Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber Volume Ii Part 96

She Yueh first called a young maid into the room and put things s.h.i.+pshape before she told Ch'in Wen and the other servant-girls to enter; and along with them, she remained in waiting upon Pao-yu while he combed his hair, and washed his face and hands. This part of his toilet over, She Yueh remarked: "It's cloudy again, so I suppose it's going to snow. You'd better therefore wear a woollen overcoat!"

Pao-yu 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-yu had had a couple of mouthfuls, She Yueh also brought him a small plateful of brown ginger, prepared according to some prescription. Pao-yu 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-yu was going out of doors so having the entrance leading into her bedroom opened she asked Pao-yu to walk in. Pao-yu 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-yu 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-yu replied, "but it isn't snowing yet."

Dowager lady Chia thereupon sent for Yuan Yang and told her to fetch the peac.o.c.k down pelisse, finished the day before, and give it to him. Yuan Yang signified her obedience and went off, and actually returned with what was wanted.

When Pao-yu came to survey it, he found that the green and golden hues glistened with bright l.u.s.tre, 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 peac.o.c.ks, 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-yu 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-yu a.s.sented, and quitted her apartments, when he caught sight of Yuan Yang standing below rubbing her eyes. Ever since the day on which Yuan Yang had sworn to have done with the match, she had not exchanged a single word with Pao-yu. Pao-yu was therefore day and night a prey to dejection. So when he now observed her s.h.i.+rk his presence again, Pao-yu 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?"

Yuan Yang shoved his hand away, and promptly walked into dowager lady Chia's quarters.

Pao-yu was thus compelled to repair to Madame w.a.n.g's room, and let her see his coat. Retracing afterwards his footsteps into the garden, he let Ch'ing Wen and She Yueh 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-yu acquiesced by uttering several yes's.

An old nurse then followed him out into the pavilion. Here they discovered six attendants, (that is), Pao-yu's milk-brother Li Kuei, and w.a.n.g 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 cus.h.i.+ons 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-yu mounted leisurely. Li Kuei and w.a.n.g 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-yu closely on each side.

"Brother Chou and brother Ch'ien," Pao-yu 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-yu 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-yu speedily pulled in his horse, with the idea of dismounting. But Lai Ta hastened to draw near and to clasp his leg. Pao-yu 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-yu, 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-yu 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 Yueh 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 Chun'. 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 e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "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 p.r.i.c.ked 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 p.r.i.c.k 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-yu, 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 w.a.n.g, 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-yu urgently enjoined this to-day," Ch'ing Wen pursued, "so what about Miss Hua (flower) and Miss Ts'ao (gra.s.s)? 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 Yueh 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-yu 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 w.a.n.g. Tell them I'm a rustic and let them send me too off."

"Sister-in-law," urged She Yueh, "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 t.i.tle 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 w.a.n.g, 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-yu' 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 w.a.n.g'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.