again; and all because you've had a few words with our master Secundus. But should your complaint break out afresh how will Mr. Pao bear the blow?'
The moment Pao-yue caught this advice, which accorded so thoroughly with his own ideas, he found how little Tai-yue could hold her own with Tzu Chuean. And perceiving how flushed Tai-yue's face was, how her temples were swollen, how, while sobbing, she panted; and how, while crying, she was suffused with perspiration, and betrayed signs of extreme weakness, he began, at the sight of her condition, to reproach himself. 'I shouldn't,' he reflected, 'have bandied words with her; for now that she's got into this frame of mind, I mayn't even suffer in her stead!'
The self-reproaches, however, which gnawed his heart made it impossible for him to refrain from tears, much as he fought against them. Hsi Jen saw them both crying, and while attending to Pao-yue, she too unavoidably experienced much soreness of heart. She nevertheless went on rubbing Pao-yue's hands, which were icy cold. She felt inclined to advise Pao-yue not to weep, but fearing again lest, in the first place, Pao-yue might be inwardly aggrieved, and nervous, in the next, lest she should not be dealing rightly by Tai-yue, she thought it advisable that they should all have a good cry, as they might then be able to leave off. She herself therefore also melted into tears. As for Tzu-Chuean, at one time, she cleaned the expectorated medicine; at another, she took up a fan and gently fanned Tai-yue. But at the sight of the trio plunged in perfect silence, and of one and all sobbing for reasons of their own, grief, much though she did to struggle against it, mastered her feelings too, and producing a handkerchief, she dried the tears that came to her eyes. So there stood four inmates, face to face, uttering not a word and indulging in weeping.
Shortly, Hsi Jen made a supreme effort, and smilingly said to Pao-yue: 'If you don't care for anything else, you should at least have shown some regard for those tassels, strung on the jade, and not have wrangled with Miss Lin.'
Tai-yue heard these words, and, mindless of her indisposition, she rushed over, and snatching the trinket, she picked up a pair of scissors, lying close at hand, bent upon cutting the tassels. Hsi Jen and Tzu Chuean were on the point of wresting it from her, but she had already managed to mangle them into several pieces.
'I have,' sobbed Tai-yue, 'wasted my energies on them for nothing; for he doesn't prize them. He's certain to find others to string some more fine tassels for him.'
Hsi Jen promptly took the jade. 'Is it worth while going on in this way!' she cried. 'But this is all my fault for having blabbered just now what should have been left unsaid.'
'Cut it, if you like!' chimed in Pao-yue, addressing himself to Tai-yue. 'I will on no account wear it, so it doesn't matter a rap.'
But while all they minded inside was to create this commotion, they little dreamt that the old matrons had descried Tai-yue weep bitterly and vomit copiously, and Pao-yue again dash his jade on the ground, and that not knowing how far the excitement might not go, and whether they themselves might not become involved, they had repaired in a body to the front, and reported the occurrence to dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang, their object being to try and avoid being themselves implicated in the matter. Their old mistress and Madame Wang, seeing them make so much of the occurrence as to rush with precipitate haste to bring it to their notice, could not in the least imagine what great disaster might not have befallen them, and without loss of time they betook themselves together into the garden and came to see what the two cousins were up to.
Hsi Jen felt irritated and harboured resentment against Tzu Chuean, unable to conceive what business she had to go and disturb their old mistress and Madame Wang. But Tzu Chuean, on the other hand, presumed that it was Hsi Jen, who had gone and reported the matter to them, and she too cherished angry feelings towards Hsi Jen.
Dowager lady Chia and Madame Wang walked into the apartment. They found Pao-yue on one side saying not a word. Lin Tai-yue on the other uttering not a sound. 'What's up again?' they asked. But throwing the whole blame upon the shoulders of Hsi Jen and Tzu Chuean, 'why is it,' they inquired, 'that you were not diligent in your attendance on them. They now start a quarrel, and don't you exert yourselves in the least to restrain them?'
Therefore with obloquy and hard words they rated the two girls for a time in such a way that neither of them could put in a word by way of reply, but felt compelled to listen patiently. And it was only after dowager lady Chia had taken Pao-yue away with her that things quieted down again.
One day passed. Then came the third of the moon. This was Hsueeh Pan's birthday, so in their house a banquet was spread and preparations made for a performance; and to these the various inmates of the Chia mansion went. But as Pao-yue had so hurt Tai-yue's feelings, the two cousins saw nothing whatever of each other, and conscience-stricken, despondent and unhappy, as he was at this time could he have had any inclination to be present at the plays? Hence it was that he refused to go on the pretext of indisposition.
Lin Tai-yue had got, a couple of days back, but a slight touch of the sun and naturally there was nothing much the matter with her. When the news however reached her that he did not intend to join the party, 'If with his weakness for wine and for theatricals,' she pondered within herself, 'he now chooses to stay away, instead of going, why, that quarrel with me yesterday must be at the bottom of it all. If this isn't the reason, well then it must be that he has no wish to attend, as he sees that I'm not going either. But I should on no account have cut the tassels from that jade, for I feel sure he won't wear it again. I shall therefore have to string some more on to it, before he puts it on.'
On this account the keenest remorse gnawed her heart.
Dowager lady Chia saw well enough that they were both under the influence of temper. 'We should avail ourselves of this occasion,' she said to herself, 'to go over and look at the plays, and as soon as the two young people come face to face, everything will be squared.' Contrary to her expectations neither of them would volunteer to go. This so exasperated their old grandmother that she felt vexed with them. 'In what part of my previous existence could an old sufferer like myself,' she exclaimed, 'have incurred such retribution that my destiny is to come across these two troublesome new-fledged foes! Why, not a single day goes by without their being instrumental in worrying my mind! The proverb is indeed correct which says: 'that people who are not enemies are not brought together!' But shortly my eyes shall be closed, this breath of mine shall be snapped, and those two enemies will be free to cause trouble even up to the very skies; for as my eyes will then loose their power of vision, and my heart will be void of concern, it will really be nothing to me. But I couldn't very well stifle this breath of life of mine!'
While inwardly a prey to resentment, she also melted into tears.
These words were brought to the ears of Pao-yue and Tai-yue. Neither of them had hitherto heard the adage: 'people who are not enemies are not brought together,' so when they suddenly got to know the line, it seemed as if they had apprehended abstraction. Both lowered their heads and meditated on the subtle sense of the saying. But unconsciously a stream of tears rolled down their cheeks. They could not, it is true, get a glimpse of each other; yet as the one was in the Hsiao Hsiang lodge, standing in the breeze, bedewed with tears, and the other in the I Hung court, facing the moon and heaving deep sighs, was it not, in fact, a case of two persons living in two distinct places, yet with feelings emanating from one and the same heart?
Hsi Jen consequently tendered advice to Pao-yue. 'You're a million times to blame,' she said, 'it's you who are entirely at fault! For when some time ago the pages in the establishment, wrangled with their sisters, or when husband and wife fell out, and you came to hear anything about it, you blew up the lads, and called them fools for not having the heart to show some regard to girls; and now here you go and follow their lead. But to-morrow is the fifth day of the moon, a great festival, and will you two still continue like this, as if you were very enemies? If so, our venerable mistress will be the more angry, and she certainly will be driven sick! I advise you therefore to do what's right by suppressing your spite and confessing your fault, so that we should all be on the same terms as hitherto. You here will then be all right, and so will she over there.'
Pao-yue listened to what she had to say; but whether he fell in with her views or not is not yet ascertained; yet if you, reader, choose to know, we will explain in the next chapter.
CHAPTER XXX.
Pao-ch'ai avails herself of the excuse afforded her by a fan to
administer a couple of raps.
