situated, Ming Yen told the chair to halt, and said to Hua Tzu-fang, 'It's advisable that I should again go, with Mr. Secundus, into the Eastern mansion, to show ourselves before we can safely betake ourselves home; for if we don't, people will suspect!'
Hua Tzu-fang, upon hearing that there was good reason in what he said, promptly clasped Pao-yue out of the chair and put him on the horse, whereupon after Pao-yue smilingly remarked: 'Excuse me for the trouble I've surely put you to,' they forthwith entered again by the back gate; but putting aside all details, we will now confine ourselves to Pao-yue.
After he had walked out of the door, the several waiting-maids in his apartments played and laughed with greater zest and with less restraint. Some there were who played at chess, others who threw the dice or had a game of cards; and they covered the whole floor with the shells of melon-seeds they were cracking, when dame Li, his nurse, happened to come in, propping herself on a staff, to pay her respects and to see Pao-yue, and perceiving that Pao-yue was not at home and that the servant-girls were only bent upon romping, she felt intensely disgusted. 'Since I've left this place,' she therefore exclaimed with a sigh, 'and don't often come here, you've become more and more unmannerly; while the other nurse does still less than ever venture to expostulate with you; Pao-yue is like a candlestick eighty feet high, shedding light on others, and throwing none upon himself! All he knows is to look down upon people as being filthy; and yet this is his room and he allows you to put it topsy-turvey, and to become more and more unmindful of decorum!'
These servant-girls were well aware that Pao-yue was not particular in these respects, and that in the next place nurse Li, having pleaded old age, resigned her place and gone home, had nowadays no control over them, so that they simply gave their minds to romping and joking, and paid no heed whatever to her. Nurse Li however still kept on asking about Pao-yue, 'How much rice he now ate at one meal? and at what time he went to sleep?' to which questions, the servant-girls replied quite at random; some there being too who observed: 'What a dreadful despicable old thing she is!'
'In this covered bowl,' she continued to inquire, 'is cream, and why not give it to me to eat?' and having concluded these words, she took it up and there and then began eating it.
'Be quick, and leave it alone!' a servant-girl expostulated, 'that, he said, was kept in order to be given to Hsi Jen; and on his return, when he again gets into a huff, you, old lady, must, on your own motion, confess to having eaten it, and not involve us in any way as to have to bear his resentment.'
Nurse Li, at these words, felt both angry and ashamed. 'I can't believe,' she forthwith remarked, 'that he has become so bad at heart! Not to speak of the milk I've had, I have, in fact every right to even something more expensive than this; for is it likely that he holds Hsi Jen dearer than myself? It can't forsooth be that he doesn't bear in mind how that I've brought him up to be a big man, and how that he has eaten my blood transformed into milk and grown up to this age! and will be because I'm now having a bowl of milk of his be angry on that score! I shall, yes, eat it, and we'll see what he'll do! I don't know what you people think of Hsi Jen, but she was a lowbred girl, whom I've with my own hands raised up! and what fine object indeed was she!'
As she spoke, she flew into a temper, and taking the cream she drank the whole of it.
'They don't know how to speak properly!' another servant-girl interposed sarcastically, 'and it's no wonder that you, old lady, should get angry! Pao-yue still sends you, venerable dame, presents as a proof of his gratitude, and is it possible that he will feel displeased for such a thing like this?'
'You girls shouldn't also pretend to be artful flatterers to cajole me!' nurse Li added; 'do you imagine that I'm not aware of the dismissal, the other day, of Hsi Hsueeh, on account of a cup of tea? and as it's clear enough that I've incurred blame, I'll come by and by and receive it!'
Having said this, she went off in a dudgeon, but not a long interval elapsed before Pao-yue returned, and gave orders to go and fetch Hsi Jen; and perceiving Ching Ling reclining on the bed perfectly still: 'I presume she's ill,' Pao-yue felt constrained to inquire, 'or if she isn't ill, she must have lost at cards.'
'Not so!' observed Chiu Wen; 'she had been a winner, but dame Li came in quite casually and muddled her so that she lost; and angry at this she rushed off to sleep.'
'Don't place yourselves,' Pao-yue smiled, 'on the same footing as nurse Li, and if you were to let her alone, everything will be all right.'
These words were still on his lips when Hsi Jen arrived. After the mutual salutations, Hsi Jen went on to ask of Pao-yue: 'Where did you have your repast? and what time did you come back?' and to present likewise, on behalf of her mother and sister, her compliments to all the girls, who were her companions. In a short while, she changed her costume and divested herself of her fineries, and Pao-yue bade them fetch the cream.
'Nurse Li has eaten it,' the servant-girls rejoined, and as Pao-yue was on the point of making some remark Hsi Jen hastened to interfere, laughing the while; 'Is it really this that you had kept for me? many thanks for the trouble; the other day, when I had some, I found it very toothsome, but after I had partaken of it, I got a pain in the stomach, and was so much upset, that it was only after I had brought it all up that I felt all right. So it's as well that she has had it, for, had it been kept here, it would have been wasted all for no use! What I fancy are dry chestnuts; and while you clean a few for me, I'll go and lay the bed!'
Pao-yue upon hearing these words credited them as true, so that he discarded all thought of the cream and fetched the chestnuts, which he, with his own hands, selected and pealed. Perceiving at the same time that none of the party were present in the room, he put on a smile and inquired of Hsi Jen: 'Who were those persons dressed in red to day?'
'They're my two cousins on my mother's side,' Hsi Jen explained, and hearing this, Pao-yue sang their praise as he heaved a couple of sighs.
'What are you sighing for?' Hsi Jen remarked. 'I know the secret reasons of your heart; it's I fancy because she isn't fit to wear red!'
'It isn't that,' Pao-yue protested smilingly, 'it isn't that; if such a person as that isn't good enough to be dressed in red, who would forsooth presume to wear it? It's because I find her so really lovely! and if we could, after all, manage to get her into our family, how nice it would be then!'
Hsi Jen gave a sardonic smile. 'That it's my own fate to be a slave doesn't matter, but is it likely that the destiny of even my very relatives could be to become one and all of them bond servants? But you should certainly set your choice upon some really beautiful girl, for she would in that case be good enough to enter your house.'
'Here you are again with your touchiness!' Pao-yue eagerly exclaimed smiling, 'if I said that she should come to our house, does it necessarily imply that she should be a servant? and wouldn't it do were I to mention that she should come as a relative!'
'That too couldn't exalt her to be a fit match for you!' rejoined Hsi Jen; but Pao-yue being loth to continue the conversation, simply busied himself with cleaning the chestnuts.
'How is it you utter not a word?' Hsi Jen laughed; 'I expect it's because I just offended you by my inconsiderate talk! But if by and by you have your purpose fixed on it, just spend a few ounces of silver to purchase them with, and bring them in and have done!'
'How would you have one make any reply?' Pao-yue smilingly rejoined; 'all I did was to extol her charms; for she's really fit to have been born in a deep hall and spacious court as this; and it isn't for such foul things as myself and others to contrariwise spend our days in this place!'
'Though deprived of this good fortune,' Hsi Jen explained, 'she's nevertheless also petted and indulged and the jewel of my maternal uncle and my aunt! She's now seventeen years of age, and everything in the way of trousseau has been got ready, and she's to get married next year.'
Upon hearing the two words 'get married,' he could not repress himself from again ejaculating: 'Hai hai!' but while he was in an unhappy frame of mind, he once more heard Hsi Jen remark as she heaved a sigh: 'Ever since I've come here, we cousins haven't all these years been able to get to live together, and now that I'm about to return home, they, on the other hand, will all be gone!'
Pao-yue, realising that there lurked in this remark some meaning or other, was suddenly so taken aback that dropping the chestnuts, he inquired: 'How is it that you now want to go back?'
'I was present to-day,' Hsi Jen explained, 'when mother and brother held consultation together, and they bade me be patient for another year, and that next year they'll come up and redeem me out of service!'
Pao-yue, at these words, felt the more distressed. 'Why do they want to redeem you?' he consequently asked.
'This is a strange question!' Hsi Jen retorted, 'for I can't really be treated as if I were the issue born in this
