This question took Pao-yue by surprise. 'What prompts you to say this?' he exclaimed. 'If I have done anything of the kind, may I die at once.'
'Psha!' cried Tai-yue, 'it's not right that you-should recklessly broach the subject of living or dying at this early morn! If you say yea, it's yea; and nay, it's nay; what use is there to utter such oaths!'
'I didn't really see you come over,' protested Pao-yue. 'Cousin Pao-ch'ai it was, who came and sat for a while and then left.'
After some reflection, Lin Tai-yue smiled. 'Yes,' she observed, 'your servant-girls must, I fancy, have been too lazy to budge, grumpy and in a cross-grained mood; this is probable enough.'
'This is, I feel sure, the reason,' answered Pao-yue, 'so when I go back, I'll find out who it was, call them to task and put things right.'
'Those girls of yours;' continued Tai-yue, 'should be given a lesson, but properly speaking it isn't for me to mention anything about it. Their present insult to me is a mere trifle; but were to-morrow some Miss Pao (precious) or some Miss Pei (jewel) or other to come, and were she to be subjected to insult, won't it be a grave matter?'
While she taunted him, she pressed her lips, and laughed sarcastically.
Pao-yue heard her remarks and felt both disposed to gnash his teeth with rage, and to treat them as a joke; but in the midst of their colloquy, they perceived a waiting-maid approach and invite them to have their meal.
Presently, the whole body of inmates crossed over to the front.
'Miss,' inquired Madame Wang at the sight of Tai-yue, 'have you taken any of Dr. Pao's medicines? Do you feel any better?'
'I simply feel so-so,' replied Lin Tai-yue, 'but grandmother Chia recommended me to go on taking Dr. Wang's medicines.'
'Mother,' Pao-yue interposed, 'you've no idea that cousin Lin's is an internal derangement; it's because she was born with a delicate physique that she can't stand the slightest cold. All she need do is to take a couple of closes of some decoction to dispel the chill; yet it's preferable that she should have medicine in pills.'
'The other day,' said Madame Wang, 'the doctor mentioned the name of some pills, but I've forgotten what it is.'
'I know something about pills,' put in Pao-yue; 'he merely told her to take some pills or other called 'ginseng as-a-restorative-of-the-system.''
'That isn't it,' Madame Wang demurred.
'The 'Eight-precious-wholesome-to-mother' pills,' Pao-yue proceeded, 'or the 'Left-angelica' or 'Right- angelica;' if these also aren't the ones, they must be the 'Eight-flavour Rehmannia-glutinosa' pills.'
'None of these,' rejoined Madame Wang, 'for I remember well that there were the two words chin kang (guardians in Buddhistic temples).'
'I've never before,' observed Pao-yue, clapping his hands, 'heard of the existence of chin kang pills; but in the event of there being any chin kang pills, there must, for a certainty, be such a thing as P'u Sa (Buddha) powder.'
At this joke, every one in the whole room burst out laughing. Pao-ch'ai compressed her lips and gave a smile. 'It must, I'm inclined to think,' she suggested, 'be the 'lord-of-heaven-strengthen-the-heart' pills!'
'Yes, that's the name,' Madame Wang laughed, 'why, now, I too have become muddle-headed.'
'You're not muddle-headed, mother,' said Pao-yue, 'it's the mention of Chin kangs and Buddhas which confused you.'
'Stuff and nonsense!' ejaculated Madame Wang. 'What you want again is your father to whip you!'
'My father,' Pao-yue laughed, 'wouldn't whip me for a thing like this.'
'Well, this being their name,' resumed Madame Wang, 'you had better tell some one to-morrow to buy you a few.'
'All these drugs,' expostulated Pao-yue, 'are of no earthly use. Were you, mother, to give me three hundred and sixty taels, I'll concoct a supply of pills for my cousin, which I can certify will make her feel quite herself again before she has finished a single supply.'
'What trash!' cried Madame Wang. 'What kind of medicine is there so costly!'
'It's a positive fact,' smiled Pao-yue. 'This prescription of mine is unlike all others. Besides, the very names of those drugs are quaint, and couldn't be enumerated in a moment; suffice it to mention the placenta of the first child; three hundred and sixty ginseng roots, shaped like human beings and studded with leaves; four fat tortoises; full-grown polygonum multiflorum; the core of the Pachyma cocos, found on the roots of a fir tree of a thousand years old; and other such species of medicines. They're not, I admit, out-of-the-way things; but they are the most excellent among that whole crowd of medicines; and were I to begin to give you a list of them, why, they'd take you all quite aback. The year before last, I at length let Hsueeh P'an have this recipe, after he had made ever so many entreaties during one or two years. When, however, he got the prescription, he had to search for another two or three years and to spend over and above a thousand taels before he succeeded in having it prepared. If you don't believe me, mother, you are at liberty to ask cousin Pao-ch'ai about it.'
At the mention of her name, Pao-ch'ai laughingly waved her hand. 'I know nothing about it,' she observed. 'Nor have I heard anything about it, so don't tell your mother to ask me any questions.'
'Really,' said Madame Wang smiling, 'Pao-ch'ai is a good girl; she does not tell lies.'
Pao-yue was standing in the centre of the room. Upon hearing these words, he turned round sharply and clapped his hands. 'What I stated just now,' he explained, 'was the truth; yet you maintain that it was all lies.'
As he defended himself, he casually looked round, and caught sight of Lin Tai-yue at the back of Pao-ch'ai laughing with tight-set lips, and applying her fingers to her face to put him to shame.
But Lady Feng, who had been in the inner rooms overseeing the servants laying the table, came out at once, as soon as she overheard the conversation. 'Brother Pao tells no lies,' she smilingly chimed in, 'this is really a fact. Some time ago cousin Hsueeh P'an came over in person and asked me for pearls, and when I inquired of him what he wanted them for, he explained that they were intended to compound some medicine with; adding, in an aggrieved way, that it would have been better hadn't he taken it in hand for he never had any idea that it would involve such a lot of trouble! When I questioned him what the medicine was, he returned for answer that it was a prescription of brother Pao's; and he mentioned ever so many ingredients, which I don't even remember. 'Under other circumstances,' he went on to say, 'I would have purchased a few pearls, but what are absolutely wanted are such pearls as have been worn on the head; and that's why I come to ask you, cousin, for some. If, cousin, you've got no broken ornaments at hand, in the shape of flowers, why, those that you have on your head will do as well; and by and bye I'll choose a few good ones and give them to you, to wear.' I had no other course therefore than to snap a couple of twigs from some flowers I have, made of pearls, and to let him take them away. One also requires a piece of deep red gauze, three feet in length of the best quality; and the pearls must be triturated to powder in a mortar.'
After each sentence expressed by lady Feng, Pao-yue muttered an invocation to Buddha. 'The thing is as clear as sunlight now,' he remarked.
The moment lady Feng had done speaking, Pao-yue put in his word. 'Mother,' he added, 'you should know that this is a mere makeshift, for really, according to the letter of the prescription, these pearls and precious stones should, properly speaking, consist of such as had been obtained from, some old grave and been worn as head- ornaments by some wealthy and honourable person of bygone days. But how could one go now on this account and dig up graves, and open tombs! Hence it is that such as are simply in use among living persons can equally well be substituted.'
'O-mi-to-fu!' exclaimed Madame Wang, after listening to him throughout. 'That will never do, and what an arduous job to uselessly saddle one's self with; for even though there be interred in some graves people, who've been dead for several hundreds of years, it wouldn't be a propitious thing were their corpses turned topsy-turvey now and the bones abstracted; just for the sake of preparing some medicine or other.'
Pao-yue thereupon addressed himself to Tai-yue. 'Have you heard what was said or not?' he asked. 'And is there, pray, any likelihood that cousin Secunda would also follow in my lead and tell lies?'
While saying this, his eyes were, albeit his face was turned towards Lin Tai-yue, fixed upon Pao-ch'ai.
Lin Tai-yue pulled Madame Wang. 'You just listen to him, aunt,' she observed. 'All because cousin Pao-ch'ai would not accommodate him by lying, he appeals to me.'
