quarter were planted a number of banana trees; on the opposite stood a plant of begonia from Hsi Fu. Its appearance was like an open umbrella. The gossamer hanging (from its branches) resembled golden threads. The corollas (seemed) to spurt out cinnabar.
'What a beautiful flower! what a beautiful flower!' ejaculated the whole party with one voice; 'begonias are verily to be found; but never before have we seen anything the like of this in beauty.'
'This is called the maiden begonia and is, in fact, a foreign species,' Chia Cheng observed. 'There's a homely tradition that it is because it emanates from the maiden kingdom that its flowers are most prolific; but this is likewise erratic talk and devoid of common sense.'
'They are, after all,' rejoined the whole company, 'so unlike others (we have seen), that what's said about the maiden kingdom is, we are inclined to believe, possibly a fact.'
'I presume,' interposed Pao-yue, 'that some clever bard or poet, (perceiving) that this flower was red like cosmetic, delicate as if propped up in sickness, and that it closely resembled the nature of a young lady, gave it, consequently, the name of maiden! People in the world will propagate idle tales, all of which are unavoidably treated as gospel!'
'We receive (with thanks) your instructions; what excellent explanation!' they all remarked unanimously, and as they expressed these words, the whole company took their seats on the sofas under the colonnade.
'Let's think of some original text or other for a motto,' Chia Cheng having suggested, one of the companions opined that the two characters: 'Banana and stork' would be felicitous; while another one was of the idea that what would be faultless would be: 'Collected splendour and waving elegance!'
''Collected splendour and waving elegance' is excellent,' Chia Cheng observed addressing himself to the party; and Pao-yue himself, while also extolling it as beautiful, went on to say: 'There's only one thing however to be regretted!'
'What about regret?' the company inquired.
'In this place,' Pao-yue explained, 'are set out both bananas as well as begonias, with the intent of secretly combining in them the two properties of red and green; and if mention of one of them be made, and the other be omitted, (the device) won't be good enough for selection.'
'What would you then suggest?' Chia Cheng asked.
'I would submit the four words, 'the red (flowers) are fragrant, the green (banana leaves) like jade,' which would render complete the beauties of both (the begonias and bananas).'
'It isn't good! it isn't good!' Chia Cheng remonstrated as he shook his head; and while passing this remark, he conducted the party into the house, where they noticed that the internal arrangements effected differed from those in other places, as no partitions could, in fact, be discerned. Indeed, the four sides were all alike covered with boards carved hollow with fretwork, (in designs consisting) either of rolling clouds and hundreds of bats; or of the three friends of the cold season of the year, (fir, bamboo and almond); of scenery and human beings, or of birds or flowers; either of clusters of decoration, or of relics of olden times; either of ten thousand characters of happiness or of ten thousand characters of longevity. The various kinds of designs had been all carved by renowned hands, in variegated colours, inlaid with gold, and studded with precious gems; while on shelf upon shelf were either arranged collections of books, or tripods were laid out; either pens and inkslabs were distributed about, or vases with flowers set out, or figured pots were placed about; the designs of the shelves being either round or square; or similar to sunflowers or banana leaves; or like links, half overlapping each other. And in very truth they resembled bouquets of flowers or clusters of tapestry, with all their fretwork so transparent. Suddenly (the eye was struck) by variegated gauzes pasted (on the wood-work), actually forming small windows; and of a sudden by fine thin silks lightly overshadowing (the fretwork) just as if there were, after all, secret doors. The whole walls were in addition traced, with no regard to symmetry, with outlines of the shapes of curios and nick-nacks in imitation of lutes, double-edged swords, hanging bottles and the like, the whole number of which, though (apparently) suspended on the walls, were all however on a same level with the surface of the partition walls.
'What fine ingenuity!' they all exclaimed extollingly; 'what a labour they must have been to carry out!'
Chia Cheng had actually stepped in; but scarcely had they reached the second stage, before the whole party readily lost sight of the way by which they had come in. They glanced on the left, and there stood a door, through which they could go. They cast their eyes on the right, and there was a window which suddenly impeded their progress. They went forward, but there again they were obstructed by a bookcase. They turned their heads round, and there too stood windows pasted with transparent gauze and available door-ways: but the moment they came face to face with the door, they unexpectedly perceived that a whole company of people had likewise walked in, just in front of them, whose appearance resembled their own in every respect. But it was only a mirror. And when they rounded the mirror, they detected a still larger number of doors.
'Sir,' Chia Chen remarked with a grin; 'if you'll follow me out through this door, we'll forthwith get into the back-court; and once out of the back-court, we shall be, at all events, nearer than we were before.'
Taking the lead, he conducted Chia Cheng and the whole party round two gauze mosquito houses, when they verily espied a door through which they made their exit, into a court, replete with stands of cinnamon roses. Passing round the flower-laden hedge, the only thing that spread before their view was a pure stream impeding their advance. The whole company was lost in admiration. 'Where does this water again issue from?' they cried.
Chia Chen pointed to a spot at a distance. 'Starting originally,' he explained, 'from that water-gate, it runs as far as the mouth of that cave, when from among the hills on the north-east side, it is introduced into that village, where again a diverging channel has been opened and it is made to flow in a south-westerly direction; the whole volume of water then runs to this spot, where collecting once more in one place, it issues, on its outward course, from beneath that wall.'
'It's most ingenious!' they one and all exclaimed, after they had listened to him; but, as they uttered these words, they unawares realised that a lofty hill obstructed any further progress. The whole party felt very hazy about the right road. But 'Come along after me,' Chia Chen smilingly urged, as he at once went ahead and showed the way, whereupon the company followed in his steps, and as soon as they turned round the foot of the hill, a level place and broad road lay before them; and wide before their faces appeared the main entrance.
'This is charming! this is delightful!' the party unanimously exclaimed, 'what wits must have been ransacked, and ingenuity attained, so as to bring things to this extreme degree of excellence!'
Forthwith the party egressed from the garden, and Pao-yue's heart anxiously longed for the society of the young ladies in the inner quarters, but as he did not hear Chia Cheng bid him go, he had no help but to follow him into the library. But suddenly Chia Cheng bethought himself of him. 'What,' he said, 'you haven't gone yet! the old lady will I fear be anxious on your account; and is it pray that you haven't as yet had enough walking?'
Pao-yue at length withdrew out of the library. On his arrival in the court, a page, who had been in attendance on Chia Cheng, at once pressed forward, and took hold of him fast in his arms. 'You've been lucky enough,' he said, 'to-day to have been in master's good graces! just a while back when our old mistress despatched servants to come on several occasions and ask after you, we replied that master was pleased with you; for had we given any other answer, her ladyship would have sent to fetch you to go in, and you wouldn't have had an opportunity of displaying your talents. Every one admits that the several stanzas you recently composed were superior to those of the whole company put together; but you must, after the good luck you've had to-day, give us a tip!'
'I'll give each one of you a tiao,' Pao-yue rejoined smirkingly.
'Who of us hasn't seen a tiao?' they all exclaimed, 'let's have that purse of yours, and have done with it!'
Saying this, one by one advanced and proceeded to unloosen the purse, and to unclasp the fan-case; and allowing Pao-yue no time to make any remonstrance, they stripped him of every ornament in the way of appendage which he carried about on his person. 'Whatever we do let's escort him home!' they shouted, and one after another hustled round him and accompanied him as far as dowager lady Chia's door.
Her ladyship was at this moment awaiting his arrival, so that when she saw him walk in, and she found out that (Chia Cheng) had not bullied him, she felt, of course, extremely delighted. But not a long interval elapsed before Hsi Jen came to serve the tea; and when she perceived that on his person not one of the ornaments remained, she consequently smiled and inquired: 'Have all the things that you had on you been again taken away by these barefaced rascals?'
As soon as Lin Tai-yue heard this remark, she crossed over to him and saw at a glance that not one single trinket was, in fact, left. 'Have you also given them,' she felt constrained to ask, 'the purse that I gave you? Well, by and by, when you again covet anything of mine, I shan't let you have it.'
