"My worthy cousins," rejoined Feng Tzu-ying smiling. "You're all far too credulous! It's a mere hoax that I made use of the other day. For so much did I fear that you would be sure to refuse if I openly asked you to a drinking bout, that I thought it fit to say what I did. But your attendance to-day, so soon after my invitation, makes it clear, little though one would have thought it, that you've all taken it as pure gospel truth."

This admission evoked laughter from the whole company. The wines were afterwards placed on the table, and they took the seats consistent with their grades. Feng Tzu-ying first and foremost called the singing-boys and offered them a drink. Next he told Yun Erh to also approach and have a cup of wine.

By the time, however, that Hsueh P'an had had his third cup, he of a sudden lost control over his feelings, and clasping Yun Erh's hand in his: "Do sing me," he smiled, "that novel ballad of your own composition; and I'll drink a whole jar full. Eh, will you?"

This appeal compelled Yun Erh to take up the guitar. She then sang:

Lovers have I two.

To set aside either I cannot bear.

When my heart longs for thee to come, It also yearns for him.

Both are in form handsome and fair.

Their beauty to describe it would be hard.

Just think, last night, when at a silent hour, we met in secret, by the trellis frame laden with roses white, One to his feelings stealthily was giving vent, When lo, the other caught us in the act, And laying hands on us; there we three stood like litigants before the bar.

And I had, verily, no word in answer for myself to give.

At the close of her song, she laughed. "Well now," she cried, "down with that whole jar!"

"Why, it isn't worth a jarful," smiled Hsueh P'an at these words.

"Favour us with some other good song!"

"Listen to what I have to suggest," Pao-yu interposed, a smile on his lips. "If you go on drinking in this reckless manner, we will easily get drunk and there will be no fun in it. I'll take the lead and swallow a large cupful and put in force a new penalty; and any one of you who doesn't comply with it, will be mulcted in ten large cupfuls, in quick succession!"

Speedily rising from the banquet, he poured the wine for the company.

Feng Tzu-ying and the rest meanwhile exclaimed with one voice: "Quite right! quite right!"

Pao-yu then lifted a large cup and drained it with one draught. "We will now," he proposed, "dilate on the four characters, 'sad, wounded, glad and joyful.' But while discoursing about young ladies, we'll have to ill.u.s.trate the four states as well. At the end of this recitation, we'll have to drink the 'door cup' over the wine, to sing an original and seasonable ballad, while over the heel taps, to make allusion to some object on the table, and devise something with some old poetical lines or ancient scrolls, from the Four Books or the Five Cla.s.sics, or with some set phrases."

Hsueh P'an gave him no time to finish. He was the first to stand up and prevent him from proceeding. "I won't join you, so don't count me; this is, in fact, done in order to play tricks upon me."

Yun Erh, however, also rose to her feet and shoved him down into his seat.

"What are you in such a funk for?" she laughed. "You're fortunate enough to be able to drink wine daily, and can't you, forsooth, even come up to me? Yet I mean to recite, by and bye, my own share. If you say what's right, well and good; if you don't, you will simply have to swallow several cups of wine as a forfeit, and is it likely you'll die from drunkenness? Are you, pray, going now to disregard this rule and to drink, instead, ten large cups; besides going down to pour the wine?"

One and all clapped in applause. "Well said!" they shouted.

After this, Hueh P'an had no way out of it and felt compelled to resume his seat.

They then heard Pao-yu recite:

A girl is sad, When her spring-time of life is far advanced and she still occupies a vacant inner-room.

A girl feels wounded in her heart, When she regrets having allowed her better half to go abroad and win a marquisdom.

A girl is glad, When looking in the mirror, at the time of her morning toilette, she finds her colour fair.

A girl is joyful, What time she sits on the frame of a gallows-swing, clad in a thin spring gown.

Having listened to him, "Capital!" one and all cried out in a chorus.

Hsueh P'an alone raised his face, shook his head and remarked: "It isn't good, he must be fined."

"Why should he be fined?" demurred the party.

"Because," retorted Hsueh P'an, "what he says is entirely unintelligible to me. So how can he not be fined?"

Yun Erh gave him a pinch.--"Just you quietly think of yours," she laughed; "for if by and bye you are not ready you'll also have to bear a fine."

In due course Pao-yu took up the guitar. He was heard to sing:

"When mutual thoughts arise, tears, blood-stained, endless drop, like lentiles sown broadcast.

In spring, in ceaseless bloom nourish willows and flowers around the painted tower.

Inside the gauze-lattice peaceful sleep flies, when, after dark, come wind and rain.

Both new-born sorrows and long-standing griefs cannot from memory ever die!

E'en jade-fine rice, and gold-like drinks they make hard to go down; they choke the throat.

The la.s.s has not the heart to desist gazing in the gla.s.s at her wan face.

Nothing can from that knitted brow of hers those frowns dispel; For hard she finds it patient to abide till the clepsydra will have run its course.

Alas! how fitly like the faint outline of a green hill which nought can screen; Or like a green-tinged stream, which ever ceaseless floweth onward far and wide!"

When the song drew to an end, his companions with one voice cried out: "Excellent!"

Hsueh P'an was the only one to find fault. "There's no metre in them,"

he said.

Pao-yu quaffed the "opening cup," then seizing a pear, he added:

"While the rain strikes the pear-blossom I firmly close the door,"

and thus accomplished the requirements of the rule.

Feng Tzu-ying's turn came next.

"A maid is glad."

he commenced:

When at her first confinement she gives birth to twins, both sons.

A maid is joyful, When on the sly she to the garden creeps crickets to catch.

A maid is sad, When her husband some sickness gets and lies in a bad state.

A maiden is wounded at heart, When a fierce wind blows down the tower, where she makes her toilette.

Concluding this recitation, he raised the cup and sang:

"Thou art what one could aptly call a man.

But thou'rt endowed with somewhat too much heart!

How queer thou art, cross-grained and impish shrewd!

A spirit too, thou couldst not be more shrewd.

If all I say thou dost not think is true, In secret just a minute search pursue; For then thou'lt know if I love thee or not."

His song over, he drank the "opening cup" and then observed:

"The c.o.c.k crows when the moon's rays shine upon the thatched inn."

After his observance of the rule followed Yun Erh's turn.