"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-yu, and that Mrs. Hsueh 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 w.a.n.g 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, "Yuan Yang!" she cried, "a few of you should a.s.semble in like manner, and consult as to what share you should take in the matter. So bring them along!"

Yuan Yang a.s.sured 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 to contribute along with the lot."

"That's a good child!" lady Chia laughingly rejoined.

"Those above as well as those below have all alike given their share,"

lady Feng went on to observe with a smile. "But there are still those two secondary wives; are they to give anything or not? Do go and ask them! It's but right that we should go to the extreme length and include them. Otherwise, they'll imagine that we've looked down upon them!"

"Just so!" eagerly answered lady Chia, at these words. "How is it that we forgot all about them? The only thing is, I fear, they've got no time to spare; yet, tell a servant-girl to go and ask them what they'll do!"

While she spoke, a servant-girl went off. After a long absence, she returned. "Each of them," she reported, "will likewise contribute two taels."

Dowager lady Chia was delighted with the result. "Fetch a pen and inkslab," she cried, "and let's calculate how much they amount to, all together."

Mrs. Yu abused lady Feng in a low tone of voice. "I'll take you, you mean covetous creature, and ... ! All these mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law have come forward and raised money to celebrate your birthday, and are you yet not satisfied that you must also drag in those two miserable beings! But what do you do it for?"

"Try and talk less trash!" lady Feng smiled; also in an undertone.

"We'll be leaving this place in a little time and then I'll square up accounts with you! But why ever are those two miserable? When they have money, they uselessly give it to other people; and isn't it better that we should get hold of it, and enjoy ourselves with it?"

While she uttered these taunts, they computed that the collections would reach a sum over and above one hundred and fifty taels.

"We couldn't possibly run through all this for a day's theatricals and banquet!" old lady Chia exclaimed.

"As no outside guests are to be invited," Mrs. Yu interposed, "and the number of tables won't also be many, there will be enough to cover two or three days' outlay! First of all, there won't be anything to spend for theatricals, so we'll effect a saving on that item."

"Just call whatever troupe that girl Feng may say she likes best,"

dowager lady Chia suggested.

"We've heard quite enough of the performances of that company of ours,"

lady Feng said; "let's therefore spend a little money and send for another, and see what they can do."

"I leave that to you, brother Chen's wife," old lady Chia pursued, "in order that our girl Feng should have occasion to trouble her mind with as little as possible, and be able to enjoy a day's peace and quiet.

It's only right that she should."

Mrs. Yu replied that she would be only too glad to do what she could.

They then prolonged their chat for a little longer, until one and all realised that their old senior must be quite f.a.gged out, and they gradually dispersed.

After seeing Mesdames Hsing and w.a.n.g off, Mrs. Yu and the other ladies adjourned into lady Feng's rooms to consult with her about the birthday festivities.

"Don't ask me!" lady Feng urged. "Do whatever will please our worthy ancestor."

"What a fine thing you are to come across such a mighty piece of luck!"

Mrs. Yu smiled. "I was wondering what had happened that she summoned us all! Why, was it simply on this account? Not to breathe a word about the money that I'll have to contribute, must I have trouble and annoyance to bear as well? How will you show me any thanks?"

"Don't bring shame upon yourself!" lady Feng laughed. "I didn't send for you; so why should I be thankful to you! If you funk the exertion, go at once and let our venerable senior know, and she'll depute some one else and have done."

"You go on like this as you see her in such excellent spirits, that's why!" Mrs. Yu smilingly answered. "It would be well, I advise you, to pull in a bit; for if you be too full of yourself, you'll get your due reward!"

After some further colloquy, these two ladies eventually parted company.

On the next day, the money was sent over to the Ning Kuo Mansion at the very moment that Mrs. Yu had got up, and was performing her toilette and ablutions. "Who brought it?" she asked.

"Nurse Lin," the servant-girl said by way of response.

"Call her in," Mrs. Yu said.

The servant-girls walked as far as the lower rooms and called Lin Chih-hsiao's wife to come in. Mrs. Yu bade her seat herself on the footstool. While she hurriedly combed her hair and washed her face and hands, she wanted to know how much the bundle contained in all.

"This is what's subscribed by us servants." Lin Chih-hsiao's wife replied, "and so I collected it and brought it over first. As for the contributions of our venerable mistress, and those of the ladies, they aren't ready yet."

But simultaneously with this reply, the waiting-maids announced: "Our lady of the other mansion and Mrs. Hsueh have sent over some one with their portions."

"You mean wenches!" Mrs. Yu cried, scolding them with a smile. "All the gumption you've got is to simply bear in mind this sort of nonsense! In a fit of good cheer, your old mistress yesterday purposely expressed a wish to imitate those poor people, and raise a subscription. But you at once treasured it up in your memory, and, when the thing came to be canva.s.sed by you, you treated it in real earnest! Don't you yet quick bundle yourselves out, and bring the money in! Be careful and give them some tea before you see them off."