So saying, they dusted one of the stone steps with their handkerchiefs. 'You've been standing so long,' they observed, 'that you must feel quite tired. Do sit in this sunny place and have a little rest.'
P'ing Erh took a seat on the step. Two matrons attached to the tea-room then fetched a rug and spread it out for her. 'It's cold on those stones,' they ventured; 'this is, as clean as it can be. So, miss, do make the best of it, and use it!'
P'ing Erh hastily forced a smile. 'Many thanks,' she replied.
Another matron next brought her a cup of fine new tea. 'This isn't the tea we ordinarily drink,' she quietly smiled. 'This is really for entertaining the young ladies with. Miss, pray moisten your mouth with some.'
P'ing Erh lost no time in bending her body forward and taking the cup. Then pointing at the company of married women, she observed in a low voice: 'You're all too fond of trouble! The way you're going on won't do at all! She (T'an Ch'un) is only a young girl, so she is loth to show any severity, or display any temper. This is because she's full of respect. Yet you people look down on her and insult her. Should she, however, be actually provoked into any violent fit of anger, people will simply say that her behaviour was rather rough, and all will be over. But as for you, you'll get at once into endless trouble. Even though she might show herself somewhat wilful, Madame Wang treats her with considerable forbearance, and lady Secunda too hasn't the courage to meddle with her; and do you people have such arrogance as to look down on her? This is certainly just as if an egg were to go and bang itself against a stone!'
'When were we ever so audacious?' the servants exclaimed with one voice. 'This fuss is all the work of Mrs. Chao!'
'Never mind about that!' P'ing Erh urged again in an undertone. 'My dear ladies, 'when a wall falls, every one gives it a shove.' That Mrs. Chao has always been rather topsy-turvey in her ways, and done things by halves; so whenever there has been any rumpus, you've invariably shoved the blame on to her shoulders. Never have you had any regard for any single person. Your designs are simply awful! Is it likely that all these years that I've been here, I haven't come to know of them? Had our lady Secunda mismanaged things just a little bit, she would have long ago been run down by every one of you, ladies! Even such as she is, you would, could you only get the least opportunity, be ready to place her in a fix! And how many, many times hasn't she been abused by you?'
'She's dreadful,' one and all of them rejoined. 'You all live in fear and trembling of her. But we know well enough that no one could say that she too does not in the depths of her heart entertain some little dread for the lot of you. The other day, we said, in talking matters over, that things could not go on smoothly from beginning to end, and that some unpleasantness was bound to happen. Miss Tertia is, it's true, a mere girl, and you've always treated her with little consideration, but out of that company of senior and junior young ladies, she is the only soul whom our lady Secunda funks to some certain extent. And yet you people now won't look up to her.'
So speaking Ch'iu Wen appeared to view. The married women ran up to her and inquired after her health. 'Miss,' they said, 'do rest a little. They've had their meal served in there, so wait until things have been cleared away, before you go and deliver your message.'
'I'm not like you people,' Ch'iu Wen smiled. 'How can I afford to wait?'
With these words on her lips, she was about to go into the hall, when P'ing Erh quickly called her back. Ch'iu Wen, upon turning her head round, caught sight of P'ing Erh. 'Have you too,' she remarked with a smile, 'come here to become something like those guardians posted outside the enclosing walls?'
Retracing, at the same time, her footsteps, she took a seat on the rug, occupied by P'ing Erh.
'What message have you got to deliver?' P'ing Erh gently asked.
'I've got to ask when we can get Pao-yue's monthly allowance and our own too,' she responded.
'Is this any such pressing matter?' P'ing Erh answered. 'Go back quick, and tell Hsi Jen that my advice is that no concern whatever should be brought to their notice to-day. That every single matter reported is bound to be objected to; and that even a hundred will just as surely be vetoed.'
'Why is it?' vehemently inquired Ch'iu Wen, upon hearing this explanation.
P'ing Erh and the other servants then promptly told her the various reasons. 'She's just bent,' they proceeded, 'upon finding a few weighty concerns in order to establish, at the expense of any decent person who might chance to present herself, a precedent of some kind or other so as to fix upon a mode of action, which might help to put down expenses to their proper level, and afford a lesson to the whole household; and why are you people the first to come and bump your heads against the nails? If you went now and told them your errand, it would also reflect discredit upon our venerable old mistress and Madame Wang, were they to pounce upon one or two matters to make an example of you. But if they complied with one or two of your applications, others will again maintain 'that they are inclined to favour this one and show partiality to that one; that as you had your old mistress' and Madame Wang's authority to fall back upon, they were afraid and did not presume to provoke their displeasure; that they only avail themselves of soft-natured persons to make scapegoats of.' Just mark my words! She even means to raise objections in one or two matters connected with our lady Secunda, in order to be the better able to shut up people's mouths.'
Ch'iu Wen listened to her with patient ear; and then stretching out her tongue, 'It's lucky enough you were here, sister P'ing,' she smiled; 'otherwise, I would have had my nose well rubbed on the ground. I shall seize the earliest opportunity and give the lot of them a hint.'
While replying, she immediately rose to her feet and took leave of them. Soon after her departure, Pao-ch'ai's eatables arrived, and P'ing Erh hastened to enter and wait on her. By that time Mrs. Chao had left, so the three girls seated themselves on the wooden bed, and went through their repast. Pao-ch'ai faced the south. T'an Ch'un the west. Li Wan the east. The company of married women stood quietly under the verandah ready to answer any calls. Within the precincts of the chamber, only such maids remained in waiting as had ever been their closest attendants. None of the other servants ventured, of their own accord, to put their foot anywhere inside.
The married women (meanwhile) discussed matters in a confidential whisper. 'Let's do our downright best to save trouble,' they argued. 'Don't let us therefore harbour any evil design, for even dame Wu will, in that case, be placed in an awkward fix. And can we boast of any grand honours to expect to fare any better?'
While they stood on one side, and held counsel together, waiting for the meal to be over to make their several reports, they could not catch so much as the caw of a crow inside the rooms. Neither did the clatter of bowls and chopsticks reach their ears. But presently, they discerned a maid raise the frame of the portiere as high as she could, and two other girls bring the table out. In the tea-room, three maids waited with three basins in hand. The moment they saw the dining-table brought out, all three walked in. But after a brief interval, they egressed with the basins and rinsing cups. Shih Shu, Su Yuen and Ying Erh thereupon entered with three covered cups of tea, placed in trays. Shortly however these three girls also made their exit. Shih Shu then recommended a young maid to be careful and attend to the wants (of their mistresses). 'When we've had our rice,' she added, 'we'll come and relieve you. But don't go stealthily again and sit down!'
The married women at length delivered their reports in a quiet and orderly manner; and as they did not presume to be as contemptuous and offhandish as they had been before, T'an Ch'un eventually cooled down.
'I've got something of moment,' she then observed to P'ing Erh, 'about which I would like to consult your mistress. Happily, I remembered it just now, so come back as soon as you've had your meal. Miss Pao-ch'ai is also here at present, so, after we four have deliberated together, you can carefully ask your lady whether action is to be taken accordingly or not.'
P'ing Erh acquiesced and returned to her quarters. 'How is it,' inquired lady Feng, 'that you've been away such an age?'
P'ing Erh smiled and gave her a full account of what had recently transpired.
'What a fine, splendid girl Miss Tertia is!' she laughingly ejaculated. 'What I said was quite right! The only pity is that she should have had such a miserable lot as not to have been born of a primary wife.'
'My lady, you're also talking a lot of trash!' P'ing Erh smiled. 'She, mayn't be Madame Wang's child, but is it likely that any one would be so bold as to point the finger of scorn at her, and not treat her like the others?'
Lady Feng sighed. 'How could you know everything?' she remarked. 'She is, of course, the offspring of a concubine, but as a mere girl, she can't be placed on the same footing as a man! By and bye, when any one aspires to her hand, the sort of supercilious parties, who now tread the world, will, as a first step, ask whether this young lady is the child of a No. 1 or No. 2 wife. And many of these won't have anything to say to her, as she is the child, of a No. 2. But really people haven't any idea that, not to speak of her as the offspring of a secondary wife, she would be, even as a mere servant-girl of ours, far superior than the very legitimate daughter of any family. Who, I wonder, will in the future be so devoid of good fortune as to break off the match; just because he may be inclined to pick
