thing was your handiwork.'
'He never knew that you'd done it,' Hsi Jen also laughed. 'I deceived him by telling him that there had been of late some capital hands at needlework outside, who could execute any embroidery with surpassing beauty, and that I had asked them to bring a fan-case so as to try them and to see whether they could actually work well or not. He at once believed what I said. But as he produced the case and gave it to this one and that one to look at, he somehow or other, I don't know how, managed again to put some one's back up, and she cut it into two. On his return, however, he bade me hurry the men to make another; and when at length I explained to him that it had been worked by you, he felt, I can't tell you, what keen regret!'
'This is getting stranger and stranger!' said Shih Hsiang-yuen. 'It wasn't worth the while for Miss Lin to lose her temper about it. But as she plies the scissors so admirably, why, you might as well tell her to finish the shoes for you.'
'She couldn't,' replied Hsi Jen, 'for besides other things our venerable lady is still in fear and trembling lest she should tire herself in any way. The doctor likewise says that she will continue to enjoy good health, so long as she is carefully looked after; so who would wish to ask her to take them in hand? Last year she managed to just get through a scented bag, after a whole year's work. But here we've already reached the middle of the present year, and she hasn't yet taken up any needle or thread!'
In the course of their conversation, a servant came and announced 'that the gentleman who lived in the Hsing Lung Street had come.' 'Our master,' he added, 'bids you, Mr. Secundus, come out and greet him.'
As soon as Pao-yue heard this announcement, he knew that Chia Yue-ts'un must have arrived. But he felt very unhappy at heart. Hsi Jen hurried to go and bring his clothes. Pao-yue, meanwhile, put on his boots, but as he did so, he gave way to resentment. 'Why there's father,' he soliloquised, 'to sit with him; that should be enough; and must he, on every visit he pays, insist upon seeing me!'
'It is, of course, because you have such a knack for receiving and entertaining visitors that Mr. Chia Cheng will have you go out,' laughingly interposed Shih Hsiang-yuen from one side, as she waved her fan.
'Is it father's doing?' Pao-yue rejoined. 'Why, it's he himself who asks that I should be sent for to see him.'
''When a host is courteous, visitors come often,'' smiled Hsiang-yuen, 'so it's surely because you possess certain qualities, which have won his regard, that he insists upon seeing you.'
'But I am not what one would call courteous,' demurred Pao-yue. 'I am, of all coarse people, the coarsest. Besides, I do not choose to have any relations with such people as himself.'
'Here's again that unchangeable temperament of yours!' laughed Hsiang-yuen. 'But you're a big fellow now, and you should at least, if you be loth to study and go and pass your examinations for a provincial graduate or a metropolitan graduate, have frequent intercourse with officers and ministers of state and discuss those varied attainments, which one acquires in an official career, so that you also may be able in time to have some idea about matters in general; and that when by and bye you've made friends, they may not see you spending the whole day long in doing nothing than loafing in our midst, up to every imaginable mischief.'
'Miss,' exclaimed Pao-yue, after this harangue, 'pray go and sit in some other girl's room, for mind one like myself may contaminate a person who knows so much of attainments and experience as you do.'
'Miss,' ventured Hsi Jen, 'drop this at once! Last time Miss Pao too tendered him this advice, but without troubling himself as to whether people would feel uneasy or not, he simply came out with an ejaculation of 'hai,' and rushed out of the place. Miss Pao hadn't meanwhile concluded her say, so when she saw him fly, she got so full of shame that, flushing scarlet, she could neither open her lips, nor hold her own counsel. But lucky for him it was only Miss Pao. Had it been Miss Lin, there's no saying what row there may not have been again, and what tears may not have been shed! Yet the very mention of all she had to tell him is enough to make people look up to Miss Pao with respect. But after a time, she also betook herself away. I then felt very unhappy as I imagined that she was angry; but contrary to all my expectations, she was by and bye just the same as ever. She is, in very truth, long-suffering and indulgent! This other party contrariwise became quite distant to her, little though one would have thought it of him; and as Miss Pao perceived that he had lost his temper, and didn't choose to heed her, she subsequently made I don't know how many apologies to him.'
'Did Miss Lin ever talk such trash!' exclaimed Pao-yue. 'Had she ever talked such stuff and nonsense, I would have long ago become chilled towards her.'
'What you say is all trash!' Hsi Jen and Hsiang-yuen remarked with one voice, while they shook their heads to and fro and smiled.
Lin Tai-yue, the fact is, was well aware that now that Shih Hsiang-yuen was staying in the mansion, Pao-yue too was certain to hasten to come and tell her all about the unicorn he had got, so she thought to herself: 'In the foreign traditions and wild stories, introduced here of late by Pao-yue, literary persons and pretty girls are, for the most part, brought together in marriage, through the agency of some trifling but ingenious nick-nack. These people either have miniature ducks, or phoenixes, jade necklets or gold pendants, fine handkerchiefs or elegant sashes; and they have, through the instrumentality of such trivial objects, invariably succeeded in accomplishing the wishes they entertained throughout their lives.' When she recently discovered, by some unforeseen way, that Pao-yue had likewise a unicorn she began to apprehend lest he should make this circumstance a pretext to create an estrangement with her, and indulge with Shih Hsiang-yuen as well in various free and easy flirtations and fine doings. She therefore quietly crossed over to watch her opportunity and take such action as would enable her to get an insight into his and her sentiments. Contrary, however, to all her calculations, no sooner did she reach her destination, than she overheard Shih Hsiang-yuen dilate on the topic of experience, and Pao-yue go on to observe: 'Cousin Lin has never indulged in such stuff and nonsense. Had she ever uttered any such trash, I would have become chilled even towards her!' This language suddenly produced, in Lin Tai-yue's mind, both surprise as well as delight; sadness as well as regret. Delight, at having indeed been so correct in her perception that he whom she had ever considered in the light of a true friend had actually turned out to be a true friend. Surprise, 'because,' she said to herself: 'he has, in the presence of so many witnesses, displayed such partiality as to speak in my praise, and has shown such affection and friendliness for me as to make no attempt whatever to shirk suspicion.' Regret, 'for since,' (she pondered), 'you are my intimate friend, you could certainly well look upon me too as your intimate friend; and if you and I be real friends, why need there be any more talk about gold and jade? But since there be that question of gold and jade, you and I should have such things in our possession. Yet, why should this Pao-ch'ai step in again between us?' Sad, 'because,' (she reflected), 'my father and mother departed life at an early period; and because I have, in spite of the secret engraven on my heart and imprinted on my bones, not a soul to act as a mentor to me. Besides, of late, I continuously feel confusion creep over my mind, so my disease must already have gradually developed itself. The doctors further state that my breath is weak and my blood poor, and that they dread lest consumption should declare itself, so despite that sincere friendship I foster for you, I cannot, I fear, last for very long. You are, I admit, a true friend to me, but what can you do for my unfortunate destiny!'
Upon reaching this point in her reflections, she could not control her tears, and they rolled freely down her cheeks. So much so, that when about to enter and meet her cousins, she experienced such utter lack of zest, that, while drying her tears she turned round, and wended her steps back in the direction of her apartments.
Pao-yue, meanwhile, had hurriedly got into his new costume. Upon coming out of doors, he caught sight of Lin Tai-yue, walking quietly ahead of him engaged, to all appearances, in wiping tears from her eyes. With rapid stride, he overtook her.
'Cousin Lin,' he smiled, 'where are you off to? How is it that you're crying again? Who has once more hurt your feelings?'
Lin Tai-yue turned her head round to look; and seeing that it was Pao-yue, she at once forced a smile. 'Why should I be crying,' she replied, 'when there is no reason to do so?'
'Look here!' observed Pao-yue smilingly. 'The tears in your eyes are not dry yet and do you still tell me a fib?'
Saying this, he could not check an impulse to raise his arm and wipe her eyes, but Lin Tai-yue speedily withdrew several steps backwards. 'Are you again bent,' she said, 'upon compassing your own death! Then why do you knock your hands and kick your feet about in this wise?'
'While intent upon speaking, I forgot,' smiled Pao-yue, 'all about propriety and gesticulated, yet quite inadvertently. But what care I whether I die or live!'
'To die would, after all' added Lin Tai-yue, 'be for you of no matter; but you'll leave behind some gold or other, and a unicorn too or other; and what would they do?'
