than ever sick of everything at heart.'
Pao-yue could not do otherwise, dull and out of sorts though he was, than accede to her importunities. Strolling leisurely out of the door of the room, he amused himself a little with the birds suspended under the verandah; then he wended his steps outside the court, and followed the course of the Hsin Fang stream; but after admiring the golden fish for a time, he espied, on the opposite hillock, two young deer come rushing down as swift as an arrow. What they were up to Pao-yue could not discern; but while abandoning himself to melancholy, he caught sight of Chia Lan, following behind, with a small bow in his hand, and hurrying down hill in pursuit of them.
As soon as he realised that Pao-yue stood ahead of him, he speedily halted. 'Uncle Secundus,' he smiled, 'are you at home? I imagined you had gone out of doors!'
'You are up to mischief again, eh?' Pao-yue rejoined. 'They've done nothing to you, and why shoot at them with your arrows?'
'I had no studies to attend to just now, so, being free with nothing to do,' Chia Lan replied laughingly, 'I was practising riding and archery.'
'Shut up!' exclaimed Pao-yue. 'When are you not engaged in practising?'
Saying this, he continued his way and straightway reached the entrance of a court. Here the bamboo foliage was thick, and the breeze sighed gently. This was the Hsiao Hsiang lodge. Pao-yue listlessly rambled in. He saw a bamboo portiere hanging down to the ground. Stillness prevailed. Not a human voice fell on the ear. He advanced as far as the window. Noticing that a whiff of subtle scent stole softly through the green gauze casement, Pao-yue applied his face closely against the frame to peep in, but suddenly he caught the faint sound of a deep sigh and the words: 'Day after day my feelings slumber drowsily!' Upon overhearing this exclamation, Pao-yue unconsciously began to feel a prey to inward longings; but casting a second glance, he saw Tai-yue stretching herself on the bed.
'Why is it,' smiled Pao-yue, from outside the window, 'that your feelings day after day slumber drowsily?' So saying, he raised the portiere and stepped in.
The consciousness that she had not been reticent about her feelings made Tai-yue unwittingly flush scarlet. Taking hold of her sleeve, she screened her face; and, turning her body round towards the inside, she pretended to be fast asleep. Pao-yue drew near her. He was about to pull her round when he saw Tai-yue's nurse enter the apartment, followed by two matrons.
'Is Miss asleep?' they said. 'If so, we'll ask her over, when she wakes up.'
As these words were being spoken, Tai-yue eagerly twisted herself round and sat up. 'Who's asleep?' she laughed.
'We thought you were fast asleep, Miss,' smiled the two or three matrons as soon as they perceived Tai-yue get up. This greeting over, they called Tzu Chuean. 'Your young mistress,' they said, 'has awoke; come in and wait on her!'
While calling her, they quitted the room in a body. Tai-yue remained seated on the bed. Raising her arms, she adjusted her hair, and smilingly she observed to Pao-yue, 'When people are asleep, what do you walk in for?'
At the sight of her half-closed starlike eyes and of her fragrant cheeks, suffused with a crimson blush, Pao- yue's feelings were of a sudden awakened; so, bending his body, he took a seat on a chair, and asked with a smile: 'What were you saying a short while back?'
'I wasn't saying anything,' Tai-yue replied.
'What a lie you're trying to ram down my throat!' laughed Pao-yue. 'I heard all.'
But in the middle of their colloquy, they saw Tzu Chuean enter. Pao-yue then put on a smiling face. 'Tzu Chuean!' he cried, 'pour me a cup of your good tea!'
'Where's the good tea to be had?' Tzu Chuean answered. 'If you want good tea, you'd better wait till Hsi Jen comes.'
'Don't heed him!' interposed Tai-yue. 'Just go first and draw me some water.'
'He's a visitor,' remonstrated Tzu Chuean, 'and, of course, I should first pour him a cup of tea, and then go and draw the water.'
With this answer, she started to serve the tea.
'My dear girl,' Pao-yue exclaimed laughingly, 'If I could only share the same bridal curtain with your lovable young mistress, would I ever be able (to treat you as a servant) by making you fold the covers and make the beds.'
Lin Tai-yue at once drooped her head. 'What are you saying?' she remonstrated.
'What, did I say anything?' smiled Pao-yue.
Tai-yue burst into tears. 'You've recently,' she observed, 'got into a new way. Whatever slang you happen to hear outside you come and tell me. And whenever you read any improper book, you poke your fun at me. What! have I become a laughing-stock for gentlemen!'
As she began to cry, she jumped down from bed, and promptly left the room. Pao-yue was at a loss how to act. So agitated was he that he hastily ran up to her, 'My dear cousin,' he pleaded, 'I do deserve death; but don't go and tell any one! If again I venture to utter such kind of language, may blisters grow on my mouth and may my tongue waste away!'
But while appealing to her feelings, he saw Hsi Jen approach him. 'Go back at once,' she cried, 'and put on your clothes as master wants to see you.'
At the very mention of his father, Pao-yue felt suddenly as if struck by lightning. Regardless of everything and anything, he rushed, as fast as possible, back to his room, and changing his clothes, he came out into the garden. Here he discovered Pei Ming, standing at the second gateway, waiting for him.
'Do you perchance know what he wants me for?' Pao-yue inquired.
'Master, hurry out at once!' Pei Ming replied. 'You must, of course, go and see him. When you get there, you are sure to find out what it's all about.'
This said, he urged Pao-yue on, and together they turned past the large pavilion. Pao-yue was, however, still labouring under suspicion, when he heard, from the corner of the wall, a loud outburst of laughter. Upon turning his head round, he caught sight of Hsueeh P'an jump out, clapping his hands. 'Hadn't I said that my uncle wanted you?' he laughed. 'Would you ever have rushed out with such alacrity?'
Pei Ming also laughed, and fell on his knees. But Pao-yue remained for a long time under the spell of utter astonishment, before he, at length, realised that it was Hsueeh P'au who had inveigled him to come out.
Hsueeh P'an hastily made a salutation and a curtsey, and confessed his fault. He next gave way to entreaties, saying: 'Don't punish the young servant, for it is simply I who begged him go.'
Pao-yue too had then no other alternative but to smile. 'I don't mind your playing your larks on me; but why,' he inquired, 'did you mention my father? Were I to go and tell my aunt, your mother, to see to the rights and the wrongs of the case, how would you like it?'
'My dear cousin,' remarked Hsueeh P'an vehemently, 'the primary idea I had in view was to ask you to come out a moment sooner and I forgot to respectfully shun the expression. But by and bye, when you wish to chaff me, just you likewise allude to my father, and we'll thus be square.'
'Ai-ya!' exclaimed Pao-yue. 'You do more than ever deserve death!!' Then turning again towards Pei Ming, 'You ruffian!' he said, 'what are you still kneeling for?'
Pei Ming began to bump his head on the ground with vehemence.
'Had it been for anything else,' Hsueeh P'an chimed in, 'I wouldn't have made bold to disturb you; but it's simply in connection with my birthday which is to-morrow, the third day of the fifth moon. Ch'eng Jih-hsing, who is in that curio shop of ours, unexpectedly brought along, goodness knows where he fished them from, fresh lotus so thick and so long, so mealy and so crisp; melons of this size; and a Siamese porpoise, that long and that big, smoked with cedar, such as is sent as tribute from the kingdom of Siam. Are not these four presents, pray, rare delicacies? The porpoise is not only expensive, but difficult to get, and that kind of lotus and melon must have cost him no end of trouble to grow! I lost no time in presenting some to my mother, and at once sent some to your old grandmother, and my aunt. But a good many of them still remain now; and were I to eat them all alone, it would, I fear, be more than I deserve; so I concluded, after thinking right and left, that there was, besides myself, only you good enough to partake of some. That is why I specially invite you to taste them. But, as luck would have it, a young singing-boy has also come, so what do you say to you and I having a jolly day of it?'
As they talked, they walked; and, as they walked, they reached the interior of the library. Here they
