lay a yak tail. Pao-ch'ai advanced up to her. 'You're really far too scrupulous,' she said smilingly in an undertone. 'Are there still flies or mosquitos in here? and why do yet use that fly-flap for, to drive what away?'
Hsi Jen was quite taken by surprise. But hastily raising her head, and realising that it was Pao-ch'ai, she hurriedly put down her needlework. 'Miss,' she whispered with a smile, 'you came upon me so unawares that you gave me quite a start! You don't know, Miss, that though there be no flies or mosquitoes there is, no one would believe it, a kind of small insect, which penetrates through the holes of this gauze; it is scarcely to be detected, but when one is asleep, it bites just like ants do!'
'It isn't to be wondered at,' Pao-ch'ai suggested, 'for the back of these rooms adjoins the water; the whole place is also one mass of fragrant flowers, and the interior of this room is, too, full of their aroma. These insects grow mostly in the core of flowers, so no sooner do they scent the smell of any than they at once rush in.'
Saying this, she cast a look on the needlework she (Hsi Jen) held in her hands. It consisted, in fact, of a belt of white silk, lined with red, and embroidered on the upper part with designs representing mandarin ducks, disporting themselves among some lotus. The lotus flowers were red, the leaves green, the ducks of variegated colours.
'Ai-yah!' ejaculated Pao-ch'ai, 'what very beautiful work! For whom is this, that it's worth your while wasting so much labour on it?'
Hsi Jen pouted her lips towards the bed.
'Does a big strapping fellow like this,' Pao-ch'ai laughed, 'still wear such things?'
'He would never wear any before,' Hsi Jen smiled, 'that's why such a nice one was specially worked for him, in order that when he was allowed to see it, he should not be able to do otherwise than use it. With the present hot weather, he goes to sleep anyhow, but as he has been coaxed to wear it, it doesn't matter if even he doesn't cover himself well at night. You say that I bestow much labour upon this, but you haven't yet seen the one he has on!'
'It is a lucky thing,' Pao-ch'ai observed, smiling, 'that you're gifted with such patience.'
'I've done so much of it to-day,' remarked Hsi Jen, 'that my neck is quite sore from bending over it. My dear Miss,' she then urged with a beaming countenance, 'do sit here a little. I'll go out for a turn. I'll be back shortly.'
With these words, she sallied out of the room.
Pao-ch'ai was intent upon examining the embroidery, so in her absentmindedness, she, with one bend of her body, settled herself on the very same spot, which Hsi Jen had recently occupied. But she found, on second scrutiny, the work so really admirable, that impulsively picking up the needle, she continued it for her. At quite an unforeseen moment-for Lin Tai-yue had met Shih Hsiang-yuen and asked her to come along with her and present her congratulations to Hsi Jen-these two girls made their appearance in the court. Finding the whole place plunged in silence, Hsiang-yuen turned round and betook herself first into the side-rooms in search of Hsi Jen. Lin Tai-yue, meanwhile, walked up to the window from outside, and peeped in through the gauze frame. At a glance, she espied Pao-yue, clad in a silvery-red coat, lying carelessly on the bed, and Pao-ch'ai, seated by his side, busy at some needlework, with a fly-brush resting by her side.
As soon as Lin Tai-yue became conscious of the situation, she immediately slipped out of sight, and stopping her mouth with one hand, as she did not venture to laugh aloud, she waved her other hand and beckoned to Hsiang-yuen. The moment Hsiang-yuen saw the way she went on, she concluded that she must have something new to impart to her, and she approached her with all promptitude. At the sight, which opened itself before her eyes, she also felt inclined to laugh. Yet the sudden recollection of the kindness, with which Pao-ch'ai had always dealt towards her, induced her to quickly seal her lips. And knowing well enough that Tai-yue never spared any one with her mouth, she was seized with such fear lest she should jeer at them, that she immediately dragged her past the window. 'Come along!' she observed. 'Hsi Jen, I remember, said that she would be going at noon to wash some clothes at the pond. I presume she's there already so let's go and join her.'
Tai-yue inwardly grasped her meaning, but, after indulging in a couple of sardonic smiles, she had no alternative but to follow in her footsteps.
Pao-ch'ai had, during this while, managed to embroider two or three petals, when she heard Pao-yue begin to shout abusingly in his dreams. 'How can,' he cried, 'one ever believe what bonzes and Taoist priests say? What about a match between gold and jade? My impression is that it's to be a union between a shrub and a stone!'
Hsueeh Pao-ch'ai caught every single word uttered by him and fell unconsciously in a state of excitement. Of a sudden, however, Hsi Jen appeared on the scene. 'Hasn't he yet woke up?' she inquired.
Pao-ch'ai nodded her head by way of reply.
'I just came across,' Hsi Jen smiled, 'Miss Lin and Miss Shih. Did they happen to come in?'
'I didn't see them come in,' Pao-ch'ai answered. 'Did they tell you anything?' she next smilingly asked of Hsi Jen.
Hsi Jen blushed and laughed significantly. 'They simply came out with some of those jokes of theirs,' she explained. 'What decent things could such as they have had to tell me?'
'They made insinuations to-day,' Pao-ch'ai laughed, 'which are anything but a joke! I was on the point of telling you them, when you rushed away in an awful hurry.'
But no sooner had she concluded, than she perceived a servant, come over from lady Feng's part to fetch Hsi Jen. 'It must be on account of what they hinted,' Pao-ch'ai smilingly added.
Hsi Jen could not therefore do otherwise than arouse two servant-maids and go. She proceeded, with Pao- ch'ai, out of the I Hung court, and then repaired all alone to lady Feng's on this side. It was indeed to communicate to her what had been decided about her, and to explain to her, as well, that though she could go and prostrate herself before Madame Wang, she could dispense with seeing dowager lady Chia. This news made Hsi Jen feel very awkward; to such an extent, that no sooner had she got through her visit to Madame Wang, than she returned in a hurry to her rooms.
Pao-yue had already awoke. He asked the reason why she had been called away, but Hsi Jen temporised by giving him an evasive answer. And only at night, when every one was quiet, did Hsi Jen at length give him a full account of the whole matter. Pao-yue was delighted beyond measure. 'I'll see now,' he said, with a face beaming with smiles, 'whether you'll go back home or not. On your return, after your last visit to your people, you stated that your brother wished to redeem you, adding that this place was no home for you, and that you didn't know what would become of you in the long run. You freely uttered all that language devoid of feeling and reason, and enough too to produce an estrangement between us, in order to frighten me; but I'd like to see who'll henceforward have the audacity to come and ask you to leave!'
Hsi Jen, upon hearing this, smiled a smile full of irony. 'You shouldn't say such things!' she replied. 'From henceforward I shall be our Madame Wang's servant, so that, if I choose to go I needn't even breathe a word to you. All I'll have to do will be to tell her, and then I shall be free to do as I like.'
'But supposing that I behaved improperly,' demurred Pao-yue laughingly, 'and that you took your leave after letting mother know, you yourself will be placed in no nice fix, when people get wind that you left on account of my having been improper.'
'What no nice fix!' smiled Hsi Jen. 'Is it likely that I am bound to serve even highway robbers? Well, failing anything else, I can die; for human beings may live a hundred years, but they're bound, in the long run, to fall a victim to death! And when this breath shall have departed, and I shall have lost the sense of hearing and of seeing, all will then be well!'
When her rejoinder fell on his ear, Pao-yue promptly stopped her mouth with both his hands. 'Enough! enough! that will do,' he shouted. 'There's no necessity for you to utter language of this kind.'
Hsi Jen was well aware that Pao-yue was gifted with such a peculiar temperament, that he even looked upon flattering or auspicious phrases with utter aversion, treating them as meaningless and consequently insincere, so when, after listening to those truths, she had spoken with such pathos, he, lapsed into another of his melancholy moods, she blamed herself for the want of consideration she had betrayed. Hastily therefore putting on a smile, she tried to hit upon some suitable remarks, with which to interrupt the conversation. Her choice fell upon those licentious and immodest topics, which had ever been a relish to the taste of Pao-yue; and from these the conversation drifted to the subject of womankind. But when, subsequently, reference was made to the excellency of the weak sex, they somehow or other also came to touch upon the mortal nature of women, and Hsi Jen promptly closed her lips in silence.
Noticing however that now that the conversation had reached a point so full of zest for him, she had nothing
