Volume Ii Part 37 (1/2)
Lady Feng acquiesced to each one of her recommendations, and, pus.h.i.+ng Mrs. Hsueh, ”Aunt,” she inquired, ”have you heard her proposal? What have I all along maintained? Well, my words have actually come out true to-day!”
”This should have been accomplished long ago,” Mrs. Hsueh answered. ”For without, of course, making any allusion to her looks, her way of doing business is liberal; her speech and her relations with people are always prompted by an even temper, while inwardly she has plenty of singleness of heart and eagerness to hold her own. Indeed, such a girl is not easy to come across!”
Madame w.a.n.g made every effort to conceal her tears. ”How could you people ever rightly estimate Hsi Jen's qualities?” she observed. ”Why, she's a hundred times better than my own Pao-yu. How fortunate, in reality, Pao-yu is! Well would it be if he could have her wait upon him for the whole length of his life!”
”In that case,” lady Feng suggested, ”why, have her face shaved at once, and openly place her in his room as a secondary wife. Won't this be a good plan?”
”This won't do!” Madame w.a.n.g retorted. ”For first and foremost he's of tender years. In the second place, my husband won't countenance any such thing! In the third, so long as Pao-yu sees that Hsi Jen is his waiting-maid, he may, in the event of anything occurring from his having been allowed to run wild, listen to any good counsel she might give him.
But were she now to be made his secondary wife, Hsi Jen would not venture to tender him any extreme advice, even when it's necessary to do so. It's better, therefore, to let things stand as they are for the present, and talk about them again, after the lapse of another two or three years.”
At the close of these arguments, lady Feng could not put in a word, by way of reply, to refute them, so turning round, she left the room. She had no sooner, however, got under the verandah, than she discerned the wives of a number of butlers, waiting for her to report various matters to her. Seeing her issue out of the room, they with one consent smiled.
”What has your ladys.h.i.+p had to lay before Madame w.a.n.g,” they remarked, ”that you've been talking away this length of time? Didn't you find it hot work?”
Lady Feng tucked up her sleeves several times. Then resting her foot on the step of the side door, she laughed and rejoined: ”The draft in this pa.s.sage is so cool, that I'll stop, and let it play on me a bit before I go on. You people,” she proceeded to tell them, ”say that I've been talking to her all this while, but Madame w.a.n.g conjured up all that has occurred for the last two hundred years and questioned me about it; so could I very well not have anything to say in reply? But from this day forth,” she added with a sarcastic smile, ”I shall do several mean things, and should even (Mrs. Chao and Mrs. Chou) go, out of any ill-will, and tell Madame w.a.n.g, I won't know what fear is for such stupid, glib-tongued, foul-mouthed creatures as they, who are bound not to see a good end! It isn't for them to indulge in those fanciful dreams of becoming primary wives, for there, will come soon a day when the whole lump sum of their allowance will be cut off! They grumble against us for having now reduced the perquisites of the servant-maids, but they don't consider whether they deserve to have so many as three girls to dance attendance on them!”
While heaping abuse on their heads, she started homewards, and went all alone in search of some domestic to go and deliver a message to old lady Chia.
But without any further reference to her, we will take up the thread of our narrative with Mrs. Hsueh, and the others along with her. During this interval they finished feasting on melons. After some more gossip, each went her own way; and Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yu and the rest of the cousins returned into the garden. Pao-ch'ai then asked Tai-yu to repair with her to the O Hsiang Arbour. But Tai-yu said that she was just going to have her bath, so they parted company, and Pao-ch'ai walked back all by herself. On her way, she stepped into the I Hung Yuan, to look up Pao-yu and have a friendly hobn.o.b with him, with the idea of dispelling her mid-day la.s.situde; but, contrary to her expectations, the moment she put her foot into the court, she did not so much as catch the caw of a crow.
Even the two storks stood under the banana trees, plunged in sleep.
Pao-ch'ai proceeded along the covered pa.s.sage and entered the rooms.
Here she discovered the servant-girls sleeping soundly on the bed of the outer apartment; some lying one way, some another; so turning round the decorated screen, she wended her steps into Pao-yu's chamber. Pao-yu was asleep in bed. Hsi Jen was seated by his side, busy plying her needle.
Next to her, lay a yak tail. Pao-ch'ai advanced up to her. ”You're really far too scrupulous,” she said smilingly in an undertone. ”Are there still flies or mosquitos in here? and why do yet use that fly-flap for, to drive what away?”
Hsi Jen was quite taken by surprise. But hastily raising her head, and realising that it was Pao-ch'ai, she hurriedly put down her needlework.
”Miss,” she whispered with a smile, ”you came upon me so unawares that you gave me quite a start! You don't know, Miss, that though there be no flies or mosquitoes there is, no one would believe it, a kind of small insect, which penetrates through the holes of this gauze; it is scarcely to be detected, but when one is asleep, it bites just like ants do!”
”It isn't to be wondered at,” Pao-ch'ai suggested, ”for the back of these rooms adjoins the water; the whole place is also one ma.s.s of fragrant flowers, and the interior of this room is, too, full of their aroma. These insects grow mostly in the core of flowers, so no sooner do they scent the smell of any than they at once rush in.”
Saying this, she cast a look on the needlework she (Hsi Jen) held in her hands. It consisted, in fact, of a belt of white silk, lined with red, and embroidered on the upper part with designs representing mandarin ducks, disporting themselves among some lotus. The lotus flowers were red, the leaves green, the ducks of variegated colours.
”Ai-yah!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Pao-ch'ai, ”what very beautiful work! For whom is this, that it's worth your while wasting so much labour on it?”
Hsi Jen pouted her lips towards the bed.
”Does a big strapping fellow like this,” Pao-ch'ai laughed, ”still wear such things?”
”He would never wear any before,” Hsi Jen smiled, ”that's why such a nice one was specially worked for him, in order that when he was allowed to see it, he should not be able to do otherwise than use it. With the present hot weather, he goes to sleep anyhow, but as he has been coaxed to wear it, it doesn't matter if even he doesn't cover himself well at night. You say that I bestow much labour upon this, but you haven't yet seen the one he has on!”
”It is a lucky thing,” Pao-ch'ai observed, smiling, ”that you're gifted with such patience.”
”I've done so much of it to-day,” remarked Hsi Jen, ”that my neck is quite sore from bending over it. My dear Miss,” she then urged with a beaming countenance, ”do sit here a little. I'll go out for a turn. I'll be back shortly.”
With these words, she sallied out of the room.
Pao-ch'ai was intent upon examining the embroidery, so in her absentmindedness, she, with one bend of her body, settled herself on the very same spot, which Hsi Jen had recently occupied. But she found, on second scrutiny, the work so really admirable, that impulsively picking up the needle, she continued it for her. At quite an unforeseen moment--for Lin Tai-yu had met s.h.i.+h Hsiang-yun and asked her to come along with her and present her congratulations to Hsi Jen--these two girls made their appearance in the court. Finding the whole place plunged in silence, Hsiang-yun turned round and betook herself first into the side-rooms in search of Hsi Jen. Lin Tai-yu, meanwhile, walked up to the window from outside, and peeped in through the gauze frame. At a glance, she espied Pao-yu, clad in a silvery-red coat, lying carelessly on the bed, and Pao-ch'ai, seated by his side, busy at some needlework, with a fly-brush resting by her side.
As soon as Lin Tai-yu became conscious of the situation, she immediately slipped out of sight, and stopping her mouth with one hand, as she did not venture to laugh aloud, she waved her other hand and beckoned to Hsiang-yun. The moment Hsiang-yun saw the way she went on, she concluded that she must have something new to impart to her, and she approached her with all prompt.i.tude. At the sight, which opened itself before her eyes, she also felt inclined to laugh. Yet the sudden recollection of the kindness, with which Pao-ch'ai had always dealt towards her, induced her to quickly seal her lips. And knowing well enough that Tai-yu never spared any one with her mouth, she was seized with such fear lest she should jeer at them, that she immediately dragged her past the window.
”Come along!” she observed. ”Hsi Jen, I remember, said that she would be going at noon to wash some clothes at the pond. I presume she's there already so let's go and join her.”