Pao-yu forthwith sallied out; with no other attendants however than She Yueh, Ch'iu Wen and several youthful maids.

"How is it," his grandmother Chia felt obliged so ask, "that I don't see anything of Hsi Jen? Is she too now putting on high and mighty airs that she only sends these juvenile girls here?"

Madame w.a.n.g rose to her feet with all haste. "Her mother," she explained, "died the other day; so being in deep mourning, she couldn't very well present herself."

Dowager lady Chia nodded her head a.s.sentingly. "When one is in service,"

she smilingly remarked, "there should be no question of mourning or no mourning. Is it likely that, if she were still in my pay, she wouldn't at present be here? All these practices have quite become precedents!"

Lady Feng crossed over to her. "Had she even not been in mourning to-night," she chimed in with a laugh, "she would have had to be in the garden and keep an eye over that pile of lanterns, candles, and fireworks, as they're most dangerous things. For as soon as any theatricals are set on foot in here, who doesn't surrept.i.tiously sneak out from the garden to have a look? But as far as she goes, she's diligent, and careful of every place. Moreover, when the company disperses and brother Pao-yu retires to sleep, everything will be in perfect readiness. But, had she also come, that bevy of servants wouldn't again have cared a straw for anything; and on his return, after the party, the bedding would have been cold, the tea-water wouldn't have been ready, and he would have had to put up with every sort of discomfort. That's why I told her that there was no need for her to come. But should you, dear senior, wish her here, I'll send for her straightway and have done."

Old lady Chia lent an ear to her arguments. "What you say," she promptly put in, "is perfectly right. You've made better arrangements than I could. Quick, don't send for her! But when did her mother die? How is it I know nothing about it?"

"Some time ago," lady Feng laughed, "Hsi Jen came in person and told you, worthy ancestor, and how is it you've forgotten it?"

"Yes," resumed dowager lady Chia smiling, after some reflection, "I remember now. My memory is really not of the best."

At this, everybody gave way to laughter. "How could your venerable ladyship," they said, "recollect so many matters?"

Dowager lady Chia thereupon heaved a sigh. "How I remember," she added, "the way she served me ever since her youth up; and how she waited upon Yun Erh also; how at last she was given to that prince of devils, and how she has slaved away with that imp for the last few years. She is, besides, not a slave-girl, born or bred in the place. Nor has she ever received any great benefits from our hands. When her mother died, I meant to have given her several taels for her burial; but it quite slipped from my mind."

"The other day," lady Feng remarked, "Madame w.a.n.g presented her with forty taels; so that was all right."

At these words, old lady Chia nodded a.s.sent. "Yes, never mind about that," she observed. "Yuan Yang's mother also died, as it happens, the other day; but taking into consideration that both her parents lived in the south, I didn't let her return home to observe a period of mourning.

But as both these girls are now in mourning, why not allow them to live together? They'll thus be able to keep each other company. Take a few fruits, eatables, and other such things," continuing she bade a matron, "and give them to those two girls to eat."

"Would she likely wait until now?" Hu Po laughingly interposed. "Why, she joined (Hsi Jen) long ago."

In the course of this conversation, the various inmates partook of some more wine, and watched the theatricals.

But we will now turn our attention to Pao-yu. He made his way straight into the garden. The matrons saw well enough that he was returning to his rooms, but instead of following him in, they ensconced themselves near the fire in the tea-room situated by the garden-gate, and made the best of the time by drinking and playing cards with the girls in charge of the tea. Pao-yu entered the court. The lanterns burnt brightly, yet not a human voice was audible. "Have they all, forsooth, gone to sleep?"

She Yueh ventured. "Let's walk in gently, and give them a fright!"

Presently, they stepped, on tiptoe, past the mirrored part.i.tion-wall. At a glance, they discerned Hsi Jen lying on the stove-couch, face to face with some other girl. On the opposite side sat two or three old nurses nodding, half asleep. Pao-yu conjectured that both the girls were plunged in sleep, and was just about to enter, when of a sudden some one was heard to heave a sigh and to say: "How evident it is that worldly matters are very uncertain! Here you lived all alone in here, while your father and mother tarried abroad, and roamed year after year from east to west, without any fixed place of abode. I ever thought that you wouldn't have been able to be with them at their last moments; but, as it happened, (your mother) died in this place this year, and you could, after all, stand by her to the end."

"Quite so!" rejoined Hsi Jen. "Even I little expected to be able to see any of my parents' funeral. When I broke the news to our Madame w.a.n.g, she also gave me forty taels. This was really a kind attention on her part. I hadn't nevertheless presumed to indulge in any vain hopes."

Pao-yu overheard what was said. Hastily twisting himself round, he remarked in a low voice, addressing himself to She Yueh and her companions: "Who would have fancied her also in here? But were I to enter, she'll bolt away in another tantrum! Better then that we should retrace our steps, and let them quietly have a chat together, eh? Hsi Jen was alone, and down in the mouth, so it's a fortunate thing that she joined her in such good time."

As he spoke, they once more walked out of the court with gentle tread.

Pao-yu went to the back of the rockery, and stopping short, he raised his clothes. She Yueh and Ch'iu Wen stood still, and turned their faces away. "Stoop," they smiled, "and then loosen your clothes! Be careful that the wind doesn't blow on your stomach!"

The two young maids, who followed behind, surmised that he was bent upon satisfying a natural want, and they hurried ahead to the tea-room to prepare the water.

Just, however, as Pao-yu was crossing over, two married women came in sight, advancing from the opposite direction. "Who's there?" they inquired.

"Pao-yu is here," Ch'ing Wen answered. "But mind, if you bawl and shout like that, you'll give him a start."

The women promptly laughed. "We had no idea," they said, "that we were coming, at a great festive time like this, to bring trouble upon ourselves! What a lot of hard work must day after day fall to your share, young ladies."

Speaking the while, they drew near. She Yueh and her friends then asked them what they were holding in their hands.

"We're taking over," they replied, "some things to the two girls: Miss Chin and Miss Hua."

"They're still singing the 'Eight Worthies' outside," She Yueh went on to observe laughingly, "and how is it you're running again to Miss Chin's and Miss Hua's before the 'Trouble-first moon-box' has been gone through?"

"Take the lid off," Pao-yu cried, "and let me see what there's inside."

Ch'in Wen and She Yueh at once approached and uncovered the boxes. The two women promptly stooped, which enabled Pao-yu to see that the contents of the two boxes consisted alike of some of the finest fruits and tea-cakes, which had figured at the banquet, and, nodding his head, he walked off, while She Yueh and her friend speedily threw the lids down anyhow, and followed in his track.

"Those two dames are pleasant enough," Pao-yu smiled, "and they know how to speak decently; but it's they who get quite worn out every day, and they contrariwise say that you've got ample to do daily. Now, doesn't this amount to bragging and boasting?"

"Those two women," She Yueh chimed in, "are not bad. But such of them as don't know what good manners mean are ignorant to a degree of all propriety."

"You, who know what's what," Pao-yu added, "should make allowances for that kind of rustic people. You should pity them; that's all."

Speaking, he made his exit out of the garden gate. The matrons had, though engaged in drinking and gambling, kept incessantly stepping out of doors to furtively keep an eye on his movements, so that the moment they perceived Pao-yu appear, they followed him in a body. On their arrival in the covered pa.s.sage of the reception-hall, they espied two young waiting-maids; the one with a small basin in her hand; the other with a towel thrown over her arm. They also held a bowl and small kettle, and had been waiting in that pa.s.sage for ever so long.

Ch'iu Wen was the first to hastily stretch out her hand and test the water. "The older you grow," she cried, "the denser you get! How could one ever use this icy-cold water?"

"Miss, look at the weather!" the young maid replied. "I was afraid the water would get cold. It was really scalding; is it cold now?"

While she made this rejoinder, an old matron was, by a strange coincidence, seen coming along, carrying a jug of hot water. "Dear dame," shouted the young maid, "come over and pour some for me in here!"

"My dear girl," the matron responded, "this is for our old mistress to brew tea with. I'll tell you what; you'd better go and fetch some yourself. Are you perchance afraid lest your feet might grow bigger by walking?"

"I don't care whose it is," Ch'iu Wen put in. "If you don't give me any, I shall certainly empty our old lady's teapot and wash my hands."

The old matron turned her head; and, catching sight of Ch'iu Wen, she there and then raised the jug and poured some of the water.

"That will do!" exclaimed Ch'iu Wen. "With all your years, don't you yet know what's what? Who isn't aware that it's for our old mistress? But would one presume to ask for what shouldn't be asked for?"

"My eyes are so dim," the matron rejoined with a smile, "that I didn't recognise this young lady."

When Pao-yu had washed his hands, the young maid took the small jug and filled the bowl; and, as she held it in her hand, Pao-yu rinsed his mouth. But Ch'iu Wen and She Yueh availed themselves likewise of the warm water to have a wash; after which, they followed Pao-yu in.

Pao-yu at once asked for a kettle of warm wine, and, starting from sister-in-law Li, he began to replenish their cups. (Sister-in-law Li and his aunt Hsueh) pressed him, however, with smiling faces, to take a seat; but his grandmother Chia remonstrated. "He's only a youngster,"

she said, "so let him pour the wine! We must all drain this cup!"

With these words, she quaffed her own cup, leaving no heel-taps.

Mesdames Hsing and w.a.n.g also lost no time in emptying theirs; so Mrs.

Hsueh and 'sister-in-law' Li had no alternative but to drain their share.

"Fill the cups too of your female cousins, senior or junior," dowager lady Chia went on to tell Pao-yu. "And you mayn't pour the wine anyhow.

Each of you must swallow every drop of your drinks."

Pao-yu upon hearing her wishes, set to work, while signifying his a.s.sent, to replenish the cups of the several young ladies in their proper gradation. But when he got to Tai-yu, she raised the cup, for she would not drink any wine herself, and applied it to Pao-yu's lips.

Pao-yu drained the contents with one breath; upon which Tai-yu gave him a smile, and said to him: "I am much obliged to you."

Pao-yu next poured a cup for her. But lady Feng immediately laughed and expostulated. "Pao-yu!" she cried, "you mustn't take any cold wine.