forthwith took himself out of the way. So absorbed, however, was Chia Ch'iang's whole mind with Ling Kuan that he could not even give a thought to escorting any one; and it was, in fact, the rest of the singing-girls who saw (Pao- yue) out.
Pao-yue's heart was gnawed with doubts and conjectures. In an imbecile frame of mind, he came to the I Hung court. Lin Tai-yue was, at the moment, sitting with Hsi Jen, and chatting with her. As soon as Pao-yue entered his quarters, he addressed himself to Hsi Jen, with a long sigh. 'I was very wrong in what I said yesterday evening,' he remarked. 'It's no matter of surprise that father says that I am so narrow-minded that I look at things through a tube and measure them with a clam-shell. I mentioned something last night about having nothing but tears, shed by all of you girls, to be buried in. But this was a mere delusion! So as I can't get the tears of the whole lot of you, each one of you can henceforward keep her own for herself, and have done.'
Hsi Jen had flattered herself that the words he had uttered the previous evening amounted to idle talk, and she had long ago dispelled all thought of them from her mind, but when Pao-yue unawares made further allusion to them, she smilingly rejoined: 'You are verily somewhat cracked!'
Pao-yue kept silent, and attempted to make no reply. Yet from this time he fully apprehended that the lot of human affections is, in every instance, subject to predestination, and time and again he was wont to secretly muse, with much anguish: 'Who, I wonder, will shed tears for me, at my burial?'
Lin Tai-yue, for we will now allude to her, noticed Pao-yue's behaviour, but readily concluding that he must have been, somewhere or other, once more possessed by some malignant spirit, she did not feel it advisable to ask many questions. 'I just saw,' she consequently observed, 'my maternal aunt, who hearing that to-morrow is Miss Hsueeh's birthday, bade me come at my convenience to ask you whether you'll go or not, (and to tell you) to send some one ahead to let them know what you mean to do.'
'I didn't go the other day, when it was Mr. Chia She's birthday, so I won't go now.' Pao-yue answered. 'If it is a matter of meeting any one, I won't go anywhere. On a hot day like this to again don my ceremonial dress! No, I won't go. Aunt is not likely to feel displeased with me!'
'What are you driving at?' Hsi Jen speedily ventured. 'She couldn't be put on the same footing as our senior master! She lives close by here. Besides she's a relative. Why, if you don't go, won't you make her imagine things? Well, if you dread the heat, just get up at an early hour and go over and prostrate yourself before her, and come back again, after you've had a cup of tea. Won't this look well?'
Before Pao-yue had time to say anything by way of response, Tai-yue anticipated him. 'You should,' she smiled, 'go as far as there for the sake of her, who drives the mosquitoes away from you.'
Pao-yue could not make out the drift of her insinuation. 'What about driving mosquitoes away?' he vehemently inquired.
Hsi Jen then explained to him how while he was fast asleep the previous day and no one was about to keep him company, Miss Pao-ch'ai had sat with him for a while.
'It shouldn't have been done!' Pao-yue promptly exclaimed, after hearing her explanations. 'But how did I manage to go to sleep and show such utter discourtesy to her? I must go to-morrow!' he then went on to add. But while these words were still on his lips, he unexpectedly caught sight of Shih Hsian-yuen walk in in full dress, to bid them adieu, as she said that some one had been sent from her home to fetch her away.
The moment Pao-yue and Tai-yue heard what was the object of her visit, they quickly rose to their feet and pressed her to take a seat. But Shih Hsiang-yuen would not sit down, so Pao-yue and Tai-yue were compelled to escort her as far as the front part of the mansion.
Shih Hsiang-yuen's eyes were brimming with tears; but realising that several people from her home were present, she did not have the courage to give full vent to her feelings. But when shortly Pao-ch'ai ran over to find her, she felt so much the more drawn towards them, that she could not brook to part from them. Pao-ch'ai, however, inwardly understood that if her people told her aunt anything on their return, there would again be every fear of her being blown up, as soon as she got back home, and she therefore urged her to start on her way. One and all then walked with her up to the second gate, and Pao-yue wished to accompany her still further outside, but Shih Hsiang-yuen deterred him. Presently, they turned to go back. But once more, she called Pao-yue to her, and whispered to him in a soft tone of voice: 'Should our venerable senior not think of me do often allude to me, so that she should depute some one to fetch me.'
Pao-yue time after time assured her that he would comply with her wishes. And having followed her with their eyes, while she got into her curricle and started, they eventually retraced their steps towards the inner compound. But, reader, if you like to follow up the story, peruse the details contained in the chapter below.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
In the Study of Autumnal Cheerfulness is accidentally formed the
Cydonia Japonica Society.
In the Heng Wu Court, the chrysanthemum is, on a certain night,
proposed as a subject for verses.
But to continue. After Shih Hsiang-yuen's return home, Pao-yue and the other inmates spent their time, as of old, in rambling about in the garden in search of pleasure, and in humming poetical compositions. But without further reference to their doings, let us take up our narrative with Chia Cheng.
Ever since the visit paid to her home by the imperial consort, he fulfilled his official duties with additional zeal, for the purpose of reverently making requital for the grace shown him by the Emperor. His correct bearing and his spotless reputation did not escape His Majesty's notice, and he conferred upon him the special appointment of Literary Chancellor, with the sole object of singling out his true merit; for though he had not commenced his career through the arena of public examinations, he belonged nevertheless to a family addicted to letters during successive generations. Chia Cheng had, therefore, on the receipt of the imperial decree, to select the twentieth day of the eighth moon to set out on his journey. When the appointed day came, he worshipped at the shrines of his ancestors, took leave of them and of dowager lady Chia, and started for his post. It would be a needless task, however, to recount with any full particulars how Pao-yue and all the inmates saw him off, how Chia Cheng went to take up his official duties, and what occurred abroad, suffice it for us to notice that Pao-yue, ever since Chia Cheng's departure, indulged his caprices, allowed his feelings to run riot, and gadded wildly about. In fact, he wasted his time, and added fruitless days and months to his age.
On this special occasion, he experienced more than ever a sense of his lack of resources, and came to look up his grandmother Chia and Madame Wang. With them, he whiled away some of his time, after which he returned into the garden. As soon as he changed his costume, he perceived Ts'ui Mo enter, with a couple of sheets of fancy notepaper, in her hand, which she delivered to him.
'It quite slipped from my mind,' Pao-yue remarked. 'I meant to have gone and seen my cousin Tertia; is she better that you come?'
'Miss is all right,' Ts'ui Mo answered. 'She hasn't even had any medicine to-day. It's only a slight chill.'
When Pao-yue heard this reply, he unfolded the fancy notepaper. On perusal, he found the contents to be: 'Your cousin, T'an Ch'un, respectfully lays this on her cousin Secundus' study-table. When the other night the blue sky newly opened out to view, the moon shone as if it had been washed clean! Such admiration did this pure and rare panorama evoke in me that I could not reconcile myself to the idea of going to bed. The clepsydra had already accomplished three turns, and yet I roamed by the railing under the dryandra trees. But such poor treatment did I receive from wind and dew (that I caught a chill), which brought about an ailment as severe (as that which prevented the man of old from) picking up sticks. You took the trouble yesterday to come in person and cheer me up. Time after time also did you send your attendants round to make affectionate inquiries about me. You likewise presented me with fresh lichees and relics of writings of Chen Ch'ing. How deep is really your gracious love! As I leant to-day on my table plunged in silence, I suddenly remembered that the ancients of successive ages were placed in circumstances, in which they had to struggle for reputation and to fight for gain, but that they nevertheless acquired spots with hills and dripping streams, and, inviting people to come from far and near, they did all they could to detain them, by throwing the linch-pins of their chariots into wells or by holding on to their shafts; and that they invariably joined friendship with two or three of the same mind as themselves, with whom they strolled about in these grounds, either erecting altars for song, or establishing societies for scanning poetical works.
