Hung Lou Meng, Book II by Cao XueqinOr, Dream of the Red Chamber, or, The Story of the Stone (page 10)

This is quite right! But you’d better let me go and make the proposal to them and tell them to come and ascertain your wishes; and whatever your answer then may be just entrust it to them.”

This said, she sped into lady Feng’s suite of rooms.

Lady Feng had long ago changed her attire, and availed herself of the absence of any bystander in her apartments to confide the whole matter to P’ing Erh.

P’ing Erh nodded her head and smiled. “According to my views, success is not so certain,” she observed. “She and I have often secretly talked this matter over, and the arguments I heard her propound don’t make it the least probable that she’ll consent. But all we can say now is: ‘We’ll see!'”

“Madame Hsing,” lady Feng remarked, “is sure to come over here to consult with me. If she has assented, well and good; but, if she hasn’t, she’ll bring displeasure upon her own self, and won’t she feel out of countenance, if all of you are present? So tell the others to fry several quails, and get anything nice, that goes well with them, and prepare it for our repast, while you can go and stroll about in some other spot, and return when you fancy she has gone.”

Hearing this, P’ing Erh transmitted her wishes word for word to the matrons; after which, she sauntered leisurely all alone, into the garden.

When 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.

“Should our old mistress,” she said to her, “ask for me, just say that I was so unwell that I couldn’t even have any breakfast; that I’ve gone into the garden for a stroll, but that I will be back at once.”

Hu Po undertook to tell her so, and 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.

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.”

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.

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’ing Erh was at this point desirous to put in some observation, when from behind the boulder became audible the loud tones of laughter. “You most barefaced girl!” a voice cried. “It’s well you’re not afraid of your teeth falling when you utter such things!”

These words reached the ears of both girls, and, so unawares were they taken, that they got a regular start, and jumping up with all haste they went to see behind the boulder. They found no one else than Hsi Jen, who presented herself before them, with a smiling countenance, and asked: “What’s up? Do tell me!”

As she spoke, the trio seated themselves on a rock. P’ing Erh then imparted to Hsi Jen as well the drift of their recent conversation.

“Properly speaking, we shouldn’t pass such judgments,” Hsi Jen remarked, after listening to her confidences, “but this senior master of ours is really a most licentious libertine. So much so, that whenever he comes across a girl with any good looks about her, he won’t let her out of his grasp.”

“Since you don’t like to entertain his offer,” P’ing Erh suggested, “I’ll put you up to a plan.”

“What plan is it?” Yüan Yang inquired.

“Just simply tell our old mistress,” P’ing Erh laughed, “this answer: that you’ve already been promised to our master Secundus, Mr. Lien. Our senior master then won’t very well be able to be importunate.'”

“Ts’ui!” ejaculated 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!”

“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.”

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!”

Both her companions then realised in what state of despair she was, and promptly forcing a smile, “Dear sister,” they said, “don’t be so touchy! We’ve been, ever since we were little mites, like very sisters! All we’ve done is to spontaneously indulge in a little fun in a spot where there’s no one present. But tell us what you’ve decided to do, so that we too should know, and set our minds at ease.”

“Decided what?” Yüan Yang cried. “All I know is that I won’t go; that’s finished.”

P’ing Erh shook her head. “You mightn’t go,” she interposed, “but it isn’t likely that the matter will drop. You’re well aware what sort of temperament that of our senior master’s is. It’s true that you’re attached to our old mistress’ rooms, and that he can’t, just at present, presume to do the least thing to you; but can it be, forsooth, that you’ll be with the old dame for your whole lifetime? You’ll also have to leave to get married, and if you then fall into his hands, it won’t go well with you.”

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?”

“In very truth,” P’ing Erh and Hsi Jen laughed, “this vixen has no sense of shame! She has now more than ever spoken whatever came foremost to her lips!”

“What matters a moment’s shame,” 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.”

“Your parents are in Nanking looking after the houses,” P’ing Erh said, “and they can’t come up; yet, in the long run, they can be found out. Your elder brother and your sister-in-law are besides in here at present. You, poor thing, are a child born in this establishment. You’re not like us two, who are solitary creatures here.”

“What does it matter whether I be born here or not?” 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.”

“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.”

But while she spoke, her sister-in-law approached them. “Where didn’t I look for you?” her sister-in-law smilingly observed. “Have you, miss, run over here? Come along with me; I’ve got something to tell you!”

P’ing Erh and Hsi Jen speedily motioned to her to sit down, but (Yüan Yang’s) sister-in-law demurred. “Young ladies, pray be seated; I’ve come in search of our girl to tell her something.”

Hsi Jen and P’ing Erh feigned perfect ignorance. “What can it be that it’s so pressing?” they said with a smile. “We were engaged in guessing puns here, so let’s find out this, before you go.”

“What do you want to tell me?” Yuan Yang inquired. “Speak out!”

“Follow me!” her sister-in-law laughed. “When we get over there, I’ll tell you. It’s really some good tidings!”

“Is it perchance what Madame Hsing has told you?” Yüan Yang asked.

“Since you, miss, know what it’s all about,” her sister-in-law added smilingly, “what else remains for me to do? Be quick and come with me and I’ll explain everything. Verily, it’s a piece of happiness as large as the heavens!”

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!”

While indulging in this raillery, she gave vent to tears. P’ing Erh and Hsi Jen did all they could to reason with her so as to prevent her from crying.

Her sister-in-law felt quite out of countenance. “Whether you mean to accept the proposal, or not,” she consequently said, “you can anyhow speak nicely. It isn’t worth the while dragging this one in and involving that one! The proverb adequately says: ‘In the presence of a dwarf one mustn’t speak of dwarfish things!’ Here you’ve been heaping insult upon me, but I didn’t presume to retaliate. These two young ladies have however given you no provocation whatever; and yet by referring, as you’ve done, in this way and that way to secondary wives how can people stand it peacefully?”

“You shouldn’t speak so!” Hsi Jen and P’ing Erh quickly remonstrated. “She didn’t allude to us; so don’t be implicating others! Have you heard of any ladies or gentlemen who’d like to raise us to the rank of secondary wives? What’s more, we two have neither father nor mother, nor brothers, within these doors, to avail themselves of our positions to act in a way contrary to right and reason! If she abuses people, let her do so; it isn’t worth our while to be touchy!”

“Seeing,” 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.”

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.

“What were you hiding there for?” P’ing Erh then asked Hsi Jen. “We couldn’t see anything of you.”

“I went,” Hsi Jen explained, “into Miss Quarta’s rooms to see our Mr. Pao-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.”

Scarcely had she concluded this remark, than they heard some one else from behind, laughingly exclaim, “Four eyes never saw you, but your six eyes haven’t as yet found me out!”

The three girls received quite a shock from fright; but turning round, they perceived that it was no other person than Pao-yü.

Hsi Jen smiled, and was the first to speak. “You’ve made me have a good search,” she said. “Where do you hail from?”

“I was just leaving cousin Quarta’s,” Pao-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.”

“Let’s go and look behind there,” P’ing Erh suggested laughingly; “we may possibly discover another couple; there’s no saying.”

“There’s no one else!” Pao-yü laughed.

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.

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?”

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.

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.

On the other side of the compound, Madame Hsing about this time inquired of lady Feng who Yüan Yang’s father was.

“Her father,” lady Feng replied, “is called Chin Ts’ai. He and his wife are in Nanking; they have to look after our houses there, so they can’t pay frequent visits to the capital. Her brother is the Wen-hsiang, who acts at present as our senior’s accountant; but her sister-in-law too is employed in our worthy ancestor’s yonder as head washerwoman.”

Madame Hsing thereupon despatched a servant to go and call 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!”

“What’s that again to do with Hsi Jen? How came they to know anything about it?” Madame Hsing exclaimed upon learning the issue. “Who else was present?” she proceeded to inquire.

“There was Miss P’ing!” was Chin’s wife’s reply.

“Shouldn’t you have given her a slap on the mouth?” lady Feng precipitately shouted. “As soon as I ever put my foot outside the door, she starts gadding about; and I never see so much as her shadow, when I get home. She too is bound to have had a hand in telling you something or other!”

“Miss P’ing wasn’t present,” Chin’s wife protested. “Looking from a distance it seemed to me like her; but I couldn’t see distinctly. It was a mere surmise on my part that it was she at all.”

“Go and fetch her at once!” lady Feng shouted to a servant. “Tell her that I’ve come home, and that Madame Hsing is also here and wants her to help her in her hurry.”

Feng Erh quickly came up to her. “Miss Lin,” she observed, “despatched a messenger for her, and asked her in writing three and four times before she at last went. I advised her to get back so soon as your ladyship stepped inside the gate, but ‘tell your mistress,’ Miss Lin said, ‘that I’ve put her to the inconvenience of coming round, as I’ve got something for her to do for me.'”

This explanation satisfied lady Feng and she let the matter drop. “What has she got to do,” she purposely went on to ask, “that she will trouble her day after day?”

Madame Hsing was driven to her wits’ ends. As soon as the meal was over, she returned home; and, in the evening, she communicated to Chia She the result of her errand. After some reflection, Chia She promptly summoned Chia Lien.

“There are other people in Nanking to look after our property,” he told him on his arrival; “there’s not only one family, so be quick and depute some one to go and summon Chin Ts’ai to come up to the capital.”

“Last night a letter arrived from Nanking,” Chia Lien rejoined, “to the effect that Chin Ts’ai had been suffering from some phlegm-obstruction in the channels of the heart. So a coffin and money were allowed from the other mansion. Whether he be dead or alive now, I don’t know. But even if alive, he must have lost all consciousness. It would therefore be a fruitless errand to send for him. His wife, on the other hand, is quite deaf.”

Hearing this, Chia She gave vent to an exclamation of reproof, and next launched into abuse. “You stupid and unreasonable rascal!” he shouted. “Is it you of all people, who are up to those things? Don’t you yet bundle yourself off from my presence?”

Chia Lien withdrew out of the room in a state of trepidation. But in a short while, (Chia She) gave orders to call Chin Wen-hsiang. Chia Lien (meanwhile) remained in the outer study, for as he neither ventured to go home, nor presumed to face his father, his only alternative was to tarry behind. Presently, Chin Wen-hsiang arrived. The servant-lads led him straightway past the second gate; and he only came out again and took his departure after sufficient time had elapsed to enable one to have four or five meals in.

Chia Lien could not for long summon up courage enough to ask what was up, but when he found out, after a time, that Chia She had gone to sleep, he eventually crossed over to his quarters. In the course of the evening lady Feng told him the whole story. Then, at last, he understood the meaning of the excitement.

But to revert to 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.

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.'”

To every remark that Chia She uttered, Chin Wen-hsiang acquiesced. “Yes!” he said.

“Mind you don’t humbug me!” Chia She observed. “I shall to-morrow send again your mistress round to ask 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!”

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.”

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!”

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.

Upon hearing of Chia She’s designs, dowager lady Chia was provoked to displeasure. Her whole body trembled and shook. “Of all the attendants I’ve had,” she cried, “there only remains this single one, upon whom I can depend, and now they want to conspire and carry her off!” Noticing then Madame Wang standing close to her, she turned herself towards her. “All you people really know is to impose upon me!” she resumed. “Outwardly, you display filial devotion; but, secretly, you plot and scheme against me. If I have aught that’s worth having, you come and dun me for it. If I have any one who’s nice, you come and ask for her. What’s left to me is this low waiting-maid, but as you see that she serves me faithfully, you naturally can’t stand it, and you’re doing your utmost to estrange her from me so as to be the better able to play your tricks upon me.”

Madame Wang quickly rose to her feet. She did not, however, dare to return a single syllable in self-defence.

Mrs. 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?…”

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!”

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.”

“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?”

“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.”

“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!'”

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?”

Hearing this, Pao-yü promptly stood up.

“Even that girl Feng didn’t call me to my senses,” dowager lady Chia smiled again.

“I don’t lay a word to your charge, worthy senior,” lady Feng remarked smilingly, “and yet you brand me with reproach!”

This rejoinder amused dowager lady Chia. “This is indeed strange!” she said to all around. “But I’d like to listen to these charges.”

“Who told you, dear senior,” lady Feng resumed, “to look after your attendants so well, and lavish such care on them as to make them plump and fine as water onions? How ever can you therefore bear people a grudge, if they ask for her hand? I’m, lucky for you, your grandson’s wife; for were I your grandson, I would long ere this have proposed to her. Would I have ever waited up to the present?”

“Is this any fault of mine?” dowager lady Chia laughed.

“Of course, it’s your fault, venerable senior!” lady Feng retorted with a smile.

“Well, in that case, I too don’t want her,” old lady Chia proceeded laughing. “Take her away, and have done!”

“Wait until I go through this existence,” lady Feng responded, “and, in the life to come, I’ll assume the form of a man and apply for her hand.”

“Take her along,” dowager lady Chia laughed, “and give her to Lien-Erh to attach to his apartments; and we’ll see whether that barefaced father-in-law of yours will still wish to have her or not.”

“Lien-Erh is not a match for her!” lady Feng added. “He’s only a fit mate for such as myself and P’ing Erh. A pair of loutish bumpkins like us to have anything to do with such a one as herself!”

At this rejoinder, they all exploded into a hearty fit of laughter. But a waiting-maid thereupon announced: “Our senior lady has come.” So Madame Wang immediately quitted the room to go and meet her.

But any further particulars, which you, reader may like to know, will be given in the following chapter; so listen to it.

CHAPTER XLVII.

An idiotic bully tries to be lewd and comes in for a sound thrashing. A cold-hearted fellow is prompted by a dread of trouble to betake himself to a strange place.

As soon as Madame Wang, so runs our narrative, heard of Madame Hsing’s arrival, she quickly went out to welcome her. Madame Hsing was not yet aware that dowager lady Chia had learnt everything connected with 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.

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!”

Madame Hsing’s whole face got suffused with blushes. “I advised him time and again,” she explained, “but he wouldn’t listen to me. How is it, venerable senior, that you don’t yet know that he turns a deaf ear to me? That’s why I had no choice in the matter!”

“Would you go and kill any one,” dowager lady Chia asked, “that he might instigate you to? But consider now. Your brother’s wife is naturally a quiet sort of person, and is born with many ailments; but is there anything, whether large or small, that she doesn’t go to the trouble of looking after? And notwithstanding that that daughter-in-law of yours lends her a helping hand, she is daily so busy that she ‘no sooner puts down the pick than she has to take up the broom.’ So busy, that I have myself now curtailed a hundred and one things. But whenever there’s anything those two can’t manage, there’s 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!”

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?”

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.

“I’ve only now returned,” she observed to the waiting-maid, “and what shall I go again for? Just tell her that I’m fast asleep!”

“Dearest Mrs. 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.”

“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!”

While replying, she felt that she had no course but to retrace her footsteps, in company with the waiting-maid.

Dowager lady Chia at once motioned her into a seat. “Let’s have a game of cards!” she then smilingly proposed. “You, Mrs. Hsüeh, are not a good hand at them; so let’s sit together, and see that lady Feng doesn’t cheat us!”

“Quite so,” laughed Mrs. 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?”

“Naturally only four!” Madame Wang smiled.

“Were one more player let in,” lady Feng interposed, “it would be merrier!”

“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.”

“You girls know how to read and write,” lady Feng remarked with a smile, addressing herself to T’an Ch’un, “and why don’t you learn fortune-telling?”

“This is again strange!” T’an Ch’un exclaimed. “Instead of bracing up your energies now to rook some money out of our venerable senior, you turn your thoughts to fortune-telling!”

“I was just wishing to consult the fates,” lady Feng proceeded, “as to how much I shall lose to-day. Can I ever dream of winning? Why, look here. We haven’t commenced playing, and they have placed themselves in ambush on the left and right.”

This remark amused dowager lady Chia and Mrs. 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.”

“I haven’t got any cards you want in my hand,” Mrs. Hsüeh remarked.

“I mean to see by and bye,” lady Feng resumed.

“You’re at liberty to see,” Mrs. Hsüeh said. “But go on, play now! Let me look what card it is.”

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.”

“I’ve played wrong!” lady Feng laughingly exclaimed at these words.

Dowager lady Chia laughed, and throwing down her cards, “If you dare,” she shouted, “take it back! Who told you to play the wrong card?”

“Didn’t I want to have my fortune told?” lady Feng observed. “I played this card of my own accord, so there’s no one with whom I can find fault.”

“You should then beat your own lips and punish your own self; it’s only fair;” old lady Chia remarked. Then facing Mrs. Hsüeh, “I’m not a niggard, fond of winning money,” she went on to say, “but it was my good luck!”

“Don’t we too think as much?” Mrs. Hsüeh smiled. “Who’s there stupid enough to say that your venerable ladyship’s heart is set upon money?”

Lady Feng was busy counting the cash, but catching what was said, she restrung them without delay. “I’ve got my share,” she said, laughingly to the company. “It isn’t at all that you wish to win. It’s your good luck that made you come out a winner! But as for me, I am really a mean creature; and, as I managed to lose, I count the money and put it away at once.”

Dowager lady Chia usually made 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?”

“Lady Feng won’t let me have the money!” Yüan Yang replied, picking up the cards.

“If she doesn’t give the money,” dowager lady Chia observed, “it will be a turning-point in her luck. Take that string of a thousand cash of hers,” she accordingly directed a servant, “and bring it bodily over here!”

A young waiting-maid actually fetched the string of cash and deposited it by the side of her old mistress.

“Let me have them,” lady Feng eagerly cried smiling, “and I’ll square all that’s due, and finish.”

“In very truth, lady Feng, you’re a miserly creature!” Mrs. Hsüeh laughed. “It’s simply for mere fun, nothing more!”

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!”

This joke had scarcely been concluded than it evoked incessant laughter from dowager lady Chia and every one else. But while she was bandying words, P’ing Erh happened to bring her another string of cash prompted by the apprehension that her capital might not suffice to meet her wants.

“It’s useless putting them in front of me!” lady Feng cried. “Place these too over there by our old lady and let them be wheedled in along with the others! It will thus save trouble, as there won’t be any need to make two jobs of them, to the inconvenience of the cash already in the box.”

Dowager lady Chia had a hearty laugh, so much so, that the cards, she held in her hand, flew all over the table; but pushing Yüan Yang. “Be quick,” she shouted, “and wrench that mouth of hers!”

P’ing Erh placed the cash according to her mistress’ directions. But after indulging too in laughter for a time, she retraced her footsteps. On reaching the entrance into the court, she met Chia Lien. “Where’s your Madame Hsing?” he inquired. “Mr. Chia She told me to ask her to go round.”

“She’s been standing in there with our old mistress,” P’ing Erh hastily laughed, “for ever so long, and yet she isn’t inclined to budge! Seize the earliest opportunity you can get to wash your hands clean of this business! Our old lady has had a good long fit of fuming and raging. Luckily, our lady Secunda cracked an endless stock of jokes, so she, at length, got a bit calmer!”

“I’ll go over,” Chia Lien said. “All I have to do is to find out our venerable senior’s wishes, as to whether she means to go to Lai Ta’s house on the fourteenth, so that I might have time to get the chairs ready. As I’ll be able to tell Madame Hsing to return, and have a share of the fun, won’t it be well for me to go?”

“My idea is,” P’ing Erh suggested laughingly, “that you shouldn’t put your foot in there! Every one, even up to Madame Wang, and Pao-yü, have alike received a rap on the knuckles, and are you also going now to fill up the gap?”

“Everything is over long ago,” Chia Lien observed, “and can it be that she’ll cap the whole thing by blowing me up too? What’s more, it’s no concern of mine. In the next place, Mr. Chia She enjoined me that I was to go in person, and ask his wife round, so, if I at present depute some one else, and he comes to know about it, he really won’t feel in a pleasant mood, and he’ll take advantage of this pretext to give vent to his spite on me.”

These words over, he quickly marched off. And P’ing Erh was so impressed with the reasonableness of his arguments, that she followed in his track.

As soon as Chia Lien reached the reception hall, he trod with a light step. Then peeping in he saw Madame Hsing standing inside. Lady Feng, with her eagle eye, was the first to espy him. But she winked at him and dissuaded him from coming in, and next gave a wink to Madame Hsing. Madame Hsing could not conveniently get away at once, and she had to pour a cup of tea, and place it in front of dowager lady Chia. But old lady Chia jerked suddenly round, and took Chia Lien at such a disadvantage that he found it difficult to beat a retreat. “Who is outside?” exclaimed old lady Chia. “It seemed to me as if some servant-boy had poked his head in.”

Lady Feng sprung to her feet without delay. “I also,” she interposed, “indistinctly noticed the shadow of some one.”

Saying this, she walked away and quitted the room. Chia Lien entered with hasty step. Forcing a smile, “I wanted to ask,” he remarked, “whether you, venerable senior, are going out on the fourteenth, so that the chairs may be got ready.”

“In that case,” dowager lady Chia rejoined, “why didn’t you come straight in; but behaved again in that mysterious way?”

“I saw that you were playing at cards, dear ancestor,” Chia Lien explained with a strained laugh, “and I didn’t venture to come and disturb you. I therefore simply meant to call my wife out to find out from her.”

“Is it anything so very urgent that you had to say it this very moment?” old lady Chia continued. “Had you waited until she had gone home, couldn’t you have asked her any amount of questions you may have liked? When have you been so full of zeal before? I’m puzzled to know whether it isn’t as an eavesdropping spirit that you appear on the scene; nor can I say whether you don’t come as a spy. But that impish way of yours gave me quite a start! What a low-bred fellow you are! Your wife will play at cards with me for a good long while more, so you’d better bundle yourself home, and conspire again with Chao Erh’s wife how to do away with your better half.”

Her remarks evoked general merriment.

“It’s Pao Erh’s wife,” Yüan Yang put in laughingly, “and you, worthy senior, have dragged in again Chao Erh’s wife.”

“Yes!” assented old lady Chia, likewise with a laugh. “How could I remember whether he wasn’t (pao) embracing her, or (pei) carrying her on his back. The bare mention of these things makes me lose all self-control and provokes me to anger! Ever since I crossed these doors as a great grandson’s wife, I have never, during the whole of these fifty-four years, seen anything like these affairs, albeit it has been my share to go through great frights, great dangers, thousands of strange things and hundred and one remarkable occurrences! Don’t you yet pack yourself off from my presence?”

Chia Lien could not muster courage to utter a single word to vindicate himself, but retired out of the room with all promptitude. P’ing Erh was standing outside the window. “I gave you due warning in a gentle tone, but you wouldn’t hear; you’ve, after all, rushed into the very meshes of the net!”

These reproaches were still being heaped on him when he caught sight of Madame Hsing, as she likewise made her appearance outside. “My father,” Chia Lien ventured, “is at the bottom of all this trouble; and the whole blame now is shoved upon your shoulders as well as mine, mother.”

“I’ll take you, you unfilial thing and…” Madame Hsing shouted. “People lay down their lives for their fathers; and you are prompted by a few harmless remarks to murmur against heaven and grumble against earth! Won’t you behave in a proper manner? He’s in high dudgeon these last few days, so mind he doesn’t give you a pounding!”

“Mother, cross over at once,” Chia Lien urged; “for he told me to come and ask you to go a long time ago.”

Pressing his mother, he escorted her outside as far as the other part of the mansion. Madame Hsing gave (her husband) nothing beyond a general outline of all that had been recently said; but Chia She found himself deprived of the means of furthering his ends. Indeed, so stricken was he with shame that from that date he pleaded illness. And so little able was he to rally sufficient pluck to face old lady Chia, that he merely commissioned Madame Hsing and Chia Lien to go daily and pay their respects to her on his behalf. He had no help too but to despatch servants all over the place to make every possible search and inquiry for a suitable concubine for him. After a long time they succeeded in purchasing, for the sum of eighty taels, a girl of seventeen years of age, Yen Hung by name, whom he introduced as secondary wife into his household.

But enough of this subject. In the rooms on the near side, they protracted for a long time their noisy game of cards, and only broke up after they had something to eat. Nothing worthy of note, however, occurred during the course of the following day or two. In a twinkle, the fourteenth drew near. At an early hour before daybreak, Lai Ta’s wife came again into the mansion to invite her guests. Dowager lady Chia was in buoyant spirits, so taking along Madame Wang, Mrs. Hsüeh, Pao-yü and the various young ladies, she betook herself into Lai Ta’s garden, where she sat for a considerable time.

This garden was not, it is true, to be compared with the garden of Broad Vista; but it also was most beautifully laid out, and consisted of spacious grounds. In the way of springs, rockeries, arbours and woods, towers and terraces, pavilions and halls, it likewise contained a good many sufficient to excite admiration. In the main hall outside, were assembled 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.

This Liu Hsiang-lien was, in fact, a young man of an old family; but he had been unsuccessful in his studies, and had lost his father and mother. He was naturally light-hearted and magnanimous; not particular in minor matters; immoderately fond of spear-exercise and fencing, of gambling and boozing; even going to such excesses as spending his nights in houses of easy virtue; playing the fife, thrumming the harp, and going in for everything and anything. Being besides young in years, and of handsome appearance, those who did not know what his standing was, invariably mistook him for an actor. But Lai Ta’s son had all along been on such friendly terms with him, that he consequently invited him for the nonce to help him do the honours.

Of a sudden, while every one was, after the wines had gone round, still on his good behaviour, 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.”

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.”

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.

“My dear sir,” Lai Shang-jung smilingly observed to Pao-yü, “I hand him over to you. I’m going to entertain the guests!”

With these words, he was off.

Pao-yü pulled Lia Hsiang-lien into a side study in the hall, where they sat down.

“Have you been recently to Ch’in Ch’ung’s grave?” he inquired of him.

“How could I not go?” Hsiang-lien answered. “The other day a few of us went out to give our falcons a fly; and we were yet at a distance of two li from his tomb, when remembering the heavy rains, we’ve had this summer, I gave way to fears lest his grave may not have been proof against them; so evading the notice of the party I went over and had a look. I found it again slightly damaged; but when I got back home, I speedily raised a few hundreds of cash, and issued early on the third day, and hired two men, who put it right.”

“It isn’t strange then!” exclaimed Pao-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!”

“There’s no use your worrying in a matter like this!” Liu Hsiang-lien said. “I am outside, so all you need do is to inwardly foster the wish; that’s all. But as the first of the tenth moon will shortly be upon us, I’ve already prepared the money necessary for going to the graves. You know well enough that I’m as poor as a rat; I’ve no hoardings at home; and when a few cash find their way into my pocket, I soon remain again quite empty-handed. But I’d better make the best of this opportunity, and keep the amount I have, in order that, when the time comes, I mayn’t find myself without a cash.”

“It’s exactly about this that I meant to send Pei Ming to see you,” Pao-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.”

“There’s no need sending any one to hunt me up!” Liu Hsiang-lien replied. “All that each of us need do in this matter is to acquit ourselves of what’s right. But in a little while, I again purpose going away on a tour abroad, to return in three to five years’ time.”

When Pao-yü heard his intention, “Why is this?” he at once inquired.

Liu Hsiang-lien gave a sardonic smile. “When my wish is on a fair way to be accomplished,” he said, “you’ll certainly hear everything. I must now leave you.”

“After all the difficulty we’ve had in meeting,” Pao-yü remarked, “wouldn’t it be better were you and I to go away together in the evening?”

“That worthy cousin of yours,” Hsiang-lien rejoined, “is as bad as ever, and were I to stay any longer, trouble would inevitably arise. So it’s as well that I should clear out of his way.”

Pao-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!”.

As he spoke, the tears trickled down his cheeks.

“I shall, of course, say good-bye to you,” Liu Hsiang-lien rejoined. “But you must not let any one know anything about it!”

While uttering these words, he stood up to get away. “Go in at once,” he urged, “there’s no need to see me off!”

Saying this, he quitted the study. As soon as he reached the main entrance, he came across Hsüeh P’an, bawling out boisterously, “Who let young Liu-erh go?”

The moment these shouts fell on Liu Hsiang-lien’s ear, his anger flared up as if it had been sparks spurting wildly about, and he only wished he could strike him dead with one blow. But on second consideration, he pondered that a fight after the present festive occasion would be an insult to Lai Shang-jung, and he perforce felt bound to stifle his indignation.

When 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?”

“I’m going somewhere, but will be back soon,” Hsiang-lien said by way of response.

“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.”

The sight of his repulsive manner filled the heart of Hsiang-lien with disgust and shame. But speedily devising a plan, he drew him to a secluded spot. “Is your friendship real,” he smiled, “or is it only a sham?”

This question sent 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.”

“Well, if that be so,” Hsiang-lien proceeded, “it isn’t convenient in here, so sit down and wait a bit. I’ll go ahead, but come out of this yourself by and bye, and follow me to my place, where we can drink the whole night long. I’ve also got there two first-rate young fellows who never go out of doors. But don’t bring so much as a single follower with you, as you’ll find, when you get there, plenty of people ready at hand to wait on you.”

So high did this assignation raise Hsüeh P’an’s spirits that he recovered, to a certain extent, from the effects of wine. “Is it really so?” he asked.

“How is it,” Hsiang-lien laughed, “that when people treat you with a sincere heart, you don’t, after all, believe them?”

“I’m no fool,” eagerly exclaimed 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?”

“My place is outside the northern gate.” Hsiang-lien explained. “But can you tear yourself away from your home to spend the night outside the city walls?”

“As long as you’re there,” Hsüeh P’an said, “what will I want my home for?”

“If that be so,” Hsiang-lien resumed, “I’ll wait for you on the bridge outside the northern gate. But let us meanwhile rejoin the banquet and have some wine. Come along, after you’ve seen me go; they won’t notice us then.”

“Yes!” shouted Hsüeh P’an with alacrity as he acquiesced to the proposal.

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.”

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.

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.

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.”

“Quick, let’s go ahead!” Hsiang-lien smilingly urged. “Mind people might notice us and follow us. It won’t then be nice!”

While instigating him, he took the lead, and letting his horse have the rein, he wended his way onwards, followed closely by 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.”

“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.

“If I ever in days to come,” he exclaimed, “know any change in my feelings and breathe a word to any living soul, may heaven blast me and earth annihilate me!”

Scarcely had he ended this oath, when a crash fell on his ear, and lo, he felt as if an iron hammer had been brought down to bear upon him from behind. A black mist shrouded his eyes, golden stars flew wildly about before his gaze; and losing all control over himself, he sprawled on the ground.

Hsiang-lien approached and had a look at him; and, knowing how little he was accustomed to thrashings, he only exerted but little of his strength, and struck him a few blows on the face. But about this time a fruit shop happened to open, and Hsüeh P’an strained at first every nerve to rise to his feet, when another slight kick from Hsiang-lien tumbled him over again.

“Both parties should really be agreeable,” he shouted. “But if you were not disposed to accept my advances, you should have simply told me in a proper way. And why did you beguile me here to give me a beating?”

So speaking, he went on boisterously to heap invective upon his head.

“I’ll take you, you blind fellow, and show you who Mr. Liu is,” Hsiang-lien cried. “You don’t appeal to me with solicitous entreaties, but go on abusing me! To kill you would be of no use, so I’ll merely give you a good lesson!”

With these words, he fetched his whip, and administered him, thirty or forty blows from his back down to his shins.

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.

“Do you go on in this way?” Hsiang-lien said, with an ironical smile. “Why, I thought you were not afraid of beatings.”

While uttering this taunt, he seized 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.

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.

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!”

“There’s no need for you to drag in other people!” Hsiang-lien went on. “Just confine yourself to those present!”

“There’s nothing up at present!” Hsüeh P’an cried. “From what you say, you’re a person full of propriety. So it’s I who am at fault.”

“You’ll have to speak a little milder,” Hsiang-lien added, “before I let you off.”

“My dear younger brother,” Hsüeh P’an pleaded, with a groan.

Hsiang-lien at this struck him another blow with his fist.

“Ai!” ejaculated Hsüeh P’an. “My dear senior brother!” he exclaimed.

Hsiang-lien then gave him two more whacks, one after the other.

“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!”

“Drink two mouthfuls of that water!” shouted Hsiang-lien.

“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?”

Hsiang-lien raised his fist and struck him.

“I’ll drink it, I’ll drink it!” quickly bawled Hsüeh P’an.

So saying, he felt obliged to lower his head to the very roots of the reeds and drink a mouthful. Before he had had time to swallow it, a sound of ‘ai’ became audible, and up came all the stuff he had put into his mouth only a few seconds back.

“You filthy thing!” exclaimed Hsiang-lien. “Be quick and finish drinking; and I’ll let you off.”

Upon hearing this, 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!”

“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.

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.

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.

“That’s a good sign!” they with one voice exclaimed; “for if the horse is there, the master must be there too!”

In a body, they thronged round the horse, when, from among the reeds, they caught the sound of human groans, so hurriedly rushing forward to ascertain for themselves, they, at a glance, perceived 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.

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!”

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.

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.

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!”

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.

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.

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?”

“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!”

“All will thus be square,” Pao-ch’ai smiled, “for, as he’s neither afraid of you, mother, nor gives an ear to people’s exhortations, but gets wilder and wilder every day that goes by, he may, if he gets two or three lessons, turn over a new leaf.”

While 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.”

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.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

A sensual-minded man gets into such trouble through his sensuality that he entertains the idea of going abroad. An estimable and refined girl manages, after great exertion, to compose verses at a refined meeting.

But to resume our story. After hearing his mother’s arguments, 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.

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.

“Stationery and perfumery have been so scarce this year,” he consequently represented, “that prices will next year inevitably be high; so when next year comes, what I’ll do will be to send up my elder and younger sons ahead of me to look after the pawnshop, and when I start on my way back, before the dragon festival, I’ll purchase a stock of paper, scents and fans and bring them for sale. And though we’ll have to reduce the duties, payable at the barriers, and other expenses, there will still remain for us a considerable percentage of profit.”

This proposal set 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.”

This resolution once arrived at in his mind, he waited until they rose from the banquet, when he, with calmness and equanimity, brought his plans to Chang Te-hui’s cognizance, and asked him to postpone his departure for a day or two so that they should proceed on the journey together.

In the evening, he imparted the tidings to his mother. Mrs. 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.”

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!”

When he had done speaking, he flew into a huff and went off to sleep.

Mrs. Hsüeh felt impelled, after the arguments she heard him propound, to deliberate with Pao-ch’ai.

“If brother,” Pao-ch’ai smilingly rejoined, “were in real earnest about gaining experience in some legitimate concerns, it would be well and good. But though he speaks, now that he is at home, in a plausible manner, the moment he gets abroad, his old mania will break out again, and it will be hard to exercise any check over him. Yet, it isn’t worth the while distressing yourself too much about him! If he does actually mend his ways, it will be the happiness of our whole lives. But if he doesn’t change, you won’t, mother, be able to do anything more; for though, in part, it depends on human exertion, it, in part, depends upon the will of heaven! If you keep on giving way to fears that, with his lack of worldly experience, he can’t be fit to go abroad and can’t be up to any business, and you lock him up at home this year, why next year he’ll be just the same! Such being the case, you’d better, ma,–since his arguments are right and specious enough,–make up your mind to sacrifice from eight hundred to a thousand taels and let him have them for a try. He’ll, at all events, have one of his partners to lend him a helping hand, one who won’t either think it a nice thing to play any of his tricks upon him. In the second place, there will be, when he’s gone, no one to the left of him or to the right of him, to stand by him, and no one upon whom to rely, for when one goes abroad, who cares for any one else? Those who have, eat; and those who haven’t starve. When he therefore casts his eyes about him and realises that there’s no one to depend upon, he may, upon seeing this, be up to less mischief than were he to stay at home; but of course, there’s no saying.”

Mrs. 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!”

They then matured their plans; and nothing further of any note transpired during the rest of the night.

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.

Chang Te-hui assented to her solicitations with profuse assurances, and took his leave after the collation.

“The fourteenth,” he went on to explain to 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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.”

“Since you’ve got all these people to keep you company, ma,” Pao-ch’ai remarked, “wouldn’t it be as well to tell sister Ling to come and be my companion? Our garden is besides quite empty and the nights are so long! And as I work away every night, won’t it be better for me to have an extra person with me?”

“Quite so!” smiled Mrs. 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.'”

“If we buy one, we won’t know what she’s really like!” Pao-ch’ai demurred. “If she gives us the slip, the money we may have spent on her will be a mere trifle, so long as she hasn’t been up to any pranks! So let’s quietly make inquiries, and, when we find one with well-known antecedents, we can purchase her, and, we’ll be on the safe side then!”

While speaking, she told Hsiang Ling to collect her bedding and clothes; and desiring an old matron and Ch’in Erh to take them over to the Heng Wu Yüan, Pao-ch’ai returned at last into the garden in company with Hsiang Ling.

“I meant to have proposed to my lady,” Hsiang Ling said to Pao-ch’ai, “that, when master left, I should be your companion, miss; but I feared lest her ladyship should, with that suspicious mind of hers, have maintained that I was longing to come into the garden to romp. But who’d have thought it, it was you, after all, who spoke to her about it!”

“I am well aware,” Pao-ch’ai smiled, “that you’ve been inwardly yearning for this garden, and that not for a day or two, but with the little time you can call your own, you would find it no fun, were you even able to run over once in a day, so long as you have to do it in a hurry-scurry! Seize therefore this opportunity of staying, better still, for a year; as I, on my side, will then have an extra companion; and you, on yours, will be able to accomplish your wishes.”

“My dear miss!” laughingly observed Hsiang Ling, “do let’s make the best of this time, and teach me how to write verses!”

“I say,” Pao-ch’ai laughed, “‘you no sooner, get the Lung state than you long for the Shu’! I advise you to wait a bit. This is the first day that you spend in here, and you should, first and foremost, go out of the garden by the eastern side gate and look up and salute every one in her respective quarters commencing from our old lady. But you needn’t make it a point of telling them that you’ve moved into the garden. If anyone does allude to the reason why you’ve shifted your quarters, you can simply explain cursorily that I’ve brought you in as a companion, and then drop the subject. On your return by and bye into the garden, you can pay a visit to the apartments of each of the young ladies.”

Hsiang Ling signified her acquiescence, and was about to start when she saw P’ing Erh rush in with hurried step. Hsiang Ling hastened to ask after her health, and P’ing Erh felt compelled to return her smile, and reciprocate her inquiry.

“I’ve brought her in to-day,” Pao-ch’ai thereupon smilingly said to P’ing Erh, “to make a companion of her. She was just on the point of going to tell your lady about it!”

“What is this that you’re saying, Miss?” P’ing Erh rejoined, with a smile. “I really am at a loss what reply to make to you!”

“It’s the right thing!” Pao-ch’ai answered. “‘ In a house, there’s the master, and in a temple there’s the chief priest.’ It’s true, it’s no important concern, but something must, in fact, be mentioned, so that those, who sit up on night duty in the garden, may be aware that these two have been added to my rooms, and know when to close the gates and when to wait. When you get back therefore do mention it, so that I mayn’t have to send some one to tell them.”

P’ing Erh promised to carry out her wishes. “As you’re moved in here,” she said to Hsiang Ling, “won’t you go and pay your respects to your neighbours?”

“I had just this very moment,” Pao-ch’ai smiled, “told her to go and do so.”

“You needn’t however go to our house,” P’ing Erh remarked, “our Mr. Secundus is laid up at home.”

Hsiang Ling assented and went off, passing first and foremost by dowager lady Chia’s apartments. But without devoting any of our attention to her, we will revert to P’ing Erh.

Seeing Hsiang Ling walk out of the room, she drew Pao-ch’ai near her. “Miss! have you heard our news?” she inquired in a low tone of voice.

“I haven’t heard any news,” Pao-ch’ai responded. “We’ve been daily so busy in getting my brother’s things ready for his voyage abroad, that we know nothing whatever of any of your affairs in here. I haven’t even seen anything of my female cousins these last two days.”

“Our master, Mr. Chia She, has beaten our Mr. Secundus to such a degree that he can’t budge,” P’ing Erh smiled. “But is it likely, miss, that you’ve heard nothing about it?”

“This morning,” Pao-ch’ai said by way of reply, “I heard a vague report on the subject, but I didn’t believe it could be true. I was just about to go and look up your mistress, when you unexpectedly arrived. But why did he beat him again?”

P’ing Erh set her teeth to and gave way to abuse. “It’s all on account of some Chia 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!”

Hearing this, Pao-ch’ai speedily directed Ying Erh to go and look for some, and, on discovering two balls of it, she brought them over and handed them to P’ing Erh.

“Such being the case,” Pao-ch’ai said, “do make, on your return, the usual inquiries for me, and I won’t then need to go.”

P’ing Erh turned towards Pao-ch’ai, and expressed her readiness to execute her commission, after which she betook herself home, where we will leave her without further notice.

After Hsiang Ling, for we will take up the thread of our narrative with her, completed her visits to the various inmates, she had her evening meal. Then when Pao-ch’ai and every one else went to dowager lady Chia’s quarters, she came into the Hsiao Hsiang lodge. By this time Tai-yü had got considerably better. Upon hearing that Hsiang Ling had also moved into the garden, she, needless to say, was filled with delight.

“Now, that I’ve come in here,” Hsiang Ling then smiled and said, “do please teach me, at your leisure, how to write verses. It will be a bit of good luck for me if you do.”

“Since you’re anxious to learn how to versify,” Tai-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.”

“Of course you do!” Hsiang Ling laughingly remarked. “I’ll readily treat you as my tutor. But you mustn’t put yourself to any trouble!”

“Is there anything so difficult about this,” Tai-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.”

“Strange though it may appear,” smiled Hsiang Ling, “I often handle books with old poems, and read one or two stanzas, whenever I can steal the time; and some among these I find pair most skilfully, while others don’t. I have also heard that the first, third and fifth lines are of no consequence; and that the second, fourth and sixth must be clearly distinguished. But I notice that there are in the poetical works of ancient writers both those which accord with the rules, as well as those whose second, fourth and sixth lines are not in compliance with any rule. Hence it is that my mind has daily been full of doubts. But after the hints you’ve given me, I really see that all these formulas are of no account, and that the main requirement is originality of diction.”

“Yes, that’s just the principle that holds good,” Tai-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.”

“What I admire,” Hsiang Ling proceeded with a smile; “are the lines by old Lu Fang;

“The double portière, when not raised, retains the fragrance long. An old inkslab, with a slight hole, collects plenty of ink.

“Their language is so clear that it’s charming.”

“You must on no account,” Tai-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.”

“Well, in that case,” Hsiang Ling smiled, after listening to her, “bring me the book, my dear miss, so that I may take it along. It will be a good thing if I can manage to read several stanzas at night.”

At these words, Tai-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.”

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.

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.

“Of all these, how many stanzas can you recollect?” Tai-yü asked, smiling.

“I’ve read every one of those marked with a red circle,” Hsiang Ling laughingly rejoined.

“Have you caught the ideas of any of them, yes or no?” Tai-yü inquired.

“Yes, I’ve caught some!” Hsiang Ling smiled. “But whether rightly or not I don’t know. Let me tell you.”

“You must really,” Tai-yü laughingly remarked, “minutely solicit people’s opinions if you want to make any progress. But go on and let me hear you.”

“From all I can see,” Hsiang Ling smiled, “the beauty of poetry lies in certain ideas, which though not quite expressible in words are, nevertheless, found, on reflection, to be absolutely correct. Some may have the semblance of being totally devoid of sense, but, on second thought, they’ll truly be seen to be full of sense and feeling.”

“There’s a good deal of right in what you say,” Tai-yü observed. “But I wonder how you arrived at this conclusion?”

“I notice in that stanza on ‘the borderland,’ the antithetical couplet:

“In the vast desert reigns but upright mist. In the long river setteth the round sun.

“Consider now how ever can mist be upright? The sun is, of course, round. But the word ‘upright’ would seem to be devoid of common sense; and ’round’ appears far too commonplace a word. But upon throwing the whole passage together, and pondering over it, one fancies having seen the scenery alluded to. Now were any one to suggest that two other characters should be substituted for these two, one would verily be hard pressed to find any other two as suitable. Besides this, there’s also the couplet:

“When the sun sets, rivers and lakes are white; When the mist falls, the heavens and earth azure.

“Both ‘white’ and ‘azure’, apparently too lack any sense; but reflection will show that these two words are absolutely necessary to bring out thoroughly the aspect of the scenery. And in conning them over, one feels just as if one had an olive, weighing several thousands of catties, in one’s mouth, so much relish does one derive from them. But there’s this too:

“At the ferry stays the setting sun, O’er the mart hangs the lonesome mist.

“And how much trouble must these words ‘stay,’ and ‘over, have caused the author in their conception! When the boats made fast, in the evening of a certain day of that year in which we came up to the capital, the banks were without a trace of human beings; and there were only just a few trees about; in the distance loomed the houses of several families engaged in preparing their evening meal, and the mist was, in fact, azure like jade, and connected like clouds. So, when I, as it happened, read this couplet last night, it actually seemed to me as if I had come again to that spot!”

But in the course of their colloquy, Pao-yü and T’an Ch’un arrived; and entering the room, they seated themselves, and lent an ear to her arguments on the verses.

“Seeing that you know so much,” Pao-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.”

“You say,” argued Tai-yü with a significant smile, “that the line:

“‘O’er (the mart) hangs the lonesome mist,’

“is good; but aren’t you yet aware that this is only plagiarised from an ancient writer? But I’ll show you the line I’m telling you of. You’ll find it far plainer and clearer than this.”

While uttering these words, she turned up T’ao Yüan-ming’s,

Dim in the distance lies a country place; Faint in the hamlet-market hangs the mist;

and handed it to Hsiang Ling.

Hsiang Ling perused it, and, nodding her head, she eulogised it. “Really,” she smiled, the word ‘over’ is educed from the two characters implying ‘faint.’

Pao-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.”

“To-morrow,” observed T’an ch’un with a smile; “I’ll stand an extra treat and invite you to join the society.”

“Why make a fool of me, miss?” Hsiang Ling laughingly ejaculated. “It’s merely that mania of mine that made me apply my mind to this subject at all; just for fun and no other reason.”

T’an Ch’un and Tai-yü both smiled. “Who doesn’t go in for these things