and his rain-hat on his head, they with one voice laughed, 'We were just remarking that what was lacking was a fisherman, and lo, now we've got everything that was wanted! The young ladies are coming after their breakfast; you're in too impatient a mood!'
At these words, Pao-yue had no help but to retrace his footsteps. As soon as he reached the Hsin Tang pavilion, he perceived T'an Ch'un, issuing from the Ch'iu Shuang Study, wrapped in a deep red woollen waterproof, and a 'Kuan Yin' hood on her head, supporting herself on the arm of a young maid. Behind her, followed a married woman, holding a glazed umbrella made of green satin.
Pao-yue knew very well that she was on her way to his grandmother's, so speedily halting by the side of the pavilion, he waited for her to come up. The two cousins then left the garden together, and betook themselves to the front part of the mansion. Pao-ch'in was at the time in the inner apartments, combing her hair, washing her hands and face and changing her apparel. Shortly, the whole number of girls arrived. 'I feel peckish!' Pao-yue shouted; and again and again he tried to hurry the meal. It was with great impatience that he waited until the eatables could be laid on the table.
One of the dishes consisted of kid, boiled in cow's milk. 'This is medicine for us, who are advanced in years,' old lady Chia observed. 'They're things that haven't seen the light! The pity is that you young people can't have any. There's some fresh venison to-day as an extra course, so you'd better wait and eat some of that!'
One and all expressed their readiness to wait. Pao-yue however could not delay having something to eat. Seizing a cup of tea, he soaked a bowlful of rice, to which he added some meat from a pheasant's leg, and gobbled it down in a scramble.
'I'm well aware,' dowager lady Chia said, 'that as you're up to something again to-day, you people have no mind even for your meal. Let them keep,' she therefore cried, 'that venison for their evening repast!'
'What an idea!' lady Feng promptly put in. 'We'll have enough with what remains of it.'
Shih Hsiang-yuen thereupon consulted with Pao-yue. 'As there's fresh venison,' she said, 'wouldn't it be nice to ask for a haunch and take it into the garden and prepare it ourselves? We'll thus be able to sate our hunger, and have some fun as well.'
At this proposal, Pao-yue actually asked lady Feng to let them have a haunch, and he bade a matron carry it into the garden.
Presently, they all got up from table. After a time, they entered the garden and came in a body to the Lu Hsueeh pavilion to hear Li Wan give out the themes, and fix upon the rhymes. But Hsiang-yuen and Pao-yue were the only two of whom nothing was seen.
'Those two,' Tai-yue observed, 'can't get together! The moment they meet, how much trouble doesn't arise! They must surely have now gone to hatch their plans over that haunch of venison.'
These words were still on her lips when she saw 'sister-in-law' Li coming also to see what the noise was all about. 'How is it,' she then inquired of Li Wan, 'that that young fellow, with the jade, and that girl, with the golden unicorn round her neck, both of whom are so cleanly and tidy, and have besides ample to eat, are over there conferring about eating raw meat? There they are chatting, saying this and saying that; but I can't see how meat can be eaten raw!'
This remark much amused the party. 'How dreadful!' they exclaimed, 'Be quick and bring them both here!'
'All this fuss,' Tay-yue smiled, 'is the work of that girl Yuen. I'm not far off again in my surmises.'
Li Wan went out with precipitate step in search of the cousins. 'If you two are bent upon eating raw meat,' she cried, 'I'll send you over to our old senior's; you can do so there. What will I care then if you have a whole deer raw and make yourselves ill over it? It won't be any business of mine. But it's snowing hard and it's bitterly cold, so be quick and go and write some verses for me and be off!'
'We're doing nothing of the kind,' Pao-yue hastily rejoined. 'We're going to eat some roasted meat.'
'Well, that won't matter!' Li Wan observed. And seeing the old matrons bring an iron stove, prongs and a gridiron of iron wire, 'Mind you don't cut your hands,' Li Wan resumed, 'for we won't have any crying!'
This remark concluded, she walked in.
Lady Feng had sent P'ing Erh from her quarters to announce that she was unable to come, as the issue of the customary annual money gave her just at present, plenty to keep her busy.
Hsiang-yuen caught sight of P'ing Erh and would not let her go on her errand. But P'ing Erh too was fond of amusement, and had ever followed lady Feng everywhere she went, so, when she perceived what fun was to be got, and how merrily they joked and laughed, she felt impelled to take off her bracelets (and to join them). The trio then pressed round the fire; and P'ing Erh wanted to be the first to roast three pieces of venison to regale themselves with.
On the other side, Pao-ch'ai and Tai-yue had, even in ordinary times, seen enough of occasions like the present. They did not therefore think it anything out of the way; but Pao-ch'in and the other visitors, inclusive of 'sister-in-law' Li, were filled with intense wonder.
T'an Ch'un had, with the help of Li Wan, and her companions, succeeded by this time in choosing the subjects and rhymes. 'Just smell that sweet fragrance,' T'an Ch'un remarked. 'One can smell it even here! I'm also going to taste some.'
So speaking, she too went to look them up. But Li Wan likewise followed her out. 'The guests are all assembled,' she observed. 'Haven't you people had enough as yet?'
While Hsiang-yuen munched what she had in her month, she replied to her question. 'Whenever,' she said, 'I eat this sort of thing, I feel a craving for wine. It's only after I've had some that I shall be able to rhyme. Were it not for this venison, I would to-day have positively been quite unfit for any poetry.' As she spoke, she discerned Pao- ch'in, standing and laughing opposite to her, in her duck-down garment.
'You idiot,' Hsiang-yuen laughingly cried, 'come and have a mouthful to taste.'
'It's too filthy!' Pao-ch'in replied smiling.
'You go and try it.' Pao-ch'ai added with a laugh. 'It's capital! Your cousin Lin is so very weak that she couldn't digest it, if she had any. Otherwise she too is very fond of this.'
Upon hearing this, Pao-ch'in readily crossed over and put a piece in her mouth; and so good did she find it that she likewise started eating some of it.
In a little time, however, lady Feng sent a young maid to call P'ing Erh.
'Miss Shih,' P'ing Erh explained, 'won't let me go. So just return ahead of me.'
The maid thereupon took her leave; but shortly after they saw lady Feng arrive; she too with a wrapper over her shoulders.
'You're having,' she smiled; 'such dainties to eat, and don't you tell me?'
Saying this, she also drew near and began to eat.
'Where has this crowd of beggars turned up from?' Tai-yue put in with a laugh. 'But never mind, never mind! Here's the Lu Hsueeh pavilion come in for this calamity to-day, and, as it happens, it's that chit Yuen by whom it has been polluted! But I'll have a good cry for the Lu Hsueeh pavilion.'
Hsiang-yuen gave an ironical smile. 'What do you know?' she exclaimed. 'A genuine man of letters is naturally refined. But as for the whole lot of you, your poor and lofty notions are all a sham! You are most loathsome! We may now be frowzy and smelly, as we munch away lustily with our voracious appetites, but by and bye we'll prove as refined as scholars, as if we had cultured minds and polished tongues.'
'If by and bye,' Pao-ch'ai laughingly interposed, 'the verses you compose are not worth anything, I'll tug out that meat you've eaten, and take some of these snow-buried weeds and stuff you up with. I'll thus put an end to this evil fortune!'
While bandying words, they finished eating. For a time, they busied themselves with washing their hands. But when P'ing Erh came to put on her bracelets, she found one missing. She looked in a confused manner, at one time to the left, at another to the right; now in front of her, and then behind her for ever so long, but not a single vestige of it was visible. One and all were therefore filled with utter astonishment.
'I know where this bracelet has gone to;' lady Feng suggested smilingly. 'But just you all go and attend to your poetry. We too can well dispense with searching for it, and repair to the front. Before three days are out, I'll wager that it turns up. What verses are you writing to-day?' continuing she went on to inquire. 'Our worthy senior says that the end of the year is again nigh at hand, and that in the first moon some more conundrums will have to be devised to be affixed on lanterns, for the recreation of the whole family.'
'Of course we'll have to write a few,' they laughingly rejoined, upon hearing her remarks. 'We forgot all
