then strolled leisurely about. Presently, she entered Mrs. Chao's apartments. After the two ladies had exchanged salutations, Mrs. Chao bade a young servant-girl hand her guest a cup of tea. While Mrs. Chao busied herself pasting shoes, Ma, the Taoist matron, espied, piled up in a heap on the stove-couch, sundry pieces of silks and satins. 'It just happens,' she consequently remarked, 'that I have no facings for shoes, so my lady do give me a few odd cuttings of silk and satin, of no matter what colour, to make myself a pair of shoes with.'
Mrs. Chao heaved a sigh. 'Look,' she said, 'whether there be still among them any pieces good for anything. But anything that's worth anything doesn't find its way in here. If you don't despise what's worthless, you're at liberty to select any two pieces and to take them away, and have done.'
The Taoist matron, Ma, chose with alacrity several pieces and shoved them in her breast.
'The other day,' Mrs. Chao went on to inquire, 'I sent a servant over with five hundred cash; have you presented any offerings before the god of medicine or not?'
'I've offered them long ago for you,' the Taoist matron Ma rejoined.
'O-mi-to-fu!' ejaculated Mrs. Chao with a sigh, 'were I a little better off, I'd also come often and offer gifts; but though my will be boundless, my means are insufficient!'
'Don't trouble your mind on this score,' suggested Ma, the Taoist matron. 'By and bye, when Mr. Huan has grown up into a man and obtained some official post or other, will there be then any fear of your not being able to afford such offerings as you might like to make?'
At these words Mrs. Chao gave a smile. 'Enough, enough!' she cried. 'Don't again refer to such contingencies! the present is a fair criterion. For up to whom in this house can my son and I come? Pao-yue is still a mere child; but he is such that he wins people's love. Those big people may be partial to him, and love him a good deal, I've nothing to say to it; but I can't eat humble pie to this sort of mistress!'
While uttering this remark, she stretched out her two fingers.
Ma, the Taoist matron, understood the meaning she desired to convey. 'It's your lady Secunda, Lien, eh?' she forthwith asked.
Mrs. Chao was filled with trepidation. Hastily waving her hand, she got to her feet, raised the portiere, and peeped outside. Perceiving that there was no one about, she at length retraced her footsteps. 'Dreadful!' she then said to the Taoist matron. 'Dreadful! But speaking of this sort of mistress, I'm not so much as a human being, if she doesn't manage to shift over into her mother's home the whole of this family estate.'
'Need you tell me this!' Ma, the Taoist matron, at these words, remarked with a view to ascertain what she implied. 'Haven't I, forsooth, discovered it all for myself? Yet it's fortunate that you don't trouble your minds about her; for it's far better that you should let her have her own way.'
'My dear woman,' rejoined Mrs. Chao, 'Not let her have her own way! why, is it likely that any one would have the courage to tell her anything?'
'I don't mean to utter any words that may bring upon me retribution,' added Ma, the Taoist matron, 'but you people haven't got the wits. But it's no matter of surprise. Yet if you daren't openly do anything, why, you could stealthily have devised some plan. And do you still tarry up to this day?'
Mrs. Chao realised that there lurked something in her insinuation, and she felt an inward secret joy. 'What plan could I stealthily devise?' she asked. 'I've got the will right enough, but I'm not a person gifted with this sort of gumption. So were you to impart to me some way or other, I would reward you most liberally.'
When the Taoist matron, Ma, heard this, she drew near to her. 'O-mi-to-fu! desist at once from asking me!' she designedly exclaimed. 'How can I know anything about such matters, contrary as they are to what is right?'
'There you are again!' Mrs. Chao replied. 'You're one ever most ready to succour those in distress, and to help those in danger, and is it likely that you'll quietly look on, while some one comes and compasses my death as well as that of my son? Are you, pray, fearful lest I shouldn't give you any reward?'
Ma, the Taoist matron, greeted this remark with a smile. 'You're right enough in what you say,' she ventured, 'of my being unable to bear the sight of yourself and son receiving insult from a third party; but as for your mention of rewards, why, what's there of yours that I still covet?'
This answer slightly reassured Mrs. Chao's mind. 'How is it,' she speedily urged, 'that an intelligent person like you should have become so dense? If, indeed, the spell prove efficacious, and we exterminate them both, is there any apprehension that this family estate won't be ours? and when that time comes, won't you get all you may wish?'
At this disclosure, Ma, the Taoist matron, lowered her head for a long time. 'When everything,' she observed, 'shall have been settled satisfactorily, and when there'll be, what's more, no proof at all, will you still pay any heed to me?'
'What's there hard about this?' remarked Mrs. Chao. 'I've saved several taels from my own pin-money, and have besides a good number of clothes and head-ornaments. So you can first take several of these away with you. And I'll further write an I.O.U., and entrust it to you, and when that time does come, I'll pay you in full.'
'That will do!' answered the Taoist matron, Ma.
Mrs. Chao thereupon dismissed even a young servant-girl, who happened to be in the room, and hastily opening a trunk, she produced several articles of clothing and jewelry, as well as a few odd pieces of silver from her own pocket-money. Then also writing a promissory note for fifty taels, she surrendered the lot to Ma, the Taoist matron. 'Take these,' she said, 'in advance for presents in your temple.'
At the sight of the various articles and of the promissory note, the Taoist matron became at once unmindful of what was right and what was wrong; and while her mouth was full of assent, she stretched out her arm, and first and foremost laid hold of the hard cash, and next clutched the I.O.U. Turning then towards Mrs. Chao, she asked for a sheet of paper; and taking up a pair of scissors, she cut out two human beings and gave them to Mrs. Chao, enjoining her to write on the upper part of them the respective ages of the two persons in question. Looking further for a sheet of blue paper, she cut out five blue-faced devils, which she bade her place together side by side with the paper men, and taking a pin she made them fast. 'When I get home,' she remarked, 'I'll have recourse to some art, which will, beyond doubt, prove efficacious.'
When she however had done speaking, she suddenly saw Madame Wang's waiting-maid make her appearance inside the room. 'What! my dame, are you in here!' the girl exclaimed. 'Why, our lady is waiting for you!'
The two dames then parted company.
But passing them over, we will now allude to Lin Tai-y mu. As Pao-yue had scalded his face, and did not go out of doors very much, she often came to have a chat with him. On this particular day she took up, after her meal, some book or other and read a couple of pages out of it. Next, she busied herself a little with needlework, in company with Tzu Chuan. She felt however thoroughly dejected and out of sorts. So she strolled out of doors along with her. But catching sight of the newly sprouted bamboo shoots, in front of the pavilion, they involuntarily stepped out of the entrance of the court, and penetrated into the garden. They cast their eyes on all four quarters; but not a soul was visible. When they became conscious of the splendour of the flowers and the chatter of the birds, they, with listless step, turned their course towards the I Hung court. There they found several servant-girls baling out water; while a bevy of them stood under the verandah, watching the thrushes having their bath. They heard also the sound of laughter in the rooms.
The fact is that Li Kung-ts'ai, lady Feng, and Pao-ch'ai were assembled inside. As soon as they saw them walk in, they with one voice shouted, smiling: 'Now, are not these two more!'
'We are a full company to-day,' laughed Tai-yue, 'but who has issued the cards and invited us here?'
'The other day,' interposed lady Feng, 'I sent servants with a present of two caddies of tea for you, Miss Lin; was it, after all, good?'
'I had just forgotten all about it,' Tai-yue rejoined, 'many thanks for your kind attention!
'I tasted it,' observed Pao-yue. 'I did not think it anything good. But I don't know how others, who've had any of it, find it.'
'Its flavour,' said Tai-yue, 'is good; the only thing is, it has no colour.'
'It's tribute tea from the Laos Kingdom,' continued lady Feng. 'When I tried it, I didn't either find it anything very fine. It's not up to what we ordinarily drink.'
'To my taste, it's all right,' put in Tai-yue. 'But what your palates are like, I can't make out.'
'As you say it's good,' suggested Pao-yue, 'you're quite at liberty to take all I have for your use.'
'I've got a great deal more of it over there,' lady Feng remarked.
