Volume Ii Part 54 (1/2)
On the east side stood a sleeping divan. On a movable bed was hung a leek-green gauze curtain, ornamented with double embroideries, representing flowers, plants and insects. Pan Erh ran up to have a look.
”This is a green-cicada,” he shouted; ”this a gra.s.shopper!”
But old goody Liu promptly gave him a slap. ”You mean scamp!” she cried.
”What an awful rumpus you're kicking up! I simply brought you along with me to look at things; and lo, you put on airs;” and she beat Pan Erh until he burst out crying. It was only after every one quickly combined in using their efforts to solace him that he at length desisted.
Old lady Chia then looked through the gauze cas.e.m.e.nt into the back court for some time. ”The dryandra trees by the eaves of the covered pa.s.sage are growing all right,” she remarked. ”The only thing is that their foliage is rather spa.r.s.e.”
But while she pa.s.sed this remark, a sudden gust of wind swept by, and faintly on her ear fell the strains of music. ”In whose house is there a wedding?” old lady Chia inquired. ”This place must be very near the street!”
”How could one hear what's going on in the street?” Madame w.a.n.g and the others smiled. ”It's our twelve girls practising on their wind and string instruments!”
”As they're practising,” dowager lady Chia eagerly cried, smilingly, ”why not ask them to come in here and practise? They'll be able to have a stroll also, while we, on our part, will derive some enjoyment.”
Upon hearing this suggestion, lady Feng immediately directed a servant to go out and call them in. She further issued orders to bring a table and spread a red cover over it.
”Let it be put,” old lady Chia chimed in, ”in the water-pavilion of the Lotus Fragrance Arbour, for (the music) will borrow the ripple of the stream and sound ever so much more pleasant to the ear. We can by and bye drink our wine in the Cho Chin Hall; we'll thus have ample room, and be able to listen from close!”
Every one admitted that the spot was well adapted. Dowager lady Chia turned herself towards Mrs. Hsueh. ”Let's get ahead!” she laughed. ”The young ladies don't like any one to come in here, for fear lest their quarters should get contaminated; so don't let us show ourselves disregardful of their wishes! The right thing would be to go and have our wine aboard one of those boats!”
As she spoke, one and all rose to their feet. They were making their way out when T'an Ch'un interposed. ”What's this that you're saying?” she smiled. ”Please do seat yourselves, venerable senior, and you, Mrs.
Hsueh, and Madame w.a.n.g! You can't be going yet?”
”These three girls of mine are really nice! There are only two mistresses that are simply dreadful.” Dowager lady Chia said smilingly.
”When we get drunk shortly, we'll go and sit in their rooms and have a lark!”
These words evoked laughter from every one. In a body they quitted the place. But they had not proceeded far before they reached the bank covered with aquatic plants, to which place the boat-women, who had been brought from Ku Su, had already punted two crab-wood boats. Into one of these boats, they helped old lady Chia, Madame w.a.n.g, Mrs. Hsueh, old goody Liu, Yuan Yang, and Yu Ch'uan-Erh. Last in order Li Wan followed on board. But lady Feng too stepped in, and standing up on the bow, she insisted upon punting.
Dowager lady Chia, however, remonstrated from her seat in the bottom of the boat. ”This isn't a joke,” she cried, ”we're not on the river, it's true, but there are some very deep places about, so be quick and come in. Do it for my sake.”
”What's there to be afraid of?” lady Feng laughed. ”Compose your mind, worthy ancestor.”
Saying this, the boat was pushed off with one shove. When it reached the middle of the lake, lady Feng became nervous, for the craft was small and the occupants many, and hastily handing the pole to a boatwoman, she squatted down at last.
Ying Ch'un, her sisters, their cousins, as well as Pao-yu subsequently got on board the second boat, and followed in their track; while the rest of the company, consisting of old nurses and a bevy of waiting-maids, kept pace with them along the bank of the stream.
”All these broken lotus leaves are dreadful!” Pao-yu shouted. ”Why don't you yet tell the servants to pull them off?”
”When was this garden left quiet during all the days of this year?”
Pao-ch'ai smiled. ”Why, people have come, day after day, to visit it, so was there ever any time to tell the servants to come and clean it?”
”I have the greatest abhorrence,” Lin Tai-yu chimed in, ”for Li I's poetical works, but there's only this line in them which I like:
”'Leave the dry lotus leaves so as to hear the patter of the rain.'
”and here you people deliberately mean again not to leave the dry lotus stay where they are.”
”This is indeed a fine line!” Pao-yu exclaimed. ”We mustn't hereafter let them pull them away!”
While this conversation continued, they reached the shoaly inlet under the flower-laden beech. They felt a coolness from the shady overgrowth penetrate their very bones. The decaying vegetation and the withered aquatic chestnut plants on the sand-bank enhanced, to a greater degree, the beauty of the autumn scenery.