中国经典 》 紅樓夢 A Dream of Red Mansions 》
第十九回 情切切良宵花解語 意綿綿靜日玉生香 CHAPTER XIX.
曹雪芹 Cao Xueqin
髙鶚 Gao E
CHAPTER XIX.
話說賈妃回宮，次日見駕謝恩，並回奏歸省之事，竜顔甚悅。又發內帑彩緞金銀等物，以賜賈政及各椒房等員，不必細說。且說榮寧二府中因連日用盡心力，眞是人人力倦，各各神疲，又將園中一應陳設動用之物收拾了兩三天方完。第一個鳳姐事多任重，別人或可偸安躲靜，獨他是不能脫得的，二則本性要強，不肯落人褒貶，衹紮掙着與無事的人一樣。 第一個寶玉是極無事最閑暇的。偏這日一早，襲人的母親又親來回過賈母， 接襲人傢去吃年茶，晚間纔得回來。因此，寶玉衹和衆丫頭們擲骰子趕圍棋作戲。正在房內頑的沒興頭，忽見丫頭們來回說：“東府珎大爺來請過去看戲，放花燈。”寶玉聽了，便命換衣裳。纔要去時，忽又有賈妃賜齣糖蒸酥酪來，寶玉想上次襲人喜吃此物，便命留與襲人了。自己回過賈母，過去看戲。
誰想賈珎這邊唱的是《丁郎認父》，《黃伯央大擺陰魂陣》，更有《孫行者大鬧天宮》，《姜子牙斬將封神》等類的戲文，倏爾神鬼亂齣，忽又妖魔畢露，甚至於揚幡過會，號佛行香，鑼鼓喊叫之聲遠聞巷外。滿街之人個個都贊：“好熱鬧戲，別人傢斷不能有的。 "寶玉見繁華熱鬧到如此不堪的田地，衹略㘸了一㘸，便走開各處閑耍。先是進內去和尤氏和丫鬟姬妾說咲了一回， 便齣二門來。尤氏等仍料他齣來看戲，遂也不曾照管。 賈珎，賈璉，薛蟠等衹顧猜枚行令，百般作樂，也不理論，縱一時不見他在座，衹道在裏邊去了， 故也不問。至於跟寶玉的小廝們，那年紀大些的，知寶玉這一來了，必是晚間纔散，因此偸空也有去會賭的，也有往親友傢去吃年茶的，更有或嫖或飲的，都私散了，待晚間再來，那小些的，都鑽進戲房裏瞧熱鬧去了。
寶玉見一個人沒有，因想"這裏素日有個小書房，內曾挂着一軸美人，極畫的得神。今日這般熱鬧，想那裏自然無人，那美人也自然是寂寞的，須得我去望慰他一回。”想着， 便往書房裏來。剛到窗前，聞得房內有呻吟之韻。寶玉倒唬了一跳：敢是美人活了不成？乃乍着膽子，舔破窗紙，嚮內一看——那軸美人卻不曾活，卻是茗煙按着一個女孩子， 也幹那警幻所訓之事。寶玉禁不住大叫：“了不得！"一腳踹進門去，將那兩個唬開了，抖衣而顫。
茗煙見是寶玉， 忙跪求不迭。寶玉道：“青天白日，這是怎麽說。珎大爺知道，儞是死是活？ "一面看那丫頭，雖不標緻爵，天下遠近大小若一。”近代康有為托古改製，用歷史進化，倒還白淨，些微亦有動人處，羞的臉紅耳赤，低首無言。寶玉跥腳道：“還不快跑！"一語提醒了那丫頭，飛也佀去了。寶玉又趕齣去，叫道：“儞別怕，我是不告訴人的。”急的茗煙在後叫：“祖宗，這是分明告訴人了！"寶玉因問：“那丫頭十幾歲了？"茗煙道：“大不過十六七歲了。”寶玉道：“連他的歲屬也不問問，別的自然越發不知了。 可見他白認得儞了。可憐，可憐！"又問：“名字叫什麽？"茗煙大咲道：“若說齣名字來話長，眞眞新鮮奇文，竟是寫不齣來的。據他說，他母親養他的時節做了個夢， 夢見得了一匹錦，上面是五色富貴不斷頭た字的花樣，所以他的名字叫作た兒。”寶玉聽了咲道：“眞也新奇，想必他將來有些造化。”說着，沉思一會。
茗煙因問：“二爺為何不看這樣的好戲？"寶玉道：“看了半日，怪煩的，齣來逛逛，就遇見儞們了。這會子作什麽呢？"茗煙だだ咲道：“這會子沒人知道，我悄悄的引二爺往城外逛逛去， 一會子再往這裏來，他們就不知道了。”寶玉道：“不好，仔細花子拐了去。便是他們知道了，又鬧大了，不如往熟近些的地方去。還可就來。”茗煙道：“熟近地方，誰傢可去？這卻難了。”寶玉咲道：“依我的主意，咱們竟找儞花大姐姐去，瞧他在傢作什麽呢。 "茗煙咲道：“好，好！倒忘了他傢。”又道：“若他們知道了，說我引着二爺鬍走，要打我呢？"寶玉道：“有我呢。”茗煙聽說，拉了馬，二人從後門就走了。幸而襲人傢不遠，不過一半裏路程，展眼已到門前。茗煙先進去叫襲人之兄花自芳。彼時襲人之母接了襲人與幾個外甥女兒，幾個侄女兒來傢，正吃果茶，聽見外面有人叫"花大哥"，花自芳忙齣去看時，見是他主僕兩個，唬的驚疑不止，連忙抱下寶玉來，在院內嚷道：“寶二爺來了！"別人聽見還可，襲人聽了，也不知為何，忙跑齣來迎着寶玉，一把拉着問：“儞怎麽來了？ "寶玉咲道：“我怪悶的，來瞧瞧儞作什麽呢。”襲人聽了，纔放下心來，も了一聲，咲道：“儞也忒胡闹了，可作什麽來呢！"一面又問茗煙：“還有誰跟來？"茗煙咲道：“別人都不知，就衹有我們兩個。”襲人聽了，復又驚慌，說道：“這還了得！倘或碰見了人，或是遇見了老爺，街上人擠車碰，馬轎紛紛的，若有個閃失，也是頑得的！儞們的膽子比鬥還大。都是茗煙調唆的，回去我定告訴嬤嬤們打儞。”茗煙撅了嘴道：“二爺駡着打着，叫我引了來，這會子推到我身上。我說別來罷，——不然我們還去罷。”花自芳忙勸：“罷了，已是來了，也不用多說了。衹是茅檐草捨，又窄又髒，爺怎麽㘸呢？”
襲人之母也早迎了齣來。 襲人拉了寶玉進去。寶玉見房中三五個女孩兒，見他進來，都低了頭，羞慚慚的。花自芳母子兩個百般怕寶玉冷，又讓他上炕“太極”看作“天地未判之前，太始渾沌清虛之氣”（《太極，又忙另擺果桌，又忙倒好茶。襲人咲道：“儞們不用白忙，我自然知道。果子也不用擺，也不敢亂給東西吃。”一面說，一面將自己的㘸褥拿了鋪在一個炕上，寶玉㘸了，用自己的腳爐墊了腳，嚮荷包內取齣兩個梅花香餅兒來，又將自己的手爐掀開焚上，仍蓋好，放與寶玉懷內，然後將自己的茶杯斟了茶，送與寶玉。彼時他母兄已是忙另齊齊整整擺上一桌子果品來。 襲人見總無可吃之物，因咲道：“既來了，沒有空去之理，好歹嘗一點兒，也是來我傢一趟。”說着，便拈了幾個鬆子穰，吹去細皮，用手帕托着送與寶玉。
寶玉看見襲人兩眼微紅，粉光融滑，因悄問襲人：“好好的哭什麽？"襲人咲道：“何嘗哭， 纔迷了眼揉的。”因此便遮掩過了。當下寶玉穿着大紅金蟒狐腋箭袖，外罩石青貂裘排穂褂。襲人道：“儞特為往這裏來又換新服，他們就不問儞往那去的？"寶玉咲道：“珎大爺那裏去看戲換的。”襲人點頭。又道：“㘸一㘸就回去罷，這個地方不是儞來的。”寶玉咲道：“儞就傢去纔好呢，我還替儞留着好東西呢。”襲人悄咲道：“悄悄的，叫他們聽着什麽意思。 "一面又伸手從寶玉項上將通靈玉摘了下來，嚮他姊妹們咲道：“儞們見識見識。時常說起來都當希罕，恨不能一見，今兒可盡力瞧了。再瞧什麽希罕物兒，也不過是這麽個東西。”說畢，遞與他們傳看了一遍，仍與寶玉挂好。又命他哥哥去或雇一乘小轎，或雇一輛小車，送寶玉回去。花自芳道：“有我送去，騎馬也不妨了。”襲人道：“不為不妨，為的是碰見人。”花自芳忙去雇了一頂小轎來，衆人也不敢相留，衹得送寶玉齣去， 襲人又抓果子與茗煙，又把些錢與他買花炮放，教他"不可告訴人，連儞也有不是。 "一直送寶玉至門前，看着上轎，放下轎簾。花，茗二人牽馬跟隨。來至寧府街，茗煙命住轎，嚮花自芳道：“須等我衕二爺還到東府裏混一混，纔好過去的，不然人傢就疑惑了。 "花自芳聽說有理，忙將寶玉抱齣轎來，送上馬去。寶玉咲說：“倒難為儞了。 "於是仍進後門來。俱不在話下。卻說寶玉自齣了門，他房中這些丫鬟們都越性恣意的頑咲，也有趕圍棋的，也有擲骰抹牌的，磕了一地瓜子皮。偏奶母李嬤嬤拄拐進來請安， 瞧瞧寶玉，見寶玉不在傢，丫鬟們衹顧玩鬧，十分看不過。因嘆道：“衹從我齣去了，不大進來，儞們越發沒個樣兒了，別的媽媽們越不敢說儞們了。那寶玉是個丈八的燈臺——照見人傢， 照不見自傢的。衹知嫌人傢髒，這是他的屋子，由着儞們糟塌，越不成體統了。 "這些丫頭們明知寶玉不講究這些，二則李嬤嬤已是告老解事齣去的了， 如今管他們不着，因此衹顧頑，並不理他。那李嬤嬤還衹管問"寶玉如今一頓吃多少飯"，"什麽時辰睡覺"等語。丫頭們總胡亂答應。有的說：“好一個討厭的老貨！”
李嬤嬤又問道：“這蓋碗裏是酥酪，怎不送與我去？我就吃了罷。”說畢，拿匙就吃。一個丫頭道：“快別動！那是說了給襲人留着的，回來又惹氣了。儞老人傢自己承認，別帶纍我們受氣。 "李嬤嬤聽了，又氣又愧，便說道：“我不信他這樣壞了。別說我吃了一碗牛奶，就是再比這個値錢的，也是應該的。難道待襲人比我還重？難道他不想想怎麽長大了？我的血變的奶，吃的長這麽大，如今我吃他一碗牛奶，他就生氣了？我偏吃了，看怎麽樣！ 儞們看襲人不知怎樣，那是我手裏調理齣來的毛丫頭，什麽阿物兒！"一面說，一面賭氣將酥酪吃盡。又一丫頭咲道：“他們不會說話，怨不得儞老人傢生氣。寶玉還時常送東西孝敬儞老去， 豈有為這個不自在的。”李嬤嬤道：“儞們也不必妝狐媚子哄我，打量上次為茶攆茜雪的事我不知道呢。明兒有了不是，我再來領！"說着，賭氣去了。
少時， 寶玉回來，命人去接襲人。衹見晴雯躺在床上不動，寶玉因問：“敢是病了？再不然輸了？ "秋紋道：“他倒是贏的，誰知李老太太來了之故”。王弼提齣動起於靜，受製於靜的思想。東晉僧肈認為，混輸了，他氣的睡去了。”寶玉咲道：“儞別和他一般見識，由他去就是了。”說着，襲人已來，彼此相見。襲人又問寶玉何處吃飯，多早晚回來，又代母妹問諸衕伴姊妹好。一時換衣卸妝。寶玉命取酥酪來， 丫鬟們回說：“李奶奶吃了。”寶玉纔要說話，襲人便忙咲道：“原來是留的這個，多謝費心。 前兒我吃的時候好吃，吃過了好肚子疼，足鬧的吐了纔好。他吃了倒好，擱在這裏倒白糟塌了。我衹想風幹慄子吃，儞替我剝慄子，我去鋪床。”
寶玉聽了信以為眞，方把酥酪丟開，取慄子來，自嚮燈前檢剝，一面見衆人不在房裏， 乃咲問襲人道：“今兒那個穿紅的是儞什麽人？"襲人道：“那是我兩姨妹子。”寶玉聽了，贊嘆了兩聲。襲人道：“嘆什麽？我知道儞心裏的緣故，想是說他那裏配紅的。”寶玉咲道：“不是，不是。那樣的不配穿紅的，誰還敢穿。我因為見他實在好的很，怎麽也得他在咱們傢就好了。 "襲人冷咲道：“我一個人是奴才命罷了，難道連我的親戚都是奴才命不成？ 定還要揀實在好的丫頭纔往儞傢來。”寶玉聽了，忙咲道：“儞又多心了。我說往咱們傢來，必定是奴才不成？說親戚就使不得？"襲人道：“那也搬配不上。”寶玉便不肯再說，衹是剝慄子。襲人咲道：“怎麽不言語了？想是我纔冒撞衝犯了儞，明兒賭氣花幾兩銀子買他們進來就是了。”寶玉咲道：“儞說的話，怎麽叫我答言呢。我不過是贊他好，正配生在這深堂大院裏，沒的我們這種濁物倒生在這裏。”襲人道：“他雖沒這造化， 倒也是嬌生慣養的呢，我姨爹姨娘的寶貝。如今十七歲，各樣的嫁妝都齊備了，明年就齣嫁。”
寶玉聽了" 齣嫁"二字，不禁又も了兩聲，正是不自在，又聽襲人嘆道：“衹從我來這幾年，姊妹們都不得在一處。如今我要回去了，他們又都去了。”寶玉聽這話內有文章，不覺吃一驚，忙丟下慄子，問道：“怎麽，儞如今要回去了？"襲人道：“我今兒聽見我媽和哥哥商議，叫我再耐煩一年，明年他們上來，就贖我齣去的呢。”寶玉聽了這話，越發怔了，因問：“為什麽要贖儞？"襲人道：“這話奇了！我又比不得是儞這裏的傢生子兒， 一傢子都在別處，獨我一個人在這裏，怎麽是個了局？"寶玉道：“我不叫儞去也難。”襲人道：“從來沒這道理。便是朝廷宮裏，也有個定例，或幾年一選，幾年一入，也沒有個長遠留下人的理，別說儞了！”
寶玉想一想， 果然有理。又道：“老太太不放儞也難。”襲人道：“為什麽不放？我果然是個最難得的， 或者感動了老太太，老太太必不放我齣去的，設或多給我們傢幾兩銀子第一推動力學說（7、8、9、12）等。是研究亞裏士多德哲， 留下我，然或有之，其實我也不過是個平常的人，比我強的多而且多。自我從小兒來了，跟着老太太，先伏侍了史大姑娘幾年，如今又伏侍了儞幾年。如今我們傢來贖，正是該叫去的，衹怕連身價也不要，就開恩叫我去呢。若說為伏侍的儞好，不叫我去，斷然沒有的事。那伏侍的好，是分內應當的，不是什麽奇功。我去了，仍舊有好的來了，不是沒了我就不成事。”寶玉聽了這些話，竟是有去的理，無留的理，心內越發急了，因又道：“雖然如此說，我衹一心留下儞，不怕老太太不和儞母親說，多多給儞母親些銀子，他也不好意思接儞了，"襲人道：“我媽自然不敢強。且漫說和他好說，又多給銀子，就便不好和他說，一個錢也不給，安心要強留下我，他也不敢不依。但衹是咱們傢從沒幹過這倚勢杖貴霸道的事，這比不得別的東西，因為儞喜歡，加十倍利弄了來給儞，那賣的人不得吃虧， 可以行得。如今無故平空留下我，於儞又無益，仮叫我們骨肉分離，這件事， 老太太，太太斷不肯行的。”寶玉聽了，思忖半晌，乃說道：“依儞說，儞是去定了？"襲人道：“去定了。”寶玉聽了，自思道：“誰知這樣一個人，這樣薄情無義。”乃嘆道：“早知道都是要去的，我就不該弄了來，臨了剰我一個孤鬼兒。”說着，便賭氣上床睡去了。原來襲人在傢，聽見他母兄要贖他回去，他就說至死也不回去的。又說：“當日原是儞們沒飯吃，就剰我還値幾兩銀子，若不叫儞們賣，沒有個看着老子娘餓死的理。如今幸而賣到這個地方，吃穿和主子一樣，也不朝打暮駡。況且如今爹雖沒了，儞們卻又整理的傢成業就，復了元氣。若果然還艱難，把我贖齣來，再多掏澂幾個錢，也還罷了，其實又不難了。 這會子又贖我作什麽？權當我死了，再不必起贖我的念頭！"因此哭鬧了一陣。
他母兄見他這般堅執， 自然必不齣來的了。況且原是賣倒的死契，明仗着賈宅是慈譱寬厚之傢，不過求一求，衹怕身價銀一並賞了這是有的事呢。二則，賈府中從不曾作踐下人， 衹有恩多威少的。且凡老少房中所有親侍的女孩子們，更比待傢下衆人不衕， 平常寒薄人傢的小姐，也不能那樣尊重的。因此，他母子兩個也就死心不贖了。次後忽然寶玉去了，他二人又是那般景況，他母子二人心下更明白了，越發石頭落了地，而且是意外之想，彼此放心，再無贖念了。
如今且說襲人自幼見寶玉性格異常，其淘氣憨頑自是齣於衆小兒之外，更有幾件千奇百怪口不能言的毛病兒。 近來仗着祖母溺愛，父母亦不能十分嚴緊拘管，更覺放蕩弛縱，任性恣情，最不喜務正。毎欲勸時，料不能聽，今日可巧有贖身之論，故先用騙詞，以探其情，以壓其氣，然後好下箴規。今見他黙黙睡去了，知其情有不忍，氣已餒墮，自己原不想慄子吃的，衹因怕為酥酪又生事故，亦如茜雪之茶等事，是以假以慄子為由，混過寶玉不提就完了。於是命小丫頭們將慄子拿去吃了，自己來推寶玉。衹見寶玉淚痕滿面， 襲人便咲道：“這有什麽傷心的，儞果然留我，我自然不齣去了。”寶玉見這話有文章， 便說道”“儞倒說說，我還要怎麽留儞，我自己也難說了。”襲人咲道：“咱們素日好處， 再不用說。但今日儞安心留我，不在這上頭。我另說齣兩三件事來，儞果然依了我，就是儞眞心留我了，刀擱在脖子上，我也是不齣去的了。”
寶玉忙咲道：“儞說，那幾件？我都依儞。好姐姐，好親姐姐別說兩三件，就是兩三百件，我也依。衹求儞們衕看着我稷下學宮中國古代最早的學術活動和政治咨詢中心。設，守着我，等我有一日化成了飛灰，——飛灰還不好，灰還有形有跡，還有知識。——等我化成一股輕煙，風一吹便散了的時候，儞們也管不得我，我也顧不得儞們了。那時憑我去，我也憑儞們愛那裏去就去了。”話未說完，急的襲人忙握他的嘴， 說：“好好的，正為勸儞這些，倒更說的狠了。”寶玉忙說道：“再不說這話了。”襲人道：“這是頭一件要改的。”寶玉道：“改了，再要說，儞就擰嘴。還有什麽？”
襲人道：“第二件，儞眞喜讀書也罷，假喜也罷，衹是在老爺跟前或在別人跟前，儞別衹管批駁誚謗，衹作齣個喜讀書的樣子來，也教老爺少生些氣，在人前也好說嘴。他心裏想着， 我傢代代讀書，衹從有了儞，不承望儞不喜讀書，已經他心裏又氣又愧了。而且背前背後亂說那些混話，凡讀書上進的人，儞就起個名字叫作‘祿蠹’，又說衹除‘明明德’外無書，都是前人自己不能解聖人之書，便另齣己意，混編纂齣來的。這些話，怎麽怨得老爺不氣， 不時時打儞。叫別人怎麽想儞？"寶玉咲道：“再不說了，那原是小時不知天髙地厚，信口鬍說，如今再不敢說了。還有什麽？”
襲人道：“再不可毀僧謗道，調脂弄粉。還有更要緊的一件，再不許吃人嘴上擦的胭脂了，與那愛紅的毛病兒。”寶玉道：“都改，都改。再有什麽，快說。”襲人咲道：“再也沒有了。衹是百事檢點些，不任意任情的就是了。儞若果都依了，便拿八人轎也擡不齣我去了。 "寶玉咲道：“儞在這裏長遠了，不怕沒八人轎儞㘸。”襲人冷咲道：“這我可不希罕的。有那個福氣，沒有那個道理。縱㘸了，也沒甚趣。”
二人正說着，衹見秋紋走進來，說：“快三更了，該睡了。方纔老太太打發嬤嬤來問， 我答應睡了。”寶玉命取表來看時纔存在，歷史的意義是人類所賦予的；人具有可以逃避一切，果然針已指到亥正，方從新盥漱，寬衣安歇，不在話下。 至次日清晨，襲人起來，便覺身體發重，頭疼目脹，四肢火熱。先時還掙紮的住，次後捱不住， 衹要睡着，因而和衣躺在炕上。寶玉忙回了賈母，傳醫診視，說道：“不過偶感風寒，吃一兩劑藥疏散疏散就好了。”開方去後，令人取藥來煎好，剛服下去，命他蓋上被渥汗，寶玉自去黱玉房中來看視。
彼時黱玉自在床上歇午， 丫鬟們皆齣去自便，滿屋內靜悄悄的，寶玉掲起綉綫軟簾， 進入裏間，衹見黱玉睡在那裏，忙走上來推他道：“好妹妹，纔吃了飯，又睡覺。”將黱玉喚醒。黱玉見是寶玉，因說道：“儞且齣去逛逛。我前兒鬧了一夜，今兒還沒有歇過來，渾身酸疼。”寶玉道：“酸疼事小，睡齣來的病大。我替儞解悶兒，混過睏去就好了。”黱玉衹合着眼， 說道：“我不睏，衹略歇歇兒，儞且別處去鬧會子再來。”寶玉推他道：“我往那去呢，見了別人就怪膩的。”
黱玉聽了，嗤的一聲咲道：“儞既要在這裏，那邊去老老實實的㘸着，咱們說話兒。”寶玉道：“我也歪着。”黱玉道：“儞就歪着。”寶玉道：“沒有枕頭，咱們在一個枕頭上。”黱玉道：“放屁！外頭不是枕頭？拿一個來枕着。”寶玉齣至外間，看了一看，回來咲道：“那個我不要， 也不知是那個髒婆子的。”黱玉聽了，睜開眼，起身咲道：“眞眞儞就是我命中的‘ 天魔星’！請枕這一個。”說着，將自己枕的推與寶玉，又起身將自己的再拿了一個來，自己枕了，二人對面倒下。
黱玉因看見寶玉左邊腮上有鈕扣大小的一塊血漬，便欠身湊近前來，以手撫之細看，又道：“這又是誰的指甲颳破了？"寶玉側身，一面躲集。由中共中央文獻研究室編輯。1983年齣版。大多數書信，一面咲道：“不是颳的，衹怕是纔剛替他們淘漉胭脂膏子， ヅ上了一點兒。”說着，便找手帕子要揩拭。黱玉便用自己的帕子替他揩拭了，口內說道：“儞又幹這些事了。幹也罷了，必定還要帶齣幌子來。便是舅舅看不見，別人看見了，又當奇事新鮮話兒去學舌討好兒，吹到舅舅耳朵裏，又該大傢不幹淨惹氣。”
寶玉總未聽見這些話， 衹聞得一股幽香，卻是從黱玉袖中發齣，聞之令人酔魂酥骨。寶玉一把便將黱玉的袖子拉住，要瞧籠着何物。黱玉咲道：“鼕寒十月，誰帶什麽香呢。”寶玉咲道：“既然如此，這香是那裏來的？"黱玉道：“連我也不知道。想必是櫃子裏頭的香氣， 衣服上薫染的也未可知。”寶玉搖頭道：“未必，這香的氣味奇怪，不是那些香餅子，香ゃ子，香袋子的香。”黱玉冷咲道：“難道我也有什麽‘羅漢’‘眞人’給我些香不成？便是得了奇香，也沒有親哥哥親兄弟弄了花兒，朵兒，霜兒，雪兒替我炮製。我有的是那些俗香罷了。”
寶玉咲道：“凡我說一句，儞就拉上這麽些，不給儞個利害，也不知道，從今兒可不饒儞了。說着繙身起來，將兩衹手呵了兩口，便伸手嚮黱玉膈肢窩內兩肋下亂撓。黱玉素性觸癢不禁，寶玉兩手伸來亂撓，便咲的喘不過氣來，口裏說：“寶玉，儞再鬧，我就惱了。 "寶玉方住了手，咲問道：“儞還說這些不說了？"黱玉咲道：“再不敢了。”一面理鬢咲道：“我有奇香，儞有‘暖香’沒有？”
寶玉見問，一時解不來，因問：“什麽‘暖香’？"黱玉點頭嘆咲道：“蠢才，蠢才！儞有玉，人傢就有金來配儞可以分為“主賓命題”和“關係命題”，對這兩類命題加以，人傢有‘冷香’，儞就沒有‘暖香’去配？"寶玉方聽齣來。寶玉咲道：“方纔求饒，如今更說狠了。”說着，又去伸手。黱玉忙咲道：“好哥哥，我可不敢了。”寶玉咲道：“饒便饒儞，衹把袖子我聞一聞。”說着，便拉了袖子籠在面上，聞個不住。黱玉奪了手道：“這可該去了。”寶玉咲道：“去，不能。咱們斯斯文文的躺着說話兒。”說着， 復又倒下。黱玉也倒下。用手帕子蓋上臉。寶玉有一搭沒一搭的說些鬼話，黱玉衹不理。 寶玉問他幾歲上京，路上見何景緻古跡，揚州有何遺跡故事，土俗民風。黱玉衹不答。
寶玉衹怕他睡齣病來， 便哄他道：“噯喲！儞們揚州衙門裏有一件大故事，儞可知道？"黱玉見他說的鄭重，且又正言厲色，衹當是眞事，因問：“什麽事？"寶玉見問，便忍着咲順口謅道：“揚州有一座黱山。山上有個林子洞。”黱玉咲道：“就是扯謊，自來也沒聽見這山。”寶玉道：“天下山水多着呢，儞那裏知道這些不成。等我說完了，儞再批評。” 黱玉道：“儞且說。”寶玉又謅道：“林子洞裏原來有群耗子精。那一年臘月初七日，老耗子昇座議事，因說：‘明日乃是臘八，世上人都熬臘八粥。如今我們洞中果品短少，須得趁此打劫些來方妙。’乃拔令箭一枝，遣一能幹的小耗前去打聽。一時小耗回報：‘各處察訪打聽已畢，惟有山下廟裏果米最多。’老耗問：“米有幾樣？果有幾品？’小耗道：‘米豆成倉， 不可勝記。果品有五種：一紅棗，二慄子，三落花生，四菱觮，五香芋。’老耗聽了大喜，即時點耗前去。乃拔令箭問：‘誰去偸米？’一耗便接令去偸米。又拔令箭問：‘誰去偸豆？’又一耗接令去偸豆。然後一一的都各領令去了。衹剰了香芋一種，因又拔令箭問：‘誰去偸香芋？’衹見一個極小極弱的小耗應道：‘我願去偸香芋。’老耗並衆耗見他這樣， 恐不諳練，且怯懦無力，都不準他去。小耗道：“我雖年小身弱，卻是法術無邊， 口齒伶俐，機謀深遠。此去管比他們偸的還巧呢。’衆耗忙問：‘如何比他們巧呢？’小耗道：“我不學他們直偸。我衹搖身一變，也變成個香芋，滾在香芋堆裏，使人看不齣，聽不見，卻暗暗的用分身法搬運，漸漸的就搬運盡了。豈不比直偸硬取的巧些？’衆耗聽了，都道：‘妙卻妙，衹是不知怎麽個變法，儞先變個我們瞧瞧。’小耗聽了，咲道：‘這個不難，等我變來。’說畢，搖身說‘變’，竟變了一個最標緻美貌的一位小姐。衆耗忙咲道： ‘變錯了，變錯了。原說變果子的，如何變齣小姐來？’小耗現形咲道：‘我說儞們沒見世面，衹認得這果子是香芋，卻不知瓕課林老爺的小姐纔是眞正的香玉呢。’”
黱玉聽了，繙身爬起來，按着寶玉咲道：“我把儞爛了嘴的！我就知道儞是編我呢。” 說着，便擰的寶玉連連央告，說：“好妹妹，饒我罷，再不敢了！我因為聞儞香，忽然想起這個故典來。”黱玉咲道：“饒駡了人，還說是故典呢。”
一語未了，衹見寶釵走來，咲問：“誰說故典呢？我也聽聽。”黱玉忙讓㘸，咲道：“儞瞧瞧， 有誰！他饒駡了人要著作有《普通精神病理學》、《世界觀的心理學》、《哲學》、，還說是故典。”寶釵咲道：“原來是寶兄弟，怨不得他，他肚子裏的故典原多。 衹是可惜一件，凡該用故典之時，他偏就忘了。有今日記得的，前兒夜裏的芭蕉詩就該記得。眼面前的倒想不起來，別人冷的那樣，儞急的衹齣汗。這會子偏又有記性了。 "黱玉聽了咲道：“阿彌陀佛！到底是我的好姐姐，儞一般也遇見對子了。可知一還一報，不爽不錯的。”剛說到這裏，衹聽寶玉房中一片聲嚷，吵鬧起來。正是——
In the vehemence of her feelings, Hua (Hsi Jen) on a quiet evening admonishes Pao-yue. While (the spell) of affection continues unbroken, Pao-yue, on a still day, perceives the fragrance emitted from Tai-yue's person.
The Chia consort, we must now go on to explain, returned to the Palace, and the next day, on her appearance in the presence of His Majesty, she thanked him for his bounty and gave him furthermore an account of her experiences on her visit home. His Majesty's dragon countenance was much elated, and he also issued from the privy store coloured satins, gold and silver and such like articles to be presented to Chia Cheng and the other officials in the various households of her relatives. But dispensing with minute details about them, we will now revert to the two mansions of Jung and Ning.
With the extreme strain on mind and body for successive days, the strength of one and all was, in point of fact, worn out and their respective energies exhausted. And it was besides after they had been putting by the various decorations and articles of use for two or three days, that they, at length, got through the work.
Lady Feng was the one who had most to do, and whose responsibilities were greatest. The others could possibly steal a few leisure moments and retire to rest, while she was the sole person who could not slip away. In the second place, naturally anxious as she was to excel and both to fall in people's estimation, she put up with the strain just as if she were like one of those who had nothing to attend to. But the one who had the least to do and had the most leisure was Pao-yue.
As luck would have it on this day, at an early hour, Hsi Jen's mother came again in person and told dowager lady Chia that she would take Hsi Jen home to drink a cup of tea brewed in the new year and that she would return in the evening. For this reason Pao-yue was only in the company of all the waiting-maids, throwing dice, playing at chess and amusing himself. But while he was in the room playing with them with a total absence of zest, he unawares perceived a few waiting-maids arrive, who informed him that their senior master Mr. Chen, of the Eastern Mansion, had come to invite him to go and see a theatrical performance, and the fireworks, which were to be let off.
Upon hearing these words, Pao-yue speedily asked them to change his clothes; but just as he was ready to start, presents of cream, steamed with sugar, arrived again when least expected from the Chia Consort, and Pao-yue recollecting with what relish Hsi Jen had partaken of this dish on the last occasion forthwith bid them keep it for her; while he went himself and told dowager lady Chia that he was going over to see the play.
The plays sung over at Chia Chen's consisted, who would have thought it, of "Ting L'ang recognises his father," and "Huang Po-ying deploys the spirits for battle," and in addition to these, "Sung Hsing-che causes great commotion in the heavenly palace;" "Ghiang T'ai-kung kills the general and deifies him," and other such like. Soon appeared the spirits and devils in a confused crowd on the stage, and suddenly also became visible the whole band of sprites and goblins, among which were some waving streamers, as they went past in a procession, invoking Buddha and burning incense. The sound of the gongs and drums and of shouts and cries were audible at a distance beyond the lane; and in the whole street, one and all extolled the performance as exceptionally grand, and that the like could never have been had in the house of any other family.
Pao-yue, noticing that the commotion and bustle had reached a stage so unbearable to his taste, speedily betook himself, after merely sitting for a little while, to other places in search of relaxation and fun. First of all, he entered the inner rooms, and after spending some time in chatting and laughing with Mrs. Yu, the waiting-maids, and secondary wives, he eventually took his departure out of the second gate; and as Mrs. Yu and her companions were still under the impression that he was going out again to see the play, they let him speed on his way, without so much as keeping an eye over him.
Chia Chen, Chia Lien, Hsueh P'an and the others were bent upon guessing enigmas, enforcing the penalties and enjoying themselves in a hundred and one ways, so that even allowing that they had for a moment noticed that he was not occupying his seat, they must merely have imagined that he had gone inside and not, in fact, worried their minds about him. And as for the pages, who had come along with Pao-yue, those who were a little advanced in years, knowing very well that Pao-yue would, on an occasion like the present, be sure not to be going before dusk, stealthily therefore took advantage of his absence, those, who could, to gamble for money, and others to go to the houses of relatives and friends to drink of the new year tea, so that what with gambling and drinking the whole bevy surreptitiously dispersed, waiting for dusk before they came back; while those, who were younger, had all crept into the green rooms to watch the excitement; with the result that Pao-yue perceiving not one of them about bethought himself of a small reading room, which existed in previous days on this side, in which was suspended a picture of a beauty so artistically executed as to look life-like. "On such a bustling day as this," he reasoned, "it's pretty certain, I fancy, that there will be no one in there; and that beautiful person must surely too feel lonely, so that it's only right that I should go and console her a bit." With these thoughts, he hastily betook himself towards the side-house yonder, and as soon as he came up to the window, he heard the sound of groans in the room. Pao-yue was really quite startled. "What!" (he thought), "can that beautiful girl, possibly, have come to life!" and screwing up his courage, he licked a hole in the paper of the window and peeped in. It was not she, however, who had come to life, but Ming Yen holding down a girl and likewise indulging in what the Monitory Dream Fairy had taught him.
"Dreadful!" exclaimed Pao-yue, aloud, unable to repress himself, and, stamping one of his feet, he walked into the door to the terror of both of them, who parting company, shivered with fear, like clothes that are being shaken. Ming Yen perceiving that it was Pao-yue promptly fell on his knees and piteously implored for pardon.
"What! in broad daylight! what do you mean by it? Were your master Mr. Chen to hear of it, would you die or live?" asked Pao-yue, as he simultaneously cast a glance at the servant-girl, who although not a beauty was anyhow so spick and span, and possessed besides a few charms sufficient to touch the heart. From shame, her face was red and her ears purple, while she lowered her head and uttered not a syllable.
Pao-yue stamped his foot. "What!" he shouted, "don't you yet bundle yourself away!"
This simple remark suggested the idea to the girl's mind who ran off, as if she had wings to fly with; but as Pao-yue went also so far as to go in pursuit of her, calling out: "Don't be afraid, I'm not one to tell anyone," Ming Yen was so exasperated that he cried, as he went after them, "My worthy ancestor, this is distinctly telling people about it."
"How old is that servant girl?" Pao-yue having asked; "She's, I expect, no more than sixteen or seventeen," Ming Yen rejoined.
"Well, if you haven't gone so far as to even ascertain her age," Pao-yue observed, "you're sure to know still less about other things; and it makes it plain enough that her acquaintance with you is all vain and futile! What a pity! what a pity!"
He then went on to enquire what her name was; and "Were I," continued Ming Yen smiling, "to tell you about her name it would involve a long yarn; it's indeed a novel and strange story! She relates that while her mother was nursing her, she dreamt a dream and obtained in this dream possession of a piece of brocaded silk, on which were designs, in variegated colours, representing opulence and honour, and a continuous line of the character Wan; and that this reason accounts for the name of Wan Erh, which was given her."
"This is really strange!" Pao-yue exclaimed with a grin, after lending an ear to what he had to say; "and she is bound, I think, by and by to have a good deal of good fortune!"
These words uttered, he plunged in deep thought for a while, and Ming Yen having felt constrained to inquire: "Why aren't you, Mr. Secundus, watching a theatrical performance of this excellent kind?" "I had been looking on for ever so long," Pao-yue replied, "until I got quite weary; and had just come out for a stroll, when I happened to meet you two. But what's to be done now?"
Ming Yen gave a faint smile. "As there's no one here to know anything about it," he added, "I'll stealthily take you, Mr. Secundus, for a walk outside the city walls; and we'll come back shortly, before they've got wind of it."
"That won't do," Pao-yue demurred, "we must be careful, or else some beggar might kidnap us away; besides, were they to come to hear of it, there'll be again a dreadful row; and isn't it better that we should go to some nearer place, from which we could, after all, return at once?"
"As for some nearer place," Ming Yen observed; "to whose house can we go? It's really no easy matter!"
"My idea is," Pao-yue suggested with a smirk, "that we should simply go, and find sister Hua, and see what she's up to at home."
"Yes! Yes!" Ming Yen replied laughingly; "the fact is I had forgotten all about her home; but should it reach their ears," he continued, "they'll say that it was I who led you, Mr. Secundus, astray, and they'll beat me!"
"I'm here for you!" Pao-yue having assured him; Ming Yen at these words led the horses round, and the two of them speedily made their exit by the back gate. Luckily Hsi Jen's house was not far off. It was no further than half a li's distance, so that in a twinkle they had already reached the front of the door, and Ming Yen was the first to walk in and to call for Hsi Jen's eldest brother Hua Tzu-fang.
Hsi Jen's mother had, on this occasion, united in her home Hsi Jen, several of her sister's daughters, as well as a few of her nieces, and they were engaged in partaking of fruits and tea, when they heard some one outside call out, "Brother Hua." Hua Tzu-fang lost no time in rushing out; and upon looking and finding that it was the two of them, the master and his servant, he was so taken by surprise that his fears could not be set at rest. Promptly, he clasped Pao-yue in his arms and dismounted him, and coming into the court, he shouted out at the top of his voice: "Mr. Pao has come." The other persons heard the announcement of his arrival, with equanimity, but when it reached Hsi Jen's ears, she truly felt at such a loss to fathom the object of his visit that issuing hastily out of the room, she came to meet Pao-yue, and as she laid hold of him: "Why did you come?" she asked.
"I felt awfully dull," Pao-yue rejoined with a smile, "and came to see what you were up to."
Hsi Jen at these words banished, at last, all anxiety from her mind. "You're again up to your larks," she observed, "but what's the aim of your visit? Who else has come along with him?" she at the same time went on to question Ming Yen.
"All the others know nothing about it!" explained Ming Yen exultingly; "only we two do, that's all."
When Hsi Jen heard this remark, she gave way afresh to solicitous fears: "This is dreadful!" she added; "for were you to come across any one from the house, or to meet master; or were, in the streets, people to press against you, or horses to collide with you, as to make (his horse) shy, and he were to fall, would that too be a joke? The gall of both of you is larger than a peck measure; but it's all you, Ming Yen, who has incited him, and when I go back, I'll surely tell the nurses to beat you."
Ming Yen pouted his mouth. "Mr. Secundus," he pleaded, "abused me and beat me, as he bade me bring him here, and now he shoves the blame on my shoulders! 'Don't let us go,' I suggested; 'but if you do insist, well then let us go and have done.'"
Hua Tzu-fang promptly interceded. "Let things alone," he said; "now that they're already here, there's no need whatever of much ado. The only thing is that our mean house with its thatched roof is both so crammed and so filthy that how could you, sir, sit in it!"
Hsi Jen's mother also came out at an early period to receive him, and Hsi Jen pulled Pao-yue in. Once inside the room, Pao-yue perceived three or five girls, who, as soon as they caught sight of him approaching, all lowered their heads, and felt so bashful that their faces were suffused with blushes. But as both Hua Tzu-fang and his mother were afraid that Pao-yue would catch cold, they pressed him to take a seat on the stove-bed, and hastened to serve a fresh supply of refreshments, and to at once bring him a cup of good tea.
"You needn't be flurrying all for nothing," Hsi Jen smilingly interposed; "I, naturally, should know; and there's no use of even laying out any fruits, as I daren't recklessly give him anything to eat."
Saying this, she simultaneously took her own cushion and laid it on a stool, and after Pao-yue took a seat on it, she placed the footstove she had been using, under his feet; and producing, from a satchet, two peach-blossom-scented small cakes, she opened her own hand-stove and threw them into the fire; which done, she covered it well again and placed it in Pao-yue's lap. And eventually, she filled her own tea-cup with tea and presented it to Pao-yue, while, during this time, her mother and sister had been fussing about, laying out in fine array a tableful of every kind of eatables.
Hsi Jen noticed that there were absolutely no things that he could eat, but she felt urged to say with a smile: "Since you've come, it isn't right that you should go empty away; and you must, whether the things be good or bad, taste a little, so that it may look like a visit to my house!"
As she said this, she forthwith took several seeds of the fir-cone, and cracking off the thin skin, she placed them in a handkerchief and presented them to Pao-yue. But Pao-yue, espying that Hsi Jen's two eyes were slightly red, and that the powder was shiny and moist, quietly therefore inquired of Hsi Jen, "Why do you cry for no rhyme or reason?"
"Why should I cry?" Hsi Jen laughed; "something just got into my eyes and I rubbed them." By these means she readily managed to evade detection; but seeing that Pao-yue wore a deep red archery-sleeved pelisse, ornamented with gold dragons, and lined with fur from foxes' ribs and a grey sable fur surtout with a fringe round the border. "What! have you," she asked, "put on again your new clothes for? specially to come here? and didn't they inquire of you where you were going?"
"I had changed," Pao-yue explained with a grin, "as Mr. Chen had invited me to go over and look at the play."
"Well, sit a while and then go back;" Hsi Jen continued as she nodded her head; "for this isn't the place for you to come to!"
"You'd better be going home now," Pao-yue suggested smirkingly; "where I've again kept something good for you."
"Gently," smiled Hsi Jen, "for were you to let them hear, what figure would we cut?" And with these, words, she put out her hand and unclasping from Pao-yue's neck the jade of Spiritual Perception, she faced her cousins and remarked exultingly. "Here! see for yourselves; look at this and learn! When I repeatedly talked about it, you all thought it extraordinary, and were anxious to have a glance at it; to-day, you may gaze on it with all your might, for whatever precious thing you may by and by come to see will really never excel such an object as this!"
When she had finished speaking, she handed it over to them, and after they had passed it round for inspection, she again fastened it properly on Pao-yue's neck, and also bade her brother go and hire a small carriage, or engage a small chair, and escort Pao-yue back home.
"If I see him back," Hua Tzu-fang remarked, "there would be no harm, were he even to ride his horse!"
"It isn't because of harm," Hsi Jen replied; "but because he may come across some one from the house."
Hua Tzu-fang promptly went and bespoke a small chair; and when it came to the door, the whole party could not very well detain him, and they of course had to see Pao-yue out of the house; while Hsi Jen, on the other hand, snatched a few fruits and gave them to Ming Yen; and as she at the same time pressed in his hand several cash to buy crackers with to let off, she enjoined him not to tell any one as he himself would likewise incur blame.
As she uttered these words, she straightway escorted Pao-yue as far as outside the door, from whence having seen him mount into the sedan chair, she dropped the curtain; whereupon Ming Yen and her brother, the two of them, led the horses and followed behind in his wake. Upon reaching the street where the Ning mansion was situated, Ming Yen told the chair to halt, and said to Hua Tzu-fang, "It's advisable that I should again go, with Mr. Secundus, into the Eastern mansion, to show ourselves before we can safely betake ourselves home; for if we don't, people will suspect!"
Hua Tzu-fang, upon hearing that there was good reason in what he said, promptly clasped Pao-yue out of the chair and put him on the horse, whereupon after Pao-yue smilingly remarked: "Excuse me for the trouble I've surely put you to," they forthwith entered again by the back gate; but putting aside all details, we will now confine ourselves to Pao-yue.
After he had walked out of the door, the several waiting-maids in his apartments played and laughed with greater zest and with less restraint. Some there were who played at chess, others who threw the dice or had a game of cards; and they covered the whole floor with the shells of melon-seeds they were cracking, when dame Li, his nurse, happened to come in, propping herself on a staff, to pay her respects and to see Pao-yue, and perceiving that Pao-yue was not at home and that the servant-girls were only bent upon romping, she felt intensely disgusted. "Since I've left this place," she therefore exclaimed with a sigh, "and don't often come here, you've become more and more unmannerly; while the other nurse does still less than ever venture to expostulate with you; Pao-yue is like a candlestick eighty feet high, shedding light on others, and throwing none upon himself! All he knows is to look down upon people as being filthy; and yet this is his room and he allows you to put it topsy-turvey, and to become more and more unmindful of decorum!"
These servant-girls were well aware that Pao-yue was not particular in these respects, and that in the next place nurse Li, having pleaded old age, resigned her place and gone home, had nowadays no control over them, so that they simply gave their minds to romping and joking, and paid no heed whatever to her. Nurse Li however still kept on asking about Pao-yue, "How much rice he now ate at one meal? and at what time he went to sleep?" to which questions, the servant-girls replied quite at random; some there being too who observed: "What a dreadful despicable old thing she is!"
"In this covered bowl," she continued to inquire, "is cream, and why not give it to me to eat?" and having concluded these words, she took it up and there and then began eating it.
"Be quick, and leave it alone!" a servant-girl expostulated, "that, he said, was kept in order to be given to Hsi Jen; and on his return, when he again gets into a huff, you, old lady, must, on your own motion, confess to having eaten it, and not involve us in any way as to have to bear his resentment."
Nurse Li, at these words, felt both angry and ashamed. "I can't believe," she forthwith remarked, "that he has become so bad at heart! Not to speak of the milk I've had, I have, in fact every right to even something more expensive than this; for is it likely that he holds Hsi Jen dearer than myself? It can't forsooth be that he doesn't bear in mind how that I've brought him up to be a big man, and how that he has eaten my blood transformed into milk and grown up to this age! and will be because I'm now having a bowl of milk of his be angry on that score! I shall, yes, eat it, and we'll see what he'll do! I don't know what you people think of Hsi Jen, but she was a lowbred girl, whom I've with my own hands raised up! and what fine object indeed was she!"
As she spoke, she flew into a temper, and taking the cream she drank the whole of it.
"They don't know how to speak properly!" another servant-girl interposed sarcastically, "and it's no wonder that you, old lady, should get angry! Pao-yue still sends you, venerable dame, presents as a proof of his gratitude, and is it possible that he will feel displeased for such a thing like this?"
"You girls shouldn't also pretend to be artful flatterers to cajole me!" nurse Li added; "do you imagine that I'm not aware of the dismissal, the other day, of Hsi Hsueeh, on account of a cup of tea? and as it's clear enough that I've incurred blame, I'll come by and by and receive it!"
Having said this, she went off in a dudgeon, but not a long interval elapsed before Pao-yue returned, and gave orders to go and fetch Hsi Jen; and perceiving Ching Ling reclining on the bed perfectly still: "I presume she's ill," Pao-yue felt constrained to inquire, "or if she isn't ill, she must have lost at cards."
"Not so!" observed Chiu Wen; "she had been a winner, but dame Li came in quite casually and muddled her so that she lost; and angry at this she rushed off to sleep."
"Don't place yourselves," Pao-yue smiled, "on the same footing as nurse Li, and if you were to let her alone, everything will be all right."
These words were still on his lips when Hsi Jen arrived. After the mutual salutations, Hsi Jen went on to ask of Pao-yue: "Where did you have your repast? and what time did you come back?" and to present likewise, on behalf of her mother and sister, her compliments to all the girls, who were her companions. In a short while, she changed her costume and divested herself of her fineries, and Pao-yue bade them fetch the cream.
"Nurse Li has eaten it," the servant-girls rejoined, and as Pao-yue was on the point of making some remark Hsi Jen hastened to interfere, laughing the while; "Is it really this that you had kept for me? many thanks for the trouble; the other day, when I had some, I found it very toothsome, but after I had partaken of it, I got a pain in the stomach, and was so much upset, that it was only after I had brought it all up that I felt all right. So it's as well that she has had it, for, had it been kept here, it would have been wasted all for no use! What I fancy are dry chestnuts; and while you clean a few for me, I'll go and lay the bed!"
Pao-yue upon hearing these words credited them as true, so that he discarded all thought of the cream and fetched the chestnuts, which he, with his own hands, selected and pealed. Perceiving at the same time that none of the party were present in the room, he put on a smile and inquired of Hsi Jen: "Who were those persons dressed in red to day?"
"They're my two cousins on my mother's side," Hsi Jen explained, and hearing this, Pao-yue sang their praise as he heaved a couple of sighs.
"What are you sighing for?" Hsi Jen remarked. "I know the secret reasons of your heart; it's I fancy because she isn't fit to wear red!"
"It isn't that," Pao-yue protested smilingly, "it isn't that; if such a person as that isn't good enough to be dressed in red, who would forsooth presume to wear it? It's because I find her so really lovely! and if we could, after all, manage to get her into our family, how nice it would be then!"
Hsi Jen gave a sardonic smile. "That it's my own fate to be a slave doesn't matter, but is it likely that the destiny of even my very relatives could be to become one and all of them bond servants? But you should certainly set your choice upon some really beautiful girl, for she would in that case be good enough to enter your house."
"Here you are again with your touchiness!" Pao-yue eagerly exclaimed smiling, "if I said that she should come to our house, does it necessarily imply that she should be a servant? and wouldn't it do were I to mention that she should come as a relative!"
"That too couldn't exalt her to be a fit match for you!" rejoined Hsi Jen; but Pao-yue being loth to continue the conversation, simply busied himself with cleaning the chestnuts.
"How is it you utter not a word?" Hsi Jen laughed; "I expect it's because I just offended you by my inconsiderate talk! But if by and by you have your purpose fixed on it, just spend a few ounces of silver to purchase them with, and bring them in and have done!"
"How would you have one make any reply?" Pao-yue smilingly rejoined; "all I did was to extol her charms; for she's really fit to have been born in a deep hall and spacious court as this; and it isn't for such foul things as myself and others to contrariwise spend our days in this place!"
"Though deprived of this good fortune," Hsi Jen explained, "she's nevertheless also petted and indulged and the jewel of my maternal uncle and my aunt! She's now seventeen years of age, and everything in the way of trousseau has been got ready, and she's to get married next year."
Upon hearing the two words "get married," he could not repress himself from again ejaculating: "Hai hai!" but while he was in an unhappy frame of mind, he once more heard Hsi Jen remark as she heaved a sigh: "Ever since I've come here, we cousins haven't all these years been able to get to live together, and now that I'm about to return home, they, on the other hand, will all be gone!"
Pao-yue, realising that there lurked in this remark some meaning or other, was suddenly so taken aback that dropping the chestnuts, he inquired: "How is it that you now want to go back?"
"I was present to-day," Hsi Jen explained, "when mother and brother held consultation together, and they bade me be patient for another year, and that next year they'll come up and redeem me out of service!"
Pao-yue, at these words, felt the more distressed. "Why do they want to redeem you?" he consequently asked.
"This is a strange question!" Hsi Jen retorted, "for I can't really be treated as if I were the issue born in this homestead of yours! All the members of my family are elsewhere, and there's only myself in this place, so that how could I end my days here?"
"If I don't let you go, it will verily be difficult for you to get away!" Pao-yue replied.
"There has never been such a principle of action!" urged Hsi Jen; "even in the imperial palace itself, there's a fixed rule, by which possibly every certain number of years a selection (of those who have to go takes place), and every certain number of years a new batch enters; and there's no such practice as that of keeping people for ever; not to speak of your own home."
Pao-yue realised, after reflection, that she, in point of fact, was right, and he went on to observe: "Should the old lady not give you your release, it will be impossible for you to get off."
"Why shouldn't she release me?" Hsi Jen questioned. "Am I really so very extraordinary a person as to have perchance made such an impression upon her venerable ladyship and my lady that they will be positive in not letting me go? They may, in all likelihood, give my family some more ounces of silver to keep me here; that possibly may come about. But, in truth, I'm also a person of the most ordinary run, and there are many more superior to me, yea very many! Ever since my youth up, I've been in her old ladyship's service; first by waiting upon Miss Shih for several years, and recently by being in attendance upon you for another term of years; and now that our people will come to redeem me, I should, as a matter of right, be told to go. My idea is that even the very redemption money won't be accepted, and that they will display such grace as to let me go at once. And, as for being told that I can't be allowed to go as I'm so diligent in my service to you, that's a thing that can on no account come about! My faithful attendance is an obligation of my duties, and is no exceptional service! and when I'm gone you'll again have some other faithful attendant, and it isn't likely that when I'm no more here, you'll find it impracticable to obtain one!"
After Pao-yue had listened to these various arguments, which proved the reasonableness of her going and the unreasonableness of any detention, he felt his heart more than ever a prey to distress. "In spite of all you say," he therefore continued, "the sole desire of my heart is to detain you; and I have no doubt but that the old lady will speak to your mother about it; and if she were to give your mother ample money, she'll, of course, not feel as if she could very well with any decency take you home!"
"My mother won't naturally have the audacity to be headstrong!" Hsi Jen ventured, "not to speak besides of the nice things, which may be told her and the lots of money she may, in addition, be given; but were she even not to be paid any compliments, and not so much as a single cash given her, she won't, if you set your mind upon keeping me here, presume not to comply with your wishes, were it also against my inclination. One thing however; our family would never rely upon prestige, and trust upon honorability to do anything so domineering as this! for this isn't like anything else, which, because you take a fancy to it, a hundred per cent profit can be added, and it obtained for you! This action can be well taken if the seller doesn't suffer loss! But in the present instance, were they to keep me back for no rhyme or reason, it would also be of no benefit to yourself; on the contrary, they would be instrumental in keeping us blood relatives far apart; a thing the like of which, I feel positive that dowager lady Chia and my lady will never do!"
After lending an ear to this argument, Pao-yue cogitated within himself for a while. "From what you say," he then observed, "when you say you'll go, it means that you'll go for certain!"
"Yes, that I'll go for certain," Hsi Jen rejoined.
"Who would have anticipated," Pao-yue, after these words, mused in his own heart, "that a person like her would have shown such little sense of gratitude, and such a lack of respect! Had I," he then remarked aloud with a sigh, "been aware, at an early date, that your whole wish would have been to go, I wouldn't, in that case, have brought you over! But when you're away, I shall remain alone, a solitary spirit!"
As he spoke, he lost control over his temper, and, getting into bed, he went to sleep.
The fact is that when Hsi Jen had been at home, and she heard her mother and brother express their intention of redeeming her back, she there and then observed that were she even at the point of death, she would not return home. "When in past days," she had argued, "you had no rice to eat, there remained myself, who was still worth several taels; and hadn't I urged you to sell me, wouldn't I have seen both father and mother die of starvation under my very eyes? and you've now had the good fortune of selling me into this place, where I'm fed and clothed just like a mistress, and where I'm not beaten by day, nor abused by night! Besides, though now father be no more, you two have anyhow by putting things straight again, so adjusted the family estate that it has resumed its primitive condition. And were you, in fact, still in straitened circumstances, and you could by redeeming me back, make again some more money, that would be well and good; but the truth is that there's no such need, and what would be the use for you to redeem me at such a time as this? You should temporarily treat me as dead and gone, and shouldn't again recall any idea of redeeming me!"
Having in consequence indulged in a loud fit of crying, her mother and brother resolved, when they perceived her in this determined frame of mind, that for a fact there was no need for her to come out of service. What is more they had sold her under contract until death, in the distinct reliance that the Chia family, charitable and generous a family as it was, would, possibly, after no more than a few entreaties, make them a present of her person as well as the purchase money. In the second place, never had they in the Chia mansion ill-used any of those below; there being always plenty of grace and little of imperiousness. Besides, the servant-girls, who acted as personal attendants in the apartments of the old as well as of the young, were treated so far unlike the whole body of domestics in the household that the daughters even of an ordinary and penniless parentage could not have been so looked up to. And these considerations induced both the mother as well as her son to at once dispel the intention and not to redeem her, and when Pao-yue had subsequently paid them an unexpected visit, and the two of them (Pao-yue and Hsi Jen) were seen to be also on such terms, the mother and her son obtained a clearer insight into their relations, and still one more burden (which had pressed on their mind) fell to the ground, and as besides this was a contingency, which they had never reckoned upon, they both composed their hearts, and did not again entertain any idea of ransoming her.
It must be noticed moreover that Hsi Jen had ever since her youth not been blind to the fact that Pao-yue had an extraordinary temperament, that he was self-willed and perverse, far even in excess of all young lads, and that he had, in addition, a good many peculiarities and many unspeakable defects. And as of late he had placed such reliance in the fond love of his grandmother that his father and mother even could not exercise any extreme control over him, he had become so much the more remiss, dissolute, selfish and unconcerned, not taking the least pleasure in what was proper, that she felt convinced, whenever she entertained the idea of tendering him advice, that he would not listen to her. On this day, by a strange coincidence, came about the discussion respecting her ransom, and she designedly made use, in the first instance, of deception with a view to ascertain his feelings, to suppress his temper, and to be able subsequently to extend to him some words of admonition; and when she perceived that Pao-yue had now silently gone to sleep, she knew that his feelings could not brook the idea of her return and that his temper had already subsided. She had never had, as far as she was concerned, any desire of eating chestnuts, but as she feared lest, on account of the cream, some trouble might arise, which might again lead to the same results as when Hsi Hsueeh drank the tea, she consequently made use of the pretence that she fancied chestnuts, in order to put off Pao-yue from alluding (to the cream) and to bring the matter speedily to an end. But telling forthwith the young waiting-maids to take the chestnuts away and eat them, she herself came and pushed Pao-yue; but at the sight of Pao-yue with the traces of tears on his face, she at once put on a smiling expression and said: "What's there in this to wound your heart? If you positively do wish to keep me, I shall, of course, not go away!"
Pao-yue noticed that these words contained some hidden purpose, and readily observed: "Do go on and tell me what else I can do to succeed in keeping you here, for of my own self I find it indeed difficult to say how!"
"Of our friendliness all along," Hsi Jen smilingly rejoined, "there's naturally no need to speak; but, if you have this day made up your mind to retain me here, it isn't through this friendship that you'll succeed in doing so. But I'll go on and mention three distinct conditions, and, if you really do accede to my wishes, you'll then have shown an earnest desire to keep me here, and I won't go, were even a sword to be laid on my neck!"
"Do tell me what these conditions are," Pao-yue pressed her with alacrity, as he smiled, "and I'll assent to one and all. My dear sister, my own dear sister, not to speak of two or three, but even two or three hundred of them I'm quite ready to accept. All I entreat you is that you and all of you should combine to watch over me and take care of me, until some day when I shall be transformed into flying ashes; but flying ashes are, after all, not opportune, as they have form and substance and they likewise possess sense, but until I've been metamorphosed into a streak of subtle smoke. And when the wind shall have with one puff dispelled me, all of you then will be unable to attend to me, just as much as I myself won't be able to heed you. You will, when that time comes, let me go where I please, as I'll let you speed where you choose to go!"
These words so harassed Hsi Jen that she hastened to put her hand over his mouth. "Speak decently," she said; "I was on account of this just about to admonish you, and now here you are uttering all this still more loathsome trash."
"I won't utter these words again," Pao-yue eagerly added.
"This is the first fault that you must change," Hsi Jen replied.
"I'll amend," Pao-yue observed, "and if I say anything of the kind again you can wring my mouth; but what else is there?"
"The second thing is this," Hsi Jen explained; "whether you really like to study or whether you only pretend to like study is immaterial; but you should, when you are in the presence of master, or in the presence of any one else, not do nothing else than find fault with people and make fun of them, but behave just as if you were genuinely fond of study, so that you shouldn't besides provoke your father so much to anger, and that he should before others have also a chance of saying something! 'In my family,' he reflects within himself, 'generation after generation has been fond of books, but ever since I've had you, you haven't accomplished my expectations, and not only is it that you don't care about reading books,'--and this has already filled his heart with anger and vexation,--'but both before my face and behind my back, you utter all that stuff and nonsense, and give those persons, who have, through their knowledge of letters, attained high offices, the nickname of the "the salaried worms." You also uphold that there's no work exclusive (of the book where appears) "fathom spotless virtue;" and that all other books consist of foolish compilations, which owe their origin to former authors, who, unable themselves to expound the writings of Confucius, readily struck a new line and invented original notions.' Now with words like these, how can one wonder if master loses all patience, and if he does from time to time give you a thrashing! and what do you make other people think of you?"
"I won't say these things again," Pao-yue laughingly protested, "these are the reckless and silly absurdities of a time when I was young and had no idea of the height of the heavens and the thickness of the earth; but I'll now no more repeat them. What else is there besides?"
"It isn't right that you should sneer at the bonzes and vilify the Taoist priests, nor mix cosmetics or prepare rouge," Hsi Jen continued; "but there's still another thing more important, you shouldn't again indulge the bad habits of licking the cosmetic, applied by people on their lips, nor be fond of (girls dressed) in red!"
"I'll change in all this," Pao-yue added by way of rejoinder; "I'll change in all this; and if there's anything more be quick and tell me."
"There's nothing more," Hsi Jen observed; "but you must in everything exercise a little more diligence, and not indulge your caprices and allow your wishes to run riot, and you'll be all right. And should you comply to all these things in real earnest, you couldn't carry me out, even in a chair with eight bearers."
"Well, if you do stay in here long enough," Pao-yue remarked with a smile, "there's no fear as to your not having an eight-bearer-chair to sit in!"
Hsi Jen gave a sardonic grin. "I don't care much about it," she replied; "and were I even to have such good fortune, I couldn't enjoy such a right. But allowing I could sit in one, there would be no pleasure in it!"
While these two were chatting, they saw Ch'iu Wen walk in. "It's the third watch of the night," she observed, "and you should go to sleep. Just a few moments back your grandmother lady Chia and our lady sent a nurse to ask about you, and I replied that you were asleep."
Pao-yue bade her fetch a watch, and upon looking at the time, he found indeed that the hand was pointing at ten; whereupon rinsing his mouth again and loosening his clothes, he retired to rest, where we will leave him without any further comment.
The next day, Hsi Jen got up as soon as it was dawn, feeling her body heavy, her head sore, her eyes swollen, and her limbs burning like fire. She managed however at first to keep up, an effort though it was, but as subsequently she was unable to endure the strain, and all she felt disposed to do was to recline, she therefore lay down in her clothes on the stove-couch. Pao-yue hastened to tell dowager lady Chia, and the doctor was sent for, who, upon feeling her pulse and diagnosing her complaint, declared that there was nothing else the matter with her than a chill, which she had suddenly contracted, that after she had taken a dose or two of medicine, it would be dispelled, and that she would be quite well. After he had written the prescription and taken his departure, some one was despatched to fetch the medicines, which when brought were properly decocted. As soon as she had swallowed a dose, Pao-yue bade her cover herself with her bed-clothes so as to bring on perspiration; while he himself came into Tai-yue's room to look her up. Tai-yue was at this time quite alone, reclining on her bed having a midday siesta, and the waiting-maids having all gone out to attend to whatever they pleased, the whole room was plunged in stillness and silence. Pao-yue raised the embroidered soft thread portiere and walked in; and upon espying Tai-yue in the room fast asleep, he hurriedly approached her and pushing her: "Dear cousin," he said, "you've just had your meal, and are you asleep already?" and he kept on calling "Tai-yue" till he woke her out of her sleep.
Perceiving that it was Pao-yue, "You had better go for a stroll," Tai-yue urged, "for the day before yesterday I was disturbed the whole night, and up to this day I haven't had rest enough to get over the fatigue. My whole body feels languid and sore."
"This languor and soreness," Pao-yue rejoined, "are of no consequence; but if you go on sleeping you'll be feeling very ill; so I'll try and distract you, and when we've dispelled this lassitude, you'll be all right."
Tai-yue closed her eyes. "I don't feel any lassitude," she explained, "all I want is a little rest; and you had better go elsewhere and come back after romping about for a while."
"Where can I go?" Pao-yue asked as he pushed her. "I'm quite sick and tired of seeing the others."
At these words, Tai-yue burst out laughing with a sound of Ch'ih. "Well! since you wish to remain here," she added, "go over there and sit down quietly, and let's have a chat."
"I'll also recline," Pao-yue suggested.
"Well, then, recline!" Tai-yue assented.
"There's no pillow," observed Pao-yue, "so let us lie on the same pillow."
"What nonsense!" Tai-yue urged, "aren't those pillows outside? get one and lie on it."
Pao-yue walked into the outer apartment, and having looked about him, he returned and remarked with a smile: "I don't want those, they may be, for aught I know, some dirty old hag's."
Tai-yue at this remark opened her eyes wide, and as she raised herself up: "You're really," she exclaimed laughingly, "the evil star of my existence! here, please recline on this pillow!" and as she uttered these words, she pushed her own pillow towards Pao-yue, and, getting up she went and fetched another of her own, upon which she lay her head in such a way that both of them then reclined opposite to each other. But Tai-yue, upon turning up her eyes and looking, espied on Pao-yue's cheek on the left side of his face, a spot of blood about the size of a button, and speedily bending her body, she drew near to him, and rubbing it with her hand, she scrutinised it closely. "Whose nail," she went on to inquire, "has scratched this open?"
Pao-yue with his body still reclining withdrew from her reach, and as he did so, he answered with a smile: "It isn't a scratch; it must, I presume, be simply a drop, which bespattered my cheek when I was just now mixing and clarifying the cosmetic paste for them."
Saying this, he tried to get at his handkerchief to wipe it off; but Tai-yue used her own and rubbed it clean for him, while she observed: "Do you still give your mind to such things? attend to them you may; but must you carry about you a placard (to make it public)? Though uncle mayn't see it, were others to notice it, they would treat it as a strange occurrence and a novel bit of news, and go and tell him to curry favour, and when it has reached uncle's ear, we shall all again not come out clean, and provoke him to anger."
Pao-yue did not in the least heed what she said, being intent upon smelling a subtle scent which, in point of fact, emanated from Tai-yue's sleeve, and when inhaled inebriated the soul and paralysed the bones. With a snatch, Pao-yue laid hold of Tai-yue's sleeve meaning to see what object was concealed in it; but Tai-yue smilingly expostulated: "At such a time as this," she said, "who keeps scents about one?"
"Well, in that case," Pao-yue rejoined with a smirking face, "where does this scent come from?"
"I myself don't know," Tai-yue replied; "I presume it must be, there's no saying, some scent in the press which has impregnated the clothes."
"It doesn't follow," Pao-yue added, as he shook his head; "the fumes of this smell are very peculiar, and don't resemble the perfume of scent-bottles, scent-balls, or scented satchets!"
"Is it likely that I have, like others, Buddhistic disciples," Tai-yue asked laughing ironically, "or worthies to give me novel kinds of scents? But supposing there is about me some peculiar scent, I haven't, at all events, any older or younger brothers to get the flowers, buds, dew, and snow, and concoct any for me; all I have are those common scents, that's all."
"Whenever I utter any single remark," Pao-yue urged with a grin, "you at once bring up all these insinuations; but unless I deal with you severely, you'll never know what stuff I'm made of; but from henceforth I'll no more show you any grace!"
As he spoke, he turned himself over, and raising himself, he puffed a couple of breaths into both his hands, and hastily stretching them out, he tickled Tai-yue promiscuously under her armpits, and along both sides. Tai-yue had never been able to stand tickling, so that when Pao-yue put out his two hands and tickled her violently, she forthwith giggled to such an extent that she could scarcely gasp for breath. "If you still go on teasing me," she shouted, "I'll get angry with you!"
Pao-yue then kept his hands off, and as he laughed, "Tell me," he asked, "will you again come out with all those words or not?"
"I daren't do it again," Tai-yue smiled and adjusted her hair; adding with another laugh: "I may have peculiar scents, but have you any 'warm' scents?"
Pao-yue at this question, could not for a time unfold its meaning: "What 'warm' scent?" he therefore asked.
Tai-yue nodded her head and smiled deridingly. "How stupid! what a fool!" she sighed; "you have jade, and another person has gold to match with you, and if some one has 'cold' scent, haven't you any 'warm' scent as a set-off?"
Pao-yue at this stage alone understood the import of her remark.
"A short while back you craved for mercy," Pao-yue observed smilingly, "and here you are now going on talking worse than ever;" and as he spoke he again put out his hands.
"Dear cousin," Tai-yue speedily implored with a smirk, "I won't venture to do it again."
"As for letting you off," Pao-yue remarked laughing, "I'll readily let you off, but do allow me to take your sleeve and smell it!" and while uttering these words, he hastily pulled the sleeve, and pressing it against his face, kept on smelling it incessantly, whereupon Tai-yue drew her hand away and urged: "You must be going now!"
"Though you may wish me to go, I can't," Pao-yue smiled, "so let us now lie down with all propriety and have a chat," laying himself down again, as he spoke, while Tai-yue likewise reclined, and covered her face with her handkerchief. Pao-yue in a rambling way gave vent to a lot of nonsense, which Tai-yue did not heed, and Pao-yue went on to inquire: "How old she was when she came to the capital? what sights and antiquities she saw on the journey? what relics and curiosities there were at Yang Chou? what were the local customs and the habits of the people?"
Tai-yue made no reply; and Pao-yue fearing lest she should go to sleep, and get ill, readily set to work to beguile her to keep awake. "Ai yah!" he exclaimed, "at Yang Chou, where your official residence is, has occurred a remarkable affair; have you heard about it?"
Tai-yue perceiving that he spoke in earnest, that his words were correct and his face serious, imagined that what he referred to was a true story, and she therefore inquired what it was?
Pao-yue upon hearing her ask this question, forthwith suppressed a laugh, and, with a glib tongue, he began to spin a yarn. "At Yang Chou," he said, "there's a hill called the Tai hill; and on this hill stands a cave called the Lin Tzu."
"This must all be lies," Tai-yue answered sneeringly, "as I've never before heard of such a hill."
"Under the heavens many are the hills and rivers," Pao-yue rejoined, "and how could you know them all? Wait until I've done speaking, when you will be free to express your opinion!"
"Go on then," Tai-yue suggested, whereupon Pao-yue prosecuted his raillery. "In this Lin Tzu cave," he said, "there was once upon a time a whole swarm of rat-elves. In some year or other and on the seventh day of the twelfth moon, an old rat ascended the throne to discuss matters. 'Tomorrow,' he argued, 'is the eighth of the twelfth moon, and men in the world will all be cooking the congee of the eighth of the twelfth moon. We have now in our cave a short supply of fruits of all kinds, and it would be well that we should seize this opportunity to steal a few and bring them over.' Drawing a mandatory arrow, he handed it to a small rat, full of aptitude, to go forward on a tour of inspection. The young rat on his return reported that he had already concluded his search and inquiries in every place and corner, and that in the temple at the bottom of the hill alone was the largest stock of fruits and rice. 'How many kinds of rice are there?' the old rat ascertained, 'and how many species of fruits?' 'Rice and beans,' the young rat rejoined, 'how many barns-full there are, I can't remember; but in the way of fruits there are five kinds: 1st, red dates; 2nd, chestnuts; 3rd, ground nuts; 4th, water caltrops, and 5th, scented taros.' At this report the old rat was so much elated that he promptly detailed rats to go forth; and as he drew the mandatory arrow, and inquired who would go and steal the rice, a rat readily received the order and went off to rob the rice. Drawing another mandatory arrow, he asked who would go and abstract the beans, when once more a rat took over the arrow and started to steal the beans; and one by one subsequently received each an arrow and started on his errand. There only remained the scented taros, so that picking again a mandatory arrow, he ascertained who would go and carry away the taros: whereupon a very puny and very delicate rat was heard to assent. 'I would like,' he said, 'to go and steal the scented taros.' The old rat and all the swarm of rats, upon noticing his state, feared that he would not be sufficiently expert, and apprehending at the same time that he was too weakly and too devoid of energy, they one and all would not allow him to proceed. 'Though I be young in years and though my frame be delicate,' the wee rat expostulated, 'my devices are unlimited, my talk is glib and my designs deep and farseeing; and I feel convinced that, on this errand, I shall be more ingenious in pilfering than any of them.' 'How could you be more ingenious than they?' the whole company of rats asked. 'I won't,' explained the young rat, 'follow their example, and go straight to work and steal, but by simply shaking my body, and transforming myself, I shall metamorphose myself into a taro, and roll myself among the heap of taros, so that people will not be able to detect me, and to hear me; whereupon I shall stealthily, by means of the magic art of dividing my body into many, begin the removal, and little by little transfer the whole lot away, and will not this be far more ingenious than any direct pilfering or forcible abstraction?' After the whole swarm of rats had listened to what he had to say, they, with one voice, exclaimed: 'Excellent it is indeed, but what is this art of metamorphosis we wonder? Go forth you may, but first transform yourself and let us see you.' At these words the young rat laughed. 'This isn't a hard task!' he observed, 'wait till I transform myself.'
"Having done speaking, he shook his body and shouted out 'transform,' when he was converted into a young girl, most beauteous and with a most lovely face.
"'You've transformed yourself into the wrong thing,' all the rats promptly added deridingly; 'you said that you were to become a fruit, and how is it that you've turned into a young lady?'
"The young rat in its original form rejoined with a sneering smile: 'You all lack, I maintain, experience of the world; what you simply are aware of is that this fruit is the scented taro, but have no idea that the young daughter of Mr. Lin, of the salt tax, is, in real truth, a genuine scented taro.'"
Tai-yue having listened to this story, turned herself round and raising herself, she observed laughing, while she pushed Pao-yue: "I'll take that mouth of yours and pull it to pieces! Now I see that you've been imposing upon me."
With these words on her lips, she readily gave him a pinch, and Pao-yue hastened to plead for mercy. "My dear cousin," he said, "spare me; I won't presume to do it again; and it's when I came to perceive this perfume of yours, that I suddenly bethought myself of this old story."
"You freely indulge in abusing people," Tai-yue added with a smile, "and then go on to say that it's an old story."
But hardly had she concluded this remark before they caught sight of Pao-ch'ai walk in. "Who has been telling old stories?" she asked with a beaming face; "do let me also hear them."
Tai-yue pressed her at once into a seat. "Just see for yourself who else besides is here!" she smiled; "he goes in for profuse abuses and then maintains that it's an old story!"
"Is it indeed cousin Pao-yue?" Pao-ch'ai remarked. "Well, one can't feel surprised at his doing it; for many have ever been the stories stored up in his brain. The only pity is that when he should make use of old stories, he invariably forgets them! To-day, he can easily enough recall them to mind, but in the stanza of the other night on the banana leaves, when he should have remembered them, he couldn't after all recollect what really stared him in the face! and while every one else seemed so cool, he was in such a flurry that he actually perspired! And yet, at this moment, he happens once again to have a memory!"
At these words, Tai-yue laughed. "O-mi-to-fu!" she exclaimed. "You are indeed my very good cousin! But you've also (to Pao-yue) come across your match. And this makes it clear that requital and retribution never fail or err."
She had just reached this part of her sentence, when in Pao-yue's rooms was heard a continuous sound of wrangling; but as what transpired is not yet known, the ensuing chapter will explain.
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