, not even
+to our old mistress and Madame Wang; why is it?"
+
+Upon catching this inquiry, P'ing Erh hastily retraced her steps and
+drew near Hsi Jen. After looking about to see that no one was in the
+neighbourhood, she rejoined in a low tone of voice, "Drop these
+questions at once! They're sure, anyhow, to be issued in a couple of
+days."
+
+"Why is it," smiled Hsi Jen, "that this gives you such a start?"
+
+"This month's allowances," P'ing Erh explained to her in a whisper,
+"have long ago been obtained in advance by our mistress Secunda and
+given to people for their own purposes; and it's when the interest has
+been brought from here and there that the various sums will be lumped
+together and payment be effected. I confide this to you, but, mind, you
+mustn't go and tell any other person about it."
+
+"Is it likely that she hasn't yet enough money for her own
+requirements?" Hsi Jen smiled. "Or is it that she's still not satisfied?
+And what's the use of her still going on bothering herself in this way?"
+
+"Isn't it so!" laughed P'ing Erh. "From just handling the funds for this
+particular item, she has, during these few years, so manipulated them as
+to turn up several hundreds of taels profit out of them. Nor does she
+spend that monthly allowance of hers for public expenses. But the moment
+she accumulates anything like eight or ten taels odd, she gives them out
+too. Thus the interest on her own money alone comes up to nearly a
+thousand taels a year."
+
+"You and your mistress take our money," Hsi Jen observed laughingly,
+"and get interest on it; fooling us as if we were no better than
+idiots."
+
+"Here you are again with your uncharitable words!" P'ing Erh
+remonstrated. "Can it be that you haven't yet enough to meet your own
+expenses with?"
+
+"I am, it's true, not short of money," Hsi Jen replied, "as I have
+nowhere to go and spend it; but the thing is that I'm making provision
+for that fellow of ours, (Pao-yue)."
+
+"If you ever find yourself in any great straits and need money," P'ing
+Erh resumed, "you're at liberty to take first those few taels I've got
+over there to suit your own convenience with, and by and bye I can
+reduce them from what is due to you and we'll be square."
+
+"I'm not in need of any just now," retorted Hsi Jen. "But should I not
+have enough, when I want some, I'll send some one to fetch them, and
+finish."
+
+P'ing Erh promised that she would let her have the money at any time she
+sent for it, and, and taking the shortest cut, she issued out of the
+garden gate. Here she encountered a servant despatched from the other
+side by lady Feng. She came in search of P'ing Erh. "Our lady," she
+said, "has something for you to do, and is waiting for you."
+
+"What's up that it's so pressing?" P'ing Erh inquired. "Our senior
+mistress detained me by force to have a chat, so I couldn't manage to
+get away. But here she time after time sends people after me in this
+manner!"
+
+"Whether you go or not is your own look out," the maid replied. "It
+isn't worth your while getting angry with me! If you dare, go and tell
+these things to our mistress!"
+
+P'ing Erh spat at her contemptuously, and rushed back in anxious haste.
+She discovered, however, that lady Feng was not at home. But
+unexpectedly she perceived that the old goody Liu, who had paid them a
+visit on a previous occasion for the purpose of obtaining pecuniary
+assistance, had come again with Pan Erh, and was seated in the opposite
+room, along with Chang Ts'ai's wife and Chou Jui's wife, who kept her
+company. But two or three servant-maids were inside as well emptying on
+the floor bags containing dates, squash and various wild greens.
+
+As soon as they saw her appear in the room, they promptly stood up in a
+body. Old goody Liu had, on her last visit, learnt what P'ing Erh's
+status in the establishment was, so vehemently jumping down, she
+enquired, "Miss, how do you do? All at home," she pursued, "send you
+their compliments. I meant to have come earlier and paid my respects to
+my lady and to look you up, miss; but we've been very busy on the farm.
+We managed this year to reap, after great labour, a few more piculs of
+grain than usual. But melons, fruits and vegetables have also been
+plentiful. These things, you see here, are what we picked during the
+first crop; and as we didn't presume to sell them, we kept the best to
+present to our lady and the young ladies to taste. The young ladies
+must, of course, be surfeited with all the delicacies and fine things
+they daily get, but by having some of our wild greens to eat, they will
+show some regard for our poor attention."
+
+"Many thanks for all the trouble you have taken!" Ping Erh eagerly
+rejoined. Then pressing her to resume her place, she sat down herself;
+and, urging Mrs. Chang and Mrs. Chou to take their seats, she bade a
+young waiting-maid go and serve the tea.
+
+"There's a joyous air about your face to-day, Miss, and your eye-balls
+are all red," the wife of Chou Jui and the wife of Chang Ts'ai thereupon
+smilingly ventured.
+
+"Naturally!" P'ing Erh laughed. "I generally don't take any wine, but
+our senior mistress, and our young ladies caught hold of me and insisted
+upon pouring it down my throat. I had no alternative therefore but to
+swallow two cups full; so my face at once flushed crimson."
+
+"I have a longing for wine," Chang Ts'ai's wife smiled; "but there's no
+one to offer me any. But when any one by and by invites you, Miss, do
+take me along with you!"
+
+At these words, one and all burst out laughing.
+
+"Early this morning," Chou Jui's wife interposed, "I caught a glimpse of
+those crabs. Only two or three of them would weigh a catty; so in those
+two or three huge hampers, there must have been, I presume, seventy to
+eighty catties!"
+
+"If some were intended for those above as well as for those below;" Chou
+Jui's wife added, "they couldn't, nevertheless, I fear, have been
+enough."
+
+"How could every one have had any?" P'ing Erh observed. "Those simply
+with any name may have tasted a couple of them; but, as for the rest,
+some may have touched them with the tips of their hands, but many may
+even not have done as much."
+
+"Crabs of this kind!" put in old goody Liu, "cost this year five
+candareens a catty; ten catties for five mace; five times five make two
+taels five, and three times five make fifteen; and adding what was
+wanted for wines and eatables, the total must have come to something
+over twenty taels. O-mi-to-fu! why, this heap of money is ample for us
+country-people to live on through a whole year!"
+
+"I expect you have seen our lady?" P'ing Erh then asked.
+
+"Yes, I have seen her," assented old goody Liu. "She bade us wait." As
+she spoke, she again looked out of the window to see what the time of
+the day could be. "It's getting quite late," she afterwards proceeded.
+"We must be going, or else we mayn't be in time to get out of the city
+gates; and then we'll be in a nice fix."
+
+"Quite right," Chou Jui's wife observed. "I'll go and see what she's up
+to for you."
+
+With these words, she straightway left the room. After a long absence,
+she returned. "Good fortune has, indeed, descended upon you, old dame!"
+she smiled. "Why, you've won the consideration of those two ladies!"
+
+"What about it?" laughingly inquired P'ing Erh and the others.
+
+"Lady Secunda," Chou Jui's wife explained with a smile, "was with our
+venerable lady, so I gently whispered to her: 'old goody Liu wishes to
+go home; it's getting late and she fears she mightn't be in time to go
+out of the gates!' 'It's such a long way off!' Our lady Secunda
+rejoined, 'and she had all the trouble and fatigue of carrying that load
+of things; so if it's too late, why, let her spend the night here and
+start on the morrow!' Now isn't this having enlisted our mistress'
+sympathies? But not to speak of this! Our old lady also happened to
+overhear what we said, and she inquired: 'who is old goody Liu?' Our
+lady Secunda forthwith told her all. 'I was just longing,' her venerable
+ladyship pursued, 'for some one well up in years to have a chat with;
+ask her in, and let me see her!' So isn't this coming in for
+consideration, when least unexpected?"
+
+So speaking, she went on to urge old goody Liu to get down and betake
+herself to the front.
+
+"With a figure like this of mine," old goody Liu demurred, "how could I
+very well appear before her? My dear sister-in-law, do tell her that
+I've gone!"
+
+"Get on! Be quick!" P'ing Erh speedily cried. "What does it matter? Our
+old lady has the highest regard for old people and the greatest pity for
+the needy! She's not one you could compare with those haughty and
+overbearing people! But I fancy you're a little too timid, so I'll
+accompany you as far as there, along with Mrs. Chou."
+
+While tendering her services, she and Chou Jui's wife led off old goody
+Liu and crossed over to dowager lady Chia's apartments on this side of
+the mansion. The boy-servants on duty at the second gate stood up when
+they saw P'ing Erh approach. But two of them also ran up to her, and,
+keeping close to her heels: "Miss!" they shouted out. "Miss!"
+
+"What have you again got to say?" P'ing Erh asked.
+
+"It's pretty late just now," one of the boys smilingly remarked; "and
+mother is ill and wants me to go and call the doctor, so I would, dear
+Miss, like to have half a day's leave; may I?"
+
+"Your doings are really fine!" P'ing Erh exclaimed. "You've agreed among
+yourselves that each day one of you should apply for furlough; but
+instead of speaking to your lady, you come and bother me! The other day
+that Chu Erh went, Mr. Secundus happened not to want him, so I assented,
+though I also added that I was doing it as a favour; but here you too
+come to-day!"
+
+"It's quite true that his mother is sick," Chou Jui's wife interceded;
+"so, Miss, do say yes to him also, and let him go!"
+
+"Be back as soon as it dawns to-morrow!" P'ing Erh enjoined. "Wait, I've
+got something for you to do, for you'll again sleep away, and only turn
+up after the sun has blazed away on your buttocks. As you go now, give a
+message to Wang Erh! Tell him that our lady bade you warn him that if he
+does not hand over the balance of the interest due by to-morrow, she
+won't have anything to do with him. So he'd better let her have it to
+meet her requirements and finish."
+
+The servant-lad felt in high glee and exuberant spirits. Expressing his
+obedience, he walked off.
+
+P'ing Erh and her companions repaired then to old lady Chia's
+apartments. Here the various young ladies from the Garden of Broad Vista
+were at the time assembled paying their respects to their grandmother.
+As soon as old goody Liu put her foot inside, she saw the room thronged
+with girls (as seductive) as twigs of flowers waving to and fro, and so
+richly dressed, as to look enveloped in pearls, and encircled with
+king-fisher ornaments. But she could not make out who they all were. Her
+gaze was, however, attracted by an old dame, reclining alone on a divan.
+Behind her sat a girl, a regular beauty, clothed in gauze, engaged in
+patting her legs. Lady Feng was on her feet in the act of cracking some
+joke.
+
+Old goody Liu readily concluded that it must be dowager lady Chia, so
+promptly pressing forward, she put on a forced smile and made several
+curtseys. "My obeisance to you, star of longevity!" she said.
+
+Old lady Chia hastened, on her part, to bow and to inquire after her
+health. Then she asked Chou Jui's wife to bring a chair over for her to
+take a seat. But Pan Erh was still so very shy that he did not know how
+to make his obeisance.
+
+"Venerable relative," dowager lady Chia asked, "how old are you this
+year?"
+
+Old goody Liu immediately rose to her feet. "I'm seventy-five this
+year," she rejoined.
+
+"So old and yet so hardy!" Old lady Chia remarked, addressing herself to
+the party. "Why she's older than myself by several years! When I reach
+that age, I wonder whether I shall be able to move!"
+
+"We people have," old goody Liu smilingly resumed, "to put up, from the
+moment we come into the world, with ever so many hardships; while your
+venerable ladyship enjoys, from your birth, every kind of blessing! Were
+we also like this, there'd be no one to carry on that farming work."
+
+"Are your eyes and teeth still good?" Dowager lady Chia went on to
+inquire.
+
+"They're both still all right," old goody Liu replied. "The left molars,
+however, have got rather shaky this year."
+
+"As for me, I'm quite an old fossil," dowager lady Chia observed. "I'm
+no good whatever. My eyesight is dim; my ears are deaf, my memory is
+gone. I can't even recollect any of you, old family connections. When
+therefore any of our relations come on a visit, I don't see them for
+fear lest I should be ridiculed. All I can manage to eat are a few
+mouthfuls of anything tender enough for my teeth; and I can just dose a
+bit or, when I feel in low spirits, I distract myself a little with
+these grandsons and grand-daughters of mine; that's all I'm good for."
+
+"This is indeed your venerable ladyship's good fortune!" old goody Liu
+smiled. "We couldn't enjoy anything of the kind, much though we may long
+for it."
+
+"What good fortune!" dowager lady Chia exclaimed. "I'm a useless old
+thing, no more."
+
+This remark made every one explode into laughter.
+
+Dowager lady Chia also laughed. "I heard our lady Feng say a little
+while back," she added, "that you had brought a lot of squash and
+vegetables, and I told her to put them by at once. I had just been
+craving to have newly-grown melons and vegetables; but those one buys
+outside are not as luscious as those produced in your farms."
+
+"This is the rustic notion," old goody Liu laughed, "to entirely subsist
+on fresh things! Yet, we long to have fish and meat for our fare, but we
+can't afford it."
+
+"I've found a relative in you to-day," dowager lady Chia said, "so you
+shouldn't go empty-handed! If you don't despise this place as too mean,
+do stay a day or two before you start! We've also got a garden here; and
+this garden produces fruits too; you can taste some of them to-morrow
+and take a few along with you home, in order to make it look like a
+visit to relatives."
+
+When lady Feng saw how delighted old lady Chia was with the prospects of
+the old dame's stay, she too lost no time in doing all she could to
+induce her to remain. "Our place here," she urged, "isn't, it's true, as
+spacious as your threshing-floor; but as we've got two vacant rooms,
+you'd better put up in them for a couple of days, and choose some of
+your village news and old stories and recount them to our worthy
+senior."
+
+"Now you, vixen Feng," smiled dowager lady Chia, "don't raise a laugh at
+her expense! She's only a country woman; and will an old dame like her
+stand any chaff from you?"
+
+While remonstrating with her, she bade a servant go, before attending to
+anything else, and pluck a few fruits. These she handed to Pan Erh to
+eat. But Pan Erh did not venture to touch them, conscious as he was of
+the presence of such a number of bystanders. So old lady Chia gave
+orders that a few cash should be given him, and then directed the pages
+to take him outside to play.
+
+After sipping a cup of tea, old goody Liu began to relate, for the
+benefit of dowager lady Chia, a few of the occurrences she had seen or
+heard of in the country. These had the effect of putting old lady Chia
+in a more exuberant frame of mind. But in the midst of her narration, a
+servant, at lady Feng's instance, asked goody Liu to go and have her
+evening meal. Dowager lady Chia then picked out, as well, several kinds
+of eatables from her own repast, and charged some one to take them to
+goody Liu to feast on.
+
+But the consciousness that the old dame had taken her senior's fancy
+induced lady Feng to send her back again as soon as she had taken some
+refreshments. On her arrival, Yuean Yang hastily deputed a matron to take
+goody Liu to have a bath. She herself then went and selected two pieces
+of ordinary clothes, and these she entrusted to a servant to hand to the
+old dame to change. Goody Liu had hitherto not set eyes upon any such
+grand things, so with eagerness she effected the necessary alterations
+in her costume. This over, she made her appearance outside, and, sitting
+in front of the divan occupied by dowager lady Chia, she went on to
+narrate as many stories as she could recall to mind. Pao-yue and his
+cousins too were, at the time, assembled in the room, and as they had
+never before heard anything the like of what she said, they, of course,
+thought her tales more full of zest than those related by itinerant
+blind story-tellers.
+
+Old goody Liu was, albeit a rustic person, gifted by nature with a good
+deal of discrimination. She was besides advanced in years; and had gone
+through many experiences in her lifetime, so when she, in the first
+place, saw how extremely delighted old lady Chia was with her, and, in
+the second, how eager the whole crowd of young lads and lasses were to
+listen to what fell from her mouth, she even invented, when she found
+her own stock exhausted, a good many yarns to recount to them.
+
+"What with all the sowing we have to do in our fields and the vegetables
+we have to plant," she consequently proceeded, "have we ever in our
+village any leisure to sit with lazy hands from year to year and day to
+day; no matter whether it's spring, summer, autumn or winter, whether it
+blows or whether it rains? Yea, day after day all that we can do is to
+turn the bare road into a kind of pavilion to rest and cool ourselves
+on! But what strange things don't we see! Last winter, for instance,
+snow fell for several consecutive days, and it piled up on the ground
+three or four feet deep. One day, I got up early, but I hadn't as yet
+gone out of the door of our house when I heard outside the noise of
+firewood (being moved). I fancied that some one must have come to steal
+it, so I crept up to a hole in the window; but, lo, I discovered that it
+was no one from our own village."
+
+"It must have been," interposed dowager lady Chia, "some wayfarers, who
+being smitten with the cold, took some of the firewood, they saw ready
+at hand, to go and make a fire and warm themselves with! That's highly
+probable!"
+
+"It was no wayfarers at all," old goody Liu retorted smiling, "and
+that's what makes the story so strange. Who do you think it was,
+venerable star of longevity? It was really a most handsome girl of
+seventeen or eighteen, whose hair was combed as smooth as if oil had
+been poured over it. She was dressed in a deep red jacket, a white silk
+petticoat...."
+
+When she reached this part of her narrative, suddenly became audible the
+voices of people bawling outside. "It's nothing much," they shouted,
+"don't frighten our old mistress!" Dowager lady Chia and the other
+inmates caught, however, their cries and hurriedly inquired what had
+happened. A servant-maid explained in reply that a fire had broken out
+in the stables in the southern court, but that there was no danger, as
+the flames had been suppressed.
+
+Their old grandmother was a person with very little nerve. The moment,
+therefore, the report fell on her car, she jumped up with all despatch,
+and leaning on one of the family, she rushed on to the verandah to
+ascertain the state of things. At the sight of the still brilliant
+light, shed by the flames, on the south east part of the compound, old
+lady Chia was plunged in consternation, and invoking Buddha, she went on
+to shout to the servants to go and burn incense before the god of fire.
+
+Madame Wang and the rest of the members of the household lost no time in
+crossing over in a body to see how she was getting on. "The fire has
+been already extinguished," they too assured her, "please, dear
+ancestor, repair into your rooms!"
+
+But it was only after old lady Chia had seen the light of the flames
+entirely subside that she at length led the whole company indoors. "What
+was that girl up to, taking the firewood in that heavy fall of snow?"
+Pao-yue thereupon vehemently inquired of goody Liu. "What, if she had got
+frostbitten and fallen ill?"
+
+"It was the reference made recently to the firewood that was being
+abstracted," his grandmother Chia said, "that brought about this fire;
+and do you still go on asking more about it? Leave this story alone, and
+tell us something else!"
+
+Hearing this reminder, Pao-yue felt constrained to drop the subject, much
+against his wishes, and old goody Liu forthwith thought of something
+else to tell them.
+
+"In our village," she resumed, "and on the eastern side of our
+farmstead, there lives an old dame, whose age is this year, over ninety.
+She goes in daily for fasting, and worshipping Buddha. Who'd have
+thought it, she so moved the pity of the goddess of mercy that she gave
+her this message in a dream: 'It was at one time ordained that you
+should have no posterity, but as you have proved so devout, I have now
+memorialised the Pearly Emperor to grant you a grandson!' The fact is,
+this old dame had one son. This son had had too an only son; but he died
+after they had with great difficulty managed to rear him to the age of
+seventeen or eighteen. And what tears didn't they shed for him! But, in
+course of time, another son was actually born to him. He is this year
+just thirteen or fourteen, resembles a very ball of flower, (so plump is
+he), and is clever and sharp to an exceptional degree! So this is indeed
+a clear proof that those spirits and gods do exist!"
+
+This long tirade proved to be in harmony with dowager lady Chia's and
+Madame Wang's secret convictions on the subject. Even Madame Wang
+therefore listened to every word with all profound attention. Pao-yue,
+however, was so pre-occupied with the story about the stolen firewood
+that he fell in a brown study and gave way to conjectures.
+
+"Yesterday," T'an Ch'un at this point remarked, "We put cousin Shih to a
+lot of trouble and inconvenience, so, when we get back, we must consult
+about convening a meeting, and, while returning her entertainment, we
+can also invite our venerable ancestor to come and admire the
+chrysanthemums; what do you think of this?"
+
+"Our worthy senior," smiled Pao-yue, "has intimated that she means to
+give a banquet to return cousin Shih's hospitality, and to ask us to do
+the honours. Let's wait therefore until we partake of grandmother's
+collation, before we issue our own invitations; there will be ample time
+then to do so."
+
+"The later it gets, the cooler the weather becomes," T'an Ch'un
+observed, "and our dear senior is not likely to enjoy herself."
+
+"Grandmother," added Pao-yue, "is also fond of rain and snow, so wouldn't
+it be as well to wait until the first fall, and then ask her to come and
+look at the snow. This will be better, won't it? And were we to recite
+our verses with snow about us, it will be ever so much more fun!"
+
+"To hum verses in the snow," Lin Tai-yue speedily demurred with a smile,
+"won't, in my idea, be half as nice as building up a heap of firewood
+and then stealing it, with the flakes playing about us. This will be by
+far more enjoyable!"
+
+This proposal made Pao-ch'ai and the others laugh. Pao-yue cast a glance
+at her but made no reply.
+
+But, in a short time, the company broke up. Pao-yue eventually gave old
+goody Liu a tug on the sly and plied her with minute questions as to who
+the girl was. The old dame was placed under the necessity of fabricating
+something for his benefit. "The truth is," she said, "that there stands
+on the north bank of the ditch in our village a small ancestral hall, in
+which offerings are made, but not to spirits or gods. There was in
+former days some official or other..."
+
+"While speaking, she went on to try and recollect his name and surname.
+
+"No matter about names or surnames!" Pao-yue expostulated. "There's no
+need for you to recall them to memory! Just mention the facts; they'll
+be enough."
+
+"This official," old goody Liu resumed, "had no son. His offspring
+consisted of one young daughter, who went under the name of Jo Yue, (like
+Jade). She could read and write, and was doated upon by this official
+and his consort, just as if she were a precious jewel. But,
+unfortunately, when this young lady, Jo Yue, grew up to be seventeen, she
+contracted some disease and died."
+
+When these words fell on Pao-yue's ears, he stamped his foot and heaved a
+sigh. "What happened after that?" he then asked.
+
+Old goody Liu pursued her story.
+
+"So incessantly," she continued, "did this official and his consort
+think of their child that they raised this ancestral hall, erected a
+clay image of their young daughter Jo Yue in it, and appointed some one
+to burn incense and trim the fires. But so many days and years have now
+elapsed that the people themselves are no more alive, the temple is in
+decay, and the image itself is become a spirit."
+
+"It hasn't become a spirit," remonstrated Pao-yue with vehemence. "Human
+beings of this kind may, the rule is, die, yet they are not dead."
+
+"O-mi-to-fu!" ejaculated old goody Liu; "is it really so! Had you, sir,
+not enlightened us, we would have remained under the impression that she
+had become a spirit! But she repeatedly transforms herself into a human
+being, and there she roams about in every village, farmstead, inn and
+roadside. And the one I mentioned just now as having taken the firewood
+is that very girl! The villagers in our place are still consulting with
+the idea of breaking this clay image and razing the temple to the
+ground."
+
+"Be quick and dissuade them!" eagerly exclaimed Pao-yue. "Were they to
+raze the temple to the ground, their crime won't be small."
+
+"It's lucky that you told me, Sir," old goody Liu added. "When I get
+back to-morrow, I'll make them relinquish the idea and finish!"
+
+"Our venerable senior and my mother," Pao-yue pursued, "are both
+charitable persons. In fact, all the inmates of our family, whether old
+or young, do, in like manner, delight in good deeds, and take pleasure
+in distributing alms. Their greatest relish is to repair temples, and to
+put up images to the spirits; so to-morrow, I'll make a subscription and
+collect a few donations for you, and you can then act as incense-burner.
+When sufficient money has been raised, this fane can be repaired, and
+another clay image put up; and month by month I'll give you incense and
+fire money to enable you to burn joss-sticks; won't this be A good thing
+for you?"
+
+"In that case," old goody Liu rejoined, "I shall, thanks to that young
+lady's good fortune, have also a few cash to spend."
+
+Pao-yue thereupon likewise wanted to know what the name of the place was,
+the name of the village, how far it was there and back, and whereabout
+the temple was situated.
+
+Old goody Liu replied to his questions, by telling him every idle
+thought that came first to her lips. Pao-yue, however, credited the
+information she gave him and, on his return to his rooms, he exercised,
+the whole night, his mind with building castles in the air.
+
+On the morrow, as soon as daylight dawned, he speedily stepped out of
+his room, and, handing Pei Ming several hundreds of cash, he bade him
+proceed first in the direction and to the place specified by old goody
+Liu, and clearly ascertain every detail, so as to enable him, on his
+return from his errand, to arrive at a suitable decision to carry out
+his purpose. After Pei Ming's departure, Pao-yue continued on pins on
+needles and on the tiptoe of expectation. Into such a pitch of
+excitement did he work himself, that he felt like an ant in a burning
+pan. With suppressed impatience, he waited and waited until sunset. At
+last then he perceived Pei Ming walk in, in high glee.
+
+"Have you discovered the place?" hastily inquired Pao-yue.
+
+"Master," Pei Ming laughed, "you didn't catch distinctly the directions
+given you, and you made me search in a nice way! The name of the place
+and the bearings can't be those you gave me, Sir; that is why I've had
+to hunt about the whole day long! I prosecuted my inquiries up to the
+very ditch on the north east side, before I eventually found a ruined
+temple."
+
+Upon hearing the result of his researches, Pao-yue was much gratified.
+His very eyebrows distended. His eyes laughed. "Old goody Liu," he said
+with eagerness, "is a person well up in years, and she may at the moment
+have remembered wrong; it's very likely she did. But recount to me what
+you saw."
+
+"The door of that temple," Pei Ming explained, "really faces south, and
+is all in a tumble-down condition. I searched and searched till I was
+driven to utter despair. As soon, however, as I caught sight of it,
+'that's right,' I shouted, and promptly walked in. But I at once
+discovered a clay figure, which gave me such a fearful start, that I
+scampered out again; for it looked as much alive as if it were a real
+living being."
+
+Pao-yue smiled full of joy. "It can metamorphose itself into a human
+being," he observed, "so, of course, it has more or less a life-like
+appearance."
+
+"Was it ever a girl?" Pei Ming rejoined clapping his hands. "Why it was,
+in fact, no more than a green-faced and red-haired god of plagues."
+
+Pao-yue, at this answer, spat at him contemptuously. "You are, in very
+truth, a useless fool!" he cried. "Haven't you even enough gumption for
+such a trifling job as this?"
+
+"What book, I wonder, have you again been reading, master?" Pei Ming
+continued. "Or you may, perhaps, have heard some one prattle a lot of
+trash and believed it as true! You send me on this sort of wild goose
+chase and make me go and knock my head about, and how can you ever say
+that I'm good for nothing?"
+
+Pao-yue did not fail to notice that he was in a state of exasperation so
+he lost no time in trying to calm him. "Don't be impatient!" he urged.
+"You can go again some other day, when you've got nothing to attend to,
+and institute further inquiries! If it turns out that she has
+hood-winked us, why, there will, naturally, be no such thing. But if,
+verily, there is, won't you also lay up for yourself a store of good
+deeds? I shall feel it my duty to reward you in a most handsome manner."
+
+As he spoke, he espied a servant-lad, on service at the second gate,
+approach and report to him: "The young ladies in our venerable
+ladyship's apartments are standing at the threshold of the second gate
+and looking out for you, Mr. Secundus."
+
+But as, reader, you are not aware what they were on the look-out to tell
+him, the subsequent chapter will explain it for you.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+ The venerable lady Shih attends a second banquet in the garden of
+ Broad Vista.
+ Chin Yuean-yang three times promulgates, by means of dominoes, the
+ order to quote passages from old writers.
+
+
+As soon as Pao-yue, we will now explain, heard what the lad told him, he
+rushed with eagerness inside. When he came to look about him, he
+discovered Hu Po standing in front of the screen. "Be quick and go," she
+urged. "They're waiting to speak to you."
+
+Pao-yue wended his way into the drawing rooms. Here he found dowager lady
+Chia, consulting with Madame Wang and the whole body of young ladies,
+about the return feast to be given to Shih Hsiang-yuen.
+
+"I've got a plan to suggest," he consequently interposed. "As there are
+to be no outside guests, the eatables too should not be limited to any
+kind or number. A few of such dishes, as have ever been to the liking of
+any of us, should be fixed upon and prepared for the occasion. Neither
+should any banquet be spread, but a high teapoy can be placed in front
+of each, with one or two things to suit our particular tastes. Besides,
+a painted box with partitions and a decanter. Won't this be an original
+way?"
+
+"Capital!" shouted old lady Chia. "Go and tell the people in the cook
+house," she forthwith ordered a servant, "to get ready to-morrow such
+dishes as we relish, and to put them in as many boxes as there will be
+people, and bring them over. We can have breakfast too in the garden."
+
+But while they were deliberating, the time came to light the lamps.
+Nothing of any note transpired the whole night. The next day, they got
+up at early dawn. The weather, fortunately, was beautifully clear. Li
+Wan turned out of bed at daybreak. She was engaged in watching the old
+matrons and servant-girls sweeping the fallen leaves, rubbing the tables
+and chairs, and preparing the tea and wine vessels, when she perceived
+Feng Erh usher in old goody Liu and Pan Erh. "You're very busy, our
+senior lady!" they said.
+
+"I told you that you wouldn't manage to start yesterday," Li Wan smiled,
+"but you were in a hurry to get away."
+
+"Your worthy old lady," goody Liu replied laughingly, "wouldn't let me
+go. She wanted me to enjoy myself too for a day before I went."
+
+Feng Erh then produced several large and small keys. "Our mistress Lien
+says," she remarked, "that she fears that the high teapoys which are out
+are not enough, and she thinks it would be as well to open the loft and
+take out those that are put away and use them for a day. Our lady should
+really have come and seen to it in person, but as she has something to
+tell Madame Wang, she begs your ladyship to open the place, and get a
+few servants to bring them out."
+
+Li Wan there and then told Su Yuen to take the keys. She also bade a
+matron go out and call a few servant-boys from those on duty at the
+second gate. When they came, Li Wan remained in the lower story of the
+Ta Kuan loft, and looking up, she ordered the servants to go and open
+the Cho Chin hall and to bring the teapoys one by one. The young
+servant-lads, matrons and servant-maids then set to work, in a body, and
+carried down over twenty of them.
+
+"Be careful with them," shouted Li Wan. "Don't be bustling about just as
+if you were being pursued by ghosts! Mind you don't break the tenons!"
+Turning her head round, "old dame," she observed, addressing herself
+smilingly to goody Liu, "go upstairs too and have a look!"
+
+Old goody Liu was longing to satisfy her curiosity, so at the bare
+mention of the permission, she uttered just one word ("come") and,
+dragging Pan Erh along, she trudged up the stairs. On her arrival
+inside, she espied, pile upon pile, a whole heap of screens, tables and
+chairs, painted lanterns of different sizes, and other similar articles.
+She could not, it is true, make out the use of the various things, but,
+at the sight of so many colours, of such finery and of the unusual
+beauty of each article, she muttered time after time the name of Buddha,
+and then forthwith wended her way downstairs. Subsequently (the
+servants) locked the doors and every one of them came down.
+
+"I fancy," cried Li Wan, "that our dowager lady will feel disposed (to
+go on the water), so you'd better also get the poles, oars and awnings
+for the boats and keep them in readiness."
+
+The servants expressed their obedience. Once more they unlocked the
+doors, and carried down everything required. She then bade a lad notify
+the boatwomen go to the dock and punt out two boats. But while all this
+bustle was going on, they discovered that dowager lady Chia had already
+arrived at the head of a whole company of people. Li Wan promptly went
+up to greet them.
+
+"Dear venerable senior," she smiled, "you must be in good spirits to
+have come in here! Imagining that you hadn't as yet combed your hair, I
+just plucked a few chrysanthemums, meaning to send them to you."
+
+While she spoke, Pi Yueeh at once presented to her a jadite tray, of the
+size of a lotus leaf, containing twigs cut from every species of
+chrysanthemum. Old lady Chia selected a cluster of deep red and pinned
+it in her hair about her temples. But turning round, she noticed old
+goody Liu. "Come over here," she vehemently cried with a smile; "and put
+on a few flowers."
+
+Scarcely was this remark concluded, than lady Feng dragged goody Liu
+forward. "Let me deck you up!" she laughed. With these words, she seized
+a whole plateful of flowers and stuck them three this way, four that
+way, all over her head. Old lady Chia, and the whole party were greatly
+amused; so much so, that they could not check themselves.
+
+"I wonder," shouted goody Liu smiling, "what blessings I have brought
+upon my head that such honours are conferred upon it to-day!"
+
+"Don't you yet pull them away," they all laughed, "and chuck them in her
+face! She has got you up in such a way as to make a regular old elf of
+you!"
+
+"I'm an old hag, I admit," goody Liu pursued with a laugh; "but when I
+was young, I too was pretty and fond of flowers and powder! But the best
+thing I can do now is to keep to such fineries as befit my advanced
+age!"
+
+While they bandied words, they reached the Hsin Fang pavilion. The
+waiting maids brought a large embroidered rug and spread it over the
+planks of the divan near the balustrade. On this rug dowager lady Chia
+sat, with her back leaning against the railing; and, inviting goody Liu
+to also take a seat next to her, "Is this garden nice or not?" she asked
+her.
+
+Old goody Liu invoked Buddha several times. "We country-people," she
+rejoined, "do invariably come, at the close of each year, into the city
+and buy pictures and stick them about. And frequently do we find
+ourselves in our leisure moments wondering how we too could manage to
+get into the pictures, and walk about the scenes they represent. I
+presumed that those pictures were purely and simply fictitious, for how
+could there be any such places in reality? But, contrary to my
+expectations, I found, as soon as I entered this garden to-day and had a
+look about it, that it was, after all, a hundred times better than these
+very pictures. But if only I could get some one to make me a sketch of
+this garden, to take home with me and let them see it, so that when we
+die we may have reaped some benefit!"
+
+Upon catching the wish she expressed, dowager lady Chia pointed at Hsi
+Ch'un. "Look at that young granddaughter of mine!" she smiled. "She's
+got the knack of drawing. So what do you say to my asking her to-morrow
+to make a picture for you?"
+
+This suggestion filled goody Liu with enthusiasm and speedily crossing
+over, she clasped Hsi Ch'un in her arms. "My dear Miss!" she cried, "so
+young in years, and yet so pretty, and so accomplished too! Mightn't you
+be a spirit come to life!"
+
+After old lady Chia had had a little rest, she in person took goody Liu
+and showed her everything there was to be seen. First, they visited the
+Hsiao Hsiang lodge. The moment they stepped into the entrance, a narrow
+avenue, flanked on either side with kingfisher-like green bamboos, met
+their gaze. The earth below was turfed all over with moss. In the
+centre, extended a tortuous road, paved with pebbles. Goody Liu left
+dowager lady Chia and the party walk on the raised road, while she
+herself stepped on the earth. But Hu Po tugged at her. "Come up, old
+dame, and walk here!" she exclaimed. "Mind the fresh moss is slippery
+and you might fall."
+
+"I don't mind it!" answered goody Liu. "We people are accustomed to
+walking (on such slippery things)! So, young ladies, please proceed. And
+do look after your embroidered shoes! Don't splash them with mud."
+
+But while bent upon talking with those who kept on the raised road, she
+unawares reached a spot, which was actually slippery, and with a sound
+of "ku tang" she tumbled over.
+
+The whole company clapped their hands and laughed boisterously.
+
+"You young wenches," shouted out dowager lady Chia, "don't you yet raise
+her up, but stand by giggling?"
+
+This reprimand was still being uttered when goody Liu had already
+crawled up. She too was highly amused. "Just as my mouth was bragging,"
+she observed, "I got a whack on the lips!"
+
+"Have you perchance twisted your waist?" inquired old lady Chia. "Tell
+the servant-girls to pat it for you!"
+
+"What an idea!" retorted goody Liu, "am I so delicate? What day ever
+goes by without my tumbling down a couple of times? And if I had to be
+patted every time wouldn't it be dreadful!"
+
+Tzu Chuan had at an early period raised the speckled bamboo portiere.
+Dowager lady Chia and her companions entered and seated themselves. Lin
+Tai-yue with her own hands took a small tray and came to present a
+covered cup of tea to her grandmother.
+
+"We won't have any tea!" Madame Wang interposed, "so, miss, you needn't
+pour any."
+
+Lin Tai-yue, hearing this, bade a waiting-maid fetch the chair from under
+the window where she herself often sat, and moving it to the lower side,
+she pressed Madame Wang into it. But goody Liu caught sight of the
+pencils and inkslabs, lying on the table placed next to the window, and
+espied the bookcase piled up to the utmost with books. "This must
+surely," the old dame ejaculated, "be some young gentleman's study!"
+
+"This is the room of this granddaughter-in-law of mine," dowager lady
+Chia explained, smilingly pointing to Tai-yue.
+
+Goody Liu scrutinised Lin Tai-yue with intentness for a while. "Is this
+anything like a young lady's private room?" she then observed with a
+smile. "Why, in very deed, it's superior to any first class library!"
+
+"How is it I don't see Pao-yue?" his grandmother Chia went on to inquire.
+
+"He's in the boat, on the pond," the waiting-maids, with one voice,
+returned for answer.
+
+"Who also got the boats ready?" old lady Chia asked.
+
+"The loft was open just now so they were taken out," Li Wan said, "and
+as I thought that you might, venerable senior, feel inclined to have a
+row, I got everything ready."
+
+After listening to this explanation, dowager lady Chia was about to pass
+some remark, but some one came and reported to her that Mrs. Hsueeh had
+arrived. No sooner had old lady Chia and the others sprung to their feet
+than they noticed that Mrs. Hsueeh had already made her appearance. While
+taking a seat: "Your venerable ladyship," she smiled, "must be in
+capital spirits to-day to have come at this early hour!"
+
+"It's only this very minute that I proposed that any one who came late,
+should be fined," dowager lady Chia laughed, "and, who'd have thought
+it, here you, Mrs. Hsueeh, arrive late!"
+
+After they had indulged in good-humoured raillery for a time, old lady
+Chia's attention was attracted by the faded colour of the gauze on the
+windows, and she addressed herself to Madame Wang. "This gauze," she
+said, "may have been nice enough when it was newly pasted, but after a
+time nothing remained of kingfisher green. In this court too there are
+no peach or apricot trees and these bamboos already are green in
+themselves, so were this shade of green gauze to be put up again, it
+would, instead of improving matters, not harmonise with the
+surroundings. I remember that we had at one time four or five kinds of
+coloured gauzes for sticking on windows, so give her some to-morrow to
+change that on there."
+
+"When I opened the store yesterday," hastily put in Lady Feng, "I
+noticed that there were still in those boxes, made of large planks,
+several rolls of 'cicada wing' gauze of silvery red colour. There were
+also several rolls with designs of twigs of flowers of every kind,
+several with 'the rolling clouds and bats' pattern, and several with
+figures representing hundreds of butterflies, interspersed among
+flowers. The colours of all these were fresh, and the gauze supple. But
+I failed to see anything of the kind you speak of. Were two rolls taken
+(from those I referred to), and a couple of bed-covers of embroidered
+gauze made out of them, they would, I fancy, be a pretty sight!"
+
+"Pshaw!" laughed old lady Chia, "every one says that there's nothing you
+haven't gone through and nothing you haven't seen, and don't you even
+know what this gauze is? Will you again brag by and bye, after this?"
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh and all the others smiled. "She may have gone through a good
+deal," they remarked, "but how can she ever presume to pit herself
+against an old lady like you? So why don't you, venerable senior, tell
+her what it is so that we too may be edified."
+
+Lady Feng too gave a smile. "My dear ancestor," she pleaded, "do tell me
+what it is like."
+
+Dowager lady Chia thereupon proceeded to enlighten Mrs. Hsueeh and the
+whole company. "That gauze is older in years than any one of you," she
+said. "It isn't therefore to be wondered, if you make a mistake and take
+it for 'cicada wing' gauze. But it really bears some resemblance to it;
+so much so, indeed, that any one, not knowing the difference, would
+imagine it to be the 'cicada wing' gauze. Its true name, however, is
+'soft smoke' silk."
+
+"This is also a nice sounding name," lady Feng agreed. "But up to the
+age I've reached, I have never heard of any such designation, in spite
+of the many hundreds of specimens of gauzes and silks, I've seen."
+
+"How long can you have lived?" old lady Chia added smilingly, "and how
+many kinds of things can you have met, that you indulge in this tall
+talk? Of this 'soft smoke' silk, there only exist four kinds of colours.
+The one is red-blue; the other is russet; the other pine-green; the
+other silvery-red; and it's because, when made into curtains or stuck on
+window-frames, it looks from far like smoke or mist, that it is called
+'soft smoke' silk. The silvery-red is also called 'russet shadow' gauze.
+Among the gauzes used in the present day, in the palace above, there are
+none so supple and rich, light and closely-woven as this!"
+
+"Not to speak of that girl Feng not having seen it," Mrs. Hsueeh laughed,
+"why, even I have never so much as heard anything of it."
+
+While the conversation proceeded in this strain, lady Feng soon directed
+a servant to fetch a roll. "Now isn't this the kind!" dowager lady Chia
+exclaimed. "At first, we simply had it stuck on the window frames, but
+we subsequently used it for covers and curtains, just for a trial, and
+really they were splendid! So you had better to-morrow try and find
+several rolls, and take some of the silvery-red one and have it fixed on
+the windows for her."
+
+While lady Feng promised to attend to her commission, the party
+scrutinised it, and unanimously extolled it with effusion. Old goody Liu
+too strained her eyes and examined it, and her lips incessantly muttered
+Buddha's name. "We couldn't," she ventured, "afford to make clothes of
+such stuff, much though we may long to do so; and won't it be a pity to
+use it for sticking on windows?"
+
+"But it doesn't, after all, look well, when made into clothes," old lady
+Chia explained.
+
+Lady Feng hastily pulled out the lapel of the deep-red brocaded gauze
+jacket she had on, and, facing dowager lady Chia and Mrs. Hsueeh, "Look
+at this jacket of mine," she remarked.
+
+"This is also of first-rate quality!" old lady Chia and Mrs. Hsueeh
+rejoined. "This is nowadays made in the palace for imperial use, but it
+can't possibly come up to this!"
+
+"It's such thin stuff," lady Feng observed, "and do you still say that
+it was made in the palace for imperial use? Why, it doesn't, in fact,
+compare favourably with even this, which is worn by officials!"
+
+"You'd better search again!" old lady Chia urged; "I believe there must
+be more of it! If there be, bring it all out, and give this old relative
+Liu a couple of rolls! Should there be any red-blue, I'll make a curtain
+to hang up. What remains can be matched with some lining, and cut into a
+few double waistcoats for the waiting-maids to wear. It would be sheer
+waste to keep these things, as they will be spoilt by the damp."
+
+Lady Feng vehemently acquiesced; after which, she told a servant to take
+the gauze away.
+
+"These rooms are so small!" dowager lady Chia then observed, smiling.
+"We had better go elsewhere for a stroll."
+
+"Every one says," old goody Liu put in, "that big people live in big
+houses! When I saw yesterday your main apartments, dowager lady, with
+all those large boxes, immense presses, big tables, and spacious beds to
+match, they did, indeed, present an imposing sight! Those presses are
+larger than our whole house; yea loftier too! But strange to say there
+were ladders in the back court. 'They don't also,' I thought, 'go up to
+the house tops to sun things, so what can they keep those ladders in
+readiness for?' Well, after that, I remembered that they must be
+required for opening the presses to take out or put in things. And that
+without those ladders, how could one ever reach that height? But now
+that I've also seen these small rooms, more luxuriously got up than the
+large ones, and full of various articles, all so fascinating and hardly
+even known to me by name, I feel, the more I feast my eyes on them, the
+more unable to tear myself away from them."
+
+"There are other things still better than this," lady Feng added. "I'll
+take you to see them all!"
+
+Saying this, they straightway left the Hsiao Hsiang lodge. From a
+distance, they spied a whole crowd of people punting the boats in the
+lake.
+
+"As they've got the boats ready," old lady Chia proposed, "we may as
+well go and have a row in them!"
+
+As she uttered this suggestion, they wended their steps along the
+persicary-covered bank of the Purple Lily Isle. But before reaching the
+lake, they perceived several matrons advancing that way with large
+multi-coloured boxes in their hands, made all alike of twisted wire and
+inlaid with gold. Lady Feng hastened to inquire of Madame Wang where
+breakfast was to be served.
+
+"Ask our venerable senior," Madame Wang replied, "and let them lay it
+wherever she pleases."
+
+Old lady Chia overheard her answer, and turning her head round: "Miss
+Tertia," she said, "take the servants, and make them lay breakfast
+wherever you think best! We'll get into the boats from here."
+
+Upon catching her senior's wishes, lady Feng retraced her footsteps, and
+accompanied by Li Wan, T'an Ch'un, Yuean Yang and Hu Po, she led off the
+servants, carrying the eatables, and other domestics, and came by the
+nearest way, to the Ch'iu Shuang library, where they arranged the tables
+in the Hsiao Ts'ui hall.
+
+"We daily say that whenever the gentlemen outside have anything to drink
+or eat, they invariably have some one who can raise a laugh and whom
+they can chaff for fun's sake," Yuan Yang smiled, "so let's also to-day
+get a female family-companion."
+
+Li Wan, being a person full of kindly feelings, did not fathom the
+insinuation, though it did not escape her ear. Lady Feng, however,
+thoroughly understood that she alluded to old goody Liu. "Let us too
+to-day," she smilingly remarked, "chaff her for a bit of fun!"
+
+These two then began to mature their plans.
+
+Li Wan chided them with a smile. "You people," she said, "don't know
+even how to perform the least good act! But you're not small children
+any more, and are you still up to these pranks? Mind, our venerable
+ancestor might call you to task!"
+
+"That has nothing whatever to do with you, senior lady," Yuean Yang
+laughed, "it's my own look out!"
+
+These words were still on her lips, when she saw dowager lady Chia and
+the rest of the company arrive. They each sat where and how they
+pleased. First and foremost, a waiting-maid brought two trays of tea.
+After tea, lady Feng laid hold of a napkin, made of foreign cloth, in
+which were wrapped a handful of blackwood chopsticks, encircled with
+three rings, of inlaid silver, and distributed them on the tables, in
+the order in which they were placed.
+
+"Bring that small hard-wood table over," old lady Chia then exclaimed;
+"and let our relative Liu sit next to me here!"
+
+No sooner did the servants hear her order than they hurried to move the
+table to where she wanted it. Lady Feng, during this interval, made a
+sign with her eye to Yuean Yang. Yuean Yang there and then dragged goody
+Liu out of the hall and began to impress in a low tone of voice various
+things on her mind. "This is the custom which prevails in our
+household," she proceeded, "and if you disregard it we'll have a laugh
+at your expense!"
+
+Having arranged everything she had in view, they at length returned to
+their places. Mrs. Hsueeh had come over, after her meal, so she simply
+seated herself on one side and sipped her tea. Dowager lady Chia with
+Pao-yue, Hsiang-yuen, Tai-yue and Pao-ch'ai sat at one table. Madame Wang
+took the girls, Ying Ch'un, and her sisters, and occupied one table. Old
+goody Liu took a seat at a table next to dowager lady Chia. Heretofore,
+while their old mistress had her repast, a young servant-maid usually
+stood by her to hold the finger bowl, yak-brush, napkin and other such
+necessaries, but Yuean Yang did not of late fulfil any of these duties,
+so when, on this occasion, she deliberately seized the yak-brush and
+came over and flapped it about, the servant-girls concluded that she was
+bent upon playing some tricks upon goody Liu, and they readily withdrew
+and let her have her way.
+
+While Yuean Yang attended to her self-imposed duties, she winked at the
+old dame.
+
+"Miss," goody Liu exclaimed, "set your mind at ease!" Goody Liu sat down
+at the table and took up the chopsticks, but so heavy and clumsy did she
+find them that she could not handle them conveniently. The fact is that
+lady Feng and Yuean Yang had put their heads together and decided to only
+assign to goody Liu a pair of antiquated four-cornered ivory chopsticks,
+inlaid with gold.
+
+"These forks," shouted goody Liu, after scrutinising them, "are heavier
+than the very iron-lever over at my place. How ever can I move them
+about?"
+
+This remark had the effect of making every one explode into a fit of
+laughter. But a married woman standing in the centre of the room, with a
+box in her hands, attracted their gaze. A waiting-maid went up to her
+and removed the cover of the box. Its contents were two bowls of
+eatables. Li Wan took one of these and placed it on dowager lady Chia's
+table, while lady Feng chose the bowl with pigeon's eggs and put it on
+goody Liu's table.
+
+"Please (commence)," Dowager lady Chia uttered from the near side, where
+she sat.
+
+Goody Liu at this speedily sprung to her feet. "Old Liu, old Liu," she
+roared with a loud voice, "your eating capacity is as big as that of a
+buffalo! You've gorged like an old sow and can't raise your head up!"
+Then puffing out her cheeks, she added not a word.
+
+The whole party was at first taken quite aback. But, as soon as they
+heard the drift of her remarks, every one, both high as well as low,
+began to laugh boisterously. Hsiang-yuen found it so difficult to
+restrain herself that she spurted out the tea she had in her mouth. Lin
+Tai-yue indulged in such laughter that she was quite out of breath, and
+propping herself up on the table, she kept on ejaculating 'Ai-yo.'
+Pao-yue rolled into his grandmother's lap. The old lady herself was so
+amused that she clasped Pao-yue in her embrace, and gave way to endearing
+epithets. Madame Wang laughed, and pointed at lady Feng with her finger;
+but as for saying a word, she could not. Mrs. Hsueeh had much difficulty
+in curbing her mirth, and she sputtered the tea, with which her mouth
+was full, all over T'an Ch'un's petticoat. T'an Ch'un threw the contents
+of the teacup, she held in her hand, over Ying Ch'un; while Hsi Ch'un
+quitted her seat, and, pulling her nurse away, bade her rub her stomach
+for her.
+
+Below, among the lower seats, there was not one who was not with bent
+waist and doubled-up back. Some retired to a corner and, squatting down,
+laughed away. Others suppressed their laughter and came up and changed
+the clothes of their young mistresses. Lady Feng and Yuan Yang were the
+only ones, who kept their countenance. Still they continued helping old
+goody Liu to food.
+
+Old goody Liu took up the chopsticks. "Even the chickens in this place
+are fine," she went on to add, pretending, she did not hear what was
+going on; "the eggs they lay are small, but so dainty! How very pretty
+they are! Let me help myself to one!"
+
+The company had just managed to check themselves, but, the moment these
+words fell on their ears, they started again with their laughter. Old
+lady Chia laughed to such an extent that tears streamed from her eyes.
+And so little could she bear the strain any longer that Hu Po stood
+behind her and patted her.
+
+"This must be the work of that vixen Feng!" old lady Chia laughed. "She
+has ever been up to tricks like a very imp, so be quick and disbelieve
+all her yarns!"
+
+Goody Liu was in the act of praising the eggs as small yet dainty, when
+lady Feng interposed with a smile. "They're one tael each, be quick, and
+taste them;" she said; "they're not nice when they get cold!"
+
+Goody Liu forthwith stretched out the chopsticks with the intent of
+catching one; but how could she manage to do so? They rolled and rolled
+in the bowl for ever so long; and, it was only after extreme difficulty
+that she succeeded in shoving one up. Extending her neck forward, she
+was about to put it in her mouth, when it slipped down again, and rolled
+on to the floor. She hastily banged down the chopsticks, and was going
+herself to pick it up, when a servant, who stood below, got hold of it
+and took it out of the room.
+
+Old goody Liu heaved a sigh. "A tael!" she soliloquised, "and here it
+goes without a sound!"
+
+Every one had long ago abandoned all idea of eating, and, gazing at her,
+they enjoyed the fun.
+
+"Who has now brought out these chopsticks again?" old lady Chia went on
+to ask. "We haven't invited any strangers or spread any large banquet!
+It must be that vixen Feng who gave them out! But don't you yet change
+them!"
+
+The servants, standing on the floor below, had indeed had no hand in
+getting those ivory chopsticks; they had, in fact, been brought by lady
+Feng and Yuean Yang; but when they heard these remarks, they hurried to
+put them away and to change them for a pair similar to those used by the
+others, made of blackwood inlaid with silver.
+
+"They've taken away the gold ones," old goody Liu shouted, "and here
+come silver ones! But, after all, they're not as handy as those we use!"
+
+"Should there be any poison in the viands," lady Feng observed, "you can
+detect it, as soon as this silver is dipped into them!"
+
+"If there's poison in such viands as these," old goody Liu added, "why
+those of ours must be all arsenic! But though it be the death of me,
+I'll swallow every morsel!"
+
+Seeing how amusing the old woman was and with what relish she devoured
+her food, dowager lady Chia took her own dishes and passed them over to
+her.
+
+She then likewise bade an old matron take various viands and put them in
+a bowl for Pan Erh. But presently, the repast was concluded, and old
+lady Chia and all the other inmates adjoined into T'an Ch'un's bedroom
+for a chat.
+
+The remnants were, meanwhile, cleared away, and fresh tables were laid.
+
+Old goody Liu watched Li Wan and lady Feng sit opposite each other and
+eat. "Putting everything else aside," she sighed, "what most takes my
+fancy is the way things are done in your mansion. It isn't to be
+wondered at that the adage has it that: 'propriety originates from great
+families.'"
+
+"Don't be too touchy," lady Feng hastily smiled, "we all made fun of you
+just now."
+
+But barely had she done speaking, when Yuean Yang too walked in. "Old
+goody Liu," she said laughingly, "don't be angry! I tender you my
+apologies, venerable dame!"
+
+"What are you saying, Miss?" old goody Liu rejoined smiling. "We've
+coaxed our dowager lady to get a little distraction; and what reason is
+there to be angry? From the very first moment you spoke to me, I knew at
+once that it was intended to afford merriment to you all! Had I been
+angry at heart, I wouldn't have gone so far as to say what I did!"
+
+Yuean Yang then blew up the servants. "Why," she shouted, "don't you pour
+a cup of tea for the old dame?"
+
+"That sister-in-law," promptly explained old goody Liu, "gave me a cup a
+little while back. I've had it already. But you, Miss, must also have
+something to eat."
+
+Lady Feng dragged Yuean Yang into a seat. "Have your meal with us!" she
+said. "You'll thus save another fuss by and bye."
+
+Yuean Yang readily seated herself. The matrons came up and added to the
+number of bowls and chopsticks, and the trio went through their meal.
+
+"From all I see," smiled goody Liu, "you people eat just a little and
+finish. It's lucky you don't feel the pangs of hunger! But it isn't
+astonishing if a whiff of wind can puff you over!"
+
+"A good many eatables remained over to-day. Where are they all gone to?"
+Yuean Yang inquired.
+
+"They haven't as yet been apportioned!" the matrons responded. "They're
+kept in here until they can be given in a lump to them to eat!"
+
+"They can't get through so many things!" Yuean Yang resumed. "You had as
+well therefore choose two bowls and send them over to that girl P'ing,
+in your mistress Secundus' rooms."
+
+"She has had her repast long ago." lady Feng put in. "There's no need to
+give her any!"
+
+"With what she can't eat, herself," Yuean Yang continued, "she can feed
+the cats."
+
+At these words, a matron lost no time in selecting two sorts of
+eatables, and, taking the box, she went to take them over.
+
+"Where's Su Yun gone to?" Yuean Yang asked.
+
+"They're all in here having their meal together." Li Wan replied. "What
+do you want her for again?"
+
+"Well, in that case, never mind," Yuean Yang answered.
+
+"Hsi Jen isn't here," lady Feng observed, "so tell some one to take her
+a few things!"
+
+Yuan Yang, hearing this, directed a servant to send her also a few
+eatables. "Have the partition boxes been filled with wine for by and
+bye?" Yuean Yang went on to ask the matrons.
+
+"They'll be ready, I think, in a little while," a matron explained.
+
+"Hurry them up a bit!" Yuean Yang added.
+
+The matron signified her assent.
+
+Lady Feng and her friends then came into T'an Ch'un's apartments, where
+they found the ladies chatting and laughing.
+
+T'an Ch'un had ever shown an inclination for plenty of room. Hence that
+suite of three apartments had never been partitioned. In the centre was
+placed a large table of rosewood and Ta li marble. On this table, were
+laid in a heap every kind of copyslips written by persons of note.
+Several tens of valuable inkslabs and various specimens of tubes and
+receptacles for pens figured also about; the pens in which were as
+thickly packed as trees in a forest. On the off side, stood a flower
+bowl from the 'Ju' kiln, as large as a bushel measure. In it was placed,
+till it was quite full, a bunch of white chrysanthemums, in appearance
+like crystal balls. In the middle of the west wall, was suspended a
+large picture representing vapor and rain; the handiwork of Mi
+Nang-yang. On the left and right of this picture was hung a pair of
+antithetical scrolls--the autograph of Yen Lue. The lines on these
+scrolls were:
+
+ Wild scenes are to the taste of those who leisure love,
+ And springs and rookeries are their rustic resort.
+
+On the table, figured a large tripod. On the left, stood on a blackwood
+cabinet, a huge bowl from a renowned government kiln. This bowl
+contained about ten "Buddha's hands" of beautiful yellow and fine
+proportions. On the right, was suspended, on a Japanese-lacquered frame,
+a white jade sonorous plate. Its shape resembled two eyes, one by the
+side of the other. Next to it hung a small hammer.
+
+Pan Erh had become a little more confident and was about to seize the
+hammer and beat the plate, when the waiting-maids hastened to prevent
+him. Next, he wanted a "Buddha's hand" to eat. T'an Ch'un chose one and
+let him have it. "You may play with it," she said, "but you can't eat
+it."
+
+On the east side stood a sleeping divan. On a movable bed was hung a
+leek-green gauze curtain, ornamented with double embroideries,
+representing flowers, plants and insects. Pan Erh ran up to have a look.
+"This is a green-cicada," he shouted; "this a grasshopper!"
+
+But old goody Liu promptly gave him a slap. "You mean scamp!" she cried.
+"What an awful rumpus you're kicking up! I simply brought you along with
+me to look at things; and lo, you put on airs;" and she beat Pan Erh
+until he burst out crying. It was only after every one quickly combined
+in using their efforts to solace him that he at length desisted.
+
+Old lady Chia then looked through the gauze casement into the back court
+for some time. "The dryandra trees by the eaves of the covered passage
+are growing all right," she remarked. "The only thing is that their
+foliage is rather sparse."
+
+But while she passed this remark, a sudden gust of wind swept by, and
+faintly on her ear fell the strains of music. "In whose house is there a
+wedding?" old lady Chia inquired. "This place must be very near the
+street!"
+
+"How could one hear what's going on in the street?" Madame Wang and the
+others smiled. "It's our twelve girls practising on their wind and
+string instruments!"
+
+"As they're practising," dowager lady Chia eagerly cried, smilingly,
+"why not ask them to come in here and practise? They'll be able to have
+a stroll also, while we, on our part, will derive some enjoyment."
+
+Upon hearing this suggestion, lady Feng immediately directed a servant
+to go out and call them in. She further issued orders to bring a table
+and spread a red cover over it.
+
+"Let it be put," old lady Chia chimed in, "in the water-pavilion of the
+Lotus Fragrance Arbour, for (the music) will borrow the ripple of the
+stream and sound ever so much more pleasant to the ear. We can by and
+bye drink our wine in the Cho Chin Hall; we'll thus have ample room, and
+be able to listen from close!"
+
+Every one admitted that the spot was well adapted. Dowager lady Chia
+turned herself towards Mrs. Hsueeh. "Let's get ahead!" she laughed. "The
+young ladies don't like any one to come in here, for fear lest their
+quarters should get contaminated; so don't let us show ourselves
+disregardful of their wishes! The right thing would be to go and have
+our wine aboard one of those boats!"
+
+As she spoke, one and all rose to their feet. They were making their way
+out when T'an Ch'un interposed. "What's this that you're saying?" she
+smiled. "Please do seat yourselves, venerable senior, and you, Mrs.
+Hsueeh, and Madame Wang! You can't be going yet?"
+
+"These three girls of mine are really nice! There are only two
+mistresses that are simply dreadful." Dowager lady Chia said smilingly.
+"When we get drunk shortly, we'll go and sit in their rooms and have a
+lark!"
+
+These words evoked laughter from every one. In a body they quitted the
+place. But they had not proceeded far before they reached the bank
+covered with aquatic plants, to which place the boat-women, who had been
+brought from Ku Su, had already punted two crab-wood boats. Into one of
+these boats, they helped old lady Chia, Madame Wang, Mrs. Hsueeh, old
+goody Liu, Yuean Yang, and Yue Ch'uan-Erh. Last in order Li Wan followed
+on board. But lady Feng too stepped in, and standing up on the bow, she
+insisted upon punting.
+
+Dowager lady Chia, however, remonstrated from her seat in the bottom of
+the boat. "This isn't a joke," she cried, "we're not on the river, it's
+true, but there are some very deep places about, so be quick and come
+in. Do it for my sake."
+
+"What's there to be afraid of?" lady Feng laughed. "Compose your mind,
+worthy ancestor."
+
+Saying this, the boat was pushed off with one shove. When it reached the
+middle of the lake, lady Feng became nervous, for the craft was small
+and the occupants many, and hastily handing the pole to a boatwoman, she
+squatted down at last.
+
+Ying Ch'un, her sisters, their cousins, as well as Pao-yue subsequently
+got on board the second boat, and followed in their track; while the
+rest of the company, consisting of old nurses and a bevy of
+waiting-maids, kept pace with them along the bank of the stream.
+
+"All these broken lotus leaves are dreadful!" Pao-yue shouted. "Why don't
+you yet tell the servants to pull them off?"
+
+"When was this garden left quiet during all the days of this year?"
+Pao-ch'ai smiled. "Why, people have come, day after day, to visit it, so
+was there ever any time to tell the servants to come and clean it?"
+
+"I have the greatest abhorrence," Lin Tai-yue chimed in, "for Li I's
+poetical works, but there's only this line in them which I like:
+
+ "'Leave the dry lotus leaves so as to hear the patter of the rain.'
+
+"and here you people deliberately mean again not to leave the dry lotus
+stay where they are."
+
+"This is indeed a fine line!" Pao-yue exclaimed. "We mustn't hereafter
+let them pull them away!"
+
+While this conversation continued, they reached the shoaly inlet under
+the flower-laden beech. They felt a coolness from the shady overgrowth
+penetrate their very bones. The decaying vegetation and the withered
+aquatic chestnut plants on the sand-bank enhanced, to a greater degree,
+the beauty of the autumn scenery.
+
+Dowager lady Chia at this point observed some spotless rooms on the
+bank, so spick and so span. "Are not these Miss Hsueeh's quarters," she
+asked. "Eh?"
+
+"Yes, they are!" everybody answered.
+
+Old lady Chia promptly bade them go alongside, and wending their way up
+the marble steps, which seemed to lead to the clouds, they in a body
+entered the Heng Wu court. Here they felt a peculiar perfume come
+wafting into their nostrils, for the colder the season got the greener
+grew that strange vegetation, and those fairy-like creepers. The various
+plants were laden with seeds, which closely resembled red coral beans,
+as they drooped in lovely clusters.
+
+The house, as soon as they put their foot into it, presented the aspect
+of a snow cave. There was a total absence of every object of ornament.
+On the table figured merely an earthenware vase, in which were placed
+several chrysanthemums. A few books and teacups were also conspicuous,
+but no further knicknacks. On the bed was suspended a green gauze
+curtain, and of equally extreme plainness were the coverlets and
+mattresses belonging to it.
+
+"This child," dowager lady Chia sighed, "is too simple! If you've got
+nothing to lay about, why not ask your aunt for a few articles? I would
+never raise any objection. I never thought about them. Your things, of
+course, have been left at home, and have not been brought over."
+
+So saying, she told Yuan Yang to go and fetch several bric-a-brac. She
+next went on to call lady Feng to task.
+
+"She herself wouldn't have them," (lady Feng) rejoined. "We really sent
+over a few, but she refused every one of them and returned them."
+
+"In her home also," smiled Mrs. Hsueeh, "she does not go in very much for
+such sort of things."
+
+Old lady Chia nodded her head. "It will never do!" she added. "It does,
+it's true, save trouble; but were some relative to come on a visit,
+she'll find things in an impossible way. In the second place, such
+simplicity in the apartments of young ladies of tender age is quite
+unpropitious! Why, if you young people go on in this way, we old fogies
+should go further and live in stables! You've all heard what is said in
+those books and plays about the dreadful luxury, with which young
+ladies' quarters are got up. And though these girls of ours could not
+presume to place themselves on the same footing as those young ladies,
+they shouldn't nevertheless exceed too much the bounds of what
+constitutes the right thing. If they have any objects ready at hand, why
+shouldn't they lay them out? And if they have any strong predilection
+for simplicity, a few things less will do quite as well. I've always had
+the greatest knack for titifying a room, but being an old woman now I
+haven't the ease and inclination to attend to such things! These girls
+are, however, learning how to do things very nicely. I was afraid that
+there would be an appearance of vulgarity in what they did, and that,
+even had they anything worth having, they'd so place them about as to
+spoil them; but from what I can see there's nothing vulgar about them.
+But let me now put things right for you, and I'll wager that everything
+will look grand as well as plain. I've got a couple of my own
+knicknacks, which I've managed to keep to this day, by not allowing
+Pao-yue to get a glimpse of them; for had he ever seen them, they too
+would have long ago disappeared!" Continuing, she called Yuean Yang.
+"Fetch that marble pot with scenery on it," she said to her; "that gauze
+screen, and that tripod of transparent stone with black streaks, which
+you'll find in there, and lay out all three on this table. They'll be
+ample! Bring likewise those ink pictures and white silk curtains, and
+change these curtains."
+
+Yuean Yang expressed her obedience. "All these articles have been put
+away in the eastern loft," she smiled. "In what boxes they've been put,
+I couldn't tell; I must therefore go and find them quietly and if I
+bring them over to-morrow, it will be time enough."
+
+"To-morrow or the day after will do very well; but don't forget, that's
+all," dowager lady Chia urged.
+
+While conversing, they sat for a while. Presently, they left the rooms
+and repaired straightway into the Cho Chin hall. Wen Kuan and the other
+girls came up and paid their obeisance. They next inquired what songs
+they were to practise.
+
+"You'd better choose a few pieces to rehearse out of those you know
+best," old lady Chia rejoined.
+
+Wen Kuan and her companions then withdrew and betook themselves to the
+Lotus Fragrance Pavilion. But we will leave them there without further
+allusion to them.
+
+During this while, lady Feng had already, with the help of servants, got
+everything in perfect order. On the left and right of the side of honour
+were placed two divans. These divans were completely covered with
+embroidered covers and fine variegated mats. In front of each divan
+stood two lacquer teapoys, inlaid, some with designs of crab-apple
+flowers; others of plum blossom, some of lotus leaves, others of
+sun-flowers. Some of these teapoys were square, others round. Their
+shapes were all different. On each was placed a set consisting of a
+stove and a bottle, also a box with partitions. The two divans and four
+teapoys, in the place of honour, were used by dowager lady Chia and Mrs.
+Hsueeh. The chair and two teapoys in the next best place, by Madame Wang.
+The rest of the inmates had, all alike, a chair and a teapoy. On the
+east side sat old goody Liu. Below old goody Liu came Madame Wang. On
+the west was seated Shih Hsiang-yuen. The second place was occupied by
+Pao-ch'ai; the third by Tai-yue; the fourth by Ying Ch'un. T'an Ch'un and
+Hsi Ch'un filled the lower seats, in their proper order; Pao-yue sat in
+the last place. The two teapoys assigned to Li Wan and lady Feng stood
+within the third line of railings, and beyond the second row of gauze
+frames. The pattern of the partition-boxes corresponded likewise with
+the pattern on the teapoys. Each inmate had a black decanter, with
+silver, inlaid in foreign designs; as well as an ornamented, enamelled
+cup.
+
+After they had all occupied the seats assigned to them, dowager lady
+Chia took the initiative and smilingly suggested: "Let's begin by
+drinking a couple of cups of wine. But we should also have a game of
+forfeits to-day, we'll have plenty of fun then."
+
+"You, venerable senior, must certainly have a good wine order to
+impose," Mrs. Hsueeh laughingly observed, "but how could we ever comply
+with it? But if your aim be to intoxicate us, why, we'll all straightway
+drink one or two cups more than is good for us and finish!"
+
+"Here's Mrs. Hsueeh beginning to be modest again to-day!" old lady Chia
+smiled. "But I expect it's because she looks down upon me as being an
+old hag!"
+
+"It isn't modesty!" Mrs. Hsueeh replied smiling. "It's all a dread lest I
+shouldn't be able to observe the order and thus incur ridicule."
+
+"If you don't give the right answer," Madame Wang promptly interposed
+with a smile, "you'll only have to drink a cup or two more of wine, and
+should we get drunk, we can go to sleep; and who'll, pray laugh at us?"
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh nodded her head. "I'll agree to the order," she laughed,
+"but, dear senior, you must, after all, do the right thing and have a
+cup of wine to start it."
+
+"This is quite natural!" old lady Chia answered laughingly; and with
+these words, she forthwith emptied a cup.
+
+Lady Feng with hurried steps advanced to the centre of the room. "If we
+are to play at forfeits," she smilingly proposed, "we'd better invite
+sister Yuean Yang to come and join us."
+
+The whole company was perfectly aware that if dowager lady Chia had to
+give out the rule of forfeits, Yuean Yang would necessarily have to
+suggest it, so the moment they heard the proposal they, with common
+consent, approved it as excellent. Lady Feng therefore there and then
+dragged Yuean Yang over.
+
+"As you're to take a part in the game of forfeits," Madame Wang
+smilingly observed, "there's no reason why you should stand up." And
+turning her head round, "Bring over," she bade a young waiting-maid, "a
+chair and place it at your Mistress Secunda's table."
+
+Yuean Yang, half refusing and half assenting, expressed her thanks, and
+took the seat. After partaking also of a cup of wine, "Drinking rules,"
+she smiled, "resemble very much martial law; so irrespective of high or
+low, I alone will preside. Any one therefore who disobeys my words will
+have to suffer a penalty."
+
+"Of course, it should be so!" Madame Wang and the others laughed, "so be
+quick and give out the rule!"
+
+But before Yuean Yang had as yet opened her lips to speak, old goody Liu
+left the table, and waving her hand: "Don't," she said, "make fun of
+people in this way, for I'll go home."
+
+"This will never do!" One and all smilingly protested.
+
+Yuean Yang shouted to the young waiting-maids to drag her back to her
+table; and the maids, while also indulging in laughter, actually pulled
+her and compelled her to rejoin the banquet.
+
+"Spare me!" old goody Liu kept on crying, "spare me!"
+
+"Any one who says one word more," Yuean Yang exclaimed, "will be fined a
+whole decanter full."
+
+Old goody Liu then at length observed silence.
+
+"I'll now give out the set of dominoes." Yuean Yang proceeded. "I'll
+begin from our venerable mistress and follow down in proper order until
+I come to old goody Liu, when I shall stop. So as to illustrate what I
+meant just now by giving out a set, I'll take these three dominoes and
+place them apart; you have to begin by saying something on the first,
+next, to allude to the second, and, after finishing with all three, to
+take the name of the whole set and match it with a line, no matter
+whether it be from some stanza or roundelay, song or idyl, set phrases
+or proverbs. But they must rhyme. And any one making a mistake will be
+mulcted in one cup."
+
+"This rule is splendid; begin at once!" they all exclaimed.
+
+"I've got a set," Yuean Yang pursued; "on the left, is the piece
+'heaven,' (twelve dots)."
+
+ "Above head stretches the blue heaven,"
+
+dowager lady Chia said.
+
+"Good!" shouted every one.
+
+"In the centre is a five and six," Yuean Yang resumed.
+
+ The fragrance of the plum blossom pierces the bones on the bridge
+ "Six,"
+
+old lady Chia added.
+
+
+"There now remains," Yuean Yang explained, "one piece, the six and one."
+
+ "From among the fleecy clouds issues the wheel-like russet sun."
+
+dowager lady Chia continued.
+
+"The whole combined," Yuan Yang observed "forms 'the devil with
+dishevelled hair.'"
+
+ "This devil clasps the leg of the 'Chung Pa' devil,"
+
+old lady Chia observed.
+
+At the conclusion of her recitation, they all burst out laughing.
+"Capital!" they shouted. Old lady Chia drained a cup. Yuean Yang then
+went on to remark, "I've got another set; the one on the left is a
+double five."
+
+ "Bud after bud of the plum bloom dances in the wind,"
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh replied.
+
+"The one on the right is a ten spot," Yuean Yang pursued.
+
+ "In the tenth moon the plum bloom on the hills emits its fragrant
+ smell,"
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh added.
+
+"The middle piece is the two and five, making the 'unlike seven;'" Yuean
+Yang observed.
+
+ "The 'spinning damsel' star meets the 'cow-herd' on the eve of the
+ seventh day of the seventh moon,"
+
+Miss Hsueeh said.
+
+"Together they form: 'Erh Lang strolls on the five mounds;'" Yuean Yang
+continued.
+
+ "Mortals cannot be happy as immortals,"
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh rejoined.
+
+Her answers over, the whole company extolled them and had a drink. "I've
+got another set!" Yuean Yang once more exclaimed. "On the left, are
+distinctly the distant dots of the double ace."
+
+ "Both sun and moon are so suspended as to shine on heaven and earth,"
+
+Hsiang-yuen ventured.
+
+"On the right, are a couple of spots, far apart, which clearly form a
+one and one." Yuean Yang pursued.
+
+ "What time a lonesome flower falls to the ground, no sound is
+ audible,"
+
+Hsiang-yuen rejoined.
+
+"In the middle, there is the one and four," Yuean Yang added.
+
+ "The red apricot tree is planted by the sun, and leans against the
+ clouds;"
+
+Hsiang-yuen answered.
+
+"Together they form the 'cherry fruit ripens for the ninth time,'" Yuean
+Yang said.
+
+ "In the imperial garden it is pecked by birds."
+
+Hsiang-yuen replied.
+
+When she had done with her part, she drank a cup of wine. "I've got
+another set," Yuean Yang began, "the one on the left is a double three."
+
+ "The swallows, pair by pair, chatter on the beams;"
+
+Pao-ch'ai remarked.
+
+"The right piece is a six," Yuean Yang added.
+
+ "The marsh flower is stretched by the breeze e'en to the length of a
+ green sash,"
+
+Pao-ch'ai returned.
+
+"The centre piece is a three and six, making a nine spot," Yuean Yang
+pursued.
+
+ "The three hills tower half beyond the azure skies;"
+
+Pao-ch'ai rejoined.
+
+"Lumped together they form: a 'chain-bound solitary boat,'" Yuean Yang
+resumed.
+
+ "Where there are wind and waves, there I feel sad;"
+
+Pao-ch'ai answered.
+
+When she had finished her turn and drained her cup, Yuean Yang went on
+again. "On the left," she said, "there's a 'heaven.'"
+
+ "A morning fine and beauteous scenery, but, alas, what a day for me!"
+
+Tai-yue replied.
+
+When this line fell on Pao-chai's ear, she turned her head round and
+cast a glance at her, but Tai-yue was so nervous lest she should have to
+pay a forfeit that she did not so much as notice her.
+
+"In the middle there's the 'colour of the embroidered screen, (ten
+spots, four and six), is beautiful,'" Yuean Yang proceeded.
+
+ "Not e'en Hung Niang to the gauze window comes, any message to bring."
+
+Tai-yue responded.
+
+"There now remains a two and six, eight in all," Yuean Yang resumed.
+
+ "Twice see the jady throne when led in to perform the court ritual,"
+
+Tai-yue replied.
+
+"Together they form 'a basket suitable for putting plucked flowers in,'"
+Yuean Yang continued.
+
+ "The fairy wand smells nice as on it hangs a peony."
+
+Tai-yue retorted.
+
+At the close of her replies, she took a sip of wine. Yuean Yang then
+resumed. "On the left," she said, "there's a four and five, making a
+'different-combined nine.'"
+
+ "The peach blossoms bear heavy drops of rain;"
+
+Ying Ch'un remarked.
+
+The company laughed. "She must be fined!" they exclaimed. "She has made
+a mistake in the rhyme. Besides, it isn't right!"
+
+Ying Ch'un smiled and drank a sip. The fact is that both lady Feng and
+Yuean Yang were so eager to hear the funny things that would be uttered
+by old goody Liu, that they with one voice purposely ruled that every
+one answered wrong and fined them. When it came to Madame Wang's turn,
+Yuean Yang recited something for her. Next followed old goody Liu.
+
+"When we country-people have got nothing to do," old goody Liu said, "a
+few of us too often come together and play this sort of game; but the
+answers we give are not so high-flown; yet, as I can't get out of it,
+I'll likewise make a try!"
+
+"It's easy enough to say what there is," one and all laughed, "so just
+you go on and don't mind!"
+
+"On the left," Yuean Yang smiled, "there's a double four, i.e. 'man.'"
+
+Goody Liu listened intently. After considerable reflection,
+
+ "It's a peasant!"
+
+she cried.
+
+One and all in the room blurted out laughing.
+
+"Well-said!" dowager lady Chia observed with a laugh, "that's the way."
+
+"All we country-people know," old goody Liu proceeded, also laughing,
+"is just what comes within our own rough-and-ready wits, so young ladies
+and ladies pray don't poke fun at me!"
+
+"In the centre there's the three and four, green matched with red," Yuean
+Yang pursued.
+
+ "The large fire burnt the hairy caterpillar;"
+
+old goody Liu ventured.
+
+"This will do very well!", the party laughed, "go on with what is in
+your line."
+
+"On the right," Yuean Yang smilingly continued, "there's a one and four,
+and is really pretty."
+
+ "A turnip and a head of garlic."
+
+old goody Liu answered.
+
+This reply evoked further laughter from the whole company.
+
+"Altogether, it's a twig of flowers," Yuean Yang added laughing.
+
+ "The flower dropped, and a huge melon formed."
+
+old goody Liu observed, while gesticulating with both her hands by way
+of illustration.
+
+The party once more exploded in loud merriment.
+
+But, reader, if you entertain any curiosity to hear what else was said
+during the banquet, listen to the explanation given in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+ Chia Pao-yue tastes tea in the Lung Ts'ui monastery.
+ Old goody Liu gets drunk and falls asleep in the I Hung court.
+
+
+Old goody Liu, so the story goes, exclaimed, while making signs with
+both hands,
+
+ "The flower dropped and a huge melon formed;"
+
+to the intense amusement of all the inmates, who burst into a boisterous
+fit of laughter. In due course, however, she drank the closing cup. Then
+she made another effort to evoke merriment. "To speak the truth to-day,"
+she smilingly observed, "my hands and my feet are so rough, and I've had
+so much wine that I must be careful; or else I might, by a slip of the
+hand, break the porcelain cups. If you have got any wooden cups, you'd
+better produce them. It wouldn't matter then if even they were to slip
+out of my hands and drop on the ground!"
+
+This joke excited some more mirth. But lady Feng, upon hearing this
+speedily put on a smile. "Well," she said, "if you really want a wooden
+one, I'll fetch you one at once! But there's just one word I'd like to
+tell you beforehand. Wooden cups are not like porcelain ones. They go in
+sets; so you'll have to do the right thing and drink from every cup of
+the set."
+
+"I just now simply spoke in jest about those cups in order to induce
+them to laugh," old goody Liu at these words, mused within herself,
+"but, who would have thought that she actually has some of the kind.
+I've often been to the large households of village gentry on a visit,
+and even been to banquets there and seen both gold cups and silver cups;
+but never have I beheld any wooden ones about! Ah, of course! They must,
+I expect, be the wooden bowls used by the young children. Their object
+must be to inveigle me to have a couple of bowlfuls more than is good
+for me! But I don't mind it. This wine is, verily, like honey, so if I
+drink a little more, it won't do me any harm."
+
+Bringing this train of thought to a close, "Fetch them!" she said aloud.
+"We'll talk about them by and bye."
+
+Lady Feng then directed Feng Erh to go and bring the set of ten cups,
+made of bamboo roots, from the book-case in the front inner room. Upon
+hearing her orders, Feng Erh was about to go and execute them, when Yuean
+Yang smilingly interposed. "I know those ten cups of yours," she
+remarked, "they're small. What's more, a while back you mentioned wooden
+ones, and if you have bamboo ones brought now, it won't look well; so
+we'd better get from our place that set of ten large cups, scooped out
+of whole blocks of aspen roots, and pour the contents of all ten of them
+down her throat?"
+
+"Yes, that would be much better," lady Feng smiled.
+
+The cups were then actually brought by a servant, at the direction of
+Yuean Yang. At the sight of them, old goody Liu was filled with surprise
+as well as with admiration. Surprise, as the ten formed one set going in
+gradation from large to small; the largest being amply of the size of a
+small basin, the smallest even measuring two of those she held in her
+hand. Admiration, as they were all alike, engraved, in perfect style,
+with scenery, trees, and human beings, and bore inscriptions in the
+'grass' character as well as the seal of the writer.
+
+"It will be enough," she consequently shouted with alacrity, "if you
+give me that small one."
+
+"There's no one," lady Feng laughingly insinuated, "with the capacity to
+tackle these! Hence it is that not a soul can pluck up courage enough to
+use them! But as you, old dame, asked for them, and they were fished
+out, after ever so much trouble, you're bound to do the proper thing and
+drink out of each, one after the other."
+
+Old goody Liu was quite taken aback. "I daren't!" she promptly demurred.
+"My dear lady, do let me off!"
+
+Dowager lady Chia, Mrs. Hsueeh and Madame Wang were quite alive to the
+fact that a person advanced in years as she was could not be gifted with
+such powers of endurance, and they hastened to smilingly expostulate.
+"To speak is to speak, and a joke is a joke, but she mayn't take too
+much," they said; "let her just empty this first cup, and have done."
+
+"O-mi-to-fu!" ejaculated old goody Liu. "I'll only have a small cupful,
+and put this huge fellow away, and take it home and drink at my
+leisure."
+
+At this remark, the whole company once more gave way to laughter. Yuean
+Yang had no alternative but to give in and she had to bid a servant fill
+a large cup full of wine. Old goody Liu laid hold of it with both hands
+and raised it to her mouth.
+
+"Gently a bit!" old lady Chia and Mrs. Hsueeh shouted. "Mind you don't
+choke!"
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh then told lady Feng to put some viands before her. "Goody
+Liu!" smiled lady Feng, "tell me the name of anything you fancy, and
+I'll bring it and feed you."
+
+"What names can I know?" old goody Liu rejoined. "Everything is good!"
+
+"Bring some egg-plant and salt-fish for her!" dowager lady Chia
+suggested with a smile.
+
+Lady Feng, upon hearing this suggestion, complied with it by catching
+some egg-plant and salt-fish with two chopsticks and putting them into
+old goody Liu's mouth. "You people," she smiled, "daily feed on
+egg-plants; so taste these of ours and see whether they've been nicely
+prepared or not."
+
+"Don't be making a fool of me!" old goody Liu answered smilingly. "If
+egg-plants can have such flavour, we ourselves needn't sow any cereals,
+but confine ourselves to growing nothing but egg-plants!"
+
+"They're really egg-plants!" one and all protested. "She's not pulling
+your leg!"
+
+Old goody Liu was amazed. "If these be actually egg-plants," she said,
+"I've uselessly eaten them so long! But, my lady, do give me a few more;
+I'd like to taste the next mouthful carefully!"
+
+Lady Feng brought her, in very deed, another lot, and put it in her
+mouth. Old goody Liu munched for long with particular care. "There is,
+it's true, something about them of the flavour of egg-plant," she
+laughingly remarked, "yet they don't quite taste like egg-plants. But
+tell me how they're cooked, so that I may prepare them in the same way
+for myself."
+
+"There's nothing hard about it!" lady Feng answered smiling. "You take
+the newly cut egg-plants and pare the skin off. All you want then is
+some fresh meat. You hash it into fine mince, and fry it in chicken fat.
+Then you take some dry chicken meat, and mix it with mushrooms, new
+bamboo shoots, sweet mushrooms, dry beancurd paste, flavoured with five
+spices, and every kind of dry fruits, and you chop the whole lot into
+fine pieces. You then bake all these things in chicken broth, until it's
+absorbed, when you fry them, to finish, in sweet oil, and adding some
+oil, made of the grains of wine, you place them in a porcelain jar, and
+close it hermetically. At any time that you want any to eat, all you
+have to do is to take out some, and mix it with some roasted chicken,
+and there it is all ready."
+
+Old goody Liu a shook her head and put out her tongue. "My Buddha's
+ancestor!" she shouted. "One wants about ten chickens to prepare this
+dish! It isn't strange then that it has this flavour!"
+
+Saying this, she quietly finished her wine. But still she kept on
+minutely scrutinizing the cup.
+
+"Haven't you yet had enough to satisfy you?" lady Feng smiled. "If you
+haven't, well, then drink another cup."
+
+"Dreadful!" eagerly exclaimed old goody Liu. "I shall be soon getting so
+drunk that it will be the very death of me. I was only looking at it as
+I admire pretty things like this! But what a trouble it must have cost
+to turn out!"
+
+"Have you done with your wine?" Yuan Yang laughingly inquired. "But,
+after all, what kind of wood is this cup made of?"
+
+"It isn't to be wondered at," old goody Liu smiled, "that you can't make
+it out Miss! How ever could you people, who live inside golden doors and
+embroidered apartments, know anything of wood! We have the whole day
+long the trees in the woods as our neighbours. When weary, we use them
+as our pillows and go to sleep on them. When exhausted, we sit with our
+backs leaning against them. When, in years of dearth, we feel the pangs
+of hunger, we also feed on them. Day after day, we see them with our
+eyes; day after day we listen to them with our ears; day after day, we
+talk of them with our mouths. I am therefore well able to tell whether
+any wood be good or bad, genuine or false. Do let me then see what it
+is!"
+
+As she spoke, she intently scanned the cup for a considerable length of
+time. "Such a family as yours," she then said, "could on no account own
+mean things! Any wood that is easily procured, wouldn't even find a
+place in here. This feels so heavy, as I weigh it in my hands, that if
+it isn't aspen, it must, for a certainty, be yellow cedar."
+
+Her rejoinder amused every one in the room. But they then perceived an
+old matron come up. After asking permission of dowager lady Chia to
+speak: "The young ladies," she said, "have got to the Lotus Fragrance
+pavilion, and they request your commands, as to whether they should
+start with the rehearsal at once or tarry a while."
+
+"I forgot all about them!" old lady Chia promptly cried with a smile.
+"Tell them to begin rehearsing at once!"
+
+The matron expressed her obedience and walked away. Presently, became
+audible the notes of the pan-pipe and double flute, now soft, now loud,
+and the blended accents of the pipe and fife. So balmy did the breeze
+happen to be and the weather so fine that the strains of music came
+wafted across the arbours and over the stream, and, needless to say,
+conduced to exhilarate their spirits and to cheer their hearts. Unable
+to resist the temptation, Pao-yue was the first to snatch a decanter and
+to fill a cup for himself. He quaffed it with one breath. Then pouring
+another cup, he was about to drain it, when he noticed that Madame Wang
+too was anxious for a drink, and that she bade a servant bring a warm
+supply of wine. "With alacrity, Pao-yue crossed over to her, and,
+presenting his own cup, he applied it to Madame Wang's lips. His mother
+drank two sips while he held it in his hands, but on the arrival of the
+warm wine, Pao-yue resumed his seat. Madame Wang laid hold of the warm
+decanter, and left the table, while the whole party quitted their places
+at the banquet; and Mrs. Hsueeh too rose to her feet.
+
+"Take over that decanter from her," dowager lady Chia promptly shouted
+to Li Wan and lady Feng, "and press your aunt into a seat. We shall all
+then feel at ease!"
+
+Hearing this, Madame Wang surrendered the decanter to lady Feng and
+returned to her seat.
+
+"Let's all have a couple of cups of wine!" old lady Chia laughingly
+cried. "It's capital fun to-day!"
+
+With this proposal, she laid hold of a cup and offered it to Mrs. Hsueeh.
+Turning also towards Hsiang-yuen and Pao-ch'ai: "You two cousins!" she
+added, "must also have a cup. Your cousin Lin can't take much wine, but
+even she mustn't be let off."
+
+While pressing them, she drained her cup. Hsiang-yuen, Pao-ch'ai and
+Tai-y ue then had their drink. But about this time old goody Liu caught
+the strains of music, and, being already under the influence of liquor,
+her spirits became more and more exuberant, and she began to gesticulate
+and skip about. Her pranks amused Pao-yue to such a degree that leaving
+the table, he crossed over to where Tai-yue was seated and observed
+laughingly: "Just you look at the way old goody Liu is going on!"
+
+"In days of yore," Tai-yue smiled, "every species of animal commenced to
+dance the moment the sounds of music broke forth. She's like a buffalo
+now."
+
+This simile made her cousins laugh. But shortly the music ceased. "We've
+all had our wine," Mrs. Hsueeh smilingly proposed, "so let's go and
+stroll about for a time; we can after that sit down again!"
+
+Dowager lady Chia herself was at the moment feeling a strong inclination
+to have a ramble. In due course, therefore, they all left the banquet
+and went with their old senior, for a walk. Dowager lady Chia, however,
+longed to take goody Liu along with her to help her dispel her ennui, so
+promptly seizing the old dame's hand in hers, they threaded their way as
+far as the trees, which stood facing the hill. After lolling about with
+her for a few minutes, "What kind of tree is this?" she went on to
+inquire of her. "What kind of stone is this? What species of flower is
+that?"
+
+Old goody Liu gave suitable reply to each of her questions. "Who'd ever
+have imagined it," she proceeded to tell dowager lady Chia; "not only
+are the human beings in the city grand, but even the birds are grand.
+Why, the moment these birds fly into your mansion, they also become
+beautiful things, and acquire the gift of speech as well!"
+
+The company could not make out the drift of her observations. "What
+birds get transformed into beautiful things and become able to speak?"
+they felt impelled to ask.
+
+"Those perched on those gold stands, under the verandah, with green
+plumage and red beaks are parrots. I know them well enough!" Goody Liu
+replied. "But those old black crows in the cages there have crests like
+phoenixes! They can talk too!"
+
+One and all laughed. But not long elapsed before they caught sight of
+several waiting-maids, who came to invite them to a collation.
+
+"After the number of cups of wine I've had," old lady Chia said, "I
+don't feel hungry. But never mind, bring the things here. We can nibble
+something at our leisure."
+
+The maids speedily went off and fetched two teapoys; but they also
+brought a couple of small boxes with partitions. When they came to be
+opened and to be examined, the contents of each were found to consist of
+two kinds of viands. In the one, were two sorts of steamed eatables. One
+of these was a sweet cake, made of lotus powder, scented with
+sun-flower. The other being rolls with goose fat and fir cone seeds. The
+second box contained two kinds of fried eatables; one of which was small
+dumplings, about an inch in size.
+
+"What stuffing have they put in them?" dowager lady Chia asked.
+
+"They're with crabs inside," 'hastily rejoined the matrons.
+
+Their old mistress, at this reply, knitted her eyebrows. "These fat,
+greasy viands for such a time!" she observed. "Who'll ever eat these
+things?"
+
+But finding, when she came to inspect the other kind, that it consisted
+of small fruits of flour, fashioned in every shape, and fried in butter,
+she did not fancy these either. She then however pressed Mrs. Hsueeh to
+have something to eat, but Mrs. Hsueeh merely took a piece of cake, while
+dowager lady Chia helped herself to a roll; but after tasting a bit, she
+gave the remaining half to a servant girl.
+
+Goody Liu saw how beautifully worked those small flour fruits were, made
+as they were in various colours and designs, and she took, after picking
+and choosing, one which looked like a peony. "The most ingenious girls
+in our village could not, even with a pair of scissors, cut out anything
+like this in paper!" she exclaimed. "I would like to eat it, but I can't
+make up my mind to! I had better pack up a few and take them home and
+give them to them as specimens!"
+
+Her remarks amused every one.
+
+"When you start for home," dowager lady Chia said, "I'll give you a
+whole porcelain jar full of them; so you may as well eat these first,
+while they are hot!"
+
+The rest of the inmates selected such of the fruits as took their fancy,
+but after they had helped themselves to one or two, they felt satisfied.
+Goody Liu, however, had never before touched such delicacies. These
+were, in addition, made small, dainty, and without the least semblance
+of clumsiness, so when she and Pan Erh had served themselves to a few of
+each sort, half the contents of the dish vanished. But what remained of
+them were then, at the instance of lady Feng, put into two plates, and
+sent, together with a partition-box, to Wen Kuan and the other singing
+girls as their share.
+
+At an unexpected moment, they perceived the nurse come in with Ta
+Chieh-erh in her arms, and they all induced her to have a romp with them
+for a time. But while Ta Chieh-erh was holding a large pumelo and
+amusing herself with it, she casually caught sight of Pan Erh with a
+'Buddha's hand.' Ta Chieh would have it. A servant-girl endeavoured to
+coax (Pan-Erh) to surrender it to her, but Ta Chieh-erh, unable to curb
+her impatience, burst out crying. It was only after the pumelo had been
+given to Pan-Erh, and that the 'Buddha's hand' had, by dint of much
+humouring, been got from Pan Erh and given to her, that she stopped
+crying.
+
+Pan Erh had played quite long enough with the 'Buddha's hand,' and had,
+at the moment, his two hands laden with fruits, which he was in the
+course of eating. When he suddenly besides saw how scented and round the
+pumelo was, the idea dawned on him that it was more handy for play, and,
+using it as a ball, he kicked it along and went off to have some fun,
+relinquishing at once every thought of the 'Buddha's hand.'
+
+By this time dowager lady Chia and the other members had had tea, so
+leading off again goody Liu, they threaded their way to the Lung Ts'ui
+monastery. Miao Yue hastened to usher them in. On their arrival in the
+interior of the court, they saw the flowers and trees in luxuriant
+blossom.
+
+"Really," smiled old lady Chia, "it's those people, who devote
+themselves to an ascetic life and have nothing to do, who manage, by
+constant repairs, to make their places much nicer than those of others!"
+
+As she spoke, she wended her steps towards the Eastern hall. Miao Yue,
+with a face beaming with smiles, made way for her to walk in. "We've
+just been filling ourselves with wines and meats," dowager lady Chia
+observed, "and with the josses you've got in here, we shall be guilty of
+profanity. We'd better therefore sit here! But give us some of that good
+tea of yours; and we'll get off so soon as we have had a cup of it."
+
+Pao-yue watched Miao Yue's movements intently, when he noticed her lay
+hold of a small tea-tray, fashioned in the shape of a peony, made of red
+carved lacquer, and inlaid with designs in gold representing a dragon
+ensconced in the clouds with the character 'longevity' clasped in its
+jaws, a tray, which contained a small multicoloured cup with cover,
+fabricated at the 'Ch'eng' Kiln, and present it to his grandmother.
+
+"I don't care for 'Liu An' tea!" old lady Chia exclaimed.
+
+"I know it; but this is old 'Chuen Mei,'" Miao Yue answered with a smile.
+
+Dowager lady Chia received the cup. "What water is this?" she went on to
+inquire.
+
+"It's rain water collected last year;" Miao Yue added by way of reply.
+
+Old lady Chia readily drank half a cup of the tea; and smiling, she
+proffered it to goody Liu. "Just you taste this tea!" she said.
+
+Goody Liu drained the remainder with one draught. "It's good, of
+course," she remarked laughingly, "but it's rather weak! It would be far
+better were it brewed a little stronger!"
+
+Dowager lady Chia and all the inmates laughed. But subsequently, each of
+them was handed a thin, pure white covered cup, all of the same make,
+originating from the 'Kuan' kiln. Miao Yue, however, soon gave a tug at
+Pao-ch'ai's and Tai-yue's lapels, and both quitted the apartment along
+with her. But Pao-yue too quietly followed at their heels. Spying Miao Yue
+show his two cousins into a side-room, Pao-ch'ai take a seat in the
+court, Tai-yue seat herself on Miao Yue's rush mat, and Miao Yue herself
+approach a stove, fan the fire and boil some water, with which she
+brewed another pot of tea, Pao-yue walked in. "Are you bent upon drinking
+your own private tea?" he smiled.
+
+"Here you rush again to steal our tea," the two girls laughed with one
+accord. "There's none for you!"
+
+But just as Miao Yue was going to fetch a cup, she perceived an old
+taoist matron bring away the tea things, which had been used in the
+upper rooms. "Don't put that 'Ch'eng' kiln tea-cup by!" Miao Yue hastily
+shouted. "Go and put it outside!"
+
+Pao-yue understood that it must be because old goody Liu had drunk out of
+it that she considered it too dirty to keep. He then saw Miao Yue produce
+two other cups. The one had an ear on the side. On the bowl itself were
+engraved in three characters: 'calabash cup,' in the plain 'square'
+writing. After these, followed a row of small characters in the 'true'
+style, to the effect that the cup had been an article much treasured by
+Wang K'ai. Next came a second row of small characters stating: 'that in
+the course of the fourth moon of the fifth year of Yuan Feng, of the
+Sung dynasty, Su Shih of Mei Shan had seen it in the 'Secret' palace.
+
+This cup, Miao Yue filled, and handed to Pao-ch'ai.
+
+The other cup was, in appearance, as clumsy as it was small; yet on it
+figured an engraved inscription, consisting of 'spotted rhinoceros cup,'
+in three 'seal' characters, which bore the semblance of pendent pearls.
+Miao Yue replenished this cup and gave it to Tai-yue; and taking the green
+jade cup, which she had, on previous occasions, often used for her own
+tea, she filled it and presented it to Pao-yue.
+
+"'The rules observed in the world,' the adage says, 'must be
+impartial,'" Pao-yue smiled. "But while my two cousins are handling those
+antique and rare gems, here am I with this coarse object!"
+
+"Is this a coarse thing?" Miao Yue exclaimed. "Why, I'm making no
+outrageous statement when I say that I'm inclined to think that it is by
+no means certain that you could lay your hand upon any such coarse thing
+as this in your home!"
+
+"'Do in the country as country people do,' the proverb says," Pao-yue
+laughingly rejoined. "So when one gets in a place like this of yours,
+one must naturally look down upon every thing in the way of gold,
+pearls, jade and precious stones, as coarse rubbish!"
+
+This sentiment highly delighted Miao Yue. So much so, that producing
+another capacious cup, carved out of a whole bamboo root, which with its
+nine curves and ten rings, with twenty knots in each ring, resembled a
+coiled dragon, "Here," she said with a face beaming with smiles, "there
+only remains this one! Can you manage this large cup?"
+
+"I can!" Pao-yue vehemently replied, with high glee.
+
+"Albeit you have the stomach to tackle all it holds," Miao Yue laughed,
+"I haven't got so much tea for you to waste! Have you not heard how that
+the first cup is the 'taste'-cup; the second 'the stupid-thing-for-
+quenching-one's-thirst,' and the third 'the drink-mule' cup? But were
+you now to go in for this huge cup, why what more wouldn't that be?"
+
+At these words, Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yue and Pao-yue simultaneously indulged in
+laughter. But Miao-yue seized the teapot, and poured well-nigh a whole
+cupful of tea into the big cup. Pao-yue tasted some carefully, and found
+it, in real truth, so exceptionally soft and pure that he extolled it
+with incessant praise.
+
+"If you've had any tea this time," Miao-Yue pursued with a serious
+expression about her face, "it's thanks to these two young ladies; for
+had you come alone, I wouldn't have given you any."
+
+"I'm well aware of this," Pao-yue laughingly rejoined, "so I too will
+receive no favour from your hands, but simply express my thanks to these
+two cousins of mine, and have done!"
+
+"What you say makes your meaning clear enough!" Miao-yue said, when she
+heard his reply.
+
+"Is this rain water from last year?" Tai-yue then inquired.
+
+"How is it," smiled Miao Yue sardonically, "that a person like you can be
+such a boor as not to be able to discriminate water, when you taste it?
+This is snow collected from the plum blossom, five years back, when I
+was in the P'an Hsiang temple at Hsuean Mu. All I got was that flower
+jar, green as the devil's face, full, and as I couldn't make up my mind
+to part with it and drink it, I interred it in the ground, and only
+opened it this summer. I've had some of it once before, and this is the
+second time. But how is it you didn't detect it, when you put it to your
+lips? Has rain water, obtained a year back, ever got such a soft and
+pure flavour? and how possibly could it be drunk at all?"
+
+Tai-yue knew perfectly what a curious disposition she naturally had, and
+she did not think it advisable to start any lengthy discussion with her.
+Nor did she feel justified to protract her stay, so after sipping her
+tea, she intimated to Pao-ch'ai her intention to go, and they quitted
+the apartment.
+
+Pao-yue gave a forced smile to Miao Yue. "That cup," he said, "is, of
+course, dirty; but is it not a pity to put it away for no valid reason?
+To my idea it would be preferable, wouldn't it? to give it to that poor
+old woman; for were she to sell it, she could have the means of
+subsistence! What do you say, will it do?"
+
+Miao Yue listened to his suggestion, and then nodded her head, after some
+reflection. "Yes, that will be all right!" she answered. "Lucky for her
+I've never drunk a drop out of that cup, for had I, I would rather have
+smashed it to atoms than have let her have it! If you want to give it to
+her, I don't mind a bit about it; but you yourself must hand it to her!
+Now, be quick and clear it away at once!"
+
+"Of course; quite so!" Pao-yue continued. "How could you ever go and
+speak to her? Things would then come to a worse pass. You too would be
+contaminated! If you give it to me, it will be all right."
+
+Miao Yue there and then directed some one to fetch it and to give it to
+Pao-yue. When it was brought, Pao-yue took charge of it. "Wait until we've
+gone out," he proceeded, "and I'll call a few servant-boys and bid them
+carry several buckets of water from the stream and wash the floors; eh,
+shall I?"
+
+"Yes, that would be better!" Miao Yue smiled. "The only thing is that you
+must tell them to bring the water, and place it outside the entrance
+door by the foot of the wall; for they mustn't come in."
+
+"This goes without saying!" Pao-yue said; and, while replying, he
+produced the cup from inside his sleeve, and handed it to a young
+waiting-maid from dowager lady Chia's apartments to hold. "To-morrow,"
+he told her, "give this to goody Liu to take with her, when she starts
+on her way homewards!"
+
+By the time he made (the girl) understand the charge he entrusted her
+with, his old grandmother issued out and was anxious to return home.
+Miao Yue did not exert herself very much to induce her to prolong her
+visit; but seeing her as far the main gate, she turned round and bolted
+the doors. But without devoting any further attention to her, we will
+now allude to dowager lady Chia.
+
+She felt thoroughly tired and exhausted. To such a degree, that she
+desired Madame Wang, Ying Ch'un and her sisters to see that Mrs. Hsueeh
+had some wine, while she herself retired to the Tao Hsiang village to
+rest. Lady Feng immediately bade some servants fetch a bamboo chair. On
+its arrival, dowager lady Chia seated herself in it, and two matrons
+carried her off hemmed in by lady Feng, Li Wan and a bevy of
+servant-girls, and matrons. But let us now leave her to herself, without
+any additional explanations.
+
+During this while, Mrs. Hsueeh too said good bye and departed. Madame
+Wang then dismissed Wen Kuan and the other girls, and, distributing the
+eatables, that had been collected in the partition-boxes, to the
+servant-maids to go and feast on, she availed herself of the leisure
+moments to lie off; so reclining as she was, on the couch, which had
+been occupied by her old relative a few minutes back, she bade a young
+maid lower the portiere; after which, she asked her to massage her legs.
+
+"Should our old lady yonder send any message, mind you call me at once,"
+she proceeded to impress on her mind, and, laying herself down, she went
+to sleep.
+
+Pao-yue, Hsiang-yuen and the rest watched the servant-girls take the
+partition-boxes and place them among the rocks, and seat themselves some
+on boulders, others on the turf-covered ground, some lean against the
+trees, others squat down besides the pool, and thoroughly enjoy
+themselves. But in a little time, they also perceived Yuean Yang arrive.
+Her object in coming was to carry off goody Liu for a stroll, so in a
+body they followed in their track, with a view of deriving some fun.
+Shortly, they got under the honorary gateway put up in the additional
+grounds, reserved for the imperial consort's visits to her parents, and
+old goody Liu shouted aloud: "Ai-yoh! What! Is there another big temple
+here!"
+
+While speaking, she prostrated herself and knocked her head, to the
+intense amusement of the company, who were quite doubled up with
+laughter.
+
+"What are you laughing at?" goody Liu inquired. "I can decipher the
+characters on this honorary gateway. Over at our place temples of this
+kind are exceedingly plentiful; and they've all got archways like this!
+These characters give the name of the temple."
+
+"Can you make out from those characters what temple this is?" they
+laughingly asked.
+
+Goody Liu quickly raised her head, and, pointing at the inscription,
+"Are'nt these," she said, "the four characters 'Pearly Emperor's
+Precious Hall?'"
+
+Everybody laughed. They clapped their hands and applauded. But when
+about to chaff her again, goody Liu experienced a rumbling noise in her
+stomach, and vehemently pulling a young servant-girl, and asking her for
+a couple of sheets of paper, she began immediately to loosen her
+garments. "It won't do in here!" one and all laughingly shouted out to
+her, and quickly they directed a matron to lead her away. When they got
+at the north-east corner, the matron pointed the proper place out to
+her, and in high spirits she walked off and went to have some rest.
+
+Goody Liu had taken plenty of wine; she could not too touch yellow wine;
+she had, what is more, drunk and eaten so many fat things that in the
+thirst, which supervened, she had emptied several cups of tea; the
+result was that she unavoidably got looseness of the bowels. She
+therefore squatted for ever so long before she felt any relief. But on
+her exit from the private chamber, the wind blew the wine to her head.
+Besides, being a woman well up in years, she felt, upon suddenly rising
+from a long squatting position, her eyes grow so dim and her head so
+giddy that she could not make out the way. She gazed on all four
+quarters, but the whole place being covered with trees, rockeries,
+towers, terraces, and houses, she was quite at a loss how to determine
+her whereabouts, and where each road led to. She had no alternative but
+to follow a stone road, and to toddle on her way with leisurely step.
+But when she drew near a building, she could not make out where the door
+could be. After searching and searching, she accidentally caught sight
+of a bamboo fence. "Here's another trellis with flat bean plants
+creeping on it!" Goody Liu communed within herself. While giving way to
+reflection, she skirted the flower-laden hedge, and discovering a
+moonlike, cavelike, entrance, she stepped in. Here she discerned,
+stretching before her eyes a sheet of water, forming a pond, which
+measured no more than seven or eight feet in breadth. Its banks were
+paved with slabs of stone. Its jadelike waves flowed in a limpid stream
+towards the opposite direction. At the upper end, figured a slab of
+white marble, laid horizontally over the surface. Goody Liu wended her
+steps over the slab and followed the raised stone-road; then turning two
+bends, in the lake, an entrance into a house struck her gaze. Forthwith,
+she crossed the doorway, but her eyes were soon attracted by a young
+girl, who advanced to greet her with a smile playing upon her lips.
+
+"The young ladies," goody Liu speedily remarked laughing, "have cast me
+adrift; they made me knock about, until I found my way in here."
+
+But seeing, after addressing her, that the girl said nothing by way of
+reply, goody Liu approached her and seized her by the hand, when, with a
+crash, she fell against the wooden partition wall and bumped her head so
+that it felt quite sore. Upon close examination, she discovered that it
+was a picture. "Do pictures really so bulge out!" Goody Liu mused within
+herself, and, as she exercised her mind with these cogitations, she
+scanned it and rubbed her hand over it. It was perfectly even all over.
+She nodded her head, and heaved a couple of sighs. But the moment she
+turned round, she espied a small door over which hung a soft portiere,
+of leek-green colour, bestrewn with embroidered flowers. Goody Liu
+lifted the portiere and walked in. Upon raising her head, and casting a
+glance round, she saw the walls, artistically carved in fretwork. On all
+four sides, lutes, double-edged swords, vases and censers were stuck
+everywhere over the walls; and embroidered covers and gauze nets,
+glistened as brightly as gold, and shed a lustre vying with that of
+pearls. Even the bricks, on the ground, on which she trod, were jadelike
+green, inlaid with designs, so that her eyes got more and more dazzled.
+She tried to discover an exit, but where could she find a doorway? On
+the left, was a bookcase. On the right, a screen. As soon as she
+repaired behind the screen, she faced a door; but, she then caught sight
+of another old dame stepping in from outside, and advancing towards her.
+Goody Liu was wonderstruck. Her mind was full of uncertainty as to
+whether it might not be her son-in-law's mother. "I expect," she felt
+prompted to ask with vehemence, "you went to the trouble of coming to
+hunt for me, as you didn't see me turn up at home for several days, eh?
+But what young lady introduced you in here?" Then noticing that her
+whole head was bedecked with flowers, old goody Liu laughed. "How
+ignorant of the ways of the world you are!" she said. "Seeing the nice
+flowers in this garden, you at once set to work, forgetful of all
+consequences, and loaded your pate with them!"
+
+However, while she derided her, the other old dame simply laughed,
+without making any rejoinder. But the recollection suddenly flashed to
+her memory that she had often heard of some kind of cheval-glasses,
+found in wealthy and well-to-do families, and, "May it not be," (she
+wondered), "my own self reflected in this glass!" After concluding this
+train of thoughts, she put out her hands, and feeling it and then
+minutely scrutinising it, she realised that the four wooden partition
+walls were made of carved blackwood, into which mirrors had been
+inserted. "These have so far impeded my progress," she consequently
+exclaimed, "and how am I to manage to get out?"
+
+As she soliloquised, she kept on rubbing the mirror. This mirror was, in
+fact, provided with some western mechanism, which enabled it to open and
+shut, so while goody Liu inadvertently passed her hands, quite at random
+over its surface, the pressure happily fell on the right spot, and
+opening the contrivance, the mirror flung round, exposing a door to
+view. Old goody Liu was full of amazement as well as of admiration. With
+hasty step, she egressed. Her eyes unexpectedly fell on a most handsome
+set of bed-curtains. But being at the time still seven or eight tenths
+in the wind, and quite tired out from her tramp, she with one jump
+squatted down on the bed, saying to herself: "I'll just have a little
+rest." So little, however, did she, contrary to her expectations, have
+any control over herself, that, as she reeled backwards and forwards,
+her eyes got quite drowsy, and then the moment she threw herself in a
+recumbent position, she dropped into a sound sleep.
+
+But let us now see what the others were up to. They waited for her and
+waited; but they saw nothing of her. Pan Erh got, in the absence of his
+grandmother, so distressed that he melted into tears. "May she not have
+fallen into the place?" one and all laughingly observed. "Be quick and
+tell some one to go and have a look!"
+
+Two matrons were directed to go in search of her; but they returned and
+reported that she was not to be found. The whole party instituted a
+search in every nook and corner, but nothing could be seen of her.
+
+"She was so drunk," Hsi Jen suggested, "that she's sure to have lost her
+way, and following this road, got into our back-rooms. Should she have
+crossed to the inner side of the hedge, she must have come to the door
+of the backhouse and got in. Nevertheless, the young maids, she must
+have come across, must know something about her. If she did not get
+inside the hedge, but continued in a south westerly direction, she's all
+right, if she made a detour and walked out. But if she hasn't done so,
+why, she'll have enough of roaming for a good long while! I had better
+therefore go and see what she's up to."
+
+With these words still on her lips, she retraced her footsteps and
+repaired into the I Hung court. She called out to the servants, but, who
+would have thought it, the whole bevy of young maids, attached to those
+rooms, had seized the opportunity to go and have a romp, so Hsi Jen
+straightway entered the door of the house. As soon as she turned the
+multicoloured embroidered screen, the sound of snoring as loud as peals
+of thunder, fell on her ear. Hastily she betook herself inside, but her
+nostrils were overpowered by the foul air of wine and w..d, which
+infected the apartment. At a glance, she discovered old goody Liu lying
+on the bed, face downwards, with hands sprawled out and feet knocking
+about all over the place. Hsi Jen sustained no small shock. With
+precipitate hurry, she rushed up to her, and, laying hold of her, lying
+as she was more dead than alive, she pushed her about until she
+succeeded in rousing her to her senses. Old goody Liu was startled out
+of her sleep. She opened wide her eyes, and, realising that Hsi Jen
+stood before her, she speedily crawled up. "Miss!" she pleaded. "I do
+deserve death! I have done what I shouldn't; but I haven't in any way
+soiled the bed."
+
+So saying, she swept her hands over it. But Hsi Jen was in fear and
+trembling lest the suspicions of any inmate should be aroused, and lest
+Pao-yue should come to know of it, so all she did was to wave her hand
+towards her, bidding her not utter a word. Then with alacrity grasping
+three or four handfuls of 'Pai Ho' incense, she heaped it on the large
+tripod, which stood in the centre of the room, and put the lid back
+again; delighted at the idea that she had not been so upset as to be
+sick.
+
+"It doesn't matter!" she quickly rejoined in a low tone of voice with a
+smile, "I'm here to answer for this. Come along with me!"
+
+While old goody Liu expressed her readiness to comply with her wishes,
+she followed Hsi Jen out into the quarters occupied by the young maids.
+Here (Hsi Jen) desired her to take a seat. "Mind you say," she enjoined
+her, "that you were so drunk that you stretched on a boulder and had a
+snooze!"
+
+"All right! I will!" old goody Liu promised.
+
+Hsi Jen afterwards helped her to two cups of tea, when she, at length,
+got over the effects of the wine. "What young lady's room is this that
+it is so beautiful?" she then inquired. "It seemed to me just as if I
+had gone to the very heavenly palace."
+
+Hsi Jen gave a faint smile. "This one?" she asked. "Why, it's our master
+Secundus', Mr. Pao's bedroom."
+
+Old goody Liu was quite taken aback, and could not even presume to utter
+a sound. But Hsi Jen led her out across the front compound; and, when
+they met the inmates of the family, she simply explained to them that
+she had found her fast asleep on the grass, and brought her along. No
+one paid any heed to the excuse she gave, and the subject was dropped.
+
+Presently, dowager lady Chia awoke, and the evening meal was at once
+served in the Tao Hsiang Ts'un. Dowager lady Chia was however quite
+listless, and felt so little inclined to eat anything that she forthwith
+got into a small open chair, with bamboo seat, and returned to her suite
+of rooms to rest. But she insisted that lady Feng and her companions
+should go and have their repast, so the young ladies eventually
+adjourned once more into the garden.
+
+But, reader, you do not know the sequel, so peruse the circumstances
+given in detail in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+ The Princess of Heng Wu dispels, with sweet words, some insane
+ suspicions.
+ The inmate of Hsiao Hsiang puts, with excellent repartee, the final
+ touch to the jokes made about goody Liu.
+
+
+We will now resume our story by adding that, on the return of the young
+ladies into the garden, they had their meal. This over, they parted
+company, and nothing more need be said about them. We will notice,
+however, that old goody Liu took Pan Erh along with her, and came first
+and paid a visit to lady Feng. "We must certainly start for home
+to-morrow, as soon as it is daylight," she said. "I've stayed here, it's
+true, only two or three days, but in these few days I have reaped
+experience in everything that I had not seen from old till now. It would
+be difficult to find any one as compassionate of the poor and
+considerate to the old as your venerable dame, your Madame Wang, your
+young ladies, and the girls too attached to the various rooms, have all
+shown themselves in their treatment of me! When I get home now, I shall
+have no other means of showing how grateful I am to you than by
+purchasing a lot of huge joss-sticks and saying daily prayers to Buddha
+on your behalf; and if he spares you all to enjoy a long life of a
+hundred years my wishes will be accomplished."
+
+"Don't be so exultant!" lady Feng smilingly replied. "It's all on
+account of you that our old ancestor has fallen ill, by exposing herself
+to draughts and that she suffers from disturbed sleep; also that our Ta
+Chieh-erh has caught a chill and is laid up at home with fever."
+
+Goody Liu, at these words, speedily heaved a sigh. "Her venerable
+ladyship," she said, "is a person advanced in years and not accustomed
+to any intense fatigue!"
+
+"She has never before been in such high spirits as yesterday!" lady Feng
+observed. "As you were here, so anxious was she to let you see
+everything, that she trudged over the greater part of the garden. And Ta
+Chieh-erh was given a piece of cake by Madame Wang, when I came to hunt
+you up, and she ate it, who knows in what windy place, and began at once
+to get feverish."
+
+"Ta Chieh-erh," goody Liu remarked, "hasn't, I fancy, often put her foot
+into the garden; and young people like her mustn't really go into
+strange places, for she's not like our children, who are able to use
+their legs! In what graveyards don't they ramble about! A puff of wind
+may, on the one hand, have struck her, it's not at all unlikely; or
+being, on the other, so chaste in body, and her eyes also so pure she
+may, it is to be feared, have come across some spirit or other. I can't
+help thinking therefore that you should consult some book of exorcisms
+on her behalf; for mind she may have run up against some evil
+influence."
+
+This remark suggested the idea to lady Feng. There and then she called
+P'ing Erh to fetch the 'Jade Box Record.' When brought, she desired
+Ts'ai Ming to look over it for her. Ts'ai Ming turned over the pages for
+a time, and then read: 'Those who fall ill on the 25th day of the 8th
+moon have come across, in a due westerly quarter, of some flower spirit;
+they feel heavy, with no inclination for drink or food. Take seven
+sheets of white paper money, and, advancing forty steps due west, burn
+them and exorcise the spirit; recovery will follow at once!'"
+
+"There's really no mistake about that!" lady Feng smiled. "Are there not
+flower spirits in the garden? But what I dread is that our old lady
+mayn't have come across one too."
+
+Saying this, she bade a servant purchase two lots of paper money. On
+their arrival, she sent for two proper persons, the one to exorcise the
+spirits for dowager lady Chia and the other to expel them from Ta
+Chieh-erh; and these observances over, Ta Chieh-erh did, in effect, drop
+quietly to sleep.
+
+"It's verily people advanced in years like you," lady Feng smilingly
+exclaimed; "who've gone through many experiences! This Ta Chieh-erh of
+mine has often been inclined to ail, and it has quite puzzled me to make
+out how and why it was."
+
+"This isn't anything out of the way!" goody Liu said. "Affluent and
+honourable people bring up their offspring to be delicate. So naturally,
+they are not able to endure the least hardship! Moreover, that young
+child of yours is so excessively cuddled that she can't stand it. Were
+you, therefore, my lady, to pamper her less from henceforth, she'll
+steadily improve."
+
+"There's plenty of reason in that too!" lady Feng observed. "But it
+strikes me that she hasn't as yet got a name, so do give her one in
+order that she may borrow your long life! In the next place, you are
+country-people, and are, after all,--I don't expect you'll get angry
+when I mention it,--somewhat in poor circumstances. Were a person then
+as poor as you are to suggest a name for her, you may, I trust, have the
+effect of counteracting this influence for her."
+
+When old goody Liu heard this proposal, she immediately gave herself up
+to reflection. "I've no idea of the date of her birth!" she smiled after
+a time.
+
+"She really was born on no propitious date!" lady Feng replied. "By a
+remarkable coincidence she came into the world on the seventh day of the
+seventh moon!"
+
+"This is certainly splendid!" old goody Lin laughed with alacrity. "You
+had better name her at once Ch'iao Chieh-erh (seventh moon and
+ingenuity). This is what's generally called: combating poison by poison
+and attacking fire by fire. If therefore your ladyship fixes upon this
+name of mine, she will, for a surety, attain a long life of a hundred
+years; and when she by and bye grows up to be a big girl, every one of
+you will be able to have a home and get a patrimony! Or if, at any time,
+there occur anything inauspicious and she has to face adversity, why it
+will inevitably change into prosperity; and if she comes across any evil
+fortune, it will turn into good fortune. And this will all arise from
+this one word, 'Ch'iao' (ingenuity.)"
+
+Lady Feng was, needless to say, delighted by what she heard, and she
+lost no time in expressing her gratitude. "If she be preserved," she
+exclaimed, "to accomplish your good wishes, it will be such a good
+thing!" Saying this, she called P'ing Erh. "As you and I are bound to be
+busy to-morrow," she said, "and won't, I fear, be able to spare any
+leisure moments, you'd better, if you have nothing to do now, get ready
+the presents for old goody Liu, so as to enable her to conveniently
+start at early dawn to-morrow."
+
+"How could I presume to be the cause of such reckless waste?" goody Liu
+interposed. "I've already disturbed your peace and quiet for several
+days, and were I to also take your things away, I'd feel still less at
+ease in my heart!"
+
+"There's nothing much!" lady Feng protested. "They consist simply of a
+few ordinary things. But, whether good or bad, do take them along, so
+that the people in the same street as yourselves and your next-door
+neighbours may have some little excitement, and that it may look as if
+you had been on a visit to the city!"
+
+But while she endeavoured to induce the old dame to accept the presents,
+she noticed P'ing Erh approach. "Goody Liu," she remarked, "come over
+here and see!"
+
+Old goody Liu precipitately followed P'ing Erh into the room on the off
+side. Here she saw the stove-couch half full with piles of things. P'ing
+Erh took these up one by one and let her have a look at them. "This,"
+she explained, "is a roll of that green gauze you asked for yesterday.
+Besides this, our lady Feng gives you a piece of thick bluish-white
+gauze to use as lining. These are two pieces of pongee, which will do
+for wadded coats and jupes as well. In this bundle are two pieces of
+silk, for you to make clothes with, for the end of the year. This is a
+box containing various home-made cakes. Among them are some you've
+already tasted and some you haven't; so take them along, and put them in
+plates and invite your friends; they'll be ever so much better than any
+that you could buy! These two bags are those in which the melons and
+fruit were packed up yesterday. This one has been filled with two
+bushels of fine rice, grown in the imperial fields, the like of which
+for congee, it would not be easy to get. This one contains fruits from
+our garden and all kinds of dry fruits. In this packet, you'll find
+eight taels of silver. These various things are presents for you from
+our Mistress Secunda. Each of these packets contains fifty taels so that
+there are in all a hundred taels; they're the gift of Madame Wang. She
+bids you accept them so as to either carry on any trade, for which no
+big capital is required, or to purchase several acres of land, in order
+that you mayn't henceforward have any more to beg favours of relatives,
+or to depend upon friends." Continuing, she added smilingly, in a low
+tone of voice, "These two jackets, two jupes, four head bands, and a
+bundle of velvet and thread are what I give you, worthy dame, as my
+share. These clothes are, it is true, the worse for use, yet I haven't
+worn them very much. But if you disdain them, I won't be so presuming as
+to say anything."
+
+After mention of each article by P'ing Erh, goody Liu muttered the name
+of Buddha, so already she had repeated Buddha's name several thousands
+of times. But when she saw the heap of presents which P'ing Erh too
+bestowed on her, and the little ostentation with which she did it, she
+promptly smiled. "Miss!" she said, "what are you saying? Could I ever
+disdain such nice gifts as these! Had I even the money, I couldn't buy
+them anywhere. The only thing is that I feel overpowered with shame. If
+I keep them, it won't be nice, and if I don't accept them, I shall be
+showing myself ungrateful for your kind attention."
+
+"Don't utter all this irrelevant talk!" P'ing Erh laughed. "You and I
+are friends; so compose your mind and take the things I gave you just
+now! Besides, I have, on my part, something to ask of you. When the
+close of the year comes, select a few of your cabbages, dipped in lime,
+and dried in the sun, as well as some lentils, flat beans, tomatoes and
+pumpkin strips, and various sorts of dry vegetables and bring them over.
+We're all, both high or low, fond of such things. These will be quite
+enough! We don't want anything else, so don't go to any useless
+trouble!"
+
+Goody Liu gave utterance to profuse expressions of gratitude and
+signified her readiness to comply with her wishes.
+
+"Just you go to sleep," P'ing Erh urged, "and I'll get the things ready
+for you and put them in here. As soon as the day breaks to-morrow, I'll
+send the servant-lads to hire a cart and pack them in; don't you
+therefore worry yourself in the least on that score!"
+
+Goody Liu felt more and more ineffably grateful. So crossing over, she
+again said, with warm protestations of thankfulness, good bye to lady
+Feng; after which, she repaired to dowager lady Chia's quarters on this
+side, where she slept, with one sleep, during the whole night. Early the
+next day, as soon as she had combed her hair and performed her
+ablutions, she asked to go and pay her adieus to lady Chia. But as old
+lady Chia was unwell, the various members of the family came to see how
+she was getting on. On their reappearance outside, they transmitted
+orders that the doctor should be sent for. In a little time, a matron
+reported that the doctor had arrived, and an old nurse invited dowager
+lady Chia to ensconce herself under the curtain.
+
+"I'm an old woman!" lady Chia remonstrated. "Am I not aged enough to be
+a mother to that fellow? and am I, pray, to still stand on any
+ceremonies with him? There's no need to drop the curtain; I'll see him
+as I am, and have done."
+
+Hearing her objections, the matrons fetched a small table, and, laying a
+small pillow on it, they directed a servant to ask the doctor in.
+
+Presently, they perceived the trio Chia Chen, Chia Lien, and Chia Jung,
+bringing Dr. Wang. Dr. Wang did not presume to use the raised road, but
+confining himself to the side steps, he kept pace with Chia Chen until
+they reached the platform. Two matrons, who had been standing, one on
+either side from an early hour, raised the portiere. A couple of old
+women servants then took the lead and showed the way in. But Pao-yue too
+appeared on the scene to meet them.
+
+They found old lady Chia seated bolt upright on the couch, dressed in a
+blue crape jacket, lined with sheep skin, every curl of which resembled
+a pearl. On the right and left stood four young maids, whose hair had
+not as yet been allowed to grow, with fly-brushes, finger-bowls, and
+other such articles in their hands. Five or six old nurses were also
+drawn up on both sides like wings. At the back of the jade-green gauze
+mosquito-house were faintly visible several persons in red and green
+habiliments, with gems on their heads, and gold trinkets in their
+coiffures.
+
+Dr. Wang could not muster the courage to raise his head. With speedy
+step, he advanced and paid his obeisance. Dowager lady Chia noticed that
+he wore the official dress of the sixth grade, and she accordingly
+concluded that he must be an imperial physician. "How are you noble
+doctor?" she inquired, forcing a smile. "What is the worthy surname of
+this noble doctor?" she then asked Chia Chen.
+
+Chia Chen and his companions made prompt reply. "His surname is Wang,"
+they said.
+
+"There was once a certain Wang Chuen-hsiao who filled the chair of
+President of the College of Imperial Physicians," dowager lady smilingly
+proceeded. "He excelled in feeling the pulse."
+
+Dr. Wang bent his body, and with alacrity he lowered his head and
+returned her smile. "That was," he explained, "my grand uncle."
+
+"Is it really so!" laughingly pursued dowager lady Chia, upon catching
+this reply. "We can then call ourselves old friends!"
+
+So speaking, she quietly put out her hand and rested it on the small
+pillow. A nurse laid hold of a small stool and placed it before the
+small table, slightly to the side of it. Dr. Wang bent one knee and took
+a seat on the stool. Drooping his head, he felt the pulse of the one
+hand for a long while; next, he examined that of the other; after which,
+hastily making a curtsey, he bent his head and started on his way out of
+the apartment.
+
+"Excuse me for the trouble I've put you to!" dowager lady Chia smiled.
+"Chen Erh, escort him outside, and do see that he has a cup of tea."
+
+Chia Chen, Chia Lien and the rest of their companions immediately
+acquiesced by uttering several yes's, and once more they led Dr. Wang
+into the outer study.
+
+"Your worthy senior," Dr. Wang explained, "has nothing else the matter
+with her than a slight chill, which she must have inadvertently
+contracted. She needn't, after all, take any medicines; all she need do
+is to diet herself and keep warm a little; and she'll get all right. But
+I'll now write a prescription, in here. Should her venerable ladyship
+care to take any of the medicine, then prepare a dose, according to the
+prescription, and let her have it. But should she be loth to have any,
+well, never mind, it won't be of any consequence."
+
+Saying this, he wrote the prescription, as he sipped his tea. But when
+about to take his leave, he saw a nurse bring Ta Chieh-erh into the
+room. "Mr. Wang," she said, "do also have a look at our Chieh Erh!"
+
+Upon hearing her appeal, Dr. Wang immediately rose to his feet. While
+she was clasped in her nurse's arms, he rested Ta Chieh-erh's hand on
+his left hand and felt her pulse with his right, and rubbing her
+forehead, he asked her to put out her tongue and let him see it. "Were I
+to express my views about Chieh Erh, you would again abuse me! If she's,
+however, kept quiet and allowed to go hungry for a couple of meals,
+she'll get over this. There's no necessity for her to take any decocted
+medicines. I'll just send her some pills, which you'll have to dissolve
+in a preparation of ginger, and give them to her before she goes to
+sleep; when she has had these, there will be nothing more the matter
+with her."
+
+At the conclusion of these recommendations, he bade them goodbye and
+took his departure. Chia Chen and his companions then took the
+prescription and came and explained to old lady Chia the nature of her
+indisposition, and, depositing on the table, the paper given to them by
+the doctor, they quitted her presence. But nothing more need be said
+about them.
+
+Madame Wang and Li Wan, lady Feng, Pao Ch'ai and the other young ladies
+noticed, meanwhile, that the doctor had gone, and they eventually
+egressed from the back of the mosquito-house. After a short stay, Madame
+Wang returned to her quarters. Goody Liu repaired, when she perceived
+everything quiet again, into the upper rooms and made her adieus to
+dowager lady Chia.
+
+"When you've got any leisure, do pay us another visit," old lady Chia
+urged, and bidding Yuan Yang come to her, "Do be careful," she added,
+"and see dame Liu safely on her way out; for not being well I can't
+escort you myself."
+
+Goody Liu expressed her thanks, and saying good bye a second time, she
+betook herself, along with Yuean Yang, into the servants' quarters. Here
+Yuean Yang pointed at a bundle on the stove-couch. "These are," she said,
+"several articles of clothing, belonging to our old mistress; they were
+presented to her in years gone by, by members of our family on her
+birthdays and various festivals; her ladyship never wears anything made
+by people outside; yet to hoard these would be a downright pity! Indeed,
+she hasn't worn them even once. It was yesterday that she told me to get
+out two costumes and hand them to you to take along with you, either to
+give as presents, or to be worn by some one in your home; but don't make
+fun of us! In the box you'll find the flour-fruits, for which you asked.
+This bundle contains the medicines to which you alluded the other day.
+There are 'plum-blossom-spotted-tongue pills,' and 'purple-gold-
+ingot- pills,' also 'vivifying-blood-vessels-pills,' as well as
+'driving-offspring and preserving-life pills;' each kind being rolled
+up in a sheet bearing the prescription; and the whole lot of them are
+packed up in here. While these two are purses for you to wear in the way
+of ornaments." So saying, she forthwith loosened the cord, and,
+producing two ingots representing pencils, and with 'ju i' on them,
+implying 'your wishes will surely be fulfilled,' she drew near and
+showed them to her, "Take the purses," she pursued smiling, "but do
+leave these behind and give them to me."
+
+Goody Liu was so overjoyed that she had, from an early period, come out
+afresh with several thousands of invocations of Buddha's names. When she
+therefore heard Yuean Yang's suggestion, "Miss," she quickly rejoined,
+"you're at perfect liberty to keep them!"
+
+Yuean Yang perceived that her words were believed by her; so smiling she
+once more dropped the ingots into the purse. "I was only joking with you
+for fun!" she observed. "I've got a good many like these; keep them
+therefore and give them, at the close of the year, to your young
+children."
+
+Speaking the while, she espied a young maid walk in with a cup from the
+'Ch'eng' kiln, and hand it to old goody Liu. "This," (she said,) "our
+master Secundus, Mr. Pao, gives you."
+
+"Whence could I begin enumerating the things I got!" Goody Liu
+exclaimed. "In what previous existence did I accomplish anything so
+meritorious as to bring to-day this heap of blessings upon me!"
+
+With these words, she eagerly took possession of the cup.
+
+"The clothes I gave you the other day, when I asked you to have a bath,
+were my own," Yuean Yang resumed, "and if you don't think them too mean,
+I've got a few more, which I would also like to let you have."
+
+Goody Liu thanked her with vehemence, so Yuean Yang, in point of fact,
+produced several more articles of clothing, and these she packed up for
+her. Goody Liu thereupon expressed a desire to also go into the garden
+and take leave of Pao-yue and the young ladies, Madame Wang and the other
+inmates and to thank them for all they did for her, but Yuean Yang raised
+objections. "You can dispense with going!" she remarked. "They don't see
+any one just now! But I'll deliver the message for you by and bye! When
+you've got any leisure, do come again. Go to the second gate," she went
+on to direct an old matron, "and call two servant-lads to come here, and
+help this old dame to take her things away!"
+
+After the matron had signified her obedience, Yuean Yang returned with
+goody Liu to lady Feng's quarters, on the off part of the mansion, and,
+taking the presents as far as the side gate, she bade the servant-lads
+carry them out. She herself then saw goody Liu into her curricle and
+start on her journey homewards.
+
+But without commenting further on this topic, let us revert to Pao-ch'ai
+and the other girls. After breakfast, they recrossed into their
+grandmother's rooms and made inquiries about her health. On their way
+back to the garden, they reached a point where they had to take
+different roads. Pao-ch'ai then called out to Tai-yue. "P'in Erh!" she
+observed, "come with me; I've got a question to ask you."
+
+Tai-yue wended her steps therefore with Pao-ch'ai into the Heng Wu court.
+As soon as they entered the house, Pao-ch'ai threw herself into a seat.
+"Kneel down!" she smiled. "I want to examine you about something!"
+
+Tai-yue could not fathom her object, and consequently laughed. "Look
+here." she cried, "this chit Pao has gone clean off her senses! What do
+you want to examine me about?"
+
+Pao-ch'ai gave a sardonic smile. "My dear, precious girl, my dear
+maiden," she exclaimed, "what utter trash fills your mouth! Just speak
+the honest and candid truth, and finish!"
+
+Tai-yue could so little guess her meaning that her sole resource was to
+smile. Inwardly, however, she could not help beginning to experience
+certain misgivings. "What did I say?" she remarked. "You're bent upon
+picking out my faults! Speak out and let me hear what it's all about!"
+
+"Do you still pretend to be a fool?" Pao-ch'ai laughed. "When we played
+yesterday that game of wine-forfeits, what did you say? I really
+couldn't make out any head or tail."
+
+Tai-yue, after a moment's reflection, remembered eventually that she had
+the previous day been guilty of a slip of the tongue and come out with a
+couple of passages from the 'Peony Pavilion,' and the 'Record of the
+West Side-house,' and, of a sudden, her face got scarlet with blushes.
+Drawing near Pao-ch'ai she threw her arms round her. "My dear cousin!"
+she smiled, "I really wasn't conscious of what I was saying! It just
+blurted out of my mouth! But now that you've called me to task, I won't
+say such things again."
+
+"I've no idea of what you were driving at," Pao-ch'ai laughingly
+rejoined. "What I heard you recite sounds so thoroughly unfamiliar to
+me, that I beg you to enlighten me!"
+
+"Dear cousin," pleaded Tai-yue, "don't tell anyone else! I won't, in the
+future, breathe such things again."
+
+Pao-ch'ai noticed how from shame the blood rushed to her face, and how
+vehement she was in her entreaties, and she felt both to press her with
+questions; so pulling her into a seat to make her have a cup of tea, she
+said to her in a gentle tone, "Whom do you take me for? I too am
+wayward; from my youth up, yea ever since I was seven or eight, I've
+been enough trouble to people! Our family was also what one would term
+literary. My grandfather's extreme delight was to be ever with a book in
+his hand. At one time, we numbered many members, and sisters and
+brothers all lived together; but we had a distaste for wholesome books.
+Among my brothers, some were partial to verses; others had a weakness
+for blank poetical compositions; and there were none of such works as
+the 'Western side-House,' and 'the Guitar,' even up to the hundred and
+one books of the 'Yuean' authors, which they hadn't managed to get. These
+books they stealthily read behind our backs; but we, on our part,
+devoured them, on the sly, without their knowing it. Subsequently, our
+father came to get wind of it; and some of us he beat, while others he
+scolded; burning some of the books, and throwing away others. It is
+therefore as well that we girls shouldn't know anything of letters. Men,
+who study books and don't understand the right principle, can't,
+moreover, reach the standard of those, who don't go in for books; so how
+much more such as ourselves? Even versifying, writing and the like
+pursuits aren't in the line of such as you and me. Indeed, neither are
+they within the portion of men. Men, who go in for study and fathom the
+right principles, should cooperate in the government of the empire, and
+should rule the nation; this would be a nobler purpose; but one doesn't
+now-a-days hear of the very existence of such persons! Hence, the study
+of books makes them worse than they ever were before. But it isn't the
+books that ruin them; the misfortune is that they make improper use of
+books! That is why study doesn't come up to ploughing and sowing and
+trading; as these pursuits exercise no serious pernicious influences. As
+far, however, as you and I go, we should devote our minds simply to
+matters connected with needlework and spinning; for we will then be
+fulfilling our legitimate duties. Yet, it so happens that we too know a
+few characters. But, as we can read, it behoves us to choose no other
+than wholesome works; for these will do us no harm! What are most to be
+shirked are those low books, as, when once they pervert the disposition,
+there remains no remedy whatever!"
+
+While she indulged in this long rigmarole, Tai-yue lowered her head and
+sipped her tea. And though she secretly shared the same views on the
+subject, all the answer she gave her in assent was limited to one single
+word 'yes.' But at an unexpected moment, Su Yuen appeared in the room.
+"Our lady Lien," she said, "requests the presence of both of you, young
+ladies, to consult with you in an important matter. Miss Secunda, Miss
+Tertia, Miss Quarta, Miss Shih and Mr. Pao, our master Secundus, are
+there waiting for you."
+
+"What's up again?" Pao-ch'ai inquired.
+
+"You and I will know what it is when we get there," Tai-yue explained.
+
+So saying, she came, with Pao-ch'ai, into the Tao Hsiang village. Here
+they, in fact, discovered every one assembled. As soon as Li Wan caught
+sight of the two cousins, she smiled. "The society has barely been
+started," she observed, "and here's one who wants to give us the slip;
+that girl Quarta wishes to apply for a whole year's leave."
+
+"It's that single remark of our worthy senior's yesterday that is at the
+bottom of it!" Tai-yue laughed. "For by bidding her execute some painting
+or other of the garden, she has put her in such high feather that she
+applies for leave!"
+
+"Don't be so hard upon our dear ancestor!" Pao-Ch'ai rejoined, a smile
+playing on her lips. "It's entirely due to that allusion of grandmother
+Liu's."
+
+Tai-yue speedily took up the thread of the conversation. "Quite so!" she
+smiled. "It's all through that remark of hers! But of what branch of the
+family is she a grandmother? We should merely address her as the 'female
+locust;' that's all."
+
+As she spoke, one and all were highly amused.
+
+"When any mortal language finds its way into that girl Feng's mouth,"
+Pao-ch'ai laughed, "she knows how to turn it to the best account! What a
+fortunate thing it is that that vixen Feng has no idea of letters and
+can't boast of much culture! Her _forte_ is simply such vulgar
+things as suffice to raise a laugh! Worse than her is that P'in Erh with
+that coarse tongue! She has recourse to the devices of the 'Ch'un
+Ch'iu'! By selecting, from the vulgar expressions used in low slang, the
+most noteworthy points, she eliminates what's commonplace, and makes,
+with the addition of a little elegance and finish, her style so much
+like that of the text that each sentence has a peculiar character of its
+own! The three words representing 'female locust' bring out clearly the
+various circumstances connected with yesterday! The wonder is that she
+has been so quick in devising them!"
+
+After lending an ear to her arguments, they all laughed. "Those
+explanations of yours," they cried, "show well enough that you are not
+below those two!"
+
+"Pray, let's consult as to how many days' leave to grant her!" Li Wan
+proposed. "I gave her a month, but she thinks it too little. What do you
+say about it?"
+
+"Properly speaking," Tai-yue put in, "one year isn't much! The laying out
+of this garden occupied a whole year; and to paint a picture of it now
+will certainly need two years' time. She'll have to rub the ink, to
+moisten the pencils, to stretch the paper, to mix the pigments, and
+to...."
+
+When she had reached this point, even Tai-yue could not restrain herself
+from laughing. "If she goes on so leisurely to work," she exclaimed,
+"won't she require two years' time?"
+
+Those, who caught this insinuation, clapped their hands and indulged in
+incessant merriment.
+
+"Her innuendoes are full of zest!" Pao-ch'ai ventured laughingly. "But
+what takes the cake is that last remark about leisurely going to work,
+for if she weren't to paint at all, how could she ever finish her task?
+Hence those jokes cracked yesterday were, sufficient, of course, to
+evoke laughter, but, on second thought, they're devoid of any fun! Just
+you carefully ponder over P'in Erh's words! Albeit they don't amount to
+much, you'll nevertheless find, when you come to reflect on them, that
+there's plenty of gusto about them. I've really had such a laugh over
+them that I can scarcely move!
+
+"It's the way that cousin Pao-ch'ai puffs her up," Hsi Ch'un observed
+"that makes her so much the more arrogant that she turns me also into a
+laughing-stock now!"
+
+Tai-yue hastily smiled and pulled her towards her. "Let me ask you," she
+said, "are you only going to paint the garden, or will you insert us in
+it as well?"
+
+"My original idea was to have simply painted the garden," Hsi Ch'un
+explained; "but our worthy senior told me again yesterday that a mere
+picture of the grounds would resemble the plan of a house, and
+recommended that I should introduce some inmates too so as to make it
+look like what a painting should. I've neither the knack for the fine
+work necessary for towers and terraces, nor have I the skill to draw
+representations of human beings; but as I couldn't very well raise any
+objections, I find myself at present on the horns of a dilemma about
+it!"
+
+"Human beings are an easy matter!" Tai-yue said. "What beats you are
+insects."
+
+"Here you are again with your trash!" Li Wan exclaimed. "Will there be
+any need to also introduce insects in it? As far, however, as birds go,
+it may probably be advisable to introduce one or two kinds!"
+
+"If any other insects are not put in the picture," Tai-yue smiled, "it
+won't matter; but without yesterday's female locust in it, it will fall
+short of the original?"
+
+This retort evoked further general amusement. While Tai-yue laughed, she
+beat her chest with both hands. "Begin painting at once!" she cried.
+"I've even got the title all ready. The name I've chosen is, 'Picture of
+a locust brought in to have a good feed.'"
+
+At these words, they laughed so much the more heartily that at a time
+they bent forward, and at another they leant back. But a sound of "Ku
+tung" then fell on their ears, and unable to make out what could have
+dropped, they anxiously and precipitately looked about. It was, they
+found, Shih Hsiang-yuen, who had been reclining on the back of the chair.
+The chair had, from the very outset, not been put in a sure place, and
+while indulging in hearty merriment she threw her whole weight on the
+back. She did not, besides, notice that the dovetails on each side had
+come out, so with a tilt towards the east, she as well as the chair
+toppled over in a heap. Luckily, the wooden partition-wall was close
+enough to arrest her fall, and she did not sprawl on the ground. The
+sight of her created more amusement than ever among all her relatives;
+so much so, that they could scarcely regain their equilibrium. It was
+only after Pao-yue had rushed up to her, and given her a hand and raised
+her to her feet again that they at last managed to gradually stop
+laughing.
+
+Pao-yue then winked at Tai-yue. Tai-yue grasped his meaning, and, forthwith
+withdrawing into the inner room, she lifted the cover of the mirror, and
+looked at her face. She found the hair about her temples slightly
+dishevelled, so, promptly opening Li Wan's toilet-case, and extracting a
+narrow brush, she stood in front of the mirror, and smoothed it down
+with a few touches. Afterwards, laying the brush in its place she
+stepped into the outer suite. "Is this," she said pointing at Li Wan,
+"doing what you're told and showing us how to do needlework and teaching
+us manners? Why, instead of that, you press us to come here and have a
+good romp and a hearty laugh!"
+
+"Just you listen to her perverse talk," Li Wan laughed. "She takes the
+lead and kicks up a rumpus, and incites people to laugh, and then she
+throws the blame upon me! In real truth, she's a despicable thing! What
+I wish is that you should soon get some dreadful mother-in-law, and
+several crotchety and abominable older and younger sisters-in-law, and
+we'll see then whether you'll still be as perverse or not!"
+
+Tai-yue at once became quite scarlet in the face, and pulling Pao-ch'ai,
+"Let us," she added, "give her a whole year's leave!"
+
+"I've got an impartial remark to make. Listen to me all of you!"
+Pao-ch'ai chimed in. "Albeit the girl, Ou, may have some idea about
+painting, all she can manage are just a few outline sketches, so that
+unless, now that she has to accomplish the picture of this garden, she
+can lay a claim to some ingenuity, will she ever be able to succeed in
+effecting a painting? This garden resembles a regular picture. The
+rockeries and trees, towers and pavilions, halls and houses are, as far
+as distances and density go, neither too numerous, nor too few. Such as
+it is, it is fitly laid out; but were you to put it on paper in strict
+compliance with the original, why, it will surely not elicit admiration.
+In a thing like this, it's necessary to pay due care to the various
+positions and distances on paper, whether they should be large or
+whether small; and to discriminate between main and secondary; adding
+what is needful to add, concealing and reducing what should be concealed
+and reduced, and exposing to view what should remain visible. As soon as
+a rough copy is executed, it should again be considered in all its
+details, for then alone will it assume the semblance of a picture. In
+the second place, all these towers, terraces and structures must be
+distinctly delineated; for with just a trifle of inattention, the
+railings will slant, the pillars will be topsy-turvy, doors and windows
+will recline in a horizontal position, steps will separate, leaving
+clefts between them, and even tables will be crowded into the walls, and
+flower-pots piled on portieres; and won't it, instead of turning out
+into a picture, be a mere caricature? Thirdly, proper care must also be
+devoted, in the insertion of human beings, to density and height, to the
+creases of clothing, to jupes and sashes, to fingers, hands, and feet,
+as these are most important details; for if even one stroke be not
+thoroughly executed, then, if the hands be not swollen, the feet will be
+made to look as if they were lame. The colouring of faces and the
+drawing of the hair are minor points; but, in my own estimation, they
+really involve intense difficulty. Now a year's leave is, on one hand,
+too excessive, and a month's is, on the other, too little; so just give
+her half a year's leave. Depute, besides, cousin Pao-yue to lend her a
+hand in her task. Not that cousin Pao knows how to give any hints about
+painting; that in itself would be more of a drawback; but in order that,
+in the event of there being anything that she doesn't comprehend, or of
+anything perplexing her as to how best to insert it, cousin Pao may take
+the picture outside and make the necessary inquiries of those gentlemen,
+who excel in painting. Matters will thus be facilitated for her."
+
+At this suggestion Pao-yue was the first to feel quite enchanted. "This
+proposal is first-rate!" he exclaimed. "The towers and terraces minutely
+executed by Chan Tzu-liang are so perfect, and the beauties painted by
+Ch'eng Jih-hsing so extremely fine that I'll go at once and ask them of
+them!"
+
+"I've always said that you fuss for nothing!" Pao-ch'ai interposed. "I
+merely passed a cursory remark, and there you want to go immediately and
+ask for things. Do wait until we arrive at some decision in our
+deliberations, and then you can go! But let's consider now what would be
+best to use to paint the picture on?"
+
+"I've got, in my quarters," Pao-yue answered, "some snow-white, wavy
+paper, which is both large in size, and proof against ink as well."
+
+Pao-ch'ai gave a sarcastic smile. "I do maintain," she cried, "that you
+are a perfectly useless creature! That snow-white, wavy paper is good
+for pictures consisting of characters and for outline drawings. Or else,
+those who have the knack of making landscapes, use it for depicting
+scenery of the southern Sung era, as it resists ink and is strong enough
+to bear coarse painting. But were you to employ this sort of paper to
+make a picture of this garden on, it will neither stand the colours, nor
+will it be easy to dry the painting by the fire. So not only won't it be
+suitable, but it will be a pity too to waste the paper. I'll tell you a
+way how to get out of this. When this garden was first laid out, some
+detailed plan was used, which although executed by a mere
+house-decorator, was perfect with regard to sites and bearings. You'd
+better therefore ask for it of your worthy mother, and apply as well to
+lady Feng for a piece of thick glazed lustring of the size of that
+paper, and hand them to the gentlemen outside, and request them to
+prepare a rough copy for you, with any alterations or additions as might
+be necessary to make so as to accord with the style of these grounds.
+All that will remain to be done will be to introduce a few human beings;
+no more. Then when you have to match the azure and green pigments as
+well as the ground gold and ground silver, you can get those people
+again to do so for you. But you'll also have to bring an extra portable
+stove, so as to have it handy for melting the glue, and for washing your
+pencils, after you've taken the glue off. You further require a large
+table, painted white and covered with a cloth. That lot of small dishes
+you have aren't sufficient; your pencils too are not enough. It will be
+well consequently for you to purchase a new set of each."
+
+"Do I own such a lot of painting materials!" Hsi Ch'un exclaimed. "Why,
+I simply use any pencil that first comes under my hand to paint with;
+that's all. And as for pigments, I've only got four kinds, ochrey stone,
+'Kuang' flower paint, rattan yellow and rouge. Besides these, all I have
+amount to a couple of pencils for applying colours; no more."
+
+"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Pao-ch'ai remarked. "I've still got
+some of these things remaining. But you don't need them, so were I to
+give you any, they'd lie uselessly about. I'll put them away for you now
+for a time, and, when you want them, I'll let you have some. You should,
+however, keep them for the exclusive purpose of painting fans; for were
+you to paint such big things with them it would be a pity! I'll draw out
+a list for you to-day to enable you to go and apply to our worthy senior
+for the items; as it isn't likely that you people can possibly know all
+that's required. I'll dictate them, and cousin Pao can write them down!"
+
+Pao-yue had already got a pencil and inkslab ready, for, fearing lest he
+might not remember clearly the various necessaries, he had made up his
+mind to write a memorandum of them; so the moment he heard Pao-ch'ai's
+suggestion, he cheerfully took up his pencil, and listened quietly.
+
+"Four pencils of the largest size," Pao-ch'ai commenced, "four of the
+third size; four of the second size; four pencils for applying colours
+on big ground; four on medium ground; four for small ground; ten claws
+of large southern crabs; ten claws of small crabs; ten pencils for
+painting side-hair and eyebrows; twenty for laying heavy colours; twenty
+for light colours; ten for painting faces; twenty willow-twigs; four
+ounces of 'arrow head' pearls; four ounces of southern ochre; four
+ounces of stone yellow; four ounces of dark green; four ounces of
+malachite; four ounces of tube-yellow; eight ounces of 'kuang' flower;
+four boxes of lead powder; ten sheets of rouge; two hundred sheets of
+thin red-gold leaves; two hundred sheets of lead; four ounces of smooth
+glue, from the two Kuang; and four ounces of pure alum. The glue and
+alum for sizing the lustring are not included, so don't bother
+yourselves about them, but just take the lustring and give it to them
+outside to size it with alum for you. You and I can scour and clarify
+all these pigments, and thus amuse ourselves, and prepare them for use
+as well. I feel sure you'll have an ample supply to last you a whole
+lifetime. But you must also get ready four sieves of fine lustring; a
+pair of coarse ones; four brush-pencils; four bowls, some large, some
+small; twenty large, coarse saucers; ten five-inch plates; twenty
+three-inch coarse, white plates; two stoves; four large and small
+earthenware pans; two new porcelain jars; four new water buckets; four
+one-foot-long bags, made of white cloth; two catties of light charcoal;
+one or two catties of willow-wood charcoal; a wooden box with three
+drawers; a yard of thick gauze, two ounces of fresh ginger; half a catty
+of soy;..."
+
+"An iron kettle and an iron shovel," hastily chimed in Tai-yue with a
+smile full of irony.
+
+"To do what with them?" Pao-ch'ai inquired.
+
+"You ask for fresh ginger, soy and all these condiments, so I indent for
+an iron kettle for you to cook the paints and eat them." Tai-yue
+answered, to the intense merriment of one and all, who gave way to
+laughter.
+
+"What do you, P'in Erh, know about these things?" Pao-ch'ai laughed. "I
+am not certain in my mind that you won't put those coarse coloured
+plates straightway on the fire. But unless you take the precaution
+beforehand of rubbing the bottom with ginger juice, mixed with soy, and
+of warming them dry, they're bound to crack, the moment they experience
+the least heat."
+
+"It's really so," they exclaimed with one voice, after this explanation.
+
+Tai-yue perused the list for a while. She then smiled and gave T'an Ch'un
+a tug. "Just see," she whispered, "we want to paint a picture, and she
+goes on indenting for a number of water jars and boxes! But, I presume,
+she's got so muddled, that she inserts a list of articles needed for her
+trousseau."
+
+T'an Ch'un, at her remark, laughed with such heartiness, that it was all
+she could do to check herself. "Cousin Pao," she observed, "don't you
+wring her mouth? Just ask her what disparaging things she said about
+you."
+
+"Why need I ask?" Pao-ch'ai smiled. "Is it likely, pray, that you can
+get ivory out of a cur's mouth?"
+
+Speaking the while, she drew near, and, seizing Tai-yue, she pressed her
+down on the stove-couch with the intention of pinching her face. Tai-yue
+smilingly hastened to implore for grace. "My dear cousin," she cried,
+"spare me! P'in Erh is young in years; all she knows is to talk at
+random; she has no idea of what's proper and what's improper. But you
+are my elder cousin, so teach me how to behave. If you, cousin, don't
+let me off, to whom can I go and address my entreaties?"
+
+Little did, however, all who heard her apprehend that there lurked some
+hidden purpose in her insinuations. "She's right there," they
+consequently pleaded smilingly. "So much is she to be pitied that even
+we have been mollified; do spare her and finish!"
+
+Pao-ch'ai had, at first, meant to play with her, but when she unawares
+heard her drag in again the advice she had tendered her the other day,
+with regard to the reckless perusal of unwholesome books, she at once
+felt as if she could not have any farther fuss with her, and she let her
+rise to her feet.
+
+"It's you, after all, elder cousin," Tai-yue laughed. "Had it been I, I
+wouldn't have let any one off."
+
+Pao-ch'ai smiled and pointed at her. "It is no wonder," she said, "that
+our dear ancestor doats on you and that every one loves you. Even I have
+to-day felt my heart warm towards you! But come here and let me put your
+hair up for you!"
+
+Tai-yue then, in very deed, swung herself round and crossed over to her.
+Pao-ch'ai arranged her coiffure with her hands. Pao-yue, who stood by and
+looked on, thought the style, in which her hair was being made up,
+better than it was before. But, of a sudden, he felt sorry at what had
+happened, as he fancied that she should not have let her brush her side
+hair, but left it alone for the time being and asked him to do it for
+her. While, however, he gave way to these erratic thoughts, he heard
+Pao-ch'ai speak. "We've done with what there was to write," she said,
+"so you'd better tomorrow go and tell grandmother about the things. If
+there be any at home, well and good; but if not, get some money to buy
+them with. I'll then help you both in your preparations."
+
+Pao-yue vehemently put the list away; after which, they all joined in a
+further chat on irrelevant matters; and, their evening meal over, they
+once more repaired into old lady Chia's apartments to wish her
+good-night. Their grandmother had, indeed, had nothing serious the
+matter with her. Her ailment had amounted mainly to fatigue, to which a
+slight chill had been super-added, so that having kept in the warm room
+for the day and taken a dose or two of medicine, she entirely got over
+the effects, and felt, in the evening, quite like own self again.
+
+But, reader, the occurrences of the next day areas yet a mystery to you,
+but the nest chapter will divulge them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+ Having time to amuse themselves, the Chia inmates raise, when least
+ expected, funds to celebrate lady Feng's birthday.
+ In his ceaseless affection for Chin Ch'uen, Pao-yue uses, for the
+ occasion, a pinch of earth as incense and burns it.
+
+
+When Madame Wang saw, for we will now proceed with our narrative, that
+the extent of dowager lady Chia's indisposition, contracted on the day
+she had been into the garden of Broad Vista, amounted to a simple chill,
+that no serious ailment had supervened, and that her health had improved
+soon after the doctor had been sent for and she had taken a couple of
+doses of medicine, she called lady Feng to her and asked her to get
+ready a present of some kind for her to take to her husband, Chia Cheng.
+But while they were engaged in deliberation, they perceived a
+waiting-maid arrive. She came from their old senior's part to invite
+them to go to her. So, with speedy step, Madame Wang led the way for
+lady Feng, and they came over into her quarters.
+
+"Pray, may I ask," Madame Wang then inquired, "whether you're feeling
+nearly well again now?"
+
+"I'm quite all right to-day," old lady Chia replied. "I've tasted the
+young-pheasant soup you sent me a little time back and find it full of
+relish. I've also had two pieces of meat, so I feel quite comfortable
+within me."
+
+"These dainties were presented to you, dear ancestor, by that girl
+Feng," Madame Wang smiled. "It only shows how sincere her filial piety
+is. She does not render futile the love, which you, venerable senior,
+ever lavish on her."
+
+Dowager lady Chia nodded her head assentingly. "She's too kind to think
+of me!" she answered smiling. "But should there be any more uncooked,
+let them fry a couple of pieces; and, if these be thoroughly immersed in
+wine, the congee will taste well with them. The soup is, it's true,
+good, but it shouldn't, properly speaking, be prepared with fine rice."
+
+After listening to her wishes, lady Feng expressed with alacrity her
+readiness to see them executed, and directed a servant to go and deliver
+the message in the cook-house.
+
+"I sent the servant for you," dowager lady Chia meanwhile said to Madame
+Wang with a smile, "not for anything else, but for the birthday of that
+girl Feng, which falls on the second. I had made up my mind two years
+ago to celebrate her birthday in proper style, but when the time came,
+there happened to be again something important to attend to, and it went
+by without anything being done. But this year, the inmates are, on one
+hand, all here, and there won't, I fancy, be, on the other, anything to
+prevent us, so we should all do our best to enjoy ourselves thoroughly
+for a day."
+
+"I was thinking the same thing," Madame Wang rejoined, laughingly, "and,
+since it's your good pleasure, venerable senior, why, shouldn't we
+deliberate at once and decide upon something?"
+
+"To the best of my recollection," dowager lady Chia resumed smiling,
+"whenever in past years I've had any birthday celebrations for any one
+of us, no matter who it was, we have ever individually sent our
+respective presents; but this method is common and is also apt, I think,
+to look very much as if there were some disunion. But I'll now devise a
+new way; a way, which won't have the effect of creating any discord, and
+will be productive of good cheer."
+
+"Let whatever way you may think best, dear ancestor, be adopted." Madame
+Wang eagerly rejoined.
+
+"My idea is," old lady Chia laughingly continued, "that we too should
+follow the example of those poor families and raise a subscription among
+ourselves, and devote the whole of whatever we may collect to meet the
+outlay for the necessary preparations. What do you say, will this do or
+not?"
+
+"This is a splendid idea!" Madame Wang acquiesced. "But what will, I
+wonder, be the way adopted for raising contributions?"
+
+Old lady Chia was the more inspirited by her reply. There and then she
+despatched servants to go and invite Mrs. Hsueeh, Madame Hsing and the
+rest of the ladies, and bade others summon the young ladies and Pao-yue.
+But from the other mansion, Chia Chen's spouse, Lai Ta's wife, even up
+to the wives of such stewards as enjoyed a certain amount of
+respectability, were likewise to be asked to come round.
+
+The sight of their old mistress' delight filled the waiting-maids and
+married women with high glee as well; and each hurried with vehemence to
+execute her respective errand. Those that were to be invited were
+invited, and those that had to be sent for were sent for; and, before
+the lapse of such time as could suffice to have a meal in, the old as
+well as young, the high as well as low, crammed, in a black mass, every
+bit of the available space in the rooms.
+
+Only Mrs. Hsueeh and dowager lady Chia sat opposite to each other.
+Mesdames Hsing and Wang simply seated themselves on two chairs, which
+faced the door of the apartment. Pao-ch'ai and her five or six cousins
+occupied the stove-couch. Pao-yue sat on his grandmother's lap. Below,
+the whole extent of the floor was crowded with inmates on their feet.
+But old lady Chia forthwith desired that a few small stools should be
+fetched. When brought, these were proffered to Lai Ta's mother and some
+other nurses, who were advanced in years and held in respect; for it was
+the custom in the Chia mansion that the family servants, who had waited
+upon any of the fathers or mothers, should enjoy a higher status than
+even young masters and mistresses. Hence it was that while Mrs. Yu, lady
+Feng and other ladies remained standing below, Lai Ta's mother and three
+or four other old nurses had, after excusing themselves for their
+rudeness, seated themselves on small stools.
+
+Dowager lady Chia recounted, with a face beaming with smiles, the
+suggestions she had shortly made, for the benefit of the various inmates
+present; and one and all, of course, were only too ready to contribute
+for the entertainment. More, some of them, were on friendly terms with
+lady Feng, so they, of their own free will, adopted the proposal; others
+lived in fear and trembling of lady Feng, and these were only too
+anxious to make up to her. Every one, besides, could well afford the
+means, so that, as soon as they heard of the proposed subscriptions,
+they, with one consent, signified their acquiescence.
+
+"I'll give twenty taels!" old lady Chia was the first to say with a
+smile playing round her lips.
+
+"I'll follow your lead, dear senior," Mrs. Hsueeh smiled, "and also
+subscribe twenty taels."
+
+"We don't presume to place ourselves on an equal footing with your
+ladyship," Mesdames Hsing and Wang pleaded. "We, of course, come one
+degree lower; each of us therefore will contribute sixteen taels."
+
+"We too naturally rank one step lower," Mrs. Yu and Li Wan also smiled,
+"so we'll each give twelve taels."
+
+"You're a widow," dowager lady Chia eagerly demurred, addressing herself
+to Li Wan, "and have lost all your estate, so how could we drag you into
+all this outlay! I'll contribute for you!"
+
+"Don't be in such high feather dear senior," lady Feng hastily observed
+laughing, "but just look to your accounts before you saddle yourself
+with this burden! You've already taken upon yourself two portions; and
+do you now also volunteer sixteen taels on behalf of my elder
+sister-in-law? You may willingly do so, while you speak in the abundance
+of your spirits, but when you, by and bye, come to ponder over what
+you've done, you'll feel sore at heart again! 'It's all that girl Feng
+that's driven me to spend the money,' you'll say in a little time; and
+you'll devise some ingenious way to inveigle me to fork out three or
+four times as much as your share and thus make up your deficit in an
+underhand way; while I will still be as much in the clouds as if I were
+in a dream!"
+
+These words made every one laugh.
+
+"According to you, what should be done?" dowager lady Chia laughingly
+inquired.
+
+"My birthday hasn't yet come," lady Feng smiled; "and already now I've
+been the recipient of so much more than I deserve that I am quite
+unhappy. But if I don't contribute a single cash, I shall feel really
+ill at ease for the trouble I shall be giving such a lot of people. It
+would be as well, therefore, that I should bear this share of my senior
+sister-in-law; and, when the day comes, I can eat a few more things, and
+thus be able to enjoy some happiness."
+
+"Quite right!" cried Madame Hsing and the others at this suggestion. So
+old lady Chia then signified her approval.
+
+"There's something more I'd like to add," lady Feng pursued smiling. "I
+think that it's fair enough that you, worthy ancestor, should, besides
+your own twenty taels, have to stand two shares as well, the one for
+cousin Liu, the other for cousin Pao-yue, and that Mrs. Hsueeh should,
+beyond her own twenty taels, likewise bear cousin Pao-ch'ai's portion.
+But it's somewhat unfair that the two ladies Mesdames Hsing and Wang
+should each only give sixteen taels, when their share is small, and when
+they don't subscribe anything for any one else. It's you, venerable
+senior, who'll be the sufferer by this arrangement."
+
+Dowager lady Chia, at these words, burst out into a boisterous fit of
+laughter. "It's this hussey Feng," she observed, "who, after all, takes
+my side! What you say is quite right. Hadn't it been for you, I would
+again have been duped by them!"
+
+"Dear senior!" lady Feng smiled. Just hand over our two cousins to those
+two ladies and let each take one under her charge and finish. If you
+make each contribute one share, it will be square enough."
+
+"This is perfectly fair," eagerly rejoined old lady Chia. "Let this
+suggestion be carried out!"
+
+Lai Ta's mother hastily stood up. "This is such a subversion of right,"
+she smiled, "that I'll put my back up on account of the two ladies.
+She's a son's wife, on the other side, and, in here, only a wife's
+brother's child; and yet she doesn't incline towards her mother-in-law
+and her aunt, but takes other people's part. This son's wife has
+therefore become a perfect stranger; and a close niece has, in fact,
+become a distant niece!"
+
+As she said this, dowager lady Chia and every one present began to
+laugh. "If the junior ladies subscribe twelve taels each," Lai Ta's
+mother went on to ask, "we must, as a matter of course, also come one
+degree lower; eh?"
+
+Upon hearing this, old lady Chia remonstrated. "This won't do!" she
+observed. "You naturally should rank one degree lower, but you're all, I
+am well aware, wealthy people; and, in spite of your status being
+somewhat lower, your funds are more flourishing than theirs. It's only
+just then that you should be placed on the same standing as those
+people!"
+
+The posse of nurses expressed with promptness their acceptance of the
+proposal their old mistress made.
+
+"The young ladies," dowager lady Chia resumed, "should merely give
+something for the sake of appearances! If each one contributes a sum
+proportionate to her monthly allowance, it will be ample!" Turning her
+head, "Yuean Yang!" she cried, "a few of you should assemble in like
+manner, and consult as to what share you should take in the matter. So
+bring them along!"
+
+Yuean Yang assured her that her desires would be duly attended to and
+walked away. But she had not been absent for any length of time, when
+she appeared on the scene along with P'ing Erh, Hsi Jen, Ts'ai Hsia and
+other girls, and a number of waiting-maids as well. Of these, some
+subscribed two taels; others contributed one tael.
+
+"Can it be," dowager lady Chia then said to P'ing Erh, "that you don't
+want any birthday celebrated for your mistress, that you don't range
+yourself also among them?"
+
+"The other money I gave," P'ing Erh smiled, "I gave privately, and is
+extra." "This is what I am publicly bound to contribute along with the
+lot."
+
+"That's a good child!" lady Chia laughingly rejoined.
+
+"Those above as well as those below have all alike given their share,"
+lady Feng went on to observe with a smile. "But there are still those
+two secondary wives; are they to give anything or not? Do go and ask
+them! It's but right that we should go to the extreme length and include
+them. Otherwise, they'll imagine that we've looked down upon them!"
+
+"Just so!" eagerly answered lady Chia, at these words. "How is it that
+we forgot all about them? The only thing is, I fear, they've got no time
+to spare; yet, tell a servant-girl to go and ask them what they'll do!"
+
+While she spoke, a servant-girl went off. After a long absence, she
+returned. "Each of them," she reported, "will likewise contribute two
+taels."
+
+Dowager lady Chia was delighted with the result. "Fetch a pen and
+inkslab," she cried, "and let's calculate how much they amount to, all
+together."
+
+Mrs. Yu abused lady Feng in a low tone of voice. "I'll take you, you
+mean covetous creature, and ... ! All these mothers-in-law and
+sisters-in-law have come forward and raised money to celebrate your
+birthday, and are you yet not satisfied that you must also drag in those
+two miserable beings! But what do you do it for?"
+
+"Try and talk less trash!" lady Feng smiled; also in an undertone.
+"We'll be leaving this place in a little time and then I'll square up
+accounts with you! But why ever are those two miserable? When they have
+money, they uselessly give it to other people; and isn't it better that
+we should get hold of it, and enjoy ourselves with it?"
+
+While she uttered these taunts, they computed that the collections would
+reach a sum over and above one hundred and fifty taels.
+
+"We couldn't possibly run through all this for a day's theatricals and
+banquet!" old lady Chia exclaimed.
+
+"As no outside guests are to be invited," Mrs. Yu interposed, "and the
+number of tables won't also be many, there will be enough to cover two
+or three days' outlay! First of all, there won't be anything to spend
+for theatricals, so we'll effect a saving on that item."
+
+"Just call whatever troupe that girl Feng may say she likes best,"
+dowager lady Chia suggested.
+
+"We've heard quite enough of the performances of that company of ours,"
+lady Feng said; "let's therefore spend a little money and send for
+another, and see what they can do."
+
+"I leave that to you, brother Chen's wife," old lady Chia pursued, "in
+order that our girl Feng should have occasion to trouble her mind with
+as little as possible, and be able to enjoy a day's peace and quiet.
+It's only right that she should."
+
+Mrs. Yu replied that she would be only too glad to do what she could.
+They then prolonged their chat for a little longer, until one and all
+realised that their old senior must be quite fagged out, and they
+gradually dispersed.
+
+After seeing Mesdames Hsing and Wang off, Mrs. Yu and the other ladies
+adjourned into lady Feng's rooms to consult with her about the birthday
+festivities.
+
+"Don't ask me!" lady Feng urged. "Do whatever will please our worthy
+ancestor."
+
+"What a fine thing you are to come across such a mighty piece of luck!"
+Mrs. Yu smiled. "I was wondering what had happened that she summoned us
+all! Why, was it simply on this account? Not to breathe a word about the
+money that I'll have to contribute, must I have trouble and annoyance to
+bear as well? How will you show me any thanks?"
+
+"Don't bring shame upon yourself!" lady Feng laughed. "I didn't send for
+you; so why should I be thankful to you! If you funk the exertion, go at
+once and let our venerable senior know, and she'll depute some one else
+and have done."
+
+"You go on like this as you see her in such excellent spirits, that's
+why!" Mrs. Yu smilingly answered. "It would be well, I advise you, to
+pull in a bit; for if you be too full of yourself, you'll get your due
+reward!"
+
+After some further colloquy, these two ladies eventually parted company.
+
+On the next day, the money was sent over to the Ning Kuo Mansion at the
+very moment that Mrs. Yu had got up, and was performing her toilette and
+ablutions. "Who brought it?" she asked.
+
+"Nurse Lin," the servant-girl said by way of response.
+
+"Call her in," Mrs. Yu said.
+
+The servant-girls walked as far as the lower rooms and called Lin
+Chih-hsiao's wife to come in. Mrs. Yu bade her seat herself on the
+footstool. While she hurriedly combed her hair and washed her face and
+hands, she wanted to know how much the bundle contained in all.
+
+"This is what's subscribed by us servants." Lin Chih-hsiao's wife
+replied, "and so I collected it and brought it over first. As for the
+contributions of our venerable mistress, and those of the ladies, they
+aren't ready yet."
+
+But simultaneously with this reply, the waiting-maids announced: "Our
+lady of the other mansion and Mrs. Hsueeh have sent over some one with
+their portions."
+
+"You mean wenches!" Mrs. Yu cried, scolding them with a smile. "All the
+gumption you've got is to simply bear in mind this sort of nonsense! In
+a fit of good cheer, your old mistress yesterday purposely expressed a
+wish to imitate those poor people, and raise a subscription. But you at
+once treasured it up in your memory, and, when the thing came to be
+canvassed by you, you treated it in real earnest! Don't you yet quick
+bundle yourselves out, and bring the money in! Be careful and give them
+some tea before you see them off."
+
+The waiting-maids smilingly hastened to go and take delivery of the
+money and bring it in. It consisted, in all, of two bundles, and
+contained Pao-ch'ai's and Tai-yue's shares as well.
+
+"Whose shares are wanting?" Mrs. Yu asked.
+
+"Those of our old lady, of Madame Wang, the young ladies, and of our
+girls below are still missing," Lin Chih-hsiao's wife explained.
+
+"There's also that of your senior lady," Mrs. Yu proceeded.
+
+"You'd better hurry over, my lady," Lin Chih-hsiao's wife said; "for as
+this money will be issued through our mistress Secunda, she'll nobble
+the whole of it."
+
+While conversing, Mrs. Yu finished arranging her coiffure and performing
+her ablutions; and, giving orders to see that the carriage was got
+ready, she shortly arrived at the Jung mansion. First and foremost she
+called on lady Feng. Lady Feng, she discovered, had already put the
+money into a packet, and was on the point of sending it over.
+
+"Is it all there?" Mrs. Yu asked.
+
+"Yes, it is," lady Feng smiled, "so you might as well take it away at
+once; for if it gets mislaid, I've nothing to do with it."
+
+"I'm somewhat distrustful," Mrs. Yu laughed, "so I'd like to check it in
+your presence."
+
+These words over, she verily checked sum after sum. She found Li Wan's
+share alone wanting. "I said that you were up to tricks!" laughingly
+observed Mrs. Yu. "How is it that your elder sister-in-law's isn't
+here?"
+
+"There's all that money; and isn't it yet enough?" lady Feng smiled. "If
+there's merely a portion short it shouldn't matter! Should the money
+prove insufficient, I can then look you up, and give it to you."
+
+"When the others were present yesterday," Mrs. Yu pursued, "you were
+ready enough to act as any human being would; but here you're again
+to-day prevaricating with me! I won't, by any manner of means, agree to
+this proposal of yours! I'll simply go and ask for the money of our
+venerable senior."
+
+"I see how dreadful you are!" lady Feng laughed. "But when something
+turns up by and bye, I'll also be very punctilious; so don't you then
+bear me a grudge!"
+
+"Well, never mind if you don't give your quota!" Mrs. Yu smilingly
+rejoined. "Were it not that I consider the dutiful attentions you've all
+along shown me would I ever be ready to humour you?"
+
+So rejoining, she produced P'ing Erh's share. "P'ing Erh, come here,"
+she cried, "take this share of yours and put it away! Should the money
+collected turn out to be below what's absolutely required, I'll make up
+the sum for you."
+
+P'ing Erh apprehended her meaning. "My lady," she answered, with a
+cheerful countenance, "it would come to the same thing if you were to
+first spend what you want and to give me afterwards any balance that may
+remain of it."
+
+"Is your mistress alone to be allowed to do dishonest acts," Mrs. Yu
+laughed, "and am I not to be free to bestow a favour?"
+
+P'ing Erh had no option, but to retain her portion.
+
+"I want to see," Mrs. Yu added, "where your mistress, who is so
+extremely careful, will run through all the money, we've raised! If she
+can't spend it, why she'll take it along with her in her coffin, and
+make use of it there."
+
+While still speaking, she started on her way to dowager lady Chia's
+suite of rooms. After first paying her respects to her, she made a few
+general remarks, and then betook herself into Yuean Yang's quarters where
+she held a consultation with Yuean Yang. Lending a patient ear to all
+that Yuean Yang; had to recommend in the way of a programme, and as to
+how best to give pleasure to old lady Chia, she deliberated with her
+until they arrived at a satisfactory decision. When the time came for
+Mrs. Yu to go, she took the two taels, contributed by Yuean Yang, and
+gave them back to her. "There's no use for these!" she said, and with
+these words still on her lips, she straightway quitted her presence and
+went in search of Madame Wang.
+
+After a short chat, Madame Wang stepped into the family shrine reserved
+for the worship of Buddha, so she likewise restored Ts'ai Yuen's share to
+her; and, availing herself of lady Feng's absence, she presently
+reimbursed to Mrs. Chu and Mrs. Chao the amount of their respective
+contributions.
+
+These two dames would not however presume to take their money back.
+"Your lot, ladies, is a pitiful one!" Mrs. Yu then expostulated. "How
+can you afford all this spare money! That hussey Feng is well aware of
+the fact. I'm here to answer for you!"
+
+At these assurances, both put the money away, with profuse expressions
+of gratitude.
+
+In a twinkle, the second day of the ninth moon arrived. The inmates of
+the garden came to find out that Mrs. Yu was making preparations on an
+extremely grand scale; for not only was there to be a theatrical
+performance, but jugglers and women storytellers as well; and they
+combined in getting everything ready that could conduce to afford
+amusement and enjoyment.
+
+"This is," Li Wan went on to say to the young ladies, "the proper day
+for our literary gathering, so don't forget it. If Pao-yue hasn't
+appeared, it must, I presume, be that his mind is so preoccupied with
+the fuss that's going on that he has lost sight of all pure and refined
+things."
+
+Speaking, "Go and see what he is up to!" she enjoined a waiting-maid;
+"and be quick and tell him to come."
+
+The waiting-maid returned after a long absence. "Sister Hua says," she
+reported, "that he went out of doors, soon after daylight this morning."
+
+The result of the inquiries filled every one with surprise. "He can't
+have gone out!" they said. "This girl is stupid, and doesn't know how to
+speak." They consequently also directed Ts'ui Mo to go and ascertain the
+truth. In a little time, Ts'ui Mo returned. "It's really true," she
+explained, "that he has gone out of doors. He gave out that a friend of
+his was dead, and that he was going to pay a visit of condolence."
+
+"There's certainly nothing of the kind," T'an Ch'un interposed. "But
+whatever there might have been to call him away, it wasn't right of him
+to go out on an occasion like the present one! Just call Hsi Jen here,
+and let me ask her!"
+
+But just as she was issuing these directions, she perceived Hsi Jen
+appear on the scene. "No matter what he may have had to attend to
+to-day," Li Wan and the rest remarked, "he shouldn't have gone out! In
+the first place, it's your mistress Secunda's birthday, and our dowager
+lady is in such buoyant spirits that the various inmates, whether high
+or low, are coming from either mansion to join in the fun; and lo, he
+goes off! Secondly, this is the proper day as well for holding our first
+literary gathering, and he doesn't so as apply for leave, but stealthily
+sneaks away."
+
+Hsi Jen heaved it sigh. "He said last night," she explained, "that he
+had something very important to do this morning; that he was going as
+far as Prince Pei Ching's mansion, but that he would hurry back. I
+advised him not to go; but, of course, he wouldn't listen to me. When he
+got out of bed, at daybreak this morning, he asked for his plain clothes
+and put them on, so, I suppose, some lady of note belonging to the
+household of Prince Pei Ching must have departed this life; but who can
+tell?"
+
+"If such be truly the case," Li Wan and her companions exclaimed, "it's
+quite right that he should have gone over for a while; but he should
+have taken care to be back in time !"
+
+This remark over, they resumed their deliberations. "Let's write our
+verses," they said, "and we can fine him on his return."
+
+As these words were being spoken, they espied a messenger despatched by
+dowager lady Chia to ask them over, so they at once adjourned to the
+front part of the compound.
+
+Hsi Jen then reported to his grandmother what Pao-yue had done. Old lady
+Chia was upset by the news; so much so, that she issued immediate orders
+to a few servants to go and fetch him.
+
+Pao-yue had, in fact, been brooding over some affair of the heart. A day
+in advance he therefore gave proper injunctions to Pei Ming. "As I shall
+be going out of doors to-morrow at daybreak," he said, "you'd better get
+ready two horses and wait at the back door! No one else need follow as
+an escort! Tell Li Kuei that I've gone to the Pei mansion. In the event
+of any one wishing to start in search of me, bid him place every
+obstacle in the way, as all inquiries can well be dispensed with! Let
+him simply explain that I've been detained in the Pei mansion, but that
+I shall surely be back shortly."
+
+Pei Ming could not make out head or tail of what he was driving at; but
+he had no alternative than to deliver his message word for word. At the
+first blush of morning of the day appointed, he actually got ready two
+horses and remained in waiting at the back gate. When daylight set in,
+he perceived Pao-yue make his appearance from the side door; got up, from
+head to foot, in a plain suit of clothes. Without uttering a word, he
+mounted his steed; and stooping his body forward, he proceeded at a
+quick step on his way down the road. Pei Ming had no help but to follow
+suit; and, springing on his horse, he smacked it with his whip, and
+overtook his master. "Where are we off to?" he eagerly inquired, from
+behind.
+
+"Where does this road lead to?" Pao-yue asked.
+
+"This is the main road leading out of the northern gate." Pei Ming
+replied. "Once out of it, everything is so dull and dreary that there's
+nothing worth seeing!"
+
+Pao-yue caught this answer and nodded his head. "I was just thinking that
+a dull and dreary place would be just the thing!" he observed. While
+speaking, he administered his steed two more whacks. The horse quickly
+turned a couple of corners, and trotted out of the city gate. Pei Ming
+was more and more at a loss what to think of the whole affair; yet his
+only course was to keep pace closely in his master's track. With one
+gallop, they covered a distance of over seven or eight lis. But it was
+only when human habitations became gradually few and far between that
+Pao-yue ultimately drew up his horse. Turning his head round: "Is there
+any place here," he asked, "where incense is sold?"
+
+"Incense!" Pei Ming shouted, "yes, there is; but what kind of incense it
+is I don't know."
+
+"All other incense is worth nothing," Pao-yue resumed, after a moment's
+reflection. "We should get sandalwood, conifer and cedar, these three."
+
+"These three sorts are very difficult to get," Pei Ming smiled.
+
+Pao-yue was driven to his wits' ends. But Pei Ming noticing his dilemma,
+"What do you want incense for?" he felt impelled to ask. "Master
+Secundus, I've often seen you wear a small purse, about your person,
+full of tiny pieces of incense; and why don't you see whether you've got
+it with you?"
+
+This allusion was sufficient to suggest the idea to Pao-yue's mind.
+Forthwith, he drew back his hand and felt the purse suspended on the
+lapel of his coat. It really contained two bits of 'Ch'en Su.' At this
+discovery, his heart expanded with delight. The only thing that (damped
+his spirits) was the notion that there was a certain want of reverence
+in his proceedings; but, on second consideration, he concluded that what
+he had about him was, after all, considerably superior to any he could
+purchase, and, with alacrity, he went on to inquire about a censer and
+charcoal.
+
+"Don't think of such things!" Pei Ming urged. "Where could they be
+procured in a deserted and lonely place like this? If you needed them,
+why didn't you speak somewhat sooner, and we could have brought them
+along with us? Would not this have been more convenient?"
+
+"You stupid thing!" exclaimed Pao-yue. "Had we been able to bring them
+along, we wouldn't have had to run in this way as if for life!"
+
+Pei Ming indulged in a protracted reverie, after which, he gave a smile.
+"I've thought of something," he cried, "but I wonder what you'll think
+about it, Master Secundus! You don't, I expect, only require these
+things; you'll need others too, I presume. But this isn't the place for
+them; so let's move on at once another couple of lis, when we'll get to
+the 'Water Spirit' monastery."
+
+"Is the 'Water Spirit' monastery in this neighbourhood?" Pao-yue eagerly
+inquired, upon hearing his proposal. "Yes, that would be better; let's
+press forward."
+
+With this reply, he touched his horse with his whip. While advancing on
+their way, he turned round. "The nun in this 'Water Spirit' monastery,"
+he shouted to Pei Ming, "frequently comes on a visit to our house, so
+that when we now get there and ask her for the loan of a censer, she's
+certain to let us have it."
+
+"Not to mention that that's a place where our family burns incense," Pei
+Ming answered, "she could not dare to raise any objections, to any
+appeal from us for a loan, were she even in a temple quite unknown to
+us. There's only one thing, I've often been struck with the strong
+dislike you have for this 'Water Spirit' monastery, master, and how is
+that you're now, so delighted with the idea of going to it?"
+
+"I've all along had the keenest contempt for those low-bred persons,"
+Pao-yue rejoined, "who, without knowing why or wherefore, foolishly offer
+sacrifices to the spirits, and needlessly have temples erected. The
+reason of it all is, that those rich old gentlemen and unsophisticated
+wealthy women, who lived in past days, were only too ready, the moment
+they heard of the presence of a spirit anywhere, to take in hand the
+erection of temples to offer their sacrifices in, without even having
+the faintest notion whose spirits they were. This was because they
+readily credited as gospel-truth such rustic stories and idle tales as
+chanced to reach their ears. Take this place as an example. Offerings
+are presented in this 'Water Spirit' nunnery to the spirit of the 'Lo'
+stream; hence the name of 'Water Spirit' monastery has been given to it.
+But people really don't know that in past days, there was no such thing
+as a 'Lo' spirit! These are, indeed, no better than legendary yarns
+invented by Ts'ao Tzu-chien, and who would have thought it, this sort of
+stupid people have put up images of it, to which they offer oblations.
+It serves, however, my purpose to-day, so I'll borrow of her whatever I
+need to use."
+
+While engaged in talking, they reached the entrance. The old nun saw
+Pao-yue arrive, and was thoroughly taken aback. So far was this visit
+beyond her expectations, that well did it seem to her as if a live
+dragon had dropped from the heavens. With alacrity, she rushed up to
+him; and making inquiries after his health, she gave orders to an old
+Taoist to come and take his horse.
+
+Pao-yue stepped into the temple. But without paying the least homage to
+the image of the 'Lo' spirit, he simply kept his eyes fixed intently on
+it; for albeit made of clay, it actually seemed, nevertheless, to
+flutter as does a terror-stricken swan, and to wriggle as a dragon in
+motion. It looked like a lotus, peeping its head out of the green
+stream, or like the sun, pouring its rays upon the russet clouds in the
+early morn. Pao-yue's tears unwittingly trickled down his cheeks.
+
+The old nun presented tea. Pao-yue then asked her for the loan of a
+censer to burn incense in. After a protracted absence, the old nun
+returned with some incense as well as several paper horses, which she
+had got ready for him to offer. But Pao-yue would not use any of the
+things she brought. "Take the censer," he said to Pei Ming, "and go out
+into the back garden and find a clean spot!"
+
+But having been unable to discover one; "What about, the platform round
+that well?" Pei Ming inquired.
+
+Pao-yue nodded his head assentingly. Then along with him, he repaired to
+the platform of the well. He deposited the censer on the ground, while
+Pei Ming stood on one side. Pao-yue produced the incense, and threw it on
+the fire. With suppressed tears, he performed half of the ceremony, and,
+turning himself round, he bade Pei Ming clear the things away. Pei Ming
+acquiesced; but, instead of removing the things, he speedily fell on his
+face, and made several prostrations, as his lips uttered this prayer:
+"I, Pei Ming, have been in the service of Master Secundus for several
+years. Of the secrets of Mr. Secundus' heart there are none, which I
+have not known, save that with regard to this sacrifice to-day; the
+object of which, he has neither told me; nor have I had the presumption
+to ask. But thou, oh spirit! who art the recipient of these sacrificial
+offerings, must, I expect, unknown though thy surname and name be to me,
+be a most intelligent and supremely beautiful elder or younger sister,
+unique among mankind, without a peer even in heaven! As my Master
+Secundus cannot give vent to the sentiments, which fill his heart, allow
+me to pray on his behalf! Should thou possess spirituality, and holiness
+be thy share, do thou often come and look up our Mr. Secundus, for
+persistently do his thoughts dwell with thee! And there is no reason why
+thou should'st not come! But should'st thou be in the abode of the dead,
+grant that our Mr. Secundus too may, in his coming existence, be
+transformed into a girl, so that he may be able to amuse himself with
+you all! And will not this prove a source of pleasure to both sides?"
+
+At the close of his invocation, he again knocked his head several times
+on the ground, and, eventually, rose to his feet.
+
+Pao-yue lent an ear to his utterances, but, before they had been brought
+to an end, he felt it difficult to repress himself from laughing. Giving
+him a kick, "Don't talk such stuff and nonsense!" he shouted. "Were any
+looker-on to overhear what you say, he'd jeer at you!"
+
+Pei Ming got up and put the censer away. While he walked along with
+Pao-yue, "I've already," he said, "told the nun that you hadn't as yet
+had anything to eat, Master Secundus, and I bade her get a few things
+ready for you, so you must force yourself to take something. I know very
+well that a grand banquet will be spread in our mansion to-day, that
+exceptional bustle will prevail, and that you have, on account of this,
+Sir, come here to get out of the way. But as you're, after all, going to
+spend a whole day in peace and quiet in here, you should try and divert
+yourself as best you can. It won't, therefore, by any manner of means do
+for you to have nothing to eat."
+
+"I won't be at the theatrical performance to have any wine," Pao-yue
+remarked, "so what harm will there be in my having a drink here, as the
+fancy takes me?"
+
+"Quite so!" rejoined Pei Ming. "But there's another consideration. You
+and I have run over here; but there must be some whose minds are ill at
+ease. Were there no one uneasy about us, well, what would it matter if
+we got back into town as late as we possibly could? But if there be any
+solicitous on your account, it's but right, Master Secundus, that you
+should enter the city and return home. In the first place, our worthy
+old mistress and Madame Wang, will thus compose their minds; and
+secondly, you'll observe the proper formalities, if you succeed in doing
+nothing else. But even supposing that, when once you get home, you feel
+no inclination to look at the plays and have anything to drink, you can
+merely wait upon your father and mother, and acquit yourself of your
+filial piety! Well, if it's only a matter of fulfilling this obligation,
+and you don't care whether our old mistress and our lady, your mother,
+experience concern or not, why, the spirit itself, which has just been
+the recipient of your oblations, won't feel in a happy frame of mind!
+You'd better therefore, master, ponder and see what you think of my
+words!"
+
+"I see what you're driving at!" Pao-yue smiled. "You keep before your
+mind the thought that you're the only servant, who has followed me as an
+attendant out of town, and you give way to fear that you will, on your
+return, have to bear the consequences. You hence have recourse to these
+grandiloquent arguments to shove words of counsel down my throat! I've
+come here now with the sole object of satisfying certain rites, and then
+going to partake of the banquet and be a spectator of the plays; and I
+never mentioned one single word about any intention on my part not to go
+back to town for a whole day! I've, however, already accomplished the
+wish I fostered in my heart, so if we hurry back to town, so as to
+enable every one to set their solicitude at rest, won't the right
+principle be carried out to the full in one respect as well as another?"
+
+"Yes, that would be better!" exclaimed Pei Ming.
+
+Conversing the while, they wended their way into the Buddhistic hall.
+Here the nun had, in point of fact, got ready a table with lenten
+viands. Pao-yue hurriedly swallowed some refreshment and so did Pei Ming;
+after which, they mounted their steeds and retraced their steps
+homewards, by the road they had come.
+
+Pei Ming followed behind. "Master Secundus!" he kept on shouting, "be
+careful how you ride! That horse hasn't been ridden very much, so hold
+him in tight a bit."
+
+As he urged him to be careful, they reached the interior of the city
+walls, and, making their entrance once more into the mansion by the back
+gate, they betook themselves, with all possible despatch, into the I
+Hung court. Hsi Jen and the other maids were not at home. Only a few old
+women were there to look after the rooms. As soon as they saw him
+arrive, they were so filled with gratification that their eyebrows
+dilated and their eyes smiled. "O-mi-to-fu!" they said laughingly,
+"you've come! You've all but driven Miss Hua mad from despair! In the
+upper quarters, they're just seated at the feast, so be quick, Mr.
+Secundus, and go and join them."
+
+At these words, Pao-yue speedily divested himself of his plain clothes
+and put on a coloured costume, reserved for festive occasions, which he
+hunted up with his own hands. This done, "Where are they holding the
+banquet?" he inquired.
+
+"They're in the newly erected large reception pavilion," the old women
+responded.
+
+Upon catching their reply, Pao-yue straightway started for the
+reception-pavilion. From an early moment, the strains of flageolets and
+pipes, of song and of wind-instruments faintly fell on his ear. The
+moment he reached the passage on the opposite side, he discerned Yue
+Ch'uan-erh seated all alone under the eaves of the verandah giving way
+to tears. As soon as she became conscious of Pao-yue's arrival, she drew
+a long, long breath. Smacking her lips, "Ai!" she cried, "the phoenix
+has alighted! go in at once! Hadn't you come for another minute, every
+one would have been quite upset!"
+
+Pao-yue forced a smile. "Just try and guess where I've been?" he
+observed.
+
+Yue Ch'uan-erh twisted herself round, and, paying no notice to him, she
+continued drying her tears. Pao-yue had, therefore, no option but to
+enter with hasty step. On his arrival in the reception-hall, he paid his
+greetings to his grandmother Chia, to Madame Wang, and the other
+inmates, and one and all felt, in fact, as happy to see him back as if
+they had come into the possession of a phoenix.
+
+"Where have you been," dowager lady Chia was the first to ask, "that you
+come back at this hour? Don't you yet go and pay your congratulations to
+your cousin?" And smiling she proceeded, addressing herself to lady
+Feng, "Your cousin has no idea of what's right and what's wrong. Even
+though he may have had something pressing to do, why didn't he utter
+just one word, but stealthily bolted away on his own hook? Will this
+sort of thing ever do? But should you behave again in this fashion by
+and bye, I shall, when your father comes home, feel compelled to tell
+him to chastise you."
+
+Lady Feng smiled. "Congratulations are a small matter?" she observed.
+"But, cousin Pao, you must, on no account, sneak away any more without
+breathing a word to any one, and not sending for some people to escort
+you, for carriages and horses throng the streets. First and foremost,
+you're the means of making people uneasy at heart; and, what's more,
+that isn't the way in which members of a family such as ours should go
+out of doors!"
+
+Dowager lady Chia meanwhile went on reprimanding the servants, who
+waited on him. "Why," she said, "do you all listen to him and readily go
+wherever he pleases without even reporting a single word? But where did
+you really go?" Continuing, she asked, "Did you have anything to eat? Or
+did you get any sort of fright, eh?"
+
+"A beloved wife of the duke of Pei Ching departed this life," Pao-yue
+merely returned for answer, "and I went to-day to express my condolences
+to him. I found him in such bitter anguish that I couldn't very well
+leave him and come back immediately. That's the reason why I tarried
+with him a little longer."
+
+"If hereafter you do again go out of doors slyly and on your own hook,"
+dowager lady Chia impressed on his mind, "without first telling me, I
+shall certainly bid your father give you a caning!"
+
+Pao-yue signified his obedience with all promptitude. His grandmother
+Chia was then bent upon having the servants, who were on attendance on
+him, beaten, but the various inmates did their best to dissuade her.
+"Venerable senior!" they said, "you can well dispense with flying into a
+rage! He has already promised that he won't venture to go out again.
+Besides, he has come back without any misadventure, so we should all
+compose our minds and enjoy ourselves a bit!"
+
+Old lady Chia had, at first, been full of solicitude. She had, as a
+matter of course, been in a state of despair and displeasure; but,
+seeing Pao-yue return in safety, she felt immoderately delighted, to such
+a degree, that she could not reconcile herself to visit her resentment
+upon him. She therefore dropped all mention of his escapade at once. And
+as she entertained fears lest he may have been unhappy or have had, when
+he was away, nothing to eat, or got a start on the road, she did not
+punish him, but had, contrariwise, recourse to every sort of inducement
+to coax him to feel at ease. But Hsi Jen soon came over and attended to
+his wants, so the company once more turned their attention to the
+theatricals. The play acted on that occasion was, "The record of the
+boxwood hair-pin." Dowager lady Chia, Mrs. Hsueeh and the others were
+deeply impressed by what they saw and gave way to tears. Some, however,
+of the inmates were amused; others were provoked to anger; others gave
+vent to abuse.
+
+But, reader, do you wish to know the sequel? If so, the next chapter
+will explain it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+ By some inscrutable turn of affairs, lady Feng begins to feel the
+ pangs of jealousy.
+ Pao-yue experiences joy, beyond all his expectations, when P'ing Erh
+ (receives a slap from lady Feng) and has to adjust her hair.
+
+
+But to resume our narrative. At the performance of the 'Record of the
+boxwood hairpin,' at which all the inmates of the household were
+present, Pao-yue and his female cousins sat together. When Lin Tai-yue
+noticed that the act called, 'The man offers a sacrifice' had been
+reached, "This Wang Shih-p'eng," she said to Pao-ch'ai, "is very stupid!
+It would be quite immaterial where he offered his sacrifices, and why
+must he repair to the riverside? 'At the sight of an object,' the
+proverb has it, 'one thinks of a person. All waters under the heavens
+revert but to one source.' So had he baled a bowlful from any stream,
+and given way to his lamentations, while gazing on it, he could very
+well have satisfied his feelings."
+
+Pao-ch'ai however made no reply.
+
+Pao-yue then turned his head round and asked for some warm wine to drink
+to lady Feng's health. The fact is, that dowager lady Chia had enjoined
+on them that this occasion was unlike others, and that it was absolutely
+necessary for them to do the best to induce lady Feng to heartily enjoy
+herself for the day. She herself, nevertheless, felt too listless to
+join the banquet, so simply reclining on a sofa of the inner room, she
+looked at the plays in company with Mrs. Hsueeh; and choosing several
+kinds of such eatables as were to her taste, she placed them on a small
+teapoy, and now helped herself to some, and now talked, as the fancy
+took her. Then allotting what viands were served on the two tables
+assigned to her to the elder and younger waiting-maids, for whom no
+covers were laid, and to those female servants and other domestics, who
+were on duty and had to answer calls, she urged them not to mind but to
+seat themselves outside the windows, under the eaves of the verandahs,
+and to eat and drink at their pleasure, without any regard to
+conventionalities. Madame Wang and Madame Hsing occupied places at the
+high table below; while round several tables outside sat the posse of
+young ladies.
+
+"Do let that girl Feng have the seat of honour," old lady Chia shortly
+told Mrs. Yu and her contemporaries, "and mind be careful in doing the
+honours for me, for she is subjected to endless trouble from one year's
+end to another!"
+
+"Very well," said Mrs. Yu. "I fancy," she went on to smile, "that little
+used as she is to filling the place of honour, she's bound, if she takes
+the high seat, to be so much at a loss how to behave, as to be loth even
+to have any wine!"
+
+Dowager lady Chia was much amused by her reply. "Well, if you can't
+succeed," she said, "wait and I'll come and offer it to her."
+
+Lady Feng with hasty step walked into the inner room. "Venerable
+ancestor!" she smiled, "don't believe all they tell you! I've already
+had several cups!"
+
+"Quick, pull her out," old lady Chia laughingly cried to Mrs. Yu, "and
+shove her into a chair, and let all of you drink by turns to her health!
+If she then doesn't drink, I'll come myself in real earnest and make her
+have some!"
+
+At these words, Mrs. Yu speedily dragged her out, laughing the while,
+and forced her into a seat, and, directing a servant to fetch a cup, she
+filled it with wine. "You've got from one year's end to another," she
+smiled, "the trouble and annoyance of conferring dutiful attentions upon
+our venerable senior, upon Madame Wang and upon myself, so, as I've
+nothing to-day, with which to prove my affection for you, have a sip,
+from my hand, my own dear, of this cup of wine I poured for you myself!"
+
+"If you deliberately wish to present me a glass," lady Feng laughed,
+"fall on your knees and I'll drink at once!"
+
+"What's this you say?" Mrs. Yu replied with a laugh. "And who are you, I
+wonder? But let me tell you this once for all and finish that though
+we've succeeded, after ever so many difficulties, in getting up this
+entertainment to-day, there's no saying whether we shall in the future
+be able to have anything more the like of this or not. Let's avail
+ourselves then of the present to put our capacity to the strain and
+drink a couple of cups!"
+
+Lady Feng saw very well that she could not advance any excuses, and
+necessity obliged her to swallow the contents of two cups. In quick
+succession, however, the various young ladies also drew near her, and
+lady Feng was constrained again to take a sip from the cup each held.
+But nurse Lai Ta too felt compelled, at the sight of dowager lady Chia
+still in buoyant spirits, to come forward and join in the merriment, so
+putting herself at the head of a number of nurses, she approached and
+proffered wine to lady Feng who found it once more so difficult to
+refuse that she had to swallow a few mouthfuls. But Yuean Yang and her
+companions next appeared, likewise, on the scene to hand her their share
+of wine; but lady Feng felt, in fact, so little able to comply with
+their wishes, that she promptly appealed to them entreatingly. "Dear
+sisters," she pleaded, "do spare me! I'll drink some more to-morrow!"
+
+"Quite so! we're a mean lot," Yuean Yang laughed. "But now that we stand
+in the presence of your ladyship, do condescend to look upon us
+favourably! We've always enjoyed some little consideration, and do you
+put on the airs of a mistress on an occasion like the present, when
+there's such a crowd of people standing by? Really, I shouldn't have
+come. But, as you won't touch our wine, we might as well be quick and
+retire!"
+
+While she spoke, she was actually walking away, when lady Feng hastened
+to lay hold of her and to detain her. "Dear sister," she cried, "I'll
+drink some and have done!"
+
+So saying, she took the wine and filled a cup to the very brim, and
+drained it. Yuean Yang then at length gave her a smile, (and she and her
+friends) dispersed.
+
+Subsequently, the company resumed their places at the banquet. But lady
+Feng was conscious that the wine she had primed herself with was
+mounting to her head, so abruptly staggering to the upper end, she meant
+to betake herself home to lie down, when seeing the jugglers arrive,
+"Get the tips ready!" she shouted to Mrs. Yu. "I'm off to wash my face a
+bit."
+
+Mrs. Yu nodded her head assentingly; and lady Feng, noticing that the
+inmates were off their guard, left the banquet, and wended her steps
+beneath the eaves towards the back entrance of the house. P'ing Erh had,
+however, been keeping her eye on her, so hastily she followed in her
+footsteps. Lady Feng at once propped herself on her arm. But no sooner
+did they reach the covered passage than she discerned a young maid,
+attached to her quarters, standing under it. (The girl), the moment she
+perceived them, twisted herself round and beat a retreat. Lady Feng
+forthwith began to give way to suspicion; and she immediately shouted
+out to her to halt. The maid pretended at first not to hear, but, as,
+while following her they called out to her time after time, she found
+herself compelled to turn round. Lady Feng was seized with greater
+doubts than ever. Quickly therefore entering the covered passage with
+P'ing Erh, she bade the maid go along with them. Then opening a folding
+screen, lady Feng stated herself on the steps leading to the small
+courtyard, and made the girl fall on her knees. "Call two boy-servants
+from among those on duty at the second gate," she cried out to P'ing
+Erh, "to bring a whip of twisted cords, and to take this young wench,
+who has no regard for her mistress, and beat her to shreds."
+
+The servant-maid fell into a state of consternation, and was scared out
+of her very wits. Sobbing the while, she kept on bumping her head on the
+ground and soliciting for grace.
+
+"I'm really no ghost! So you must have seen me! Don't you know what good
+manners mean and stand still?" lady Feng asked. "Why did you instead
+persist in running on?"
+
+"I truly did not see your ladyship coming," the maid replied with tears
+in her eyes. "I was, besides, much concerned as there was no one in the
+rooms; that's why I was running on."
+
+"If there's no one in the rooms, who told you to come out again?" lady
+Feng inquired. "And didn't you see me, together with P'ing Erh, at your
+heels, stretching out our necks and calling out to you about ten times?
+But the more we shouted, the faster you ran! You weren't far off from us
+either, so is it likely that you got deaf? And are you still bent upon
+bandying words with me?"
+
+So speaking, she raised her hand and administered her a slap on the
+face. But, while the girl staggered from the blow, she gave her a second
+slap on the other side of the face, so both cheeks of the maid quickly
+began to get purple and to swell.
+
+P'ing Erh hastened to reason with her mistress. "My lady!" she said, "be
+careful you'll be hurting your hand!"
+
+"Go on, pommel her," urged lady Feng, "and ask her what made her run!
+and, if she doesn't tell you, just you take her mouth and tear it to
+pieces for her!"
+
+At the outset, the girl obstinately prevaricated, but when she
+eventually heard that lady Feng intended to take a red-hot branding-iron
+and burn her mouth with, she at last sobbingly spoke out. "Our Master
+Secundus, Mr. Lien, is at home," she remarked, "and he sent me here to
+watch your movements, my lady; bidding me go ahead, when I saw you leave
+the banquet, and convey the message to him. But, contrary to his hopes,
+your ladyship came back just now!"
+
+Lady Feng saw very well that there lurked something behind all she said.
+"What did he ask you to watch me for?" she therefore eagerly asked. "Can
+it be, pray, that he dreaded to see me return home? There must be some
+other reason; so be quick and tell it to me and I shall henceforward
+treat you with regard. If you don't minutely confess all to me, I shall
+this very moment take a knife and pare off your flesh!"
+
+Threatening her the while, she turned her head round, and, extracting a
+hairpin from her coiffure, she stuck it promiscuously about the maid's
+mouth. This so frightened the girl that, as she made every effort to get
+out of her way, she burst out into tears and entreaties. "I'll tell your
+ladyship everything," she cried, "but you mustn't say that it was I who
+told you."
+
+Ping Erh, who stood by, exhorted her to obey; but she at the same time
+impressed on her mind to speak out without delay.
+
+"Mr. Secundus himself arrived only a few minutes back," the maid began.
+"The moment, however, he came, he opened a bog, and, taking two pieces
+of silver, two hairpins, and a couple of rolls of silk, he bade me
+stealthily take them to Pao Erh's wife and tell her to come in. As soon
+as she put the things away, she hurried to our house, and Master
+Secundus ordered me to keep an eye on your ladyship; but of what
+happened after that, I've no idea whatever."
+
+When these disclosures fell on lady Feng's ears, she flew into such a
+rage that her whole person felt quite weak; and, rising immediately, she
+straightway repaired home. The instant she reached the gate of the
+courtyard, she espied a waiting-maid peep out of the entrance. Seeing
+lady Feng, she too drew in her head, and tried at once to effect her
+escape. But lady Feng called her by name, and made her stand still. This
+girl had ever been very sharp, so when she realised that she could not
+manage to beat a retreat, she went so far as to run out to her. "I was
+just going to tell your ladyship," she smiled, "and here you come! What
+a strange coincidence!"
+
+"Tell me what?" lady Feng exclaimed.
+
+"That Mr. Secundus is at home," the girl replied, "and has done so and
+so." She then recounted to her all the incidents recorded a few minutes
+back.
+
+"Ts'ui!" ejaculated lady Feng. "What were you up to before? Now, that
+I've seen you, you come and try to clear yourself!"
+
+As she spoke, she raised her arm and administered the maid a slap, which
+upset her equilibrium. So with hurried step, she betook herself away.
+Lady Feng then drew near the window. Lending an ear to what was going on
+inside, she heard some one in the room laughingly observe: "When that
+queen-of-hell sort of wife of yours dies, it will be a good riddance!"
+
+"When she's gone," Chia Lien rejoined, "and I marry another, the like of
+her, what will I again do?"
+
+"When she's dead and gone," the woman resumed, "just raise P'ing Erh to
+the rank of primary wife. I think she'll turn out considerably better
+than she has."
+
+"At present," Chia Lien put in, "she won't even let me enjoy P'ing Erh's
+society! P'ing Erh herself is full of displeasure; yet she dares not
+speak. How is it that it has been my fate to bring upon myself the
+influence of this evil star?"
+
+Lady Feng overheard these criticisms and flew into a fit of anger, which
+made her tremble violently. When she, however, also caught the praise
+heaped by both of them upon P'ing Erh, she harboured the suspicion that
+P'ing Erh too must, as a matter of course, have all along employed the
+sly resentful language against her. And, as the wine bubbled up more and
+more into her head, she did not so much as give the matter a second
+thought, but, twisting round, she first and foremost gave P'ing Erh a
+couple of whacks, and, with one kick, she banged the door open, and
+walked in. Then, without allowing her any time to give any explanation
+in her own defence, she clutched Pao Erh's wife, and, tearing her about,
+she belaboured her with blows. But the dread lest Chia Lien should slip
+out of the room, induced her to post herself in such a way as to
+obstruct the doorway. "What a fine wench!" she shouted out abusingly.
+"You make a paramour of your mistress' husband, and then you wish to
+compass your master's wife's death, for P'ing Erh to transfer her
+quarters in here! You base hirelings! You're all of the same stamp,
+thoroughly jealous of me; you try to cajole me by your outward display!"
+
+While abusing them, she once more laid hold of P'ing Erh and beat her
+several times. P'ing Erh was pummelled away till her heart thrilled with
+a sense of injury, but she had nowhere to go, and breathe her woes. Such
+resentment overpowered her feelings that she sobbed without a sign of a
+tear. "You people," she railingly shouted, "go and do a lot of shameful
+things, and then you also deliberately involve me; but why?"
+
+So shouting, she too clutched Pao Erh's wife and began to assail her.
+Chia Lien had freely primed himself with wine, so, on his return home,
+he was in such exuberance of spirits that he observed no secresy in his
+doings. The moment, however, he perceived lady Feng appear on the scene,
+he got to his wits' end. Yet when he saw P'ing Erh also start a rumpus,
+the liquor he had had aroused his ire. The sight of the assault
+committed by lady Feng on Pao Erh's wife had already incensed him and
+put him to shame, but he had not been able with any consistency to
+interfere; but the instant he espied P'ing Erh herself lay hands on her,
+he vehemently jumped forward and gave her a kick. "What a vixen!" he
+cried. "Are you likewise going to start knocking people about?"
+
+P'ing Erh was of a timid disposition. At once, therefore, she withheld
+her hands, and melted into tears. "Why do you implicate me," she said,
+"in things you say behind my back?"
+
+When lady Feng descried in what fear and dread P'ing Erh was of Chia
+Lien, she lost more than ever control over her temper, and, starting
+again in pursuit of her, she struck P'ing Erh, while urging her to go
+for Pao Erh's wife.
+
+P'ing Erh was driven to exasperation; and forthwith rushing out of the
+apartment, she went in search of a knife to commit suicide with. But the
+company of old matrons, who stood outside, hastened to place impediments
+in her way, and to argue with her.
+
+Lady Feng, meanwhile, realised that P'ing Erh had gone to take her life,
+and rolling, head foremost, into Chia Lien's embrace, "You put your
+heads together to do me harm," she said, "and, when I overhear your
+designs, you people conspire to frighten me! But strangle me and have
+done."
+
+Chia Lien was driven to despair; to such a degree that unsheathing a
+sword suspended on the wall, "There's no need for any one of you to
+commit suicide!" he screamed. "I too am thoroughly exasperated, so I'll
+kill the whole lot of you and pay the penalty with my own life! We'll
+all then be free from further trouble!"
+
+The bustle had just reached a climax beyond the chance of a settlement,
+when they perceived Mrs. Yu and a crowd of inmates make their appearance
+in the room. "What's the matter?" they asked. "There was nothing up just
+now, so why is all this row for?"
+
+At the sight of the new arrivals, Chia Lien more than ever made the
+three parts of intoxication, under which he laboured, an excuse to
+assume an air calculated to intimidate them, and to pretend, in order to
+further his own ends, that he was bent upon despatching lady Feng.
+
+But lady Feng, upon seeing her relatives appear, got into a mood less
+perverse than the one she had been in previous to their arrival; and,
+leaving the whole company of them, she scampered, all in tears, over to
+the off side, into dowager lady Chia's quarters.
+
+By this time, the play was over. Lady Feng rushed consequently into the
+old lady's presence and fell into her lap. "Venerable ancestor! help
+me!" she exclaimed. "Mr. Chia Lien wishes to kill me."
+
+"What's up?" precipitately inquired dowager lady Chia, Mesdames Hsing
+and Wang and the rest.
+
+"I was just going to my rooms to change my dress," lady Feng wept, "when
+I unexpectedly found Mr. Chia Lien at home, talking with some one.
+Fancying that visitors had come, I was quite taken aback, and not
+presuming to enter, I remained outside the window and listened. It
+turned out, in fact, to be Pao Erh's wife holding council with him. She
+said that I was dreadful, and that she meant to poison me so as to get
+me out of the way and enable P'ing Erh to be promoted to be first wife.
+At this, I lost my temper. But not venturing, none the less, to have a
+row with him, I simply gave P'ing Erh two slaps; and then I asked him
+why he wished to do me harm. But so stricken did he get with shame that
+he tried there and then to despatch me."
+
+Dowager lady Chia treated every word that fell on her ear as truth.
+"Dreadful!" she ejaculated. "Bring here at once that low-bred
+offspring!"
+
+Barely was, however, this exclamation out of her lips, than they
+perceived Chia Lien, a sword in hand, enter in pursuit of his wife,
+followed closely by a bevy of inmates. Chia Lien evidently placed such
+thorough reliance upon the love, which old lady Chia had all along
+lavished upon them, that he entertained little regard even for his
+mother or his aunt, so he came, with perfect effrontery, to stir up a
+disturbance in their presence. When Mesdames Hsing and Wang saw him,
+they got into a passion, and, with all despatch, they endeavoured to
+deter him from his purpose. "You mean thing!" they shouted, abusing him.
+"Your crime is more heinous, for our venerable senior is in here!"
+
+"It's all because our worthy ancestor spoils her," cried Chia Lien, with
+eyes awry, "that she behaved as she did and took upon herself to rate
+even me!"
+
+Madame Hsing was full of resentment. Snatching the sword from his grasp,
+she kept on telling him to quit the room at once. But Chia Lien
+continued to prattle foolish nonsense in a drivelling and maudlin way.
+His manner exasperated dowager lady Chia. "I'm well aware," she
+observed, "that you haven't the least consideration for any one of us.
+Tell some one to go and call his father here and we'll see whether he
+doesn't clear out."
+
+When Chia Lien caught these words, he eventually tottered out of the
+apartment. But in such a state of frenzy was he that he did not return
+to his quarters, but betook himself into the outer study.
+
+During this while, Mesdames Hsing and Wang also called lady Feng to
+task.
+
+"Why, what serious matter could it ever have been?" old lady Chia
+remarked. "But children of tender years are like greedy kittens, and how
+can one say for certain that they won't do such things? Human beings
+have, from their very infancy, to go through experiences of this kind!
+It's all my fault, however, for pressing you to have a little more wine
+than was good for you. But you've also gone and drunk the vinegar of
+jealousy!"
+
+This insinuation made every one laugh.
+
+"Compose your mind!" proceeded dowager lady Chia. "To-morrow I'll send
+for him to apologise to you; but, you'd better to-day not go over, as
+you might put him to shame!" Continuing, she also went on to abuse P'ing
+Erh. "I've always thought highly of that wench," she said, "and how is
+it that she's turned out to be secretly so bad?"
+
+"P'ing Erh isn't to blame!" Mrs. Yu and the others smiled. "It's lady
+Feng who makes people her tools to give vent to her spite! Husband and
+wife could not very well come to blows face to face, so they combined in
+using P'ing Erh as their scapegoat! What injuries haven't fallen to
+P'ing Erh's lot! And do you, venerable senior, still go on blowing her
+up?"
+
+"Is it really so!" exclaimed old lady Chia. "I always said that that
+girl wasn't anything like that artful shrew! Well, in that case, she is
+to be pitied, for she has had to bear the brunt of her anger, and all
+through no fault of hers!" Calling Hu Po to her, "Go," she added, "and
+tell P'ing Erh all I enjoin you; 'that I know that she has been insulted
+and that to-morrow I'll send for her mistress to make amends, but that
+being her mistress' birthday to-day, I won't have her give rise to any
+reckless fuss'!"
+
+P'ing Erh had, we may explain, from an early hour, been dragged by Li
+Wan into the garden of Broad Vista. Here P'ing Erh gave way to bitter
+tears. So much so, that her throat choked with sobs, and could not give
+utterance to speech.
+
+"You are an intelligent person," exhorted her Pao-ch'ai, "and how
+considerately has your lady treated you all along! It was simply because
+she has had a little too much wine that she behaved as she did to-day!
+But had she not made you the means of giving vent to her spite, is it
+likely that she could very well have aired her grievances upon any one
+else? Besides, any one else would have laughed at her for acting in a
+sham way!"
+
+While she reasoned with her, she saw Hu Po approach, and deliver dowager
+lady Chia's message. P'ing Erh then felt in herself that she had come
+out of the whole affair with some credit, and she, little by little,
+resumed her equilibrium. She did not, nevertheless, put her foot
+anywhere near the front part of the compound.
+
+After a little rest, Pao Ch'ai and her companions came and paid a visit
+to old lady Chia and lady Feng, while Pao-yue pressed P'ing Erh to come
+to the I Hung court. Hsi Jen received her with alacrity. "I meant," she
+said, "to be the first to ask you, but as our senior lady, Chia Chu, and
+the young ladies invited you, I couldn't very well do so myself."
+
+P'ing Erh returned her smile. "Many thanks!" she rejoined. "How words
+ever commenced between us;" she then went on, "when there was no
+provocation, I can't tell! But without rhyme or reason, I came in for a
+spell of resentment."
+
+"Our lady Secunda has always been very good to you," laughingly remarked
+Hsi Jen, "so she must have done this in a sudden fit of exasperation!"
+
+"Our lady Secunda did not, after all, say anything to me," P'ing Erh
+explained. "It was that wench that blew me up. And she deliberately made
+a laughing-stock of me. But that fool also of a master of ours struck
+me!"
+
+While recounting her experiences, she felt a keener sense of injustice
+than before, and she found it hard to restrain her tears from trickling
+down her cheeks.
+
+"My dear sister," Pao-yue hastily advised her, "don't wound your heart!
+I'm quite ready to express my apologies on behalf of that pair!"
+
+"What business is that of yours?" P'ing Erh smiled.
+
+"We cousins, whether male or female, are all alike." Pao-yue smilingly
+argued. "So when they hurt any one's feelings, I apologise for them;
+it's only right that I should do so. What a pity;" he continued, "these
+new clothes too have been stained! But you'll find your sister Hua's
+costumes in here, and why don't you put one on, and take some hot wine
+and spurt it over yours and iron them out? You might also remake your
+coiffure."
+
+Speaking, he directed the young maids to draw some water for washing the
+face and to heat an iron and bring it.
+
+P'ing Erh had ever heard people maintain that all that Pao-yue excelled
+in was in knitting friendships with girls. But Pao-yue had so far been
+loth, seeing that P'ing Erh was Chia Lien's beloved secondary wife, and
+lady Feng's confidante, to indulge in any familiarities with her. And
+being precluded from accomplishing the desire upon which his heart was
+set, he time and again gave way to vexation. When P'ing Erh, however,
+remarked his conduct towards her on this occasion, she secretly resolved
+within herself that what was said of him was indeed no idle rumour. But
+as he had anticipated every one of her wants, and she saw moreover that
+Hsi Jen had, for her special benefit, opened a box and produced two
+articles of clothing, not much worn by her, she speedily drew near and
+washed her face.
+
+Pao-yue stood by her side. "You must, dear girl, also apply a little
+cosmetic and powder," she smiled; "otherwise you'll look as if you were
+angry with lady Feng. It's her birthday, besides; and our old ancestor
+has sent some one again to come and cheer you up."
+
+Hearing how reasonable his suggestions were, P'ing Erh readily went in
+search of powder; but she failed to notice any about, so Pao-yue
+hurriedly drew up to the toilet-table, and, removing the lid of a
+porcelain box made at the "Hsuean" kiln, which contained a set of ten
+small ladles, tuberose-like in shape, (for helping one's self to powder
+with), he drew out one of them and handed it to P'ing Erh. "This isn't
+lead powder," he smiled. "This is made of the seeds of red jasmine, well
+triturated, and compounded with suitable first class ingredients."
+
+P'ing Erh emptied some on the palm of her hand. On examination, she
+really found that it was light, clear, red and scented; perfect in all
+four properties; that it was easy to apply evenly to the face, that it
+kept moist, and that it differed from other kinds of powder, ordinarily
+so rough. She subsequently noticed that the cosmetic too was not spread
+on a sheet, but that it was contained in a tiny box of white jade, the
+contents of which bore the semblance of rose-paste.
+
+"The cosmetic one buys in the market isn't clean;" Pao-yue remarked
+smilingly. "Its colour is faint as well. But this is cosmetic of
+superior quality. The juice was squeezed out, strained clear, mixed with
+perfume of flowers and decocted. All you need do is to take some with
+that hair-pin and rub it on your lips, that will be enough; and if you
+dissolve some in a little water, and rub it on the palm of your hand, it
+will be ample for you to cover your whole face with."
+
+P'ing Erh followed his directions and performed her toilette. She looked
+exceptionally fresh and beautiful. A sweet fragrance pervaded her
+cheeks. Pao-yue then cut, with a pair of bamboo scissors, a stalk, with
+two autumn orchids, which had blossomed in a flower pot, and he pinned
+it in her side-hair. But a maid was unexpectedly seen to enter the room,
+sent by Li Wan to come and call her, so she quitted his quarters with
+all possible despatch.
+
+Pao-yue had not so far been able to have his wishes to revel in P'ing
+Erh's society gratified. P'ing Erh was furthermore a girl of a high
+grade, most intelligent, most winsome, and unlike that sort of vulgar
+and dull-minded beings, so that he cherished intense disgust against his
+fate.
+
+The present occasion had been the anniversary of Chin Ch'uan-erh's
+birth, and he had remained, in consequence, plunged in a disconsolate
+frame of mind throughout the whole day. But, contrary to his
+expectations, the incident eventually occurred, which afforded him,
+after all, an opportunity to dangle in P'ing Erh's society and to
+gratify to some small degree a particle of his wish. This had been a
+piece of good fortune he so little expected would fall to his share
+during the course of his present existence, that as he reclined on his
+bed, his heart swelled with happiness and contentment. Suddenly, he
+reflected that Chia Lien's sole thought was to make licentious pleasures
+the means of gratifying his passions, and that he had no idea how to
+show the least regard to the fair sex; and he mused that P'ing Erh was
+without father or mother, brothers or sisters, a solitary being destined
+to dance attendance upon a couple such as Chia Lien and his wife; that
+Chia Lien was vulgar, and lady Feng haughty, but that she was gifted
+nevertheless with the knack of splendidly managing things; and that
+(P'ing Erh) had again to-day come across bitter sorrow, and that her
+destiny was extremely unfortunate.
+
+At this stage of his reverie, he began to feel wounded and distressed.
+When he rose once more to his feet, he noticed that the wine, which she
+had spurted on the clothes, she had a few minutes back divested herself
+of, had already half dried, and, taking up the iron, he smoothed them
+and folded them nicely for her. He then discovered that she had left her
+handkerchief behind, and that it still bore traces of tears, so throwing
+it into the basin, he rinsed it and hung it up to dry, with feelings
+bordering on joy as well as sadness. But after a short time spent in a
+brown study, he too betook himself to the Tao Hsiang village for a chat;
+and it was only when the lamps had been lit that he got up to take his
+leave.
+
+P'ing Erh put up in Li Wan's quarters for the night. Lady Feng slept
+with dowager lady Chia, while Chia Lien returned at a late hour to his
+home. He found it however very lonely. Yet unable to go and call his
+wife over, he had no alternative but to sleep as best he could for that
+night. On the morrow, he remembered, as soon as he opened his eyes, the
+occurrence of the previous day, and he fell a prey to such extreme
+unhappiness that he could not be conscience-stricken enough.
+
+Madame Hsing pondered with solicitude on Chia Lien's drunken fit the day
+before. The moment therefore it was light, she hastily crossed over, and
+sent for Chia Lien to repair to dowager lady Chia's apartments. Chia
+Lien was thus compelled to suppress all timidity and to repair to the
+front part of the mansion and fall on his knees at the feet of his old
+senior.
+
+"What was the matter?" inquired old lady Chia.
+
+"I really had too much wine yesterday," Chia Lien promptly answered with
+a forced smile. "I must have given you a fright, worthy ancestor, so I
+come to-day to receive condign punishment."
+
+"You mean fellow!" shouted dowager lady Chia, spitting at him
+disdainfully. "You go and glut yourself with spirits, and, not to speak
+of your not going to stretch yourself like a corpse and sleep it off,
+you contrariwise start beating your wife! But that vixen Feng brags away
+the whole day long, as if she were a human being as valiant as any
+tyrant, and yet yesterday she got into such a funk that she presented a
+woeful sight! Had it not been for me, you would have done her bodily
+harm; and what would you feel like now?"
+
+Chia Lien was at heart full of a sense of injury, but he could not
+master sufficient courage to say anything in his own defence. The only
+course open to him was therefore to make a confession of fault.
+
+"Don't lady Feng and P'ing Erh possess the charms of handsome women?"
+dowager lady Chia resumed. "And aren't you yet satisfied with them that
+you must, of a day, go slyly prowling and gallavanting about, dragging
+indiscriminately into your rooms frowsy and filthy people? Is it for the
+sake of this sort of wenches that you beat your wife and belabour the
+inmates of your quarters? You've nevertheless had the good fortune of
+starting in life as the scion of a great family; and do you, with eyes
+wide open, bring disgrace upon your own head? If you have any regard for
+me, well, then get up and I'll spare you! And if you make your apologies
+in a proper manner to your wife and take her home, I'll be satisfied.
+But if you don't, just you clear out of this, for I won't even presume
+to have any of your genuflexions!"
+
+Chia Lien took to heart the injunctions that fell on his ear. Espying
+besides lady Feng standing opposite to him in undress, her eyes swollen
+from crying, and her face quite sallow, without cosmetic or powder, he
+thought her more lovable and charming than ever. "Wouldn't it be well,"
+he therefore mused, "that I should make amends, so that she and I may be
+on friendly terms again and that I should win the good pleasure of my
+old ancestor?"
+
+At the conclusion of his reflections, he forthwith put on a smile.
+"After your advice, venerable senior," he said, "I couldn't be so bold
+as not to accede to your wishes! But this is shewing her more indulgence
+than ever!"
+
+"What nonsense!" exclaimed dowager lady Chia laughingly. "I am well
+aware that with her extreme decorum she couldn't hurt any one's
+susceptibilities. But should she, in the future, wrong you in any way, I
+shall, of course, take the law into my own hands and bid you make her
+submit to your authority and finish."
+
+Chia Lien, at this assurance, crawled up and made a bow to lady Feng.
+"It was really my fault, so don't be angry, lady Secunda," he said.
+
+Every one in the room laughed.
+
+"Now, my girl Feng," lady Chia laughingly observed, "you are not to lose
+your temper; for if you do, I'll lose mine too!"
+
+Continuing, she directed a servant to go and call P'ing Erh; and, on her
+arrival, she advised lady Feng and Chia Lien to do all they could to
+reconcile her. At the sight of P'ing Erh, Chia Lien showed less regard
+than ever for the saying that 'a primary wife differs from a secondary
+wife,' and the instant he heard old lady Chia's exhortation he drew near
+her. "The injuries," he remarked, "to which you were subjected
+yesterday, Miss, were entirely due to my shortcoming. If your lady hurt
+your feelings, it was likewise all through me that the thing began. So I
+express my regret; but, besides this, I tender my apologies as well on
+behalf of your mistress."
+
+Saying this, he made another bow. This evoked a smile from dowager lady
+Chia. Lady Feng, however, also laughed. Their old ancestor then desired
+lady Feng to come and console P'ing Erh, but P'ing Erh hastily advanced
+and knocked her head before lady Feng. "I do deserve death," she urged,
+"for provoking your ladyship to wrath on the day of your birthday!"
+
+Lady Feng was at the moment pricked by shame and remorse for having so
+freely indulged in wine the previous day as to completely have lost
+sight of longstanding friendships, and for allowing her temper to so
+thoroughly flare up as to lend a patient ear to the gossip of outsiders,
+and unjustly put P'ing Erh out of countenance, so when she contrariwise
+now saw her make advances, she felt both abashed and grieved, and,
+promptly extending her arms, she dragged her up and gave way to tears.
+
+"I've waited upon your ladyship for all these years," P'ing Erh pleaded,
+"and you've never so much as given me a single fillip; and yet, you beat
+me yesterday. But I don't bear you any grudge, my lady, for it was that
+wench, who was at the bottom of it all. Nor do I wonder that your
+ladyship lost control over your temper."
+
+As she spoke, tears trickled down her cheeks too.
+
+"Escort those three home!" dowager lady Chia shouted to the servants.
+"If any one of them makes the least allusion to the subject, come at
+once and tell me of it; for without any regard as to who it may be, I
+shall take my staff and give him or her a sound flogging."
+
+The trio then prostrated themselves before dowager lady Chia and the two
+ladies, Mesdames Hsing and Wang. And assenting to her old mistress'
+injunctions, an old nurse accompanied the three inmates to their
+quarters.
+
+When they got home, lady Feng assured herself that there was no one
+about. "How is it," she next asked, "that I'm like a queen of hell, or
+like a 'Yakcha' demon? That courtesan swore at me and wished me dead;
+and did you too help her to curse me? If I'm not nice a thousand days,
+why, I must be nice on some one day! But if, poor me, I'm so bad as not
+even to compare with a disorderly woman, how can I have the face to come
+and spend my life with you here?"
+
+So speaking, she melted into tears.
+
+"Aren't you yet gratified?" cried Chia Lien. "Just reflect carefully who
+was most to blame yesterday! And yet, in the presence of so many people,
+it was I who, after all, fell to-day on my knees and made apologies as
+well. You came in for plenty of credit, and do you now go on jabber,
+jabber? Can it be that you'd like to make me kneel at your feet before
+you let matters rest? If you try and play the bully beyond bounds, it
+won't be a good thing for you!"
+
+To these arguments, lady Feng could find no suitable response.
+
+P'ing Erh then blurted out laughing.
+
+"She's all right again!" Chia Lien smiled. "But I'm really quite at a
+loss what to do with this one."
+
+These words were still on his lips, when they saw a married woman walk
+in. "Pao Erh's wife has committed suicide by hanging herself," she said.
+
+This announcement plunged both Chia Lien and lady Feng into great
+consternation. Lady Feng, however, lost no time in putting away every
+sign of excitement. "Dead, eh? What a riddance!" she shouted instead.
+"What's the use of making such a fuss about a mere trifle?"
+
+But not long elapsed before she perceived Lin Chih-hsiao's wife make her
+appearance in the room. "Pao Erh's wife has hung herself," she whispered
+to lady Feng in a low tone of voice, "and her mother's relatives want to
+take legal proceedings."
+
+Lady Feng gave a sardonic smile. "That's all right!" she observed. "I
+myself was just thinking about lodging a complaint!"
+
+"I and the others tried to dissuade them," Lin Chih-hsiao's wife
+continued. "And by having recourse to intimidation as well as to
+promises of money, they, at last, agreed to our terms."
+
+"I haven't got a cash," lady Feng replied. "Had I even any money, I
+wouldn't let them have it; so just let them go and lodge any charge they
+fancy. You needn't either dissuade them or intimidate them. Let them go
+and complain as much as they like. But if they fail to establish a case
+against me, they'll, after all, be punished for trying to make the
+corpse the means of extorting money out of me!"
+
+Lin Chih-hsiao's wife was in a dilemma, when she espied Chia Lien wink
+at her. Comprehending his purpose, she readily quitted the apartment and
+waited for him outside.
+
+"I'll go out and see what they're up to!" Chia Lien remarked.
+
+"Mind, I won't have you give them any money!" shouted lady Feng.
+
+Chia Lien straightway made his exit. He came and held consultation with
+Lin Chih-hsiao, and then directed the servants to go and use some fair
+means, others harsh. The matter was, however, not brought to any
+satisfactory arrangement until he engaged to pay two hundred taels for
+burial expenses. But so apprehensive was Chia Lien lest something might
+occur to make the relatives change their ideas, that he also despatched
+a messenger to lay the affair before Wang Tzu-t'eng, who bade a few
+constables, coroners and other official servants come and help him to
+effect the necessary preparations for the funeral. The parties concerned
+did not venture, when they saw the precautions he had adopted, to raise
+any objections, disposed though they may have been to try and bring
+forward other arguments. Their sole alternative therefore was to
+suppress their resentment, to refrain from further importunities and let
+the matter drop into oblivion.
+
+Chia Lien then impressed upon Lin Chih-hsiao to insert the two hundred
+taels in the accounts for the current year, by making such additions to
+various items here and there as would suffice to clear them off, and
+presented Pao Erh with money out of his own pocket as a crumb of
+comfort, adding, "By and bye, I'll choose a nice wife for you." When Pao
+Erh, therefore, came in for a share of credit as well as of hard cash,
+he could not possibly do otherwise than practise contentment; and
+forthwith, needless to dilate on this topic, he began to pay court to
+Chia Lien as much as ever.
+
+In the inner rooms, lady Feng was, it is true, much cut up at heart; but
+she strained every nerve to preserve an exterior of total indifference.
+Noticing that there was no one present in the apartment, she drew P'ing
+Erh to her. "I drank yesterday," she smiled, "a little more wine than
+was good for me, so don't bear me a grudge. Where did I strike you, let
+me see?"
+
+"You didn't really strike me hard!" P'ing Erh said by way of reply.
+
+But at this stage they heard some one remark that the ladies and young
+ladies had come in.
+
+If you desire, reader, to know any of the subsequent circumstances,
+peruse the account given in the following chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+ Friends interchange words of friendship.
+ Tai-yue feels dull on a windy and rainy evening, and indites verses on
+ wind and rain.
+
+
+Lady Feng, we will now go on to explain, was engaged in comforting P'ing
+Erh, when upon unawares perceiving the young ladies enter the room, she
+hastened to make them sit down while P'ing Erh poured the tea.
+
+"So many of you come to-day," lady Feng smiled, "that it looks as if
+you'd been asked to come by invitation."
+
+T'an Ch'un was the first to speak. "We have," she smilingly rejoined,
+"two objects in view, the one concerns me; the other cousin Quarta; but
+among these are, besides, certain things said by our venerable senior."
+
+"What's up?" inquired lady Feng with a laugh. "Is it so urgent?"
+
+"Some time ago," T'an Ch'un proceeded laughingly, "we started a rhyming
+club; but the first meeting was not quite a success. Every one of us
+proved so soft-hearted! The rules therefore were set at naught. So I
+can't help thinking that we must enlist your services as president of
+the society and superintendent; for what is needed to make the thing
+turn out well is firmness and no favour. The next matter is: cousin
+Quarta explained to our worthy ancestor that the requisites for painting
+the picture of the garden were short of one thing and another, and she
+said: 'that there must still be,' she fancied, 'in the lower story of
+the back loft some articles, remaining over from previous years, and
+that we should go and look for them. That if there be any, they should
+be taken out, but that in the event of their being none, some one should
+be commissioned to go and purchase a supply of them.'"
+
+"I'm not up to doing anything wet or dry, (play on word 'shih,'
+verses)," lady Feng laughed, "and would you have me, pray, come and
+gorge?"
+
+"You may, it's possible, not be up to any of these things," T'an Ch'un
+replied, "but we don't expect you to do anything! All we want you for is
+to see whether there be among us any remiss or lazy, and to decide how
+they should be punished, that's all."
+
+"You shouldn't try and play your tricks upon me!" lady Feng smiled, "I
+can see through your little game! Is it that you wish me to act as
+president and superintendent? No! it's as clear as day that your object
+is that I should play the part of that copper merchant, who put in
+contributions in hard cash. You have, at every meeting you hold, to each
+take turn and pay the piper; but, as your funds are not sufficient,
+you've invented this plan to come and inveigle me into your club, in
+order to wheedle money out of me! This must be your little conspiracy!"
+
+These words evoked general laughter. "You've guessed right!" they
+exclaimed.
+
+"In very truth," Li Wan smiled, "you're a creature with an intellect as
+transparent as crystal, and with wits as clear as glass!"
+
+"You've got the good fortune of being their elder sister-in-law," lady
+Feng smilingly remarked, "so the young ladies asked you to take them in
+hand, and teach them how to read, and make them learn good manners and
+needlework; and it's for you to guide and direct them in everything! But
+here they start a rhyming society, for which not much can be needed, and
+don't you concern yourself about them? We'll leave our worthy ancestor
+and our Madame Wang aside; they are old people, but you receive each
+moon an allowance of ten taels, which is twice as much as what any one
+of us gets. More, our worthy ancestor and Madame Wang maintain that
+being a widow, and having lost your home, you haven't, poor thing,
+enough to live upon, and that you have a young child as well to bring
+up; so they added with extreme liberality another ten taels to your
+original share. Your allowance therefore is on a par with that of our
+dear senior. But they likewise gave you a piece of land in the garden,
+and you also come in for the lion's share of rents, collected from
+various quarters, and of the annual allowances, apportioned at the close
+of each year. Yet, you and your son don't muster, masters and servants,
+ten persons in all. What you eat and what your wear comes, just as ever,
+out of the general public fund, so that, computing everything together,
+you get as much as four to five hundred taels. Were you then to
+contribute each year a hundred or two hundred taels, to help them to
+have some fun, how many years could this outlay continue? They'll very
+soon be getting married, and, are they likely then to still expect you
+to make any contributions? So loth are you, however, at present to fork
+out any cash that you've egged them on to come and worry me! I'm quite
+prepared to spend away until we've drained our chest dry! Don't I know
+that the money isn't mine?"
+
+"Just you listen to her," Li Wan laughed. "I simply made one single
+remark, and out she came with two cartloads of nonsensical trash! You're
+as rough a diamond as a leg made of clay! All you're good for is to work
+the small abacus, to divide a catty and to fraction an ounce, so
+finicking are you! A nice thing you are, and yet, you've been lucky
+enough to come to life as the child of a family of learned and high
+officials. You've also made such a splendid match; and do you still
+behave in the way you do? Had you been a son or daughter born in some
+poverty-stricken, humble and low household, there's no saying what a
+mean thing you wouldn't have been! Every one in this world has been
+gulled by you; and yesterday you went so far as to strike P'ing Erh! But
+it wasn't the proper thing for you to stretch out your hand on her! Was
+all that liquor, forsooth, poured down a cur's stomach? My monkey was
+up, and I meant to have taken upon myself to avenge P'ing Erh's
+grievance; but, after mature consideration, I thought to myself, 'her
+birthday is as slow to come round as a dog's tail grows to a point.' I
+also feared lest our venerable senior might be made to feel unhappy; so
+I did not come forward. Anyhow, my resentment isn't yet spent; and do
+you come to-day to try and irritate me? You aren't fit to even pick up
+shoes for P'ing Erh! You two should therefore change your respective
+places!"
+
+These taunts created merriment among the whole party.
+
+"Oh!" hastily exclaimed lady Feng, laughingly, "I know everything! You
+don't at all come to look me up on account of verses or paintings, but
+simply to take revenge on P'ing Erh's behalf! I never had any idea that
+P'ing Erh had such a backer as yourself to bolster her up! Had I known
+it, I wouldn't have ventured to strike her, even though a spirit had
+been tugging my arm! Miss P'ing come over and let me tender my apologies
+to you, in the presence of your senior lady and the young ladies. Do
+bear with me for having proved so utterly wanting in virtue, after I had
+had a few drinks!"
+
+Every one felt amused by her insinuations.
+
+"What do you say?" Li Wan asked P'ing Erh smiling. "As for me, I think
+it my bounden duty to vindicate your wrongs, before we let the matter
+drop!"
+
+"Your remarks, ladies, may be spoken in jest," P'ing Erh smiled, "but I
+am not worthy of such a fuss!"
+
+"What about worthy and unworthy?" Li Wan observed. "I'm here for you!
+Quick, get the key, and let your mistress go and open the doors and hunt
+up the things!"
+
+"Dear sister-in-law," lady Feng said with a smile, "you'd better go
+along with them into the garden. I'm about to take the rice accounts in
+hand and square them up with them. Our senior lady, Madame Hsing, has
+also sent some one to call me; what she wants to tell me again, I can't
+make out; but I must need go over for a turn. There are, besides, all
+those extra clothes for you people to wear at the end of the year, and I
+must get them ready and give them to be made!"
+
+"These matters are none of my business!" Li Wan laughingly answered.
+"First settle my concerns so as to enable me to retire to rest, and
+escape the bother of having all these girls at me!"
+
+"Dear sister-in-law," vehemently smiled lady Feng, "be good enough to
+give me a little time! You've ever been the one to love me best, and how
+is it that you have, on P'ing Erh's account, ceased to care for me? Time
+and again have you impressed on my mind that I should, despite my
+manifold duties, take good care of my health, and manage things in such
+a way as to find a little leisure for rest, and do you now contrariwise
+come to press the very life out of me? There's another thing besides.
+Should such clothes as will be required at the end of the year by any
+other persons be delayed, it won't matter; but, should those of the
+young ladies be behind time, let the responsibility rest upon your
+shoulders! And won't our old lady bear you a grudge, if you don't mind
+these small things? But as for me, I won't utter a single word against
+you, for, as I had rather bear the blame myself, I won't venture, to
+involve you!"
+
+"Listen to her!" Li Wan smiled. "Hasn't she got the gift of the gab? But
+let me ask you. Will you, after all, assume the control of this rhyming
+society or not?"
+
+"What's this nonsense you're talking?" lady Feng laughed. "Were I not to
+enter the society, and spend a little money, won't I be treated as a
+rebel in this garden of Broad Vista? And will I then still think of
+tarrying here to eat my head off? So soon as the day dawns to-morrow,
+I'll arrive at my post, dismount from my horse, and, after kneeling
+before the seals, my first act will be to give fifty taels for you to
+quietly cover the expenses of your meetings. Yet after a few days, I
+shall neither indite any verses, nor write any compositions, as I am
+simply a rustic boor, nothing more! But it will be just the same whether
+I assume the direction or not; for after you pocket my money, there's no
+fear of your not driving me out of the place!"
+
+As these words dropped from her lips, one and all laughed again.
+
+"I'll now open the loft," proceeded lady Feng. "Should there be any of
+the articles you want, you can tell the servants to bring them out for
+you to look at them! If any will serve your purpose, keep them and use
+them. If any be short, I'll bid a servant go and purchase them according
+to your list. I'll go at once and cut the satin for the painting. As for
+the plan, it isn't with Madame Wang; it's still over there, at Mr. Chia
+Chen's. I tell you all this so that you should avoid going over to
+Madame Wang's and getting into trouble! But I'll go and depute some one
+to fetch it. I'll direct also a servant to take the satin and give it to
+the gentlemen to size with alum; will this be all right?"
+
+Li Wan nodded her head by way of assent and smiled. "This will be
+putting you to much trouble and inconvenience," she said. "But we must
+really act as you suggest. Well in that case, go home all of you, and,
+if after a time, she doesn't send the thing round, you can come again
+and bully her."
+
+So saying, she there and then led off the young ladies, and was making
+her way out, when lady Feng exclaimed: "It's Pao-yue and he alone, who
+has given rise to all this fuss."
+
+Li Wan overheard her remark and hastily turned herself round. "We did,
+in fact, come over," she smiled, "on account of Pao-yue, and we forgot,
+instead all about him! The first meeting was deferred through him; but
+we are too soft-hearted, so tell us what penalty to inflict on him!"
+
+Lady Feng gave herself to reflection. "There's only one thing to do,"
+she then remarked. "Just punish him by making him sweep the floor of
+each of your rooms. This will do!"
+
+"Your verdict is faultless!" they laughed with one accord.
+
+While they conversed they were on the point of starting on their way
+back, when they caught sight of a young maid walk in, supporting nurse
+Lai. Lady Feng and her companions immediately rose to their feet, their
+faces beaming with smiles. "Venerable mother!" they said, "do take a
+seat!" They then in a body presented their congratulations to her.
+
+Nurse Lai seated herself on the edge of the stovecouch and returned
+their smiles. "I'm to be congratulated," she rejoined, "but you,
+mistresses, are to be congratulated as well; for had it had not been for
+the bountiful grace displaced by you, mistresses, whence would this joy
+of mine have come? Your ladyship sent Ts'ai Ko again yesterday to bring
+me presents, but my grandson _kotowed_ at the door, with his face
+turned towards the upper quarters."
+
+"When is he going to his post?" Li Wan inquired, with a smile.
+
+Nurse Lai heaved a sigh. "How can I interfere with them?" she answered.
+"Why, I let them have their own way and start when they like! The other
+day, they were at my house, and they prostrated themselves before me;
+but I could find no complimentary remark to make to him, so, 'Sir!' I
+said, 'putting aside that you're an official, you've lived in a reckless
+and dissolute way, for now thirty years. You should, it's true, have
+been people's bond-servant, but from the moment you came out of your
+mother's womb, your master graciously accorded you your liberty. Thanks,
+above, to the boundless blessings showered upon you by your lord, and,
+below, to the favour of your father and mother, you're like a noble
+scion and a gentleman, able to read and to write; and you have been
+carried about by maids, old matrons, and nurses, just as if you had been
+a very phoenix! But now that you've grown up and reached this age, do
+you have the faintest notion of what the two words 'bond-servant' imply?
+All you think of is to enjoy your benefits. But what hardships your
+grandfather and father had to bear, in slaving away for two or three
+generations, before they succeeded, after ever so many ups and downs, in
+raising up a thing like you, you don't at all know! From your very
+infancy, you ever ailed from this, or sickened for that, so that the
+money that was expended on your behalf, would suffice to fuse into a
+lifelike silver image of you! At the age of twenty, you again received
+the bounty of your master in the shape of a promise to purchase official
+status for you. But just mark, how many inmates of the principal branch
+and main offspring have to endure privation, and suffer the pangs of
+hunger! So beware you, who are the offshoot of a bond-servant, lest you
+snap your happiness! After enjoying so many good things for a decade, by
+the help of what spirits, and the agency of what devils have you, I
+wonder, managed to so successfully entreat your master as to induce him
+to bring you to the fore again and select you for office? Magistrates
+may be minor officials, but their functions are none the less onerous.
+In whatever district they obtain a post, they become the father and
+mother of that particular locality. If you therefore don't mind your
+business, and look after your duties in such a way as to acquit yourself
+of your loyal obligations, to prove your gratitude to the state and to
+show obedience and reverence to your lord, heaven, I fear, will not even
+bear with you!'"
+
+Li Wan and lady Feng laughed. "You're too full of misgivings!" they
+observed. "From what we can see of him, he's all right! Some years back,
+he paid us a visit or two; but it's many years now that he hasn't put
+his foot here. At the close of each year, and on birthdays, we've simply
+seen his name brought in, that's all. The other day, that he came to
+knock his head before our venerable senior and Madame Wang, we caught
+sight of him in her courtyard yonder; and, got up in the uniform of his
+new office, he looked so dignified, and stouter too than before. Now
+that he has got this post, you should be quite happy; instead of that
+you worry and fret about this and that! If he does get bad, why, he has
+his father and mother yet to take care of him, so all you need do is to
+be cheerful and content! When you've got time to spare, do get into a
+chair and come in and have a game of cards and a chat with our worthy
+senior; and who ever will have the face to hurt your feelings? Why, were
+you go to your home, you'd also have there houses and halls, and who is
+there who would not hold you in high respect? You're certainly, what one
+would call, a venerable old dame!"
+
+P'ing Erh poured a cup of tea and brought it to her. Nurse Lai speedily
+stood up. "You could have asked any girl to do this for me; it wouldn't
+have mattered! But here I'm troubling you again!"
+
+Apologising, she resumed, sipping her tea the while: "My lady you're not
+aware that young girls of this age must be in everything kept strictly
+in hand. In the event of any license, they're sure to find time to kick
+up trouble, and annoy their elders. Those, who know (how well they are
+supervised), will then say that children are always up to mischief. But
+those, who don't, will maintain that they take advantage of their
+wealthy position to despise people; to the detriment as well of their
+mistresses' reputation. How I regret that there's nothing that I can do
+with him. Time after time, have I had to send for his father; and he has
+been the better, after a scolding from him." Pointing at Pao-yue, "I
+don't mind whether you feel angry with me for what I'm going to say,"
+she proceeded, "but if your father were to attempt now to exercise ever
+so little control over you, your venerable grandmother is sure to try
+and screen you. Yet, when in days gone by your worthy father was young,
+he used to be beaten by your grandfather. Who hasn't seen him do it? But
+did your father, in his youth resemble you, who have neither fear for
+God or man? There was also our senior master, on the other side, Mr.
+Chia She. He was, I admit, wild; but never such a crossgrained fellow as
+yourself; and yet he too had his daily dose of the whip. There was
+besides the father of your elder cousin Chen, of the eastern mansion. He
+had a disposition that flared up like a fire over which oil is poured.
+If anything was said, and he flew into a rage, why, talk about a son, it
+was really as if he tortured a robber. From all I can now see and hear,
+Mr. Chen keeps his son in check just as much as was the custom in old
+days among his ancestors; the only thing is that he abides by it in some
+respects, but not in others. Besides, he doesn't exercise the least
+restraint over his own self, so is it to be wondered at if all his
+cousins and nieces don't respect him? If you've got any sense about you,
+you'll only be too glad that I speak to you in this wise; but if you
+haven't, you mayn't be very well able to say anything openly to me, but
+you'll inwardly abuse me, who knows to what extent!"
+
+As she reproved him, they saw Lai Ta's wife arrive. In close succession
+came Chou Jui's wife along with Chang Ts'ai's wife to report various
+matters.
+
+"A wife," laughed lady Feng, "has come to fetch her mother-in-law!"
+
+"I haven't come to fetch our old dame," Lai Ta's wife smilingly
+rejoined, "but to inquire whether you, my lady and the young ladies,
+will confer upon us the honour of your company?"
+
+When nurse Lai caught this remark, she smiled. "I've really grown quite
+idiotic!" "What," she exclaimed, "was right and proper for me to say, I
+didn't say, but I went on talking instead a lot of rot and rubbish! As
+our relatives and friends are presenting their congratulations to our
+grandson for having been selected to fill up that office of his, we find
+ourselves under the necessity of giving a banquet at home. But I was
+thinking that it wouldn't do, if we kept a feast going the whole day,
+and we invited this one, and not that one. Reflecting also that it was
+thanks to our master's vast bounty that we've come in for this
+unforeseen glory and splendour, I felt quite agreeable to do anything,
+even though it may entail the collapse of our household. I therefore
+advised his father to give banquets on three consecutive days. That he
+should, on the first, put up several tables, and a stage in our mean
+garden, and invite your venerable dowager lady, the senior ladies,
+junior ladies, and young ladies to come and have some distraction during
+the day, and that he should have several tables laid on the stage in the
+main pavilion outside, and request the senior and junior gentlemen to
+confer upon us the lustre of their presence. That for the second day, we
+should ask our relatives and friends; and that for the third, we should
+invite our companions from the two mansions. In this way, we'll have
+three days' excitement, and, by the boundless favour of our master,
+we'll have the benefit of enjoying the honour of your society."
+
+"When is it to be?" Li Wan and lady Feng inquired, smilingly. "As far as
+we are concerned, we'll feel it our duty to come. And we hope that our
+worthy senior may feel in the humour to go. But there's no saying for
+certain!"
+
+"The day chosen is the fourteenth," Lai Ta's wife eagerly replied. "Just
+come for the sake of our old mother-in-law!"
+
+"I can't tell about the others," lady Feng explained with a laugh, "but
+as for me I shall positively come. I must however tell you beforehand
+that I've no congratulatory presents to give you. Nor do I know anything
+about tips to players or others. As soon as I shall have done eating, I
+shall bolt, so don't laugh at me."
+
+"Fiddlesticks!" Lai Ta's wife laughed. "Were your ladyship disposed, you
+could well afford to give us twenty and thirty thousand taels."
+
+"I'm off now to invite our venerable mistress," nurse Lai smilingly
+remarked. "And if her ladyship also agrees to come, I shall deem it a
+greater honour than ever conferred upon me."
+
+Having said this, she went on to issue some injunctions; after which,
+she got up to go, when the sight of Chou Jui's wife reminded her of
+something.
+
+"Of course!" she consequently observed. "I've got one more question to
+ask you, my lady. What did sister-in-law Chou's son do to incur blame,
+that he was packed off, and his services dispensed with?"
+
+"I was just about to tell your daughter-in-law," lady Feng answered
+smilingly, after listening to her question, "but with so many things to
+preoccupy me, it slipped from my memory! When you get home,
+sister-in-law Lai, explain to that old husband of yours that we won't
+have his, (Chou Jui's), son kept in either of the mansions; and that he
+can tell him to go about his own business!"
+
+Lai Ta's wife had no option but to express her acquiescence. Chou Jui's
+wife however speedily fell on her knees and gave way to urgent
+entreaties.
+
+"What is it all about?" nurse Lai shouted. "Tell me and let me determine
+the right and wrong of the question."
+
+"The other day," lady Feng observed, "that my birthday was celebrated,
+that young fellow of his got drunk, before the wine ever went round; and
+when the old dame, over there, sent presents, he didn't go outside to
+give a helping hand, but squatted down, instead, and upbraided people.
+Even the presents he wouldn't carry inside. And it was only after the
+two girls had come indoors that he eventually got the servant-lads and
+brought them in. Those lads were however careful enough in what they
+did, but as for him, he let the box, he held, slip from his hands, and
+bestrewed the whole courtyard with cakes. When every one had left, I
+deputed Ts'ai Ming to go and talk to him; but he then turned round and
+gave Ts'ai Ming a regular scolding. So what's the use of not bundling
+off a disorderly rascal like him, who neither shows any regard for
+discipline or heaven?"
+
+"I was wondering what it could be!" nurse Lai ventured. "Was it really
+about this? My lady, listen to me! If he has done anything wrong, thrash
+him and scold him, until you make him mend his ways, and finish with it!
+But to drive him out of the place, will never, by any manner of means,
+do. He isn't, besides, to be treated like a child born in our household.
+He is at present employed as Madame Wang's attendant, so if you carry
+out your purpose of expelling him, her ladyship's face will be put to
+the blush. My idea is that you should, my lady, give him a lesson by
+letting him have several whacks with a cane so as to induce him to
+abstain from wine in the future. If you then retain him in your service
+as hitherto he'll be all right! If you don't do it for his mother's
+sake; do it at least for that of Madame Wang!"
+
+After lending an ear to her arguments, lady Feng addressed herself to
+Lai Ta's wife. "Well, in that case," she said, "call him over to-morrow
+and give him forty blows; and don't let him after this touch any more
+wine!"
+
+Lai Ta's wife promised to execute her directions. Chou Jui's wife then
+kotowed and rose to her feet. But she also persisted upon prostrating
+herself before nurse Lai; and only desisted when Lai Ta's wife pulled
+her up. But presently the trio took their departure, and Li Wan and her
+companions sped back into the garden.
+
+When evening came, lady Feng actually bade the servants go and look
+(into the loft), and when they discovered a lot of painting materials,
+which had been put away long ago, they brought them into the garden.
+Pao-ch'ai and her friends then selected such as they deemed suitable.
+But as they only had as yet half the necessaries they required, they
+drew out a list of the other half and sent it to lady Feng, who,
+needless for us to particularise, had the different articles purchased,
+according to the specimens supplied.
+
+By a certain day, the silk had been sized outside, a rough sketch drawn,
+and both returned into the garden. Pao-yue therefore was day after day to
+be found over at Hsi Ch'un's, doing his best to help her in her hard
+work. But T'an Ch'un, Li Wan, Ying Ch'un, Pao-ch'ai and the other girls
+likewise congregated in her quarters, and sat with her when they were at
+leisure, as they could, in the first place, watch the progress of the
+painting, and as secondly they were able to conveniently see something
+of each other.
+
+When Pao-ch'ai perceived how cool and pleasant the weather was getting,
+and how the nights were beginning again to gradually draw out, she came
+and found her mother, and consulted with her, until they got some
+needlework ready. Of a day, she would cross over to the quarters of
+dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang, and twice pay her salutations, but,
+she could not help as well amusing them and sitting with them to keep
+them company. When free, she would come and see her cousins in the
+garden, and have, at odd times, a chat with them, so having, during
+daylight no leisure to speak of, she was wont, of a night, to ply her
+needle by lamplight, and only retire to sleep after the third watch had
+come and gone.
+
+As for Tai-yue, she had, as a matter of course, a relapse of her
+complaint regularly every year, soon after the spring equinox and autumn
+solstice. But she had, during the last autumn, also found her
+grandmother Chia in such buoyant spirits, that she had walked a little
+too much on two distinct occasions, and naturally fatigued herself more
+than was good for her. Recently, too, she had begun to cough and to feel
+heavier than she had done at ordinary times, so she never by any chance
+put her foot out of doors, but remained at home and looked after her
+health. When at times, dullness crept over her, she longed for her
+cousins to come and chat with her and dispel her despondent feelings.
+But whenever Pao-ch'ai or any of her cousins paid her a visit, she
+barely uttered half a dozen, words, before she felt quite averse to any
+society. Yet one and all made every allowance for her illness. And as
+she had ever been in poor health and not strong enough to resist any
+annoyance, they did not find the least fault with her, despite even any
+lack of propriety she showed in playing the hostess with them, or any
+remissness on her part in observing the prescribed rules of etiquette.
+
+Pao-ch'ai came, on this occasion to call on her. The conversation
+started on the symptoms of her ailment. "The various doctors, who visit
+this place," Pao-ch'ai consequently remarked, "may, it's true, be all
+very able practitioners; but you take their medicines and don't reap the
+least benefit! Wouldn't it be as well therefore to ask some other person
+of note to come and see you? And could he succeed in getting you all
+right, wouldn't it be nice? Here you year by year ail away throughout
+the whole length of spring and summer; but you're neither so old nor so
+young, so what will be the end of it? Besides, it can't go on for ever."
+
+"It's no use," Tai-yue rejoined. "I know well enough that there's no cure
+for this complaint of mine! Not to speak of when I'm unwell, why even
+when I'm not, my state is such that one can see very well that there's
+no hope!"
+
+Pao-ch'ai shook her head. "Quite so!" she ventured. "An old writer says:
+'Those who eat, live.' But what you've all along eaten hasn't been
+enough to strengthen your energies and physique. This isn't a good
+thing!"
+
+Tai-yue heaved a sigh. "Whether I'm to live or die is all destiny!" she
+said. "Riches and honours are in the hands of heaven; and human strength
+cannot suffice to forcibly get even them! But my complaint this year
+seems to be far worse than in past years, instead of any better."
+
+While deploring her lot, she coughed two or three times. "It struck me,"
+Pao-ch'ai said, "that in that prescription of yours I saw yesterday
+there was far too much ginseng and cinnamon. They are splendid tonics,
+of course, but too many heating things are not good. I think that the
+first urgent thing to do is to ease the liver and give tone to the
+stomach. When once the fire in the liver is reduced, it will not be able
+to overcome the stomach; and, when once the digestive organs are free of
+ailment, drink and food will be able to give nutriment to the human
+frame. As soon as you get out of bed, every morning, take one ounce of
+birds' nests, of superior quality, and five mace of sugar candy and
+prepare congee with them in a silver kettle. When once you get into the
+way of taking this decoction, you'll find it far more efficacious than
+medicines; for it possesses the highest virtue for invigorating the
+vagina and bracing up the physique."
+
+"You've certainly always treated people with extreme consideration,"
+sighed Tai-yue, "but such a supremely suspicious person am I that I
+imagined that you inwardly concealed some evil design! Yet ever since
+the day on which you represented to me how unwholesome it was to read
+obscene books, and you gave me all that good advice, I've felt most
+grateful to you! I've hitherto, in fact, been mistaken in my opinion;
+and the truth of the matter is that I remained under this misconception
+up to the very present. But you must carefully consider that when my
+mother died, I hadn't even any sisters or brothers; and that up to this
+my fifteenth year there has never been a single person to admonish me as
+you did the other day. Little wonder is it if that girl Yuen speaks well
+of you! Whenever, in former days, I heard her heap praise upon you, I
+felt uneasy in my mind, but, after my experiences of yesterday, I see
+how right she was. When you, for instance, began to tell me all those
+things, I didn't forgive you at the time, but, without worrying yourself
+in the least about it you went on, contrariwise, to tender me the advice
+you did. This makes it evident that I have laboured under a mistaken
+idea! Had I not made this discovery the other day, I wouldn't be
+speaking like this to your very face to-day. You told me a few minutes
+back to take bird's nest congee; but birds' nests are, I admit, easily
+procured; yet all on account of my sickly constitution and of the
+relapses I have every year of this complaint of mine, which amounts to
+nothing, doctors have had to be sent for, medicines, with ginseng and
+cinnamon, have had to be concocted, and I've given already such trouble
+as to turn heaven and earth topsy-turvey; so were I now to start again a
+new fad, by having some birds' nests congee or other prepared, our
+worthy senior, Madame Wang, and lady Feng, will, all three of them, have
+no objection to raise; but that posse of matrons and maids below will
+unavoidably despise me for my excessive fussiness! Just notice how every
+one in here ogles wildly like tigers their prey; and stealthily says one
+thing and another, simply because they see how fond our worthy ancestor
+is of both Pao-yue and lady Feng, and how much more won't they do these
+things with me? What's more, I'm not a pucker mistress. I've really come
+here as a mere refugee, for I had no one to sustain me and no one to
+depend upon. They already bear me considerable dislike; so much so, that
+I'm still quite at a loss whether I should stay or go; and why should I
+make them heap execrations upon me?"
+
+"Well, in that case," Pao-ch'ai observed, "I'm too in the same plight as
+yourself!"
+
+"How can you compare yourself with me?" Tai-yue exclaimed. "You have a
+mother; and a brother as well! You've also got some business and land in
+here, and, at home, you can call houses' and fields your own. It's only
+therefore the ties of relationship, which make you stay here at all.
+Neither are you in anything whether large or small, in their debt for
+one single cash or even half a one; and when you want to go, you're at
+liberty to go. But I, have nothing whatever that I can call my own. Yet,
+in what I eat, wear, and use, I am, in every trifle, entirely on the
+same footing as the young ladies in their household, so how ever can
+that mean lot not despise me out and out?"
+
+"The only extra expense they'll have to go to by and bye," Pao-ch'ai
+laughed, "will be to get one more trousseau, that's all. And for the
+present, it's too soon yet to worry yourself about that!"
+
+At this insinuation, Tai-yue unconsciously blushed scarlet. "One treats
+you," she smiled, "as a decent sort of person, and confides in you the
+woes of one's heart, and, instead of sympathising with me, you make me
+the means of raising a laugh!"
+
+"Albeit I raise a laugh at your expense," Pao-ch'ai rejoined, a smile
+curling her lips, "what I say is none the less true! But compose your
+mind! I'll try every day that I'm here to cheer you up; so come to me
+with every grievance or trouble, for I shall, needless to say, dispel
+those that are within my power. Notwithstanding that I have a brother,
+you yourself know well enough what he's like! All I have is a mother, so
+I'm just a trifle better off than you! We can therefore well look upon
+ourselves as being in the same boat, and sympathise with each other. You
+have, besides, plenty of wits about you, so why need you give way to
+groans, as did Ssu Ma-niu? What you said just now is quite right; but,
+you should worry and fret about as little and not as much as you can. On
+my return home, to-morrow, I'll tell my mother; and, as I think there
+must be still some birds' nests in our house, we'll send you several
+ounces of them. You can then tell the servant-maids to prepare some for
+you at whatever time you want every day; and you'll thus be suiting your
+own convenience and be giving no trouble or annoyance to any one."
+
+"The things are, of themselves, of little account," eagerly responded
+Tai-yue laughingly. "What's difficult to find is one with as much feeling
+as yourself."
+
+
+"What's there in this worth speaking about?" Pao-ch'ai said. "What
+grieves me is that I fail to be as nice as I should be with those I come
+across. But, I presume, you feel quite done up now, so I'll be off!"
+
+"Come in the evening again," Tai-yue pressed her, "and have a chat with
+me."
+
+While assuring her that she would come, Pao-ch'ai walked out, so let us
+leave her alone for the present.
+
+Tai-yue, meanwhile, drank a few sips of thin congee, and then once more
+lay herself down on her bed. But before the sun set, the weather
+unexpectedly changed, and a fine drizzling rain set in. So gently come
+the autumn showers that dull and fine are subject to uncertain
+alternations. The shades of twilight gradually fell on this occasion.
+The heavens too got so overcast as to look deep black. Besides the
+effect of this change on her mind, the patter of the rain on the bamboo
+tops intensified her despondency, and, concluding that Pao-ch'ai would
+be deterred from coming, she took up, in the lamp light, the first book
+within her reach, which turned out to be the 'Treasury of Miscellaneous
+Lyrics.' Finding among these 'the Pinings of a maiden in autumn,' 'the
+Anguish of Separation,' and other similar poems, Tai-yue felt unawares
+much affected; and, unable to restrain herself from giving vent to her
+feelings in writing, she, there and then, improvised the following
+stanza, in the same strain as the one on separation; complying with the
+rules observed in the 'Spring River-Flower' and 'Moonlight Night.' These
+verses, she then entitled 'the Poem on the Autumn evening, when wind and
+rain raged outside the window.' Their burden was:
+
+ In autumn, flowers decay; herbage, when autumn comes, doth yellow
+ turn.
+ On long autumnal nights, the autumn lanterns with bright radiance
+ burn.
+ As from my window autumn scenes I scan, autumn endless doth seem.
+ This mood how can I bear, when wind and rain despondency enhance?
+ How sudden break forth wind and rain, and help to make the autumntide!
+ Fright snaps my autumn dreams, those dreams which under my lattice I
+ dreamt.
+ A sad autumnal gloom enclasps my heart, and drives all sleep away!
+ In person I approach the autumn screen to snuff the weeping wick.
+ The tearful candles with a flickering flame consume on their short
+ stands.
+ They stir up grief, dazzle my eyes, and a sense of parting arouse.
+ In what family's courts do not the blasts of autumn winds intrude?
+ And where in autumn does not rain patter against the window-frames?
+ The silken quilt cannot ward off the nipping force of autumn winds.
+ The drip of the half drained water-clock impels the autumn rains.
+ A lull for few nights reigned, but the wind has again risen in
+ strength.
+ By the lantern I weep, as if I sat with some one who must go.
+ The small courtyard, full of bleak mist, is now become quite desolate.
+ With quick drip drops the rain on the distant bamboos and vacant
+ sills.
+ What time, I wonder, will the wind and rain their howl and patter
+ cease?
+ The tears already I have shed have soaked through the window gauze.
+
+After scanning her verses, she flung the pen aside, and was just on the
+point of retiring to rest, when a waiting-maid announced that 'master
+Secundus, Mr. Pao-yue, had come.' Barely was the announcement out of her
+lips, than Pao-yue appeared on the scene with a large bamboo hat on his
+head, and a wrapper thrown over his shoulders. Of a sudden, a smile
+betrayed itself on Tai-yue's lips. "Where does this fisherman come from?"
+she exclaimed.
+
+"Are you better to-day?" Pao-yue inquired with alacrity. "Have you had
+any medicines? How much rice have you had to eat to-day?"
+
+While plying her with questions, he took off the hat and divested
+himself of the wrapper; and, promptly raising the lamp with one hand, he
+screened it with the other and threw its rays upon Tai-yue's face. Then
+straining his eyes, he scrutinised her for a while. "You look better
+to-day," he smiled.
+
+As soon as he threw off his wrapper, Tai-yue noticed that he was clad in
+a short red silk jacket, the worse for wear; that he was girded with a
+green sash, and that, about his knees, his nether garments were visible,
+made of green thin silk, brocaded with flowers. Below these, he wore
+embroidered gauze socks, worked all over with twisted gold thread, and a
+pair of shoes ornamented with butterflies and clusters of fallen
+flowers.
+
+"Above, you fight shy of the rain," Tai-yue remarked, "but aren't these
+shoes and socks below afraid of rain? Yet they're quite clean!"
+
+"This suit is complete!" Pao-yue smiled. "I've got a pair of crab-wood
+clogs, I put on to come over; but I took them off under the eaves of the
+verandah."
+
+Tai-yue's attention was then attracted by the extreme fineness and
+lightness of the texture of his wrapper and hat, which were unlike those
+sold in the market places. "With what grass are they plaited?" she
+consequently asked. "It would be strange if you didn't, with this sort
+of things on, look like a very hedgehog!"
+
+"These three articles are a gift from the Prince of Pei Ching," Pao-yue
+answered. "Ordinarily, when it rains, he too wears this kind of outfit
+at home. But if it has taken your fancy, I'll have a suit made for you.
+There's nothing peculiar about the other things, but this hat is funny!
+The crown at the top is movable; so if you want to wear a hat, during
+snowy weather in wintertime, you pull off the bamboo pegs, and remove
+the crown, and there you only have the circular brim. This is worn, when
+it snows, by men and women alike. I'll give you one therefore to wear in
+the wintry snowy months."
+
+"I don't want it!" laughed Tai-yue. "Were I to wear this sort of thing,
+I'd look like one of those fisherwomen, one sees depicted in pictures or
+represented on the stage!"
+
+Upon reaching this point, she remembered that there was some connection
+between her present remarks and the comparison she had some time back
+made with regard to Pao-yue, and, before she had time to indulge in
+regrets, a sense of shame so intense overpowered her that the colour
+rushed to her face, and, leaning her head on the table, she coughed and
+coughed till she could not stop. Pao-yue, however, did not detect her
+embarrassment; but catching sight of some verses lying on the table, he
+eagerly snatched them up and conned them from beginning to end.
+"Splendid!" he could not help crying. But the moment Tai-yue heard his
+exclamation, she speedily jumped to her feet, and clutched the verses
+and burnt them over the lamp.
+
+"I've already committed them sufficiently to memory!" Pao-yue laughed.
+
+"I want to have a little rest," Tai-yue said, "so please get away; come
+back again to-morrow."
+
+At these words, Pao-yue drew back his hand, and producing from his breast
+a gold watch about the size of a walnut, he looked at the time. The hand
+pointed between eight and nine p.m.; so hastily putting it away, "You
+should certainly retire to rest!" he replied. "My visit has upset you.
+I've quite tired you out this long while." With these apologies, he
+threw the wrapper over him, put on the rain-hat and quitted the room.
+But turning round, he retraced his steps inside. "Is there anything you
+fancy to eat?" he asked. "If there be, tell me, and I'll let our
+venerable ancestor know of it to-morrow as soon as it's day. Won't I
+explain things clearer than any of the old matrons could?"
+
+"Let me," rejoined Tai-yue smiling, "think in the night. I'll let you
+know early to-morrow. But harken, it's raining harder than it did; so be
+off at once! Have you got any attendants, or no?"
+
+"Yes!" interposed the two matrons. "There are servants to wait on him.
+They're outside holding his umbrella and lighting the lanterns."
+
+"Are they lighting lanterns with this weather?" laughed Tai-yue.
+
+"It won't hurt them!" Pao-yue answered. "They're made of sheep's horn, so
+they don't mind the rain."
+
+Hearing this, Tai-yue put back her hand, and, taking down an ornamented
+glass lantern in the shape of a ball from the book case, she asked the
+servants to light a small candle and bring it to her; after which, she
+handed the lantern to Pao-yue. "This," she said, "gives out more light
+than the others; and is just the thing for rainy weather."
+
+"I've also got one like it." Pao-yue replied. "But fearing lest they
+might slip, fall down and break it, I did not have it lighted and
+brought round."
+
+"What's of more account," Tai-yue inquired, "harm to a lantern or to a
+human being? You're not besides accustomed to wearing clogs, so tell
+them to walk ahead with those lanterns. This one is as light and handy
+as it is light-giving; and is really adapted for rainy weather, so
+wouldn't it be well if you carried it yourself? You can send it over to
+me to-morrow! But, were it even to slip from your hand, it wouldn't
+matter much. How is it that you've also suddenly developed this
+money-grabbing sort of temperament? It's as bad as if you ripped your
+intestines to secrete pearls in."
+
+After these words, Pao-yue approached her and took the lantern from her.
+Ahead then advanced two matrons, with umbrellas and sheep horn lanterns,
+and behind followed a couple of waiting-maids also with umbrellas.
+Pao-yue handed the glass lantern to a young maid to carry, and,
+supporting himself on her shoulder, he straightway wended his steps on
+his way back.
+
+But presently arrived an old servant from the Heng Wu court, provided as
+well with an umbrella and a lantern, to bring over a large bundle of
+birds' nests, and a packet of foreign sugar, pure as powder, and white
+as petals of plum-blossom and flakes of snow. "These," she said, "are
+much better than what you can buy. Our young lady sends you word, miss,
+to first go on with these. When you've done with them, she'll let you
+have some more."
+
+"Many thanks for the trouble you've taken!" Tai-yue returned for answer;
+and then asked her to go and sit outside and have a cup of tea.
+
+"I won't have any tea," the old servant smiled. "I've got something else
+to attend to."
+
+"I'm well aware that you've all got plenty in hand," Tai-yue resumed with
+a smiling countenance. "But the weather being cool now and the nights
+long, it's more expedient than ever to establish two things: a night
+club and a gambling place."
+
+"I won't disguise the fact from you, miss," the old servant laughingly
+observed, "that I've managed this year to win plenty of money. Several
+servants have, under any circumstances, to do night duty; and, as any
+neglect in keeping watch wouldn't be the right thing, isn't it as well
+to have a night club, as one can sit on the look-out and dispel dullness
+as well? But it's again my turn to play the croupier to-day, so I must
+be getting along to the place, as the garden gate, will, by this time,
+be nearly closing!"
+
+This rejoinder evoked a laugh from Tai-yue. "I've given you all this
+bother," she remarked, "and made you lose your chances of getting money,
+just to bring these things in the rain." And calling a servant she bade
+her present her with several hundreds of cash to buy some wine with, to
+drive the damp away.
+
+"I've uselessly put you again, miss, to the expense of giving me a tip
+for wine," the old servant smiled. But saying this she knocked her
+forehead before her; and issuing outside, she received the money, after
+which, she opened her umbrella, and trudged back.
+
+Tzu Chuean meanwhile put the birds' nests away; and removing afterwards
+the lamps, she lowered the portieres and waited upon Tai-yue until she
+lay herself down to sleep.
+
+While she reclined all alone on her pillow, Tai-yue thought gratefully of
+Pao-ch'ai. At one moment, she envied her for having a mother and a
+brother; and at another, she mused that with the friendliness Pao-yue had
+ever shown her they were bound to be the victims of suspicion. But the
+pitter-patter of the rain, dripping on the bamboo tops and banana
+leaves, fell on her ear; and, as a fresh coolness penetrated the
+curtain, tears once more unconsciously trickled down her cheeks. In this
+frame of mind, she continued straight up to the fourth watch, when she
+at last gradually dropped into a sound sleep.
+
+For the time, however, there is nothing that we can add. So should you,
+reader, desire to know any subsequent details, peruse what is written in
+the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+ An improper man with difficulty keeps from improprieties.
+ The maid, Yuean Yang, vows to break off the marriage match.
+
+
+Lin Tai-yue, to resume our story, dropped off gradually to sleep about
+the close of the fourth watch. As there is therefore nothing more that
+we can for the present say about her, let us take up the thread of our
+narrative with lady Feng.
+
+Upon hearing that Madame Hsing wanted to see her, she could not make out
+what it could be about, so hurriedly putting on some extra things on her
+person and head, she got into a carriage and crossed over.
+
+Madame Hsing at once dismissed every attendant from her suite of
+apartments. "I sent for you," she began, addressing herself to lady
+Feng, in a confidential tone, "not for anything else, but on account of
+something which places me on the horns of a dilemma. My husband has
+entrusted me with a job; and being quite at my wits' ends how to act,
+I'd like first to consult with you. My husband has taken quite a fancy
+to Yuean Yang, who is in our worthy senior's rooms; so much so, that he's
+desirous to get her into his quarters as a secondary wife. He has
+deputed me therefore to ask her of our venerable ancestor. I know that
+this is quite an ordinary matter. Yet I can't help fearing that our
+worthy senior may refuse to give her. But do you perchance see your way
+to bring this concern about?"
+
+Lady Feng listened to her. "You shouldn't, I say, go and bang your head
+against a nail!" she then vehemently exclaimed. "Were our old ancestor
+separated from Yuean Yang, she wouldn't even touch her rice! How ever
+could she reconcile herself to part from her? Besides, our worthy senior
+has time and again said, in the course of a chat, 'that she can't see
+the earthly use of a man well up in years, as your lord and master is,
+having here one concubine, and there another? That cooping them up in
+his rooms, is a mere waste of human beings. That he neglects his
+constitution and doesn't husband it; and that he doesn't either attend
+diligently to his official duties, but spends his whole days in boozing
+with his young concubines. When your ladyship hears these nice doings of
+his, don't you feel enamoured with that fine gentleman of ours? Were he
+even to try, at this juncture, to beat a retreat, he couldn't, I fear,
+effectively do so. Yet, instead of (making an effort to turn tail), he
+wants to go and dig the tiger's nostrils with a blade of straw. Don't,
+my lady, be angry with me; but I daren't undertake the errand. It's
+clear as day that it will be a wild goose chase. What's more, it will do
+him no good; but will, contrariwise, heap disgrace upon his own head!
+Our Mr. Chia She is now so stricken in years, that in all his actions he
+unavoidably behaves somewhat as a dotard. It would be well therefore for
+your ladyship to advise him what to do. It isn't as if he were in the
+prime of life to be able to do all these things with impunity! He's got
+at present a whole array of brothers, nieces, sons, and grandsons; and
+should he still go on in this wild sort of way, how will he be able to
+face any of them?"
+
+Madame Hsing gave a sardonic smile. "There are endless wealthy families
+with three and four concubines," she said, "and is it in ours that such
+a thing won't do? But were I even to tender him as much advice as I can,
+it isn't at all likely that he'll abide by it! Even though that maid be
+one beloved by our venerable senior, it doesn't follow that she'll very
+well be able to give a rebuff to a hoary-bearded elderly son, and,
+erewhile, an official, were he to express a wish to have her as an
+inmate of his household! I sent for you for no other purpose than to
+deliberate with you, and here you take the initiative and enumerate a
+whole array of shortcomings. But is there any reason why I should
+commission you to go? Of course I'll go and speak to her! You make a
+bold statement that I don't give him any good counsel; but don't you yet
+know that with a disposition, such as his, he rushes, before I can very
+well open my lips to advise him, into a tantrum with me?"
+
+Lady Feng was well alive to the fact that Madame Hsing was, by nature,
+simple and weak-minded, and that all she knew was to adulate Chia She so
+as to ensure her own safety. That she was, in the next place, ever
+ready, so greedy was she, to grasp as much hard cash and as many
+effects, as she could lay hold of, for her own private gain. That she
+left all family matters, irrespective of important or unimportant, under
+the sole control of Chia She; but that, whenever anything turned up,
+involving any receipts or payments, she extorted an unusual percentage,
+the moment the money passed through her clutches, giving out as a
+pretence: 'Well Chia She is so extravagant that I have to interfere and
+effect sufficient economies to enable us to make up our deficits.' And
+that she would not trust any one, whether son, daughter or servant, nor
+lend an ear to a single word of remonstrance. When she therefore now
+heard Madame Hsing speak as she did, she concluded that she must be in
+another of her perverse moods, and that any admonitions would be of no
+avail. So hastily forcing a smile: "My lady," she observed, "you're
+perfectly right in your remarks! But how long can I have lived, and what
+discrimination can I boast of? It seems to me that if a father and
+mother do not bestow, not a mere servant-girl like she is, but a living
+jewel of the size of her, on one like Mr. Chia She, to whom are they
+likely to give her? How can one give faith to words spoken behind one's
+back? So what a fool I was (in cramming what I heard down my throat)!
+Just take our Mr. Secundus, (my husband), as an instance. If ever he
+does anything to incur blame, Mr. Chia She and you, my lady, feel so
+wrath with him as to only wish you could lay hands upon him there and
+then and give him such a blow as would kill him downright, but the
+moment you set eyes on his face, your whole resentment vanishes, and lo,
+you again let him have, as of old, everything, and anything, much though
+both of you might relish it in your hearts! Our worthy ancestor will
+certainly therefore behave in the present instance, with equal
+liberality, towards Mr. Chia She! So if her ladyship feels in the humour
+to-day, she'll let him have her, I fancy, at once this very day, if he
+makes the proper advances. But I'll go ahead and coax our venerable
+senior; and, when your ladyship comes over, I'll find some pretence to
+get out of the way, and take along with me those too who may be present
+in her rooms, so as to make it convenient for you to broach the subject.
+If she gives her, so much the better. But if even she doesn't, it won't
+matter; for none of the inmates will have any idea what the object of
+your mission could have been."
+
+After listening to her suggestion, Madame Hsing began again to feel in a
+happier frame of mind. "My idea is," she observed, "that I shouldn't
+start by mentioning anything to our venerable senior, for were she to
+say that she wouldn't give her, the matter would be simply quashed on
+the head. I can't help thinking that I should first and foremost quietly
+approach Yuean Yang on the subject. She will, of course, feel extremely
+ashamed, but when I explain everything minutely to her, she'll certainly
+have nothing to say against the proposal, and everything will be all
+right. I can then speak to our old senior; and, despite any desire on
+her part not to accede to our wishes, she won't be able to put the girl
+off, provided she herself be willing; for as the adage says: 'If a
+person wishes to go, it's no use trying to keep him.' Thus needless to
+say, the whole thing will be satisfactorily settled!"
+
+"You're really shrewd in your devices, my lady!" lady Feng smilingly
+ejaculated. "This is perfect in every respect! For without taking Yuean
+Yang into account, what girl does not long to rise high, or hope to
+exalt herself, or think of pushing herself forward above the rest as to
+cast away the chances of becoming half a mistress, and prefer instead
+being a maid, and merely becoming by and bye the mate of some
+servant-lad?"
+
+"Quite so!" Madame Hsing smiled. "But let's put Yuean Yang aside. Who is
+there, even among the various elderly waiting-maids, who look after the
+house, who wouldn't be only too willing to step into these shoes? You'd
+better then go ahead. But, mind, don't let the cat out of the bag! I'll
+join you as soon as I can finish my evening meal."
+
+"Yuean Yang," thereupon secretly reflected lady Feng, "has always been an
+extremely shrewd-minded girl; to such a degree, that there is
+notwithstanding all our arguments, no saying positively whether she'll
+accept or refuse. So were I to go ahead, and Madame Hsing to follow me
+by and bye, there won't be any occasion for her to grumble or complain,
+so long as she assents; but, if she doesn't, why, Madame Hsing, who is
+so suspicious a creature, will possibly imagine that I've been gassing
+with her, and been the means of making her put on side and assume high
+airs. When Madame Hsing finds then that my conjectures have turned out
+true again, her shame will be converted into anger, and she'll so vent
+her spite upon me that I shall, after all, be put in a false position.
+Would it not be better then that she and I should go together; for, if
+she says 'yes,' I'll be all right; and, if she replies 'no,' I'll be on
+the safe side; and no suspicion, of any kind, will fall upon me!"
+
+At the close of her reflections, "As I was about to cross over here,"
+she remarked laughingly, "our aunt yonder sent us two baskets of quails,
+and I gave orders that they should be fried, with the idea that they
+should be brought to your ladyship, in time for you to have some at your
+evening repast. Just as I was stepping inside the main entrance, I saw
+the servant-boys carrying your curricle; they said that it was your
+ladyship's vehicle, that it had cracked, and that they were taking it to
+be repaired. Wouldn't it be as well then that you should now come in my
+carriage, for it will be better for you and me to get there together?"
+
+At this suggestion, Madame Hsing directed her servants to come and
+change her costume. Lady Feng quickly waited upon her, and in a while
+the two ladies got into one and the same curricle and drove over.
+
+"My lady," lady Feng went on to say, "it would be well for you to look
+up our worthy senior, for were I to accompany you, and her ladyship to
+ask me what was the object of my visit, it would be rather awkward. The
+best way is for your ladyship to go first, and I'll join you, as soon as
+I divest myself of my fine clothes."
+
+Madame Hsing noticed how reasonable her proposal was, and she readily
+betook herself to old lady Chia's quarters. But after a chat with her
+senior, she quitted the apartment, under the pretence that she was going
+to Madame Wang's rooms. Then making her exit by the back door, she
+passed in front of Yuean Yang's bedroom. Here she saw Yuean Yang sitting,
+hard at work at some needlework. The moment she caught sight of Madame
+Hsing, she rose to her feet.
+
+"What are you up to?" Madame Hsing laughingly inquired. "Let me see! How
+much nicer you embroider artificial flowers now!"
+
+So speaking, she entered, and, taking the needlework from her hands, she
+scrutinised it, while extolling its beauty. Then laying down the work,
+and scanning her again from head to foot, she observed that her costume
+consisted of a half-new, grey thin silk jacket, and a bluish satin
+waistcoat with scollops; that below this came a water-green jupe; that
+her waist was slim as that of a wasp; that her shoulders sloped as if
+pared; that her face resembled a duck's egg; that her hair was black and
+shiny; that her nose was very high, and that on both her cheeks were
+slightly visible several small flat moles.
+
+Yuean Yang realised how intently she was being passed under scrutiny, and
+began to feel inwardly uneasy; while utter astonishment prevailed in her
+mind. "Madame," she felt impelled to ask, "what do you come for at this
+impossible hour?"
+
+At a wink from Madame Hsing, her attendants withdrew from the room.
+Madame Hsing forthwith seated herself, and grasped Yuean Yang's hand in
+hers. "I've come," she smiled, "with the special purpose of presenting
+you my congratulations."
+
+This reply enabled Yuean Yang at once to form within herself some surmise
+more or less correct of the object of her errand, and suddenly blushing
+crimson, she lowered her head, and uttered not a word.
+
+"You know well enough," she next heard Madame Hsing resume, "that
+there's not a single reliable person with my husband; but much though
+we'd like to purchase some other girl we fear that such as might come
+out of a broker's household wouldn't be quite spotless and taintless.
+Nor would one be able to get any idea what her failings are, until after
+she has been purchased and brought home; when she too will be sure, in
+two or three days, to behave like an imp and play some monkey tricks!
+That's why we thought of choosing some home-born girl out of those which
+throng in our mansion, but then again we could find none decent enough;
+for if her looks were not at fault, her disposition was not proper; and
+if she possessed this quality, she lacked that one. Hence it is that
+after repeatedly choosing with dispassionate eye, during half a year,
+(he finds) that there's only you among that whole bevy of girls, who's
+worth anything; that in looks, behaviour and deportment, you're gentle,
+trustworthy, and perfection itself in every respect. His intention
+therefore is to ask your hand of our old lady and take you over and
+attach you to his quarters. You won't be treated as one newly-purchased,
+or newly-sought for outside; for the moment you put your foot into our
+house, you'll at once have your face shaved and be promoted to a
+secondary wife; so you'll thus attain as much dignity as honour. More,
+you're one who is anxious to excel; and, as the proverb says, 'gold will
+still be exchanged for gold.' My husband has, who'd have thought it,
+taken a fancy to you, so when you now enter our threshold, you'll fulfil
+the wish you've cherished all along with such high purpose and lofty
+aim, and stop the mouths of those persons, who are envious of your lot.
+Follow me therefore and let's go and lay the matter before our venerable
+ancestor."
+
+Arguing the while, she dragged her by the hand with the idea of hurrying
+her off there and then. Yuean Yang, however, blushed to her very ears,
+and, snatching her hand out of her grip she refused to budge.
+
+Madame Hsing was conscious that she was under the spell of intense
+shame. "What's there in this to be ashamed?" she continued, "You needn't
+besides breathe a word! All you have to do is to follow me, that's all."
+
+Yuean Yang continued to droop her head and to decline to go with her.
+Madame Hsing, perceiving her behaviour, went on to exhort her. "Is it
+likely, pray," she said, "that you still hesitate? If you actually don't
+feel inclined to accept the offer, you're, in real truth, a foolish
+girl; for here you let go the chances of becoming the secondary consort
+of a master, and choose instead to continue a servant-girl. You'll be
+united, in two or three years, to no one higher than some young
+domestic, and remain as much a bond-servant as ever! If you come along
+with us, you know that my disposition too is gentle; that I'm not one of
+those persons, who don't show any regard for any one; that my husband
+will also treat you as well as he does every one else, and that when, in
+the course of a year or so, you give birth to a son or daughter, you'll
+be placed on the same footing as myself. And of all the servants at
+home, will any you may wish to employ not deign to move to execute your
+orders? If now that you have a chance of becoming a mistress, you don't
+choose to, why, you'll miss the opportunity, and then you may repent it,
+but it will be too late!"
+
+Yuean Yang still kept her head bent against her chest and spake not a
+syllable by way of reply.
+
+"How is it," added Madame Hsing, "that you, who've ever been so quick
+have now too begun to be so infirm of purpose? What is there that
+doesn't fall in with your wishes? Just tell me; and I can safely assure
+you that you'll have everything done to satisfy you."
+
+Yuean Yang observed, as hitherto, perfect silence.
+
+"I suppose," laughed Madame Hsing, "that having a father and mother, you
+yourself don't wish to speak, for fear of being put to the blush, and
+that you want to wait until such time as they consult you about it, eh?
+This is quite right! But you'd better let me go and make the proposal to
+them and tell them to come and ascertain your wishes; and whatever your
+answer then may be just entrust it to them."
+
+This said, she sped into lady Feng's suite of rooms.
+
+Lady Feng had long ago changed her attire, and availed herself of the
+absence of any bystander in her apartments to confide the whole matter
+to P'ing Erh.
+
+P'ing Erh nodded her head and smiled. "According to my views, success is
+not so certain," she observed. "She and I have often secretly talked
+this matter over, and the arguments I heard her propound don't make it
+the least probable that she'll consent. But all we can say now is:
+'We'll see!'"
+
+"Madame Hsing," lady Feng remarked, "is sure to come over here to
+consult with me. If she has assented, well and good; but, if she hasn't,
+she'll bring displeasure upon her own self, and won't she feel out of
+countenance, if all of you are present? So tell the others to fry
+several quails, and get anything nice, that goes well with them, and
+prepare it for our repast, while you can go and stroll about in some
+other spot, and return when you fancy she has gone."
+
+Hearing this, P'ing Erh transmitted her wishes word for word to the
+matrons; after which, she sauntered leisurely all alone, into the
+garden.
+
+When Yuean Yang saw Madame Hsing depart, she concluded that she was bound
+to go into lady Feng's rooms to consult with her, and that some one was
+sure to come and ask her about the proposal, so thinking it advisable to
+cross over to this side of the mansion to get out of the way, she
+consequently repaired in quest of Hu Po.
+
+"Should our old mistress," she said to her, "ask for me, just say that I
+was so unwell that I couldn't even have any breakfast; that I've gone
+into the garden for a stroll, but that I will be back at once."
+
+Hu Po undertook to tell her so, and Yuean Yang then betook herself too
+into the garden. While lolling all over the place, she, contrary to her
+expectations, encountered P'ing Erh. P'ing Erh looked round to see that
+there was no one about. "Here comes the new secondary wife!" she
+smilingly exclaimed.
+
+Yuean Yang caught this greeting, and promptly the colour rose to her
+face. "How strange it is," she rejoined, "that you've all colluded
+together to come, with one accord, and scheme against me! But wait until
+I've had it out with your mistress, and then I'll set things all right."
+
+When P'ing Erh observed the angry look on Yuean Yang's countenance, her
+conscience was so stricken with remorse, on account of the inconsiderate
+remark she had passed, that drawing her under the maple tree, she made
+her sit on the same boulder as herself, and then went so far as to
+recount to her, from beginning to end, all that transpired, and
+everything that was said on lady Feng's return, a short while back, from
+the off mansion.
+
+Blushes flew to Yuean Yang's cheeks. Facing P'ing Erh, she gave a
+sardonic smile. "We've all ever been friends," she said, "that is: Hsi
+Jen, Hu Po, Su Yuen, Tzu Chuean, Ts'ai Hsia, Yue Ch'uan, She Yueeh, Ts'ui
+Mo, Ts'ui Lue, who was in Miss Shih's service and is now gone, K'o Jen
+and Chin Ch'uan, now deceased, Hsi Hsueeh, who left, and you and I. Ever
+since our youth up, how many chats have the ten or dozen of us not had,
+and what have we not been up to together? But now that we've grown up,
+each of us has gone her own way! Yet, my heart is just what it was in
+days gone by. Whenever there's anything for me to say or do, I don't try
+to impose upon any of you; so just first treasure in your heart the
+secret I'm going to tell you, and don't mention it to our lady Secunda!
+Not to speak of our senior master wishing to make me his concubine, were
+even our lady to die this very moment, and he to send endless
+go-betweens, and countless betrothal presents, with the idea of wedding
+me and taking me over as his lawful primary wife, I wouldn't also go."
+
+P'ing Erh was at this point desirous to put in some observation, when
+from behind the boulder became audible the loud tones of laughter. "You
+most barefaced girl!" a voice cried. "It's well you're not afraid of
+your teeth falling when you utter such things!"
+
+These words reached the ears of both girls, and, so unawares were they
+taken, that they got a regular start, and jumping up with all haste they
+went to see behind the boulder. They found no one else than Hsi Jen, who
+presented herself before them, with a smiling countenance, and asked:
+"What's up? Do tell me!"
+
+As she spoke, the trio seated themselves on a rock. P'ing Erh then
+imparted to Hsi Jen as well the drift of their recent conversation.
+
+"Properly speaking, we shouldn't pass such judgments," Hsi Jen remarked,
+after listening to her confidences, "but this senior master of ours is
+really a most licentious libertine. So much so, that whenever he comes
+across a girl with any good looks about her, he won't let her out of his
+grasp."
+
+"Since you don't like to entertain his offer," P'ing Erh suggested,
+"I'll put you up to a plan."
+
+"What plan is it?" Yuean Yang inquired.
+
+"Just simply tell our old mistress," P'ing Erh laughed, "this answer:
+that you've already been promised to our master Secundus, Mr. Lien. Our
+senior master then won't very well be able to be importunate.'"
+
+"Ts'ui!" ejaculated Yuean Yang. "What a thing you are! Do you still make
+such suggestions? Didn't your mistress the other day utter this silly
+nonsense! Who'd have thought it, her words have now come true!"
+
+"If you won't have either of them," Hsi Jen smiled, "my idea is that you
+should tell our old lady point blank and ask her to give out that she
+promised you long ago to our master, number two, Pao-yue. Our senior
+master will then banish this fad from his mind."
+
+Yuean Yang was overcome with anger, shame and exasperation. "What
+dreadful vixens both of you are!" she shouted. "You don't deserve a
+natural death! I find myself in a fix, and treat you as decent sort of
+persons and confide in you so that you should arrange matters for me;
+and not to say that you don't bother yourselves a rap about me, you take
+turn and turn about to poke fun at me! You're under the impression, in
+your own minds, that your fates are sealed, and that both of you are
+bound by and bye to become secondary wives; but I can't help thinking
+that affairs under the heavens don't so certainly fall in always with
+one's wishes and expectations! So you'd better now pull up a bit, and
+not be cheeky to such an excessive degree!"
+
+Both her companions then realised in what state of despair she was, and
+promptly forcing a smile, "Dear sister," they said, "don't be so touchy!
+We've been, ever since we were little mites, like very sisters! All
+we've done is to spontaneously indulge in a little fun in a spot where
+there's no one present. But tell us what you've decided to do, so that
+we too should know, and set our minds at ease."
+
+"Decided what?" Yuean Yang cried. "All I know is that I won't go; that's
+finished."
+
+P'ing Erh shook her head. "You mightn't go," she interposed, "but it
+isn't likely that the matter will drop. You're well aware what sort of
+temperament that of our senior master's is. It's true that you're
+attached to our old mistress' rooms, and that he can't, just at present,
+presume to do the least thing to you; but can it be, forsooth, that
+you'll be with the old dame for your whole lifetime? You'll also have to
+leave to get married, and if you then fall into his hands, it won't go
+well with you."
+
+Yuean Yang smiled ironically. "I won't leave this place so long as my old
+lady lives!" Yuean Yang protested. "In the event of her ladyship
+departing this life, he'll have, under any circumstances, to also go
+into mourning for three years; for there's no such thing as starting by
+marrying a concubine, soon after a mother's death! And while he waits
+for three years to expire, can one say what may not happen? It will be
+time enough to talk about it when that date comes. But should I be
+driven to despair from being hard pressed, I'll cut my hair off and
+become a nun. If not, there's yet another thing: death! And as for a
+whole life time I shall not join myself to a man, what joy will not then
+be mine, for having managed to preserve my purity?"
+
+"In very truth," P'ing Erh and Hsi Jen laughed, "this vixen has no sense
+of shame! She has now more than ever spoken whatever came foremost to
+her lips!"
+
+"What matters a moment's shame," Yuean Yang rejoined, "when things have
+reached this juncture? But if you don't believe my words, well, you'll
+be able to see by and bye; then you'll feel convinced. Madame Hsing said
+a short while back that she was going to look up my father and mother,
+but I'd like to see whether she'll proceed to Nanking to find them."
+
+"Your parents are in Nanking looking after the houses," P'ing Erh said,
+"and they can't come up; yet, in the long run, they can be found out.
+Your elder brother and your sister-in-law are besides in here at
+present. You, poor thing, are a child born in this establishment. You're
+not like us two, who are solitary creatures here."
+
+"What does it matter whether I be born here or not?" Yuean Yang
+exclaimed. "'You can lead a horse to a fountain, but you can't make him
+drink!' So if I don't listen to any proposals, is it likely, may I ask,
+that they'll kill my father and mother?" While the words were still on
+her lips, they caught sight of her sister-in-law, advancing from the
+opposite side. "As they couldn't at once get at your parents," Hsi Jen
+remarked, "they've, for a certainty, told your sister-in-law."
+
+"All this wench is good for," Yuean Yang shouted, "is 'to rush about as
+if selling camels in the six states!' If she heard what I said, she
+won't feel flattered."
+
+But while she spoke, her sister-in-law approached them. "Where didn't I
+look for you?" her sister-in-law smilingly observed. "Have you, miss,
+run over here? Come along with me; I've got something to tell you!"
+
+P'ing Erh and Hsi Jen speedily motioned to her to sit down, but (Yuean
+Yang's) sister-in-law demurred. "Young ladies, pray be seated; I've come
+in search of our girl to tell her something."
+
+Hsi Jen and P'ing Erh feigned perfect ignorance. "What can it be that
+it's so pressing?" they said with a smile. "We were engaged in guessing
+puns here, so let's find out this, before you go."
+
+"What do you want to tell me?" Yuan Yang inquired. "Speak out!"
+
+"Follow me!" her sister-in-law laughed. "When we get over there, I'll
+tell you. It's really some good tidings!"
+
+"Is it perchance what Madame Hsing has told you?" Yuean Yang asked.
+
+"Since you, miss, know what it's all about," her sister-in-law added
+smilingly, "what else remains for me to do? Be quick and come with me
+and I'll explain everything. Verily, it's a piece of happiness as large
+as the heavens!"
+
+Yuean Yang, at these words, rose to her feet and spat contemptuously with
+all her might in her sister-in-law's face. Pointing at her: "Be quick,"
+she cried abusively, "and stop that filthy tongue of yours! It would be
+ever so much better, were you to bundle yourself away from this! What
+good tidings and what piece of happiness! Little wonder is it that you
+long and crave the whole day long to see other people's daughter turned
+into a secondary wife as one and all of your family would rely upon her
+to act contrary to reason and right! A whole household has been
+converted into secondary wives! But the sight fills you with such keen
+jealousy that you would like to also lay hold of me and throw me into
+the pit-fire! If any honours fall to my share, all of you outside will
+do everything disorderly and improper, and raise yourselves, in your own
+estimations, to the status of uncles (and aunts). But if I don't get
+any, and come to grief, you'll draw in your foul necks, and let me live
+or die as I please!"
+
+While indulging in this raillery, she gave vent to tears. P'ing Erh and
+Hsi Jen did all they could to reason with her so as to prevent her from
+crying.
+
+Her sister-in-law felt quite out of countenance. "Whether you mean to
+accept the proposal, or not," she consequently said, "you can anyhow
+speak nicely. It isn't worth the while dragging this one in and
+involving that one! The proverb adequately says: 'In the presence of a
+dwarf one mustn't speak of dwarfish things!' Here you've been heaping
+insult upon me, but I didn't presume to retaliate. These two young
+ladies have however given you no provocation whatever; and yet by
+referring, as you've done, in this way and that way to secondary wives
+how can people stand it peacefully?"
+
+"You shouldn't speak so!" Hsi Jen and P'ing Erh quickly remonstrated.
+"She didn't allude to us; so don't be implicating others! Have you heard
+of any ladies or gentlemen who'd like to raise us to the rank of
+secondary wives? What's more, we two have neither father nor mother, nor
+brothers, within these doors, to avail themselves of our positions to
+act in a way contrary to right and reason! If she abuses people, let her
+do so; it isn't worth our while to be touchy!"
+
+"Seeing," Yuean Yang resumed, "that the abuse I've heaped upon her head
+has put her to such shame that she doesn't know where to go and screen
+her face, she tries to egg you two on! But you two have, fortunately,
+your wits about you! Though quite impatient, I never started arguing the
+question; she it was who chose to speak just now."
+
+Her sister-in-law felt inwardly much disconcerted, and beat a retreat in
+high dudgeon. But Yuean Yang so lost her temper that she still went on to
+abuse her; and it was only after P'ing Erh and Hsi Jen had admonished
+her for ever so long that she let the matter drop.
+
+"What were you hiding there for?" P'ing Erh then asked Hsi Jen. "We
+couldn't see anything of you."
+
+"I went," Hsi Jen explained, "into Miss Quarta's rooms to see our Mr.
+Pao-yue, but, who'd have thought it, I got there a little too late, and
+they told me that he had gone home. But my suspicions were, however,
+aroused as I couldn't make out how it was that I hadn't come across him,
+and I was about to go and hunt him up in Miss Lin's apartments, when I
+met one of her servants who said that he hadn't been there either. Then
+just as I was surmising that he must have gone out of the garden,
+behold, you came, as luck would have it, from the opposite direction.
+But I dodged you, so you didn't see anything of me. Subsequently, she
+too appeared on the scene; but I got behind the boulder, from the back
+of these trees. I, however, saw that you two had come to have a chat.
+Strange to say, though you have four eyes between you, you never caught
+a glimpse of me."
+
+Scarcely had she concluded this remark, than they heard some one else
+from behind, laughingly exclaim, "Four eyes never saw you, but your six
+eyes haven't as yet found me out!"
+
+The three girls received quite a shock from fright; but turning round,
+they perceived that it was no other person than Pao-yue.
+
+Hsi Jen smiled, and was the first to speak. "You've made me have a good
+search," she said. "Where do you hail from?"
+
+"I was just leaving cousin Quarta's," Pao-yue laughed, "when I noticed
+you coming along, just in front of me; and knowing well enough that you
+were bent upon finding me, I concealed myself to have a lark with you. I
+saw you then go by, with uplifted head, enter the court, walk out again,
+and ask every one you met on your way; but there I stood convulsed with
+laughter. I was only waiting to rush up to you and frighten you, when I
+afterwards realised that you too were prowling stealthily about, so I
+readily inferred that you also were playing a trick upon some one. Then
+when I put out my head and looked before me, I saw that it was these two
+girls, so I came behind you, by a circuitous way; and as soon as you
+left, I forthwith sneaked into your hiding place."
+
+"Let's go and look behind there," P'ing Erh suggested laughingly; "we
+may possibly discover another couple; there's no saying."
+
+"There's no one else!" Pao-yue laughed.
+
+Yuean Yang had long ago concluded that every word of their conversation
+had been overheard by Pao-yue; but leaning against the rock, she
+pretended to be fast asleep.
+
+Pao-yue gave her a push. "This stone is cold!" he smiled. "Let's go and
+sleep in our rooms. Won't it be better there?"
+
+Saying this, he made an attempt to pull Yuean Yang to her feet. Then
+hastily pressing P'ing Erh to repair to his quarters and have some tea,
+he united his efforts with those of Hsi Jen, and tried to induce Yuean
+Yang to come away. Yuean Yang, at length, got up, and the quartet betook
+themselves, after all, into the I Hung court.
+
+Pao-yue had caught every word that had fallen from their lips a few
+minutes back, and felt, indeed, at heart so much distressed on Yuean
+Yang's behalf, that throwing himself silently on his bed, he left the
+three girls in the outer rooms to prosecute their chat and laugh.
+
+On the other side of the compound, Madame Hsing about this time inquired
+of lady Feng who Yuean Yang's father was.
+
+"Her father," lady Feng replied, "is called Chin Ts'ai. He and his wife
+are in Nanking; they have to look after our houses there, so they can't
+pay frequent visits to the capital. Her brother is the Wen-hsiang, who
+acts at present as our senior's accountant; but her sister-in-law too is
+employed in our worthy ancestor's yonder as head washerwoman."
+
+Madame Hsing thereupon despatched a servant to go and call Yuean Yang's
+sister-in-law. On Mrs. Chin Wen-hsiang's arrival, she told her all. Mrs.
+Chin was naturally pleased and left in capital spirits to find Yuean
+Yang, in the hope that the moment she communicated the offer to her, the
+whole thing would be satisfactorily arranged. But contrary to all her
+anticipations, she had to bear a good blowing up from Yuean Yang, and to
+be told several unpleasant things by Hsi Jen and P'ing Erh, so that she
+was filled with as much shame as indignation. She then came and reported
+the result to Madame Hsing. "It's no use," she said, "she gave me a
+scolding." But as lady Feng was standing by, she could not summon up
+courage enough to allude to P'ing Erh, so she added: "Hsi Jen too helped
+her to rate me, and they told me a whole lot of improper words, which
+could not be breathed in a mistress' ears. It would thus be better to
+arrange with our master to purchase a girl and have done; for from all I
+see, neither can that mean vixen enjoy such great good fortune, nor we
+such vast propitious luck!"
+
+"What's that again to do with Hsi Jen? How came they to know anything
+about it?" Madame Hsing exclaimed upon learning the issue. "Who else was
+present?" she proceeded to inquire.
+
+"There was Miss P'ing!" was Chin's wife's reply.
+
+"Shouldn't you have given her a slap on the mouth?" lady Feng
+precipitately shouted. "As soon as I ever put my foot outside the door,
+she starts gadding about; and I never see so much as her shadow, when I
+get home. She too is bound to have had a hand in telling you something
+or other!"
+
+"Miss P'ing wasn't present," Chin's wife protested. "Looking from a
+distance it seemed to me like her; but I couldn't see distinctly. It was
+a mere surmise on my part that it was she at all."
+
+"Go and fetch her at once!" lady Feng shouted to a servant. "Tell her
+that I've come home, and that Madame Hsing is also here and wants her to
+help her in her hurry."
+
+Feng Erh quickly came up to her. "Miss Lin," she observed, "despatched a
+messenger for her, and asked her in writing three and four times before
+she at last went. I advised her to get back so soon as your ladyship
+stepped inside the gate, but 'tell your mistress,' Miss Lin said, 'that
+I've put her to the inconvenience of coming round, as I've got something
+for her to do for me.'"
+
+This explanation satisfied lady Feng and she let the matter drop. "What
+has she got to do," she purposely went on to ask, "that she will trouble
+her day after day?"
+
+Madame Hsing was driven to her wits' ends. As soon as the meal was over,
+she returned home; and, in the evening, she communicated to Chia She the
+result of her errand. After some reflection, Chia She promptly summoned
+Chia Lien.
+
+"There are other people in Nanking to look after our property," he told
+him on his arrival; "there's not only one family, so be quick and depute
+some one to go and summon Chin Ts'ai to come up to the capital."
+
+"Last night a letter arrived from Nanking," Chia Lien rejoined, "to the
+effect that Chin Ts'ai had been suffering from some phlegm-obstruction
+in the channels of the heart. So a coffin and money were allowed from
+the other mansion. Whether he be dead or alive now, I don't know. But
+even if alive, he must have lost all consciousness. It would therefore
+be a fruitless errand to send for him. His wife, on the other hand, is
+quite deaf."
+
+Hearing this, Chia She gave vent to an exclamation of reproof, and next
+launched into abuse. "You stupid and unreasonable rascal!" he shouted.
+"Is it you of all people, who are up to those things? Don't you yet
+bundle yourself off from my presence?"
+
+Chia Lien withdrew out of the room in a state of trepidation. But in a
+short while, (Chia She) gave orders to call Chin Wen-hsiang. Chia Lien
+(meanwhile) remained in the outer study, for as he neither ventured to
+go home, nor presumed to face his father, his only alternative was to
+tarry behind. Presently, Chin Wen-hsiang arrived. The servant-lads led
+him straightway past the second gate; and he only came out again and
+took his departure after sufficient time had elapsed to enable one to
+have four or five meals in.
+
+Chia Lien could not for long summon up courage enough to ask what was
+up, but when he found out, after a time, that Chia She had gone to
+sleep, he eventually crossed over to his quarters. In the course of the
+evening lady Feng told him the whole story. Then, at last, he understood
+the meaning of the excitement.
+
+But to revert to Yuean Yang. She did not get, the whole night, a wink of
+sleep. On the morrow, her brother reported to dowager lady Chia that he
+would like to take her home on a visit. Dowager lady Chia accorded her
+consent and told her she could go and see her people. Yuean Yang,
+however, would have rather preferred to stay where she was, but the fear
+lest her old mistress should give way to suspicion, placed her under the
+necessity of going, much against her own inclinations though it was. Her
+brother then had no course but to lay before her Chia She's proposal,
+and all his promises that she would occupy an honourable position, and
+that she would be a secondary wife, with control in the house; but Yuean
+Yang was so persistent in her refusal that her brother was quite
+nonplussed and he was compelled to return, and inform Chia She.
+
+Chia She flew into a dreadful passion. "I'll tell you what," he shouted;
+"bid your wife go and tell her that I say: 'that she must, like the
+goddess Ch'ang O herself who has from olden times shown a predilection
+for young people, only despise me for being advanced in years; that, as
+far as I can see, she must be hankering after some young men; that it
+must, most likely, be Pao-yue; but probably Lien Erh too! If she fosters
+these affections, warn her to at once set them at rest; for should she
+not come, when I'm ready to have her, who will by and bye venture to
+take her? This is the first thing. Should she imagine, in the next
+place, that because our venerable senior is fond of her, she may, in the
+future, be engaged to be married in the orthodox way, tell her to
+consider carefully that she won't very well be able to escape my grip,
+no matter in what family she may marry. That it's only in case of her
+dying or of her not wedding any one throughout her life that I shall
+submit to her decision. Under other circumstances, urge her to seize the
+first opportunity and change her mind, as she'll come in for many
+benefits.'"
+
+To every remark that Chia She uttered, Chin Wen-hsiang acquiesced.
+"Yes!" he said.
+
+"Mind you don't humbug me!" Chia She observed. "I shall to-morrow send
+again your mistress round to ask Yuean Yang. If you two have spoken to
+her, and she hasn't given a favorable answer, well, then, no blame will
+fall on you. But if she does assent, when she broaches the subject with
+her, look out for your heads!"
+
+Chin Wen-hsiang eagerly expressed his obedience over and over again, and
+withdrawing out of the room, he retraced his footsteps homeward. Nor did
+he have the patience to wait until he could commission his womankind to
+speak to her. Indeed he went in person and told her face to face the
+injunctions entrusted to him. Yuean Yang was incensed to such a degree
+that she was at a loss what reply to make. "I'm quite ready to go," she
+rejoined, after some cogitation, "but you people must take me before my
+old mistress first and let me tell her something about it."
+
+Her brother and sister-in-law flattered themselves that reflection had
+induced her to alter her previous decision, and they were both
+immeasurably delighted. Her sister-in-law there and then led her into
+the upper quarters and ushered her into the presence of old lady Chia.
+As luck would have it, Madame Wang, Mrs. Hsueeh, Li Wan, lady Feng,
+Pao-ch'ai and the other girls were, together with several respectable
+outside married women who acted as housekeepers, having some fun with
+old lady Chia. Yuean Yang observed where her mistress was seated, and
+hastily dragging her sister-in-law before her, she fell on her knees,
+and explained to her, with tears in her eyes, what proposal Madame Hsing
+had made to her, what her sister-in-law, who lived in the garden, had
+told her, and what message her brother had recently conveyed to her. "As
+I would not accept his advances," (she continued), "our senior master
+has just now gone so far as to insinuate 'that I was violently attached
+to Pao-yue; or if that wasn't the case, my object was to gain time so as
+to espouse some one outside. That were I even to go up to the very
+heavens, I couldn't, during my lifetime, escape his clutches, and that
+he would, in the long run, wreak his vengeance on me.' I have
+obstinately made up my mind, so I may state in the presence of all of
+you here, that I'll, under no circumstances, marry, as long as I live,
+any man whatsoever, not to speak of his being a Pao-yue, (precious jade);
+but even a Pao Chin, (precious gold), a Pao Yin, (precious silver); a
+Pao T'ien Wang, (precious lord of heaven); or a Pao Huang Ti, (precious
+Emperor); and have done! Were even your venerable ladyship to press me
+to take such a step, I couldn't comply with your commands, though you
+may threaten to cut my throat with a sword. I'm quite prepared to wait
+upon your ladyship, till you depart this life; but go with my father,
+mother, or brother, I won't! I'll either commit suicide, or cut my hair
+off, and go and become a nun. If you fancy that I'm not in earnest, and
+that I'm temporarily using this language to put you off, may, as surely
+as heaven, earth, the spirits, the sun and moon look upon me, my throat
+be covered with boils!"
+
+Yuean Yang had, in fact, upon entering the room, brought along a pair of
+scissors, concealed in her sleeve, and, while she spoke, she drew her
+hand back, and, dishevelling her tresses, she began to clip them. When
+the matrons and waiting-maids saw what she was up to, they hurriedly did
+everything they could to induce her to desist from her purpose; but
+already half of her locks had gone. And when they found on close
+inspection, that with the thick crop of hair she happily had, she had
+not succeeded in cutting it all, they immediately dressed it up for her.
+
+Upon hearing of Chia She's designs, dowager lady Chia was provoked to
+displeasure. Her whole body trembled and shook. "Of all the attendants
+I've had," she cried, "there only remains this single one, upon whom I
+can depend, and now they want to conspire and carry her off!" Noticing
+then Madame Wang standing close to her, she turned herself towards her.
+"All you people really know is to impose upon me!" she resumed.
+"Outwardly, you display filial devotion; but, secretly, you plot and
+scheme against me. If I have aught that's worth having, you come and dun
+me for it. If I have any one who's nice, you come and ask for her.
+What's left to me is this low waiting-maid, but as you see that she
+serves me faithfully, you naturally can't stand it, and you're doing
+your utmost to estrange her from me so as to be the better able to play
+your tricks upon me."
+
+Madame Wang quickly rose to her feet. She did not, however, dare to
+return a single syllable in self-defence.
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh noticed that Madame Wang herself came in for her share of
+blame, and she did not feel as if she could any longer make an attempt
+to tender words of advice. Li Wan, the moment she heard Yuean Yang speak
+in the strain she did, seized an early opportunity to lead the young
+ladies out of the room. T'an Ch'un was a girl with plenty of common
+sense, so reflecting within herself that Madame Wang could not, in spite
+of the insult heaped upon her, very well presume to say any thing to
+exculpate herself, that Mrs. Hsueeh could not, of course, in her position
+of sister, bring forward any arguments, that Pao-ch'ai was unable to
+explain things on behalf of her maternal aunt, and that Li Wan, lady
+Feng or Pao-yue could, still less, take upon themselves the right of
+censorship, she thought the opportunity rendered necessary the services
+of a daughter; but, as Ying Ch'un was so quiet, and Hsi Ch'un so young,
+she consequently walked in, no sooner did she overhear from outside the
+window what was said inside, and forcing a smile, she addressed herself
+to her grandmother. "How does this matter concern Madame Wang, my
+mother?" she interposed. "Venerable senior, just consider! This is a
+matter affecting her husband's eldest brother; and how could she, a
+junior sister-in-law, know anything about it?..."
+
+But before she had exhausted all her arguments, dowager lady Chia's
+countenance thawed into a smile. "I've really grown stupid from old
+age!" she exclaimed. "Mrs. Hsueeh, don't make fun of me! This eldest
+sister of yours is most reverent to me; and so unlike that senior lady
+of mine, who only knows how to regard her lord and master and to simply
+do things for the mere sake of appearances when she deals with her
+mother-in-law. I've therefore done her a wrong!"
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh confined her reply to a 'yes.' "Dear senior, you're so full
+of prejudices," she afterwards observed, "that you love your youngest
+son's wife more than any one of the others; but it's quite natural."
+
+"I have no prejudices," old lady Chia protested. "Pao-yue," she then
+proceeded, "I unjustly found fault with your mother; but, how was it
+that even you didn't tell me anything, but that you looked on, while she
+was having her feelings trampled upon?"
+
+"Could I," smiled Pao-yue, "have taken my mother's part, and run down my
+senior uncle and aunt? If my mother did not bear the whole blame, upon
+whom could she throw it? And had I admitted that it was I who was
+entirely at fault, you, venerable ancestor, wouldn't have believed me."
+
+"What you say is quite reasonable," his grandmother laughed. "So be
+quick and fall on your knees before your mother and tell her: 'mother,
+don't feel aggrieved! Our old lady is so advanced in years. Do it for
+Pao-yue's sake!'"
+
+At this suggestion, Pao-yue hastily crossed over, and dropping on his
+knees, he was about to open his lips, when Madame Wang laughingly pulled
+him up. "Get up," she cried, "at once! This won't do at all! Is it
+likely, pray, that you would tender apologies to me on behalf of our
+venerable ancestor?"
+
+Hearing this, Pao-yue promptly stood up.
+
+"Even that girl Feng didn't call me to my senses," dowager lady Chia
+smiled again.
+
+"I don't lay a word to your charge, worthy senior," lady Feng remarked
+smilingly, "and yet you brand me with reproach!"
+
+This rejoinder amused dowager lady Chia. "This is indeed strange!" she
+said to all around. "But I'd like to listen to these charges."
+
+"Who told you, dear senior," lady Feng resumed, "to look after your
+attendants so well, and lavish such care on them as to make them plump
+and fine as water onions? How ever can you therefore bear people a
+grudge, if they ask for her hand? I'm, lucky for you, your grandson's
+wife; for were I your grandson, I would long ere this have proposed to
+her. Would I have ever waited up to the present?"
+
+"Is this any fault of mine?" dowager lady Chia laughed.
+
+"Of course, it's your fault, venerable senior!" lady Feng retorted with
+a smile.
+
+"Well, in that case, I too don't want her," old lady Chia proceeded
+laughing. "Take her away, and have done!"
+
+"Wait until I go through this existence," lady Feng responded, "and, in
+the life to come, I'll assume the form of a man and apply for her hand."
+
+"Take her along," dowager lady Chia laughed, "and give her to Lien-Erh
+to attach to his apartments; and we'll see whether that barefaced
+father-in-law of yours will still wish to have her or not."
+
+"Lien-Erh is not a match for her!" lady Feng added. "He's only a fit
+mate for such as myself and P'ing Erh. A pair of loutish bumpkins like
+us to have anything to do with such a one as herself!"
+
+At this rejoinder, they all exploded into a hearty fit of laughter. But
+a waiting-maid thereupon announced: "Our senior lady has come." So
+Madame Wang immediately quitted the room to go and meet her.
+
+But any further particulars, which you, reader may like to know, will be
+given in the following chapter; so listen to it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+ An idiotic bully tries to be lewd and comes in for a sound thrashing.
+ A cold-hearted fellow is prompted by a dread of trouble to betake
+ himself to a strange place.
+
+
+As soon as Madame Wang, so runs our narrative, heard of Madame Hsing's
+arrival, she quickly went out to welcome her. Madame Hsing was not yet
+aware that dowager lady Chia had learnt everything connected with Yuean
+Yang's affair, and she was coming again to see which way the wind blew.
+The moment, however, she stepped inside the courtyard-entrance, several
+matrons promptly explained to her, quite confidentially, that their old
+mistress had been told all only a few minutes back, and she meant to
+retrace her steps, (but she saw that) every inmate in the suite of rooms
+was already conscious of her presence. When she caught sight, besides,
+of Madame Wang walking out to meet her she had no option but to enter.
+First and foremost, she paid her respects to dowager lady Chia, but old
+lady Chia did not address her a single remark, so she felt within
+herself smitten with shame and remorse.
+
+Lady Feng soon gave something or other as an excuse and withdrew. Yuean
+Yang then returned also quite alone to her chamber to give vent to her
+resentment; and Mrs. Hsueeh, Madame Wang and the other inmates, one by
+one, retired in like manner, for fear of putting Madame Hsing out of
+countenance. Madame Hsing, however, could not muster courage to beat a
+retreat. Dowager lady Chia noticed that there was no one but themselves
+in her apartments. "I hear," she remarked, "that you had come to play
+the part of a go-between for your lord and master! You can very well
+observe the three obediences and four virtues, but this softness of
+yours is a work of supererogation! You people have also got now a whole
+lot of grandchildren and sons. Do you still live in fear and trembling
+lest he should put his monkey up? Rumour has it that you yet let that
+disposition of your husband's run riot!"
+
+Madame Hsing's whole face got suffused with blushes. "I advised him time
+and again," she explained, "but he wouldn't listen to me. How is it,
+venerable senior, that you don't yet know that he turns a deaf ear to
+me? That's why I had no choice in the matter!"
+
+"Would you go and kill any one," dowager lady Chia asked, "that he might
+instigate you to? But consider now. Your brother's wife is naturally a
+quiet sort of person, and is born with many ailments; but is there
+anything, whether large or small, that she doesn't go to the trouble of
+looking after? And notwithstanding that that daughter-in-law of yours
+lends her a helping hand, she is daily so busy that she 'no sooner puts
+down the pick than she has to take up the broom.' So busy, that I have
+myself now curtailed a hundred and one things. But whenever there's
+anything those two can't manage, there's Yuean Yang to come to their
+assistance. She is, it's true, a mere child, but nevertheless very
+careful; and knows how to concern herself about my affairs a bit;
+indenting for anything that need be indented, and availing herself of an
+opportunity to tell them to supply every requisite. Were Yuean Yang not
+the kind of girl she is, how could those two ladies not neglect a whole
+or part of those matters, both important as well as unimportant,
+connected with the inner and outer quarters? Would I not at present have
+to worry my own mind, instead of leaving things to others? Why, I'd
+daily have to rack my brain and go and ask them to give me whatever I
+might need! Of those girls, who've come to my quarters and those who've
+gone, there only remains this single one. She's, besides other respects,
+somewhat older in years, and has as well a slight conception of my ways
+of doing things, and of my tastes. In the second place, she has managed
+to win her mistresses' hearts, for she never tries to extort aught from
+me, or to dun this lady for clothes or that one for money. Hence it is
+that beginning from your sister-in-law and daughter-in-law down to the
+servants in the house, irrespective of old or young, there isn't a soul,
+who doesn't readily believe every single word she says in anything, no
+matter what it is! Not only do I thus have some one upon whom I can
+rely, but your young sister-in-law and your daughter-in-law are both as
+well spared much trouble. With a person such as this by me, should even
+my daughter-in-law and granddaughter-in-law not have the time to think
+of anything, I am not left without it; nor am I given occasion to get my
+temper ruffled. But were she now to go, what kind of creature would they
+hunt up again to press into my service? Were you even to bring me a
+person made of real pearls, she'd be of no use; if she doesn't know how
+to speak! I was just about to send some one to go and explain to your
+husband that 'I've got money in here enough to buy any girl he fancies,'
+and to tell him that 'he's at liberty to give for her purchase from
+eight to ten thousand taels; that, if he has set his heart upon this
+girl, he can't however have her; and that by leaving her behind to
+attend to me, during the few years to come, it will be just the same as
+if he tried to acquit himself of his filial duties by waiting upon me
+day and night,' so you come at a very opportune moment. Were you
+therefore to go yourself at once and deliver him my message, it will
+answer the purpose far better!"
+
+These words over, she called the servants. "Go," she said, "and ask Mrs.
+Hsueeh, and your young mistresses to come! We were in the middle of a
+chat full of zest, and how is it they've all dispersed?"
+
+The waiting-maids immediately assented and left to go in search of their
+mistresses, one and all of whom promptly re-entered her apartments, with
+the sole exception of Mrs. Hsueeh.
+
+"I've only now returned," she observed to the waiting-maid, "and what
+shall I go again for? Just tell her that I'm fast asleep!"
+
+"Dearest Mrs. Hsueeh!" the waiting-maid pleaded, "my worthy senior! our
+old mistress will get angry. If you, venerable lady, don't appear
+nothing will appease her; so do it for the love of us! Should you object
+to walking, why I'm quite ready to carry you on my back."
+
+"You little imp!" Mrs. Hsueeh laughed. "What are you afraid of? All
+she'll do will be to scold you a little; and it will all be over soon!"
+
+While replying, she felt that she had no course but to retrace her
+footsteps, in company with the waiting-maid.
+
+Dowager lady Chia at once motioned her into a seat. "Let's have a game
+of cards!" she then smilingly proposed. "You, Mrs. Hsueeh, are not a good
+hand at them; so let's sit together, and see that lady Feng doesn't
+cheat us!"
+
+"Quite so," laughed Mrs. Hsueeh. "But it will be well if your venerable
+ladyship would look over my hand a bit! Are we four ladies to play, or
+are we to add one or two more persons to our number?"
+
+"Naturally only four!" Madame Wang smiled.
+
+"Were one more player let in," lady Feng interposed, "it would be
+merrier!"
+
+"Call Yuean Yang here," old lady Chia suggested, "and make her take this
+lower seat; for as Mrs. Hsueeh's eyesight is rather dim, we'll charge her
+to look over our two hands a bit."
+
+"You girls know how to read and write," lady Feng remarked with a smile,
+addressing herself to T'an Ch'un, "and why don't you learn
+fortune-telling?"
+
+"This is again strange!" T'an Ch'un exclaimed. "Instead of bracing up
+your energies now to rook some money out of our venerable senior, you
+turn your thoughts to fortune-telling!"
+
+"I was just wishing to consult the fates," lady Feng proceeded, "as to
+how much I shall lose to-day. Can I ever dream of winning? Why, look
+here. We haven't commenced playing, and they have placed themselves in
+ambush on the left and right."
+
+This remark amused dowager lady Chia and Mrs. Hsueeh. But presently Yuean
+Yang arrived, and seated herself below her old mistress. After Yuean Yang
+sat lady Feng. The red cloth was then spread; the cards were shuffled;
+the dealer was decided upon and the quintet began to play. After the
+game had gone on for a time, Yuean Yang noticed that dowager lady Chia
+had a full hand and was only waiting for one two-spotted card, and she
+made a secret sign to lady Feng. Lady Feng was about to lead, but
+purposely lingered for a few moments. "This card will, for a certainty,
+be snatched by Mrs. Hsueeh," she smiled, "yet if I don't play this one, I
+won't be able later to come out with what I want."
+
+"I haven't got any cards you want in my hand," Mrs. Hsueeh remarked.
+
+"I mean to see by and bye," lady Feng resumed.
+
+"You're at liberty to see," Mrs. Hsueeh said. "But go on, play now! Let
+me look what card it is."
+
+Lady Feng threw the card in front of Mrs. Hsueeh. At a glance, Mrs. Hsueeh
+perceived that it was the two spot. "I don't fancy this card," she
+smiled. "What I fear is that our dear senior will get a full hand."
+
+"I've played wrong!" lady Feng laughingly exclaimed at these words.
+
+Dowager lady Chia laughed, and throwing down her cards, "If you dare,"
+she shouted, "take it back! Who told you to play the wrong card?"
+
+"Didn't I want to have my fortune told?" lady Feng observed. "I played
+this card of my own accord, so there's no one with whom I can find
+fault."
+
+"You should then beat your own lips and punish your own self; it's only
+fair;" old lady Chia remarked. Then facing Mrs. Hsueeh, "I'm not a
+niggard, fond of winning money," she went on to say, "but it was my good
+luck!"
+
+"Don't we too think as much?" Mrs. Hsueeh smiled. "Who's there stupid
+enough to say that your venerable ladyship's heart is set upon money?"
+
+Lady Feng was busy counting the cash, but catching what was said, she
+restrung them without delay. "I've got my share," she said, laughingly
+to the company. "It isn't at all that you wish to win. It's your good
+luck that made you come out a winner! But as for me, I am really a mean
+creature; and, as I managed to lose, I count the money and put it away
+at once."
+
+Dowager lady Chia usually made Yuean Yang shuffle the cards for her, but
+being engaged in chatting and joking with Mrs. Hsueeh, she did not notice
+Yuean Yang take them in hand. "Why is it you're so huffed," old lady Chia
+asked, "that you don't even shuffle for me?"
+
+"Lady Feng won't let me have the money!" Yuean Yang replied, picking up
+the cards.
+
+"If she doesn't give the money," dowager lady Chia observed, "it will be
+a turning-point in her luck. Take that string of a thousand cash of
+hers," she accordingly directed a servant, "and bring it bodily over
+here!"
+
+A young waiting-maid actually fetched the string of cash and deposited
+it by the side of her old mistress.
+
+"Let me have them," lady Feng eagerly cried smiling, "and I'll square
+all that's due, and finish."
+
+"In very truth, lady Feng, you're a miserly creature!" Mrs. Hsueeh
+laughed. "It's simply for mere fun, nothing more!"
+
+Lady Feng, at this insinuation, speedily stood up, and, laying her hand
+on Mrs. Hsueeh, she turned her head round, and pointed at a large wooden
+box, in which old lady Chia usually deposited her money. "Aunt," she
+said, a smile curling her lips, "look here! I couldn't tell you how much
+there is in that box that was won from me! This tiao will be wheedled by
+the cash in it, before we've played for half an hour! All we've got to
+do is to give them sufficient time to lure this string in as well; we
+needn't trouble to touch the cards. Your temper, worthy ancestor, will
+thus calm down. If you've also got any legitimate thing for me to do,
+you might bid me go and attend to it!"
+
+This joke had scarcely been concluded than it evoked incessant laughter
+from dowager lady Chia and every one else. But while she was bandying
+words, P'ing Erh happened to bring her another string of cash prompted
+by the apprehension that her capital might not suffice to meet her
+wants.
+
+"It's useless putting them in front of me!" lady Feng cried. "Place
+these too over there by our old lady and let them be wheedled in along
+with the others! It will thus save trouble, as there won't be any need
+to make two jobs of them, to the inconvenience of the cash already in
+the box."
+
+Dowager lady Chia had a hearty laugh, so much so, that the cards, she
+held in her hand, flew all over the table; but pushing Yuean Yang. "Be
+quick," she shouted, "and wrench that mouth of hers!"
+
+P'ing Erh placed the cash according to her mistress' directions. But
+after indulging too in laughter for a time, she retraced her footsteps.
+On reaching the entrance into the court, she met Chia Lien. "Where's
+your Madame Hsing?" he inquired. "Mr. Chia She told me to ask her to go
+round."
+
+"She's been standing in there with our old mistress," P'ing Erh hastily
+laughed, "for ever so long, and yet she isn't inclined to budge! Seize
+the earliest opportunity you can get to wash your hands clean of this
+business! Our old lady has had a good long fit of fuming and raging.
+Luckily, our lady Secunda cracked an endless stock of jokes, so she, at
+length, got a bit calmer!"
+
+"I'll go over," Chia Lien said. "All I have to do is to find out our
+venerable senior's wishes, as to whether she means to go to Lai Ta's
+house on the fourteenth, so that I might have time to get the chairs
+ready. As I'll be able to tell Madame Hsing to return, and have a share
+of the fun, won't it be well for me to go?"
+
+"My idea is," P'ing Erh suggested laughingly, "that you shouldn't put
+your foot in there! Every one, even up to Madame Wang, and Pao-yue, have
+alike received a rap on the knuckles, and are you also going now to fill
+up the gap?"
+
+"Everything is over long ago," Chia Lien observed, "and can it be that
+she'll cap the whole thing by blowing me up too? What's more, it's no
+concern of mine. In the next place, Mr. Chia She enjoined me that I was
+to go in person, and ask his wife round, so, if I at present depute some
+one else, and he comes to know about it, he really won't feel in a
+pleasant mood, and he'll take advantage of this pretext to give vent to
+his spite on me."
+
+These words over, he quickly marched off. And P'ing Erh was so impressed
+with the reasonableness of his arguments, that she followed in his
+track.
+
+As soon as Chia Lien reached the reception hall, he trod with a light
+step. Then peeping in he saw Madame Hsing standing inside. Lady Feng,
+with her eagle eye, was the first to espy him. But she winked at him and
+dissuaded him from coming in, and next gave a wink to Madame Hsing.
+Madame Hsing could not conveniently get away at once, and she had to
+pour a cup of tea, and place it in front of dowager lady Chia. But old
+lady Chia jerked suddenly round, and took Chia Lien at such a
+disadvantage that he found it difficult to beat a retreat. "Who is
+outside?" exclaimed old lady Chia. "It seemed to me as if some
+servant-boy had poked his head in."
+
+Lady Feng sprung to her feet without delay. "I also," she interposed,
+"indistinctly noticed the shadow of some one."
+
+Saying this, she walked away and quitted the room. Chia Lien entered
+with hasty step. Forcing a smile, "I wanted to ask," he remarked,
+"whether you, venerable senior, are going out on the fourteenth, so that
+the chairs may be got ready."
+
+"In that case," dowager lady Chia rejoined, "why didn't you come
+straight in; but behaved again in that mysterious way?"
+
+"I saw that you were playing at cards, dear ancestor," Chia Lien
+explained with a strained laugh, "and I didn't venture to come and
+disturb you. I therefore simply meant to call my wife out to find out
+from her."
+
+"Is it anything so very urgent that you had to say it this very moment?"
+old lady Chia continued. "Had you waited until she had gone home,
+couldn't you have asked her any amount of questions you may have liked?
+When have you been so full of zeal before? I'm puzzled to know whether
+it isn't as an eavesdropping spirit that you appear on the scene; nor
+can I say whether you don't come as a spy. But that impish way of yours
+gave me quite a start! What a low-bred fellow you are! Your wife will
+play at cards with me for a good long while more, so you'd better bundle
+yourself home, and conspire again with Chao Erh's wife how to do away
+with your better half."
+
+Her remarks evoked general merriment.
+
+"It's Pao Erh's wife," Yuean Yang put in laughingly, "and you, worthy
+senior, have dragged in again Chao Erh's wife."
+
+"Yes!" assented old lady Chia, likewise with a laugh. "How could I
+remember whether he wasn't (pao) embracing her, or (pei) carrying her on
+his back. The bare mention of these things makes me lose all
+self-control and provokes me to anger! Ever since I crossed these doors
+as a great grandson's wife, I have never, during the whole of these
+fifty-four years, seen anything like these affairs, albeit it has been
+my share to go through great frights, great dangers, thousands of
+strange things and hundred and one remarkable occurrences! Don't you yet
+pack yourself off from my presence?"
+
+Chia Lien could not muster courage to utter a single word to vindicate
+himself, but retired out of the room with all promptitude. P'ing Erh was
+standing outside the window. "I gave you due warning in a gentle tone,
+but you wouldn't hear; you've, after all, rushed into the very meshes of
+the net!"
+
+These reproaches were still being heaped on him when he caught sight of
+Madame Hsing, as she likewise made her appearance outside. "My father,"
+Chia Lien ventured, "is at the bottom of all this trouble; and the whole
+blame now is shoved upon your shoulders as well as mine, mother."
+
+"I'll take you, you unfilial thing and..." Madame Hsing shouted. "People
+lay down their lives for their fathers; and you are prompted by a few
+harmless remarks to murmur against heaven and grumble against earth!
+Won't you behave in a proper manner? He's in high dudgeon these last few
+days, so mind he doesn't give you a pounding!"
+
+"Mother, cross over at once," Chia Lien urged; "for he told me to come
+and ask you to go a long time ago."
+
+Pressing his mother, he escorted her outside as far as the other part of
+the mansion. Madame Hsing gave (her husband) nothing beyond a general
+outline of all that had been recently said; but Chia She found himself
+deprived of the means of furthering his ends. Indeed, so stricken was he
+with shame that from that date he pleaded illness. And so little able
+was he to rally sufficient pluck to face old lady Chia, that he merely
+commissioned Madame Hsing and Chia Lien to go daily and pay their
+respects to her on his behalf. He had no help too but to despatch
+servants all over the place to make every possible search and inquiry
+for a suitable concubine for him. After a long time they succeeded in
+purchasing, for the sum of eighty taels, a girl of seventeen years of
+age, Yen Hung by name, whom he introduced as secondary wife into his
+household.
+
+But enough of this subject. In the rooms on the near side, they
+protracted for a long time their noisy game of cards, and only broke up
+after they had something to eat. Nothing worthy of note, however,
+occurred during the course of the following day or two. In a twinkle,
+the fourteenth drew near. At an early hour before daybreak, Lai Ta's
+wife came again into the mansion to invite her guests. Dowager lady Chia
+was in buoyant spirits, so taking along Madame Wang, Mrs. Hsueeh, Pao-yue
+and the various young ladies, she betook herself into Lai Ta's garden,
+where she sat for a considerable time.
+
+This garden was not, it is true, to be compared with the garden of Broad
+Vista; but it also was most beautifully laid out, and consisted of
+spacious grounds. In the way of springs, rockeries, arbours and woods,
+towers and terraces, pavilions and halls, it likewise contained a good
+many sufficient to excite admiration. In the main hall outside, were
+assembled Hsueeh P'an, Chia Chen, Chia Lien, Chia Jung and several close
+relatives. But Lai Ta had invited as well a number of officials, still
+in active service, and numerous young men of wealthy families, to keep
+them company. Among that party figured one Liu Hsiang-lien, whom Hsueeh
+P'an had met on a previous occasion and kept ever since in constant
+remembrance. Having besides discovered that he had a passionate liking
+for theatricals, and that the parts he generally filled were those of a
+young man or lady, in fast plays, he had unavoidably misunderstood the
+object with which he indulged in these amusements, to such a degree as
+to misjudge him for a young rake. About this time, he had been
+entertaining a wish to cultivate intimate relations with him, but he
+had, much to his disgust, found no one to introduce him, so when he, by
+a strange coincidence, came to be thrown in his way, on the present
+occasion, he revelled in intense delight. But Chia Chen and the other
+guests had heard of his reputation, so as soon as wine had blinded their
+sense of shame, they entreated him to sing two short plays; and when
+subsequently they got up from the banquet, they ensconced themselves
+near him, and, pressing him with questions, they carried on a
+conversation on one thing and then another.
+
+This Liu Hsiang-lien was, in fact, a young man of an old family; but he
+had been unsuccessful in his studies, and had lost his father and
+mother. He was naturally light-hearted and magnanimous; not particular
+in minor matters; immoderately fond of spear-exercise and fencing, of
+gambling and boozing; even going to such excesses as spending his nights
+in houses of easy virtue; playing the fife, thrumming the harp, and
+going in for everything and anything. Being besides young in years, and
+of handsome appearance, those who did not know what his standing was,
+invariably mistook him for an actor. But Lai Ta's son had all along been
+on such friendly terms with him, that he consequently invited him for
+the nonce to help him do the honours.
+
+Of a sudden, while every one was, after the wines had gone round, still
+on his good behaviour, Hsueeh P'an alone got another fit of his old
+mania. From an early stage, his spirits sunk within him and he would
+fain have seized the first convenient moment to withdraw and consummate
+his designs but for Lai Shang-jung, who then said: "Our Mr. Pao-yue told
+me again just now that although he saw you, as he walked in, he couldn't
+speak to you with so many people present, so he bade me ask you not to
+go, when the party breaks up, as he has something more to tell you. But
+as you insist upon taking your leave, you'd better wait until I call him
+out, and when you've seen each other, you can get away; I'll have
+nothing to say then."
+
+While delivering the message, "Go inside," he directed the servant-boys,
+"and get hold of some old matron and tell her quietly to invite Mr.
+Pao-yue to come out."
+
+A servant-lad went on the errand, and scarcely had time enough elapsed
+to enable one to have a cup of tea in, than Pao-yue, actually, made his
+appearance outside.
+
+"My dear sir," Lai Shang-jung smilingly observed to Pao-yue, "I hand him
+over to you. I'm going to entertain the guests!"
+
+With these words, he was off.
+
+Pao-yue pulled Lia Hsiang-lien into a side study in the hall, where they
+sat down.
+
+"Have you been recently to Ch'in Ch'ung's grave?" he inquired of him.
+
+"How could I not go?" Hsiang-lien answered. "The other day a few of us
+went out to give our falcons a fly; and we were yet at a distance of two
+li from his tomb, when remembering the heavy rains, we've had this
+summer, I gave way to fears lest his grave may not have been proof
+against them; so evading the notice of the party I went over and had a
+look. I found it again slightly damaged; but when I got back home, I
+speedily raised a few hundreds of cash, and issued early on the third
+day, and hired two men, who put it right."
+
+"It isn't strange then!" exclaimed Pao-yue, "When the lotus blossomed
+last month in the pond of our garden of Broad Vista, I plucked ten of
+them and bade T'sai Ming go out of town and lay them as my offering on
+his grave. On his return, I also inquired of him: whether it had been
+damaged by the water or not; and he explained that not only had it not
+sustained any harm, but that it looked better than when last he'd seen
+it. Several of his friends, I argued, must have had it put in proper
+repair; and I felt it irksome that I should, day after day, be so caged
+at home as to be unable to be my own master in the least thing, and that
+if even I move, and any one comes to know of it, this one is sure to
+exhort me, if that one does not restrain me. I can thus afford to brag,
+but can't manage to act! And though I've got plenty of money, I'm not at
+liberty to spend any of it!"
+
+"There's no use your worrying in a matter like this!" Liu Hsiang-lien
+said. "I am outside, so all you need do is to inwardly foster the wish;
+that's all. But as the first of the tenth moon will shortly be upon us,
+I've already prepared the money necessary for going to the graves. You
+know well enough that I'm as poor as a rat; I've no hoardings at home;
+and when a few cash find their way into my pocket, I soon remain again
+quite empty-handed. But I'd better make the best of this opportunity,
+and keep the amount I have, in order that, when the time comes, I mayn't
+find myself without a cash."
+
+"It's exactly about this that I meant to send Pei Ming to see you,"
+Pao-yue added. "But it isn't often that one can manage to find you at
+home. I'm well aware how uncertain your movements are; one day you are
+here, and another there; you've got no fixed resort."
+
+"There's no need sending any one to hunt me up!" Liu Hsiang-lien
+replied. "All that each of us need do in this matter is to acquit
+ourselves of what's right. But in a little while, I again purpose going
+away on a tour abroad, to return in three to five years' time."
+
+When Pao-yue heard his intention, "Why is this?" he at once inquired.
+
+Liu Hsiang-lien gave a sardonic smile. "When my wish is on a fair way to
+be accomplished," he said, "you'll certainly hear everything. I must now
+leave you."
+
+"After all the difficulty we've had in meeting," Pao-yue remarked,
+"wouldn't it be better were you and I to go away together in the
+evening?"
+
+"That worthy cousin of yours," Hsiang-lien rejoined, "is as bad as ever,
+and were I to stay any longer, trouble would inevitably arise. So it's
+as well that I should clear out of his way."
+
+Pao-yue communed with himself for a time. "In that case," he then
+observed, "it's only right, that you should retire. But if you really be
+bent upon going on a distant tour, you must absolutely tell me something
+beforehand. Don't, on any account, sneak away quietly!".
+
+As he spoke, the tears trickled down his cheeks.
+
+"I shall, of course, say good-bye to you," Liu Hsiang-lien rejoined.
+"But you must not let any one know anything about it!"
+
+While uttering these words, he stood up to get away. "Go in at once," he
+urged, "there's no need to see me off!"
+
+Saying this, he quitted the study. As soon as he reached the main
+entrance, he came across Hsueeh P'an, bawling out boisterously, "Who let
+young Liu-erh go?"
+
+The moment these shouts fell on Liu Hsiang-lien's ear, his anger flared
+up as if it had been sparks spurting wildly about, and he only wished he
+could strike him dead with one blow. But on second consideration, he
+pondered that a fight after the present festive occasion would be an
+insult to Lai Shang-jung, and he perforce felt bound to stifle his
+indignation.
+
+When Hsueeh P'an suddenly espied him walking out, he looked as delighted
+as if he had come in for some precious gem. With staggering step he drew
+near him. Clutching him with one grip, "My dear brother," he smirked.
+"where are you off to?"
+
+"I'm going somewhere, but will be back soon," Hsiang-lien said by way of
+response.
+
+"As soon as you left," Hsueeh P'an smiled, "all the fun went. But pray
+sit a while! If you do so, it will be a proof of your regard for me!
+Don't flurry yourself. With such a senior brother as myself to stand by
+you, it will be as easy a job for you to become an official as to reap a
+fortune."
+
+The sight of his repulsive manner filled the heart of Hsiang-lien with
+disgust and shame. But speedily devising a plan, he drew him to a
+secluded spot. "Is your friendship real," he smiled, "or is it only a
+sham?"
+
+This question sent Hsueeh P'an into such raptures that he found it
+difficult to check himself from gratifying his longings. But glancing at
+him with the corner of his eye, "My dear brother," he smiled, "what
+makes you ask me such a thing? If my friendship for you is a sham, may I
+die this moment, before your very eyes."
+
+"Well, if that be so," Hsiang-lien proceeded, "it isn't convenient in
+here, so sit down and wait a bit. I'll go ahead, but come out of this
+yourself by and bye, and follow me to my place, where we can drink the
+whole night long. I've also got there two first-rate young fellows who
+never go out of doors. But don't bring so much as a single follower with
+you, as you'll find, when you get there, plenty of people ready at hand
+to wait on you."
+
+So high did this assignation raise Hsueeh P'an's spirits that he
+recovered, to a certain extent, from the effects of wine. "Is it really
+so?" he asked.
+
+"How is it," Hsiang-lien laughed, "that when people treat you with a
+sincere heart, you don't, after all, believe them?"
+
+"I'm no fool," eagerly exclaimed Hsueeh P'an, "and how could I not
+believe you? But since this be the case, how am I, who don't even know
+the way, to find your whereabouts if you are to go ahead of me?"
+
+"My place is outside the northern gate." Hsiang-lien explained. "But can
+you tear yourself away from your home to spend the night outside the
+city walls?"
+
+"As long as you're there," Hsueeh P'an said, "what will I want my home
+for?"
+
+"If that be so," Hsiang-lien resumed, "I'll wait for you on the bridge
+outside the northern gate. But let us meanwhile rejoin the banquet and
+have some wine. Come along, after you've seen me go; they won't notice
+us then."
+
+"Yes!" shouted Hsueeh P'an with alacrity as he acquiesced to the
+proposal.
+
+The two young fellows thereupon returned to the feast, and drank for a
+time. Hsueeh Pan, however, could with difficulty endure the suspense. He
+kept his gaze intent upon Hsiang-lien; and the more he pondered within
+himself upon what was coming, the more exuberance swelled in his heart.
+Now he emptied one wine-kettle; now another; and, without waiting for
+any one to press him, he, of his own accord, gulped down one drink after
+another, with the result that he unconsciously made himself nearly quite
+tipsy. Hsiang-lien then got up and quitted the room, and perceiving
+every one off his guard, he egressed out of the main entrance. "Go home
+ahead," he directed his page Hsing Nu. "I'm going out of town, but I'll
+be back at once."
+
+By the time he had finished giving him these directions, he had already
+mounted his horse, and straightway he proceeded to the bridge beyond the
+northern gate, and waited for Hsueeh P'an. A long while elapsed, however,
+before he espied Hsueeh P'an in the distance, hurrying along astride of a
+high steed, with gaping mouth, staring eyes, and his head, banging from
+side to side like a pedlar's drum. Without intermission, he glanced
+confusedly about, sometimes to the left, and sometimes to the right;
+but, as soon as he got where he had to pass in front of Hsiang-lien's
+horse, he kept his gaze fixed far away, and never troubled his mind with
+the immediate vicinity.
+
+Hsiang-lien felt amused and angry with him, but forthwith giving his
+horse also the rein, he followed in his track, while Hsueeh P'an
+continued to stare ahead.
+
+Little by little the habitations got scantier and scantier, so pulling
+his horse round, (Hsueeh P'an) retraced his steps. The moment he turned
+back, he unawares caught sight of Hsiang-lien, and his spirits rose
+within him, as if he had got hold of some precious thing of an
+extraordinary value. "I knew well enough," he eagerly smiled, "that you
+weren't one to break faith."
+
+"Quick, let's go ahead!" Hsiang-lien smilingly urged. "Mind people might
+notice us and follow us. It won't then be nice!"
+
+While instigating him, he took the lead, and letting his horse have the
+rein, he wended his way onwards, followed closely by Hsueeh P'an. But
+when Hsiang-lien perceived that the country ahead of them was already
+thinly settled and saw besides a stretch of water covered with a growth
+of weeds, he speedily dismounted, and tied his horse to a tree. Turning
+then round; "Get down!" he said, laughingly, to Hsueeh P'an. "You must
+first take an oath, so that in the event of your changing your mind in
+the future, and telling anything to anyone, the oath might be
+accomplished."
+
+"You're quite right!" Hsueeh P'an smiled; and jumping down with all
+despatch, he too made his horse fast to a tree, and then crouched on his
+knees.
+
+"If I ever in days to come," he exclaimed, "know any change in my
+feelings and breathe a word to any living soul, may heaven blast me and
+earth annihilate me!"
+
+Scarcely had he ended this oath, when a crash fell on his ear, and lo,
+he felt as if an iron hammer had been brought down to bear upon him from
+behind. A black mist shrouded his eyes, golden stars flew wildly about
+before his gaze; and losing all control over himself, he sprawled on the
+ground.
+
+Hsiang-lien approached and had a look at him; and, knowing how little he
+was accustomed to thrashings, he only exerted but little of his
+strength, and struck him a few blows on the face. But about this time a
+fruit shop happened to open, and Hsueeh P'an strained at first every
+nerve to rise to his feet, when another slight kick from Hsiang-lien
+tumbled him over again.
+
+"Both parties should really be agreeable," he shouted. "But if you were
+not disposed to accept my advances, you should have simply told me in a
+proper way. And why did you beguile me here to give me a beating?"
+
+So speaking, he went on boisterously to heap invective upon his head.
+
+"I'll take you, you blind fellow, and show you who Mr. Liu is,"
+Hsiang-lien cried. "You don't appeal to me with solicitous entreaties,
+but go on abusing me! To kill you would be of no use, so I'll merely
+give you a good lesson!"
+
+With these words, he fetched his whip, and administered him, thirty or
+forty blows from his back down to his shins.
+
+Hsueeh P'an had sobered down considerably from the effects of wine, and
+found the stings of pain so intolerable, that little able to restrain
+himself, he gave way to groans.
+
+"Do you go on in this way?" Hsiang-lien said, with an ironical smile.
+"Why, I thought you were not afraid of beatings."
+
+While uttering this taunt, he seized Hsueeh P'an by the left leg, and
+dragging him several steps into a miry spot among the reeds, he rolled
+him about till he was covered with one mass of mud. "Do you now know
+what stuff I'm made of?" he proceeded to ask.
+
+Hsueeh P'an made no reply. But simply lay prostrate, and moaned. Then
+throwing away his whip Hsiang-lien gave him with his fist several thumps
+all over the body.
+
+Hsueeh P'an began to wriggle violently and vociferate wildly. "Oh, my
+ribs are broken!" he shouted. "I know you're a proper sort of person!
+It's all because I made the mistake of listening to other people's
+gossip!"
+
+"There's no need for you to drag in other people!" Hsiang-lien went on.
+"Just confine yourself to those present!"
+
+"There's nothing up at present!" Hsueeh P'an cried. "From what you say,
+you're a person full of propriety. So it's I who am at fault."
+
+"You'll have to speak a little milder," Hsiang-lien added, "before I let
+you off."
+
+"My dear younger brother," Hsueeh P'an pleaded, with a groan.
+
+Hsiang-lien at this struck him another blow with his fist.
+
+"Ai!" ejaculated Hsueeh P'an. "My dear senior brother!" he exclaimed.
+
+Hsiang-lien then gave him two more whacks, one after the other.
+
+"Ai Yo!" Hsueeh P'an precipitately screamed. "My dear Sir, do spare me,
+an eyeless beggar; and henceforth I'll look up to you with veneration;
+I'll fear you!"
+
+"Drink two mouthfuls of that water!" shouted Hsiang-lien.
+
+"That water is really too foul," Hsueeh P'an argued, in reply to this
+suggestion, wrinkling his eyebrows the while; "and how could I put any
+of it in my mouth?"
+
+Hsiang-lien raised his fist and struck him.
+
+"I'll drink it, I'll drink it!" quickly bawled Hsueeh P'an.
+
+So saying, he felt obliged to lower his head to the very roots of the
+reeds and drink a mouthful. Before he had had time to swallow it, a
+sound of 'ai' became audible, and up came all the stuff he had put into
+his mouth only a few seconds back.
+
+"You filthy thing!" exclaimed Hsiang-lien. "Be quick and finish
+drinking; and I'll let you off."
+
+Upon hearing this, Hsueeh P'an bumped his head repeatedly on the ground.
+"Do please," he cried, "lay up a store of meritorious acts for yourself
+and let me off! I couldn't take that were I even on the verge of death!"
+
+"This kind of stench will suffocate me!" Hsiang-lien observed, and, with
+this remark, he abandoned Hsueeh Pan to his own devices; and, pulling his
+horse, he put his foot to the stirrup, and rode away.
+
+Hsueeh Pan, meanwhile, became aware of his departure, and felt at last
+relieved in his mind. Yet his conscience pricked him for he saw that he
+should not misjudge people. He then made an effort to raise himself, but
+the racking torture he experienced all over his limbs was so sharp that
+he could with difficulty bear it.
+
+Chia Chen and the other guests present at the banquet became, as it
+happened, suddenly alive to the fact that the two young fellows had
+disappeared; but though they extended their search everywhere, they saw
+nothing of them. Some one insinuated, in an uncertain way, that they had
+gone outside the northern gate; but as Hsueeh P'an's pages had ever lived
+in dread of him, who of them had the audacity to go and hunt him up
+after the injunctions, he had given them, that they were not to follow
+him? But waxing solicitous on his account, Chia Chen subsequently bade
+Chia Jung take a few servant-boys and go and discover some clue of him,
+or institute inquiries as to his whereabouts. Straightway therefore they
+prosecuted their search beyond the northern gate, to a distance of two
+li below the bridge, and it was quite by accident that they discerned
+Hsueeh P'an's horse made fast by the side of a pit full of reeds.
+
+"That's a good sign!" they with one voice exclaimed; "for if the horse
+is there, the master must be there too!"
+
+In a body, they thronged round the horse, when, from among the reeds,
+they caught the sound of human groans, so hurriedly rushing forward to
+ascertain for themselves, they, at a glance, perceived Hsueeh P'an, his
+costume all in tatters, his countenance and eyes so swollen and bruised
+that it was hard to make out the head and face, and his whole person,
+inside as well as outside his clothes, rolled like a sow in a heap of
+mud.
+
+Chia Jung surmised pretty nearly the truth. Speedily dismounting, he
+told the servants to prop him up. "Uncle Hsueeh," he laughed, "you daily
+go in for lewd dalliance; but have you to-day come to dissipate in a
+reed-covered pit? The King of the dragons in this pit must have also
+fallen in love with your charms, and enticed you to become his
+son-in-law that you've come and gored yourself on his horns like this!"
+
+Hsueeh P'an was such a prey to intense shame that he would fain have
+grovelled into some fissure in the earth had he been able to detect any.
+But so little able was he to get on his horse that Chia Jung directed a
+servant to run to the suburbs and fetch a chair. Ensconced in this,
+Hsueeh P'an entered town along with the search party.
+
+Chia Jung still insisted upon carrying him to Lai Ta's house to join the
+feast, so Hsueeh P'an had to make a hundred and one urgent appeals to him
+to tell no one, before Chia Jung eventually yielded to his solicitations
+and allowed him to have his own way and return home.
+
+Chia Jung betook himself again to Lai Ta's house, and narrated to Chia
+Chen their recent experiences. When Chia Chen also learnt of the
+flogging (Hsueeh P'an) had received from Hsiang-lien, he laughed. "It's
+only through scrapes," he cried, "that he'll get all right!"
+
+In the evening, after the party broke up, he came to inquire after him.
+But Hsueeh P'an, who was lying all alone in his bedroom, nursing himself,
+refused to see him, on the plea of indisposition.
+
+When dowager lady Chia and the other inmates had returned home, and
+every one had retired into their respective apartments, Mrs. Hsueeh and
+Pao-ch'ai observed that Hsiang Ling's eyes were quite swollen from
+crying, and they questioned her as to the reason of her distress. (On
+being told), they hastily rushed to look up Hsueeh P'an; but, though they
+saw his body covered with scars, they could discover no ribs broken, or
+bones dislocated.
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh fell a prey to anguish and displeasure. At one time, she
+scolded Hsueeh P'an; at another, she abused Liu Hsiang-lien. Her wish was
+to lay the matter before Madame Wang in order that some one should be
+despatched to trace Liu Hsiang-lien and bring him back, but Pao-ch'ai
+speedily dissuaded her. "It's nothing to make a fuss about," she
+represented. "They were simply drinking together; and quarrels after a
+wine bout are ordinary things. And for one who's drunk to get a few
+whacks more or less is nothing uncommon! Besides, there's in our home
+neither regard for God nor discipline. Every one knows it. If it's
+purely out of love, mother, that you desire to give vent to your spite,
+it's an easy matter enough. Have a little patience for three or five
+days, until brother is all right and can go out. Mr. Chia Chen and Mr.
+Chia Lien over there are not people likely to let the affair drop
+without doing anything! They'll, for a certainty, stand a treat, and ask
+that fellow, and make him apologise and admit his wrong in the presence
+of the whole company, so that everything will be properly settled. But
+were you now, ma, to begin making much of this occurrence, and telling
+every one, it would, on the contrary, look as if you had, in your
+motherly partiality and fond love for him, indulged him to stir up a row
+and provoke people! He has, on this occasion, had unawares to eat humble
+pie, but will you, ma, put people to all this trouble and inconvenience
+and make use of the prestige enjoyed by your relatives to oppress an
+ordinary person?"
+
+"My dear child," Mrs. Hsueeh rejoined, "after listening to the advice
+proffered by her, you've, after all, been able to foresee all these
+things! As for me, that sudden fit of anger quite dazed me!"
+
+"All will thus be square," Pao-ch'ai smiled, "for, as he's neither
+afraid of you, mother, nor gives an ear to people's exhortations, but
+gets wilder and wilder every day that goes by, he may, if he gets two or
+three lessons, turn over a new leaf."
+
+While Hsueeh P'an lay on the stovecouch, he reviled Hsiang-lien with all
+his might. Next, he instigated the servant-boys to go and demolish his
+house, kill him and bring a charge against him. But Mrs. Hsueeh hindered
+the lads from carrying out his purpose, and explained to her son: "that
+Liu Hsiang-lien had casually, after drinking, behaved in a disorderly
+way, that now that he was over the effects of wine, he was exceedingly
+filled with remorse, and that, prompted by the fear of punishment, he
+had effected his escape."
+
+But, reader, if you feel any interest to know what happened when Hsueeh
+P'an heard the version his mother gave him, listen to what you will find
+in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+ A sensual-minded man gets into such trouble through his sensuality
+ that he entertains the idea of going abroad.
+ An estimable and refined girl manages, after great exertion, to
+ compose verses at a refined meeting.
+
+
+But to resume our story. After hearing his mother's arguments, Hsueeh
+P'an's indignation gradually abated. But notwithstanding that his pains
+and aches completely disappeared, in three or five days' time, the scars
+of his wounds were not yet healed and shamming illness, he remained at
+home; so ashamed was he to meet any of his relations or friends.
+
+In a twinkle, the tenth moon drew near; and as several among the
+partners in the various shops, with which he was connected, wanted to go
+home, after the settlement of the annual accounts, he had to give them a
+farewell spread at home. In their number was one Chang Te-hui, who from
+his early years filled the post of manager in Hsueeh P'an's pawnshop; and
+who enjoyed in his home a living of two or three thousand taels. His
+purpose too was to visit his native place this year, and to return the
+following spring.
+
+"Stationery and perfumery have been so scarce this year," he
+consequently represented, "that prices will next year inevitably be
+high; so when next year comes, what I'll do will be to send up my elder
+and younger sons ahead of me to look after the pawnshop, and when I
+start on my way back, before the dragon festival, I'll purchase a stock
+of paper, scents and fans and bring them for sale. And though we'll have
+to reduce the duties, payable at the barriers, and other expenses, there
+will still remain for us a considerable percentage of profit."
+
+This proposal set Hsueeh P'an musing, "With the dressing I've recently
+had," he pondered, "I cannot very well, at present, appear before any
+one. Were the fancy to take me to get out of the way for half a year or
+even a year, there isn't a place where I can safely retire. And to sham
+illness, day after day, isn't again quite the right thing! In addition
+to this, here I've reached this grown-up age, and yet I'm neither a
+civilian nor a soldier. It's true I call myself a merchant; but I've
+never in point of fact handled the scales or the abacus. Nor do I know
+anything about our territories, customs and manners, distances and
+routes. So wouldn't it be advisable that I should also get ready some of
+my capital, and go on a tour with Chang Te-hui for a year or so? Whether
+I earn any money or not, will be equally immaterial to me. More, I shall
+escape from all disgrace. It will, secondly, be a good thing for me to
+see a bit of country."
+
+This resolution once arrived at in his mind, he waited until they rose
+from the banquet, when he, with calmness and equanimity, brought his
+plans to Chang Te-hui's cognizance, and asked him to postpone his
+departure for a day or two so that they should proceed on the journey
+together.
+
+In the evening, he imparted the tidings to his mother. Mrs. Hsueeh, upon
+hearing his intention, was albeit delighted, tormented with fresh
+misgivings lest he should stir up trouble abroad,--for as far as the
+expense was concerned she deemed it a mere bagatelle,--and she
+consequently would not permit him to go. "You have," she reasoned with
+him, "to take proper care of me, so that I may be able to live in peace.
+Another thing is, that you can well dispense with all this buying and
+selling, for you are in no need of the few hundreds of taels, you may
+make."
+
+Hsueeh P'an had long ago thoroughly resolved in his mind what to do and
+he did not therefore feel disposed to listen to her remonstrances. "You
+daily tax me," he pleaded, "with being ignorant of the world, with not
+knowing this, and not learning that, and now that I stir up my good
+resolution, with the idea of putting an end to all trifling, and that I
+wish to become a man, to do something for myself, and learn how to carry
+on business, you won't let me! But what would you have me do? Besides
+I'm not a girl that you should coop me up at home! And when is this
+likely to come to an end? Chang Te-hui is, moreover, a man well up in
+years; and he is an old friend of our family, so if I go with him, how
+ever will I be able to do anything that's wrong? Should I at any time be
+guilty of any impropriety, he will be sure to speak to me, and to exhort
+me. He even knows the prices of things and customs of trade; and as I
+shall, as a matter of course, consult him in everything, what advantage
+won't I enjoy? But if you refuse to let me go, I'll wait for a couple of
+days, and, without breathing a word to any one at home, I'll furtively
+make my preparations and start, and, when by next year I shall have made
+my fortune and come back, you'll at length know what stuff I'm made
+off!"
+
+When he had done speaking, he flew into a huff and went off to sleep.
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh felt impelled, after the arguments she heard him propound, to
+deliberate with Pao-ch'ai.
+
+"If brother," Pao-ch'ai smilingly rejoined, "were in real earnest about
+gaining experience in some legitimate concerns, it would be well and
+good. But though he speaks, now that he is at home, in a plausible
+manner, the moment he gets abroad, his old mania will break out again,
+and it will be hard to exercise any check over him. Yet, it isn't worth
+the while distressing yourself too much about him! If he does actually
+mend his ways, it will be the happiness of our whole lives. But if he
+doesn't change, you won't, mother, be able to do anything more; for
+though, in part, it depends on human exertion, it, in part, depends upon
+the will of heaven! If you keep on giving way to fears that, with his
+lack of worldly experience, he can't be fit to go abroad and can't be up
+to any business, and you lock him up at home this year, why next year
+he'll be just the same! Such being the case, you'd better, ma,--since
+his arguments are right and specious enough,--make up your mind to
+sacrifice from eight hundred to a thousand taels and let him have them
+for a try. He'll, at all events, have one of his partners to lend him a
+helping hand, one who won't either think it a nice thing to play any of
+his tricks upon him. In the second place, there will be, when he's gone,
+no one to the left of him or to the right of him, to stand by him, and
+no one upon whom to rely, for when one goes abroad, who cares for any
+one else? Those who have, eat; and those who haven't starve. When he
+therefore casts his eyes about him and realises that there's no one to
+depend upon, he may, upon seeing this, be up to less mischief than were
+he to stay at home; but of course, there's no saying."
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh listened to her, and communed within herself for a moment.
+"What you say is, indeed, right and proper!" she remarked. "And could
+one, by spending a small sum, make him learn something profitable, it
+will be well worth!"
+
+They then matured their plans; and nothing further of any note
+transpired during the rest of the night.
+
+The next day, Mrs. Hsueeh sent a messenger to invite Chang Te-hui to come
+round. On his arrival, she charged Hsueeh P'an to regale him in the
+library. Then appearing, in person, outside the window of the covered
+back passage, she made thousand of appeals to Chang Te-hui to look after
+her son and take good care of him.
+
+Chang Te-hui assented to her solicitations with profuse assurances, and
+took his leave after the collation.
+
+"The fourteenth," he went on to explain to Hsueeh P'an. "is a propitious
+day to start. So, worthy friend, you'd better be quick and pack up your
+baggage, and hire a mule, for us to begin our long journey as soon as
+the day dawns on the fourteenth."
+
+Hsueeh P'an was intensely gratified, and he communicated their plans to
+Mrs. Hsueeh. Mrs. Hsueeh then set to, and worked away, with the assistance
+of Pao-ch'ai, Hsiang Ling and two old nurses, for several consecutive
+days, before she got his luggage ready. She fixed upon the husband of
+Hsueeh P'an's nurse an old man with hoary head, two old servants with
+ample experience and long services, and two young pages, who acted as
+Hsueeh P'an's constant attendants, to go with him as his companions, so
+the party mustered, inclusive of master and followers, six persons in
+all. Three large carts were hired for the sole purpose of carrying the
+baggage and requisites; and four mules, suitable for long journeys, were
+likewise engaged. A tall, dark brown, home-bred mule was selected for
+Hsueeh P'an's use; but a saddle horse, as well, was provided for him.
+
+After the various preparations had been effected, Mrs. Hsueeh, Pao-ch'ai
+and the other inmates tendered him, night after night, words of advice.
+But we can well dispense with dilating on this topic. On the arrival of
+the thirteenth, Hsueeh P'an went and bade good-bye to his maternal
+uncles. After which, he came and paid his farewell visit to the members
+of the Chia household. Chia Chen and the other male relatives
+unavoidably prepared an entertainment to speed him off. But to these
+festivities, there is likewise little need to allude with any
+minuteness.
+
+On the fourteenth, at break of day, Mrs. Hsueeh, Pao-ch'ai and the other
+members of the family accompanied Hsueeh P'an beyond the ceremonial gate.
+Here his mother and her daughter stood and watched him, their four eyes
+fixed intently on him, until he got out of sight, when they, at length,
+retraced their footsteps into the house.
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh had, in coming up to the capital, only brought four or five
+family domestics and two or three old matrons and waiting-maids with
+her, so, after the departure on the recent occasion, of those, who
+followed Hsueeh P'an, no more than one or two men-servants remained in
+the outer quarters. Mrs. Hsueeh repaired therefore on the very same day
+into the study, and had the various ornaments, bric-a-brac, curtains and
+other articles removed into the inner compound and put away. Then
+bidding the wives of the two male attendants, who had gone with Hsueeh
+P'an, likewise move their quarters inside, along with the other women,
+she went on to impress upon Hsiang Ling to put everything carefully away
+in her own room as well, and to lock the doors; "for," (she said), "you
+must come at night and sleep with me."
+
+"Since you've got all these people to keep you company, ma," Pao-ch'ai
+remarked, "wouldn't it be as well to tell sister Ling to come and be my
+companion? Our garden is besides quite empty and the nights are so long!
+And as I work away every night, won't it be better for me to have an
+extra person with me?"
+
+"Quite so!" smiled Mrs. Hsueeh, "I forgot that! I should have told her to
+go with you; it's but right. It was only the other day that I mentioned
+to your brother that: 'Wen Hsing too was young, and not fit to attend to
+everything that turns up, that Ying Erh could not alone do all the
+waiting, and that it was necessary to purchase another girl for your
+service.'"
+
+"If we buy one, we won't know what she's really like!" Pao-ch'ai
+demurred. "If she gives us the slip, the money we may have spent on her
+will be a mere trifle, so long as she hasn't been up to any pranks! So
+let's quietly make inquiries, and, when we find one with well-known
+antecedents, we can purchase her, and, we'll be on the safe side then!"
+
+While speaking, she told Hsiang Ling to collect her bedding and clothes;
+and desiring an old matron and Ch'in Erh to take them over to the Heng
+Wu Yuean, Pao-ch'ai returned at last into the garden in company with
+Hsiang Ling.
+
+"I meant to have proposed to my lady," Hsiang Ling said to Pao-ch'ai,
+"that, when master left, I should be your companion, miss; but I feared
+lest her ladyship should, with that suspicious mind of hers, have
+maintained that I was longing to come into the garden to romp. But who'd
+have thought it, it was you, after all, who spoke to her about it!"
+
+"I am well aware," Pao-ch'ai smiled, "that you've been inwardly yearning
+for this garden, and that not for a day or two, but with the little time
+you can call your own, you would find it no fun, were you even able to
+run over once in a day, so long as you have to do it in a hurry-scurry!
+Seize therefore this opportunity of staying, better still, for a year;
+as I, on my side, will then have an extra companion; and you, on yours,
+will be able to accomplish your wishes."
+
+"My dear miss!" laughingly observed Hsiang Ling, "do let's make the best
+of this time, and teach me how to write verses!"
+
+"I say," Pao-ch'ai laughed, "'you no sooner, get the Lung state than you
+long for the Shu'! I advise you to wait a bit. This is the first day
+that you spend in here, and you should, first and foremost, go out of
+the garden by the eastern side gate and look up and salute every one in
+her respective quarters commencing from our old lady. But you needn't
+make it a point of telling them that you've moved into the garden. If
+anyone does allude to the reason why you've shifted your quarters, you
+can simply explain cursorily that I've brought you in as a companion,
+and then drop the subject. On your return by and bye into the garden,
+you can pay a visit to the apartments of each of the young ladies."
+
+Hsiang Ling signified her acquiescence, and was about to start when she
+saw P'ing Erh rush in with hurried step. Hsiang Ling hastened to ask
+after her health, and P'ing Erh felt compelled to return her smile, and
+reciprocate her inquiry.
+
+"I've brought her in to-day," Pao-ch'ai thereupon smilingly said to
+P'ing Erh, "to make a companion of her. She was just on the point of
+going to tell your lady about it!"
+
+"What is this that you're saying, Miss?" P'ing Erh rejoined, with a
+smile. "I really am at a loss what reply to make to you!"
+
+"It's the right thing!" Pao-ch'ai answered. "' In a house, there's the
+master, and in a temple there's the chief priest.' It's true, it's no
+important concern, but something must, in fact, be mentioned, so that
+those, who sit up on night duty in the garden, may be aware that these
+two have been added to my rooms, and know when to close the gates and
+when to wait. When you get back therefore do mention it, so that I
+mayn't have to send some one to tell them."
+
+P'ing Erh promised to carry out her wishes. "As you're moved in here,"
+she said to Hsiang Ling, "won't you go and pay your respects to your
+neighbours?"
+
+"I had just this very moment," Pao-ch'ai smiled, "told her to go and do
+so."
+
+"You needn't however go to our house," P'ing Erh remarked, "our Mr.
+Secundus is laid up at home."
+
+Hsiang Ling assented and went off, passing first and foremost by dowager
+lady Chia's apartments. But without devoting any of our attention to
+her, we will revert to P'ing Erh.
+
+Seeing Hsiang Ling walk out of the room, she drew Pao-ch'ai near her.
+"Miss! have you heard our news?" she inquired in a low tone of voice.
+
+"I haven't heard any news," Pao-ch'ai responded. "We've been daily so
+busy in getting my brother's things ready for his voyage abroad, that we
+know nothing whatever of any of your affairs in here. I haven't even
+seen anything of my female cousins these last two days."
+
+"Our master, Mr. Chia She, has beaten our Mr. Secundus to such a degree
+that he can't budge," P'ing Erh smiled. "But is it likely, miss, that
+you've heard nothing about it?"
+
+"This morning," Pao-ch'ai said by way of reply, "I heard a vague report
+on the subject, but I didn't believe it could be true. I was just about
+to go and look up your mistress, when you unexpectedly arrived. But why
+did he beat him again?"
+
+P'ing Erh set her teeth to and gave way to abuse. "It's all on account
+of some Chia Yue-ts'un or other; a starved and half-dead boorish bastard,
+who went yonder quite unexpectedly. It isn't yet ten years, since we've
+known him, and he has been the cause of ever so much trouble! In the
+spring of this year, Mr. Chia She saw somewhere or other, I can't tell
+where, a lot of antique fans; so, when on his return home, he noticed
+that the fine fans stored away in the house, were all of no use, he at
+once directed servants to go everywhere and hunt up some like those he
+had seen. Who'd have anticipated it, they came across a reckless
+creature of retribution, dubbed by common consent the 'stone fool,' who
+though so poor as to not even have any rice to put to his mouth,
+happened to have at home twenty antique fans. But these he utterly
+refused to take out of his main door. Our Mr. Secundus had thus a
+precious lot of bother to ask ever so many favours of people. But when
+he got to see the man, he made endless appeals to him before he could
+get him to invite him to go and sit in his house; when producing the
+fans, he allowed him to have a short inspection of them. From what our
+Mr. Secundus says, it would be really difficult to get any the like of
+them. They're made entirely of spotted black bamboo, and the stags and
+jadelike clusters of bamboo on them are the genuine pictures, drawn by
+men of olden times. When he got back, he explained these things to Mr.
+Chia She, who readily asked him to buy them, and give the man his own
+price for them. The 'stone fool,' however, refused. 'Were I even to be
+dying from hunger,' he said, 'or perishing from frostbites, and so much
+as a thousand taels were offered me for each single fan, I wouldn't part
+with them.' Mr. Chia She could do nothing, but day after day he abused
+our Mr. Secundus as a good-for-nothing. Yet he had long ago promised the
+man five hundred taels, payable cash down in advance, before delivery of
+the fans, but he would not sell them. 'If you want the fans,' he had
+answered, 'you must first of all take my life.' Now, miss, do consider
+what was to be done? But, Yue-ts'un is, as it happens, a man with no
+regard for divine justice. Well, when he came to hear of it, he at once
+devised a plan to lay hold of these fans, so fabricating the charge
+against him of letting a government debt drag on without payment, he had
+him arrested and brought before him in the Yamen; when he adjudicated
+that his family property should be converted into money to make up the
+amount due to the public chest; and, confiscating the fans in question,
+he set an official value on them and sent them over here. And as for
+that 'stone fool,' no one now has the faintest idea whether he be dead
+or alive. Mr. Chia She, however, taunted Mr. Secundus. 'How is it,' he
+said, 'that other people can manage to get them?' Our master simply
+rejoined 'that to bring ruin upon a person in such a trivial matter
+could not be accounted ability.' But, at these words, his father
+suddenly rushed into a fury, and averred that Mr. Secundus had said
+things to gag his mouth. This was the main cause. But several minor
+matters, which I can't even recollect, also occurred during these last
+few days. So, when all these things accumulated, he set to work and gave
+him a sound thrashing. He didn't, however, drag him down and strike him
+with a rattan or cane, but recklessly assaulted him, while he stood
+before him, with something or other, which he laid hold of, and broke
+his face open in two places. We understand that Mrs. Hsueeh has in here
+some medicine or other for applying on wounds, so do try, miss, and find
+a ball of it and let me have it!"
+
+Hearing this, Pao-ch'ai speedily directed Ying Erh to go and look for
+some, and, on discovering two balls of it, she brought them over and
+handed them to P'ing Erh.
+
+"Such being the case," Pao-ch'ai said, "do make, on your return, the
+usual inquiries for me, and I won't then need to go."
+
+P'ing Erh turned towards Pao-ch'ai, and expressed her readiness to
+execute her commission, after which she betook herself home, where we
+will leave her without further notice.
+
+After Hsiang Ling, for we will take up the thread of our narrative with
+her, completed her visits to the various inmates, she had her evening
+meal. Then when Pao-ch'ai and every one else went to dowager lady Chia's
+quarters, she came into the Hsiao Hsiang lodge. By this time Tai-yue had
+got considerably better. Upon hearing that Hsiang Ling had also moved
+into the garden, she, needless to say, was filled with delight.
+
+"Now, that I've come in here," Hsiang Ling then smiled and said, "do
+please teach me, at your leisure, how to write verses. It will be a bit
+of good luck for me if you do."
+
+"Since you're anxious to learn how to versify," Tai-yue answered with a
+smile, "you'd better acknowledge me as your tutor; for though I'm not a
+good hand at poetry, yet I know, after all, enough to be able to teach
+you."
+
+"Of course you do!" Hsiang Ling laughingly remarked. "I'll readily treat
+you as my tutor. But you mustn't put yourself to any trouble!"
+
+"Is there anything so difficult about this," Tai-yue pursued, "as to make
+it necessary to go in for any study? Why, it's purely and simply a
+matter of openings, elucidations, embellishments and conclusions. The
+elucidations and embellishments, which come in the centre, should form
+two antithetical sentences, the even tones must pair with the uneven.
+Empty words must correspond with full words; and full words with empty
+words. In the event of any out-of-the-way lines, it won't matter if the
+even and uneven tones, and the empty and full words do not pair."
+
+"Strange though it may appear," smiled Hsiang Ling, "I often handle
+books with old poems, and read one or two stanzas, whenever I can steal
+the time; and some among these I find pair most skilfully, while others
+don't. I have also heard that the first, third and fifth lines are of no
+consequence; and that the second, fourth and sixth must be clearly
+distinguished. But I notice that there are in the poetical works of
+ancient writers both those which accord with the rules, as well as those
+whose second, fourth and sixth lines are not in compliance with any
+rule. Hence it is that my mind has daily been full of doubts. But after
+the hints you've given me, I really see that all these formulas are of
+no account, and that the main requirement is originality of diction."
+
+"Yes, that's just the principle that holds good," Tai-yue answered. "But
+diction is, after all, a last consideration. The first and foremost
+thing is the choice of proper sentiments; for when the sentiments are
+correct, there'll even be no need to polish the diction; it's certain to
+be elegant. This is called versifying without letting the diction affect
+the sentiments."
+
+"What I admire," Hsiang Ling proceeded with a smile; "are the lines by
+old Lu Fang;
+
+ "The double portiere, when not raised, retains the fragrance long.
+ An old inkslab, with a slight hole, collects plenty of ink.
+
+"Their language is so clear that it's charming."
+
+"You must on no account," Tai-yue observed, "read poetry of the kind.
+It's because you people don't know what verses mean that you, no sooner
+read any shallow lines like these, than they take your fancy. But when
+once you get into this sort of style, it's impossible to get out of it.
+Mark my words! If you are in earnest about learning, I've got here Wang
+Mo-chieh's complete collection; so you'd better take his one hundred
+stanzas, written in the pentameter rule of versification, and carefully
+study them, until you apprehend them thoroughly. Afterwards, look over
+the one hundred and twenty stanzas of Lao T'u, in the heptameter rule;
+and next read a hundred or two hundred of the heptameter four-lined
+stanzas by Li Ch'ing-lieu. When you have, as a first step, digested
+these three authors, and made them your foundation, you can take T'ao
+Yuan-ming, Ying, Liu, Hsieh, Yuean, Yue, Pao and other writers and go
+through them once. And with those sharp and quick wits of yours, I've no
+doubt but that you will become a regular poet before a year's time."
+
+"Well, in that case," Hsiang Ling smiled, after listening to her, "bring
+me the book, my dear miss, so that I may take it along. It will be a
+good thing if I can manage to read several stanzas at night."
+
+At these words, Tai-yue bade Tzu Chuean fetch Wang Tso-ch'eng's pentameter
+stanzas. When brought, she handed them to Hsiang Ling. "Only peruse
+those marked with red circles" she said. "They've all been selected by
+me. Read each one of them; and should there be any you can't fathom, ask
+your miss about them. Or when you come across me, I can explain them to
+you."
+
+Hsiang Ling took the poems and repaired back to the Heng Wu-yuean. And
+without worrying her mind about anything she approached the lamp and
+began to con stanza after stanza. Pao-ch'ai pressed her, several
+consecutive times, to go to bed; but as even rest was far from her
+thoughts, Pao-ch'ai let her, when she perceived what trouble she was
+taking over her task, have her own way in the matter.
+
+Tai-yue had one day just finished combing her hair and performing her
+ablutions, when she espied Hsiang Ling come with smiles playing about
+her lips, to return her the book and to ask her to let her have T'u's
+poetical compositions in exchange.
+
+"Of all these, how many stanzas can you recollect?" Tai-yue asked,
+smiling.
+
+"I've read every one of those marked with a red circle," Hsiang Ling
+laughingly rejoined.
+
+"Have you caught the ideas of any of them, yes or no?" Tai-yue inquired.
+
+"Yes, I've caught some!" Hsiang Ling smiled. "But whether rightly or not
+I don't know. Let me tell you."
+
+"You must really," Tai-yue laughingly remarked, "minutely solicit
+people's opinions if you want to make any progress. But go on and let me
+hear you."
+
+"From all I can see," Hsiang Ling smiled, "the beauty of poetry lies in
+certain ideas, which though not quite expressible in words are,
+nevertheless, found, on reflection, to be absolutely correct. Some may
+have the semblance of being totally devoid of sense, but, on second
+thought, they'll truly be seen to be full of sense and feeling."
+
+"There's a good deal of right in what you say," Tai-yue observed. "But I
+wonder how you arrived at this conclusion?"
+
+"I notice in that stanza on 'the borderland,' the antithetical couplet:
+
+ "In the vast desert reigns but upright mist.
+ In the long river setteth the round sun.
+
+"Consider now how ever can mist be upright? The sun is, of course, round.
+But the word 'upright' would seem to be devoid of common sense; and
+'round' appears far too commonplace a word. But upon throwing the whole
+passage together, and pondering over it, one fancies having seen the
+scenery alluded to. Now were any one to suggest that two other
+characters should be substituted for these two, one would verily be hard
+pressed to find any other two as suitable. Besides this, there's also
+the couplet:
+
+ "When the sun sets, rivers and lakes are white;
+ When the mist falls, the heavens and earth azure.
+
+"Both 'white' and 'azure', apparently too lack any sense; but reflection
+will show that these two words are absolutely necessary to bring out
+thoroughly the aspect of the scenery. And in conning them over, one
+feels just as if one had an olive, weighing several thousands of
+catties, in one's mouth, so much relish does one derive from them. But
+there's this too:
+
+ "At the ferry stays the setting sun,
+ O'er the mart hangs the lonesome mist.
+
+"And how much trouble must these words 'stay,' and 'over, have caused the
+author in their conception! When the boats made fast, in the evening of
+a certain day of that year in which we came up to the capital, the banks
+were without a trace of human beings; and there were only just a few
+trees about; in the distance loomed the houses of several families
+engaged in preparing their evening meal, and the mist was, in fact,
+azure like jade, and connected like clouds. So, when I, as it happened,
+read this couplet last night, it actually seemed to me as if I had come
+again to that spot!"
+
+But in the course of their colloquy, Pao-yue and T'an Ch'un arrived; and
+entering the room, they seated themselves, and lent an ear to her
+arguments on the verses.
+
+"Seeing that you know so much," Pao-yue remarked with a smiling face,
+"you can dispense with reading poetical works, for you're not far off
+from proficiency. To hear you expatiate on these two lines, makes it
+evident to my mind that you've even got at their secret meaning."
+
+"You say," argued Tai-yue with a significant smile, "that the line:
+
+ "'O'er (the mart) hangs the lonesome mist,'
+
+"is good; but aren't you yet aware that this is only plagiarised from an
+ancient writer? But I'll show you the line I'm telling you of. You'll
+find it far plainer and clearer than this."
+
+While uttering these words, she turned up T'ao Yuean-ming's,
+
+ Dim in the distance lies a country place;
+ Faint in the hamlet-market hangs the mist;
+
+and handed it to Hsiang Ling.
+
+Hsiang Ling perused it, and, nodding her head, she eulogised it.
+"Really," she smiled, the word 'over' is educed from the two characters
+implying 'faint.'
+
+Pao-yue burst out into a loud fit of exultant laughter. "You've already
+got it!" he cried. "There's no need of explaining anything more to you!
+Any further explanations will, in lieu of benefiting you, make you
+unlearn what you've learnt. Were you therefore to, at once, set to work,
+and versify, your lines are bound to be good."
+
+"To-morrow," observed T'an ch'un with a smile; "I'll stand an extra
+treat and invite you to join the society."
+
+"Why make a fool of me, miss?" Hsiang Ling laughingly ejaculated. "It's
+merely that mania of mine that made me apply my mind to this subject at
+all; just for fun and no other reason."
+
+T'an Ch'un and Tai-yue both smiled. "Who doesn't go in for these things
+for fun?" they asked. "Is it likely that we improvise verses in real
+earnest? Why, if any one treated our verses as genuine verses, and took
+them outside this garden, people would have such a hearty laugh at our
+expense that their very teeth would drop."
+
+"This is again self-violence and self-abasement!" Pao-yue interposed. The
+other day, I was outside the garden, consulting with the gentlemen about
+paintings, and, when they came to hear that we had started a poetical
+society, they begged of me to let them have the rough copies to read. So
+I wrote out several stanzas, and gave them to them to look over, and who
+did not praise them with all sincerity? They even copied them and took
+them to have the blocks cut."
+
+"Are you speaking the truth?" T'an Ch'un and Tai-yue eagerly inquired.
+
+"If I'm telling a lie," Pao-yue laughed, "I'm like that cockatoo on that
+frame!"
+
+"You verily do foolish things!" Tai-yue and T'an Ch'un exclaimed with one
+voice, at these words. "But not to mention that they were doggerel
+lines, had they even been anything like what verses should be, our
+writings shouldn't have been hawked about outside."
+
+"What's there to fear?" Pao-yue smiled. "Hadn't the writings of women of
+old been handed outside the limits of the inner chambers, why, there
+would, at present, be no one with any idea of their very existence."
+
+While he passed this remark, they saw Ju Hua arrive from Hsi Ch'un's
+quarters to ask Pao-yue to go over; and Pao-yue eventually took his
+departure.
+
+Hsiang Ling then pressed (Tai-yue) to give her T'u's poems. "Do choose
+some theme," she also asked Tai-yue and T'an Ch'un, "and let me go and
+write on it. When I've done, I'll bring it for you to correct."
+
+"Last night," Tai-yue observed, "the moon was so magnificent, that I
+meant to improvise a stanza on it; but as I haven't done yet, go at once
+and write one using the fourteenth rhyme, 'han,' (cool). You're at
+liberty to make use of whatever words you fancy."
+
+Hearing this, Hsiang Ling was simply delighted, and taking the poems,
+she went back. After considerable exertion, she succeeded in devising a
+couplet, but so little able was she to tear herself away from the 'T'u'
+poems, that she perused another couple of stanzas, until she had no
+inclination for either tea or food, and she felt in an unsettled mood,
+try though she did to sit or recline.
+
+"Why," Pao-ch'ai remonstrated, "do you bring such trouble upon yourself?
+It's that P'in Erh, who has led you on to it! But I'll settle accounts
+with her! You've all along been a thick-headed fool; but now that you've
+burdened yourself with all this, you've become a greater fool."
+
+"Miss," smiled Hsiang Ling, "don't confuse me."
+
+So saying, she set to work and put together a stanza, which she first
+and foremost handed to Pao-ch'ai to look over.
+
+"This isn't good!" Pao-ch'ai smilingly said. "This isn't the way to do
+it! Don't fear of losing face, but take it and give it to her to peruse.
+We'll see what she says."
+
+At this suggestion, Hsiang Ling forthwith went with her verses in search
+of Tai-yue. When Tai-yue came to read them, she found their text to be:
+
+ The night grows cool, what time Selene reacheth the mid-heavens.
+ Her radiance pure shineth around with such a spotless sheen.
+ Bards oft for inspiration raise on her their thoughts and eyes.
+ The rustic daren't see her, so fears he to enhance his grief.
+ Jade mirrors are suspended near the tower of malachite.
+ An icelike plate dangles outside the gem-laden portiere.
+ The eve is fine, so why need any silvery candles burn?
+ A clear light shines with dazzling lustre on the painted rails.
+
+"There's a good deal of spirit in them," Tai-yue smiled, "but the
+language is not elegant. It's because you've only read a few poetical
+works that you labour under restraint. Now put this stanza aside and
+write another. Pluck up your courage and go and work away."
+
+After listening to her advice, Hsiang Ling quietly wended her way back,
+but so much the more (preoccupied) was she in her mind that she did not
+even enter the house, but remaining under the trees, planted by the side
+of the pond, she either seated herself on a rock and plunged in a
+reverie, or squatted down and dug the ground, to the astonishment of all
+those, who went backwards and forwards. Li wan, Pao-ch'ai, T'an Ch'un,
+Pao-yue and some others heard about her; and, taking their position some
+way off on the mound, they watched her, much amused. At one time, they
+saw her pucker up her eyebrows; and at another smile to herself.
+
+"That girl must certainly be cracked!" Pao-ch'ai laughed. "Last night
+she kept on muttering away straight up to the fifth watch, when she at
+last turned in. But shortly, daylight broke, and I heard her get up and
+comb her hair, all in a hurry, and rush after P'in Erh. In a while,
+however, she returned; and, after acting like an idiot the whole day,
+she managed to put together a stanza. But it wasn't after all, good, so
+she's, of course, now trying to devise another."
+
+"This indeed shows," Pao-yue laughingly remarked, "that the earth is
+spiritual, that man is intelligent, and that heaven does not in the
+creation of human beings bestow on them natural gifts to no purpose.
+We've been sighing and lamenting that it was a pity that such a one as
+she, should, really, be so unpolished; but who could ever have
+anticipated that things would, in the long run, reach the present pass?
+This is a clear sign that heaven and earth are most equitable!"
+
+"If only," smiled Pao-ch'ai, at these words, "you could be as
+painstaking as she is, what a good thing it would be. And would you fail
+to attain success in anything you might take up?"
+
+Pao-yue made no reply. But realising that Hsiang Ling had crossed over in
+high spirits to find Tai-yue again, T'an Ch'un laughed and suggested,
+"Let's follow her there, and see whether her composition is any good."
+
+At this proposal, they came in a body to the Hsiao Hsiang lodge. Here
+they discovered Tai-yue holding the verses and explaining various things
+to her.
+
+"What are they like?" they all thereupon inquired of Tai-yue.
+
+"This is naturally a hard job for her!" Tai-yue rejoined. "They're not
+yet as good as they should be. This stanza is far too forced; you must
+write another."
+
+One and all however expressed a desire to look over the verses. On
+perusal, they read:
+
+ 'Tis not silver, neither water that on the windows shines so cold.
+ Selene, mark! covers, like a jade platter, the clear vault of heaven.
+ What time the fragrance faint of the plum bloom is fain to tinge the
+ air,
+ The dew-bedecked silken willow trees begin to lose their leaves.
+ 'Tis the remains of powder which methinks besmear the golden steps.
+ Her lustrous rays enshroud like light hoar-frost the jadelike
+ balustrade.
+ When from my dreams I wake, in the west tower, all human trace is
+ gone.
+ Her slanting orb can yet clearly be seen across the bamboo screen.
+
+"It doesn't sound like a song on the moon," Pao-ch'ai smilingly
+observed. "Yet were, after the word 'moon', that of 'light' supplied, it
+would be better; for, just see, if each of these lines treated of the
+moonlight, they would be all right. But poetry primarily springs from
+nonsensical language. In a few days longer, you'll be able to do well."
+
+Hsiang Ling had flattered herself that this last stanza was perfect, and
+the criticisms, that fell on her ear, damped her spirits again. She was
+not however disposed to relax in her endeavours, but felt eager to
+commune with her own thoughts, so when she perceived the young ladies
+chatting and laughing, she betook herself all alone to the bamboo-grove
+at the foot of the steps; where she racked her brain, and ransacked her
+mind with such intentness that her ears were deaf to everything around
+her and her eyes blind to everything beyond her task.
+
+"Miss Ling," T'an Ch'un presently cried, smiling from inside the window,
+"do have a rest!"
+
+"The character 'rest;'" Hsiang Ling nervously replied, "comes from lot
+N. deg. 15, under 'shan', (to correct); so it's the wrong rhyme."
+
+This rambling talk made them involuntarily burst out laughing.
+
+"In very fact," Pao-sh'ai laughed, "she's under a poetical frenzy, and
+it's all P'in Erh who has incited her."
+
+"The holy man says," Tai-yue smilingly rejoined, "that 'one must not be
+weary of exhorting people'; and if she comes, time and again, to ask me
+this and that how can I possibly not tell her?"
+
+"Let's take her to Miss Quarta's rooms," Li Wan smiled, "and if we could
+coax her to look at the painting, and bring her to her senses, it will
+be well."
+
+Speaking the while, she actually walked out of the room, and laying hold
+of her, she brought her through the Lotus Fragrance arbour to the bank
+of Warm Fragrance. Hsi Ch'un was tired and languid, and was lying on the
+window, having a midday siesta. The painting was resting against the
+partition-wall, and was screened with a gauze cover. With one voice,
+they roused Hsi Ch'un, and raising the gauze cover to contemplate her
+work, they saw that three tenths of it had already been accomplished.
+But their attention was attracted by the representation of several
+beautiful girls, inserted in the picture, so pointing at Hsiang Ling:
+"Every one who can write verses is to be put here," they said, "so be
+quick and learn."
+
+But while conversing, they played and laughed for a time, after which,
+each went her own way.
+
+Hsiang Ling was meanwhile preoccupied about her verses, so, when evening
+came, she sat facing the lamp absorbed in thought. And the third watch
+struck before she got to bed. But her eyes were so wide awake, that it
+was only after the fifth watch had come and gone, that she, at length,
+felt drowsy and fell fast asleep.
+
+Presently, the day dawned, and Pao-ch'ai woke up; but, when she lent an
+ear, she discovered (Hsiang Ling) in a sound sleep. "She has racked her
+brains the whole night long," she pondered. "I wonder, however, whether
+she has succeeded in finishing her task. She must be tired now, so I
+won't disturb her."
+
+But in the midst of her cogitations, she heard Hsiang Ling laugh and
+exclaim in her sleep: "I've got it. It cannot be that this stanza too
+won't be worth anything."
+
+"How sad and ridiculous!" Pao-ch'ai soliloquised with a smile. And,
+calling her by name, she woke her up. "What have you got?" she asked.
+"With that firmness of purpose of yours, you could even become a spirit!
+But before you can learn how to write poetry, you'll be getting some
+illness."
+
+Chiding her the while, she combed her hair and washed; and, this done,
+she repaired, along with her cousins, into dowager lady Chia's quarters.
+
+Hsiang Ling made, in fact, such desperate efforts to learn all about
+poetry that her system got quite out of order. But although she did not
+in the course of the day hit upon anything, she quite casually succeeded
+in her dreams in devising eight lines; so concluding her toilette and
+her ablutions, she hastily jotted them down, and betook herself into the
+Hsin Fang pavilion. Here she saw Li Wan and the whole bevy of young
+ladies, returning from Madame Wang's suite of apartments.
+
+Pao-ch'ai was in the act of telling them of the verses composed by
+Hsiang Ling, while asleep, and of the nonsense she had been talking, and
+every one of them was convulsed with laughter. But upon raising their
+heads, and perceiving that she was approaching, they vied with each
+other in pressing her to let them see her composition.
+
+But, reader, do you wish to know any further particulars? If you do;
+read those given in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+ White snow and red plum blossom in the crystal world.
+ The pretty girl, fragrant with powder, cuts some meat and eats it.
+
+
+Hsiang Ling, we will now proceed, perceived the young ladies engaged in
+chatting and laughing, and went up to them with a smiling countenance.
+"Just you look at this stanza!" she said. "If it's all right, then I'll
+continue my studies; but if it isn't worth any thing, I'll banish at
+once from my mind all idea of going in for versification."
+
+With these words, she handed the verses to Tai-yue and her companions.
+When they came to look at them, they found this to be their burden:
+
+ If thou would'st screen Selene's beauteous sheen, thou'lt find it
+ hard.
+ Her shadows are by nature full of grace, frigid her form.
+ A row of clothes-stones batter, while she lights a thousand li.
+ When her disc's half, and the cock crows at the fifth watch, 'tis
+ cold.
+ Wrapped in my green cloak in autumn, I hear flutes on the stream.
+ While in the tower the red-sleeved maid leans on the rails at night.
+ She feels also constrained to ask of the goddess Ch'ang O:
+ 'Why it is that she does not let the moon e'er remain round?'
+
+"This stanza is not only good," they with one voice exclaimed, after
+perusing it, "but it's original, it's charming. It bears out the
+proverb: 'In the world, there's nothing difficult; the only thing hard
+to get at is a human being with a will.' We'll certainly ask you to join
+our club."
+
+Hsiang Ling caught this remark; but so little did she credit it that
+fancying that they were making fun of her, she still went on to press
+Tai-yue, Pao-ch'ai and the other girls to give her their opinions. But
+while engaged in speaking, she spied a number of young waiting-maids,
+and old matrons come with hurried step. "Several young ladies and ladies
+have come," they announced smilingly, "but we don't know any of them. So
+your ladyship and you, young ladies, had better come at once and see
+what relatives they are."
+
+"What are you driving at?" Li Wan laughed. "You might, after all, state
+distinctly whose relatives they are."
+
+"Your ladyship's two young sisters have come," the matrons and maids
+rejoined smiling. "There's also another young lady, who says she's miss
+Hsueeh's cousin, and a gentleman who pretends to be Mr. Hsueeh P'an's
+junior cousin. We are now off to ask Mrs. Hsueeh to meet them. But your
+ladyship and the young ladies might go in advance and greet them." As
+they spoke, they straightway took their leave.
+
+"Has our Hsueeh K'o come along with his sisters?" Pao-ch'ai inquired,
+with a smile.
+
+"My aunt has probably also come to the capital," Li Wan laughed. "How is
+it they've all arrived together? This is indeed a strange thing!" Then
+adjourning in a body into Madame Wang's drawing rooms, they saw the
+floor covered with a black mass of people.
+
+Madame Hsing's sister-in-law was there as well. She had entered the
+capital with her daughter, Chou Yen, to look up madame Hsing. But lady
+Feng's brother, Wang Jen, had, as luck would have it, just been
+preparing to start for the capital, so the two family connexions set out
+in company for their common destination. After accomplishing half their
+journey, they encountered, while their boats were lying at anchor, Li
+Wan's widowed sister-in-law, who also was on her way to the metropolis,
+with her two girls, the elder of whom was Li Wen and the younger Li
+Ch'i. They all them talked matters over, and, induced by the ties of
+relationship, the three families prosecuted their voyage together. But
+subsequently, Hsueeh P'an's cousin Hsueeh K'o,--whose father had, when on
+a visit years ago to the capital, engaged his uterine sister to the son
+of the Han-lin Mei, whose residence was in the metropolis,--came while
+planning to go and consummate the marriage, to learn of Wang Jen's
+departure, so taking his sister with him, he kept in his track till he
+managed to catch him up. Hence it happened that they all now arrived in
+a body to look up their respective relatives. In due course, they
+exchanged the conventional salutations; and these over, they had a chat.
+
+Dowager lady Chia and madame Wang were both filled with ineffable
+delight.
+
+"Little wonder is it," smiled old lady Chia, "if the snuff of the lamp
+crackled time and again; and if it formed and reformed into a head! It
+was, indeed, sure to come to this to-day!"
+
+While she conversed on every-day topics, the presents had to be put
+away; and, as she, at the same time, expressed a wish to keep the new
+arrivals to partake of some wine and eatables, lady Feng had, needless
+to say, much extra work added to her ordinary duties.
+
+Li Wan and Pao-ch'ai descanted, of course, with their aunts and cousins
+on the events that had transpired since their separation. But Tai-yue,
+though when they first met, continued in cheerful spirits, could not
+again, when the recollection afterwards flashed through her mind that
+one and all had their relatives, and that she alone had not a soul to
+rely upon, avoid withdrawing out of the way, and giving vent to tears.
+
+Pao-yue, however, read her feelings, and he had to do all that lay in his
+power to exhort her and to console her for a time before she cheered up.
+Pao-yue then hurried into the I Hung court. Going up to Hsi Jen, She Yueeh
+and Chi'ng Wen: "Don't you yet hasten to go and see them?" he smiled.
+"Who'd ever have fancied that cousin Pao-ch'ai's own cousin would be
+what he is? That cousin of hers is so unique in appearance and in
+deportment. He looks as if he were cousin Pao-ch'ai's uterine younger
+brother. But what's still more odd is, that you should have kept on
+saying the whole day long that cousin Pao-ch'ai is a very beautiful
+creature. You should now see her cousin, as well as the two girls of her
+senior sister-in-law. I couldn't adequately tell you what they're like.
+Good heavens! Good heavens! What subtle splendour and spiritual beauty
+must you possess to produce beings like them, so superior to other human
+creatures! How plain it is that I'm like a frog wallowing at the bottom
+of a well! I've throughout every hour of the day said to myself that
+nowhere could any girls be found to equal those at present in our home;
+but, as it happens, I haven't had far to look! Even in our own native
+sphere, one would appear to eclipse the other! Here I have now managed
+to add one more stratum to my store of learning! But can it possibly be
+that outside these few, there can be any more like them?"
+
+As he uttered these sentiments, he smiled to himself. But Hsi Jen
+noticed how much under the influence of his insane fits he once more
+was, and she promptly abandoned all idea of going over to pay her
+respects to the visitors.
+
+Ch'ing Wen and the other girls had already gone and seen them and come
+back. Putting on a smile, "You'd better," they urged Hsi Jen, "be off at
+once and have a look at them. Our elder mistress' niece, Miss Pao's
+cousin, and our senior lady's two sisters resemble a bunch of four leeks
+so pretty are they!"
+
+But scarcely were these words out of their lips, than they perceived
+T'an Ch'un too enter the room, beaming with smiles. She came in quest of
+Pao-yue.
+
+"Our poetical society is in a flourishing way," she remarked.
+
+"It is," smiled Pao-yue. "Here no sooner do we, in the exuberance of our
+spirits, start a poetical society, than the devils and gods bring
+through their agency, all these people in our midst! There's only one
+thing however. Have they, I wonder, ever learnt how to write poetry or
+not?"
+
+"I just now asked every one of them," T'an Ch'un replied. "Their ideas
+of themselves are modest, it's true, yet from all I can gather there's
+not one who can't versify. But should there even be any who can't,
+there's nothing hard about it. Just look at Hsiang Ling. Her case will
+show you the truth of what I say."
+
+"Of the whole lot," smiled Ch'ing Wen, "Miss Hsueeh's cousin carries the
+palm. What do you think about her, Miss Tertia?"
+
+"It's really so!" T'an Ch'un responded. "In my own estimation, even her
+elder cousin and all this bevy of girls are not fit to hold a candle to
+her!"
+
+Hsi Jen felt much surprise at what she heard. "This is indeed odd!" she
+smiled. "Whence could one hunt up any better? We'd like to go and have a
+peep at her."
+
+"Our venerable senior," T'an Ch'un observed, "was at the very first
+sight of her so charmed with her that there's nothing she wouldn't do.
+She has already compelled our Madame Hsing to adopt her as a godchild.
+Our dear ancestor wishes to bring her up herself; this point was settled
+a little while back."
+
+Pao-yue went into ecstasies. "Is this a fact?" he eagerly inquired.
+
+"How often have I gone in for yarns?" T'an Ch'un said. "Now that our
+worthy senior," continuing, she laughed, "has got this nice
+granddaughter, she has banished from her mind all thought of a grandson
+like you!"
+
+"Never mind," answered Pao-yue smiling. "It's only right that girls
+should be more doated upon. But to-morrow is the sixteenth, so we should
+have a meeting."
+
+"That girl Lin Tai-yue is no sooner out of bed," T'an Ch'un remarked,
+"than cousin Secunda falls ill again. Everything is, in fact, up and
+down!"
+
+"Our cousin Secunda," Pao-yue explained, "doesn't also go in very much
+for verses, so, what would it matter if she were left out?"
+
+"It would be well to wait a few days," T'an Ch'un urged, "until the new
+comers have had time to see enough of us to become intimate. We can then
+invite them to join us. Won't this be better? Our senior sister-in-law
+and cousin Pao have now no mind for poetry. Besides, Hsiang-yuen has not
+arrived. P'in Erh is just over her sickness. The members are not all
+therefore in a fit state, so wouldn't it be preferable if we waited
+until that girl Yuen came? The new arrivals will also have a chance of
+becoming friendly. P'in Erh will likewise recover entirely. Our senior
+sister-in-law and cousin Pao will have time to compose their minds; and
+Hsiang Ling to improve in her verses. We shall then be able to convene a
+full meeting; and won't it be better? You and I must now go over to our
+worthy ancestor's, on the other side, and hear what's up. But, barring
+cousin Pao-ch'ai's cousin,--for we needn't take her into account, as
+it's sure to have been decided that she should live in our home,--if the
+other three are not to stay here with us, we should entreat our
+grandmother to let them as well take up their quarters in the garden.
+And if we succeed in adding a few more to our number, won't it be more
+fun for us?"
+
+Pao-yue at these words was so much the more gratified that his very
+eyebrows distended, and his eyes laughed. "You've got your wits about
+you!" he speedily exclaimed. "My mind is ever so dull! I've vainly given
+way to a fit of joy. But to think of these contingencies was beyond me!"
+
+So saying the two cousins repaired together to their grandmother's suite
+of apartments; where, in point of fact, Madame Wang had already gone
+through the ceremony of recognizing Hsueeh Pao-ch'in as her godchild.
+Dowager lady Chia's fascination for her, however, was so much out of the
+common run that she did not tell her to take up her quarters in the
+garden. Of a night, she therefore slept with old lady Chia in the same
+rooms; while Hsueeh K'o put up in Hsueeh P'an's study.
+
+"Your niece needn't either return home," dowager lady Chia observed to
+Madame Hsing. "Let her spend a few days in the garden and see the place
+before she goes."
+
+Madame Hsing's brother and sister-in-law were, indeed, in straitened
+circumstances at home. So much so that they had, on their present visit
+to the capital, actually to rely upon such accommodation as Madame Hsing
+could procure for them and upon such help towards their travelling
+expenses as she could afford to give them. When she consequently heard
+her proposal, Madame Hsing was, of course, only too glad to comply with
+her wishes, and readily she handed Hsing Chou-yen to the charge of lady
+Feng. But lady Feng, bethinking herself of the number of young ladies
+already in the garden, of their divergent dispositions and, above all
+things, of the inconvenience of starting a separate household, deemed it
+advisable to send her to live along with Ying Ch'un; for in the event,
+(she thought), of Hsing Chou-yen meeting afterwards with any
+contrarieties, she herself would be clear of all responsibility, even
+though Madame Hsing came to hear about them. Deducting, therefore any
+period, spent by Hsing Chou-yen on a visit home, lady Feng allowed Hsing
+Chou-yen as well, if she extended her stay in the garden of Broad Vista
+for any time over a month, an amount equal to that allotted to Ying
+Ch'un.
+
+Lady Feng weighed with unprejudiced eye Hsing Chou-yen's temperament and
+deportment. She found in her not the least resemblance to Madame Hsing,
+or even to her father and mother; but thought her a most genial and
+love-inspiring girl. This consideration actuated lady Feng (not to deal
+harshly with her), but to pity her instead for the poverty, in which
+they were placed at home, and for the hard lot she had to bear, and to
+treat her with far more regard than she did any of the other young
+ladies. Madame Hsing, however, did not lavish much attention on her.
+
+Dowager lady Chia, Madame Wang and the rest had all along been fond of
+Li Wan for her virtuous and benevolent character. Besides, her
+continence in remaining a widow at her tender age commanded general
+esteem. When they therefore now saw her husbandless sister-in-law come
+to pay her a visit, they would not allow her to go and live outside the
+mansion. Her sister-in-law was, it is true, extremely opposed to the
+proposal, but as dowager lady Chia was firm in her determination, she
+had no other course but to settle down, along with Li Wen and Li Ch'i,
+in the Tao Hsiang village.
+
+They had by this time assigned quarters to all the new comers, when, who
+would have thought it, Shih Ting, Marquis of Chung Ching, was once again
+appointed to a high office in another province, and he had shortly to
+take his family and proceed to his post. But so little could old lady
+Chia brook the separation from Hsiang-yuen that she kept her behind and
+received her in her own home. Her original idea was to have asked lady
+Feng to have separate rooms arranged for her, but Shih Hsiang-yuen was so
+obstinate in her refusal, her sole wish being to put up with Pao-ch'ai,
+that the idea had, in consequence, to be abandoned.
+
+At this period, the garden of Broad Vista was again much more full of
+life than it had ever been before. Li Wan was the chief inmate. The rest
+consisted of Ying Ch'un, T'an Ch'un, Hsi Ch'un, Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yue,
+Hsiang-yuen, Li Wen, Li Ch'i, Pao Ch'in and Hsing Chou-yen. In addition
+to these, there were lady Feng and Pao-yue, so that they mustered
+thirteen in all. As regards age, irrespective of Li Wan, who was by far
+the eldest, and lady Feng, who came next, the other inmates did not
+exceed fourteen, sixteen or seventeen. But the majority of them had come
+into the world in the same year, though in different months, so they
+themselves could not remember distinctly who was senior, and who junior.
+Even dowager lady Chia, Madame Wang and the matrons and maids in the
+household were unable to tell the differences between them with any
+accuracy, given as they were to the simple observance of addressing
+themselves promiscuously and quite at random by the four words
+representing 'female cousin' and 'male cousin.'
+
+Hsiang Ling was gratifying her wishes to her heart's content and
+devoting her mind exclusively to the composition of verses, not
+presuming however to make herself too much of a nuisance to Pao-ch'ai,
+when, by a lucky coincidence, Shih Hsiang-yuen came on the scene. But how
+was it possible for one so loquacious as Hsiang-yuen to avoid the subject
+of verses, when Hsiang Ling repeatedly begged her for explanations? This
+inspirited her so much the more, that not a day went by, yea not a
+single night, on which she did not start some loud argument and lengthy
+discussion.
+
+"You really," Pao-ch'ai felt impelled to laugh, "kick up such a din,
+that it's quite unbearable! Fancy a girl doing nothing else than turning
+poetry into a legitimate thing for raising an argument! Why, were some
+literary persons to hear you, they would, instead of praising you, have
+a laugh at your expense, and say that you don't mind your own business.
+We hadn't yet got rid of Hsiang Ling with all her rubbish, and here we
+have a chatterbox like you thrown on us! But what is it that that mouth
+of yours keeps on jabbering? What about the bathos of Tu Kung-pu; and
+the unadorned refinement of Wei Su-chou? What also about Wen Pa-ch'a's
+elegant diction; and Li I-shan's abstruseness? A pack of silly fools
+that you are! Do you in any way behave like girls should?"
+
+These sneers evoked laughter from both Hsiang Ling and Hsiang-yuen. But
+in the course of their conversation, they perceived Pao-ch'in drop in,
+with a waterproof wrapper thrown over her, so dazzling with its gold and
+purplish colours, that they were at a loss to make out what sort of
+article it could be.
+
+"Where did you get this?" Pao-ch'ai eagerly inquired.
+
+"It was snowing," Pao-ch'in smilingly replied, "so her venerable
+ladyship turned up this piece of clothing and gave it to me."
+
+Hsiang Ling drew near and passed it under inspection. "No wonder," she
+exclaimed, "it looks so handsome! It's verily woven with peacock's
+feathers."
+
+"What about peacock's feathers?" Hsiang-yuen laughed. "It's made of the
+feathers plucked from the heads of wild ducks. This is a clear sign that
+our worthy ancestor is fond of you, for with all her love for Pao-yue,
+she hasn't given it to him to wear."
+
+"Truly does the proverb say: 'that every human being has his respective
+lot.'" Pao-ch'ai smiled. "Nothing ever was further from my thoughts than
+that she would, at this juncture, drop on the scene! Come she may, but
+here she also gets our dear ancestor to lavish such love on her!"
+
+"Unless you stay with our worthy senior," Hsiang-yuen said, "do come into
+the garden. You may romp and laugh and eat and drink as much as you like
+in these two places. But when you get over to Madame Hsing's rooms, talk
+and joke with her, if she be at home, to your heart's content; it won't
+matter if you tarry ever so long. But should she not be in, don't put
+your foot inside; for the inmates are many in those rooms and their
+hearts are evil. All they're up to is to do us harm."
+
+These words much amused Pao-ch'ai, Pao-ch'in, Hsiang-Ling, Ying Erh and
+the others present.
+
+"Were one to say," Pao-ch'ai smiled, "that you're heartless, (it
+wouldn't do); for you've got a heart. But despite your having a heart,
+your tongue is, in fact, a little too outspoken! You should really
+to-day acknowledge this Ch'in Erh of ours as your own sister!"
+
+"This article of clothing," Hsiang-yuen laughed, casting another glance
+at Pao-ch'in, "is only meet for her to wear. It wouldn't verily look
+well on any one else."
+
+Saying this, she espied Hu Po enter the room. "Our old mistress," she
+put in smiling, "bade me tell you, Miss Pao-ch'ai, not to keep too
+strict a check over Miss Ch'in, for she's yet young; that you should let
+her do as she pleases, and that whatever she wants you should ask for,
+and not be afraid."
+
+Pao-ch'ai hastily jumped to her feet and signified her obedience.
+Pushing Pao-ch'in, she laughed. "Even you couldn't tell whence this
+piece of good fortune hails from," she said. "Be off now; for mind, we
+might hurt your feelings. I can never believe myself so inferior to
+you!"
+
+As she spoke, Pao-yue and Tai-yue walked in. But as Pao-ch'ai continued to
+indulge in raillery to herself, "Cousin Pao," Hsiang-yuen smilingly
+remonstrated, "you may, it's true, be jesting, but what if there were
+any one to entertain such ideas in real earnest?"
+
+"If any one took things in earnest," Hu Po interposed laughing, "why,
+she'd give offence to no one else but to him." Pointing, as she uttered
+this remark, at Pao-yue.
+
+"He's not that sort of person!" Pao-ch'ai and Hsiang-yuen simultaneously
+ventured, with a significant smile.
+
+"If it isn't he," Hu Po proceeded still laughing, "it's she." Turning
+again her finger towards Tai-yue.
+
+Hsiang-yuen expressed not a word by way of rejoinder.
+
+"That's still less likely," Pao-ch'ai smiled, "for my cousin is like her
+own sister; and she's far fonder of her than of me. How could she
+therefore take offence? Do you credit that nonsensical trash uttered by
+Yuen-erh! Why what good ever comes out of that mouth of hers?"
+
+Pao-yue was ever well aware that Tai-yue was gifted with a somewhat mean
+disposition. He had not however as yet come to learn anything of what
+had recently transpired between Tai-yue and Pao-ch'ai. He was therefore
+just giving way to fears lest his grandmother's fondness for Pao-ch'in
+should be the cause of her feeling dejected. But when he now heard the
+remarks passed by Hsiang-yuen, and the rejoinders made, on the other
+hand, by Pao-ch'ai, and, when he noticed how different Tai-yue's voice
+and manner were from former occasions, and how they actually bore out
+Pao-ch'ai's insinuation, he was at a great loss how to solve the
+mystery. "These two," he consequently pondered, "were never like this
+before! From all I can now see, they're, really, a hundred times far
+more friendly than any others are!" But presently he also observed Lin
+Tai-yue rush after Pao-ch'in, and call out 'Sister,' and, without even
+making any allusion to her name or any mention to her surname, treat her
+in every respect, just as if she were her own sister.
+
+This Pao-ch'in was young and warm-hearted. She was naturally besides of
+an intelligent disposition. She had, from her very youth up, learnt how
+to read and how to write. After a stay, on the present occasion, of a
+couple of days in the Chia mansion, she became acquainted with nearly
+every inmate. And as she saw that the whole bevy of young ladies were
+not of a haughty nature, and that they kept on friendly terms with her
+own cousin, she did not feel disposed to treat them with any
+discourtesy. But she had likewise found out for herself that Lin Tai-yue
+was the best among the whole lot, so she started with Tai-yue, more than
+with any one else, a friendship of unusual fervour. This did not escape
+Pao-yue's notice; but all he could do was to secretly give way to
+amazement.
+
+Shortly, however, Pao-ch'ai and her cousin repaired to Mrs. Hsueeh's
+quarters. Hsiang-yuen then betook herself to dowager lady Chia's
+apartments, while Lin Tai-yue returned to her room and lay down to rest.
+
+Pao-yue thereupon came to look up Tai-yue.
+
+"Albeit I've read the 'Record of the Western Side-room,'" he smiled,
+"and understood a few passages of it, yet when I quoted some in order to
+make you laugh, you flew into a huff! But I now remember that there is,
+indeed, a passage, which is not intelligible to me; so let me quote it
+for you to explain it for me!"
+
+Hearing this, Tai-yue immediately concluded that his words harboured some
+secret meaning, so putting on a smile, "Recite it and let me hear it,"
+she said.
+
+"In the 'Confusion' chapter," Pao-yue laughingly began, "there's a line
+couched in most beautiful language. It's this: 'What time did Meng Kuang
+receive Liang Hung's candlestick?' (When did you and Pao-ch'ai get to be
+such friends?) These five characters simply bear on a stock story; but
+to the credit of the writer be it, the question contained in the three
+empty words representing, 'What time' is set so charmingly! When did she
+receive it? Do tell me!"
+
+At this inquiry, Tai-yue too could not help laughing. "The question was
+originally nicely put," she felt urged to rejoin with a laugh. "But
+though the writer sets it gracefully, you ask it likewise with equal
+grace!"
+
+"At one time," Pao-yue. observed, "all you knew was to suspect that I
+(was in love with Pao-ch'ai); and have you now no faults to find?"
+
+"Who ever could have imagined her such a really nice girl!" Tai-yue
+smiled. "I've all along thought her full of guile!" And seizing the
+occasion, she told Pao-yue with full particulars how she had, in the game
+of forfeits, made an improper quotation, and what advice Pao-ch'ai had
+given her on the subject; how she had even sent her some birds' nests,
+and what they had said in the course of the chat they had had during her
+illness.
+
+Pao-yue then at length came to see why it was that such a warm friendship
+had sprung up between them. "To tell you the truth," he consequently
+remarked smilingly, "I was just wondering when Meng Kuang had received
+Liang Hung's candlestick; and, lo, you, indeed, got it, when a mere
+child and through some reckless talk, (and your friendship was sealed)."
+
+As the conversation again turned on Pao-ch'in, Tai-yue recalled to mind
+that she had no sister, and she could not help melting once more into
+tears.
+
+Pao-yue hastened to reason with her. "This is again bringing trouble upon
+yourself!" he argued. "Just see how much thinner you are this year than
+you were last; and don't you yet look after your health? You
+deliberately worry yourself every day of your life. And when you've had
+a good cry, you feel at last that you've acquitted yourself of the
+duties of the day."
+
+"Of late," Tai-yue observed, drying her tears, "I feel sore at heart. But
+my tears are scantier by far than they were in years gone by. With all
+the grief and anguish, which gnaw my heart, my tears won't fall
+plentifully."
+
+"This is because weeping has become a habit with you," Pao-yue added.
+"But though you fancy to yourself that it is so, how can your tears have
+become scantier than they were?"
+
+While arguing with her, he perceived a young waiting-maid, attached to
+his room, bring him a red felt wrapper. "Our senior mistress, lady Chia
+Chu," she went on, "has just sent a servant to say that, as it snows,
+arrangements should be made for inviting people to-morrow to write
+verses."
+
+But hardly was this message delivered, than they saw Li Wan's maid
+enter, and invite Tai-yue to go over. Pao-yue then proposed to Tai-yue to
+accompany him, and together they came to the Tao Hsiang village. Tai-yue
+changed her shoes for a pair of low shoes made of red scented sheep
+skin, ornamented with gold, and hollowed clouds. She put on a deep red
+crape cloak, lined with white fox fur; girdled herself with a
+lapis-lazuli coloured sash, decorated with bright green double rings and
+four sceptres; and covered her head with a hat suitable for rainy
+weather. After which, the two cousins trudged in the snow, and repaired
+to this side of the mansion. Here they discovered the young ladies
+assembled, dressed all alike in deep red felt or camlet capes, with the
+exception of Li Wan, who was clad in a woollen jacket, buttoning in the
+middle.
+
+Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai wore a pinkish-purple twilled pelisse, lined with
+foreign 'pa' fur, worked with threads from abroad, and ornamented with
+double embroidery. Hsing Chou-yen was still attired in an old costume,
+she ordinarily used at home, without any garment for protection against
+the rain. Shortly, Shih Hsiang-yuen arrived. She wore the long pelisse,
+given her by dowager lady Chia, which gave warmth both from the inside
+and outside, as the top consisted of martin-head fur, and the lining of
+the long-haired coat of the dark grey squirrel. On her head, she had a
+deep red woollen hood, made _a la_ Chao Chuen, with designs of
+clouds scooped out on it. This was lined with gosling-yellow,
+gold-streaked silk. Round her neck, she had a collar of sable fur.
+
+"Just see here!" Tai-yue was the first to shout with a laugh. "Here comes
+Sun Hsing-che the 'monkey-walker!' Lo, like him, she holds a snow cloak,
+and purposely puts on the air of a young bewitching ape!"
+
+"Look here, all of you!" Hsiang-yuen laughed. "See what I wear inside!"
+
+So saying, she threw off her cloak. This enabled them to notice that she
+wore underneath a half-new garment with three different coloured borders
+on the collar and cuffs, consisting of a short pelisse of russet
+material lined with ermine and ornamented with dragons embroidered in
+variegated silks whose coils were worked with golden threads. The lapel
+was narrow. The sleeves were short. The folds buttoned on the side.
+Under this, she had a very short light-red brocaded satin bodkin, lined
+with fur from foxes' ribs. Round her waist was lightly attached a
+many-hued palace sash, with butterfly knots and long tassels. On her
+feet, she too wore a pair of low shoes made of deer leather. Her waist
+looked more than ever like that of a wasp, her back like that of the
+gibbon. Her bearing resembled that of a crane, her figure that of a
+mantis.
+
+"Her weak point," they laughed unanimously, "is to get herself up to
+look like a young masher. But she does, there's no denying, cut a much
+handsomer figure like this, than when she's dressed up like a girl!"
+
+"Lose no time," Hsiang-yuen smiled, "in deliberating about writing
+verses, for I'd like to hear who is to stand treat."
+
+"According to my idea," Li Wan chimed in, "I think that as the
+legitimate day, which was yesterday, has gone by, it would be too long
+to wait for another proper date. As luck would have it, it's snowing
+again to-day, so won't it be well to raise contributions among ourselves
+and have a meeting? We'll thus be able to give the visitors a greeting;
+and to get an opportunity of writing a few verses. But what are your
+views on the subject?"
+
+"This proposal is excellent!" Pao-yue was the first to exclaim. "The only
+thing is that it's too late to-day; and if it clears up by to-morrow,
+there will be really no fun."
+
+"It isn't likely," cried out the party with one voice, "that this snowy
+weather will clear up. But even supposing it does, the snow which will
+fall during this night will be sufficient for our enjoyment."
+
+"This place of mine is nice enough, it's true," Li Wan added, "yet it
+isn't up to the Lu Hsueeh Pavilion. I've already therefore despatched
+workmen to raise earthen couches, so that we should all be able to sit
+round the fire and compose our verses. Our venerable senior, I fancy, is
+not sure about caring to join us. Besides, this is only a small
+amusement between ourselves so if we just let that hussy Feng know
+something about it, it will be quite enough. A tael from each of you
+will be ample, but send your money to me here! As regards Hsiang Ling,
+Pao-ch'in, Li Wen, Li Ch'i and Chou-yen, the five of them, we needn't
+count them. Neither need we include the two girls of our number, who are
+ill; nor take into account the four girls who've asked for leave. If you
+will let me have your four shares, I'll undertake to see that five or
+six taels be made to suffice."
+
+Pao-ch'ai and the others without exception signified their acquiescence.
+They consequently proceeded to propose the themes and to fix upon the
+rhymes.
+
+"I've long ago," smiled Li Wan, "settled them in my own mind, so
+tomorrow at the proper time you'll really know all about them."
+
+At the conclusion of this remark, they indulged in another chat on
+irrelevant topics; and this over, they came into old lady Chia's
+quarters.
+
+Nothing of any note transpired during the course of that day. At an
+early hour on the morrow, Pao-yue--for he had been looking forward with
+such keen expectation to the coming event that he had found it
+impossible to have any sleep during the night,--jumped out of bed with
+the first blush of dawn. Upon raising his curtain and looking out, he
+observed that, albeit the doors and windows were as yet closed, a bright
+light shone on the lattice sufficient to dazzle the eyes, and his mind
+began at once to entertain misgivings, and to feel regrets, in the
+assurance that the weather had turned out fine, and that the sun had
+already risen. In a hurry, he simultaneously sprung to his feet, and
+flung the window-frame open, then casting a glance outside, from within
+the glass casement, he realised that it was not the reflection of the
+sun, but that of the snow, which had fallen throughout the night to the
+depth of over a foot, and that the heavens were still covered as if with
+twisted cotton and unravelled floss. Pao-yue got, by this time, into an
+unusual state of exhilaration. Hastily calling up the servants, and
+completing his ablutions, he robed himself in an egg-plant-coloured
+camlet, fox-fur lined pelisse; donned a short-sleeved falconry surtout
+ornamented with water dragons; tied a sash round his waist; threw over
+his shoulders a fine bamboo waterproof; covered his head with a golden
+rattan rain-hat; put on a pair of 'sha t'ang' wood clogs, and rushed out
+with precipitate step towards the direction of the Lu Hsueeh Pavilion.
+
+As soon as he sallied out of the gate of the courtyard, he gazed on all
+four quarters. No trace whatever of any other colour (but white) struck
+his eye. In the distance stood the green fir-trees and the
+kingfisherlike bamboos. They too looked, however, as if they were placed
+in a glass bowl.
+
+Forthwith he wended his way down the slope and trudged along the foot of
+the hill. But the moment he turned the bend, he felt a whiff of cold
+fragrance come wafted into his nostrils. Turning his head, he espied ten
+and more red plum trees, over at Miao Yue's in the Lung Ts'ui monastery.
+They were red like very rouge. And, reflecting the white colour of the
+snow, they showed off their beauty to such an extraordinary degree as to
+present a most pleasing sight.
+
+Pao-yue quickly stood still, and gazed, with all intentness, at the
+landscape for a time. But just as he was proceeding on his way, he
+caught sight of some one on the "Wasp waist" wooden bridge, advancing in
+his direction, with an umbrella in hand. It was the servant, despatched
+by Li Wan, to request lady Peng to go over.
+
+On his arrival in the Lu Hsueeh pavilion, Pao-yue found the maids and
+matrons engaged in sweeping away the snow and opening a passage. This Lu
+Hsueeh (Water-rush snow) pavilion was, we might explain, situated on a
+side hill, in the vicinity of a stream and spanned the rapids formed by
+it. The whole place consisted of several thatched roofs, mud walls, side
+fences, bamboo lattice windows and pushing windows, out of which
+fishing-lines could be conveniently dropped. On all four sides
+flourished one mass of reeds, which concealed the single path out of the
+pavilion. Turning and twisting, he penetrated on his way through the
+growth of reeds until he reached the spot where stretched the bamboo
+bridge leading to the Lotus Fragrance Arbour.
+
+The moment the maids and matrons saw him approach with his
+waterproof-wrapper thrown over his person and his rain-hat on his head,
+they with one voice laughed, "We were just remarking that what was
+lacking was a fisherman, and lo, now we've got everything that was
+wanted! The young ladies are coming after their breakfast; you're in too
+impatient a mood!"
+
+At these words, Pao-yue had no help but to retrace his footsteps. As soon
+as he reached the Hsin Tang pavilion, he perceived T'an Ch'un, issuing
+from the Ch'iu Shuang Study, wrapped in a deep red woollen waterproof,
+and a 'Kuan Yin' hood on her head, supporting herself on the arm of a
+young maid. Behind her, followed a married woman, holding a glazed
+umbrella made of green satin.
+
+Pao-yue knew very well that she was on her way to his grandmother's, so
+speedily halting by the side of the pavilion, he waited for her to come
+up. The two cousins then left the garden together, and betook themselves
+to the front part of the mansion. Pao-ch'in was at the time in the inner
+apartments, combing her hair, washing her hands and face and changing
+her apparel. Shortly, the whole number of girls arrived. "I feel
+peckish!" Pao-yue shouted; and again and again he tried to hurry the
+meal. It was with great impatience that he waited until the eatables
+could be laid on the table.
+
+One of the dishes consisted of kid, boiled in cow's milk. "This is
+medicine for us, who are advanced in years," old lady Chia observed.
+"They're things that haven't seen the light! The pity is that you young
+people can't have any. There's some fresh venison to-day as an extra
+course, so you'd better wait and eat some of that!"
+
+One and all expressed their readiness to wait. Pao-yue however could not
+delay having something to eat. Seizing a cup of tea, he soaked a bowlful
+of rice, to which he added some meat from a pheasant's leg, and gobbled
+it down in a scramble.
+
+"I'm well aware," dowager lady Chia said, "that as you're up to
+something again to-day, you people have no mind even for your meal. Let
+them keep," she therefore cried, "that venison for their evening
+repast!"
+
+"What an idea!" lady Feng promptly put in. "We'll have enough with what
+remains of it."
+
+Shih Hsiang-yuen thereupon consulted with Pao-yue. "As there's fresh
+venison," she said, "wouldn't it be nice to ask for a haunch and take it
+into the garden and prepare it ourselves? We'll thus be able to sate our
+hunger, and have some fun as well."
+
+At this proposal, Pao-yue actually asked lady Feng to let them have a
+haunch, and he bade a matron carry it into the garden.
+
+Presently, they all got up from table. After a time, they entered the
+garden and came in a body to the Lu Hsueeh pavilion to hear Li Wan give
+out the themes, and fix upon the rhymes. But Hsiang-yuen and Pao-yue were
+the only two of whom nothing was seen.
+
+"Those two," Tai-yue observed, "can't get together! The moment they meet,
+how much trouble doesn't arise! They must surely have now gone to hatch
+their plans over that haunch of venison."
+
+These words were still on her lips when she saw 'sister-in-law' Li
+coming also to see what the noise was all about. "How is it," she then
+inquired of Li Wan, "that that young fellow, with the jade, and that
+girl, with the golden unicorn round her neck, both of whom are so
+cleanly and tidy, and have besides ample to eat, are over there
+conferring about eating raw meat? There they are chatting, saying this
+and saying that; but I can't see how meat can be eaten raw!"
+
+This remark much amused the party. "How dreadful!" they exclaimed, "Be
+quick and bring them both here!"
+
+"All this fuss," Tay-yue smiled, "is the work of that girl Yuen. I'm not
+far off again in my surmises."
+
+Li Wan went out with precipitate step in search of the cousins. "If you
+two are bent upon eating raw meat," she cried, "I'll send you over to
+our old senior's; you can do so there. What will I care then if you have
+a whole deer raw and make yourselves ill over it? It won't be any
+business of mine. But it's snowing hard and it's bitterly cold, so be
+quick and go and write some verses for me and be off!"
+
+"We're doing nothing of the kind," Pao-yue hastily rejoined. "We're going
+to eat some roasted meat."
+
+"Well, that won't matter!" Li Wan observed. And seeing the old matrons
+bring an iron stove, prongs and a gridiron of iron wire, "Mind you don't
+cut your hands," Li Wan resumed, "for we won't have any crying!"
+
+This remark concluded, she walked in.
+
+Lady Feng had sent P'ing Erh from her quarters to announce that she was
+unable to come, as the issue of the customary annual money gave her just
+at present, plenty to keep her busy.
+
+Hsiang-yuen caught sight of P'ing Erh and would not let her go on her
+errand. But P'ing Erh too was fond of amusement, and had ever followed
+lady Feng everywhere she went, so, when she perceived what fun was to be
+got, and how merrily they joked and laughed, she felt impelled to take
+off her bracelets (and to join them). The trio then pressed round the
+fire; and P'ing Erh wanted to be the first to roast three pieces of
+venison to regale themselves with.
+
+On the other side, Pao-ch'ai and Tai-yue had, even in ordinary times,
+seen enough of occasions like the present. They did not therefore think
+it anything out of the way; but Pao-ch'in and the other visitors,
+inclusive of 'sister-in-law' Li, were filled with intense wonder.
+
+T'an Ch'un had, with the help of Li Wan, and her companions, succeeded
+by this time in choosing the subjects and rhymes. "Just smell that sweet
+fragrance," T'an Ch'un remarked. "One can smell it even here! I'm also
+going to taste some."
+
+So speaking, she too went to look them up. But Li Wan likewise followed
+her out. "The guests are all assembled," she observed. "Haven't you
+people had enough as yet?"
+
+While Hsiang-yuen munched what she had in her month, she replied to her
+question. "Whenever," she said, "I eat this sort of thing, I feel a
+craving for wine. It's only after I've had some that I shall be able to
+rhyme. Were it not for this venison, I would to-day have positively been
+quite unfit for any poetry." As she spoke, she discerned Pao-ch'in,
+standing and laughing opposite to her, in her duck-down garment.
+
+"You idiot," Hsiang-yuen laughingly cried, "come and have a mouthful to
+taste."
+
+"It's too filthy!" Pao-ch'in replied smiling.
+
+"You go and try it." Pao-ch'ai added with a laugh. "It's capital! Your
+cousin Lin is so very weak that she couldn't digest it, if she had any.
+Otherwise she too is very fond of this."
+
+Upon hearing this, Pao-ch'in readily crossed over and put a piece in her
+mouth; and so good did she find it that she likewise started eating some
+of it.
+
+In a little time, however, lady Feng sent a young maid to call P'ing
+Erh.
+
+"Miss Shih," P'ing Erh explained, "won't let me go. So just return ahead
+of me."
+
+The maid thereupon took her leave; but shortly after they saw lady Feng
+arrive; she too with a wrapper over her shoulders.
+
+"You're having," she smiled; "such dainties to eat, and don't you tell
+me?"
+
+Saying this, she also drew near and began to eat.
+
+"Where has this crowd of beggars turned up from?" Tai-yue put in with a
+laugh. "But never mind, never mind! Here's the Lu Hsueeh pavilion come in
+for this calamity to-day, and, as it happens, it's that chit Yuen by whom
+it has been polluted! But I'll have a good cry for the Lu Hsueeh
+pavilion."
+
+Hsiang-yuen gave an ironical smile. "What do you know?" she exclaimed. "A
+genuine man of letters is naturally refined. But as for the whole lot of
+you, your poor and lofty notions are all a sham! You are most loathsome!
+We may now be frowzy and smelly, as we munch away lustily with our
+voracious appetites, but by and bye we'll prove as refined as scholars,
+as if we had cultured minds and polished tongues."
+
+"If by and bye," Pao-ch'ai laughingly interposed, "the verses you
+compose are not worth anything, I'll tug out that meat you've eaten, and
+take some of these snow-buried weeds and stuff you up with. I'll thus
+put an end to this evil fortune!"
+
+While bandying words, they finished eating. For a time, they busied
+themselves with washing their hands. But when P'ing Erh came to put on
+her bracelets, she found one missing. She looked in a confused manner,
+at one time to the left, at another to the right; now in front of her,
+and then behind her for ever so long, but not a single vestige of it was
+visible. One and all were therefore filled with utter astonishment.
+
+"I know where this bracelet has gone to;" lady Feng suggested smilingly.
+"But just you all go and attend to your poetry. We too can well dispense
+with searching for it, and repair to the front. Before three days are
+out, I'll wager that it turns up. What verses are you writing to-day?"
+continuing she went on to inquire. "Our worthy senior says that the end
+of the year is again nigh at hand, and that in the first moon some more
+conundrums will have to be devised to be affixed on lanterns, for the
+recreation of the whole family."
+
+"Of course we'll have to write a few," they laughingly rejoined, upon
+hearing her remarks. "We forgot all about it. Let's hurry up now, and
+compose a few fine ones, so as to have them ready to enjoy some good fun
+in the first moon."
+
+Speaking the while, they came in a body into the room with the earthen
+couches, where they found the cups, dishes and eatables already laid out
+in readiness. On the walls had been put up the themes, metre, and
+specimen verses. Pao-yue and Hsiang-yuen hastened to examine what was
+written. They saw that they had to take for a theme something on the
+present scenery and indite a stanza with antithetical pentameter lines;
+that the word 'hsiao,' second (in the book of metre), had been fixed
+upon as a rhyme; but that there was, below that, no mention, as yet,
+made of any precedence.
+
+"I can't write verses very well," Li Wan pleaded, "so all I'll do will
+be to devise three lines, and the one, who'll finish the task first,
+we'll have afterwards to pair them."
+
+"We should, after all," Pao-ch'ai urged, "make some distinction with
+regard to order."
+
+But, reader, if you entertain any desire to know the sequel, peruse the
+particulars recorded in the chapter that follows.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+ In the Lu Hsueeh pavilion, they vie with each other in pairing verses
+ on the scenery.
+ In the Nuan Hsiang village, they compose, in beautiful style, riddles
+ for the spring lanterns.
+
+
+But to continue. "We should, after all," Pao-ch'ai suggested, "make some
+distinction as to order. Let me write out what's needful."
+
+After uttering this proposal, she urged every one to draw lots and
+determine the precedence. The first one to draw was Li Wan. After her, a
+list of the respective names was made in the order in which they came
+out.
+
+"Well, in that case," lady Feng rejoined, "I'll also give a top line."
+
+The whole party laughed in chorus. "It will be ever so much better like
+this," they said.
+
+Pao-ch'ai supplied above 'the old labourer of Tao Hsiang' the word
+'Feng,' whereupon Li Wan went on to explain the theme to her.
+
+"You musn't poke fun at me!" lady Feng smiled, after considerable
+reflection. "I've only managed to get a coarse line. It consists of five
+words. As for the rest, I have no idea how to manage them."
+
+"The coarser the language, the better it is," one and all laughed. "Out
+with it! You can then go and attend to your legitimate business!"
+
+"I fancy," lady Feng observed, "that when it snows there's bound to be
+northerly wind, for last night I heard the wind blow from the north the
+whole night long. I've got a line, it's:
+
+ "'The whole night long the northern wind was high;'
+
+"but whether it will do or not, I am not going to worry my mind about
+it."
+
+One and all, upon hearing this, exchanged looks. "This line is, it's
+true, coarse," they smiled, "and gives no insight into what comes below,
+but it's just the kind of opening that would be used by such as
+understand versification. It's not only good, but it will afford to
+those, who come after you, inexhaustible scope for writing. In fact,
+this line will take the lead, so 'old labourer of Tao Hsiang' be quick
+and indite some more to tag on below."
+
+Lady Feng, 'sister-in-law' Li, and P'ing Erh had then another couple of
+glasses, after which each went her own way. During this while Li Wan
+wrote down:
+
+ The whole night long the northern wind was high;
+
+and then she herself subjoined the antithetical couplet:
+
+ The door I ope, and lo the flakes of snow are still toss'd by the
+ wind,
+ And drop into the slush. Oh, what a pity they're so purely white!
+
+Hsiang Ling recited:
+
+ All o'er the ground is spread, alas, this bright, refulgent gem;
+ But with an aim; for it is meant dry herbage to revive.
+
+T'an Ch'un said:
+
+ Without design the dying sprouts of grain it nutrifies.
+ But in the villages the price of mellow wine doth rise.
+
+Li Ch'i added:
+
+ In a good year, grain in the house is plentiful.
+ The bulrush moves and the ash issues from the tube.
+
+Li Wen continued:
+
+ What time spring comes the handle of the Dipper turns.
+ The bleaky hills have long ago their verdure lost.
+
+Chou-yen proceeded:
+
+ On a frost-covered stream, no tide can ever rise.
+ Easy the snow hangs on the sparse-leaved willow twigs.
+
+Hsiang-yuen pursued:
+
+ Hard 'tis for snow to pile on broken plantain leaves.
+ The coal, musk-scented, burns in the precious tripod.
+
+Pao-ch'in recited:
+
+ Th' embroidered sleeve enwraps the golden sable in its folds.
+ The snow transcends the mirror by the window in lustre.
+
+Pao-yue suggested:
+
+ The fragrant pepper clings unto the wall.
+ The side wind still in whistling gusts doth blow.
+
+Tai-yue added:
+
+ A quiet dream becomes a cheerless thing.
+ Where is the fife with plum bloom painted on?
+
+Pao-ch'ai continued:
+
+ In whose household is there a flute made of green jade?
+ The fish fears lest the earth from its axis might drop.
+
+"I'll go and see that the wine is warm for you people," Li Wan smiled.
+
+But when Pao-ch'ai told Pao-ch'in to connect some lines, she caught
+sight of Hsiang-yuen rise to her feet and put in:
+
+ What time the dragon wages war, the clouds dispel.
+ Back to the wild shore turns the man with single scull.
+
+Pao-ch'in thereupon again appended the couplet:
+
+ The old man hums his lines, and with his whip he points at the 'Pa'
+ bridge.
+ Fur coats are, out of pity, on the troops at the frontiers bestowed.
+
+But would Hsiang-yuen allow any one to have a say? The others could not
+besides come up to her in quickness of wits so that, while their eyes
+were fixed on her, she with eyebrows uplifted and figure outstretched
+proceeded to say:
+
+ More cotton coats confer, for bear in memory th' imperial serfs!
+ The rugged barbarous lands are (on account of snow) with dangers
+ fraught.
+
+Pao-ch'ai praised the verses again and again, and next contributed the
+distich:
+
+ The twigs and branches live in fear of being tossed about.
+ With what whiteness and feath'ry step the flakes of snow descend!
+
+Tai-yue eagerly subjoined the lines:
+
+ The snow as nimbly falls as moves the waist of the 'Sui' man when
+ brandishing the sword.
+ The tender leaves of tea, so acrid to the taste, have just been newly
+ brewed and tried.
+
+As she recited this couplet, she gave Pao-yue a shove and urged him to go
+on. Pao-yue was, at the moment, enjoying the intense pleasure of watching
+the three girls Pao-ch'ai, Pao-ch'in and Tai-yue make a joint onslaught
+on Hsiang-yuen, so that he had of course not given his mind to tagging
+any antithetical verses. But when he now felt Tai-yue push him he at
+length chimed in with:
+
+ The fir is the sole tree which is decreed for ever to subsist.
+ The wild goose follows in the mud the prints and traces of its steps.
+
+Pao-ch'in took up the clue, adding:
+
+ In the forest, the axe of the woodcutter may betimes be heard.
+ With (snow) covered contours, a thousand peaks their heads jut in the
+ air.
+
+Hsiang-yuen with alacrity annexed the verses:
+
+ The whole way tortuous winds like a coiled snake.
+ The flowers have felt the cold and ceased to bud.
+
+Pao-ch'ai and her companions again with one voice eulogised their fine
+diction.
+
+T'an Ch'un then continued:
+
+ Could e'er the beauteous snow dread the nipping of frost?
+ In the deep court the shivering birds are startled by its fall.
+
+Hsiang-yuen happened to be feeling thirsty and was hurriedly swallowing a
+cup of tea, when her turn was at once snatched by Chou-yen, who gave out
+the lines,
+
+ On the bare mountain wails the old man Hsiao.
+ The snow covers the steps, both high and low.
+
+Hsiang-yuen immediately put away the tea-cup and added:
+
+ On the pond's surface, it allows itself to float.
+ At the first blush of dawn with effulgence it shines.
+
+Tai-yue recited with alacrity the couplet:
+
+ In confused flakes, it ceaseless falls the whole night long.
+ Troth one forgets that it implies three feet of cold.
+
+Hsiang-yuen hastened to smilingly interpose with the distich:
+
+ Its auspicious descent dispels the Emperor's grief.
+ There lies one frozen-stiff, but who asks him a word?
+
+Pao-ch'in too speedily put on a smile and added:
+ Glad is the proud wayfarer when he's pressed to drink.
+ Snapped is the weaving belt in the heavenly machine.
+
+Hsiang-yuen once again eagerly quoted the line:
+
+ In the seaside market is lost a silk kerchief.
+
+But Lin Tai-yue would not let her continue, and taking up the thread, she
+forthwith said:
+
+ With quiet silence, it enshrouds the raised kiosque.
+
+Hsiang-yuen vehemently gave the antithetical verse:
+
+ The utter poor clings to his pannier and his bowl.
+
+Pao-ch'in too would not give in as a favour to any one, so hastily she
+exclaimed:
+
+ The water meant to brew the tea with gently bubbles up.
+
+Hsiang-yuen saw how excited they were getting and she thought it
+naturally great fun. Laughing, she eagerly gave out:
+
+ When wine is boiled with leaves 'tis not easy to burn.
+
+Tai-yue also smiled while suggesting:
+
+ The broom, with which the bonze sweepeth the hill, is sunk in snow.
+
+Pao-ch'in too smilingly cried:
+
+ The young lad takes away the lute interred in snow.
+
+Hsiang-yuen laughed to such a degree that she was bent in two; and she
+muttered a line with such rapidity that one and all inquired of her:
+"What are you, after all, saying?"
+
+ In the stone tower leisurely sleeps the stork.
+
+Hsiang-yuen repeated.
+
+Tai-yue clasped her breast so convulsed was she with laughter. With loud
+voice she bawled out:
+
+ Th' embroidered carpet warms the affectionate cat.
+
+Pao-ch'in quickly, again laughingly, exclaimed:
+
+ Inside Selene's cave lo, roll the silvery waves.
+
+Hsiang-yuen added, with eager haste:
+
+ Within the city walls at eve was hid a purple flag.
+
+Tai-yue with alacrity continued with a smile:
+
+ The fragrance sweet, which penetrates into the plums, is good to eat.
+
+Pao-ch'ai smiled. "What a fine line!" she ejaculated; after which, she
+hastened to complete the couplet by saying:
+
+ The drops from the bamboo are meet, when one is drunk, to mix with
+ wine.
+
+Pao-ch'in likewise made haste to add:
+
+ Betimes, the hymeneal girdle it moistens.
+
+Hsiang-yuen eagerly paired it with:
+
+ Oft, it freezeth on the kingfisher shoes.
+
+Tai-yue once more exclaimed with vehemence:
+
+ No wind doth blow, but yet there is a rush.
+
+Pao-ch'in promptly also smiled, and strung on:
+
+ No rain lo falls, but still a patter's heard.
+
+Hsiang-yuen was leaning over, indulging in such merriment that she was
+quite doubled up in two. But everybody else had realised that the trio
+was struggling for mastery, so without attempting to versify they kept
+their gaze fixed on them and gave way to laughter.
+
+Tai-yue gave her another push to try and induce her to go on. "Do you
+also sometimes come to your wits' ends; and run to the end of your
+tether?" she went on to say. "I'd like to see what other stuff and
+nonsense you can come out with!"
+
+Hsiang-yuen however simply fell forward on Pao-ch'ai's lap and laughed
+incessantly.
+
+"If you've got any gumption about you," Pao-ch'ai exclaimed, shoving her
+up, "take the second rhymes under 'Hsiao' and exhaust them all, and I'll
+then bend the knee to you."
+
+"It isn't as if I were writing verses," Hsiang-yuen laughed rising to her
+feet; "it's really as if I were fighting for very life."
+
+"It's for you to come out with something," they all cried with a laugh.
+
+T'an Ch'un had long ago determined in her mind that there could be no
+other antithetical sentences that she herself could possibly propose,
+and she forthwith set to work to copy out the verses. But as she passed
+the remark: "They haven't as yet been brought to a proper close," Li Wen
+took up the clue, as soon as she caught her words, and added the
+sentiment:
+
+ My wish is to record this morning's fun.
+
+Li Ch'i then suggested as a finale the line:
+
+ By these verses, I'd fain sing th' Emperor's praise.
+
+"That's enough, that will do!" Li Wan cried. "The rhymes haven't, I
+admit, been exhausted, but any outside words you might introduce, will,
+if used in a forced sense, be worth nothing at all."
+
+While continuing their arguments, the various inmates drew near and kept
+up a searching criticism for a time.
+
+Hsiang-yuen was found to be the one among them, who had devised the
+largest number of lines.
+
+"This is mainly due," they unanimously laughed, "to the virtue of that
+piece of venison!"
+
+"Let's review them line by line as they come," Li Wan smilingly
+proposed, "but yet as if they formed one continuous poem. Here's Pao-yue
+last again!"
+
+"I haven't, the fact is, the knack of pairing sentences," Pao-yue
+rejoined with a smile. "You'd better therefore make some allowance for
+me!"
+
+"There's no such thing as making allowances for you in meeting after
+meeting," Li Wan demurred laughing, "that you should again after that
+give out the rhymes in a reckless manner, waste your time and not show
+yourself able to put two lines together. You must absolutely bear a
+penalty today. I just caught a glimpse of the red plum in the Lung Ts'ui
+monastery; and how charming it is! I meant to have plucked a twig to put
+in a vase, but so loathsome is the way in which Miao Yue goes on, that I
+won't have anything to do with her! But we'll punish him by making him,
+for the sake of fun, fetch a twig for us to put in water."
+
+"This penalty," they shouted with one accord, "is both excellent as well
+as pleasant."
+
+Pao-yue himself was no less delighted to carry it into execution, so
+signifying his readiness to comply with their wishes, he felt desirous
+to be off at once.
+
+"It's exceedingly cold outside," Hsiang-yuen and Tai-yue simultaneously
+remarked, "so have a glass of warm wine before you go."
+
+Hsiang-yuen speedily took up the kettle, and Tai-yue handed him a large
+cup, filled to the very brim.
+
+"Now swallow the wine we give you," Hsiang-yuen smiled. "And if you don't
+bring any plum blossom, we'll inflict a double penalty."
+
+Pao-yue gulped down hurry-scurry the whole contents of the cup and
+started on his errand in the face of the snow.
+
+"Follow him carefully." Li Wan enjoined the servants.
+
+Tai-yue, however, hastened to interfere and make her desist. "There's no
+such need," she cried. "Were any one to go with him, he'll contrariwise
+not get the flowers."
+
+Li Wan nodded her head. "Yes!" she assented, and then went on to direct
+a waiting-maid to bring a vase, in the shape of a beautiful girl with
+high shoulders, to fill it with water, and get it ready to put the plum
+blossom in. "And when he comes back," she felt induced to add, "we must
+recite verses on the red plum."
+
+"I'll indite a stanza in advance," eagerly exclaimed Hsiang-yuen.
+
+"We'll on no account let you indite any more to-day," Pao-ch'ai laughed.
+"You beat every one of us hollow; so if we sit with idle hands, there
+won't be any fun. But by and bye we'll fine Pao-yue; and, as he says that
+he can't pair antithetical lines, we'll now make him compose a stanza
+himself."
+
+"This is a capital idea!" Tai-yue smiled. "But I've got another proposal.
+As the lines just paired are not sufficient, won't it be well to pick
+out those who've put together the fewest distiches, and make them
+versify on the red plum blossom?"
+
+"An excellent proposal!" Pao-ch'ai ventured laughing. "The three girls
+Hsing Chou-yen, Li Wen and Li Ch'i, failed just now to do justice to
+their talents; besides they are visitors; and as Ch'in Erh, P'in Erh and
+Yuen Erh got the best of us by a good deal, it's only right that none of
+us should compose any more, and that that trio should only do so."
+
+"Ch'i Erh," Li Wan thereupon retorted, "is also not a very good hand at
+verses, let therefore cousin Ch'in have a try!"
+
+Pao-ch'ai had no alternative but to express her acquiescence.
+
+"Let the three words 'red plum blossom,'" she then suggested, "be used
+for rhymes; and let each person compose an heptameter stanza. Cousin
+Hsing to indite on the word 'red;' your elder cousin Li on 'plum;' and
+Ch'in Erh on 'blossom.'"
+
+"If you let Pao-yue off," Li Wan interposed, "I won't have it!"
+
+"I've got a capital theme," Hsiung-yuen eagerly remarked, "so let's make
+him write some!"
+
+"What theme is it?" one and all inquired.
+
+"If we made him," Hsiang-yuen resumed, "versify on: 'In search of Miao Yue
+to beg for red plum blossom,' won't it be full of fun?"
+
+"That will be full of zest," the party exclaimed, upon hearing the theme
+propounded by her. But hardly had they given expression to their
+approval than they perceived Pao-yue come in, beaming with smiles and
+glee, and holding with both hands a branch of red plum blossom. The
+maids hurriedly relieved him of his burden and put the branch in the
+vase, and the inmates present came over in a body to feast their eyes on
+it.
+
+"Well, may you look at it now," Pao-yue smiled. "You've no idea what an
+amount of trouble it has cost me!"
+
+As he uttered these words, T'an Ch'un handed him at once another cup of
+warm wine; and the maids approached, and took his wrapper and hat, and
+shook off the snow.
+
+But the servant-girls attached to their respective quarters then brought
+them over extra articles of clothing. Hsi Jen, in like manner,
+despatched a domestic with a pelisse, the worse for wear, lined with fur
+from foxes' ribs, so Li Wan, having directed a servant to fill a plate
+with steamed large taros, and to make up two dishes with red-skinned
+oranges, yellow coolie oranges, olives and other like things, bade some
+one take them over to Hsi Jen.
+
+Hsiang-yuen also communicated to Pao-yue the subject for verses they had
+decided upon a short while back. But she likewise urged Pao-yue to be
+quick and accomplish his task.
+
+"Dear senior cousin, dear junior cousin," pleaded Pao-yue, "let me use my
+own rhymes. Don't bind me down to any."
+
+"Go on as you like," they replied with one consent.
+
+But conversing the while, they passed the plum blossom under inspection.
+
+This bough of plum blossom was, in fact, only two feet in height; but
+from the side projected a branch, crosswise, about two or three feet in
+length the small twigs and stalks on which resembled coiled dragons, or
+crouching earthworms; and were either single and trimmed pencil-like, or
+thick and bushy grove-like. Indeed, their appearance was as if the
+blossom spurted cosmetic. This fragrance put orchids to the blush. So
+every one present contributed her quota of praise.
+
+Chou-yen, Li Wen and Pao-ch'in had, little though it was expected, all
+three already finished their lines and each copied them out for herself,
+so the company began to peruse their compositions, subjoined below, in
+the order of the three words: 'red plum blossom.'
+
+Verses to the red plum blossom by Hsing Chou-yen.
+
+ The peach tree has not donned its fragrance yet, the almond is not
+ red.
+ What time it strikes the cold, it's first joyful to smile at the east
+ wind.
+ When its spirit to the Yue Ling hath flown, 'tis hard to say 'tis
+ spring.
+ The russet clouds across the 'Lo Fu' lie, so e'en to dreams it's
+ closed.
+ The green petals add grace to a coiffure, when painted candles burn.
+ The simple elf when primed with wine doth the waning rainbow bestride.
+ Does its appearance speak of a colour of ordinary run?
+ Both dark and light fall of their own free will into the ice and snow.
+
+The next was the production of Li Wen, and its burden was:
+
+ To write on the white plum I'm not disposed, but I'll write on the
+ red.
+ Proud of its beauteous charms, 'tis first to meet the opening drunken
+ eye.
+ On its frost-nipped face are marks; and these consist wholly of blood.
+ Its heart is sore, but no anger it knows; to ashes too it turns.
+ By some mistake a pill (a fairy) takes and quits her real frame.
+ From the fairyland pool she secret drops, and casts off her old form.
+ In spring, both north and south of the river, with splendour it doth
+ bloom.
+ Send word to bees and butterflies that they need not give way to
+ fears!
+
+This stanza came next from the pen of Hsueeh Pao-ch'in,
+
+ Far distant do the branches grow; but how beauteous the blossom
+ blooms!
+ The maidens try with profuse show to compete in their spring
+ head-dress.
+ No snow remains on the vacant pavilion and the tortuous rails.
+ Upon the running stream and desolate hills descend the russet clouds.
+ When cold prevails one can in a still dream follow the lass-blown
+ fife.
+ The wandering elf roweth in fragrant spring, the boat in the red
+ stream.
+ In a previous existence, it must sure have been of fairy form.
+ No doubt need 'gain arise as to its beauty differing from then.
+
+The perusal over, they spent some time in heaping, smiling the while,
+eulogiums upon the compositions. And they pointed at the last stanza as
+the best of the lot; which made it evident to Pao-yue that Pao-ch'in,
+albeit the youngest in years, was, on the other hand, the quickest in
+wits.
+
+Tai-yue and Hsiang-yuen then filled up a small cup with wine and
+simultaneously offered their congratulations to Pao-ch'in.
+
+"Each of the three stanzas has its beauty," Pao-ch'ai remarked, a smile
+playing round her lips. "You two have daily made a fool of me, and are
+you now going to fool her also?"
+
+"Have you got yours ready?" Li Wan went on to inquire of Pao-yue.
+
+"I'd got them," Pao-yue promptly answered, "but the moment I read their
+three stanzas, I once more became so nervous that they quite slipped
+from my mind. But let me think again."
+
+Hsiang-yuen, at this reply, fetched a copper poker, and, while beating on
+the hand-stove, she laughingly said: "I shall go on tattooing. Now mind
+if when the drumming ceases, you haven't accomplished your task, you'll
+have to bear another fine."
+
+"I've already got them!" Pao-yue rejoined, smilingly.
+
+Tai-yue then picked up a pencil. "Recite them," she smiled, "and I'll
+write them down."
+
+Hsiang-yuen beat one stroke (on the stove). "The first tattoo is over,"
+she laughed.
+
+"I'm ready," Pao-yue smiled. "Go on writing."
+
+At this, they heard him recite:
+
+ The wine bottle is not opened, the line is not put into shape.
+
+Tai-yue noted it down, and shaking her head, "They begin very smoothly,"
+she said, as she smiled.
+
+"Be quick!" Hsiang-yuen again urged.
+
+Pao-yue laughingly continued:
+
+ To fairyland I speed to seek for spring, and the twelfth moon to find.
+
+Tai-yue and Hsiang-yuen both nodded. "It's rather good," they smiled.
+
+Pao-yue resumed, saying:
+
+ I will not beg the high god for a bottle of the (healing) dew,
+ But pray Shuang O to give me some plum bloom beyond the rails.
+
+Tai-yue jotted the lines down and wagged her head to and fro. "They're
+ingenious, that's all," she observed.
+
+Hsiang-yuen gave another rap with her hand.
+
+Pao-yue thereupon smilingly added:
+
+ I come into the world and, in the cold, I pick out some red snow.
+ I leave the dusty sphere and speed to pluck the fragrant purple
+ clouds.
+ I bring a jagged branch, but who in pity sings my shoulders thin?
+ On my clothes still sticketh the moss from yon Buddhistic court.
+
+As soon as Tai-yue had done writing, Hsiang-yuen and the rest of the
+company began to discuss the merits of the verses; but they then saw
+several servant-maids rush in, shouting: "Our venerable mistress has
+come."
+
+One and all hurried out with all despatch to meet her. "How comes it
+that she is in such good cheer?" every one also laughed.
+
+Speaking the while, they discerned, at a great distance, their
+grandmother Chia seated, enveloped in a capacious wrapper, and rolled up
+in a warm hood lined with squirrel fur, in a small bamboo sedan-chair
+with an open green silk glazed umbrella in her hand. Yuean Yang, Hu Po
+and some other girls, mustering in all five or six, held each an
+umbrella and pressed round the chair, as they advanced.
+
+Li Wan and her companions went up to them with hasty step; but dowager
+lady Chia directed the servants to make them stop; explaining that it
+would be quite enough if they stood where they were.
+
+On her approach, old lady Chia smiled. "I've given," she observed, "your
+Madame Wang and that girl Feng the slip and come. What deep snow covers
+the ground! For me, I'm seated in this, so it doesn't matter; but you
+mustn't let those ladies trudge in the snow."
+
+The various followers rushed forward to take her wrapper and to support
+her, and as they did so, they expressed their acquiescence.
+
+As soon as she got indoors old lady Chia was the first to exclaim with a
+beaming face: "What beautiful plum blossom! You well know how to make
+merry; but I too won't let you off!"
+
+But in the course of her remarks, Li Wan quickly gave orders to a
+domestic to fetch a large wolf skin rug, and to spread it in the centre,
+so dowager lady Chia made herself comfortable on it. "Just go on as
+before with your romping and joking, drinking and eating," she then
+laughed. "As the days are so short, I did not venture to have a midday
+siesta. After therefore playing at dominoes for a time, I bethought
+myself of you people, and likewise came to join the fun."
+
+Li Wan soon also presented her a hand-stove, while T'an Ch'un brought an
+extra set of cups and chopsticks, and filling with her own hands, a cup
+with warm wine, she handed it to her grandmother Chia. Old lady Chia
+swallowed a sip. "What's there in that dish?" she afterwards inquired.
+
+The various inmates hurriedly carried it over to her, and explained that
+'they were pickled quails.'
+
+"These won't hurt me," dowager lady Chia said, "so cut off a piece of
+the leg and give it to me."
+
+"Yes!" promptly acquiesced Li Wan, and asking for water, she washed her
+hands, and then came in person to carve the quail.
+
+"Sit down again," dowager lady Chia said, pressing them, "and go on with
+your chatting and laughing. Let me hear you, and feel happy. Just you
+also seat yourself," continuing, she remarked to Li Wan, "and behave as
+if I were not here. If you do so, well and good. Otherwise, I shall take
+myself off at once."
+
+But it was only when they heard how persistent she was in her
+solicitations that they all resumed the seats, which accorded with their
+age, with the exception of Li Wan, who moved to the furthest side.
+
+"What were you playing at?" old lady Chia thereupon asked.
+
+"We were writing verses," answered the whole party.
+
+"Wouldn't it be well for those who are up to poetry," dowager lady Chia
+suggested; "to devise a few puns for lanterns so that the whole lot of
+us should be able to have some fun in the first moon?"
+
+With one voice, they expressed their approval. But after they had jested
+for a little time; "It's damp in here;" old lady Chia said, "so don't
+you sit long, for mind you might be catching cold. Where it's nice and
+warm is in your cousin Quarta's over there, so let's all go and see how
+she is getting on with her painting, and whether it will be ready or not
+by the end of the year."
+
+"How could it be completed by the close of the year?" they smiled. "She
+could only, we fancy, get it ready by the dragon boat festival next
+year."
+
+"This is dreadful!" old lady Chia exclaimed. "Why, she has really wasted
+more labour on it than would have been actually required to lay out this
+garden!"
+
+With these words still on her lips, she ensconced herself again in the
+bamboo sedan, and closed in or followed by the whole company, she
+repaired to the Lotus Fragrance Arbour, where they got into a narrow
+passage, flanked on the east as well as the west, with doors from which
+they could cross the street. Over these doorways on the inside as well
+as outside were inserted alike tablets made of stone. The door they went
+in by, on this occasion, lay on the west. On the tablet facing outwards,
+were cut out the two words representing: 'Penetrating into the clouds.'
+On that inside, were engraved the two characters meaning: 'crossing to
+the moon.' On their arrival at the hall, they walked in by the main
+entrance, which looked towards the south. Dowager lady Chia then
+alighted from her chair. Hsi Ch'un had already made her appearance out
+of doors to welcome her, so taking the inner covered passage, they
+passed over to the other side and reached Hsi Ch'un's bedroom; on the
+door posts of which figured the three words: 'Warm fragrance isle.'
+Several servants were at once at hand; and no sooner had they raised the
+red woollen portiere, than a soft fragrance wafted itself into their
+faces. The various inmates stepped into the room. Old lady Chia,
+however, did not take a seat, but simply inquired where the painting
+was.
+
+"The weather is so bitterly cold," Hsi Ch'un consequently explained
+smiling, "that the glue, whose property is mainly to coagulate, cannot
+be moistened, so I feared that, were I to have gone on with the
+painting, it wouldn't be worth looking at; and I therefore put it away."
+
+"I must have it by the close of the year," dowager lady Chia laughed,
+"so don't idle your time away. Produce it at once and go on painting for
+me, as quick as you can."
+
+But scarcely had she concluded her remark, than she unexpectedly
+perceived lady Feng arrive, smirking and laughing, with a purple
+pelisse, lined with deer fur, thrown over her shoulders. "Venerable
+senior!" she shouted, "You don't even so much as let any one know
+to-day, but sneak over stealthily. I've had a good hunt for you!"
+
+When old lady Chia saw her join them, she felt filled with delight. "I
+was afraid," she rejoined, "that you'd be feeling cold. That's why, I
+didn't allow any one to tell you. You're really as sharp as a spirit to
+have, at last, been able to trace my whereabouts! But according to
+strict etiquette, you shouldn't show filial piety to such a degree!"
+
+"Is it out of any idea of filial piety that I came after you? Not at
+all!" lady Feng added with a laugh. "But when I got to your place,
+worthy senior, I found everything so quiet that not even the caw of a
+crow could be heard, and when I asked the young maids where you'd gone,
+they wouldn't let me come and search in the garden. So I began to give
+way to surmises. Suddenly also arrived two or three nuns; and then, at
+length, I jumped at the conclusion that these women must have come to
+bring their yearly prayers, or to ask for their annual or incense
+allowance, and that, with the amount of things you also, venerable
+ancestor, have to do for the end of the year, you had for certain got
+out of the way of your debts. Speedily therefore I inquired of the nuns
+what it was that brought them there, and, for a fact, there was no
+mistake in my surmises. So promptly issuing the annual allowances to
+them, I now come to report to you, worthy senior, that your creditors
+have gone, and that there's no need for you to skulk away. But I've had
+some tender pheasant prepared; so please come, and have your evening
+meal; for if you delay any longer, it will get quite stale."
+
+As she spoke, everybody burst out laughing. But lady Feng did not allow
+any time to dowager lady Chia to pass any observations, but forthwith
+directed the servants to bring the chair over. Old lady Chia then
+smilingly laid hold of lady Feng's hand and got again into her chair;
+but she took along with her the whole company of relatives for a chat
+and a laugh.
+
+Upon issuing out of the gate on the east side of the narrow passage, the
+four quarters presented to their gaze the appearance of being adorned
+with powder, and inlaid with silver. Unawares, they caught sight of
+Pao-ch'in, in a duck down cloak, waiting at a distance at the back of
+the hill slope; while behind her stood a maid, holding a vase full of
+red plum blossoms.
+
+"Strange enough," they all exclaimed laughingly, "two of us were
+missing! But she's waiting over there. She's also been after some
+plum-blossom."
+
+"Just look," dowager lady Chia eagerly cried out joyfully, "that human
+creature has been put there to match with the snow-covered hill! But
+with that costume, and the plum-blossom at the back of her, to what does
+she bear a resemblance?"
+
+"She resembles," one and all smiled, "Chou Shih-ch'ou's beautiful snow
+picture, suspended in your apartments, venerable ancestor."
+
+"Is there in that picture any such costume?" Old lady Chia demurred,
+nodding her head and smiling. "What's more the persons represented in it
+could never be so pretty!"
+
+Hardly had this remark dropped from her mouth, than she discerned some
+one else, clad in a deep red woollen cloak, appear to view at the back
+of Pao-ch'in. "What other girl is that?" dowager lady Chia asked.
+
+"We girls are all here." they laughingly answered. "That's Pao-yue."
+
+"My eyes," old lady Chia smiled, "are getting dimmer and dimmer!"
+
+So saying, they drew near, and of course, they turned out to be Pao-yue
+and Pao-ch'in.
+
+"I've just been again to the Lung Ts'ui monastery," Pao-yue smiled to
+Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yue and his other cousins, "and Miao Yue gave me for each
+of you a twig of plum blossom. I've already sent a servant to take them
+over."
+
+"Many thanks for the trouble you've been put to," they, with one voice,
+replied.
+
+But speaking the while, they sallied out of the garden gate, and
+repaired to their grandmother Chia's suite of apartments. Their meal
+over, they joined in a further chat and laugh, when unexpectedly they
+saw Mrs. Hsueeh also arrive.
+
+"With all this snow," she observed, "I haven't been over the whole day
+to see how you, venerable senior, were getting on. Your ladyship
+couldn't have been in a good sort of mood to-day, for you should have
+gone and seen the snow."
+
+"How not in a good mood?" old lady Chia exclaimed. "I went and looked up
+these young ladies and had a romp with them for a time."
+
+"Last night," Mrs. Hsueeh smiled, "I was thinking of getting from our
+Madame Wang to-day the loan of the garden for the nonce and spreading
+two tables with our mean wine, and inviting you, worthy senior, to enjoy
+the snow; but as I saw that you were having a rest, and I heard, at an
+early hour, that Pao-yue had said that you were not in a joyful frame of
+mind, I did not, in consequence, presume to come and disturb you to-day.
+But had I known sooner the real state of affairs, I would have felt it
+my bounden duty to have asked you round."
+
+"This is," rejoined dowager lady Chia with a smile, "only the first fall
+of snow in the tenth moon. We'll have, after this, plenty of snowy days
+so there will be ample time to put your ladyship to wasteful expense."
+
+"Verily in that case," Mrs. Hsueeh laughingly added, "my filial
+intentions may well be looked upon as having been accomplished."
+
+"Mrs. Hsueeh," interposed lady Feng smiling, "mind you don't forget it!
+But you might as well weigh fifty taels this very moment, and hand them
+over to me to keep, until the first fall of snow, when I can get
+everything ready for the banquet. In this way, you will neither have
+anything to bother you, aunt, nor will you have a chance of forgetting."
+
+"Well, since that be so," old lady Chia remarked with a laugh, "your
+ladyship had better give her fifty taels, and I'll share it with her;
+each one of us taking twenty-five taels; and on any day it might snow,
+I'll pretend I don't feel in proper trim and let it slip by. You'll have
+thus still less occasion to trouble yourself, and I and lady Feng will
+reap a substantial benefit."
+
+Lady Feng clapped her hands. "An excellent idea," she laughed. "This
+quite falls in with my views."
+
+The whole company were much amused.
+
+"Pshaw!" dowager lady Chia laughingly ejaculated. "You barefaced thing!
+(You're like a snake, which) avails itself of the rod, with which it is
+being beaten, to crawl up (and do harm)! You don't try to convince us
+that it properly devolves upon us, as Mrs. Hsueeh is our guest and
+receives such poor treatment in our household, to invite her; for with
+what right could we subject her ladyship to any reckless outlay? but you
+have the impudence, of impressing upon our minds to insist upon the
+payment, in advance, of fifty taels! Are you really not thoroughly
+ashamed of yourself?"
+
+"Oh, worthy senior," lady Feng laughed, "you're most sharp-sighted! You
+try to see whether Mrs. Hsueeh will be soft enough to produce fifty taels
+for you to share with me, but fancying now that it's of no avail, you
+turn round and begin to rate me by coming out with all these grand
+words! I won't however take any money from you, Mrs. Hsueeh. I'll, in
+fact, contribute some on your ladyship's account, and when I get the
+banquet ready and invite you, venerable ancestor, to come and partake of
+it, I'll also wrap fifty taels in a piece of paper, and dutifully
+present them to you, as a penalty for my officious interference in
+matters that don't concern me. Will this be all right or not?"
+
+Before these words were brought to a close, the various inmates were so
+convulsed with hearty laughter that they reeled over on the stove-couch.
+
+Dowager lady Chia then went on to explain how much nicer Pao-ch'in was,
+plucking plum blossom in the snow, than the very picture itself; and she
+next minutely inquired what the year, moon, day and hour of her birth
+were, and how things were getting on in her home.
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh conjectured that the object she had in mind was, in all
+probability, to seek a partner for her. In the secret recesses of her
+heart, Mrs. Hsueeh on this account fell in also with her views.
+(Pao-ch'in) had, however, already been promised in marriage to the Mei
+family. But as dowager lady Chia had made, as yet, no open allusion to
+her intentions, (Mrs. Hsueeh) did not think it nice on her part to come
+out with any definite statement, and she accordingly observed to old
+lady Chia in a vague sort of way: "What a pity it is that this girl
+should have had so little good fortune as to lose her father the year
+before last. But ever since her youth up, she has seen much of the
+world, for she has been with her parent to every place of note. Her
+father was a man fond of pleasure; and as he had business in every
+direction, he took his family along with him. After tarrying in this
+province for a whole year, he would next year again go to that province,
+and spend half a year roaming about it everywhere. Hence it is that he
+had visited five or six tenths of the whole empire. The other year, when
+they were here, he engaged her to the son of the Hanlin Mei. But, as it
+happened, her father died the year after, and here is her mother too now
+ailing from a superfluity of phlegm."
+
+Lady Feng gave her no time to complete what she meant to say. "Hai!" she
+exclaimed, stamping her foot. "What you say isn't opportune! I was about
+to act as a go-between. But is she too already engaged?"
+
+"For whom did you mean to act as go-between?" old lady Chia smiled.
+
+"My dear ancestor," lady Feng remarked, "don't concern yourself about
+it! I had determined in my mind that those two would make a suitable
+match. But as she has now long ago been promised to some one, it would
+be of no use, were I even to speak out. Isn't it better that I should
+hold my peace, and drop the whole thing?"
+
+Dowager lady Chia herself was cognizant of lady Feng's purpose, so upon
+hearing that she already had a suitor, she at once desisted from making
+any further reference to the subject. The whole company then continued
+another chat on irrelevant matters for a time, after which, they broke
+up.
+
+Nothing of any interest transpired the whole night. The next day, the
+snowy weather had cleared up. After breakfast, her grandmother Chia
+again pressed Hsi Ch'un. "You should go on," she said, "with your
+painting, irrespective of cold or heat. If you can't absolutely finish
+it by the end of the year, it won't much matter! The main thing is that
+you must at once introduce in it Ch'in Erh and the maid with the plum
+blossom, as we saw them yesterday, in strict accordance with the
+original and without the least discrepancy of so much as a stroke."
+
+Hsi Ch'un listened to her and felt it her duty to signify her assent, in
+spite of the task being no easy one for her to execute.
+
+After a time, a number of her relatives came, in a body, to watch the
+progress of the painting. But they discovered Hsi Ch'un plunged in a
+reverie. "Let's leave her alone," Li Wan smilingly observed to them all,
+"to proceed with her meditations; we can meanwhile have a chat among
+ourselves. Yesterday our worthy senior bade us devise a few
+lantern-conundrums, so when we got home, I and Ch'i Erh and Wen Erh did
+not turn in (but set to work). I composed a couple on the Four Books;
+but those two girls also managed to put together another pair of them."
+
+"We should hear what they're like," they laughingly exclaimed in chorus,
+when they heard what they had done. "Tell them to us first, and let's
+have a guess!"
+
+ "The goddess of mercy has not been handed down by any ancestors."
+
+Li Ch'i smiled. "This refers to a passage in the Four Books."
+
+ "In one's conduct, one must press towards the highest benevolence."
+
+Hsiang-yuen quickly interposed; taking up the thread of the conversation.
+
+"You should ponder over the meaning of the three words implying: 'handed
+down by ancestors'," Pao-ch'ai smiled, "before you venture a guess."
+
+"Think again!" Li Wan urged with a smile.
+
+"I've guessed it!" Tai-yue smiled. "It's:
+
+ "'If, notwithstanding all that benevolence, there be no outward visible
+ sign...'"
+
+"That's the line," one and all unanimously exclaimed with a laugh.
+
+ "'The whole pond is covered with rush.'"
+
+"Now find the name of the rush?" Li Wan proceeded.
+
+"This must certainly be the cat-tail rush!" hastily again replied
+Hsiang-yuen. "Can this not be right?"
+
+"You've succeeded in guessing it," Li Wan smiled. "Li Wen's is:
+
+ "'Cold runs the stream along the stones;'
+
+"bearing on the name of a man of old."
+
+"Can it be Shan T'ao?" T'an Ch'un smilingly asked.
+
+"It is!" answered Li Wan.
+
+"Ch'i Erh's is the character 'Yung' (glow-worm). It refers to a single
+word," Li Wan resumed.
+
+The party endeavoured for a long time to hit upon the solution.
+
+"The meaning of this is certainly deep," Pao-ch'in put in. "I wonder
+whether it's the character, 'hua,' (flower) in the combination, 'hua
+ts'ao, (vegetation)."
+
+"That's just it!" Li Ch'i smiled.
+
+"What has a glow-worm to do with flowers?" one and all observed.
+
+"It's capital!" Tai-yue ventured with a smile. "Isn't a glow-worm
+transformed from plants?"
+
+The company grasped the sense; and, laughing the while, they, with one
+consent, shouted out, "splendid!"
+
+"All these are, I admit, good," Pao-ch'ai remarked, "but they won't suit
+our venerable senior's taste. Won't it be better therefore to compose a
+few on some simple objects; some which all of us, whether polished or
+unpolished, may be able to enjoy?"
+
+"Yes," they all replied, "we should also think of some simple ones on
+ordinary objects."
+
+"I've devised one on the 'Tien Chiang Ch'un' metre," Hsiang-yuen pursued,
+after some reflection. "But it's really on an ordinary object. So try
+and guess it."
+
+Saying this, she forthwith went on to recite:
+
+ The creeks and valleys it leaves;
+ Travelling the world, it performs.
+ In truth how funny it is!
+ But renown and gain are still vain;
+ Ever hard behind it is its fate.
+
+A conundrum.
+
+None of those present could fathom what it could be. After protracted
+thought, some made a guess, by saying it was a bonze. Others maintained
+that it was a Taoist priest. Others again divined that it was a
+marionette.
+
+"All your guesses are wrong," Pao-yue chimed in, after considerable
+reflection. "I've got it! It must for a certainty be a performing
+monkey."
+
+"That's really it!" Hsiang-yuen laughed.
+
+"The first part is all right," the party observed, "but how do you
+explain the last line?"
+
+"What performing monkey," Hsiang-yuen asked, "has not had its tail cut
+off?"
+
+Hearing this, they exploded into a fit of merriment. "Even," they
+argued, "the very riddles she improvises are perverse and strange!"
+
+"Mrs. Hsueeh mentioned yesterday that you, cousin Ch'in, had seen much of
+the world," Li Wan put in, "and that you had also gone about a good
+deal. It's for you therefore to try your hand at a few conundrums.
+What's more your poetry too is good. So why shouldn't you indite a few
+for us to guess?"
+
+Pao-ch'in, at this proposal, nodded her head, and while repressing a
+smile, she went off by herself to give way to thought.
+
+Pao-ch'ai then also gave out this riddle:
+
+ Carved sandal and cut cedar rise layer upon layer.
+ Have they been piled and fashioned by workmen of skill!
+ In the mid-heavens it's true, both wind and rain fleet by;
+ But can one hear the tingling of the Buddhists' bell?
+
+While they were giving their mind to guessing what it could be, Pao-yue
+too recited:
+
+ Both from the heavens and from the earth, it's indistinct to view.
+ What time the 'Lang Ya' feast goes past, then mind you take great
+ care.
+ When the 'luan's' notes you catch and the crane's message thou'lt look
+ up:
+ It is a splendid thing to turn and breathe towards the vault of
+ heaven, (a kite)
+
+Tai-yue next added:
+
+ Why need a famous steed be a with bridle e'er restrained?
+ Through the city it speeds; the moat it skirts; how fierce it looks.
+ The master gives the word and wind and clouds begin to move.
+ On the 'fish backs' and the 'three isles' it only makes a name, (a
+ rotating lantern).
+
+T'an Ch'un had also one that she felt disposed to tell them, but just as
+she was about to open her lips, Pao-ch'in walked up to them. "The relics
+of various places I've seen since my youth," she smiled, "are not few,
+so I've now selected ten places of historic interest, on which I've
+composed ten odes, treating of antiquities. The verses may possibly be
+coarse, but they bear upon things of the past, and secretly refer as
+well to ten commonplace articles. So, cousins, please try and guess
+them!"
+
+"This is ingenious!" they exclaimed in chorus, when they heard the
+result of her labour. "Why not write them out, and let us have a look at
+them?"
+
+But, reader, peruse the next chapter, if you want to learn what follows.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+ The young maiden Hsueeh Pao-ch'in devises, in novel style, odes bearing
+ on antiquities.
+ A stupid doctor employs, in reckless manner, drugs of great strength.
+
+
+When the party heard, the story goes, that Pao-ch'in had made the old
+places of interest she had, in days gone by, visited in the various
+provinces, the theme of her verses, and that she had composed ten
+stanzas with four lines in each, which though referring to relics of
+antiquity, bore covertly on ten common objects, they all opined that
+they must be novel and ingenious, and they vied with each other in
+examining the text. On perusal, they read:
+
+On the relics of Ch'ih Pi:
+
+ Deep in Ch'ih Pi doth water lie concealed which does not onward flow.
+ There but remains a name and surname contained in an empty boat.
+ When with a clamorous din the fire breaks out, the sad wind waxes
+ cold.
+ An endless host of eminent spirits wander about inside.
+
+On the ancient remains in Chiao Chih:
+
+ Posts of copper and walls of gold protect the capital.
+ Its fame is spread beyond the seas, scattered in foreign lands.
+ How true it is that Ma Yuean's achievements have been great.
+ The flute of iron need not trouble to sing of Tzu Fang.
+
+On the vestiges of former times in Chung Shan:
+
+ Renown and gain do they, at any time, fall to a woman's share?
+ For no reason have I been bidden come into the mortal world.
+ How hard a task, in point of fact, it is to stop solicitude!
+ Don't bear a grudge against such people as may oft times jeer at you!
+
+On things of historic interest in Huai Yin:
+
+ The sturdy man must ever mind the insults of the vicious dog.
+ Th' official's rank in San Ch'i was but fixed when his coffin was
+ closed
+ Tell all people that upon earth do dwell to look down upon none.
+ The bounty of one single bowl of rice should be treasured till death.
+
+On events of old in Kuang Lin:
+
+ Cicadas chirp; crows roost; but, in a twinkle, they are gone.
+ How fares these latter days the scenery in Sui T'i?
+ It's all because he has so long enjoyed so fine a fame,
+ That he has given rise around to so many disputes.
+
+On the ancient remains of the T'ao Yeh ferry:
+
+ Dry grass and parched plants their reflex cast upon the shallow pond.
+ The peach tree branches and peach leaves will bid farewell at last.
+ What a large number of structures in Liu Ch'ao raise their heads.
+ A small picture with a motto hangs on the hollow wall.
+
+On the antique vestiges of Ch'ing Chung:
+
+ The black stream stretches far and wide, but hindered is its course.
+ What time were no more thrummed the frozen cords, the songs waxed sad.
+ The policy of the Han dynasty was in truth strange!
+ A worthless officer must for a thousand years feel shame.
+
+On things of historic renown in Ma Wei:
+
+ Quiet the spots of rouge with sweat pile up and shine.
+ Gentleness in a moment vanishes and goes.
+ It is because traces remain of his fine looks,
+ That to this day his clothes a fragrance still emit.
+
+On events of the past connected with the Pu Tung temple:
+
+ The small red lamp is wholly made of thin bone, and is light.
+ Furtively was it brought along but by force was it stol'n.
+ Oft was it, it is true, hung by the mistress' own hands,
+ But long ere this has she allured it to speed off with her.
+
+On the scenery about the Mei Hua (Plum Bloom) monastery.
+
+ If not by the plum trees, then by the willows it must be.
+ Has any one picked up in there the likeness of a girl?
+ Don't fret about meeting again; in spring its scent returns.
+ Soon as it's gone, and west winds blow, another year has flown.
+
+When the party had done reading the verses, they with perfect unanimity
+extolled their extraordinary excellence. Pao-ch'ai was, however, the
+first to raise any objections. "The first eight stanzas," she said, "are
+founded upon the testimony of the historical works. But as for the last
+two stanzas, there's no knowing where they come from. Besides, we don't
+quite fathom their meaning. Wouldn't it be better then if two other
+stanzas were written?"
+
+Tai-yue hastened to interrupt her. "The lines composed by cousin Pao
+ch'in are indeed devised in a too pigheaded and fast-and-loose sort of
+way," she observed. "The two stanzas are, I admit, not to be traced in
+the historical works, but though we've never read such outside
+traditions, and haven't any idea what lies at the bottom of them, have
+we not likely seen a couple of plays? What child of three years old
+hasn't some notion about them, and how much more such as we?"
+
+"What she says is perfectly correct," T'an Ch'un chimed in.
+
+"She has besides," Li Wan then remarked, "been to these places herself.
+But though there be no mention anywhere of these two references,
+falsehoods have from old till now been propagated, and busybodies have,
+in fact, intentionally invented such relics of ancient times with a view
+of bamboozling people. That year, for instance, in which we travelled up
+here to the capital, we came across graves raised to Kuan, the sage, in
+three or four distinct places. Now the circumstances of the whole
+existence of Kuan the sage are established by actual proof, so how could
+there again in his case exist a lot of graves? This must arise from the
+esteem in which he is held by posterity for the way he acquitted himself
+of his duties during his lifetime. And it is presumably to this esteem
+that this fiction owes its origin. This is quite possible enough. Even
+in the 'Kuang Yue Chi', you will see that not only are numerous tombs of
+the sage Kuan spoken of, but that bygone persons of note are assigned
+tombs not few in number. But there are many more relics of antiquity,
+about which no testimony can be gathered. The matter treated in the two
+stanzas, now in point, is, of course, not borne out by any actual
+record; yet in every story, that is told, in every play, that is sung,
+and on the various slips as well used for fortune telling, it is
+invariably to be found. Old and young, men and women, do all understand
+it and speak of it, whether in proverbs or in their everyday talk. They
+don't resemble, besides, the ballads encountered in the 'Hsi Hsiang
+Chi,' and 'Mou Tan T'ing,' to justify us to fear that we might be
+setting eyes upon some corrupt text. They are quite harmless; so we'd
+better keep them!"
+
+Pao-ch'ai, after these arguments, dropped at length all discussion. They
+thereupon tried for a time to guess the stanzas. None, however, of their
+solutions turned out to be correct. But as the days in winter are short,
+and they saw that it was time for their evening meal, they adjourned to
+the front part of the compound for their supper.
+
+The servants at this stage announced to Madame Wang that Hsi Jen's elder
+brother, Hua Tzu-fang, was outside, and reported to her that he had
+entered the city to say that his mother was lying in bed dangerously
+ill, and that she was so longing to see her daughter that he had come to
+beg for the favour of taking Hsi Jen home on a visit. As soon as Madame
+Wang heard the news, she dilated for a while upon people's mothers and
+daughters, and of course she did not withhold her consent. Sending
+therefore at the same time for lady Feng, she communicated the tidings
+to her, and enjoined her to deliberate, and take suitable action.
+
+Lady Feng signified her willingness to do what was necessary, and,
+returning to her quarters, she there and then commissioned Chou Jui's
+wife to go and break the news to Hsi Jen. "Send also," she went on to
+direct Mrs. Chou, "for one of the married-women, who are in attendance
+when we go out-of-doors, and let you two, together with a couple of
+young maids, follow Hsi Jen home. But despatch four cart attendants,
+well up in years, to look everywhere for a spacious curricle for you as
+well as her, and a small carriage for the maids."
+
+"All right!" acquiesced Chou Jui's wife. But just as she was about to
+start, lady Feng continued her injunctions. "Hsi Jen," she added; "is a
+person not fond of any fuss, so tell her that it's I who have given the
+orders; and impress upon her that she must put on several nice, coloured
+clothes, and pack up a large valise full of wearing apparel. Her valise,
+must be a handsome one; and she must take a decent hand-stove. Bid her
+too first come and look me up here when she's about to start."
+
+Mrs. Chou promised to execute her directions and went on her way.
+
+After a long interval, (lady Feng) actually saw Hsi Jen arrive, got up
+in full costume and head-gear, and with her two waiting-maids and Chou
+Jui's wife, who carried the hand-stove and the valise packed up with
+clothes. Lady Feng's eye was attracted by several golden hairpins and
+pearl ornaments of great brilliancy and beauty, which Hsi Jen wore in
+her coiffure. Her gaze was further struck by the peach-red stiff silk
+jacket she had on, brocaded with all sorts of flowers and lined with
+ermine, by her leek-green wadded jupe, artistically ornamented with
+coils of gold thread, and by the bluish satin and grey squirrel pelisse
+she was wrapped in.
+
+"These three articles of clothing, given to you by our dowager lady,"
+lady Feng smiled, "are all very nice; but this pelisse is somewhat too
+plain. If you wear this, you'll besides feel cold, so put on one with
+long fur."
+
+"Our Madame Wang," Hsi Jen laughingly rejoined, "gave me this one with
+the grey squirrel. I've also got one with ermine. She says that when the
+end of the year draws nigh, she'll let me have one with long fur."
+
+"I've got one with long fur," lady Feng proceeded with a smile. "I don't
+fancy it much as the fringe does not hang with grace. I was on the point
+of having it changed; but, never mind, I'll let you first use it; and,
+when at the close of the year, Madame Wang has one made for you, I can
+then have mine altered, and it will come to the same thing as if you
+were returning it like that to me."
+
+One and all laughed. "That's the way of talking into which her ladyship
+has got!" they observed. "There she is the whole year round recklessly
+carelessly and secretly making good, on Madame Wang's account, ever so
+many things; how many there is no saying; for really the things for
+which compensation is made, cannot be so much as enumerated; and does
+she ever go, and settle scores with Madame Wang? and here she comes, on
+this occasion, and gives vent again to this mean language, in order to
+poke fun at people!"
+
+"How could Madame Wang," lady Feng laughed, "ever give a thought to such
+trifles as these? They are, in fact, matters of no consequence. Yet were
+I not to look after them, it would be a disgrace to all of us, and
+needless to say, I would myself get into some scrape. It's far better
+that I should dress you all properly, and so get a fair name and finish;
+for were each of you to cut the figure of a burnt cake, people would
+first and foremost ridicule me, by saying that in looking after the
+household I have, instead of doing good, been the means of making
+beggars of you!"
+
+After hearing her out, the whole party heaved a sigh. "Who could ever
+be," they exclaimed, "so intuitively wise as you, to show, above, such
+regard for Madame Wang, and below, such consideration for her
+subordinates?"
+
+In the course of these remarks, they noticed lady Feng bid P'ing Erh
+find the dark green stiff silk cloak with white fox, she had worn the
+day before, and give it to Hsi Jen. But perceiving, also, that in the
+way of a valise, she only had a double one made of black spotted,
+figured sarcenet, with a lining of light red pongee silk, and that its
+contents consisted merely of two wadded jackets, the worse for wear, and
+a pelisse, lady Feng went on to tell P'ing Erh to fetch a woollen
+wrapper, lined with jade-green pongee. But she ordered her besides to
+pack up a snow-cloak for her.
+
+P'ing Erh walked away and produced the articles. The one was made of
+deep-red felt, and was old. The other was of deep-red soft satin,
+neither old nor new.
+
+"I don't deserve so much as a single one of these," Hsi Jen said.
+
+"Keep this felt one for yourself," P'ing Erh smiled, "and take this one
+along with you and tell some one to send it to that elderly girl, who
+while every one, in that heavy fall of snow yesterday, was rolled up in
+soft satin, if not in felt, and while about ten dark red dresses were
+reflected in the deep snow and presented such a fine sight, was the only
+one attired in those shabby old clothes. She seems more than ever to
+raise her shoulders and double her back. She is really to be pitied; so
+take this now and give it to her!"
+
+"She surreptitiously wishes to give my things away!" lady Feng laughed.
+"I haven't got enough to spend upon myself and here I have you, better
+still, to instigate me to be more open-handed!"
+
+"This comes from the filial piety your ladyship has ever displayed
+towards Madame Wang," every one laughingly remarked, "and the fond love
+for those below you. For had you been mean and only thought of making
+much of things and not cared a rap for your subordinates, would that
+girl have presumed to behave in this manner?"
+
+"If any one therefore has read my heart, it's she," lady Feng rejoined
+with a laugh, "but yet she only knows it in part."
+
+At the close of this rejoinder, she again spoke to Hsi Jen. "If your
+mother gets well, all right," she said; "but if anything happens to her,
+just stay over, and send some one to let me know so that I may specially
+despatch a servant to bring you your bedding. But whatever you do,
+don't, use their bedding, nor any of their things to comb your hair
+with. As for you people," continuing, she observed to Mrs. Chou Jui,
+"you no doubt are aware of the customs, prevailing in this
+establishment, so that I can dispense with giving you any injunctions."
+
+"Yes, we know them all," Mrs. Chou Jui assented. "As soon as we get
+there, we'll, of course, request their male inmates to retire out of the
+way. And in the event of our having to stay over, we'll naturally apply
+for one or two extra inner rooms."
+
+With these words still on her lips, she followed Hsi Jen out of the
+apartment. Then directing the servant-boys to prepare the lanterns,
+they, in due course, got into their curricle, and came to Hua Tzu-fang's
+quarters, where we will leave them without any further comment.
+
+Lady Feng, meanwhile, sent also for two nurses from the I Hung court. "I
+am afraid," she said to them, "that Hsi Jen won't come back, so if there
+be any elderly girl, who has to your knowledge, so far, had her wits
+about her, depute her to come and keep night watch in Pao-yue's rooms.
+But you nurses must likewise take care and exercise some control, for
+you mustn't let Pao-yue recklessly kick up any trouble!"
+
+"Quite so," answered the two nurses, agreeing to her directions, after
+which, they quitted her presence. But not a long interval expired before
+they came to report the result of their search. "We've set our choice
+upon Ch'ing Wen and She Yueeh to put up in his rooms," they reported. "We
+four will take our turn and look after things during the night."
+
+When lady Feng heard these arrangements, she nodded her head. "At
+night," she observed, "urge him to retire to bed soon; and in the
+morning press him to get up at an early hour."
+
+The nurses replied that they would readily carry out her orders and
+returned alone into the garden.
+
+In a little time Chou Jui's wife actually brought the news, which she
+imparted to lady Feng, that: "as her mother was already beyond hope, Hsi
+Jen could not come back."
+
+Lady Feng then explained things to Madame Wang, and sent, at the same
+time, servants to the garden of Broad Vista to fetch (Hsi Jen's) bedding
+and toilet effects.
+
+Pao-yue watched Ch'ing Wen and She Yueeh get all her belongings in proper
+order. After the things had been despatched, Ch'ing Wen and She Yueeh
+divested themselves of their remaining fineries and changed their jupes
+and jackets. Ch'ing Wen seated herself round a warming-frame.
+
+"Now," She Yueeh smiled, "you're not to put on the airs of a young lady!
+I advise you to also move about a bit."
+
+"When you're all clean gone," Ch'ing Wen returned for answer, "I shall
+have ample time to budge. But every day that you people are here, I
+shall try and enjoy peace and quiet."
+
+"My dear girl," She Yueeh laughed, "I'll make the bed, but drop the cover
+over that cheval-glass and put the catches right; you are so much taller
+than I."
+
+So saying, she at once set to work to arrange the bed for Pao-yue.
+
+"Hai!" ejaculated Ch'ing Wen smiling, "one just sits down to warm one's
+self, and here you come and disturb one!"
+
+Pao-yue had at this time been sitting, plunged in a despondent mood. The
+thought of Hsi Jen's mother had crossed through his mind and he was
+wondering whether she could be dead or alive, when unexpectedly
+overhearing Ch'ing Wen pass the remarks she did, he speedily sprung up,
+and came out himself and dropped the cover of the glass, and fastened
+the contrivance, after which he walked into the room. "Warm yourselves,"
+he smiled, "I've done all there was to be done."
+
+"I can't manage," Ch'ing Wen rejoined smiling, "to get warm at all. It
+just also strikes me that the warming-pan hasn't yet been brought."
+
+"You've had the trouble to think of it!" She Yueeh observed. "But you've
+never wanted a chafing-dish before. It's so warm besides on that
+warming-frame of ours; not like the stove-couch in that room, which is
+so cold; so we can very well do without it to-day."
+
+"If both of you are to sleep on that," Pao-yue smiled, "there won't be a
+soul with me outside, and I shall be in an awful funk. Even you won't be
+able to have a wink of sleep during the whole night!"
+
+"As far as I'm concerned," Ch'ing Wen put in, "I'm going to sleep in
+here. There's She Yueeh, so you'd better induce her to come and sleep
+outside."
+
+But while they kept up this conversation, the first watch drew near, and
+She Yueeh at once lowered the mosquito-curtain, removed the lamp, burnt
+the joss-sticks, and waited upon Pao-yue until he got into bed. The two
+maids then retired to rest. Ch'ing Wen reclined all alone on the
+warming-frame, while She Yueeh lay down outside the winter apartments.
+
+The third watch had come and gone, when Pao-yue, in the midst of a dream,
+started calling Hsi Jen. He uttered her name twice, but no one was about
+to answer him. And it was after he had stirred himself out of sleep that
+he eventually recalled to mind that Hsi Jen was not at home, and he had
+a hearty fit laughter to himself.
+
+Ch'ing Wen however had been roused out of her sleep, and she called She
+Yueeh. "Even I," she said, "have been disturbed, fast asleep though I
+was; and, lo, she keeps a look-out by his very side and doesn't as yet
+know anything about his cries! In very deed she is like a stiff corpse!"
+
+She Yueeh twisted herself round and yawned. "He calls Hsi Jen," she
+smilingly rejoined, "so what's that to do with me? What do you want?"
+proceeding, she then inquired of him.
+
+"I want some tea," Pao-yue replied.
+
+She Yueeh hastily jumped out of bed, with nothing on but a short wadded
+coat of red silk.
+
+"Throw my pelisse over you;" Pao-yue cried; "for mind it's cold!"
+
+She Yueeh at these words put back her hands, and, taking the warm
+pelisse, lined even up to the lapel, with fur from the neck of the
+sable, which Pao-yue had put on on getting up, she threw it over her
+shoulders and went below and washed her hands in the basin. Then filling
+first a cup with tepid water, she brought a large cuspidor for Pao-yue to
+wash his mouth. Afterwards, she drew near the tea-case, and getting a
+cup, she first rinsed it with lukewarm water, and pouring half a cup of
+tea from the warm teapot, she handed it to Pao-yue. After he had done,
+she herself rinsed her mouth, and swallowed half a cupful of tea.
+
+"My dear girl," Ch'ing Wen interposed smiling, "do give me also a sip."
+
+"You put on more airs than ever," She Yueeh laughed.
+
+"My dear girl;" Ch'ing Wen added, "to-morrow night, you needn't budge;
+I'll wait on you the whole night long. What do you say to that?"
+
+Hearing this, She Yueeh had no help but to attend to her as well, while
+she washed her mouth, and to pour a cup of tea and give it to her to
+drink.
+
+"Won't you two go to sleep," She Yueeh laughed, "but keep on chatting?
+I'll go out for a time; I'll be back soon."
+
+"Are there any evil spirits waiting for you outside?" Ch'ing Wen smiled.
+
+"It's sure to be bright moonlight out of doors," Pao-yue observed, "so
+go, while we continue our chat."
+
+So speaking, he coughed twice.
+
+She Yueeh opened the back-door, and raising the woollen portiere and
+looking out, she saw what a beautiful moonlight there really was.
+
+Ch'ing Wen allowed her just time enough to leave the room, when she felt
+a wish to frighten her for the sake of fun. But such reliance did she
+have in her physique, which had so far proved better than that of
+others, that little worrying her mind about the cold, she did not even
+throw a cloak over her, but putting on a short jacket, she descended,
+with gentle tread and light step, from the warming-frame and was making
+her way out to follow in her wake, when "Hallo!" cried Pao-yue warning
+her. "It's freezing; it's no joke!"
+
+Ch'ing Wen merely responded with a wave of the hand and sallied out of
+the door to go in pursuit of her companion. The brilliancy of the moon,
+which met her eye, was as limpid as water. But suddenly came a slight
+gust of wind. She felt it penetrate her very flesh and bore through her
+bones. So much so, that she could not help shuddering all over. "Little
+wonder is it," she argued within herself, "if people say 'that one
+mustn't, when one's body is warm, expose one's self to the wind.' This
+cold is really dreadful!" She was at the same time just on the point of
+giving (She Yueeh) a start, when she heard Pao-yue shout from inside,
+"Ch'ing Wen has come out."
+
+Ch'ing Wen promptly turned back and entered the room. "How could I ever
+frighten her to death?" she laughed. "It's just your way; you're as
+great a coward as an old woman!"
+
+"It isn't at all that you might do her harm by frightening her," Pao-yue
+smiled, "but, in the first place, it wouldn't be good for you to get
+frost-bitten; and, in the second, you would take her so much off her
+guard that she won't be able to prevent herself from uttering a shout.
+So, in the event of rousing any of the others out of their sleep, they
+won't say that we are up to jokes, but maintain instead that just as Hsi
+Jen is gone, you two behave as if you'd come across ghosts or seen evil
+spirits. Come and tuck in the coverlets on this side!"
+
+When Ch'ing Wen heard what he wanted done she came accordingly and
+tucked in the covers, and, putting out her hands, she inserted them
+under them, and set to work to warm the bedding.
+
+"How cold your hand is!" Pao-yue laughingly exclaimed. "I told you to
+look out or you'd freeze!"
+
+Noticing at the same time that Ch'ing Wen's cheeks were as red as rouge,
+he rubbed them with his hands. But as they felt icy cold to his touch,
+"Come at once under the cover and warm yourself!" Pao-yue urged.
+
+Hardly, however, had he concluded these words, than a sound of 'lo teng'
+reached their ears from the door, and She Yueeh rushed in all in a
+tremor, laughing the while.
+
+"I've had such a fright," she smiled, as she went on speaking. "Goodness
+me! I saw in the black shade, at the back of the boulders on that hill,
+some one squatting, and was about to scream, when it turned out to be
+nothing else than that big golden pheasant. As soon as it caught sight
+of a human being, it flew away. But it was only when it reached a
+moonlit place that I at last found out what it was. Had I been so
+heedless as to scream, I would have been the means of getting people out
+of their beds!"
+
+Recounting her experiences, she washed her hands.
+
+"Ch'ing Wen, you say, has gone out," she proceeded laughing, "but how is
+it I never caught a glimpse of her? She must certainly have gone to
+frighten me!"
+
+"Isn't this she?" Pao-yue inquired with a smile. "Is she not here warming
+herself? Had I not been quick in shouting, she would verily have given
+you a fright."
+
+"There was no need for me to go and frighten her," Ch'ing Wen laughingly
+observed. "This hussy has frightened her own self."
+
+With these words she ensconced herself again under her own coverlet.
+"Did you forsooth go out," She Yueeh remarked, "in this smart dress of a
+circus-performer?"
+
+"Why, of course, she went out like this!" Pao-yue smiled.
+
+"You wouldn't know, for the life of you, how to choose a felicitous
+day!" She Yueeh added. "There you go and stand about on a fruitless
+errand. Won't your skin get chapped from the frost?"
+
+Saying this, she again raised the copper cover from the brasier, and,
+picking up the shovel, she buried the live charcoal deep with ashes, and
+taking two bits of incense of Cambodia fragrant wood, she threw them
+over them. She then re-covered the brasier, and repairing to the back of
+the screen, she gave the lamp a thorough trimming to make it throw out
+more light; after which, she once more laid herself down.
+
+As Ch'ing Wen had some time before felt cold, and now began to get warm
+again, she unexpectedly sneezed a couple of times.
+
+"How about that?" sighed Pao-yue. "There you are; you've after all caught
+a chill!"
+
+"Early this morning," She Yueeh smiled, "she shouted that she wasn't
+feeling quite herself. Neither did she have the whole day a proper bowl
+of food. And now, not to speak of her taking so little care of herself,
+she is still bent upon playing larks upon people! But if she falls ill
+by and bye, we'll let her suffer what she will have brought upon
+herself."
+
+"Is your head hot?" Pao-yue asked.
+
+"It's nothing at all!" Ch'ing Wen rejoined, after coughing twice. "When
+did I get so delicate?"
+
+But while she spoke, they heard the striking clock, suspended on the
+partition wall in the outer rooms, give two sounds of 'tang, tang,' and
+the matron, on the night watch outside, say: "Now, young girls, go to
+sleep. To-morrow will be time enough for you to chat and laugh!"
+
+"Don't let's talk!" Pao-yue then whispered, "for, mind, we'll also induce
+them to start chattering." After this, they at last went to sleep.
+
+The next day, they got up at an early hour. Ch'ing Wen's nose was indeed
+considerably stopped. Her voice was hoarse; and she felt no inclination
+to move.
+
+"Be quick," urged Pao-yue, "and don't make a fuss, for your mistress, my
+mother, may come to know of it, and bid you also shift to your house and
+nurse yourself. Your home might, of course, be all very nice, but it's
+in fact somewhat cold. So isn't it better here? Go and lie down in the
+inner rooms, and I'll give orders to some one to send for the doctor to
+come quietly by the back door and have a look at you. You'll then get
+all right again."
+
+"In spite of what you say," Ch'ing Wen demurred, "you must really say
+something about it to our senior lady, Mrs. Chia Chu; otherwise the
+doctor will be coming unawares, and people will begin to ask questions;
+and what answer could one give them?"
+
+Pao-yue found what she said so full of reason that he called an old
+nurse. "Go and deliver this message to your senior mistress," he
+enjoined her. "Tell her that Ch'ing Wen got a slight chill yesterday.
+That as it's nothing to speak of, and Hsi Jen is besides away, there
+would be, more than ever, no one here to look after things, were she to
+go home and attend to herself, so let her send for a doctor to come
+quietly by the back entrance and see what's the matter with her; but
+don't let her breathe a word about it to Madame Wang, my mother."
+
+The old nurse was away a considerable time on the errand. On her return,
+"Our senior mistress," she reported, "has been told everything. She says
+that: 'if she gets all right, after taking a couple of doses of
+medicine, it will be well and good. But that in the event of not
+recovering, it would, really, be the right thing for her to go to her
+own home. That the season isn't healthy at present, and that if the
+other girls caught her complaint it would be a small thing; but that the
+good health of the young ladies is a vital matter.'"
+
+Ch'ing Wen was lying in the winter apartment, coughing and coughing,
+when overhearing (Li Wan's) answer, she lost control over her temper.
+"Have I got such a dreadful epidemic," she said, "that she fears that I
+shall bring it upon others? I'll clear off at once from this place; for
+mind you don't get any headaches and hot heads during the course of your
+lives."
+
+"While uttering her grievances, she was bent upon getting up
+immediately, when Pao-yue hastened to smile and to press her down.
+
+"Don't lose your temper," he advised her. "This is a responsibility
+which falls upon her shoulders, so she is afraid lest Madame Wang might
+come to hear of it, and call her to task. She only made a harmless
+remark. But you've always been prone to anger, and now, as a matter of
+course your spleen is larger than ever."
+
+But in the middle of his advice to her, a servant came and told him that
+the doctor had arrived. Pao-yue accordingly crossed over to the off side,
+and retired behind the bookcase; from whence he perceived two or three
+matrons, whose duty it was to keep watch at the back door, usher the
+doctor in.
+
+The waiting-maids, meanwhile, withdrew out of the way. Three or four old
+nurses dropped the deep-red embroidered curtain, suspended in the winter
+apartment. Ch'ing Wen then simply stretched out her hand from among the
+folds of the curtain. But the doctor noticed that on two of the fingers
+of her hand, the nails, which measured fully two or three inches in
+length, still bore marks of the pure red dye from the China balsam, and
+forthwith he turned his head away. An old nurse speedily fetched a towel
+and wiped them for her, when the doctor set to work and felt her pulse
+for a while, after which he rose and walked into the outer chamber.
+
+"Your young lady's illness," he said to the old nurses, "arises from
+external sources, and internal obstructive influences, caused by the
+unhealthiness of the season of late. Yet it's only a slight chill, after
+all. Fortunately, the young lady has ever been moderate in her drinking
+and eating. The cold she has is nothing much. It's mainly because she
+has a weak constitution that she has unawares got a bit of a chill. But
+if she takes a couple of doses of medicine to dispel it with, she'll be
+quite right."
+
+So saying, he followed once more the matron out of the house.
+
+Li Wan had, by this time, sent word to the various female domestics at
+the back entrance, as well as to the young maids in the different parts
+of the establishment to keep in retirement. All therefore that the
+doctor perceived as he went along was the scenery in the garden. But not
+a single girl did he see.
+
+Shortly, he made his exit out of the garden gate, and taking a seat in
+the duty-lodge of the servant-lads, who looked after the
+garden-entrance, he wrote a prescription.
+
+"Sir," urged an old nurse, "don't go yet. Our young master is fretful
+and there may be, I fancy, something more to ask you."
+
+"Wasn't the one I saw just now a young lady," the doctor exclaimed with
+eagerness, "but a young man, eh? Yet the rooms were such as are occupied
+by ladies. The curtains were besides let down. So how could the patient
+I saw have ever been a young man?"
+
+"My dear sir," laughed the old nurse, "it isn't strange that a
+servant-girl said just now that a new doctor had been sent for on this
+occasion, for you really know nothing about our family matters. That
+room is that of our young master, and that is a girl attached to the
+apartments; but she's really a servant-maid. How ever were those a young
+lady's rooms? Had a young lady fallen ill, would you ever have
+penetrated inside with such ease?"
+
+With these words, she took the prescription and wended her way into the
+garden.
+
+When Pao-yue came to peruse it, he found, above, such medicines mentioned
+as sweet basil, platycodon, carraway seeds, mosla dianthera, and the
+like; and, below, citrus fusca and sida as well.
+
+"He deserves to be hanged! He deserves death!" Pao-yue shouted. "Here he
+treats girls in the very same way as he would us men! How could this
+ever do? No matter what internal obstruction there may be, how could she
+ever stand citrus and sida? Who asked him to come? Bundle him off at
+once; and send for another, who knows what he's about."
+
+"Whether he uses the right medicines or not," the old nurse pleaded, "we
+are not in a position to know. But we'll now tell a servant-lad to go
+and ask Dr. Wang round. It's easy enough! The only thing is that as this
+doctor wasn't sent for through the head manager's office his fee must be
+paid to him."
+
+"How much must one give him?" Pao-yue inquired.
+
+"Were one to give him too little, it wouldn't look nice," a matron
+ventured. "He should be given a tael. This would be quite the thing with
+such a household as ours."
+
+"When Dr. Wang comes," Pao-yue asked, "how much is he given?"
+
+"Whenever Dr. Wang and Dr. Chang come," a matron smilingly explained,
+"no money is ever given them. At the four seasons of each year however
+presents are simply sent to them in a lump. This is a fixed annual
+custom. But this new doctor has come only this once so he should be
+given a tael."
+
+After this explanation, Pao-yue readily bade She Yueeh go and fetch the
+money.
+
+"I can't make out where sister Hua put it;" She Yueeh rejoined.
+
+"I've often seen her take money out of that lacquered press, ornamented
+with designs made with shells;" Pao-yue added; "so come along with me,
+and let's go and search."
+
+As he spoke, he and She Yueeh came together into what was used as a
+store-room by Hsi Jen. Upon opening the shell-covered press, they found
+the top shelf full of pens, pieces of ink, fans, scented cakes, various
+kinds of purses, handkerchiefs and other like articles, while on the
+lower shelf were piled several strings of cash. But, presently they
+pulled out the drawer, when they saw, in a small wicker basket, several
+pieces of silver, and a steelyard.
+
+She Yueeh quickly snatched a piece of silver. Then raising the steelyard,
+"Which is the one tael mark?" she asked.
+
+Pao-yue laughed. "It's amusing that you should appeal to me!" he said.
+"You really behave as if you had only just come!"
+
+She Yueeh also laughed, and was about to go and make inquiries of some
+one else, when Pao-yue interfered. "Choose a piece out of those big ones
+and give it to him, and have done," he said. "We don't go in for buying
+and selling, so what's the use of minding such trifles!"
+
+She Yueeh, upon hearing this, dropped the steelyard, and selected a
+piece, which she weighed in her hand. "This piece," she smiled, "must, I
+fancy, be a tael. But it would be better to let him have a little more.
+Don't let's give too little as those poor brats will have a laugh at our
+expense. They won't say that we know nothing about the steelyard; but
+that we are designedly mean."
+
+A matron who stood at the threshold of the door, smilingly chimed in.
+"This ingot," she said, "weighs five taels. Even if you cut half of it
+off, it will weigh a couple of taels, at least. But there are no sycee
+shears at hand, so, miss, put this piece aside and choose a smaller
+one."
+
+She Yueeh had already closed the press and walked out. "Who'll go and
+fumble about again?" she laughed. "If there's a little more, well, you
+take it and finish."
+
+"Be quick," Pao-yue remarked, "and tell Pei Ming to go for another
+doctor. It will be all right."
+
+The matron received the money and marched off to go and settle matters.
+
+Presently, Dr. Wang actually arrived, at the invitation of Pei Ming.
+First and foremost he felt the pulse and then gave the same diagnosis of
+the complaint (as the other doctor did) in the first instance. The only
+difference being that there was, in fact, no citrus or sida or other
+similar drugs, included in the prescription. It contained, however,
+false sarsaparilla roots, dried orange peel, peonia albifora, and other
+similar medicines. But the quantities were, on the other hand,
+considerably smaller, as compared with those of the drugs mentioned in
+the former prescription.
+
+"These are the medicines," Pao-yue ejaculated exultingly, "suitable for
+girls! They should, it's true, be of a laxative nature, but never over
+and above what's needful. When I fell ill last year, I suffered from a
+chill, but I got such an obstruction in the viscera that I could neither
+take anything liquid or substantial, yet though he saw the state I was
+in, he said that I couldn't stand sida, ground gypsum, citrus and other
+such violent drugs. You and I resemble the newly-opened white begonia,
+Yuen Erh sent me in autumn. And how could you resist medicines which are
+too much for me? We're like the lofty aspen trees, which grow in
+people's burial grounds. To look at, the branches and leaves are of
+luxuriant growth, but they are hollow at the core."
+
+"Do only aspen trees grow in waste burial grounds?" She Yueeh smiled. "Is
+it likely, pray, that there are no fir and cypress trees? What's more
+loathsome than any other is the aspen. For though a lofty tree, it only
+has a few leaves; and it makes quite a confused noise with the slightest
+puff of wind! If you therefore deliberately compare yourself to it,
+you'll also be ranging yourself too much among the common herd!"
+
+"I daren't liken myself to fir or cypress;" Pao-yue laughingly retorted.
+"Even Confucius says: 'after the season waxes cold, one finds that the
+fir and cypress are the last to lose their foliage,' which makes it
+evident that these two things are of high excellence. Thus it's those
+only, who are devoid of every sense of shame, who foolishly liken
+themselves to trees of the kind!"
+
+While engaged in this colloquy, they perceived the old matron bring the
+drugs, so Pao-yue bade her fetch the silver pot, used for boiling
+medicines in, and then he directed her to prepare the decoction on the
+brasier.
+
+"The right thing would be," Ch'ing Wen suggested, "that you should let
+them go and get it ready in the tea-room; for will it ever do to fill
+this room with the smell of medicines?"
+
+"The smell of medicines," Pao-yue rejoined, "is far nicer than that
+emitted by the whole lot of flowers. Fairies pick medicines and prepare
+medicines. Besides this, eminent men and cultured scholars gather
+medicines and concoct medicines; so that it constitutes a most excellent
+thing. I was just thinking that there's everything and anything in these
+rooms and that the only thing that we lack is the smell of medicines;
+but as luck would have it, everything is now complete."
+
+Speaking, he lost no time in giving orders to a servant to put the
+medicines on the fire. Next, he advised She Yueeh to get ready a few
+presents and bid a nurse take them and go and look up Hsi Jen, and
+exhort her not to give way to excessive grief. And when he had settled
+everything that had to be seen to, he repaired to the front to dowager
+lady Chia's and Madame Wang's quarters, and paid his respects and had
+his meal.
+
+Lady Feng, as it happened, was just engaged in consulting with old lady
+Chia and Madame Wang. "The days are now short as well as cold," she
+argued, "so wouldn't it be advisable that my senior sister-in-law, Mrs.
+Chia Chu, should henceforward have her repasts in the garden, along with
+the young ladies? When the weather gets milder, it won't at all matter,
+if they have to run backward and forward."
+
+"This is really a capital idea!" Madame Wang smiled. "It will be so
+convenient during windy and rainy weather. To inhale the chilly air
+after eating isn't good. And to come quite empty, and begin piling up a
+lot of things in a stomach full of cold air isn't quite safe. It would
+be as well therefore to select two cooks from among the women, who have,
+anyhow, to keep night duty in the large five-roomed house, inside the
+garden back entrance, and station them there for the special purpose of
+preparing the necessary viands for the girls. Fresh vegetables are
+subject to some rule of distribution, so they can be issued to them from
+the general manager's office. Or they might possibly require money or be
+in need of some things or other. And it will be all right if a few of
+those pheasants, deer, and every kind of game, be apportioned to them."
+
+"I too was just thinking about this," dowager lady Chia observed. "The
+only thing I feared was that with the extra work that would again be
+thrown upon the cook-house, they mightn't have too much to do."
+
+"There'll be nothing much to do," lady Feng replied. "The same
+apportionment will continue as ever. In here, something may be added;
+but in there something will be reduced. Should it even involve a little
+trouble, it will be a small matter. If the girls were exposed to the
+cold wind, every one else might stand it with impunity; but how could
+cousin Lin, first and foremost above all others, resist anything of the
+kind? In fact, brother Pao himself wouldn't be proof against it. What's
+more, none of the various young ladies can boast of a strong
+constitution."
+
+What rejoinder old lady Chia made to lady Feng, at the close of her
+representations, is not yet ascertained; so, reader, listen to the
+explanations you will find given in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+ The beautiful P'ing Erh endeavours to conceal the loss of the
+ bracelet, made of work as fine as the feelers of a shrimp.
+ The brave Ch'ing Wen mends the down-cloak during her indisposition.
+
+
+But let us return to our story.
+
+"Quite so!" was the reply with which dowager lady Chia (greeted lady
+Feng's proposal). "I meant the other day to have suggested this
+arrangement, but I saw that every one of you had so many urgent matters
+to attend to, (and I thought) that although you would not presume to
+bear me a grudge, were several duties now again superadded, you would
+unavoidably imagine that I only regarded those young grandsons and
+granddaughters of mine, and had no consideration for any of you, who
+have to look after the house. But since you make this suggestion
+yourself, it's all right."
+
+And seeing that Mrs. Hsueeh, and 'sister-in-law' Li were sitting with
+her, and that Madame Hsing, and Mrs. Yu and the other ladies, who had
+also crossed over to pay their respects, had not as yet gone to their
+quarters, old lady Chia broached the subject with Madame Wang, and the
+rest of the company. "I've never before ventured to give utterance to
+the remarks that just fell from my lips," she said, "as first of all I
+was in fear and trembling lest I should have made that girl Feng more
+presumptuous than ever, and next, lest I should have incurred the
+displeasure of one and all of you. But since you're all here to-day, and
+every one of you knows what brothers' wives and husbands' sisters mean,
+is there (I ask) any one besides her as full of forethought?"
+
+Mrs. Hsueeh, 'sister-in-law' Li and Mrs. Yu smiled with one consent.
+"There are indeed but few like her!" they cried. "That of others is
+simply a conventional 'face' affection, but she is really fond of her
+husband's sisters and his young brother. In fact, she's as genuinely
+filial with you, venerable senior."
+
+Dowager lady Chia nodded her head. "Albeit I'm fond of her," she sighed,
+"I can't, on the other hand, help distrusting that excessive shrewdness
+of hers, for it isn't a good thing."
+
+"You're wrong there, worthy ancestor," lady Feng laughed with alacrity.
+"People in the world as a rule maintain that 'too shrewd and clever a
+person can't, it is feared, live long.' Now what people of the world
+invariably say people of the world invariably believe. But of you alone,
+my dear senior, can no such thing be averred or believed. For there you
+are, ancestor mine, a hundred times sharper and cleverer than I; and how
+is it that you now enjoy both perfect happiness and longevity? But I
+presume that I shall by and bye excel you by a hundredfold, and die at
+length, after a life of a thousand years, when you venerable senior
+shall have departed from these mortal scenes!"
+
+"After every one is dead and gone," dowager lady Chia laughingly
+observed, "what pleasure will there be, if two antiquated elves, like
+you and I will be, remain behind?"
+
+This joke excited general mirth.
+
+But so concerned was Pao-yue about Ch'ing Wen and other matters that he
+was the first to make a move and return into the garden. On his arrival
+at his quarters, he found the rooms full of the fragrance emitted by the
+medicines. Not a soul did he, however, see about. Ch'ing Wen was
+reclining all alone on the stove-couch. Her face was feverish and red.
+When he came to touch it, his hand experienced a scorching sensation.
+Retracing his steps therefore towards the stove, he warmed his hands and
+inserted them under the coverlet and felt her. Her body as well was as
+hot as fire.
+
+"If the others have left," he then remarked, "there's nothing strange
+about it, but are She Yueeh and Ch'iu Wen too so utterly devoid of
+feeling as to have each gone after her own business?"
+
+"As regards Ch'iu Wen," Ch'ing Wen explained, "I told her to go and have
+her meal. And as for She Yueeh, P'ing Erh came just now and called her
+out of doors and there they are outside confabbing in a mysterious way!
+What the drift of their conversation can be I don't know. But they must
+be talking about my having fallen ill, and my not leaving this place to
+go home."
+
+"P'ing Erh isn't that sort of person," Pao-yue pleaded. "Besides, she had
+no idea whatever about your illness, so that she couldn't have come
+specially to see how you were getting on. I fancy her object was to look
+up She Yueeh to hobnob with her, but finding unexpectedly that you were
+not up to the mark, she readily said that she had come on purpose to
+find what progress you were making. This was quite a natural thing for a
+person with so wily a disposition to say, for the sake of preserving
+harmony. But if you don't go home, it's none of her business. You two
+have all along been, irrespective of other things, on such good terms
+that she could by no means entertain any desire to injure the friendly
+relations which exist between you, all on account of something that
+doesn't concern her."
+
+"Your remarks are right enough," Ch'ing Wen rejoined, "but I do suspect
+her, as why did she too start, all of a sudden, imposing upon me?"
+
+"Wait, I'll walk out by the back door," Pao-yue smiled, "and go to the
+foot of the window, and listen to what she's saying. I'll then come and
+tell you."
+
+Speaking the while, he, in point of fact, sauntered out of the back
+door; and getting below the window, he lent an ear to their confidences.
+
+"How did you manage to get it?" She Yueh inquired with gentle voice.
+
+"When I lost sight of it on that day that I washed my hands," P'ing Erh
+answered, "our lady Secunda wouldn't let us make a fuss. But the moment
+she left the garden, she there and then sent word to the nurses,
+stationed in the various places, to institute careful search. Our
+suspicions, however, fell upon Miss Hsing's maid, who has ever also been
+poverty-stricken; surmising that a young girl of her age, who had never
+set eyes upon anything of the kind, may possibly have picked it up and
+taken it. But never did we positively believe that it could be some one
+from this place of yours! Happily, our lady Secunda wasn't in the room,
+when that nurse Sung who is with you here went over, and said, producing
+the bracelet, 'that the young maid, Chui Erh, had stolen it, and that
+she had detected her, and come to lay the matter before our lady
+Secunda. I promptly took over the bracelet from her; and recollecting
+how imperious and exacting Pao-yue is inclined to be, fond and devoted as
+he is to each and all of you; how the jade which was prigged the other
+year by a certain Liang Erh, is still, just as the matter has cooled
+down for the last couple of years, canvassed at times by some people
+eager to serve their own ends; how some one has now again turned up to
+purloin this gold trinket; how it was filched, to make matters worse,
+from a neighbour's house; how as luck would have it, she took this of
+all things; and how it happened to be his own servant to give him a slap
+on his mouth, I hastened to enjoin nurse Sung to, on no account
+whatever, let Pao-yue know anything about it, but simply pretend that
+nothing of the kind had transpired, and to make no mention of it to any
+single soul. In the second place,' (I said), 'our dowager lady and
+Madame Wang would get angry, if they came to hear anything. Thirdly, Hsi
+Jen as well as yourselves would not also cut a very good figure.' Hence
+it was that in telling our lady Secunda, I merely explained 'that on my
+way to our senior mistress,' the bracelet got unclasped, without my
+knowing it; that it fell among the roots of the grass; that there was no
+chance of seeing it while the snow was deep, but that when the snow
+completely disappeared to-day there it glistened, so yellow and bright,
+in the rays of the sun, in precisely the very place where it had
+dropped, and that I then picked it up.' Our lady Secunda at once
+credited my version. So here I come to let you all know so as to be
+henceforward a little on your guard with her, and not get her a job
+anywhere else. Wait until Hsi Jen's return, and then devise means to
+pack her off, and finish with her."
+
+"This young vixen has seen things of this kind before," She Yueeh
+ejaculated, "and how is it that she was so shallow-eyed?"
+
+"What could, after all, be the weight of this bracelet?" P'ing Erh
+observed. "It was once our lady Secunda's. She says that this is called
+the 'shrimp-feeler'-bracelet. But it's the pearl, which increases its
+weight. That minx Ch'ing Wen is as fiery as a piece of crackling
+charcoal, so were anything to be told her, she may, so little able is
+she to curb her temper, flare up suddenly into a huff, and beat or scold
+her, and kick up as much fuss as she ever has done before. That's why I
+simply tell you. Exercise due care, and it will be all right."
+
+With this warning, she bid her farewell and went on her way.
+
+Her words delighted, vexed and grieved Pao-yue. He felt delighted, on
+account of the consideration shown by P'ing Erh for his own feelings.
+Vexed, because Chui Erh had turned out a petty thief. Grieved, that Chui
+Erh, who was otherwise such a smart girl, should have gone in for this
+disgraceful affair. Returning consequently into the house, he told
+Ch'ing Wen every word that P'ing Erh had uttered. "She says," he went on
+to add, "that you're so fond of having things all your own way that were
+you to hear anything of this business, now that you are ill, you would
+get worse, and that she only means to broach the subject with you, when
+you get quite yourself again."
+
+Upon hearing this, Ch'ing Wen's ire was actually stirred up, and her
+beautiful moth-like eyebrows contracted, and her lovely phoenix eyes
+stared wide like two balls. So she immediately shouted out for Chui Erh.
+
+"If you go on bawling like that," Pao-yue hastily remonstrated with her,
+"won't you show yourself ungrateful for the regard with which P'ing Erh
+has dealt with you and me? Better for us to show ourselves sensible of
+her kindness and by and bye pack the girl off, and finish."
+
+"Your suggestion is all very good," Ch'ing Wen demurred, "but how could
+I suppress this resentment?"
+
+"What's there to feel resentment about?" Pao-yue asked. "Just you take
+good care of yourself; it's the best thing you can do."
+
+Ch'ing Wen then took her medicine. When evening came, she had another
+couple of doses. But though in the course of the night, she broke out
+into a slight perspiration, she did not see any change for the better in
+her state. Still she felt feverish, her head sore, her nose stopped, her
+voice hoarse. The next day, Dr. Wang came again to examine her pulse and
+see how she was getting on. Besides other things, he increased the
+proportions of certain medicines in the decoction and reduced others;
+but in spite of her fever having been somewhat brought down, her head
+continued to ache as much as ever.
+
+"Go and fetch the snuff," Pao-yue said to She Yueeh, "and give it to her
+to sniff. She'll feel more at ease after she has had several strong
+sneezes."
+
+She Yueeh went, in fact, and brought a flat crystal bottle, inlaid with a
+couple of golden stars, and handed it to Pao-yue.
+
+Pao-yue speedily raised the cover of the bottle. Inside it, he
+discovered, represented on western enamel, a fair-haired young girl, in
+a state of nature, on whose two sides figured wings of flesh. This
+bottle contained some really first-rate foreign snuff.
+
+Ch'ing Wen's attention was fixedly concentrated on the representation.
+
+"Sniff a little!" Pao-yue urged. "If the smell evaporates, it won't be
+worth anything."
+
+Ch'ing Wen, at his advice, promptly dug out a little with her nail, and
+applied it to her nose. But with no effect. So digging out again a good
+quantity of it, she pressed it into her nostrils. Then suddenly she
+experienced a sensation in her nose as if some pungent matter had
+penetrated into the very duct leading into the head, and she sneezed
+five or six consecutive times, until tears rolled down from her eyes and
+mucus trickled from her nostrils.
+
+Ch'ing Wen hastily put the bottle away. "It's dreadfully pungent!" she
+laughed. "Bring me some paper, quick!"
+
+A servant-girl at once handed her a pile of fine paper.
+
+Ch'ing Wen extracted sheet after sheet, and blew her nose.
+
+"Well," said Pao-yue smiling, "how are you feeling now?"
+
+"I'm really considerably relieved." Ch'ing Wen rejoined laughing. "The
+only thing is that my temples still hurt me."
+
+"Were you to treat yourself exclusively with western medicines, I'm sure
+you'd get all right," Pao-yue added smilingly. Saying this, "Go," he
+accordingly desired She Yueeh, "to our lady Secunda, and ask her for
+some. Tell her that I spoke to you about them. My cousin over there
+often uses some western plaster, which she applies to her temples when
+she's got a headache. It's called 'I-fo-na.' So try and get some of it!"
+
+She Yueeh expressed her readiness. After a protracted absence, she, in
+very deed, came back with a small bit of the medicine; and going quickly
+for a piece of red silk cutting, she got the scissors and slit two round
+slips off as big as the tip of a finger. After which, she took the
+medicine, and softening it by the fire, she spread it on them with a
+hairpin.
+
+Ch'ing Wen herself laid hold of a looking-glass with a handle and stuck
+the bits on both her temples.
+
+"While you were lying sick," She Yueeh laughed, "you looked like a
+mangy-headed devil! But with this stuff on now you present a fine sight!
+As for our lady Secunda she has been so much in the habit of sticking
+these things about her that they don't very much show off with her!"
+
+This joke over, "Our lady Secunda said," she resumed, addressing herself
+to Pao-yue, "'that to-morrow is your maternal uncle's birthday, and that
+our mistress, your mother, asked her to tell you to go over. That
+whatever clothes you will put on to-morrow should be got ready to-night,
+so as to avoid any trouble in the morning.'"
+
+"Anything that comes first to hand," Pao-yue observed, "will do well
+enough! There's no getting, the whole year round, at the end of all the
+fuss of birthdays!"
+
+Speaking the while, he rose to his feet and left the room with the idea
+of repairing to Hsi Ch'un's quarters to have a look at the painting. As
+soon as he got outside the door of the court-yard, he unexpectedly spied
+Pao-ch'in's young maid, Hsiao Lo by name, crossing over from the
+opposite direction. Pao-yue, with rapid step, strode up to her, and
+inquired of her whither she was going.
+
+"Our two young ladies," Hsiao Lo answered with a smile, "are in Miss
+Lin's rooms; so I'm also now on my way thither."
+
+Catching this answer, Pao-yue wheeled round and came at once with her to
+the Hsiao Hsiang Lodge. Here not only did he find Pao-ch'ai and her
+cousin, but Hsing Chou-yen as well. The quartet was seated in a circle
+on the warming-frame; carrying on a friendly chat on everyday domestic
+matters; while Tzu Chuean was sitting in the winter apartment, working at
+some needlework by the side of the window.
+
+The moment they caught a glimpse of him, their faces beamed with smiles.
+"There comes some one else!" they cried. "There's no room for you to
+sit!"
+
+"What a fine picture of beautiful girls, in the winter chamber!" Pao-yue
+smiled. "It's a pity I come a trifle too late! This room is, at all
+events, so much warmer than any other, that I won't feel cold if I plant
+myself on this chair."
+
+So saying, he made himself comfortable on a favourite chair of Tai-yue's
+over which was thrown a grey squirrel cover. But noticing in the winter
+apartment a jadestone bowl, full of single narcissi, in clusters of
+three or five, Pao-yue began praising their beauty with all the language
+he could command. "What lovely flowers!" he exclaimed. "The warmer the
+room gets, the stronger is the fragrance emitted by these flowers! How
+is it I never saw them yesterday?"
+
+"These are," Tai-yue laughingly explained, "from the two pots of
+narcissi, and two pots of allspice, sent to Miss Hsueeh Secunda by the
+wife of Lai Ta, the head butler in your household. Of these, she gave me
+a pot of narcissi; and to that girl Yuen, a pot of allspice. I didn't at
+first mean to keep them, but I was afraid of showing no consideration
+for her kind attention. But if you want them, I'll, in my turn, present
+them to you. Will you have them; eh?"
+
+"I've got two pots of them in my rooms," Pao-yue replied, "but they're
+not up to these. How is it you're ready to let others have what cousin
+Ch'in has given you? This can on no account do!"
+
+"With me here," Tai-yue added, "the medicine pot never leaves the fire,
+the whole day long. I'm only kept together by medicines. So how could I
+ever stand the smell of flowers bunging my nose? It makes me weaker than
+ever. Besides, if there's the least whiff of medicines in this room, it
+will, contrariwise, spoil the fragrance of these flowers. So isn't it
+better that you should have them carried away? These flowers will then
+breathe a purer atmosphere, and won't have any mixture of smells to
+annoy them."
+
+"I've also got now some one ill in my place," Pao-yue retorted with a
+smile, "and medicines are being decocted. How comes it you happen to
+know nothing about it?"
+
+"This is strange!" Tai-yue laughed. "I was really speaking quite
+thoughtlessly; for who ever knows what's going on in your apartments?
+But why do you, instead of getting here a little earlier to listen to
+old stories, come at this moment to bring trouble and vexation upon your
+own self?"
+
+Pao-yue gave a laugh. "Let's have a meeting to-morrow," he proposed, "for
+we've also got the themes. Let's sing the narcissus and allspice."
+
+"Never mind, drop that!" Tai-yue rejoined, upon hearing his proposal. "I
+can't venture to write any more verses. Whenever I indite any, I'm
+mulcted. So I'd rather not be put to any great shame."
+
+While uttering these words she screened her face with both hands.
+
+"What's the matter?" Pao-yue smiled. "Why are you again making fun of me?
+I'm not afraid of any shame, but, lo, you screen your face."
+
+"The next time," Pao-ch'ai felt impelled to interpose laughingly, "I
+convene a meeting, we'll have four themes for odes and four for songs;
+and each one of us will have to write four odes and four roundelays. The
+theme of the first ode will treat of the plan of the great extreme; the
+rhyme fixed being 'hsien,' (first), and the metre consisting of five
+words in each line. We'll have to exhaust every one of the rhymes under
+'hsien,' and mind, not a single one may be left out."
+
+"From what you say," Pao-ch'in smilingly observed, "it's evident that
+you're not in earnest, cousin, in setting the club on foot. It's clear
+enough that your object is to embarrass people. But as far as the verses
+go, we could forcibly turn out a few, just by higgledy-piggledy taking
+several passages from the 'Canon of Changes,' and inserting them in our
+own; but, after all, what fun will there be in that sort of thing? When
+I was eight years of age, I went with my father to the western seaboard
+to purchase foreign goods. Who'd have thought it, we came across a girl
+from the 'Chen Chen' kingdom. She was in her eighteenth year, and her
+features were just like those of the beauties one sees represented in
+foreign pictures. She had also yellow hair, hanging down, and arranged
+in endless plaits. Her whole head was ornamented with one mass of
+cornelian beads, amber, cats' eyes, and 'grandmother-green-stone.' On
+her person, she wore a chain armour plaited with gold, and a coat, which
+was up to the very sleeves, embroidered in foreign style. In a belt, she
+carried a Japanese sword, also inlaid with gold and studded with
+precious gems. In very truth, even in pictures, there is no one as
+beautiful as she. Some people said that she was thoroughly conversant
+with Chinese literature, and could explain the 'Five classics,' that she
+was able to write odes and devise roundelays, and so my father requested
+an interpreter to ask her to write something. She thereupon wrote an
+original stanza, which all, with one voice, praised for its remarkable
+beauty, and extolled for its extraordinary merits."
+
+"My dear cousin," eagerly smiled Pao-yue, "produce what she wrote, and
+let's have a look at it."
+
+"It's put away in Nanking;" Pao-ch'in replied with a smile. "So how
+could I at present go and fetch it?"
+
+Great was Pao-yue's disappointment at this rejoinder. "I've no luck," he
+cried, "to see anything like this in the world."
+
+Tai-yue laughingly laid hold of Pao-ch'in. "Don't be humbugging us!" she
+remarked. "I know well enough that you are not likely, on a visit like
+this, to have left any such things of yours at home. You must have
+brought them along. Yet here you are now again palming off a fib on us
+by saying that you haven't got them with you. You people may believe
+what she says, but I, for my part, don't."
+
+Pao-ch'in got red in the face. Drooping her head against her chest, she
+gave a faint smile; but she uttered not a word by way of response.
+
+"Really P'in Erh you've got into the habit of talking like this!"
+Pao-ch'ai laughed. "You're too shrewd by far."
+
+"Bring them along," Tai-yue urged with a smile, "and give us a chance of
+seeing something and learning something; it won't hurt them."
+
+"There's a whole heap of trunks and baskets," Pao-ch'ai put in laughing,
+"which haven't been yet cleared away. And how could one tell in which
+particular one, they're packed up? Wait a few days, and when things will
+have been put straight a bit, we'll try and find them: and every one of
+us can then have a look at them; that will be all right. But if you
+happen to remember the lines," she pursued, speaking to Pao-ch'in, "why
+not recite them for our benefit?"
+
+"I remember so far that her lines consisted of a stanza with five
+characters in each line," Pao-ch'ai returned for answer. "For a foreign
+girl, they're verily very well done."
+
+"Don't begin for a while," Pao-ch'ai exclaimed. "Let me send for Yuen
+Erh, so that she too might hear them."
+
+After this remark, she called Hsiao Lo to her. "Go to my place," she
+observed, "and tell her that a foreign beauty has come over, who's a
+splendid hand at poetry. 'You, who have poetry on the brain,' (say to
+her), 'are invited to come and see her,' and then lay hold of this
+verse-maniac of ours and bring her along."
+
+Hsiao Lo gave a smile, and went away. After a long time, they heard
+Hsiang-yuen laughingly inquire, "What foreign beauty has come?" But while
+asking this question, she made her appearance in company with Hsiang
+Ling.
+
+"We heard your voices long before we caught a glimpse of your persons!"
+the party laughed.
+
+Pao-ch'in and her companions motioned to her to sit down, and, in due
+course, she reiterated what she had told them a short while back.
+
+"Be quick, out with it! Let's hear what it is!" Hsiang-yuen smilingly
+cried.
+
+Pao-ch'in thereupon recited:
+
+ Last night in the Purple Chamber I dreamt.
+ This evening on the 'Shui Kuo' Isle I sing.
+ The clouds by the isle cover the broad sea.
+ The zephyr from the peaks reaches the woods.
+ The moon has never known present or past.
+ From shallow and deep causes springs love's fate.
+ When I recall my springs south of the Han,
+ Can I not feel disconsolate at heart?
+
+After listening to her, "She does deserve credit," they unanimously
+shouted, "for she really is far superior to us, Chinese though we be."
+
+But scarcely was this remark out of their lips, when they perceived She
+Yueeh walk in. "Madame Wang," she said, "has sent a servant to inform
+you, Master Secundus, that 'you are to go at an early hour to-morrow
+morning to your maternal uncle's, and that you are to explain to him
+that her ladyship isn't feeling quite up to the mark, and that she
+cannot pay him a visit in person.'"
+
+Pao-yue precipitately jumped to his feet (out of deference to his
+mother), and signified his assent, by answering 'Yes.' He then went on
+to inquire of Pao-ch'ai and Pao-ch'in, "Are you two going?"
+
+"We're not going," Pao-ch'ai rejoined. "We simply went there yesterday
+to take our presents over but we left after a short chat."
+
+Pao-yue thereupon pressed his female cousins to go ahead and he then
+followed them. But Tai-yue called out to him again and stopped him. "When
+is Hsi Jen, after all, coming back?" she asked.
+
+"She'll naturally come back after she has accompanied the funeral,"
+Pao-yue retorted.
+
+Tai-yue had something more she would have liked to tell him, but she
+found it difficult to shape it into words. After some moments spent in
+abstraction, "Off with you!" she cried.
+
+Pao-yue too felt that he treasured in his heart many things he would fain
+confide to her, but he did not know what to bring to his lips, so after
+cogitating within himself for a time, he likewise observed smilingly:
+"We'll have another chat to-morrow," and, as he said so, he wended his
+way down the stairs. Lowering his head, he was just about to take a step
+forward, when he twisted himself round again with alacrity. "Now that
+the nights are longer than they were, you're sure to cough often and
+wake several times in the night; eh?" he asked.
+
+"Last night," Tai-yue answered, "I was all right; I coughed only twice.
+But I only slept at the fourth watch for a couple of hours and then I
+couldn't close my eyes again."
+
+"I really have something very important to tell you," Pao-yue proceeded
+with another smile. "It only now crossed my mind." Saying this, he
+approached her and added in a confidential tone: "I think that the
+birds' nests sent to you by cousin Pao-chai...."
+
+Barely, however, had he had time to conclude than he spied dame Chao
+enter the room to pay Tai-yue a visit. "Miss, have you been all right
+these last few days?" she inquired.
+
+Tai-yue readily guessed that this was an attention extended to her merely
+as she had, on her way back from T'an Ch'un's quarters, to pass by her
+door, so speedily smiling a forced smile, she offered her a seat.
+
+"Many thanks, dame Chao," she said, "for the trouble of thinking of me,
+and for coming in person in this intense cold."
+
+Hastily also bidding a servant pour the tea, she simultaneously winked
+at Pao-yue.
+
+Pao-yue grasped her meaning, and forthwith quitted the apartment. As this
+happened to be about dinner time, and he had been enjoined as well by
+Madame Wang to be back at an early hour, Pao-yue returned to his
+quarters, and looked on while Ch'ing Wen took her medicine. Pao-yue did
+not desire Ch'ing Wen this evening to move into the winter apartment,
+but stayed with Ch'ing Wen outside; and, giving orders to bring the
+warming-frame near the winter apartment, She Yueh slept on it.
+
+Nothing of any interest worth putting on record transpired during the
+night. On the morrow, before the break of day, Ch'ing Wen aroused She
+Yueh.
+
+"You should awake," she said. "The only thing is that you haven't had
+enough sleep. If you go out and tell them to get the water for tea ready
+for him, while I wake him, it will be all right."
+
+She Yueh immediately jumped up and threw something over her. "Let's call
+him to get up and dress in his fine clothes." she said. "We can summon
+them in, after this fire-box has been removed. The old nurses told us
+not to allow him to stay in this room for fear the virus of the disease
+should pass on to him; so now if they see us bundled up together in one
+place, they're bound to kick up another row."
+
+"That's my idea too," Ch'ing Wen replied.
+
+The two girls were then about to call him, when Pao-yue woke up of his
+own accord, and speedily leaping out of bed, he threw his clothes over
+him.
+
+She Yueeh first called a young maid into the room and put things
+shipshape before she told Ch'in Wen and the other servant-girls to
+enter; and along with them, she remained in waiting upon Pao-yue while he
+combed his hair, and washed his face and hands. This part of his toilet
+over, She Yueeh remarked: "It's cloudy again, so I suppose it's going to
+snow. You'd better therefore wear a woollen overcoat!"
+
+Pao-yue nodded his head approvingly; and set to work at once to effect
+the necessary change in his costume. A young waiting-maid then presented
+him a covered bowl, in a small tea tray, containing a decoction made of
+Fu-kien lotus and red dates. After Pao-yue had had a couple of mouthfuls,
+She Yueeh also brought him a small plateful of brown ginger, prepared
+according to some prescription. Pao-yue put a piece into his mouth, and,
+impressing some advice on Ch'ing 'Wen, he crossed over to dowager lady
+Chia's suite of rooms.
+
+His grandmother had not yet got out of bed. But she was well aware that
+Pao-yue was going out of doors so having the entrance leading into her
+bedroom opened she asked Pao-yue to walk in. Pao-yue espied behind the old
+lady, Pao-ch'in lying with her face turned towards the inside, and not
+awake yet from her sleep.
+
+Dowager lady Chia observed that Pao-yue was clad in a deep-red felt
+fringed overcoat, with woollen lichee-coloured archery-sleeves and with
+an edging of dark green glossy satin, embroidered with gold rings.
+"What!" old lady Chia inquired, "is it snowing?"
+
+"The weather is dull," Pao-yue replied, "but it isn't snowing yet."
+
+Dowager lady Chia thereupon sent for Yuean Yang and told her to fetch the
+peacock down pelisse, finished the day before, and give it to him. Yuean
+Yang signified her obedience and went off, and actually returned with
+what was wanted.
+
+When Pao-yue came to survey it, he found that the green and golden hues
+glistened with bright lustre, that the jadelike variegated colours on it
+shone with splendour, and that it bore no resemblance to the duck-down
+coat, which Pao-ch'in had been wearing.
+
+"This," he heard his grandmother smilingly remark, "is called 'bird
+gold'. This is woven of the down of peacocks, caught in Russia, twisted
+into thread. The other day, I presented that one with the wild duck down
+to your young female cousin, so I now give you this one."
+
+Pao-yue prostrated himself before her, after which he threw the coat over
+his shoulders.
+
+"Go and let your mother see it before you start," his grandmother
+laughingly added.
+
+Pao-yue assented, and quitted her apartments, when he caught sight of
+Yuean Yang standing below rubbing her eyes. Ever since the day on which
+Yuean Yang had sworn to have done with the match, she had not exchanged a
+single word with Pao-yue. Pao-yue was therefore day and night a prey to
+dejection. So when he now observed her shirk his presence again, Pao-yue
+at once advanced up to her, and, putting on a smile, "My dear girl," he
+said, "do look at the coat I've got on. Is it nice or not?"
+
+Yuean Yang shoved his hand away, and promptly walked into dowager lady
+Chia's quarters.
+
+Pao-yue was thus compelled to repair to Madame Wang's room, and let her
+see his coat. Retracing afterwards his footsteps into the garden, he let
+Ch'ing Wen and She Yueeh also have a look at it, and then came and told
+his grandmother that he had attended to her wishes.
+
+"My mother," he added, "has seen what I've got on. But all she said was:
+'what a pity!' and then she went on to enjoin me to be 'careful with it
+and not to spoil it.'"
+
+"There only remains this single one," old lady Chia observed, "so if you
+spoil it you can't have another. Even did I want to have one made for
+you like it now, it would be out of the question."
+
+At the close of these words, she went on to advise him. "Don't," she
+said, "have too much wine and come back early." Pao-yue acquiesced by
+uttering several yes's.
+
+An old nurse then followed him out into the pavilion. Here they
+discovered six attendants, (that is), Pao-yue's milk-brother Li Kuei, and
+Wang Ho-jung, Chang Jo-chin, Chao I-hua, Ch'ien Ch'i, and Chou Jui, as
+well as four young servant-lads: Pei Ming, Pan Ho, Chu Shao and Sao
+Hung; some carrying bundles of clothes on their backs, some holding
+cushions in their hands, others leading a white horse with engraved
+saddle and variegated bridles. They had already been waiting for a good
+long while. The old nurse went on to issue some directions, and the six
+servants, hastily expressing their obedience by numerous yes's, quickly
+caught hold of the saddle and weighed the stirrup down while Pao-yue
+mounted leisurely. Li Kuei and Wang Ho-jung then led the horse by the
+bit. Two of them, Ch'ien Ch'i and Chou Jui, walked ahead and showed the
+way. Chang Jo-chin and Chao I-hua followed Pao-yue closely on each side.
+
+"Brother Chou and brother Ch'ien," Pao-yue smiled, from his seat on his
+horse, "let's go by this side-gate. It will save my having again to
+dismount, when we reach the entrance to my father's study."
+
+"Mr. Chia Cheng is not in his study," Chou Jui laughed, with a curtsey.
+"It has been daily under lock and key, so there will be no need for you,
+master, to get down from your horse."
+
+"Though it be locked up," Pao-yue smiled, "I shall have to dismount all
+the same."
+
+"You're quite right in what you say, master;" both Ch'ien Ch'i and Li
+Kuei chimed in laughingly; "but pretend you're lazy and don't get down.
+In the event of our coming across Mr. Lai Ta and our number two Mr. Lin,
+they're sure, rather awkward though it be for them to say anything to
+their master, to tender you one or two words of advice, but throw the
+whole of the blame upon us. You can also tell them that we had not
+explained to you what was the right thing to do."
+
+Chou Jui and Ch'ien Ch'i accordingly wended their steps straight for the
+side-gate. But while they were keeping up some sort of conversation,
+they came face to face with Lai Ta on his way in.
+
+Pao-yue speedily pulled in his horse, with the idea of dismounting. But
+Lai Ta hastened to draw near and to clasp his leg. Pao-yue stood up on
+his stirrup, and, putting on a smile, he took his hand in his, and made
+several remarks to him.
+
+In quick succession, he also perceived a young servant-lad make his
+appearance inside leading the way for twenty or thirty servants, laden
+with brooms and dust-baskets. The moment they espied Pao-yue, they, one
+and all, stood along the wall, and dropped their arms against their
+sides, with the exception of the head lad, who bending one knee, said:
+"My obeisance to you, sir."
+
+Pao-yue could not recall to mind his name or surname, but forcing a faint
+smile, he nodded his head to and fro. It was only when the horse had
+well gone past, that the lad eventually led the bevy of servants off,
+and that they went after their business.
+
+Presently, they egressed from the side-gate. Outside, stood the
+servant-lads of the six domestics, Li Kuei and his companions, as well
+as several grooms, who had, from an early hour, got ready about ten
+horses and been standing, on special duty, waiting for their arrival. As
+soon as they reached the further end of the side-gate, Li Kuei and each
+of the other attendants mounted their horses, and pressed ahead to lead
+the way. Like a streak of smoke, they got out of sight, without any
+occurrence worth noticing.
+
+Ch'ing Wen, meanwhile, continued to take her medicines. But still she
+experienced no relief in her ailment. Such was the state of exasperation
+into which she worked herself that she abused the doctor right and left.
+"All he's good for," she cried, "is to squeeze people's money. But he
+doesn't know how to prescribe a single dose of efficacious medicine for
+his patients."
+
+"You have far too impatient a disposition!" She Yueeh said, as she
+advised her, with a smile. "'A disease,' the proverb has it, 'comes like
+a crumbling mountain, and goes like silk that is reeled.' Besides,
+they're not the divine pills of 'Lao Chuen'. How ever could there be such
+efficacious medicines? The only thing for you to do is to quietly look
+after yourself for several days, and you're sure to get all right. But
+the more you work yourself into such a frenzy, the worse you get!"
+
+Ch'ing Weng went on to heap abuse on the head of the young-maids. "Where
+have they gone? Have they bored into the sand?" she ejaculated. "They
+see well enough that I'm ill, so they make bold and runaway. But by and
+bye when I recover, I shall take one by one of you and flay your skin
+off for you."
+
+Ting Erh, a young maid, was struck with dismay, and ran up to her with
+hasty step. "Miss," she inquired, "what's up with you?"
+
+"Is it likely that the rest are all dead and gone, and that there only
+remains but you?" Ch'ing Wen exclaimed.
+
+But while she spoke, she saw Chui Erh also slowly enter the room.
+
+"Look at this vixen!" Ch'ing Wen shouted. "If I don't ask for her, she
+won't come. Had there been any monthly allowances issued and fruits
+distributed here, you would have been the first to run in! But approach
+a bit! Am I tigress to gobble you up?"
+
+Chui Erh was under the necessity of advancing a few steps nearer to her.
+But, all of a sudden, Ch'ing Wen stooped forward, and with a dash
+clutching her hand, she took a long pin from the side of her pillow, and
+pricked it at random all over.
+
+"What's the use of such paws?" she railed at her. "They don't ply a
+needle, and they don't touch any thread! All you're good for is to prig
+things to stuff that mouth of yours with! The skin of your phiz is
+shallow and those paws of yours are light! But with the shame you bring
+upon yourself before the world, isn't it right that I should prick you,
+and make mincemeat of you?"
+
+Chui Erh shouted so wildly from pain that She Yueh stepped forward and
+immediately drew them apart. She then pressed Ch'ing Wen, until she
+induced her to lie down.
+
+"You're just perspiring," she remarked, "and here you are once more bent
+upon killing yourself. Wait until you are yourself again! Won't you then
+be able to give her as many blows as you may like? What's the use of
+kicking up all this fuss just now?"
+
+Ch'ing Wen bade a servant tell nurse Sung to come in. "Our master
+Secundus, Mr. Pao-yue, recently asked me to tell you," she remarked on
+her arrival, "that Chui Erh is very lazy. He himself gives her orders to
+her very face, but she is ever ready to raise objections and not to
+budge. Even when Hsi Jen bids her do things, she vilifies her behind her
+back. She must absolutely therefore be packed off to-day. And if Mr. Pao
+himself lays the matter to-morrow before Madame Wang, things will be
+square."
+
+After listening to her grievances, nurse Sung readily concluded in her
+mind that the affair of the bracelet had come to be known. "What you
+suggest is well and good, it's true," she consequently smiled, "but it's
+as well to wait until Miss Hua (flower) returns and hears about the
+things. We can then give her the sack."
+
+"Mr. Pao-yue urgently enjoined this to-day," Ch'ing Wen pursued, "so what
+about Miss Hua (flower) and Miss Ts'ao (grass)? We've, of course, gob
+rules of propriety here, so you just do as I tell you; and be quick and
+send for some one from her house to come and fetch her away!"
+
+"Well, now let's drop this!" She Yueeh interposed. "Whether she goes soon
+or whether she goes late is one and the same thing; so let them take her
+away soon; we'll then be the sooner clear of her."
+
+At these words, nurse Sung had no alternative but to step out, and to
+send for her mother. When she came, she got ready all her effects, and
+then came to see Ch'ing Wen and the other girls. "Young ladies," she
+said, "what's up? If your niece doesn't behave as she ought to, why,
+call her to account. But why banish her from this place? You should,
+indeed, leave us a little face!"
+
+"As regards what you say," Ch'ing Wen put in, "wait until Pao-yue comes,
+and then we can ask him. It's nothing to do with us."
+
+The woman gave a sardonic smile. "Have I got the courage to ask him?"
+she answered. "In what matter doesn't he lend an ear to any settlement
+you, young ladies, may propose? He invariably agrees to all you say! But
+if you, young ladies, aren't agreeable, it's really of no avail. When
+you, for example, spoke just now,--it's true it was on the sly,--you
+called him straightway by his name, miss. This thing does very well with
+you, young ladies, but were we to do anything of the kind, we'd be
+looked upon as very savages!"
+
+Ch'ing Wen, upon hearing her remark, became more than ever exasperated,
+and got crimson in the face. "Yes, I called him by his name," she
+rejoined, "so you'd better go and report me to our old lady and Madame
+Wang. Tell them I'm a rustic and let them send me too off."
+
+"Sister-in-law," urged She Yueeh, "just you take her away; and if you've
+got aught to say, you can say it by and bye. Is this a place for you to
+bawl in and to try and explain what is right? Whom have you seen
+discourse upon the rules of propriety with us? Not to speak of you,
+sister-in-law, even Mrs. Lai Ta and Mrs. Lin treat us fairly well. And
+as for calling him by name, why, from days of yore to the very present,
+our dowager mistress has invariably bidden us do so. You yourselves are
+well aware of it. So much did she fear that it would be a difficult job
+to rear him that she deliberately wrote his infant name on slips of
+paper and had them stuck everywhere and anywhere with the design that
+one and all should call him by it. And this in order that it might
+exercise a good influence upon his bringing up. Even water-coolies and
+scavenger-coolies indiscriminately address him by his name; and how much
+more such as we? So late, in fact, as yesterday Mrs. Lin gave him but
+once the title of 'Sir,' and our old mistress called even her to task.
+This is one side of the question. In the next place, we all have to go
+and make frequent reports to our venerable dowager lady and Madame Wang,
+and don't we with them allude to him by name in what we have to say? Is
+it likely we'd also style him 'Sir?' What day is there that we don't
+utter the two words 'Pao-yue' two hundred times? And is it for you,
+sister-in-law, to come and pick out this fault? But in a day or so, when
+you've leisure to go to our old mistress' and Madame Wang's, you'll hear
+us call him by name in their very presence, and then you'll feel
+convinced. You've never, sister-in-law, had occasion to fulfil any
+honourable duties by our old lady and our lady. From one year's end to
+the other, all you do is to simply loaf outside the third door. So it's
+no matter of surprise, if you don't happen to know anything of the
+customs which prevail with us inside. But this isn't a place where you,
+sister-in-law, can linger for long. In another moment, there won't be
+any need for us to say anything; for some one will be coming to ask you
+what you want, and what excuse will you be able to plead? So take her
+away and let Mrs. Lin know about it; and commission her to come and find
+our Mr. Secundus and tell him all. There are in this establishment over
+a thousand inmates; one comes and another comes, so that though we know
+people and inquire their names, we can't nevertheless imprint them
+clearly on our minds."
+
+At the close of this long rigmarole, she at once told a young maid to
+take the mop and wash the floors.
+
+The woman listened patiently to her arguments, but she could find no
+words to say anything to her by way of reply. Nor did she have the
+audacity to protract her stay. So flying into a huff, she took Chui Erh
+along with her, and there and then made her way out.
+
+"Is it likely," nurse Sung hastily observed, "that a dame like you
+doesn't know what manners mean? Your daughter has been in these rooms
+for some time, so she should, when she is about to go, knock her head
+before the young ladies. She has no other means of showing her
+gratitude. Not that they care much about such things. Yet were she to
+simply knock her head, she would acquit herself of a duty, if nothing
+more. But how is it that she says I'm going, and off she forthwith
+rushes?"
+
+Chui Erh overheard these words, and felt under the necessity of turning
+back. Entering therefore the apartment, she prostrated herself before
+the two girls, and then she went in quest of Ch'iu Wen and her
+companions, but neither did they pay any notice whatever to her.
+
+"Hai!" ejaculated the woman, and heaving a sigh--for she did not venture
+to utter a word,--she walked off, fostering a grudge in her heart.
+
+Ch'ing Wen had, while suffering from a cold, got into a fit of anger
+into the bargain, so instead of being better, she was worse, and she
+tossed and rolled until the time came for lighting the lamps. But the
+moment she felt more at ease, she saw Pao-yue come back. As soon as he
+put his foot inside the door, he gave way to an exclamation, and stamped
+his foot.
+
+"What's the reason of such behaviour?" She Yueeh promptly asked him.
+
+"My old grandmother," Pao-yue explained, "was in such capital spirits
+that she gave me this coat to-day; but, who'd have thought it, I
+inadvertently burnt part of the back lapel. Fortunately however the
+evening was advanced so that neither she nor my mother noticed what had
+happened."
+
+Speaking the while, he took it off. She Yueeh, on inspection, found
+indeed a hole burnt in it of the size of a finger. "This," she said,
+"must have been done by some spark from the hand-stove. It's of no
+consequence."
+
+Immediately she called a servant to her. "Take this out on the sly," she
+bade her, "and let an experienced weaver patch it. It will be all right
+then."
+
+So saying, she packed it up in a wrapper, and a nurse carried it
+outside.
+
+"It should be ready by daybreak," she urged. "And by no means let our
+old lady or Madame Wang know anything about it."
+
+The matron brought it back again, after a protracted absence. "Not
+only," she explained; "have weavers, first-class tailors, and
+embroiderers, but even those, who do women's work, been asked about it,
+and they all have no idea what this is made of. None of them therefore
+will venture to undertake the job."
+
+"What's to be done?" She Yueeh inquired. "But it won't matter if you
+don't wear it to-morrow."
+
+"To-morrow is the very day of the anniversary," Pao-yue rejoined.
+"Grandmother and my mother bade me put this on and go and pay my visit;
+and here I go and burn it, on the first day I wear it. Now isn't this
+enough to throw a damper over my good cheer?"
+
+Ch'ing Wen lent an ear to their conversation for a long time, until
+unable to restrain herself, she twisted herself round. "Bring it here,"
+she chimed in, "and let me see it! You haven't been lucky in wearing
+this; but never mind!"
+
+These words were still on Ch'ing Wen's lips, when the coat was handed to
+her. The lamp was likewise moved nearer to her. With minute care she
+surveyed it. "This is made," Ch'ing Wen observed, "of gold thread, spun
+from peacock's feathers. So were we now to also take gold thread,
+twisted from the feathers of the peacock, and darn it closely, by
+imitating the woof, I think it will pass without detection."
+
+"The peacock-feather-thread is ready at hand," She Yueeh remarked
+smilingly. "But who's there, exclusive of you, able to join the
+threads?"
+
+"I'll, needless to say, do my level best to the very cost of my life and
+finish," Ch'ing Wen added.
+
+"How ever could this do?" Pao-yue eagerly interposed. "You're just
+slightly better, and how could you take up any needlework?"
+
+"You needn't go on in this chicken-hearted way!" Ch'ing Wen cried. "I
+know my own self well enough."
+
+With this reply, she sat up, and, putting her hair up, she threw
+something over her shoulders. Her head felt heavy; her body light.
+Before her eyes, confusedly flitted golden stirs. In real deed, she
+could not stand the strain. But when inclined to give up the work, she
+again dreaded that Pao-yue would be driven to despair. She therefore had
+perforce to make a supreme effort and, setting her teeth to, she bore
+the exertion. All the help she asked of She Yueeh was to lend her a hand
+in reeling the thread.
+
+Ch'ing Wen first took hold of a thread, and put it side by side (with
+those in the pelisse) to compare the two together. "This," she remarked,
+"isn't quite like them; but when it's patched up with it, it won't show
+very much."
+
+"It will do very well," Pao-yue said. "Could one also go and hunt up a
+Russian tailor?"
+
+Ch'ing Wen commenced by unstitching the lining, and, inserting under it,
+a bamboo bow, of the size of the mouth of a tea cup, she bound it tight
+at the back. She then turned her mind to the four sides of the aperture,
+and these she loosened by scratching them with a golden knife. Making
+next two stitches across with her needle, she marked out the warp and
+woof; and, following the way the threads were joined, she first and
+foremost connected the foundation, and then keeping to the original
+lines, she went backwards and forwards mending the hole; passing her
+work, after every second stitch, under further review. But she did not
+ply her needle three to five times, before she lay herself down on her
+pillow, and indulged in a little rest.
+
+Pao-yue was standing by her side. Now he inquired of her: "Whether she
+would like a little hot water to drink." Later on, he asked her to
+repose herself. Now he seized a grey-squirrel wrapper and threw it over
+her shoulders. Shortly after, he took a pillow and propped her up. (The
+way he fussed) so exasperated Ch'ing Wen that she begged and entreated
+him to leave off.
+
+"My junior ancestor!" she exclaimed, "do go to bed and sleep! If you sit
+up for the other half of the night, your eyes will to-morrow look as if
+they had been scooped out, and what good will possibly come out of
+that?"
+
+Pao-yue realised her state of exasperation and felt compelled to come and
+lie down anyhow. But he could not again close his eyes.
+
+In a little while, she heard the clock strike four, and just managing to
+finish she took a small tooth-brush, and rubbed up the pile.
+
+"That will do!" She Yueeh put in. "One couldn't detect it, unless one
+examined it carefully."
+
+Pao-yue asked with alacrity to be allowed to have a look at it. "Really,"
+he smiled, "it's quite the same thing."
+
+Ch'ing Wen coughed and coughed time after time, so it was only after
+extreme difficulty that she succeeded in completing what she had to
+patch. "It's mended, it's true," she remarked, "but it does not, after
+all, look anything like it. Yet, I cannot stand the effort any more!"
+
+As she shouted 'Ai-ya,' she lost control over herself, and dropped down
+upon the bed.
+
+But, reader, if you choose to know anything more of her state, peruse
+the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+ In the Ning Kuo mansion sacrifices are offered to their ancestors on
+ the last night of the year.
+ In the Jung Kuo mansion, a banquet is given on the evening of the 15th
+ of the first moon.
+
+
+But to resume our story. When Pao-yue saw that Ch'ing Wen had in her
+attempt to finish mending the peacock-down cloak exhausted her strength
+and fatigued herself, he hastily bade a young maid help him massage her;
+and setting to work they tapped her for a while, after which, they
+retired to rest. But not much time elapsed before broad daylight set in.
+He did not however go out of doors, but simply called out that they
+should go at once and ask the doctor round.
+
+Presently, Dr. Wang arrived. After feeling her pulse, his suspicions
+were aroused. "Yesterday," he said, "she was much better, so how is it
+that to-day she is instead weaker, and has fallen off so much? She must
+surely have had too much in the way of drinking or eating! Or she must
+have fatigued herself. A complaint arising from outside sources is,
+indeed, a light thing. But it's no small matter if one doesn't take
+proper care of one's self, as she has done after perspiring."
+
+As he passed these remarks, he walked out of the apartment, and, writing
+a prescription, he entered again.
+
+When Pao-yue came to examine it, he perceived that he had eliminated the
+laxatives, and all the drugs, whose properties were to expel noxious
+influences, but added pachyma cocos, rhubarb, arolia edulis, and other
+such medicines, which could stimulate the system and strengthen her
+physique.
+
+Pao-yue, on one hand, hastened to direct a servant to go and decoct them,
+and, on the other, he heaved a sigh. "What's to be done?" he exclaimed.
+"Should anything happen to her, it will all be through the evil
+consequences of my shortcomings!"
+
+"Hai!" cried Ch'ing Wen, from where she was reclining on her pillow.
+"Dear Mr. Secundus, go and mind your own business! Have I got such a
+dreadful disease?"
+
+Pao-yue had no alternative but to get out of the way. But in the
+afternoon, he gave out that he was not feeling up to the mark, and
+hurried back to her side again.
+
+The symptoms of Ch'ing Wen's illness were, it is true, grave; yet
+fortunately for her she had ever had to strain her physical strength,
+and not to tax the energies of her mind. Furthermore, she had always
+been frugal in her diet, so that she had never sustained any harm from
+under or over-eating. The custom in the Chia mansion was that as soon as
+any one, irrespective of masters or servants, contracted the slightest
+chill or cough, quiet and starving should invariably be the main things
+observed, the treatment by medicines occupying only a secondary place.
+Hence it was that when the other day she unawares felt unwell, she at
+once abstained from food during two or three days, while she carefully
+also nursed herself by taking proper medicines. And although she
+recently taxed her strength a little too much, she gradually succeeded,
+by attending with extra care to her health for another few days, in
+bringing about her complete recovery.
+
+Of late, his female cousins, who lived in the garden, had been having
+their meals in their rooms, so with the extreme convenience of having a
+fire to prepare drinks and eatables, Pao-yue himself was able, needless
+for us to go into details, to ask for soups and order broths for (Ch'ing
+Wen), with which to recoup her health.
+
+Hsi Jen returned soon after she had followed the funeral of her mother.
+She Yueeh then minutely told Hsi Jen all about Chui Erh's affair, about
+Ch'ing Wen having sent her off, and about Pao-yue having been already
+informed of the fact, and so forth, yet to all this Hsi Jen made no
+further comment than: "what a very hasty disposition (that girl Ch'ing
+Wen has!)."
+
+But consequent upon Li Wan being likewise laid up with a cold, she got
+through the inclemency of the weather; Madame Hsing suffering so much
+from sore eyes that Ying Ch'un and Chou-yen had to go morning and
+evening and wait on her, while she used such medicines as she had; Li
+Wan's brother, having also taken her sister-in-law Li, together with Li
+Wen and Li Ch'i, to spend a few days at his home, and Pao-yue seeing, on
+one hand, Hsi Jen brood without intermission over the memory of her
+mother, and give way to secret grief, and Ch'ing Wen, on the other,
+continue not quite convalescent, there was no one to turn any attention
+to such things as poetical meetings, with the result that several
+occasions, on which they were to have assembled, were passed over
+without anything being done. By this time, the twelfth moon arrived. The
+end of the year was nigh at hand, so Madame Wang and lady Feng were
+engaged in making the necessary annual preparations. But, without
+alluding to Wang Tzu-t'eng, who was promoted to be Lord High
+Commissioner of the Nine Provinces; Chia Yue-ts'un, who filled up the
+post of Chief Inspector of Cavalry, Assistant Grand Councillor, and
+Commissioner of Affairs of State, we will resume our narrative with Chia
+Chen, in the other part of the establishment. After having the Ancestral
+Hall thrown open, he gave orders to the domestics to sweep the place, to
+get ready the various articles, and bring over the ancestral tablets.
+Then he had the upper rooms cleaned, so as to be ready to receive the
+various images that were to be hung about. In the two mansions of Ning
+and Jung, inside as well as outside, above as well as below, everything
+was, therefore, bustle and confusion. As soon as Mrs. Yu, of the Ning
+mansion, put her foot out of bed on this day, she set to work, with the
+assistance of Chia Jung's wife, to prepare such needlework and presents
+as had to be sent over to dowager lady Chia's portion of the
+establishment, when it so happened that a servant-girl broke in upon
+them with a tea-tray in hand, containing ingots of silver of the kind
+given the evening before new year.
+
+"Hsing Erh," she said, "informs your ladyship that the pieces of gold in
+that bundle of the other day amount in all to one hundred and
+fifty-three taels, one mace and seven candareens; and that the ingots of
+pure metal and those not, contained in here, number all together two
+hundred and twenty."
+
+With these words, she presented the tray. Mrs. Yu passed the ingots
+under survey. She found some resembling plum-blossom; others peonies.
+Among them were some with pens and 'as you like,' (importing "your
+wishes are bound to be fulfilled);" and others representing the eight
+precious things linked together, for use in spring-time.
+
+Mrs. Yu directed that the silver ingots should be made up into a parcel,
+and then she bade Hsing Erh take them and deliver them immediately
+inside.
+
+The servant-girl signified her obedience, and went away. But shortly
+Chia Chen arrived for his meal, and Chia Jung's wife withdrew.
+
+"Have we received," thereupon inquired Chia Chen, "the bounty conferred
+(by His Majesty) for our spring sacrifices or not?"
+
+"I've sent Jung Erh to-day to go and receive it," Mrs. Yu rejoined.
+
+"Albeit," continued Chia Chen, "our family can well do without those
+paltry taels, yet they are, whatever their amount may be, an imperial
+gift to us so take them over as soon as you can, and send them to our
+old lady, on the other side, to get ready the sacrifices to our
+ancestors. Above, we shall then receive the Emperor's bounty; below, we
+shall enjoy the goodwill of our progenitors. For no matter if we went so
+far as to spend ten thousand ounces of silver to present offerings to
+our forefathers with, they could not, in the long run, come up this gift
+in high repute. Added to this, we shall be the participators of grace
+and the recipients of blessings. Putting one or two households such as
+our own aside, what resources would those poverty-stricken families of
+hereditary officials have at their command wherewith to offer their
+sacrifices and celebrate the new year, if they could not rely upon this
+money? In very truth, therefore, the imperial favour is vast, and
+allproviding!"
+
+"Your arguments are quite correct!" Mrs. Yu ventured.
+
+But while these two were indulging in this colloquy, they caught sight
+of a messenger, who came and announced: "Our young master has arrived."
+
+Chia Chen accordingly enjoined that he should be told to enter;
+whereupon they saw Chia Jung step into the room and present with both
+hands a small bag made of yellow cloth.
+
+"How is it you've been away the whole day?" Chia Chen asked.
+
+Chia Jung strained a smile. "I didn't receive the money to-day from the
+Board of Rites," he replied. "The issue was again made at the treasury
+of the Kuang Lu temple; so I had once more to trudge away to the Kuang
+Lu temple before I could get it. The various officials in the Kuang Lu
+temple bade me present their compliments to you, father. (They asked me
+to tell you) that they had not seen you for many days, and that they are
+really longing for your company."
+
+"What an idea! Do they care to see me?" Chia Chen laughed. "Why, here's
+the end of the year drawing nigh again; so if they don't hanker after my
+presents, they must long and crave for my entertainments."
+
+While he spoke his eye espied a slip of paper affixed to the yellow
+cloth bag, bearing the four large characters, 'the imperial favour is
+everlasting.' On the other side figured also a row of small characters
+with the seal of the Director of Ancestral Worship in the Board of
+Rites. These testified that the enclosed consisted of two shares,
+conferred upon the Ning Kuo duke, Chia Yen, and the Jung Kuo duke, Chia
+Fa, as a bounty (from the Emperor), for sacrifices to them every spring
+in perpetuity, (and gave) the number of taels, computed in pure silver,
+and the year, moon and day, on which they were received in open hall by
+Chia Jung, Controller in the Imperial Prohibited City and Expectant
+Officer of the Guards. The signature of the official in charge of the
+temple for that year was appended below in purple ink.
+
+After Chia Chen had perused the inscription, he finished his meal,
+rinsed his mouth and washed his hands. This over, he changed his shoes
+and hat, and bidding Chia Jung follow him along with the money, he went
+and informed dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang (of the receipt of the
+imperial bounty), and repairing back to the near side, he communicated
+the fact to Chia She and Madame Hsing; after which, he, at length,
+betook himself to his quarters. He then emptied the money and gave
+orders that the bag should be taken and burnt in the large censer in the
+Ancestral Hall.
+
+"Go and ask your aunt Tertia, yonder," he further enjoined Chia Jung,
+"whether the day on which the new year wine is to be drunk has been
+fixed or not? If it has been determined upon, timely notice should be
+given in the library to draw out a proper list in order that when we
+again issue our invitations, there should be no chance of two
+entertainments coming off on the same day. Last year, not sufficient
+care was exercised, and several persons were invited to both mansions on
+the very same occasion. And people didn't say that we hadn't been
+careful enough, but that, as far as appearances went, the two households
+had made up their minds among themselves to show an empty attention,
+prompted by the fear of trouble."
+
+Chia Jung immediately replied that he would attend to his injunctions,
+and not much time elapsed before he brought a list mentioning the days
+on which the inmates were to be invited to partake of the new year wine.
+
+Chia Chen examined it. "Go," he then said, "and give it to Lai Sheng so
+that he may see its contents and invite the guests. But mind he doesn't
+fix anything else for the dates specified in here."
+
+But while watching from the pavilion the servant-boys carrying the
+enclosing screens and rubbing the tables and the gold and silver
+sacrificial utensils, he perceived a lad appear on the scene holding a
+petition and a list, and report that 'Wu, the head-farmer in the Hei
+Shan village, had arrived.' "What does this old executioner come for
+to-day?" Chia Chen exclaimed.
+
+Chia Jung took the petition and the list, and, unfolding them with all
+despatch, he held them up (to his father). Chia Chen however glanced at
+the papers, as they were held by Chia Jung, keeping the while both hands
+behind his back. The petition on red paper ran as follows: "Your
+servant, the head farmer, Wu Chin-hsiao, prostrates himself before his
+master and mistress and wishes them every kind of happiness and good
+health, as well as good health to their worthy scion and daughter. May
+great joy, great blessings, brilliant honours and peace be their share
+in this spring, which is about to dawn! May official promotion and
+increase of emoluments be their lot! May they see in everything the
+accomplishment of their wishes."
+
+Chia Chen smiled. "For a farmer," he remarked, "it has several good
+points!"
+
+"Pay no heed to the style," urged Chia Jung, also smiling; "but to the
+good wishes."
+
+Saying this, he speedily opened the list. The articles mentioned were,
+on examination, found to consist of: "Thirty big deer; five thousand
+musk deer; fifty roebuck deer; twenty Siamese pigs; twenty boiled pigs;
+twenty 'dragon' pigs; twenty wild pigs; twenty home-salted pigs; twenty
+wild sheep; twenty grey sheep; twenty home-boiled sheep; twenty
+home-dried sheep; two hundred sturgeon; two hundred catties of mixed
+fish; live chickens, ducks and geese, two hundred of each; two hundred
+dried chickens, ducks and geese; two hundred pair of pheasants and
+hares; two hundred pair of bears' paws; twenty catties of deer tendons;
+fifty catties of beche-de-mer; fifty deer tongues; fifty ox tongues;
+twenty catties of dried clams; filberts, fir-cones, peaches, apricots
+and squash, two hundred bags of each; fifty pair of salt prawns; two
+hundred catties of dried shrimps; a thousand catties of superfine,
+picked charcoal; two thousand catties of medium charcoal; twenty
+thousand catties of common charcoal; two piculs of red rice, grown in
+the imperial grounds; fifty bushels of greenish, glutinous rice; fifty
+bushels of white glutinous rice; fifty bushels of pounded non-glutinous
+rice; fifty bushels of various kinds of corn and millet; a thousand
+piculs of ordinary common rice. Exclusive of a cartload of every sort of
+vegetables, and irrespective of two thousand five hundred taels, derived
+from the sale of corn and millet and every kind of domestic animals,
+your servant respectfully presents, for your honour's delectation, two
+pair of live deer, four pair of white rabbits, four pair of black
+rabbits, two pair of live variegated fowls, and two pair of duck, from
+western countries."
+
+When Chia Chen had exhausted the list, "Bring him in!" he cried. In a
+little time, he perceived Wu Chin-hsiao make his appearance inside. But
+simply halting in the court, he bumped his head on the ground and paid
+his respects.
+
+Chia Chen desired a servant to raise him up. "You're still so hale!" he
+smiled.
+
+"I don't deceive you, Sir," Wu Chin-hsiao observed, "when I say that
+yours servants are so accustomed to walking, that had we not come, we
+wouldn't have felt exceedingly dull. Isn't the whole crowd of them keen
+upon coming to see what the world is like at the feet of the son of
+heaven? Yet they're, after all, so young in years, that there's the fear
+of their going astray on the way. But, in a few more years, I shall be
+able to appease my solicitude on their account."
+
+"How many days have you been on the way?" Chia Chen inquired.
+
+"To reply to your question, Sir," Wu Chin-hsiao ventured, "so much snow
+has fallen this year that it's everywhere out of town four and five feet
+in depth. The other day, the weather suddenly turned mild, and with the
+thaw that set in, it became so very hard to make any progress that we
+wasted several days. Yet albeit we've been a month and two days in
+accomplishing the journey; it isn't anything excessive. But as I feared
+lest you, Sir, would be giving way to anxiety, didn't I hurry along to
+arrive in good time?"
+
+"How is it, I said, that he's come only to-day!" Chia Chen observed.
+
+"But upon looking over the list just now it seemed to me that you, old
+fossil, had come again to make as much as fun of me, as if you were
+putting up a stage for a boxing-match."
+
+Wu Chin-hsiao hastily drew near a couple of steps. "I must tell you,
+Sir," he remarked, "that the harvest this year hasn't really been good.
+Rain set in ever since the third moon, and there it went on incessantly
+straight up to the eighth moon. Indeed, the weather hasn't kept fine for
+five or six consecutive days. In the ninth moon, there came a storm of
+hail, each stone of which was about the size of a saucer. And over an
+area of the neighbouring two or three hundred li, the men and houses,
+animals and crops, which sustained injury, numbered over thousands and
+ten thousands. Hence it is that the things we've brought now are what
+they are. Your servant would not have the audacity to tell a lie."
+
+Chia Chen knitted his eyebrows. "I had computed," he said, "that the
+very least you would have brought would have been five thousand taels.
+What's this enough for? There are only now eight or nine of you farmers,
+and from two localities reports have contrariwise reached us during the
+course of this very year of the occurrence of droughts; and do you
+people come again to try your larks with us? Why, verily these aren't
+sufficient to see the new year in with."
+
+"And yet," Wu Chin-hsiao argued, "your place can be looked upon as
+having fared well; for my brother, who's only over a hundred li away
+from where I am, has actually fallen in with a vastly different lot! He
+has at present eight farms of that mansion under his control, and these
+considerably larger than those of yours, Sir; and yet this year they too
+have only produced but a few things. So nothing beyond two or three
+thousand taels has been realised. What's more, they've had to borrow
+money."
+
+"Quite so!" Chia Chen exclaimed. "The state of things in my place here
+is passable. I've got no outside outlay. The main thing I have to mind
+is to make provision for a year's necessary expenses. If I launch out
+into luxuries, I have to suffer hardships, so I must try a little
+self-denial and manage to save something. It's the custom, besides, at
+the end of the year to send presents to people and invite others; but
+I'll thicken the skin of my face a bit, (and dispense with both), and
+have done. I'm not like the inmates in that mansion, who have, during
+the last few years, added so many items of expenditure, that it's, of
+course, a matter of impossibility for them to avoid loosening their
+purse strings. But they haven't, on the other hand, made any addition to
+their funds and landed property. During the course of the past year or
+two, they've had to make up many deficits. And if they don't appeal to
+you, to whom can they go?"
+
+Wu Chin-hsiao laughed. "It's true," he said, "that in that mansion many
+items have been added, but money goes out and money comes in. And won't
+the Empress and His Majesty the Emperor bestow their favour?"
+
+At these words, Chia Chen smilingly faced Chia Jung and the other
+inmates. "Just you listen to his arguments!" he exclaimed. "Aren't they
+ridiculous, eh?"
+
+Chia Jung and the rest promptly smiled. "Among your hills and seaboard
+can anything," they observed, "be known with regard to this principle?
+Is it likely, pray, that the Empress will ever make over to us the
+Emperor's treasury? Why, even supposing she may at heart entertain any
+such wish, she herself cannot possibly adopt independent action. Of
+course, she does confer her benefits on them, but this is at stated
+times and fixed periods, and they merely consist of a few coloured
+satins, antiquities, and bric-a-brac. In fact, when she does bestow hard
+cash on them, it doesn't exceed a hundred ounces of silver. But did she
+even give them so much as a thousand and more taels, what would these
+suffice for? During which of the two last years have they not had to
+fork out several thousands of taels? In the first year, the imperial
+consort paid a visit to her parents; and just calculate how much they
+must have run through in laying out that park, and you'll then know how
+they stand! Why, if in another couple of years, the Empress comes and
+pays them a second visit, they'll be, I'm inclined to fancy, regular
+paupers."
+
+"That's why," urged Chia Chen smiling, "country people are such
+unsophisticated creatures, that though they behold what lies on the
+surface, they have no idea of what is inside hidden from view. They're
+just like a piece of yellow cedar made into a mallet for beating the
+sonorous stones with. The exterior looks well enough; but it's all
+bitter inside."
+
+"In very truth," Chia Jung added, laughing also the while, as he
+addressed himself to Chia Chen, "that mansion is impoverished. The other
+day, I heard a consultation held on the sly between aunt Secunda and
+Yuean Yang. What they wanted was to filch our worthy senior's things and
+go and pawn them in order to raise money."
+
+"This is just another devilish trick of that minx Feng!" Chia Chen
+smiled. "How ever could they have reached such straits? She's certain to
+have seen that expenses were great, and that heavy deficits had to be
+squared, so wishing again to curtail some item or other, who knows
+which, she devised this plan as a preparatory step, in order that when
+it came to be generally known, people should say that they had been
+reduced to such poverty. But from the result of the calculations I have
+arrived at in my mind, things haven't as yet attained this climax:"
+
+Continuing, he issued orders to a servant to take Wu Chin-hsiao outside,
+and to treat him with every consideration. But no further mention need
+be made of him.
+
+During this while, Chia Chen gave directions to keep from the various
+perquisites just received such as would prove serviceable for the
+sacrifices to their ancestors, and, selecting a few things of each kind,
+he told Chia Jung to have them taken to the Jung mansion. After this, he
+himself kept what was required for his own use at home; and then
+allotting the rest, with due compliance to gradation, he had share after
+share piled up at the foot of the moon-shaped platform, and sending
+servants to summon the young men of the clan, he distributed them among
+them.
+
+In quick succession, numerous contributions for the ancestral sacrifices
+were likewise sent from the Jung mansion; also presents for Chia Chen.
+Chia Chen inspected the things, and having them removed, he completed
+preparing the sacrificial utensils. Then putting on a pair of slip-shod
+shoes and throwing over his shoulders a long pelisse with 'She-li-sun'
+fur, he bade the servants spread a large wolf-skin rug in a sunny place
+on the stone steps below the pillars of the pavilion, and with his back
+to the warm sun, he leisurely watched the young people come and receive
+the new year gifts. Perceiving that Chia Ch'in had also come to fetch
+his share, Chia Chen called him over. "How is it that you've come too?"
+he asked. "Who told you to come?"
+
+Chia Ch'in respectfully dropped his arms against his sides. "I heard,"
+he replied, "that you, senior Sir, had sent for us to appear before you
+here and receive our presents; so I didn't wait for the servants to go
+and tell me, but came straightway."
+
+"These things," Chia Chen added, "are intended for distribution among
+all those uncles and cousins who have nothing to do and who enjoy no
+source of income. Those two years you had no work, I gave you plenty of
+things too. But you're entrusted at present with some charge in the
+other mansion, and you exercise in the family temples control over the
+bonzes and taoist priests, so that you as well derive every month your
+share of an allowance. Irrespective of that, the allowances and money of
+the Buddhist priests pass through your hands. And do you still come to
+fetch things of this kind? You're far too greedy. Just you look at the
+fineries you wear. Why, they look like the habiliments of one who has
+money to spend, of a regular man of business. You said some time back
+that you had nothing which could bring you in any money, but how is it
+that you've got none again now? You really don't look as if you were in
+the same plight that you were in once upon a time."
+
+"I have in my home a goodly number of inmates," Chia Ch'in explained,
+"so my expenses are great."
+
+Chia Chen gave a saturnine laugh. "Are you trying again to excuse
+yourself with me?" he cried. "Do you flatter yourself that I have no
+idea of your doings in the family temples? When you get there, you, of
+course, play the grand personnage and no one has the courage to run
+counter to your wishes. Then you've also got the handling of money.
+Besides you're far away from us, so you're arrogant and audacious. Night
+after night, you get bad characters together; you gamble for money; and
+you keep women and young boys. And though you now fling away money with
+such a high hand, do you still presume to come and receive gifts? But as
+you can't manage to filch anything to take along with you, it will do
+you good to get beans, with the pole used for carrying water. Wait until
+the new year is over, and then I'll certainly report you to your uncle
+Secundus."
+
+Chia Ch'in got crimson in the face, and did not venture to utter a
+single word by way of extenuation. A servant, however, then announced
+that the Prince from the Pei mansion had sent a pair of scrolls and a
+purse.
+
+At this announcement, Chia Chen immediately told Chia Jung to go out and
+entertain the messengers. "And just say," he added, "that I'm not at
+home."
+
+Chia Jung went on his way. Chia Chen, meanwhile, dismissed Chia Ch'in;
+and, seeing the things taken away, he returned to his quarters and
+finished his evening meal with Mrs. Yu. But nothing of any note occurred
+during that night.
+
+The next day, he had, needless to say, still more things to give his
+mind to. Soon arrived the twenty ninth day of the twelfth moon, and
+everything was in perfect readiness. In the two mansions alike, the gate
+guardian gods and scrolls were renovated. The hanging tablets were newly
+varnished. The peach charms glistened like new. In the Ning Kuo mansion,
+every principal door, starting from the main entrance, the ceremonial
+gates, the doors of the large pavilions, of the winter apartments, and
+inner pavilions, the inner three gates, the inner ceremonial gates and
+the inner boundary gates, straight up to the doors of the main halls,
+was flung wide open. At the bottom of the steps, were placed on either
+side large and lofty vermilion candles, of uniform colour; which when
+lit presented the appearance of a pair of golden dragons.
+
+On the morrow, dowager lady Chia and those with any official status,
+donned the court dress consistent with their grade, and taking first and
+foremost a retinue of inmates with them, they entered the palace in
+eight bearer state chairs, and presented their congratulations. After
+acquitting themselves of the ceremonial rites, and partaking of a
+banquet, they betook themselves back, and alighted from their chairs on
+their arrival at the winter hall of the Ning mansion. The young men, who
+had not followed the party to court, waited, arranged in their proper
+order, in front of the entrance the King mansion, and subsequently led
+the way into the ancestral temple.
+
+But to return to Pao-ch'in. This was the first occasion, on which she
+put her foot inside to look at the inner precincts of the Chia ancestral
+temple, and as she did so, she scrutinized with minute attention all the
+details that met her gaze in the halls dedicated to their forefathers.
+These consisted, in fact, of a distinct courtyard on the west side of
+the Ning mansion. Within the balustrade, painted black, stood five
+apartments. Over the main entrance to these was suspended a flat tablet
+with the inscription in four characters: 'Ancestral hall of the Chia
+family.' On the side of these was recorded the fact that it had been the
+handiwork of Wang Hsi-feng, specially promoted to the rank of Grand
+Tutor of the Heir Apparent, and formerly Chancellor of the Imperial
+Academy. On either side, was one of a pair of scrolls, bearing the
+motto:
+
+ Besmear the earth with your liver and brains, all ye people, out of
+ gratitude for the bounty of (the Emperor's) protection!
+ The reputation (of the Chia family) reaches the very skies. Hundred
+ generations rejoice in the splendour of the sacrifices accorded
+ them.
+
+This too had been executed by Wang, the Grand Tutor.
+
+As soon as the court was entered, a raised road was reached, paved with
+white marble, on both sides of which were planted deep green fir trees,
+and kingfisher-green cypress trees. On the moon-shaped platform were
+laid out antiquities, tripods, libation-vases, and other similar
+articles. In front of the antechamber was hung a gold-coloured flat
+tablet, with nine dragons, and the device:
+
+ Like a dazzling star is the statesman, who assists the Emperor.
+
+This was the autograph of a former Emperor.
+
+On both sides figured a pair of antithetical scrolls, with the motto:
+
+ Their honours equal the sun and moon in lustre.
+ Their fame is without bounds. It descends to their sons and grandsons.
+
+These lines were likewise from the imperial pencil. Over the five-roomed
+main hall was suspended a tablet, inlaid with green, representing
+wriggling dragons. The sentiments consisted of:
+
+ Mindful of the remotest and heedful of the most distant ancestors.
+
+A pair of antithetical scrolls was hung on the sides; on which was
+written:
+
+ After their death, their sons and grandsons enjoy their beneficent
+ virtues.
+ Up to the very present the masses think of the Jung and Ning families.
+
+Both these mottoes owed their origin to the imperial pencil.
+
+Inside, lanterns and candles burnt with resplendent brightness.
+Embroidered curtains and decorated screens were hung in such profusion
+that though a large number of ancestral tablets were placed about they
+could not be clearly discerned. The main thing that struck the eye was
+the inmates of the Chia mansion standing about, on the left and right,
+disposed in their proper order. Chia Ching was overseer of the
+sacrifices. Chia She played the part of assistant. Chia Chen presented
+the cups for libations. Chia Lien and Chia Tsung offered up the strips
+of paper. Pao-yue held the incense. Chia Ch'ang and Chia Ling distributed
+the hassocks and looked after the receptacles for the ashes of
+joss-sticks. The black clad musicians discoursed music. The
+libation-cups were offered thrice in sacrifice. These devotions over,
+paper money was burnt; and libations of wine were poured. After the
+observance of the prescribed rites, the band stopped, and withdrew. The
+whole company then pressed round dowager lady Chia, and repaired to the
+main hall, where the images were placed. The embroidered curtains were
+hung high up. The variegated screens shut in the place from view. The
+fragrant candles burnt with splendour. In the place of honour, of the
+main apartment, were suspended the portraits of two progenitors of the
+Ning and Jung, both of whom were attired in costumes, ornamented with
+dragons, and clasped with belts of jade. On the right and left of them,
+were also arrayed the likenesses of a number of eminent ancestors.
+
+Chia Heng, Chia Chih and the others of the same status stood according
+to their proper grades in a row extending from the inner ceremonial gate
+straight up to the verandah of the main hall. Outside the balustrade
+came at last Chia Ching and Chia She. Inside the balustrade figured the
+various female members of the family. The domestics and pages were
+arrayed beyond the ceremonial gate. As each set of eatables arrived,
+they transmitted them as far as the ceremonial gate, where Chia Heng,
+Chia Chih and his companions were ready to receive them. From one to
+another, they afterwards reached the bottom of the steps and found their
+way into Chia Ching's hands.
+
+Chia Jung, being the eldest grandson of the senior branch, was the only
+person, who penetrated within the precincts of the balustrade reserved
+for the female inmates. So whenever Chia Ching had any offerings to pass
+on, he delivered them to Chia Jung, and Chia Jung gave them to his wife;
+who again handed them to lady Feng, Mrs. Yu, and the several ladies. And
+when these offerings reached the sacrificial altar, they were at length
+surrendered to Madame Wang. Madame Wang thereupon placed them in dowager
+lady Chia's hands, and old lady Chia deposited them on the altar.
+
+Madame Hsing stood on the west-east side of the sacrificial altar, and
+along with old lady Chia, she offered the oblations and laid them in
+their proper places. After the vegetables, rice, soup, sweets, wine and
+tea had been handed up, Chia Jung eventually retired outside and resumed
+his position above Chia Ch'in.
+
+Of the male inmates, whose names were composed with the radical 'wen,'
+'literature,' Chia Ching was at the time the head. Below followed those
+with the radical 'Yue,' 'gem,' led by Chia Chen. Next to these, came the
+inmates with the radical 'ts'ao,' 'grass,' headed by Chia Jung. These
+were arranged in proper order, with due regard to left and right. The
+men figured on the east; the women on the west.
+
+When dowager lady Chia picked up a joss-stick and prostrated herself to
+perform her devotions, one and all fell simultaneously on their knees,
+packing up the five-roomed principal pavilion, the inside as well as
+outside of the three antechambers, the verandahs, the top and bottom of
+the stairs, the interior of the two vermilion avenues so closely with
+all their fineries and embroideries that not the slightest space
+remained vacant among them. Not so much as the caw of a crow struck the
+ear. All that was audible was the report of jingling and tinkling, and
+the sound of the gold bells and jade ornaments slightly rocked to and
+fro. Besides these, the creaking noise made by the shoes of the inmates,
+while getting up and kneeling down.
+
+In a little time, the ceremonies were brought to a close. Chia Ching,
+Chia She and the rest hastily retired and adjourned to the Jung mansion,
+where they waited with the special purpose of paying their obeisance to
+dowager lady Chia.
+
+Mrs. Yu's drawing rooms were entirely covered with red carpets. In the
+centre stood a large gold cloisonne brasier, with three legs, in
+imitation of rhinoceros tusks, washed with gold. On the stove-couch in
+the upper part was laid a new small red hair rug. On it were placed deep
+red back-cushions with embroidered representations of dragons, which
+were embedded among clouds and clasped the character longevity, as well
+as reclining-pillows and sitting-rugs. Covers made of black fox skin
+were moreover thrown over the couch, along with skins of pure white fox
+for sitting-cushions.
+
+Dowager lady Chia was invited to place herself on the couch; and on the
+skin-rugs spread, on either side, two or three of the sisters-in-law, of
+the same standing as old lady Chia, were urged to sit down.
+
+After the necessary arrangements had been concluded, skin rugs were also
+put on the small couch, erected in a horizontal position on the near
+portion of the apartments, and Madame Hsing and the other ladies of her
+age were motioned to seat themselves. On the two sides stood, face to
+face on the floor, twelve chairs carved and lacquered, over which were
+thrown antimacassars and small grey-squirrel rugs, of uniform colour. At
+the foot of each chair was a large copper foot-stove. On these chairs,
+Pao-ch'in and the other young ladies were asked to sit down.
+
+Mrs. Yu took a tray and with her own hands she presented tea to old lady
+Chia. Chia Jung's wife served the rest of their seniors. Subsequently,
+Mrs. Yu helped Madame Hsing too and her contemporaries; and Chia Jung's
+wife then gave tea to the various young ladies; while lady Feng, Li Wan
+and a few others simply remained below, ready to minister to their
+wants. After their tea, Madame Hsing and her compeers were the first to
+rise and come and wait on dowager lady Chia, while she had hers. Dowager
+lady Chia chatted for a time with her old sisters-in-law and then
+desired the servants to look to her chair.
+
+Lady Feng thereupon speedily walked up and supported her to rise to her
+feet.
+
+"The evening meal has long ago been got ready for you, venerable
+ancestor," Mrs. Yu smiled. "You've year by year shown no desire to
+honour us with your presence, but tarry a bit on this occasion and
+partake of some refreshment before you cross over. Is it likely, in
+fact, that we can't come up to that girl Feng?"
+
+"Go on, worthy senior!" laughed lady Feng, as she propped old lady Chia.
+"Let's go home and eat our own. Don't heed what she says!"
+
+"In what bustle and confusion aren't you in over here," smiled dowager
+lady Chia, "with all the sacrifices to our ancestors, and how could you
+stand all the trouble I'm putting you to? I've never, furthermore, had
+every year anything to eat with you; but you've always been in the way
+of sending me things. So isn't it as well that you should again let me
+have a few? And as I'll keep for the next day what I shan't be able to
+get through, won't I thus have a good deal more?"
+
+This remark evoked general laughter.
+
+"Whatever you do," she went on to enjoin her, "mind you depute some
+reliable persons to sit up at night and look after the incense fires;
+but they mustn't let their wits go wool-gathering."
+
+Mrs. Yu gave her to understand that she would see to it, and they
+sallied out, at the same time, into the fore part of the
+winter-apartments. And when Mrs. Yu and her friends went past the
+screen, the pages introduced the bearers, who shouldered the sedan and
+walked out by the main entrance. Then following too in the track of
+Madame Hsing and the other ladies, Mrs. Yu repaired in their company
+into the Jung mansion.
+
+(Dowager lady Chia's) chair had, meanwhile, got beyond the principal
+gateway. Here again were deployed, on the east side of the street, the
+bearers of insignia, the retinue and musicians of the duke of Ning Kuo.
+They crammed the whole extent of the street. Comers and goers were alike
+kept back. No thoroughfare was allowed. Shortly, the Jung mansion was
+reached. The large gates and main entrances were also thrown open
+straight up to the very interior of the compound. On the present
+occasion, however, the bearers did not put the chair down by the winter
+quarters, but passing the main hall, and turning to the west, they
+rested it on their arrival at the near side of dowager lady Chia's
+principal pavilion. The various attendants pressed round old lady Chia
+and followed her into her main apartment, where decorated mats and
+embroidered screens had also been placed about, and everything looked as
+if brand-new.
+
+In the brasier, deposited in the centre of the room, burnt fir and cedar
+incense, and a hundred mixed herbs. The moment dowager lady Chia
+ensconced herself into a seat, an old nurse entered and announced that:
+"the senior ladies had come to pay their respects."
+
+Old lady Chia rose with alacrity to her feet to go and greet them, when
+she perceived that two or three of her old sisters-in-law had already
+stepped inside, so clasping each other's hands, they now laughed, and
+now they pressed each other to sit down. After tea, they took their
+departure; but dowager lady Chia only escorted them as far as the inner
+ceremonial gate, and retracing her footsteps, she came and resumed the
+place of honour. Chia Ching, Chia She and the other seniors then ushered
+the various junior male members of the household into her apartments.
+
+"I put you," smiled old lady Chia, "to ever so much trouble and
+inconvenience from one year's end to another; so don't pay any
+obeisance."
+
+But while she spoke, the men formed themselves into one company, and the
+women into another, and performed their homage, group by group. This
+over, arm-chairs were arranged on the left and on the right; and on
+these chairs they too subsequently seated themselves, according to their
+seniority and gradation, to receive salutations. The men and women
+servants, and the pages and maids employed in the two mansions then
+paid, in like manner, the obeisance consonant with their positions,
+whether high, middle or low; and this ceremony observed, the new year
+money was distributed, together with purses, gold and silver ingots, and
+other presents of the same description. A 'rejoicing together' banquet
+was spread. The men sat on the east; the women on the west. 'T'u Su,'
+new year's day, wine was served; also 'rejoicing together' soup,
+'propitious' fruits, and 'as you like' cakes. At the close of the
+banquet, dowager lady Chia rose and penetrated into the inner chamber
+with the purpose of effecting a change in her costume, so the several
+inmates present could at last disperse and go their own way.
+
+That night, incense was burnt and offerings presented at the various
+altars to Buddha and the kitchen god. In the courtyard of Madame Wang's
+main quarters paper horses and incense for sacrifices to heaven and
+earth were all ready. At the principal entrance of the garden of Broad
+Vista were suspended horn lanterns, which from their lofty places cast
+their bright rays on either side. Every place was hung with street
+lanterns. Every inmate, whether high or low, was got up in gala dress.
+Throughout the whole night, human voices resounded confusedly. The din
+of talking and laughing filled the air. Strings of crackers and rockets
+were let off incessantly.
+
+The morrow came. At the fifth watch, dowager lady Chia and the other
+senior members of the family donned the grand costumes, which accorded
+with their status, and with a complete retinue they entered the palace
+to present their court congratulations; for that day was, in addition,
+the anniversary of Yuean Ch'un's birth. After they had regaled themselves
+at a collation, they wended their way back, and betaking themselves also
+into the Ning mansion, they offered their oblations to their ancestors,
+and then returned home and received the conventional salutations, after
+which they put off their fineries and retired to rest.
+
+None of the relatives and friends, who came to wish their compliments of
+the season, were admitted into (old lady Chia's) presence, but simply
+had a friendly chat with Mrs. Hsueeh and 'sister-in-law' Li, and studied
+their own convenience. Or along with Pao-yue, Pao-ch'ai and the other
+young ladies, they amused themselves by playing the game of war or
+dominoes.
+
+Madame Wang and lady Feng had one day after another their hands full
+with the invitations they had to issue for the new year wine. In the
+halls and courts of the other side theatricals and banquets succeeded
+each other and relations and friends dropped in in an incessant string.
+Bustle reigned for seven or eight consecutive days, before things
+settled down again.
+
+But presently the festival of the full moon of the first month drew
+near, and both mansions, the Ning as well as the Jung, were everywhere
+ornamented with lanterns and decorations. On the eleventh, Chia She
+invited dowager lady Chia and the other inmates. On the next day, Chia
+Chen also entertained his old senior and Madame Wang and lady Feng. But
+for us to record on how many consecutive days invitations were extended
+to them to go and, drink the new year wine, would be an impossible task.
+
+The fifteenth came. On this evening dowager lady Chia gave orders to
+have several banqueting tables laid in the main reception hall, to
+engage a company of young actors, to have every place illuminated with
+flowered lanterns of various colours, and to assemble at a family
+entertainment all the sons, nephews, nieces, grandchildren and
+grandchildren's wives and other members of the two mansions of Ning and
+Jung. As however Chia Ching did not habitually have any wine or take any
+ordinary food, no one went to press him to come.
+
+On the seventeenth, he hastened, at the close of the ancestral
+sacrifices, out of town to chasten himself. In fact, even during the few
+days he spent at home, he merely frequented retired rooms and lonely
+places, and did not take the least interest in any single concern. But
+he need not detain us any further.
+
+As for Chia She, after he had received dowager lady Chia's presents, he
+said good-bye and went away. But old lady Chia herself was perfectly
+aware that she could not conveniently tarry any longer on this side so
+she too followed his example and took her departure.
+
+When Chia She got home, he along with all the guests feasted his eyes on
+the illuminations and drank wine with them, Music and singing deafened
+the ear. Embroidered fineries were everywhere visible. For his way of
+seeking amusement was unlike that customary in this portion of the
+establishment.
+
+In dowager lady Chia's reception hall, ten tables were meanwhile
+arranged. By each table was placed a teapoy. On these teapoys stood
+censers and bottles; three things in all. (In the censers) was burnt
+'Pai ho' palace incense, a gift from his Majesty the Emperor. But small
+pots, about eight inches long, four to five inches broad and two or
+three inches high, adorned with scenery in the shape of rockeries, were
+also placed about. All of which contained fresh flowers. Small foreign
+lacquer trays were likewise to be seen, laden with diminutive painted
+tea-cups of antique ware. Transparent gauze screens with frames of
+carved blackwood, ornamented with a fringe representing flowers and
+giving the text of verses, figured too here and there. In different
+kinds of small old vases were combined together the three friends of
+winter (pine, bamboo and plum,) as well as 'jade-hall,' 'happiness and
+honour,' and other fresh flowers.
+
+At the upper two tables sat 'sister-in-law' Li and Mrs. Hsueeh. On the
+east was only laid a single table. But there as well were placed carved
+screens, covered with dragons, and a short low-footed couch, with a full
+assortment of back-cushions, reclining-cushions and skin-rugs. On the
+couch stood a small teapoy, light and handy, of foreign lacquer, inlaid
+with gold. On the teapoy were arrayed cups, bowls, foreign cloth napkins
+and such things. But on it spectacle case was also conspicuous.
+
+Dowager lady Chia was reposing on the couch. At one time, she chatted
+and laughed with the whole company; at another, she took up her
+spectacles and looked at what was going on on the stage.
+
+"Make allowances," she said, "for my old age. My bones are quite sore;
+so if I be a little out of order in my conduct bear with me, and let us
+entertain each other while I remain in a recumbent position."
+Continuing, she desired Hu Po to make herself comfortable on the couch,
+and take a small club and tap her legs. No table stood below the couch,
+but only a high teapoy. On it were a high stand with tassels,
+flower-vases, incense-burners and other similar articles. But, a small,
+high table, laden with cups and chopsticks, had besides been got ready.
+At the table next to this, the four cousins, Pao-ch'in, Hsiang-yuen,
+Tai-yue and Pao-yue were told to seat themselves. The various viands and
+fruits that were brought in were first presented to dowager lady Chia
+for inspection. If they took her fancy, she kept them at the small
+table. But once tasted by her, they were again removed and placed on
+their table. We could therefore safely say that none but the four
+cousins sat along with their old grandmother.
+
+The seats occupied by Madame Hsing and Madame Wang were below. Lower
+down came Mrs. Yu, Li Wan, lady Feng and Chia Jung's wife. On the west
+sat Pao-ch'ai, Li Wen, Li Ch'i, Chou Yen, Ying Ch'un, and the other
+cousins. On the large pillars, on either side, were suspended, in groups
+of three and five, glass lanterns ornamented with fringes. In front of
+each table stood a candlestick in the shape of drooping lotus leaves.
+The candlesticks contained coloured candles. These lotus leaves were
+provided with enamelled springs, of foreign make, so they could be
+twisted outward, thus screening the rays of the lights and throwing them
+(on the stage), enabling one to watch the plays with exceptional
+distinctness. The window-frames and doors had all been removed. In every
+place figured coloured fringes, and various kinds of court lanterns.
+Inside and outside the verandahs, and under the roofs of the covered
+passages, which stretched on either side, were hung lanterns of
+sheep-horn, glass, embroidered gauze or silk, decorated or painted, of
+satin or of paper.
+
+Round different tables sat Chia Chen, Chia Lien, Chia Huan, Chia Tsung,
+Chia Jung, Chia Yuen, Chia Ch'in, Chia Ch'ang, Chia Ling and other male
+inmates of the family.
+
+Dowager lady Chia had at an early hour likewise sent servants to invite
+the male and female members of the whole clan. But those advanced in
+years were not disposed to take part in any excitement. Some had no one
+at the time to look after things; others too were detained by
+ill-health; and much though these had every wish to be present, they
+were not, after all, in a fit state to come. Some were so envious of
+riches, and so ashamed of their poverty, that they entertained no desire
+to avail themselves of the invitation. Others, what is more, fostered
+such a dislike for, and stood in such awe of, lady Feng that they felt
+bitter towards her and would not accept. Others again were timid and
+shy, and so little accustomed to seeing people, that they could not
+muster sufficient courage to come. Hence it was that despite the large
+number of female relatives in the clan, none came but Chia Lan's mother,
+nee Lou, who brought Chia Lan with her. In the way of men, there were
+only Chia Ch'in, Chia Yuen, Chia Ch'ang and Chia Ling; the four of them
+and no others. The managers, at present under lady Feng's control, were
+however among those who accepted. But albeit there was not a complete
+gathering of the inmates on this occasion, yet, for a small family
+entertainment, sufficient animation characterised the proceedings.
+
+About this time, Lin Chih-hsiao's wife also made her appearance, with
+half a dozen married women who carried three divan tables between them.
+Each table was covered with a red woollen cloth, on which lay a lot of
+cash, picked out clean and of equal size, and recently issued from the
+mint. These were strung together with a deep-red cord. Each couple
+carried a table, so there were in all three tables.
+
+Lin Chih-hsiao's wife directed that two tables should be placed below
+the festive board, round which were seated Mrs. Hsueeh and
+'sister-in-law' Li, and that one should be put at the foot of dowager
+lady Chia's couch.
+
+"Place it in the middle!" old lady Chia exclaimed. "These women have
+never known what good manners mean. Put the table down." Saying this,
+she picked up the cash, and loosening the knots, she unstrung them and
+piled them on the table.
+
+'The reunion in the western chamber' was just being sung. The play was
+drawing to a close. They had reached a part where Yue Shu runs off at
+night in high dudgeon, and Wen Pao jokingly cried out: "You go off with
+your monkey up; but, as luck would have it, this is the very day of the
+fifteenth of the first moon, and a family banquet is being given by the
+old lady in the Jung Kuo mansion, so wait and I'll jump on this horse
+and hurry in and ask for something to eat. I must look sharp!" The joke
+made old lady Chia, and the rest of the company laugh.
+
+"What a dreadful, impish child!" Mrs. Hsueeh and the others exclaimed.
+"Yet poor thing!"
+
+"This child is only just nine years of age," lady Feng interposed.
+
+"He has really made a clever hit!" dowager lady Chia laughed. "Tip him!"
+she shouted.
+
+This shout over, three married women, who has previously got ready
+several small wicker baskets, came up, as soon as they heard the word
+'tip', and, taking the heaps of loose cash piled on the table, they each
+filled a basket full, and, issuing outside, they approached the stage.
+"Dowager lady Chia, Mrs. Hsueeh, and the family relative, Mrs. Li,
+present Wen Pao this money to purchase something to eat with," they
+said.
+
+At the end of these words, they flung the contents of the baskets upon
+the stage. So all then that fell on the ear was the rattle of the cash
+flying in every direction over the boards.
+
+Chia Chen and Chia Lien had, by this time, enjoined the pages to fetch
+big baskets full of cash and have them in readiness. But as, reader, you
+do not know as yet in what way these presents were given, listen to the
+circumstances detailed in the subsequent chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV.
+
+ Dowager lady Chia, nee Shih, does away with rotten old customs.
+ Wang Hsi-feng imitates in jest (the dutiful son), by getting herself
+ up in gaudy theatrical clothes.
+
+
+Chia Chen and Chia Lien had, we will now explain, secretly got ready
+large baskets of cash, so the moment they heard old lady Chia utter the
+word 'tip,' they promptly bade the pages be quick and fling the money.
+The noise of the cash, running on every side of the stage, was all that
+fell on the ear. Dowager lady Chia thoroughly enjoyed it.
+
+The two men then rose to their feet. The pages hastened to lay hold of a
+silver kettle, newly brought in with fresh wine, and to deposit it in
+Chia Lien's hands, who followed Chia Chen with quick step into the inner
+rooms. Chia Chen advanced first up to 'sister-in-law' Li's table, and
+curtseying, he raised her cup, and turned round, whereupon Chia Lien
+quickly filled it to the brim. Next they approached Mrs. Hsueeh's table,
+and they also replenished her cup.
+
+These two ladies lost no time in standing up, and smilingly
+expostulating. "Gentlemen," they said, "please take your seats. What's
+the use of standing on such ceremonies?"
+
+But presently every one, with the exception of the two ladies Mesdames
+Hsing and Wang, quitted the banquet and dropping their arms against
+their bodies they stood on one side. Chia Chen and his companion then
+drew near dowager lady Chia's couch. But the couch was so low that they
+had to stoop on their knees. Chia Chen was in front, and presented the
+cup. Chia Lien was behind, and held the kettle up to her. But
+notwithstanding that only these two offered her wine, Chia Tsung and the
+other young men followed them closely in the order of their age and
+grade; so the moment they saw them kneel, they immediately threw
+themselves on their knees. Pao-yue too prostrated himself at once.
+
+Hsiang-yuen stealthily gave him a push. "What's the use of your now
+following their lead again and falling on your knees?" she said. "But
+since you behave like this, wouldn't it be well if you also went and
+poured wine all round?"
+
+Pao-yue laughed. "Hold on a bit," he rejoined in a low tone, "and I'll go
+and do so."
+
+So speaking, he waited until his two relatives had finished pouring the
+wine and risen to their feet, when he also went and replenished the cups
+of Mesdames Wang and Hsing.
+
+"What about the young ladies?" Chia Chen smilingly asked.
+
+"You people had better be going," old lady Chia and the other ladies
+unanimously observed. "They'll, then, be more at their ease."
+
+At this hint Chia Chen and his companions eventually withdrew. The
+second watch had not, at the time, yet gone. The play that was being
+sung was: 'The eight worthies look at the lanterns,' consisting of eight
+acts; and had now reached a sensational part.
+
+Pao-yue at this stage left the feast and was going out. "Where are you
+off to?" inquired his grandmother Chia. "The crackers outside are
+dreadful. Mind, the lighted pieces of paper falling from above might
+burn you."
+
+Pao-yue smiled. "I'm not going far," he answered. "I'm merely going out
+of the room, and will be back at once."
+
+Dowager lady Chia directed the matrons to "be careful and escort him."
+
+Pao-yue forthwith sallied out; with no other attendants however than She
+Yueeh, Ch'iu Wen and several youthful maids.
+
+"How is it," his grandmother Chia felt obliged so ask, "that I don't see
+anything of Hsi Jen? Is she too now putting on high and mighty airs that
+she only sends these juvenile girls here?"
+
+Madame Wang rose to her feet with all haste. "Her mother," she
+explained, "died the other day; so being in deep mourning, she couldn't
+very well present herself."
+
+Dowager lady Chia nodded her head assentingly. "When one is in service,"
+she smilingly remarked, "there should be no question of mourning or no
+mourning. Is it likely that, if she were still in my pay, she wouldn't
+at present be here? All these practices have quite become precedents!"
+
+Lady Feng crossed over to her. "Had she even not been in mourning
+to-night," she chimed in with a laugh, "she would have had to be in the
+garden and keep an eye over that pile of lanterns, candles, and
+fireworks, as they're most dangerous things. For as soon as any
+theatricals are set on foot in here, who doesn't surreptitiously sneak
+out from the garden to have a look? But as far as she goes, she's
+diligent, and careful of every place. Moreover, when the company
+disperses and brother Pao-yue retires to sleep, everything will be in
+perfect readiness. But, had she also come, that bevy of servants
+wouldn't again have cared a straw for anything; and on his return, after
+the party, the bedding would have been cold, the tea-water wouldn't have
+been ready, and he would have had to put up with every sort of
+discomfort. That's why I told her that there was no need for her to
+come. But should you, dear senior, wish her here, I'll send for her
+straightway and have done."
+
+Old lady Chia lent an ear to her arguments. "What you say," she promptly
+put in, "is perfectly right. You've made better arrangements than I
+could. Quick, don't send for her! But when did her mother die? How is it
+I know nothing about it?"
+
+"Some time ago," lady Feng laughed, "Hsi Jen came in person and told
+you, worthy ancestor, and how is it you've forgotten it?"
+
+"Yes," resumed dowager lady Chia smiling, after some reflection, "I
+remember now. My memory is really not of the best."
+
+At this, everybody gave way to laughter. "How could your venerable
+ladyship," they said, "recollect so many matters?"
+
+Dowager lady Chia thereupon heaved a sigh. "How I remember," she added,
+"the way she served me ever since her youth up; and how she waited upon
+Yuen Erh also; how at last she was given to that prince of devils, and
+how she has slaved away with that imp for the last few years. She is,
+besides, not a slave-girl, born or bred in the place. Nor has she ever
+received any great benefits from our hands. When her mother died, I
+meant to have given her several taels for her burial; but it quite
+slipped from my mind."
+
+"The other day," lady Feng remarked, "Madame Wang presented her with
+forty taels; so that was all right."
+
+At these words, old lady Chia nodded assent. "Yes, never mind about
+that," she observed. "Yuan Yang's mother also died, as it happens, the
+other day; but taking into consideration that both her parents lived in
+the south, I didn't let her return home to observe a period of mourning.
+But as both these girls are now in mourning, why not allow them to live
+together? They'll thus be able to keep each other company. Take a few
+fruits, eatables, and other such things," continuing she bade a matron,
+"and give them to those two girls to eat."
+
+"Would she likely wait until now?" Hu Po laughingly interposed. "Why,
+she joined (Hsi Jen) long ago."
+
+In the course of this conversation, the various inmates partook of some
+more wine, and watched the theatricals.
+
+But we will now turn our attention to Pao-yue. He made his way straight
+into the garden. The matrons saw well enough that he was returning to
+his rooms, but instead of following him in, they ensconced themselves
+near the fire in the tea-room situated by the garden-gate, and made the
+best of the time by drinking and playing cards with the girls in charge
+of the tea. Pao-yue entered the court. The lanterns burnt brightly, yet
+not a human voice was audible. "Have they all, forsooth, gone to sleep?"
+She Yueeh ventured. "Let's walk in gently, and give them a fright!"
+
+Presently, they stepped, on tiptoe, past the mirrored partition-wall. At
+a glance, they discerned Hsi Jen lying on the stove-couch, face to face
+with some other girl. On the opposite side sat two or three old nurses
+nodding, half asleep. Pao-yue conjectured that both the girls were
+plunged in sleep, and was just about to enter, when of a sudden some one
+was heard to heave a sigh and to say: "How evident it is that worldly
+matters are very uncertain! Here you lived all alone in here, while your
+father and mother tarried abroad, and roamed year after year from east
+to west, without any fixed place of abode. I ever thought that you
+wouldn't have been able to be with them at their last moments; but, as
+it happened, (your mother) died in this place this year, and you could,
+after all, stand by her to the end."
+
+"Quite so!" rejoined Hsi Jen. "Even I little expected to be able to see
+any of my parents' funeral. When I broke the news to our Madame Wang,
+she also gave me forty taels. This was really a kind attention on her
+part. I hadn't nevertheless presumed to indulge in any vain hopes."
+
+Pao-yue overheard what was said. Hastily twisting himself round, he
+remarked in a low voice, addressing himself to She Yueeh and her
+companions: "Who would have fancied her also in here? But were I to
+enter, she'll bolt away in another tantrum! Better then that we should
+retrace our steps, and let them quietly have a chat together, eh? Hsi
+Jen was alone, and down in the mouth, so it's a fortunate thing that she
+joined her in such good time."
+
+As he spoke, they once more walked out of the court with gentle tread.
+Pao-yue went to the back of the rockery, and stopping short, he raised
+his clothes. She Yueeh and Ch'iu Wen stood still, and turned their faces
+away. "Stoop," they smiled, "and then loosen your clothes! Be careful
+that the wind doesn't blow on your stomach!"
+
+The two young maids, who followed behind, surmised that he was bent upon
+satisfying a natural want, and they hurried ahead to the tea-room to
+prepare the water.
+
+Just, however, as Pao-yue was crossing over, two married women came in
+sight, advancing from the opposite direction. "Who's there?" they
+inquired.
+
+"Pao-yue is here," Ch'ing Wen answered. "But mind, if you bawl and shout
+like that, you'll give him a start."
+
+The women promptly laughed. "We had no idea," they said, "that we were
+coming, at a great festive time like this, to bring trouble upon
+ourselves! What a lot of hard work must day after day fall to your
+share, young ladies."
+
+Speaking the while, they drew near. She Yueeh and her friends then asked
+them what they were holding in their hands.
+
+"We're taking over," they replied, "some things to the two girls: Miss
+Chin and Miss Hua."
+
+"They're still singing the 'Eight Worthies' outside," She Yueeh went on
+to observe laughingly, "and how is it you're running again to Miss
+Chin's and Miss Hua's before the 'Trouble-first moon-box' has been gone
+through?"
+
+"Take the lid off," Pao-yue cried, "and let me see what there's inside."
+
+Ch'in Wen and She Yueeh at once approached and uncovered the boxes. The
+two women promptly stooped, which enabled Pao-yue to see that the
+contents of the two boxes consisted alike of some of the finest fruits
+and tea-cakes, which had figured at the banquet, and, nodding his head,
+he walked off, while She Yueeh and her friend speedily threw the lids
+down anyhow, and followed in his track.
+
+"Those two dames are pleasant enough," Pao-yue smiled, "and they know how
+to speak decently; but it's they who get quite worn out every day, and
+they contrariwise say that you've got ample to do daily. Now, doesn't
+this amount to bragging and boasting?"
+
+"Those two women," She Yueeh chimed in, "are not bad. But such of them as
+don't know what good manners mean are ignorant to a degree of all
+propriety."
+
+"You, who know what's what," Pao-yue added, "should make allowances for
+that kind of rustic people. You should pity them; that's all."
+
+Speaking, he made his exit out of the garden gate. The matrons had,
+though engaged in drinking and gambling, kept incessantly stepping out
+of doors to furtively keep an eye on his movements, so that the moment
+they perceived Pao-yue appear, they followed him in a body. On their
+arrival in the covered passage of the reception-hall, they espied two
+young waiting-maids; the one with a small basin in her hand; the other
+with a towel thrown over her arm. They also held a bowl and small
+kettle, and had been waiting in that passage for ever so long.
+
+Ch'iu Wen was the first to hastily stretch out her hand and test the
+water. "The older you grow," she cried, "the denser you get! How could
+one ever use this icy-cold water?"
+
+"Miss, look at the weather!" the young maid replied. "I was afraid the
+water would get cold. It was really scalding; is it cold now?"
+
+While she made this rejoinder, an old matron was, by a strange
+coincidence, seen coming along, carrying a jug of hot water. "Dear
+dame," shouted the young maid, "come over and pour some for me in here!"
+
+"My dear girl," the matron responded, "this is for our old mistress to
+brew tea with. I'll tell you what; you'd better go and fetch some
+yourself. Are you perchance afraid lest your feet might grow bigger by
+walking?"
+
+"I don't care whose it is," Ch'iu Wen put in. "If you don't give me any,
+I shall certainly empty our old lady's teapot and wash my hands."
+
+The old matron turned her head; and, catching sight of Ch'iu Wen, she
+there and then raised the jug and poured some of the water.
+
+"That will do!" exclaimed Ch'iu Wen. "With all your years, don't you yet
+know what's what? Who isn't aware that it's for our old mistress? But
+would one presume to ask for what shouldn't be asked for?"
+
+"My eyes are so dim," the matron rejoined with a smile, "that I didn't
+recognise this young lady."
+
+When Pao-yue had washed his hands, the young maid took the small jug and
+filled the bowl; and, as she held it in her hand, Pao-yue rinsed his
+mouth. But Ch'iu Wen and She Yueeh availed themselves likewise of the
+warm water to have a wash; after which, they followed Pao-yue in.
+
+Pao-yue at once asked for a kettle of warm wine, and, starting from
+sister-in-law Li, he began to replenish their cups. (Sister-in-law Li
+and his aunt Hsueeh) pressed him, however, with smiling faces, to take a
+seat; but his grandmother Chia remonstrated. "He's only a youngster,"
+she said, "so let him pour the wine! We must all drain this cup!"
+
+With these words, she quaffed her own cup, leaving no heel-taps.
+Mesdames Hsing and Wang also lost no time in emptying theirs; so Mrs.
+Hsueeh and 'sister-in-law' Li had no alternative but to drain their
+share.
+
+"Fill the cups too of your female cousins, senior or junior," dowager
+lady Chia went on to tell Pao-yue. "And you mayn't pour the wine anyhow.
+Each of you must swallow every drop of your drinks."
+
+Pao-yue upon hearing her wishes, set to work, while signifying his
+assent, to replenish the cups of the several young ladies in their
+proper gradation. But when he got to Tai-yue, she raised the cup, for she
+would not drink any wine herself, and applied it to Pao-yue's lips.
+Pao-yue drained the contents with one breath; upon which Tai-yue gave him
+a smile, and said to him: "I am much obliged to you."
+
+Pao-yue next poured a cup for her. But lady Feng immediately laughed and
+expostulated. "Pao-yue!" she cried, "you mustn't take any cold wine.
+Mind, your hand will tremble, and you won't be able to-morrow to write
+your characters or to draw the bow."
+
+"I'm not having any cold wine," Pao-yue replied.
+
+"I know you're not," lady Feng smiled, "but I simply warn you."
+
+After this, Pao-yue finished helping the rest of the inmates inside, with
+the exception of Chia Jung's wife, for whom he bade a maid fill a cup.
+Then emerging again into the covered passage, he replenished the cups of
+Chia Chen and his companions; after which, he tarried with them for a
+while, and at last walked in and resumed his former seat.
+
+Presently, the soup was brought, and soon after that the 'feast of
+lanterns' cakes were handed round.
+
+Dowager lady Chia gave orders that the play should be interrupted for a
+time. "Those young people," (she said) "are be to pitied! Let them too
+have some hot soup and warm viands. They then can go on again. Take of
+every kind of fruit," she continued, "'feast of lanterns' cakes, and
+other such dainties and give them a few."
+
+The play was shortly stopped. The matrons ushered in a couple of blind
+singing-girls, who often came to the house, and put two benches, on the
+opposite side, for them. Old lady Chia desired them to take a seat, and
+banjos and guitars were then handed to them.
+
+"What stories would you like to hear?" old lady Chia inquired of
+'sister-in-law' Li and Mrs. Hsueeh.
+
+"We don't care what they are;" both of them rejoined with one voice.
+"Any will do!"
+
+"Have you of late added any new stories to your stock?" old lady Chia
+asked.
+
+"We've got a new story," the two girls explained. "It's about an old
+affair of the time of the Five Dynasties, which trod down the T'ang
+dynasty."
+
+"What's its title?" old lady Chia inquired.
+
+"It's called: 'A Feng seeks a Luan in marriage': (the male phoenix asks
+the female phoenix in marriage)," one of the girls answered.
+
+"The title is all very well," dowager lady Chia proceeded, "but why I
+wonder was it ever given to it. First tell us its general purport, and
+if it's interesting, you can continue."
+
+"This story," the girl explained, "treats of the time when the T'ang
+dynasty was extinguished. There lived then one of the gentry, who had
+originally been a denizen of Chin Ling. His name was Wang Chun. He had
+been minister under two reigns. He had, about this time, pleaded old age
+and returned to his home. He had about his knees only one son, called
+Wang Hsi-feng."
+
+When the company heard so far, they began to laugh.
+
+"Now isn't this a duplicate of our girl Feng's name?" old lady Chia
+laughingly exclaimed.
+
+A married woman hurried up and pushed (the girl). "That's the name of
+your lady Secunda," she said, "so don't use it quite so heedlessly!"
+
+"Go on with your story!" dowager lady Chia shouted.
+
+The girl speedily stood up, smiling the while. "We do deserve death!"
+she observed. "We weren't aware that it was our lady's worthy name."
+
+"Why should you be in such fear and trembling?" lady Feng laughed. "Go
+on! There are many duplicate names and duplicate surnames."
+
+The girl then proceeded with her story. "In a certain year," she
+resumed, "his honour old Mr. Wang saw his son Mr. Wang off for the
+capital to be in time for the examinations. One day, he was overtaken by
+a heavy shower of rain and he betook himself into a village for shelter.
+Who'd have thought it, there lived in this village, one of the gentry,
+of the name of Li, who had been an old friend of his honour old Mr.
+Wang, and he kept Mr. Wang junior to put up in his library. This Mr. Li
+had no son, but only a daughter. This young daughter's worthy name was
+Ch'u Luan. She could perform on the lute; she could play chess; and she
+had a knowledge of books and of painting. There was nothing that she did
+not understand."
+
+Old lady Chia eagerly chimed in. "It's no wonder," she said, "that the
+story has been called: 'A Feng seeks a Luan in marriage,' '(a male
+phoenix seeks a female phoenix in marriage).' But you needn't proceed.
+I've already guessed the denouement. There's no doubt that Wang Hsi-feng
+asks for the hand of this Miss Ch'u Luan."
+
+"Your venerable ladyship must really have heard the story before," the
+singing-girl smiled.
+
+"What hasn't our worthy senior heard?" they all exclaimed. "But she's
+quick enough in guessing even unheard of things."
+
+"All these stories run invariably in one line," old lady Chia laughingly
+rejoined. "They're all about pretty girls and scholars. There's no fun
+in them. They abuse people's daughters in every possible way, and then
+they still term them nice pretty girls. They're so concocted that
+there's not even a semblance of truth in them. From the very first, they
+canvass the families of the gentry. If the paterfamilias isn't a
+president of a board; then he's made a minister. The heroine is bound to
+be as lovable as a gem. This young lady is sure to understand all about
+letters, and propriety. She knows every thing and is, in a word, a
+peerless beauty. At the sight of a handsome young man, she pays no heed
+as to whether he be relation or friend, but begins to entertain thoughts
+of the primary affair of her life, and forgets her parents and sets her
+books on one side. She behaves as neither devil nor thief would: so in
+what respect does she resemble a nice pretty girl? Were even her brain
+full of learning, she couldn't be accounted a nice pretty girl, after
+behaving in this manner! Just like a young fellow, whose mind is well
+stored with book-lore, and who goes and plays the robber! Now is it
+likely that the imperial laws would look upon him as a man of parts, and
+that they wouldn't bring against him some charge of robbery? From this
+it's evident that those, who fabricate these stories, contradict
+themselves. Besides, they may, it's true, say that the heroines belong
+to great families of official and literary status, that they're
+conversant with propriety and learning and that their honourable mothers
+too understand books and good manners, but great households like theirs
+must, in spite of the parents having pleaded old age and returned to
+their natives places, contain a great number of inmates; and the nurses,
+maids and attendants on these young ladies must also be many; and how is
+it then that, whenever these stories make reference to such matters, one
+only hears of young ladies with but a single close attendant? What can,
+think for yourselves, all the other people be up to? Indeed, what is
+said before doesn't accord with what comes afterwards. Isn't it so, eh?"
+
+The party listened to her with much glee. "These criticisms of yours,
+venerable ancestor," they said, "have laid bare every single
+discrepancy."
+
+"They have however their reasons," old lady Chia smilingly resumed.
+"Among the writers of these stories, there are some, who begrudge
+people's wealth and honours, or possibly those, who having solicited a
+favour (of the wealthy and honorable), and not obtained the object, upon
+which their wishes were set, have fabricated lies in order to disparage
+people. There is moreover a certain class of persons, who become so
+corrupted by the perusal of such tales that they are not satisfied until
+they themselves pounce upon some nice pretty girl. Hence is it that, for
+fun's sake, they devise all these yarns. But how could such as they ever
+know the principle which prevails in official and literary families? Not
+to speak of the various official and literary families spoken about in
+these anecdotes, take now our own immediate case as an instance. We're
+only such a middle class household, and yet we've got none of those
+occurrences; so don't let her go on spinning these endless yarns. We
+must on no account have any of these stories told us! Why, even the
+maids themselves don't understand any of this sort of language. I've
+been getting so old the last few years, that I felt unawares quite
+melancholy whenever the girls went to live far off, so my wont has been
+to have a few passages recounted to me; but as soon as they got back, I
+at once put a stop to these things."
+
+'Sister-in-law' Li and Mrs. Hsueeh both laughed. "This is just the rule,"
+they said, "which should exist in great families. Not even in our homes
+is any of this confused talk allowed to reach the ears of the young
+people."
+
+Lady Feng came forward and poured some wine. "Enough, that will do!" she
+laughed. "The wine has got quite cold. My dear ancestor, do take a sip
+and moisten your throat with, before you begin again to dilate on
+falsehoods. What we've been having now can well be termed 'Record of a
+discussion on falsehoods.' It has had its origin in this reign, in this
+place, in this year, in this moon, on this day and at this very season.
+But, venerable senior, you've only got one mouth, so you couldn't very
+well simultaneously speak of two families. 'When two flowers open
+together,' the proverb says, 'one person can only speak of one.' But
+whether the stones be true or fictitious, don't let us say anything more
+about them. Let's have the footlights put in order, and look at the
+players. Dear senior, do let these two relatives have a glass of wine
+and see a couple of plays; and you can then start arguing about one
+dynasty after another. Eh, what do you say?"
+
+Saying this, she poured the wine, laughing the while. But she had
+scarcely done speaking before the whole company were convulsed with
+laughter. The two singing girls were themselves unable to keep their
+countenance.
+
+"Lady Secunda," they both exclaimed, "what a sharp tongue you have! Were
+your ladyship to take to story-telling, we really would have nowhere to
+earn our rice."
+
+"Don't be in such overflowing spirits," Mrs. Hsueeh laughed. "There are
+people outside; this isn't like any ordinary occasion."
+
+"There's only my senior brother-in-law Chen outside," lady Feng smiled.
+"And we've been like brother and sister from our youth up. We've romped
+and been up to every mischief to this age together. But all on account
+of my marriage, I've had of late years to stand on ever so many
+ceremonies. Why besides being like brother and sister from the time we
+were small kids, he's anyhow my senior brother-in-law, and I his junior
+sister-in-law. (One among) those twenty four dutiful sons, travestied
+himself in theatrical costume (to amuse his parents), but those fellows
+haven't sufficient spirit to come in some stage togs and try and make
+you have a laugh, dear ancestor. I've however succeeded, after ever so
+much exertion, in so diverting you as to induce you to eat a little more
+than you would, and in putting everybody in good humour; and I should be
+thanked by one and all of you; it's only right that I should. But can it
+be that you will, on the contrary, poke fun at me?"
+
+"I've truly not had a hearty laugh the last few days," old lady Chia
+smiled, "but thanks to the funny things she recounted just now, I've
+managed to get in somewhat better spirits in here. So I'll have another
+cup of wine." Then having drunk her wine, "Pao-yue," she went on to say,
+"come and present a cup to your sister-in-law!"
+
+Lady Feng gave a smile. "There's no use for him to give me any wine,"
+she ventured. "(I'll drink out of your cup,) so as to bring upon myself
+your longevity, venerable ancestor."
+
+While uttering this response, she raised dowager lady Chia's cup to her
+lips, and drained the remaining half of the contents; after which, she
+handed the cup to a waiting-maid, who took one from those which had been
+rinsed with tepid water, and brought it to her. But in due course, the
+cups from the various tables were cleared, and clean ones, washed in
+warm water, were substituted; and when fresh wine had been served round,
+(lady Feng and the maid) resumed their seats.
+
+"Venerable lady," a singing-girl put in, "you don't like the stories we
+tell; but may we thrum a song for you?"
+
+"You two," remarked old lady Chia, "had better play a duet of the
+'Chiang Chuen ling' song: 'the general's command.'"
+
+Hearing her wishes, the two girls promptly tuned their cords, to suit
+the pitch of the song, and struck up on their guitars.
+
+"What watch of the night is it?" old lady Chia at this point inquired.
+
+"It's the third watch," the matrons replied with alacrity.
+
+"No wonder it has got so chilly and damp!" old lady Chia added.
+
+Extra clothes were accordingly soon fetched by the servants and maids.
+
+Madame Wang speedily rose to her feet and forced a smile. "Venerable
+senior," she said, "wouldn't it be prudent for you to move on to the
+stove couch in the winter apartments? It would be as well. These two
+relatives are no strangers. And if we entertain them, it will he all
+right."
+
+"Well, in that case," dowager lady Chia smilingly rejoined, "why
+shouldn't the whole company adjourn inside? Wouldn't it be warmer for us
+all?"
+
+"I'm afraid there isn't enough sitting room for every one of us," Madame
+Wang explained.
+
+"I've got a plan," old lady Chia added. "We can now dispense with these
+tables. All we need are two or three, placed side by side; we can then
+sit in a group, and by bundling together it will be both sociable as
+well as warm."
+
+"Yes, this will be nice!" one and all cried.
+
+Assenting, they forthwith rose from table. The married women hastened to
+remove the debandade of the banquet. Then placing three large tables
+lengthways side by side in the inner rooms, they went on to properly
+arrange the fruits and viands, some of which had been replenished,
+others changed.
+
+"You must none of you stand on any ceremonies!" dowager lady Chia
+observed. "If you just listen while I allot you your places, and sit
+down accordingly, it will be all right!"
+
+Continuing, she motioned to Mrs. Hsueeh and 'sister-in-law' Li to take
+the upper seats on the side of honour, and, making herself comfortable
+on the west, she bade the three cousins Pao-ch'in, Tai-yue and Hsian-yuen
+sit close to her on the left and on the right. "Pao-yue," she proceeded
+"you must go next to your mother." So presently she put Pao-yue, and
+Pao-ch'ai and the rest of the young ladies between Mesdames Hsing and
+Wang. On the west, she placed, in proper gradation, dame Lou, along with
+Chia Lan, and Mrs. Yu and Li Wan, with Chia Lan, (number two,) between
+them. While she assigned a chair to Chia Jung's wife among the lower
+seats, put crosswise. "Brother Chen," old lady Chia cried, "take your
+cousins and be off! I'm also going to sleep in a little time."
+
+Chia Chen and his associates speedily expressed their obedience, and
+made, in a body, their appearance inside again to listen to any
+injunctions she might have to give them.
+
+"Bundle yourself away at once!" shouted dowager lady Chia. "You needn't
+come in. We've just sat down, and you'll make us get up again. Go and
+rest; be quick! To-morrow, there are to be some more grand doings!" Chia
+Chen assented with alacrity. "But Jung Erh should remain to replenish
+the cups," he smiled; "it's only fair that he should."
+
+"Quite so!" answered old lady Chia laughingly. "I forgot all about him."
+
+"Yes!" acquiesced Chia Chen. Then twisting himself round, he led Chia
+Lien and his companions out of the apartment.
+
+(Chia Chen and Chia Lien) were, of course, both pleased at being able to
+get away. So bidding the servants see Chia Tsung and Chia Huang to their
+respective homes, (Chia Chen) arranged with Chia Lien to go in pursuit
+of pleasure and in quest of fun. But we will now leave them to their own
+devices without another word.
+
+"I was just thinking," meanwhile dowager lady Chia laughed, "that it
+would be well, although you people are numerous enough to enjoy
+yourselves, to have a couple of great-grandchildren present at this
+banquet, so Jung Erh now makes the full complement. But Jung Erh sit
+near your wife, for she and you will then make the pair complete."
+
+The wife of a domestic thereupon presented a play-bill.
+
+"We, ladies," old lady Chia demurred, "are now chatting in high glee,
+and are about to start a romp. Those young folks have, also, been
+sitting up so far into the night that they must be quite cold, so let
+the plays alone. Tell them then to have a rest. Yet call our own girls
+to come and sing a couple of plays on this stage. They too will thus
+have a chance of watching us a bit."
+
+After lending an ear to her, the married women assented and quitted the
+room. And immediately finding some servant to go to the garden of Broad
+Vista and summon the girls, they betook themselves, at the same time, as
+far as the second gate and called a few pages to wait on them.
+
+The pages went with hurried step to the rooms reserved for the players,
+and taking with them the various grown-up members of the company, they
+only left the more youthful behind. Then fetching, in a little time, Wen
+Kuan and a few other girls, twelve in all, from among the novices in the
+Pear Fragrance court, they egressed by the corner gate leading out of
+the covered passage. The matrons took soft bundles in their arms, as
+their strength was not equal to carrying boxes. And under the conviction
+that their old mistress would prefer plays of three or five acts, they
+had put together the necessary theatrical costumes.
+
+After Wen Kuan and the rest of the girls had been introduced into the
+room by the matrons, they paid their obeisance, and, dropping their arms
+against their sides, they stood reverentially.
+
+"In this propitious first moon," old lady Chia smiled, "won't your
+teacher let you come out for a stroll? What are you singing now? The
+eight acts of the 'Eight worthies' recently sung here were so noisy,
+that they made my head ache; so you'd better let us have something more
+quiet. You must however bear in mind that Mrs. Hsueeh and Mrs. Li are
+both people, who give theatricals, and have heard I don't know how many
+fine plays. The young ladies here have seen better plays than our own
+girls; and they have heard more beautiful songs than they. These
+actresses, you see here now, formed once, despite their youth, part of a
+company belonging to renowned families, fond of plays; and though mere
+children, they excel any troupe composed of grown-up persons. So
+whatever we do, don't let us say anything disparaging about them. But we
+must now have something new. Tell Fang Kuan to sing us the 'Hsuen Meng'
+ballad; and let only flutes and Pandean pipes be used. The other
+instruments can be dispensed with."
+
+"Your venerable ladyship is quite right," Wen Kuan smiled. "Our acting
+couldn't, certainly, suit the taste of such people as Mrs. Hsueeh, Mrs.
+Li and the young ladies. Nevertheless, let them merely heed our
+enunciation, and listen to our voices; that's all."
+
+"Well said!" dowager lady Chia laughed.
+
+'Sister-in-law' Li and Mrs. Hsueeh were filled with delight. "What a
+sharp girl!" they remarked smilingly. "But do you also try to imitate
+our old lady by pulling our leg?"
+
+"They're intended to afford us some ready-at-hand recreation," old lady
+Chia smiled. "Besides, they don't go out to earn money. That's how it is
+they are not so much up to the times." At the close of this remark, she
+also desired K'uei Kuan to sing the play: 'Hui Ming sends a letter.'
+"You needn't," she added, "make your face up. Just sing this couple of
+plays so as to merely let both those ladies hear a kind of parody of
+them. But if you spare yourselves the least exertion, I shall be
+unhappy."
+
+When they heard this, Wen Kuan and her companions left the apartment and
+promptly apparelled themselves and mounted the stage. First in order,
+was sung the 'Hsuen Meng;' next, '(Hui Ming) sends a letter;' during
+which, everybody observed such perfect silence that not so much as the
+caw of a crow fell on the ear.
+
+"I've verily seen several hundreds of companies," Mrs. Hsueeh smiled,
+"but never have I come across any that confined themselves to flutes."
+
+"There are some," dowager lady Chia answered. "In fact, in that play
+acted just now called: 'Love in the western tower at Ch'u Ch'iang,'
+there's a good deal sung by young actors in unison with the flutes. But
+lengthy unison pieces of this description are indeed few. This too,
+however, is purely a matter of taste; there's nothing out of the way
+about it. When I was of her age," resuming, she pointed at Hsiang-yuen,
+"her grandfather kept a troupe of young actresses. There was among them
+one, who played the lute so efficiently that she performed the part when
+the lute is heard in the 'Hsi Hsiang Chi,' the piece on the lute in the
+'Yue Ts'an Chi,' and that in the supplementary 'P'i Pa Chi,' on the
+Mongol flageolet with the eighteen notes, in every way as if she had
+been placed in the real circumstances herself. Yea, far better than
+this!"
+
+"This is still rarer a thing!" the inmates exclaimed.
+
+Old lady Chia then shortly called the married women, and bade them tell
+Wen Kuan and the other girls to use both wind and string instruments and
+render the piece; 'At the feast of lanterns, the moon is round.'
+
+The women servants received her orders and went to execute them. Chia
+Jung and his wife meanwhile passed the wine round.
+
+When lady Feng saw dowager lady Chia in most exuberant spirits, she
+smiled. "Won't it be nice," she said, "to avail ourselves of the
+presence of the singing girls to pass plum blossom round and have the
+game of forfeits: 'Spring-happy eyebrow-corners-go-up,' eh?"
+
+"That's a fine game of forfeits!" Old lady Chia cried, with a smile. "It
+just suits the time of the year."
+
+Orders were therefore given at once to fetch a forfeit drum, varnished
+black, and ornamented with designs executed with copper tacks. When
+brought, it was handed to the singing girls to put on the table and rap
+on it. A twig of red plum blossom was then obtained. "The one in whose
+hand it is when the drum stops," dowager lady Chia laughingly proposed,
+"will have to drink a cup of wine, and to say something or other as
+well."
+
+"I'll tell you what," lady Feng interposed with a smile. "Who of us can
+pit herself against you, dear ancestor, who have ever ready at hand
+whatever you want to say? With the little use we are in this line, won't
+there be an absolute lack of fun in our contributions? My idea is that
+it would be nicer were something said that could be appreciated both by
+the refined as well as the unrefined. So won't it be preferable that the
+person, in whose hands the twig remains, when the drum stops, should
+crack some joke or other?"
+
+Every one, who heard her, was fully aware what a good hand she had
+always been at witty things, and how she, more than any other, had an
+inexhaustible supply of novel and amusing rules of forfeits, ever
+stocked in her mind, so her suggestion not only gratified the various
+inmates of the family seated at the banquet, but even filled the whole
+posse of servants, both old and young, who stood in attendance below,
+with intense delight. The young waiting-maids rushed with eagerness in
+search of the young ladies and told them to come and listen to their
+lady Secunda, who was on the point again of saying funny things. A whole
+crowd of servant-girls anxiously pressed inside and crammed the room. In
+a little time, the theatricals were brought to a close, and the music
+was stopped. Dowager lady Chia had some soup, fine cakes and fruits
+handed to Wen Kuan and her companions to regale themselves with, and
+then gave orders to sound the drum. The singing-girls were both experts,
+so now they beat fast; and now slow. Either slow like the dripping of
+the remnants of water in a clepsydra. Or quick, as when beans are being
+sown. Or with the velocity of the pace of a scared horse, or that of the
+flash of a swift lightning. The sound of the drum came to a standstill
+abruptly. The twig of plum blossom had just reached old lady Chia, when
+by a strange coincidence, the rattle ceased. Every one blurted out into
+a boisterous fit of laughter. Chia Jung hastily approached and filled a
+cup. "It's only natural," they laughingly cried, "that you venerable
+senior, should be the first to get exhilarated; for then, thanks to you,
+we shall also come in for some measure of good cheer."
+
+"To gulp down this wine is an easy job," dowager lady smiled, "but to
+crack jokes is somewhat difficult."
+
+"Your jokes, dear ancestor, are even wittier than those of lady Feng,"
+the party shouted, "so favour us with one, and let's have a laugh!"
+
+"I've nothing out of the way to evoke laughter with," old lady Chia
+smilingly answered. "Yet all that remains for me to do is to thicken the
+skin of my antiquated phiz and come out with some joke. In a certain
+family," she consequently went on to narrate, "there were ten sons;
+these married ten wives. The tenth of these wives was, however, so
+intelligent, sharp, quick of mind, and glib of tongue, that her father
+and mother-in-law loved her best of all, and maintained from morning to
+night that the other nine were not filial. These nine felt much
+aggrieved and they accordingly took counsel together. 'We nine,' they
+said, 'are filial enough at heart; the only thing is that that shrew has
+the gift of the gab. That's why our father and mother-in-law think her
+so perfect. But to whom can we go and confide our grievance?' One of
+them was struck with an idea. 'Let's go to-morrow,' she proposed, 'to
+the temple of the King of Hell and burn incense. We can then tell the
+King our grudge and ask him how it was that, when he bade us receive
+life and become human beings, he only conferred a glib tongue on that
+vixen and that we were only allotted such blunt mouths?' The eight
+listened to her plan, and were quite enraptured with it. 'This proposal
+is faultless!' they assented. On the next day, they sped in a body to
+the temple of the God of Hell, and after burning incense, the nine
+sisters-in-law slept under the altar, on which their offerings were
+laid. Their nine spirits waited with the special purpose of seeing the
+carriage of the King of Hell arrive; but they waited and waited, and yet
+he did not come. They were just giving way to despair when they espied
+Sun Hsing-che, (the god of monkeys), advancing on a rolling cloud. He
+espied the nine spirits, and felt inclined to take a golden rod and beat
+them. The nine spirits were plunged in terror. Hastily they fell on
+their knees, and pleaded for mercy."
+
+"'What are you up to?' Sun Hsing-che inquired."
+
+"The nine women, with alacrity, told him all."
+
+"After Sun Hsing-che had listened to their confidences, he stamped his
+foot and heaved a sigh. 'Is that the case?' he asked. 'Well, it's lucky
+enough you came across me, for had you waited for the God of Hell, he
+wouldn't have known anything about it.'"
+
+"At these assurances, the nine women gave way to entreaties. 'Great
+saint,' they pleaded, 'if you were to display some commiseration, we
+would be all right.'"
+
+"Sun Hsing-che smiled. 'There's no difficulty in the way,' he observed.
+'On the day on which you ten sisters-in-law came to life, I was, as luck
+would have it, on a visit to the King of Hell's place. So I (saw) him do
+something on the ground, and the junior sister-of-law of yours lap it
+up. But if you now wish to become smart and sharp-tongued, the remedy
+lies in water. If I too were therefore to do something, and you to drink
+it, the desired effect will be attained.'"
+
+At the close of her story, the company roared with laughter.
+
+"Splendid!" shouted lady Feng. "But luckily we're all slow of tongue and
+dull of intellect, otherwise, we too must have had the water of monkeys
+to drink."
+
+"Who among us here," Mrs. Yu and dame Lou smilingly remarked, addressing
+themselves to Li Wan, "has tasted any monkey's water. So don't sham
+ignorance of things!"
+
+"A joke must hit the point to be amusing," Mrs. Hsueeh ventured.
+
+But while she spoke, (the girls) began again to beat the drum. The young
+maids were keen to hear lady Feng's jokes. They therefore explained to
+the singing girls, in a confidential tone, that a cough would be the
+given signal (for them to desist). In no time (the blossom) was handed
+round on both sides. As soon as it came to lady Feng, the young maids
+purposely gave a cough. The singing-girl at once stopped short. "Now
+we've caught her!" shouted the party laughingly; "drink your wine, be
+quick! And mind you tell something nice! But don't make us laugh so
+heartily as to get stomachaches."
+
+Lady Feng was lost in thought. Presently, she began with a smile. "A
+certain household," she said, "was celebrating the first moon festival.
+The entire family was enjoying the sight of the lanterns, and drinking
+their wine. In real truth unusual excitement prevailed. There were great
+grandmothers, grandmothers, daughters-in-law, grandsons' wives, great
+grandsons, granddaughters, granddaughters-in-law, aunts' granddaughters,
+cousins' granddaughters; and ai-yo-yo, there was verily such a bustle
+and confusion!"
+
+While minding her story, they laughed. "Listen to all this mean mouth
+says!" they cried. "We wonder what other ramifications she won't
+introduce!"
+
+"If you want to bully me," Mrs. Yu smiled, "I'll tear that mouth of
+yours to pieces."
+
+Lady Feng rose to her feet and clapped her hands.
+
+"One does all one can to rack one's brain," she smiled, "and here you
+combine to do your utmost to confuse me! Well, if it is so, I won't go
+on."
+
+"Proceed with your story," old lady Chia exclaimed with a smile. "What
+comes afterwards?"
+
+Lady Feng thought for a while. "Well, after that," she continued
+laughingly, "they all sat together and crammed the whole room. They
+primed themselves with wine throughout the hours of night and then they
+broke up."
+
+The various inmates noticed in what a serious and sedate manner she
+narrated her story, and none ventured to pass any further remarks, but
+waited anxiously for her to go on, when they became aware that she
+coldly and drily came to a stop.
+
+Shih Hsiang-yuen stared at her for ever so long.
+
+"I'll tell you another," lady Feng laughingly remarked. "At the first
+moon festival, several persons carried a cracker as large as a room and
+went out of town to let it off. Over and above ten thousand persons were
+attracted, and they followed to see the sight. One among them was of an
+impatient disposition. He could not reconcile himself to wait; so
+stealthily he snatched a joss-stick and set fire to it. A sound of
+'pu-ch'ih' was heard. The whole number of spectators laughed
+boisterously and withdrew. The persons, who carried the cracker, felt a
+grudge against the cracker-seller for not having made it tight, (and
+wondered) how it was that every one had left without hearing it go off."
+
+"Is it likely that the men themselves didn't hear the report?"
+Hsiang-yuen insinuated.
+
+"Why, the men themselves were deaf," lady Feng rejoined.
+
+After listening to her, they pondered for a while, and then suddenly
+they laughed aloud in chorus. But remembering that her first story had
+been left unfinished, they inquired of her: "What was, after all, the
+issue of the first story? You should conclude that too."
+
+Lady Feng gave a rap on the table with her hand. "How vexatious you
+are!" she exclaimed. "Well, the next day was the sixteenth; so the
+festivities of the year were over, and the feast itself was past and
+gone. I see people busy putting things away, and fussing about still, so
+how can I make out what will be the end of it all?"
+
+At this, one and all indulged in renewed merriment.
+
+"The fourth watch has long ago been struck outside," lady Feng smilingly
+said. "From what I can see, our worthy senior is also tired out; and we
+should, like when the cracker was let off in that story of the deaf
+people, be bundling ourselves off and finish!"
+
+Mrs. Yu and the rest covered their mouths with their handkerchiefs and
+laughed. Now they stooped forward; and now they bent backward. And
+pointing at her, "This thing," they cried, "has really a mean tongue."
+
+Old lady Chia laughed. "Yes," she said, "this vixen Feng has, in real
+truth, developed a meaner tongue than ever! But she alluded to
+crackers," she added, "so let's also let off a few fireworks so as to
+counteract the fumes of the wine."
+
+Chia Jung overheard the suggestion. Hurriedly leaving the room, he took
+the pages with him, and having a scaffolding erected in the court, they
+hung up the fireworks, and got everything in perfect readiness. These
+fireworks were articles of tribute, sent from different states, and
+were, albeit not large in size, contrived with extreme ingenuity. The
+representations of various kinds of events of antiquity were perfect,
+and in them were inserted all sorts of crackers.
+
+Lin Tai-yue was naturally of a weak disposition, so she could not stand
+the report of any loud intonation. Her grandmother Chia therefore
+clasped her immediately in her embrace. Mrs. Hsueeh, meanwhile, took
+Hsiang-yuen in her arms.
+
+"I'm not afraid," smiled Hsiang-yuen.
+
+"Nothing she likes so much as letting off huge crackers," Pao-ch'ai
+smilingly interposed, "and could she fear this sort of thing?"
+
+Madame Wang, thereupon, laid hold of Pao-yue, and pulled him in her lap.
+
+"We've got no one to care a rap for us," lady Feng laughed.
+
+"I'm here for you," Mrs. Yu rejoined with a laugh. "I'll embrace you.
+There you're again behaving like a spoilt child. You've heard about
+crackers, and you comport yourself as if you'd had honey to eat! You're
+quite frivolous again to-day!"
+
+"Wait till we break up," lady Feng answered laughing, "and we'll go and
+let some off in our garden. I can fire them far better than any of the
+young lads!"
+
+While they bandied words, one kind of firework after another was lighted
+outside, and then later on some more again. Among these figured
+'fill-heaven-stars;' 'nine dragons-enter-clouds;' 'over-whole-land-a-
+crack-of-thunder;' 'fly-up-heavens;' 'sound-ten shots,' and other such
+small crackers.
+
+The fireworks over, the young actresses were again asked to render the
+'Lotus-flowers-fall,' and cash were strewn upon the stage. The young
+girls bustled all over the boards, snatching cash and capering about.
+
+The soup was next brought. "The night is long," old lady Chia said, "and
+somehow or other I feel peckish."
+
+"There's some congee," lady Feng promptly remarked, "prepared with
+duck's meat."
+
+"I'd rather have plain things," dowager lady Chia answered.
+
+"There's also some congee made with non-glutinous rice and powder of
+dates. It's been cooked for the ladies who fast."
+
+"If there's any of this, it will do very well," old lady Chia replied.
+
+While she spoke, orders were given to remove the remnants of the
+banquet, and inside as well as outside; were served every kind of
+_recherche_ small dishes. One and all then partook of some of these
+refreshments, at their pleasure, and rinsing their mouths with tea, they
+afterwards parted.
+
+On the seventeenth, they also repaired, at an early hour, to the Ning
+mansion to present their compliments; and remaining in attendance, while
+the doors of the ancestral hall were closed and the images put away,
+they, at length, returned to their quarters.
+
+Invitations had been issued on this occasion to drink the new year wine
+at Mrs. Hsueeh's residence. But dowager lady Chia had been out on several
+consecutive days, and so tired out did she feel that she withdrew to her
+rooms, after only a short stay.
+
+After the eighteenth, relatives and friends arrived and made their
+formal invitations; or else they came as guests to the banquets given.
+But so little was old lady Chia in a fit state to turn her mind to
+anything that the two ladies, Madame Hsing and lady Feng, had to attend
+between them to everything that cropped up. But Pao-yue as well did not
+go anywhere else than to Wang Tzu-t'eng's, and the excuse he gave out
+was that his grandmother kept him at home to dispel her ennui.
+
+We need not, however, dilate on irrelevant details. In due course, the
+festival of the fifteenth of the first moon passed. But, reader, if you
+have any curiosity to learn any subsequent events, listen to those given
+in the chapter below.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV.
+
+ The stupid secondary wife, dame Chao, needlessly loses her temper and
+ insults her own daughter, T'an Ch'un.
+ The perverse servant-girls are so full of malice that they look down
+ contemptuously on their youthful mistresses.
+
+
+We will now resume our narration with the Jung Mansion. Soon after the
+bustle of the new year festivities, lady Feng who, with the most arduous
+duties she had had to fulfil both before and after the new year, had
+found little time to take proper care of herself, got a miscarriage and
+could not attend to the management of domestic affairs. Day after day
+two and three doctors came and prescribed for her. But lady Feng had
+ever accustomed herself to be hardy, so although unable to go out of
+doors, she nevertheless devised the ways and means for everything, and
+made the various arrangements she deemed necessary, and whatever concern
+suggested itself to her mind, she entrusted to P'ing Erh to lay before
+Madame Wang. But however much people advised her to be careful, she
+would not lend an ear to them. Madame Wang felt as if she had been
+deprived of her right arm. And as she alone had not sufficient energy to
+see to everything, she bestowed her own attention upon such important
+affairs, as turned up, and entrusted, for the time being, all
+miscellaneous domestic matters to the co-operation of Li Wan.
+
+Li Wan had at all times held virtue at a high price, and set but little
+value on talents of any kind, so that she, as a matter of course,
+displayed leniency to those who were placed under her. Madame Wang
+accordingly bade T'an Ch'un combine with Li Wan in the management of the
+household. "In a month," she argued, "lady Feng will be getting all
+right again, and then you can once more hand over charge to her."
+
+Little, however, though one would think it, lady Feng was endowed with a
+poor physique. From her youth up, moreover, she had not known how to
+husband her health; and emulation and contentiousness had, more than
+anything else, combined to undermine her vital energies. Hence it was
+that although her complaint was a simple miscarriage, it had really,
+after all, been the outcome of loss of vigour. After a month symptoms of
+emissions of blood began also to show themselves. And notwithstanding
+her reluctance to utter what she felt every one, at the sight of her
+sallow and emaciated face, readily concluded that she was not nursing
+herself as well as she should.
+
+Madame Wang therefore enjoined her merely to take her medicines and look
+to herself with due care; and she would not allow her to disquiet her
+mind about the least thing. But (lady Feng) herself also gave way to
+misgivings lest her illness should assume some grave phase, and much
+though she laughed with one and all, she was ever mindful to steal time
+to attend to her health, feeling inwardly vexed at not being able to
+soon get back her old strength again. But she had, as it happened, to
+dose herself with medicines and to nurse herself for three whole months,
+before she gradually began to rally and before the discharges stopped by
+degrees. But we will abstain from any reference to these details which
+pertain to the future, suffice it now to add that though Madame Wang
+noticed her improved state, (she thought it) impossible for the time
+being for T'an Ch'un and Li Wan to resign their charge. But so fidgetty
+was she lest with the large number of inmates in the garden proper
+control should not be exercised that she specially sent for Pao-ch'ai
+and begged of her to keep an eye over every place, explaining to her
+that the old matrons were of no earthly use, for whenever they could
+obtain any leisure, they drank and gambled; and slept during broad
+daylight, while they played at cards during the hours of night. "I know
+all about their doings," (she said). "When that girl Feng is well enough
+to go out, they have some little fear. But they're bound at present to
+consult again their own convenience. Yet you, dear child, are one in
+whom I can repose complete trust. Your brother and your female cousins
+are, on the one hand, young; and I can, on the other, afford no spare
+time; so do exert yourself on my behalf for a couple of days, and
+exercise proper supervision. And should anything unexpected turn up,
+just come and tell it to me. Don't wait until our old lady inquires
+about it, as I shall then find myself in a corner with nothing to say in
+my defence. If those servants aren't on their good behaviour, mind you
+blow them up; and if they don't listen to you, come and lay your
+complaint before me; for it will be best not to let anything assume a
+serious aspect."
+
+Pao-ch'ai listened to her appeal and felt under the necessity of
+volunteering to undertake the charge.
+
+The season was about the close of spring, so Tai-yue got her cough back
+again. But Hsiang-yuen was likewise laid up in the Heng Wu Yuean, as she
+too was affected by the weather, and day after day she saw numberless
+doctors and took endless medicines.
+
+T'an Ch'un and Li Wan lived apart, but as they had of late assumed joint
+management of affairs, it was, unlike former years, extremely
+inconvenient even for the servants to go backwards and forwards to make
+their reports. They consequently resolved that they should meet early
+every day in the small three-roomed reception-hall, at the south side of
+the garden gate, to transact what business there was, and that their
+morning meal over, they should after noon return again to their
+quarters.
+
+This three-roomed hall had originally been got ready at the time of the
+visit of the imperial consort to her parents, to accommodate the
+attendants and eunuchs. This visit over, it proved, therefore, no longer
+of use, and the old matrons simply came to it every night to keep watch.
+But mild weather had now set in, and any complete fittings were quite
+superfluous. All that could be seen about amounted to a few small pieces
+of furniture just sufficient for them to make themselves comfortable
+with. Over this hall was likewise affixed a placard, with the
+inscription in four characters:
+
+ "Perfected philanthropy, published virtue!"
+
+Yet the place was generally known among the domestics as 'the
+discuss-matters-hall.' To this hall, (Li Wan and T'an Ch'un) would daily
+adjourn at six in the morning, and leave it at noon, and the wives of
+the managers and other servants, who had any matters to lay before them,
+came and went in incessant strings.
+
+When the domestics heard that Li Wan would assume sole control, each and
+all felt secretly elated; for as Li Wan had always been considerate,
+forbearing and loth to inflict penalties, she would be, of course, they
+thought, easier to put off than lady Feng. Even when T'an Ch'un was
+added, they again remembered that she was only a youthful unmarried girl
+and that she too had ever shown herself goodnatured and kindly to a
+degree, so none of them worried their minds about her, and they became
+considerably more indolent than when they had to deal with lady Feng.
+But after the expiry of three or four days several concerns passed
+through her hands, which gave them an opportunity to gradually find out
+that T'an Ch'un did not, in smartness and thoroughness, yield to lady
+Feng, and that the only difference between them was that she was soft in
+speech and gentle in disposition. By a remarkable coincidence, princes,
+dukes, marquises, earls, and hereditary officials arrived for
+consecutive days from various parts; all of whom were, if not the
+relatives of the Jung and Ning mansions, at least their old friends.
+There were either those who had obtained transfers on promotion, or
+others who had been degraded; either those, who had married, or those
+who had gone into mourning, and Madame Wang had so much congratulating
+and condoling, receiving and escorting to do that she had no time to
+attend to any entertaining. There was therefore less than ever any one
+in the front part to look after things. So while (T'an Ch'un and Li Wan)
+spent their whole days in the hall, Pao-ch'ai tarried all day in the
+drawing-rooms, to keep an eye over what was going on; and they only
+betook themselves back to their quarters after Madame Wang's return. Of
+a night, they whiled away their leisure hours by doing needlework; but
+they would, previous to retiring to sleep, get into their chairs, and,
+taking along with them the servants, whose duty it was to be on night
+watch in the garden, and other domestics as well, they visited each
+place on their round. Such was the control exercised by these three
+inmates that signs were not wanting to prove that greater severity was
+observed than in the days when the management devolved on lady Feng. To
+this reason must be assigned the fact that all the servants attached
+inside as well as outside cherished a secret grudge against them. "No
+sooner," they insinuated, "has one patrolling ogre come than they add
+three more cerberean sort of spring josses so that even at night we've
+got less time than ever to sip a cup of wine and indulge in a romp!"
+
+On the day that Madame Wang was going to a banquet at the mansion of the
+Marquis of Chin Hsiang, Li Wan and T'an Ch'un arranged their coiffure
+and performed their ablutions at an early hour; and after waiting upon
+her until she went out of doors, they repaired into the hall and
+installed themselves in their seats. But just as they were sipping their
+tea, they espied Wu Hsin-teng's wife walk in. "Mrs. Chao's brother, Chao
+Kuo-chi," she observed, "departed this life yesterday; the tidings have
+already been reported to our old mistress and our lady, who said that it
+was all right, and bade me tell you, Miss."
+
+At the close of this announcement, she respectfully dropped her arms
+against her body, and stood aloof without adding another word. The
+servants, who came at this season to lay their reports before (T'an
+Ch'un and Li Wan), mustered no small number. But they all endeavoured to
+find out how their two new mistresses ran the household; for as long
+they managed things properly, one and all willingly resolved to respect
+them, but in the event of the least disagreement or improper step, not
+only did they not submit to them, but they also spread, the moment they
+put their foot outside the second gate, numberless jokes on their
+account and made fun of them. Wu Hsin-teng's wife had thus devised an
+experiment in her own mind. Had she had to deal with lady Feng, she
+would have long ago made an attempt to show off her zeal by proposing
+numerous alternatives and discovering various bygone precedents, and
+then allowed lady Feng to make her own choice and take action; but, in
+this instance, she looked with such disdain on Li Wan, on account of her
+simplicity, and on T'an Ch'un, on account of her youthfulness, that she
+volunteered only a single sentence, in order to put both these ladies to
+the test, and see what course they would be likely to adopt.
+
+"What shall we do?" T'an Ch'un asked Li Wan.
+
+Li Wan reflected for a while. "The other day," she rejoined, "that Hsi
+Jen's mother died, I heard that she was given forty taels. So now give
+her forty taels as well and have done!"
+
+Upon hearing this proposal, Wu Hsin-teng's wife eagerly expressed her
+acquiescence, by uttering a yes; and taking over the permit she was
+going on her way at once.
+
+"Come back," shouted T'an Ch'un.
+
+"Wu Hsing-teng's wife had perforce to retrace her footsteps.
+
+"Wait, don't get the money yet," T'an Ch'un remarked. "I want to ask you
+something. Some of the old secondary wives, attached years back to our
+venerable senior's rooms, lived inside the establishment; others
+outside; there were these two distinctions between them. Now if any of
+them died at home, how much was allowed them? And how much was allotted
+to such as died outside? Tell us what was given in either case for our
+guidance."
+
+As soon as Wu Hsin-teng's wife was asked this question, every detail
+bearing on the subject slipped from her memory. Hastily forcing a smile,
+"This is," she replied, "nothing of any such great consequence. Whether
+much or little be allowed, who'll ever venture to raise a quarrel about
+it?"
+
+T'an Ch'un then smiled. "This is all stuff and nonsense!" she exclaimed.
+"My idea is that it would be better to give a hundred taels. For if we
+don't comply with what's right, we shall, not to speak of your
+ridiculing us, find it also a hard job by and bye to face your mistress
+Secunda."
+
+"Well, in that case," laughed Wu Hsin-teng's wife, "I'll go and look up
+the old accounts. I can't recollect anything about them just at this
+moment."
+
+"You're quite an old hand in the management of affairs," T'an Ch'un
+observed with a significant smile, "and can't you remember, but come
+instead to perplex us? Whenever you've had anything of the kind to lay
+before your lady Secunda, have you also had to go first and look it up?
+But if this has been the practice, lady Feng can't be looked upon as
+being such a dreadful creature. One could very well call her lenient and
+kind. Yet don't you yet hurry to go and hunt them up and bring them to
+me to see? If we dilly-dally another day, they won't run you people down
+for your coarse-mindedness, but we will seem to have been driven to our
+wits' ends!"
+
+Wu Hsin-teng's wife got quite scarlet in the face. Promptly twisting
+herself round, she quitted the hall; while the whole bevy of married
+women stretched out their tongues significantly.
+
+During her absence, other matters were reported. But in a little while,
+Wu Hsin-teng's wife returned with the old accounts. On inspection, T'an
+Ch'un found that for a couple of secondary wives, who had lived in the
+establishment, twenty-four taels had been granted, and that for two,
+whose quarters had been outside, forty taels had in each case been
+allowed. Besides these two, others were mentioned, who had lived outside
+the mansion; to one of whom a hundred taels had been given, and to the
+other, sixty taels. Under these two records, the reasons were assigned.
+In the one case, the coffins of father and mother had had to be removed
+from another province, and sixty taels extra had consequently been
+granted. In the other, an additional twenty taels had been allowed, as a
+burial-place had to be purchased at the time.
+
+T'an Ch'un handed the accounts to Li Wan for her perusal.
+
+"Give her twenty taels," readily suggested T'an Ch'un. "Leave these
+accounts here for us to examine minutely."
+
+Wu Hsin-teng's wife then walked away. But unexpectedly Mrs. Chao entered
+the hall. Li Wan and T'an Ch'un speedily pressed her to take a seat.
+
+Mrs. Chao then broke the silence. "All the inmates of these rooms have
+trampled me under heel," she said, "but never mind! Yet, my child, just
+ponder, it is only fair that you should take my part."
+
+While ventilating her grievances, her eyes got moist, her nose watered,
+and she began to sob.
+
+"To whom are you alluding Mrs. Chao?" T'an Ch'un hastily inquired. "I
+can't really make out what you're driving at. Who tramples you under
+foot? Speak out and I'll take up your cudgels."
+
+"You're now trampling me down yourself, young lady," Mrs. Chao observed.
+"And to whom can I go and tell my grievance?"
+
+T'an Ch'un, at these words, jumped up with alacrity. "I never would
+presume to do any such thing," she protested.
+
+Li Wan too vehemently sprung to her feet to proffer her some good
+counsel.
+
+"Pray seat yourselves, both of you," Mrs. Chao cried, "and listen to
+what I have to say. I've had, like simmering oil, to consume away in
+these rooms to this advanced age. There's also your brother besides. Yet
+I can't compare myself now even to Hsi Jen, and what credit do I enjoy?
+But you haven't as well any face, so don't let's speak of myself."
+
+"It was really on account of this," T'an Ch'un smiled, "that I said that
+I didn't presume to disregard right and to violate propriety."
+
+While she spoke, she resumed her seat, and taking up the accounts, she
+turned them over for Mrs. Chao to glance at, after which she read them
+out to her for her edification. "These are old customs," she proceeded,
+"enforced by the seniors of the family, and every one complies with
+them, and could I ever, pray, have changed them? These will hold good
+not only with Hsi Jen; but even when by and bye Huan-erh takes a
+concubine, the same course will naturally be adopted as in the case of
+Hsi Jen. This is no question for any large quarrels or small disputes,
+and no mention should be made about face or no face. She's our Madame
+Wang's servant-girl, and I've dealt with her according to a
+long-standing precedent. Those who say that I've taken suitable action
+will come in for our ancestors' bounty and our lady's bounty as well.
+But should any one uphold that I've adopted an unfair course, that
+person is devoid of all common sense and totally ignorant of what a
+blessing means. The only thing she can do is to foster as much
+resentment as she chooses. Our lady, Madame Wang, may even give a
+present of a house to any one; what credit is that to me? Again, she may
+not give a single cash, but even that won't imply any loss of face, as
+far as I am concerned. What I have to say is that as Madame Wang is away
+from home, you should quietly look after yourself a bit. What's the good
+of worrying and fretting? Our lady is extremely fond of me; and, if, at
+different times, a chilliness has sprung up on her part, it's because
+you, Mrs. Chao, have again and again been officious. Had I been a man
+and able to have gone abroad, I would long ago have run away and started
+some business. I would then have had something of my own to attend to.
+But, as it happens, I am a girl, so that I can't even recklessly utter
+so much as a single remark. Madame Wang is well aware of it in her
+heart. And it's now because she entertains a high opinion of me that she
+recently bade me assume the charge of domestic affairs. But before I've
+had time enough to do a single good act, here you come, Mrs. Chao, to
+lay down the law. If this reaches Madame Wang's ear, I fear I shall get
+into trouble. She won't let me exercise any control, and then I shall,
+in real earnest, come in for no face. But even you, Mrs. Chao, will then
+actually lose countenance."
+
+Reasoning with her, she so little could repress her tears that they
+rolled down her cheeks.
+
+Mrs. Chao had not a word more to say to refute her arguments with. "If
+Madame Wang loves you," she simply responded, "there's still more reason
+why you should have drawn us into her favour. (Instead of that), all you
+think about is to try and win Madame Wang's affections, and you forget
+all about us."
+
+"How ever did I forget you?" T'an Ch'un exclaimed. "How would you have
+me drag you into favour? Go and ask every one of them, and you'll see
+what mistress is indifferent to any one, who exerts her energies and
+makes herself useful, and what worthy person requires being drawn into
+favour?"
+
+Li Wan, who stood by, did her best to pacify them with her advice. "Mrs.
+Chao," she argued, "don't lose your temper! Neither should you feel any
+ill-will against this young lady of yours. Had she even at heart every
+good intention to lend you a hand, how could she put it into words?"
+
+"This worthy senior dame," T'an Ch'un impatiently interposed, "has also
+grown quite dense! Whom could I drag into favour? Why, in what family,
+do the young ladies give a lift to slave-girls? Their qualities as well
+as defects should all alike be well known to you people. And what have
+they got to do with me?"
+
+Mrs. Chao was much incensed. "Who tells you," she asked, "to give a lift
+to any one? Were it not that you looked after the house, I wouldn't have
+come to inquire anything of you. But anything you may suggest is right;
+so had you, now that your maternal uncle is dead, granted twenty or
+thirty taels in excess, is it likely that Madame Wang would not have
+given you her consent? It's evident that our Madame Wang is a good woman
+and that it's you people who are mean and stingy. Unfortunately,
+however, her ladyship has with all her bounty no opportunity of
+exercising it. You could, my dear girl, well set your mind at ease. You
+wouldn't, in this instance, have had to spend any of your own money; and
+at your marriage by and bye, I would still have borne in mind the
+exceptional regard you had shown the Chao family. But now that you've
+got your full plumage, you've forgotten your extraction, and chosen a
+lofty branch to fly to."
+
+Before T'an Ch'un had heard her to the end, she flew into such a rage
+that her face blanched; and choking for breath, she gasped and panted.
+Sobbing, she asked the while: "Who's my maternal uncle? My maternal
+uncle was at the end of the year promoted to be High Commissioner of the
+Nine Provinces! How can another maternal uncle have cropped up? It's
+because I've ever shown that reverence enjoined by the rites that other
+relatives have now more than ever turned up. If what you say be the
+case, how is it that every day that Huan-erh goes out, Chao Kuo-chi too
+stands up, and follows him to school? Why doesn't he put on the airs of
+an uncle? What's the reason that he doesn't? Who isn't aware of the fact
+that I'm born of a concubine? Would it require two or three months' time
+to trace my extraction? But the fact is you've come to kick up all this
+hullaballoo for fear lest people shouldn't be alive to the truth; and
+with the express design of making it public all over the place! But I
+wonder who of us two will make the other lose face? Luckily, I've got my
+wits about me; for had I been a stupid creature ignorant of good
+manners, I would long ago have lost all patience."
+
+Li Wan was much concerned, but she had to continue to exhort them to
+desist. But Mrs. Chao proceeded with a long rigmarole until a servant
+was unexpectedly heard to report that lady Secunda had sent Miss Ping to
+deliver a message. Mrs. Chao caught the announcement, and eventually
+held her peace, when they espied P'ing erh making her appearance. Mrs.
+Chao hastily forced a saturnine smile, and motioned to her to take a
+seat. "Is your lady any better?" she went on to inquire with vehemence.
+"I was just thinking of going to look her up; but I could find no
+leisure!"
+
+Upon seeing P'ing Erh enter, Li Wan felt prompted to ask her the object
+of her visit.
+
+"My lady says," P'ing Erh smilingly responded, "that she apprehends, now
+that Mrs. Chao's brother is dead, that your ladyship and you, miss, are
+not aware of the existence of an old precedent. According to the
+ordinary practice no more need be given than twenty taels; but she now
+requests you, miss, to consider what would be best to do; if even you
+add a good deal more, it will do well enough."
+
+T'an Ch'un at once wiped away all traces of tears. "What's the use of
+another addition, when there's no valid reason for it?" she promptly
+demurred. "Who has again been twenty months in the womb? Or is it
+forsooth any one who's gone to the wars, and managed to escape with his
+life, carrying his master on his back? Your mistress is certainly very
+ingenious! She tells me to disregard the precedent, in order that she
+should pose as a benefactress! She wishes to take the money, which
+Madame Wang spurns, so as to reap the pleasure of conferring favours!
+Just you tell her that I could not presume to add or reduce anything, or
+even to adopt any reckless decision. Let her add what she wants and make
+a display of bounty. When she gets better and is able to come out, she
+can effect whatever additions she fancies."
+
+The moment P'ing Erh arrived, she obtained a fair insight (into lady
+Feng's designs), so when she heard the present remarks, she grasped a
+still more correct idea of things. But perceiving an angry look about
+T'an Ch'un's face, she did not have the temerity to behave towards her
+as she would, had she found her in the high spirits of past days. All
+she did therefore was to stand aloof with her arms against her sides and
+to wait in rigid silence. Just at that moment, however, Pao-ch'ai
+dropped in, on her return from the upper rooms. T'an Ch'un quickly rose
+to her feet, and offered her a seat. But before they had had time to
+exchange any words, a married woman likewise came to report some
+business.
+
+But as T'an Ch'un had been having a good cry, three or four young maids
+brought her a basin, towel, and hand-glass and other articles of
+toilette. T'an Ch'un was at the moment seated cross-legged, on a low
+wooden couch, so the maid with the basin had, when she drew near, to
+drop on both her knees and lift it high enough to bring it within reach.
+The other two girls prostrated themselves next to her and handed the
+towels and the rest of the toilet things, which consisted of a
+looking-glass, rouge and powder. But P'ing Erh noticed that Shih Shu was
+not in the room, and approaching T'an Ch'un with hasty step, she tucked
+up her sleeves for her and unclasped her bracelets. Seizing also a large
+towel from the hands of one of the maids, she covered the lapel on the
+front part of T'an Ch'un's dress; whereupon T'an Ch'un put out her
+hands, and washed herself in the basin.
+
+"My lady and miss," the married woman observed, "may it please you to
+pay what has been spent in the family school for Mr. Chia Huan and Mr..
+Chia Lan during the year."
+
+P'ing Erh was the first to speak. "What are you in such a hurry for?"
+she cried. "You've got your eyes wide open, and must be able to see our
+young lady washing her face; instead of coming forward to wait on her,
+you start talking! Do you also behave in this blind sort of way in the
+presence of your lady Secunda? This young lady is, it's true, generous
+and lenient, but I'll go and report you to your mistress. I'll simply
+tell her that you people have no eye for Miss T'an Ch'un. But when you
+find yourselves in a mess, don't bear me any malice."
+
+At this hint the woman took alarm, and hastily forcing a smile, she
+pleaded guilty. "I've been rude," she exclaimed. With these words, she
+rushed with all despatch out of the room.
+
+T'an Ch'un smoothed her face. While doing so, she turned herself towards
+P'ing Erh and gave her a cynical smile. "You've come just one step too
+late," she remarked. "You weren't in time to see something laughable!
+Even sister Wu, an old hand at business though she be, failed to look up
+clearly an old custom and came to play her tricks on us. But when we
+plied her with questions, she luckily had the face to admit that it had
+slipped from her memory. 'Do you,' I insinuated, 'also forget, when
+you've got anything to report to lady Secunda? and have you subsequently
+to go and hunt up all about it?' Your mistress can't, I fancy, be so
+patient as to wait while she goes and institutes proper search."
+
+P'ing Erh laughed. "Were she to have behaved but once in this wise," she
+observed, "I feel positive that a couple of the tendons of her legs
+would have long ago been snapped. But, Miss, don't credit all they say.
+It's because they see that our senior mistress is as sweet-tempered as a
+'P'u-sa,' and that you, miss, are a modest young lady, that they,
+naturally, shirk their duties and come and take liberties with you. Your
+mind is set upon playing the giddy dogs," continuing, she added;
+speaking towards those beyond the doorway; "but when your mistress gets
+quite well again, we'll tell her all."
+
+"You're gifted with the greatest perspicacity, miss," the married women,
+standing outside the door, smiled in chorus. "The proverb says: 'the
+person who commits a fault must be the one to suffer.' We don't in any
+way presume to treat any mistress with disdain. Our mistress at present
+is in delicate health, and if we intentionally provoke her, may we, when
+we die, have no place to have our corpses interred in."
+
+P'ing Erh laughed a laugh full irony. "So long as you're aware of this,
+it's well and good," she said. And smiling a saturnine smile, she
+resumed, addressing herself to T'an Ch'un: "Miss, you know very well how
+busy our lady has been and how little she could afford the time to keep
+this tribe of people in order. Of course, they couldn't therefore, be
+prevented from becoming remiss. The adage has it: 'Lookers-on are clear
+of sight!' During all these years that you, have looked on
+dispassionately, there have possibly been instances on which, though
+additions or reductions should have been made, our lady Secunda has not
+been able to effect them, so, miss, do add or curtail whatever you may
+deem necessary, in order that, first, Madame Wang may be benefited, and
+that, secondly, you mayn't too render nugatory the kindness with which
+you ever deal towards our mistress."
+
+But scarcely had she finished, than Pao-ch'ai and Li Wan smilingly
+interposed. "What a dear girl!" they ejaculated. "One really can't feel
+angry with that hussy Feng for being partial to her and fond of her. We
+didn't, at first, see how we could very well alter anything by any
+increase or reduction, but after what you've told us, we must hit upon
+one or two things and try and devise means to do something, with a view
+of not showing ourselves ungrateful of the advice you've tendered us."
+
+"My heart was swelling with indignation," T'an Ch'un observed laughing,
+"and I was about to go and give vent to my temper with her mistress, but
+now that she (P'ing Erh) has happened to come, she has, with a few
+words, quite dissuaded me from my purpose."
+
+While she spoke, she called the woman, who had been with them a few
+minutes back, to return into the room. "For what things for Mr. Chia
+Huan and Mr. Chia Lau was the money expended during the year in the
+family school?" she inquired of her.
+
+"For cakes," replied the woman, "they ate during the year at school; or
+for the purchase of paper and pens. Each one of them is allowed eight
+taels."
+
+"The various expenses on behalf of the young men," T'an Ch'un added,
+"are invariably paid in monthly instalments to the respective
+households. For cousin Chia Huan's, Mrs. Chao receives two taels. For
+Pao-yue's, Hsi Jen draws two taels from our venerable senior's suite of
+apartments. For cousin Chia Lan's, some one, in our senior lady's rooms,
+gets the proper allowance. So how is it that these extra eight taels
+have to be disbursed at school for each of these young fellows? Is it
+really for these eight taels that they go to school? But from this day
+forth I shall put a stop to this outlay. So P'ing Erh, when you get
+back, tell your mistress that I say that this item must absolutely be
+done away with."
+
+"This should have been done away with long ago," P'ing Erh smiled. "Last
+year our lady expressed her intention to eliminate it, but with the
+endless things that claimed her attention about the fall of the year,
+she forgot all about it."
+
+The woman had no other course than to concur with her views and to walk
+away. But the married women thereupon arrived from the garden of Broad
+Vista with the boxes of eatables. So Shih Shu and Su Yuen at once brought
+a small dining-table, and P'ing Erh began to fuss about laying the
+viands on it.
+
+"If you've said all you had," T'an Ch'un laughed, "you'd better be off
+and attend to your business. What's the use of your bustling about
+here?"
+
+"I've really got nothing to do," P'ing Erh answered smiling. "Our lady
+Secunda sent me first, to deliver a message; and next, because she
+feared that the servants in here weren't handy enough. The fact is, she
+bade me come and help the girls wait on you, my lady, and on you, miss."
+
+"Why don't you bring Mrs. Pao's meal so that she should have it along
+with us?" T'an Ch'un then inquired.
+
+As soon as the waiting-maids heard her inquiry, they speedily rushed out
+and went under the eaves. "Go," they cried, directing the married women,
+"and say that Miss Pao-ch'ai would like to have her repast just now in
+the hall along with the others, and tell them to send the eatables
+here."
+
+T'an Ch'un caught their directions. "Don't be deputing people to go on
+reckless errands!" she vociferated. "Those are dames, who manage
+important matters and look after the house, and do you send them to ask
+for eatables and inquire about tea? You haven't even the least notion
+about gradation. P'ing Erh is standing here, so tell her to go and give
+the message."
+
+P'ing Erh immediately assented, and issued from the room, bent upon
+going on the errand. But the married women stealthily pulled her back.
+"How could you, miss, be made to go and tell them?" they smiled. "We've
+got some one here, who can do so!"
+
+So saying, they dusted one of the stone steps with their handkerchiefs.
+"You've been standing so long," they observed, "that you must feel quite
+tired. Do sit in this sunny place and have a little rest."
+
+P'ing Erh took a seat on the step. Two matrons attached to the tea-room
+then fetched a rug and spread it out for her. "It's cold on those
+stones," they ventured; "this is, as clean as it can be. So, miss, do
+make the best of it, and use it!"
+
+P'ing Erh hastily forced a smile. "Many thanks," she replied.
+
+Another matron next brought her a cup of fine new tea. "This isn't the
+tea we ordinarily drink," she quietly smiled. "This is really for
+entertaining the young ladies with. Miss, pray moisten your mouth with
+some."
+
+P'ing Erh lost no time in bending her body forward and taking the cup.
+Then pointing at the company of married women, she observed in a low
+voice: "You're all too fond of trouble! The way you're going on won't do
+at all! She (T'an Ch'un) is only a young girl, so she is loth to show
+any severity, or display any temper. This is because she's full of
+respect. Yet you people look down on her and insult her. Should she,
+however, be actually provoked into any violent fit of anger, people will
+simply say that her behaviour was rather rough, and all will be over.
+But as for you, you'll get at once into endless trouble. Even though she
+might show herself somewhat wilful, Madame Wang treats her with
+considerable forbearance, and lady Secunda too hasn't the courage to
+meddle with her; and do you people have such arrogance as to look down
+on her? This is certainly just as if an egg were to go and bang itself
+against a stone!"
+
+"When were we ever so audacious?" the servants exclaimed with one voice.
+"This fuss is all the work of Mrs. Chao!"
+
+"Never mind about that!" P'ing Erh urged again in an undertone. "My dear
+ladies, 'when a wall falls, every one gives it a shove.' That Mrs. Chao
+has always been rather topsy-turvey in her ways, and done things by
+halves; so whenever there has been any rumpus, you've invariably shoved
+the blame on to her shoulders. Never have you had any regard for any
+single person. Your designs are simply awful! Is it likely that all
+these years that I've been here, I haven't come to know of them? Had our
+lady Secunda mismanaged things just a little bit, she would have long
+ago been run down by every one of you, ladies! Even such as she is, you
+would, could you only get the least opportunity, be ready to place her
+in a fix! And how many, many times hasn't she been abused by you?"
+
+"She's dreadful," one and all of them rejoined. "You all live in fear
+and trembling of her. But we know well enough that no one could say that
+she too does not in the depths of her heart entertain some little dread
+for the lot of you. The other day, we said, in talking matters over,
+that things could not go on smoothly from beginning to end, and that
+some unpleasantness was bound to happen. Miss Tertia is, it's true, a
+mere girl, and you've always treated her with little consideration, but
+out of that company of senior and junior young ladies, she is the only
+soul whom our lady Secunda funks to some certain extent. And yet you
+people now won't look up to her."
+
+So speaking Ch'iu Wen appeared to view. The married women ran up to her
+and inquired after her health. "Miss," they said, "do rest a little.
+They've had their meal served in there, so wait until things have been
+cleared away, before you go and deliver your message."
+
+"I'm not like you people," Ch'iu Wen smiled. "How can I afford to wait?"
+
+With these words on her lips, she was about to go into the hall, when
+P'ing Erh quickly called her back. Ch'iu Wen, upon turning her head
+round, caught sight of P'ing Erh. "Have you too," she remarked with a
+smile, "come here to become something like those guardians posted
+outside the enclosing walls?"
+
+Retracing, at the same time, her footsteps, she took a seat on the rug,
+occupied by P'ing Erh.
+
+"What message have you got to deliver?" P'ing Erh gently asked.
+
+"I've got to ask when we can get Pao-yue's monthly allowance and our own
+too," she responded.
+
+"Is this any such pressing matter?" P'ing Erh answered. "Go back quick,
+and tell Hsi Jen that my advice is that no concern whatever should be
+brought to their notice to-day. That every single matter reported is
+bound to be objected to; and that even a hundred will just as surely be
+vetoed."
+
+"Why is it?" vehemently inquired Ch'iu Wen, upon hearing this
+explanation.
+
+P'ing Erh and the other servants then promptly told her the various
+reasons. "She's just bent," they proceeded, "upon finding a few weighty
+concerns in order to establish, at the expense of any decent person who
+might chance to present herself, a precedent of some kind or other so as
+to fix upon a mode of action, which might help to put down expenses to
+their proper level, and afford a lesson to the whole household; and why
+are you people the first to come and bump your heads against the nails?
+If you went now and told them your errand, it would also reflect
+discredit upon our venerable old mistress and Madame Wang, were they to
+pounce upon one or two matters to make an example of you. But if they
+complied with one or two of your applications, others will again
+maintain 'that they are inclined to favour this one and show partiality
+to that one; that as you had your old mistress' and Madame Wang's
+authority to fall back upon, they were afraid and did not presume to
+provoke their displeasure; that they only avail themselves of
+soft-natured persons to make scapegoats of.' Just mark my words! She
+even means to raise objections in one or two matters connected with our
+lady Secunda, in order to be the better able to shut up people's
+mouths."
+
+Ch'iu Wen listened to her with patient ear; and then stretching out her
+tongue, "It's lucky enough you were here, sister P'ing," she smiled;
+"otherwise, I would have had my nose well rubbed on the ground. I shall
+seize the earliest opportunity and give the lot of them a hint."
+
+While replying, she immediately rose to her feet and took leave of them.
+Soon after her departure, Pao-ch'ai's eatables arrived, and P'ing Erh
+hastened to enter and wait on her. By that time Mrs. Chao had left, so
+the three girls seated themselves on the wooden bed, and went through
+their repast. Pao-ch'ai faced the south. T'an Ch'un the west. Li Wan the
+east. The company of married women stood quietly under the verandah
+ready to answer any calls. Within the precincts of the chamber, only
+such maids remained in waiting as had ever been their closest
+attendants. None of the other servants ventured, of their own accord, to
+put their foot anywhere inside.
+
+The married women (meanwhile) discussed matters in a confidential
+whisper. "Let's do our downright best to save trouble," they argued.
+"Don't let us therefore harbour any evil design, for even dame Wu will,
+in that case, be placed in an awkward fix. And can we boast of any grand
+honours to expect to fare any better?"
+
+While they stood on one side, and held counsel together, waiting for the
+meal to be over to make their several reports, they could not catch so
+much as the caw of a crow inside the rooms. Neither did the clatter of
+bowls and chopsticks reach their ears. But presently, they discerned a
+maid raise the frame of the portiere as high as she could, and two other
+girls bring the table out. In the tea-room, three maids waited with
+three basins in hand. The moment they saw the dining-table brought out,
+all three walked in. But after a brief interval, they egressed with the
+basins and rinsing cups. Shih Shu, Su Yuen and Ying Erh thereupon entered
+with three covered cups of tea, placed in trays. Shortly however these
+three girls also made their exit. Shih Shu then recommended a young maid
+to be careful and attend to the wants (of their mistresses). "When we've
+had our rice," she added, "we'll come and relieve you. But don't go
+stealthily again and sit down!"
+
+The married women at length delivered their reports in a quiet and
+orderly manner; and as they did not presume to be as contemptuous and
+offhandish as they had been before, T'an Ch'un eventually cooled down.
+
+"I've got something of moment," she then observed to P'ing Erh, "about
+which I would like to consult your mistress. Happily, I remembered it
+just now, so come back as soon as you've had your meal. Miss Pao-ch'ai
+is also here at present, so, after we four have deliberated together,
+you can carefully ask your lady whether action is to be taken
+accordingly or not."
+
+P'ing Erh acquiesced and returned to her quarters. "How is it," inquired
+lady Feng, "that you've been away such an age?"
+
+P'ing Erh smiled and gave her a full account of what had recently
+transpired.
+
+"What a fine, splendid girl Miss Tertia is!" she laughingly ejaculated.
+"What I said was quite right! The only pity is that she should have had
+such a miserable lot as not to have been born of a primary wife."
+
+"My lady, you're also talking a lot of trash!" P'ing Erh smiled. "She,
+mayn't be Madame Wang's child, but is it likely that any one would be so
+bold as to point the finger of scorn at her, and not treat her like the
+others?"
+
+Lady Feng sighed. "How could you know everything?" she remarked. "She
+is, of course, the offspring of a concubine, but as a mere girl, she
+can't be placed on the same footing as a man! By and bye, when any one
+aspires to her hand, the sort of supercilious parties, who now tread the
+world, will, as a first step, ask whether this young lady is the child
+of a No. 1 or No. 2 wife. And many of these won't have anything to say
+to her, as she is the child, of a No. 2. But really people haven't any
+idea that, not to speak of her as the offspring of a secondary wife, she
+would be, even as a mere servant-girl of ours, far superior than the
+very legitimate daughter of any family. Who, I wonder, will in the
+future be so devoid of good fortune as to break off the match; just
+because he may be inclined to pick and choose between a wife's child and
+a concubine's child? And who, I would like to know, will be that lucky
+fellow, who'll snatch her off without any regard to No. 1 and No. 2?"
+
+Continuing, she resumed, turning smilingly towards P'ing Erh, "You know
+well enough how many ways and means I've had all these years to devise
+in order to effect retrenchment, and how there isn't, I may safely aver,
+a single soul in the whole household, who doesn't detest me behind my
+back. But now that I'm astride on the tiger's back, (I must go on; for
+if I put my foot on the ground, I shall be devoured). It's true, my
+tactics have been more or less seen through, but there's no help for it;
+I can't very well become more open-handed in a moment! In the second
+place, much goes out at home, and little comes in; and the hundred and
+one, large and small, things, which turn up, are still managed with that
+munificence so characteristic of our old ancestors. But the funds, that
+come in throughout the year, fall short of the immense sums of past
+days. And if I try again to effect any savings people will laugh at me,
+our venerable senior and Madame Wang suffer wrongs, and the servants
+abhor me for my stinginess. Yet, if we don't seize the first opportunity
+to think of some plan for enforcing retrenchment, our means will, in the
+course of a few more years, be completely exhausted."
+
+"Quite so!" assented P'ing Erh. "By and bye, there will be three or four
+daughters and two or three more sons added; and our old mistress won't
+be able, singlehanded, to meet all this heavy outlay."
+
+"I myself entertain fears on the same score," lady Feng smiled. "But,
+after all, there will be ample. For when Pao-yue and cousin Lin get
+married, there won't be any need to touch a cent of public money, as our
+old lady has her own private means, and she can well fork out some. Miss
+Secunda is the child of your senior master yonder, and she too needn't
+be taken into account. So there only remain three or four, for each of
+whom one need only spend, at the utmost, ten thousand taels. Cousin Huan
+will marry in the near future; and if an outlay of three thousand taels
+prove insufficient, we will be able, by curtailing the bandoline, used
+in those rooms for smoothing the hair with, make both ends meet. And
+should our worthy senior's end come about, provision for everything is
+already made. All that we'll have to do will be to spend some small sum
+for a few miscellaneous trifles; and three to five thousand taels will
+more than suffice. So with further economies at present, there will be
+plenty for all our successive needs. The only fear is lest anything
+occur at an unforeseen juncture; for then it will be dreadful! But don't
+let us give way to apprehensions with regard to the future! You'd better
+have your rice; and when you've done, be quick and go and hear what they
+mean to treat about in their deliberations. I must now turn this
+opportunity to the best account. I was only this very minute lamenting
+that I had no help at my disposal. There's Pao-yue, it's true, but he too
+is made of the same stuff as the rest of them in here. Were I even to
+get him under my thumb, it would be of no earthly use whatever. Senior
+lady is as good-natured as a joss; and she likewise is no good. Miss
+Secunda is worse than useless. Besides, she doesn't belong to this
+place. Miss Quarta is only a child. That young fellow Lan and Huan-erh
+are, more than any of the others, like frozen kittens with frizzled
+coats. They only wait to find some warm hole in a stove into which they
+may poke themselves! Really from one and the same womb have been created
+two human beings (T'an Ch'un and Chia Huan) so totally unlike each other
+as the heavens are distant from the earth. But when I think of all this,
+I feel quite angry! Again, that girl Lin and Miss Pao are both deserving
+enough, but as they also happen to be our connexions, they couldn't very
+well be put in charge of our family affairs. What's more, the one
+resembles a lantern, decorated with nice girls, apt to spoil so soon as
+it is blown by a puff of wind. The other has made up her mind not to
+open her month in anything that doesn't concern her. When she's
+questioned about anything, she simply shakes her head, and repeats
+thrice: 'I don't know,' so that it would be an extremely difficult job
+to go and ask her to lend a helping hand. There's only therefore Miss
+Tertia, who is as sharp of mind as of tongue. She's besides a
+straightforward creature in this household of ours and Madame Wang is
+attached to her as well. It's true that she outwardly makes no display
+of her feelings for her, but it's all that old thing Mrs. Chao, who has
+done the mischief, for, in her heart, she actually holds her as dear as
+she does Pao-yue. She's such a contrast to Huan-erh! He truly makes it
+hard for any one to care a rap for him. Could I have had my own way, I
+would long ere this have packed him out of the place. But since she
+(T'au Ch'un) has now got this idea into her mind, we must cooperate with
+her. For if we can afford each other a helping hand, I too won't be
+single-handed and alone. And as far as every right principle, eternal
+principle, and honesty of purpose go, we shall with such a person as a
+helpmate, be able to save ourselves considerable anxiety, and Madame
+Wang's interests will, on the other hand, derive every advantage. But,
+as far as unfairness and bad faith go, I've run the show with too
+malicious a hand, and I must turn tail and draw back from my old ways.
+When I review what I've done, I find that if I still push my tyrannical
+rule to the bitter end, people will hate me most relentlessly; so much
+so, that under their smiles they'll harbour daggers, and much though we
+two may then be able to boast of having four eyes and two heads between
+us, they'll compass our ruin, when they can at any moment find us off
+our guard. We should therefore make the best of this crisis, so that as
+soon as she takes the initiative and sets things in order, all that
+tribe of people may for a time lose sight of the bitter feelings they
+cherish against us, for the way we've dealt with them in the past. But
+there's another thing besides. I naturally know the great talents you
+possess, but I feel mistrust lest you should, by your own wits, not be
+able to bring things round. I enjoin these things then on you, now, for
+although a mere girl she has everything at her fingers' ends. The only
+thing is that she must try and be wary in speech. She's besides so much
+better read than I am that she's a harder nut to crack. Now the proverb
+says: 'in order to be able to catch the rebels, you must first catch
+their chief.' So if she's at present disposed to mature some plan and
+set to work to put it into practice, she'll certainly have to first and
+foremost make a start with me. In the event consequently of her raising
+objections to anything I've done, mind you don't begin any dispute with
+her. The more virulent she is in her censure of me, the more deferential
+you should be towards her. That's your best plan. And whatever you do,
+don't imagine that I'm afraid of any loss of face. But the moment you
+flare up with her, things won' go well......"
+
+P'ing Erh did not allow her time to conclude her argument. "You're too
+much disposed to treat us as simpletons!" she smiled. "I've already
+carried out your wishes, and do you now enjoin all these things on me?"
+
+Lady Feng smiled. "It's because," she resumed, "I feared lest you, who
+have your eyes and mouth so full of me, and only me, might be inclined
+to show no regard whatever for her, that's why. I couldn't, therefore,
+but tender you the advice I did. But since you've already done what I
+wanted you to do, you've shown yourself far sharper than I am. There's
+nothing in this to drive you into another tantrum, and to make that
+mouth of yours begin to chatter away so much about 'you and I,' 'you and
+I' !"
+
+"I've actually addressed you as 'you' ;" P'ing Erh rejoined; "but if you
+be displeased at it, isn't this a case of a slap on the mouth? You can
+very well give me another one, for is it likely that this phiz of mine
+hasn't as yet tasted any, pray?"
+
+"What a vixen you are!" lady Feng said smilingly. "How many faults will
+you go on picking out, before you shut up? You see how ill I am, and yet
+you come to rub me the wrong way. Come and sit down; for you and I can
+at all events have our meal together when there is no one to break in
+upon us. It's only right that we should."
+
+While these remarks dropped from her lips, Feng Erh and some three or
+four other maids entered the room and laid the small stove-couch table.
+Lady Feng only ate some birds' nests' soup and emptied two small plates
+of some recherche light viands; for she had long ago temporarily reduced
+her customary diet.
+
+Feng Erh placed the four kinds of eatables allotted to P'ing Erh on the
+table. After which, she filled a bowl of rice for her. Then with one leg
+bent on the edge of the stove-couch, while the other rested on the
+ground, P'ing Erh kept lady Feng company during her repast; and waiting
+on her, afterwards, until she finished rinsing her mouth, she issued
+certain directions to Feng Erh, and crossed over at length to T'an
+Ch'un's quarters. Here she found the courtyard plunged in perfect
+stillness, for the various inmates, who had been assembled there, had
+already taken their leave.
+
+But, reader, do you wish to follow up the story? If so, listen to the
+circumstances detailed in the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI.
+
+ The clever T'an Ch'un increases their income and removes long-standing
+ abuses.
+ The worthy Pao-ch'ai preserves intact, by the display of a little
+ intelligence, the great reputation enjoyed by the Chia family.
+
+
+But let us pick up the clue of our story. P'ing Erh bore lady Feng
+company during her meal; then attending to her, while she rinsed her
+mouth and washed her hands, she betook herself eventually to T'an
+Ch'un's quarters, where she discovered the courtyard in perfect
+stillness. Not a soul was about beyond several maids, matrons and close
+attendants of the inner rooms, who stood outside the windows on the
+alert to obey any calls. P'ing Erh stepped into the hall. The two
+cousins and their sister-in-law were all three engaged in discussing
+some domestic affairs. They were talking about the feast, to which they
+had been invited during the new year festivities by Lai Ta's wife, and
+various details in connection with the garden she had in her place. But
+as soon as she (P'ing Erh) appeared on the scene, T'an Ch'un desired her
+to seat herself on her footstool.
+
+"What was exercising my mind," she thereupon observed, "confines itself
+to this. I was computing that the head-oil, and rouge and powder, we use
+during the course of a month, are also a matter of a couple of taels;
+and I was thinking that what with the sum of two taels, already allotted
+us every month, and the extra monthly amount given as well to the maids,
+allowances are, with the addition again of that of eight taels for
+school expenses, we recently spoke about, piled to be sure one upon
+another. The thing is, it's true, a mere trifle, and the amount only a
+bagatelle, but it doesn't seem to be quite proper. But how is it that
+your mistress didn't take this into account?"
+
+P'ing Erh smiled. "There's a why and a wherefore," she answered. "All
+the things required by you, young ladies, must absolutely be subject to
+a fixed rule; for the different compradores have to lay in a stock of
+each every month; and to send them to us by the maids to take charge of;
+but purely and simply to keep in readiness for you to use. No such thing
+could ever be tolerated as that each of us should have to get money
+every day and try and hunt up some one to go and buy these articles for
+us! That's how it is that the compradores outside receive a lump sum,
+and that they send us, month by month, by the female servants the
+supplies allotted for the different rooms. As regards the two taels
+monthly allowed you, young ladies, they were not originally intended
+that you should purchase any such articles with, but that you should, if
+at any time the ladies in charge of the household affairs happened to be
+away from home or to have no leisure, be saved the trouble of having to
+go in search of the proper persons, in the event of your suddenly
+finding yourselves in need of money. This was done simply because it was
+feared that you would be subjected to inconvenience. But an unprejudiced
+glance about me now shows me that at least half of our young mistresses
+in the various quarters invariably purchase these things with ready
+money of their own; so I can't help suspecting that, if it isn't a
+question of the compradores shirking their duties, it must be that what
+they buy is all mere rubbish."
+
+T'an Ch'un and Li Wan laughed. "You must have kept a sharp lookout to
+have managed to detect these things!" they said. "But as for shirking
+the purchases, they don't actually do so. It's simply that they're
+behind time by a good number of days. Yet when one puts on the screw
+with them, they get some articles from somewhere or other, who knows
+where? These are however only a sham; for, in reality, they aren't fit
+for use. But as they're now as ever obtained with cash down, a couple of
+taels could very well be given to the brothers or sons of some of the
+other people's nurses to purchase them with. They'll then be good for
+something! Were we however to employ any of the public domestics in the
+establishment, the things will be just as bad as ever. I wonder how they
+do manage to get such utter rot as they do?"
+
+"The purchases of the compradores may be what they are," P'ing Erh
+smiled; "but were anyone else to buy any better articles, the
+compradores themselves won't ever forgive them. Besides other things,
+they'll aver that they harbour evil designs, and that they wish to
+deprive them of their post. That's how it comes about that the servants
+would much rather give offence to you all inside, (by getting inferior
+things), and that they have no desire to hurt the feelings of the
+managers outside, (by purchasing anything of superior quality). But if
+you, young ladies, requisition the services of the nurses, these men
+won't have the arrogance to make any nonsensical remarks."
+
+"This accounts for the unhappy state my heart is in," T'an Ch'un
+observed. "But as we're called upon to squander money right and left,
+and as the things purchased are half of them uselessly thrown away,
+wouldn't it, after all, be better for us to eliminate this monthly
+allowance to the compradores? This is the first thing. The next I'd like
+to ask you is this. When they went, during the new year festivities, to
+Lai Ta's house, you also went with them; and what do think of that small
+garden as compared with this of ours?"
+
+"It isn't half as big as ours," P'ing Erh laughingly explained. "The
+trees and plants are likewise fewer by a good deal."
+
+"When I was having a chat with their daughter," T'an Ch'un proceeded,
+"she said that, besides the flowers they wear, and the bamboo shoots,
+vegetables, fish and shrimps they eat from this garden of theirs,
+there's still enough every year for people to take over under contract,
+and that at the close of each year there's a surplus in full of two
+hundred taels. Ever since that day is it that I've become alive to the
+fact that even a broken lotus leaf, and a blade of withered grass are
+alike worth money."
+
+"This is, in very truth, the way wealthy and well-to-do people talk!"
+Pao-ch'ai laughed. "But notwithstanding your honourable position, young
+ladies, you really understand nothing about these concerns. Yet, haven't
+you, with all your book-lore, seen anything of the passage in the
+writing of Chu Fu-tzu: 'Throw not they self away?'"
+
+"I've read it, it's true," T'an Ch'un smiled, "but its object is simply
+to urge people to exert themselves; it's as much empty talk as any
+random arguments, and how could it be bodily treated as gospel?"
+
+"Chu-tzu's work all as much empty talk as any random arguments?"
+Pao-ch'ai exclaimed. "Why every sentence in it is founded on fact.
+You've only had the management of affairs in your hands for a couple of
+days, and already greed and ambition have so beclouded your mind that
+you've come to look upon Chu-tzu as full of fraud and falsehood. But
+when you by and bye go out into the world and see all those mighty
+concerns reeking with greed and corruption, you'll even go so far as to
+treat Confucius himself as a fraud!"
+
+"Haven't you with all your culture read a book like that of Chi-tzu's?"
+Pan Ch'un laughed. "Chi-tzu said in bygone days 'that when one descends
+into the arena where gain and emoluments are to be got, and enters the
+world of planning and plotting, one makes light of the injunctions of
+Yao and Shun, and disregards the principles inculcated by Confucius and
+Mencius.'"
+
+"What about the next line?" Pao-ch'ai insinuated with a significant
+smile.
+
+"I now cut the text short," T'an Ch'un smilingly rejoined, "in order to
+adapt the sense to what I want to say. Would I recite the following
+sentence, and heap abuse upon my own self; is it likely I would; eh?"
+
+"There's nothing under the heavens that can't be turned to some use,"
+Pao-ch'ai added. "And since everything can be utilised, everything must
+be worth money. But can it be that a person gifted with such
+intelligence as yours can have had no experience in such great matters
+and legitimate concerns as these?"
+
+"You send for a person," Li Wan laughingly interposed, 'and you don't
+speak about what's right and proper, but you start an argument on
+learning."
+
+"Learning is right and proper," Pao-ch'ai answered. "If we made no
+allusion to learning, we'd all soon enough drift among the rustic herd!"
+
+The trio bandied words for a while, after which they turned their
+attention again to pertinent affairs.
+
+T'an Ch'un took up once more the thread of the conversation. "This
+garden of ours," she argued, "is only half as big as theirs, so if you
+double the income they derive, you will see that we ought to reap a net
+profit of four hundred taels a year. But were we also now to secure a
+contract for our surplus products, the money, we'd earn, would, of
+course, be a mere trifle and not one that a family like ours should
+hanker after. And were we to depute two special persons (to attend to
+the garden), the least permission given by them to any one to turn
+anything to improper uses, would, since there be so many things of
+intrinsic value, be tantamount to a reckless destruction of the gifts of
+heaven. So would it not be preferable to select several quiet, steady
+and experienced old matrons, out of those stationed in the grounds, and
+appoint them to put them in order and look after things? Neither will
+there be any need then to make them pay any rent, or give any taxes in
+kind. All we can ask them is to supply the household with whatever they
+can afford during the year. In the first place, the garden will, with
+special persons to look after the plants and trees, naturally so improve
+from year to year that there won't be any bustle or confusion, whenever
+the time draws nigh to utilise the grounds. Secondly, people won't
+venture to injure or uselessly waste anything. In the third place, the
+old matrons themselves will, by availing themselves of these small
+perquisites, not labour in the gardens year after year and day after day
+all for no good. Fourthly, it will in like manner be possible to effect
+a saving in the expenditure for gardeners, rockery-layers, sweepers and
+other necessary servants. And this excess can be utilised for making up
+other deficiencies. I don't see any reason why this shouldn't be
+practicable!"
+
+Pao-ch'ai was standing below contemplating the pictures with characters
+suspended on the walls. Upon hearing these suggestions, she readily
+nodded her head assentingly and smiled. "Excellent!" she cried. "'Within
+three years, there will be no more famines and dearths.'"
+
+"What a first-rate plan!" Li Wan chimed in. "This, if actually adopted,
+will delight the heart of Madame Wang. Pecuniary economies are of
+themselves a paltry matter; but there will be then in the garden those
+to sweep the grounds, and those whose special charge will be to look
+after them. Besides, were the persons selected allowed to turn up an
+honest cash by selling part of the products, they will be so impelled by
+a sense of their responsibilities, and prompted by a desire of gain that
+there won't any longer be any who won't acquit themselves of their
+duties to the fullest measure."
+
+"It remained for you, miss, to put these suggestions in words," P'ing
+Erh remarked. "Our mistress may have entertained the idea, but it is by
+no means certain that she thought it nice on her part to give utterance
+to it. For as you, young ladies, live at present in the garden, she
+could not possibly, unable as she is to supply such additional ornaments
+as will make it more showy, contrariwise depute people to exercise
+authority in it, and to keep it in order, with a view of effecting a
+reduction in expenses. Such a proposal could never have dropped from her
+lips."
+
+Pao-ch'ai advanced up to her with alacrity. Rubbing her face: "Open that
+mouth of yours wide," she laughed, "and let me see of what stuff your
+teeth and tongue are made! Ever since you put your foot out of bed this
+morning you've jabbered away up to this very moment! And your song has
+all been in one strain. For neither have you been very complimentary to
+Miss Tertia, nor have you admitted that your mistress is, as far as wits
+go, so much below the mark as to be unable to effect suitable provision.
+Yet whenever Miss Tertia advanced any arguments, you've at once made use
+of endless words to join issue with her. This is because the plan
+devised by Miss Tertia was also hit upon by your lady Feng. But there
+must surely have been a reason why she couldn't carry it into execution.
+Again, as the young ladies have now their quarters in the garden, she
+couldn't, with any decency, direct any one to go and rule over it, for
+the mere sake of saving a few cash. Just consider this. If the garden is
+actually handed to people to make profit out of it, the parties
+interested will, of course, not even permit a single spray of flowers to
+be plucked, and not a single fruit to be taken away. With such as come
+within the category of senior young ladies, they won't naturally have
+the audacity to be particular; but they'll daily have endless rows with
+the junior girls. (Lady Feng) has, with her fears about the future and
+her misgivings about the present, shown herself neither too overbearing
+nor too servile. This mistress of theirs is not friendly disposed
+towards us, but when she hears of her various proposals, shame might
+induce her to turn over a new leaf."
+
+"Early this morning," T'an Ch'un laughingly observed, "I was very cross,
+but as soon as I heard of her (P'ing Erh's) arrival, I casually
+remembered that her mistress employed, during her time, such domestics
+as were up to all kinds of larks, and at the sight of her, I got more
+cross than ever. But, little though one would have thought it, she
+behaved from the moment she came, like a rat that tries to get out of
+the way of a cat. And as she had had to stand for ever so long, I pitied
+her very much; but she took up the thread of the conversation, and went
+on to spin that long yarn of hers. Yet, instead of mentioning that her
+mistress treats me with every consideration, she, on the contrary,
+observed: 'The kindness with which you have all along dealt with our
+lady miss, has not been to no purpose.' This remark therefore not only
+dispelled my anger, but filled me with so much shame that I began to
+feel sore at heart. And, when I came to think carefully over the matter,
+I failed to see how I, a mere girl, who had personally done so much
+mischief that not a soul cared a straw for me and not a soul took any
+interest in me, could possess any such good qualities as to treat any
+one kindly...."
+
+When she reached this point, she could not check her tears from brimming
+over. Li Wan and her associates perceived how pathetically she spoke;
+and, recalling to mind bow Mrs. Chao had always run her down, and how
+she had ever been involved in some mess or other with Madame Wang, on
+account of this Mrs. Chao, they too found it difficult to refrain from
+melting into sobs. But they then used their joint efforts to console
+her.
+
+"Let's avail ourselves of this quiet day," they suggested, "to try and
+find out how we could increase our revenue and remove abuses, so as not
+to render futile the charge laid on us by Madame Wang. What use or
+purpose is it to allude to such trivial matters?"
+
+"I've already grasped your object," P'ing Erh hastily ventured. "Miss,
+speak out; who do you consider fit? And as soon as the proper persons
+have been fixed upon, everything will be square enough."
+
+"What you say is all very well," T'an Ch'un rejoined, "but it will be
+necessary to let your lady know something about it. It has never been
+the proper thing for us in here to scrape together any small profits.
+But as your mistress is full of gumption, I adopted the course I did.
+Had she been at all narrowminded, with many prejudices and many
+jealousies, I wouldn't have shown the least willingness in the matter.
+But, as it will look as if I were bent upon pulling her to pieces, how
+can I take action without consulting her?"
+
+"In that case," P'ing Erh smiled, "I'll go and tell her something about
+it."
+
+With this response, she went on the errand; and only returned after a
+long lapse of time. "I said," she laughed, "that it would be perfectly
+useless for me to go. How ever could our lady not readily accede to an
+excellent proposal like this?"
+
+Hearing this, T'an Ch'un forthwith joined Li Wan in directing a servant
+to ask for the roll, containing the names of the matrons in the garden,
+and bring it to them. When produced, they all held council together, and
+fixing cursorily upon several persons, they summoned them to appear
+before them. Li Wan then explained to them the general outline of their
+duties; and not one was there among the whole company, who listened to
+her, who would not undertake the charge. One said: "If you confide that
+bamboo tree for twelve months to my care, it will again next year be a
+single tree, but besides the shoots, which will have been eaten at home,
+I shall be able, in the course of the year, to also pay in some money."
+"Hand me over," another one remarked, "that portion of paddy field, and
+there will, during the year, be no need to touch any public funds on
+account of the various birds, large and small, which are kept for mere
+fun. Besides that, I shall be in a position to give in something more."
+
+T'an Ch'un was about to pass a remark when a servant reported that the
+doctor had come; and that he had entered the garden to see Miss Shih. So
+the matrons were obliged to go and usher the doctor in.
+
+"Were there a hundred of you here," promptly expostulated P'ing Erh,
+"you wouldn't know what propriety means! Are there perchance no couple
+of housekeepers about to push themselves forward and see the doctor in?"
+
+"There's dame Wu and dame T'an," the servant, who brought the message,
+replied. "The two are on duty at the south-west corner at the
+'accumulated splendour' gate."
+
+At this answer, P'ing Erh allowed the subject to drop.
+
+After the departure of the matrons, T'an Ch'un inquired of Pao-ch'ai
+what she thought of them.
+
+"Such as are diligent at the outset," Pao-ch'ai answered smiling,
+"become remiss in the end; and those who have a glib tongue have an eye
+to gain."
+
+T'an Ch'un listened to her reply; and nodding her head, she extolled its
+wisdom. Then showing them with her finger several names on the list, she
+submitted them for the perusal of the trio. P'ing Erh speedily went and
+fetched a pen and inkslab.
+
+"This old mother Chu," the trio observed, "is a trustworthy woman.
+What's more, this old dame and her sons have generation after generation
+done the sweeping of the bamboo groves. So let's now place the various
+bamboo trees under her control. This old mother T'ien was originally a
+farmer, and everything in the way of vegetables and rice, in and about
+the Tao Hsiang village, should, albeit they couldn't, planted as they
+are as a mere pastime, be treated in such earnest as to call for large
+works and extensive plantations, be entrusted to her care; for won't
+they fare better if she can be on the spot and tend them with extra
+diligence at the proper times and seasons?"
+
+"What a pity it is," T'an Ch'un proceeded smilingly, "that two places so
+spacious as the Heng Wu garden and the I Hung court bring no grit to the
+mill."
+
+"Things in the Heng Wu garden are in a worse state," Li Wan hastily
+interposed. "Aren't the scented wares and scented herbs sold at present
+everywhere in perfumery shops, large fairs and great temples the very
+counterpart of these things here? So if you reckon up, you will find how
+much greater a return these articles will give than any other kind of
+product. As for the I Hung court, we needn't mention other things, but
+only take into account the roses that bud during the two seasons of
+spring and summer; to how many don't they amount in all? Besides these,
+we've got along the whole hedge, cinnamon roses and monthly roses, stock
+roses, honey-suckle and westeria. Were these various flowers dried and
+sold to the tea and medicine shops, they'd also fetch a good deal of
+money."
+
+"Quite so!" T'an Ch'un acquiesced with a smile. "The thing is that
+there's no one with any notion how to deal with scented herbs."
+
+"There's Ying Erh who waits on Miss Pao-ch'ai," P'ing Erh promptly
+smiled. "Her mother is well-versed in these things. It was only the
+other day that she plucked a few, and plaited them, after drying them
+well in the sun, into a flower-basket and a gourd, and gave them to me
+to play with. But miss can you have forgotten all about it?"
+
+"I was this very minute speaking in your praise," Pao-ch'ai observed
+smiling, "and do you come to chaff me?"
+
+"What makes you say so?" exclaimed the trio, in utter astonishment.
+
+"It will on no account do," Pao-ch'ai added. "You employ such a lot of
+people in here that they all lead a lazy life and have nothing to put a
+hand to, and were I also now to introduce some more, that tribe will
+look even upon me with utter contempt. But let me think of some one for
+you. There's in the I Hung court, an old dame Yeh; she's Pei Ming's
+mother. That woman is an honest old lady; and is furthermore on the best
+of terms with our Ying Erh's mother. So wouldn't it be well were this
+charge given to this dame Yeh? Should there even be anything that she
+doesn't know, there'll be no necessity for us to tell her. She can go
+straightway and consult with Ying Erh's mother. And if she can't attend
+to everything herself, it won't matter to whom she relegates some of her
+duties. These will be purely private favours. In the event too of any
+one making any mean insinuations, the blame won't fall on our shoulders.
+By adopting this course, you'll be managing things in such a way as to
+do extreme justice to all; and the trust itself will also be placed on a
+most satisfactory footing."
+
+"Excellent!" ejaculated Li Wan and P'ing Erh simultaneously.
+
+"This may be well and good," T'an Ch'un laughed, "but the fear is that
+at the sight of gain, they'll forget all about propriety."
+
+"That's nothing to do with us!" P'ing Erh rejoined a smile playing,
+about her lips. "It was only the other day that Ying Erh recognised dame
+Yeh as her adopted mother, and invited her to eat and drink with them,
+so that the two families are on the most intimate terms."
+
+At this assurance, T'an Ch'un relinquished the topic of conversation,
+and, holding council together, they selected several persons, all of
+whom the four had ever viewed with impartial favour and they marked off
+their names, by dotting them with a pen.
+
+In a little while, the matrons came to report that 'the doctor had
+gone;' and they handed the prescription. Their three mistresses then
+perused its contents. On the one hand, they despatched domestics to take
+it outside, so that the drugs should be got, and to superintend their
+decoction. On the other, T'an Ch'un and Li Wan explicitly explained to
+the various servants chosen what particular place each had to look
+after. "Exclusive," they added, "of what fixed custom requires for home
+consumption during the four seasons, you are still at liberty to pluck
+whatever remains and have it taken away. As for the profits, we'll
+settle accounts at the close of the year."
+
+"I've also bethought myself of something," T'an Ch'un smiled. "If the
+settlement of accounts takes place at the end of the year, the money
+will, at the time of delivery, be naturally paid into the accountancy.
+Those high up will then as usual add a whole lot of controllers; and
+these will, on their part, fleece their own share as soon as the money
+gets into the palms of their hand. But as by this system, we've now
+initiated, you've been singled out for appointment, you've already
+ridden so far above their heads, that they foster all sorts of animosity
+against you. They don't, however, give vent to their feelings; but if
+they don't seize the close of the year, when you have to deliver your
+accounts, to play their tricks on you, for what other chances will they
+wait? Moreover, they obtain, in everything that comes under their
+control during the year, half of every share their masters get. This is
+an old custom. Every one is aware of its existence. But this is a new
+regime I now introduce in this garden, so don't let the money find its
+way into their hands! Whenever the annual settling of accounts arrives,
+bring them in to us."
+
+"My idea is," Pao-ch'ai smilingly suggested, "that no accounts need be
+handed even inside. This one will have a surplus, that one a deficit, so
+that it will involve no end of trouble; wouldn't it be better therefore
+if we were to find out who of them would take over this or that
+particular kind and let them purvey the various things? These are for
+the exclusive use of the inmates of the garden; and I've already made an
+estimate of them for you. They amount to just a few sorts, and simply
+consist of head-oil, rouge, powder and scented paper; in all of which,
+the young ladies and maids are subject to a fixed rule. Then, besides
+these, there are the brooms, dust-baskets and poles, wanted in different
+localities, and the food for the large and small animals and birds, and
+the deer and rabbits. These are the only kinds of things required. And
+if they contract for them, there'll be little need for any one to go to
+the accountancy for money. But just calculate what a saving will thus be
+effected!"
+
+"All these items are, I admit, mere trifles," P'ing Erh smiled, "but if
+you lump together what's used during a year, you will find that a saving
+of four hundred taels will be effected."
+
+"Again!" smilingly remarked Pao-ch'ai, "it would be four hundred taels
+in one year; but eight hundred taels in two years; and with these, we
+could purchase a few more houses and let them; and in the way of poor,
+sandy land we could also add several acres to those we've already got.
+'There will, of course, still remain a surplus; but as they will have
+ample trouble and inconvenience to put up with during the year, they
+should also be allowed some balance in hand so as to make up what's
+wanted for themselves. The main object is, of course, to increase
+profits and curtail expenses, yet we couldn't be stingy to any excessive
+degree. In fact, were we even able to make any further economy of over
+two or three hundred taels, it would never be the proper thing; should
+this involve a breach of the main principles of decorum. With this
+course duly put into practice, outside, the accountancy will issue in
+one year four or five hundred taels less, without even the semblance of
+any parsimony; while, inside, the matrons will obtain, on the other
+hand, some little thing to supply their wants with; the nurses, who have
+no means of subsistence, will likewise be placed in easy circumstances;
+and the plants and trees in the garden will year by year increase in
+strength and grow more abundantly. In this wise, you too will have such
+articles as will be fit for use. So that this plan will, to some extent,
+not constitute a breach of the high principles of propriety. And if ever
+we want to retrench a little more from where won't we be able to get
+money? But if the whole balance, if any, be put to the credit of the
+public fund, every one, inside as well as outside, will fill the streets
+with the din of murmurings! And won't this be then a slur upon the code
+of honour of a household such as yours? So were any charge to be
+entrusted to this one, out of the several tens of old nurses at present
+employed in the garden, and not to that one, the remainder will
+naturally resent such injustice. As I said a while back all that these
+women will have to provide among themselves amounts to a few articles,
+so they will unavoidably have ample means. Hence each should be told to
+contribute, beyond the articles that fall to her share during the year,
+a certain number of tiaos, whether she may or may not realise any
+balance, and then jointly lump these sums together, and distribute them
+among those nurses only on service in the garden. For although they may
+not have anything to do with the control of these things, they
+themselves will have to stay in the grounds, to keep an eye over the
+servants on duty, to shut the doors, to close the windows and to get up
+early and retire late. Whenever it rains in torrents or it snows hard
+and chairs have to be carried, for you, young ladies, to go out and come
+in; or boats have to be punted, and sledges drawn, these rough and
+arduous duties come alike within their sphere of work. They have to
+labour in the garden from one year's end to the other, and though, they
+earn something in those grounds, it's only right that they should able
+to get some small benefits in the discharge of their legitimate duties.
+But there's another most trivial point that I would broach with less
+reserve. If you only think of your ease, and don't share the profits
+with them, they will, of course, never presume to show their
+displeasure, but in their hearts they won't cherish you any good
+feeling. What they'll do will be to make public business a pretext to
+serve their own private ends with; they'll pluck more of your fruits
+than they should; and cut greater quantities of your flowers than they
+ought. And you people will have a grievance, but you won't have anywhere
+to go and confide it. But should they too reap some gain, they'll
+readily look after such things on your behalf as you won't have the time
+to attend to."
+
+The matrons listened to her explanations; (and finding that) they would
+be removed from the control of the accountancy, that they would not be
+compelled to go and settle accounts with lady Feng, and that all that
+they would be called upon to do every year would be to supply a few more
+tiaos, were each and all delighted to an exceptional degree. So much so,
+that every one of them exclaimed in a chorus that they were quite
+prepared to agree to the terms. "It is better," they said, "than to be
+obliged to go out and be squeezed by them; and to have to fork out our
+own money as well."
+
+Those too not entrusted with the care of any portion of land were also
+highly elated, when they heard that at the close of each year they
+would, though they had no valid claim, come in for some share of hard
+cash.
+
+"They'll have to bear the trouble," they however argued, "to keep things
+in order, so it's only right that they should be left with a few cash to
+meet their various wants with; and how could we very well gobble our
+three meals without doing a stroke of work?"
+
+"Worthy dames," Pao-ch'ai smiled, "you mustn't decline. These duties are
+within your province and you should fulfil them. All you need do is to
+exert yourselves a bit by day and night, and not be so remiss and
+careless as to suffer any of the servants to drink and gamble; that's
+all. Otherwise, I myself must have nothing to do with the control. But
+you, yourselves, know well enough that it's my aunt who appealed to me
+with her own lips three and five times to do it as a favour to her.
+'Your eldest sister-in-law,' she represented, 'has at present no
+leisure, and the other girls are young,' and then she asked me to look
+after things. So if I now don't accede, it's as clear as day that I
+shall be the cause of much worry to my aunt. Our lady Feng herself is
+seriously ill, and our domestic affairs can't hang fire. I'm really with
+nothing to do, so were even a mere neighbour to solicit my help, I would
+also feel bound to lend her a hand in her pressure of work. How much
+more therefore when it's my own aunt, who invokes my aid? Setting aside
+the way I'm execrated by one and all, how would I ever be able to stare
+my aunt in the face, if, while I gave my sole mind to winning fame and
+fishing for praise, any one got so intoxicated and lost so much in
+gambling as to stir up trouble? At such a juncture remorse on your part
+will be too late! Even the old reputation you have ever enjoyed will
+entirely be lost and gone. Those young ladies and girls and this vast
+garden are alike placed under your supervision, purely and simply
+because one takes into account that you have been nurses to three or
+four generations and that you have most scrupulously observed the rules
+of etiquette and propriety. It's but fair that you should try, with one
+mind, and show some little regard for what's right and proper. But if
+you contrariwise behave with such laxity as to let people gratify their
+wishes by guzzling and gambling, and my aunt comes to hear of these nice
+doings, a little scolding from her will be of little consequence. But if
+the various women, who attend to the household, get scent of the state
+of affairs, they will haul you over the coals, without even so much as
+breathing one single word beforehand to my aunt. And venerable people,
+though you are, you will then, instead of tendering advice to young
+people, be called to account by them. As housekeepers, they exercise,
+it's true, authority over you; but why shouldn't you yourselves observe
+a certain amount of decorum? And if you do so, will they have any
+occasion to bully you? The reason why I've now bethought myself of this
+special boon for you is that you should unanimously strain every nerve
+to diligently attend to the garden, in order that the powers that be
+may, at the sight of your unrelenting care and zeal, have no cause to
+give way to solicitude. And won't they inwardly look up to you with
+regard? Neither will you render of no effect the various benefits
+devised for them. But go now and minutely ponder over all my advice!"
+
+All the women received her words with gratification. "What you say is
+quite right," they replied. "From this time forth you, miss, and you,
+our lady, can well compose your minds. With the interest both of you
+feel on our behalf, may heaven and earth not spare us, if we do not
+display a full amount of gratitude for all your kindnesses."
+
+These assurances were still being uttered when they saw Lin Chih-hsiao's
+wife walk in. "The family of the Chen mansion of Chiang Nan," she
+explained, "arrived in the capital yesterday. To-day, they're going into
+the palace to offer their congratulations. But they've now sent
+messengers ahead to come and bring presents and pay their respects."
+
+While she spoke, she produced the list of presents and handed it up.
+T'an Ch'un took it over from her. "They consist," she said, perusing it,
+"of twelve rolls of brocades and satins embroidered with dragons, such
+as are for imperial use; twelve rolls of satins of various colours, of
+the kind worn by the Emperor; twelve rolls of every sort of imperial
+gauze; twelve rolls of palace silks of the quality used by his majesty;
+and twenty rolls of satins, gauzes, silks and thin silks of different
+colours, generally worn by officials."
+
+After glancing over the list, Li Wan and T'an Ch'un suggested that a
+first-class tip should be given to the messengers who brought them,
+after which, they went on to direct a servant to convey the tidings to
+dowager lady Chia.
+
+Old lady Chia gave orders to call Li Wan, T'an Ch'un, Pao-ch'ai and the
+other girls. On their arrival, the presents were passed under review;
+and this over, Li Wan put them aside. "You must wait," she said to the
+servants of the inner store-room, "until Madame Wang comes back and sees
+them; you can then lock them up."
+
+"This Chen family too," old lady Chia thereupon added, "isn't like any
+other family; the highest tips should therefore be conferred upon the
+men. But as in a twinkle, they may also send some of their womankind to
+come and make their obeisance, silks should be got ready in
+anticipation."
+
+Scarcely was this remark concluded before a domestic actually announced:
+'that four ladies of the Chen mansion had come to pay their respects.'
+
+Upon hearing this, dowager lady Chia hastily directed that they should
+be introduced into her presence. The four women ranged from forty years
+and over. Their clothing and head-gear were not, in any material degree,
+different from those of mistresses. As soon as they presented their
+compliments and inquired about their healths, old lady Chia desired that
+four footstools should be moved forward. But though the four women
+thanked her for bidding them sit down, they only occupied the stools,
+after Pao-ch'ai had seated herself.
+
+"When did you enter the capital?" old lady Chia inquired.
+
+The four women jumped to their feet with alacrity. "We entered the
+capital yesterday," they answered. "Our lady has taken our young lady
+today into the palace to pay their homage. That's why she bade us come
+and give you their compliments, and see how the young ladies are getting
+on."
+
+"You hadn't paid a visit to the capital for ever so many years," dowager
+lady Chia smilingly observed, "and here you appear now quite
+unexpectedly!"
+
+The four women simultaneously smiled again. "Quite so!" they said. "We
+received this year imperial orders, summoning us to the capital!"
+
+"Has the whole family come?" old lady Chia asked.
+
+"Our old mistress, our young master, the two young ladies and the other
+ladies haven't come up," the four women explained. "Only our lady has
+come, together with Miss Tertia."
+
+"Is she engaged to any one?" old lady Chia asked.
+
+"Not yet," rejoined the quartet.
+
+"The two families, that of your senior married lady and that of your
+lady Secunda are both on most intimate terms with ours," dowager lady
+Chia smilingly added.
+
+"Yes, they are," replied the four women with a smile. "The letters
+received each year from our young ladies, assure us that they're
+entirely dependent upon the kindness bestowed upon them, in your worthy
+mansion, for their well-being."
+
+"What kindness?" old lady Chia exclaimed laughingly. "These two families
+are really friends of long standing. In addition to this, they're old
+relatives. So what we do is our simple bounden duty. What's more in the
+favour of your two young ladies is, that they're not full of their own
+importance. That's how it is that we've come to be on such close terms."
+
+The four women smiled. "This is mainly due to your venerable ladyship's
+excessive humility," they answered.
+
+"Is that young gentleman of yours too with your old mistress?" old lady
+Chia went on to inquire.
+
+"Yes, he has also come with our old mistress," the four women retorted.
+
+"How old is he?" old lady Chia then asked. "Does he go to school?" she
+afterwards inquired.
+
+"He's thirteen this year," the four women said by way of response. "But
+all through those good looks of his, our old mistress cherishes him so
+fondly that from his youth up, he has been wayward to the extreme, and
+that he now daily plays the truant. But our master and mistress as well
+don't keep any great check over him."
+
+"Yet, he can't resemble that young fellow of ours," old lady Chia
+laughed. "What's the name of your young gentleman?"
+
+"As our old mistress treats him just like a real precious gem," the
+quartet explained, "and as his complexion is naturally so white, her
+ladyship calls him Pao-yue."
+
+"Here's another one with the name of Pao-yue!" old lady Chia laughingly
+said to Li Wan.
+
+Li Wan and her companions hastily made a curtsey. "There have been, from
+old times to the present," they smiled, "very many among contemporaries
+and persons of different generations as well, who have borne duplicate
+names."
+
+The four women also smiled. "After the selection of this infant name,"
+they proceeded, "we all, both high or low, began to give way to
+surmises, as we could not make out in what relative's or friend's family
+there was a lad also called by the same name. But as we hadn't come to
+the capital for ten years or so, we couldn't remember."
+
+"That young fellow is my grandson," dowager lady Chia remarked. "Hallo!
+some one come here!"
+
+The married women and maids assented and approached several steps.
+
+"Go into the garden," old lady Chia smilingly said, "and call our Pao-yue
+here, so that these four housekeeping dames should see how he compares
+with their own Pao-yue."
+
+The married women, upon hearing her orders, promptly went off. After a
+while, they entered the room pressing round Pao-yue. The moment the four
+dames caught sight of him, they speedily rose to their feet. "He has
+given us such a start!" they exclaimed smilingly. "Had we not come into
+your worthy mansion, and perchance, met him, elsewhere, we would have
+taken him for our own Pao-yue, and followed him as far as the capital."
+
+While speaking they came forward and took hold of his hands and assailed
+him with questions.
+
+Pao-yue however also put on a smile and inquired after their healths.
+
+"How do his looks compare with those of your young gentleman?" dowager
+lady Chia asked as she smiled.
+
+"The way the four dames ejaculated just now," Li Wan and her companions
+explained, "was sufficient to show how much they resemble in looks."
+
+"How could there ever he such a coincidence?" old lady Chia laughed.
+"Yet, the children of wealthy families are so delicately nurtured that
+unless their faces are so deformed as to make them downright ugly,
+they're all equally handsome, as far as general appearances go. So
+there's nothing strange in this!"
+
+"As we gaze at his features," the quartet added, with smiling faces, "we
+find him the very image of him; and from what we gather from your
+venerable ladyship, he's also like him in waywardness. But, as far as we
+can judge, this young gentleman's disposition is ever so much better
+than that of ours."
+
+"What makes you think so?" old lady Chia precipitately inquired.
+
+"We saw it as soon as we took hold of the young gentleman's hands," the
+four women laughingly rejoined, "and when he spoke to us. Had it been
+that fellow of ours, he would have simply called us fools. Not to speak
+of taking his hand in ours, why we daren't even slightly move any of his
+things. That's why, those who wait on him are invariably young girls."
+
+Before the four dames had time to conclude what they had to say, Li Wan
+and the rest found it so hard to check themselves that with one voice
+they burst into loud laughter.
+
+Old lady Chia also laughed. "Let's also send some one now," she said,
+"to have a look at your Pao-yue. When his hand is taken, he too is sure
+to make an effort to put up with it. But don't you know that children of
+families such as yours and mine are bound, notwithstanding their
+numerous perverse and strange defects, to return the orthodox
+civilities, when they come across any strangers. But should they not
+return the proper civilities, they should, by no manner of means, be
+suffered to behave with such perverseness. It's the way that grown-up
+people doat on them that makes them what they are. And as they can,
+first and foremost, boast of bewitching good looks and they comport
+themselves, secondly, towards visitors with all propriety--, in fact,
+with less faulty deportment than their very seniors--, they manage to
+win the love and admiration of such as only get a glimpse of them. Hence
+it is that they're secretly indulged to a certain degree. But if they
+don't show the least regard to any one inside or outside, and so reflect
+no credit upon their parents, they deserve, with all their handsome
+looks, to be flogged to death."
+
+These sentiments evoked a smile from the four dames. "Your words
+venerable lady," they exclaimed, "are quite correct. But though our
+Pao-yue be wilful and strange in his ways, yet, whenever he meets any
+visitors, he behaves with courteousness and good manners; so much so,
+that he's more pleasing to watch than even grown-up persons. There is no
+one, therefore, who sees him without falling in love with him. But
+you'll say: 'why is he then beaten?' You really aren't aware that at
+home he has no regard either for precept or for heaven; that he comes
+out with things that never suggest themselves to the imagination of
+grown-up people, and that he does everything that takes one by surprise.
+The result is that his father and mother are driven to their wits' ends.
+But wilfulness is natural to young children. Reckless expenditure is a
+common characteristic of young men. Antipathy to school is a common
+feeling with young people. Yet there are ways and means to bring him
+round. The worse with him is that his disposition is so crotchety and
+whimsical. Can this ever do?...."
+
+This reply was barely ended when a servant informed them that their
+mistress had returned. Madame Wang entered the room, and saluted the
+women. The four dames paid their obeisance to her. But they had just had
+sufficient time to pass a few general observations, when dowager lady
+Chia bade them go and rest. Madame Wang then handed the tea in person
+and withdrew from the apartment. But when the four dames got up to say
+good-bye, old lady Chia adjourned to Madame Wang's quarters. After a
+chat with her on domestic affairs, she however told the women to go
+back; so let us put them by without any further allusion to them.
+
+During this while, old lady Chia's spirits waxed so high, that she told
+every one and any one she came across that there was another Pao-yue, and
+that he was, in every respect, the very image of her grandson.
+
+But as each and all bore in mind that there were many inmates among the
+large households of those officials with official ancestors, called by
+the same names, that it was an ordinary occurrence for a grandmother to
+be passionately fond of her grandson, and that there was nothing
+out-of-the-way about it, they treated the matter as of no significance.
+Pao-yue alone however was such a hair-brained simpleton that he
+conjectured that the statements made by the four dames had been intended
+to flatter his grandmother Chia.
+
+But subsequently he betook himself into the garden to see how Shih
+Hsiang-yuen was getting on.
+
+"Compose your mind now," Shih Hsiang-yuen then said to him, "and go on
+with your larks! Once, you were as lonely as a single fibre, which can't
+be woven into thread, and like a single bamboo, which can't form a
+grove, but now you've found your pair. When you exasperate your parents,
+and they give you beans, you'll be able to bolt to Nanking in quest of
+the other Pao-yue."
+
+"What utter rubbish!" Pao-yue exclaimed. "Do you too believe that there's
+another Pao-yue?"
+
+"How is it," Hsiang-yuen asked, "that there was some one in the Lieh
+state called Lin Hsiang-ju, and that during the Han dynasty there lived
+again another person, whose name was Ssu Ma Hsiang-ju?"
+
+"This matter of names is all well enough," Pao-yue rejoined with a smile.
+"But as it happens, his very appearance is the counterpart of mine. Such
+a thing could never be!"
+
+"How is it," Hsiang-yuen inquired, "that when the K'uang people saw
+Confucius, they fancied it was Yang Huo?"
+
+"Confucius and Yang Huo," Pao-yue smilingly argued, "may have been alike
+in looks, but they hadn't the same names. Lin and Ssu were again,
+notwithstanding their identical names, nothing like each other in
+appearances. But can it ever be possible that he and I should resemble
+each other in both respects?"
+
+Hsiang-yuen was at a loss what reply to make to his arguments. "You may,"
+she consequently remarked smiling, "propound any rubbish you like, I'm
+not in the humour to enter into any discussion with you. Whether there
+be one or not is quite immaterial to me. It doesn't concern me at all."
+
+Saying this, she lay herself down.
+
+Pao-yue however began again to exercise his mind with further surmises.
+"If I say," he cogitated, "that there can't be one, there seems from all
+appearances to be one. And if I say that there is one, I haven't, on the
+other hand, seen him with my own eyes."
+
+Sad and dejected he returned therefore to his quarters, and reclining on
+his couch, he silently communed with his own thoughts until he
+unconsciously became drowsy and fell fast asleep.
+
+Finding himself (in his dream) in some garden or other, Pao-yue was
+seized with astonishment. "Besides our own garden of Broad Vista," he
+reflected, "is there another such garden?" But while indulging in these
+speculations, several girls, all of whom were waiting-maids, suddenly
+made their appearance from the opposite direction. Pao-yue was again
+filled with surprise. "Besides Yuean Yang, Hsi Jen and P'ing Erh," he
+pondered, "are there verily such maidens as these?"
+
+"Pao-yue!" he heard that company of maids observe, with faces beaming
+with smiles, "how is it you find yourself in here?"
+
+Pao-yue laboured under the impression that they were addressing him. With
+hasty step, he consequently drew near them, and returned their smiles.
+"I got here," he answered, "quite listlessly. What old family friend's
+garden is this, I wonder? But sisters, pray, take me for a stroll."
+
+The maids smiled with one consent. "Really!" they exclaimed, "this isn't
+our Pao-yue. But his looks too are spruce and nice; and he is as
+precocious too with his tongue."
+
+Pao-yue caught their remarks. "Sisters!" he eagerly cried, "is there
+actually a second Pao-yue in here?"
+
+"As for the two characters 'Pao-yue,'" the maids speedily explained,
+"every one in our house has received our old mistress' and our mistress'
+injunctions to use them as a spell to protract his life for many years
+and remove misfortune from his path, and when we call him by that name,
+he simply goes into ecstasies, at the very mention of it. But you, young
+brat, from what distant parts of the world do you hail that you've
+recklessly been also dubbed by the same name? But beware lest we pound
+that frowzy flesh of yours into mincemeat."
+
+"Let's be off at once!" urged another maid, as she smiled. "Don't let
+our Pao-yue see us here and say again that by hobnobbing with this
+stinking young fellow, we've been contaminated by all his pollution."
+
+With these words on her lips, they straightway walked off.
+
+Pao-yue fell into a brown study. "There's never been," he mused, "any one
+to treat me with such disdain before! But what is it, in fact, that
+induces them to behave towards me in this manner? May it not be true
+that there lives another human being the very image of myself?"
+
+While lost in reverie, he advanced with heedless step, until he reached
+a courtyard. Pao-yue was struck with wonder. "Is there actually," he
+cried, "besides the I Hung court another court like it?" Spontaneously
+then ascending the steps, he entered an apartment, in which he discerned
+some one reclining on a couch. On the off side sat several girls, busy
+at needlework; now laughing joyfully; now practising their jokes; when
+he overheard the young person on the couch heave a sigh.
+
+"Pao-yue," smilingly inquired a maid, "what, aren't you asleep? What are
+you once more sighing for? I presume it's because your sister is ill
+that you abandon yourself again to idle fears and immoderate anguish!"
+
+These words fell on Pao-yue's ears, and took him quite aback.
+
+"I've heard grandmother say," he overheard the young person on the couch
+observe, "that there lives at Ch'ang An, the capital, another Pao-yue
+endowed with the same disposition as myself. I never believed what she
+told me; but I just had a dream, and in this dream I found myself in a
+garden of the metropolis where I came across several maidens; all of
+whom called me a 'stinking young brat,' and would have nothing whatever
+to do with me. But after much difficulty, I succeeded in penetrating
+into his room. He happened to be fast asleep. There he lay like a mere
+bag of bones. His real faculties had flown somewhere or other; whither
+it was hard for me to say."
+
+Hearing this, "I've come here," Pao-yue said with alacrity, "in search of
+Pao-yue; and are you, indeed, that Pao-yue?"
+
+The young man on the couch jumped down with all haste and enfolded him
+in his arms. "Are you verily Pao-yue?" he laughingly asked. "This isn't
+by any means such stuff as dreams are made of!"
+
+"How can you call this a dream?" Pao-yue rejoined. "It's reality, yea,
+nothing but reality!"
+
+But scarcely was this rejoinder over, than he heard some one come, and
+say: "our master, your father, wishes to see you, Pao-yue."
+
+The two lads started with fear. One Pao-yue rushed off with all despatch.
+The other promptly began to shout, "Pao-yue! come back at once! Pao-yue;
+be quick and return!"
+
+Hsi Jen, who stood by (Pao-yue), heard him call out his own name, in his
+dreams, and immediately gave him a push and woke him up. "Where is
+Pao-yue gone to?" she laughed.
+
+Although Pao-yue was by this time aroused from sleep, his senses were as
+yet dull, so pointing towards the door, "He's just gone out," he
+replied, "he's not far off."
+
+Hsi Jen laughed. "You're under the delusion of a dream," she said. "Rub
+your eyes and look carefully! It's your reflection in the mirror."
+
+Pao-yue cast a glance in front of him, and actually caught sight of the
+large inlaid mirror, facing him quite opposite, so he himself burst out
+laughing. But, presently, a maid handed him a rince-bouche and tea and
+salt, and he washed his mouth.
+
+"Little wonder is it," She Yueeh ventured, "if our old mistress has
+repeatedly enjoined that it isn't good to have too many mirrors about in
+young people's rooms, for as the spirit of young persons is not fully
+developed there is every fear, with mirrors casting their reflections
+all over the place, of their having wild dreams in their sleep. And is a
+bed now placed before that huge mirror there? When the covers of the
+mirrors are let down, no harm can befall; but as the season advances,
+and the weather gets hot, one feels so languid and tired, that is one
+likely to think of dropping them? Just as it happened a little time
+back; it slipped entirely from your memory. Of course, when he first got
+into bed, he must have played with his face towards the glass; but upon
+shortly closing his eyes, he must naturally have fallen into such
+confused dreams, that they thoroughly upset his rest. Otherwise, how is
+it possible that he should have started shouting his own name? Would it
+not be as well if the bed were moved inside to-morrow? That's the proper
+place for it."
+
+Hardly had she, however, done, before they perceived a servant, sent by
+Madame Wang to call Pao-yue. But what she wanted to tell him is not yet
+known, so, reader, listen to the circumstances recorded in the
+subsequent chapter.
+
+
+END OF BOOK II.
+
+
+[transcriber's note: The second volume of this translation ends thus,
+and no more of it was ever published.]
+
+ERRATA
+
+[original book lists no errata; these were found during Project
+Gutenberg proofreading. The format is imitated from the list actually
+appearing at the end of volume I. If a word is split across a line or
+page then the line or page given is that on which the erroneous part of
+the word appears.
+
+On several occasions the book uses nested double quotes. One person,
+speaking, quotes another person, speaking. "This example," the
+proofreader said, "is of when my friend told me, "Don't take any wooden
+nickels." So I have always been careful." When these were found, the
+inner quotes were changed to single quotes for increased clarity. Such
+changes are not noted in the errata. A few other corrections to
+punctuation are noted below, but most are not.
+
+The following are not misspellings: "dumfoundered" "parricide" "nobble"
+"finicking". "shewing" was very moldy at the time this was written but
+still not deceased. The Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, was
+used as the authority for spellings. I don't know about "per mensem"
+Chapter XXXVI page 180, line 18. I don't know about "titify" Chapter
+XL page 258, line 21. ]
+
+
+
+ Chap. XXV Page 8 Line 29: doesn't _not_ does'nt
+ XXVII " 37 " 10: peccadilloes _not_ peccadiloes
+ XXVIII " 64 " 6: on _not_ ou
+ XXVIII " 67 " 19: enumeration _not_ enuneration
+ XXX " 95 " 29: them," _not_ them."
+ XXX " 100 " 24: mustn't _not_ musn't
+ XXXI " 109 " 32: needn't _not_ need'nt
+ XXXII " 119 " 40: eh!" _not_ eh!
+ XXXII " 120 " 30: "Who _not_ Who
+ XXXII " 128 " 13: stitch _not_ stich
+ XXXIII " 137 " 2: fidgetted _not_ figetted
+ XXXIV " 147 " 28: promptly _not_ promply
+ XXXIV " 155 " 32: questions?" _not_ questions?
+ XXXIV " 157 " 7: contrariwise _not_ contrarivise
+ XXXV " 163 " 4: eat," _not_ eat"
+ XXXV " 163 " 13: successive _not_ succcessive
+ XXXV " 163 " 35: forty _not_ fourty
+ XXXV " 171 " 12: birthday _not_ brithday
+ XXXVI " 180 " 2: tael. _not_ tael."
+ XXXVI " 190 " 20: birthday _not_ brithday
+ XXXVII " 194 " 18: comes _not_ come's
+ XXXVII " 198 " 10: To-morrow _not_ To-morow
+ XXXVII " 199 " 32: "Well," _not_ "Well",
+ XXXVII " 199 " 33: done." _not_ done?
+ XXXVII " 199 " 40: fairest _not_ fairiest
+ XXXVII " 206 " 13: mustn't _not_ musn't
+ XXXVII " 207 " 36: get _not_ ged
+ XXXVII " 211 " 16: do?" _not_ do?
+ XXXVIII " 219 " 6: stomachaches." _not_
+ stomachaches.
+ XXXVIII " 228 " 13: while _not_ whily
+ XXXIX " 232 " 5: with?" _not_ with?,'
+ XXXIX " 237 " 9: conscious _not_ concious
+ XXXIX " 242 " 1: temple." _not_ temple.
+ XL " 245 " 38: little _not_ litte
+ XL " 248 " 11: silk." _not_ silk?"
+ XL " 254 " 12: They're _not_ The're
+ XL " 255 " 8: autograph _not_ authograph
+ XL " 257 " 16: mustn't _not_ musn't
+ XL " 258 " 13: fogies _not_ foggies
+ XL " 258 " 20: predilection _not_ predeliction
+ XL " 258 " 35: curtains." _not_ curtains.
+ XL " 258 " 39: enough." _not_ enough.
+ XL " 263 " 8: peony _not_ peone
+ XLI " 278 " 11: haven't _not_ have'nt
+ XLII " 282 " 4: haven't _not_ have'nt
+ XLII " 282 " 19: haven't _not_ have'nt
+ XLII " 283 " 14: ensconce _not_ ensconse
+ XLII " 284 " 26: medicine _not_ medecine
+ XLII " 284 " 39: medicines _not_ medecines
+ XLII " 285 " 27: medicines _not_ medecines
+ XLII " 288 " 5: aren't _not_ are'nt
+ XLII " 290 " 27: locust _not_ lucust
+ XLII " 290 " 27: feed.'" _not_ feed.'
+ XLIII " 309 " 31: grandiloquent _not_ grandeloquent
+ XLIV " 314 " 12: shouldn't _not_ should'nt
+ XLIV " 316 " 4: mustn't _not_ must'nt
+ XLIV " 317 " 6: employed the _not_ employed on
+ the
+ XLIV " 322 " 3: differed _not_ differred
+ XLIV " 322 " 31: swelled _not_ swole
+ XLIV " 323 " 15: unhappiness _not_ uuhappiness
+ XLV " 337 " 30: ginseng _not_ ginsing
+ XLV " 338 " 22: medicines _not_ medecines
+ XLV " 343 " 30: uselessly _not_ uselesly
+ XLVI " 352 " 26: mightn't _not_ mighn't
+ XLVII " 372 " 32: friendship _not_ frienship
+ XLVII " 378 " 3: proffered _not_ proferred
+ XLVIII " 380 " 21: worldly _not_ wordly
+ XLVIII " 386 " 4: antithetical _not_ antetithical
+ XLVIII " 386 " 23: Ling _not_ Ling,
+ XLVIII " 386 " 23: smile _not_ smiled
+ XLVIII " 386 " 35: stanzas _not_ stanaas
+ XLVIII " 389 " 24: cockatoo _not_ cuckatoo
+ XLVIII " 391 " 27: 'Tis _not_ T'is
+ XLVIII " 391 " 31: 'Tis _not_ T'is
+ XLIX " 393 " 34: would'st _not_ woulds't
+ XLIX " 393 " 37: 'tis _not_ t'is
+ XLIX " 401 " 1: simultaneously _not_
+ simultaneouly
+ L " 411 " 25: 'tis _not_ t'is
+ L " 413 " 17: 'tis _not_ t'is
+ L " 415 " 35: But by and bye _not_ But and bye
+ L " 417 " 17: 'tis _not_ t'is
+ L " 417 " 17: 'tis _not_ 't'is
+ [yes twice in the same line]
+ L " 417 " 25: 'tis _not_ t'is
+ L " 418 " 10: haven't _not_ have'nt
+ L " 423 " 38: blossom _not_ blosson
+ LI " 437 " 37: matter.'" _not_ matter."
+ LII " 446 " 21: medicine _not_ medecine
+ LII " 446 " 27: medicines _not_ medecines
+ LII " 449 " 5: medicines _not_ medecines
+ LII " 460 " 3: anniversary _not_ anniversay
+ LIII " 462 " 13: perspiring _not_ prespiring
+ LIII " 464 " 7: peonies _not_ peones
+ LIII " 468 " 23: haven't _not_ have'nt
+ LIII " 471 " 39: Apparent _not_ Apparrent
+ LIII " 476 " 9: homage _not_ hommage
+ LIII " 476 " 14: consonant _not_ consonnant
+ LIV " 487 " 5: trod _not_ trode
+ LIV " 487 " 12: "This _not_ This
+ LIV " 488 " 36: Isn't _not_ Is'nt
+ LIV " 490 " 15: me?" _not_ me?
+ LIV " 490 " 19: say, _not_ say,"
+ LIV " 491 " 23: comfortable _not_ confortable
+ LIV " 495 " 12: exhilarated _not_ exhilerated
+ LIV " 495 " 19: smilingly _not_ similingly
+ LV " 503 " 10: and _not_ aud
+ LV " 507 " 32: Mrs. _not_ "Mrs.
+ LV " 507 " 33: making _not_ make
+ LVI " 525 " 27: Aren't _not_ Are'nt
+ LVI " 529 " 18: mustn't _not_ musn't
+ LVI " 535 " 20: notwithstanding _not_
+ nothwithstanding
+ LVI " 536 " 36: aren't _not_ are'nt
+
+
+
+
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