Here his mother and her daughter stood and watched him, their four eyes fixed intently on him, until he got out of sight, when they, at length, retraced their footsteps into the house.

Mrs. Hsueh had, in coming up to the capital, only brought four or five family domestics and two or three old matrons and waiting-maids with her, so, after the departure on the recent occasion, of those, who followed Hsueh P'an, no more than one or two men-servants remained in the outer quarters. Mrs. Hsueh repaired therefore on the very same day into the study, and had the various ornaments, bric-a-brac, curtains and other articles removed into the inner compound and put away. Then bidding the wives of the two male attendants, who had gone with Hsueh P'an, likewise move their quarters inside, along with the other women, she went on to impress upon Hsiang Ling to put everything carefully away in her own room as well, and to lock the doors; "for," (she said), "you must come at night and sleep with me."

"Since you've got all these people to keep you company, ma," Pao-ch'ai remarked, "wouldn't it be as well to tell sister Ling to come and be my companion? Our garden is besides quite empty and the nights are so long!

And as I work away every night, won't it be better for me to have an extra person with me?"

"Quite so!" smiled Mrs. Hsueh, "I forgot that! I should have told her to go with you; it's but right. It was only the other day that I mentioned to your brother that: 'Wen Hsing too was young, and not fit to attend to everything that turns up, that Ying Erh could not alone do all the waiting, and that it was necessary to purchase another girl for your service.'"

"If we buy one, we won't know what she's really like!" Pao-ch'ai demurred. "If she gives us the slip, the money we may have spent on her will be a mere trifle, so long as she hasn't been up to any pranks! So let's quietly make inquiries, and, when we find one with well-known antecedents, we can purchase her, and, we'll be on the safe side then!"

While speaking, she told Hsiang Ling to collect her bedding and clothes; and desiring an old matron and Ch'in Erh to take them over to the Heng Wu Yuan, Pao-ch'ai returned at last into the garden in company with Hsiang Ling.

"I meant to have proposed to my lady," Hsiang Ling said to Pao-ch'ai, "that, when master left, I should be your companion, miss; but I feared lest her ladyship should, with that suspicious mind of hers, have maintained that I was longing to come into the garden to romp. But who'd have thought it, it was you, after all, who spoke to her about it!"

"I am well aware," Pao-ch'ai smiled, "that you've been inwardly yearning for this garden, and that not for a day or two, but with the little time you can call your own, you would find it no fun, were you even able to run over once in a day, so long as you have to do it in a hurry-scurry!

Seize therefore this opportunity of staying, better still, for a year; as I, on my side, will then have an extra companion; and you, on yours, will be able to accomplish your wishes."

"My dear miss!" laughingly observed Hsiang Ling, "do let's make the best of this time, and teach me how to write verses!"

"I say," Pao-ch'ai laughed, "'you no sooner, get the Lung state than you long for the Shu'! I advise you to wait a bit. This is the first day that you spend in here, and you should, first and foremost, go out of the garden by the eastern side gate and look up and salute every one in her respective quarters commencing from our old lady. But you needn't make it a point of telling them that you've moved into the garden. If anyone does allude to the reason why you've shifted your quarters, you can simply explain cursorily that I've brought you in as a companion, and then drop the subject. On your return by and bye into the garden, you can pay a visit to the apartments of each of the young ladies."

Hsiang Ling signified her acquiescence, and was about to start when she saw P'ing Erh rush in with hurried step. Hsiang Ling hastened to ask after her health, and P'ing Erh felt compelled to return her smile, and reciprocate her inquiry.

"I've brought her in to-day," Pao-ch'ai thereupon smilingly said to P'ing Erh, "to make a companion of her. She was just on the point of going to tell your lady about it!"

"What is this that you're saying, Miss?" P'ing Erh rejoined, with a smile. "I really am at a loss what reply to make to you!"

"It's the right thing!" Pao-ch'ai answered. "' In a house, there's the master, and in a temple there's the chief priest.' It's true, it's no important concern, but something must, in fact, be mentioned, so that those, who sit up on night duty in the garden, may be aware that these two have been added to my rooms, and know when to close the gates and when to wait. When you get back therefore do mention it, so that I mayn't have to send some one to tell them."

P'ing Erh promised to carry out her wishes. "As you're moved in here,"

she said to Hsiang Ling, "won't you go and pay your respects to your neighbours?"

"I had just this very moment," Pao-ch'ai smiled, "told her to go and do so."

"You needn't however go to our house," P'ing Erh remarked, "our Mr.

Secundus is laid up at home."

Hsiang Ling a.s.sented and went off, pa.s.sing first and foremost by dowager lady Chia's apartments. But without devoting any of our attention to her, we will revert to P'ing Erh.

Seeing Hsiang Ling walk out of the room, she drew Pao-ch'ai near her.

"Miss! have you heard our news?" she inquired in a low tone of voice.

"I haven't heard any news," Pao-ch'ai responded. "We've been daily so busy in getting my brother's things ready for his voyage abroad, that we know nothing whatever of any of your affairs in here. I haven't even seen anything of my female cousins these last two days."

"Our master, Mr. Chia She, has beaten our Mr. Secundus to such a degree that he can't budge," P'ing Erh smiled. "But is it likely, miss, that you've heard nothing about it?"

"This morning," Pao-ch'ai said by way of reply, "I heard a vague report on the subject, but I didn't believe it could be true. I was just about to go and look up your mistress, when you unexpectedly arrived. But why did he beat him again?"

P'ing Erh set her teeth to and gave way to abuse. "It's all on account of some Chia Yu-ts'un or other; a starved and half-dead boorish b.a.s.t.a.r.d, who went yonder quite unexpectedly. It isn't yet ten years, since we've known him, and he has been the cause of ever so much trouble! In the spring of this year, Mr. Chia She saw somewhere or other, I can't tell where, a lot of antique fans; so, when on his return home, he noticed that the fine fans stored away in the house, were all of no use, he at once directed servants to go everywhere and hunt up some like those he had seen. Who'd have antic.i.p.ated it, they came across a reckless creature of retribution, dubbed by common consent the 'stone fool,' who though so poor as to not even have any rice to put to his mouth, happened to have at home twenty antique fans. But these he utterly refused to take out of his main door. Our Mr. Secundus had thus a precious lot of bother to ask ever so many favours of people. But when he got to see the man, he made endless appeals to him before he could get him to invite him to go and sit in his house; when producing the fans, he allowed him to have a short inspection of them. From what our Mr. Secundus says, it would be really difficult to get any the like of them. They're made entirely of spotted black bamboo, and the stags and jadelike cl.u.s.ters of bamboo on them are the genuine pictures, drawn by men of olden times. When he got back, he explained these things to Mr.

Chia She, who readily asked him to buy them, and give the man his own price for them. The 'stone fool,' however, refused. 'Were I even to be dying from hunger,' he said, 'or perishing from frostbites, and so much as a thousand taels were offered me for each single fan, I wouldn't part with them.' Mr. Chia She could do nothing, but day after day he abused our Mr. Secundus as a good-for-nothing. Yet he had long ago promised the man five hundred taels, payable cash down in advance, before delivery of the fans, but he would not sell them. 'If you want the fans,' he had answered, 'you must first of all take my life.' Now, miss, do consider what was to be done? But, Yu-ts'un is, as it happens, a man with no regard for divine justice. Well, when he came to hear of it, he at once devised a plan to lay hold of these fans, so fabricating the charge against him of letting a government debt drag on without payment, he had him arrested and brought before him in the Yamen; when he adjudicated that his family property should be converted into money to make up the amount due to the public chest; and, confiscating the fans in question, he set an official value on them and sent them over here. And as for that 'stone fool,' no one now has the faintest idea whether he be dead or alive. Mr. Chia She, however, taunted Mr. Secundus. 'How is it,' he said, 'that other people can manage to get them?' Our master simply rejoined 'that to bring ruin upon a person in such a trivial matter could not be accounted ability.' But, at these words, his father suddenly rushed into a fury, and averred that Mr. Secundus had said things to gag his mouth. This was the main cause. But several minor matters, which I can't even recollect, also occurred during these last few days. So, when all these things acc.u.mulated, he set to work and gave him a sound thrashing. He didn't, however, drag him down and strike him with a rattan or cane, but recklessly a.s.saulted him, while he stood before him, with something or other, which he laid hold of, and broke his face open in two places. We understand that Mrs. Hsueh has in here some medicine or other for applying on wounds, so do try, miss, and find a ball of it and let me have it!"

Hearing this, Pao-ch'ai speedily directed Ying Erh to go and look for some, and, on discovering two b.a.l.l.s of it, she brought them over and handed them to P'ing Erh.

"Such being the case," Pao-ch'ai said, "do make, on your return, the usual inquiries for me, and I won't then need to go."

P'ing Erh turned towards Pao-ch'ai, and expressed her readiness to execute her commission, after which she betook herself home, where we will leave her without further notice.

After Hsiang Ling, for we will take up the thread of our narrative with her, completed her visits to the various inmates, she had her evening meal. Then when Pao-ch'ai and every one else went to dowager lady Chia's quarters, she came into the Hsiao Hsiang lodge. By this time Tai-yu had got considerably better. Upon hearing that Hsiang Ling had also moved into the garden, she, needless to say, was filled with delight.

"Now, that I've come in here," Hsiang Ling then smiled and said, "do please teach me, at your leisure, how to write verses. It will be a bit of good luck for me if you do."

"Since you're anxious to learn how to versify," Tai-yu answered with a smile, "you'd better acknowledge me as your tutor; for though I'm not a good hand at poetry, yet I know, after all, enough to be able to teach you."

"Of course you do!" Hsiang Ling laughingly remarked. "I'll readily treat you as my tutor. But you mustn't put yourself to any trouble!"

"Is there anything so difficult about this," Tai-yu pursued, "as to make it necessary to go in for any study? Why, it's purely and simply a matter of openings, elucidations, embellishments and conclusions. The elucidations and embellishments, which come in the centre, should form two ant.i.thetical sentences, the even tones must pair with the uneven.

Empty words must correspond with full words; and full words with empty words. In the event of any out-of-the-way lines, it won't matter if the even and uneven tones, and the empty and full words do not pair."

"Strange though it may appear," smiled Hsiang Ling, "I often handle books with old poems, and read one or two stanzas, whenever I can steal the time; and some among these I find pair most skilfully, while others don't. I have also heard that the first, third and fifth lines are of no consequence; and that the second, fourth and sixth must be clearly distinguished. But I notice that there are in the poetical works of ancient writers both those which accord with the rules, as well as those whose second, fourth and sixth lines are not in compliance with any rule. Hence it is that my mind has daily been full of doubts. But after the hints you've given me, I really see that all these formulas are of no account, and that the main requirement is originality of diction."

"Yes, that's just the principle that holds good," Tai-yu answered. "But diction is, after all, a last consideration. The first and foremost thing is the choice of proper sentiments; for when the sentiments are correct, there'll even be no need to polish the diction; it's certain to be elegant. This is called versifying without letting the diction affect the sentiments."

"What I admire," Hsiang Ling proceeded with a smile; "are the lines by old Lu Fang;

"The double portiere, when not raised, retains the fragrance long.

An old inkslab, with a slight hole, collects plenty of ink.

"Their language is so clear that it's charming."

"You must on no account," Tai-yu observed, "read poetry of the kind.

It's because you people don't know what verses mean that you, no sooner read any shallow lines like these, than they take your fancy. But when once you get into this sort of style, it's impossible to get out of it.

Mark my words! If you are in earnest about learning, I've got here w.a.n.g Mo-chieh's complete collection; so you'd better take his one hundred stanzas, written in the pentameter rule of versification, and carefully study them, until you apprehend them thoroughly. Afterwards, look over the one hundred and twenty stanzas of Lao T'u, in the heptameter rule; and next read a hundred or two hundred of the heptameter four-lined stanzas by Li Ch'ing-lieu. When you have, as a first step, digested these three authors, and made them your foundation, you can take T'ao Yuan-ming, Ying, Liu, Hsieh, Yuan, Yu, Pao and other writers and go through them once. And with those sharp and quick wits of yours, I've no doubt but that you will become a regular poet before a year's time."

"Well, in that case," Hsiang Ling smiled, after listening to her, "bring me the book, my dear miss, so that I may take it along. It will be a good thing if I can manage to read several stanzas at night."

At these words, Tai-yu bade Tzu Chuan fetch w.a.n.g Tso-ch'eng's pentameter stanzas. When brought, she handed them to Hsiang Ling. "Only peruse those marked with red circles" she said. "They've all been selected by me. Read each one of them; and should there be any you can't fathom, ask your miss about them. Or when you come across me, I can explain them to you."

Hsiang Ling took the poems and repaired back to the Heng Wu-yuan. And without worrying her mind about anything she approached the lamp and began to con stanza after stanza. Pao-ch'ai pressed her, several consecutive times, to go to bed; but as even rest was far from her thoughts, Pao-ch'ai let her, when she perceived what trouble she was taking over her task, have her own way in the matter.

Tai-yu had one day just finished combing her hair and performing her ablutions, when she espied Hsiang Ling come with smiles playing about her lips, to return her the book and to ask her to let her have T'u's poetical compositions in exchange.

"Of all these, how many stanzas can you recollect?" Tai-yu asked, smiling.

"I've read every one of those marked with a red circle," Hsiang Ling laughingly rejoined.

"Have you caught the ideas of any of them, yes or no?" Tai-yu inquired.

"Yes, I've caught some!" Hsiang Ling smiled. "But whether rightly or not I don't know. Let me tell you."