and, when you want them, I'll let you have some. You should, however, keep them for the exclusive purpose of painting fans; for were you to paint such big things with them it would be a pity! I'll draw out a list for you to-day to enable you to go and apply to our worthy senior for the items; as it isn't likely that you people can possibly know all that's required. I'll dictate them, and cousin Pao can write them down!'
Pao-yue had already got a pencil and inkslab ready, for, fearing lest he might not remember clearly the various necessaries, he had made up his mind to write a memorandum of them; so the moment he heard Pao- ch'ai's suggestion, he cheerfully took up his pencil, and listened quietly.
'Four pencils of the largest size,' Pao-ch'ai commenced, 'four of the third size; four of the second size; four pencils for applying colours on big ground; four on medium ground; four for small ground; ten claws of large southern crabs; ten claws of small crabs; ten pencils for painting side-hair and eyebrows; twenty for laying heavy colours; twenty for light colours; ten for painting faces; twenty willow-twigs; four ounces of 'arrow head' pearls; four ounces of southern ochre; four ounces of stone yellow; four ounces of dark green; four ounces of malachite; four ounces of tube-yellow; eight ounces of 'kuang' flower; four boxes of lead powder; ten sheets of rouge; two hundred sheets of thin red-gold leaves; two hundred sheets of lead; four ounces of smooth glue, from the two Kuang; and four ounces of pure alum. The glue and alum for sizing the lustring are not included, so don't bother yourselves about them, but just take the lustring and give it to them outside to size it with alum for you. You and I can scour and clarify all these pigments, and thus amuse ourselves, and prepare them for use as well. I feel sure you'll have an ample supply to last you a whole lifetime. But you must also get ready four sieves of fine lustring; a pair of coarse ones; four brush-pencils; four bowls, some large, some small; twenty large, coarse saucers; ten five- inch plates; twenty three-inch coarse, white plates; two stoves; four large and small earthenware pans; two new porcelain jars; four new water buckets; four one-foot-long bags, made of white cloth; two catties of light charcoal; one or two catties of willow-wood charcoal; a wooden box with three drawers; a yard of thick gauze, two ounces of fresh ginger; half a catty of soy;...'
'An iron kettle and an iron shovel,' hastily chimed in Tai-yue with a smile full of irony.
'To do what with them?' Pao-ch'ai inquired.
'You ask for fresh ginger, soy and all these condiments, so I indent for an iron kettle for you to cook the paints and eat them.' Tai-yue answered, to the intense merriment of one and all, who gave way to laughter.
'What do you, P'in Erh, know about these things?' Pao-ch'ai laughed. 'I am not certain in my mind that you won't put those coarse coloured plates straightway on the fire. But unless you take the precaution beforehand of rubbing the bottom with ginger juice, mixed with soy, and of warming them dry, they're bound to crack, the moment they experience the least heat.'
'It's really so,' they exclaimed with one voice, after this explanation.
Tai-yue perused the list for a while. She then smiled and gave T'an Ch'un a tug. 'Just see,' she whispered, 'we want to paint a picture, and she goes on indenting for a number of water jars and boxes! But, I presume, she's got so muddled, that she inserts a list of articles needed for her trousseau.'
T'an Ch'un, at her remark, laughed with such heartiness, that it was all she could do to check herself. 'Cousin Pao,' she observed, 'don't you wring her mouth? Just ask her what disparaging things she said about you.'
'Why need I ask?' Pao-ch'ai smiled. 'Is it likely, pray, that you can get ivory out of a cur's mouth?'
Speaking the while, she drew near, and, seizing Tai-yue, she pressed her down on the stove-couch with the intention of pinching her face. Tai-yue smilingly hastened to implore for grace. 'My dear cousin,' she cried, 'spare me! P'in Erh is young in years; all she knows is to talk at random; she has no idea of what's proper and what's improper. But you are my elder cousin, so teach me how to behave. If you, cousin, don't let me off, to whom can I go and address my entreaties?'
Little did, however, all who heard her apprehend that there lurked some hidden purpose in her insinuations. 'She's right there,' they consequently pleaded smilingly. 'So much is she to be pitied that even we have been mollified; do spare her and finish!'
Pao-ch'ai had, at first, meant to play with her, but when she unawares heard her drag in again the advice she had tendered her the other day, with regard to the reckless perusal of unwholesome books, she at once felt as if she could not have any farther fuss with her, and she let her rise to her feet.
'It's you, after all, elder cousin,' Tai-yue laughed. 'Had it been I, I wouldn't have let any one off.'
Pao-ch'ai smiled and pointed at her. 'It is no wonder,' she said, 'that our dear ancestor doats on you and that every one loves you. Even I have to-day felt my heart warm towards you! But come here and let me put your hair up for you!'
Tai-yue then, in very deed, swung herself round and crossed over to her. Pao-ch'ai arranged her coiffure with her hands. Pao-yue, who stood by and looked on, thought the style, in which her hair was being made up, better than it was before. But, of a sudden, he felt sorry at what had happened, as he fancied that she should not have let her brush her side hair, but left it alone for the time being and asked him to do it for her. While, however, he gave way to these erratic thoughts, he heard Pao-ch'ai speak. 'We've done with what there was to write,' she said, 'so you'd better tomorrow go and tell grandmother about the things. If there be any at home, well and good; but if not, get some money to buy them with. I'll then help you both in your preparations.'
Pao-yue vehemently put the list away; after which, they all joined in a further chat on irrelevant matters; and, their evening meal over, they once more repaired into old lady Chia's apartments to wish her good-night. Their grandmother had, indeed, had nothing serious the matter with her. Her ailment had amounted mainly to fatigue, to which a slight chill had been super-added, so that having kept in the warm room for the day and taken a dose or two of medicine, she entirely got over the effects, and felt, in the evening, quite like own self again.
But, reader, the occurrences of the next day areas yet a mystery to you, but the nest chapter will divulge them.
CHAPTER XLIII.
Having time to amuse themselves, the Chia inmates raise, when least
expected, funds to celebrate lady Feng's birthday.
In his ceaseless affection for Chin Ch'uen, Pao-yue uses, for the
occasion, a pinch of earth as incense and burns it.
When Madame Wang saw, for we will now proceed with our narrative, that the extent of dowager lady Chia's indisposition, contracted on the day she had been into the garden of Broad Vista, amounted to a simple chill, that no serious ailment had supervened, and that her health had improved soon after the doctor had been sent for and she had taken a couple of doses of medicine, she called lady Feng to her and asked her to get ready a present of some kind for her to take to her husband, Chia Cheng. But while they were engaged in deliberation, they perceived a waiting-maid arrive. She came from their old senior's part to invite them to go to her. So, with speedy step, Madame Wang led the way for lady Feng, and they came over into her quarters.
'Pray, may I ask,' Madame Wang then inquired, 'whether you're feeling nearly well again now?'
'I'm quite all right to-day,' old lady Chia replied. 'I've tasted the young-pheasant soup you sent me a little time back and find it full of relish. I've also had two pieces of meat, so I feel quite comfortable within me.'
'These dainties were presented to you, dear ancestor, by that girl Feng,' Madame Wang smiled. 'It only shows how sincere her filial piety is. She does not render futile the love, which you, venerable senior, ever lavish on her.'
Dowager lady Chia nodded her head assentingly. 'She's too kind to think of me!' she answered smiling. 'But should there be any more uncooked, let them fry a couple of pieces; and, if these be thoroughly immersed in wine, the congee will taste well with them. The soup is, it's true, good, but it shouldn't, properly speaking, be prepared with fine rice.'
After listening to her wishes, lady Feng expressed with alacrity her readiness to see them executed, and directed a servant to go and deliver the message in the cook-house.
'I sent the servant for you,' dowager lady Chia meanwhile said to Madame Wang with a smile, 'not for anything else, but for the birthday of that girl Feng, which falls on the second. I had made up my mind two years ago to celebrate her birthday in proper style, but when the time came, there happened to be again something important to attend to, and it went by without anything being done. But this year, the inmates are, on one hand, all
