by Cao Xueqin
‘I can see him safely back,’ said Hua Zi-fang. ‘He won’t come to any harm on horseback.’
‘It’s not a question of whether he’ll come to any harm or not,’ said Aroma. ‘I’m afraid someone might see him.’
Hua Zi-fang hurried out to hire a cab. The rest of the company, realizing that Bao-yu had no real business to be there, made no effort to detain him and rose to see him off. Aroma snatched up a handful of sweetmeats for Tealeaf. She also gave him a few coppers to buy fireworks with.
‘Mind you don’t tell anyone about this visit!’ she said. ‘You’ll be in trouble yourself if they find out about it.’
She escorted Bao-yu to the gate and saw him into the cab, pulling the blind down on him as soon as he was inside. Tealeaf and her brother followed behind it with the horse. When they arrived outside the Ning-guo mansion, Tealeaf told the cabbie to stop.
‘We’d better go in here for a bit before going home,’ he explained to Aroma’s brother. ‘Otherwise they might get suspicious.’
Hua Zi-fang acknowledged the sense of this precaution, and lifting Bao-yu from the cab, helped him up on to his horse.
‘Thank you for your trouble,’ said Bao-yu with a winning smile as he rode into the rear gate of the Ning-guo mansion.
And there, for the time being, we shall leave him.
∗
When Bao-yu left his room for the other mansion, his maids were free to do exactly as they liked and threw themselves into their amusements with great abandon. Some played at Racing Go, some at Dice and Dominoes. Everywhere a litter of the spat-out skins of melon-seeds bore silent testimony to their indulgence.
It was unfortunate that Nannie Li should have chosen such a moment to come stomping in, stick in hand, to call on Bao-yu and to inquire how he was getting on. She could see that Bao-yu was out, and the uproar created in his absence by the maids was deeply offensive to her.
‘Now that I’ve left service and don’t come in very often,’ she said with a sigh, ‘you girls have got worse than ever. The other nannies can do nothing with you. And as for Bao-yu: he’s like a six-foot lampstand that lights up others but stays dark itself; for he’s always on about how dirty other people are, but look at the mess he allows you to make of his own room! It’s a disgrace!’
Now the maids all knew that Bao-yu did not care about such matters. They also knew that Nannie Li was pensioned off now and had no more power over them. They therefore continued with their fun and took no notice of her. But Nannie Li was not to be ignored. ‘How is Bao-yu eating nowadays?’ ‘What time does he go to bed?’ She plied the maids with questions which they answered either cheekily or not at all. One of them even said, quite audibly and in her hearing, ‘Old nuisance I’
‘What’s in this covered bowl?’ Nannie Li went on. ‘It’s junket, isn’t it ? Why don’t you offer it to me ?’ She picked up the gift of koumiss and began to drink it.
‘Don’t you touch that!’ said one of the maids. ‘He was keeping that for Aroma. He’ll be angry when he gets back and finds out about that. You’d better tell him yourself you took it. We don’t want you getting us into trouble!’
Nannie Li was angry and embarrassed at one and the same time.
‘I won’t believe it of him,’ she said. ‘I won’t believe he would be so wicked as to grudge his old Nannie a bowl of milk. Why, he owes it to me. And not only a bowl of milk, either.
Much more precious things than that. Do you mean to tell me that Aroma counts for more with him than I do ? He ought to stop and ask himself how he grew up to be the big boy he is today. It’s my milk he sucked, that came from my own heart’s blood: that’s what he grew up on. And you mean to tell me that now, if I drink one little bowlful of his milk -cow’s milk – he’s going to be angry with me ? Well, I will drink it, so there 1 He can do what he likes about it. And as for that Aroma. I don’t know what sort of a wonderful creature you think she is – a little bit of a girl I picked out myself and trained with my own hand!’
Defiantly she applied the koumiss once more to her lip and downed it to the last gulp.
One of the maids, politer than the rest, attempted to placate her:
‘They shouldn’t talk to you like that, Nannie I I’m not surprised you are cross. Of course 3ao-yu isn’t going to upset himself over a little thing like that. He’s much more likely to send something nice round to you when he hears that you’ve been to see him.’
‘Don’t you try wheedling me with your airs and graces, young woman!’ said Nannie Li implacably.’ You think I don’t know about Snowpink being dismissed that time over the tea ? You needn’t worry. If he makes a fuss about it tomorrow, I shall take the blame.’
She went off in dudgeon.
Presently Bao-yu returned and sent someone off to fetch Aroma. He noticed Skybright lying motionless on the day-bed.
‘What’s the matter with her?’ he asked. ‘Is she ill? Or has she lost the game ?’
‘She was winning,’ said Ripple. ‘Then Nannie Li came along and put her off her stroke and she started losing. She got so cross that she had to go and lie down.’
‘You shouldn’t all take the old girl so seriously,’ said Bao-yu. ‘Just leave her to do as she likes and take no notice!’
Just at that moment Aroma arrived and said ‘hullo’ to everyone. She asked Bao-yu where he had eaten and what time he had got back. She also gave her mother’s regards to the other maids. When she had finished changing out of her holiday attire and taken the ‘going-out’ ornaments from her hair, Bao-yu asked someone to fetch the koumiss. There was a chorus of replies from the maids:
‘Nannie Li drank it!’
Bao-yu was about to say something when Aroma cut in with a smile:
‘So that’s what you were saving for me! It was a very kind thought; but last time I had some of that stuff I took too much, being so fond of it, and gave myself a terrible stomachache. It didn’t go away until I’d brought it all up again, and it’s put me off it ever since. It’s a good job really that she did drink it. It would only have got left around and gone bad. Now what I’d really fancy are some dried chestnuts, if you’d like to be peeling them for me while I make up your bed on the kang.’
Bao-yu was completely taken in by this little ruse, and forgetting all about the koumiss, went off for some chestnuts and sat down by the lamp to peel them. He and Aroma were now alone in the room together. Glancing up with a smile from his peeling he said,
‘What relation of yours was that girl in the red dress today?’
‘That’s my mother’s sister’s child.’
Bao-yu made appreciative noises.
‘What are you “oo-ing” and “ah-ing” about?’ said Aroma. ‘No, don’t tell me! I know how your mind works. You think she’s not good enough to wear red.’
‘No. On the contrary,’ said Bao-yu.’ If she’s not good enough to wear red, I shouldn’t think anyone is. No, I was merely thinking what a beautiful girl she is and how nice it would be if we could have her to live with us here.’
‘Because I have the misfortune to be a slave,’ Aroma said bitterly, ‘does that mean that all my relations ought to be slaves too ? I suppose you think every pretty girl you see is just waiting to be bought so that she can be a servant in your household!’
‘How touchy you are!’ said Bao-yu. ‘Having her to live with us doesn’t have to mean as a servant, does it? It could mean as a bride.’
‘Thank you, I’m sure!’ said Aroma. ‘But my folk are not quite grand enough for that!’
Bao-yu was unwilling to pursue a conversation that had become so unpleasant and went on peeling in silence.
‘Why don’t you say something?’ said Aroma. ‘I suppose I’ve upset you now. Well, never mind! Tomorrow you can go out and buy the lot of them, just to spite me!’
‘I don’t see what answer I can give when you say things like that,’ said Bao-yu. ‘I only said what a nice girl she was. I think she is exactly suited to live in a big, wealthy household lik
e ours. Much more so than some of the lumbering idiots who do live here.’
‘She may not have that much good fortune,’ said Aroma; ‘but for all that she has been very delicately brought up – the apple of my aunt’s and uncle’s eye. She was seventeen this holidays, and her trousseau is all ready for her to be married next year.’
‘Hail’
An involuntary expression of regret broke from him when he heard that the girl in red was to be married. Already Aroma’s words had made him uneasy; but worse was to follow.
‘I haven’t been able to see much of my cousins during these last few years,’ she said with a sigh, ‘and now it looks as if they will all have left home when I do go back.’
There was obviously a good deal more that lay behind this remark. Startled, he threw down the chestnut he was peeling and asked her:
‘How do you mean, “when you do go back”?’
‘Today I heard my mother discussing it with my elder brother. They want me to hold out this one year more, then next year they will see about buying me out of service.’
Bao-yu was becoming more and more alarmed.
‘Why should they want to buy you out of service?’
‘Well upon my word, that’s a funny question to ask!’ said Aroma. ‘I’m not one of your house-born slaves, my family lives elsewhere. I’m the only member of my family away from
home. There’s no future for me here. Naturally I want to rejoin them.’
‘You can’t if I won’t let you,’ said Bao-yu.
‘I never heard of such a thing!’ said Aroma:
‘Even in palace hall
Law is the lord of all.
A bond is a bond. When their term of service has ended, you have to let people go. You can’t force them to stay in service for ever and ever – especially a household like yours.’
Bao-yu thought a bit. What she said seemed reasonable enough.
‘But suppose Grandmother won’t let you?’
‘Why shouldn’t she?’ said Aroma. ‘If I were a very exceptional sort of person, it’s quite possible that she and Her Ladyship might feel upset at the idea of losing me and offer my family money to let me stay on. But as it is I’m only a very ordinary sort of maid. There are any number much better than me. I started off with Her Old Ladyship and served Miss Shi for a few years. Then I was transferred to you, and I’ve already been quite a few years with you. They would think it quite natural that my family should want to buy me out now. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they let me go as a kindness without even asking for the money. If you think they wouldn’t let me go because I’ve served you so well, that’s just ridiculous. Serving you well is no more nor less than what I’m supposed to do. It’s my job. There’s nothing remarkable about that. There’ll be plenty of other good ones to take my place when I’m gone. I’m not irreplaceable.’
Everything Aroma said pointed to the reasonableness of her going and the unreasonableness of her staying. A kind of desperateness began to seize him.
‘That may be so,’ he said, ‘but if I’m absolutely determined to keep you, I’m sure Grandmother would speak to your mother about it. If Grandmother had a talk with your mother and offered her a really large sum of money, surely she wouldn’t refuse?’
‘I’m sure my mother would never insist,’ said Aroma. ‘And I don’t only mean if you spoke to her and gave her a lot of money. Even if you didn’t speak to her about it and didn’t give her any money at all, but simply made up your minds to keep me here against my will and say nothing, I’m sure she wouldn’t dare object. But your family has never gone in for throwing its weight about like that in the past, and I don’t believe it is going to start doing so now. It would be different if I were just an object you’d taken a fancy to and they could get it for you without any danger of upsetting the owner by simply offering him ten times the price. But I’m not an object. If you were to keep me here without rhyme or reason against my will, you’d not only be doing yourselves no good, you’d be breaking up someone else’s family; and that’s something I’m quite sure Her Old Ladyship and Her Ladyship would never be willing to do.’
For some time Bao-yu reflected in silence. At last he spoke:
‘The long and short of all this is that you are definitely going, is that right ?’
‘Definitely.’
‘Who would have believed that so sweet a person could be so faithless and unfeeling ?’ he thought to himself. But all he said was:
‘If I had known all along that in the end you would go away and leave me on my own, I should never have let you work for me in the first place.’
And with those words he took himself off to bed in a thoroughly bad humour and composed himself for sleep.
Now Aroma’s mother and elder brother had spoken earlier that day about their intention of buying her out of service, but Aroma had at once stated that she would never go back home as long as she lived.
‘When you sold me in the first place,’ she said, ‘it was because you had nothing to eat and I was the only thing you had left in the house which was worth a bit of money. I couldn’t have refused to go and watched my own mother and father starve. But now, fortunately, I’ve got a good situation – one in which I’m not beaten and sworn at all day long and where I’m fed and clothed as well as the masters themselves -and the rest of you, in spite of losing Father, have managed to get in the clear again and are as well off now as you’ve ever been. If you were still hard up and wanted to buy me out so that you could raise a bit of money by reselling me, there would be some point in it. But you’re not. What do you want to buy me out for? Why don’t you just pretend that I’m dead, then you won’t need to think about buying me out any more?’
And after that she had had a little cry.
Seeing her so adamant, her mother and brother had naturally resigned themselves to her continuing in service. They did so the more readily as Aroma’s contract was, in point of fact, for life. In seeking to redeem her they would have had to rely on the customary generosity of the Jias, who, as soon as they were approached on the subject, would in all probability restore not only the person of Aroma but also the body-price offered for her, but who were certainly not under any obligation to do so.
Another consideration which predisposed them to let her stay was the well-known fact – already mentioned by Aroma -that the Jia household did not ill-treat its servants and relied more on kindness than coercion in its dealings with them. Indeed, the ‘inside maids’ – those who, like Aroma, were in personal attendance on members of the family (and this was true of all of them, no matter in whose apartment they were employed) were the crême de la crême of the household staff and were even regarded as a cut above the free daughters of poorer households outside.
Later, when Bao-yu unexpectedly arrived on the scene and they saw how it was between him and Aroma, the reason for her reluctance to leave service at once became apparent. It was a factor they had not foreseen; but now they recognized it, it was a great weight off their minds, and it was not without feelings of relief that they abandoned all further thought of attempting to purchase her freedom.
But to return to our story.
Since early youth Aroma had always been aware that Bao-yu’s character was peculiar. His naughtiness and intractability exceeded those of normal boys, and in addition he had a number of extraordinary eccentricities of his own which she could scarcely even have put a name to. Recently he had taken advantage of the comparative immunity from parental control, afforded him by the all-encompassing protection of his doting grandmother, to become even more wild and self-indulgent and even more confirmed in his aversion to serious pursuits than in previous years, and all her attempts to remonstrate with him met with the same obstinate unwillingness to hear. Today’s talk about buying her out of service turned out to be providential. By employing only a minimum of deceit, she could use it as a means of ascertaining his real feelings towards her and of humbling his spirit a little, so that he might be in a su
itably chastened frame of mind for the lecture with which she was preparing to admonish him. She judged from his going off silently to bed that he was shaken and a little unsure of himself. Evidently she had succeeded in the first part of her plan.
Aroma had not really wanted the chestnuts. She had pretended to do so because she was afraid that the matter of the koumiss might blow up into an incident like the earlier one involving Snowpink and the tea. By pretending to want chestnuts she had deflected him from pursuing it further. She now told the younger maids to take them away and eat them themselves, while she went over to rouse up Bao-yu. The face that he lifted from the pillow was wet with tears.
‘Now what do you want to go upsetting yourself like that for?’ she said with a smile. ‘If you really want me to stay, of course I won’t go.’
Bao-yu at once brightened up.
‘Tell me!’ he said. ‘Tell me what I must do to prove to you how much I want you to stay, since nothing I say myself seems any good !’
‘I know we’re both fond of each other,’ said Aroma. ‘That doesn’t need any proving. But if you want to be sure of my staying here, it mustn’t only be because of that. There are three other things I want to talk to you about. If you will promise to obey me in all of them, I shall know that you really and truly want me to stay; then nothing – not even a knife at my throat – will ever make me leave you!’
‘Tell me what they are!’ he said impetuously. ‘I promise to obey you. Dearest Aroma! Sweetest Aroma! Never mind two or three: I would promise if it were two or three hundred! All I ask is that you shouldn’t leave me. If the day ever comes when nothing remains of me but floating particles of ash – no, not ash. Ash has form and substance and perhaps consciousness too. Say smoke. A puff of thin smoke dissolved upon the wind. When that is all that remains of me, and you can no longer fuss over me because there is nothing left to fuss over, and I can no longer pay attention to you because there is nothing left to pay attention with – when that time comes, you may go or stay as you please!’
‘My dear young gentleman,’ said Aroma exasperatedly, clapping her hand over his mouth to prevent him saying any more, ‘it’s precisely this way of carrying on that I was going to talk to you about, and here you go, ranting away worse than ever!’