As soon as they caught sight of Pao-yue, they puckered up their mouths and laughed at him; while Chin Ch'uan grasped Pao-yue with one hand, and remarked in a low tone of voice: 'On these lips of mine has just been rubbed cosmetic, soaked with perfume, and are you now inclined to lick it or not?' whereupon Ts'ai Yuen pushed off Chin Ch'uan with one shove, as she interposed laughingly, 'A person's heart is at this moment in low spirits and do you still go on cracking jokes at him? But avail yourself of this opportunity when master is in good cheer to make haste and get in!'
Pao-yue had no help but to sidle against the door and walk in. Chia Cheng and madame Wang were, in fact, both in the inner rooms, and dame Chou raised the portiere. Pao-yue stepped in gingerly and perceived Chia Cheng and madame Wang sitting opposite to each other, on the stove-couch, engaged in conversation; while below on a row of chairs sat Ying Ch'un, T'an Ch'un, Hsi Ch'un and Chia Huan; but though all four of them were seated in there only T'an Ch'un, Hsi Ch'un and Chia Huan rose to their feet, as soon as they saw him make his appearance in the room; and when Chia Cheng raised his eyes and noticed Pao-yue standing in front of him, with a gait full of ease and with those winsome looks of his, so captivating, he once again realised what a mean being Chia Huan was, and how coarse his deportment. But suddenly he also bethought himself of Chia Chu, and as he reflected too that madame Wang had only this son of her own flesh and blood, upon whom she ever doated as upon a gem, and that his own beard had already begun to get hoary, the consequence was that he unwittingly stifled, well nigh entirely, the feeling of hatred and dislike, which, during the few recent years he had ordinarily fostered towards Pao-yue. And after a long pause, 'Her Majesty,' he observed, 'bade you day after day ramble about outside to disport yourself, with the result that you gradually became remiss and lazy; but now her desire is that we should keep you under strict control, and that in prosecuting your studies in the company of your cousins in the garden, you should carefully exert your brains to learn; so that if you don't again attend to your duties, and mind your regular tasks, you had better be on your guard!' Pao-yue assented several consecutive yes's; whereupon madame Wang drew him by her side and made him sit down, and while his three cousins resumed the seats they previously occupied: 'Have you finished all the pills you had been taking a short while back?' madame Wang inquired, as she rubbed Pao-yue's neck.
'There's still one pill remaining,' Pao-yue explained by way of reply.
'You had better,' madame Wang added, 'fetch ten more pills tomorrow morning; and every day about bedtime tell Hsi Jen to give them to you; and when you've had one you can go to sleep!'
'Ever since you, mother, bade me take them,' Pao-yue rejoined, 'Hsi Jen has daily sent me one, when I was about to turn in.'
'Who's this called Hsi Jen?' Chia Chen thereupon ascertained.
'She's a waiting-maid!' madame Wang answered.
'A servant girl,' Chia Cheng remonstrated, 'can be called by whatever name one chooses; anything is good enough; but who's it who has started this kind of pretentious name!'
Madame Wang noticed that Chia Cheng was not in a happy frame of mind, so that she forthwith tried to screen matters for Pao-yue, by saying: 'It's our old lady who has originated it!'
'How can it possibly be,' Chia Cheng exclaimed, 'that her ladyship knows anything about such kind of language? It must, for a certainty, be Pao-yue!'
Pao-yue perceiving that he could not conceal the truth from him, was under the necessity of standing up and of explaining; 'As I have all along read verses, I remembered the line written by an old poet:
'What time the smell of flowers wafts itself into man, one knows the
day is warm.
'And as this waiting-maid's surname was Hua (flower), I readily gave her the name, on the strength of this sentiment.'
'When you get back,' madame Wang speedily suggested addressing Pao-yue, 'change it and have done; and you, sir, needn't lose your temper over such a trivial matter!'
'It doesn't really matter in the least,' Chia Cheng continued; 'so that there's no necessity of changing it; but it's evident that Pao-yue doesn't apply his mind to legitimate pursuits, but mainly devotes his energies to such voluptuous expressions and wanton verses!' And as he finished these words, he abruptly shouted out: 'You brute- like child of retribution! Don't you yet get out of this?'
'Get away, off with you!' madame Wang in like manner hastened to urge; 'our dowager lady is waiting, I fear, for you to have her repast!'
Pao-yue assented, and, with gentle step, he withdrew out of the room, laughing at Chin Ch'uan-erh, as he put out his tongue; and leading off the two nurses, he went off on his way like a streak of smoke. But no sooner had he reached the door of the corridor than he espied Hsi Jen standing leaning against the side; who perceiving Pao-yue come back safe and sound heaped smile upon smile, and asked: 'What did he want you for?'
'There was nothing much,' Pao-yue explained, 'he simply feared that I would, when I get into the garden, be up to mischief, and he gave me all sorts of advice;' and, as while he explained matters, they came into the presence of lady Chia, he gave her a clear account, from first to last, of what had transpired. But when he saw that Lin Tai-yue was at the moment in the room, Pao-yue speedily inquired of her: 'Which place do you think best to live in?'
Tai-yue had just been cogitating on this subject, so that when she unexpectedly heard Pao-yue's inquiry, she forthwith rejoined with a smile: 'My own idea is that the Hsio Hsiang Kuan is best; for I'm fond of those clusters of bamboos, which hide from view the tortuous balustrade and make the place more secluded and peaceful than any other!'
Pao-yue at these words clapped his hands and smiled. 'That just meets with my own views!' he remarked; 'I too would like you to go and live in there; and as I am to stay in the I Hung Yuan, we two will be, in the first place, near each other; and next, both in quiet and secluded spots.'
While the two of them were conversing, a servant came, sent over by Chia Cheng, to report to dowager lady Chia that: 'The 22nd of the second moon was a propitious day for Pao-yue and the young ladies to shift their quarters into the garden; that during these few days, servants should be sent in to put things in their proper places and to clean; that Hsueh Pao-ch'ai should put up in the Heng Wu court; that Lin Tai-yue was to live in the Hsiao Hsiang lodge; that Chia Ying-ch'un should move into the Cho Chin two-storied building; that T'an Ch'un should put up in the Ch'iu Yen library; that Hsi Ch'un should take up her quarters in the Liao Feng house; that widow Li should live in the Tao Hsiang village, and that Pao-yue was to live in the I Hung court. That at every place two old nurses should be added and four servant-girls; that exclusive of the nurse and personal waiting-maid of each, there should, in addition, be servants, whose special duties should be to put things straight and to sweep the place; and that on the 22nd, they should all, in a body, move into the garden.'
When this season drew near, the interior of the grounds, with the flowers waving like embroidered sashes, and the willows fanned by the fragrant breeze, was no more as desolate and silent as it had been in previous days; but without indulging in any further irrelevant details, we shall now go back to Pao-yue.
Ever since he shifted his quarters into the park, his heart was full of joy, and his mind of contentment, fostering none of those extraordinary ideas, whose tendency could be to give birth to longings and hankerings. Day after day, he simply indulged, in the company of his female cousins and the waiting-maids, in either reading his books, or writing characters, or in thrumming the lute, playing chess, drawing pictures and scanning verses, even in drawing patterns of argus pheasants, in embroidering phoenixes, contesting with them in searching for strange plants, and gathering flowers, in humming poetry with gentle tone, singing ballads with soft voice, dissecting characters, and in playing at mora, so that, being free to go everywhere and anywhere, he was of course completely happy. From his pen emanate four ballads on the times of the four seasons, which, although they could not be looked upon as first-rate, afford anyhow a correct idea of his sentiments, and a true account of the scenery.
The ballad on the spring night runs as follows:
The silken curtains, thin as russet silk, at random are spread out.
The croak of frogs from the adjoining lane but faintly strikes the
ear.
The pillow a slight chill pervades, for rain outside the window falls.
The landscape, which now meets the eye, is like that seen in dreams by
man.
In plenteous streams the candles' tears do drop, but for whom do they
