twigs of flowers of piled gauze. I thought of them yesterday, and as they will, the pity is, only get old, if uselessly put away, why not give them to the girls to wear them in their hair! I meant to have sent them over yesterday, but I forgot all about them. You come to-day most opportunely, and if you will take them with you, I shall have got them off my hands. To the three young ladies in your family give two twigs each, and of the six that will remain give a couple to Miss Lin, and the other four to lady Feng.'
'Better keep them and give them to your daughter Pao Ch'ai to wear,' observed madame Wang, 'and have done with it; why think of all the others?'
'You don't know, sister,' replied 'aunt' Hsueeh, 'what a crotchety thing Pao Ch'ai is! she has no liking for flower or powder.'
With these words on her lips, Chou Jui's wife took the box and walked out of the door of the room. Perceiving that Chin Ch'uan-erh was still sunning herself outside, Chou Jui's wife asked her: 'Isn't this Hsiang Ling, the waiting-maid that we've often heard of as having been purchased just before the departure of the Hsueeh family for the capital, and on whose account there occurred some case of manslaughter or other?'
'Of course it's she,' replied Chin Ch'uan. But as they were talking, they saw Hsiang Ling draw near smirkingly, and Chou Jui's wife at once seized her by the hand, and after minutely scrutinizing her face for a time, she turned round to Chin Ch'uan-erh and smiled. 'With these features she really resembles slightly the style of lady Jung of our Eastern Mansion.'
'So I too maintain!' said Chin Ch'uan-erh.
Chou Jui's wife then asked Hsiang Ling, 'At what age did you enter this family? and where are your father and mother at present?' and also inquired, 'In what year of your teens are you? and of what place are you a native?'
But Hsiang Ling, after listening to all these questions, simply nodded her head and replied, 'I can't remember.'
When Mrs. Chou and Chin Ch'uan-erh heard these words, their spirits changed to grief, and for a while they felt affected and wounded at heart; but in a short time, Mrs. Chou brought the flowers into the room at the back of madame Wang's principal apartment.
The fact is that dowager lady Chia had explained that as her granddaughters were too numerous, it would not be convenient to crowd them together in one place, that Pao-yue and Tai-yue should only remain with her in this part to break her loneliness, but that Ying Ch'un, T'an Ch'un, and Hsi Ch'un, the three of them, should move on this side in the three rooms within the antechamber, at the back of madame lady Wang's quarters; and that Li Wan should be told off to be their attendant and to keep an eye over them.
Chou Jui's wife, therefore, on this occasion came first to these rooms as they were on her way, but she only found a few waiting-maids assembled in the antechamber, waiting silently to obey a call.
Ying Ch'un's waiting-maid, Ssu Chi, together with Shih Shu, T'an Ch'un's waiting-maid, just at this moment raised the curtain, and made their egress, each holding in her hand a tea-cup and saucer; and Chou Jui's wife readily concluding that the young ladies were sitting together also walked into the inner room, where she only saw Ying Ch'un and T'an Ch'un seated near the window, in the act of playing chess. Mrs. Chou presented the flowers and explained whence they came, and what they were.
The girls forthwith interrupted their game, and both with a curtsey, expressed their thanks, and directed the waiting-maids to put the flowers away.
Mrs. Chou complied with their wishes (and handing over the flowers); 'Miss Hsi Ch'un,' she remarked, 'is not at home; and possibly she's over there with our old lady.'
'She's in that room, isn't she?' inquired the waiting-maids.
Mrs. Chou at these words readily came into the room on this side, where she found Hsi Ch'un, in company with a certain Chih Neng, a young nun of the 'moon reflected on water' convent, talking and laughing together. On seeing Chou Jui's wife enter, Hsi Ch'un at once asked what she wanted, whereupon Chou Jui's wife opened the box of flowers, and explained who had sent them.
'I was just telling Chih Neng,' remarked Hsi Ch'un laughing, 'that I also purpose shortly shaving my head and becoming a nun; and strange enough, here you again bring me flowers; but supposing I shave my head, where can I wear them?'
They were all very much amused for a time with this remark, and Hsi Ch'un told her waiting-maid, Ju Hua, to come and take over the flowers.
'What time did you come over?' then inquired Mrs. Chou of Chih Neng. 'Where is that bald-pated and crotchety superior of yours gone?'
'We came,' explained Chih Neng, 'as soon as it was day; after calling upon madame Wang, my superior went over to pay a visit in the mansion of Mr. Yue, and told me to wait for her here.'
'Have you received,' further asked Mrs. Chou, 'the monthly allowance for incense offering due on the fifteenth or not?'
'I can't say,' replied Chih Neng.
'Who's now in charge of the issue of the monthly allowances to the various temples?' interposed Hsi Ch'un, addressing Mrs. Chou, as soon as she heard what was said.
'It's Yue Hsin,' replied Chou Jui's wife, 'who's intrusted with the charge.'
'That's how it is,' observed Hsi Ch'un with a chuckle; 'soon after the arrival of the Superior, Yue Hsin's wife came over and kept on whispering with her for some time; so I presume it must have been about this allowance.'
Mrs. Chou then went on to bandy a few words with Chih Neng, after which she came over to lady Feng's apartments. Proceeding by a narrow passage, she passed under Li Wan's back windows, and went along the wall ornamented with creepers on the west. Going out of the western side gate, she entered lady Feng's court, and walked over into the Entrance Hall, where she only found the waiting-girl Feng Erh, sitting on the doorsteps of lady Feng's apartments.
When she caught sight of Mrs. Chou approaching, she at once waved her hand, bidding her go to the eastern room. Chou Jui's wife understood her meaning, and hastily came on tiptoe to the chamber on the east, where she saw a nurse patting lady Feng's daughter to sleep.
Mrs. Chou promptly asked the nurse in a low tone of voice: 'Is the young lady asleep at this early hour? But if even she is I must wake her up.'
The nurse nodded her head in assent, but as these inquiries were being made, a sound of laughter came from over the other side, in which lady Feng's voice could be detected; followed, shortly after, by the sound of a door opening, and out came P'ing Erh, with a large brass basin in her hands, which she told Feng Erh to fill with water and take inside.
P'ing Erh forthwith entered the room on this side, and upon perceiving Chou Jui's wife: 'What have you come here again for, my old lady?' she readily inquired.
Chou Jui's wife rose without any delay, and handed her the box. 'I've come,' said she, 'to bring you a present of flowers.'
Upon hearing this, P'ing Erh opened the box, and took out four sprigs, and, turning round, walked out of the room. In a short while she came from the inner room with two sprigs in her hand, and calling first of all Ts'ai Ming, she bade her take the flowers over to the mansion on the other side and present them to 'madame' Jung, after which she asked Mrs. Chou to express her thanks on her return.
Chou Jui's wife thereupon came over to dowager lady Chia's room on this side of the compound, and as she was going through the Entrance Hall, she casually came, face to face, with her daughter, got up in gala dress, just coming from the house of her mother-in-law.
'What are you running over here for at this time?' promptly inquired Mrs. Chou.
'Have you been well of late, mother?' asked her daughter. 'I've been waiting for ever so long at home, but you never come out! What's there so pressing that has prevented you from returning home? I waited till I was tired, and then went on all alone, and paid my respects to our venerable lady; I'm now, on my way to inquire about our lady Wang. What errand haven't you delivered as yet, ma; and what is it you're holding?'
'Ai! as luck would have it,' rejoined Chou Jui's wife smilingly, 'old goody Liu came over to-day, so that besides my own hundred and one duties, I've had to run about here and there ever so long, and all for her! While attending to these, Mrs. Hsueh came across me, and asked me to take these flowers to the young ladies, and I've been at it up to this very moment, and haven't done yet! But coming at this time, you must surely have something
