The flowers, lo, fall, and on their course the waters red do flow!
Petty misfortunes of ten thousand kinds (my heart assail!)
both simultaneously flashed through her memory; and, collating them all together, she meditated on them minutely, until suddenly her heart was stricken with pain and her soul fleeted away, while from her eyes trickled down drops of tears. But while nothing could dispel her present state of mind, she unexpectedly realised that some one from behind gave her a tap; and, turning her head round to look, she found that it was a young girl; but who it was, the next chapter will make known.
CHAPTER XXIV.
The drunken Chin Kang makes light of lucre and shows a preference for
generosity.
The foolish girl mislays her handkerchief and arouses mutual thoughts.
But to return to our narrative. Lin Tai-yue's sentimental reflections were the while reeling and ravelling in an intricate maze, when unexpectedly some one from behind gave her a tap, saying: 'What are you up to all alone here?' which took Lin Tai-yu so much by surprise that she gave a start, and turning her head round to look and noticing that it was Hsiang Ling and no one else; 'You stupid girl!' Lin Tai-yue replied, 'you've given me such a fright! But where do you come from at this time?'
Hsiang Ling giggled and smirked. 'I've come,' she added, 'in search of our young lady, but I can't find her anywhere. But your Tzu Chuan is also looking after you; and she says that lady Secunda has sent a present to you of some tea. But you had better go back home and sit down.'
As she spoke, she took Tai-yue by the hand, and they came along back to the Hsiao Hsiang Kuan; where lady Feng had indeed sent her two small catties of a new season tea, of superior quality. But Lin Tai-yue sat down, in company with Hsiang Ling, and began to converse on the merits of this tapestry and the fineness of that embroidery; and after they had also had a game at chess, and read a few sentences out of a book, Hsiang Ling took her departure. But we need not speak of either of them, but return now to Pao-yue. Having been found, and brought back home, by Hsi Jen, he discovered Yuan Yang reclining on the bed, in the act of examining Hsi Jen's needlework; but when she perceived Pao-yue arrive, she forthwith remarked: 'Where have you been? her venerable ladyship is waiting for you to tell you to go over and pay your obeisance to our Senior master, and don't you still make haste to go and change your clothes and be off!'
Hsi Jen at once walked into the room to fetch his clothes, and Pao-yue sat on the edge of the bed, and pushed his shoes off with his toes; and, while waiting for his boots to put them on, he turned round and perceiving that Yuean Yang, who was clad in a light red silk jacket and a green satin waistcoat, and girdled with a white crepe sash, had her face turned the other way, and her head lowered giving her attention to the criticism of the needlework, while round her neck she wore a collar with embroidery, Pao-yue readily pressed his face against the nape of her neck, and as he sniffed the perfume about it, he did not stay his hand from stroking her neck, which in whiteness and smoothness was not below that of Hsi Jen; and as he approached her, 'My dear girl,' he said smiling and with a drivelling face, 'do let me lick the cosmetic off your mouth!' clinging to her person, as he uttered these words, like twisted sweetmeat.
'Hsi Jen!' cried Yuean Yang at once, 'come out and see! You've been with him a whole lifetime, and don't you give him any advice; but let him still behave in this fashion!' Whereupon, Hsi Jen walked out, clasping the clothes, and turning to Pao-yue, she observed, 'I advise you in this way and it's no good, I advise you in that way and you don't mend; and what do you mean to do after all? But if you again behave like this, it will then, in fact, be impossible for me to live any longer in this place!'
As she tendered these words of counsel, she urged him to put his clothes on, and, after he had changed, he betook himself, along with Yuan Yang, to the front part of the mansion, and bade good-bye to dowager lady Chia; after which he went outside, where the attendants and horses were all in readiness; but when he was about to mount his steed, he perceived Chia Lien back from his visit and in the act of dismounting; and as the two of them stood face to face, and mutually exchanged some inquiries, they saw some one come round from the side, and say: 'My respects to you, uncle Pao-yue!'
When Pao-yue came to look at him, he noticed that this person had an oblong face, that his body was tall and lanky, that his age was only eighteen or nineteen, and that he possessed, in real truth, an air of refinement and elegance; but though his features were, after all, exceedingly familiar, he could not recall to mind to what branch of the family he belonged, and what his name was.
'What are you staring vacantly for?' Chia Lien inquired laughing.
'Don't you even recognise him? He's Yuen Erh, the son of our fifth sister-in-law, who lives in the back court!'
'Of course!' Pao-yue assented complacently. 'How is it that I had forgotten just now!' And having gone on to ask how his mother was, and what work he had to do at present; 'I've come in search of uncle Secundus, to tell him something,' Chia Yuen replied, as he pointed at Chia Lien.
'You've really improved vastly from what you were before,' added Pao-yue smiling; 'you verily look just is if you were my son!'
'How very barefaced!' Chia Lien exclaimed as he burst out laughing; 'here's a person four or five years your senior to be made your son!'
'How far are you in your teens this year?' Pao-yue inquired with a smile.
'Eighteen!' Chia Yuen rejoined.
This Chia Yuen was, in real deed, sharp and quick-witted; and when he heard Pao-yue remark that he looked like his son, he readily gave a sarcastic smile and observed, 'The proverb is true which says, 'the grandfather is rocked in the cradle while the grandson leans on a staff.' But though old enough in years, I'm nevertheless like a mountain, which, in spite of its height, cannot screen the sun from view. Besides, since my father's death, I've had no one to look after me, and were you, uncle Pao, not to disdain your doltish nephew, and to acknowledge me as your son, it would be your nephew's good fortune!'
'Have you heard what he said?' Chia Lien interposed cynically. 'But to acknowledge him as a son is no easy question to settle!' and with these words, he walked in; whereupon Pao-yue smilingly said: 'To-morrow when you have nothing to do, just come and look me up; but don't go and play any devilish pranks with them! I've just now no leisure, so come to-morrow, into the library, where I'll have a chat with you for a whole day, and take you into the garden for some fun!'
With this remark still on his lips, he laid hold of the saddle and mounted his horse; and, followed by the whole bevy of pages, he crossed over to Chia She's on this side; where having discovered that Chia She had nothing more the matter with him than a chill which he had suddenly contracted, he commenced by delivering dowager lady Chia's message, and next paid his own obeisance. Chia She, at first, stood up and made suitable answer to her venerable ladyship's inquiries, and then calling a servant, 'Take the gentleman,' he said, 'into my lady's apartment to sit down.'
Pao-yue withdrew out of the room, and came by the back to the upper apartment; and as soon as madame Hsing caught sight of him, she, before everything else, rose to her feet and asked after old lady Chia's health; after which, Pao-yue made his own salutation, and madame Hsing drew him on to the stove-couch, where she induced him to take a seat, and eventually inquired after the other inmates, and also gave orders to serve the tea. But scarcely had they had tea, before they perceived Chia Tsung come in to pay his respects to Pao-yue.
'Where could one find such a living monkey as this!' madame Hsing remarked; 'is that nurse of yours dead and gone that she doesn't even keep you clean and tidy, and that she lets you go about with those eyebrows of yours so black and that mouth so filthy! you scarcely look like the child of a great family of scholars.'
While she spoke, she perceived both Chia Huan and Chia Lan, one of whom was a young uncle and the other his nephew, also advance and present their compliments, and madame Hsing bade the two of them sit down on the chairs. But when Chia Huan noticed that Pao-yue sat on the same rug with madame Hsing, and that her ladyship was further caressing and petting him in every possible manner, he soon felt so very unhappy at heart, that, after sitting for a short time, he forthwith made a sign to Chia Lan that he would like to go; and as Chia Lan could not but humour him, they both got up together to take their leave. But when Pao-yue perceived them rise, he too felt a wish
