clear himself. 'I wasn't running about just now' he said. 'But as I was passing by the side of that well, I caught sight, for in that well a servant-girl was drowned, of a human head that large, a body that swollen, floating about in really a frightful way and I therefore hastily rushed past.'
Chia Cheng was thunderstruck by this disclosure. 'There's been nothing up, so who has gone and jumped into the well?' he inquired. 'Never has there been anything of the kind in my house before! Ever since the time of our ancestors, servants have invariably been treated with clemency and consideration. But I expect that I must of late have become remiss in my domestic affairs, and that the managers must have arrogated to themselves the right of domineering and so been the cause of bringing about such calamities as violent deaths and disregard of life. Were these things to reach the ears of people outside, what will become of the reputation of our seniors? Call Chia Lien and Lai Ta here!' he shouted.
The servant-lads signified their obedience, with one voice. They were about to go and summon them, when Chia Huan hastened to press forward. Grasping the lapel of Chia Cheng's coat, and clinging to his knees, he knelt down. 'Father, why need you be angry?' he said. 'Excluding the people in Madame Wang's rooms, this occurrence is entirely unknown to any of the rest; and I have heard my mother mention....' At this point, he turned his head, and cast a glance in all four quarters.
Chia Cheng guessed his meaning, and made a sign with his eyes. The young boys grasped his purpose and drew far back on either side.
Chia Huan resumed his confidences in a low tone of voice. 'My mother,' he resumed, 'told me that when brother Pao-yue was, the other day, in Madame Wang's apartments, he seized her servant-maid Chin Ch'uan-erh with the intent of dishonouring her. That as he failed to carry out his design, he gave her a thrashing, which so exasperated Chin Ch'uan-erh that she threw herself into the well and committed suicide....'
Before however he could conclude his account, Chia Cheng had been incensed to such a degree that his face assumed the colour of silver paper. 'Bring Pao-yue here,' he cried. While uttering these orders, he walked into the study. 'If any one does again to-day come to dissuade me,' he vociferated, 'I shall take this official hat, and sash, my home and private property and surrender everything at once to him to go and bestow them upon Pao-yue; for if I cannot escape blame (with a son like the one I have), I mean to shave this scanty trouble-laden hair about my temples and go in search of some unsullied place where I can spend the rest of my days alone! I shall thus also avoid the crime of heaping, above, insult upon my predecessors, and, below, of having given birth to such a rebellious son.'
At the sight of Chia Cheng in this exasperation, the family companions and attendants speedily realised that Pao-yue must once more be the cause of it, and the whole posse hastened to withdraw from the study, biting their fingers and putting their tongues out.
Chia Cheng panted with excitement. He stretched his chest out and sat bolt upright on a chair. His whole face was covered with the traces of tears. 'Bring Pao-yue! Bring Pao-yue!' he shouted consecutively. 'Fetch a big stick; bring a rope and tie him up; close all the doors! If any one does communicate anything about it in the inner rooms, why, I'll immediately beat him to death.'
The servant-boys felt compelled to express their obedience with one consent, and some of them came to look after Pao-yue.
As for Pao-yue, when he heard Chia Cheng enjoin him not to move, he forthwith became aware that the chances of an unpropitious issue outnumbered those of a propitious one, but how could he have had any idea that Chia Huan as well had put in his word? There he still stood in the pavilion, revolving in his mind how he could get some one to speed inside and deliver a message for him. But, as it happened, not a soul appeared. He was quite at a loss to know where even Pei Ming could be. His longing was at its height, when he perceived an old nurse come on the scene. The sight of her exulted Pao-yue, just as much as if he had obtained pearls or gems; and hurriedly approaching her, he dragged her and forced her to halt. 'Go in,' he urged, 'at once and tell them that my father wishes to beat me to death. Be quick, be quick, for it's urgent, there's no time to be lost.'
But, first and foremost, Pao-yue's excitement was so intense that he spoke with indistinctness. In the second place, the old nurse was, as luck would have it, dull of hearing, so that she did not catch the drift of what he said, and she misconstrued the two words: 'it's urgent,' for the two representing jumped into the well. Readily smiling therefore: 'If she wants to jump into the well, let her do so,' she said. 'What's there to make you fear, Master Secundus?'
'Go out,' pursued Pao-yue, in despair, on discovering that she was deaf, 'and tell my page to come.'
'What's there left unsettled?' rejoined the old nurse. 'Everything has been finished long ago! A tip has also been given them; so how is it things are not settled?'
Pao-yue fidgetted with his hands and feet. He was just at his wits' ends, when he espied Chia Cheng's servant-boys come up and press him to go out.
As soon as Chia Cheng caught sight of him, his eyes got quite red. Without even allowing himself any time to question him about his gadding about with actors, and the presents he gave them on the sly, during his absence from home; or about his playing the truant from school and lewdly importuning his mother's maid, during his stay at home, he simply shouted: 'Gag his mouth and positively beat him till he dies!'
The servant-boys did not have the boldness to disobey him. They were under the necessity of seizing Pao- yue, of stretching him on a bench, and of taking a heavy rattan and giving him about ten blows.
Pao-yue knew well enough that he could not plead for mercy, and all he could do was to whimper and cry.
Chia Cheng however found fault with the light blows they administered to him. With one kick he shoved the castigator aside, and snatching the rattan into his own hands, he spitefully let (Pao-yue) have ten blows and more.
Pao-yue had not, from his very birth, experienced such anguish. From the outset, he found the pain unbearable; yet he could shout and weep as boisterously as ever he pleased; but so weak subsequently did his breath, little by little, become, so hoarse his voice, and so choked his throat that he could not bring out any sound.
The family companions noticed that he was beaten in a way that might lead to an unpropitious end, and they drew near with all despatch and made earnest entreaties and exhortations. But would Chia Cheng listen to them?
'You people,' he answered, 'had better ask him whether the tricks he has been up to deserve to be overlooked or not! It's you who have all along so thoroughly spoilt him as to make him reach this degree of depravity! And do you yet come to advise me to spare him? When by and bye you've incited him to commit parricide or regicide, you will at length, then, give up trying to dissuade me, eh?'
This language jarred on the ears of the whole party; and knowing only too well that he was in an exasperated mood, they fussed about endeavouring to find some one to go in and convey the news.
But Madame Wang did not presume to be the first to inform dowager lady Chia about it. Seeing no other course open to her, she hastily dressed herself and issued out of the garden. Without so much as worrying her mind as to whether there were any male inmates about or not, she straightway leant on a waiting-maid and hurriedly betook herself into the library, to the intense consternation of the companions, pages and all the men present, who could not manage to clear out of the way in time.
Chia Cheng was on the point of further belabouring his son, when at the sight of Madame Wang walking in, his temper flared up with such increased violence, just as fire on which oil is poured, that the rod fell with greater spite and celerity. The two servant-boys, who held Pao-yue down, precipitately loosened their grip and beat a retreat. Pao-yue had long ago lost all power of movement. Chia Cheng, however, was again preparing to assail him, when the rattan was immediately locked tightly by Madame Wang, in both her arms.
'Of course, of course,' Chia Cheng exclaimed, 'what you want to do to-day is to make me succumb to anger!'
'Pao-yue does, I admit, merit to be beaten,' sobbed Madame Wang; 'but you should also, my lord, take good care of yourself! The weather, besides, is extremely hot, and our old lady is not feeling quite up to the mark. Were you to knock Pao-yue about and kill him, it would not matter much; but were perchance our venerable senior to suddenly fall ill, wouldn't it be a grave thing?'
'Better not talk about such things!' observed Chia Cheng with a listless smile. 'By my bringing up such a degenerate child of retribution I have myself become unfilial! Whenever I've had to call him to account, there has always been a whole crowd of you to screen him; so isn't it as well for me to avail myself of to-day to put an end to
