and sleep in one bed, having ever since our youth grown up together; while she has only recently come, and how could I ever distance you on her account?'
'Ts'ui!' Tai-yue exclaimed. 'Will I forsooth ever make you distance her! who and what kind of person have I become to do such a thing? What (I said) was prompted by my own motives.'
'I too,' Pao-yue urged, 'made those remarks prompted by my own heart's motives, and do you mean to say that your heart can only read the feelings of your own heart, and has no idea whatsoever of my own?'
Tai-yue at these words, lowered her head and said not a word. But after a long interval, 'You only know,' she continued, 'how to feel bitter against people for their action in censuring you: but you don't, after all, know that you yourself provoke people to such a degree, that it's hard for them to put up with it! Take for instance the weather of to-day as an example. It's distinctly very cold, to-day, and yet, how is it that you are so contrary as to go and divest yourself of the pelisse with the bluish breast-fur overlapping the cloth?'
'Why say I didn't wear it?' Pao-yue smilingly observed. 'I did, but seeing you get angry I felt suddenly in such a terrible blaze, that I at once took it off!'
Tai-yue heaved a sigh. 'You'll by and by catch a cold,' she remarked, 'and then you'll again have to starve, and vociferate for something to eat!'
While these two were having this colloquy, Hsiang-yuen was seen to walk in! 'You two, Ai cousin and cousin Lin,' she ventured jokingly, 'are together playing every day, and though I've managed to come after ever so much trouble, you pay no heed to me at all!'
'It's invariably the rule,' Tai-yue retorted smilingly, 'that those who have a defect in their speech will insist upon talking; she can't even come out correctly with 'Erh' (secundus) cousin, and keeps on calling him 'Ai' cousin, 'Ai' cousin! And by and by when you play 'Wei Ch'i' you're sure also to shout out yao, ai, (instead of erh), san; (one, two, three).'
Pao-yue laughed. 'If you imitate her,' he interposed, 'and get into that habit, you'll also begin to bite your tongue when you talk.'
'She won't make even the slightest allowance for any one,' Hsiang-yuen rejoined; 'her sole idea being to pick out others' faults. You may readily be superior to any mortal being, but you shouldn't, after all, offend against what's right and make fun of every person you come across! But I'll point out some one, and if you venture to jeer her, I'll at once submit to you.'
'Who is it?' Tai-yue vehemently inquired.
'If you do have the courage,' Hsiang-yuen answered, 'to pick out cousin Pao-ch'ai's faults, you then may well be held to be first-rate!'
Tai-yue after hearing these words, gave a sarcastic smile. 'I was wondering,' she observed, 'who it was. Is it indeed she? How could I ever presume to pick out hers?'
Pao-yue allowed her no time to finish, but hastened to say something to interrupt the conversation.
'I couldn't, of course, during the whole of this my lifetime,' Hsiang-yuen laughed, 'attain your standard! but my earnest wish is that by and by should be found for you, cousin Lin, a husband, who bites his tongue when he speaks, so that you should every minute and second listen to 'ai-ya-os!' O-mi-to-fu, won't then your reward be manifest to my eyes!'
As she made this remark, they all burst out laughing heartily, and Hsiang-yuen speedily turned herself round and ran away.
But reader, do you want to know the sequel? Well, then listen to the explanation given in the next chapter.
CHAPTER XXI.
The eminent Hsi Jen, with winsome ways, rails at Pao-yue, with a view
to exhortation.
The beauteous P'ing Erh, with soft words, screens Chia Lien.
But to resume our story. When Shih Hsiang-yuen ran out of the room, she was all in a flutter lest Lin Tai-yue should catch her up; but Pao-yue, who came after her, readily shouted out, 'You'll trip and fall. How ever could she come up to you?'
Lin Tai-yue went in pursuit of her as far as the entrance, when she was impeded from making further progress by Pao-yue, who stretched his arms out against the posts of the door.
'Were I to spare Yuen Erh, I couldn't live!' Lin Tai-yue exclaimed, as she tugged at his arms. But Hsiang- yuen, perceiving that Pao-yue obstructed the door, and surmising that Tai-yue could not come out, speedily stood still. 'My dear cousin,' she smilingly pleaded, 'do let me off this time!'
But it just happened that Pao-ch'ai, who was coming along, was at the back of Hsiang-yuen, and with a face also beaming with smiles: 'I advise you both,' she said, 'to leave off out of respect for cousin Pao-yue, and have done.'
'I don't agree to that,' Tai-yue rejoined; 'are you people, pray, all of one mind to do nothing but make fun of me?'
'Who ventures to make fun of you?' Pao-yue observed advisingly; 'and hadn't you made sport of her, would she have presumed to have said anything about you?'
While this quartet were finding it an arduous task to understand one another, a servant came to invite them to have their repast, and they eventually crossed over to the front side, and as it was already time for the lamps to be lit, madame Wang, widow Li Wan, lady Feng, Ying Ch'un, T'an Ch'un, Hsi Ch'un and the other cousins, adjourned in a body to dowager lady Chia's apartments on this side, where the whole company spent a while in a chat on irrelevant topics, after which they each returned to their rooms and retired to bed. Hsiang-yuen, as of old, betook herself to Tai-yue's quarters to rest, and Pao-yue escorted them both into their apartment, and it was after the hour had already past the second watch, and Hsi Jen had come and pressed him several times, that he at length returned to his own bedroom and went to sleep. The next morning, as soon as it was daylight, he threw his clothes over him, put on his low shoes and came over into Tai-yue's room, where he however saw nothing of the two girls Tzu Chuean and Ts'ui Lu, as there was no one else here in there besides his two cousins, still reclining under the coverlets. Tai-yue was closely wrapped in a quilt of almond-red silk, and lying quietly, with closed eyes fast asleep; while Shih Hsiang-yuen, with her handful of shiny hair draggling along the edge of the pillow, was covered only up to the chest, and outside the coverlet rested her curved snow-white arm, with the gold bracelets, which she had on.
At the sight of her, Pao-yue heaved a sigh. 'Even when asleep,' he soliloquised, 'she can't be quiet! but by and by, when the wind will have blown on her, she'll again shout that her shoulder is sore!' With these words, he gently covered her, but Lin Tai-yue had already awoke out of her sleep, and becoming aware that there was some one about, she promptly concluded that it must, for a certainty, be Pao-yue, and turning herself accordingly round, and discovering at a glance that the truth was not beyond her conjectures, she observed: 'What have you run over to do at this early hour?' to which question Pao-yue replied: 'Do you call this early? but get up and see for yourself!'
'First quit the room,' Tai-yue suggested, 'and let us get up!'
Pao-yue thereupon made his exit into the ante-chamber, and Tai-yue jumped out of bed, and awoke Hsiang- yuen. When both of them had put on their clothes, Pao-yue re-entered and took a seat by the side of the toilet table; whence he beheld Tzu-chuean and Hsueeh Yen walk in and wait upon them, as they dressed their hair and performed their ablutions. Hsiang-yuen had done washing her face, and Ts'uei Lue at once took the remaining water and was about to throw it away, when Pao-yue interposed, saying: 'Wait, I'll avail myself of this opportunity to wash too and finish with it, and thus save myself the trouble of having again to go over!' Speaking the while, he hastily came forward, and bending his waist, he washed his face twice with two handfuls of water, and when Tzu Chuean went over to give him the scented soap, Pao-yue added: 'In this basin, there's a good deal of it, and there's no need of rubbing any more!' He then washed his face with two more handfuls, and forthwith asked for a towel, and Ts'uei Lue exclaimed: 'What! have you still got this failing? when will you turn a new leaf?' But Pao-yue paid not so much as any heed to her, and there and then called for some salt, with which he rubbed his teeth, and rinsed his mouth. When he had done, he perceived that Hsiang-yuen had already finished combing her hair, and speedily
