Volume Ii Part 73 (1/2)

”What were you hiding there for?” P'ing Erh then asked Hsi Jen. ”We couldn't see anything of you.”

”I went,” Hsi Jen explained, ”into Miss Quarta's rooms to see our Mr.

Pao-yu, but, who'd have thought it, I got there a little too late, and they told me that he had gone home. But my suspicions were, however, aroused as I couldn't make out how it was that I hadn't come across him, and I was about to go and hunt him up in Miss Lin's apartments, when I met one of her servants who said that he hadn't been there either. Then just as I was surmising that he must have gone out of the garden, behold, you came, as luck would have it, from the opposite direction.

But I dodged you, so you didn't see anything of me. Subsequently, she too appeared on the scene; but I got behind the boulder, from the back of these trees. I, however, saw that you two had come to have a chat.

Strange to say, though you have four eyes between you, you never caught a glimpse of me.”

Scarcely had she concluded this remark, than they heard some one else from behind, laughingly exclaim, ”Four eyes never saw you, but your six eyes haven't as yet found me out!”

The three girls received quite a shock from fright; but turning round, they perceived that it was no other person than Pao-yu.

Hsi Jen smiled, and was the first to speak. ”You've made me have a good search,” she said. ”Where do you hail from?”

”I was just leaving cousin Quarta's,” Pao-yu laughed, ”when I noticed you coming along, just in front of me; and knowing well enough that you were bent upon finding me, I concealed myself to have a lark with you. I saw you then go by, with uplifted head, enter the court, walk out again, and ask every one you met on your way; but there I stood convulsed with laughter. I was only waiting to rush up to you and frighten you, when I afterwards realised that you too were prowling stealthily about, so I readily inferred that you also were playing a trick upon some one. Then when I put out my head and looked before me, I saw that it was these two girls, so I came behind you, by a circuitous way; and as soon as you left, I forthwith sneaked into your hiding place.”

”Let's go and look behind there,” P'ing Erh suggested laughingly; ”we may possibly discover another couple; there's no saying.”

”There's no one else!” Pao-yu laughed.

Yuan Yang had long ago concluded that every word of their conversation had been overheard by Pao-yu; but leaning against the rock, she pretended to be fast asleep.

Pao-yu gave her a push. ”This stone is cold!” he smiled. ”Let's go and sleep in our rooms. Won't it be better there?”

Saying this, he made an attempt to pull Yuan Yang to her feet. Then hastily pressing P'ing Erh to repair to his quarters and have some tea, he united his efforts with those of Hsi Jen, and tried to induce Yuan Yang to come away. Yuan Yang, at length, got up, and the quartet betook themselves, after all, into the I Hung court.

Pao-yu had caught every word that had fallen from their lips a few minutes back, and felt, indeed, at heart so much distressed on Yuan Yang's behalf, that throwing himself silently on his bed, he left the three girls in the outer rooms to prosecute their chat and laugh.

On the other side of the compound, Madame Hsing about this time inquired of lady Feng who Yuan Yang's father was.

”Her father,” lady Feng replied, ”is called Chin Ts'ai. He and his wife are in Nanking; they have to look after our houses there, so they can't pay frequent visits to the capital. Her brother is the Wen-hsiang, who acts at present as our senior's accountant; but her sister-in-law too is employed in our worthy ancestor's yonder as head washerwoman.”

Madame Hsing thereupon despatched a servant to go and call Yuan Yang's sister-in-law. On Mrs. Chin Wen-hsiang's arrival, she told her all. Mrs.

Chin was naturally pleased and left in capital spirits to find Yuan Yang, in the hope that the moment she communicated the offer to her, the whole thing would be satisfactorily arranged. But contrary to all her antic.i.p.ations, she had to bear a good blowing up from Yuan Yang, and to be told several unpleasant things by Hsi Jen and P'ing Erh, so that she was filled with as much shame as indignation. She then came and reported the result to Madame Hsing. ”It's no use,” she said, ”she gave me a scolding.” But as lady Feng was standing by, she could not summon up courage enough to allude to P'ing Erh, so she added: ”Hsi Jen too helped her to rate me, and they told me a whole lot of improper words, which could not be breathed in a mistress' ears. It would thus be better to arrange with our master to purchase a girl and have done; for from all I see, neither can that mean vixen enjoy such great good fortune, nor we such vast propitious luck!”

”What's that again to do with Hsi Jen? How came they to know anything about it?” Madame Hsing exclaimed upon learning the issue. ”Who else was present?” she proceeded to inquire.

”There was Miss P'ing!” was Chin's wife's reply.

”Shouldn't you have given her a slap on the mouth?” lady Feng precipitately shouted. ”As soon as I ever put my foot outside the door, she starts gadding about; and I never see so much as her shadow, when I get home. She too is bound to have had a hand in telling you something or other!”

”Miss P'ing wasn't present,” Chin's wife protested. ”Looking from a distance it seemed to me like her; but I couldn't see distinctly. It was a mere surmise on my part that it was she at all.”

”Go and fetch her at once!” lady Feng shouted to a servant. ”Tell her that I've come home, and that Madame Hsing is also here and wants her to help her in her hurry.”

Feng Erh quickly came up to her. ”Miss Lin,” she observed, ”despatched a messenger for her, and asked her in writing three and four times before she at last went. I advised her to get back so soon as your ladys.h.i.+p stepped inside the gate, but 'tell your mistress,' Miss Lin said, 'that I've put her to the inconvenience of coming round, as I've got something for her to do for me.'”

This explanation satisfied lady Feng and she let the matter drop. ”What has she got to do,” she purposely went on to ask, ”that she will trouble her day after day?”

Madame Hsing was driven to her wits' ends. As soon as the meal was over, she returned home; and, in the evening, she communicated to Chia She the result of her errand. After some reflection, Chia She promptly summoned Chia Lien.

”There are other people in Nanking to look after our property,” he told him on his arrival; ”there's not only one family, so be quick and depute some one to go and summon Chin Ts'ai to come up to the capital.”