discovered a whole assemblage consisting of Tan Kuang, Ch'eng Jih-hsing, Hu Ch'i-lai, Tan T'ing-jen and others, and the singing-boy as well. As soon as these saw Pao-yue walk in, some paid their respects to him; others inquired how he was; and after the interchange of salutations, tea was drunk. Hsueeh P'an then gave orders to serve the wine. Scarcely were the words out of his mouth than the servant-lads bustled and fussed for a long while laying the table. When at last the necessary arrangements had been completed, the company took their seats.
Pao-yue verily found the melons and lotus of an exceptional description. 'My birthday presents have not as yet been sent round,' he felt impelled to say, a smile on his lips, 'and here I come, ahead of them, to trespass on your hospitality.'
'Just so!' retorted Hsueeh P'an, 'but when you come to-morrow to congratulate me we'll consider what novel kind of present you can give me.'
'I've got nothing that I can give you,' rejoined Pao-yue. 'As far as money, clothes, eatables and other such articles go, they are not really mine: all I can call my own are such pages of characters that I may write, or pictures that I may draw.'
'Your reference to pictures,' added Hsueeh P'an smiling, 'reminds me of a book I saw yesterday, containing immodest drawings; they were, truly, beautifully done. On the front page there figured also a whole lot of characters. But I didn't carefully look at them; I simply noticed the name of the person, who had executed them. It was, in fact, something or other like Keng Huang. The pictures were, actually, exceedingly good!'
This allusion made Pao-yue exercise his mind with innumerable conjectures.
'Of pictures drawn from past years to the present, I have,' he said, 'seen a good many, but I've never come across any Keng Huang.'
After considerable thought, he could not repress himself from bursting out laughing. Then asking a servant to fetch him a pencil, he wrote a couple of words on the palm of his hand. This done, he went on to inquire of Hsueeh. P'an: 'Did you see correctly that it read Keng Huang?'
'How could I not have seen correctly?' ejaculated Hsueeh P'an.
Pao-yue thereupon unclenched his hand and allowed him to peruse, what was written in it. 'Were they possibly these two characters?' he remarked. 'These are, in point of fact, not very dissimilar from what Keng Huang look like?'
On scrutinising them, the company noticed the two words T'ang Yin, and they all laughed. 'They must, we fancy, have been these two characters!' they cried. 'Your eyes, Sir, may, there's no saying, have suddenly grown dim!'
Hsueeh P'an felt utterly abashed. 'Who could have said,' he smiled, 'whether they were T'ang Yin or Kuo Yin, (candied silver or fruit silver).'
As he cracked this joke, however, a young page came and announced that Mr. Feng had arrived. Pao-yue concluded that the new comer must be Feng Tzu-ying, the son of Feng T'ang, general with the prefix of Shen Wu.'
'Ask him in at once,' Hsueeh P'an and his companions shouted with one voice.
But barely were these words out of their mouths, than they realised that Feng Tzu-ying had already stepped in, talking and laughing as he approached.
The company speedily rose from table and offered him a seat.
'That's right!' smiled Feng Tzu-ying. 'You don't go out of doors, but remain at home and go in for high fun!'
Both Pao-yue and Hsueeh P'an put on a smile. 'We haven't,' they remarked, 'seen you for ever so long. Is your venerable father strong and hale?'
'My father,' rejoined Tzu-ying, 'is, thanks to you, strong and hale; but my mother recently contracted a sudden chill and has been unwell for a couple of days.'
Hsueeh P'an discerned on his face a slight bluish wound. 'With whom have you again been boxing,' he laughingly inquired, 'that you've hung up this sign board?'
'Since the occasion,' laughed Feng Tzu-ying, 'on which I wounded lieutenant-colonel Ch'ou's son, I've borne the lesson in mind, and never lost my temper. So how is it you say that I've again been boxing? This thing on my face was caused, when I was out shooting the other day on the T'ieh Wang hills, by a flap from the wing of the falcon.'
'When was that?' asked Pao-yue.
'I started,' explained Tzu-ying, 'on the 28th of the third moon and came back only the day before yesterday.'
'It isn't to be wondered at then,' observed Pao-yue, 'that when I went the other day, on the third and fourth, to a banquet at friend Shen's house, I didn't see you there. Yet I meant to have inquired about you; but I don't know how it slipped from my memory. Did you go alone, or did your venerable father accompany you?'
'Of course, my father went,' Tzu-ying replied, 'so I had no help but to go. For is it likely, forsooth, that I've gone mad from lack of anything to do! Don't we, a goodly number as we are, derive enough pleasure from our wine-bouts and plays that I should go in quest of such kind of fatiguing recreation! But in this instance a great piece of good fortune turned up in evil fortune!'
Hsueeh P'an and his companions noticed that he had finished his tea. 'Come along,' they one and all proposed, 'and join the banquet; you can then quietly recount to us all your experiences.'
At this suggestion Feng Tzu-ying there and then rose to his feet. 'According to etiquette,' he said. 'I should join you in drinking a few cups; but to-day I have still a very urgent matter to see my father about on my return so that I truly cannot accept your invitation.'
Hsueeh P'an, Pao-yue and the other young fellows would on no account listen to his excuses. They pulled him vigorously about and would not let him go.
'This is, indeed, strange!' laughed Feng Tzu-ying. 'When have you and I had, during all these years, to have recourse to such proceedings! I really am unable to comply with your wishes. But if you do insist upon making me have a drink, well, then bring a large cup and I'll take two cups full and finish.'
After this rejoinder, the party could not but give in. Hsueeh P'an took hold of the kettle, while Pao-yue grasped the cup, and they poured two large cups full. Feng Tzu-ying stood up and quaffed them with one draught.
'But do, after all,' urged Pao-yue, 'finish this thing about a piece of good fortune in the midst of misfortune before you go.'
'To tell you this to-day,' smiled Feng Tzu-ying, 'will be no great fun. But for this purpose I intend standing a special entertainment, and inviting you all to come and have a long chat; and, in the second place, I've also got a favour to ask of you.'
Saying this, he pushed his way and was going off at once, when Hsueeh P'an interposed. 'What you've said,' he observed, 'has put us more than ever on pins and needles. We cannot brook any delay. Who knows when you will ask us round; so better tell us, and thus avoid keeping people in suspense!'
'The latest,' rejoined Feng Tzu-ying, 'in ten days; the earliest in eight.' With this answer he went out of the door, mounted his horse, and took his departure.
The party resumed their seats at table. They had another bout, and then eventually dispersed.
Pao-yue returned into the garden in time to find Hsi Jen thinking with solicitude that he had gone to see Chia Cheng and wondering whether it foreboded good or evil. As soon as she perceived Pao-yue come back in a drunken state, she felt urged to inquire the reason of it all. Pao-yue told her one by one the particulars of what happened.
'People,' added Hsi Jen, 'wait for you with lacerated heart and anxious mind, and there you go and make merry; yet you could very well, after all, have sent some one with a message.'
'Didn't I purpose sending a message?' exclaimed Pao-yue. 'Of course, I did! But I failed to do so, as on the arrival of friend Feng, I got so mixed up that the intention vanished entirely from my mind.'
While excusing himself, he saw Pao-ch'ai enter the apartment. 'Have you tasted any of our new things?' she asked, a smile curling her lips.
'Cousin,' laughed Pao-yue, 'you must have certainly tasted what you've got in your house long before us.'
Pao-ch'ai shook her head and smiled. 'Yesterday,' she said, 'my brother did actually make it a point to ask me to have some; but I had none; I told him to keep them and send them to others, so confident am I that with my
