"If she doesn't give the money," dowager lady Chia observed, "it will be a turning-point in her luck. Take that string of a thousand cash of hers," she accordingly directed a servant, "and bring it bodily over here!"

A young waiting-maid actually fetched the string of cash and deposited it by the side of her old mistress.

"Let me have them," lady Feng eagerly cried smiling, "and I'll square all that's due, and finish."

"In very truth, lady Feng, you're a miserly creature!" Mrs. Hsueh laughed. "It's simply for mere fun, nothing more!"

Lady Feng, at this insinuation, speedily stood up, and, laying her hand on Mrs. Hsueh, she turned her head round, and pointed at a large wooden box, in which old lady Chia usually deposited her money. "Aunt," she said, a smile curling her lips, "look here! I couldn't tell you how much there is in that box that was won from me! This tiao will be wheedled by the cash in it, before we've played for half an hour! All we've got to do is to give them sufficient time to lure this string in as well; we needn't trouble to touch the cards. Your temper, worthy ancestor, will thus calm down. If you've also got any legitimate thing for me to do, you might bid me go and attend to it!"

This joke had scarcely been concluded than it evoked incessant laughter from dowager lady Chia and every one else. But while she was bandying words, P'ing Erh happened to bring her another string of cash prompted by the apprehension that her capital might not suffice to meet her wants.

"It's useless putting them in front of me!" lady Feng cried. "Place these too over there by our old lady and let them be wheedled in along with the others! It will thus save trouble, as there won't be any need to make two jobs of them, to the inconvenience of the cash already in the box."

Dowager lady Chia had a hearty laugh, so much so, that the cards, she held in her hand, flew all over the table; but pushing Yuan Yang. "Be quick," she shouted, "and wrench that mouth of hers!"

P'ing Erh placed the cash according to her mistress' directions. But after indulging too in laughter for a time, she retraced her footsteps.

On reaching the entrance into the court, she met Chia Lien. "Where's your Madame Hsing?" he inquired. "Mr. Chia She told me to ask her to go round."

"She's been standing in there with our old mistress," P'ing Erh hastily laughed, "for ever so long, and yet she isn't inclined to budge! Seize the earliest opportunity you can get to wash your hands clean of this business! Our old lady has had a good long fit of fuming and raging.

Luckily, our lady Secunda cracked an endless stock of jokes, so she, at length, got a bit calmer!"

"I'll go over," Chia Lien said. "All I have to do is to find out our venerable senior's wishes, as to whether she means to go to Lai Ta's house on the fourteenth, so that I might have time to get the chairs ready. As I'll be able to tell Madame Hsing to return, and have a share of the fun, won't it be well for me to go?"

"My idea is," P'ing Erh suggested laughingly, "that you shouldn't put your foot in there! Every one, even up to Madame w.a.n.g, and Pao-yu, have alike received a rap on the knuckles, and are you also going now to fill up the gap?"

"Everything is over long ago," Chia Lien observed, "and can it be that she'll cap the whole thing by blowing me up too? What's more, it's no concern of mine. In the next place, Mr. Chia She enjoined me that I was to go in person, and ask his wife round, so, if I at present depute some one else, and he comes to know about it, he really won't feel in a pleasant mood, and he'll take advantage of this pretext to give vent to his spite on me."

These words over, he quickly marched off. And P'ing Erh was so impressed with the reasonableness of his arguments, that she followed in his track.

As soon as Chia Lien reached the reception hall, he trod with a light step. Then peeping in he saw Madame Hsing standing inside. Lady Feng, with her eagle eye, was the first to espy him. But she winked at him and dissuaded him from coming in, and next gave a wink to Madame Hsing.

Madame Hsing could not conveniently get away at once, and she had to pour a cup of tea, and place it in front of dowager lady Chia. But old lady Chia jerked suddenly round, and took Chia Lien at such a disadvantage that he found it difficult to beat a retreat. "Who is outside?" exclaimed old lady Chia. "It seemed to me as if some servant-boy had poked his head in."

Lady Feng sprung to her feet without delay. "I also," she interposed, "indistinctly noticed the shadow of some one."

Saying this, she walked away and quitted the room. Chia Lien entered with hasty step. Forcing a smile, "I wanted to ask," he remarked, "whether you, venerable senior, are going out on the fourteenth, so that the chairs may be got ready."

"In that case," dowager lady Chia rejoined, "why didn't you come straight in; but behaved again in that mysterious way?"

"I saw that you were playing at cards, dear ancestor," Chia Lien explained with a strained laugh, "and I didn't venture to come and disturb you. I therefore simply meant to call my wife out to find out from her."

"Is it anything so very urgent that you had to say it this very moment?"

old lady Chia continued. "Had you waited until she had gone home, couldn't you have asked her any amount of questions you may have liked?

When have you been so full of zeal before? I'm puzzled to know whether it isn't as an eavesdropping spirit that you appear on the scene; nor can I say whether you don't come as a spy. But that impish way of yours gave me quite a start! What a low-bred fellow you are! Your wife will play at cards with me for a good long while more, so you'd better bundle yourself home, and conspire again with Chao Erh's wife how to do away with your better half."

Her remarks evoked general merriment.

"It's Pao Erh's wife," Yuan Yang put in laughingly, "and you, worthy senior, have dragged in again Chao Erh's wife."

"Yes!" a.s.sented old lady Chia, likewise with a laugh. "How could I remember whether he wasn't (pao) embracing her, or (pei) carrying her on his back. The bare mention of these things makes me lose all self-control and provokes me to anger! Ever since I crossed these doors as a great grandson's wife, I have never, during the whole of these fifty-four years, seen anything like these affairs, albeit it has been my share to go through great frights, great dangers, thousands of strange things and hundred and one remarkable occurrences! Don't you yet pack yourself off from my presence?"

Chia Lien could not muster courage to utter a single word to vindicate himself, but retired out of the room with all prompt.i.tude. P'ing Erh was standing outside the window. "I gave you due warning in a gentle tone, but you wouldn't hear; you've, after all, rushed into the very meshes of the net!"

These reproaches were still being heaped on him when he caught sight of Madame Hsing, as she likewise made her appearance outside. "My father,"

Chia Lien ventured, "is at the bottom of all this trouble; and the whole blame now is shoved upon your shoulders as well as mine, mother."

"I'll take you, you unfilial thing and..." Madame Hsing shouted. "People lay down their lives for their fathers; and you are prompted by a few harmless remarks to murmur against heaven and grumble against earth!

Won't you behave in a proper manner? He's in high dudgeon these last few days, so mind he doesn't give you a pounding!"

"Mother, cross over at once," Chia Lien urged; "for he told me to come and ask you to go a long time ago."

Pressing his mother, he escorted her outside as far as the other part of the mansion. Madame Hsing gave (her husband) nothing beyond a general outline of all that had been recently said; but Chia She found himself deprived of the means of furthering his ends. Indeed, so stricken was he with shame that from that date he pleaded illness. And so little able was he to rally sufficient pluck to face old lady Chia, that he merely commissioned Madame Hsing and Chia Lien to go daily and pay their respects to her on his behalf. He had no help too but to despatch servants all over the place to make every possible search and inquiry for a suitable concubine for him. After a long time they succeeded in purchasing, for the sum of eighty taels, a girl of seventeen years of age, Yen Hung by name, whom he introduced as secondary wife into his household.

But enough of this subject. In the rooms on the near side, they protracted for a long time their noisy game of cards, and only broke up after they had something to eat. Nothing worthy of note, however, occurred during the course of the following day or two. In a twinkle, the fourteenth drew near. At an early hour before daybreak, Lai Ta's wife came again into the mansion to invite her guests. Dowager lady Chia was in buoyant spirits, so taking along Madame w.a.n.g, Mrs. Hsueh, Pao-yu and the various young ladies, she betook herself into Lai Ta's garden, where she sat for a considerable time.

This garden was not, it is true, to be compared with the garden of Broad Vista; but it also was most beautifully laid out, and consisted of s.p.a.cious grounds. In the way of springs, rockeries, arbours and woods, towers and terraces, pavilions and halls, it likewise contained a good many sufficient to excite admiration. In the main hall outside, were a.s.sembled Hsueh P'an, Chia Chen, Chia Lien, Chia Jung and several close relatives. But Lai Ta had invited as well a number of officials, still in active service, and numerous young men of wealthy families, to keep them company. Among that party figured one Liu Hsiang-lien, whom Hsueh P'an had met on a previous occasion and kept ever since in constant remembrance. Having besides discovered that he had a pa.s.sionate liking for theatricals, and that the parts he generally filled were those of a young man or lady, in fast plays, he had unavoidably misunderstood the object with which he indulged in these amus.e.m.e.nts, to such a degree as to misjudge him for a young rake. About this time, he had been entertaining a wish to cultivate intimate relations with him, but he had, much to his disgust, found no one to introduce him, so when he, by a strange coincidence, came to be thrown in his way, on the present occasion, he revelled in intense delight. But Chia Chen and the other guests had heard of his reputation, so as soon as wine had blinded their sense of shame, they entreated him to sing two short plays; and when subsequently they got up from the banquet, they ensconced themselves near him, and, pressing him with questions, they carried on a conversation on one thing and then another.

This Liu Hsiang-lien was, in fact, a young man of an old family; but he had been unsuccessful in his studies, and had lost his father and mother. He was naturally light-hearted and magnanimous; not particular in minor matters; immoderately fond of spear-exercise and fencing, of gambling and boozing; even going to such excesses as spending his nights in houses of easy virtue; playing the fife, thrumming the harp, and going in for everything and anything. Being besides young in years, and of handsome appearance, those who did not know what his standing was, invariably mistook him for an actor. But Lai Ta's son had all along been on such friendly terms with him, that he consequently invited him for the nonce to help him do the honours.

Of a sudden, while every one was, after the wines had gone round, still on his good behaviour, Hsueh P'an alone got another fit of his old mania. From an early stage, his spirits sunk within him and he would fain have seized the first convenient moment to withdraw and consummate his designs but for Lai Shang-jung, who then said: "Our Mr. Pao-yu told me again just now that although he saw you, as he walked in, he couldn't speak to you with so many people present, so he bade me ask you not to go, when the party breaks up, as he has something more to tell you. But as you insist upon taking your leave, you'd better wait until I call him out, and when you've seen each other, you can get away; I'll have nothing to say then."

While delivering the message, "Go inside," he directed the servant-boys, "and get hold of some old matron and tell her quietly to invite Mr.

Pao-yu to come out."

A servant-lad went on the errand, and scarcely had time enough elapsed to enable one to have a cup of tea in, than Pao-yu, actually, made his appearance outside.

"My dear sir," Lai Shang-jung smilingly observed to Pao-yu, "I hand him over to you. I'm going to entertain the guests!"

With these words, he was off.

Pao-yu pulled Lia Hsiang-lien into a side study in the hall, where they sat down.

"Have you been recently to Ch'in Ch'ung's grave?" he inquired of him.

"How could I not go?" Hsiang-lien answered. "The other day a few of us went out to give our falcons a fly; and we were yet at a distance of two li from his tomb, when remembering the heavy rains, we've had this summer, I gave way to fears lest his grave may not have been proof against them; so evading the notice of the party I went over and had a look. I found it again slightly damaged; but when I got back home, I speedily raised a few hundreds of cash, and issued early on the third day, and hired two men, who put it right."

"It isn't strange then!" exclaimed Pao-yu, "When the lotus blossomed last month in the pond of our garden of Broad Vista, I plucked ten of them and bade T'sai Ming go out of town and lay them as my offering on his grave. On his return, I also inquired of him: whether it had been damaged by the water or not; and he explained that not only had it not sustained any harm, but that it looked better than when last he'd seen it. Several of his friends, I argued, must have had it put in proper repair; and I felt it irksome that I should, day after day, be so caged at home as to be unable to be my own master in the least thing, and that if even I move, and any one comes to know of it, this one is sure to exhort me, if that one does not restrain me. I can thus afford to brag, but can't manage to act! And though I've got plenty of money, I'm not at liberty to spend any of it!"

"There's no use your worrying in a matter like this!" Liu Hsiang-lien said. "I am outside, so all you need do is to inwardly foster the wish; that's all. But as the first of the tenth moon will shortly be upon us, I've already prepared the money necessary for going to the graves. You know well enough that I'm as poor as a rat; I've no h.o.a.rdings at home; and when a few cash find their way into my pocket, I soon remain again quite empty-handed. But I'd better make the best of this opportunity, and keep the amount I have, in order that, when the time comes, I mayn't find myself without a cash."

"It's exactly about this that I meant to send Pei Ming to see you,"

Pao-yu added. "But it isn't often that one can manage to find you at home. I'm well aware how uncertain your movements are; one day you are here, and another there; you've got no fixed resort."

"There's no need sending any one to hunt me up!" Liu Hsiang-lien replied. "All that each of us need do in this matter is to acquit ourselves of what's right. But in a little while, I again purpose going away on a tour abroad, to return in three to five years' time."

When Pao-yu heard his intention, "Why is this?" he at once inquired.

Liu Hsiang-lien gave a sardonic smile. "When my wish is on a fair way to be accomplished," he said, "you'll certainly hear everything. I must now leave you."

"After all the difficulty we've had in meeting," Pao-yu remarked, "wouldn't it be better were you and I to go away together in the evening?"