Lady Feng expressed her approval and turning round she said smilingly to Yue Ch'uan-erh: 'I congratulate you, I congratulate you!'
Yue Ch'uan-erh thereupon crossed over and prostrated herself.
'I just want to ask you,' Madame Wang went on to inquire, 'how much Mrs. Chao and Mrs. Chou are allowed monthly?'
'They have a fixed allowance,' answered lady Feng, 'each of them draws two taels. But Mrs. Chao gets two taels for cousin Chia Huan, so hers amounts in all to four taels; besides these, four strings of cash.'
'Are they paid in full month after month?' Madame Wang inquired.
Lady Feng thought the question so very strange that she hastened to exclaim by way of reply: 'How are they not paid in full?'
'The other day,' Madame Wang proceeded, 'I heard a faint rumour that there was some one, who complained in an aggrieved way that she had got a string short. How and why is this?'
'The monthly allowances of the servant-girls, attached to the secondary wives,' lady Feng hurriedly added with a smile, 'amounted originally to a tiao each, but ever since last year, it was decided, by those people outside, that the shares of each of those ladies' girls should be reduced by half, that is, each to five hundred cash; and, as each lady has a couple of servant-girls, they receive therefore a tiao short. But for this, they can't bear me a grudge. As far as I'm concerned, I would only be too glad to let them have it; but our people outside will again disallow it; so is it likely that I can authorise any increase, pray? In this matter of payments I merely receive the money, and I've nothing to do with how it comes and how it goes. I nevertheless recommended, on two or three occasions, that it would be better if these two shares were again raised to the old amount; but they said that there's only that much money, so that I can't very well volunteer any further suggestions! Now that the funds are paid into my hands, I give them to them every month, without any irregularity of even so much as a day. When payments hitherto were effected outside, what month were they not short of money? And did they ever, on any single instance, obtain their pay at the proper time and date?'
Having heard this explanation, Madame Wang kept silent for a while. Next, she proceeded to ask, how many girls there were with dowager lady Chia drawing one tael.
'Eight of them,' rejoined lady Feng, 'but there are at present only seven; the other one is Hsi Jen.'
'Quite right,' assented Madame Wang. 'But your cousin Pao-yue hasn't any maid at one tael; for Hsi Jen is still a servant belonging to old lady Chia's household.'
'Hsi Jen,' lady Feng smiled, 'is still our dear ancestor's servant; she's only lent to cousin Pao-yue; so that she still receives this tael in her capacity of maid to our worthy senior. Any proposal, therefore, that might now be made, that this tael should, as Hsi Jen is Pao-yue's servant, be curtailed, can, on no account, be entertained. Yet, were it suggested that another servant should be added to our senior's staff, then in this way one could reduce the tael she gets. But if this be not curtailed, it will be necessary to also add a servant in cousin Chia Huan's rooms, in order that there should be a fair apportionment. In fact, Ch'ing Wen, She Yueeh and the others, numbering seven senior maids, receive each a tiao a month; and Chiao Hui and the rest of the junior maids, eight in all, get each five hundred cash per mensem; and this was recommended by our venerable ancestor herself; so how can any one be angry and feel displeasure?'
'Just listen,' laughed Mrs. Hsueeh, 'to that girl Feng's mouth! It rattles and rattles like a cart laden with walnuts, which has turned topsy-turvy! Yet, her accounts are, from what one can gather, clear enough, and her arguments full of reason.'
'Aunt,' rejoined lady Feng smiling, 'was I likely, pray, wrong in what I said?'
'Who ever said you were wrong?' Mrs. Hsueeh smiled. 'But were you to talk a little slower, wouldn't it be a saving of exertion for you?'
Lady Feng was about to laugh, but hastily checking herself, she lent an ear to what Madame Wang might have to tell her.
Madame Wang indulged in thought for a considerable time. Afterwards, facing lady Feng, 'You'd better,' she said, 'select a waiting-maid tomorrow and send her over to our worthy senior to fill up Hsi Jen's place. Then, discontinue that allowance, which Hsi Jen draws, and keep out of the sum of twenty taels, allotted to me monthly, two taels and a tiao, and give them to Hsi Jen. So henceforward what Mrs. Chao and Mrs. Chou will get, Hsi Jen will likewise get, with the only difference that the share granted to Hsi Jen, will be entirely apportioned out of my own allowance. Mind, therefore, there will be no necessity to touch the public funds!'
Lady Feng acquiesced to each one of her recommendations, and, pushing Mrs. Hsueeh, 'Aunt,' she inquired, 'have you heard her proposal? What have I all along maintained? Well, my words have actually come out true to- day!'
'This should have been accomplished long ago,' Mrs. Hsueeh answered. 'For without, of course, making any allusion to her looks, her way of doing business is liberal; her speech and her relations with people are always prompted by an even temper, while inwardly she has plenty of singleness of heart and eagerness to hold her own. Indeed, such a girl is not easy to come across!'
Madame Wang made every effort to conceal her tears. 'How could you people ever rightly estimate Hsi Jen's qualities?' she observed. 'Why, she's a hundred times better than my own Pao-yue. How fortunate, in reality, Pao- yue is! Well would it be if he could have her wait upon him for the whole length of his life!'
'In that case,' lady Feng suggested, 'why, have her face shaved at once, and openly place her in his room as a secondary wife. Won't this be a good plan?'
'This won't do!' Madame Wang retorted. 'For first and foremost he's of tender years. In the second place, my husband won't countenance any such thing! In the third, so long as Pao-yue sees that Hsi Jen is his waiting- maid, he may, in the event of anything occurring from his having been allowed to run wild, listen to any good counsel she might give him. But were she now to be made his secondary wife, Hsi Jen would not venture to tender him any extreme advice, even when it's necessary to do so. It's better, therefore, to let things stand as they are for the present, and talk about them again, after the lapse of another two or three years.'
At the close of these arguments, lady Feng could not put in a word, by way of reply, to refute them, so turning round, she left the room. She had no sooner, however, got under the verandah, than she discerned the wives of a number of butlers, waiting for her to report various matters to her. Seeing her issue out of the room, they with one consent smiled. 'What has your ladyship had to lay before Madame Wang,' they remarked, 'that you've been talking away this length of time? Didn't you find it hot work?'
Lady Feng tucked up her sleeves several times. Then resting her foot on the step of the side door, she laughed and rejoined: 'The draft in this passage is so cool, that I'll stop, and let it play on me a bit before I go on. You people,' she proceeded to tell them, 'say that I've been talking to her all this while, but Madame Wang conjured up all that has occurred for the last two hundred years and questioned me about it; so could I very well not have anything to say in reply? But from this day forth,' she added with a sarcastic smile, 'I shall do several mean things, and should even (Mrs. Chao and Mrs. Chou) go, out of any ill-will, and tell Madame Wang, I won't know what fear is for such stupid, glib-tongued, foul-mouthed creatures as they, who are bound not to see a good end! It isn't for them to indulge in those fanciful dreams of becoming primary wives, for there, will come soon a day when the whole lump sum of their allowance will be cut off! They grumble against us for having now reduced the perquisites of the servant-maids, but they don't consider whether they deserve to have so many as three girls to dance attendance on them!'
While heaping abuse on their heads, she started homewards, and went all alone in search of some domestic to go and deliver a message to old lady Chia.
But without any further reference to her, we will take up the thread of our narrative with Mrs. Hsueeh, and the others along with her. During this interval they finished feasting on melons. After some more gossip, each went her own way; and Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yue and the rest of the cousins returned into the garden. Pao-ch'ai then asked Tai-yue to repair with her to the O Hsiang Arbour. But Tai-yue said that she was just going to have her bath, so they parted company, and Pao-ch'ai walked back all by herself. On her way, she stepped into the I Hung Yuean, to look up Pao-yue and have a friendly hobnob with him, with the idea of dispelling her mid-day lassitude; but, contrary to her expectations, the moment she put her foot into the court, she did not so much as catch the caw of a crow. Even the two storks stood under the banana trees, plunged in sleep. Pao-ch'ai proceeded along the covered passage and entered the rooms. Here she discovered the servant-girls sleeping soundly on the bed of the outer apartment; some lying one way, some another; so turning round the decorated screen, she wended her steps into Pao-yue's chamber. Pao-yue was asleep in bed. Hsi Jen was seated by his side, busy plying her needle. Next to her,
