here, and there won't, I fancy, be, on the other, anything to prevent us, so we should all do our best to enjoy ourselves thoroughly for a day.'
'I was thinking the same thing,' Madame Wang rejoined, laughingly, 'and, since it's your good pleasure, venerable senior, why, shouldn't we deliberate at once and decide upon something?'
'To the best of my recollection,' dowager lady Chia resumed smiling, 'whenever in past years I've had any birthday celebrations for any one of us, no matter who it was, we have ever individually sent our respective presents; but this method is common and is also apt, I think, to look very much as if there were some disunion. But I'll now devise a new way; a way, which won't have the effect of creating any discord, and will be productive of good cheer.'
'Let whatever way you may think best, dear ancestor, be adopted.' Madame Wang eagerly rejoined.
'My idea is,' old lady Chia laughingly continued, 'that we too should follow the example of those poor families and raise a subscription among ourselves, and devote the whole of whatever we may collect to meet the outlay for the necessary preparations. What do you say, will this do or not?'
'This is a splendid idea!' Madame Wang acquiesced. 'But what will, I wonder, be the way adopted for raising contributions?'
Old lady Chia was the more inspirited by her reply. There and then she despatched servants to go and invite Mrs. Hsueeh, Madame Hsing and the rest of the ladies, and bade others summon the young ladies and Pao-yue. But from the other mansion, Chia Chen's spouse, Lai Ta's wife, even up to the wives of such stewards as enjoyed a certain amount of respectability, were likewise to be asked to come round.
The sight of their old mistress' delight filled the waiting-maids and married women with high glee as well; and each hurried with vehemence to execute her respective errand. Those that were to be invited were invited, and those that had to be sent for were sent for; and, before the lapse of such time as could suffice to have a meal in, the old as well as young, the high as well as low, crammed, in a black mass, every bit of the available space in the rooms.
Only Mrs. Hsueeh and dowager lady Chia sat opposite to each other. Mesdames Hsing and Wang simply seated themselves on two chairs, which faced the door of the apartment. Pao-ch'ai and her five or six cousins occupied the stove-couch. Pao-yue sat on his grandmother's lap. Below, the whole extent of the floor was crowded with inmates on their feet. But old lady Chia forthwith desired that a few small stools should be fetched. When brought, these were proffered to Lai Ta's mother and some other nurses, who were advanced in years and held in respect; for it was the custom in the Chia mansion that the family servants, who had waited upon any of the fathers or mothers, should enjoy a higher status than even young masters and mistresses. Hence it was that while Mrs. Yu, lady Feng and other ladies remained standing below, Lai Ta's mother and three or four other old nurses had, after excusing themselves for their rudeness, seated themselves on small stools.
Dowager lady Chia recounted, with a face beaming with smiles, the suggestions she had shortly made, for the benefit of the various inmates present; and one and all, of course, were only too ready to contribute for the entertainment. More, some of them, were on friendly terms with lady Feng, so they, of their own free will, adopted the proposal; others lived in fear and trembling of lady Feng, and these were only too anxious to make up to her. Every one, besides, could well afford the means, so that, as soon as they heard of the proposed subscriptions, they, with one consent, signified their acquiescence.
'I'll give twenty taels!' old lady Chia was the first to say with a smile playing round her lips.
'I'll follow your lead, dear senior,' Mrs. Hsueeh smiled, 'and also subscribe twenty taels.'
'We don't presume to place ourselves on an equal footing with your ladyship,' Mesdames Hsing and Wang pleaded. 'We, of course, come one degree lower; each of us therefore will contribute sixteen taels.'
'We too naturally rank one step lower,' Mrs. Yu and Li Wan also smiled, 'so we'll each give twelve taels.'
'You're a widow,' dowager lady Chia eagerly demurred, addressing herself to Li Wan, 'and have lost all your estate, so how could we drag you into all this outlay! I'll contribute for you!'
'Don't be in such high feather dear senior,' lady Feng hastily observed laughing, 'but just look to your accounts before you saddle yourself with this burden! You've already taken upon yourself two portions; and do you now also volunteer sixteen taels on behalf of my elder sister-in-law? You may willingly do so, while you speak in the abundance of your spirits, but when you, by and bye, come to ponder over what you've done, you'll feel sore at heart again! 'It's all that girl Feng that's driven me to spend the money,' you'll say in a little time; and you'll devise some ingenious way to inveigle me to fork out three or four times as much as your share and thus make up your deficit in an underhand way; while I will still be as much in the clouds as if I were in a dream!'
These words made every one laugh.
'According to you, what should be done?' dowager lady Chia laughingly inquired.
'My birthday hasn't yet come,' lady Feng smiled; 'and already now I've been the recipient of so much more than I deserve that I am quite unhappy. But if I don't contribute a single cash, I shall feel really ill at ease for the trouble I shall be giving such a lot of people. It would be as well, therefore, that I should bear this share of my senior sister-in-law; and, when the day comes, I can eat a few more things, and thus be able to enjoy some happiness.'
'Quite right!' cried Madame Hsing and the others at this suggestion. So old lady Chia then signified her approval.
'There's something more I'd like to add,' lady Feng pursued smiling. 'I think that it's fair enough that you, worthy ancestor, should, besides your own twenty taels, have to stand two shares as well, the one for cousin Liu, the other for cousin Pao-yue, and that Mrs. Hsueeh should, beyond her own twenty taels, likewise bear cousin Pao- ch'ai's portion. But it's somewhat unfair that the two ladies Mesdames Hsing and Wang should each only give sixteen taels, when their share is small, and when they don't subscribe anything for any one else. It's you, venerable senior, who'll be the sufferer by this arrangement.'
Dowager lady Chia, at these words, burst out into a boisterous fit of laughter. 'It's this hussey Feng,' she observed, 'who, after all, takes my side! What you say is quite right. Hadn't it been for you, I would again have been duped by them!'
'Dear senior!' lady Feng smiled. Just hand over our two cousins to those two ladies and let each take one under her charge and finish. If you make each contribute one share, it will be square enough.'
'This is perfectly fair,' eagerly rejoined old lady Chia. 'Let this suggestion be carried out!'
Lai Ta's mother hastily stood up. 'This is such a subversion of right,' she smiled, 'that I'll put my back up on account of the two ladies. She's a son's wife, on the other side, and, in here, only a wife's brother's child; and yet she doesn't incline towards her mother-in-law and her aunt, but takes other people's part. This son's wife has therefore become a perfect stranger; and a close niece has, in fact, become a distant niece!'
As she said this, dowager lady Chia and every one present began to laugh. 'If the junior ladies subscribe twelve taels each,' Lai Ta's mother went on to ask, 'we must, as a matter of course, also come one degree lower; eh?'
Upon hearing this, old lady Chia remonstrated. 'This won't do!' she observed. 'You naturally should rank one degree lower, but you're all, I am well aware, wealthy people; and, in spite of your status being somewhat lower, your funds are more flourishing than theirs. It's only just then that you should be placed on the same standing as those people!'
The posse of nurses expressed with promptness their acceptance of the proposal their old mistress made.
'The young ladies,' dowager lady Chia resumed, 'should merely give something for the sake of appearances! If each one contributes a sum proportionate to her monthly allowance, it will be ample!' Turning her head, 'Yuean Yang!' she cried, 'a few of you should assemble in like manner, and consult as to what share you should take in the matter. So bring them along!'
Yuean Yang assured her that her desires would be duly attended to and walked away. But she had not been absent for any length of time, when she appeared on the scene along with P'ing Erh, Hsi Jen, Ts'ai Hsia and other girls, and a number of waiting-maids as well. Of these, some subscribed two taels; others contributed one tael.
'Can it be,' dowager lady Chia then said to P'ing Erh, 'that you don't want any birthday celebrated for your mistress, that you don't range yourself also among them?'
'The other money I gave,' P'ing Erh smiled, 'I gave privately, and is extra.' 'This is what I am publicly bound
