So shouting, she too clutched Pao Erh's wife and began to assail her. Chia Lien had freely primed himself with wine, so, on his return home, he was in such exuberance of spirits that he observed no secresy in his doings. The moment, however, he perceived lady Feng appear on the scene, he got to his wits' end. Yet when he saw P'ing Erh also start a rumpus, the liquor he had had aroused his ire. The sight of the assault committed by lady Feng on Pao Erh's wife had already incensed him and put him to shame, but he had not been able with any consistency to interfere; but the instant he espied P'ing Erh herself lay hands on her, he vehemently jumped forward and gave her a kick. 'What a vixen!' he cried. 'Are you likewise going to start knocking people about?'
P'ing Erh was of a timid disposition. At once, therefore, she withheld her hands, and melted into tears. 'Why do you implicate me,' she said, 'in things you say behind my back?'
When lady Feng descried in what fear and dread P'ing Erh was of Chia Lien, she lost more than ever control over her temper, and, starting again in pursuit of her, she struck P'ing Erh, while urging her to go for Pao Erh's wife.
P'ing Erh was driven to exasperation; and forthwith rushing out of the apartment, she went in search of a knife to commit suicide with. But the company of old matrons, who stood outside, hastened to place impediments in her way, and to argue with her.
Lady Feng, meanwhile, realised that P'ing Erh had gone to take her life, and rolling, head foremost, into Chia Lien's embrace, 'You put your heads together to do me harm,' she said, 'and, when I overhear your designs, you people conspire to frighten me! But strangle me and have done.'
Chia Lien was driven to despair; to such a degree that unsheathing a sword suspended on the wall, 'There's no need for any one of you to commit suicide!' he screamed. 'I too am thoroughly exasperated, so I'll kill the whole lot of you and pay the penalty with my own life! We'll all then be free from further trouble!'
The bustle had just reached a climax beyond the chance of a settlement, when they perceived Mrs. Yu and a crowd of inmates make their appearance in the room. 'What's the matter?' they asked. 'There was nothing up just now, so why is all this row for?'
At the sight of the new arrivals, Chia Lien more than ever made the three parts of intoxication, under which he laboured, an excuse to assume an air calculated to intimidate them, and to pretend, in order to further his own ends, that he was bent upon despatching lady Feng.
But lady Feng, upon seeing her relatives appear, got into a mood less perverse than the one she had been in previous to their arrival; and, leaving the whole company of them, she scampered, all in tears, over to the off side, into dowager lady Chia's quarters.
By this time, the play was over. Lady Feng rushed consequently into the old lady's presence and fell into her lap. 'Venerable ancestor! help me!' she exclaimed. 'Mr. Chia Lien wishes to kill me.'
'What's up?' precipitately inquired dowager lady Chia, Mesdames Hsing and Wang and the rest.
'I was just going to my rooms to change my dress,' lady Feng wept, 'when I unexpectedly found Mr. Chia Lien at home, talking with some one. Fancying that visitors had come, I was quite taken aback, and not presuming to enter, I remained outside the window and listened. It turned out, in fact, to be Pao Erh's wife holding council with him. She said that I was dreadful, and that she meant to poison me so as to get me out of the way and enable P'ing Erh to be promoted to be first wife. At this, I lost my temper. But not venturing, none the less, to have a row with him, I simply gave P'ing Erh two slaps; and then I asked him why he wished to do me harm. But so stricken did he get with shame that he tried there and then to despatch me.'
Dowager lady Chia treated every word that fell on her ear as truth. 'Dreadful!' she ejaculated. 'Bring here at once that low-bred offspring!'
Barely was, however, this exclamation out of her lips, than they perceived Chia Lien, a sword in hand, enter in pursuit of his wife, followed closely by a bevy of inmates. Chia Lien evidently placed such thorough reliance upon the love, which old lady Chia had all along lavished upon them, that he entertained little regard even for his mother or his aunt, so he came, with perfect effrontery, to stir up a disturbance in their presence. When Mesdames Hsing and Wang saw him, they got into a passion, and, with all despatch, they endeavoured to deter him from his purpose. 'You mean thing!' they shouted, abusing him. 'Your crime is more heinous, for our venerable senior is in here!'
'It's all because our worthy ancestor spoils her,' cried Chia Lien, with eyes awry, 'that she behaved as she did and took upon herself to rate even me!'
Madame Hsing was full of resentment. Snatching the sword from his grasp, she kept on telling him to quit the room at once. But Chia Lien continued to prattle foolish nonsense in a drivelling and maudlin way. His manner exasperated dowager lady Chia. 'I'm well aware,' she observed, 'that you haven't the least consideration for any one of us. Tell some one to go and call his father here and we'll see whether he doesn't clear out.'
When Chia Lien caught these words, he eventually tottered out of the apartment. But in such a state of frenzy was he that he did not return to his quarters, but betook himself into the outer study.
During this while, Mesdames Hsing and Wang also called lady Feng to task.
'Why, what serious matter could it ever have been?' old lady Chia remarked. 'But children of tender years are like greedy kittens, and how can one say for certain that they won't do such things? Human beings have, from their very infancy, to go through experiences of this kind! It's all my fault, however, for pressing you to have a little more wine than was good for you. But you've also gone and drunk the vinegar of jealousy!'
This insinuation made every one laugh.
'Compose your mind!' proceeded dowager lady Chia. 'To-morrow I'll send for him to apologise to you; but, you'd better to-day not go over, as you might put him to shame!' Continuing, she also went on to abuse P'ing Erh. 'I've always thought highly of that wench,' she said, 'and how is it that she's turned out to be secretly so bad?'
'P'ing Erh isn't to blame!' Mrs. Yu and the others smiled. 'It's lady Feng who makes people her tools to give vent to her spite! Husband and wife could not very well come to blows face to face, so they combined in using P'ing Erh as their scapegoat! What injuries haven't fallen to P'ing Erh's lot! And do you, venerable senior, still go on blowing her up?'
'Is it really so!' exclaimed old lady Chia. 'I always said that that girl wasn't anything like that artful shrew! Well, in that case, she is to be pitied, for she has had to bear the brunt of her anger, and all through no fault of hers!' Calling Hu Po to her, 'Go,' she added, 'and tell P'ing Erh all I enjoin you; 'that I know that she has been insulted and that to-morrow I'll send for her mistress to make amends, but that being her mistress' birthday to-day, I won't have her give rise to any reckless fuss'!'
P'ing Erh had, we may explain, from an early hour, been dragged by Li Wan into the garden of Broad Vista. Here P'ing Erh gave way to bitter tears. So much so, that her throat choked with sobs, and could not give utterance to speech.
'You are an intelligent person,' exhorted her Pao-ch'ai, 'and how considerately has your lady treated you all along! It was simply because she has had a little too much wine that she behaved as she did to-day! But had she not made you the means of giving vent to her spite, is it likely that she could very well have aired her grievances upon any one else? Besides, any one else would have laughed at her for acting in a sham way!'
While she reasoned with her, she saw Hu Po approach, and deliver dowager lady Chia's message. P'ing Erh then felt in herself that she had come out of the whole affair with some credit, and she, little by little, resumed her equilibrium. She did not, nevertheless, put her foot anywhere near the front part of the compound.
After a little rest, Pao Ch'ai and her companions came and paid a visit to old lady Chia and lady Feng, while Pao-yue pressed P'ing Erh to come to the I Hung court. Hsi Jen received her with alacrity. 'I meant,' she said, 'to be the first to ask you, but as our senior lady, Chia Chu, and the young ladies invited you, I couldn't very well do so myself.'
P'ing Erh returned her smile. 'Many thanks!' she rejoined. 'How words ever commenced between us;' she then went on, 'when there was no provocation, I can't tell! But without rhyme or reason, I came in for a spell of resentment.'
'Our lady Secunda has always been very good to you,' laughingly remarked Hsi Jen, 'so she must have done this in a sudden fit of exasperation!'
'Our lady Secunda did not, after all, say anything to me,' P'ing Erh explained. 'It was that wench that blew me up. And she deliberately made a laughing-stock of me. But that fool also of a master of ours struck me!'
While recounting her experiences, she felt a keener sense of injustice than before, and she found it hard to restrain her tears from trickling down her cheeks.
