'This suit is complete!' Pao-yue smiled. 'I've got a pair of crab-wood clogs, I put on to come over; but I took them off under the eaves of the verandah.'
Tai-yue's attention was then attracted by the extreme fineness and lightness of the texture of his wrapper and hat, which were unlike those sold in the market places. 'With what grass are they plaited?' she consequently asked. 'It would be strange if you didn't, with this sort of things on, look like a very hedgehog!'
'These three articles are a gift from the Prince of Pei Ching,' Pao-yue answered. 'Ordinarily, when it rains, he too wears this kind of outfit at home. But if it has taken your fancy, I'll have a suit made for you. There's nothing peculiar about the other things, but this hat is funny! The crown at the top is movable; so if you want to wear a hat, during snowy weather in wintertime, you pull off the bamboo pegs, and remove the crown, and there you only have the circular brim. This is worn, when it snows, by men and women alike. I'll give you one therefore to wear in the wintry snowy months.'
'I don't want it!' laughed Tai-yue. 'Were I to wear this sort of thing, I'd look like one of those fisherwomen, one sees depicted in pictures or represented on the stage!'
Upon reaching this point, she remembered that there was some connection between her present remarks and the comparison she had some time back made with regard to Pao-yue, and, before she had time to indulge in regrets, a sense of shame so intense overpowered her that the colour rushed to her face, and, leaning her head on the table, she coughed and coughed till she could not stop. Pao-yue, however, did not detect her embarrassment; but catching sight of some verses lying on the table, he eagerly snatched them up and conned them from beginning to end. 'Splendid!' he could not help crying. But the moment Tai-yue heard his exclamation, she speedily jumped to her feet, and clutched the verses and burnt them over the lamp.
'I've already committed them sufficiently to memory!' Pao-yue laughed.
'I want to have a little rest,' Tai-yue said, 'so please get away; come back again to-morrow.'
At these words, Pao-yue drew back his hand, and producing from his breast a gold watch about the size of a walnut, he looked at the time. The hand pointed between eight and nine p.m.; so hastily putting it away, 'You should certainly retire to rest!' he replied. 'My visit has upset you. I've quite tired you out this long while.' With these apologies, he threw the wrapper over him, put on the rain-hat and quitted the room. But turning round, he retraced his steps inside. 'Is there anything you fancy to eat?' he asked. 'If there be, tell me, and I'll let our venerable ancestor know of it to-morrow as soon as it's day. Won't I explain things clearer than any of the old matrons could?'
'Let me,' rejoined Tai-yue smiling, 'think in the night. I'll let you know early to-morrow. But harken, it's raining harder than it did; so be off at once! Have you got any attendants, or no?'
'Yes!' interposed the two matrons. 'There are servants to wait on him. They're outside holding his umbrella and lighting the lanterns.'
'Are they lighting lanterns with this weather?' laughed Tai-yue.
'It won't hurt them!' Pao-yue answered. 'They're made of sheep's horn, so they don't mind the rain.'
Hearing this, Tai-yue put back her hand, and, taking down an ornamented glass lantern in the shape of a ball from the book case, she asked the servants to light a small candle and bring it to her; after which, she handed the lantern to Pao-yue. 'This,' she said, 'gives out more light than the others; and is just the thing for rainy weather.'
'I've also got one like it.' Pao-yue replied. 'But fearing lest they might slip, fall down and break it, I did not have it lighted and brought round.'
'What's of more account,' Tai-yue inquired, 'harm to a lantern or to a human being? You're not besides accustomed to wearing clogs, so tell them to walk ahead with those lanterns. This one is as light and handy as it is light-giving; and is really adapted for rainy weather, so wouldn't it be well if you carried it yourself? You can send it over to me to-morrow! But, were it even to slip from your hand, it wouldn't matter much. How is it that you've also suddenly developed this money-grabbing sort of temperament? It's as bad as if you ripped your intestines to secrete pearls in.'
After these words, Pao-yue approached her and took the lantern from her. Ahead then advanced two matrons, with umbrellas and sheep horn lanterns, and behind followed a couple of waiting-maids also with umbrellas. Pao-yue handed the glass lantern to a young maid to carry, and, supporting himself on her shoulder, he straightway wended his steps on his way back.
But presently arrived an old servant from the Heng Wu court, provided as well with an umbrella and a lantern, to bring over a large bundle of birds' nests, and a packet of foreign sugar, pure as powder, and white as petals of plum-blossom and flakes of snow. 'These,' she said, 'are much better than what you can buy. Our young lady sends you word, miss, to first go on with these. When you've done with them, she'll let you have some more.'
'Many thanks for the trouble you've taken!' Tai-yue returned for answer; and then asked her to go and sit outside and have a cup of tea.
'I won't have any tea,' the old servant smiled. 'I've got something else to attend to.'
'I'm well aware that you've all got plenty in hand,' Tai-yue resumed with a smiling countenance. 'But the weather being cool now and the nights long, it's more expedient than ever to establish two things: a night club and a gambling place.'
'I won't disguise the fact from you, miss,' the old servant laughingly observed, 'that I've managed this year to win plenty of money. Several servants have, under any circumstances, to do night duty; and, as any neglect in keeping watch wouldn't be the right thing, isn't it as well to have a night club, as one can sit on the look-out and dispel dullness as well? But it's again my turn to play the croupier to-day, so I must be getting along to the place, as the garden gate, will, by this time, be nearly closing!'
This rejoinder evoked a laugh from Tai-yue. 'I've given you all this bother,' she remarked, 'and made you lose your chances of getting money, just to bring these things in the rain.' And calling a servant she bade her present her with several hundreds of cash to buy some wine with, to drive the damp away.
'I've uselessly put you again, miss, to the expense of giving me a tip for wine,' the old servant smiled. But saying this she knocked her forehead before her; and issuing outside, she received the money, after which, she opened her umbrella, and trudged back.
Tzu Chuean meanwhile put the birds' nests away; and removing afterwards the lamps, she lowered the portieres and waited upon Tai-yue until she lay herself down to sleep.
While she reclined all alone on her pillow, Tai-yue thought gratefully of Pao-ch'ai. At one moment, she envied her for having a mother and a brother; and at another, she mused that with the friendliness Pao-yue had ever shown her they were bound to be the victims of suspicion. But the pitter-patter of the rain, dripping on the bamboo tops and banana leaves, fell on her ear; and, as a fresh coolness penetrated the curtain, tears once more unconsciously trickled down her cheeks. In this frame of mind, she continued straight up to the fourth watch, when she at last gradually dropped into a sound sleep.
For the time, however, there is nothing that we can add. So should you, reader, desire to know any subsequent details, peruse what is written in the next chapter.
CHAPTER XLVI.
An improper man with difficulty keeps from improprieties.
The maid, Yuean Yang, vows to break off the marriage match.
Lin Tai-yue, to resume our story, dropped off gradually to sleep about the close of the fourth watch. As there is therefore nothing more that we can for the present say about her, let us take up the thread of our narrative with lady Feng.
Upon hearing that Madame Hsing wanted to see her, she could not make out what it could be about, so hurriedly putting on some extra things on her person and head, she got into a carriage and crossed over.
Madame Hsing at once dismissed every attendant from her suite of apartments. 'I sent for you,' she began, addressing herself to lady Feng, in a confidential tone, 'not for anything else, but on account of something which places me on the horns of a dilemma. My husband has entrusted me with a job; and being quite at my wits' ends how to act, I'd like first to consult with you. My husband has taken quite a fancy to Yuean Yang, who is in our worthy senior's rooms; so much so, that he's desirous to get her into his quarters as a secondary wife. He has
