"Ts'ui!" exclaimed Hsiang-yun, "what about male and female! Here you are with your nonsense again."

"Well, never mind about that," added Ts'ui Lu, "But how is it that all things have Yin and Yang, and that we human beings have no Yin and no Yang?"

Hsiang-yun then lowered her face. "You low-bred thing!" she exclaimed.

"But it's better for us to proceed on our way, for the more questions you ask, the nicer they get."

"What's there in this that you can't tell me?" asked Ts'ui Lu, "But I know all about it, so there's no need for you to keep me on pins and needles."

Hsiang-yun blurted out laughing. "What do you know?" she said.

"That you, Miss, are Yang, and that I'm Yin," answered Ts'ui Lu.

Hsiang-yun produced her handkerchief, and, while screening her mouth with it, burst out into a loud fit of laughter.

"What I say must be right for you to laugh in this way," Ts'ui Lu observed.

"Perfectly right, perfectly right!" acquiesced Hsiang-yun.

"People say," continued Ts'ui Lu, "that masters are Yang, and that servant-girls are Yin; don't I even apprehend this primary principle?"

"You apprehend it thoroughly," responded Hsiang-yun laughingly. But while she was speaking, she espied, under the trellis with the cinnamon roses, something glistening like gold. "Do you see that? What is it?"

Hsiang-yun asked pointing at it.

Hearing this, Ts'ui Lu hastily went over and picked up the object. While scrutinising it, she observed with a smile, "Let us find out whether it's Yin or Yang!"

So saying, she first laid hold of the unicorn, belonging to Shih Hsiang-yun, and pa.s.sed it under inspection.

Shih Hsiang-yun longed to be shown what she had picked up, but Ts'ui Lu would not open her hand.

"It's a precious gem," she smiled. "You mayn't see it, Miss. Where can it be from? How very strange it is! I've never seen any one in here with anything of the kind."

"Give it to me and let me look at it," retorted Hsiang-yun.

Ts'ui Lu stretched out her hand with a dash. "Yes, Miss, please look at it!" she laughed.

Hsiang-yun raised her eyes. She perceived, at a glance, that it was a golden unicorn, so beautiful and so bright; and so much larger and handsomer than the one she had on. Hsiang-yun put out her arm and, taking the gem in the palm of her hand, she fell into a silent reverie and uttered not a word. She was quite absent-minded when suddenly Pao-yu appeared in the opposite direction.

"What are you two," he asked smiling, "doing here in the sun? How is it you don't go and find Hsi Jen?"

Shih Hsiang-yun precipitately concealed the unicorn. "We were just going," she replied, "so let us all go together."

Conversing, they, in a company, wended their steps into the I Hung court. Hsi Jen was leaning on the bal.u.s.trade at the bottom of the steps, her face turned to the breeze. Upon unexpectedly seeing Hsiang-yun arrive she with alacrity rushed down to greet her; and taking her hand in hers, they cheerfully canva.s.sed the events that had transpired during their separation, while they entered the room and took a seat.

"You should have come earlier," Pao-yu said. "I've got something nice and was only waiting for you."

Saying this, he searched and searched about his person. After a long interval, "Ai-ya!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "Have you perchance put that thing away?" he eagerly asked Hsi Jen.

"What thing?" inquired Hsi Jen.

"The unicorn," explained Pao-yu, "I got the other day."

"You've daily worn it about you, and how is it you ask me?" remarked Hsi Jen.

As soon as her answer fell on his ear, Pao-yu clapped his hands. "I've lost it!" he cried. "Where can I go and look for it!" There and then, he meant to go and search in person; but Shih Hsiang-yun heard his inquiries, and concluded that it must be he who had lost the gem. "When did you too," she promptly smiled, "get a unicorn?"

"I got it the other day, after ever so much trouble;" rejoined Pao-yu, "but I can't make out when I can have lost it! I've also become quite addle-headed."

"Fortunately," smiled Shih Hsiang-yun, "it's only a sort of a toy!

Still, are you so careless?" While speaking, she flung open her hand.

"Just see," she laughed, "is it this or not?"

As soon as he saw it, Pao-yu was seized with unwonted delight. But, reader, if you care to know the cause of his delight, peruse the explanation contained in the next chapter.

CHAPTER x.x.xII.

Hsi Jen and Hsiang-yun tell their secret thoughts.

Tai-yu is infatuated with the living Pao-yu.

While trying to conceal her sense of shame and injury Chin Ch'uan is driven by her impetuous feelings to seek death.

But to resume our narrative. At the sight of the unicorn, Pao-yu was filled with intense delight. So much so, that he forthwith put out his hand and made a grab for it. "Lucky enough it was you who picked it up!"

he said, with a face beaming with smiles. "But when did you find it?"

"Fortunately it was only this!" rejoined Shih Hsiang-yun laughing. "If you by and bye also lose your seal, will you likely banish it at once from your mind, and never make an effort to discover it?"

"After all," smiled Pao-yu, "the loss of a seal is an ordinary occurrence. But had I lost this, I would have deserved to die."

Hsi Jen then poured a cup of tea and handed it to Shih Hsiang-yun. "Miss Senior," she remarked smilingly, "I heard that you had occasion the other day to be highly pleased."

Shih Hsiang-yun flushed crimson. She went on drinking her tea and did not utter a single word.

"Here you are again full of shame!" Hsi Jen smiled. "But do you remember when we were living, about ten years back, in those warm rooms on the west side and you confided in me one evening, you didn't feel any shame then; and how is it you blush like this now?"

"Do you still speak about that!" exclaimed Shih Hsiang-yun laughingly.

"You and I were then great friends. But when our mother subsequently died and I went home for a while, how is it you were at once sent to be with my cousin Secundus, and that now that I've come back you don't treat me as you did once?"

"Are you yet harping on this!" retorted Hsi Jen, putting on a smile.

"Why, at first, you used to coax me with a lot of endearing terms to comb your hair and to wash your face, to do this and that for you. But now that you've become a big girl, you a.s.sume the manner of a young mistress towards me, and as you put on these airs of a young mistress, how can I ever presume to be on a familiar footing with you?"

"O-mi-to-fu," cried Shih Hsiang-yun. "What a false accusation! If I be guilty of anything of the kind, may I at once die! Just see what a broiling hot day this is, and yet as soon as I arrived I felt bound to come and look you up first. If you don't believe me, well, ask Lu Erh!

And while at home, when did I not at every instant say something about you?"

Scarcely had she concluded than Hsi Jen and Pao-yu tried to soothe her.

"We were only joking," they said, "but you've taken everything again as gospel. What! are you still so impetuous in your temperament!"