中国经典 》 红楼梦 A Dream of Red Mansions 》
第五十二回 俏平儿情掩虾须镯 勇晴雯病补雀金裘 CHAPTER LII.
曹雪芹 Cao Xueqin
高鹗 Gao E
CHAPTER LII.
贾母道：“正是这话了。上次我要说这话，我见你们的大事多，如今又添出这些事来， 你们固然不敢抱怨，未免想着我只顾疼这些小孙子孙女儿们，就不体贴你们这当家人了。 你既这么说出来，更好了。”因此时薛姨妈李婶都在座，邢夫人及尤氏婆媳也都过来请安，还未过去，贾母向王夫人等说道：“今儿我才说这话，素日我不说，一则怕逞了凤丫头的脸，二则众人不伏。今日你们都在这里，都是经过妯娌姑嫂的，还有他这样想的到的没有？ "薛姨妈，李婶，尤氏等齐笑说：“真个少有。别人不过是礼上面子情儿， 实在他是真疼小叔子小姑子。就是老太太跟前，也是真孝顺。”贾母点头叹道：“我虽疼他，我又怕他太伶俐也不是好事。”凤姐儿忙笑道：“这话老祖宗说差了。世人都说太伶俐聪明，怕活不长。世人都说得，人人都信，独老祖宗不当说，不当信。老祖宗只有伶俐聪明过我十倍的， 怎么如今这样福寿双全的？只怕我明儿还胜老祖宗一倍呢！我活一千岁后， 等老祖宗归了西，我才死呢。”贾母笑道：“众人都死了，单剩下咱们两个老妖精，有什么意思。”说的众人都笑了。
宝玉因记挂着晴雯袭人等事， 便先回园里来。到房中，药香满屋，一人不见，只见晴雯独卧于炕上， 脸面烧的飞红，又摸了一摸，只觉烫手。忙又向炉上将手烘暖，伸进被去摸了一摸身上，也是火烧。因说道：“别人去了也罢，麝月秋纹也这样无情，各自去了？"晴雯道：“秋纹是我撵了他去吃饭的，麝月是方才平儿来找他出去了。两人鬼鬼祟祟的， 不知说什么。必是说我病了不出去。”宝玉道：“平儿不是那样人。况且他并不知你病特来瞧你，想来一定是找麝月来说话，偶然见你病了，随口说特瞧你的病，这也是人情乖觉取和的常事。 便不出去，有不是，与他何干？你们素日又好，断不肯为这无干的事伤和气。 "晴雯道：“这话也是，只是疑他为什么忽然间瞒起我来。”宝玉笑道：“让我从后门出去，到那窗根下听听说些什么，来告诉你。”说着，果然从后门出去，至窗下潜听。
只闻麝月悄问道：“你怎么就得了的？"平儿道：“那日洗手时不见了，二奶奶就不许吵嚷，出了园子，即刻就传给园里各处的妈妈们小心查访。我们只疑惑邢姑娘的丫头， 本来又穷，只怕小孩子家没见过，拿了起来也是有的。再不料定是你们这里的。幸而二奶奶没有在屋里， 你们这里的宋妈妈去了，拿着这支镯子，说是小丫头子坠儿偷起来的， 被他看见，来回二奶奶的。我赶着忙接了镯子，想了一想：宝玉是偏在你们身上留心用意，争胜要强的，那一年有一个良儿偷玉，刚冷了一二年间，还有人提起来趁愿，这会子又跑出一个偷金子的来了。而且更偷到街坊家去了。偏是他这样，偏是他的人打嘴。 所以我倒忙叮咛宋妈，千万别告诉宝玉，只当没有这事，别和一个人提起。第二件， 老太太，太太听了也生气。三则袭人和你们也不好看。所以我回二奶奶，只说：‘我往大奶奶那里去的，谁知镯子褪了口，丢在草根底下，雪深了没看见。今儿雪化尽了，黄澄澄的映着日头，还在那里呢，我就拣了起来。’二奶奶也就信了，所以我来告诉你们。 你们以后防着他些，别使唤他到别处去。等袭人回来，你们商议着，变个法子打发出去就完了。 "麝月道：“这小娼妇也见过些东西，怎么这么眼皮子浅。”平儿道：“究竟这镯子能多少重，原是二奶奶说的，这叫做‘虾须镯’，倒是这颗珠子还罢了。晴雯那蹄子是块爆炭，要告诉了他，他是忍不住的。一时气了，或打或骂，依旧嚷出来不好，所以单告诉你留心就是了。”说着便作辞而去。
宝玉听了，又喜又气又叹。喜的是平儿竟能体贴自己，气的是坠儿小窃，叹的是坠儿那样一个伶俐人，作出这丑事来。因而回至房中据、辨伪，反对宋儒空谈心性义理之弊，由经至史、子之学，，把平儿之话一长一短告诉了晴雯。又说：“他说你是个要强的，如今病着，听了这话越发要添病，等好了再告诉你。”晴雯听了， 果然气的蛾眉倒蹙，凤眼圆睁，即时就叫坠儿。宝玉忙劝道：“你这一喊出来，岂不辜负了平儿待你我之心了。不如领他这个情，过后打发他就完了。”晴雯道：“虽如此说，只是这口气如何忍得！"宝玉道：“这有什么气的？你只养病就是了。”
晴雯服了药， 至晚间又服二和，夜间虽有些汗，还未见效，仍是发烧，头疼鼻塞声重。次日，王太医又来诊视，另加减汤剂。虽然稍减了烧，仍是头疼。宝玉便命麝月：“取鼻烟来，给他嗅些痛打几个嚏喷，就通了关窍。”麝月果真去取了一个金镶双扣金星玻璃的一个扁盒来，递与宝玉。宝玉便揭翻盒扇，里面有西洋珐琅的黄发赤身女子，两肋又有肉翅，里面盛着些真正汪恰洋烟。晴雯只顾看画儿，宝玉道：“嗅些，走了气就不好了。”晴雯听说，忙用指甲挑了些嗅入鼻中，不怎样。便又多多挑了些嗅入。忽觉鼻中一股酸辣透入Ч门，接连打了五六个嚏喷，眼泪鼻涕登时齐流。晴雯忙收了盒子，笑道：“了不得， 好爽快！拿纸来。”早有小丫头子递过一搭子细纸，晴雯便一张一张的拿来醒鼻子。宝玉笑问：“如何？"晴雯笑道：“果觉通快些，只是太阳还疼。”宝玉笑道：“越性尽用西洋药治一治，只怕就好了。”说着，便命麝月：“和二奶奶要去，就说我说了：姐姐那里常有那西洋贴头疼的膏子药，叫做’依弗哪’，找寻一点儿。”麝月答应了，去了半日，果拿了半节来。便去找了一块红缎子角儿，铰了两块指顶大的圆式，将那药烤和了，用簪挺摊上。晴雯自拿着一面靶镜，贴在两太阳上。麝月笑道：“病的蓬头鬼一样，如今贴了这个， 倒俏皮了。二奶奶贴惯了，倒不大显。”说毕，又向宝玉道：“二奶奶说了：明日是舅老爷生日，太太说了叫你去呢。明儿穿什么衣裳？今儿晚上好打点齐备了，省得明儿早起费手。”宝玉道：“什么顺手就是什么罢了。一年闹生日也闹不清。”说着，便起身出房，往惜春房中去看画。
刚到院门外边，忽见宝琴的小丫鬟名小螺者从那边过去，宝玉忙赶上问：“那去？"小螺笑道：“我们二位姑娘都在林姑娘房里呢，我如今也往那里去。”宝玉听了，转步也便同他往潇湘馆来。 不但宝钗姊妹在此，且连邢岫烟也在那里，四人围坐在熏笼上叙家常。 紫鹃倒坐在暖阁里，临窗作针黹。一见他来，都笑说：“又来了一个！可没了你的坐处了。”宝玉笑道：“好一幅’冬闺集艳图’！可惜我迟来了一步。横竖这屋子比各屋子暖， 这椅子坐着并不冷。”说着，便坐在黛玉常坐的搭着灰鼠椅搭的一张椅上。因见暖阁之中有一玉石条盆，里面攒三聚五栽着一盆单瓣水仙，点着宣石，便极口赞：“好花！这屋子越发暖，这花香的越清香。昨日未见。”黛玉因说道：“这是你家的大总管赖大婶子送薛二姑娘的， 两盆腊梅，两盆水仙。他送了我一盆水仙，他送了蕉丫头一盆腊梅。我原不要的，又恐辜负了他的心。你若要，我转送你如何？"宝玉道：“我屋里却有两盆，只是不及这个。 琴妹妹送你的，如何又转送人，这个断使不得。”黛玉道：“我一日药吊子不离火，我竟是药培着呢，那里还搁的住花香来熏？越发弱了。况且这屋子里一股药香，反把这花香搅坏了。不如你抬了去，这花也清净了，没杂味来搅他。”宝玉笑道：“我屋里今儿也有病人煎药呢，你怎么知道的？"黛玉笑道：“这话奇了，我原是无心的话，谁知你屋里的事？你不早来听说古记，这会子来了，自惊自怪的。”
宝玉笑道：“咱们明儿下一社又有了题目了，就咏水仙腊梅。”黛玉听了，笑道：“罢， 罢！我再不敢作诗了，作一回“傅立叶”。，罚一回，没的怪羞的。”说着，便两手握起脸来。宝玉笑道：“何苦来！又奚落我作什么。我还不怕臊呢，你倒握起脸来了。”宝钗因笑道：“下次我邀一社，四个诗题，四个词题。每人四首诗，四阕词。头一个诗题《咏，限一先的韵，五言律，要把一先的韵都用尽了，一个不许剩。”宝琴笑道：“这一说，可知是姐姐不是真心起社了，这分明难人。若论起来，也强扭的出来，不过颠来倒去弄些《易经》上的话生填，究竟有何趣味。我八岁时节，跟我父亲到西海沿子上买洋货，谁知有个真真国的女孩子，才十五岁，那脸面就和那西洋画上的美人一样，也披着黄头发，打着联垂，满头带的都是珊瑚，猫儿眼，祖母绿这些宝石，身上穿着金丝织的锁子甲洋锦袄袖，带着倭刀，也是镶金嵌宝的，实在画儿上的也没他好看。有人说他通中国的诗书， 会讲五经，能作诗填词，因此我父亲央烦了一位通事官，烦他写了一张字，就写的是他作的诗。”众人都称奇道异。宝玉忙笑道：“好妹妹，你拿出来我瞧瞧。”宝琴笑道：“在南京收着呢， 此时那里去取来？"宝玉听了，大失所望，便说：“没福得见这世面。”黛玉笑拉宝琴道：“你别哄我们。我知道你这一来，你的这些东西未必放在家里，自然都是要带了来的，这会子又扯谎说没带来。他们虽信，我是不信的。”宝琴便红了脸，低头微笑不语。 宝钗笑道：“偏这个颦儿惯说这些白话，把你就伶俐的。”黛玉道：“若带了来，就给我们见识见识也罢了。 "宝钗笑道：“箱子笼子一大堆还没理清，知道在那个里头呢！ 等过日收拾清了，找出来大家再看就是了。”又向宝琴道：“你若记得，何不念念我们听听。 "宝琴方答道：“记得是首五言律，外国的女子也就难为他了。”宝钗道：“你且别念，等把云儿叫了来，也叫他听听。”说着，便叫小螺来吩咐道：“你到我那里去，就说我们这里有一个外国美人来了，作的好诗，请你这’诗疯子’来瞧去，再把我们’诗呆子’也带来。”小螺笑着去了。
半日， 只听湘云笑问：“那一个外国美人来了？"一头说，一头果和香菱来了。众人笑道：“人未见形，先已闻声。”宝琴等忙让坐，遂把方才的话重叙了一遍。湘云笑道：“快念来听听。”宝琴因念道：
昨夜朱楼梦，今宵水国吟。
岛云蒸大海，岚气接丛林。
月本无今古，情缘自浅深。
汉南春历历， 焉得不关心。众人听了，都道"难为他！竟比我们中国人还强。”一语未了， 只见麝月走来说：“太太打发人来告诉二爷，明儿一早往舅舅那里去，就说太太身上不大好，不得亲自来。”宝玉忙站起来答应道：“是。”因问宝钗宝琴可去。宝钗道：“我们不去，昨儿单送了礼去了。”大家说了一回方散。
宝玉因让诸姊妹先行，自己落后。黛玉便又叫住他问道：“袭人到底多早晚回来。”宝玉道：自然等送了殡才来呢。觉心里有许多话，只是口里不知要说什么，想了一想，也笑道：“明儿再说罢。 "一面下了阶矶，低头正欲迈步，复又忙回身问道：“如今的夜越发长了，你一夜咳嗽几遍？醒几次？"黛玉道：“昨儿夜里好了，只嗽了两遍，却只睡了四更一个更次，就再不能睡了。”宝玉又笑道：“正是有句要紧的话，这会子才想起来。”一面说，一面便挨过身来， 悄悄道：“我想宝姐姐送你的燕窝——"一语未了，只见赵姨娘走了进来瞧黛玉，问：“姑娘这两天好？"黛玉便知他是从探春处来，从门前过，顺路的人情。黛玉忙陪笑让坐，说：“难得姨娘想着，怪冷的，亲身走来。”又忙命倒茶，一面又使眼色与宝玉。宝玉会意，便走了出来。
正值吃晚饭时， 见了王夫人，王夫人又嘱他早去。宝玉回来，看晴雯吃了药。此夕宝玉便不命晴雯挪出暖阁来， 自己便在晴雯外边。又命将熏笼抬至暖阁前，麝月便在熏笼上。一宿无话。至次日，天未明时，晴雯便叫醒麝月道：“你也该醒了，只是睡不够！你出去叫人给他预备茶水，我叫醒他就是了。”麝月忙披衣起来道：“咱们叫起他来，穿好衣裳， 抬过这火箱去，再叫他们进来。老嬷嬷们已经说过，不叫他在这屋里，怕过了病气。如今他们见咱们挤在一处，又该唠叨了。”晴雯道：“我也是这么说呢。”二人才叫时， 宝玉已醒了，忙起身披衣。麝月先叫进小丫头子来，收拾妥当了，才命秋纹檀云等进来，一同伏侍宝玉梳洗毕。麝月道：“天又阴阴的，只怕有雪，穿那一套毡的罢。”宝玉点头，即时换了衣裳。小丫头便用小茶盘捧了一盖碗建莲红枣儿汤来，宝玉喝了两口。麝月又捧过一小碟法制紫姜来，宝玉噙了一块。又嘱咐了晴雯一回，便往贾母处来。
贾母犹未起来，知道宝玉出门，便开了房门，命宝玉进去。宝玉见贾母身后宝琴面向里也睡未醒。贾母见宝玉身上穿着荔色哆罗呢的天马箭袖，大红猩猩毡盘金彩绣石青妆缎沿边的排穗褂子。贾母道：“下雪呢么？"宝玉道：“天阴着，还没下呢。”贾母便命鸳鸯来：“把昨儿那一件乌云豹的氅衣给他罢。”鸳鸯答应了，走去果取了一件来。宝玉看时， 金翠辉煌，碧彩闪灼，又不似宝琴所披之凫靥裘。只听贾母笑道：“这叫作’雀金呢’，这是哦Ц斯国拿孔雀毛拈了线织的。前儿把那一件野鸭子的给了你小妹妹，这件给你罢。”宝玉磕了一个头，便披在身上。贾母笑道：“你先给你娘瞧瞧去再去。”宝玉答应了，便出来，只见鸳鸯站在地下揉眼睛。因自那日鸳鸯发誓决绝之后，他总不和宝玉讲话。 宝玉正自日夜不安，此时见他又要回避，宝玉便上来笑道：“好姐姐，你瞧瞧，我穿着这个好不好。 "鸳鸯一摔手，便进贾母房中来了。宝玉只得到了王夫人房中，与王夫人看了，然后又回至园中，与晴雯麝月看过后，至贾母房中回说：“太太看了，只说可惜了的，叫我仔细穿，别遭踏了他。”贾母道：“就剩下了这一件，你遭踏了也再没了。这会子特给你做这个也是没有的事。 "说着又嘱咐他：“不许多吃酒，早些回来。”宝玉应了几个"是"。
老嬷嬷跟至厅上， 只见宝玉的奶兄李贵和王荣，张若锦，赵亦华，钱启，周瑞六个人， 带着茗烟，伴鹤，锄药，扫红四个小厮，背着衣包，抱着坐褥，笼着一匹雕鞍彩辔的白马，早已伺候多时了。老嬷嬷又吩咐了他六人些话，六个人忙答应了几个"是"，忙捧鞭坠镫。 宝玉慢慢的上了马，李贵和王荣笼着嚼环，钱启周瑞二人在前引导，张若锦，赵亦华在两边紧贴宝玉后身。宝玉在马上笑道：“周哥，钱哥，咱们打这角门走罢，省得到了老爷的书房门口又下来。”周瑞侧身笑道：“老爷不在家，书房天天锁着的，爷可以不用下来罢了。”宝玉笑道：“虽锁着，也要下来的。”钱启李贵等都笑道：“爷说的是。便托懒不下来， 倘或遇见赖大爷林二爷，虽不好说爷，也劝两句。有的不是，都派在我们身上，又说我们不教爷礼了。”周瑞钱启便一直出角门来。
正说话时， 顶头果见赖大进来。宝玉忙笼住马，意欲下来。赖大忙上来抱住腿。宝玉便在镫上站起来， 笑携他的手，说了几句话。接着又见一个小厮带着二三十个拿扫帚簸箕的人进来，见了宝玉，都顺墙垂手立住，独那为首的小厮打千儿，请了一个安。宝玉不识名姓， 只微笑点了点头儿。马已过去，那人方带人去了。于是出了角门，门外又有李贵等六人的小厮并几个马夫，早预备下十来匹马专候。一出了角门，李贵等都各上了马，前引傍围的一阵烟去了，不在话下。
这里晴雯吃了药，仍不见病退，急的乱骂大夫，说：“只会骗人的钱，一剂好药也不给人吃。”麝月笑劝他道：“你太性急了，俗语说：’病来如山倒，病去如抽丝。’又不是老君的仙丹，那有这样灵药！你只静养几天，自然好了。你越急越着手。”晴雯又骂小丫头子们：“那里钻沙去了！瞅我病了，都大胆子走了。明儿我好了，一个一个的才揭你们的皮呢！ "唬的小丫头子篆儿忙进来问：“姑娘作什么。”晴雯道：“别人都死绝了，就剩了你不成？"说着，只见坠儿也蹭了进来。晴雯道：“你瞧瞧这小蹄子，不问他还不来呢。这里又放月钱了，又散果子了，你该跑在头里了。你往前些，我不是老虎吃了你！"坠儿只得前凑。晴雯便冷不防欠身一把将他的手抓住，向枕边取了一丈青，向他手上乱戳，口内骂道：“要这爪子作什么？拈不得针，拿不动线，只会偷嘴吃。眼皮子又浅，爪子又轻，打嘴现世的，不如戳烂了！"坠儿疼的乱哭乱喊。麝月忙拉开坠儿，按晴雯睡下，笑道：“才出了汗，又作死。等你好了，要打多少打不的？这会子闹什么！"晴雯便命人叫宋嬷嬷进来， 说道：“宝二爷才告诉了我，叫我告诉你们，坠儿很懒，宝二爷当面使他，他拨嘴儿不动，连袭人使他，他背后骂他。今儿务必打发他出去，明儿宝二爷亲自回太太就是了。”宋嬷嬷听了，心下便知镯子事发，因笑道：“虽如此说，也等花姑娘回来知道了，再打发他。”晴雯道：“宝二爷今儿千叮咛万嘱咐的，什么’花姑娘’’草姑娘’，我们自然有道理。你只依我的话，快叫他家的人来领他出去。”麝月道：“这也罢了，早也去，晚也去，带了去早清静一日。”
宋嬷嬷听了，只得出去唤了他母亲来，打点了他的东西，又来见晴雯等，说道：“姑娘们怎么了，你侄女儿不好，你们教导他，怎么撵出去？也到底给我们留个脸儿。”晴雯道：“你这话只等宝玉来问他，与我们无干。”那媳妇冷笑道：“我有胆子问他去！他那一件事不是听姑娘们的调停？他纵依了，姑娘们不依，也未必中用。比如方才说话，虽是背地里，姑娘就直叫他的名字。在姑娘们就使得，在我们就成了野人了。”晴雯听说，一发急红了脸，说道：“我叫了他的名字了，你在老太太跟前告我去，说我撒野，也撵出我去。”麝月忙道：“嫂子，你只管带了人出去，有话再说。这个地方岂有你叫喊讲礼的？你见谁和我们讲过礼？别说嫂子你，就是赖奶奶林大娘，也得担待我们三分。便是叫名字， 从小儿直到如今，都是老太太吩咐过的，你们也知道的，恐怕难养活，巴巴的写了他的小名儿， 各处贴着叫万人叫去，为的是好养活。连挑水挑粪花子都叫得，何况我们！连昨儿林大娘叫了一声’爷’，老太太还说他呢，此是一件。二则，我们这些人常回老太太的话去，可不叫着名字回话，难道也称’爷’？那一日不把宝玉两个字念二百遍，偏嫂子又来挑这个了！过一日嫂子闲了，在老太太，太太跟前，听听我们当着面儿叫他就知道了。嫂子原也不得在老太太，太太跟前当些体统差事，成年家只在三门外头混，怪不得不知我们里头的规矩。这里不是嫂子久站的，再一会，不用我们说话，就有人来问你了。有什么分证话，且带了他去，你回了林大娘，叫他来找二爷说话。家里上千的人，你也跑来，我也跑来，我们认人问姓，还认不清呢！"说着，便叫小丫头子：“拿了擦地的布来擦地！"那媳妇听了，无言可对，亦不敢久立，赌气带了坠儿就走。宋妈妈忙道：“怪道你这嫂子不知规矩，你女儿在这屋里一场，临去时，也给姑娘们磕个头。没有别的谢礼，——便有谢礼，他们也不希罕，——不过磕个头，尽了心。怎么说走就走？"坠儿听了，只得翻身进来， 给他两个磕了两个头，又找秋纹等。他们也不睬他。那媳妇も声叹气，口不敢言，抱恨而去。
晴雯方才又闪了风， 着了气，反觉更不好了，翻腾至掌灯，刚安静了些。只见宝玉回来， 进门就も声跺脚。麝月忙问原故，宝玉道：“今儿老太太喜喜欢欢的给了这个褂子， 谁知不防后襟子上烧了一块，幸而天晚了，老太太，太太都不理论。”一面说，一面脱下来。麝月瞧时，果见有指顶大的烧眼，说：“这必定是手炉里的火迸上了。这不值什么， 赶着叫人悄悄的拿出去，叫个能干织补匠人织上就是了。”说着便用包袱包了，交与一个妈妈送出去。 说：“赶天亮就有才好。千万别给老太太，太太知道。”婆子去了半日，仍旧拿回来，说：“不但能干织补匠人，就连裁缝绣匠并作女工的问了，都不认得这是什么，都不敢揽。”麝月道：“这怎么样呢！明儿不穿也罢了。”宝玉道：“明儿是正日子，老太太，太太说了，还叫穿这个去呢。偏头一日烧了，岂不扫兴。”晴雯听了半日，忍不住翻身说道：“拿来我瞧瞧罢。没个福气穿就罢了。这会子又着急。”宝玉笑道：“这话倒说的是。 "说着，便递与晴雯，又移过灯来，细看了一会。晴雯道：“这是孔雀金线织的，如今咱们也拿孔雀金线就象界线似的界密了，只怕还可混得过去。”麝月笑道：“孔雀线现成的，但这里除了你，还有谁会界线？"晴雯道：“说不得，我挣命罢了。”宝玉忙道：“这如何使得！才好了些，如何做得活。”晴雯道：“不用你蝎蝎螫螫的，我自知道。”一面说，一面坐起来，挽了一挽头发，披了衣裳，只觉头重身轻，满眼金星乱迸，实实撑不住。 若不做，又怕宝玉着急，少不得恨命咬牙捱着。便命麝月只帮着拈线。晴雯先拿了一根比一比，笑道：“这虽不很象，若补上，也不很显。”宝玉道：“这就很好，那里又找哦Ц嘶国的裁缝去。”晴雯先将里子拆开，用茶杯口大的一个竹弓钉牢在背面，再将破口四边用金刀刮的散松松的，然后用针纫了两条，分出经纬，亦如界线之法，先界出地子后， 依本衣之纹来回织补。补两针，又看看，织补两针，又端详端详。无奈头晕眼黑，气喘神虚，补不上三五针，伏在枕上歇一会。宝玉在旁，一时又问：“吃些滚水不吃？"一时又命：“歇一歇。”一时又拿一件灰鼠斗篷替他披在背上，一时又命拿个拐枕与他靠着。急的晴雯央道：“小祖宗！你只管睡罢。再熬上半夜，明儿把眼睛抠搂了，怎么处！"宝玉见他着急， 只得胡乱睡下，仍睡不着。一时只听自鸣钟已敲了四下，刚刚补完，又用小牙刷慢慢的剔出绒毛来。麝月道：“这就很好，若不留心，再看不出的。”宝玉忙要了瞧瞧，说道：“真真一样了。”晴雯已嗽了几阵，好容易补完了，说了一声：“补虽补了，到底不象，我也再不能了！"嗳哟了一声，便身不由主倒下。要知端的，且听下回分解。
The beautiful P'ing Erh endeavours to conceal the loss of the bracelet, made of work as fine as the feelers of a shrimp. The brave Ch'ing Wen mends the down-cloak during her indisposition.
But let us return to our story.
"Quite so!" was the reply with which dowager lady Chia (greeted lady Feng's proposal). "I meant the other day to have suggested this arrangement, but I saw that every one of you had so many urgent matters to attend to, (and I thought) that although you would not presume to bear me a grudge, were several duties now again superadded, you would unavoidably imagine that I only regarded those young grandsons and granddaughters of mine, and had no consideration for any of you, who have to look after the house. But since you make this suggestion yourself, it's all right."
And seeing that Mrs. Hsueeh, and 'sister-in-law' Li were sitting with her, and that Madame Hsing, and Mrs. Yu and the other ladies, who had also crossed over to pay their respects, had not as yet gone to their quarters, old lady Chia broached the subject with Madame Wang, and the rest of the company. "I've never before ventured to give utterance to the remarks that just fell from my lips," she said, "as first of all I was in fear and trembling lest I should have made that girl Feng more presumptuous than ever, and next, lest I should have incurred the displeasure of one and all of you. But since you're all here to-day, and every one of you knows what brothers' wives and husbands' sisters mean, is there (I ask) any one besides her as full of forethought?"
Mrs. Hsueeh, 'sister-in-law' Li and Mrs. Yu smiled with one consent. "There are indeed but few like her!" they cried. "That of others is simply a conventional 'face' affection, but she is really fond of her husband's sisters and his young brother. In fact, she's as genuinely filial with you, venerable senior."
Dowager lady Chia nodded her head. "Albeit I'm fond of her," she sighed, "I can't, on the other hand, help distrusting that excessive shrewdness of hers, for it isn't a good thing."
"You're wrong there, worthy ancestor," lady Feng laughed with alacrity. "People in the world as a rule maintain that 'too shrewd and clever a person can't, it is feared, live long.' Now what people of the world invariably say people of the world invariably believe. But of you alone, my dear senior, can no such thing be averred or believed. For there you are, ancestor mine, a hundred times sharper and cleverer than I; and how is it that you now enjoy both perfect happiness and longevity? But I presume that I shall by and bye excel you by a hundredfold, and die at length, after a life of a thousand years, when you venerable senior shall have departed from these mortal scenes!"
"After every one is dead and gone," dowager lady Chia laughingly observed, "what pleasure will there be, if two antiquated elves, like you and I will be, remain behind?"
This joke excited general mirth.
But so concerned was Pao-yue about Ch'ing Wen and other matters that he was the first to make a move and return into the garden. On his arrival at his quarters, he found the rooms full of the fragrance emitted by the medicines. Not a soul did he, however, see about. Ch'ing Wen was reclining all alone on the stove-couch. Her face was feverish and red. When he came to touch it, his hand experienced a scorching sensation. Retracing his steps therefore towards the stove, he warmed his hands and inserted them under the coverlet and felt her. Her body as well was as hot as fire.
"If the others have left," he then remarked, "there's nothing strange about it, but are She Yueeh and Ch'iu Wen too so utterly devoid of feeling as to have each gone after her own business?"
"As regards Ch'iu Wen," Ch'ing Wen explained, "I told her to go and have her meal. And as for She Yueeh, P'ing Erh came just now and called her out of doors and there they are outside confabbing in a mysterious way! What the drift of their conversation can be I don't know. But they must be talking about my having fallen ill, and my not leaving this place to go home."
"P'ing Erh isn't that sort of person," Pao-yue pleaded. "Besides, she had no idea whatever about your illness, so that she couldn't have come specially to see how you were getting on. I fancy her object was to look up She Yueeh to hobnob with her, but finding unexpectedly that you were not up to the mark, she readily said that she had come on purpose to find what progress you were making. This was quite a natural thing for a person with so wily a disposition to say, for the sake of preserving harmony. But if you don't go home, it's none of her business. You two have all along been, irrespective of other things, on such good terms that she could by no means entertain any desire to injure the friendly relations which exist between you, all on account of something that doesn't concern her."
"Your remarks are right enough," Ch'ing Wen rejoined, "but I do suspect her, as why did she too start, all of a sudden, imposing upon me?"
"Wait, I'll walk out by the back door," Pao-yue smiled, "and go to the foot of the window, and listen to what she's saying. I'll then come and tell you."
Speaking the while, he, in point of fact, sauntered out of the back door; and getting below the window, he lent an ear to their confidences.
"How did you manage to get it?" She Yueh inquired with gentle voice.
"When I lost sight of it on that day that I washed my hands," P'ing Erh answered, "our lady Secunda wouldn't let us make a fuss. But the moment she left the garden, she there and then sent word to the nurses, stationed in the various places, to institute careful search. Our suspicions, however, fell upon Miss Hsing's maid, who has ever also been poverty-stricken; surmising that a young girl of her age, who had never set eyes upon anything of the kind, may possibly have picked it up and taken it. But never did we positively believe that it could be some one from this place of yours! Happily, our lady Secunda wasn't in the room, when that nurse Sung who is with you here went over, and said, producing the bracelet, 'that the young maid, Chui Erh, had stolen it, and that she had detected her, and come to lay the matter before our lady Secunda. I promptly took over the bracelet from her; and recollecting how imperious and exacting Pao-yue is inclined to be, fond and devoted as he is to each and all of you; how the jade which was prigged the other year by a certain Liang Erh, is still, just as the matter has cooled down for the last couple of years, canvassed at times by some people eager to serve their own ends; how some one has now again turned up to purloin this gold trinket; how it was filched, to make matters worse, from a neighbour's house; how as luck would have it, she took this of all things; and how it happened to be his own servant to give him a slap on his mouth, I hastened to enjoin nurse Sung to, on no account whatever, let Pao-yue know anything about it, but simply pretend that nothing of the kind had transpired, and to make no mention of it to any single soul. In the second place,' (I said), 'our dowager lady and Madame Wang would get angry, if they came to hear anything. Thirdly, Hsi Jen as well as yourselves would not also cut a very good figure.' Hence it was that in telling our lady Secunda, I merely explained 'that on my way to our senior mistress,' the bracelet got unclasped, without my knowing it; that it fell among the roots of the grass; that there was no chance of seeing it while the snow was deep, but that when the snow completely disappeared to-day there it glistened, so yellow and bright, in the rays of the sun, in precisely the very place where it had dropped, and that I then picked it up.' Our lady Secunda at once credited my version. So here I come to let you all know so as to be henceforward a little on your guard with her, and not get her a job anywhere else. Wait until Hsi Jen's return, and then devise means to pack her off, and finish with her."
"This young vixen has seen things of this kind before," She Yueeh ejaculated, "and how is it that she was so shallow-eyed?"
"What could, after all, be the weight of this bracelet?" P'ing Erh observed. "It was once our lady Secunda's. She says that this is called the 'shrimp-feeler'-bracelet. But it's the pearl, which increases its weight. That minx Ch'ing Wen is as fiery as a piece of crackling charcoal, so were anything to be told her, she may, so little able is she to curb her temper, flare up suddenly into a huff, and beat or scold her, and kick up as much fuss as she ever has done before. That's why I simply tell you. Exercise due care, and it will be all right."
With this warning, she bid her farewell and went on her way.
Her words delighted, vexed and grieved Pao-yue. He felt delighted, on account of the consideration shown by P'ing Erh for his own feelings. Vexed, because Chui Erh had turned out a petty thief. Grieved, that Chui Erh, who was otherwise such a smart girl, should have gone in for this disgraceful affair. Returning consequently into the house, he told Ch'ing Wen every word that P'ing Erh had uttered. "She says," he went on to add, "that you're so fond of having things all your own way that were you to hear anything of this business, now that you are ill, you would get worse, and that she only means to broach the subject with you, when you get quite yourself again."
Upon hearing this, Ch'ing Wen's ire was actually stirred up, and her beautiful moth-like eyebrows contracted, and her lovely phoenix eyes stared wide like two balls. So she immediately shouted out for Chui Erh.
"If you go on bawling like that," Pao-yue hastily remonstrated with her, "won't you show yourself ungrateful for the regard with which P'ing Erh has dealt with you and me? Better for us to show ourselves sensible of her kindness and by and bye pack the girl off, and finish."
"Your suggestion is all very good," Ch'ing Wen demurred, "but how could I suppress this resentment?"
"What's there to feel resentment about?" Pao-yue asked. "Just you take good care of yourself; it's the best thing you can do."
Ch'ing Wen then took her medicine. When evening came, she had another couple of doses. But though in the course of the night, she broke out into a slight perspiration, she did not see any change for the better in her state. Still she felt feverish, her head sore, her nose stopped, her voice hoarse. The next day, Dr. Wang came again to examine her pulse and see how she was getting on. Besides other things, he increased the proportions of certain medicines in the decoction and reduced others; but in spite of her fever having been somewhat brought down, her head continued to ache as much as ever.
"Go and fetch the snuff," Pao-yue said to She Yueeh, "and give it to her to sniff. She'll feel more at ease after she has had several strong sneezes."
She Yueeh went, in fact, and brought a flat crystal bottle, inlaid with a couple of golden stars, and handed it to Pao-yue.
Pao-yue speedily raised the cover of the bottle. Inside it, he discovered, represented on western enamel, a fair-haired young girl, in a state of nature, on whose two sides figured wings of flesh. This bottle contained some really first-rate foreign snuff.
Ch'ing Wen's attention was fixedly concentrated on the representation.
"Sniff a little!" Pao-yue urged. "If the smell evaporates, it won't be worth anything."
Ch'ing Wen, at his advice, promptly dug out a little with her nail, and applied it to her nose. But with no effect. So digging out again a good quantity of it, she pressed it into her nostrils. Then suddenly she experienced a sensation in her nose as if some pungent matter had penetrated into the very duct leading into the head, and she sneezed five or six consecutive times, until tears rolled down from her eyes and mucus trickled from her nostrils.
Ch'ing Wen hastily put the bottle away. "It's dreadfully pungent!" she laughed. "Bring me some paper, quick!"
A servant-girl at once handed her a pile of fine paper.
Ch'ing Wen extracted sheet after sheet, and blew her nose.
"Well," said Pao-yue smiling, "how are you feeling now?"
"I'm really considerably relieved." Ch'ing Wen rejoined laughing. "The only thing is that my temples still hurt me."
"Were you to treat yourself exclusively with western medicines, I'm sure you'd get all right," Pao-yue added smilingly. Saying this, "Go," he accordingly desired She Yueeh, "to our lady Secunda, and ask her for some. Tell her that I spoke to you about them. My cousin over there often uses some western plaster, which she applies to her temples when she's got a headache. It's called 'I-fo-na.' So try and get some of it!"
She Yueeh expressed her readiness. After a protracted absence, she, in very deed, came back with a small bit of the medicine; and going quickly for a piece of red silk cutting, she got the scissors and slit two round slips off as big as the tip of a finger. After which, she took the medicine, and softening it by the fire, she spread it on them with a hairpin.
Ch'ing Wen herself laid hold of a looking-glass with a handle and stuck the bits on both her temples.
"While you were lying sick," She Yueeh laughed, "you looked like a mangy-headed devil! But with this stuff on now you present a fine sight! As for our lady Secunda she has been so much in the habit of sticking these things about her that they don't very much show off with her!"
This joke over, "Our lady Secunda said," she resumed, addressing herself to Pao-yue, "'that to-morrow is your maternal uncle's birthday, and that our mistress, your mother, asked her to tell you to go over. That whatever clothes you will put on to-morrow should be got ready to-night, so as to avoid any trouble in the morning.'"
"Anything that comes first to hand," Pao-yue observed, "will do well enough! There's no getting, the whole year round, at the end of all the fuss of birthdays!"
Speaking the while, he rose to his feet and left the room with the idea of repairing to Hsi Ch'un's quarters to have a look at the painting. As soon as he got outside the door of the court-yard, he unexpectedly spied Pao-ch'in's young maid, Hsiao Lo by name, crossing over from the opposite direction. Pao-yue, with rapid step, strode up to her, and inquired of her whither she was going.
"Our two young ladies," Hsiao Lo answered with a smile, "are in Miss Lin's rooms; so I'm also now on my way thither."
Catching this answer, Pao-yue wheeled round and came at once with her to the Hsiao Hsiang Lodge. Here not only did he find Pao-ch'ai and her cousin, but Hsing Chou-yen as well. The quartet was seated in a circle on the warming-frame; carrying on a friendly chat on everyday domestic matters; while Tzu Chuean was sitting in the winter apartment, working at some needlework by the side of the window.
The moment they caught a glimpse of him, their faces beamed with smiles. "There comes some one else!" they cried. "There's no room for you to sit!"
"What a fine picture of beautiful girls, in the winter chamber!" Pao-yue smiled. "It's a pity I come a trifle too late! This room is, at all events, so much warmer than any other, that I won't feel cold if I plant myself on this chair."
So saying, he made himself comfortable on a favourite chair of Tai-yue's over which was thrown a grey squirrel cover. But noticing in the winter apartment a jadestone bowl, full of single narcissi, in clusters of three or five, Pao-yue began praising their beauty with all the language he could command. "What lovely flowers!" he exclaimed. "The warmer the room gets, the stronger is the fragrance emitted by these flowers! How is it I never saw them yesterday?"
"These are," Tai-yue laughingly explained, "from the two pots of narcissi, and two pots of allspice, sent to Miss Hsueeh Secunda by the wife of Lai Ta, the head butler in your household. Of these, she gave me a pot of narcissi; and to that girl Yuen, a pot of allspice. I didn't at first mean to keep them, but I was afraid of showing no consideration for her kind attention. But if you want them, I'll, in my turn, present them to you. Will you have them; eh?"
"I've got two pots of them in my rooms," Pao-yue replied, "but they're not up to these. How is it you're ready to let others have what cousin Ch'in has given you? This can on no account do!"
"With me here," Tai-yue added, "the medicine pot never leaves the fire, the whole day long. I'm only kept together by medicines. So how could I ever stand the smell of flowers bunging my nose? It makes me weaker than ever. Besides, if there's the least whiff of medicines in this room, it will, contrariwise, spoil the fragrance of these flowers. So isn't it better that you should have them carried away? These flowers will then breathe a purer atmosphere, and won't have any mixture of smells to annoy them."
"I've also got now some one ill in my place," Pao-yue retorted with a smile, "and medicines are being decocted. How comes it you happen to know nothing about it?"
"This is strange!" Tai-yue laughed. "I was really speaking quite thoughtlessly; for who ever knows what's going on in your apartments? But why do you, instead of getting here a little earlier to listen to old stories, come at this moment to bring trouble and vexation upon your own self?"
Pao-yue gave a laugh. "Let's have a meeting to-morrow," he proposed, "for we've also got the themes. Let's sing the narcissus and allspice."
"Never mind, drop that!" Tai-yue rejoined, upon hearing his proposal. "I can't venture to write any more verses. Whenever I indite any, I'm mulcted. So I'd rather not be put to any great shame."
While uttering these words she screened her face with both hands.
"What's the matter?" Pao-yue smiled. "Why are you again making fun of me? I'm not afraid of any shame, but, lo, you screen your face."
"The next time," Pao-ch'ai felt impelled to interpose laughingly, "I convene a meeting, we'll have four themes for odes and four for songs; and each one of us will have to write four odes and four roundelays. The theme of the first ode will treat of the plan of the great extreme; the rhyme fixed being 'hsien,' (first), and the metre consisting of five words in each line. We'll have to exhaust every one of the rhymes under 'hsien,' and mind, not a single one may be left out."
"From what you say," Pao-ch'in smilingly observed, "it's evident that you're not in earnest, cousin, in setting the club on foot. It's clear enough that your object is to embarrass people. But as far as the verses go, we could forcibly turn out a few, just by higgledy-piggledy taking several passages from the 'Canon of Changes,' and inserting them in our own; but, after all, what fun will there be in that sort of thing? When I was eight years of age, I went with my father to the western seaboard to purchase foreign goods. Who'd have thought it, we came across a girl from the 'Chen Chen' kingdom. She was in her eighteenth year, and her features were just like those of the beauties one sees represented in foreign pictures. She had also yellow hair, hanging down, and arranged in endless plaits. Her whole head was ornamented with one mass of cornelian beads, amber, cats' eyes, and 'grandmother-green-stone.' On her person, she wore a chain armour plaited with gold, and a coat, which was up to the very sleeves, embroidered in foreign style. In a belt, she carried a Japanese sword, also inlaid with gold and studded with precious gems. In very truth, even in pictures, there is no one as beautiful as she. Some people said that she was thoroughly conversant with Chinese literature, and could explain the 'Five classics,' that she was able to write odes and devise roundelays, and so my father requested an interpreter to ask her to write something. She thereupon wrote an original stanza, which all, with one voice, praised for its remarkable beauty, and extolled for its extraordinary merits."
"My dear cousin," eagerly smiled Pao-yue, "produce what she wrote, and let's have a look at it."
"It's put away in Nanking;" Pao-ch'in replied with a smile. "So how could I at present go and fetch it?"
Great was Pao-yue's disappointment at this rejoinder. "I've no luck," he cried, "to see anything like this in the world."
Tai-yue laughingly laid hold of Pao-ch'in. "Don't be humbugging us!" she remarked. "I know well enough that you are not likely, on a visit like this, to have left any such things of yours at home. You must have brought them along. Yet here you are now again palming off a fib on us by saying that you haven't got them with you. You people may believe what she says, but I, for my part, don't."
Pao-ch'in got red in the face. Drooping her head against her chest, she gave a faint smile; but she uttered not a word by way of response.
"Really P'in Erh you've got into the habit of talking like this!" Pao-ch'ai laughed. "You're too shrewd by far."
"Bring them along," Tai-yue urged with a smile, "and give us a chance of seeing something and learning something; it won't hurt them."
"There's a whole heap of trunks and baskets," Pao-ch'ai put in laughing, "which haven't been yet cleared away. And how could one tell in which particular one, they're packed up? Wait a few days, and when things will have been put straight a bit, we'll try and find them: and every one of us can then have a look at them; that will be all right. But if you happen to remember the lines," she pursued, speaking to Pao-ch'in, "why not recite them for our benefit?"
"I remember so far that her lines consisted of a stanza with five characters in each line," Pao-ch'ai returned for answer. "For a foreign girl, they're verily very well done."
"Don't begin for a while," Pao-ch'ai exclaimed. "Let me send for Yuen Erh, so that she too might hear them."
After this remark, she called Hsiao Lo to her. "Go to my place," she observed, "and tell her that a foreign beauty has come over, who's a splendid hand at poetry. 'You, who have poetry on the brain,' (say to her), 'are invited to come and see her,' and then lay hold of this verse-maniac of ours and bring her along."
Hsiao Lo gave a smile, and went away. After a long time, they heard Hsiang-yuen laughingly inquire, "What foreign beauty has come?" But while asking this question, she made her appearance in company with Hsiang Ling.
"We heard your voices long before we caught a glimpse of your persons!" the party laughed.
Pao-ch'in and her companions motioned to her to sit down, and, in due course, she reiterated what she had told them a short while back.
"Be quick, out with it! Let's hear what it is!" Hsiang-yuen smilingly cried.
Pao-ch'in thereupon recited:
Last night in the Purple Chamber I dreamt. This evening on the 'Shui Kuo' Isle I sing. The clouds by the isle cover the broad sea. The zephyr from the peaks reaches the woods. The moon has never known present or past. From shallow and deep causes springs love's fate. When I recall my springs south of the Han, Can I not feel disconsolate at heart?
After listening to her, "She does deserve credit," they unanimously shouted, "for she really is far superior to us, Chinese though we be."
But scarcely was this remark out of their lips, when they perceived She Yueeh walk in. "Madame Wang," she said, "has sent a servant to inform you, Master Secundus, that 'you are to go at an early hour to-morrow morning to your maternal uncle's, and that you are to explain to him that her ladyship isn't feeling quite up to the mark, and that she cannot pay him a visit in person.'"
Pao-yue precipitately jumped to his feet (out of deference to his mother), and signified his assent, by answering 'Yes.' He then went on to inquire of Pao-ch'ai and Pao-ch'in, "Are you two going?"
"We're not going," Pao-ch'ai rejoined. "We simply went there yesterday to take our presents over but we left after a short chat."
Pao-yue thereupon pressed his female cousins to go ahead and he then followed them. But Tai-yue called out to him again and stopped him. "When is Hsi Jen, after all, coming back?" she asked.
"She'll naturally come back after she has accompanied the funeral," Pao-yue retorted.
Tai-yue had something more she would have liked to tell him, but she found it difficult to shape it into words. After some moments spent in abstraction, "Off with you!" she cried.
Pao-yue too felt that he treasured in his heart many things he would fain confide to her, but he did not know what to bring to his lips, so after cogitating within himself for a time, he likewise observed smilingly: "We'll have another chat to-morrow," and, as he said so, he wended his way down the stairs. Lowering his head, he was just about to take a step forward, when he twisted himself round again with alacrity. "Now that the nights are longer than they were, you're sure to cough often and wake several times in the night; eh?" he asked.
"Last night," Tai-yue answered, "I was all right; I coughed only twice. But I only slept at the fourth watch for a couple of hours and then I couldn't close my eyes again."
"I really have something very important to tell you," Pao-yue proceeded with another smile. "It only now crossed my mind." Saying this, he approached her and added in a confidential tone: "I think that the birds' nests sent to you by cousin Pao-chai...."
Barely, however, had he had time to conclude than he spied dame Chao enter the room to pay Tai-yue a visit. "Miss, have you been all right these last few days?" she inquired.
Tai-yue readily guessed that this was an attention extended to her merely as she had, on her way back from T'an Ch'un's quarters, to pass by her door, so speedily smiling a forced smile, she offered her a seat.
"Many thanks, dame Chao," she said, "for the trouble of thinking of me, and for coming in person in this intense cold."
Hastily also bidding a servant pour the tea, she simultaneously winked at Pao-yue.
Pao-yue grasped her meaning, and forthwith quitted the apartment. As this happened to be about dinner time, and he had been enjoined as well by Madame Wang to be back at an early hour, Pao-yue returned to his quarters, and looked on while Ch'ing Wen took her medicine. Pao-yue did not desire Ch'ing Wen this evening to move into the winter apartment, but stayed with Ch'ing Wen outside; and, giving orders to bring the warming-frame near the winter apartment, She Yueh slept on it.
Nothing of any interest worth putting on record transpired during the night. On the morrow, before the break of day, Ch'ing Wen aroused She Yueh.
"You should awake," she said. "The only thing is that you haven't had enough sleep. If you go out and tell them to get the water for tea ready for him, while I wake him, it will be all right."
She Yueh immediately jumped up and threw something over her. "Let's call him to get up and dress in his fine clothes." she said. "We can summon them in, after this fire-box has been removed. The old nurses told us not to allow him to stay in this room for fear the virus of the disease should pass on to him; so now if they see us bundled up together in one place, they're bound to kick up another row."
"That's my idea too," Ch'ing Wen replied.
The two girls were then about to call him, when Pao-yue woke up of his own accord, and speedily leaping out of bed, he threw his clothes over him.
She Yueeh first called a young maid into the room and put things shipshape before she told Ch'in Wen and the other servant-girls to enter; and along with them, she remained in waiting upon Pao-yue while he combed his hair, and washed his face and hands. This part of his toilet over, She Yueeh remarked: "It's cloudy again, so I suppose it's going to snow. You'd better therefore wear a woollen overcoat!"
Pao-yue nodded his head approvingly; and set to work at once to effect the necessary change in his costume. A young waiting-maid then presented him a covered bowl, in a small tea tray, containing a decoction made of Fu-kien lotus and red dates. After Pao-yue had had a couple of mouthfuls, She Yueeh also brought him a small plateful of brown ginger, prepared according to some prescription. Pao-yue put a piece into his mouth, and, impressing some advice on Ch'ing 'Wen, he crossed over to dowager lady Chia's suite of rooms.
His grandmother had not yet got out of bed. But she was well aware that Pao-yue was going out of doors so having the entrance leading into her bedroom opened she asked Pao-yue to walk in. Pao-yue espied behind the old lady, Pao-ch'in lying with her face turned towards the inside, and not awake yet from her sleep.
Dowager lady Chia observed that Pao-yue was clad in a deep-red felt fringed overcoat, with woollen lichee-coloured archery-sleeves and with an edging of dark green glossy satin, embroidered with gold rings. "What!" old lady Chia inquired, "is it snowing?"
"The weather is dull," Pao-yue replied, "but it isn't snowing yet."
Dowager lady Chia thereupon sent for Yuean Yang and told her to fetch the peacock down pelisse, finished the day before, and give it to him. Yuean Yang signified her obedience and went off, and actually returned with what was wanted.
When Pao-yue came to survey it, he found that the green and golden hues glistened with bright lustre, that the jadelike variegated colours on it shone with splendour, and that it bore no resemblance to the duck-down coat, which Pao-ch'in had been wearing.
"This," he heard his grandmother smilingly remark, "is called 'bird gold'. This is woven of the down of peacocks, caught in Russia, twisted into thread. The other day, I presented that one with the wild duck down to your young female cousin, so I now give you this one."
Pao-yue prostrated himself before her, after which he threw the coat over his shoulders.
"Go and let your mother see it before you start," his grandmother laughingly added.
Pao-yue assented, and quitted her apartments, when he caught sight of Yuean Yang standing below rubbing her eyes. Ever since the day on which Yuean Yang had sworn to have done with the match, she had not exchanged a single word with Pao-yue. Pao-yue was therefore day and night a prey to dejection. So when he now observed her shirk his presence again, Pao-yue at once advanced up to her, and, putting on a smile, "My dear girl," he said, "do look at the coat I've got on. Is it nice or not?"
Yuean Yang shoved his hand away, and promptly walked into dowager lady Chia's quarters.
Pao-yue was thus compelled to repair to Madame Wang's room, and let her see his coat. Retracing afterwards his footsteps into the garden, he let Ch'ing Wen and She Yueeh also have a look at it, and then came and told his grandmother that he had attended to her wishes.
"My mother," he added, "has seen what I've got on. But all she said was: 'what a pity!' and then she went on to enjoin me to be 'careful with it and not to spoil it.'"
"There only remains this single one," old lady Chia observed, "so if you spoil it you can't have another. Even did I want to have one made for you like it now, it would be out of the question."
At the close of these words, she went on to advise him. "Don't," she said, "have too much wine and come back early." Pao-yue acquiesced by uttering several yes's.
An old nurse then followed him out into the pavilion. Here they discovered six attendants, (that is), Pao-yue's milk-brother Li Kuei, and Wang Ho-jung, Chang Jo-chin, Chao I-hua, Ch'ien Ch'i, and Chou Jui, as well as four young servant-lads: Pei Ming, Pan Ho, Chu Shao and Sao Hung; some carrying bundles of clothes on their backs, some holding cushions in their hands, others leading a white horse with engraved saddle and variegated bridles. They had already been waiting for a good long while. The old nurse went on to issue some directions, and the six servants, hastily expressing their obedience by numerous yes's, quickly caught hold of the saddle and weighed the stirrup down while Pao-yue mounted leisurely. Li Kuei and Wang Ho-jung then led the horse by the bit. Two of them, Ch'ien Ch'i and Chou Jui, walked ahead and showed the way. Chang Jo-chin and Chao I-hua followed Pao-yue closely on each side.
"Brother Chou and brother Ch'ien," Pao-yue smiled, from his seat on his horse, "let's go by this side-gate. It will save my having again to dismount, when we reach the entrance to my father's study."
"Mr. Chia Cheng is not in his study," Chou Jui laughed, with a curtsey. "It has been daily under lock and key, so there will be no need for you, master, to get down from your horse."
"Though it be locked up," Pao-yue smiled, "I shall have to dismount all the same."
"You're quite right in what you say, master;" both Ch'ien Ch'i and Li Kuei chimed in laughingly; "but pretend you're lazy and don't get down. In the event of our coming across Mr. Lai Ta and our number two Mr. Lin, they're sure, rather awkward though it be for them to say anything to their master, to tender you one or two words of advice, but throw the whole of the blame upon us. You can also tell them that we had not explained to you what was the right thing to do."
Chou Jui and Ch'ien Ch'i accordingly wended their steps straight for the side-gate. But while they were keeping up some sort of conversation, they came face to face with Lai Ta on his way in.
Pao-yue speedily pulled in his horse, with the idea of dismounting. But Lai Ta hastened to draw near and to clasp his leg. Pao-yue stood up on his stirrup, and, putting on a smile, he took his hand in his, and made several remarks to him.
In quick succession, he also perceived a young servant-lad make his appearance inside leading the way for twenty or thirty servants, laden with brooms and dust-baskets. The moment they espied Pao-yue, they, one and all, stood along the wall, and dropped their arms against their sides, with the exception of the head lad, who bending one knee, said: "My obeisance to you, sir."
Pao-yue could not recall to mind his name or surname, but forcing a faint smile, he nodded his head to and fro. It was only when the horse had well gone past, that the lad eventually led the bevy of servants off, and that they went after their business.
Presently, they egressed from the side-gate. Outside, stood the servant-lads of the six domestics, Li Kuei and his companions, as well as several grooms, who had, from an early hour, got ready about ten horses and been standing, on special duty, waiting for their arrival. As soon as they reached the further end of the side-gate, Li Kuei and each of the other attendants mounted their horses, and pressed ahead to lead the way. Like a streak of smoke, they got out of sight, without any occurrence worth noticing.
Ch'ing Wen, meanwhile, continued to take her medicines. But still she experienced no relief in her ailment. Such was the state of exasperation into which she worked herself that she abused the doctor right and left. "All he's good for," she cried, "is to squeeze people's money. But he doesn't know how to prescribe a single dose of efficacious medicine for his patients."
"You have far too impatient a disposition!" She Yueeh said, as she advised her, with a smile. "'A disease,' the proverb has it, 'comes like a crumbling mountain, and goes like silk that is reeled.' Besides, they're not the divine pills of 'Lao Chuen'. How ever could there be such efficacious medicines? The only thing for you to do is to quietly look after yourself for several days, and you're sure to get all right. But the more you work yourself into such a frenzy, the worse you get!"
Ch'ing Weng went on to heap abuse on the head of the young-maids. "Where have they gone? Have they bored into the sand?" she ejaculated. "They see well enough that I'm ill, so they make bold and runaway. But by and bye when I recover, I shall take one by one of you and flay your skin off for you."
Ting Erh, a young maid, was struck with dismay, and ran up to her with hasty step. "Miss," she inquired, "what's up with you?"
"Is it likely that the rest are all dead and gone, and that there only remains but you?" Ch'ing Wen exclaimed.
But while she spoke, she saw Chui Erh also slowly enter the room.
"Look at this vixen!" Ch'ing Wen shouted. "If I don't ask for her, she won't come. Had there been any monthly allowances issued and fruits distributed here, you would have been the first to run in! But approach a bit! Am I tigress to gobble you up?"
Chui Erh was under the necessity of advancing a few steps nearer to her. But, all of a sudden, Ch'ing Wen stooped forward, and with a dash clutching her hand, she took a long pin from the side of her pillow, and pricked it at random all over.
"What's the use of such paws?" she railed at her. "They don't ply a needle, and they don't touch any thread! All you're good for is to prig things to stuff that mouth of yours with! The skin of your phiz is shallow and those paws of yours are light! But with the shame you bring upon yourself before the world, isn't it right that I should prick you, and make mincemeat of you?"
Chui Erh shouted so wildly from pain that She Yueh stepped forward and immediately drew them apart. She then pressed Ch'ing Wen, until she induced her to lie down.
"You're just perspiring," she remarked, "and here you are once more bent upon killing yourself. Wait until you are yourself again! Won't you then be able to give her as many blows as you may like? What's the use of kicking up all this fuss just now?"
Ch'ing Wen bade a servant tell nurse Sung to come in. "Our master Secundus, Mr. Pao-yue, recently asked me to tell you," she remarked on her arrival, "that Chui Erh is very lazy. He himself gives her orders to her very face, but she is ever ready to raise objections and not to budge. Even when Hsi Jen bids her do things, she vilifies her behind her back. She must absolutely therefore be packed off to-day. And if Mr. Pao himself lays the matter to-morrow before Madame Wang, things will be square."
After listening to her grievances, nurse Sung readily concluded in her mind that the affair of the bracelet had come to be known. "What you suggest is well and good, it's true," she consequently smiled, "but it's as well to wait until Miss Hua (flower) returns and hears about the things. We can then give her the sack."
"Mr. Pao-yue urgently enjoined this to-day," Ch'ing Wen pursued, "so what about Miss Hua (flower) and Miss Ts'ao (grass)? We've, of course, gob rules of propriety here, so you just do as I tell you; and be quick and send for some one from her house to come and fetch her away!"
"Well, now let's drop this!" She Yueeh interposed. "Whether she goes soon or whether she goes late is one and the same thing; so let them take her away soon; we'll then be the sooner clear of her."
At these words, nurse Sung had no alternative but to step out, and to send for her mother. When she came, she got ready all her effects, and then came to see Ch'ing Wen and the other girls. "Young ladies," she said, "what's up? If your niece doesn't behave as she ought to, why, call her to account. But why banish her from this place? You should, indeed, leave us a little face!"
"As regards what you say," Ch'ing Wen put in, "wait until Pao-yue comes, and then we can ask him. It's nothing to do with us."
The woman gave a sardonic smile. "Have I got the courage to ask him?" she answered. "In what matter doesn't he lend an ear to any settlement you, young ladies, may propose? He invariably agrees to all you say! But if you, young ladies, aren't agreeable, it's really of no avail. When you, for example, spoke just now,--it's true it was on the sly,--you called him straightway by his name, miss. This thing does very well with you, young ladies, but were we to do anything of the kind, we'd be looked upon as very savages!"
Ch'ing Wen, upon hearing her remark, became more than ever exasperated, and got crimson in the face. "Yes, I called him by his name," she rejoined, "so you'd better go and report me to our old lady and Madame Wang. Tell them I'm a rustic and let them send me too off."
"Sister-in-law," urged She Yueeh, "just you take her away; and if you've got aught to say, you can say it by and bye. Is this a place for you to bawl in and to try and explain what is right? Whom have you seen discourse upon the rules of propriety with us? Not to speak of you, sister-in-law, even Mrs. Lai Ta and Mrs. Lin treat us fairly well. And as for calling him by name, why, from days of yore to the very present, our dowager mistress has invariably bidden us do so. You yourselves are well aware of it. So much did she fear that it would be a difficult job to rear him that she deliberately wrote his infant name on slips of paper and had them stuck everywhere and anywhere with the design that one and all should call him by it. And this in order that it might exercise a good influence upon his bringing up. Even water-coolies and scavenger-coolies indiscriminately address him by his name; and how much more such as we? So late, in fact, as yesterday Mrs. Lin gave him but once the title of 'Sir,' and our old mistress called even her to task. This is one side of the question. In the next place, we all have to go and make frequent reports to our venerable dowager lady and Madame Wang, and don't we with them allude to him by name in what we have to say? Is it likely we'd also style him 'Sir?' What day is there that we don't utter the two words 'Pao-yue' two hundred times? And is it for you, sister-in-law, to come and pick out this fault? But in a day or so, when you've leisure to go to our old mistress' and Madame Wang's, you'll hear us call him by name in their very presence, and then you'll feel convinced. You've never, sister-in-law, had occasion to fulfil any honourable duties by our old lady and our lady. From one year's end to the other, all you do is to simply loaf outside the third door. So it's no matter of surprise, if you don't happen to know anything of the customs which prevail with us inside. But this isn't a place where you, sister-in-law, can linger for long. In another moment, there won't be any need for us to say anything; for some one will be coming to ask you what you want, and what excuse will you be able to plead? So take her away and let Mrs. Lin know about it; and commission her to come and find our Mr. Secundus and tell him all. There are in this establishment over a thousand inmates; one comes and another comes, so that though we know people and inquire their names, we can't nevertheless imprint them clearly on our minds."
At the close of this long rigmarole, she at once told a young maid to take the mop and wash the floors.
The woman listened patiently to her arguments, but she could find no words to say anything to her by way of reply. Nor did she have the audacity to protract her stay. So flying into a huff, she took Chui Erh along with her, and there and then made her way out.
"Is it likely," nurse Sung hastily observed, "that a dame like you doesn't know what manners mean? Your daughter has been in these rooms for some time, so she should, when she is about to go, knock her head before the young ladies. She has no other means of showing her gratitude. Not that they care much about such things. Yet were she to simply knock her head, she would acquit herself of a duty, if nothing more. But how is it that she says I'm going, and off she forthwith rushes?"
Chui Erh overheard these words, and felt under the necessity of turning back. Entering therefore the apartment, she prostrated herself before the two girls, and then she went in quest of Ch'iu Wen and her companions, but neither did they pay any notice whatever to her.
"Hai!" ejaculated the woman, and heaving a sigh--for she did not venture to utter a word,--she walked off, fostering a grudge in her heart.
Ch'ing Wen had, while suffering from a cold, got into a fit of anger into the bargain, so instead of being better, she was worse, and she tossed and rolled until the time came for lighting the lamps. But the moment she felt more at ease, she saw Pao-yue come back. As soon as he put his foot inside the door, he gave way to an exclamation, and stamped his foot.
"What's the reason of such behaviour?" She Yueeh promptly asked him.
"My old grandmother," Pao-yue explained, "was in such capital spirits that she gave me this coat to-day; but, who'd have thought it, I inadvertently burnt part of the back lapel. Fortunately however the evening was advanced so that neither she nor my mother noticed what had happened."
Speaking the while, he took it off. She Yueeh, on inspection, found indeed a hole burnt in it of the size of a finger. "This," she said, "must have been done by some spark from the hand-stove. It's of no consequence."
Immediately she called a servant to her. "Take this out on the sly," she bade her, "and let an experienced weaver patch it. It will be all right then."
So saying, she packed it up in a wrapper, and a nurse carried it outside.
"It should be ready by daybreak," she urged. "And by no means let our old lady or Madame Wang know anything about it."
The matron brought it back again, after a protracted absence. "Not only," she explained; "have weavers, first-class tailors, and embroiderers, but even those, who do women's work, been asked about it, and they all have no idea what this is made of. None of them therefore will venture to undertake the job."
"What's to be done?" She Yueeh inquired. "But it won't matter if you don't wear it to-morrow."
"To-morrow is the very day of the anniversary," Pao-yue rejoined. "Grandmother and my mother bade me put this on and go and pay my visit; and here I go and burn it, on the first day I wear it. Now isn't this enough to throw a damper over my good cheer?"
Ch'ing Wen lent an ear to their conversation for a long time, until unable to restrain herself, she twisted herself round. "Bring it here," she chimed in, "and let me see it! You haven't been lucky in wearing this; but never mind!"
These words were still on Ch'ing Wen's lips, when the coat was handed to her. The lamp was likewise moved nearer to her. With minute care she surveyed it. "This is made," Ch'ing Wen observed, "of gold thread, spun from peacock's feathers. So were we now to also take gold thread, twisted from the feathers of the peacock, and darn it closely, by imitating the woof, I think it will pass without detection."
"The peacock-feather-thread is ready at hand," She Yueeh remarked smilingly. "But who's there, exclusive of you, able to join the threads?"
"I'll, needless to say, do my level best to the very cost of my life and finish," Ch'ing Wen added.
"How ever could this do?" Pao-yue eagerly interposed. "You're just slightly better, and how could you take up any needlework?"
"You needn't go on in this chicken-hearted way!" Ch'ing Wen cried. "I know my own self well enough."
With this reply, she sat up, and, putting her hair up, she threw something over her shoulders. Her head felt heavy; her body light. Before her eyes, confusedly flitted golden stirs. In real deed, she could not stand the strain. But when inclined to give up the work, she again dreaded that Pao-yue would be driven to despair. She therefore had perforce to make a supreme effort and, setting her teeth to, she bore the exertion. All the help she asked of She Yueeh was to lend her a hand in reeling the thread.
Ch'ing Wen first took hold of a thread, and put it side by side (with those in the pelisse) to compare the two together. "This," she remarked, "isn't quite like them; but when it's patched up with it, it won't show very much."
"It will do very well," Pao-yue said. "Could one also go and hunt up a Russian tailor?"
Ch'ing Wen commenced by unstitching the lining, and, inserting under it, a bamboo bow, of the size of the mouth of a tea cup, she bound it tight at the back. She then turned her mind to the four sides of the aperture, and these she loosened by scratching them with a golden knife. Making next two stitches across with her needle, she marked out the warp and woof; and, following the way the threads were joined, she first and foremost connected the foundation, and then keeping to the original lines, she went backwards and forwards mending the hole; passing her work, after every second stitch, under further review. But she did not ply her needle three to five times, before she lay herself down on her pillow, and indulged in a little rest.
Pao-yue was standing by her side. Now he inquired of her: "Whether she would like a little hot water to drink." Later on, he asked her to repose herself. Now he seized a grey-squirrel wrapper and threw it over her shoulders. Shortly after, he took a pillow and propped her up. (The way he fussed) so exasperated Ch'ing Wen that she begged and entreated him to leave off.
"My junior ancestor!" she exclaimed, "do go to bed and sleep! If you sit up for the other half of the night, your eyes will to-morrow look as if they had been scooped out, and what good will possibly come out of that?"
Pao-yue realised her state of exasperation and felt compelled to come and lie down anyhow. But he could not again close his eyes.
In a little while, she heard the clock strike four, and just managing to finish she took a small tooth-brush, and rubbed up the pile.
"That will do!" She Yueeh put in. "One couldn't detect it, unless one examined it carefully."
Pao-yue asked with alacrity to be allowed to have a look at it. "Really," he smiled, "it's quite the same thing."
Ch'ing Wen coughed and coughed time after time, so it was only after extreme difficulty that she succeeded in completing what she had to patch. "It's mended, it's true," she remarked, "but it does not, after all, look anything like it. Yet, I cannot stand the effort any more!"
As she shouted 'Ai-ya,' she lost control over herself, and dropped down upon the bed.
But, reader, if you choose to know anything more of her state, peruse the next chapter.
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【选集】红楼一春梦 |
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