by Xueqin Cao
CHAPTER XXXII.
Hsi Jen and Hsiang-yuen tell their secret thoughts. Tai-yue is infatuated with the living Pao-yue.
While trying to conceal her sense of shame and injury Chin Ch'uan isdriven by her impetuous feelings to seek death.
But to resume our narrative. At the sight of the unicorn, Pao-yue wasfilled with intense delight. So much so, that he forthwith put out hishand 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-yuen laughing. "Ifyou by and bye also lose your seal, will you likely banish it at oncefrom your mind, and never make an effort to discover it?"
"After all," smiled Pao-yue, "the loss of a seal is an ordinaryoccurrence. 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-yuen. "MissSenior," she remarked smilingly, "I heard that you had occasion theother day to be highly pleased."
Shih Hsiang-yuen flushed crimson. She went on drinking her tea and didnot utter a single word.
"Here you are again full of shame!" Hsi Jen smiled. "But do you rememberwhen we were living, about ten years back, in those warm rooms on thewest side and you confided in me one evening, you didn't feel any shamethen; and how is it you blush like this now?"
"Do you still speak about that!" exclaimed Shih Hsiang-yuen laughingly."You and I were then great friends. But when our mother subsequentlydied and I went home for a while, how is it you were at once sent to bewith my cousin Secundus, and that now that I've come back you don'ttreat 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 tocomb your hair and to wash your face, to do this and that for you. Butnow that you've become a big girl, you assume the manner of a youngmistress 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-yuen. "What a false accusation! If I beguilty of anything of the kind, may I at once die! Just see what abroiling hot day this is, and yet as soon as I arrived I felt bound tocome and look you up first. If you don't believe me, well, ask Lue Erh!And while at home, when did I not at every instant say something aboutyou?"
Scarcely had she concluded than Hsi Jen and Pao-yue tried to soothe her."We were only joking," they said, "but you've taken everything again asgospel. What! are you still so impetuous in your temperament!"
"You don't say," argued Shih Hsiang-yuen, "that your words are hardthings to swallow, but contrariwise, call people's temperamentsimpetuous!"
As she spoke, she unfolded her handkerchief and, producing a ring, shegave it to Hsi Jen.
Hsi Jen did not know how to thank her enough. "When;" she consequentlysmiled, "you sent those to your cousin the other day, I got one also;and here you yourself bring me another to-day! It's clear enoughtherefore that you haven't forgotten me. This alone has been quiteenough to test you. As for the ring itself, what is its worth? but it'sa token of the sincerity of your heart!"
"Who gave it to you?" inquired Shih Hsiang-yuen.
"Miss Pao let me have it." replied Hsi Jen.
"I was under the impression," remarked Hsiang-yuen with a sigh, "that itwas a present from cousin Lin. But is it really cousin Pao, that gave itto you! When I was at home, I day after day found myself reflecting thatamong all these cousins of mine, there wasn't one able to compare withcousin Pao, so excellent is she. How I do regret that we are not theoffspring of one mother! For could I boast of such a sister of the sameflesh and blood as myself, it wouldn't matter though I had lost bothfather and mother!"
While indulging in these regrets, her eyes got quite red.
"Never mind! never mind!" interposed Pao-yue. "Why need you speak ofthese things!"
"If I do allude to this," answered Shih Hsiang-yuen, "what does itmatter? I know that weak point of yours. You're in fear and tremblinglest your cousin Lin should come to hear what I say, and get angry withme again for eulogising cousin Pao! Now isn't it this, eh!"
"Ch'ih!" laughed Hsi Jen, who was standing by her. "Miss Yuen," she said,"now that you've grown up to be a big girl you've become more than everopenhearted and outspoken."
"When I contend;" smiled Pao-yue, "that it is difficult to say a word toany one of you I'm indeed perfectly correct!"
"My dear cousin," observed Shih Hsiang-yuen laughingly, "don't go on inthat strain! You'll provoke me to displeasure. When you are with me allyou are good for is to talk and talk away; but were you to catch aglimpse of cousin Lin, you would once more be quite at a loss to knowwhat best to do!"
"Now, enough of your jokes!" urged Hsi Jen. "I have a favour to crave ofyou."
"What is it?" vehemently inquired Shih Hsiang-yuen.
"I've got a pair of shoes," answered Hsi Jen, "for which I've stuck thepadding together; but I'm not feeling up to the mark these last fewdays, so I haven't been able to work at them. If you have any leisure,do finish them for me."
"This is indeed strange!" exclaimed Shih Hsiang-yuen. "Putting aside allthe skilful workers engaged in your household, you have besides somepeople for doing needlework and others for tailoring and cutting; andhow is it you appeal to me to take your shoes in hand? Were you to askany one of those men to execute your work, who could very well refuse todo it?"
"Here you are in another stupid mood!" laughed Hsi Jen. "Can it be thatyou don't know that our sewing in these quarters mayn't be done by theseneedleworkers."
At this reply, it at once dawned upon Shih Hsiang-yuen that the shoesmust be intended for Pao-yue. "Since that be the case," she inconsequence smiled; "I'll work them for you. There's however one thing.I'll readily attend to any of yours, but I will have nothing to do withany for other people."
"There you are again!" laughed Hsi Jen. "Who am I to venture to troubleyou to make shoes for me? I'll tell you plainly, however, that they arenot mine. But no matter whose they are, it is anyhow I who'll be therecipient of your favour; that is sufficient."
"To speak the truth," rejoined Shih Hsiang-yuen, "you've put me to thetrouble of working, I don't know how many things for you. The reason whyI refuse on this occasion should be quite evident to you!"
"I can't nevertheless make it out!" answered Hsi Jen.
"I heard the other day," continued Shih Hsiang-yuen, a sardonic smile onher lip, "that while the fan-case, I had worked, was being held andcompared with that of some one else, it too was slashed away in a fit ofhigh dudgeon. This reached my ears long ago, and do you still try todupe me by asking me again now to make something more for you? Have Ireally become a slave to you people?
"As to what occurred the other day," hastily explained Pao-yue smiling,"I positively had no idea that that thing was your handiwork."
"He never knew that you'd done it," Hsi Jen also laughed. "I deceivedhim by telling him that there had been of late some capital hands atneedlework outside, who could execute any embroidery with surpassingbeauty, and that I had asked them to bring a fan-case so as to try themand to see whether they could actually work well or not. He at oncebelieved what I said. But as he produced the case and gave it to thisone and that one to look at, he somehow or other, I don't know how,managed again to put some one's back up, and she cut it into two. On hisreturn, however, he bade me hurry the men to make another; and when atlength I explained to him that it had been worked by you, he felt, Ican't tell you, what keen regret!"
"This is getting stranger and stranger!" said Shih Hsiang-yuen. "Itwasn't worth the while for Miss Lin to lose her temper about it. But asshe plies the scissors so admirably, why, you might as well tell her tofinish the shoes for you."
"She couldn't," replied Hsi Jen, "for besides other things our venerablelady is still in fear and trembling lest she should tire herself in anyway. The doctor likewise says that she will continue to enjoy goodhealth, so long as she is carefully l
ooked after; so who would wish toask her to take them in hand? Last year she managed to just get througha scented bag, after a whole year's work. But here we've already reachedthe middle of the present year, and she hasn't yet taken up any needleor thread!"
In the course of their conversation, a servant came and announced 'thatthe gentleman who lived in the Hsing Lung Street had come.' "Ourmaster," he added, "bids you, Mr. Secundus, come out and greet him."
As soon as Pao-yue heard this announcement, he knew that Chia Yue-ts'unmust have arrived. But he felt very unhappy at heart. Hsi Jen hurried togo and bring his clothes. Pao-yue, meanwhile, put on his boots, but as hedid so, he gave way to resentment. "Why there's father," hesoliloquised, "to sit with him; that should be enough; and must he, onevery visit he pays, insist upon seeing me!"
"It is, of course, because you have such a knack for receiving andentertaining visitors that Mr. Chia Cheng will have you go out,"laughingly interposed Shih Hsiang-yuen from one side, as she waved herfan.
"Is it father's doing?" Pao-yue rejoined. "Why, it's he himself who asksthat I should be sent for to see him."
"'When a host is courteous, visitors come often,'" smiled Hsiang-yuen,"so it's surely because you possess certain qualities, which have wonhis regard, that he insists upon seeing you."
"But I am not what one would call courteous," demurred Pao-yue. "I am, ofall coarse people, the coarsest. Besides, I do not choose to have anyrelations with such people as himself."
"Here's again that unchangeable temperament of yours!" laughedHsiang-yuen. "But you're a big fellow now, and you should at least, ifyou be loth to study and go and pass your examinations for a provincialgraduate or a metropolitan graduate, have frequent intercourse withofficers and ministers of state and discuss those varied attainments,which one acquires in an official career, so that you also may be ablein time to have some idea about matters in general; and that when by andbye you've made friends, they may not see you spending the whole daylong in doing nothing than loafing in our midst, up to every imaginablemischief."
"Miss," exclaimed Pao-yue, after this harangue, "pray go and sit in someother girl's room, for mind one like myself may contaminate a person whoknows so much of attainments and experience as you do."
"Miss," ventured Hsi Jen, "drop this at once! Last time Miss Pao tootendered him this advice, but without troubling himself as to whetherpeople would feel uneasy or not, he simply came out with an ejaculationof 'hai,' and rushed out of the place. Miss Pao hadn't meanwhileconcluded her say, so when she saw him fly, she got so full of shamethat, flushing scarlet, she could neither open her lips, nor hold herown counsel. But lucky for him it was only Miss Pao. Had it been MissLin, there's no saying what row there may not have been again, and whattears may not have been shed! Yet the very mention of all she had totell him is enough to make people look up to Miss Pao with respect. Butafter a time, she also betook herself away. I then felt very unhappy asI imagined that she was angry; but contrary to all my expectations, shewas by and bye just the same as ever. She is, in very truth,long-suffering and indulgent! This other party contrariwise became quitedistant to her, little though one would have thought it of him; and asMiss Pao perceived that he had lost his temper, and didn't choose toheed her, she subsequently made I don't know how many apologies to him."
"Did Miss Lin ever talk such trash!" exclaimed Pao-yue. "Had she evertalked such stuff and nonsense, I would have long ago become chilledtowards her."
"What you say is all trash!" Hsi Jen and Hsiang-yuen remarked with onevoice, while they shook their heads to and fro and smiled.
Lin Tai-yue, the fact is, was well aware that now that Shih Hsiang-yuenwas staying in the mansion, Pao-yue too was certain to hasten to come andtell her all about the unicorn he had got, so she thought to herself:"In the foreign traditions and wild stories, introduced here of late byPao-yue, literary persons and pretty girls are, for the most part,brought together in marriage, through the agency of some trifling butingenious nick-nack. These people either have miniature ducks, orphoenixes, jade necklets or gold pendants, fine handkerchiefs or elegantsashes; and they have, through the instrumentality of such trivialobjects, invariably succeeded in accomplishing the wishes theyentertained throughout their lives." When she recently discovered, bysome unforeseen way, that Pao-yue had likewise a unicorn she began toapprehend lest he should make this circumstance a pretext to create anestrangement with her, and indulge with Shih Hsiang-yuen as well invarious free and easy flirtations and fine doings. She therefore quietlycrossed over to watch her opportunity and take such action as wouldenable her to get an insight into his and her sentiments. Contrary,however, to all her calculations, no sooner did she reach herdestination, than she overheard Shih Hsiang-yuen dilate on the topic ofexperience, and Pao-yue go on to observe: "Cousin Lin has never indulgedin such stuff and nonsense. Had she ever uttered any such trash, I wouldhave become chilled even towards her!" This language suddenly produced,in Lin Tai-yue's mind, both surprise as well as delight; sadness as wellas regret. Delight, at having indeed been so correct in her perceptionthat he whom she had ever considered in the light of a true friend hadactually turned out to be a true friend. Surprise, "because," she saidto herself: "he has, in the presence of so many witnesses, displayedsuch partiality as to speak in my praise, and has shown such affectionand friendliness for me as to make no attempt whatever to shirksuspicion." Regret, "for since," (she pondered), "you are my intimatefriend, you could certainly well look upon me too as your intimatefriend; and if you and I be real friends, why need there be any moretalk about gold and jade? But since there be that question of gold andjade, you and I should have such things in our possession. Yet, whyshould this Pao-ch'ai step in again between us?" Sad, "because," (shereflected), "my father and mother departed life at an early period; andbecause I have, in spite of the secret engraven on my heart andimprinted on my bones, not a soul to act as a mentor to me. Besides, oflate, I continuously feel confusion creep over my mind, so my diseasemust already have gradually developed itself. The doctors further statethat my breath is weak and my blood poor, and that they dread lestconsumption should declare itself, so despite that sincere friendship Ifoster for you, I cannot, I fear, last for very long. You are, I admit,a true friend to me, but what can you do for my unfortunate destiny!"
Upon reaching this point in her reflections, she could not control hertears, and they rolled freely down her cheeks. So much so, that whenabout to enter and meet her cousins, she experienced such utter lack ofzest, that, while drying her tears she turned round, and wended hersteps back in the direction of her apartments.
Pao-yue, meanwhile, had hurriedly got into his new costume. Upon comingout of doors, he caught sight of Lin Tai-yue, walking quietly ahead ofhim engaged, to all appearances, in wiping tears from her eyes. Withrapid stride, he overtook her.
"Cousin Lin," he smiled, "where are you off to? How is it that you'recrying again? Who has once more hurt your feelings?"
Lin Tai-yue turned her head round to look; and seeing that it was Pao-yue,she at once forced a smile. "Why should I be crying," she replied, "whenthere is no reason to do so?"
"Look here!" observed Pao-yue smilingly. "The tears in your eyes are notdry yet and do you still tell me a fib?"
Saying this, he could not check an impulse to raise his arm and wipe hereyes, but Lin Tai-yue speedily withdrew several steps backwards. "Are youagain bent," she said, "upon compassing your own death! Then why do youknock your hands and kick your feet about in this wise?"
"While intent upon speaking, I forgot," smiled Pao-yue, "all aboutpropriety and gesticulated, yet quite inadvertently. But what care Iwhether I die or live!"
"To die would, after all" added Lin Tai-yue, "be for you of no matter;but you'll leave behind some gold or other, and a unicorn too or other;and what would they do?"
This insinuation was enough to plunge Pao-yue into a fresh fit ofexasperation. Hastening up to her: "Do you still give vent to suchlanguage?" he asked. "Why, it's really tantamount to
invokingimprecations on me! What, are you yet angry with me!"
This question recalled to Lin Tai-yue's mind the incidents of a few daysback, and a pang of remorse immediately gnawed her heart for having beenagain so indiscreet in her speech. "Now don't you distress your mind!"she observed hastily, smiling. "I verily said what I shouldn't! Yet whatis there in this to make your veins protrude, and to so provoke you asto bedew your whole face with perspiration?"
While reasoning with him, she felt unable to repress herself, and,approaching him, she extended her hand, and wiped the perspiration fromhis face.
Pao-yue gazed intently at her for a long time. "Do set your mind atease!" he at length observed.
At this remark, Lin Tai-yue felt quite nervous. "What's there to make mymind uneasy?" she asked after a protracted interval. "I can't make outwhat you're driving at; tell me what's this about making me easy oruneasy?"
Pao-yue heaved a sigh. "Don't you truly fathom the depth of my words?" heinquired. "Why, do you mean to say that I've throughout made such pooruse of my love for you as not to be able to even divine your feelings?Well, if so, it's no wonder that you daily lose your temper on myaccount!"
"I actually don't understand what you mean by easy or uneasy," LinTai-yue replied.
"My dear girl," urged Pao-yue, nodding and sighing. "Don't be making afool of me! For if you can't make out these words, not only have I everuselessly lavished affection upon you, but the regard, with which youhave always treated me, has likewise been entirely of no avail! And it'smostly because you won't set your mind at ease that your whole frame isriddled with disease. Had you taken things easier a bit, this ailment ofyours too wouldn't have grown worse from day to day!"
These words made Lin Tai-yue feel as if she had been blasted by thunder,or struck by lightning. But after carefully weighing them withinherself, they seemed to her far more fervent than any that might haveemanated from the depths of her own heart, and thousands of sentiments,in fact, thronged together in her mind; but though she had every wish toframe them into language, she found it a hard task to pronounce so muchas half a word. All she therefore did was to gaze at him with vacantstare.
Pao-yue fostered innumerable thoughts within himself, but unable in amoment to resolve from which particular one to begin, he too absentlylooked at Tai-yue. Thus it was that the two cousins remained for a longtime under the spell of a deep reverie.
An ejaculation of "Hai!" was the only sound that issued from LinTai-yue's lips; and while tears streamed suddenly from her eyes, sheturned herself round and started on her way homeward.
Pao-yue jumped forward, with alacrity, and dragged her back. "My dearcousin," he pleaded, "do stop a bit! Let me tell you just one thing;after that, you may go."
"What can you have to tell me?" exclaimed Lin Tai-yue, who while wipingher tears, extricated her hand from his grasp. "I know." she cried, "allyou have to say."
As she spoke, she went away, without even turning her head to cast aglance behind her.
As Pao-yue gazed at her receding figure, he fell into abstraction.
He had, in fact, quitted his apartments a few moments back in suchprecipitate hurry that he had omitted to take a fan with him: and HsiJen, fearing lest he might suffer from the heat, promptly seized one andran to find him and give it to him. But upon casually raising her head,she espied Lin Tai-yue standing with him. After a time, Tai-yue walkedaway; and as he still remained where he was without budging, sheapproached him.
"You left," she said, "without even taking a fan with you. Happily Inoticed it, and so hurried to catch you up and bring it to you."
But Pao-yue was so lost in thought that as soon as he caught Hsi Jen'svoice, he made a dash and clasped her in his embrace, without so much astrying to make sure who she was.
"My dear cousin," he cried, "I couldn't hitherto muster enough courageto disclose the secrets of my heart; but on this occasion I shall makebold and give utterance to them. For you I'm quite ready to even pay thepenalty of death. I have too for your sake brought ailments upon mywhole frame. It's in here! But I haven't ventured to breathe it to anyone. My only alternative has been to bear it patiently, in the hope thatwhen you got all right, I might then perchance also recover. But whetherI sleep, or whether I dream, I never, never forget you."
These declarations quite dumfoundered Hsi Jen. She gave way to incessantapprehensions. All she could do was to shout out: "Oh spirits, ohheaven, oh Buddha, he's compassing my death!" Then pushing him away fromher, "what is it you're saying?" she asked. "May it be that you arepossessed by some evil spirit! Don't you quick get yourself off?"
This brought Pao-yue to his senses at once. He then became aware that itwas Hsi Jen, and that she had come to bring him a fan. Pao-yue wasoverpowered with shame; his whole face was suffused with scarlet; and,snatching the fan out of her hands, he bolted away with rapid stride.
When Hsi Jen meanwhile saw Pao-yue effect his escape, "Lin Tai-yue," shepondered, "must surely be at the bottom of all he said just now. Butfrom what one can see, it will be difficult, in the future, to obviatethe occurrence of some unpleasant mishap. It's sufficient to fill onewith fear and trembling!"
At this point in her cogitations, she involuntarily melted into tears,so agitated was she; while she secretly exercised her mind how best toact so as to prevent this dreadful calamity.
But while she was lost in this maze of surmises and doubts, Pao-ch'aiunexpectedly appeared from the off side. "What!" she smilinglyexclaimed, "are you dreaming away in a hot broiling sun like this?"
Hsi Jen, at this question, hastily returned her smiles. "Those twobirds," she answered, "were having a fight, and such fun was it that Istopped to watch them."
"Where is cousin Pao off to now in such a hurry, got up in that fineattire?" asked Pao-ch'ai, "I just caught sight of him, as he went by. Imeant to have called out and stopped him, but as he, of late, talksgreater rubbish than ever, I didn't challenge him, but let him go past."
"Our master," rejoined Hsi Jen, "sent for him to go out."
"Ai-yah!" hastily exclaimed Pao-ch'ai, as soon as this remark reachedher ears. "What does he want him for, on a scalding day like this? Mighthe not have thought of something and got so angry about it as to sendfor him to give him a lecture!"
"If it isn't this," added Hsi Jen laughing, "some visitor must, Ipresume, have come and he wishes him to meet him."
"With weather like this," smiled Pao-ch'ai, "even visitors afford noamusement! Why don't they, while this fiery temperature lasts, stay athome, where it's much cooler, instead of gadding about all over theplace?"
"Could you tell them so?" smiled Hsi Jen.
"What was that girl Hsiang-yuen doing in your quarters?" Pao-ch'ai thenasked.
"She only came to chat with us on irrelevant matters." Hsi Jen repliedsmiling. "But did you see the pair of shoes I was pasting the other day?Well, I meant to ask her to-morrow to finish them for me."
Pao-chai, at these words, turned her head round, first on this side, andthen on the other. Seeing that there was no one coming or going: "How isit," she smiled, "that you, who have so much gumption, don't ever showany respect for people's feelings? I've been of late keeping an eye onMiss Yuen's manner, and, from what I can glean from the various rumoursafloat, she can't be, in the slightest degree, her own mistress at home!In that family of theirs, so little can they stand the burden of anyheavy expenses that they don't employ any needlework-people, andordinary everyday things are mostly attended to by their ladiesthemselves. (If not), why is it that every time she has come to us on avisit, and she and I have had a chat, she at once broached the subjectof their being in great difficulties at home, the moment she perceivedthat there was no one present? Yet, whenever I went on to ask her a fewquestions about their usual way of living, her very eyes grew red, whileshe made some indistinct reply; but as for speaking out, she wouldn't.But when I consider the circumstances in which she is placed, for shehas certainly had the misfortune of being left, from her very infancy,without father and moth
er, the very sight of her is too much for me, andmy heart begins to bleed within me."
"Quite so! Quite so!" observed Hsi Jen, clapping her hands, afterlistening to her throughout. "It isn't strange then if she let me havethe ten butterfly knots I asked her to tie for me only after ever somany days, and if she said that they were coarsely done, but that Ishould make the best of them and use them elsewhere, and that if Iwanted any nice ones, I should wait until by and bye when she came tostay here, when she would work some neatly for me. What you've told menow reminds me that, as she had found it difficult to find an excusewhen we appealed to her, she must have had to slave away, who knows howmuch, till the third watch in the middle of the night. What a stupidthing I was! Had I known this sooner, I would never have told her a wordabout it."
"Last time;" continued Pao-ch'ai, "she told me that when she was at homeshe had ample to do, that she kept busy as late as the third watch, andthat, if she did the slightest stitch of work for any other people, thevarious ladies, belonging to her family, did not like it."
"But as it happens," explained Hsi Jen, "that mulish-minded andperverse-tempered young master of ours won't allow the least bit ofneedlework, no matter whether small or large, to be made by thosepersons employed to do sewing in the household. And as for me, I have notime to turn my attention to all these things."
"Why mind him?" laughed Pao-ch'ai. "Simply ask some one to do the workand finish."
"How could one bamboozle him?" resumed Hsi Jen. "Why, he'll promptlyfind out everything. Such a thing can't even be suggested. The onlything I can do is to quietly slave away, that's all."
"You shouldn't work so hard," smiled Pao-ch'ai. "What do you say to mydoing a few things for you?"
"Are you in real earnest!" ventured Hsi Jen smiling. "Well, in thatcase, it is indeed a piece of good fortune for me! I'll come over myselfin the evening."
But before she could conclude her reply, she of a sudden noticed an oldmatron come up to her with precipitate step. "Where does the report comefrom," she interposed, "that Miss Chin Ch'uan-erh has gone, for no rhymeor reason, and committed suicide by jumping into the well?"
This bit of news startled Hsi Jen. "Which Chin Ch'uan-erh is it," shespeedily inquired.
"Where are two Chin Ch'uan-erhs to be found!" rejoined the old matron."It's the one in our Mistress,' Madame Wang's, apartments, who was theother day sent away for something or other, I don't know what. On herreturn home, she raised her groans to the skies and shed profuse tears,but none of them worried their minds about her, until, who'd havethought it, they could see nothing of her. A servant, however, went justnow to draw water and he says that 'while he was getting it from thewell in the south-east corner, he caught sight of a dead body, that hehurriedly called men to his help, and that when they fished it out, theyunexpectedly found that it was she, but that though they bustled abouttrying to bring her round, everything proved of no avail'"
"This is odd!" Pao-ch'ai exclaimed.
The moment Hsi Jen heard the tidings, she shook her head and moaned. Atthe remembrance of the friendship, which had ever existed between them,tears suddenly trickled down her cheeks. And as for Pao-ch'ai, shelistened to the account of the accident and then hastened to MadameWang's quarters to try and afford her consolation.
Hsi Jen, during this interval, returned to her room. But we will leaveher without further notice, and explain that when Pao-ch'ai reached theinterior of Madame Wang's home, she found everything plunged in perfectstillness. Madame Wang was seated all alone in the inner chamberindulging her sorrow. But such difficulties did Pao-ch'ai experience toallude to the occurrence, that her only alternative was to take a seatnext to her.
"Where do you come from?" asked Madame Wang.
"I come from inside the garden," answered Pao-ch'ai.
"As you come from the garden," Madame Wang inquired, "did you seeanything of your cousin Pao-yue?"
"I saw him just now," Pao-ch'ai replied, "go out, dressed up in hisfineries. But where he is gone to, I don't know."
"Have you perchance heard of any strange occurrence?" asked Madame Wang,while she nodded her head and sighed. "Why, Chin Ch'uan Erh jumped intothe well and committed suicide."
"How is it that she jumped into the well when there was nothing to makeher do so?" Pao-ch'ai inquired. "This is indeed a remarkable thing!"
"The fact is," proceeded Madame Wang, "that she spoilt something theother day, and in a sudden fit of temper, I gave her a slap and sent heraway, simply meaning to be angry with her for a few days and then bringher in again. But, who could have ever imagined that she had such aresentful temperament as to go and drown herself in a well! And is notthis all my fault?"
"It's because you are such a kind-hearted person, aunt," smiledPao-ch'ai, "that such ideas cross your mind! But she didn't jump intothe well when she was in a tantrum; so what must have made her do so wasthat she had to go and live in the lower quarters. Or, she might havebeen standing in front of the well, and her foot slipped, and she fellinto it. While in the upper rooms, she used to be kept under restraint,so when this time she found herself outside, she must, of course, havefelt the wish to go strolling all over the place in search of fun. Howcould she have ever had such a fiery disposition? But even admittingthat she had such a temper, she was, after all, a stupid girl to do asshe did; and she doesn't deserve any pity."
"In spite of what you say," sighed Madame Wang, shaking her head to andfro, "I really feel unhappy at heart."
"You shouldn't, aunt, distress your mind about it!" Pao-ch'ai smiled."Yet, if you feel very much exercised, just give her a few more taelsthan you would otherwise have done, and let her be buried. You'll thuscarry out to the full the feelings of a mistress towards her servant."
"I just now gave them fifty taels for her," pursued Madame Wang. "I alsomeant to let them have some of your cousin's new clothes to enshroud herin. But, who'd have thought it, none of the girls had, strangecoincidence, any newly-made articles of clothing; and there were onlythat couple of birthday suits of your cousin Lin's. But as your cousinLin has ever been such a sensitive child and has always too suffered andailed, I thought it would be unpropitious for her, if her clothes werealso now handed to people to wrap their dead in, after she had been toldthat they were given her for her birthday. So I ordered a tailor to geta suit for her as soon as possible. Had it been any other servant-girl,I could have given her a few taels and have finished. But ChinCh'uan-erh was, albeit a servant-maid, nearly as dear to me as if shehad been a daughter of mine."
Saying this, tears unwittingly ran down from her eyes.
"Aunt!" vehemently exclaimed Pao-ch'ai. "What earthly use is it ofhurrying a tailor just now to prepare clothes for her? I have a coupleof suits I made the other day and won't it save trouble were I to go andbring them for her? Besides, when she was alive, she used to wear my oldclothes. And what's more our figures are much alike."
"What you say is all very well," rejoined Madame Wang; "but can it bethat it isn't distasteful to you?"
"Compose your mind," urged Pao-ch'ai with a smile. "I have never paidany heed to such things."
As she spoke, she rose to her feet and walked away.
Madame Wang then promptly called two servants. "Go and accompany MissPao!" she said.
In a brief space of time, Pao-ch'ai came back with the clothes, anddiscovered Pao-yue seated next to Madame Wang, all melted in tears.Madame Wang was reasoning with him. At the sight of Pao-ch'ai, she, atonce, desisted. When Pao-ch'ai saw them go on in this way, and came toweigh their conversation and to scan the expression on theircountenances, she immediately got a pretty correct insight into theirfeelings. But presently she handed over the clothes, and Madame Wangsent for Chin Ch'uan-erh's mother, to take them away.
But, reader, you will have to peruse the next chapter for furtherdetails.