'That will do! that will do!' remarked dowager lady Chia; 'such being the case, you will be the more intimate.'
Pao-yue, thereupon, went up to Tai-yue, and taking a seat next to her, continued to look at her again with all intentness for a good long while.
'Have you read any books, cousin?' he asked.
'I haven't as yet,' replied Tai-yue, 'read any books, as I have only been to school for a year; all I know are simply a few characters.'
'What is your worthy name, cousin?' Pao-yue went on to ask; whereupon Tai-yue speedily told him her name.
'Your style?' inquired Pao-yue; to which question Tai-yue replied, 'I have no style.'
'I'll give you a style,' suggested Pao-yue smilingly; 'won't the double style 'P'in P'in,' 'knitting brows,' do very well?'
'From what part of the standard books does that come?' T'an Ch'un hastily interposed.
'It is stated in the Thorough Research into the state of Creation from remote ages to the present day,' Pao- yue went on to explain, 'that, in the western quarter, there exists a stone, called Tai, (black,) which can be used, in lieu of ink, to blacken the eyebrows with. Besides the eyebrows of this cousin taper in a way, as if they were contracted, so that the selection of these two characters is most appropriate, isn't it?'
'This is just another plagiarism, I fear,' observed T'an Ch'un, with an ironic smirk.
'Exclusive of the Four Books,' Pao-yue remarked smilingly, 'the majority of works are plagiarised; and is it only I, perchance, who plagiarise? Have you got any jade or not?' he went on to inquire, addressing Tai-yue, (to the discomfiture) of all who could not make out what he meant.
'It's because he has a jade himself,' Tai-yue forthwith reasoned within her mind, 'that he asks me whether I have one or not.-No; I haven't one,' she replied. 'That jade of yours is besides a rare object, and how could every one have one?'
As soon as Pao-yue heard this remark, he at once burst out in a fit of his raving complaint, and unclasping the gem, he dashed it disdainfully on the floor. 'Rare object, indeed!' he shouted, as he heaped invective on it; 'it has no idea how to discriminate the excellent from the mean, among human beings; and do tell me, has it any perception or not? I too can do without this rubbish!'
All those, who stood below, were startled; and in a body they pressed forward, vying with each other as to who should pick up the gem.
Dowager lady Chia was so distressed that she clasped Pao-yue in her embrace. 'You child of wrath,' she exclaimed. 'When you get into a passion, it's easy enough for you to beat and abuse people; but what makes you fling away that stem of life?'
Pao-yue's face was covered with the traces of tears. 'All my cousins here, senior as well as junior,' he rejoined, as he sobbed, 'have no gem, and if it's only I to have one, there's no fun in it, I maintain! and now comes this angelic sort of cousin, and she too has none, so that it's clear enough that it is no profitable thing.'
Dowager lady Chia hastened to coax him. 'This cousin of yours,' she explained, 'would, under former circumstances, have come here with a jade; and it's because your aunt felt unable, as she lay on her death-bed, to reconcile herself to the separation from your cousin, that in the absence of any remedy, she forthwith took the gem belonging to her (daughter), along with her (in the grave); so that, in the first place, by the fulfilment of the rites of burying the living with the dead might be accomplished the filial piety of your cousin; and in the second place, that the spirit of your aunt might also, for the time being, use it to gratify the wish of gazing on your cousin. That's why she simply told you that she had no jade; for she couldn't very well have had any desire to give vent to self-praise. Now, how can you ever compare yourself with her? and don't you yet carefully and circumspectly put it on? Mind, your mother may come to know what you have done!'
As she uttered these words, she speedily took the jade over from the hand of the waiting-maid, and she herself fastened it on for him.
When Pao-yue heard this explanation, he indulged in reflection, but could not even then advance any further arguments.
A nurse came at the moment and inquired about Tai-yue's quarters, and dowager lady Chia at once added, 'Shift Pao-yue along with me, into the warm room of my suite of apartments, and put your mistress, Miss Lin, temporarily in the green gauze house; and when the rest of the winter is over, and repairs are taken in hand in spring in their rooms, an additional wing can be put up for her to take up her quarters in.'
'My dear ancestor,' ventured Pao-yue; 'the bed I occupy outside the green gauze house is very comfortable; and what need is there again for me to leave it and come and disturb your old ladyship's peace and quiet?'
'Well, all right,' observed dowager lady Chia, after some consideration; 'but let each one of you have a nurse, as well as a waiting-maid to attend on you; the other servants can remain in the outside rooms and keep night watch and be ready to answer any call.'
At an early hour, besides, Hsi-feng had sent a servant round with a grey flowered curtain, embroidered coverlets and satin quilts and other such articles.
Tai-yue had brought along with her only two servants; the one was her own nurse, dame Wang, and the other was a young waiting-maid of sixteen, whose name was called Hsueeh Yen. Dowager lady Chia, perceiving that Hsueeh Yen was too youthful and quite a child in her manner, while nurse Wang was, on the other hand, too aged, conjectured that Tai-yue would, in all her wants, not have things as she liked, so she detached two waiting- maids, who were her own personal attendants, named Tzu Chuean and Ying Ko, and attached them to Tai-yue's service. Just as had Ying Ch'un and the other girls, each one of whom had besides the wet nurses of their youth, four other nurses to advise and direct them, and exclusive of two personal maids to look after their dress and toilette, four or five additional young maids to do the washing and sweeping of the rooms and the running about backwards and forwards on errands.
Nurse Wang, Tzu Chuean and other girls entered at once upon their attendance on Tai-yue in the green gauze rooms, while Pao-yue's wet-nurse, dame Li, together with an elderly waiting-maid, called Hsi Jen, were on duty in the room with the large bed.
This Hsi Jen had also been, originally, one of dowager lady Chia's servant-girls. Her name was in days gone by, Chen Chu. As her venerable ladyship, in her tender love for Pao-yue, had feared that Pao-yue's servant girls were not equal to their duties, she readily handed her to Pao-yue, as she had hitherto had experience of how sincere and considerate she was at heart.
Pao-yue, knowing that her surname was at one time Hua, and having once seen in some verses of an ancient poet, the line 'the fragrance of flowers wafts itself into man,' lost no time in explaining the fact to dowager lady Chia, who at once changed her name into Hsi Jen.
This Hsi Jen had several simple traits. While in attendance upon dowager lady Chia, in her heart and her eyes there was no one but her venerable ladyship, and her alone; and now in her attendance upon Pao-yue, her heart and her eyes were again full of Pao-yue, and him alone. But as Pao-yue was of a perverse temperament and did not heed her repeated injunctions, she felt at heart exceedingly grieved.
At night, after nurse Li had fallen asleep, seeing that in the inner chambers, Tai-yue, Ying Ko and the others had not as yet retired to rest, she disrobed herself, and with gentle step walked in.
'How is it, miss,' she inquired smiling, 'that you have not turned in as yet?'
Tai-yue at once put on a smile. 'Sit down, sister,' she rejoined, pressing her to take a seat. Hsi Jen sat on the edge of the bed.
'Miss Lin,' interposed Ying Ko smirkingly, 'has been here in an awful state of mind! She has cried so to herself, that her eyes were flooded, as soon as she dried her tears. 'It's only to-day that I've come,' she said, 'and I've already been the cause of the outbreak of your young master's failing. Now had he broken that jade, as he hurled it on the ground, wouldn't it have been my fault? Hence it was that she was so wounded at heart, that I had all the trouble in the world, before I could appease her.'
'Desist at once, Miss! Don't go on like this,' Hsi Jen advised her; 'there will, I fear, in the future, happen things far more strange and ridiculous than this; and if you allow yourself to be wounded and affected to such a degree by a conduct such as his, you will, I apprehend, suffer endless wounds and anguish; so be quick and dispel this over-sensitive nature!'
'What you sisters advise me,' replied Tai-yue, 'I shall bear in mind, and it will be all right.'
They had another chat, which lasted for some time, before they at length retired to rest for the night.
