'After you've had tea,' old lady Chia thereupon said to Hsiang-yuen, 'you'd better rest a while and then go and see your sisters-in-law. Besides, it's cool in the garden, so you can walk about with your cousins.'
Hsiang-yuen expressed her assent, and, collecting the three rings, she wrapped them up, and went and lay down to rest. Presently, she got up with the idea of paying visits to lady Feng and her other relatives. Followed by a whole bevy of nurses and waiting-maids, she repaired into lady Feng's quarters on the off side. She bandied words with her for a while and then coming out she betook herself into the garden of Broad Vista, and called on Li Kung- ts'ai. But after a short visit, she turned her steps towards the I Hung court to look up Hsi Jen. 'You people needn't,' she said, turning her head round, 'come along with me! You may go and see your friends and relatives. It will be quite enough if you simply leave Ts'ui Lue to wait upon me.'
Hearing her wishes, each went her own way in quest of aunts, or sisters-in-law. There only remained but Hsiang-yuen and Ts'ui Lue.
'How is it,' inquired Ts'ui Lue, 'that these lotus flowers have not yet opened?'
'The proper season hasn't yet arrived,' rejoined Shih Hsiang-yuen.
'They too,' continued Ts'ui Lue, 'resemble those in our pond; they are double flowers.'
'These here,' remarked Hsiang-yuen, 'are not however up to ours.'
'They have over there,' observed Ts'ui Lue, 'a pomegranate tree, with four or five branches joined one to another, just like one storey raised above another storey. What trouble it must have cost them to rear!'
'Flowers and plants,' suggested Shih Hsiang-yuen, 'are precisely like the human race. With sufficient vitality, they grow up in a healthy condition.'
'I can't credit these words,' replied Ts'ui Lue, twisting her face round. 'If you maintain that they are like human beings, how is it that I haven't seen any person, with one head growing over another.'
This rejoinder evoked a smile from Hsiang-yuen. 'I tell you not to talk,' she cried, 'but you will insist upon talking! How do you expect people to be able to answer every thing you say! All things, whether in heaven or on earth come into existence by the co-operation of the dual powers, the male and female. So all things, whether good or bad, novel or strange, and all those manifold changes and transformations arise entirely from the favourable or adverse influence exercised by the male and female powers. And though some things seldom seen by mankind might come to life, the principle at work is, after all, the same.'
'In the face of these arguments,' laughed Ts'ui Lue, 'everything, from old till now, from the very creation itself, embodies a certain proportion of the Yin and Yang principles.'
'You stupid thing!' exclaimed Hsiang-yuen smiling, 'the more you talk, the more stuff and nonsense falls from your lips! What about everything embodying a certain proportion of the principles Yin and Yang! Besides, the two words Yin and Yang are really one word; for when the Yang principle is exhausted, it becomes the Yin; and when the Yin is exhausted, it becomes Yang. And it isn't that, at the exhaustion of the Yin, another Yang comes into existence; and that, at the exhaustion of the Yang, a second Yin arises.'
'This trash is sufficient to kill me!' ejaculated Ts'ui Lue. 'What are the Yin and Yang? Why, they are without substance or form! But pray, Miss, tell me what sort of things these Yin and Yang can be!'
'The Yin and Yang,' explained Hsiang-yuen, 'are no more than spirits, but anything affected by their influence at once assumes form. The heavens, for instance, are Yang, and the earth is Yin; water is Yin and fire is Yang; the sun is Yang and the moon Yin.'
'Quite so! quite so!' cried out Ts'ui Lue, much amused by these explanations, 'I've at length attained perception! It isn't strange then that people invariably call the sun 'T'ai-yang.' While astrologers keep on speaking of the moon as 'T'ai-yin-hsing,' or something like it. It must be on account of this principle.'
'O-mi-to-fu!' laughed Hsiang-yuen, 'you have at last understood!'
'All these things possess the Yin and Yang; that's all right.' T'sui Lue put in. 'But is there any likelihood that all those mosquitoes, flees and worms, flowers, herbs, bricks and tiles have, in like manner, anything to do with the Yin and Yang?'
'How don't they!' exclaimed Hsiang-yuen. 'For example, even the leaves of that tree are distinguished by Yin and Yang. The side, which looks up and faces the sun, is called Yang; while that in the shade and looking downwards, is called Yin.'
'Is it really so!' ejaculated T'sui Lue, upon hearing this; while she smiled and nodded her head. 'Now I know all about it! But which is Yang and which Yin in these fans we're holding.'
'This side, the front, is Yang,' answered Hsiang-yuen; 'and that, the reverse, is Yin.'
Ts'ui Lue went on to nod her head, and to laugh. She felt inclined to apply her questions to several other things, but as she could not fix her mind upon anything in particular, she, all of a sudden, drooped her head. Catching sight of the pendant in gold, representing a unicorn, which Hsiang-yuen had about her person, she forthwith made allusion to it. 'This, Miss,' she said smiling, 'cannot likely also have any Yin and Yang!'
'The beasts of the field and the birds of the air,' proceeded Hsiang-yuen, 'are, the cock birds, Yang, and the hen birds, Yin. The females of beasts are Yin; and the males, Yang; so how is there none?'
'Is this male, or is this female?' inquired Ts'ui Lue.
'Ts'ui!' exclaimed Hsiang-yuen, 'what about male and female! Here you are with your nonsense again.'
'Well, never mind about that,' added Ts'ui Lue, 'But how is it that all things have Yin and Yang, and that we human beings have no Yin and no Yang?'
Hsiang-yuen then lowered her face. 'You low-bred thing!' she exclaimed. 'But it's better for us to proceed on our way, for the more questions you ask, the nicer they get.'
'What's there in this that you can't tell me?' asked Ts'ui Lue, 'But I know all about it, so there's no need for you to keep me on pins and needles.'
Hsiang-yuen blurted out laughing. 'What do you know?' she said.
'That you, Miss, are Yang, and that I'm Yin,' answered Ts'ui Lue.
Hsiang-yuen produced her handkerchief, and, while screening her mouth with it, burst out into a loud fit of laughter.
'What I say must be right for you to laugh in this way,' Ts'ui Lue observed.
'Perfectly right, perfectly right!' acquiesced Hsiang-yuen.
'People say,' continued Ts'ui Lue, 'that masters are Yang, and that servant-girls are Yin; don't I even apprehend this primary principle?'
'You apprehend it thoroughly,' responded Hsiang-yuen laughingly. But while she was speaking, she espied, under the trellis with the cinnamon roses, something glistening like gold. 'Do you see that? What is it?' Hsiang- yuen asked pointing at it.
Hearing this, Ts'ui Lue hastily went over and picked up the object. While scrutinising it, she observed with a smile, 'Let us find out whether it's Yin or Yang!'
So saying, she first laid hold of the unicorn, belonging to Shih Hsiang-yuen, and passed it under inspection.
Shih Hsiang-yuen longed to be shown what she had picked up, but Ts'ui Lue would not open her hand.
'It's a precious gem,' she smiled. 'You mayn't see it, Miss. Where can it be from? How very strange it is! I've never seen any one in here with anything of the kind.'
'Give it to me and let me look at it,' retorted Hsiang-yuen.
Ts'ui Lue stretched out her hand with a dash. 'Yes, Miss, please look at it!' she laughed.
Hsiang-yuen raised her eyes. She perceived, at a glance, that it was a golden unicorn, so beautiful and so bright; and so much larger and handsomer than the one she had on. Hsiang-yuen put out her arm and, taking the gem in the palm of her hand, she fell into a silent reverie and uttered not a word. She was quite absent-minded when suddenly Pao-yue appeared in the opposite direction.
'What are you two,' he asked smiling, 'doing here in the sun? How is it you don't go and find Hsi Jen?'
Shih Hsiang-yuen precipitately concealed the unicorn. 'We were just going,' she replied, 'so let us all go together.'
Conversing, they, in a company, wended their steps into the I Hung court. Hsi Jen was leaning on the balustrade at the bottom of the steps, her face turned to the breeze. Upon unexpectedly seeing Hsiang-yuen arrive she with alacrity rushed down to greet her; and taking her hand in hers, they cheerfully canvassed the events that had transpired during their separation, while they entered the room and took a seat.
'You should have come earlier,' Pao-yue said. 'I've got something nice and was only waiting for you.'
Saying this, he searched and searched about his person. After a long interval, 'Ai-ya!' he ejaculated. 'Have
