promptly appealed to them entreatingly. 'Dear sisters,' she pleaded, 'do spare me! I'll drink some more to- morrow!'
'Quite so! we're a mean lot,' Yuean Yang laughed. 'But now that we stand in the presence of your ladyship, do condescend to look upon us favourably! We've always enjoyed some little consideration, and do you put on the airs of a mistress on an occasion like the present, when there's such a crowd of people standing by? Really, I shouldn't have come. But, as you won't touch our wine, we might as well be quick and retire!'
While she spoke, she was actually walking away, when lady Feng hastened to lay hold of her and to detain her. 'Dear sister,' she cried, 'I'll drink some and have done!'
So saying, she took the wine and filled a cup to the very brim, and drained it. Yuean Yang then at length gave her a smile, (and she and her friends) dispersed.
Subsequently, the company resumed their places at the banquet. But lady Feng was conscious that the wine she had primed herself with was mounting to her head, so abruptly staggering to the upper end, she meant to betake herself home to lie down, when seeing the jugglers arrive, 'Get the tips ready!' she shouted to Mrs. Yu. 'I'm off to wash my face a bit.'
Mrs. Yu nodded her head assentingly; and lady Feng, noticing that the inmates were off their guard, left the banquet, and wended her steps beneath the eaves towards the back entrance of the house. P'ing Erh had, however, been keeping her eye on her, so hastily she followed in her footsteps. Lady Feng at once propped herself on her arm. But no sooner did they reach the covered passage than she discerned a young maid, attached to her quarters, standing under it. (The girl), the moment she perceived them, twisted herself round and beat a retreat. Lady Feng forthwith began to give way to suspicion; and she immediately shouted out to her to halt. The maid pretended at first not to hear, but, as, while following her they called out to her time after time, she found herself compelled to turn round. Lady Feng was seized with greater doubts than ever. Quickly therefore entering the covered passage with P'ing Erh, she bade the maid go along with them. Then opening a folding screen, lady Feng stated herself on the steps leading to the small courtyard, and made the girl fall on her knees. 'Call two boy-servants from among those on duty at the second gate,' she cried out to P'ing Erh, 'to bring a whip of twisted cords, and to take this young wench, who has no regard for her mistress, and beat her to shreds.'
The servant-maid fell into a state of consternation, and was scared out of her very wits. Sobbing the while, she kept on bumping her head on the ground and soliciting for grace.
'I'm really no ghost! So you must have seen me! Don't you know what good manners mean and stand still?' lady Feng asked. 'Why did you instead persist in running on?'
'I truly did not see your ladyship coming,' the maid replied with tears in her eyes. 'I was, besides, much concerned as there was no one in the rooms; that's why I was running on.'
'If there's no one in the rooms, who told you to come out again?' lady Feng inquired. 'And didn't you see me, together with P'ing Erh, at your heels, stretching out our necks and calling out to you about ten times? But the more we shouted, the faster you ran! You weren't far off from us either, so is it likely that you got deaf? And are you still bent upon bandying words with me?'
So speaking, she raised her hand and administered her a slap on the face. But, while the girl staggered from the blow, she gave her a second slap on the other side of the face, so both cheeks of the maid quickly began to get purple and to swell.
P'ing Erh hastened to reason with her mistress. 'My lady!' she said, 'be careful you'll be hurting your hand!'
'Go on, pommel her,' urged lady Feng, 'and ask her what made her run! and, if she doesn't tell you, just you take her mouth and tear it to pieces for her!'
At the outset, the girl obstinately prevaricated, but when she eventually heard that lady Feng intended to take a red-hot branding-iron and burn her mouth with, she at last sobbingly spoke out. 'Our Master Secundus, Mr. Lien, is at home,' she remarked, 'and he sent me here to watch your movements, my lady; bidding me go ahead, when I saw you leave the banquet, and convey the message to him. But, contrary to his hopes, your ladyship came back just now!'
Lady Feng saw very well that there lurked something behind all she said. 'What did he ask you to watch me for?' she therefore eagerly asked. 'Can it be, pray, that he dreaded to see me return home? There must be some other reason; so be quick and tell it to me and I shall henceforward treat you with regard. If you don't minutely confess all to me, I shall this very moment take a knife and pare off your flesh!'
Threatening her the while, she turned her head round, and, extracting a hairpin from her coiffure, she stuck it promiscuously about the maid's mouth. This so frightened the girl that, as she made every effort to get out of her way, she burst out into tears and entreaties. 'I'll tell your ladyship everything,' she cried, 'but you mustn't say that it was I who told you.'
Ping Erh, who stood by, exhorted her to obey; but she at the same time impressed on her mind to speak out without delay.
'Mr. Secundus himself arrived only a few minutes back,' the maid began. 'The moment, however, he came, he opened a bog, and, taking two pieces of silver, two hairpins, and a couple of rolls of silk, he bade me stealthily take them to Pao Erh's wife and tell her to come in. As soon as she put the things away, she hurried to our house, and Master Secundus ordered me to keep an eye on your ladyship; but of what happened after that, I've no idea whatever.'
When these disclosures fell on lady Feng's ears, she flew into such a rage that her whole person felt quite weak; and, rising immediately, she straightway repaired home. The instant she reached the gate of the courtyard, she espied a waiting-maid peep out of the entrance. Seeing lady Feng, she too drew in her head, and tried at once to effect her escape. But lady Feng called her by name, and made her stand still. This girl had ever been very sharp, so when she realised that she could not manage to beat a retreat, she went so far as to run out to her. 'I was just going to tell your ladyship,' she smiled, 'and here you come! What a strange coincidence!'
'Tell me what?' lady Feng exclaimed.
'That Mr. Secundus is at home,' the girl replied, 'and has done so and so.' She then recounted to her all the incidents recorded a few minutes back.
'Ts'ui!' ejaculated lady Feng. 'What were you up to before? Now, that I've seen you, you come and try to clear yourself!'
As she spoke, she raised her arm and administered the maid a slap, which upset her equilibrium. So with hurried step, she betook herself away. Lady Feng then drew near the window. Lending an ear to what was going on inside, she heard some one in the room laughingly observe: 'When that queen-of-hell sort of wife of yours dies, it will be a good riddance!'
'When she's gone,' Chia Lien rejoined, 'and I marry another, the like of her, what will I again do?'
'When she's dead and gone,' the woman resumed, 'just raise P'ing Erh to the rank of primary wife. I think she'll turn out considerably better than she has.'
'At present,' Chia Lien put in, 'she won't even let me enjoy P'ing Erh's society! P'ing Erh herself is full of displeasure; yet she dares not speak. How is it that it has been my fate to bring upon myself the influence of this evil star?'
Lady Feng overheard these criticisms and flew into a fit of anger, which made her tremble violently. When she, however, also caught the praise heaped by both of them upon P'ing Erh, she harboured the suspicion that P'ing Erh too must, as a matter of course, have all along employed the sly resentful language against her. And, as the wine bubbled up more and more into her head, she did not so much as give the matter a second thought, but, twisting round, she first and foremost gave P'ing Erh a couple of whacks, and, with one kick, she banged the door open, and walked in. Then, without allowing her any time to give any explanation in her own defence, she clutched Pao Erh's wife, and, tearing her about, she belaboured her with blows. But the dread lest Chia Lien should slip out of the room, induced her to post herself in such a way as to obstruct the doorway. 'What a fine wench!' she shouted out abusingly. 'You make a paramour of your mistress' husband, and then you wish to compass your master's wife's death, for P'ing Erh to transfer her quarters in here! You base hirelings! You're all of the same stamp, thoroughly jealous of me; you try to cajole me by your outward display!'
While abusing them, she once more laid hold of P'ing Erh and beat her several times. P'ing Erh was pummelled away till her heart thrilled with a sense of injury, but she had nowhere to go, and breathe her woes. Such resentment overpowered her feelings that she sobbed without a sign of a tear. 'You people,' she railingly shouted, 'go and do a lot of shameful things, and then you also deliberately involve me; but why?'
