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diff --git a/9604-h/9604-h.htm b/9604-h/9604-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e40205 --- /dev/null +++ b/9604-h/9604-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,36251 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Hung Lou Meng, Book II, by Cao Xueqin</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hung Lou Meng, Book II, by Cao Xueqin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: Hung Lou Meng, Book II + +Author: Cao Xueqin + +Release Date: October 9, 2003 [EBook #9604] +[Most recently updated: September 27, 2020] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNG LOU MENG, BOOK II *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>Hung Lou Meng, Book II</h1> + +<h5>OR, THE DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER, A CHINESE NOVEL IN TWO BOOKS</h5> + +<h2>by Cao Xueqin</h2> + +<p class="center"> +Translated by H. BENCRAFT JOLY +</p> + +<h5>H.B.M. CONSULAR SERVICE, CHINA.</h5> + +<hr /> + +<h2>BOOK II</h2> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<p> +By a demoniacal art, a junior uncle and an elder brother's wife +(Pao-yü and lady Feng) come across five devils.<br /> +The gem of Spiritual Perception meets, in a fit of torpor, the two +perfect men. +</p> + +<p> +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 Yün, 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. +</p> + +<p> +Who would have thought it, Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Our watering-pot is spoilt," Hsi Jen smiled and said, "so go to Miss<br /> +Lin's over there and find one for us to use." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiao Hung hastened on her way towards the Hsiao Hsiang Kuan. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +At a great distance off, a band of men were, in very deed, engaged in digging +up the soil, while Chia Yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh went along with lady Feng, and the three sisters of +the Chia family, and Pao-ch'ai and Pao-yü, and only returned home late in the +evening. +</p> + +<p> +Madame Wang was sitting in Mrs. Hsüeh'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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü, you don't pay much heed to me. I've also seen through it +myself." +</p> + +<p> +Ts'ai Hsiao set her teeth together, and gave him a fillip on the head.<br /> +"You heartless fellow!" she cried. "You're like the dog, that bit Lü<br /> +T'ung-pin. You have no idea of what's right and what's wrong!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +But a brief interval over, Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Madame Wang caressed and patted him. But while Pao-yü clung to his mother's +neck, he spoke to her of one thing and then another. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Chiding him the while, she directed a servant to fetch a pillow. Pao-yü +therefore lay himself down at the back of Madame Wang, and called Ts'ai Hsia to +come and stroke him. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü; 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-yü's face. +</p> + +<p> +"Ai ya!" Pao-yü 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-yü's face was one mass of tallow. +</p> + +<p> +Madame Wang gave way to anger as well as anxiety. At one time, she issued +directions to the servants to rub and wash Pao-yü clean. At another, she heaped +abuse upon Chia Huan. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng jumped on to the stone-couch by leaps and bounds. But while intent +upon removing the stuff from Pao-yü'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." +</p> + +<p> +This single remark suggested the idea to Madame Wang, and she lost no time in +sending for Mrs. Chao to come round. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü. She +then perceived that a whole row of blisters had risen on the left side of +Pao-yü's face, but that fortunately no injury had been done to his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, she, at the same time, fetched some powder for +counteracting the effects of the virus, and applied it on his face. +</p> + +<p> +"It's rather sore," said Pao-yü, "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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Madame Wang then ordered the servants to take care and escort Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +As for Lin Tai-yü, when she found that Pao-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü imagined that the burn was of an extremely serious nature, and she +hastened to approach him with a view to examine it. Pao-yü, 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-yü then gave up the attempt, and confined herself to asking him: +"whether it was very painful?" +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't very sore," replied Pao-yü, "if I look after it for a day or two, it +will get all right." +</p> + +<p> +But after another short stay, Lin Tai-yü repaired back to her quarters. +</p> + +<p> +The next day Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +A day after, Ma, a Taoist matron, whose name was recorded as Pao-yü's +godmother, came on a visit to the mansion. Upon perceiving Pao-yü, 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-yü'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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"But what, I wonder," inquired dowager lady Chia, "could be offered to this +god?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia nodded her head and gave way to reflection. +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"O-mi-to-fu!" exclaimed Ma, the Taoist matron, "Oh merciful, and mighty<br /> +P'u Sa!" +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia then called the servants and impressed on their minds that +whenever Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +The Taoist matron, Ma, chose with alacrity several pieces and shoved them in +her breast. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I've offered them long ago for you," the Taoist matron Ma rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +While uttering this remark, she stretched out her two fingers. +</p> + +<p> +Ma, the Taoist matron, understood the meaning she desired to convey.<br /> +"It's your lady Secunda, Lien, eh?" she forthwith asked. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +When the Taoist matron, Ma, heard this, she drew near to her.<br /> +"O-mi-to-fu! desist at once from asking me!" she designedly exclaimed.<br /> +"How can I know anything about such matters, contrary as they are to<br /> +what is right?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"That will do!" answered the Taoist matron, Ma. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +The two dames then parted company. +</p> + +<p> +But passing them over, we will now allude to Lin Tai-yµ. As Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"We are a full company to-day," laughed Tai-yü, "but who has issued the cards +and invited us here?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I had just forgotten all about it," Tai-yü rejoined, "many thanks for your +kind attention! +</p> + +<p> +"I tasted it," observed Pao-yü. "I did not think it anything good. But I don't +know how others, who've had any of it, find it." +</p> + +<p> +"Its flavour," said Tai-yü, "is good; the only thing is, it has no colour." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"To my taste, it's all right," put in Tai-yü. "But what your palates are like, +I can't make out." +</p> + +<p> +"As you say it's good," suggested Pao-yü, "you're quite at liberty to take all +I have for your use." +</p> + +<p> +"I've got a great deal more of it over there," lady Feng remarked. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll tell a servant-girl to go and fetch it," Tai-yü replied. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +When Lin Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +The whole party burst out laughing aloud. So much so, that they found it +difficult to repress themselves. But Tai-yü's face was suffused with blushes. +She turned her head the other way, and uttered not a word. +</p> + +<p> +"Our sister-in-law Secunda's jibes are first-rate!" Pao-ch'ai chimed in with a +laugh. +</p> + +<p> +"What jibes!" exclaimed Tai-yü; "they're purely and simply the prattle of a +mean mouth and vile tongue! They're enough to evoke people's displeasure!" +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, she went on to sputter in disgust. +</p> + +<p> +"Were you," insinuated lady Feng, "to become a wife in my family, what is there +that you would lack?" Pointing then at Pao-yü, "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?" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü. Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"As for me, I can't go out," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng overheard him. Turning her head towards Lin Tai-yü, "There's some +one," she cried; "who wants to speak to you." And forthwith laying hold of Lin +Tai-yü, she pushed her back and then trudged away, along with Li Kung-ts'ai. +</p> + +<p> +During this time, Pao-yü clasped Tai-yü's hand in his. He did nothing than +smile. But not a word did he utter. Tai-yü naturally, therefore, got crimson in +the face, and struggled to escape his importunities. +</p> + +<p> +"Ai-ya!" exclaimed Pao-yü. "How my head is sore!" +</p> + +<p> +"It should be!" rejoined Tai-yü. "O-mi-to-fu." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü and the servant-girls were full of consternation, and, with all possible +haste, they ran and apprised Madame Wang and dowager lady Chia. +</p> + +<p> +Wang Tzu-t'eng's wife was, at this time, also with them, so they all came in a +body to see him. Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 Yün, Chia P'ing, Mrs. Hsüeh, Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +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 Yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü) 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. +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia, Madame Wang, Madame Hsing and Mrs. Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The fourth day arrived. At an early hour Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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…." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +Now she shed tears; now she gave vent to abuse. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Who is it,"—she inquired; "who gave orders to make the coffins? Bring at once +the coffin-makers and beat them to death!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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? +</p> + +<p> + His nose like a suspended gall; his two eyebrows so long,<br /> + His eyes, resembling radiant stars, possessed a precious glow,<br /> + His coat in tatters and his shoes of straw, without a home;<br /> + Rolling in filth, and, a worse fate, his head one mass of boils. +</p> + +<p> +And the Taoist priest, what was he like? +</p> + +<p> + With one leg perchèd high he comes, with one leg low;<br /> + His whole frame drenching wet, bespattered all with mud.<br /> + If you perchance meet him, and ask him where's his home,<br /> + "In fairyland, west of the 'Weak Water,' he'll say." +</p> + +<p> +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? +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Chia Cheng accordingly unclasped the piece of jade from Pao-yü'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! +</p> + +<p> + "By Heaven unrestrained, without constraint from Earth,<br /> + No joys lived in thy heart, but sorrows none as well;<br /> + Yet when perception, through refinement, thou did'st reach,<br /> + Thou went'st among mankind to trouble to give rise.<br /> + How sad the lot which thou of late hast had to hear!<br /> + Powder prints and rouge stains thy precious lustre dim.<br /> + House bars both day and night encage thee like a duck.<br /> + Deep wilt thou sleep, but from thy dream at length thou'lt wake,<br /> + Thy debt of vengeance, once discharged, thou wilt depart." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, 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-yü, previous to anything else, muttered +a prayer to Buddha; while Pao-ch'ai laughed and said not a word. +</p> + +<p> +"Sister Pao," inquired Hsi Ch'un, "what are you laughing for?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +As she uttered these words, she raised the portiere and made her exit. +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, do you want to know any further circumstances? If so, the next +chapter will explain them to you. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<p> + On the Feng Yao bridge, Hsiao Hung makes known sentimental matters in<br /> + equivocal language.<br /> + In the Hsiao Hsiang lodge, Tai-yü gives, while under the effects of<br /> + the spring lassitude, expression to her secret feelings. +</p> + +<p> +After thirty days' careful nursing, Pao-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü was of late laid up in bed, Chia Yün 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-yü, so (Chia Yün) and she +saw a good deal of each other on several occasions, and gradually an intimacy +sprung up between them. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiao Hung observed that Chia Yün 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-yün +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"What are you talking about?" Hsiao Hung replied. "What shall I go home for, +when there's neither rhyme nor reason for it!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Nonsense!" rejoined Hsiao Hung, "are medicines also to be recklessly taken ?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"What's there to fear?" observed Hsiao Hung; "won't it anyhow be better to die +a little earlier? It would be a riddance!" +</p> + +<p> +"Why do you deliberately come out with all this talk?" Chia Hui demurred. +</p> + +<p> +"How could you ever know anything of the secrets of my heart?" Hsiao<br /> +Hung inquired. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"It won't do to be angry with them!" Hsiao Hung observed. "The proverb says: +'You may erect a shed a thousand <i>li</i> 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, she threw them at Hsiao Hung, and twisting herself round, she +immediately scampered away. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Sister Hua," Chia Hui rejoined, "is waiting for me to get a box for her, so +you had better go for it yourself!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü'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?" +</p> + +<p> +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 Yü (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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"What can I do?" rejoined nurse Li. +</p> + +<p> +"Why, that fellow," added Hsiao Hung laughingly, "will, if he has any idea of +decency, do the right thing and not come." +</p> + +<p> +"Besides, he's not a fool!" pleaded nurse Li; "so why shouldn't he come in?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, she continued her way, leaning on her staff. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +Hsiao Hung raised her head, and recognised a young waiting-maid called<br /> +Chui Erh. "Where are you off too?" Hsiao Hung asked. +</p> + +<p> +"I've been told to bring in master Secundus, Mr. Yün," Chui Erh replied.<br /> +After which answer, she there and then departed with all speed. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiao Hung reached, meanwhile, the Feng Yao bridge. As soon as she approached +the gateway, she perceived Chui Erh coming along with Chia Yün from the +opposite direction. While advancing Chia Yün ogled Hsiao Hung; and Hsiao Hung +too, though pretending to be addressing herself to Chui Erh, cast a glance at +Chia Yün; 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. +</p> + +<p> +During this time, Chia Yün 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 Yün. When Chia Yün 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 Lü, +the happy red and joyful green." +</p> + +<p> +"I thought it strange," Chia Yün argued mentally, "that it should be called the +I Hung court; but are these, in fact, the four characters inscribed on the +tablet!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +As soon as Chia Yün recognised Pao-yü'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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Chia Yün 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-yü, wearing a house-dress and +slipshod shoes, was reclining on the bed, a book in hand. The moment he +perceived Chia Yün walk in, he discarded his book, and forthwith smiled and +raised himself up. Chia Yün hurriedly pressed forward and paid his salutation. +Pao-yü then offered him a seat; but he simply chose a chair in the lower part +of the apartment. +</p> + +<p> +"Ever since the moon in which I came across you," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"It's I, indeed, who lacked good fortune!" rejoined Chia Yün, with a laugh; +"particularly so, as it again happened that you, uncle, fell ill. But are you +quite right once more?" +</p> + +<p> +"All right!" answered Pao-yü. "I heard that you've been put to much trouble and +inconvenience on a good number of days!" +</p> + +<p> +"Had I even had any trouble to bear," added Chia Yün, "it would have been my +duty to bear it. But your complete recovery, uncle, is really a blessing to our +whole family." +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke, he discerned a couple of servant-maids come to help him to a cup +of tea. But while conversing with Pao-yü, Chia Yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +At the time of Pao-yü's illness, Chia Yün 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-yü's rooms on a different standing to the rest. Now therefore +that she brought the tea in herself and that Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Just you sit down and finish!" Pao-yü interposed; "will you also behave in +this fashion with servant-girls?" +</p> + +<p> +"In spite of what you say;" remarked Chia Yün smiling, "they are young ladies +attached to your rooms, uncle, and how could I presume to be disorderly in my +conduct?" +</p> + +<p> +So saying, he took a seat and drank his tea. Pao-yü 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 Yün was constrained +to humour him in his conversation; but after a chat, which lasted for some +time, he noticed that Pao-yü was somewhat listless, and he promptly stood up +and took his leave. And Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Having left the I Hung court, Chia Yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +As Chui Erh heard the questions set to her, she readily made suitable reply to +each. +</p> + +<p> +"The one, who was a while back talking to you," continued Chia Yün, "is called +Hsiao Hung, isn't she?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, her name is Hsiao Hung!" replied Chui Erh smiling; "but why do you ask +about her?" +</p> + +<p> +"She inquired of you just now about some handkerchief or other," answered Chia +Yün; "well, I've picked one up." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +The truth is that Chia Yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +Chui Erh assented to his proposal most profusely; and, taking the handkerchief, +she saw Chia Yün out and then came back in search of Hsiao Hung. But we will +leave her there for the present. +</p> + +<p> +We will now return to Pao-yü. After dismissing Chia Yün, 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Upon hearing her voice, Pao-yü grasped her hand in his. "I would like to go +out," he smiled, "but I can't reconcile myself to the separation from you!" +</p> + +<p> +"Get up at once!" laughed Hsi Jen. And as she uttered these words, she pulled +Pao-yü up. +</p> + +<p> +"Where can I go?" exclaimed Pao-yü. "I'm quite surfeited with everything." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as he realised that Pao-yü stood ahead of him, he speedily halted. +"Uncle Secundus," he smiled, "are you at home? I imagined you had gone out of +doors!" +</p> + +<p> +"You are up to mischief again, eh?" Pao-yü rejoined. "They've done nothing to +you, and why shoot at them with your arrows?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Shut up!" exclaimed Pao-yü. "When are you not engaged in practising?" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü listlessly rambled in. He saw a bamboo +portière 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-yü 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-yü unconsciously began to +feel a prey to inward longings; but casting a second glance, he saw Tai-yü +stretching herself on the bed. +</p> + +<p> +"Why is it," smiled Pao-yü, from outside the window, "that your feelings day +after day slumber drowsily?" So saying, he raised the portière and stepped in. +</p> + +<p> +The consciousness that she had not been reticent about her feelings made Tai-yü +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-yü drew near her. He was about to pull her round when he saw +Tai-yü's nurse enter the apartment, followed by two matrons. +</p> + +<p> +"Is Miss asleep?" they said. "If so, we'll ask her over, when she wakes up." +</p> + +<p> +As these words were being spoken, Tai-yü eagerly twisted herself round and sat +up. "Who's asleep?" she laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"We thought you were fast asleep, Miss," smiled the two or three matrons as +soon as they perceived Tai-yü get up. This greeting over, they called Tzu +Chüan. "Your young mistress," they said, "has awoke; come in and wait on her!" +</p> + +<p> +While calling her, they quitted the room in a body. Tai-yü remained seated on +the bed. Raising her arms, she adjusted her hair, and smilingly she observed to +Pao-yü, "When people are asleep, what do you walk in for?" +</p> + +<p> +At the sight of her half-closed starlike eyes and of her fragrant cheeks, +suffused with a crimson blush, Pao-yü'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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I wasn't saying anything," Tai-yü replied. +</p> + +<p> +"What a lie you're trying to ram down my throat!" laughed Pao-yü. "I heard +all." +</p> + +<p> +But in the middle of their colloquy, they saw Tzu Chüan enter. Pao-yü then put +on a smiling face. "Tzu Chüan!" he cried, "pour me a cup of your good tea!" +</p> + +<p> +"Where's the good tea to be had?" Tzu Chüan answered. "If you want good tea, +you'd better wait till Hsi Jen comes." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't heed him!" interposed Tai-yü. "Just go first and draw me some water." +</p> + +<p> +"He's a visitor," remonstrated Tzu Chüan, "and, of course, I should first pour +him a cup of tea, and then go and draw the water." +</p> + +<p> +With this answer, she started to serve the tea. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear girl," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü at once drooped her head. "What are you saying?" she remonstrated. +</p> + +<p> +"What, did I say anything?" smiled Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +As she began to cry, she jumped down from bed, and promptly left the room. +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +At the very mention of his father, Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you perchance know what he wants me for?" Pao-yü inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +This said, he urged Pao-yü on, and together they turned past the large +pavilion. Pao-yü 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 Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pei Ming also laughed, and fell on his knees. But Pao-yü remained for a long +time under the spell of utter astonishment, before he, at length, realised that +it was Hsüeh P'au who had inveigled him to come out. +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear cousin," remarked Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Ai-ya!" exclaimed Pao-yü. "You do more than ever deserve death!!" Then turning +again towards Pei Ming, "You ruffian!" he said, "what are you still kneeling +for?" +</p> + +<p> +Pei Ming began to bump his head on the ground with vehemence. +</p> + +<p> +"Had it been for anything else," Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü walk in, some paid their respects to him; +others inquired how he was; and after the interchange of salutations, tea was +drunk. Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Just so!" retorted Hsüeh P'an, "but when you come to-morrow to congratulate me +we'll consider what novel kind of present you can give me." +</p> + +<p> +"I've got nothing that I can give you," rejoined Pao-yü. "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." +</p> + +<p> +"Your reference to pictures," added Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +This allusion made Pao-yü exercise his mind with innumerable conjectures. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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 Hsüeh. P'an: +"Did you see correctly that it read Keng Huang?" +</p> + +<p> +"How could I not have seen correctly?" ejaculated Hsüeh P'an. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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)." +</p> + +<p> +As he cracked this joke, however, a young page came and announced that<br /> +Mr. Feng had arrived. Pao-yü concluded that the new comer must be Feng<br /> +Tzu-ying, the son of Feng T'ang, general with the prefix of Shen Wu." +</p> + +<p> +"Ask him in at once," Hsüeh P'an and his companions shouted with one voice. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The company speedily rose from table and offered him a seat. +</p> + +<p> +"That's right!" smiled Feng Tzu-ying. "You don't go out of doors, but remain at +home and go in for high fun!" +</p> + +<p> +Both Pao-yü and Hsüeh P'an put on a smile. "We haven't," they remarked, "seen +you for ever so long. Is your venerable father strong and hale?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"When was that?" asked Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"I started," explained Tzu-ying, "on the 28th of the third moon and came back +only the day before yesterday." +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't to be wondered at then," observed Pao-yü, "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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh P'an, Pao-yü and the other young fellows would on no account listen to +his excuses. They pulled him vigorously about and would not let him go. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +After this rejoinder, the party could not but give in. Hsüeh P'an took hold of +the kettle, while Pao-yü grasped the cup, and they poured two large cups full. +Feng Tzu-ying stood up and quaffed them with one draught. +</p> + +<p> +"But do, after all," urged Pao-yü, "finish this thing about a piece of good +fortune in the midst of misfortune before you go." +</p> + +<p> +"To tell you this to-day," smiled Feng Tzu-ying, "will be no great fun.<br /> +But for this purpose I intend standing a special entertainment, and<br /> +inviting you all to come and have a long chat; and, in the second place,<br /> +I've also got a favour to ask of you." +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, he pushed his way and was going off at once, when Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +The party resumed their seats at table. They had another bout, and then +eventually dispersed. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü come back in a drunken +state, she felt urged to inquire the reason of it all. Pao-yü told her one by +one the particulars of what happened. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Didn't I purpose sending a message?" exclaimed Pao-yü. "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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Cousin," laughed Pao-yü, "you must have certainly tasted what you've got in +your house long before us." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü. +</p> + +<p> +The instant she heard that Chia Cheng had sent for Pao-yü, and that he had not +come back during the whole day, she felt very distressed on his account. After +supper, the news of Pao-yü'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-yü'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-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +As these words reached Lin Tai-yü'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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü and Pao-ch'ai. Lin Tai-yü 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-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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> + +<p> + P'in Erh's mental talents and looks must in the world be rare—.<br /> + Alone, clasped in a subtle smell, she quits her maiden room.<br /> + The sound of but one single sob scarcely dies away,<br /> + And drooping flowers cover the ground and birds fly in dismay. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<p> + In the Ti Ts'ui pavilion, Pao-ch'ai diverts herself with the<br /> + multi-coloured butterflies.<br /> + Over the mound, where the flowers had been interred, Tai-yü bewails<br /> + their withered bloom. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü, 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-yü, Hsi Jen and a whole posse of inmates then walked out. She +felt inclined to go up to Pao-yü and ask him a question; but dreading that if +she made any inquiries in the presence of such a company, Pao-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Tzu Chüan and Hsüeh Yen were well aware, from the experience they had reaped in +past days, that Lin Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Wait all of you here," rejoined Pao-ch'ai, "and I'll go and shake her up and +bring her." +</p> + +<p> +With these words, she speedily left her companions and repaired straightway +into the Hsiao Hsiang lodge. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, she followed the winding path, and came to the Hsiao Hsiang lodge. +Upon suddenly raising her eyes, she saw Pao-yü walk in. Pao-ch'ai immediately +halted, and, lowering her head, she gave way to meditation for a time. "Pao-yü +and Lin Tai-yü," 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-yü 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-yü would, in the first place, not +feel at ease, and, in the second, Tai-yü would give way to jealousy. Better +therefore for me to turn back." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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. Yün." +</p> + +<p> +"To be sure it is my own," another party observed, "bring it along and give it +to me." +</p> + +<p> +"What reward will you give me?" she further heard. "Is it likely that<br /> +I've searched all for nothing!" +</p> + +<p> +"I've long ago promised to recompense you, and of course I won't play you +false," some one again rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü'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 <i>exuviae</i>." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai turned round and faced them. "Where have you been hiding Miss<br /> +Lin?" she smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"Who has seen anything of Miss Lin," retorted Chui Erh. +</p> + +<p> +"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 <i>detour</i> towards the East, she at once vanished from sight. So +mayn't she be concealing herself in there?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm attached to our Master Secundus,' Mr. Pao's rooms," answered Hsiao<br /> +Hung. +</p> + +<p> +"Ai-ya!" ejaculated lady Feng, as soon as she heard these words. "Are you +really in Pao-yü'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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't notice," rejoined Ssu Ch'i. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Go into your senior lady's court and look for her!" T'an Ch'un answered. +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, Hsiao Hung was proceeding immediately towards the Tao<br /> +Hsiang village, when she caught sight, just ahead of her, of Ch'ing Wen,<br /> +Ch'i Hsia, Pi Hen, Ch'iu Wen, She Yüeh, Shih Shu, Ju Hua, Ying Erh and<br /> +some other girls coming towards her in a group. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"And what about the tea-stove?" interposed Pi Hen. +</p> + +<p> +"To-day," retorted Hsiao Hung, "is not my turn on duty, so don't ask me whether +there be any tea or not!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +As she derided her, she continued on her way. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"How could she tell him where I wanted him to go?" Lady Feng laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"Sister P'ing says," Hsiao Hung proceeded, "that our lady presents her +compliments to your ladyship (widow Li) here-(<i>To lady Feng</i>) 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. (<i>To Li Wan</i>). That when lady Quinta is +somewhat better, our lady will let lady Quinta know and come along with her to +see your ladyship. (<i>To lady Feng</i>). 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"What a good thing it would be," laughed Li Kung-ts'ai, "if they could all be +as smart as you are." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +At this news, Hsiao Hung spurted out laughing aloud. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"I wasn't laughing about that," Hsiao Hung answered with a smiling face.<br /> +"I was amused by the mistake your ladyship made about our generations.<br /> +Why, my mother claims to be your daughter, my lady, and are you now<br /> +going to recognise me too as your daughter?" +</p> + +<p> +"Who's your mother?" Lady Feng exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't you actually know her?" put in Li Kung-ts'ai with a smile. "She's<br /> +Lin Chih-hsiao's child." +</p> + +<p> +This disclosure greatly surprised lady Feng. "What!" she consequently cried, +"is she really his daughter?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm seventeen," replied Hsia Hung. +</p> + +<p> +"What is your name?" she went on to ask. +</p> + +<p> +"My name was once Hung Yü." Hsiao Hung rejoined. "But as it was a duplicate of +that of Master Secundus, Mr. Pao-yü, I'm now simply called Hsiao Hung." +</p> + +<p> +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 Yü would seem to be very cheap; for your name is Yü, and so is also +mine Yü. 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, in that case," added lady Feng, "I'll speak to Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiao Hung then returned into the I Hung court, where we will leave her and +devote our attention for the present to Lin Tai-yü. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü forthwith turned her head away. "Put the room in order," she shouted to +Tzu Chüan, "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." +</p> + +<p> +So saying she stepped outside. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü fell into a despondent mood and gave way to conjectures. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as they saw Tai-yü approach, the trio stood together and started a +friendly chat. But noticing Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Are you sister quite well?" Pao-yü rejoined, a smile on his lips. "The other +day, I asked news of you of our senior sister-in-law." +</p> + +<p> +"Brother Pao," T'an Ch'un remarked, "come over here; I want to tell you +something." +</p> + +<p> +The moment Pao-yü heard this, he quickly went with her. Distancing<br /> +Pao-ch'ai and Tai-yü, the two of them came under a pomegranate tree.<br /> +"Has father sent for you these last few days?" T'an Ch'un then asked. +</p> + +<p> +"He hasn't," Pao-yü answered laughingly by way of reply. +</p> + +<p> +"Yesterday," proceeded T'an Ch'un, "I heard vaguely something or other about +father sending for you to go out." +</p> + +<p> +"I presume," Pao-yü smiled, "that some one must have heard wrong, for he never +sent for me." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Much as I have roamed inside and outside the city walls," answered Pao-yü, +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Is it things of this kind that you really want?" laughed Pao-yü. "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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Your reference to this," smiled Pao-yü, "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!'" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +After listening to her, Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +While she taunted them, T'an Ch'un and Pao-yü eventually drew near her with +smiling faces. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, however, failed to see Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +As he argued to himself, he heard Pao-ch'ai bid them go out. "I'll join you in +a moment," Pao-yü 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-yü. 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. +</p> + +<p> +"I wonder," soliloquised Pao-yü, "whose servant-girl this is, who has been so +aggrieved as to run over here to have a good cry!" +</p> + +<p> +While speculating within himself, he halted. He then heard, mingled with +wails:— +</p> + +<p> + Flowers wither and decay; and flowers do fleet; they fly all o'er the<br /> + skies;<br /> + Their bloom wanes; their smell dies; but who is there with them to<br /> + sympathise?<br /> + While vagrant gossamer soft doth on fluttering spring-bowers bind its<br /> + coils,<br /> + And drooping catkins lightly strike and cling on the embroidered<br /> + screens,<br /> + A maiden in the inner rooms, I sore deplore the close of spring.<br /> + Such ceaseless sorrow fills my breast, that solace nowhere can I find.<br /> + Past the embroidered screen I issue forth, taking with me a hoe,<br /> + And on the faded flowers to tread I needs must, as I come and go.<br /> + The willow fibres and elm seeds have each a fragrance of their own.<br /> + What care I, peach blossoms may fall, pear flowers away be blown;<br /> + Yet peach and pear will, when next year returns, burst out again in<br /> + bloom,<br /> + But can it e'er be told who will next year dwell in the inner room?<br /> + What time the third moon comes, the scented nests have been already<br /> + built.<br /> + And on the beams the swallows perch, excessive spiritless and staid;<br /> + Next year, when the flowers bud, they may, it's true, have ample to<br /> + feed on:<br /> + But they know not that when I'm gone beams will be vacant and nests<br /> + fall!<br /> + In a whole year, which doth consist of three hundred and sixty days,<br /> + Winds sharp as swords and frost like unto spears each other rigorous<br /> + press,<br /> + So that how long can last their beauty bright; their fresh charm how<br /> + long stays?<br /> + Sudden they droop and fly; and whither they have flown, 'tis hard to<br /> + guess.<br /> + Flowers, while in bloom, easy the eye attract; but, when they wither,<br /> + hard they are to find.<br /> + Now by the footsteps, I bury the flowers, but sorrow will slay me.<br /> + Alone I stand, and as I clutch the hoe, silent tears trickle down,<br /> + And drip on the bare twigs, leaving behind them the traces of blood.<br /> + The goatsucker hath sung his song, the shades lower of eventide,<br /> + So with the lotus hoe I return home and shut the double doors.<br /> + Upon the wall the green lamp sheds its rays just as I go to sleep.<br /> + The cover is yet cold; against the window patters the bleak rain.<br /> + How strange! Why can it ever be that I feel so wounded at heart!<br /> + Partly, because spring I regret; partly, because with spring I'm<br /> + vexed!<br /> + Regret for spring, because it sudden comes; vexed, for it sudden goes.<br /> + For without warning, lo! it comes; and without asking it doth fleet.<br /> + Yesterday night, outside the hall sorrowful songs burst from my mouth,<br /> + For I found out that flowers decay, and that birds also pass away.<br /> + The soul of flowers, and the spirit of birds are both hard to<br /> + restrain.<br /> + Birds, to themselves when left, in silence plunge; and flowers, alone,<br /> + they blush.<br /> + Oh! would that on my sides a pair of wings could grow,<br /> + That to the end of heaven I may fly in the wake of flowers!<br /> + Yea to the very end of heaven,<br /> + Where I could find a fragrant grave!<br /> + For better, is it not, that an embroidered bag should hold my<br /> + well-shaped bones,<br /> + And that a heap of stainless earth should in its folds my winsome<br /> + charms enshroud.<br /> + For spotless once my frame did come, and spotless again it will go!<br /> + Far better than that I, like filthy mire, should sink into some drain!<br /> + Ye flowers are now faded and gone, and, lo, I come to bury you.<br /> + But as for me, what day I shall see death is not as yet divined!<br /> + Here I am fain these flowers to inter; but humankind will laugh me as<br /> + a fool.<br /> + Who knows, who will, in years to come, commit me to my grave!<br /> + Mark, and you'll find the close of spring, and the gradual decay of<br /> + flowers,<br /> + Resemble faithfully the time of death of maidens ripe in years!<br /> + In a twinkle, spring time draws to a close, and maidens wax in age.<br /> + Flowers fade and maidens die; and of either nought any more is known. +</p> + +<p> +After listening to these effusions, Pao-yü unconsciously threw himself down in +a wandering frame of mind. +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, do you feel any interest in him? If you do, the subsequent chapter +contains further details about him. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<p> + Chiang Yü-han lovingly presents a rubia-scented silk sash.<br /> + Hsüeh Pao-ch'ai blushingly covers her musk-perfumed string of red<br /> + beads. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü, 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-yü. +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-yü, 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: +</p> + +<p> + "Here I am fain these flowers to inter, but humankind will laugh me as<br /> + a fool;<br /> + Who knows who will, in years to come, commit me to my grave!<br /> + In a twinkle springtime draws to an end, and maidens wax in age.<br /> + Flowers fade and maidens die; and of either naught any more is known." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü'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-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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: +</p> + +<p> + The shadow of a flower cannot err from the flower itself to the left<br /> + or the right.<br /> + The song of birds can only penetrate into the ear from the east or the<br /> + west. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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-yü. "Ts'ui!" eagerly cried +Tai-yü, "I was wondering who it was; but is it truly this ruthless-hearted and +short-lived fellow!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, meanwhile, remained for a time a prey to melancholy. But perceiving +that Tai-yü 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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü looked round. Observing that it was Pao-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü smiled at her. "If I pass two remarks will you listen to me; yes or no?" +he asked. +</p> + +<p> +At these words, Tai-yü twisted herself round and beat a retreat. Pao-yü however +followed behind. +</p> + +<p> +"Since this is what we've come to now," he sighed, "what was the use of what +existed between us in days gone by?" +</p> + +<p> +As soon as Tai-yü heard his exclamation, she stopped short impulsively. Turning +her face towards him, "what about days gone by," she remarked, "and what about +now?" +</p> + +<p> +"Ai!" ejaculated Pao-yü, "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!" +</p> + +<p> +While expressing these sentiments, tears, unexpectedly, trickled from his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +When Lin Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Her manner did not escape Pao-yü'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." +</p> + +<p> +After lending him a patient ear, Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +This question took Pao-yü by surprise. "What prompts you to say this?" he +exclaimed. "If I have done anything of the kind, may I die at once." +</p> + +<p> +"Psha!" cried Tai-yü, "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!" +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't really see you come over," protested Pao-yü. "Cousin Pao-ch'ai it +was, who came and sat for a while and then left." +</p> + +<p> +After some reflection, Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This is, I feel sure, the reason," answered Pao-yü, "so when I go back,<br /> +I'll find out who it was, call them to task and put things right." +</p> + +<p> +"Those girls of yours;" continued Tai-yü, "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?" +</p> + +<p> +While she taunted him, she pressed her lips, and laughed sarcastically. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Presently, the whole body of inmates crossed over to the front. +</p> + +<p> +"Miss," inquired Madame Wang at the sight of Tai-yü, "have you taken any of Dr. +Pao's medicines? Do you feel any better?" +</p> + +<p> +"I simply feel so-so," replied Lin Tai-yü, "but grandmother Chia recommended me +to go on taking Dr. Wang's medicines." +</p> + +<p> +"Mother," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"The other day," said Madame Wang, "the doctor mentioned the name of some +pills, but I've forgotten what it is." +</p> + +<p> +"I know something about pills," put in Pao-yü; "he merely told her to take some +pills or other called 'ginseng as-a-restorative-of-the-system.'" +</p> + +<p> +"That isn't it," Madame Wang demurred. +</p> + +<p> +"The 'Eight-precious-wholesome-to-mother' pills," Pao-yü proceeded, "or the +'Left-angelica' or 'Right-angelica;' if these also aren't the ones, they must +be the 'Eight-flavour Rehmannia-glutinosa' pills." +</p> + +<p> +"None of these," rejoined Madame Wang, "for I remember well that there were the +two words chin kang (guardians in Buddhistic temples)." +</p> + +<p> +"I've never before," observed Pao-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, that's the name," Madame Wang laughed, "why, now, I too have become +muddle-headed." +</p> + +<p> +"You're not muddle-headed, mother," said Pao-yü, "it's the mention of<br /> +Chin kangs and Buddhas which confused you." +</p> + +<p> +"Stuff and nonsense!" ejaculated Madame Wang. "What you want again is your +father to whip you!" +</p> + +<p> +"My father," Pao-yü laughed, "wouldn't whip me for a thing like this." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, this being their name," resumed Madame Wang, "you had better tell some +one to-morrow to buy you a few." +</p> + +<p> +"All these drugs," expostulated Pao-yü, "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." +</p> + +<p> +"What trash!" cried Madame Wang. "What kind of medicine is there so costly!" +</p> + +<p> +"It's a positive fact," smiled Pao-yü. "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 Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Really," said Madame Wang smiling, "Pao-ch'ai is a good girl; she does not +tell lies." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +As he defended himself, he casually looked round, and caught sight of Lin +Tai-yü at the back of Pao-ch'ai laughing with tight-set lips, and applying her +fingers to her face to put him to shame. +</p> + +<p> +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 Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +After each sentence expressed by lady Feng, Pao-yü muttered an invocation to +Buddha. "The thing is as clear as sunlight now," he remarked. +</p> + +<p> +The moment lady Feng had done speaking, Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü thereupon addressed himself to Tai-yü. "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?" +</p> + +<p> +While saying this, his eyes were, albeit his face was turned towards Lin<br /> +Tai-yü, fixed upon Pao-ch'ai. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Pao-yü has a great knack," Madame Wang said, "of dealing contemptuously with +you, his cousin." +</p> + +<p> +"Mother," Pao-yü 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 Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +These words were still on his lips, when they perceived a waiting-maid, from +dowager lady Chia's apartments, come in quest of Pao-yü and Lin Tai-yü to go +and have their meal. Lin Tai-yü, however, did not even call Pao-yü, but +forthwith rising to her feet, she went along, dragging the waiting-maid by the +hand. +</p> + +<p> +"Let's wait for master Secundus, Mr. Pao, to go along with us," demurred the +girl. +</p> + +<p> +"He doesn't want anything to eat," Lin Tai-yü replied; "he won't come with us, +so I'll go ahead." So saying she promptly left the room. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll have my repast with my mother to-day," Pao-yü said. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll also fast with you then," Pao-yü retorted. +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke, he called out to the servant to go back, and rushing up to the +table, he took a seat. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Who cares about her!" Pao-yü rejoined, "she'll get all right again after a +time." +</p> + +<p> +Shortly, they finished their repast. But Pao-yü 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-yü, so he hurriedly asked for some +tea to rinse his mouth with. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü approaching, she put on a +smiling face. "You come quite opportunely," she said; "walk in, walk in, and +write a few characters for me." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Forty rolls of deep red ornamented satin," she began, addressing herself to +Pao-yü, "forty rolls of satin with dragons; a hundred rolls of gauzes of every +colour, of the finest quality; four gold necklaces…." +</p> + +<p> +"What's this?" Pao-yü shouted, "it is neither a bill; nor is it a list of +presents, and in what style shall I write it?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü at this response felt constrained to proceed with the writing. +</p> + +<p> +This our 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"The servants in my quarters," answered Pao-yü, "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?" +</p> + +<p> +"If that be so," continued lady Feng laughingly, "I'll tell some one at once to +go and bring her over." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, she can go and fetch her," acquiesced Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +While replying, he made an attempt to take his leave. "Come back," shouted lady +Feng, "I've got something more to tell you." +</p> + +<p> +"Our venerable senior has sent for me," Pao-yü rejoined; "if you have anything +to tell me you must wait till my return." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you had anything nice to eat with your mother?" old lady Chia asked. +</p> + +<p> +"There was really nothing nice," Pao-yü smiled. "Yet I managed to have a bowl +of rice more than usual." +</p> + +<p> +"Where's cousin Lin?" he then inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"She's in the inner rooms," answered his grandmother. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü with stooping head was cutting out something or other with a pair +of scissors she held in her hand. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü, however, did not heed him in the least, but busied herself cutting out +what she had to do. +</p> + +<p> +"The corner of that piece of satin is not yet right," a servant-girl put in. +"You had better iron it again!" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü threw down the scissors. "Why worry yourself about it?" she said; "it +will get quite right after a time." +</p> + +<p> +But while Pao-yü 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-yü engaged in cutting out something: "You have," she cried, +"attained more skill than ever; for there you can even cut out clothes!" +</p> + +<p> +"This too," laughed Tai-yü sarcastically, "is a mere falsehood, to hoodwink +people with, nothing more." +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü felt displeased." "Who +cares!" shouted Lin Tai-yü. "He'll get all right shortly." +</p> + +<p> +"Our worthy grandmother wishes to play at dominoes," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +"It would be well for you to go," urged Lin Tai-yü, "for there's a tiger in +here; and, look out, he might eat you up." +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, she went on with her cutting. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü perceived how loath 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." +</p> + +<p> +But Tai-yü would pay no heed whatever to him. Pao-yü addressed himself +therefore to the servant-girls. "Who has taught her how to cut out these +things?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"What does it matter who taught me how to cut?" Tai-yü vehemently exclaimed, +when she realised that he was speaking to the maids. "It's no business of +yours, Mr. Secundus." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü betook himself with alacrity out of the room. +</p> + +<p> +"O-mi-to-fu!" observed Tai-yü, turning outwards, "it wouldn't matter to you if +you found me dead on your return!" +</p> + +<p> +On his arrival outside, Pao-yü discovered Pei Ming. "You are invited," he said, +"to go to Mr. Feng's house." +</p> + +<p> +Upon hearing this message, Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +At these words, Pei Ming smiled. "You're quite right," he rejoined, "in +reproving me, for I've become quite idiotic." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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 Hsüeh P'an, who had already been waiting a long time, and several +singing-boys besides; as well as Chiang Yü-han, who played female roles, and +Yün 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-yü, +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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 Yün Erh to also approach and have a cup of wine. +</p> + +<p> +By the time, however, that Hsüeh P'an had had his third cup, he of a sudden +lost control over his feelings, and clasping Yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +This appeal compelled Yün Erh to take up the guitar. She then sang: +</p> + +<p> + Lovers have I two.<br /> + To set aside either I cannot bear.<br /> + When my heart longs for thee to come,<br /> + It also yearns for him.<br /> + Both are in form handsome and fair.<br /> + Their beauty to describe it would be hard.<br /> + Just think, last night, when at a silent hour, we met in secret, by<br /> + the trellis<br /> + frame laden with roses white,<br /> + One to his feelings stealthily was giving vent,<br /> + When lo, the other caught us in the act,<br /> + And laying hands on us; there we three stood like litigants before the<br /> + bar.<br /> + And I had, verily, no word in answer for myself to give. +</p> + +<p> +At the close of her song, she laughed. "Well now," she cried, "down with that +whole jar!" +</p> + +<p> +"Why, it isn't worth a jarful," smiled Hsüeh P'an at these words.<br /> +"Favour us with some other good song!" +</p> + +<p> +"Listen to what I have to suggest," Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +Yün Erh, however, also rose to her feet and shoved him down into his seat. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +One and all clapped in applause. "Well said!" they shouted. +</p> + +<p> +After this, Hüeh P'an had no way out of it and felt compelled to resume his +seat. +</p> + +<p> +They then heard Pao-yü recite: +</p> + +<p> + A girl is sad,<br /> + When her spring-time of life is far advanced and she still occupies a<br /> + vacant inner-room.<br /> + A girl feels wounded in her heart,<br /> + When she regrets having allowed her better half to go abroad and win a<br /> + marquisdom.<br /> + A girl is glad,<br /> + When looking in the mirror, at the time of her morning toilette, she<br /> + finds her colour fair.<br /> + A girl is joyful,<br /> + What time she sits on the frame of a gallows-swing, clad in a thin<br /> + spring gown. +</p> + +<p> +Having listened to him, "Capital!" one and all cried out in a chorus. Hsüeh +P'an alone raised his face, shook his head and remarked: "It isn't good, he +must be fined." +</p> + +<p> +"Why should he be fined?" demurred the party. +</p> + +<p> +"Because," retorted Hsüeh P'an, "what he says is entirely unintelligible to me. +So how can he not be fined?" +</p> + +<p> +Yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +In due course Pao-yü took up the guitar. He was heard to sing: +</p> + +<p> + "When mutual thoughts arise, tears, blood-stained, endless drop, like<br /> + lentiles sown broadcast.<br /> + In spring, in ceaseless bloom nourish willows and flowers around the<br /> + painted tower.<br /> + Inside the gauze-lattice peaceful sleep flies, when, after dark, come<br /> + wind and rain.<br /> + Both new-born sorrows and long-standing griefs cannot from memory ever<br /> + die!<br /> + E'en jade-fine rice, and gold-like drinks they make hard to go down;<br /> + they choke the throat.<br /> + The lass has not the heart to desist gazing in the glass at her wan<br /> + face.<br /> + Nothing can from that knitted brow of hers those frowns dispel;<br /> + For hard she finds it patient to abide till the clepsydra will have<br /> + run its course.<br /> + Alas! how fitly like the faint outline of a green hill which nought<br /> + can screen;<br /> + Or like a green-tinged stream, which ever ceaseless floweth onward far<br /> + and wide!" +</p> + +<p> +When the song drew to an end, his companions with one voice cried out:<br /> +"Excellent!" +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh P'an was the only one to find fault. "There's no metre in them," he said. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü quaffed the "opening cup," then seizing a pear, he added: +</p> + +<p> +"While the rain strikes the pear-blossom I firmly close the door," +</p> + +<p> +and thus accomplished the requirements of the rule. +</p> + +<p> +Feng Tzu-ying's turn came next. +</p> + +<p> +"A maid is glad." +</p> + +<p> +he commenced: +</p> + +<p> + When at her first confinement she gives birth to twins, both sons.<br /> + A maid is joyful,<br /> + When on the sly she to the garden creeps crickets to catch.<br /> + A maid is sad,<br /> + When her husband some sickness gets and lies in a bad state.<br /> + A maiden is wounded at heart,<br /> + When a fierce wind blows down the tower, where she makes her toilette. +</p> + +<p> +Concluding this recitation, he raised the cup and sang: +</p> + +<p> + "Thou art what one could aptly call a man.<br /> + But thou'rt endowed with somewhat too much heart!<br /> + How queer thou art, cross-grained and impish shrewd!<br /> + A spirit too, thou couldst not be more shrewd.<br /> + If all I say thou dost not think is true,<br /> + In secret just a minute search pursue;<br /> + For then thou'lt know if I love thee or not." +</p> + +<p> +His song over, he drank the "opening cup" and then observed: +</p> + +<p> +"The cock crows when the moon's rays shine upon the thatchèd inn." +</p> + +<p> +After his observance of the rule followed Yün Erh's turn. +</p> + +<p> +A girl is sad, +</p> + +<p> +Yün Erh began, +</p> + +<p> + When she tries to divine on whom she will depend towards the end of<br /> + life. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear child!" laughingly exclaimed Hsüeh P'an, "your worthy Mr. Hsüeh still +lives, and why do you give way to fears?" +</p> + +<p> +"Don't confuse her!" remonstrated every one of the party, "don't muddle her!" +</p> + +<p> +"A maiden is wounded at heart." +</p> + +<p> +Yün Erh proceeded: +</p> + +<p> + "When her mother beats and scolds her and never for an instant doth<br /> + desist." +</p> + +<p> +"It was only the other day," interposed Hsüeh P'an, "that I saw your mother and +that I told her that I would not have her beat you." +</p> + +<p> +"If you still go on babbling," put in the company with one consent, "you'll be +fined ten cups." +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"A girl is glad," +</p> + +<p> +Yün Erh then resumed: +</p> + +<p> + When her lover cannot brook to leave her and return home.<br /> + A maiden is joyful,<br /> + When hushing the pan-pipe and double pipe, a stringed instrument she<br /> + thrums. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of her effusion, she at once began to sing: +</p> + +<p> + "T'is the third day of the third moon, the nutmegs bloom;<br /> + A maggot, lo, works hard to pierce into a flower;<br /> + But though it ceaseless bores it cannot penetrate.<br /> + So crouching on the buds, it swing-like rocks itself.<br /> + My precious pet, my own dear little darling,<br /> + If I don't choose to open how can you steal in?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Next came Hsüeh P'an. "Is it for me to speak now?" Hsüeh P'an asked. +</p> + +<p> +"A maiden is sad…" +</p> + +<p> +But a long time elapsed after these words were uttered and yet nothing further +was heard. +</p> + +<p> +"Sad for what?" Feng Tzu-ying laughingly asked. "Go on and tell us at once!" +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh P'an was much perplexed. His eyes rolled about like a bell. +</p> + +<p> +"A girl is sad…" +</p> + +<p> +he hastily repeated. But here again he coughed twice before he proceeded. +</p> + +<p> +"A girl is sad." +</p> + +<p> +he said: +</p> + +<p> +"When she marries a spouse who is a libertine." +</p> + +<p> +This sentence so tickled the fancy of the company that they burst out into a +loud fit of laughter. +</p> + +<p> +"What amuses you so?" shouted Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh P'an thereupon stared with vacant gaze. +</p> + +<p> +"A girl is grieved…." +</p> + +<p> +he added: +</p> + +<p> +But after these few words he once more could find nothing to say. +</p> + +<p> +"What is she grieved about?" they asked. +</p> + +<p> +"When a huge monkey finds its way into the inner room." +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh P'an retorted. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +As they said this, they were about to pour the wine, when Pao-yü smilingly +interfered. "The rhyme is all right," he observed. +</p> + +<p> +"The master of the rules," Hsüeh P'an remarked, "approves it in every way, so +what are you people fussing about?" +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, the company eventually let the matter drop. +</p> + +<p> +"The two lines, that follow, are still more difficult," suggested Yün<br /> +Erh with a smile, "so you had better let me recite for you." +</p> + +<p> +"Fiddlesticks!" exclaimed Hsüeh P'an, "do you really fancy that I have no good +ones! Just you listen to what I shall say. +</p> + +<p> + "A girl is glad,<br /> + When in the bridal room she lies, with flowery candles burning, and<br /> + she is loth to rise at morn." +</p> + +<p> +This sentiment filled one and all with amazement. "How supremely excellent this +line is!" they ejaculated. +</p> + +<p> +"A girl is joyful," +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh P'an resumed, +</p> + +<p> +"During the consummation of wedlock." +</p> + +<p> +Upon catching this remark, the party turned their heads away, and shouted: +"Dreadful! Dreadful! But quick sing your song and have done." +</p> + +<p> +Forthwith Hsüeh P'an sang: +</p> + +<p> +"A mosquito buzzes heng, heng, heng!" +</p> + +<p> +Every one was taken by surprise. "What kind of song is this?" they inquired. +</p> + +<p> +But Hsüeh P'an went on singing: +</p> + +<p> +"Two flies buzz weng, weng, weng." +</p> + +<p> +"Enough," shouted his companions, "that will do, that will do!" +</p> + +<p> +"Do you want to hear it or not?" asked Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"We'll let you off! We'll let you off," answered one and all, "so don't be +hindering others." +</p> + +<p> +"A maiden is sad," +</p> + +<p> +Chiang Yü-han at once began, +</p> + +<p> + When her husband leaves home and never does return.<br /> + A maiden is disconsolate,<br /> + When she has no money to go and buy some <i>olea frangrans</i> oil.<br /> + A maiden is glad,<br /> + When the wick of the lantern forms two heads like twin flowers on one<br /> + stem.<br /> + A maiden is joyful,<br /> + When true conjugal peace prevails between her and her mate. +</p> + +<p> +His recital over, he went on to sing: +</p> + +<p> + "How I love thee with those seductive charms of thine, heaven-born!<br /> + In truth thou'rt like a living fairy from the azure skies!<br /> + The spring of life we now enjoy; we are yet young in years.<br /> + Our union is, indeed, a happy match!<br /> + But. lo! the milky way doth at its zenith soar;<br /> + Hark to the drums which beat around in the watch towers;<br /> + So raise the silver lamp and let us soft under the nuptial curtain<br /> + steal." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +This said he forthwith drained the wine, and, picking up a bud of a diminutive +variety of <i>olea fragrans</i>, he recited: +</p> + +<p> + "When the perfume of flowers wafts (hsi jen) itself into a man, he<br /> + knows the day is warm." +</p> + +<p> +The company unanimously conceded that the rule had been adhered to. But Hsüeh +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"There was nothing about precious things!" Chiang Yü-han vehemently explained. +</p> + +<p> +"What I are you still prevaricating?" Hsüeh P'an cried, "Well, repeat it +again!" +</p> + +<p> +Chiang Yü-han had no other course but to recite the line a second time. "Now is +not Hsi Jen a precious thing?" Hsüeh 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-yü. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü felt very uncomfortable. Rising to his feet, "Cousin," he observed, "you +should be fined heavily." +</p> + +<p> +"I should be! I should be!" Hsüeh P'an shouted, and saying this, he took up the +wine and poured it down his throat with one gulp. +</p> + +<p> +Feng Tzu-ying, Chiang Yü-han and their companions thereupon asked him to +explain the allusion. Yün Erh readily told them, and Chiang Yü-han hastily got +up and pleaded guilty. +</p> + +<p> +"Ignorance," the party said with one consent, "does not amount to guilt." +</p> + +<p> +But presently Pao-yü quitted the banquet to go and satisfy a natural want and +Chiang Yü-han followed him out. The two young fellows halted under the eaves of +the verandah, and Chiang Yü-han then recommenced to make ample apologies. +Pao-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This is really," rejoined Chiang Yü-han with a smile, "my own infant name." +</p> + +<p> +This disclosure at once made Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü. "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." +</p> + +<p> +This proposal extremely delighted Pao-yü. 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 Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"There's nothing to see!" rejoined the two young fellows with one voice. +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +"I must have lost it this very moment," Pao-yü replied. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +This reminder made the fact dawn upon Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing worth noticing occurred during that night. The next day, when she woke +up at the break of day, she heard Pao-yü call out laughingly: "Robbers have +been here in the night; are you not aware of it? Just you look at my trousers." +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen lowered her head and looked. She saw at a glance that the sash, which +Pao-yü had worn the previous day, was bound round her own waist, and she at +once realised that Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +At the sight of her manner, Pao-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, however, did not in the least notice what she did, but inquired whether +anything had happened the day before. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"That's all right!" rejoined Pao-yü. "I knew all about it, there was no need +for her to wait." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü +was filled with immeasurable pleasure, and he asked whether the articles +brought to all the others were similar to his. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +"Of course, it's my duty to go over," Pao-yü cried at these words, but +forthwith calling Tzu Chüan: "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." +</p> + +<p> +Tzu Chüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this reply, Pao-yü 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-yü coming along towards him, from the opposite direction. Pao-yü +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?" +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü had long before banished from her recollection the incident of the +previous day, which had made her angry with Pao-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +The allusion to the two words "gold and jade," aroused, of a sudden, much +emotion in the heart of Pao-yü. "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!" +</p> + +<p> +These protestations convinced Lin Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"It would be difficult for me to tell you, to your face, all the secrets of my +heart," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't swear any more," Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This comes again from over-suspicion!" ejaculated Pao; "for I'm not at all +disposed that way." +</p> + +<p> +"Well," resumed Lin Tai-yü, "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." +</p> + +<p> +But during their <i>tête-a-tête</i>, 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-yü. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai ever made it a point to hold Pao-yü 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 Yüan Ch'un's +presents to her alone resembled those of Pao-yü, she began to feel all the more +embarrassed. Luckily, however, Pao-yü was so entangled in Lin Tai-yü's meshes +and so absorbed in heart and mind with fond thoughts of his Lin Tai-yü that he +did not pay the least attention to this circumstance. But she unawares now +heard Pao-yü remark with a smile: "Cousin Pao, let me see that string of +scented beads of yours!" +</p> + +<p> +By a strange coincidence, Pao-ch'ai wore the string of beads round her left +wrist so she had no alternative, when Pao-yü 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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü'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-yü, 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Wasn't I inside the room?" rejoined Lin Tai-yü, 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"A stupid wild goose!" repeated Pao-ch'ai. "Where is it, let me also see it!" +</p> + +<p> +"As soon as I got out," answered Lin Tai-yü, "it flew away with a 't'e-rh' sort +of noise." +</p> + +<p> +While replying, she threw the handkerchief, she was holding, straight into +Pao-yü's face. Pao-yü was quite taken by surprise. He was hit on the eye. +"Ai-yah!" he exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, do you want to hear the sequel? In that case, listen to the +circumstances, which will be disclosed in the next chapter. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<p> + A happy man enjoys a full measure of happiness, but still prays for<br /> + happiness.<br /> + A beloved girl is very much loved, but yet craves for more love. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, so our story runs, was gazing vacantly, when Tai-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 Hsü temple, and invited Pao-ch'ai, Pao-yü, Tai-yü and the other inmates +with them to be present at the theatricals. +</p> + +<p> +"Never mind," smiled Pao-ch'ai, "it's too hot; besides, what plays haven't I +seen? I don't mean to come." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +When dowager lady Chia heard what she said, she smiled. "Well, in that case," +she remarked, "I'll go along with you." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"This is indeed," lady Feng smiled, "a proof of your regard for me, my worthy +senior." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai felt constrained to signify her assent. Dowager lady Chia then also +despatched domestics to invite Mrs. Hsüeh; 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 +Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh, each in a four-bearer chair. +Pao-ch'ai and Tai-yü 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, Yüan Yang, Ying Wu, +Hu Po, Chen Chu; Lin Tai-yü's waiting-maids Tzu Chüan, Hsüeh 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 Chü; 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. Hsüeh'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 Yün and Pi Yüeh; 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 Yün. 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The van of the procession had long ago reached the entrance of the Ch'ing Hsü +Temple. Pao-yü rode on horseback. He preceded the chair occupied by his +grandmother Chia. The throngs that filled the streets ranged themselves on +either side. +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The boy, however, could on no account give vent to speech. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Chia Chen signified his assent and led him off. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Chia Chen then inquired from the terrace-steps where the majordomo was.<br /> +At this inquiry, the pages standing below, called out in chorus,<br /> +"Majordomo!" +</p> + +<p> +Lin Chih-hsiao ran over at once, while adjusting his hat with one hand, and +appeared in the presence of Chia Chen. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"I understand," replied Lin Chih-hsiao hurriedly signifying his obedience. Next +he uttered several yes's. +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +Chia Jung however dropped his arms, and did not venture to utter a single +sound. Chia Yün, 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Raise him up!" old lady Chia vehemently called out. +</p> + +<p> +Chia Chen lost no time in pulling him to his feet and bringing him over. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Venerable Immortal Being!" smiled old lady Chia, "how are you; quite well?" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü. 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"It was indeed true that he was away from home," remarked dowager lady<br /> +Chia. As she spoke, she turned her head round and called Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü turns out to be the +very image of him!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +This observation sent the whole company into a violent fit of laughter.<br /> +Even Chia Chen could not suppress a smile. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +After these forebodings old lady Chia accordingly desired Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Only when old lady Chia heard these arguments did she direct a servant to +receive the presents. +</p> + +<p> +"Venerable senior," Pao-yü 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? +</p> + +<p> +"You are perfectly right in what you say!" smiled dowager lady Chia. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Put them by!" promptly shouted Pao-yü, after this rejoinder, "and when evening +comes, take a few cash and distribute them." +</p> + +<p> +These directions given, Chang, the Taoist, retired out of the place. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"Of what kind of old story does 'the record of the white snake,' treat?" old +lady Chia inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +"The Nan Ko dream is the third," Chia Chen answered. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Senior cousin, Shih Hsiang-yün," chimed in Pao-ch'ai, a smile playing on her +lips, "has one, but it's a trifle smaller than this." +</p> + +<p> +"Is it indeed Yün-erh who has it?" exclaimed old lady Chia. +</p> + +<p> +"Now that she lives in our house," remarked Pao-yü, "how is it that even<br /> +I haven't seen anything of it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Cousin Pao-ch'ai," rejoined T'an Ch'un laughingly, "has the power of +observation; no matter what she sees, she remembers." +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-chai, upon catching this sneering remark, at once turned her head round, +and pretended she had not heard. But as soon as Pao-yü learnt that Shih +Hsiang-yün 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-yün 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-yü, +who, while gazing at him was, nodding her head, as if with the idea of +expressing her admiration. Pao-yü, therefore, at once felt inwardly ill at +ease, and pulling out his hand, he observed, addressing himself to Tai-yü 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-yü, giving her head a sudden twist. +</p> + +<p> +"Well," continued Pao-yü laughingly, "if you don't like it, I can't do +otherwise than keep it myself." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you people rush over here for again?" old lady Chia inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"I came here for a turn, simply because I had nothing to do." +</p> + +<p> +But no sooner was this inquiry concluded than they heard a messenger announce: +"that some one had come from the house of general Feng." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +But as when dowager lady Chia interviewed the Taoist Chang, the previous day, +he made allusion to Pao-yü and canvassed his engagement, Pao-yü 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-yü +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. +</p> + +<p> +But without descending to particulars, let us advert to Pao-yü. Seeing that Lin +Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü, 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü'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-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +This insinuation induced Lin Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +As soon as this sneer fell on Pao-yü'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?" +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü could not for a time fathom the import of his remarks. "It was," +Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +This rejoinder reminded Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, 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-Yü, 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-yü. 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. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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-yü'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-yü, yet he did not have the courage to tax her with it. +</p> + +<p> +"If, really, I hold a place in your heart," Lin Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't care what you do, everything is well," Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Just you mind your own business," Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The three words "a fine match," which Pao-yü heard again Lin Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +The jade, however, happened to be of extraordinary hardness, and did not, after +all, sustain the slightest injury from this single fall. When Pao-yü 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-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +But in the middle of their dispute, Tzu Chüan, Hsüeh Yen and the other maids +promptly interfered and quieted them. Subsequently, however, they saw how +deliberately bent Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm smashing what belongs to me," remarked Pao-yü with a cynical smile, "and +what has that to do with you people?" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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-yü 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 Chüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh Yen then approached in a hurry and tapped her on the back. +</p> + +<p> +"You may, of course, give way to displeasure," Tzu Chüan 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?" +</p> + +<p> +The moment Pao-yü caught this advice, which accorded so thoroughly with his own +ideas, he found how little Tai-yü could hold her own with Tzu Chüan. And +perceiving how flushed Tai-yü'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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, she too unavoidably experienced much +soreness of heart. She nevertheless went on rubbing Pao-yü's hands, which were +icy cold. She felt inclined to advise Pao-yü not to weep, but fearing again +lest, in the first place, Pao-yü might be inwardly aggrieved, and nervous, in +the next, lest she should not be dealing rightly by Tai-yü, 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-Chüan, at +one time, she cleaned the expectorated medicine; at another, she took up a fan +and gently fanned Tai-yü. 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. +</p> + +<p> +Shortly, Hsi Jen made a supreme effort, and smilingly said to Pao-yü: "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." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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 Chüan were on the point of +wresting it from her, but she had already managed to mangle them into several +pieces. +</p> + +<p> +"I have," sobbed Tai-yü, "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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Cut it, if you like!" chimed in Pao-yü, addressing himself to Tai-yü.<br /> +"I will on no account wear it, so it doesn't matter a rap." +</p> + +<p> +But while all they minded inside was to create this commotion, they little +dreamt that the old matrons had descried Tai-yü weep bitterly and vomit +copiously, and Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen felt irritated and harboured resentment against Tzu Chüan, unable to +conceive what business she had to go and disturb their old mistress and Madame +Wang. But Tzu Chüan, 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. +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang walked into the apartment. They found Pao-yü +on one side saying not a word. Lin Tai-yü 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 Chüan, "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?" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü away with her that things quieted down again. +</p> + +<p> +One day passed. Then came the third of the moon. This was Hsüeh 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-yü had so +hurt Tai-yü'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. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +On this account the keenest remorse gnawed her heart. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +While inwardly a prey to resentment, she also melted into tears. +</p> + +<p> +These words were brought to the ears of Pao-yü and Tai-yü. 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? +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen consequently tendered advice to Pao-yü. "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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<p> + Pao-ch'ai avails herself of the excuse afforded her by a fan to<br /> + administer a couple of raps.<br /> + While Ch'un Ling traces, in a absent frame of mind, the outlines of<br /> + the character Ch'iang, a looker-on appears on the scene. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü herself, for we will now resume our narrative, was also, ever since +her tiff with Pao-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +Tzu Chüan 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-yü'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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Ts'ui!" exclaimed Tai-yü. "Have you come, on behalf of others, to find fault +with me? But how ever was I hasty?" +</p> + +<p> +"Why did you," smiled Tzu Chüan, "take the scissors and cut that tassel when +there was no good reason for it? So isn't Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü had every wish to make some suitable reply, when she heard some one +calling at the door. Tzu Chüan discerned the tone of voice. "This sounds like +Pao-yü's voice," she smiled. "I expect he's come to make his apologies." +</p> + +<p> +"I won't have any one open the door," Tai-yü cried at these words. +</p> + +<p> +"Here you are in the wrong again, Miss," Tzu Chüan 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, she speedily walked out and opened the door. It was indeed<br /> +Pao-yü. While ushering him in, she gave him a smile. "I imagined," she<br /> +said, "that you would never again put your foot inside our door, Master<br /> +Secundus. But here you are once more and quite unexpectedly!" +</p> + +<p> +"You have by dint of talking," Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"She is," replied Tzu Chüan, "physically all right; but, mentally, her +resentment is not quite over." +</p> + +<p> +"I understand," continued Pao-yü with a smile. "But resentment, for what?" +</p> + +<p> +With this inquiry, he wended his steps inside the apartment. He then caught +sight of Lin Tai-yü reclining on the bed in the act of crying. Tai-yü had not +in fact shed a tear, but hearing Pao-yü break in upon her, she could not help +feeling upset. She found it impossible therefore to prevent her tears from +rolling down her cheeks. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü assumed a smiling expression and drew near the bed. "Cousin, are you +quite well again?" he inquired. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü simply went on drying her tears, and made no reply of any kind. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Continuing, he proceeded to call her "my dear cousin" for several tens of +times. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü had resolved not to pay any more heed to Pao-yü. When she, however, now +heard Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +At these words, Pao-yü gave way to laughter. "Where are you off to?" he +inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm going back home," answered Tai-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll go along with you then," smiled Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"But if I die?" asked Tai-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, if you die," rejoined Pao-yü, "I'll become a bonze." +</p> + +<p> +The moment Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü 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-yü, 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-yü's lap. +But without saying a word, she screened her face and continued sobbing. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +But scarcely had she concluded before she heard a voice say aloud:<br /> +"They're all right!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü and Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +While reproaching them, she clutched Tai-yü's hand and was trudging away, when +Tai-yü turned her head round and called out for her servant-girls. But not one +of them was in attendance. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you want them for again?" lady Feng asked. "I am here to wait on you!" +</p> + +<p> +Still speaking, she pulled her along on their way, with Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +These words evoked laughter from every one in the room. Pao-ch'ai, however, was +present at the time so Lin Tai-yü did not retort, but went and ensconced +herself in a seat near her grandmother. +</p> + +<p> +When Pao-yü noticed that no one had anything to say, he smilingly addressed +himself to Pao-ch'ai. "On cousin Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Cousin," continued Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +At this suggestion, Ch'ing Erh made her escape. +</p> + +<p> +The consciousness then burst upon Pao-yü, 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-yü. Precipitately turning himself round, he went, therefore, and talked +to the others as well. +</p> + +<p> +The sight of Pao-yü poking fun at Pao-ch'ai gratified Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai caught the expression of gratification in Tai-yü's countenance, and +concluded that she had for a certainty heard the raillery recently indulged in +by Pao-yü 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'." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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'". +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +One sentence was scarcely ended when Pao-yü and Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +None of the party could make out the import of her insinuation. "There's no one +eating raw ginger," they said. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, Pao-yü and Tai-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +In a short while, however, Pao-ch'ai and lady Feng took their leave. +</p> + +<p> +"You've also tried your strength with them," Tai-yü said to Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü was inwardly giving way to that unhappiness, which had been occasioned +by Pao-ch'ai's touchiness, so when he also saw Tai-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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-yü 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-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"Are you feeling so worn out!" he smilingly remarked in a low tone of voice. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, 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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +To this Chin Ch'uan-erh said not a word. +</p> + +<p> +"If that won't do," Pao-yü continued, "I'll wait for your mistress to wake and +appeal to her at once." +</p> + +<p> +Chin Ch'uan-erh distended her eyes wide, and pushed Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Let them be up to whatever they like," smiled Pao-yü, "I shall simply stick to +your side!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +The moment Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Go and tell your mother," Madame Wang thereupon said to Yü Ch'uan-erh, "to +fetch your elder sister away." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +But without any further reference to her, we will now take up our story with +Pao-yü. 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-yü'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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Can it be possible," mused Pao-yü, "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 <i>rôles</i> she filled: scholars, girls, old +men, women, or buffoons. Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü. +Pao-yü 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-yü'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. +</p> + +<p> +"She too," pondered Pao-yü, "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." +</p> + +<p> +While cogitating, he looked once more. Lo, the girl was still tracing.<br /> +But tracing up or tracing down, it was ever the character "Ch'iang."<br /> +When he gazed again, it was still the self-same Ch'iang. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü perceived that the water +trickling down the girl's head saturated her gauze attire in no time. "It's +pouring," Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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-yü. "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?" +</p> + +<p> +This single remark proved sufficient to recall Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>rôle</i> of young men and Yü 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-yü 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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"It's I," rejoined Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"It's Miss Pao-ch'ai's tone of voice," added She Yüeh. +</p> + +<p> +"Nonsense!" cried Ch'ing Wen. "What would Miss Pao-ch'ai come over to do at +such an hour?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +With these words, she came along the passage to the doorway. On looking out, +she espied Pao-yü dripping like a chicken drenched with rain. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Ai-yah!" ejaculated Hsi Jen. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen had never, previous to this, received even a harsh word from him. When +therefore she on this occasion unexpectedly saw Pao-yü 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-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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 +start beating others!" +</p> + +<p> +"I did not strike you intentionally just now," retorted Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +During the course of their conversation, the rain ceased, and Pao Kuan and Yü +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü startled her out of her wits. "What are you up to?" she +asked. +</p> + +<p> +"You groaned in your dreams," answered Pao-yü, "so I must have kicked you hard. +Do let me see!" +</p> + +<p> +"My head feels giddy," said Hsi Jen. "My throat foul and sweet; throw the light +on the floor!" +</p> + +<p> +At these words, Pao-yü actually raised the lantern. The moment he cast the +light below, he discerned a quantity of fresh blood on the floor. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü was seized with consternation. "Dreadful!" was all he could say.<br /> +At the sight of the blood, Hsi Jen's heart too partly waxed cold. +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, the next chapter will reveal the sequel, if you really have any +wish to know more about them. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> + +<p> + Pao-yü allows the girl Ch'ing Wen to tear his fan so as to afford her<br /> + amusement.<br /> + A wedding proves to be the result of the descent of a unicorn. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +When Pao-yü saw her crying, his heart was seized with anguish. "What's it that +preys on your mind?" he consequently asked her. +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen strained every nerve to smile. "There's no rhyme or reason for +anything," she replied, "so what can it be?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü'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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü 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-yü to come and attend to +her. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the fifth watch struck, Pao-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 Hsüeh household. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü 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-yü, +detected Pao-yü'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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü'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. +</p> + +<p> +On this account was it that, when the company cheerlessly broke up from the +present feast, Lin Tai-yü did not mind the separation; and that Pao-yü +experienced such melancholy and depression, that, on his return to his +apartments, he gave way to deep groans and frequent sighs. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +This rejoinder so exasperated Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, "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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +At these insinuations, Hsi Jen felt both incensed and ashamed. She was about to +make some response but Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +The very mention of the word "we" made it certain to Ch'ing Wen that she +implied herself and Pao-yü, 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.'" +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen's face grew purple from shame. "The fact is," she reflected, "that I've +said more than I should." +</p> + +<p> +"As one and all of you are ever bearing her malice," Pao-yü simultaneously +observed, "I'll actually raise her to-morrow to a higher status!" +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen quickly snatched Pao-yü'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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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 <i>cap-à-pie</i> as you appear to be, what is your ultimate +design? I won't utter another word, but let you have your say!" +</p> + +<p> +While she spoke, she was hurriedly wending her way out. +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't raise your dander." Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"I never saw such brawling!" Pao-yü exclaimed. "You're certainly bent upon +going! I might as well therefore let mother know so as to bundle you off!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm going to tell mother," answered Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"My mother," demurred Pao-yü, "is sure not to entertain any suspicions, as all +I will explain to her is that she insists upon leaving." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"This is, indeed, strange!" exclaimed Pao-yü. "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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pi Hen, Ch'iu Wen, She Yüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +While speaking, tears of a sudden rolled down his cheek. At the sight of Pao-yü +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-yü step into the room, she speedily walked out. +</p> + +<p> +"On a grand holiday like this," remonstrated Lin Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü and Lin Tai-yü blurted out laughing. +</p> + +<p> +"You don't tell me, cousin Secundus," Lin Tai-yü put in, "but I know all about +it, even though I have asked no questions." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"You say that you're only a servant-girl," smilingly replied Tai-yü, "and yet I +treat you like a sister-in-law." +</p> + +<p> +"Why do you," Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"If you die," remarked Lin Tai-yü smiling, "what will others do, I wonder? As +for me, I shall be the first to die from crying." +</p> + +<p> +"Were you to die," added Pao-yü laughingly, "I shall become a bonze." +</p> + +<p> +"You'd better be a little more sober-minded!" laughed Hsi Jen. "What's the good +of coming out with all these things?" +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +This reminded Pao-yü that she was referring to a remark he had made on a +previous occasion, but smiling to himself, he allowed the matter to drop. +</p> + +<p> +After a short interval, Lin Tai-yü went away. A servant then came to announce +that Mr. Hsüeh wanted to see him, and Pao-yü 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-yü +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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, at a glance, realised that it was not Hsi Jen, but Ch'ing Wen. Pao-yü +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Since you yourself know that it isn't meet," replied Pao-yü with a smile, "why +then were you sleeping here?" +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüeh have both had theirs, so I'll call them here!" +</p> + +<p> +"I've just had again a good deal of wine," remarked Pao-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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, Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, in that case." laughed Pao-yü, "you needn't also have a bath. Just +simply wash your hands, and bring the fruit and let's have some together." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"If you want to break it, break it!" smiled Pao-yü. "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!" +</p> + +<p> +Ch'ing Wen greeted his words with a smile. +</p> + +<p> +"Since that be so," she said, "bring me your fan and let me tear it.<br /> +What most takes my fancy is tearing!" +</p> + +<p> +Upon hearing this Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü was standing next to her. "How nice the noise is!" he laughed.<br /> +"Tear it again and make it sound a little more!" +</p> + +<p> +But while he spoke, She Yüeh was seen to walk in. "Don't," she smiled, "be up +to so much mischief!" Pao-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you call this?" She Yüeh expostulated. "Do you take my property and +make it the means of distracting yourselves!" +</p> + +<p> +"Open the fan-box," shouted Pao-yü, "and choose one and take it away!<br /> +What, are they such fine things!" +</p> + +<p> +"In that case," ventured She Yüeh, "fetch the fans and let her break as many as +she can. Won't that be nice!" +</p> + +<p> +"Go and bring them at once!" Pao-yü laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"I won't be up to any such tomfoolery!" She Yüeh demurred. "She hasn't snapped +her hands, so bid her go herself and fetch them!" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm feeling tired," interposed Ch'ing Wen, as she laughingly leant on the bed. +"I'll therefore tear some more to-morrow again." +</p> + +<p> +"An old writer says," added Pao-yü with a smile, "'that a thousand ounces of +gold cannot purchase a single laugh'! What can a few fans cost?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +On the morrow, noon found Madame Wang, Hsüeh Pao-ch'ai, Lin Tai-yü, 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-yün 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!' +</p> + +<p> +"It's entirely at aunt Secunda's bidding," retorted Shih Hsiang-yün, "that I +put them on. Why, would any one of her own accord wear so many things!" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +"What about that!" cried Lin Tai-yü, "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." +</p> + +<p> +As she narrated this incident, every one recalled the circumstances to mind, +and had a good laugh. +</p> + +<p> +"Dame Chou," Pao-ch'ai smilingly inquired of nurse Chou, "is your young lady +always as fond of pranks as ever or not?" +</p> + +<p> +Nurse Chou then also gave a laugh. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Are you going to stay to-day," dowager lady Chia then asked, "or going back +home?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Is cousin Pao-yü not at home?" inquired Hsiang-yün." +</p> + +<p> +"There she's again! She doesn't think of others," remarked Pao-ch'ai smiling +significantly. "She only thinks of her cousin Pao-yü. They're both so fond of +larks! This proves that she hasn't yet got rid of that spirit of mischief." +</p> + +<p> +"You're all now grown up," observed old lady Chia; "and you shouldn't allude to +infant names." +</p> + +<p> +But while she was chiding them, they noticed Pao-yü arrive. +</p> + +<p> +"Cousin Yün, have you come?" he smiled. "How is it that you wouldn't come the +other day when some one was despatched to fetch you?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Your cousin Pao," ventured Lin Tai-yü, "has something good, which he has been +waiting to give you." +</p> + +<p> +"What good thing is it?" asked Hsiang-yün. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you believe what she says?" observed Pao-yü laughingly. "But how many days +is it that I have not seen you, and you've grown so much taller!" +</p> + +<p> +"Is cousin Hsi Jen all right?" inquired Hsiang-yün. +</p> + +<p> +"She's all right," answered Pao-yü. "Many thanks for your kind thought of her." +</p> + +<p> +"I've brought something nice for her," resumed Hsiang-yün. +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, she produced her handkerchief, tied into a knot. +</p> + +<p> +"What's this something nice?" asked Pao-yü. "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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Why, what's this?" exclaimed Hsiang-yün laughing, opening, as she spoke, the +handkerchief. +</p> + +<p> +On close scrutiny, they actually found four streaked rings, similar to those +she had previously sent, tied up in the same packet. +</p> + +<p> +"Look here!" Lin Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"It's you who behave like a dunce now!" Shih Hsiang-yün smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +As she said this, she put down the four rings. "One is for sister Hsi Jen," she +continued, "one is for sister Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +At these words, the whole company smiled. "How really clear!" they cried. +</p> + +<p> +"This is what it is to be able to speak!" Pao-yü put in. "She doesn't spare any +one!" +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, Lin Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +While speaking, she rose and walked off. +</p> + +<p> +Luckily, every one did not hear what she said. Only Hsüeh Pao-ch'ai pursed up +her lips and laughed. Pao-yü, 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-yü in laughter, Pao-ch'ai hastily rose to her feet and withdrew. +She went in search of Tai-yü, to have a chat and laugh with her. +</p> + +<p> +"After you've had tea," old lady Chia thereupon said to Hsiang-yün, "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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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 Lü to wait upon me." +</p> + +<p> +Hearing her wishes, each went her own way in quest of aunts, or sisters-in-law. +There only remained but Hsiang-yün and Ts'ui Lü. +</p> + +<p> +"How is it," inquired Ts'ui Lü, "that these lotus flowers have not yet opened?" +</p> + +<p> +"The proper season hasn't yet arrived," rejoined Shih Hsiang-yün. +</p> + +<p> +"They too," continued Ts'ui Lü, "resemble those in our pond; they are double +flowers." +</p> + +<p> +"These here," remarked Hsiang-yün, "are not however up to ours." +</p> + +<p> +"They have over there," observed Ts'ui Lü, "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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Flowers and plants," suggested Shih Hsiang-yün, "are precisely like the human +race. With sufficient vitality, they grow up in a healthy condition." +</p> + +<p> +"I can't credit these words," replied Ts'ui Lü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +This rejoinder evoked a smile from Hsiang-yün. "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." +</p> + +<p> +"In the face of these arguments," laughed Ts'ui Lü, "everything, from old till +now, from the very creation itself, embodies a certain proportion of the Yin +and Yang principles." +</p> + +<p> +"You stupid thing!" exclaimed Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This trash is sufficient to kill me!" ejaculated Ts'ui Lü. "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!" +</p> + +<p> +"The Yin and Yang," explained Hsiang-yün, "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." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so! quite so!" cried out Ts'ui Lü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +"O-mi-to-fu!" laughed Hsiang-yün, "you have at last understood!" +</p> + +<p> +"All these things possess the Yin and Yang; that's all right." T'sui Lü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"How don't they!" exclaimed Hsiang-yün. "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." +</p> + +<p> +"Is it really so!" ejaculated T'sui Lü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This side, the front, is Yang," answered Hsiang-yün; "and that, the reverse, +is Yin." +</p> + +<p> +Ts'ui Lü 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-yün had about her +person, she forthwith made allusion to it. "This, Miss," she said smiling, +"cannot likely also have any Yin and Yang!" +</p> + +<p> +"The beasts of the field and the birds of the air," proceeded Hsiang-yün, "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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Is this male, or is this female?" inquired Ts'ui Lü. +</p> + +<p> +"Ts'ui!" exclaimed Hsiang-yün, "what about male and female! Here you are with +your nonsense again." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, never mind about that," added Ts'ui Lü, "But how is it that all things +have Yin and Yang, and that we human beings have no Yin and no Yang?" +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +"What's there in this that you can't tell me?" asked Ts'ui Lü, "But I know all +about it, so there's no need for you to keep me on pins and needles." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün blurted out laughing. "What do you know?" she said. +</p> + +<p> +"That you, Miss, are Yang, and that I'm Yin," answered Ts'ui Lü. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün produced her handkerchief, and, while screening her mouth with it, +burst out into a loud fit of laughter. +</p> + +<p> +"What I say must be right for you to laugh in this way," Ts'ui Lü observed. +</p> + +<p> +"Perfectly right, perfectly right!" acquiesced Hsiang-yün. +</p> + +<p> +"People say," continued Ts'ui Lü, "that masters are Yang, and that +servant-girls are Yin; don't I even apprehend this primary principle?" +</p> + +<p> +"You apprehend it thoroughly," responded Hsiang-yün 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-yün asked pointing +at it. +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, Ts'ui Lü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +So saying, she first laid hold of the unicorn, belonging to Shih<br /> +Hsiang-yün, and passed it under inspection. +</p> + +<p> +Shih Hsiang-yün longed to be shown what she had picked up, but Ts'ui Lü would +not open her hand. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Give it to me and let me look at it," retorted Hsiang-yün. +</p> + +<p> +Ts'ui Lü stretched out her hand with a dash. "Yes, Miss, please look at it!" +she laughed. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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-yün 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-yü appeared in the opposite direction. +</p> + +<p> +"What are you two," he asked smiling, "doing here in the sun? How is it you +don't go and find Hsi Jen?" +</p> + +<p> +Shih Hsiang-yün precipitately concealed the unicorn. "We were just going," she +replied, "so let us all go together." +</p> + +<p> +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-yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +"You should have come earlier," Pao-yü said. "I've got something nice and was +only waiting for you." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"What thing?" inquired Hsi Jen. +</p> + +<p> +"The unicorn," explained Pao-yü, "I got the other day." +</p> + +<p> +"You've daily worn it about you, and how is it you ask me?" remarked Hsi<br /> +Jen. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as her answer fell on his ear, Pao-yü 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-yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I got it the other day, after ever so much trouble;" rejoined Pao-yü, "but I +can't make out when I can have lost it! I've also become quite addle-headed." +</p> + +<p> +"Fortunately," smiled Shih Hsiang-yün, "it's only a sort of a toy!<br /> +Still, are you so careless?" While speaking, she flung open her hand.<br /> +"Just see," she laughed, "is it this or not?" +</p> + +<p> +As soon as he saw it, Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> + +<p> + Hsi Jen and Hsiang-yün tell their secret thoughts.<br /> + Tai-yü is infatuated with the living Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +While trying to conceal her sense of shame and injury Chin Ch'uan is driven by +her impetuous feelings to seek death. +</p> + +<p> +But to resume our narrative. At the sight of the unicorn, Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Fortunately it was only this!" rejoined Shih Hsiang-yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"After all," smiled Pao-yü, "the loss of a seal is an ordinary occurrence. But +had I lost this, I would have deserved to die." +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen then poured a cup of tea and handed it to Shih Hsiang-yün. "Miss +Senior," she remarked smilingly, "I heard that you had occasion the other day +to be highly pleased." +</p> + +<p> +Shih Hsiang-yün flushed crimson. She went on drinking her tea and did not utter +a single word. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Do you still speak about that!" exclaimed Shih Hsiang-yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"O-mi-to-fu," cried Shih Hsiang-yün. "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 Lü Erh! And while at home, when did I +not at every instant say something about you?" +</p> + +<p> +Scarcely had she concluded than Hsi Jen and Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"You don't say," argued Shih Hsiang-yün, "that your words are hard things to +swallow, but contrariwise, call people's temperaments impetuous!" +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, she unfolded her handkerchief and, producing a ring, she gave it +to Hsi Jen. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Who gave it to you?" inquired Shih Hsiang-yün. +</p> + +<p> +"Miss Pao let me have it." replied Hsi Jen. +</p> + +<p> +"I was under the impression," remarked Hsiang-yün 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!" +</p> + +<p> +While indulging in these regrets, her eyes got quite red. +</p> + +<p> +"Never mind! never mind!" interposed Pao-yü. "Why need you speak of these +things!" +</p> + +<p> +"If I do allude to this," answered Shih Hsiang-yün, "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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Ch'ih!" laughed Hsi Jen, who was standing by her. "Miss Yün," she said, "now +that you've grown up to be a big girl you've become more than ever openhearted +and outspoken." +</p> + +<p> +"When I contend;" smiled Pao-yü, "that it is difficult to say a word to any one +of you I'm indeed perfectly correct!" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear cousin," observed Shih Hsiang-yün 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Now, enough of your jokes!" urged Hsi Jen. "I have a favour to crave of you." +</p> + +<p> +"What is it?" vehemently inquired Shih Hsiang-yün. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"This is indeed strange!" exclaimed Shih Hsiang-yün. "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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +At this reply, it at once dawned upon Shih Hsiang-yün that the shoes must be +intended for Pao-yü. "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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"To speak the truth," rejoined Shih Hsiang-yün, "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!" +</p> + +<p> +"I can't nevertheless make it out!" answered Hsi Jen. +</p> + +<p> +"I heard the other day," continued Shih Hsiang-yün, 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? +</p> + +<p> +"As to what occurred the other day," hastily explained Pao-yü smiling,<br /> +"I positively had no idea that that thing was your handiwork." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"This is getting stranger and stranger!" said Shih Hsiang-yün. "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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +As soon as Pao-yü heard this announcement, he knew that Chia Yü-ts'un must have +arrived. But he felt very unhappy at heart. Hsi Jen hurried to go and bring his +clothes. Pao-yü, 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yün from one side, as she waved her fan. +</p> + +<p> +"Is it father's doing?" Pao-yü rejoined. "Why, it's he himself who asks that I +should be sent for to see him." +</p> + +<p> +"'When a host is courteous, visitors come often,'" smiled Hsiang-yün, "so it's +surely because you possess certain qualities, which have won his regard, that +he insists upon seeing you." +</p> + +<p> +"But I am not what one would call courteous," demurred Pao-yü. "I am, of all +coarse people, the coarsest. Besides, I do not choose to have any relations +with such people as himself." +</p> + +<p> +"Here's again that unchangeable temperament of yours!" laughed Hsiang-yün. "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." +</p> + +<p> +"Miss," exclaimed Pao-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Did Miss Lin ever talk such trash!" exclaimed Pao-yü. "Had she ever talked +such stuff and nonsense, I would have long ago become chilled towards her." +</p> + +<p> +"What you say is all trash!" Hsi Jen and Hsiang-yün remarked with one voice, +while they shook their heads to and fro and smiled. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü, the fact is, was well aware that now that Shih Hsiang-yün was +staying in the mansion, Pao-yü 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-yü, 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-yü 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-yün 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-yün dilate on the topic of +experience, and Pao-yü 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-yü'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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, meanwhile, had hurriedly got into his new costume. Upon coming out of +doors, he caught sight of Lin Tai-yü, walking quietly ahead of him engaged, to +all appearances, in wiping tears from her eyes. With rapid stride, he overtook +her. +</p> + +<p> +"Cousin Lin," he smiled, "where are you off to? How is it that you're crying +again? Who has once more hurt your feelings?" +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü turned her head round to look; and seeing that it was Pao-yü, she at +once forced a smile. "Why should I be crying," she replied, "when there is no +reason to do so?" +</p> + +<p> +"Look here!" observed Pao-yü smilingly. "The tears in your eyes are not dry yet +and do you still tell me a fib?" +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, he could not check an impulse to raise his arm and wipe her eyes, +but Lin Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"While intent upon speaking, I forgot," smiled Pao-yü, "all about propriety and +gesticulated, yet quite inadvertently. But what care I whether I die or live!" +</p> + +<p> +"To die would, after all" added Lin Tai-yü, "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?" +</p> + +<p> +This insinuation was enough to plunge Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +This question recalled to Lin Tai-yü'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?" +</p> + +<p> +While reasoning with him, she felt unable to repress herself, and, approaching +him, she extended her hand, and wiped the perspiration from his face. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü gazed intently at her for a long time. "Do set your mind at ease!" he at +length observed. +</p> + +<p> +At this remark, Lin Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"I actually don't understand what you mean by easy or uneasy," Lin<br /> +Tai-yü replied. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear girl," urged Pao-yü, 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!" +</p> + +<p> +These words made Lin Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü fostered innumerable thoughts within himself, but unable in a moment to +resolve from which particular one to begin, he too absently looked at Tai-yü. +Thus it was that the two cousins remained for a long time under the spell of a +deep reverie. +</p> + +<p> +An ejaculation of "Hai!" was the only sound that issued from Lin Tai-yü's lips; +and while tears streamed suddenly from her eyes, she turned herself round and +started on her way homeward. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"What can you have to tell me?" exclaimed Lin Tai-yü, who while wiping her +tears, extricated her hand from his grasp. "I know." she cried, "all you have +to say." +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, she went away, without even turning her head to cast a glance +behind her. +</p> + +<p> +As Pao-yü gazed at her receding figure, he fell into abstraction. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü standing with +him. After a time, Tai-yü walked away; and as he still remained where he was +without budging, she approached him. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +But Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +This brought Pao-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +When Hsi Jen meanwhile saw Pao-yü effect his escape, "Lin Tai-yü," 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Our master," rejoined Hsi Jen, "sent for him to go out." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"If it isn't this," added Hsi Jen laughing, "some visitor must, I presume, have +come and he wishes him to meet him." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Could you tell them so?" smiled Hsi Jen. +</p> + +<p> +"What was that girl Hsiang-yün doing in your quarters?" Pao-ch'ai then asked. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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 Yün'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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Why mind him?" laughed Pao-ch'ai. "Simply ask some one to do the work and +finish." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"You shouldn't work so hard," smiled Pao-ch'ai. "What do you say to my doing a +few things for you?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +This bit of news startled Hsi Jen. "Which Chin Ch'uan-erh is it," she speedily +inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"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'" +</p> + +<p> +"This is odd!" Pao-ch'ai exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Where do you come from?" asked Madame Wang. +</p> + +<p> +"I come from inside the garden," answered Pao-ch'ai. +</p> + +<p> +"As you come from the garden," Madame Wang inquired, "did you see anything of +your cousin Pao-yü?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"In spite of what you say," sighed Madame Wang, shaking her head to and fro, "I +really feel unhappy at heart." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, tears unwittingly ran down from her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"What you say is all very well," rejoined Madame Wang; "but can it be that it +isn't distasteful to you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Compose your mind," urged Pao-ch'ai with a smile. "I have never paid any heed +to such things." +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, she rose to her feet and walked away. +</p> + +<p> +Madame Wang then promptly called two servants. "Go and accompany Miss<br /> +Pao!" she said. +</p> + +<p> +In a brief space of time, Pao-ch'ai came back with the clothes, and discovered +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, you will have to peruse the next chapter for further details. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> + +<p> + A brother is prompted by ill-feeling to wag his tongue a bit.<br /> + A depraved son receives heavy blows with a rattan cane. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Indeed, Pao-yü, on his return from entertaining Yü-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. +</p> + +<p> +"Hallo!" that person was heard to cry out, as he stood still. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Why are you," exclaimed Chia Cheng, "drooping your head in such a melancholy +mood, and indulging in all these moans? When Yü-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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +The senior officer gave a sardonic smile. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü should be +told to come out of the garden. Pao-yü had no notion whatever why he was +wanted. So speedily he hurried to appear before his father. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +These reproaches plunged Pao-yü in a dreadful state of consternation.<br /> +With alacrity he said by way of reply: "I really don't know anything<br /> +about the matter! To what do, after all, the two words Ch'i Kuan refer,<br /> +I wonder! Still less, besides, am I aware what entice can imply!" +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke, he started crying. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"I positively don't know." Pao-yü time after time maintained. "There must, I +fear, be some false rumour abroad; for I haven't so much as seen anything of +him." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +When Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +These words were still on his lips, when he took his leave and walked off with +hurried step. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Chia Huan resumed his confidences in a low tone of voice. "My mother," he +resumed, "told me that when brother Pao-yü 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…." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü +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-yü; 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." +</p> + +<p> +At the sight of Chia Cheng in this exasperation, the family companions and +attendants speedily realised that Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü! Bring Pao-yü!" 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." +</p> + +<p> +The servant-boys felt compelled to express their obedience with one consent, +and some of them came to look after Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +As for Pao-yü, 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-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +But, first and foremost, Pao-yü'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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Go out," pursued Pao-yü, in despair, on discovering that she was deaf, "and +tell my page to come." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +The servant-boys did not have the boldness to disobey him. They were under the +necessity of seizing Pao-yü, of stretching him on a bench, and of taking a +heavy rattan and giving him about ten blows. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü knew well enough that he could not plead for mercy, and all he could do +was to whimper and cry. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü) have ten blows and more. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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? +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü down, precipitately loosened +their grip and beat a retreat. Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Of course, of course," Chia Cheng exclaimed, "what you want to do to-day is to +make me succumb to anger!" +</p> + +<p> +"Pao-yü 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-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +At the conclusion of these words, she enfolded Pao-yü in her embrace and raised +her voice in loud sobs. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +But while Madame Wang held Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +At this reply, old lady Chia spurted contemptuously. "I made just one remark," +she added, "and you couldn't stand it, and can Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, tears suddenly rolled down from her eyes also. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +So speaking, "Go and look after the chairs." she speedily cried to a servant. +"I and your lady as well as Pao-yü will, without delay, return to Nanking." +</p> + +<p> +The servant had no help but to assent. +</p> + +<p> +Old lady Chia thereupon called Madame Wang over to her. "You needn't indulge in +sorrow!" she exhorted her. "Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +After this reply, she went on to give orders to directly get ready the baggage, +carriages, chairs and horses necessary for their return. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü. 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. +</p> + +<p> +But waiting-maids, married women, and other attendants soon came to support +Pao-yü 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? +</p> + +<p> +At this suggestion, the servants rushed hurry-scurry inside and actually +brought a bench; and, lifting Pao-yü, 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-yü. +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +These taunts induced Chia Cheng to eventually withdraw out of the room. By this +time, Mrs. Hsüeh together with Pao-ch'ai, Hsiang Ling, Hsi Jen, Shih Hsiang-yün +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"How did these things come to master's knowledge?" inquired Hsi Jen. +</p> + +<p> +"As for that affair with Ch'i Kuan," continued Pei Ming, "it is very likely Mr. +Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü. 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, if you feel any curiosity to hear what follows, listen to what you +will find divulged in the next chapter. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2> + +<p> + Tai-yü loves Pao-yü with extreme affection; but, on account of this<br /> + affection, her female cousin gets indignant.<br /> + Hsüeh P'an commits a grave mistake; but Pao-ch'ai makes this mistake a<br /> + pretext to tender advice to her brother. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, she asked him, while she did all she could to hide her +tears: "How was it that he beat you to such extremes?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü. This done, she perceived +Pao-ch'ai walk in, her hands laden with pills and medicines. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +After these directions, she handed the medicines to Hsi Jen. "Is he feeling any +better now?" she proceeded to inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"Thanks!" rejoined Pao-yü. "I'm feeling better," he at the same time went on to +say; after which, he pressed her to take a seat. +</p> + +<p> +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…." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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 Hsüeh P'an, he feared lest Pao-ch'ai might feel unhappy, +so he lost no time in interrupting Hsi Jen. +</p> + +<p> +"Cousin Hsüeh," he interposed, "has never been like that; you people mustn't +therefore give way to idle surmises!" +</p> + +<p> +These words were enough to make Pao-ch'ai see that Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü, 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-yü, 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-yü, 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen, seeing Pao-yü interrupt her, at the bare mention of Hsüeh 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +With these recommendations, she walked out of the door. +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen hastened to catch her up and escorted her beyond the court.<br /> +"Miss," she remarked, "we've really put you to the trouble of coming.<br /> +Some other day, when Mr. Secundus is well, I shall come in person to<br /> +thank you." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +While tendering this advice, she went on her way. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, they likewise retired. During this while, Pao-yü fell into a +drowsy state. Chiang Yü-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-yü, 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-yü was +startled out of his dreams. On opening his eyes, he found it to be no other +than Lin Tai-yü. 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-yü," (he thought), "who +else can it be?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Though Lin Tai-yü 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-yü'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." +</p> + +<p> +At these words, Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +But scarcely had he concluded this remark than some one outside the court was +heard to say: "Our lady Secunda has arrived." +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This is indeed strange!" exclaimed Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +After this response, Pao-yü speedily let her go. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Are you better?" she asked Pao-yü. "If you fancy anything to eat, mind you +send some one over to my place to fetch it for you." +</p> + +<p> +Thereupon Mrs. Hsüeh also came to pay him a visit. Shortly after, a messenger +likewise arrived from old lady Chia (to inquire after him). +</p> + +<p> +When the time came to prepare the lights, Pao-yü had a couple of mouthfuls of +soup to eat, but he felt so drowsy and heavy that he fell asleep. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü had +been flogged and they too hurried into his quarters. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +After sitting perfectly still for a time, "When Master Secundus awakes" the +dames observed, "do send us word!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Upon hearing this message, Hsi Jen communed with her own thoughts. Then turning +round, she whispered to Ch'ing Wen, She Yüeh, 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"There's nothing much to tell you," added Madame Wang. "I only wish to ask how +his pains and aches are getting on now?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Has he had anything to eat?" further inquired Madame Wang. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +So saying, she hastened to tell Ts'ai Yün to fetch the bottles of scented +water, which she had received as a present a few days before. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Having listened to all they had to say, Ts'ai Yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>olea fragrans</i>," on the other, +"Pure extract of roses." +</p> + +<p> +"What fine things these are!" Hsi Jen smiled. "How many small bottles the like +of this can there be?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen hastily came back. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"It was also for this," continued Madame Wang as she nodded her head, "but +there's another reason besides." +</p> + +<p> +"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…." +</p> + +<p> +She had only spoken half a sentence, when hastily she closed her mouth again. +</p> + +<p> +"You are at liberty to proceed," urged Madame Wang. +</p> + +<p> +"If your ladyship will not get angry, I'll speak out," remarked Hsi Jen. +</p> + +<p> +"Why should I get angry?" observed Madame Wang. "Proceed!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, she could not help melting into tears. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü; 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +This allusion much alarmed Madame Wang. Speedily taking Hsi Jen's hand in hers: +"Is it likely," she inquired, "that Pao-yü has been up to any mischief with any +one?" +</p> + +<p> +"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 mouths 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen said several consecutive yes's, and went on her way. She got back just +in time to see Pao-yü awake. Hsi Jen explained all about the scented water; +and, so intensely delighted was Pao-yü, 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-yü'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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"I have no message that you can give her," added Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +After some cogitation, Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't worry yourself about that;" laughed Pao-yü. "She will certainly know +what I mean." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü was already ensconced in bed. "Who is +there?" she shouted. +</p> + +<p> +"It's Ch'ing Wen!" promptly replied Ch'ing Wen. +</p> + +<p> +"What are you up to?" Tai-yü inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"Mr. Secundus," explained Ch'ing Wen, "sends you some handkerchiefs,<br /> +Miss." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü'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." +</p> + +<p> +"They're not new," smiled Ch'ing Wen. "They are of an ordinary kind, and old." +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +When Tai-yü guessed the object of the handkerchief, her very soul unawares +flitted from her. "As Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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: +</p> + +<p> + Vain in my eyes the tears collect; those tears in vain they flow,<br /> + Which I in secret shed; they slowly drop; but for whom though?<br /> + The silk kerchiefs, which he so kindly troubled to give me,<br /> + How ever could they not with anguish and distress fill me? +</p> + +<p> +The second ran thus: +</p> + +<p> + Like falling pearls or rolling gems, they trickle on the sly.<br /> + Daily I have no heart for aught; listless all day am I.<br /> + As on my pillow or sleeves' edge I may not wipe them dry,<br /> + I let them dot by dot, and drop by drop to run freely. +</p> + +<p> +And the third: +</p> + +<p> + The coloured thread cannot contain the pearls cov'ring my face.<br /> + Tears were of old at Hsiang Chiang shed, but faint has waxed each<br /> + trace.<br /> + Outside my window thousands of bamboos, lo, also grow,<br /> + But whether they be stained with tears or not, I do not know. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Indeed, so correct an estimate of Hsüeh 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 Hsüeh P'an, who had instigated some +person or other to come and lodge a complaint against Pao-yü. 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 (Hsüeh P'an) who had intrigued. +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü has +got into trouble; why is it?" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +These words made Hsüeh P'an wince. "When did I stir up any trouble?" he quickly +asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you still go on shamming!" cried Mrs. Hsüeh. "Every one knows full well +that it was you, who said those things, and do you yet prevaricate?" +</p> + +<p> +"Were every one," insinuated Hsüeh P'an, "to assert that I had committed +murder, would you believe even that?" +</p> + +<p> +"Your very sister is well aware that they were said by you." Mrs. Hsüeh +continued, "and is it likely that she would accuse you falsely, pray?" +</p> + +<p> +"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 Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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-yü 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-yü has been +flogged they find no means of making a display of their zeal. But, is Pao-yü +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-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh, who clutched him in her arms. "You murderous child of +retribution!" she cried. "Whom would you go and beat? come first and assail +me?" +</p> + +<p> +From excitement Hsüeh 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-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"From the way you're now speaking," Hsüeh P'an rejoined, "it must be you, who +said that it was I; no one else but you!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"You now bear me a grudge," Hsüeh 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-yü 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-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Do you still refer to this?" exclaimed Mrs. Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Really, you're enough to exasperate one to death!" Hsüeh 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-yü, as to subvert heaven and earth!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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-yü has +that rubbishy thing of his, you naturally now seize every occasion to screen +him…." +</p> + +<p> +However, before he could finish, Pao-ch'ai trembled with anger, and clinging to +Mrs. Hsüeh, she melted into tears. "Mother," she observed, "have you heard what +brother says, what is it all about?" +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +As luck would have it, she encountered Tai-yü standing alone under the shade of +the trees, who inquired of her: "Where she was off to?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm going home," Hsüeh Pao-ch'ai replied. And as she uttered these words, she +kept on her way. +</p> + +<p> +But Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +But as what reply Hsüeh Pao-ch'ai gave is not yet known to you, reader, lend an +ear to the explanation contained in the next chapter. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> + +<p> + Pai Yü-ch'uan tastes too the lotus-leaf soup.<br /> + Huang Chin-ying skilfully plaits the plum-blossom-knotted nets. +</p> + +<p> +Pao ch'ai had, our story goes, distinctly heard Lin Tai-yü'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. +</p> + +<p> +During this time, Lin Tai-yü halted under the shadow of the trees. Upon casting +a glance, in the distance towards the I Hung Yüan, 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-yü? 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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. Hsüeh +and the rest likewise go in. +</p> + +<p> +But at quite an unexpected moment she became aware that Tzu Chüan was +approaching her from behind. "Miss," she said, "you had better go and take your +medicine! The hot water too has got cold." +</p> + +<p> +"What do you, after all, mean by keeping on pressing me so?" inquired<br /> +Tai-yü. "Whether I have it or not, what's that to you?" +</p> + +<p> +"Your cough," smiled Tzu Chüan, "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!" +</p> + +<p> +This single hint recalled Tai-yü 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 +Chüan. 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: +</p> + +<p> + "In that lone nook some one saunters about,<br /> + White dew coldly bespecks the verdant moss." +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü, am at present +doomed, I have neither a widowed mother nor a young brother." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü +approaching, and, with a shriek, he jumped down from his perch, and made her +start with fright. +</p> + +<p> +"Are you bent upon compassing your own death!" she exclaimed. "You've covered +my head all over with dust again!" +</p> + +<p> +The parrot flew back to his perch. "Hsüeh Yen," he kept on shouting, "quick, +raise the portiere! Miss is come!" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü stopped short and rapped on the frame with her hand. "Have his food and +water been replenished?" she asked. +</p> + +<p> +The parrot forthwith heaved a deep sigh, closely resembling, in sound, the +groans usually indulged in by Tai-yü, and then went on to recite: +</p> + +<p> + "Here I am fain these flowers to inter, but humankind will laugh me as<br /> + a fool."<br /> + Who knows who will in years to come commit me to my grave. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as these lines fell on the ear of Tai-yü and Tzu Chüan, they blurted +out laughing. +</p> + +<p> +"This is what you were repeating some time back, Miss." Tzu Chüan laughed, "How +did he ever manage to commit it to memory?" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +But without descending to particulars, let us now advert to Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, she sat by her mother's side, but unable to curb her tears, she +began to weep. +</p> + +<p> +Seeing her sobbing, Mrs. Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"There's no need for you to get angry, mother!" Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"That's equal to an acknowledgment of your failings," Pao-ch'ai laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"Could you exercise such strength of will," added Mrs. Hsüeh, "why, the dragon +too would lay eggs." +</p> + +<p> +"If I again go and gad about with them," Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +While from his mouth issued these words, tears rolled down from his eyes; for +he too found it hard to contain them. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Let me see your necklet, sister," Hsüeh P'an continued. "I think it requires +cleaning." +</p> + +<p> +"It is so yellow and bright," rejoined Pao-ch'ai, "and what's the use of +cleaning it again?" +</p> + +<p> +"Sister," proceeded Hsüeh P'an, "you must now add a few more clothes to your +wardrobe, so tell me what colour and what design you like best." +</p> + +<p> +"I haven't yet worn out all the clothes I have," Pao-ch'ai explained, "and why +should I have more made?" +</p> + +<p> +But, in a little time, Mrs. Hsüeh effected the change in her costume, and hand +in hand with Pao-ch'ai, she started on her way to the garden. +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh P'an thereupon took his departure. During this while, Mrs. Hsüeh and +Pao-ch'ai trudged in the direction of the garden to look up Pao-yü. 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. Hsüeh and her daughter stepped in. After +exchanging salutations with every one present, they noticed that Pao-yü was +reclining on the couch and Mrs. Hsüeh inquired of him whether he felt any +better. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh lost no time in supporting and laying him down. "Mind you tell me +whatever may take your fancy!" she proceeded. +</p> + +<p> +"If I do fancy anything," retorted Pao-yü smilingly, "I shall certainly send to +you, aunt, for it." +</p> + +<p> +"What would you like to eat," likewise inquired Madame Wang, "so that I may, on +my return, send it round to you?" +</p> + +<p> +"There's nothing that I care for," smiled Pao-yü, "though the soup made for me +the other day, with young lotus leaves, and small lotus cores was, I thought, +somewhat nice." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Go and get it ready!" cried dowager lady Chia several successive times. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you want all that lot for?" observed Madame Wang. +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +This remark evoked general laughter. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +The matron assented and went out of the room. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"From what you say," insinuated Pao-yü with a smile, "those who don't talk much +are not loved." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so," smiled Pao-yü, "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." +</p> + +<p> +"With regard to the young ladies," remarked dowager lady Chia, "it isn't that I +have any wish to flatter your aunt Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +At these words, Mrs. Hsüeh promptly smiled. "Dear venerable senior!" she said, +"you're rather partial in your verdict." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü had tried to lead old lady Chia on, originally with the idea of inducing +her to speak highly of Lin Tai-yü, 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-yü 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. Hsüeh 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. Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"My venerable senior!" rejoined Mrs. Hsüeh, "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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, who was inside the room, could not keep quiet. +</p> + +<p> +"Really," Hsi Jen laughed, "the mouth of our mistress Secunda is enough to +terrify people to death!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü put out his arm and pulled Hsi Jen. "You've been standing for so long," +he smiled, "that you must be feeling tired." +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, he dragged her down and made her take a seat next to him. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"How lucky it is you've reminded me?" Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"We'll send her to plait them!" Mrs. Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +But chatting the while, they were about to proceed on their way when they +unexpectedly caught sight of Hsiang-yün, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 portières, to put +the back-cushions in their places, and to spread out the rugs. +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia stepped into the room, leaning on lady Feng's arm. She and +Mrs. Hsüeh took their places, with due regard to the distinction between +hostess and visitors; and Hsüeh Pao-ch'ai and Shih Hsiang-yün 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. Hsüeh. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng took a napkin and wrapped a bundle of chopsticks in it. "Venerable +ancestor and you, Mrs. Hsüeh," 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Let's do as she wills!" old lady Chia remarked to Mrs. Hsüeh laughingly. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh 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. Hsüeh; those on the two sides for Hsüeh +Pao-ch'ai and Shih Hsiang-yün. 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-yü. Presently, the soup <i>à la</i> lotus leaves +arrived. After old lady Chia had well scrutinised it, Madame Wang turned her +head, and catching sight of Yü Ch'uan-erh, she immediately commissioned her to +take some over to Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"She can't carry it single-handed," demurred lady Feng. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, just asked that +you should go and twist a few girdles for him; so you two might as well proceed +together!" +</p> + +<p> +Ying Erh expressed her readiness and left the apartment, in company with<br /> +Yü Ch'uan-erh. +</p> + +<p> +"How can you carry it, so very hot as it is, the whole way there?" observed +Ying Erh. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't distress yourself!" rejoined Yü Ch'uan smiling. "I know how to do it." +</p> + +<p> +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 Yü Ch'uan-erh at length +took the things herself, and entered the room in company with Ying Erh. The +trio, Hsi Jen, She Yüeh and Ch'iu Wen were at the time chatting and laughing +with Pao-yü; 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?" +</p> + +<p> +With these words on their lips, they descended to greet them. Yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Ying Erh's arrival filled Pao-yü with intense delight. But as soon as he +noticed Yü 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 Yü Ch'uan-erh. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +She Yüeh and her companions had, in the meantime, got the bowls and chopsticks +ready and came to wait upon (Pao-yü) during his meal. But Pao-yü would not have +anything to eat. "Is your mother all right," he forthwith inquired of Yü +Ch'uan-erh. +</p> + +<p> +An angry scowl crept over Yü Ch'uan-erh's face. She did not even look straight +at Pao-yü. And only after a long pause was it that she at last uttered merely +the words, "all right," by way of reply. Pao-yü, 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"The ladies," answered Yü Chuan-erh. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Yü Ch'uan-erh, it is true, did not at first choose to heed his advances, yet +when she observed that Pao-yü 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-yü thereupon smiled. "My dear girl," he said, as he gave way +to entreaties, "bring that soup and let me taste it!" +</p> + +<p> +"I've never been in the habit of feeding people," Yü Ch'uan-erh replied.<br /> +"You'd better wait till the others return; you can have some then." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't want you to feed me," laughed Pao-yü. "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." +</p> + +<p> +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, Yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +While taunting him, she again blurted out laughing, and brought the soup over +to him. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear girl;" smiled Pao-yü, "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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Eat away, eat away!" urged Yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +So speaking, she pressed Pao-yü until he had two mouthfuls of soup. "It isn't +nice, it isn't nice!" Pao-yü purposely exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"Omi-to-fu!" ejaculated Yü Ch'uan-erh. "If this isn't nice, what's nice?" +</p> + +<p> +"There's no flavour about it at all," resumed Pao-yü. "If you don't believe me +taste it, and you'll find out for yourself." +</p> + +<p> +Yü Ch'uan-erh in a tantrum actually put some of it to her lips. +</p> + +<p> +"Well," laughed Pao-yü, "it is nice!" +</p> + +<p> +This exclamation eventually enabled Yü Ch'uan to see what Pao-yü was driving +at, for Pao-yü had in fact been trying to beguile her to have a mouthful. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +While Pao-yü returned her smiles, he kept on earnestly entreating her to let +him have some. +</p> + +<p> +Yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Two nurses," they said, "have arrived from the household of Mr. Fu,<br /> +Secundus, to present his compliments. They have now come to see you, Mr.<br /> +Secundus." As soon as Pao-yü heard this report, he felt sure that they<br /> +must be nurses sent over from the household of Deputy Sub-Prefect, Fu<br /> +Shih. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü +wished to see them, they wended their steps inside. But no sooner had they +inquired how he was, and passed a few remarks than Yü Ch'uan-erh, becoming +conscious of the arrival of strangers, did not bandy words with Pao-yü, but +stood with the plate of soup in her hands, engrossed in listening to the +conversation. Pao-yü, 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 (Yü 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-yü's hand. But it did not hurt Yü +Ch'uan-erh. She sustained, however, such a fright that she gave a start. +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü had scalded his own hand, he was quite unconscious +of the accident; so much so, that he assailed Yü Ch'uan-erh with a heap of +questions, as to where she had been burnt, and whether it was sore or not. +</p> + +<p> +Yü Ch'uan-erh and every one present were highly amused. +</p> + +<p> +"You yourself," observed Yü Ch'uan-erh, "have been scalded, and do you keep on +asking about myself?" +</p> + +<p> +At these words, Pao-yü became at last aware of the injury he had received. The +servants rushed with all promptitude and cleared the mess. But Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +The two matrons perceived, that there was no one about, and while proceeding on +their way, they started a conversation. +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't strange," smiled the one, "if people say that this Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +While they talked, they reached the exterior of the garden, and they betook +themselves back to their home; where we will leave them. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü what kind +of girdle he wanted made. +</p> + +<p> +"I was just now so bent upon talking," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Nets! To put what in?" Ying Erh inquired. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear girl," smiled Pao-yü, "work at them for me then whenever you are at +leisure, and have nothing better to do." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"What about urgently needed?" Ying-Erh exclaimed, "They are merely used for +fans, scented pendants and handkerchiefs." +</p> + +<p> +"Nets for handkerchiefs will do all right." Pao-yü answered. +</p> + +<p> +"What's the colour of your handkerchief?" inquired Ying Erh. +</p> + +<p> +"It's a deep red one." Pao-yü rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"What goes well with brown?" Pao-yü asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Peach-red goes well with brown." Ying Erh added. +</p> + +<p> +"That will make them look gaudy!" Pao-yü observed. "Yet with all their +plainness, they should be somewhat gaudy." +</p> + +<p> +"Leek-green and willow-yellow are what are most to my taste," Ying Erh pursued. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, they'll also do!" Pao-yü retorted. "But make one of peach-red too and +then one of leek-green." +</p> + +<p> +"Of what design?" Ying Erh remarked. +</p> + +<p> +"How many kinds of designs are there?" Pao-yü said. +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +"What was the kind of design you made for Miss Tertia the other day?"<br /> +Pao-yü inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"It was the 'plum blossom with piled cores,'" Ying Erh explained in reply. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, that's nice." Pao-yü rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Go and have your meal," urged Pao-yü, "and come back quick after you've had +it." +</p> + +<p> +"There are visitors here," Hsi Jen smiled, "and how can I very well go?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, Hsi Jen and her companions went off, leaving behind only two +youthful servant-girls to answer the calls. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Ying Erh continued plaiting. "I'm sixteen," she simultaneously rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +"What was your original surname?" Pao-yü added. +</p> + +<p> +"It was Huang;" answered Ying Erh. +</p> + +<p> +"That's just the thing," Pao-yü smiled; "for in real truth there's the<br /> +'Huang Ying-erh;' (oriole)." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"One can very well say that cousin Pao-ch'ai is fond of you!" Pao-yü pursued. +"By and bye, when she gets married, she's sure to take you along with her." +</p> + +<p> +Ying Erh puckered up her lips, and gave a significant smile. +</p> + +<p> +"I've often told Hsi Jen," Pao-yü smiled, "that I can't help wondering who'll +shortly be the lucky ones to win your mistress and yourself." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"If I tell you," said Ying Erh, "you must, on no account, let her know anything +about it again." +</p> + +<p> +"This goes without saying," smiled Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +But this answer was still on his lips, when they overheard some one outside +remark: "How is it that everything is so quiet?" +</p> + +<p> +Both gazed round to see who possibly it could be. They discovered, strange +enough, no one else than Pao-ch'ai herself. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +This allusion suggested the idea to Pao-yü. 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Upon hearing this, Pao-yü 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-yü. "Why, a few minutes back, my mistress, your mother, sent some +one to bring me two bowls of viands." +</p> + +<p> +"The supply," replied Pao-yü smiling, "must have been so plentiful to-day, that +they've sent some to every one of you." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"If they're given to you," Pao-yü smiled, "why, you had better go and eat them. +What's there in this to fill you with conjectures?" +</p> + +<p> +"There's never been anything like this before," Hsi Jen added, "so, it makes me +feel uneasy." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai compressed her lips. "If this," she laughed; "makes you feel uneasy, +there will be by and bye other things to make you far more uneasy." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü for his +inspection. "I shall come and hold the cords," she observed, "as soon as I've +rinsed my hands." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +By this time, Pao-ch'ai had been called away by a servant, despatched by Hsüeh +P'an. But while Pao-yü 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-yü, to cross over to-morrow and have a +little distraction. Her ladyship really longs to see you." +</p> + +<p> +"Were I able to walk," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Ch'iu Wen signified her obedience, and was about to start on her errand, when +she heard Tai-yü talking in the court, and Pao-yü eagerly shout out: "Request +her to walk in at once!" +</p> + +<p> +But should there be any further particulars, which you, reader, might feel +disposed to know, peruse the details given in the following chapter. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> + +<p> + While Hsi Jen is busy embroidering mandarin ducks, Pao-yü receives, in<br /> + the Chiang Yün Pavilion, an omen from a dream.<br /> + Pao-yü apprehends that there is a destiny in affections, when his<br /> + feelings are aroused to a sense of the situation in the Pear<br /> + Fragrance court. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +The head-page listened patiently to her instructions, and, assenting to all she +had to say, he took his leave. +</p> + +<p> +Old lady Chia thereupon also sent for nurse Li, Hsi Jen and the other +waiting-maids and recommended them to tell Pao-yü about her injunctions so that +he might be able to quiet his mind. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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 <i>dolce far +niente</i> 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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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-yü profound consideration. But enough of minor details. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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). +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh and her daughter were sitting one day, at noon, in Madame Wang's +quarters, together with Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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, Yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng expressed her approval and turning round she said smilingly to<br /> +Yü Ch'uan-erh: "I congratulate you, I congratulate you!" +</p> + +<p> +Yü Ch'uan-erh thereupon crossed over and prostrated herself. +</p> + +<p> +"I just want to ask you," Madame Wang went on to inquire, "how much Mrs.<br /> +Chao and Mrs. Chou are allowed monthly?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Are they paid in full month after month?" Madame Wang inquired. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng thought the question so very strange that she hastened to exclaim by +way of reply: "How are they not paid in full?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Having heard this explanation, Madame Wang kept silent for a while.<br /> +Next, she proceeded to ask, how many girls there were with dowager lady<br /> +Chia drawing one tael. +</p> + +<p> +"Eight of them," rejoined lady Feng, "but there are at present only seven; the +other one is Hsi Jen." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite right," assented Madame Wang. "But your cousin Pao-yü hasn't any maid at +one tael; for Hsi Jen is still a servant belonging to old lady Chia's +household." +</p> + +<p> +"Hsi Jen," lady Feng smiled, "is still our dear ancestor's servant; she's only +lent to cousin Pao-yü; 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-yü'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 Yüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Just listen," laughed Mrs. Hsüeh, "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." +</p> + +<p> +"Aunt," rejoined lady Feng smiling, "was I likely, pray, wrong in what I said?" +</p> + +<p> +"Who ever said you were wrong?" Mrs. Hsüeh smiled. "But were you to talk a +little slower, wouldn't it be a saving of exertion for you?" +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng was about to laugh, but hastily checking herself, she lent an ear to +what Madame Wang might have to tell her. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng acquiesced to each one of her recommendations, and, pushing Mrs. +Hsüeh, "Aunt," she inquired, "have you heard her proposal? What have I all +along maintained? Well, my words have actually come out true to-day!" +</p> + +<p> +"This should have been accomplished long ago," Mrs. Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü. How fortunate, in reality, Pao-yü is! Well +would it be if he could have her wait upon him for the whole length of his +life!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +But without any further reference to her, we will take up the thread of our +narrative with Mrs. Hsüeh, 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-yü and the rest of the cousins returned into the +garden. Pao-ch'ai then asked Tai-yü to repair with her to the O Hsiang Arbour. +But Tai-yü 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 Yüan, to look up Pao-yü 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-yü's chamber. Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen pouted her lips towards the bed. +</p> + +<p> +"Does a big strapping fellow like this," Pao-ch'ai laughed, "still wear such +things?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"It is a lucky thing," Pao-ch'ai observed, smiling, "that you're gifted with +such patience." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +With these words, she sallied out of the room. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü had met Shih Hsiang-yün 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-yün turned round and betook herself first into the +side-rooms in search of Hsi Jen. Lin Tai-yü, meanwhile, walked up to the window +from outside, and peeped in through the gauze frame. At a glance, she espied +Pao-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as Lin Tai-yü 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-yün. +The moment Hsiang-yün 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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü inwardly grasped her meaning, but, after indulging in a couple of +sardonic smiles, she had no alternative but to follow in her footsteps. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai had, during this while, managed to embroider two or three petals, +when she heard Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai nodded her head by way of reply. +</p> + +<p> +"I just came across," Hsi Jen smiled, "Miss Lin and Miss Shih. Did they happen +to come in?" +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't see them come in," Pao-ch'ai answered. "Did they tell you anything?" +she next smilingly asked of Hsi Jen. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"But supposing that I behaved improperly," demurred Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +When her rejoinder fell on his ear, Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen was well aware that Pao-yü 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-yü; 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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Loyal ministers," Hsi Jen argued, "and excellent generals simply die because +it isn't in their power to do otherwise." +</p> + +<p> +"Military officers," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü to at last be quiet and go to sleep. By the morrow, all +recollection of the discussion had vanished from his mind. +</p> + +<p> +One day, Pao-yü 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 Yü Kuan in the court. As soon as they caught sight of Pao-yü, they, +with one consent, smiled and urged him to take a seat. Pao-yü then inquired +where Ling Kuan was. Both girls explained that she was in her room, so Pao-yü +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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Seeing her sit bolt upright, Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao Kuan and her companion could not fathom why he was so red and inquired of +him the reason. Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü at these words felt very sad within himself. "Where's brother<br /> +Ch'iang gone to?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü, he felt under the necessity of halting. +</p> + +<p> +"What kind of bird is that?" Pao-yü asked. "Can it hold a flag in its beak, or +do any tricks?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's the 'jade-crested and gold-headed bird,'" smiled Chia Ch'iang. +</p> + +<p> +"How much did you give for it?" Pao-yü continued. +</p> + +<p> +"A tael and eight mace," replied Chia Ch'iang. +</p> + +<p> +But while replying to his inquiries, he motioned to Pao-yü to take a seat, and +then went himself into Ling Kuan's apartment. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü had, by this time, lost every wish of hearing a song. His sole<br /> +desire was to find what relations existed between his cousin and Ling<br /> +Kuan, when he perceived Chia Ch'iang walk in and laughingly say to her,<br /> +"Come and see this thing." +</p> + +<p> +"What's it?" Ling Kuan asked, rising. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +So saying, he verily gave the bird its liberty; and, with one blow, he smashed +the cage to atoms. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +When he heard her resolution, Chia Ch'iang had perforce to stand still. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, 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-yü) +out. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü's heart was gnawed with doubts and conjectures. In an imbecile frame of +mind, he came to the I Hung court. Lin Tai-yü was, at the moment, sitting with +Hsi Jen, and chatting with her. As soon as Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü unawares made further allusion to them, she +smilingly rejoined: "You are verily somewhat cracked!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü, for we will now allude to her, noticed Pao-yü'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 Hsüeh'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." +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't go the other day, when it was Mr. Chia She's birthday, so I won't go +now." Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Before Pao-yü had time to say anything by way of response, Tai-yü anticipated +him. "You should," she smiled, "go as far as there for the sake of her, who +drives the mosquitoes away from you." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü could not make out the drift of her insinuation. "What about driving +mosquitoes away?" he vehemently inquired. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"It shouldn't have been done!" Pao-yü 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-yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +The moment Pao-yü and Tai-yü heard what was the object of her visit, they +quickly rose to their feet and pressed her to take a seat. But Shih Hsiang-yün +would not sit down, so Pao-yü and Tai-yü were compelled to escort her as far as +the front part of the mansion. +</p> + +<p> +Shih Hsiang-yün'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-yü wished +to accompany her still further outside, but Shih Hsiang-yün deterred him. +Presently, they turned to go back. But once more, she called Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2> + +<p> + In the Study of Autumnal Cheerfulness is accidentally formed the<br /> + Cydonia Japonica Society.<br /> + In the Heng Wu Court, the chrysanthemum is, on a certain night,<br /> + proposed as a subject for verses. +</p> + +<p> +But to continue. After Shih Hsiang-yün's return home, Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"It quite slipped from my mind," Pao-yü remarked. "I meant to have gone and +seen my cousin Tertia; is she better that you come?" +</p> + +<p> +"Miss is all right," Ts'ui Mo answered. "She hasn't even had any medicine +to-day. It's only a slight chill." +</p> + +<p> +When Pao-yü 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 +Hsüeh Pao-ch'ai and Lin Tai-yü. 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." +</p> + +<p> +The perusal of this note filled Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü she forthwith came up to meet him. "Mr. Yün," 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." +</p> + +<p> +Upon opening the note, Pao-yü found it to read as follows: "An unfilial son, +Yün, 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, Yün, on +his knees, lays this epistle at your feet. A joke!" +</p> + +<p> +After reading this note, Pao-yü laughed. "Has he come alone?" he asked.<br /> +"Or has he any one else with him?" +</p> + +<p> +"He's got two flower pots as well," rejoined the matron. +</p> + +<p> +"You go and tell him," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +So saying, he came with Ts'ui Mo into the Ch'iu Shuang study, where he +discovered Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"It's unfortunately late," Pao-yü smilingly observed. "We should have started +this society long ago." +</p> + +<p> +"You can't call this late!" Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"If you daren't," Ying Ch'un smiled, "who can presume to do so?" +</p> + +<p> +"This is," suggested Pao-yü, "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-yü say something." +</p> + +<p> +"What are you in this hurry for?" Pao-ch'ai exclaimed. "We are not all here +yet." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"As you've made up your minds," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll then call myself the 'resident-scholar of the Ch'iu Shuang,' and have +done," T'an Ch'un observed with a smile. +</p> + +<p> +"'Resident-scholar or master' is, in fact, not to the point. It's clumsy, +besides," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"I've got one," shouted T'an Ch'un smilingly. "I'll style myself 'the guest +under the banana trees.'" +</p> + +<p> +"How uncommon!" they unanimously cried. "It's a nice one!" +</p> + +<p> +"You had better," laughed Tai-yü, "be quick and drag her away and stew some +slices of her flesh, for people to eat with their wine." +</p> + +<p> +No one grasped her meaning, "Ch'uang-tzu," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +At these words, the whole company laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"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, Nü 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." +</p> + +<p> +After listening to her, they one and all clapped their hands, and cried out: +"Capital!" Lin Tai-yü however drooped her head and did not so much as utter a +single word. +</p> + +<p> +"I've also," Li Wan smiled, "devised a suitable name for senior cousin,<br /> +Hsüeh Pao-chai. It too is one of three characters." +</p> + +<p> +"What's it?" eagerly inquired the party. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll raise her to the rank of 'Princess of Heng Wu,'" Li Wan rejoined.<br /> +"I wonder what you all think about this." +</p> + +<p> +"This title of honour," T'an Ch'un observed, "is most apposite." +</p> + +<p> +"What about mine?" Pao-yü asked. "You should try and think of one for me also!" +</p> + +<p> +"Your style has long ago been decided upon," Pao-ch'ai smiled. "It consists of +three words: 'fussing for nothing!' It's most pat!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Those were some of the doings of my youth; why rake them up again?"<br /> +Pao-yü laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"It won't do; it isn't suitable," Pao-yü laughed. "It's better that you should +call me, at random, whatever you like." +</p> + +<p> +"What names are to be chosen for Miss Secunda and Miss Quarta?" Li Wan +inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"We also don't excel in versifying; what's the use consequently of giving us +names, all for no avail?" Ying Ch'un said. +</p> + +<p> +"In spite of this," argued T'an Ch'un, "it would be well to likewise find +something for you!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Ying Ch'un and Hsi Ch'un had a natural aversion for verses. What is more, Hsüeh +Pao-ch'ai and Lin Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Well then," Pao-yü suggested, "let's go to the Tao Hsiang village." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"It would be well," Pao-ch'ai interposed, "that we should also decide every how +many days we are to meet." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"This suggestion is excellent," they all exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, after this remark," Li Wan proceeded, "what do you say to your being the +first to convene a meeting to-morrow?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Can we write verses," Ying Ch'un retorted, "before we have as yet seen +anything of the flowers?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"In that case," Ying Ch'un said, "let me fix the metre." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +The waiting-maid was standing, leaning against the door, so readily she +suggested the word "door." +</p> + +<p> +"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'." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"The two characters pot and door," observed Pao-yü, "are not very easy to rhyme +with." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Princess of Heng Wu," she then inquired of Pao-ch'ai, "have you finished?" +</p> + +<p> +"As for finishing, I have finished," Pao-ch'ai rejoined; "but they're worth +nothing." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü paced up and down the verandah with his hands behind his back.<br /> +"Have you heard?" he thereupon said to Tai-yü, "they've all done!" +</p> + +<p> +"Don't concern yourself about me!" Tai-yü returned for answer. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü, "and what do you keep squatting on that damp ground like +that for?" +</p> + +<p> +But Tai-yü did not again worry her mind about what he said. +</p> + +<p> +"Well," Pao-yü added, "I can't be looking after you! Whether good or bad, I'll +write mine out too and have done." +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke, he likewise drew up to the table and began putting his lines down. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Old farmer of Tao Hsiang," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course!" responded the party with one voice. +</p> + +<p> +In due course, therefore, she first read T'an Ch'un's draft. It ran as +follows:— +</p> + +<p> +Verses on the Begonia. +</p> + +<p> + What time the sun's rays slant, and the grass waxeth cold, close the<br /> + double doors.<br /> + After a shower of rain, green moss plenteously covers the whole pot.<br /> + Beauteous is jade, but yet with thee in purity it cannot ever vie.<br /> + Thy frame, spotless as snow, from admiration easy robs me of my wits<br /> + Thy fragrant core is like unto a dot, so full of grace, so delicate!<br /> + When the moon reacheth the third watch, thy comely shade begins to<br /> + show itself.<br /> + Do not tell me that a chaste fairy like thee can take wings and pass<br /> + away.<br /> + How lovely are thy charms, when in thy company at dusk I sing my lay! +</p> + +<p> +After she had read them aloud, one and all sang their praise for a time.<br /> +She then took up Pao-ch'ai's, which consisted of: +</p> + +<p> + If thou would'st careful tend those fragrant lovely flowers, close of<br /> + a day the doors,<br /> + And with thine own hands take the can and sprinkle water o'er the<br /> + mossy pots.<br /> + Red, as if with cosmetic washed, are the shadows in autumn on the<br /> + steps.<br /> + Their crystal snowy bloom invites the dew on their spirits to heap<br /> + itself.<br /> + Their extreme whiteness mostly shows that they're more comely than all<br /> + other flowers.<br /> + When much they grieve, how can their jade-like form lack the traces of<br /> + tears?<br /> + Would'st thou the god of those white flowers repay? then purity<br /> + need'st thou observe.<br /> + In silence plunges their fine bloom, now that once more day yields to<br /> + dusk. +</p> + +<p> +"After all," observed Li Wan, "it's the Princess of Heng Wu, who expresses +herself to the point." +</p> + +<p> +Next they bestowed their attention on the following lines, composed by<br /> +Pao-yü:— +</p> + +<p> + Thy form in autumn faint reflects against the double doors.<br /> + So heaps the snow in the seventh feast that it filleth thy pots.<br /> + Thy shade is spotless as Tai Chen, when from her bath she hails.<br /> + Like Hsi Tzu's, whose hand ever pressed her heart, jade-like thy soul.<br /> + When the morn-ushering breeze falls not, thy thousand blossoms grieve.<br /> + To all thy tears the evening shower addeth another trace.<br /> + Alone thou lean'st against the coloured rails as if with sense imbued.<br /> + As heavy-hearted as the fond wife, beating clothes, or her that sadly<br /> + listens to the flute, thou mark'st the fall of dusk. +</p> + +<p> +When they had perused his verses, Pao-yü 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-yü to look sharp. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you all done?" Tai-yü asked. +</p> + +<p> +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:— +</p> + +<p> + Half rolled the speckled portiere hangs, half closed the door.<br /> + Thy mould like broken ice it looks, jade-like thy pot. +</p> + +<p> +This couplet over, Pao-yü 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: +</p> + +<p> + Three points of whiteness from the pear petals thou steal'st;<br /> + And from the plum bloom its spirit thou borrowest. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +But the rest of the composition was next considered. Its text was: +</p> + +<p> + The fairy in Selene's cavity donneth a plain attire.<br /> + The maiden, plunged in autumn grief, dries in her room the prints of<br /> + tears.<br /> + Winsome she blushes, in silence she's plunged, with none a word she<br /> + breathes;<br /> + But wearily she leans against the eastern breeze, though dusk has long<br /> + since fall'n. +</p> + +<p> +"This stanza ranks above all!" they unanimously remarked, after it had been +read for their benefit. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"This criticism is right." T'an Ch'un put in. "That of the Hsiao Hsiang consort +must take second place." +</p> + +<p> +"Yours, gentleman of I Hung," Li Wan pursued, "is the last of the lot.<br /> +Do you agreeably submit to this verdict?" +</p> + +<p> +"My stanza," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü at this reply found that he had no alternative but to drop the subject. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"We should, as is but right," Pao-yü suggested, "choose some name or other for +our society." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +When Hsi Jen, for we will now come to her, perceived Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Are there," Hsi Jen then inquired, "any servant-boys on duty outside the back +gate?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yün, but she discovered the shelf for trays empty. +Upon turning round, however, she caught sight of Ch'ing Wen, Ch'iu Wen, She +Yüeh and the other girls, seated together, busy with their needlework. "Where +is the white cornelian tray with twisted threads gone to?" Hsi Jen asked. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"There are plenty of articles," Hsi Jen remarked, "for sending over things on +ordinary occasions; and do you deliberately go and carry this off?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"The mention of these vases," Ch'iu Wen laughed, "reminds me again of a funny +incident. Whenever our Mr. Pao-yü'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-yü,' 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Were I to tell you," Ch'ing Wen rejoined, "is it likely that you would return +them at this hour to Madame Wang?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Was it verily you, sister, who got them?" Ch'iu Wen asked with a smile.<br /> +"I assure you I had no idea about it! I tender you my apologies." +</p> + +<p> +"You might be a little less domineering!" Hsi Jen remarked smilingly.<br /> +"The thing now is, who of you will go and fetch the tray." +</p> + +<p> +"The vases too," Shih Yüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll, after all, go for it." Ch'iu Wen cried. "You can go and get that tray of +yours!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Altogether," She Yüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü; that will be all there's to say." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"He was just now," Hsi Jen consequently asked Ch'iu Wen, "over there in<br /> +Miss Tertia's rooms, wasn't he?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +In a little time Pao-yü 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-yün. As +soon as Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Never mind!" responded Pao-yü. "I'll tell our venerable senior to despatch +some one to bring her over." +</p> + +<p> +But in the middle of their conversation, nurse Sung returned already from her +mission, and expressed to him, (Hsiang-yün'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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +"It's too late to-day," dowager lady Chia answered; "they'll go tomorrow, as +soon as it's daylight." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yün arrived. Pao-yü +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." +</p> + +<p> +"You've forgotten to ask me round," Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Shih Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +So speaking, she handed her paper to the company. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +While bandying words, they perused her two stanzas. They found this to be their +burden: +</p> + +<p> +No. 1. +</p> + +<p> + The fairies yesterday came down within the city gates,<br /> + And like those gems, sown in the grassy field, planted one pot.<br /> + How clear it is that the goddess of frost is fond of cold!<br /> + It is no question of a pretty girl bent upon death!<br /> + Where does the snow, which comes in gloomy weather, issue from?<br /> + The drops of rain increase the prints, left from the previous night.<br /> + How the flowers rejoice that bards are not weary of song!<br /> + But are they ever left to spend in peace a day or night? +</p> + +<p> +No. 2. +</p> + +<p> + The "heng chih" covered steps lead to the creeper-laden door.<br /> + How fit to plant by the corner of walls; how fit for pots?<br /> + The flowers so relish purity that they can't find a mate.<br /> + Easy in autumn snaps the soul of sorrow-wasted man.<br /> + The tears, which from the jade-like candle drip, dry in the wind.<br /> + The crystal-like portiere asunder rends Selene's rays.<br /> + Their private feelings to the moon goddess they longed to tell,<br /> + But gone, alas! is the lustre she shed on the empty court! +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"To-morrow," Shih Hsiang-yün proposed, "first fine me by making me stand a +treat, and letting me be the first to convene a meeting; may I?" +</p> + +<p> +"This would be far better!" they all assented. So producing also the verses, +composed the previous day, they submitted them to her for criticism. +</p> + +<p> +In the evening, Hsiang-yün came at the invitation of Pao-ch'ai, to the Heng Wu +Yüan to put up with her for the night. By lamplight, Hsiang-yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +This long tirade had the effect of bringing the true facts of the case to +Hsiang-yün's notice, and she began to waver in a state of uncertainty. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +As soon as Hsiang-yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear cousin," eagerly rejoined Hsiang-yün, 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." +</p> + +<p> +After listening to these assurances, Pao-ch'ai summoned a matron and bade her +go out and tell her master, Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +The matron walked out of the garden and distinctly delivered the message. But, +on her return, she brought no reply. +</p> + +<p> +During this while, Pao-ch'ai continued her conversation with Hsiang-yün. "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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"I also think so," Hsiang-yün added, "so that, I fear, we shall only be +following in their footsteps." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"This is all very well," smiled Hsiang-yün. "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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai plunged in thought for a time, after which she laughingly remarked: +"Dream of chrysanthemums is good." +</p> + +<p> +"It's positively good!" Hsiang-yün smiled. "I've also got one: 'the<br /> +Chrysanthemum shadow,' will that do?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Be quick, and tell it!" Hsiang-yün urged. +</p> + +<p> +"What do you say to 'ask the Chrysanthemums?'" Pao-ch'ai observed. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +While talking, they rubbed the ink and moistened the pens. These preparations +over, Hsiang-yün began to write, while Pao-ch'ai enumerated the themes. In a +short time, they got ten of them. +</p> + +<p> +"Ten don't form a set," Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"It would be still better like that," Hsiang-yün acquiesced, "as we'll be able +to make up a 'chrysanthemum book.'" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"What you say is perfectly right," Hsiang-yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, that will do," assented Hsiang-yün. But after settling everything +satisfactorily, they extinguished the lamp and went to bed. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2> + +<p> + Lin Hsiao-Hsiang carries the first prize in the poems on<br /> + chrysanthemums.<br /> + Hsueh Heng-wu chaffs Pao-yü by composing verses in the same style as<br /> + his on the crabs. +</p> + +<p> +After Pao-ch'ai and Hsiang-yün, we will now explain, settled everything in +their deliberations, nothing memorable occurred, the whole night, which +deserves to be put on record. +</p> + +<p> +The next day, Hsiang-yün 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. Hsüeh and +other members of her family whom she had asked to join them, and repaired into +the garden. +</p> + +<p> +"Which is the best spot?" old lady Chia inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"We are ready to go wherever you may like, dear senior," Madame Wang ventured +in response. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"These things were brought by cousin Pao-ch'ai," Hsiang-yün smilingly +explained, "so I got them ready." +</p> + +<p> +"This child is, I say, so scrupulously particular," old lady Chia observed, +"that everything she does is thoroughly devised." +</p> + +<p> +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-yün to tell her what the mottoes were. +</p> + +<p> +The text she read was: +</p> + +<p> + Snapped is the shade of the hibiscus by the fragrant oar of a boat<br /> + homeward bound.<br /> + Deep flows the perfume of the lily and the lotus underneath the bamboo<br /> + bridge. +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh, "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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +Before, however, she could conclude, dowager lady Chia and the rest were +convulsed with such laughter that their bodies doubled in two. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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 be the earthly use of making them behave like so many saints?" +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh, Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yü and Pao-yü. Round the +table, on the east, sat Shih Hsiang-yün, 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh. +</p> + +<p> +"They'll be sweeter were I to open them with my own hands," Mrs. Hsüeh +remarked, "there's no need for any one to serve me." +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng, therefore, presented it to old lady Chia and handed a second portion +to Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Shih Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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 Yüan Yang, Hu Po, Ts'ai Hsia, Ts'ai Yün and P'ing Erh to go and seat +themselves. +</p> + +<p> +"Lady Secunda," consequently ventured Yüan Yang, "you're in here doing the +honours, so may I go and have something to eat?" +</p> + +<p> +"You can all go," replied lady Feng; "leave everything in my charge, and it +will be all right." +</p> + +<p> +While these words were being spoken, Shih Hsiang-yün 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 Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"This chit Yüan 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +"You brazen-faced thing," exclaimed Yüan Yang laughingly, "to eat what was +intended for us!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Lo, that girl Yüan," 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> + +<p> +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…." +</p> + +<p> +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 +Yüan 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> + +<p> +P'ing Erh hastily crossed over and wiped her face for her, and then went in +person to fetch some water. +</p> + +<p> +"O-mi-to-fu," ejaculated Yüan Yang, "this is a distinct retribution!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Our lady Secunda," Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +After a short stroll, Madame Wang turned round and remarked to old lady<br /> +Chia: "There's plenty of wind here. Besides, you've just had crabs; so<br /> +it would be prudent for you, venerable senior, to return home and rest.<br /> +And if you feel in the humour, we can come again for a turn to-morrow." +</p> + +<p> +"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-yün, "don't allow your cousin Secundus, Pao-yü, and your cousin Lin to +have too much to eat." Then when Hsiang-yün had signified her obedience, "You +two girls," continuing, she recommended Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"There's no use of any regular spread out!" Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Your idea is excellent!" Pao-ch'ai answered. +</p> + +<p> +"This is all very well," Hsiang-yün observed, "but there are others to be +studied besides ourselves!" +</p> + +<p> +Issuing consequently further directions for another table to be laid, and +picking out some hot crabs, she asked Hsi Jen, Tzu Chüan, 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. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün then went onto explain to them the reasons that had prompted her not +to determine upon any particular rhymes. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, quite right!" put in Pao-yü. "I myself don't fancy hard and fast rhymes!" +</p> + +<p> +But Lin Tai-yü, 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-yün, 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-yü too watched Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"You girls had better go on eating," Tai-yü remonstrated, "and let me help +myself; there'll be some fun in it then!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +When however it was brought Tai-yü simply took a sip and put it down again. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear cousin," promptly remarked Pao-yü. "I've already got four lines of the +second theme so let me write on it!" +</p> + +<p> +"I managed, after ever so much difficulty, to put a stanza together,"<br /> +Pao-ch'ai smiled, "and are you now in such a hurry to deprive me of it?" +</p> + +<p> +Without so much as a word, Tai-yü 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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +But as she spoke, she perceived Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +"You too should get a style or other!" T'an Ch'un suggested. +</p> + +<p> +"In our home," smiled Hsiang-yün, "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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"She's right!" one and all exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü therefore allowed Hsiang-yün no time to make a move, but forthwith +rubbed off the character "Hsiang," for her and substituted that of "Hsia" +(russet). +</p> + +<p> +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: +</p> + +<p> +"Longing for chrysanthemums," by the "Princess of Heng Wu." +</p> + +<p> + With anguish sore I face the western breeze, and wrapt in grief, I<br /> + pine for you!<br /> + What time the smart weed russet turns, and the reeds white, my heart<br /> + is rent in two.<br /> + When in autumn the hedges thin, and gardens waste, all trace of you is<br /> + gone.<br /> + When the moon waxeth cold, and the dew pure, my dreams then know<br /> + something of you.<br /> + With constant yearnings my heart follows you as far as wild geese<br /> + homeward fly.<br /> + Lonesome I sit and lend an ear, till a late hour to the sound of the<br /> + block!<br /> + For you, ye yellow flowers, I've grown haggard and worn, but who doth<br /> + pity me,<br /> + And breathe one word of cheer that in the ninth moon I will soon meet<br /> + you again? +</p> + +<p> +"Search for chrysanthemums," by the "Gentleman of I Hung:" +</p> + +<p> + When I have naught to do, I'll seize the first fine day to try and<br /> + stroll about.<br /> + Neither wine-cups nor cups of medicine will then deter me from my<br /> + wish.<br /> + Who plants the flowers in all those spots, facing the dew and under<br /> + the moon's rays?<br /> + Outside the rails they grow and by the hedge; but in autumn where do<br /> + they go?<br /> + With sandals waxed I come from distant shores; my feelings all<br /> + exuberant;<br /> + But as on this cold day I can't exhaust my song, my spirits get<br /> + depressed.<br /> + The yellow flowers, if they but knew how comfort to a poet to afford,<br /> + Would not let me this early morn trudge out in vain with my cash-laden<br /> + staff. +</p> + +<p> +"Planting chrysanthemums," by the Gentleman of "I Hung:" +</p> + +<p> + When autumn breaks, I take my hoe, and moving them myself out of the<br /> + park,<br /> + I plant them everywhere near the hedges and in the foreground of the<br /> + halls.<br /> + Last night, when least expected, they got a good shower, which made<br /> + them all revive.<br /> + This morn my spirits still rise high, as the buds burst in bloom<br /> + bedecked with frost.<br /> + Now that it's cool, a thousand stanzas on the autumn scenery I sing.<br /> + In ecstasies from drink, I toast their blossom in a cup of cold, and<br /> + fragrant wine.<br /> + With spring water. I sprinkle them, cover the roots with mould and<br /> + well tend them,<br /> + So that they may, like the path near the well, be free of every grain<br /> + of dirt. +</p> + +<p> +"Facing the chrysanthemums," by the "Old friend of the Hall reclining on the +russet clouds." +</p> + +<p> + From other gardens I transplant them, and I treasure them like gold.<br /> + One cluster bears light-coloured bloom; another bears dark shades.<br /> + I sit with head uncovered by the sparse-leaved artemesia hedge,<br /> + And in their pure and cool fragrance, clasping my knees, I hum my<br /> + lays.<br /> + In the whole world, methinks, none see the light as peerless as these<br /> + flowers.<br /> + From all I see you have no other friend more intimate than me.<br /> + Such autumn splendour, I must not misuse, as steadily it fleets.<br /> + My gaze I fix on you as I am fain each moment to enjoy! +</p> + +<p> +"Putting chrysanthemums in vases," by the "Old Friend of the hall reclining on +the russet clouds." +</p> + +<p> + The lute I thrum, and quaff my wine, joyful at heart that ye are meet<br /> + to be my mates.<br /> + The various tables, on which ye are laid, adorn with beauteous grace<br /> + this quiet nook.<br /> + The fragrant dew, next to the spot I sit, is far apart from that by<br /> + the three paths.<br /> + I fling my book aside and turn my gaze upon a twig full of your autumn<br /> + (bloom).<br /> + What time the frost is pure, a new dream steals o'er me, as by the<br /> + paper screen I rest.<br /> + When cold holdeth the park, and the sun's rays do slant, I long and<br /> + yearn for you, old friends.<br /> + I too differ from others in this world, for my own tastes resemble<br /> + those of yours.<br /> + The vernal winds do not hinder the peach tree and the pear from<br /> + bursting forth in bloom. +</p> + +<p> +"Singing chrysanthemums," by the "Hsiao Hsiang consort." +</p> + +<p> + Eating the bread of idleness, the frenzy of poetry creeps over me both<br /> + night and day.<br /> + Round past the hedge I wend, and, leaning on the rock, I intone verses<br /> + gently to myself.<br /> + From the point of my pencil emanate lines of recondite grace, so near<br /> + the frost I write.<br /> + Some scent I hold by the side of my mouth, and, turning to the moon, I<br /> + sing my sentiments.<br /> + With self-pitying lines pages I fill, so as utterance to give to all<br /> + my cares and woes.<br /> + From these few scanty words, who could fathom the secrets of my heart<br /> + about the autumntide?<br /> + Beginning from the time when T'ao, the magistrate, did criticise the<br /> + beauty of your bloom,<br /> + Yea, from that date remote up to this very day, your high renown has<br /> + ever been extolled. +</p> + +<p> +"Drawing chrysanthemums," by the "Princess of Heng Wu." +</p> + +<p> + Verses I've had enough, so with my pens I play; with no idea that I am<br /> + mad.<br /> + Do I make use of pigments red or green as to involve a task of<br /> + toilsome work?<br /> + To form clusters of leaves, I sprinkle simply here and there a<br /> + thousand specks of ink.<br /> + And when I've drawn the semblance of the flowers, some spots I make to<br /> + represent the frost.<br /> + The light and dark so life-like harmonise with the figure of those<br /> + there in the wind,<br /> + That when I've done tracing their autumn growth, a fragrant smell<br /> + issues under my wrist.<br /> + Do you not mark how they resemble those, by the east hedge, which you<br /> + leisurely pluck?<br /> + Upon the screens their image I affix to solace me for those of the<br /> + ninth moon. +</p> + +<p> +"Asking the chrysanthemums," by the "Hsiao Hsiang consort." +</p> + +<p> + Your heart, in autumn, I would like to read, but know it no one could!<br /> + While humming with my arms behind my back, on the east hedge I rap.<br /> + So peerless and unique are ye that who is meet with you to stay?<br /> + Why are you of all flowers the only ones to burst the last in bloom?<br /> + Why in such silence plunge the garden dew and the frost in the hall?<br /> + When wild geese homeward fly and crickets sicken, do you think of me?<br /> + Do not tell me that in the world none of you grow with power of<br /> + speech?<br /> + But if ye fathom what I say, why not converse with me a while? +</p> + +<p> +"Pinning the chrysanthemums in the hair," by the "Visitor under the banana +trees." +</p> + +<p> + I put some in a vase, and plant some by the hedge, so day by day I<br /> + have ample to do.<br /> + I pluck them, yet don't fancy they are meant for girls to pin before<br /> + the glass in their coiffure.<br /> + My mania for these flowers is just as keen as was that of the squire,<br /> + who once lived in Ch'ang An.<br /> + I rave as much for them as raved Mr. P'eng Tsê, when he was under the<br /> + effects of wine.<br /> + Cold is the short hair on his temples and moistened with dew, which on<br /> + it dripped from the three paths.<br /> + His flaxen turban is suffused with the sweet fragrance of the autumn<br /> + frost in the ninth moon.<br /> + That strong weakness of mine to pin them in my hair is viewed with<br /> + sneers by my contemporaries.<br /> + They clap their hands, but they are free to laugh at me by the<br /> + roadside as much us e'er they list. +</p> + +<p> +"The shadow of the chrysanthemums," by the "Old Friend of the hall reclining on +the russet clouds." +</p> + +<p> + In layers upon layers their autumn splendour grows and e'er thick and<br /> + thicker.<br /> + I make off furtively, and stealthily transplant them from the three<br /> + crossways.<br /> + The distant lamp, inside the window-frame, depicts their shade both<br /> + far and near.<br /> + The hedge riddles the moon's rays, like unto a sieve, but the flowers<br /> + stop the holes.<br /> + As their reflection cold and fragrant tarries here, their soul must<br /> + too abide.<br /> + The dew-dry spot beneath the flowers is so like them that what is said<br /> + of dreams is trash.<br /> + Their precious shadows, full of subtle scent, are trodden down to<br /> + pieces here and there.<br /> + Could any one with eyes half closed from drinking, not mistake the<br /> + shadow for the flowers. +</p> + +<p> +"Dreaming of chrysanthemums," by the "Hsiao Hsiang consort." +</p> + +<p> + What vivid dreams arise as I dose by the hedge amidst those autumn<br /> + scenes!<br /> + Whether clouds bear me company or the moon be my mate, I can't<br /> + discern.<br /> + In fairyland I soar, not that I would become a butterfly like Chang.<br /> + So long I for my old friend T'ao, the magistrate, that I again seek<br /> + him.<br /> + In a sound sleep I fell; but so soon as the wild geese cried, they<br /> + broke my rest.<br /> + The chirp of the cicadas gave me such a start that I bear them a<br /> + grudge.<br /> + My secret wrongs to whom can I go and divulge, when I wake up from<br /> + sleep?<br /> + The faded flowers and the cold mist make my feelings of anguish know<br /> + no bounds. +</p> + +<p> +"Fading of the chrysanthemums," by the "Visitor under the banana trees." +</p> + +<p> + The dew congeals; the frost waxes in weight; and gradually dwindles<br /> + their bloom.<br /> + After the feast, with the flower show, follows the season of the<br /> + 'little snow.'<br /> + The stalks retain still some redundant smell, but the flowers' golden<br /> + tinge is faint.<br /> + The stems do not bear sign of even one whole leaf; their verdure is<br /> + all past.<br /> + Naught but the chirp of crickets strikes my ear, while the moon shines<br /> + on half my bed.<br /> + Near the cold clouds, distant a thousand li, a flock of wild geese<br /> + slowly fly.<br /> + When autumn breaks again next year, I feel certain that we will meet<br /> + once more.<br /> + We part, but only for a time, so don't let us indulge in anxious<br /> + thoughts. +</p> + +<p> +Each stanza they read they praised; and they heaped upon each other incessant +eulogiums. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +This decision filled Pao-yü with intense gratification. Clapping his hands, +"Quite right! it's most just," he shouted. +</p> + +<p> +"My verses are worth nothing!" Tai-yü remarked. "Their fault, after all, is +that they are a little too minutely subtile." +</p> + +<p> +"They are subtile but good," Li Wan rejoined; "for there's no artificialness or +stiffness about them." +</p> + +<p> +"According to my views," Tai-yü observed, "the best line is: +</p> + +<p> + "'When cold holdeth the park and the sun's rays do slant, I long and yearn for + you, old friends.' +</p> + +<p> +"The metonomy: +</p> + +<p> + "'I fling my book aside and turn my gaze upon a twig of autumn.' +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"What you say is certainly so," explained Li Wan smiling; "but that line of +yours: +</p> + +<p> + "'Some scent I hold by the side of my mouth,….' +</p> + +<p> +"beats that." +</p> + +<p> +"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: +</p> + +<p> + "'…in autumn all trace of you is gone;' +</p> + +<p> +"and +</p> + +<p> + "'…my dreams then know something of you!' +</p> + +<p> +"They really make the meaning implied by the words 'long for' stand out +clearly." +</p> + +<p> +"Those passages of yours: +</p> + +<p> + "'Cold is the short hair on his temples and moistened….' +</p> + +<p> +"and +</p> + +<p> + "'His flaxen turban is suffused with the sweet fragrance….;'" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün then smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"'…who is meet with you to stay'" +</p> + +<p> +she said, "and +</p> + +<p> + "'…burst the last in bloom.' +</p> + +<p> +"are questions so straight to the point set to the chrysanthemums, that they +are quite at a loss what answer to give." +</p> + +<p> +"Were what you say: +</p> + +<p> + "'I sit with head uncovered….' +</p> + +<p> +"and +</p> + +<p> + "'…clasping my knees, I hum my lays….' +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +This joke made every one laugh. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm last again!" smiled Pao-yü. "Is it likely that: +</p> + +<p> + "'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;….' +</p> + +<p> +"do not all forsooth amount to searching for chrysanthemums? And that +</p> + +<p> + "'Last night they got a shower….<br /> + And this morn … bedecked with frost,' +</p> + +<p> +"don't both bear on planting them? But unfortunately they can't come up to +these lines: +</p> + +<p> + "'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.' +</p> + +<p> +"But to-morrow," he proceeded, "if I have got nothing to do, I'll write twelve +stanzas my self." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"With the crabs to-day in one's hand and the olea before one's eyes, one cannot +help inditing verses," Pao-yü smiled. "I've already thought of a few; but will +any of you again have the pluck to devise any?" +</p> + +<p> +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: +</p> + +<p> + When in my hands I clasp a crab what most enchants my heart is the<br /> + cassia's cool shade.<br /> + While I pour vinegar and ground ginger, I feel from joy as if I would<br /> + go mad.<br /> + With so much gluttony the prince's grandson eats his crabs that he<br /> + should have some wine.<br /> + The side-walking young gentleman has no intestines in his frame at<br /> + all.<br /> + I lose sight in my greediness that in my stomach cold accumulates.<br /> + To my fingers a strong smell doth adhere and though I wash them yet<br /> + the smell clings fast.<br /> + The main secret of this is that men in this world make much of food.<br /> + The P'o Spirit has laughed at them that all their lives they only seek<br /> + to eat. +</p> + +<p> +"I could readily compose a hundred stanzas with such verses in no time,"<br /> +Tai-yü observed with a sarcastic smile. +</p> + +<p> +"Your mental energies are now long ago exhausted," Pao-yü rejoined laughingly, +"and instead of confessing your inability to devise any, you still go on +heaping invective upon people!" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +The company then read her lines. They consisted of— +</p> + +<p> + E'en after death, their armour and their lengthy spears are never cast<br /> + away.<br /> + So nice they look, piled in the plate, that first to taste them I'd<br /> + fain be.<br /> + In every pair of legs they have, the crabs are full of tender<br /> + jade-like meat.<br /> + Each piece of ruddy fat, which in their shell bumps up, emits a<br /> + fragrant smell.<br /> + Besides much meat, they have a greater relish for me still, eight feet<br /> + as well.<br /> + Who bids me drink a thousand cups of wine in order to enhance my joy?<br /> + What time I can behold their luscious food, with the fine season doth<br /> + accord<br /> + When cassias wave with fragrance pure, and the chrysanthemums are<br /> + decked with frost. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü had just finished conning it over and was beginning to sing its praise, +when Tai-yü, with one snatch, tore it to pieces and bade a servant go and burn +it. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, she too wrote down her lines. When they came to look at them, +they read— +</p> + +<p> + On this bright beauteous day, I bask in the dryandra shade, with a cup<br /> + in my hand.<br /> + When I was at Ch'ang An, with drivelling mouth, I longed for the ninth<br /> + day of the ninth moon.<br /> + The road stretches before their very eyes, but they can't tell between<br /> + straight and transverse.<br /> + Under their shells in spring and autumn only reigns a vacuum, yellow<br /> + and black. +</p> + +<p> +At this point, they felt unable to refrain from shouting: "Excellent!" "She +abuses in fine style!" Pao-yü shouted. "But my lines should also be committed +to the flames." +</p> + +<p> +The company thereupon scanned the remainder of the stanza, which was couched in +this wise: +</p> + +<p> + When all the stock of wine is gone, chrysanthemums then use to scour<br /> + away the smell.<br /> + So as to counteract their properties of gath'ring cold, fresh ginger<br /> + you should take.<br /> + Alas! now that they have been dropped into the boiling pot, what good<br /> + do they derive?<br /> + About the moonlit river banks there but remains the fragrant aroma of<br /> + corn. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2> + +<p> + The tongue of the village old dame finds as free vent as a river that<br /> + has broken its banks.<br /> + The affectionate cousin makes up his mind to sift to the very bottom<br /> + the story told by old goody Liu. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"There are plenty!" Hsiang-yün rejoined; and directing, with alacrity, a +servant to fetch a present box, she put in it ten of the largest crabs. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll take a few more of the female ones," P'ing Erh remarked. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +"I won't let you go," shouted Li Wan. "It's so evident that you've only got +that woman Feng in your thoughts as you don't listen to any of my words!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Were I even to have too much," P'ing Erh smiled, "what could she do to me?" +</p> + +<p> +Uttering these words, she went on with her drink; after which she partook of +some more crab. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +While she went on eating and drinking with Pao-ch'ai, Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Ai-yo!" shouted Li Wan. "What's this hard thing?" +</p> + +<p> +"It's a key," P'ing Erh answered. +</p> + +<p> +"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-yüan 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"In every thing, whether large or small, a heavenly principle rules alike," Li +Wan explained. "Were there, for instance, no Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"She's certainly splendid!" P'ing Erh ventured. "How could we rise up to her +standard?" +</p> + +<p> +"Ts'ai Hsia," Pao-yü put in, "who is in mother's rooms, is a good sort of +girl!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Well, never mind about her!" Li Wan suggested. "But were," she pursued, +pointing at Pao-yü, "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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, the very balls of her eyes suddenly became quite red. +</p> + +<p> +"Why need you again distress your mind?" they with one voice, exclaimed.<br /> +"Isn't it better that we should break up?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"I won't have any tea just now," P'ing Erh answered. "I'll come some other +time." +</p> + +<p> +So saying, she was about to go off when Hsi Jen called out to her and stopped +her. +</p> + +<p> +"This month's allowances," she asked, "haven't yet been issued, not even to our +old mistress and Madame Wang; why is it?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Why is it," smiled Hsi Jen, "that this gives you such a start?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü)." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +At these words, one and all burst out laughing. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"I expect you have seen our lady?" P'ing Erh then asked. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite right," Chou Jui's wife observed. "I'll go and see what she's up to for +you." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"What about it?" laughingly inquired P'ing Erh and the others. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +So speaking, she went on to urge old goody Liu to get down and betake herself +to the front. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"What have you again got to say?" P'ing Erh asked. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +The servant-lad felt in high glee and exuberant spirits. Expressing his +obedience, he walked off. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Venerable relative," dowager lady Chia asked, "how old are you this year?" +</p> + +<p> +Old goody Liu immediately rose to her feet. "I'm seventy-five this year," she +rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Are your eyes and teeth still good?" Dowager lady Chia went on to inquire. +</p> + +<p> +"They're both still all right," old goody Liu replied. "The left molars, +however, have got rather shaky this year." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"What good fortune!" dowager lady Chia exclaimed. "I'm a useless old thing, no +more." +</p> + +<p> +This remark made every one explode into laughter. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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, Yüan 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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…." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü thereupon +vehemently inquired of goody Liu. "What, if she had got frostbitten and fallen +ill?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this reminder, Pao-yü felt constrained to drop the subject, much +against his wishes, and old goody Liu forthwith thought of something else to +tell them. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, however, was so pre-occupied +with the story about the stolen firewood that he fell in a brown study and gave +way to conjectures. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Our worthy senior," smiled Pao-yü, "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." +</p> + +<p> +"The later it gets, the cooler the weather becomes," T'an Ch'un observed, "and +our dear senior is not likely to enjoy herself." +</p> + +<p> +"Grandmother," added Pao-yü, "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!" +</p> + +<p> +"To hum verses in the snow," Lin Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +This proposal made Pao-ch'ai and the others laugh. Pao-yü cast a glance at her +but made no reply. +</p> + +<p> +But, in a short time, the company broke up. Pao-yü 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…" +</p> + +<p> +"While speaking, she went on to try and recollect his name and surname. +</p> + +<p> +"No matter about names or surnames!" Pao-yü expostulated. "There's no need for +you to recall them to memory! Just mention the facts; they'll be enough." +</p> + +<p> +"This official," old goody Liu resumed, "had no son. His offspring consisted of +one young daughter, who went under the name of Jo Yü, (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 Yü, +grew up to be seventeen, she contracted some disease and died." +</p> + +<p> +When these words fell on Pao-yü's ears, he stamped his foot and heaved a sigh. +"What happened after that?" he then asked. +</p> + +<p> +Old goody Liu pursued her story. +</p> + +<p> +"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 Yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"It hasn't become a spirit," remonstrated Pao-yü with vehemence. "Human beings +of this kind may, the rule is, die, yet they are not dead." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Be quick and dissuade them!" eagerly exclaimed Pao-yü. "Were they to raze the +temple to the ground, their crime won't be small." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Our venerable senior and my mother," Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"In that case," old goody Liu rejoined, "I shall, thanks to that young lady's +good fortune, have also a few cash to spend." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Old goody Liu replied to his questions, by telling him every idle thought that +came first to her lips. Pao-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you discovered the place?" hastily inquired Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Upon hearing the result of his researches, Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XL.</h2> + +<p> + The venerable lady Shih attends a second banquet in the garden of<br /> + Broad Vista.<br /> + Chin Yüan-yang three times promulgates, by means of dominoes, the<br /> + order to quote passages from old writers. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as Pao-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yün. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"I told you that you wouldn't manage to start yesterday," Li Wan smiled, "but +you were in a hurry to get away." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Li Wan there and then told Su Yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +While she spoke, Pi Yüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"I wonder," shouted goody Liu smiling, "what blessings I have brought upon my +head that such honours are conferred upon it to-day!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The whole company clapped their hands and laughed boisterously. +</p> + +<p> +"You young wenches," shouted out dowager lady Chia, "don't you yet raise her +up, but stand by giggling?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Have you perchance twisted your waist?" inquired old lady Chia. "Tell the +servant-girls to pat it for you!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Tzu Chuan had at an early period raised the speckled bamboo portiere.<br /> +Dowager lady Chia and her companions entered and seated themselves. Lin<br /> +Tai-yü with her own hands took a small tray and came to present a<br /> +covered cup of tea to her grandmother. +</p> + +<p> +"We won't have any tea!" Madame Wang interposed, "so, miss, you needn't pour +any." +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü, 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"This is the room of this granddaughter-in-law of mine," dowager lady<br /> +Chia explained, smilingly pointing to Tai-yü. +</p> + +<p> +Goody Liu scrutinised Lin Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"How is it I don't see Pao-yü?" his grandmother Chia went on to inquire. +</p> + +<p> +"He's in the boat, on the pond," the waiting-maids, with one voice, returned +for answer. +</p> + +<p> +"Who also got the boats ready?" old lady Chia asked. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +After listening to this explanation, dowager lady Chia was about to pass some +remark, but some one came and reported to her that Mrs. Hsüeh had arrived. No +sooner had old lady Chia and the others sprung to their feet than they noticed +that Mrs. Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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. Hsüeh, arrive late!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng too gave a smile. "My dear ancestor," she pleaded, "do tell me what +it is like." +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia thereupon proceeded to enlighten Mrs. Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Not to speak of that girl Feng not having seen it," Mrs. Hsüeh laughed, "why, +even I have never so much as heard anything of it." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"But it doesn't, after all, look well, when made into clothes," old lady<br /> +Chia explained. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng hastily pulled out the lapel of the deep-red brocaded gauze jacket +she had on, and, facing dowager lady Chia and Mrs. Hsüeh, "Look at this jacket +of mine," she remarked. +</p> + +<p> +"This is also of first-rate quality!" old lady Chia and Mrs. Hsüeh rejoined. +"This is nowadays made in the palace for imperial use, but it can't possibly +come up to this!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng vehemently acquiesced; after which, she told a servant to take the +gauze away. +</p> + +<p> +"These rooms are so small!" dowager lady Chia then observed, smiling.<br /> +"We had better go elsewhere for a stroll." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"There are other things still better than this," lady Feng added. "I'll take +you to see them all!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"As they've got the boats ready," old lady Chia proposed, "we may as well go +and have a row in them!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Ask our venerable senior," Madame Wang replied, "and let them lay it wherever +she pleases." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Upon catching her senior's wishes, lady Feng retraced her footsteps, and +accompanied by Li Wan, T'an Ch'un, Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +These two then began to mature their plans. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"That has nothing whatever to do with you, senior lady," Yüan Yang laughed, +"it's my own look out!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Bring that small hard-wood table over," old lady Chia then exclaimed; "and let +our relative Liu sit next to me here!" +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan Yang. Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Having arranged everything she had in view, they at length returned to their +places. Mrs. Hsüeh had come over, after her meal, so she simply seated herself +on one side and sipped her tea. Dowager lady Chia with Pao-yü, Hsiang-yün, +Tai-yü 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 Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +While Yüan Yang attended to her self-imposed duties, she winked at the old +dame. +</p> + +<p> +"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 +Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Please (commence)," Dowager lady Chia uttered from the near side, where she +sat. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yün found it so difficult to restrain herself that she +spurted out the tea she had in her mouth. Lin Tai-yü 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-yü rolled into his grandmother's lap. The old +lady herself was so amused that she clasped Pao-yü 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. Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Old goody Liu heaved a sigh. "A tael!" she soliloquised, "and here it goes +without a sound!" +</p> + +<p> +Every one had long ago abandoned all idea of eating, and, gazing at her, they +enjoyed the fun. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Should there be any poison in the viands," lady Feng observed, "you can detect +it, as soon as this silver is dipped into them!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The remnants were, meanwhile, cleared away, and fresh tables were laid. +</p> + +<p> +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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"Don't be too touchy," lady Feng hastily smiled, "we all made fun of you just +now." +</p> + +<p> +But barely had she done speaking, when Yüan Yang too walked in. "Old goody +Liu," she said laughingly, "don't be angry! I tender you my apologies, +venerable dame!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Yüan Yang then blew up the servants. "Why," she shouted, "don't you pour a cup +of tea for the old dame?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng dragged Yüan Yang into a seat. "Have your meal with us!" she said. +"You'll thus save another fuss by and bye." +</p> + +<p> +Yüan Yang readily seated herself. The matrons came up and added to the number +of bowls and chopsticks, and the trio went through their meal. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"A good many eatables remained over to-day. Where are they all gone to?"<br /> +Yüan Yang inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"They can't get through so many things!" Yüan Yang resumed. "You had as well +therefore choose two bowls and send them over to that girl P'ing, in your +mistress Secundus' rooms." +</p> + +<p> +"She has had her repast long ago." lady Feng put in. "There's no need to give +her any!" +</p> + +<p> +"With what she can't eat, herself," Yüan Yang continued, "she can feed the +cats." +</p> + +<p> +At these words, a matron lost no time in selecting two sorts of eatables, and, +taking the box, she went to take them over. +</p> + +<p> +"Where's Su Yun gone to?" Yüan Yang asked. +</p> + +<p> +"They're all in here having their meal together." Li Wan replied. "What do you +want her for again?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, in that case, never mind," Yüan Yang answered. +</p> + +<p> +"Hsi Jen isn't here," lady Feng observed, "so tell some one to take her a few +things!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" Yüan Yang went +on to ask the matrons. +</p> + +<p> +"They'll be ready, I think, in a little while," a matron explained. +</p> + +<p> +"Hurry them up a bit!" Yüan Yang added. +</p> + +<p> +The matron signified her assent. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng and her friends then came into T'an Ch'un's apartments, where they +found the ladies chatting and laughing. +</p> + +<p> +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 Lü. The lines on these scrolls were: +</p> + +<p> + Wild scenes are to the taste of those who leisure love,<br /> + And springs and rookeries are their rustic resort. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Every one admitted that the spot was well adapted. Dowager lady Chia turned +herself towards Mrs. Hsüeh. "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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh, and Madame +Wang! You can't be going yet?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh, old goody Liu, Yüan Yang, and Yü +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"What's there to be afraid of?" lady Feng laughed. "Compose your mind, worthy +ancestor." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Ying Ch'un, her sisters, their cousins, as well as Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"All these broken lotus leaves are dreadful!" Pao-yü shouted. "Why don't you +yet tell the servants to pull them off?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I have the greatest abhorrence," Lin Tai-yü chimed in, "for Li I's poetical +works, but there's only this line in them which I like: +</p> + +<p> + "'Leave the dry lotus leaves so as to hear the patter of the rain.' +</p> + +<p> +"and here you people deliberately mean again not to leave the dry lotus stay +where they are." +</p> + +<p> +"This is indeed a fine line!" Pao-yü exclaimed. "We mustn't hereafter let them +pull them away!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia at this point observed some spotless rooms on the bank, so +spick and so span. "Are not these Miss Hsüeh's quarters," she asked. "Eh?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, they are!" everybody answered. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +So saying, she told Yuan Yang to go and fetch several bric-a-brac. She next +went on to call lady Feng to task. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"In her home also," smiled Mrs. Hsüeh, "she does not go in very much for such +sort of things." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü to get a glimpse of them; for had he ever seen them, they too +would have long ago disappeared!" Continuing, she called Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +"To-morrow or the day after will do very well; but don't forget, that's all," +dowager lady Chia urged. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"You'd better choose a few pieces to rehearse out of those you know best," old +lady Chia rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh. 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-yün. The second place was occupied by Pao-ch'ai; the third by +Tai-yü; the fourth by Ying Ch'un. T'an Ch'un and Hsi Ch'un filled the lower +seats, in their proper order; Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"You, venerable senior, must certainly have a good wine order to impose," Mrs. +Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Here's Mrs. Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't modesty!" Mrs. Hsüeh replied smiling. "It's all a dread lest I +shouldn't be able to observe the order and thus incur ridicule." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This is quite natural!" old lady Chia answered laughingly; and with these +words, she forthwith emptied a cup. +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan Yang +to come and join us." +</p> + +<p> +The whole company was perfectly aware that if dowager lady Chia had to give out +the rule of forfeits, Yüan 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 Yüan Yang over. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Of course, it should be so!" Madame Wang and the others laughed, "so be quick +and give out the rule!" +</p> + +<p> +But before Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This will never do!" One and all smilingly protested. +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Spare me!" old goody Liu kept on crying, "spare me!" +</p> + +<p> +"Any one who says one word more," Yüan Yang exclaimed, "will be fined a whole +decanter full." +</p> + +<p> +Old goody Liu then at length observed silence. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll now give out the set of dominoes." Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This rule is splendid; begin at once!" they all exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"I've got a set," Yüan Yang pursued; "on the left, is the piece 'heaven,' +(twelve dots)." +</p> + +<p> +"Above head stretches the blue heaven," +</p> + +<p> +dowager lady Chia said. +</p> + +<p> +"Good!" shouted every one. +</p> + +<p> +"In the centre is a five and six," Yüan Yang resumed. +</p> + +<p> + The fragrance of the plum blossom pierces the bones on the bridge<br /> + "Six," +</p> + +<p> +old lady Chia added. +</p> + +<p> +"There now remains," Yüan Yang explained, "one piece, the six and one." +</p> + +<p> +"From among the fleecy clouds issues the wheel-like russet sun." +</p> + +<p> +dowager lady Chia continued. +</p> + +<p> +"The whole combined," Yuan Yang observed "forms 'the devil with dishevelled +hair.'" +</p> + +<p> +"This devil clasps the leg of the 'Chung Pa' devil," +</p> + +<p> +old lady Chia observed. +</p> + +<p> +At the conclusion of her recitation, they all burst out laughing. "Capital!" +they shouted. Old lady Chia drained a cup. Yüan Yang then went on to remark, +"I've got another set; the one on the left is a double five." +</p> + +<p> +"Bud after bud of the plum bloom dances in the wind," +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh replied. +</p> + +<p> +"The one on the right is a ten spot," Yüan Yang pursued. +</p> + +<p> +"In the tenth moon the plum bloom on the hills emits its fragrant smell," +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh added. +</p> + +<p> +"The middle piece is the two and five, making the 'unlike seven;'" Yüan<br /> +Yang observed. +</p> + +<p> + "The 'spinning damsel' star meets the 'cow-herd' on the eve of the<br /> + seventh day of the seventh moon," +</p> + +<p> +Miss Hsüeh said. +</p> + +<p> +"Together they form: 'Erh Lang strolls on the five mounds;'" Yüan Yang +continued. +</p> + +<p> +"Mortals cannot be happy as immortals," +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +Her answers over, the whole company extolled them and had a drink. "I've got +another set!" Yüan Yang once more exclaimed. "On the left, are distinctly the +distant dots of the double ace." +</p> + +<p> +"Both sun and moon are so suspended as to shine on heaven and earth," +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün ventured. +</p> + +<p> +"On the right, are a couple of spots, far apart, which clearly form a one and +one." Yüan Yang pursued. +</p> + +<p> + "What time a lonesome flower falls to the ground, no sound is<br /> + audible," +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +"In the middle, there is the one and four," Yüan Yang added. +</p> + +<p> +"The red apricot tree is planted by the sun, and leans against the clouds;" +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün answered. +</p> + +<p> +"Together they form the 'cherry fruit ripens for the ninth time,'" Yüan<br /> +Yang said. +</p> + +<p> +"In the imperial garden it is pecked by birds." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün replied. +</p> + +<p> +When she had done with her part, she drank a cup of wine. "I've got another +set," Yüan Yang began, "the one on the left is a double three." +</p> + +<p> +"The swallows, pair by pair, chatter on the beams;" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai remarked. +</p> + +<p> +"The right piece is a six," Yüan Yang added. +</p> + +<p> +"The marsh flower is stretched by the breeze e'en to the length of a green +sash," +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai returned. +</p> + +<p> +"The centre piece is a three and six, making a nine spot," Yüan Yang pursued. +</p> + +<p> +"The three hills tower half beyond the azure skies;" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +"Lumped together they form: a 'chain-bound solitary boat,'" Yüan Yang resumed. +</p> + +<p> +"Where there are wind and waves, there I feel sad;" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai answered. +</p> + +<p> +When she had finished her turn and drained her cup, Yüan Yang went on again. +"On the left," she said, "there's a 'heaven.'" +</p> + +<p> +"A morning fine and beauteous scenery, but, alas, what a day for me!" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü replied. +</p> + +<p> +When this line fell on Pao-chai's ear, she turned her head round and cast a +glance at her, but Tai-yü was so nervous lest she should have to pay a forfeit +that she did not so much as notice her. +</p> + +<p> +"In the middle there's the 'colour of the embroidered screen, (ten spots, four +and six), is beautiful,'" Yüan Yang proceeded. +</p> + +<p> +"Not e'en Hung Niang to the gauze window comes, any message to bring." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü responded. +</p> + +<p> +"There now remains a two and six, eight in all," Yüan Yang resumed. +</p> + +<p> +"Twice see the jady throne when led in to perform the court ritual," +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü replied. +</p> + +<p> +"Together they form 'a basket suitable for putting plucked flowers in,'"<br /> +Yüan Yang continued. +</p> + +<p> +"The fairy wand smells nice as on it hangs a peony." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü retorted. +</p> + +<p> +At the close of her replies, she took a sip of wine. Yüan Yang then resumed. +"On the left," she said, "there's a four and five, making a 'different-combined +nine.'" +</p> + +<p> +"The peach blossoms bear heavy drops of rain;" +</p> + +<p> +Ying Ch'un remarked. +</p> + +<p> +The company laughed. "She must be fined!" they exclaimed. "She has made a +mistake in the rhyme. Besides, it isn't right!" +</p> + +<p> +Ying Ch'un smiled and drank a sip. The fact is that both lady Feng and Yüan +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, Yüan Yang recited something for +her. Next followed old goody Liu. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"It's easy enough to say what there is," one and all laughed, "so just you go +on and don't mind!" +</p> + +<p> +"On the left," Yüan Yang smiled, "there's a double four, i.e. 'man.'" +</p> + +<p> +Goody Liu listened intently. After considerable reflection, +</p> + +<p> +"It's a peasant!" +</p> + +<p> +she cried. +</p> + +<p> +One and all in the room blurted out laughing. +</p> + +<p> +"Well-said!" dowager lady Chia observed with a laugh, "that's the way." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"In the centre there's the three and four, green matched with red," Yüan<br /> +Yang pursued. +</p> + +<p> +"The large fire burnt the hairy caterpillar;" +</p> + +<p> +old goody Liu ventured. +</p> + +<p> +"This will do very well!", the party laughed, "go on with what is in your +line." +</p> + +<p> +"On the right," Yüan Yang smilingly continued, "there's a one and four, and is +really pretty." +</p> + +<p> +"A turnip and a head of garlic." +</p> + +<p> +old goody Liu answered. +</p> + +<p> +This reply evoked further laughter from the whole company. +</p> + +<p> +"Altogether, it's a twig of flowers," Yüan Yang added laughing. +</p> + +<p> +"The flower dropped, and a huge melon formed." +</p> + +<p> +old goody Liu observed, while gesticulating with both her hands by way of +illustration. +</p> + +<p> +The party once more exploded in loud merriment. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLI.</h2> + +<p> + Chia Pao-yü tastes tea in the Lung Ts'ui monastery.<br /> + Old goody Liu gets drunk and falls asleep in the I Hung court. +</p> + +<p> +Old goody Liu, so the story goes, exclaimed, while making signs with both +hands, +</p> + +<p> +"The flower dropped and a huge melon formed;" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Bringing this train of thought to a close, "Fetch them!" she said aloud.<br /> +"We'll talk about them by and bye." +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, that would be much better," lady Feng smiled. +</p> + +<p> +The cups were then actually brought by a servant, at the direction of Yüan +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. +</p> + +<p> +"It will be enough," she consequently shouted with alacrity, "if you give me +that small one." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Old goody Liu was quite taken aback. "I daren't!" she promptly demurred.<br /> +"My dear lady, do let me off!" +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia, Mrs. Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +At this remark, the whole company once more gave way to laughter. Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Gently a bit!" old lady Chia and Mrs. Hsüeh shouted. "Mind you don't choke!" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh then told lady Feng to put some viands before her. "Goody<br /> +Liu!" smiled lady Feng, "tell me the name of anything you fancy, and<br /> +I'll bring it and feed you." +</p> + +<p> +"What names can I know?" old goody Liu rejoined. "Everything is good!" +</p> + +<p> +"Bring some egg-plant and salt-fish for her!" dowager lady Chia suggested with +a smile. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"They're really egg-plants!" one and all protested. "She's not pulling your +leg!" +</p> + +<p> +Old goody Liu was amazed. "If these be actually egg-plants," she said,<br /> +"I've uselessly eaten them so long! But, my lady, do give me a few more;<br /> +I'd like to taste the next mouthful carefully!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, she quietly finished her wine. But still she kept on minutely +scrutinizing the cup. +</p> + +<p> +"Haven't you yet had enough to satisfy you?" lady Feng smiled. "If you haven't, +well, then drink another cup." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Have you done with your wine?" Yuan Yang laughingly inquired. "But, after all, +what kind of wood is this cup made of?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"I forgot all about them!" old lady Chia promptly cried with a smile.<br /> +"Tell them to begin rehearsing at once!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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-yü 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-yü 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. Hsüeh too rose to +her feet. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, Madame Wang surrendered the decanter to lady Feng and returned to +her seat. +</p> + +<p> +"Let's all have a couple of cups of wine!" old lady Chia laughingly cried. +"It's capital fun to-day!" +</p> + +<p> +With this proposal, she laid hold of a cup and offered it to Mrs. Hsüeh. +Turning also towards Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +While pressing them, she drained her cup. Hsiang-yün, Pao-ch'ai and Tai-y ü +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-yü to such a degree that leaving the table, he crossed over +to where Tai-yü was seated and observed laughingly: "Just you look at the way +old goody Liu is going on!" +</p> + +<p> +"In days of yore," Tai-yü smiled, "every species of animal commenced to dance +the moment the sounds of music broke forth. She's like a buffalo now." +</p> + +<p> +This simile made her cousins laugh. But shortly the music ceased. "We've all +had our wine," Mrs. Hsüeh smilingly proposed, "so let's go and stroll about for +a time; we can after that sit down again!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +One and all laughed. But not long elapsed before they caught sight of several +waiting-maids, who came to invite them to a collation. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"What stuffing have they put in them?" dowager lady Chia asked. +</p> + +<p> +"They're with crabs inside," 'hastily rejoined the matrons. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh to have something +to eat, but Mrs. Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +Her remarks amused every one. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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.' +</p> + +<p> +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 +Yü hastened to usher them in. On their arrival in the interior of the court, +they saw the flowers and trees in luxuriant blossom. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, she wended her steps towards the Eastern hall. Miao Yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü watched Miao Yü'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. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't care for 'Liu An' tea!" old lady Chia exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"I know it; but this is old 'Chün Mei,'" Miao Yü answered with a smile. +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia received the cup. "What water is this?" she went on to +inquire. +</p> + +<p> +"It's rain water collected last year;" Miao Yü added by way of reply. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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 Yü, however, soon gave a tug at Pao-ch'ai's and +Tai-yü's lapels, and both quitted the apartment along with her. But Pao-yü too +quietly followed at their heels. Spying Miao Yü show his two cousins into a +side-room, Pao-ch'ai take a seat in the court, Tai-yü seat herself on Miao Yü's +rush mat, and Miao Yü herself approach a stove, fan the fire and boil some +water, with which she brewed another pot of tea, Pao-yü walked in. "Are you +bent upon drinking your own private tea?" he smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"Here you rush again to steal our tea," the two girls laughed with one accord. +"There's none for you!" +</p> + +<p> +But just as Miao Yü 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 Yü hastily shouted. "Go and put +it outside!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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 Yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +This cup, Miao Yü filled, and handed to Pao-ch'ai. +</p> + +<p> +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 Yü +replenished this cup and gave it to Tai-yü; 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-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"'The rules observed in the world,' the adage says, 'must be impartial,'" +Pao-yü smiled. "But while my two cousins are handling those antique and rare +gems, here am I with this coarse object!" +</p> + +<p> +"Is this a coarse thing?" Miao Yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"'Do in the country as country people do,' the proverb says," Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +This sentiment highly delighted Miao Yü. 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I can!" Pao-yü vehemently replied, with high glee. +</p> + +<p> +"Albeit you have the stomach to tackle all it holds," Miao Yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +At these words, Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yü and Pao-yü simultaneously indulged in +laughter. But Miao-yü seized the teapot, and poured well-nigh a whole cupful of +tea into the big cup. Pao-yü tasted some carefully, and found it, in real +truth, so exceptionally soft and pure that he extolled it with incessant +praise. +</p> + +<p> +"If you've had any tea this time," Miao-Yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm well aware of this," Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"What you say makes your meaning clear enough!" Miao-yü said, when she heard +his reply. +</p> + +<p> +"Is this rain water from last year?" Tai-yü then inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"How is it," smiled Miao Yü 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 Hsüan 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü gave a forced smile to Miao Yü. "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?" +</p> + +<p> +Miao Yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Of course; quite so!" Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Miao Yü there and then directed some one to fetch it and to give it to Pao-yü. +When it was brought, Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, that would be better!" Miao Yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This goes without saying!" Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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 Yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +During this while, Mrs. Hsüeh 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 portière; after which, she asked her to +massage her legs. +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, Hsiang-yün 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 Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +While speaking, she prostrated herself and knocked her head, to the intense +amusement of the company, who were quite doubled up with laughter. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Can you make out from those characters what temple this is?" they laughingly +asked. +</p> + +<p> +Goody Liu quickly raised her head, and, pointing at the inscription,<br /> +"Are'nt these," she said, "the four characters 'Pearly Emperor's<br /> +Precious Hall?'" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Goody Liu had taken plenty of wine; she could not 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. +</p> + +<p> +"The young ladies," goody Liu speedily remarked laughing, "have cast me adrift; +they made me knock about, until I found my way in here." +</p> + +<p> +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 portière, of leek-green colour, bestrewn with embroidered +flowers. Goody Liu lifted the portière 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"All right! I will!" old goody Liu promised. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen gave a faint smile. "This one?" she asked. "Why, it's our master<br /> +Secundus', Mr. Pao's bedroom." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, you do not know the sequel, so peruse the circumstances given in +detail in the next chapter. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLII.</h2> + +<p> + The Princess of Heng Wu dispels, with sweet words, some insane<br /> + suspicions.<br /> + The inmate of Hsiao Hsiang puts, with excellent repartee, the final<br /> + touch to the jokes made about goody Liu. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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!'" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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.)" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Goody Liu gave utterance to profuse expressions of gratitude and signified her +readiness to comply with her wishes. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 portiére. A couple of old women servants then +took the lead and showed the way in. But Pao-yü too appeared on the scene to +meet them. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Chia Chen and his companions made prompt reply. "His surname is Wang," they +said. +</p> + +<p> +"There was once a certain Wang Chün-hsiao who filled the chair of President of +the College of Imperial Physicians," dowager lady smilingly proceeded. "He +excelled in feeling the pulse." +</p> + +<p> +Dr. Wang bent his body, and with alacrity he lowered his head and returned her +smile. "That was," he explained, "my grand uncle." +</p> + +<p> +"Is it really so!" laughingly pursued dowager lady Chia, upon catching this +reply. "We can then call ourselves old friends!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Excuse me for the trouble I've put you to!" dowager lady Chia smiled.<br /> +"Chen Erh, escort him outside, and do see that he has a cup of tea." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Goody Liu expressed her thanks, and saying good bye a second time, she betook +herself, along with Yüan Yang, into the servants' quarters. Here Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan Yang's suggestion, "Miss," she quickly rejoined, "you're at perfect +liberty to keep them!" +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +With these words, she eagerly took possession of the cup. +</p> + +<p> +"The clothes I gave you the other day, when I asked you to have a bath, were my +own," Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +Goody Liu thanked her with vehemence, so Yüan 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-yü and the young ladies, Madame Wang and the other inmates and to thank +them for all they did for her, but Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +After the matron had signified her obedience, Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü. "P'in Erh!" she observed, "come with me; I've got a question to +ask you." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü wended her steps therefore with Pao-ch'ai into the Heng Wu court.<br /> +As soon as they entered the house, Pao-ch'ai threw herself into a seat.<br /> +"Kneel down!" she smiled. "I want to examine you about something!" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Dear cousin," pleaded Tai-yü, "don't tell anyone else! I won't, in the future, +breathe such things again." +</p> + +<p> +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 'Yüan' 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!" +</p> + +<p> +While she indulged in this long rigmarole, Tai-yü 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 Yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +"What's up again?" Pao-ch'ai inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"You and I will know what it is when we get there," Tai-yü explained. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"It's that single remark of our worthy senior's yesterday that is at the bottom +of it!" Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, one and all were highly amused. +</p> + +<p> +"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 <i>forte</i> 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Properly speaking," Tai-yü 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…." +</p> + +<p> +When she had reached this point, even Tai-yü could not restrain herself from +laughing. "If she goes on so leisurely to work," she exclaimed, "won't she +require two years' time?" +</p> + +<p> +Those, who caught this insinuation, clapped their hands and indulged in +incessant merriment. +</p> + +<p> +"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! +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Human beings are an easy matter!" Tai-yü said. "What beats you are insects." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"If any other insects are not put in the picture," Tai-yü smiled, "it won't +matter; but without yesterday's female locust in it, it will fall short of the +original?" +</p> + +<p> +This retort evoked further general amusement. While Tai-yü 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.'" +</p> + +<p> +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-yün, 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü then winked at Tai-yü. Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü at once became quite scarlet in the face, and pulling Pao-ch'ai,<br /> +"Let us," she added, "give her a whole year's leave!" +</p> + +<p> +"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 portières; 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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +At this suggestion Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I've got, in my quarters," Pao-yü answered, "some snow-white, wavy paper, +which is both large in size, and proof against ink as well." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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;…" +</p> + +<p> +"An iron kettle and an iron shovel," hastily chimed in Tai-yü with a smile full +of irony. +</p> + +<p> +"To do what with them?" Pao-ch'ai inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü answered, to the +intense merriment of one and all, who gave way to laughter. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"It's really so," they exclaimed with one voice, after this explanation. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Why need I ask?" Pao-ch'ai smiled. "Is it likely, pray, that you can get ivory +out of a cur's mouth?" +</p> + +<p> +Speaking the while, she drew near, and, seizing Tai-yü, she pressed her down on +the stove-couch with the intention of pinching her face. Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"It's you, after all, elder cousin," Tai-yü laughed. "Had it been I, I wouldn't +have let any one off." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü then, in very deed, swung herself round and crossed over to her. +Pao-ch'ai arranged her coiffure with her hands. Pao-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, the occurrences of the next day areas yet a mystery to you, but +the nest chapter will divulge them. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLIII.</h2> + +<p> + Having time to amuse themselves, the Chia inmates raise, when least<br /> + expected, funds to celebrate lady Feng's birthday.<br /> + In his ceaseless affection for Chin Ch'uen, Pao-yü uses, for the<br /> + occasion, a pinch of earth as incense and burns it. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Pray, may I ask," Madame Wang then inquired, "whether you're feeling nearly +well again now?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Let whatever way you may think best, dear ancestor, be adopted." Madame<br /> +Wang eagerly rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"This is a splendid idea!" Madame Wang acquiesced. "But what will, I wonder, be +the way adopted for raising contributions?" +</p> + +<p> +Old lady Chia was the more inspirited by her reply. There and then she +despatched servants to go and invite Mrs. Hsüeh, Madame Hsing and the rest of +the ladies, and bade others summon the young ladies and Pao-yü. 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Only Mrs. Hsüeh 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll give twenty taels!" old lady Chia was the first to say with a smile +playing round her lips. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll follow your lead, dear senior," Mrs. Hsüeh smiled, "and also subscribe +twenty taels." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"We too naturally rank one step lower," Mrs. Yu and Li Wan also smiled, "so +we'll each give twelve taels." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +These words made every one laugh. +</p> + +<p> +"According to you, what should be done?" dowager lady Chia laughingly inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite right!" cried Madame Hsing and the others at this suggestion. So old +lady Chia then signified her approval. +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü, and that Mrs. Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"This is perfectly fair," eagerly rejoined old lady Chia. "Let this suggestion +be carried out!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +The posse of nurses expressed with promptness their acceptance of the proposal +their old mistress made. +</p> + +<p> +"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, "Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"That's a good child!" lady Chia laughingly rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +While she spoke, a servant-girl went off. After a long absence, she returned. +"Each of them," she reported, "will likewise contribute two taels." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +While she uttered these taunts, they computed that the collections would reach +a sum over and above one hundred and fifty taels. +</p> + +<p> +"We couldn't possibly run through all this for a day's theatricals and +banquet!" old lady Chia exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Just call whatever troupe that girl Feng may say she likes best," dowager lady +Chia suggested. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't ask me!" lady Feng urged. "Do whatever will please our worthy ancestor." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +After some further colloquy, these two ladies eventually parted company. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Nurse Lin," the servant-girl said by way of response. +</p> + +<p> +"Call her in," Mrs. Yu said. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +But simultaneously with this reply, the waiting-maids announced: "Our lady of +the other mansion and Mrs. Hsüeh have sent over some one with their portions." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü's shares as well. +</p> + +<p> +"Whose shares are wanting?" Mrs. Yu asked. +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +"There's also that of your senior lady," Mrs. Yu proceeded. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Is it all there?" Mrs. Yu asked. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm somewhat distrustful," Mrs. Yu laughed, "so I'd like to check it in your +presence." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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> + +<p> +P'ing Erh had no option, but to retain her portion. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan Yang's quarters where she held a consultation +with Yüan Yang. Lending a patient ear to all that Yüan 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 +Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +After a short chat, Madame Wang stepped into the family shrine reserved for the +worship of Buddha, so she likewise restored Ts'ai Yün'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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +At these assurances, both put the money away, with profuse expressions of +gratitude. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Speaking, "Go and see what he is up to!" she enjoined a waiting-maid; "and be +quick and tell him to come." +</p> + +<p> +The waiting-maid returned after a long absence. "Sister Hua says," she +reported, "that he went out of doors, soon after daylight this morning." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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 !" +</p> + +<p> +This remark over, they resumed their deliberations. "Let's write our verses," +they said, "and we can fine him on his return." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen then reported to his grandmother what Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Where does this road lead to?" Pao-yü asked. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü ultimately drew up his horse. Turning his head round: +"Is there any place here," he asked, "where incense is sold?" +</p> + +<p> +"Incense!" Pei Ming shouted, "yes, there is; but what kind of incense it is I +don't know." +</p> + +<p> +"All other incense is worth nothing," Pao-yü resumed, after a moment's +reflection. "We should get sandalwood, conifer and cedar, these three." +</p> + +<p> +"These three sorts are very difficult to get," Pei Ming smiled. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +This allusion was sufficient to suggest the idea to Pao-yü'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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"You stupid thing!" exclaimed Pao-yü. "Had we been able to bring them along, we +wouldn't have had to run in this way as if for life!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Is the 'Water Spirit' monastery in this neighbourhood?" Pao-yü eagerly +inquired, upon hearing his proposal. "Yes, that would be better; let's press +forward." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I've all along had the keenest contempt for those low-bred persons," Pao-yü +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." +</p> + +<p> +While engaged in talking, they reached the entrance. The old nun saw Pao-yü +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü's tears unwittingly +trickled down his cheeks. +</p> + +<p> +The old nun presented tea. Pao-yü 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-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +But having been unable to discover one; "What about, the platform round that +well?" Pei Ming inquired. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +At the close of his invocation, he again knocked his head several times on the +ground, and, eventually, rose to his feet. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Pei Ming got up and put the censer away. While he walked along with Pao-yü, +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"I won't be at the theatrical performance to have any wine," Pao-yü remarked, +"so what harm will there be in my having a drink here, as the fancy takes me?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"I see what you're driving at!" Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, that would be better!" exclaimed Pei Ming. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +At these words, Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"They're in the newly erected large reception pavilion," the old women +responded. +</p> + +<p> +Upon catching their reply, Pao-yü 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 Yü Ch'uan-erh seated all alone +under the eaves of the verandah giving way to tears. As soon as she became +conscious of Pao-yü'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!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü forced a smile. "Just try and guess where I've been?" he observed. +</p> + +<p> +Yü Ch'uan-erh twisted herself round, and, paying no notice to him, she +continued drying her tears. Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"A beloved wife of the duke of Pei Ching departed this life," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, do you wish to know the sequel? If so, the next chapter will +explain it. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLIV.</h2> + +<p> + By some inscrutable turn of affairs, lady Feng begins to feel the<br /> + pangs of jealousy.<br /> + Pao-yü experiences joy, beyond all his expectations, when P'ing Erh<br /> + (receives a slap from lady Feng) and has to adjust her hair. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü and +his female cousins sat together. When Lin Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai however made no reply. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. Hsüeh; 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"If you deliberately wish to present me a glass," lady Feng laughed, "fall on +your knees and I'll drink at once!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so! we're a mean lot," Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +So saying, she took the wine and filled a cup to the very brim, and drained it. +Yüan Yang then at length gave her a smile, (and she and her friends) dispersed. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +P'ing Erh hastened to reason with her mistress. "My lady!" she said, "be +careful you'll be hurting your hand!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Ping Erh, who stood by, exhorted her to obey; but she at the same time +impressed on her mind to speak out without delay. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Tell me what?" lady Feng exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +"Ts'ui!" ejaculated lady Feng. "What were you up to before? Now, that<br /> +I've seen you, you come and try to clear yourself!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"When she's gone," Chia Lien rejoined, "and I marry another, the like of her, +what will I again do?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"What's up?" precipitately inquired dowager lady Chia, Mesdames Hsing and Wang +and the rest. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia treated every word that fell on her ear as truth. "Dreadful!" +she ejaculated. "Bring here at once that low-bred offspring!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +During this while, Mesdames Hsing and Wang also called lady Feng to task. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +This insinuation made every one laugh. +</p> + +<p> +"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> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +After a little rest, Pao Ch'ai and her companions came and paid a visit to old +lady Chia and lady Feng, while Pao-yü 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> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Our lady Secunda has always been very good to you," laughingly remarked<br /> +Hsi Jen, "so she must have done this in a sudden fit of exasperation!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear sister," Pao-yü hastily advised her, "don't wound your heart!<br /> +I'm quite ready to express my apologies on behalf of that pair!" +</p> + +<p> +"What business is that of yours?" P'ing Erh smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"We cousins, whether male or female, are all alike." Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Speaking, he directed the young maids to draw some water for washing the face +and to heat an iron and bring it. +</p> + +<p> +P'ing Erh had ever heard people maintain that all that Pao-yü excelled in was +in knitting friendships with girls. But Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hearing how reasonable his suggestions were, P'ing Erh readily went in search +of powder; but she failed to notice any about, so Pao-yü hurriedly drew up to +the toilet-table, and, removing the lid of a porcelain box made at the "Hsüan" +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> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"The cosmetic one buys in the market isn't clean;" Pao-yü 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> + +<p> +P'ing Erh followed his directions and performed her toilette. She looked +exceptionally fresh and beautiful. A sweet fragrance pervaded her cheeks. +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"What was the matter?" inquired old lady Chia. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Chia Lien, at this assurance, crawled up and made a bow to lady Feng.<br /> +"It was really my fault, so don't be angry, lady Secunda," he said. +</p> + +<p> +Every one in the room laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, my girl Feng," lady Chia laughingly observed, "you are not to lose your +temper; for if you do, I'll lose mine too!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, tears trickled down her cheeks too. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +So speaking, she melted into tears. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +To these arguments, lady Feng could find no suitable response. +</p> + +<p> +P'ing Erh then blurted out laughing. +</p> + +<p> +"She's all right again!" Chia Lien smiled. "But I'm really quite at a loss what +to do with this one." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng gave a sardonic smile. "That's all right!" she observed. "I myself +was just thinking about lodging a complaint!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll go out and see what they're up to!" Chia Lien remarked. +</p> + +<p> +"Mind, I won't have you give them any money!" shouted lady Feng. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"You didn't really strike me hard!" P'ing Erh said by way of reply. +</p> + +<p> +But at this stage they heard some one remark that the ladies and young ladies +had come in. +</p> + +<p> +If you desire, reader, to know any of the subsequent circumstances, peruse the +account given in the following chapter. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLV.</h2> + +<p> + Friends interchange words of friendship.<br /> + Tai-yü feels dull on a windy and rainy evening, and indites verses on<br /> + wind and rain. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"So many of you come to-day," lady Feng smiled, "that it looks as if you'd been +asked to come by invitation." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"What's up?" inquired lady Feng with a laugh. "Is it so urgent?" +</p> + +<p> +"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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +These words evoked general laughter. "You've guessed right!" they exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"In very truth," Li Wan smiled, "you're a creature with an intellect as +transparent as crystal, and with wits as clear as glass!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +These taunts created merriment among the whole party. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Every one felt amused by her insinuations. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Your remarks, ladies, may be spoken in jest," P'ing Erh smiled, "but I am not +worthy of such a fuss!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +As these words dropped from her lips, one and all laughed again. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +So saying, she there and then led off the young ladies, and was making her way +out, when lady Feng exclaimed: "It's Pao-yü and he alone, who has given rise to +all this fuss." +</p> + +<p> +Li Wan overheard her remark and hastily turned herself round. "We did, in fact, +come over," she smiled, "on account of Pao-yü, 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Your verdict is faultless!" they laughed with one accord. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 +<i>kotowed</i> at the door, with his face turned towards the upper quarters." +</p> + +<p> +"When is he going to his post?" Li Wan inquired, with a smile. +</p> + +<p> +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!'" +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, "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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"A wife," laughed lady Feng, "has come to fetch her mother-in-law!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"The day chosen is the fourteenth," Lai Ta's wife eagerly replied. "Just come +for the sake of our old mother-in-law!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Fiddlesticks!" Lai Ta's wife laughed. "Were your ladyship disposed, you could +well afford to give us twenty and thirty thousand taels." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"What is it all about?" nurse Lai shouted. "Tell me and let me determine the +right and wrong of the question." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +By a certain day, the silk had been sized outside, a rough sketch drawn, and +both returned into the garden. Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +As for Tai-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"It's no use," Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"You've certainly always treated people with extreme consideration," sighed +Tai-yü, "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 Yün +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-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, in that case," Pao-ch'ai observed, "I'm too in the same plight as +yourself!" +</p> + +<p> +"How can you compare yourself with me?" Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +At this insinuation, Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"The things are, of themselves, of little account," eagerly responded Tai-yü +laughingly. "What's difficult to find is one with as much feeling as yourself." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Come in the evening again," Tai-yü pressed her, "and have a chat with me." +</p> + +<p> +While assuring her that she would come, Pao-ch'ai walked out, so let us leave +her alone for the present. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü, 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-yü 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: +</p> + +<p> + In autumn, flowers decay; herbage, when autumn comes, doth yellow<br /> + turn.<br /> + On long autumnal nights, the autumn lanterns with bright radiance<br /> + burn.<br /> + As from my window autumn scenes I scan, autumn endless doth seem.<br /> + This mood how can I bear, when wind and rain despondency enhance?<br /> + How sudden break forth wind and rain, and help to make the autumntide!<br /> + Fright snaps my autumn dreams, those dreams which under my lattice I<br /> + dreamt.<br /> + A sad autumnal gloom enclasps my heart, and drives all sleep away!<br /> + In person I approach the autumn screen to snuff the weeping wick.<br /> + The tearful candles with a flickering flame consume on their short<br /> + stands.<br /> + They stir up grief, dazzle my eyes, and a sense of parting arouse.<br /> + In what family's courts do not the blasts of autumn winds intrude?<br /> + And where in autumn does not rain patter against the window-frames?<br /> + The silken quilt cannot ward off the nipping force of autumn winds.<br /> + The drip of the half drained water-clock impels the autumn rains.<br /> + A lull for few nights reigned, but the wind has again risen in<br /> + strength.<br /> + By the lantern I weep, as if I sat with some one who must go.<br /> + The small courtyard, full of bleak mist, is now become quite desolate.<br /> + With quick drip drops the rain on the distant bamboos and vacant<br /> + sills.<br /> + What time, I wonder, will the wind and rain their howl and patter<br /> + cease?<br /> + The tears already I have shed have soakèd through the window gauze. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, had come.' Barely was the announcement out of her lips, than Pao-yü +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-yü's lips. +"Where does this fisherman come from?" she exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +"Are you better to-day?" Pao-yü inquired with alacrity. "Have you had any +medicines? How much rice have you had to eat to-day?" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü's face. Then straining his eyes, he +scrutinised her for a while. "You look better to-day," he smiled. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as he threw off his wrapper, Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Above, you fight shy of the rain," Tai-yü remarked, "but aren't these shoes +and socks below afraid of rain? Yet they're quite clean!" +</p> + +<p> +"This suit is complete!" Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü'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!" +</p> + +<p> +"These three articles are a gift from the Prince of Pei Ching," Pao-yü +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." +</p> + +<p> +"I don't want it!" laughed Tai-yü. "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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, 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-yü, +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-yü heard his +exclamation, she speedily jumped to her feet, and clutched the verses and burnt +them over the lamp. +</p> + +<p> +"I've already committed them sufficiently to memory!" Pao-yü laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"I want to have a little rest," Tai-yü said, "so please get away; come back +again to-morrow." +</p> + +<p> +At these words, Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Let me," rejoined Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes!" interposed the two matrons. "There are servants to wait on him.<br /> +They're outside holding his umbrella and lighting the lanterns." +</p> + +<p> +"Are they lighting lanterns with this weather?" laughed Tai-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"It won't hurt them!" Pao-yü answered. "They're made of sheep's horn, so they +don't mind the rain." +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, Tai-yü 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-yü. "This," she said, "gives out more light than the others; and is just +the thing for rainy weather." +</p> + +<p> +"I've also got one like it." Pao-yü replied. "But fearing lest they might slip, +fall down and break it, I did not have it lighted and brought round." +</p> + +<p> +"What's of more account," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +After these words, Pao-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Many thanks for the trouble you've taken!" Tai-yü returned for answer; and +then asked her to go and sit outside and have a cup of tea. +</p> + +<p> +"I won't have any tea," the old servant smiled. "I've got something else to +attend to." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm well aware that you've all got plenty in hand," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +This rejoinder evoked a laugh from Tai-yü. "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. +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +Tzu Chüan meanwhile put the birds' nests away; and removing afterwards the +lamps, she lowered the portières and waited upon Tai-yü until she lay herself +down to sleep. +</p> + +<p> +While she reclined all alone on her pillow, Tai-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLVI.</h2> + +<p> + An improper man with difficulty keeps from improprieties.<br /> + The maid, Yüan Yang, vows to break off the marriage match. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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 +Yüan 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"You're really shrewd in your devices, my lady!" lady Feng smilingly +ejaculated. "This is perfect in every respect! For without taking Yüan 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so!" Madame Hsing smiled. "But let's put Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan +Yang's bedroom. Here she saw Yüan Yang sitting, hard at work at some +needlework. The moment she caught sight of Madame Hsing, she rose to her feet. +</p> + +<p> +"What are you up to?" Madame Hsing laughingly inquired. "Let me see! How much +nicer you embroider artificial flowers now!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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?" +</p> + +<p> +At a wink from Madame Hsing, her attendants withdrew from the room. Madame +Hsing forthwith seated herself, and grasped Yüan Yang's hand in hers. "I've +come," she smiled, "with the special purpose of presenting you my +congratulations." +</p> + +<p> +This reply enabled Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Arguing the while, she dragged her by the hand with the idea of hurrying her +off there and then. Yüan Yang, however, blushed to her very ears, and, +snatching her hand out of her grip she refused to budge. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Yüan Yang still kept her head bent against her chest and spake not a syllable +by way of reply. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Yüan Yang observed, as hitherto, perfect silence. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +This said, she sped into lady Feng's suite of rooms. +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +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!'" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, P'ing Erh transmitted her wishes word for word to the matrons; +after which, she sauntered leisurely all alone, into the garden. +</p> + +<p> +When Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Hu Po undertook to tell her so, and Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +When P'ing Erh observed the angry look on Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +Blushes flew to Yüan 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 +Yün, Tzu Chüan, Ts'ai Hsia, Yü Ch'uan, She Yüeh, Ts'ui Mo, Ts'ui Lü, who was in +Miss Shih's service and is now gone, K'o Jen and Chin Ch'uan, now deceased, Hsi +Hsüeh, 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> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Since you don't like to entertain his offer," P'ing Erh suggested,<br /> +"I'll put you up to a plan." +</p> + +<p> +"What plan is it?" Yüan Yang inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"Ts'ui!" ejaculated Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü. Our senior master will then banish +this fad from his mind." +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Decided what?" Yüan Yang cried. "All I know is that I won't go; that's +finished." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Yüan Yang smiled ironically. "I won't leave this place so long as my old lady +lives!" Yüan 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"What matters a moment's shame," Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"What does it matter whether I be born here or not?" Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +"All this wench is good for," Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +P'ing Erh and Hsi Jen speedily motioned to her to sit down, but (Yüan Yang's) +sister-in-law demurred. "Young ladies, pray be seated; I've come in search of +our girl to tell her something." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"What do you want to tell me?" Yuan Yang inquired. "Speak out!" +</p> + +<p> +"Follow me!" her sister-in-law laughed. "When we get over there, I'll tell you. +It's really some good tidings!" +</p> + +<p> +"Is it perchance what Madame Hsing has told you?" Yüan Yang asked. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Seeing," Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +Her sister-in-law felt inwardly much disconcerted, and beat a retreat in high +dudgeon. But Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +"What were you hiding there for?" P'ing Erh then asked Hsi Jen. "We couldn't +see anything of you." +</p> + +<p> +"I went," Hsi Jen explained, "into Miss Quarta's rooms to see our Mr. Pao-yü, +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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +The three girls received quite a shock from fright; but turning round, they +perceived that it was no other person than Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen smiled, and was the first to speak. "You've made me have a good +search," she said. "Where do you hail from?" +</p> + +<p> +"I was just leaving cousin Quarta's," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Let's go and look behind there," P'ing Erh suggested laughingly; "we may +possibly discover another couple; there's no saying." +</p> + +<p> +"There's no one else!" Pao-yü laughed. +</p> + +<p> +Yüan Yang had long ago concluded that every word of their conversation had been +overheard by Pao-yü; but leaning against the rock, she pretended to be fast +asleep. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü gave her a push. "This stone is cold!" he smiled. "Let's go and sleep in +our rooms. Won't it be better there?" +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, he made an attempt to pull Yüan 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 Yüan Yang to come away. Yüan +Yang, at length, got up, and the quartet betook themselves, after all, into the +I Hung court. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü had caught every word that had fallen from their lips a few minutes +back, and felt, indeed, at heart so much distressed on Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +On the other side of the compound, Madame Hsing about this time inquired of +lady Feng who Yüan Yang's father was. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Madame Hsing thereupon despatched a servant to go and call Yüan 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 Yüan 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 Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +"There was Miss P'ing!" was Chin's wife's reply. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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.'" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +But to revert to Yüan 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. Yüan 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 Yüan Yang was so persistent in her refusal that her brother was +quite nonplussed and he was compelled to return, and inform Chia She. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü; 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.'" +</p> + +<p> +To every remark that Chia She uttered, Chin Wen-hsiang acquiesced.<br /> +"Yes!" he said. +</p> + +<p> +"Mind you don't humbug me!" Chia She observed. "I shall to-morrow send again +your mistress round to ask Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. Yüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh, 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. Yüan 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-yü; 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-yü, (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!" +</p> + +<p> +Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Madame Wang quickly rose to her feet. She did not, however, dare to return a +single syllable in self-defence. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh 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 Yüan 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. Hsüeh 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-yü 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?…" +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh, 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"I have no prejudices," old lady Chia protested. "Pao-yü," 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Could I," smiled Pao-yü, "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." +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü's sake!'" +</p> + +<p> +At this suggestion, Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, Pao-yü promptly stood up. +</p> + +<p> +"Even that girl Feng didn't call me to my senses," dowager lady Chia smiled +again. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't lay a word to your charge, worthy senior," lady Feng remarked +smilingly, "and yet you brand me with reproach!" +</p> + +<p> +This rejoinder amused dowager lady Chia. "This is indeed strange!" she said to +all around. "But I'd like to listen to these charges." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Is this any fault of mine?" dowager lady Chia laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"Of course, it's your fault, venerable senior!" lady Feng retorted with a +smile. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, in that case, I too don't want her," old lady Chia proceeded laughing. +"Take her away, and have done!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +But any further particulars, which you, reader may like to know, will be given +in the following chapter; so listen to it. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLVII.</h2> + +<p> + An idiotic bully tries to be lewd and comes in for a sound thrashing.<br /> + A cold-hearted fellow is prompted by a dread of trouble to betake<br /> + himself to a strange place. +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng soon gave something or other as an excuse and withdrew. Yüan Yang +then returned also quite alone to her chamber to give vent to her resentment; +and Mrs. Hsüeh, 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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 Yüan 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 Yüan 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!" +</p> + +<p> +These words over, she called the servants. "Go," she said, "and ask Mrs. Hsüeh, +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Dearest Mrs. Hsüeh!" 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." +</p> + +<p> +"You little imp!" Mrs. Hsüeh laughed. "What are you afraid of? All she'll do +will be to scold you a little; and it will all be over soon!" +</p> + +<p> +While replying, she felt that she had no course but to retrace her footsteps, +in company with the waiting-maid. +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia at once motioned her into a seat. "Let's have a game of +cards!" she then smilingly proposed. "You, Mrs. Hsüeh, are not a good hand at +them; so let's sit together, and see that lady Feng doesn't cheat us!" +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so," laughed Mrs. Hsüeh. "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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Naturally only four!" Madame Wang smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"Were one more player let in," lady Feng interposed, "it would be merrier!" +</p> + +<p> +"Call Yüan Yang here," old lady Chia suggested, "and make her take this lower +seat; for as Mrs. Hsüeh's eyesight is rather dim, we'll charge her to look over +our two hands a bit." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +This remark amused dowager lady Chia and Mrs. Hsüeh. But presently Yüan Yang +arrived, and seated herself below her old mistress. After Yüan 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, Yüan 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. Hsüeh," she smiled, "yet if I don't +play this one, I won't be able later to come out with what I want." +</p> + +<p> +"I haven't got any cards you want in my hand," Mrs. Hsüeh remarked. +</p> + +<p> +"I mean to see by and bye," lady Feng resumed. +</p> + +<p> +"You're at liberty to see," Mrs. Hsüeh said. "But go on, play now! Let me look +what card it is." +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng threw the card in front of Mrs. Hsüeh. At a glance, Mrs. Hsüeh +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." +</p> + +<p> +"I've played wrong!" lady Feng laughingly exclaimed at these words. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"You should then beat your own lips and punish your own self; it's only fair;" +old lady Chia remarked. Then facing Mrs. Hsüeh, "I'm not a niggard, fond of +winning money," she went on to say, "but it was my good luck!" +</p> + +<p> +"Don't we too think as much?" Mrs. Hsüeh smiled. "Who's there stupid enough to +say that your venerable ladyship's heart is set upon money?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia usually made Yüan Yang shuffle the cards for her, but being +engaged in chatting and joking with Mrs. Hsüeh, she did not notice Yüan Yang +take them in hand. "Why is it you're so huffed," old lady Chia asked, "that you +don't even shuffle for me?" +</p> + +<p> +"Lady Feng won't let me have the money!" Yüan Yang replied, picking up the +cards. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +A young waiting-maid actually fetched the string of cash and deposited it by +the side of her old mistress. +</p> + +<p> +"Let me have them," lady Feng eagerly cried smiling, "and I'll square all +that's due, and finish." +</p> + +<p> +"In very truth, lady Feng, you're a miserly creature!" Mrs. Hsüeh laughed. +"It's simply for mere fun, nothing more!" +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng, at this insinuation, speedily stood up, and, laying her hand on Mrs. +Hsüeh, 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan Yang. "Be quick," she +shouted, "and wrench that mouth of hers!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü, have alike received a +rap on the knuckles, and are you also going now to fill up the gap?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng sprung to her feet without delay. "I also," she interposed, +"indistinctly noticed the shadow of some one." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"In that case," dowager lady Chia rejoined, "why didn't you come straight in; +but behaved again in that mysterious way?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Her remarks evoked general merriment. +</p> + +<p> +"It's Pao Erh's wife," Yüan Yang put in laughingly, "and you, worthy senior, +have dragged in again Chao Erh's wife." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +These reproaches were still being heaped on him when he caught sight of<br /> +Madame Hsing, as she likewise made her appearance outside. "My father,"<br /> +Chia Lien ventured, "is at the bottom of all this trouble; and the whole<br /> +blame now is shoved upon your shoulders as well as mine, mother." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Mother, cross over at once," Chia Lien urged; "for he told me to come and ask +you to go a long time ago." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh, Pao-yü and the various young ladies, she betook herself into +Lai Ta's garden, where she sat for a considerable time. +</p> + +<p> +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 Hsüeh 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 Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Of a sudden, while every one was, after the wines had gone round, still on his +good behaviour, Hsüeh 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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü to come +out." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, actually, made his appearance +outside. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear sir," Lai Shang-jung smilingly observed to Pao-yü, "I hand him over to +you. I'm going to entertain the guests!" +</p> + +<p> +With these words, he was off. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü pulled Lia Hsiang-lien into a side study in the hall, where they sat +down. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you been recently to Ch'in Ch'ung's grave?" he inquired of him. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't strange then!" exclaimed Pao-yü, "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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"It's exactly about this that I meant to send Pei Ming to see you," Pao-yü +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +When Pao-yü heard his intention, "Why is this?" he at once inquired. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"After all the difficulty we've had in meeting," Pao-yü remarked, "wouldn't it +be better were you and I to go away together in the evening?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!". +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke, the tears trickled down his cheeks. +</p> + +<p> +"I shall, of course, say good-bye to you," Liu Hsiang-lien rejoined.<br /> +"But you must not let any one know anything about it!" +</p> + +<p> +While uttering these words, he stood up to get away. "Go in at once," he urged, +"there's no need to see me off!" +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, he quitted the study. As soon as he reached the main entrance, he +came across Hsüeh P'an, bawling out boisterously, "Who let young Liu-erh go?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +When Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm going somewhere, but will be back soon," Hsiang-lien said by way of +response. +</p> + +<p> +"As soon as you left," Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +This question sent Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +So high did this assignation raise Hsüeh P'an's spirits that he recovered, to a +certain extent, from the effects of wine. "Is it really so?" he asked. +</p> + +<p> +"How is it," Hsiang-lien laughed, "that when people treat you with a sincere +heart, you don't, after all, believe them?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm no fool," eagerly exclaimed Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"As long as you're there," Hsüeh P'an said, "what will I want my home for?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes!" shouted Hsüeh P'an with alacrity as he acquiesced to the proposal. +</p> + +<p> +The two young fellows thereupon returned to the feast, and drank for a time. +Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +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 Hsüeh P'an. A long while elapsed, however, before he espied +Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-lien felt amused and angry with him, but forthwith giving his horse also +the rein, he followed in his track, while Hsüeh P'an continued to stare ahead. +</p> + +<p> +Little by little the habitations got scantier and scantier, so pulling his +horse round, (Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Quick, let's go ahead!" Hsiang-lien smilingly urged. "Mind people might notice +us and follow us. It won't then be nice!" +</p> + +<p> +While instigating him, he took the lead, and letting his horse have the rein, +he wended his way onwards, followed closely by Hsüeh 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 Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"You're quite right!" Hsüeh P'an smiled; and jumping down with all despatch, he +too made his horse fast to a tree, and then crouched on his knees. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 Hsüeh P'an strained at first every nerve to rise to his feet, when +another slight kick from Hsiang-lien tumbled him over again. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +So speaking, he went on boisterously to heap invective upon his head. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +With these words, he fetched his whip, and administered him, thirty or forty +blows from his back down to his shins. +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Do you go on in this way?" Hsiang-lien said, with an ironical smile.<br /> +"Why, I thought you were not afraid of beatings." +</p> + +<p> +While uttering this taunt, he seized Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"There's no need for you to drag in other people!" Hsiang-lien went on.<br /> +"Just confine yourself to those present!" +</p> + +<p> +"There's nothing up at present!" Hsüeh P'an cried. "From what you say, you're a +person full of propriety. So it's I who am at fault." +</p> + +<p> +"You'll have to speak a little milder," Hsiang-lien added, "before I let you +off." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear younger brother," Hsüeh P'an pleaded, with a groan. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-lien at this struck him another blow with his fist. +</p> + +<p> +"Ai!" ejaculated Hsüeh P'an. "My dear senior brother!" he exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-lien then gave him two more whacks, one after the other. +</p> + +<p> +"Ai Yo!" Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Drink two mouthfuls of that water!" shouted Hsiang-lien. +</p> + +<p> +"That water is really too foul," Hsüeh P'an argued, in reply to this +suggestion, wrinkling his eyebrows the while; "and how could I put any of it in +my mouth?" +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-lien raised his fist and struck him. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll drink it, I'll drink it!" quickly bawled Hsüeh P'an. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"You filthy thing!" exclaimed Hsiang-lien. "Be quick and finish drinking; and +I'll let you off." +</p> + +<p> +Upon hearing this, Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"This kind of stench will suffocate me!" Hsiang-lien observed, and, with this +remark, he abandoned Hsüeh Pan to his own devices; and, pulling his horse, he +put his foot to the stirrup, and rode away. +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 Hsüeh 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 +Hsüeh P'an's horse made fast by the side of a pit full of reeds. +</p> + +<p> +"That's a good sign!" they with one voice exclaimed; "for if the horse is +there, the master must be there too!" +</p> + +<p> +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 Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +Chia Jung surmised pretty nearly the truth. Speedily dismounting, he told the +servants to prop him up. "Uncle Hsüeh," 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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, Hsüeh P'an entered town along +with the search party. +</p> + +<p> +Chia Jung still insisted upon carrying him to Lai Ta's house to join the feast, +so Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 (Hsüeh +P'an) had received from Hsiang-lien, he laughed. "It's only through scrapes," +he cried, "that he'll get all right!" +</p> + +<p> +In the evening, after the party broke up, he came to inquire after him. But +Hsüeh P'an, who was lying all alone in his bedroom, nursing himself, refused to +see him, on the plea of indisposition. +</p> + +<p> +When dowager lady Chia and the other inmates had returned home, and every one +had retired into their respective apartments, Mrs. Hsüeh 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 Hsüeh P'an; but, though they saw his body covered with scars, they could +discover no ribs broken, or bones dislocated. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh fell a prey to anguish and displeasure. At one time, she scolded +Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"My dear child," Mrs. Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +While Hsüeh 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. Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, if you feel any interest to know what happened when Hsüeh P'an +heard the version his mother gave him, listen to what you will find in the next +chapter. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h2> + +<p> + A sensual-minded man gets into such trouble through his sensuality<br /> + that he entertains the idea of going abroad.<br /> + An estimable and refined girl manages, after great exertion, to<br /> + compose verses at a refined meeting. +</p> + +<p> +But to resume our story. After hearing his mother's arguments, Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +This proposal set Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +In the evening, he imparted the tidings to his mother. Mrs. Hsüeh, 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +When he had done speaking, he flew into a huff and went off to sleep. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh felt impelled, after the arguments she heard him propound, to +deliberate with Pao-ch'ai. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +They then matured their plans; and nothing further of any note transpired +during the rest of the night. +</p> + +<p> +The next day, Mrs. Hsüeh sent a messenger to invite Chang Te-hui to come round. +On his arrival, she charged Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +Chang Te-hui assented to her solicitations with profuse assurances, and took +his leave after the collation. +</p> + +<p> +"The fourteenth," he went on to explain to Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh P'an was intensely gratified, and he communicated their plans to Mrs. +Hsüeh. Mrs. Hsüeh 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 Hsüeh 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 Hsüeh 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 Hsüeh P'an's use; but a saddle horse, as well, was provided for +him. +</p> + +<p> +After the various preparations had been effected, Mrs. Hsüeh, 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, Hsüeh +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. +</p> + +<p> +On the fourteenth, at break of day, Mrs. Hsüeh, Pao-ch'ai and the other members +of the family accompanied Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh 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 Hsüeh P'an, no +more than one or two men-servants remained in the outer quarters. Mrs. Hsüeh +repaired therefore on the very same day into the study, and had the various +ornaments, bric-à-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 Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so!" smiled Mrs. Hsüeh, "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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +While speaking, she told Hsiang Ling to collect her bedding and clothes;<br /> +and desiring an old matron and Ch'in Erh to take them over to the Heng<br /> +Wu Yüan, Pao-ch'ai returned at last into the garden in company with<br /> +Hsiang Ling. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear miss!" laughingly observed Hsiang Ling, "do let's make the best of +this time, and teach me how to write verses!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I had just this very moment," Pao-ch'ai smiled, "told her to go and do so." +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't however go to our house," P'ing Erh remarked, "our Mr.<br /> +Secundus is laid up at home." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Seeing Hsiang Ling walk out of the room, she drew Pao-ch'ai near her.<br /> +"Miss! have you heard our news?" she inquired in a low tone of voice. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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> + +<p> +P'ing Erh set her teeth to and gave way to abuse. "It's all on account of some +Chia Yü-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, Yü-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 Yamên; 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. Hsüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü had got considerably +better. Upon hearing that Hsiang Ling had also moved into the garden, she, +needless to say, was filled with delight. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Since you're anxious to learn how to versify," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Is there anything so difficult about this," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, that's just the principle that holds good," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"What I admire," Hsiang Ling proceeded with a smile; "are the lines by old Lu +Fang; +</p> + +<p> + "The double portière, when not raised, retains the fragrance long.<br /> + An old inkslab, with a slight hole, collects plenty of ink. +</p> + +<p> +"Their language is so clear that it's charming." +</p> + +<p> +"You must on no account," Tai-yü 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, Yüan, Yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +At these words, Tai-yü bade Tzu Chüan 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang Ling took the poems and repaired back to the Heng Wu-yüan. 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. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Of all these, how many stanzas can you recollect?" Tai-yü asked, smiling. +</p> + +<p> +"I've read every one of those marked with a red circle," Hsiang Ling laughingly +rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +"Have you caught the ideas of any of them, yes or no?" Tai-yü inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, I've caught some!" Hsiang Ling smiled. "But whether rightly or not<br /> +I don't know. Let me tell you." +</p> + +<p> +"You must really," Tai-yü laughingly remarked, "minutely solicit people's +opinions if you want to make any progress. But go on and let me hear you." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"There's a good deal of right in what you say," Tai-yü observed. "But I wonder +how you arrived at this conclusion?" +</p> + +<p> +"I notice in that stanza on 'the borderland,' the antithetical couplet: +</p> + +<p> + "In the vast desert reigns but upright mist.<br /> + In the long river setteth the round sun. +</p> + +<p> +"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: +</p> + +<p> + "When the sun sets, rivers and lakes are white;<br /> + When the mist falls, the heavens and earth azure. +</p> + +<p> +"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: +</p> + +<p> + "At the ferry stays the setting sun,<br /> + O'er the mart hangs the lonesome mist. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +But in the course of their colloquy, Pao-yü and T'an Ch'un arrived; and +entering the room, they seated themselves, and lent an ear to her arguments on +the verses. +</p> + +<p> +"Seeing that you know so much," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"You say," argued Tai-yü with a significant smile, "that the line: +</p> + +<p> + "'O'er (the mart) hangs the lonesome mist,' +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +While uttering these words, she turned up T'ao Yüan-ming's, +</p> + +<p> + Dim in the distance lies a country place;<br /> + Faint in the hamlet-market hangs the mist; +</p> + +<p> +and handed it to Hsiang Ling. +</p> + +<p> +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.' +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"To-morrow," observed T'an ch'un with a smile; "I'll stand an extra treat and +invite you to join the society." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +T'an Ch'un and Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This is again self-violence and self-abasement!" Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Are you speaking the truth?" T'an Ch'un and Tai-yü eagerly inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"If I'm telling a lie," Pao-yü laughed, "I'm like that cockatoo on that frame!" +</p> + +<p> +"You verily do foolish things!" Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"What's there to fear?" Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +While he passed this remark, they saw Ju Hua arrive from Hsi Ch'un's quarters +to ask Pao-yü to go over; and Pao-yü eventually took his departure. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang Ling then pressed (Tai-yü) to give her T'u's poems. "Do choose some +theme," she also asked Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Last night," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Miss," smiled Hsiang Ling, "don't confuse me." +</p> + +<p> +So saying, she set to work and put together a stanza, which she first and +foremost handed to Pao-ch'ai to look over. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +At this suggestion, Hsiang Ling forthwith went with her verses in search of +Tai-yü. When Tai-yü came to read them, she found their text to be: +</p> + +<p> + The night grows cool, what time Selene reacheth the mid-heavens.<br /> + Her radiance pure shineth around with such a spotless sheen.<br /> + Bards oft for inspiration raise on her their thoughts and eyes.<br /> + The rustic daren't see her, so fears he to enhance his grief.<br /> + Jade mirrors are suspended near the tower of malachite.<br /> + An icelike plate dangles outside the gem-laden portière.<br /> + The eve is fine, so why need any silvery candles burn?<br /> + A clear light shines with dazzling lustre on the painted rails. +</p> + +<p> +"There's a good deal of spirit in them," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"This indeed shows," Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü made no reply. But realising that Hsiang Ling had crossed over in high +spirits to find Tai-yü again, T'an Ch'un laughed and suggested, "Let's follow +her there, and see whether her composition is any good." +</p> + +<p> +At this proposal, they came in a body to the Hsiao Hsiang lodge. Here they +discovered Tai-yü holding the verses and explaining various things to her. +</p> + +<p> +"What are they like?" they all thereupon inquired of Tai-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"This is naturally a hard job for her!" Tai-yü rejoined. "They're not yet as +good as they should be. This stanza is far too forced; you must write another." +</p> + +<p> +One and all however expressed a desire to look over the verses. On perusal, +they read: +</p> + +<p> + 'Tis not silver, neither water that on the windows shines so cold.<br /> + Selene, mark! covers, like a jade platter, the clear vault of heaven.<br /> + What time the fragrance faint of the plum bloom is fain to tinge the<br /> + air,<br /> + The dew-bedecked silken willow trees begin to lose their leaves.<br /> + 'Tis the remains of powder which methinks besmear the golden steps.<br /> + Her lustrous rays enshroud like light hoar-frost the jadelike<br /> + balustrade.<br /> + When from my dreams I wake, in the west tower, all human trace is<br /> + gone.<br /> + Her slanting orb can yet clearly be seen across the bamboo screen. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Miss Ling," T'an Ch'un presently cried, smiling from inside the window, "do +have a rest!" +</p> + +<p> +"The character 'rest;'" Hsiang Ling nervously replied, "comes from lot<br /> +N.° 15, under 'shan', (to correct); so it's the wrong rhyme." +</p> + +<p> +This rambling talk made them involuntarily burst out laughing. +</p> + +<p> +"In very fact," Pao-sh'ai laughed, "she's under a poetical frenzy, and it's all +P'in Erh who has incited her." +</p> + +<p> +"The holy man says," Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +But while conversing, they played and laughed for a time, after which, each +went her own way. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, do you wish to know any further particulars? If you do; read those +given in the next chapter. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XLIX.</h2> + +<p> + White snow and red plum blossom in the crystal world.<br /> + The pretty girl, fragrant with powder, cuts some meat and eats it. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +With these words, she handed the verses to Tai-yü and her companions.<br /> +When they came to look at them, they found this to be their burden: +</p> + +<p> + If thou would'st screen Selene's beauteous sheen, thou'lt find it<br /> + hard.<br /> + Her shadows are by nature full of grace, frigid her form.<br /> + A row of clothes-stones batter, while she lights a thousand li.<br /> + When her disc's half, and the cock crows at the fifth watch, 'tis<br /> + cold.<br /> + Wrapped in my green cloak in autumn, I hear flutes on the stream.<br /> + While in the tower the red-sleeved maid leans on the rails at night.<br /> + She feels also constrained to ask of the goddess Ch'ang O:<br /> + 'Why it is that she does not let the moon e'er remain round?' +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +"What are you driving at?" Li Wan laughed. "You might, after all, state +distinctly whose relatives they are." +</p> + +<p> +"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 Hsüeh's cousin, +and a gentleman who pretends to be Mr. Hsüeh P'an's junior cousin. We are now +off to ask Mrs. Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Has our Hsüeh K'o come along with his sisters?" Pao-ch'ai inquired, with a +smile. +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +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, Hsüeh P'an's cousin Hsüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia and madame Wang were both filled with ineffable delight. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, 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-yü then +hurried into the I Hung court. Going up to Hsi Jen, She Yüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +But scarcely were these words out of their lips, than they perceived<br /> +T'an Ch'un too enter the room, beaming with smiles. She came in quest of<br /> +Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"Our poetical society is in a flourishing way," she remarked. +</p> + +<p> +"It is," smiled Pao-yü. "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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Of the whole lot," smiled Ch'ing Wen, "Miss Hsüeh's cousin carries the palm. +What do you think about her, Miss Tertia?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü went into ecstasies. "Is this a fact?" he eagerly inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Never mind," answered Pao-yü smiling. "It's only right that girls should be +more doated upon. But to-morrow is the sixteenth, so we should have a meeting." +</p> + +<p> +"That girl Lin Tai-yü is no sooner out of bed," T'an Ch'un remarked, "than +cousin Secunda falls ill again. Everything is, in fact, up and down!" +</p> + +<p> +"Our cousin Secunda," Pao-yü explained, "doesn't also go in very much for +verses, so, what would it matter if she were left out?" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yün 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 Yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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 Hsüeh 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 Hsüeh K'o put up in Hsüeh +P'an's study. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yün 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-yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, Hsiang-yün, Li Wen, Li +Ch'i, Pao Ch'in and Hsing Chou-yen. In addition to these, there were lady Feng +and Pao-yü, 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.' +</p> + +<p> +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-yün came on the scene. But how was it possible for one so loquacious as +Hsiang-yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +These sneers evoked laughter from both Hsiang Ling and Hsiang-yün. 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Where did you get this?" Pao-ch'ai eagerly inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"It was snowing," Pao-ch'in smilingly replied, "so her venerable ladyship +turned up this piece of clothing and gave it to me." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"What about peacock's feathers?" Hsiang-yün 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-yü, she hasn't given it +to him to wear." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Unless you stay with our worthy senior," Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +These words much amused Pao-ch'ai, Pao-ch'in, Hsiang-Ling, Ying Erh and the +others present. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"This article of clothing," Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +As she spoke, Pao-yü and Tai-yü walked in. But as Pao-ch'ai continued to +indulge in raillery to herself, "Cousin Pao," Hsiang-yün smilingly +remonstrated, "you may, it's true, be jesting, but what if there were any one +to entertain such ideas in real earnest?" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"He's not that sort of person!" Pao-ch'ai and Hsiang-yün simultaneously +ventured, with a significant smile. +</p> + +<p> +"If it isn't he," Hu Po proceeded still laughing, "it's she." Turning again her +finger towards Tai-yü. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün expressed not a word by way of rejoinder. +</p> + +<p> +"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 Yün-erh! Why what good +ever comes out of that mouth of hers?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü was ever well aware that Tai-yü was gifted with a somewhat mean +disposition. He had not however as yet come to learn anything of what had +recently transpired between Tai-yü 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-yün, and the rejoinders made, on the other hand, by Pao-ch'ai, and, when +he noticed how different Tai-yü'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-yü +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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü was the best among the whole lot, so she started with Tai-yü, +more than with any one else, a friendship of unusual fervour. This did not +escape Pao-yü's notice; but all he could do was to secretly give way to +amazement. +</p> + +<p> +Shortly, however, Pao-ch'ai and her cousin repaired to Mrs. Hsüeh's quarters. +Hsiang-yün then betook herself to dowager lady Chia's apartments, while Lin +Tai-yü returned to her room and lay down to rest. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü thereupon came to look up Tai-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, Tai-yü immediately concluded that his words harboured some secret +meaning, so putting on a smile, "Recite it and let me hear it," she said. +</p> + +<p> +"In the 'Confusion' chapter," Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +At this inquiry, Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"At one time," Pao-yü. observed, "all you knew was to suspect that I (was in +love with Pao-ch'ai); and have you now no faults to find?" +</p> + +<p> +"Who ever could have imagined her such a really nice girl!" Tai-yü smiled. +"I've all along thought her full of guile!" And seizing the occasion, she told +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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)." +</p> + +<p> +As the conversation again turned on Pao-ch'in, Tai-yü recalled to mind that she +had no sister, and she could not help melting once more into tears. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Of late," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This is because weeping has become a habit with you," Pao-yü added. "But +though you fancy to yourself that it is so, how can your tears have become +scantier than they were?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +But hardly was this message delivered, than they saw Li Wan's maid enter, and +invite Tai-yü to go over. Pao-yü then proposed to Tai-yü to accompany him, and +together they came to the Tao Hsiang village. Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Hsüeh 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-yün 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 <i>á la</i> Chao +Chün, 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Just see here!" Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Look here, all of you!" Hsiang-yün laughed. "See what I wear inside!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Lose no time," Hsiang-yün smiled, "in deliberating about writing verses, for +I'd like to hear who is to stand treat." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"This proposal is excellent!" Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"This place of mine is nice enough, it's true," Li Wan added, "yet it isn't up +to the Lu Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai and the others without exception signified their acquiescence. They +consequently proceeded to propose the themes and to fix upon the rhymes. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Nothing of any note transpired during the course of that day. At an early hour +on the morrow, Pao-yü—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-yü 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 Hsüeh +Pavilion. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 Yü'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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +On his arrival in the Lu Hsüeh pavilion, Pao-yü found the maids and matrons +engaged in sweeping away the snow and opening a passage. This Lu Hsüeh +(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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +At these words, Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +One and all expressed their readiness to wait. Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"What an idea!" lady Feng promptly put in. "We'll have enough with what remains +of it." +</p> + +<p> +Shih Hsiang-yün thereupon consulted with Pao-yü. "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." +</p> + +<p> +At this proposal, Pao-yü actually asked lady Feng to let them have a haunch, +and he bade a matron carry it into the garden. +</p> + +<p> +Presently, they all got up from table. After a time, they entered the garden +and came in a body to the Lu Hsüeh pavilion to hear Li Wan give out the themes, +and fix upon the rhymes. But Hsiang-yün and Pao-yü were the only two of whom +nothing was seen. +</p> + +<p> +"Those two," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +This remark much amused the party. "How dreadful!" they exclaimed, "Be quick +and bring them both here!" +</p> + +<p> +"All this fuss," Tay-yü smiled, "is the work of that girl Yün. I'm not far off +again in my surmises." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"We're doing nothing of the kind," Pao-yü hastily rejoined. "We're going to eat +some roasted meat." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +This remark concluded, she walked in. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +On the other side, Pao-ch'ai and Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +While Hsiang-yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +"You idiot," Hsiang-yün laughingly cried, "come and have a mouthful to taste." +</p> + +<p> +"It's too filthy!" Pao-ch'in replied smiling. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +In a little time, however, lady Feng sent a young maid to call P'ing<br /> +Erh. +</p> + +<p> +"Miss Shih," P'ing Erh explained, "won't let me go. So just return ahead of +me." +</p> + +<p> +The maid thereupon took her leave; but shortly after they saw lady Feng arrive; +she too with a wrapper over her shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +"You're having," she smiled; "such dainties to eat, and don't you tell me?" +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, she also drew near and began to eat. +</p> + +<p> +"Where has this crowd of beggars turned up from?" Tai-yü put in with a laugh. +"But never mind, never mind! Here's the Lu Hsüeh pavilion come in for this +calamity to-day, and, as it happens, it's that chit Yün by whom it has been +polluted! But I'll have a good cry for the Lu Hsüeh pavilion." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü and +Hsiang-yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"We should, after all," Pao-ch'ai urged, "make some distinction with regard to +order." +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, if you entertain any desire to know the sequel, peruse the +particulars recorded in the chapter that follows. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER L.</h2> + +<p> + In the Lu Hsüeh pavilion, they vie with each other in pairing verses<br /> + on the scenery.<br /> + In the Nuan Hsiang village, they compose, in beautiful style, riddles<br /> + for the spring lanterns. +</p> + +<p> +But to continue. "We should, after all," Pao-ch'ai suggested, "make some +distinction as to order. Let me write out what's needful." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, in that case," lady Feng rejoined, "I'll also give a top line." +</p> + +<p> +The whole party laughed in chorus. "It will be ever so much better like this," +they said. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai supplied above 'the old labourer of Tao Hsiang' the word<br /> +'Feng,' whereupon Li Wan went on to explain the theme to her. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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: +</p> + +<p> + "'The whole night long the northern wind was high;' +</p> + +<p> +"but whether it will do or not, I am not going to worry my mind about it." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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: +</p> + +<p> +The whole night long the northern wind was high; +</p> + +<p> +and then she herself subjoined the antithetical couplet: +</p> + +<p> + The door I ope, and lo the flakes of snow are still toss'd by the<br /> + wind,<br /> + And drop into the slush. Oh, what a pity they're so purely white! +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang Ling recited: +</p> + +<p> + All o'er the ground is spread, alas, this bright, refulgent gem;<br /> + But with an aim; for it is meant dry herbage to revive. +</p> + +<p> +T'an Ch'un said: +</p> + +<p> + Without design the dying sprouts of grain it nutrifies.<br /> + But in the villages the price of mellow wine doth rise. +</p> + +<p> +Li Ch'i added: +</p> + +<p> + In a good year, grain in the house is plentiful.<br /> + The bulrush moves and the ash issues from the tube. +</p> + +<p> +Li Wen continued: +</p> + +<p> + What time spring comes the handle of the Dipper turns.<br /> + The bleaky hills have long ago their verdure lost. +</p> + +<p> +Chou-yen proceeded: +</p> + +<p> + On a frost-covered stream, no tide can ever rise.<br /> + Easy the snow hangs on the sparse-leaved willow twigs. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün pursued: +</p> + +<p> + Hard 'tis for snow to pile on broken plantain leaves.<br /> + The coal, musk-scented, burns in the precious tripod. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'in recited: +</p> + +<p> + Th' embroidered sleeve enwraps the golden sable in its folds.<br /> + The snow transcends the mirror by the window in lustre. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü suggested: +</p> + +<p> + The fragrant pepper clings unto the wall.<br /> + The side wind still in whistling gusts doth blow. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü added: +</p> + +<p> + A quiet dream becomes a cheerless thing.<br /> + Where is the fife with plum bloom painted on? +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai continued: +</p> + +<p> + In whose household is there a flute made of green jade?<br /> + The fish fears lest the earth from its axis might drop. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll go and see that the wine is warm for you people," Li Wan smiled. +</p> + +<p> +But when Pao-ch'ai told Pao-ch'in to connect some lines, she caught sight of +Hsiang-yün rise to her feet and put in: +</p> + +<p> + What time the dragon wages war, the clouds dispel.<br /> + Back to the wild shore turns the man with single scull. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'in thereupon again appended the couplet: +</p> + +<p> + The old man hums his lines, and with his whip he points at the 'Pa'<br /> + bridge.<br /> + Fur coats are, out of pity, on the troops at the frontiers bestowed. +</p> + +<p> +But would Hsiang-yün 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: +</p> + +<p> + More cotton coats confer, for bear in memory th' imperial serfs!<br /> + The rugged barbarous lands are (on account of snow) with dangers<br /> + fraught. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai praised the verses again and again, and next contributed the distich: +</p> + +<p> + The twigs and branches live in fear of being tossed about.<br /> + With what whiteness and feath'ry step the flakes of snow descend! +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü eagerly subjoined the lines: +</p> + +<p> + The snow as nimbly falls as moves the waist of the 'Sui' man when<br /> + brandishing the sword.<br /> + The tender leaves of tea, so acrid to the taste, have just been newly<br /> + brewed and tried. +</p> + +<p> +As she recited this couplet, she gave Pao-yü a shove and urged him to go on. +Pao-yü was, at the moment, enjoying the intense pleasure of watching the three +girls Pao-ch'ai, Pao-ch'in and Tai-yü make a joint onslaught on Hsiang-yün, so +that he had of course not given his mind to tagging any antithetical verses. +But when he now felt Tai-yü push him he at length chimed in with: +</p> + +<p> + The fir is the sole tree which is decreed for ever to subsist.<br /> + The wild goose follows in the mud the prints and traces of its steps. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'in took up the clue, adding: +</p> + +<p> + In the forest, the axe of the woodcutter may betimes be heard.<br /> + With (snow) covered contours, a thousand peaks their heads jut in the<br /> + air. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün with alacrity annexed the verses: +</p> + +<p> + The whole way tortuous winds like a coiled snake.<br /> + The flowers have felt the cold and ceased to bud. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai and her companions again with one voice eulogised their fine diction. +</p> + +<p> +T'an Ch'un then continued: +</p> + +<p> + Could e'er the beauteous snow dread the nipping of frost?<br /> + In the deep court the shivering birds are startled by its fall. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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, +</p> + +<p> + On the bare mountain wails the old man Hsiao.<br /> + The snow covers the steps, both high and low. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün immediately put away the tea-cup and added: +</p> + +<p> + On the pond's surface, it allows itself to float.<br /> + At the first blush of dawn with effulgence it shines. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü recited with alacrity the couplet: +</p> + +<p> + In confused flakes, it ceaseless falls the whole night long.<br /> + Troth one forgets that it implies three feet of cold. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün hastened to smilingly interpose with the distich: +</p> + +<p> + Its auspicious descent dispels the Emperor's grief.<br /> + There lies one frozen-stiff, but who asks him a word? +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'in too speedily put on a smile and added:<br /> + Glad is the proud wayfarer when he's pressed to drink.<br /> + Snapped is the weaving belt in the heavenly machine. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün once again eagerly quoted the line: +</p> + +<p> +In the seaside market is lost a silk kerchief. +</p> + +<p> +But Lin Tai-yü would not let her continue, and taking up the thread, she +forthwith said: +</p> + +<p> +With quiet silence, it enshrouds the raiséd kiosque. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün vehemently gave the antithetical verse: +</p> + +<p> +The utter poor clings to his pannier and his bowl. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'in too would not give in as a favour to any one, so hastily she +exclaimed: +</p> + +<p> +The water meant to brew the tea with gently bubbles up. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün saw how excited they were getting and she thought it naturally great +fun. Laughing, she eagerly gave out: +</p> + +<p> +When wine is boiled with leaves 'tis not easy to burn. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü also smiled while suggesting: +</p> + +<p> +The broom, with which the bonze sweepeth the hill, is sunk in snow. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'in too smilingly cried: +</p> + +<p> +The young lad takes away the lute interred in snow. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +In the stone tower leisurely sleeps the stork. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün repeated. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü clasped her breast so convulsed was she with laughter. With loud voice +she bawled out: +</p> + +<p> +Th' embroidered carpet warms the affectionate cat. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'in quickly, again laughingly, exclaimed: +</p> + +<p> +Inside Selene's cave lo, roll the silvery waves. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün added, with eager haste: +</p> + +<p> +Within the city walls at eve was hid a purple flag. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü with alacrity continued with a smile: +</p> + +<p> +The fragrance sweet, which penetrates into the plums, is good to eat. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai smiled. "What a fine line!" she ejaculated; after which, she hastened +to complete the couplet by saying: +</p> + +<p> + The drops from the bamboo are meet, when one is drunk, to mix with<br /> + wine. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'in likewise made haste to add: +</p> + +<p> +Betimes, the hymeneal girdle it moistens. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün eagerly paired it with: +</p> + +<p> +Oft, it freezeth on the kingfisher shoes. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü once more exclaimed with vehemence: +</p> + +<p> +No wind doth blow, but yet there is a rush. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'in promptly also smiled, and strung on: +</p> + +<p> +No rain lo falls, but still a patter's heard. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün however simply fell forward on Pao-ch'ai's lap and laughed +incessantly. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't as if I were writing verses," Hsiang-yün laughed rising to her feet; +"it's really as if I were fighting for very life." +</p> + +<p> +"It's for you to come out with something," they all cried with a laugh. +</p> + +<p> +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: +</p> + +<p> +My wish is to record this morning's fun. +</p> + +<p> +Li Ch'i then suggested as a finale the line: +</p> + +<p> +By these verses, I'd fain sing th' Emperor's praise. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +While continuing their arguments, the various inmates drew near and kept up a +searching criticism for a time. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün was found to be the one among them, who had devised the largest +number of lines. +</p> + +<p> +"This is mainly due," they unanimously laughed, "to the virtue of that piece of +venison!" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü last again!" +</p> + +<p> +"I haven't, the fact is, the knack of pairing sentences," Pao-yü rejoined with +a smile. "You'd better therefore make some allowance for me!" +</p> + +<p> +"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 Yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This penalty," they shouted with one accord, "is both excellent as well as +pleasant." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"It's exceedingly cold outside," Hsiang-yün and Tai-yü simultaneously remarked, +"so have a glass of warm wine before you go." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün speedily took up the kettle, and Tai-yü handed him a large cup, +filled to the very brim. +</p> + +<p> +"Now swallow the wine we give you," Hsiang-yün smiled. "And if you don't bring +any plum blossom, we'll inflict a double penalty." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü gulped down hurry-scurry the whole contents of the cup and started on +his errand in the face of the snow. +</p> + +<p> +"Follow him carefully." Li Wan enjoined the servants. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"I'll indite a stanza in advance," eagerly exclaimed Hsiang-yün. +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü; and, as he says that he can't pair +antithetical lines, we'll now make him compose a stanza himself." +</p> + +<p> +"This is a capital idea!" Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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 Yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Ch'i Erh," Li Wan thereupon retorted, "is also not a very good hand at verses, +let therefore cousin Ch'in have a try!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai had no alternative but to express her acquiescence. +</p> + +<p> +"Let the three words 'red plum blossom,'" she then suggested, "be used<br /> +for rhymes; and let each person compose an heptameter stanza. Cousin<br /> +Hsing to indite on the word 'red;' your elder cousin Li on 'plum;' and<br /> +Ch'in Erh on 'blossom.'" +</p> + +<p> +"If you let Pao-yü off," Li Wan interposed, "I won't have it!" +</p> + +<p> +"I've got a capital theme," Hsiung-yün eagerly remarked, "so let's make him +write some!" +</p> + +<p> +"What theme is it?" one and all inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"If we made him," Hsiang-yün resumed, "versify on: 'In search of Miao Yü to beg +for red plum blossom,' won't it be full of fun?" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, may you look at it now," Pao-yü smiled. "You've no idea what an amount +of trouble it has cost me!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün also communicated to Pao-yü the subject for verses they had decided +upon a short while back. But she likewise urged Pao-yü to be quick and +accomplish his task. +</p> + +<p> +"Dear senior cousin, dear junior cousin," pleaded Pao-yü, "let me use my own +rhymes. Don't bind me down to any." +</p> + +<p> +"Go on as you like," they replied with one consent. +</p> + +<p> +But conversing the while, they passed the plum blossom under inspection. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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.' +</p> + +<p> +Verses to the red plum blossom by Hsing Chou-yen. +</p> + +<p> + The peach tree has not donned its fragrance yet, the almond is not<br /> + red.<br /> + What time it strikes the cold, it's first joyful to smile at the east<br /> + wind.<br /> + When its spirit to the Yü Ling hath flown, 'tis hard to say 'tis<br /> + spring.<br /> + The russet clouds across the 'Lo Fu' lie, so e'en to dreams it's<br /> + closed.<br /> + The green petals add grace to a coiffure, when painted candles burn.<br /> + The simple elf when primed with wine doth the waning rainbow bestride.<br /> + Does its appearance speak of a colour of ordinary run?<br /> + Both dark and light fall of their own free will into the ice and snow. +</p> + +<p> +The next was the production of Li Wen, and its burden was: +</p> + +<p> + To write on the white plum I'm not disposed, but I'll write on the<br /> + red.<br /> + Proud of its beauteous charms, 'tis first to meet the opening drunken<br /> + eye.<br /> + On its frost-nipped face are marks; and these consist wholly of blood.<br /> + Its heart is sore, but no anger it knows; to ashes too it turns.<br /> + By some mistake a pill (a fairy) takes and quits her real frame.<br /> + From the fairyland pool she secret drops, and casts off her old form.<br /> + In spring, both north and south of the river, with splendour it doth<br /> + bloom.<br /> + Send word to bees and butterflies that they need not give way to<br /> + fears! +</p> + +<p> +This stanza came next from the pen of Hsüeh Pao-ch'in, +</p> + +<p> + Far distant do the branches grow; but how beauteous the blossom<br /> + blooms!<br /> + The maidens try with profuse show to compete in their spring<br /> + head-dress.<br /> + No snow remains on the vacant pavilion and the tortuous rails.<br /> + Upon the running stream and desolate hills descend the russet clouds.<br /> + When cold prevails one can in a still dream follow the lass-blown<br /> + fife.<br /> + The wandering elf roweth in fragrant spring, the boat in the red<br /> + stream.<br /> + In a previous existence, it must sure have been of fairy form.<br /> + No doubt need 'gain arise as to its beauty differing from then. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü that Pao-ch'in, albeit the youngest in +years, was, on the other hand, the quickest in wits. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü and Hsiang-yün then filled up a small cup with wine and simultaneously +offered their congratulations to Pao-ch'in. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Have you got yours ready?" Li Wan went on to inquire of Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"I'd got them," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün, 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." +</p> + +<p> +"I've already got them!" Pao-yü rejoined, smilingly. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü then picked up a pencil. "Recite them," she smiled, "and I'll write them +down." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün beat one stroke (on the stove). "The first tattoo is over," she +laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm ready," Pao-yü smiled. "Go on writing." +</p> + +<p> +At this, they heard him recite: +</p> + +<p> +The wine bottle is not opened, the line is not put into shape. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü noted it down, and shaking her head, "They begin very smoothly," she +said, as she smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"Be quick!" Hsiang-yün again urged. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü laughingly continued: +</p> + +<p> +To fairyland I speed to seek for spring, and the twelfth moon to find. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü and Hsiang-yün both nodded. "It's rather good," they smiled. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü resumed, saying: +</p> + +<p> + I will not beg the high god for a bottle of the (healing) dew,<br /> + But pray Shuang O to give me some plum bloom beyond the rails. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü jotted the lines down and wagged her head to and fro. "They're +ingenious, that's all," she observed. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün gave another rap with her hand. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü thereupon smilingly added: +</p> + +<p> + I come into the world and, in the cold, I pick out some red snow.<br /> + I leave the dusty sphere and speed to pluck the fragrant purple<br /> + clouds.<br /> + I bring a jagged branch, but who in pity sings my shoulders thin?<br /> + On my clothes still sticketh the moss from yon Buddhistic court. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as Tai-yü had done writing, Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. Yüan 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +The various followers rushed forward to take her wrapper and to support her, +and as they did so, they expressed their acquiescence. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The various inmates hurriedly carried it over to her, and explained that 'they +were pickled quails.' +</p> + +<p> +"These won't hurt me," dowager lady Chia said, "so cut off a piece of the leg +and give it to me." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes!" promptly acquiesced Li Wan, and asking for water, she washed her hands, +and then came in person to carve the quail. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"What were you playing at?" old lady Chia thereupon asked. +</p> + +<p> +"We were writing verses," answered the whole party. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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 portière, 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"She resembles," one and all smiled, "Chou Shih-ch'ou's beautiful snow picture, +suspended in your apartments, venerable ancestor." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"We girls are all here." they laughingly answered. "That's Pao-yü." +</p> + +<p> +"My eyes," old lady Chia smiled, "are getting dimmer and dimmer!" +</p> + +<p> +So saying, they drew near, and of course, they turned out to be Pao-yü and +Pao-ch'in. +</p> + +<p> +"I've just been again to the Lung Ts'ui monastery," Pao-yü smiled to Pao-ch'ai, +Tai-yü and his other cousins, "and Miao Yü gave me for each of you a twig of +plum blossom. I've already sent a servant to take them over." +</p> + +<p> +"Many thanks for the trouble you've been put to," they, with one voice, +replied. +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh also arrive. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Last night," Mrs. Hsüeh 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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Verily in that case," Mrs. Hsüeh laughingly added, "my filial intentions may +well be looked upon as having been accomplished." +</p> + +<p> +"Mrs. Hsüeh," 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng clapped her hands. "An excellent idea," she laughed. "This quite +falls in with my views." +</p> + +<p> +The whole company were much amused. +</p> + +<p> +"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. Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, worthy senior," lady Feng laughed, "you're most sharp-sighted! You try to +see whether Mrs. Hsüeh 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. Hsüeh. 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh 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. Hsüeh 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. Hsüeh) 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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"For whom did you mean to act as go-between?" old lady Chia smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"The goddess of mercy has not been handed down by any ancestors." +</p> + +<p> +Li Ch'i smiled. "This refers to a passage in the Four Books." +</p> + +<p> +"In one's conduct, one must press towards the highest benevolence." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün quickly interposed; taking up the thread of the conversation. +</p> + +<p> +"You should ponder over the meaning of the three words implying: 'handed down +by ancestors'," Pao-ch'ai smiled, "before you venture a guess." +</p> + +<p> +"Think again!" Li Wan urged with a smile. +</p> + +<p> +"I've guessed it!" Tai-yü smiled. "It's: +</p> + +<p> + "'If, notwithstanding all that benevolence, there be no outward visible + sign…'" +</p> + +<p> +"That's the line," one and all unanimously exclaimed with a laugh. +</p> + +<p> +"'The whole pond is covered with rush.'" +</p> + +<p> +"Now find the name of the rush?" Li Wan proceeded. +</p> + +<p> +"This must certainly be the cat-tail rush!" hastily again replied<br /> +Hsiang-yün. "Can this not be right?" +</p> + +<p> +"You've succeeded in guessing it," Li Wan smiled. "Li Wen's is: +</p> + +<p> + "'Cold runs the stream along the stones;' +</p> + +<p> +"bearing on the name of a man of old." +</p> + +<p> +"Can it be Shan T'ao?" T'an Ch'un smilingly asked. +</p> + +<p> +"It is!" answered Li Wan. +</p> + +<p> +"Ch'i Erh's is the character 'Yung' (glow-worm). It refers to a single word," +Li Wan resumed. +</p> + +<p> +The party endeavoured for a long time to hit upon the solution. +</p> + +<p> +"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)." +</p> + +<p> +"That's just it!" Li Ch'i smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"What has a glow-worm to do with flowers?" one and all observed. +</p> + +<p> +"It's capital!" Tai-yü ventured with a smile. "Isn't a glow-worm transformed +from plants?" +</p> + +<p> +The company grasped the sense; and, laughing the while, they, with one consent, +shouted out, "splendid!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," they all replied, "we should also think of some simple ones on ordinary +objects." +</p> + +<p> +"I've devised one on the 'Tien Chiang Ch'un' metre," Hsiang-yün pursued, after +some reflection. "But it's really on an ordinary object. So try and guess it." +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, she forthwith went on to recite: +</p> + +<p> + The creeks and valleys it leaves;<br /> + Travelling the world, it performs.<br /> + In truth how funny it is!<br /> + But renown and gain are still vain;<br /> + Ever hard behind it is its fate. +</p> + +<p> +A conundrum. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"All your guesses are wrong," Pao-yü chimed in, after considerable reflection. +"I've got it! It must for a certainty be a performing monkey." +</p> + +<p> +"That's really it!" Hsiang-yün laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"The first part is all right," the party observed, "but how do you explain the +last line?" +</p> + +<p> +"What performing monkey," Hsiang-yün asked, "has not had its tail cut off?" +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, they exploded into a fit of merriment. "Even," they argued, "the +very riddles she improvises are perverse and strange!" +</p> + +<p> +"Mrs. Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'in, at this proposal, nodded her head, and while repressing a smile, she +went off by herself to give way to thought. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai then also gave out this riddle: +</p> + +<p> + Carved sandal and cut cedar rise layer upon layer.<br /> + Have they been piled and fashioned by workmen of skill!<br /> + In the mid-heavens it's true, both wind and rain fleet by;<br /> + But can one hear the tingling of the Buddhists' bell? +</p> + +<p> +While they were giving their mind to guessing what it could be, Pao-yü too +recited: +</p> + +<p> + Both from the heavens and from the earth, it's indistinct to view.<br /> + What time the 'Lang Ya' feast goes past, then mind you take great<br /> + care.<br /> + When the 'luan's' notes you catch and the crane's message thou'lt look<br /> + up:<br /> + It is a splendid thing to turn and breathe towards the vault of<br /> + heaven, (a kite) +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü next added: +</p> + +<p> + Why need a famous steed be a with bridle e'er restrained?<br /> + Through the city it speeds; the moat it skirts; how fierce it looks.<br /> + The master gives the word and wind and clouds begin to move.<br /> + On the 'fish backs' and the 'three isles' it only makes a name, (a<br /> + rotating lantern). +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, peruse the next chapter, if you want to learn what follows. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER LI.</h2> + +<p> + The young maiden Hsüeh Pao-ch'in devises, in novel style, odes bearing<br /> + on antiquities.<br /> + A stupid doctor employs, in reckless manner, drugs of great strength. +</p> + +<p> +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: +</p> + +<p> +On the relics of Ch'ih Pi: +</p> + +<p> + Deep in Ch'ih Pi doth water lie concealed which does not onward flow.<br /> + There but remains a name and surname contained in an empty boat.<br /> + When with a clamorous din the fire breaks out, the sad wind waxes<br /> + cold.<br /> + An endless host of eminent spirits wander about inside. +</p> + +<p> +On the ancient remains in Chiao Chih: +</p> + +<p> + Posts of copper and walls of gold protect the capital.<br /> + Its fame is spread beyond the seas, scattered in foreign lands.<br /> + How true it is that Ma Yüan's achievements have been great.<br /> + The flute of iron need not trouble to sing of Tzu Fang. +</p> + +<p> +On the vestiges of former times in Chung Shan: +</p> + +<p> + Renown and gain do they, at any time, fall to a woman's share?<br /> + For no reason have I been bidden come into the mortal world.<br /> + How hard a task, in point of fact, it is to stop solicitude!<br /> + Don't bear a grudge against such people as may oft times jeer at you! +</p> + +<p> +On things of historic interest in Huai Yin: +</p> + +<p> + The sturdy man must ever mind the insults of the vicious dog.<br /> + Th' official's rank in San Ch'i was but fixed when his coffin was<br /> + closed<br /> + Tell all people that upon earth do dwell to look down upon none.<br /> + The bounty of one single bowl of rice should be treasured till death. +</p> + +<p> +On events of old in Kuang Lin: +</p> + +<p> + Cicadas chirp; crows roost; but, in a twinkle, they are gone.<br /> + How fares these latter days the scenery in Sui T'i?<br /> + It's all because he has so long enjoyed so fine a fame,<br /> + That he has given rise around to so many disputes. +</p> + +<p> +On the ancient remains of the T'ao Yeh ferry: +</p> + +<p> + Dry grass and parchèd plants their reflex cast upon the shallow pond.<br /> + The peach tree branches and peach leaves will bid farewell at last.<br /> + What a large number of structures in Liu Ch'ao raise their heads.<br /> + A small picture with a motto hangs on the hollow wall. +</p> + +<p> +On the antique vestiges of Ch'ing Chung: +</p> + +<p> + The black stream stretches far and wide, but hindered is its course.<br /> + What time were no more thrummed the frozen cords, the songs waxed sad.<br /> + The policy of the Han dynasty was in truth strange!<br /> + A worthless officer must for a thousand years feel shame. +</p> + +<p> +On things of historic renown in Ma Wei: +</p> + +<p> + Quiet the spots of rouge with sweat pile up and shine.<br /> + Gentleness in a moment vanishes and goes.<br /> + It is because traces remain of his fine looks,<br /> + That to this day his clothes a fragrance still emit. +</p> + +<p> +On events of the past connected with the Pu Tung temple: +</p> + +<p> + The small red lamp is wholly made of thin bone, and is light.<br /> + Furtively was it brought along but by force was it stol'n.<br /> + Oft was it, it is true, hung by the mistress' own hands,<br /> + But long ere this has she allured it to speed off with her. +</p> + +<p> +On the scenery about the Mei Hua (Plum Bloom) monastery. +</p> + +<p> + If not by the plum trees, then by the willows it must be.<br /> + Has any one picked up in there the likeness of a girl?<br /> + Don't fret about meeting again; in spring its scent returns.<br /> + Soon as it's gone, and west winds blow, another year has flown. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"What she says is perfectly correct," T'an Ch'un chimed in. +</p> + +<p> +"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 Yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Chou promised to execute her directions and went on her way. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"I don't deserve so much as a single one of these," Hsi Jen said. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü's rooms. But you nurses must +likewise take care and exercise some control, for you mustn't let Pao-yü +recklessly kick up any trouble!" +</p> + +<p> +"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 Yüeh to put up in his rooms," they reported. "We four will take our turn +and look after things during the night." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +The nurses replied that they would readily carry out her orders and returned +alone into the garden. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü watched Ch'ing Wen and She Yüeh get all her belongings in proper order. +After the things had been despatched, Ch'ing Wen and She Yüeh divested +themselves of their remaining fineries and changed their jupes and jackets. +Ch'ing Wen seated herself round a warming-frame. +</p> + +<p> +"Now," She Yüeh smiled, "you're not to put on the airs of a young lady!<br /> +I advise you to also move about a bit." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear girl," She Yüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +So saying, she at once set to work to arrange the bed for Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +"Hai!" ejaculated Ch'ing Wen smiling, "one just sits down to warm one's self, +and here you come and disturb one!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"You've had the trouble to think of it!" She Yüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"If both of you are to sleep on that," Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"As far as I'm concerned," Ch'ing Wen put in, "I'm going to sleep in here. +There's She Yüeh, so you'd better induce her to come and sleep outside." +</p> + +<p> +But while they kept up this conversation, the first watch drew near, and She +Yüeh at once lowered the mosquito-curtain, removed the lamp, burnt the +joss-sticks, and waited upon Pao-yü until he got into bed. The two maids then +retired to rest. Ch'ing Wen reclined all alone on the warming-frame, while She +Yüeh lay down outside the winter apartments. +</p> + +<p> +The third watch had come and gone, when Pao-yü, 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. +</p> + +<p> +Ch'ing Wen however had been roused out of her sleep, and she called She Yüeh. +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +She Yüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +"I want some tea," Pao-yü replied. +</p> + +<p> +She Yüeh hastily jumped out of bed, with nothing on but a short wadded coat of +red silk. +</p> + +<p> +"Throw my pelisse over you;" Pao-yü cried; "for mind it's cold!" +</p> + +<p> +She Yüeh 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-yü 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-yü 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-yü. After +he had done, she herself rinsed her mouth, and swallowed half a cupful of tea. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear girl," Ch'ing Wen interposed smiling, "do give me also a sip." +</p> + +<p> +"You put on more airs than ever," She Yüeh laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"My dear girl;" Ch'ing Wen added, "to-morrow night, you needn't budge;<br /> +I'll wait on you the whole night long. What do you say to that?" +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, She Yüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Won't you two go to sleep," She Yüeh laughed, "but keep on chatting?<br /> +I'll go out for a time; I'll be back soon." +</p> + +<p> +"Are there any evil spirits waiting for you outside?" Ch'ing Wen smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"It's sure to be bright moonlight out of doors," Pao-yü observed, "so go, while +we continue our chat." +</p> + +<p> +So speaking, he coughed twice. +</p> + +<p> +She Yüeh opened the back-door, and raising the woollen portière and looking +out, she saw what a beautiful moonlight there really was. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü warning her. "It's freezing; it's no joke!" +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüeh) a start, when she heard Pao-yü +shout from inside, "Ch'ing Wen has come out." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't at all that you might do her harm by frightening her," Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"How cold your hand is!" Pao-yü laughingly exclaimed. "I told you to look out +or you'd freeze!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü urged. +</p> + +<p> +Hardly, however, had he concluded these words, than a sound of 'lo teng' +reached their ears from the door, and She Yüeh rushed in all in a tremor, +laughing the while. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Recounting her experiences, she washed her hands. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Isn't this she?" Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"There was no need for me to go and frighten her," Ch'ing Wen laughingly +observed. "This hussy has frightened her own self." +</p> + +<p> +With these words she ensconced herself again under her own coverlet. "Did you +forsooth go out," She Yüeh remarked, "in this smart dress of a +circus-performer?" +</p> + +<p> +"Why, of course, she went out like this!" Pao-yü smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"You wouldn't know, for the life of you, how to choose a felicitous day!" She +Yüeh added. "There you go and stand about on a fruitless errand. Won't your +skin get chapped from the frost?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +As Ch'ing Wen had some time before felt cold, and now began to get warm again, +she unexpectedly sneezed a couple of times. +</p> + +<p> +"How about that?" sighed Pao-yü. "There you are; you've after all caught a +chill!" +</p> + +<p> +"Early this morning," She Yüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Is your head hot?" Pao-yü asked. +</p> + +<p> +"It's nothing at all!" Ch'ing Wen rejoined, after coughing twice. "When did I +get so delicate?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Don't let's talk!" Pao-yü then whispered, "for, mind, we'll also induce them +to start chattering." After this, they at last went to sleep. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Be quick," urged Pao-yü, "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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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.'" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"While uttering her grievances, she was bent upon getting up immediately, when +Pao-yü hastened to smile and to press her down. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +But in the middle of his advice to her, a servant came and told him that the +doctor had arrived. Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +So saying, he followed once more the matron out of the house. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +With these words, she took the prescription and wended her way into the garden. +</p> + +<p> +When Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"He deserves to be hanged! He deserves death!" Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"How much must one give him?" Pao-yü inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"When Dr. Wang comes," Pao-yü asked, "how much is he given?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +After this explanation, Pao-yü readily bade She Yüeh go and fetch the money. +</p> + +<p> +"I can't make out where sister Hua put it;" She Yüeh rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +"I've often seen her take money out of that lacquered press, ornamented with +designs made with shells;" Pao-yü added; "so come along with me, and let's go +and search." +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke, he and She Yüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +She Yüeh quickly snatched a piece of silver. Then raising the steelyard,<br /> +"Which is the one tael mark?" she asked. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü laughed. "It's amusing that you should appeal to me!" he said.<br /> +"You really behave as if you had only just come!" +</p> + +<p> +She Yüeh also laughed, and was about to go and make inquiries of some one else, +when Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +She Yüeh, 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +She Yüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Be quick," Pao-yü remarked, "and tell Pei Ming to go for another doctor. It +will be all right." +</p> + +<p> +The matron received the money and marched off to go and settle matters. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"These are the medicines," Pao-yü 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, Yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Do only aspen trees grow in waste burial grounds?" She Yüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"I daren't liken myself to fir or cypress;" Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +While engaged in this colloquy, they perceived the old matron bring the drugs, +so Pao-yü bade her fetch the silver pot, used for boiling medicines in, and +then he directed her to prepare the decoction on the brasier. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"The smell of medicines," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Speaking, he lost no time in giving orders to a servant to put the medicines on +the fire. Next, he advised She Yüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER LII.</h2> + +<p> + The beautiful P'ing Erh endeavours to conceal the loss of the<br /> + bracelet, made of work as fine as the feelers of a shrimp.<br /> + The brave Ch'ing Wen mends the down-cloak during her indisposition. +</p> + +<p> +But let us return to our story. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +And seeing that Mrs. Hsüeh, 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Hsüeh, '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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +This joke excited general mirth. +</p> + +<p> +But so concerned was Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"If the others have left," he then remarked, "there's nothing strange about it, +but are She Yüeh and Ch'iu Wen too so utterly devoid of feeling as to have each +gone after her own business?" +</p> + +<p> +"As regards Ch'iu Wen," Ch'ing Wen explained, "I told her to go and have her +meal. And as for She Yüeh, 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> + +<p> +"P'ing Erh isn't that sort of person," Pao-yü 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 Yüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Wait, I'll walk out by the back door," Pao-yü smiled, "and go to the foot of +the window, and listen to what she's saying. I'll then come and tell you." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"How did you manage to get it?" She Yueh inquired with gentle voice. +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü 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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"This young vixen has seen things of this kind before," She Yüeh ejaculated, +"and how is it that she was so shallow-eyed?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +With this warning, she bid her farewell and went on her way. +</p> + +<p> +Her words delighted, vexed and grieved Pao-yü. 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"If you go on bawling like that," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Your suggestion is all very good," Ch'ing Wen demurred, "but how could<br /> +I suppress this resentment?" +</p> + +<p> +"What's there to feel resentment about?" Pao-yü asked. "Just you take good care +of yourself; it's the best thing you can do." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Go and fetch the snuff," Pao-yü said to She Yüeh, "and give it to her to +sniff. She'll feel more at ease after she has had several strong sneezes." +</p> + +<p> +She Yüeh went, in fact, and brought a flat crystal bottle, inlaid with a couple +of golden stars, and handed it to Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Ch'ing Wen's attention was fixedly concentrated on the representation. +</p> + +<p> +"Sniff a little!" Pao-yü urged. "If the smell evaporates, it won't be worth +anything." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Ch'ing Wen hastily put the bottle away. "It's dreadfully pungent!" she laughed. +"Bring me some paper, quick!" +</p> + +<p> +A servant-girl at once handed her a pile of fine paper. +</p> + +<p> +Ch'ing Wen extracted sheet after sheet, and blew her nose. +</p> + +<p> +"Well," said Pao-yü smiling, "how are you feeling now?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm really considerably relieved." Ch'ing Wen rejoined laughing. "The only +thing is that my temples still hurt me." +</p> + +<p> +"Were you to treat yourself exclusively with western medicines, I'm sure you'd +get all right," Pao-yü added smilingly. Saying this, "Go," he accordingly +desired She Yüeh, "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!" +</p> + +<p> +She Yüeh 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. +</p> + +<p> +Ch'ing Wen herself laid hold of a looking-glass with a handle and stuck the +bits on both her temples. +</p> + +<p> +"While you were lying sick," She Yüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +This joke over, "Our lady Secunda said," she resumed, addressing herself to +Pao-yü, "'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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"Anything that comes first to hand," Pao-yü observed, "will do well enough! +There's no getting, the whole year round, at the end of all the fuss of +birthdays!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, with +rapid step, strode up to her, and inquired of her whither she was going. +</p> + +<p> +"Our two young ladies," Hsiao Lo answered with a smile, "are in Miss<br /> +Lin's rooms; so I'm also now on my way thither." +</p> + +<p> +Catching this answer, Pao-yü 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 Chüan was sitting in the winter apartment, working at some needlework by +the side of the window. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"What a fine picture of beautiful girls, in the winter chamber!" Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +So saying, he made himself comfortable on a favourite chair of Tai-yü'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-yü +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"These are," Tai-yü laughingly explained, "from the two pots of narcissi, and +two pots of allspice, sent to Miss Hsüeh 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 Yün, 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I've got two pots of them in my rooms," Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"With me here," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"I've also got now some one ill in my place," Pao-yü retorted with a smile, +"and medicines are being decocted. How comes it you happen to know nothing +about it?" +</p> + +<p> +"This is strange!" Tai-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Never mind, drop that!" Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +While uttering these words she screened her face with both hands. +</p> + +<p> +"What's the matter?" Pao-yü smiled. "Why are you again making fun of me?<br /> +I'm not afraid of any shame, but, lo, you screen your face." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"My dear cousin," eagerly smiled Pao-yü, "produce what she wrote, and let's +have a look at it." +</p> + +<p> +"It's put away in Nanking;" Pao-ch'in replied with a smile. "So how could I at +present go and fetch it?" +</p> + +<p> +Great was Pao-yü's disappointment at this rejoinder. "I've no luck," he cried, +"to see anything like this in the world." +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Really P'in Erh you've got into the habit of talking like this!"<br /> +Pao-ch'ai laughed. "You're too shrewd by far." +</p> + +<p> +"Bring them along," Tai-yü urged with a smile, "and give us a chance of seeing +something and learning something; it won't hurt them." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't begin for a while," Pao-ch'ai exclaimed. "Let me send for Yün<br /> +Erh, so that she too might hear them." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Hsiao Lo gave a smile, and went away. After a long time, they heard<br /> +Hsiang-yün laughingly inquire, "What foreign beauty has come?" But while<br /> +asking this question, she made her appearance in company with Hsiang<br /> +Ling. +</p> + +<p> +"We heard your voices long before we caught a glimpse of your persons!" the +party laughed. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Be quick, out with it! Let's hear what it is!" Hsiang-yün smilingly cried. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'in thereupon recited: +</p> + +<p> + Last night in the Purple Chamber I dreamt.<br /> + This evening on the 'Shui Kuo' Isle I sing.<br /> + The clouds by the isle cover the broad sea.<br /> + The zephyr from the peaks reaches the woods.<br /> + The moon has never known present or past.<br /> + From shallow and deep causes springs love's fate.<br /> + When I recall my springs south of the Han,<br /> + Can I not feel disconsolate at heart? +</p> + +<p> +After listening to her, "She does deserve credit," they unanimously shouted, +"for she really is far superior to us, Chinese though we be." +</p> + +<p> +But scarcely was this remark out of their lips, when they perceived She Yüeh +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.'" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü thereupon pressed his female cousins to go ahead and he then followed +them. But Tai-yü called out to him again and stopped him. "When is Hsi Jen, +after all, coming back?" she asked. +</p> + +<p> +"She'll naturally come back after she has accompanied the funeral,"<br /> +Pao-yü retorted. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Last night," Tai-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"I really have something very important to tell you," Pao-yü 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…." +</p> + +<p> +Barely, however, had he had time to conclude than he spied dame Chao enter the +room to pay Tai-yü a visit. "Miss, have you been all right these last few +days?" she inquired. +</p> + +<p> +Tai-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Many thanks, dame Chao," she said, "for the trouble of thinking of me, and for +coming in person in this intense cold." +</p> + +<p> +Hastily also bidding a servant pour the tea, she simultaneously winked at +Pao-yü. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü returned to his quarters, and looked +on while Ch'ing Wen took her medicine. Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"That's my idea too," Ch'ing Wen replied. +</p> + +<p> +The two girls were then about to call him, when Pao-yü woke up of his own +accord, and speedily leaping out of bed, he threw his clothes over him. +</p> + +<p> +She Yüeh 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-yü while he combed his hair, and washed +his face and hands. This part of his toilet over, She Yüeh remarked: "It's +cloudy again, so I suppose it's going to snow. You'd better therefore wear a +woollen overcoat!" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü had had a couple of mouthfuls, She Yüeh also +brought him a small plateful of brown ginger, prepared according to some +prescription. Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +His grandmother had not yet got out of bed. But she was well aware that Pao-yü +was going out of doors so having the entrance leading into her bedroom opened +she asked Pao-yü to walk in. Pao-yü espied behind the old lady, Pao-ch'in lying +with her face turned towards the inside, and not awake yet from her sleep. +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia observed that Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"The weather is dull," Pao-yü replied, "but it isn't snowing yet." +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia thereupon sent for Yüan Yang and told her to fetch the +peacock down pelisse, finished the day before, and give it to him. Yüan Yang +signified her obedience and went off, and actually returned with what was +wanted. +</p> + +<p> +When Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü prostrated himself before her, after which he threw the coat over his +shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +"Go and let your mother see it before you start," his grandmother laughingly +added. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü assented, and quitted her apartments, when he caught sight of Yüan Yang +standing below rubbing her eyes. Ever since the day on which Yüan Yang had +sworn to have done with the match, she had not exchanged a single word with +Pao-yü. Pao-yü was therefore day and night a prey to dejection. So when he now +observed her shirk his presence again, Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Yüan Yang shoved his hand away, and promptly walked into dowager lady<br /> +Chia's quarters. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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 Yüeh also have a look at it, and then came and told his grandmother that he +had attended to her wishes. +</p> + +<p> +"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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü acquiesced by uttering several +yes's. +</p> + +<p> +An old nurse then followed him out into the pavilion. Here they discovered six +attendants, (that is), Pao-yü'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-yü +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-yü closely on each side. +</p> + +<p> +"Brother Chou and brother Ch'ien," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Though it be locked up," Pao-yü smiled, "I shall have to dismount all the +same." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü speedily pulled in his horse, with the idea of dismounting. But Lai Ta +hastened to draw near and to clasp his leg. Pao-yü stood up on his stirrup, +and, putting on a smile, he took his hand in his, and made several remarks to +him. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"You have far too impatient a disposition!" She Yüeh 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 Chün'. 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Is it likely that the rest are all dead and gone, and that there only remains +but you?" Ch'ing Wen exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +But while she spoke, she saw Chui Erh also slowly enter the room. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Ch'ing Wen bade a servant tell nurse Sung to come in. "Our master Secundus, Mr. +Pao-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Mr. Pao-yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Well, now let's drop this!" She Yüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"As regards what you say," Ch'ing Wen put in, "wait until Pao-yü comes, and +then we can ask him. It's nothing to do with us." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Sister-in-law," urged She Yüeh, "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-yü' 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." +</p> + +<p> +At the close of this long rigmarole, she at once told a young maid to take the +mop and wash the floors. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü come back. As soon as he put his foot inside the door, he +gave way to an exclamation, and stamped his foot. +</p> + +<p> +"What's the reason of such behaviour?" She Yüeh promptly asked him. +</p> + +<p> +"My old grandmother," Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Speaking the while, he took it off. She Yüeh, 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +So saying, she packed it up in a wrapper, and a nurse carried it outside. +</p> + +<p> +"It should be ready by daybreak," she urged. "And by no means let our old lady +or Madame Wang know anything about it." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"What's to be done?" She Yüeh inquired. "But it won't matter if you don't wear +it to-morrow." +</p> + +<p> +"To-morrow is the very day of the anniversary," Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"The peacock-feather-thread is ready at hand," She Yüeh remarked smilingly. +"But who's there, exclusive of you, able to join the threads?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'll, needless to say, do my level best to the very cost of my life and +finish," Ch'ing Wen added. +</p> + +<p> +"How ever could this do?" Pao-yü eagerly interposed. "You're just slightly +better, and how could you take up any needlework?" +</p> + +<p> +"You needn't go on in this chicken-hearted way!" Ch'ing Wen cried. "I know my +own self well enough." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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 Yüeh was to lend +her a hand in reeling the thread. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"It will do very well," Pao-yü said. "Could one also go and hunt up a<br /> +Russian tailor?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü realised her state of exasperation and felt compelled to come and lie +down anyhow. But he could not again close his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"That will do!" She Yüeh put in. "One couldn't detect it, unless one examined +it carefully." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü asked with alacrity to be allowed to have a look at it. "Really," he +smiled, "it's quite the same thing." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +As she shouted 'Ai-ya,' she lost control over herself, and dropped down upon +the bed. +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, if you choose to know anything more of her state, peruse the next +chapter. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER LIII.</h2> + +<p> + In the Ning Kuo mansion sacrifices are offered to their ancestors on<br /> + the last night of the year.<br /> + In the Jung Kuo mansion, a banquet is given on the evening of the 15th<br /> + of the first moon. +</p> + +<p> +But to resume our story. When Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +As he passed these remarks, he walked out of the apartment, and, writing a +prescription, he entered again. +</p> + +<p> +When Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü, 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen returned soon after she had followed the funeral of her mother. She +Yüeh then minutely told Hsi Jen all about Chui Erh's affair, about Ch'ing Wen +having sent her off, and about Pao-yü 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!)." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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 Yü-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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The servant-girl signified her obedience, and went away. But shortly<br /> +Chia Chen arrived for his meal, and Chia Jung's wife withdrew. +</p> + +<p> +"Have we received," thereupon inquired Chia Chen, "the bounty conferred (by His +Majesty) for our spring sacrifices or not?" +</p> + +<p> +"I've sent Jung Erh to-day to go and receive it," Mrs. Yu rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Your arguments are quite correct!" Mrs. Yu ventured. +</p> + +<p> +But while these two were indulging in this colloquy, they caught sight of a +messenger, who came and announced: "Our young master has arrived." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"How is it you've been away the whole day?" Chia Chen asked. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Chia Chen smiled. "For a farmer," he remarked, "it has several good points!" +</p> + +<p> +"Pay no heed to the style," urged Chia Jung, also smiling; "but to the good +wishes." +</p> + +<p> +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 bêche-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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Chia Chen desired a servant to raise him up. "You're still so hale!" he smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"How many days have you been on the way?" Chia Chen inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"How is it, I said, that he's come only to-day!" Chia Chen observed. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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 Yüan Yang. What they +wanted was to filch our worthy senior's things and go and pawn them in order to +raise money." +</p> + +<p> +"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:" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"I have in my home a goodly number of inmates," Chia Ch'in explained, "so my +expenses are great." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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: +</p> + +<p> + Besmear the earth with your liver and brains, all ye people, out of<br /> + gratitude for the bounty of (the Emperor's) protection!<br /> + The reputation (of the Chia family) reaches the very skies. Hundred<br /> + generations rejoice in the splendour of the sacrifices accorded<br /> + them. +</p> + +<p> +This too had been executed by Wang, the Grand Tutor. +</p> + +<p> +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: +</p> + +<p> +Like a dazzling star is the statesman, who assists the Emperor. +</p> + +<p> +This was the autograph of a former Emperor. +</p> + +<p> +On both sides figured a pair of antithetical scrolls, with the motto: +</p> + +<p> + Their honours equal the sun and moon in lustre.<br /> + Their fame is without bounds. It descends to their sons and grandsons. +</p> + +<p> +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: +</p> + +<p> +Mindful of the remotest and heedful of the most distant ancestors. +</p> + +<p> +A pair of antithetical scrolls was hung on the sides; on which was written: +</p> + +<p> + After their death, their sons and grandsons enjoy their beneficent<br /> + virtues.<br /> + Up to the very present the masses think of the Jung and Ning families. +</p> + +<p> +Both these mottoes owed their origin to the imperial pencil. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 'Yü,' '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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Yu's drawing rooms were entirely covered with red carpets. In the centre +stood a large gold cloisonné 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng thereupon speedily walked up and supported her to rise to her feet. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Go on, worthy senior!" laughed lady Feng, as she propped old lady Chia.<br /> +"Let's go home and eat our own. Don't heed what she says!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +This remark evoked general laughter. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +(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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 Yüan +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh and 'sister-in-law' Li, and studied their own +convenience. Or along with Pao-yü, Pao-ch'ai and the other young ladies, they +amused themselves by playing the game of war or dominoes. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +At the upper two tables sat 'sister-in-law' Li and Mrs. Hsüeh. 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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-yün, Tai-yü and +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Round different tables sat Chia Chen, Chia Lien, Chia Huan, Chia Tsung, Chia +Jung, Chia Yün, Chia Ch'in, Chia Ch'ang, Chia Ling and other male inmates of +the family. +</p> + +<p> +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, née Lou, who +brought Chia Lan with her. In the way of men, there were only Chia Ch'in, Chia +Yün, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Chih-hsiao's wife directed that two tables should be placed below the +festive board, round which were seated Mrs. Hsüeh and 'sister-in-law' Li, and +that one should be put at the foot of dowager lady Chia's couch. +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +'The reunion in the western chamber' was just being sung. The play was drawing +to a close. They had reached a part where Yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"What a dreadful, impish child!" Mrs. Hsüeh and the others exclaimed.<br /> +"Yet poor thing!" +</p> + +<p> +"This child is only just nine years of age," lady Feng interposed. +</p> + +<p> +"He has really made a clever hit!" dowager lady Chia laughed. "Tip him!" she +shouted. +</p> + +<p> +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. +Hsüeh, and the family relative, Mrs. Li, present Wen Pao this money to purchase +something to eat with," they said. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER LIV.</h2> + +<p> + Dowager lady Chia, née Shih, does away with rotten old customs.<br /> + Wang Hsi-feng imitates in jest (the dutiful son), by getting herself<br /> + up in gaudy theatrical clothes. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. Hsüeh's table, and they also replenished her cup. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü too prostrated himself at once. +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü laughed. "Hold on a bit," he rejoined in a low tone, "and I'll go and do +so." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"What about the young ladies?" Chia Chen smilingly asked. +</p> + +<p> +"You people had better be going," old lady Chia and the other ladies +unanimously observed. "They'll, then, be more at their ease." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü smiled. "I'm not going far," he answered. "I'm merely going out of the +room, and will be back at once." +</p> + +<p> +Dowager lady Chia directed the matrons to "be careful and escort him." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü forthwith sallied out; with no other attendants however than She<br /> +Yüeh, Ch'iu Wen and several youthful maids. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Some time ago," lady Feng laughed, "Hsi Jen came in person and told you, +worthy ancestor, and how is it you've forgotten it?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yes," resumed dowager lady Chia smiling, after some reflection, "I remember +now. My memory is really not of the best." +</p> + +<p> +At this, everybody gave way to laughter. "How could your venerable ladyship," +they said, "recollect so many matters?" +</p> + +<p> +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 Yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +"The other day," lady Feng remarked, "Madame Wang presented her with forty +taels; so that was all right." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Would she likely wait until now?" Hu Po laughingly interposed. "Why, she +joined (Hsi Jen) long ago." +</p> + +<p> +In the course of this conversation, the various inmates partook of some more +wine, and watched the theatricals. +</p> + +<p> +But we will now turn our attention to Pao-yü. 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-yü entered the +court. The lanterns burnt brightly, yet not a human voice was audible. "Have +they all, forsooth, gone to sleep?" She Yüeh ventured. "Let's walk in gently, +and give them a fright!" +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü overheard what was said. Hastily twisting himself round, he remarked in +a low voice, addressing himself to She Yüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +As he spoke, they once more walked out of the court with gentle tread. Pao-yü +went to the back of the rockery, and stopping short, he raised his clothes. She +Yüeh 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Just, however, as Pao-yü was crossing over, two married women came in sight, +advancing from the opposite direction. "Who's there?" they inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"Pao-yü is here," Ch'ing Wen answered. "But mind, if you bawl and shout like +that, you'll give him a start." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Speaking the while, they drew near. She Yüeh and her friends then asked them +what they were holding in their hands. +</p> + +<p> +"We're taking over," they replied, "some things to the two girls: Miss<br /> +Chin and Miss Hua." +</p> + +<p> +"They're still singing the 'Eight Worthies' outside," She Yüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Take the lid off," Pao-yü cried, "and let me see what there's inside." +</p> + +<p> +Ch'in Wen and She Yüeh at once approached and uncovered the boxes. The two +women promptly stooped, which enabled Pao-yü 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 Yüeh +and her friend speedily threw the lids down anyhow, and followed in his track. +</p> + +<p> +"Those two dames are pleasant enough," Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"Those two women," She Yüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +"You, who know what's what," Pao-yü added, "should make allowances for that +kind of rustic people. You should pity them; that's all." +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I don't care whose it is," Ch'iu Wen put in. "If you don't give me any,<br /> +I shall certainly empty our old lady's teapot and wash my hands." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"My eyes are so dim," the matron rejoined with a smile, "that I didn't +recognise this young lady." +</p> + +<p> +When Pao-yü had washed his hands, the young maid took the small jug and filled +the bowl; and, as she held it in her hand, Pao-yü rinsed his mouth. But Ch'iu +Wen and She Yüeh availed themselves likewise of the warm water to have a wash; +after which, they followed Pao-yü in. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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 Hsüeh) 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!" +</p> + +<p> +With these words, she quaffed her own cup, leaving no heel-taps.<br /> +Mesdames Hsing and Wang also lost no time in emptying theirs; so Mrs.<br /> +Hsüeh and 'sister-in-law' Li had no alternative but to drain their<br /> +share. +</p> + +<p> +"Fill the cups too of your female cousins, senior or junior," dowager lady Chia +went on to tell Pao-yü. "And you mayn't pour the wine anyhow. Each of you must +swallow every drop of your drinks." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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-yü, she raised the cup, for she would not drink any wine +herself, and applied it to Pao-yü's lips. Pao-yü drained the contents with one +breath; upon which Tai-yü gave him a smile, and said to him: "I am much obliged +to you." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü next poured a cup for her. But lady Feng immediately laughed and +expostulated. "Pao-yü!" 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." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not having any cold wine," Pao-yü replied. +</p> + +<p> +"I know you're not," lady Feng smiled, "but I simply warn you." +</p> + +<p> +After this, Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +Presently, the soup was brought, and soon after that the 'feast of lanterns' +cakes were handed round. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"What stories would you like to hear?" old lady Chia inquired of +'sister-in-law' Li and Mrs. Hsüeh. +</p> + +<p> +"We don't care what they are;" both of them rejoined with one voice.<br /> +"Any will do!" +</p> + +<p> +"Have you of late added any new stories to your stock?" old lady Chia asked. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"What's its title?" old lady Chia inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"It's called: 'A Feng seeks a Luan in marriage': (the male phoenix asks the +female phoenix in marriage)," one of the girls answered. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +When the company heard so far, they began to laugh. +</p> + +<p> +"Now isn't this a duplicate of our girl Feng's name?" old lady Chia laughingly +exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"Go on with your story!" dowager lady Chia shouted. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Why should you be in such fear and trembling?" lady Feng laughed. "Go on! +There are many duplicate names and duplicate surnames." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"Your venerable ladyship must really have heard the story before," the +singing-girl smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"What hasn't our worthy senior heard?" they all exclaimed. "But she's quick +enough in guessing even unheard of things." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +The party listened to her with much glee. "These criticisms of yours, venerable +ancestor," they said, "have laid bare every single discrepancy." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +'Sister-in-law' Li and Mrs. Hsüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +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 stories 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?" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Don't be in such overflowing spirits," Mrs. Hsüeh laughed. "There are people +outside; this isn't like any ordinary occasion." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü," she went on to say, "come and present a cup to your +sister-in-law!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Venerable lady," a singing-girl put in, "you don't like the stories we tell; +but may we thrum a song for you?" +</p> + +<p> +"You two," remarked old lady Chia, "had better play a duet of the<br /> +'Chiang Chün ling' song: 'the general's command.'" +</p> + +<p> +Hearing her wishes, the two girls promptly tuned their cords, to suit the pitch +of the song, and struck up on their guitars. +</p> + +<p> +"What watch of the night is it?" old lady Chia at this point inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"It's the third watch," the matrons replied with alacrity. +</p> + +<p> +"No wonder it has got so chilly and damp!" old lady Chia added. +</p> + +<p> +Extra clothes were accordingly soon fetched by the servants and maids. +</p> + +<p> +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 be all right." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I'm afraid there isn't enough sitting room for every one of us," Madame<br /> +Wang explained. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, this will be nice!" one and all cried. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +Continuing, she motioned to Mrs. Hsüeh 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-yü and Hsian-yün sit close to her on the +left and on the right. "Pao-yü," she proceeded "you must go next to your +mother." So presently she put Pao-yü, 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Quite so!" answered old lady Chia laughingly. "I forgot all about him." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes!" acquiesced Chia Chen. Then twisting himself round, he led Chia<br /> +Lien and his companions out of the apartment. +</p> + +<p> +(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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +The wife of a domestic thereupon presented a play-bill. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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. Hsüeh 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 'Hsün Meng' ballad; and let only +flutes and Pandean pipes be used. The other instruments can be dispensed with." +</p> + +<p> +"Your venerable ladyship is quite right," Wen Kuan smiled. "Our acting +couldn't, certainly, suit the taste of such people as Mrs. Hsüeh, Mrs. Li and +the young ladies. Nevertheless, let them merely heed our enunciation, and +listen to our voices; that's all." +</p> + +<p> +"Well said!" dowager lady Chia laughed. +</p> + +<p> +'Sister-in-law' Li and Mrs. Hsüeh 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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 'Hsün 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. +</p> + +<p> +"I've verily seen several hundreds of companies," Mrs. Hsüeh smiled, "but never +have I come across any that confined themselves to flutes." +</p> + +<p> +"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-yün, "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 'Yü 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!" +</p> + +<p> +"This is still rarer a thing!" the inmates exclaimed. +</p> + +<p> +Old lady Chia then shortly called the married women, and bade them tell Wen +Kúan and the other girls to use both wind and string instruments and render the +piece; 'At the feast of lanterns, the moon is round.' +</p> + +<p> +The women servants received her orders and went to execute them. Chia<br /> +Jung and his wife meanwhile passed the wine round. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"That's a fine game of forfeits!" Old lady Chia cried, with a smile. "It just +suits the time of the year." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"To gulp down this wine is an easy job," dowager lady smiled, "but to crack +jokes is somewhat difficult." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"'What are you up to?' Sun Hsing-che inquired." +</p> + +<p> +"The nine women, with alacrity, told him all." +</p> + +<p> +"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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"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.'" +</p> + +<p> +At the close of her story, the company roared with laughter. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"A joke must hit the point to be amusing," Mrs. Hsüeh ventured. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +While minding her story, they laughed. "Listen to all this mean mouth says!" +they cried. "We wonder what other ramifications she won't introduce!" +</p> + +<p> +"If you want to bully me," Mrs. Yu smiled, "I'll tear that mouth of yours to +pieces." +</p> + +<p> +Lady Feng rose to her feet and clapped her hands. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Proceed with your story," old lady Chia exclaimed with a smile. "What comes +afterwards?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Shih Hsiang-yün stared at her for ever so long. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Is it likely that the men themselves didn't hear the report?"<br /> +Hsiang-yün insinuated. +</p> + +<p> +"Why, the men themselves were deaf," lady Feng rejoined. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +At this, one and all indulged in renewed merriment. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Lin Tai-yü 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. Hsüeh, meanwhile, took Hsiang-yün in her arms. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not afraid," smiled Hsiang-yün. +</p> + +<p> +"Nothing she likes so much as letting off huge crackers," Pao-ch'ai smilingly +interposed, "and could she fear this sort of thing?" +</p> + +<p> +Madame Wang, thereupon, laid hold of Pao-yü, and pulled him in her lap. +</p> + +<p> +"We've got no one to care a rap for us," lady Feng laughed. +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The soup was next brought. "The night is long," old lady Chia said, "and +somehow or other I feel peckish." +</p> + +<p> +"There's some congee," lady Feng promptly remarked, "prepared with duck's +meat." +</p> + +<p> +"I'd rather have plain things," dowager lady Chia answered. +</p> + +<p> +"There's also some congee made with non-glutinous rice and powder of dates. +It's been cooked for the ladies who fast." +</p> + +<p> +"If there's any of this, it will do very well," old lady Chia replied. +</p> + +<p> +While she spoke, orders were given to remove the remnants of the banquet, and +inside as well as outside; were served every kind of <i>recherché</i> small +dishes. One and all then partook of some of these refreshments, at their +pleasure, and rinsing their mouths with tea, they afterwards parted. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Invitations had been issued on this occasion to drink the new year wine at Mrs. +Hsüeh'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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER LV.</h2> + +<p> + The stupid secondary wife, dame Chao, needlessly loses her temper and<br /> + insults her own daughter, T'an Ch'un.<br /> + The perverse servant-girls are so full of malice that they look down<br /> + contemptuously on their youthful mistresses. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-ch'ai listened to her appeal and felt under the necessity of volunteering +to undertake the charge. +</p> + +<p> +The season was about the close of spring, so Tai-yü got her cough back again. +But Hsiang-yün was likewise laid up in the Heng Wu Yüan, as she too was +affected by the weather, and day after day she saw numberless doctors and took +endless medicines. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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: +</p> + +<p> +"Perfected philanthropy, published virtue!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"What shall we do?" T'an Ch'un asked Li Wan. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"Come back," shouted T'an Ch'un. +</p> + +<p> +"Wu Hsing-teng's wife had perforce to retrace her footsteps. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +T'an Ch'un handed the accounts to Li Wan for her perusal. +</p> + +<p> +"Give her twenty taels," readily suggested T'an Ch'un. "Leave these accounts +here for us to examine minutely." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +While ventilating her grievances, her eyes got moist, her nose watered, and she +began to sob. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"You're now trampling me down yourself, young lady," Mrs. Chao observed.<br /> +"And to whom can I go and tell my grievance?" +</p> + +<p> +T'an Ch'un, at these words, jumped up with alacrity. "I never would presume to +do any such thing," she protested. +</p> + +<p> +Li Wan too vehemently sprung to her feet to proffer her some good counsel. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"It was really on account of this," T'an Ch'un smiled, "that I said that<br /> +I didn't presume to disregard right and to violate propriety." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Reasoning with her, she so little could repress her tears that they rolled down +her cheeks. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +Upon seeing P'ing Erh enter, Li Wan felt prompted to ask her the object of her +visit. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü'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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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 Yün at once brought a small dining-table, +and P'ing Erh began to fuss about laying the viands on it. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Why don't you bring Mrs. Pao's meal so that she should have it along with us?" +T'an Ch'un then inquired. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +P'ing Erh hastily forced a smile. "Many thanks," she replied. +</p> + +<p> +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> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +"When were we ever so audacious?" the servants exclaimed with one voice.<br /> +"This fuss is all the work of Mrs. Chao!" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm not like you people," Ch'iu Wen smiled. "How can I afford to wait?" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +Retracing, at the same time, her footsteps, she took a seat on the rug, +occupied by P'ing Erh. +</p> + +<p> +"What message have you got to deliver?" P'ing Erh gently asked. +</p> + +<p> +"I've got to ask when we can get Pao-yü's monthly allowance and our own too," +she responded. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Why is it?" vehemently inquired Ch'iu Wen, upon hearing this explanation. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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 Yün 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!" +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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> + +<p> +P'ing Erh acquiesced and returned to her quarters. "How is it," inquired lady +Feng, "that you've been away such an age?" +</p> + +<p> +P'ing Erh smiled and gave her a full account of what had recently transpired. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"I myself entertain fears on the same score," lady Feng smiled. "But, after +all, there will be ample. For when Pao-yü 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-yü, +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-yü. +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> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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' !" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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 recherché +light viands; for she had long ago temporarily reduced her customary diet. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +But, reader, do you wish to follow up the story? If so, listen to the +circumstances detailed in the next chapter. +</p> + +<h2>CHAPTER LVI.</h2> + +<p> + The clever T'an Ch'un increases their income and removes long-standing<br /> + abuses.<br /> + The worthy Pao-ch'ai preserves intact, by the display of a little<br /> + intelligence, the great reputation enjoyed by the Chia family. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"It isn't half as big as ours," P'ing Erh laughingly explained. "The trees and +plants are likewise fewer by a good deal." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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 thyself away?'" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"What about the next line?" Pao-ch'ai insinuated with a significant smile. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +The trio bandied words for a while, after which they turned their attention +again to pertinent affairs. +</p> + +<p> +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!" +</p> + +<p> +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.'" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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…." +</p> + +<p> +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 how 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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"In that case," P'ing Erh smiled, "I'll go and tell her something about it." +</p> + +<p> +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?" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +At this answer, P'ing Erh allowed the subject to drop. +</p> + +<p> +After the departure of the matrons, T'an Ch'un inquired of Pao-ch'ai what she +thought of them. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"I was this very minute speaking in your praise," Pao-ch'ai observed smiling, +"and do you come to chaff me?" +</p> + +<p> +"What makes you say so?" exclaimed the trio, in utter astonishment. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Excellent!" ejaculated Li Wan and P'ing Erh simultaneously. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"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?" +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +Scarcely was this remark concluded before a domestic actually announced: 'that +four ladies of the Chen mansion had come to pay their respects.' +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +"When did you enter the capital?" old lady Chia inquired. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +The four women simultaneously smiled again. "Quite so!" they said. "We received +this year imperial orders, summoning us to the capital!" +</p> + +<p> +"Has the whole family come?" old lady Chia asked. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Is she engaged to any one?" old lady Chia asked. +</p> + +<p> +"Not yet," rejoined the quartet. +</p> + +<p> +"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. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +The four women smiled. "This is mainly due to your venerable ladyship's +excessive humility," they answered. +</p> + +<p> +"Is that young gentleman of yours too with your old mistress?" old lady<br /> +Chia went on to inquire. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, he has also come with our old mistress," the four women retorted. +</p> + +<p> +"How old is he?" old lady Chia then asked. "Does he go to school?" she +afterwards inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"Yet, he can't resemble that young fellow of ours," old lady Chia laughed. +"What's the name of your young gentleman?" +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü." +</p> + +<p> +"Here's another one with the name of Pao-yü!" old lady Chia laughingly said to +Li Wan. +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +"That young fellow is my grandson," dowager lady Chia remarked. "Hallo! some +one come here!" +</p> + +<p> +The married women and maids assented and approached several steps. +</p> + +<p> +"Go into the garden," old lady Chia smilingly said, "and call our Pao-yü here, +so that these four housekeeping dames should see how he compares with their own +Pao-yü." +</p> + +<p> +The married women, upon hearing her orders, promptly went off. After a while, +they entered the room pressing round Pao-yü. 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-yü, and +followed him as far as the capital." +</p> + +<p> +While speaking they came forward and took hold of his hands and assailed him +with questions. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü however also put on a smile and inquired after their healths. +</p> + +<p> +"How do his looks compare with those of your young gentleman?" dowager lady +Chia asked as she smiled. +</p> + +<p> +"The way the four dames ejaculated just now," Li Wan and her companions +explained, "was sufficient to show how much they resemble in looks." +</p> + +<p> +"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!" +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +"What makes you think so?" old lady Chia precipitately inquired. +</p> + +<p> +"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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Old lady Chia also laughed. "Let's also send some one now," she said, "to have +a look at your Pao-yü. 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." +</p> + +<p> +These sentiments evoked a smile from the four dames. "Your words venerable +lady," they exclaimed, "are quite correct. But though our Pao-yü 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?…." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü, and that he was, +in every respect, the very image of her grandson. +</p> + +<p> +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-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +But subsequently he betook himself into the garden to see how Shih<br /> +Hsiang-yün was getting on. +</p> + +<p> +"Compose your mind now," Shih Hsiang-yün 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-yü." +</p> + +<p> +"What utter rubbish!" Pao-yü exclaimed. "Do you too believe that there's +another Pao-yü?" +</p> + +<p> +"How is it," Hsiang-yün 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?" +</p> + +<p> +"This matter of names is all well enough," Pao-yü rejoined with a smile. "But +as it happens, his very appearance is the counterpart of mine. Such a thing +could never be!" +</p> + +<p> +"How is it," Hsiang-yün inquired, "that when the K'uang people saw<br /> +Confucius, they fancied it was Yang Huo?" +</p> + +<p> +"Confucius and Yang Huo," Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +Hsiang-yün 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." +</p> + +<p> +Saying this, she lay herself down. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Finding himself (in his dream) in some garden or other, Pao-yü 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-yü was again filled with surprise. "Besides Yüan Yang, +Hsi Jen and P'ing Erh," he pondered, "are there verily such maidens as these?" +</p> + +<p> +"Pao-yü!" he heard that company of maids observe, with faces beaming with +smiles, "how is it you find yourself in here?" +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +The maids smiled with one consent. "Really!" they exclaimed, "this isn't our +Pao-yü. But his looks too are spruce and nice; and he is as precocious too with +his tongue." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü caught their remarks. "Sisters!" he eagerly cried, "is there actually a +second Pao-yü in here?" +</p> + +<p> +"As for the two characters 'Pao-yü,'" 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." +</p> + +<p> +"Let's be off at once!" urged another maid, as she smiled. "Don't let our +Pao-yü see us here and say again that by hobnobbing with this stinking young +fellow, we've been contaminated by all his pollution." +</p> + +<p> +With these words on her lips, they straightway walked off. +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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?" +</p> + +<p> +While lost in reverie, he advanced with heedless step, until he reached a +courtyard. Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Pao-yü," 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!" +</p> + +<p> +These words fell on Pao-yü's ears, and took him quite aback. +</p> + +<p> +"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-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hearing this, "I've come here," Pao-yü said with alacrity, "in search of<br /> +Pao-yü; and are you, indeed, that Pao-yü?" +</p> + +<p> +The young man on the couch jumped down with all haste and enfolded him in his +arms. "Are you verily Pao-yü?" he laughingly asked. "This isn't by any means +such stuff as dreams are made of!" +</p> + +<p> +"How can you call this a dream?" Pao-yü rejoined. "It's reality, yea, nothing +but reality!" +</p> + +<p> +But scarcely was this rejoinder over, than he heard some one come, and say: +"our master, your father, wishes to see you, Pao-yü." +</p> + +<p> +The two lads started with fear. One Pao-yü rushed off with all despatch. The +other promptly began to shout, "Pao-yü! come back at once! Pao-yü; be quick and +return!" +</p> + +<p> +Hsi Jen, who stood by (Pao-yü), heard him call out his own name, in his dreams, +and immediately gave him a push and woke him up. "Where is Pao-yü gone to?" she +laughed. +</p> + +<p> +Although Pao-yü 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." +</p> + +<p> +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." +</p> + +<p> +Pao-yü 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. +</p> + +<p> +"Little wonder is it," She Yüeh 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." +</p> + +<p> +Hardly had she, however, done, before they perceived a servant, sent by Madame +Wang to call Pao-yü. But what she wanted to tell him is not yet known, so, +reader, listen to the circumstances recorded in the subsequent chapter. +</p> + +<h4>END OF BOOK II.</h4> + +<p> +[transcriber's note: The second volume of this translation ends thus, and no +more of it was ever published.] +</p> + +<h5>ERRATA</h5> + +<p> +[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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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. ] +</p> + +<p> Chap. XXV Page 8 Line 29: doesn't <i>not</i> does'nt<br /> + + XXVII " 37 " 10: peccadilloes <i>not</i> peccadiloes<br /> + + XXVIII " 64 " 6: on <i>not</i> ou<br /> + + XXVIII " 67 " 19: enumeration <i>not</i> enuneration<br /> + + XXX " 95 " 29: them," <i>not</i> them."<br /> + + XXX " 100 " 24: mustn't <i>not</i> musn't<br /> + + XXXI " 109 " 32: needn't <i>not</i> need'nt<br /> + + XXXII " 119 " 40: eh!" <i>not</i> eh!<br /> + + XXXII " 120 " 30: "Who <i>not</i> Who<br /> + + XXXII " 128 " 13: stitch <i>not</i> stich<br /> + + XXXIII " 137 " 2: fidgetted <i>not</i> figetted<br /> + + XXXIV " 147 " 28: promptly <i>not</i> promply<br /> + + XXXIV " 155 " 32: questions?" <i>not</i> questions?<br /> + + XXXIV " 157 " 7: contrariwise <i>not</i> contrarivise<br /> + + XXXV " 163 " 4: eat," <i>not</i> eat"<br /> + + XXXV " 163 " 13: successive <i>not</i> succcessive<br /> + + XXXV " 163 " 35: forty <i>not</i> fourty<br /> + + XXXV " 171 " 12: birthday <i>not</i> brithday<br /> + + XXXVI " 180 " 2: tael. <i>not</i> tael."<br /> + + XXXVI " 190 " 20: birthday <i>not</i> brithday<br /> + + XXXVII " 194 " 18: comes <i>not</i> come's<br /> + + XXXVII " 198 " 10: To-morrow <i>not</i> To-morow<br /> + + XXXVII " 199 " 32: "Well," <i>not</i> "Well",<br /> + + XXXVII " 199 " 33: done." <i>not</i> done?<br /> + + XXXVII " 199 " 40: fairest <i>not</i> fairiest<br /> + + XXXVII " 206 " 13: mustn't <i>not</i> musn't<br /> + + XXXVII " 207 " 36: get <i>not</i> ged<br /> + + XXXVII " 211 " 16: do?" <i>not</i> do?<br /> + + XXXVIII " 219 " 6: stomachaches." <i>not</i><br /> + + stomachaches.<br /> + + XXXVIII " 228 " 13: while <i>not</i> whily<br /> + + XXXIX " 232 " 5: with?" <i>not</i> with?,'<br /> + + XXXIX " 237 " 9: conscious <i>not</i> concious<br /> + + XXXIX " 242 " 1: temple." <i>not</i> temple.<br /> + + XL " 245 " 38: little <i>not</i> litte<br /> + + XL " 248 " 11: silk." <i>not</i> silk?"<br /> + + XL " 254 " 12: They're <i>not</i> The're<br /> + + XL " 255 " 8: autograph <i>not</i> authograph<br /> + + XL " 257 " 16: mustn't <i>not</i> musn't<br /> + + XL " 258 " 13: fogies <i>not</i> foggies<br /> + + XL " 258 " 20: predilection <i>not</i> predeliction<br /> + + XL " 258 " 35: curtains." <i>not</i> curtains.<br /> + + XL " 258 " 39: enough." <i>not</i> enough.<br /> + + XL " 263 " 8: peony <i>not</i> peone<br /> + + XLI " 278 " 11: haven't <i>not</i> have'nt<br /> + + XLII " 282 " 4: haven't <i>not</i> have'nt<br /> + + XLII " 282 " 19: haven't <i>not</i> have'nt<br /> + + XLII " 283 " 14: ensconce <i>not</i> ensconse<br /> + + XLII " 284 " 26: medicine <i>not</i> medecine<br /> + + XLII " 284 " 39: medicines <i>not</i> medecines<br /> + + XLII " 285 " 27: medicines <i>not</i> medecines<br /> + + XLII " 288 " 5: aren't <i>not</i> are'nt<br /> + + XLII " 290 " 27: locust <i>not</i> lucust<br /> + + XLII " 290 " 27: feed.'" <i>not</i> feed.'<br /> + + XLIII " 309 " 31: grandiloquent <i>not</i> grandeloquent<br /> + + XLIV " 314 " 12: shouldn't <i>not</i> should'nt<br /> + + XLIV " 316 " 4: mustn't <i>not</i> must'nt<br /> + + XLIV " 317 " 6: employed the <i>not</i> employed on<br /> + + the<br /> + + XLIV " 322 " 3: differed <i>not</i> differred<br /> + + XLIV " 322 " 31: swelled <i>not</i> swole<br /> + + XLIV " 323 " 15: unhappiness <i>not</i> uuhappiness<br /> + + XLV " 337 " 30: ginseng <i>not</i> ginsing<br /> + + XLV " 338 " 22: medicines <i>not</i> medecines<br /> + + XLV " 343 " 30: uselessly <i>not</i> uselesly<br /> + + XLVI " 352 " 26: mightn't <i>not</i> mighn't<br /> + + XLVII " 372 " 32: friendship <i>not</i> frienship<br /> + + XLVII " 378 " 3: proffered <i>not</i> proferred<br /> + + XLVIII " 380 " 21: worldly <i>not</i> wordly<br /> + + XLVIII " 386 " 4: antithetical <i>not</i> antetithical<br /> + + XLVIII " 386 " 23: Ling <i>not</i> Ling,<br /> + + XLVIII " 386 " 23: smile <i>not</i> smiled<br /> + + XLVIII " 386 " 35: stanzas <i>not</i> stanaas<br /> + + XLVIII " 389 " 24: cockatoo <i>not</i> cuckatoo<br /> + + XLVIII " 391 " 27: 'Tis <i>not</i> T'is<br /> + + XLVIII " 391 " 31: 'Tis <i>not</i> T'is<br /> + + XLIX " 393 " 34: would'st <i>not</i> woulds't<br /> + + XLIX " 393 " 37: 'tis <i>not</i> t'is<br /> + + XLIX " 401 " 1: simultaneously <i>not</i><br /> + + simultaneouly<br /> + + L " 411 " 25: 'tis <i>not</i> t'is<br /> + + L " 413 " 17: 'tis <i>not</i> t'is<br /> + + L " 415 " 35: But by and bye <i>not</i> But and bye<br /> + + L " 417 " 17: 'tis <i>not</i> t'is<br /> + + L " 417 " 17: 'tis <i>not</i> 't'is<br /> + + [yes twice in the same line]<br /> + + L " 417 " 25: 'tis <i>not</i> t'is<br /> + + L " 418 " 10: haven't <i>not</i> have'nt<br /> + + L " 423 " 38: blossom <i>not</i> blosson<br /> + + LI " 437 " 37: matter.'" <i>not</i> matter."<br /> + + LII " 446 " 21: medicine <i>not</i> medecine<br /> + + LII " 446 " 27: medicines <i>not</i> medecines<br /> + + LII " 449 " 5: medicines <i>not</i> medecines<br /> + + LII " 460 " 3: anniversary <i>not</i> anniversay<br /> + + LIII " 462 " 13: perspiring <i>not</i> prespiring<br /> + + LIII " 464 " 7: peonies <i>not</i> peones<br /> + + LIII " 468 " 23: haven't <i>not</i> have'nt<br /> + + LIII " 471 " 39: Apparent <i>not</i> Apparrent<br /> + + LIII " 476 " 9: homage <i>not</i> hommage<br /> + + LIII " 476 " 14: consonant <i>not</i> consonnant<br /> + + LIV " 487 " 5: trod <i>not</i> trode<br /> + + LIV " 487 " 12: "This <i>not</i> This<br /> + + LIV " 488 " 36: Isn't <i>not</i> Is'nt<br /> + + LIV " 490 " 15: me?" <i>not</i> me?<br /> + + LIV " 490 " 19: say, <i>not</i> say,"<br /> + + LIV " 491 " 23: comfortable <i>not</i> confortable<br /> + + LIV " 495 " 12: exhilarated <i>not</i> exhilerated<br /> + + LIV " 495 " 19: smilingly <i>not</i> similingly<br /> + + LV " 503 " 10: and <i>not</i> aud<br /> + + LV " 507 " 32: Mrs. <i>not</i> "Mrs.<br /> + + LV " 507 " 33: making <i>not</i> make<br /> + + LVI " 525 " 27: Aren't <i>not</i> Are'nt<br /> + + LVI " 529 " 18: mustn't <i>not</i> musn't<br /> + + LVI " 535 " 20: notwithstanding <i>not</i><br /> + + nothwithstanding<br /> + + LVI " 536 " 36: aren't <i>not</i> are'nt +</p> + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hung Lou Meng, Book II, by Cao Xueqin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HUNG LOU MENG, BOOK II *** + +***** This file should be named 9604-h.htm or 9604-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/6/0/9604/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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