alternative but to retrace his steps homewards. But as when he had seen Pao-yue the previous day, he had asked him to go into the outer library and wait for him, he therefore finished his meal and then once again entered the mansion and came over into the I Hsia study, situated outside the ceremonial gate, over at old lady Chia's part of the compound, where he discovered the two lads Ming Yen, whose name had been changed into Pei Ming, and Chu Yo playing at chess, and just arguing about the capture of a castle; and besides them, Yin Ch'uan, Sao Hua, T'iao Yuen, Pan Ho, these four or five of them, up to larks, stealing the young birds from the nests under the eaves of the house.
As soon as Chia Yuen entered the court, he stamped his foot and shouted, 'The monkeys are up to mischief! Here I am, I've come;' and when the company of servant-boys perceived him, they one and all promptly dispersed; while Chia Yuen walked into the library, and seating himself at once in a chair, he inquired, 'Has your master Secundus, Mr. Pao, come down?'
'He hasn't been down here at all to-day,' Pei Ming replied, 'but if you, Mr. Secundus, have anything to tell him, I'll go and see what he's up to for you.'
Saying this he there and then left the room; and Chia Yuen meanwhile gave himself to the inspection of the pictures and nicknacks. But some considerable time elapsed, and yet he did not see him arrive; and noticing besides that the other lads had all gone to romp, he was just plunged in a state of despondency, when he heard outside the door a voice cry out, with winning tone, and tender accents: 'My elder brother!'
Chia Yuen looked out, and saw that it was a servant-maid of fifteen or sixteen, who was indeed extremely winsome and spruce. As soon however as the maid caught a glimpse of Chia Yuen, she speedily turned herself round and withdrew out of sight. But, as luck would have it, it happened that Pei Ming was coming along, and seeing the servant-maid in front of the door, he observed: 'Welcome, welcome! I was quite at a loss how to get any news of Pao-yue.' And as Chia Yuen discerned Pei Ming, he hastily too, ran out in pursuit of him, and ascertained what was up; whereupon Pei Ming returned for answer: 'I waited a whole day long, and not a single soul came over; but this girl is attached to master Secundus' (Mr. Pao's) rooms!' and, 'My dear girl,' he consequently went on to say, 'go in and take a message. Say that Mr. Secundus, who lives under the portico, has come!'
The servant-maid, upon hearing these words, knew at once that he was a young gentleman belonging to the family in which she served, and she did not skulk out of sight, as she had done in the first instance; but with a gaze sufficient to kill, she fixed her two eyes upon Chia Yuen, when she heard Chia Yuen interpose: 'What about over the portico and under the portico; you just tell him that Yuen Erh is come, that's all.'
After a while this girl gave a sarcastic smile. 'My idea is,' she ventured, 'that you, master Secundus, should really, if it so please you, go back, and come again to-morrow; and to-night, if I find time, I'll just put in a word with him!'
'What's this that you're driving at?' Pei Ming then shouted.
And the maid rejoined: 'He's not even had a siesta to-day, so that he'll have his dinner at an early hour, and won't come down again in the evening; and is it likely that you would have master Secundus wait here and suffer hunger? and isn't it better than he should return home? The right thing is that he should come to-morrow; for were even by and by some one to turn up, who could take a message, that person would simply acquiesce with the lips, but would he be willing to deliver the message in for you?'
Chia Yuen, upon finding how concise and yet how well expressed this girl's remarks had been, was bent upon inquiring what her name was; but as she was a maid employed in Pao-yue's apartments, he did not therefore feel justified in asking the question, and he had no other course but to add, 'What you say is quite right, I'll come to- morrow!' and as he spoke, he there and then was making his way outside, when Pei Ming remarked: 'I'll go and pour a cup of tea; and master Secundus, have your tea and then go.'
Chia Yuen turned his head round, as he kept on his way, and said by way of rejoinder: 'I won't have any tea; for I've besides something more to attend to!' and while with his lips he uttered these words, he, with his eyes, stared at the servant-girl, who was still standing in there.
Chia Yuen wended his steps straightway home; and the next day, he came to the front entrance, where, by a strange coincidence, he met lady Feng on her way to the opposite side to pay her respects. She had just mounted her carriage, but perceiving Chia Yuen arrive, she eagerly bade a servant stop him, and, with the window between them, she smiled and observed: 'Yuen Erh, you're indeed bold in playing your pranks with me! I thought it strange that you should give me presents; but the fact is you had a favour to ask of me; and your uncle told me even yesterday that you had appealed to him!'
Chia Yuen smiled. 'Of my appeal to uncle, you needn't, aunt, make any mention; for I'm at this moment full of regret at having made it. Had I known, at an early hour, that things would have come to this pass, I would, from the very first, have made my request to you, aunt; and by this time everything would have been settled long ago! But who would have anticipated that uncle was, after all, a man of no worth!'
'Strange enough,' lady Feng remarked sneeringly, 'when you found that you didn't succeed in that quarter, you came again yesterday in search of me!'
'Aunt, you do my filial heart an injustice,' Chia Yuen protested; 'I never had such a thought; had I entertained any such idea, wouldn't I, aunt, have made my appeal to you yesterday? But as you are now aware of everything, I'll really put uncle on one side, and prefer my request to you; for circumstances compel me to entreat you, aunt, to be so good as to show me some little consideration!'
Lady Feng laughed sardonically. 'You people will choose the long road to follow and put me also in a dilemma! Had you told me just one word at an early hour, what couldn't have been brought about? an affair of state indeed to be delayed up to this moment! In the garden, there are to be more trees planted and flowers laid down, and I couldn't think of any person that I could have recommended, and had you spoken before this, wouldn't the whole question have been settled soon enough?'
'Well, in that case, aunt,' ventured Chia Yuen with a smile, 'you had better depute me to-morrow, and have done!'
'This job,' continued lady Feng after a pause, 'is not, my impression is, very profitable; and if you were to wait till the first moon of next year, when the fireworks, lanterns, and candles will have to be purveyed, I'll depute you as soon as those extensive commissions turn up.'
'My dear aunt,' pleaded Chia Yuen, 'first appoint me to this one, and if I do really manage this satisfactorily, you can then commission me with that other!'
'You know in truth how to draw a long thread,' lady Feng observed laughing. 'But hadn't it been that your uncle had spoken to me on your account, I wouldn't have concerned myself about you. But as I shall cross over here soon after the repast, you had better come at eleven a.m., and fetch the money, for you to enter into the garden the day after to-morrow, and have the flowers planted!'
As she said this, she gave orders to drive the 'scented' carriage, and went on her way by the quickest cut; while Chia Yuen, who was irrepressibly delighted, betook himself into the I Hsia study, and inquired after Pao-yue. But, who would have thought it, Pao-yue had, at an early hour, gone to the mansion of the Prince of Pei Ching, so that Chia Yuen had to sit in a listless mood till noon; and when he found out that lady Feng had returned, he speedily wrote an acknowledgment and came to receive the warrant. On his arrival outside the court, he commissioned a servant to announce him, and Ts'ai Ming thereupon walked out, and merely asking for the receipt, went in, and, after filling in the amount, the year and moon, he handed it over to Chia Yuen together with the warrant. Chia Yuen received them from him, and as the entry consisted of two hundred taels, his heart was full of exultant joy; and turning round, he hurried to the treasury, where after he had taken over the amount in silver, he returned home and laid the case before his mother, and needless to say, that both the parent and her son were in high spirits. The next day, at the fifth watch, Chia Yun first came in search of Ni Erh, to whom he repaid the money, and then taking fifty taels along with him, he sped outside the western gate to the house of Fang Ch'un, a gardener, to purchase trees, where we will leave him without saying anything more about him.
We will now resume our story with Pao-yue. The day on which he encountered Chia Yuen, he asked him to come in on the morrow and have a chat with him, but this invitation was practically the mere formal talk of a rich and well-to-do young man, and was not likely to be so much as borne in mind; and so it was that it readily slipped from his memory. On the evening of the day, however, on which he returned home from the mansion of the Prince Pei Ching, he came, after paying his salutations to dowager lady Chia, madame Wang, and the other inmates, back into the garden; but upon divesting himself of all his fineries, he was just about to have his bath, when, as Hsi Jen had, at the invitation of Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai, crossed over to tie a few knotted buttons, as Ch'in Wen and Pi Hen had
