unable to attend to me, just as much as I myself won't be able to heed you. You will, when that time comes, let me go where I please, as I'll let you speed where you choose to go!'
These words so harassed Hsi Jen that she hastened to put her hand over his mouth. 'Speak decently,' she said; 'I was on account of this just about to admonish you, and now here you are uttering all this still more loathsome trash.'
'I won't utter these words again,' Pao-yue eagerly added.
'This is the first fault that you must change,' Hsi Jen replied.
'I'll amend,' Pao-yue observed, 'and if I say anything of the kind again you can wring my mouth; but what else is there?'
'The second thing is this,' Hsi Jen explained; 'whether you really like to study or whether you only pretend to like study is immaterial; but you should, when you are in the presence of master, or in the presence of any one else, not do nothing else than find fault with people and make fun of them, but behave just as if you were genuinely fond of study, so that you shouldn't besides provoke your father so much to anger, and that he should before others have also a chance of saying something! 'In my family,' he reflects within himself, 'generation after generation has been fond of books, but ever since I've had you, you haven't accomplished my expectations, and not only is it that you don't care about reading books,'-and this has already filled his heart with anger and vexation,-'but both before my face and behind my back, you utter all that stuff and nonsense, and give those persons, who have, through their knowledge of letters, attained high offices, the nickname of the 'the salaried worms.' You also uphold that there's no work exclusive (of the book where appears) 'fathom spotless virtue;' and that all other books consist of foolish compilations, which owe their origin to former authors, who, unable themselves to expound the writings of Confucius, readily struck a new line and invented original notions.' Now with words like these, how can one wonder if master loses all patience, and if he does from time to time give you a thrashing! and what do you make other people think of you?'
'I won't say these things again,' Pao-yue laughingly protested, 'these are the reckless and silly absurdities of a time when I was young and had no idea of the height of the heavens and the thickness of the earth; but I'll now no more repeat them. What else is there besides?'
'It isn't right that you should sneer at the bonzes and vilify the Taoist priests, nor mix cosmetics or prepare rouge,' Hsi Jen continued; 'but there's still another thing more important, you shouldn't again indulge the bad habits of licking the cosmetic, applied by people on their lips, nor be fond of (girls dressed) in red!'
'I'll change in all this,' Pao-yue added by way of rejoinder; 'I'll change in all this; and if there's anything more be quick and tell me.'
'There's nothing more,' Hsi Jen observed; 'but you must in everything exercise a little more diligence, and not indulge your caprices and allow your wishes to run riot, and you'll be all right. And should you comply to all these things in real earnest, you couldn't carry me out, even in a chair with eight bearers.'
'Well, if you do stay in here long enough,' Pao-yue remarked with a smile, 'there's no fear as to your not having an eight-bearer-chair to sit in!'
Hsi Jen gave a sardonic grin. 'I don't care much about it,' she replied; 'and were I even to have such good fortune, I couldn't enjoy such a right. But allowing I could sit in one, there would be no pleasure in it!'
While these two were chatting, they saw Ch'iu Wen walk in. 'It's the third watch of the night,' she observed, 'and you should go to sleep. Just a few moments back your grandmother lady Chia and our lady sent a nurse to ask about you, and I replied that you were asleep.'
Pao-yue bade her fetch a watch, and upon looking at the time, he found indeed that the hand was pointing at ten; whereupon rinsing his mouth again and loosening his clothes, he retired to rest, where we will leave him without any further comment.
The next day, Hsi Jen got up as soon as it was dawn, feeling her body heavy, her head sore, her eyes swollen, and her limbs burning like fire. She managed however at first to keep up, an effort though it was, but as subsequently she was unable to endure the strain, and all she felt disposed to do was to recline, she therefore lay down in her clothes on the stove-couch. Pao-yue hastened to tell dowager lady Chia, and the doctor was sent for, who, upon feeling her pulse and diagnosing her complaint, declared that there was nothing else the matter with her than a chill, which she had suddenly contracted, that after she had taken a dose or two of medicine, it would be dispelled, and that she would be quite well. After he had written the prescription and taken his departure, some one was despatched to fetch the medicines, which when brought were properly decocted. As soon as she had swallowed a dose, Pao-yue bade her cover herself with her bed-clothes so as to bring on perspiration; while he himself came into Tai-yue's room to look her up. Tai-yue was at this time quite alone, reclining on her bed having a midday siesta, and the waiting-maids having all gone out to attend to whatever they pleased, the whole room was plunged in stillness and silence. Pao-yue raised the embroidered soft thread portiere and walked in; and upon espying Tai-yue in the room fast asleep, he hurriedly approached her and pushing her: 'Dear cousin,' he said, 'you've just had your meal, and are you asleep already?' and he kept on calling 'Tai-yue' till he woke her out of her sleep.
Perceiving that it was Pao-yue, 'You had better go for a stroll,' Tai-yue urged, 'for the day before yesterday I was disturbed the whole night, and up to this day I haven't had rest enough to get over the fatigue. My whole body feels languid and sore.'
'This languor and soreness,' Pao-yue rejoined, 'are of no consequence; but if you go on sleeping you'll be feeling very ill; so I'll try and distract you, and when we've dispelled this lassitude, you'll be all right.'
Tai-yue closed her eyes. 'I don't feel any lassitude,' she explained, 'all I want is a little rest; and you had better go elsewhere and come back after romping about for a while.'
'Where can I go?' Pao-yue asked as he pushed her. 'I'm quite sick and tired of seeing the others.'
At these words, Tai-yue burst out laughing with a sound of Ch'ih. 'Well! since you wish to remain here,' she added, 'go over there and sit down quietly, and let's have a chat.'
'I'll also recline,' Pao-yue suggested.
'Well, then, recline!' Tai-yue assented.
'There's no pillow,' observed Pao-yue, 'so let us lie on the same pillow.'
'What nonsense!' Tai-yue urged, 'aren't those pillows outside? get one and lie on it.'
Pao-yue walked into the outer apartment, and having looked about him, he returned and remarked with a smile: 'I don't want those, they may be, for aught I know, some dirty old hag's.'
Tai-yue at this remark opened her eyes wide, and as she raised herself up: 'You're really,' she exclaimed laughingly, 'the evil star of my existence! here, please recline on this pillow!' and as she uttered these words, she pushed her own pillow towards Pao-yue, and, getting up she went and fetched another of her own, upon which she lay her head in such a way that both of them then reclined opposite to each other. But Tai-yue, upon turning up her eyes and looking, espied on Pao-yue's cheek on the left side of his face, a spot of blood about the size of a button, and speedily bending her body, she drew near to him, and rubbing it with her hand, she scrutinised it closely. 'Whose nail,' she went on to inquire, 'has scratched this open?'
Pao-yue with his body still reclining withdrew from her reach, and as he did so, he answered with a smile: 'It isn't a scratch; it must, I presume, be simply a drop, which bespattered my cheek when I was just now mixing and clarifying the cosmetic paste for them.'
Saying this, he tried to get at his handkerchief to wipe it off; but Tai-yue used her own and rubbed it clean for him, while she observed: 'Do you still give your mind to such things? attend to them you may; but must you carry about you a placard (to make it public)? Though uncle mayn't see it, were others to notice it, they would treat it as a strange occurrence and a novel bit of news, and go and tell him to curry favour, and when it has reached uncle's ear, we shall all again not come out clean, and provoke him to anger.'
Pao-yue did not in the least heed what she said, being intent upon smelling a subtle scent which, in point of fact, emanated from Tai-yue's sleeve, and when inhaled inebriated the soul and paralysed the bones. With a snatch, Pao-yue laid hold of Tai-yue's sleeve meaning to see what object was concealed in it; but Tai-yue smilingly expostulated: 'At such a time as this,' she said, 'who keeps scents about one?'
'Well, in that case,' Pao-yue rejoined with a smirking face, 'where does this scent come from?'
'I myself don't know,' Tai-yue replied; 'I presume it must be, there's no saying, some scent in the press which has impregnated the clothes.'
'It doesn't follow,' Pao-yue added, as he shook his head; 'the fumes of this smell are very peculiar, and don't resemble the perfume of scent-bottles, scent-balls, or scented satchets!'
