Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber Volume Ii Part 25

"You don't say," argued Shih Hsiang-yun, "that your words are hard things to swallow, but contrariwise, call people's temperaments impetuous!"

As she spoke, she unfolded her handkerchief and, producing a ring, she gave it to Hsi Jen.

Hsi Jen did not know how to thank her enough. "When;" she consequently smiled, "you sent those to your cousin the other day, I got one also; and here you yourself bring me another to-day! It's clear enough therefore that you haven't forgotten me. This alone has been quite enough to test you. As for the ring itself, what is its worth? but it's a token of the sincerity of your heart!"

"Who gave it to you?" inquired Shih Hsiang-yun.

"Miss Pao let me have it." replied Hsi Jen.

"I was under the impression," remarked Hsiang-yun with a sigh, "that it was a present from cousin Lin. But is it really cousin Pao, that gave it to you! When I was at home, I day after day found myself reflecting that among all these cousins of mine, there wasn't one able to compare with cousin Pao, so excellent is she. How I do regret that we are not the offspring of one mother! For could I boast of such a sister of the same flesh and blood as myself, it wouldn't matter though I had lost both father and mother!"

While indulging in these regrets, her eyes got quite red.

"Never mind! never mind!" interposed Pao-yu. "Why need you speak of these things!"

"If I do allude to this," answered Shih Hsiang-yun, "what does it matter? I know that weak point of yours. You're in fear and trembling lest your cousin Lin should come to hear what I say, and get angry with me again for eulogising cousin Pao! Now isn't it this, eh!"

"Ch'ih!" laughed Hsi Jen, who was standing by her. "Miss Yun," she said, "now that you've grown up to be a big girl you've become more than ever openhearted and outspoken."

"When I contend;" smiled Pao-yu, "that it is difficult to say a word to any one of you I'm indeed perfectly correct!"

"My dear cousin," observed Shih Hsiang-yun laughingly, "don't go on in that strain! You'll provoke me to displeasure. When you are with me all you are good for is to talk and talk away; but were you to catch a glimpse of cousin Lin, you would once more be quite at a loss to know what best to do!"

"Now, enough of your jokes!" urged Hsi Jen. "I have a favour to crave of you."

"What is it?" vehemently inquired Shih Hsiang-yun.

"I've got a pair of shoes," answered Hsi Jen, "for which I've stuck the padding together; but I'm not feeling up to the mark these last few days, so I haven't been able to work at them. If you have any leisure, do finish them for me."

"This is indeed strange!" exclaimed Shih Hsiang-yun. "Putting aside all the skilful workers engaged in your household, you have besides some people for doing needlework and others for tailoring and cutting; and how is it you appeal to me to take your shoes in hand? Were you to ask any one of those men to execute your work, who could very well refuse to do it?"

"Here you are in another stupid mood!" laughed Hsi Jen. "Can it be that you don't know that our sewing in these quarters mayn't be done by these needleworkers."

At this reply, it at once dawned upon Shih Hsiang-yun that the shoes must be intended for Pao-yu. "Since that be the case," she in consequence smiled; "I'll work them for you. There's however one thing.

I'll readily attend to any of yours, but I will have nothing to do with any for other people."

"There you are again!" laughed Hsi Jen. "Who am I to venture to trouble you to make shoes for me? I'll tell you plainly, however, that they are not mine. But no matter whose they are, it is anyhow I who'll be the recipient of your favour; that is sufficient."

"To speak the truth," rejoined Shih Hsiang-yun, "you've put me to the trouble of working, I don't know how many things for you. The reason why I refuse on this occasion should be quite evident to you!"

"I can't nevertheless make it out!" answered Hsi Jen.

"I heard the other day," continued Shih Hsiang-yun, a sardonic smile on her lip, "that while the fan-case, I had worked, was being held and compared with that of some one else, it too was slashed away in a fit of high dudgeon. This reached my ears long ago, and do you still try to dupe me by asking me again now to make something more for you? Have I really become a slave to you people?

"As to what occurred the other day," hastily explained Pao-yu smiling, "I positively had no idea that that thing was your handiwork."

"He never knew that you'd done it," Hsi Jen also laughed. "I deceived him by telling him that there had been of late some capital hands at needlework outside, who could execute any embroidery with surpa.s.sing beauty, and that I had asked them to bring a fan-case so as to try them and to see whether they could actually work well or not. He at once believed what I said. But as he produced the case and gave it to this one and that one to look at, he somehow or other, I don't know how, managed again to put some one's back up, and she cut it into two. On his return, however, he bade me hurry the men to make another; and when at length I explained to him that it had been worked by you, he felt, I can't tell you, what keen regret!"

"This is getting stranger and stranger!" said Shih Hsiang-yun. "It wasn't worth the while for Miss Lin to lose her temper about it. But as she plies the scissors so admirably, why, you might as well tell her to finish the shoes for you."

"She couldn't," replied Hsi Jen, "for besides other things our venerable lady is still in fear and trembling lest she should tire herself in any way. The doctor likewise says that she will continue to enjoy good health, so long as she is carefully looked after; so who would wish to ask her to take them in hand? Last year she managed to just get through a scented bag, after a whole year's work. But here we've already reached the middle of the present year, and she hasn't yet taken up any needle or thread!"

In the course of their conversation, a servant came and announced 'that the gentleman who lived in the Hsing Lung Street had come.' "Our master," he added, "bids you, Mr. Secundus, come out and greet him."

As soon as Pao-yu heard this announcement, he knew that Chia Yu-ts'un must have arrived. But he felt very unhappy at heart. Hsi Jen hurried to go and bring his clothes. Pao-yu, meanwhile, put on his boots, but as he did so, he gave way to resentment. "Why there's father," he soliloquised, "to sit with him; that should be enough; and must he, on every visit he pays, insist upon seeing me!"

"It is, of course, because you have such a knack for receiving and entertaining visitors that Mr. Chia Cheng will have you go out,"

laughingly interposed Shih Hsiang-yun from one side, as she waved her fan.

"Is it father's doing?" Pao-yu rejoined. "Why, it's he himself who asks that I should be sent for to see him."

"'When a host is courteous, visitors come often,'" smiled Hsiang-yun, "so it's surely because you possess certain qualities, which have won his regard, that he insists upon seeing you."

"But I am not what one would call courteous," demurred Pao-yu. "I am, of all coa.r.s.e people, the coa.r.s.est. Besides, I do not choose to have any relations with such people as himself."

"Here's again that unchangeable temperament of yours!" laughed Hsiang-yun. "But you're a big fellow now, and you should at least, if you be loth to study and go and pa.s.s your examinations for a provincial graduate or a metropolitan graduate, have frequent intercourse with officers and ministers of state and discuss those varied attainments, which one acquires in an official career, so that you also may be able in time to have some idea about matters in general; and that when by and bye you've made friends, they may not see you spending the whole day long in doing nothing than loafing in our midst, up to every imaginable mischief."

"Miss," exclaimed Pao-yu, after this harangue, "pray go and sit in some other girl's room, for mind one like myself may contaminate a person who knows so much of attainments and experience as you do."

"Miss," ventured Hsi Jen, "drop this at once! Last time Miss Pao too tendered him this advice, but without troubling himself as to whether people would feel uneasy or not, he simply came out with an e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of 'hai,' and rushed out of the place. Miss Pao hadn't meanwhile concluded her say, so when she saw him fly, she got so full of shame that, flushing scarlet, she could neither open her lips, nor hold her own counsel. But lucky for him it was only Miss Pao. Had it been Miss Lin, there's no saying what row there may not have been again, and what tears may not have been shed! Yet the very mention of all she had to tell him is enough to make people look up to Miss Pao with respect. But after a time, she also betook herself away. I then felt very unhappy as I imagined that she was angry; but contrary to all my expectations, she was by and bye just the same as ever. She is, in very truth, long-suffering and indulgent! This other party contrariwise became quite distant to her, little though one would have thought it of him; and as Miss Pao perceived that he had lost his temper, and didn't choose to heed her, she subsequently made I don't know how many apologies to him."

"Did Miss Lin ever talk such trash!" exclaimed Pao-yu. "Had she ever talked such stuff and nonsense, I would have long ago become chilled towards her."

"What you say is all trash!" Hsi Jen and Hsiang-yun remarked with one voice, while they shook their heads to and fro and smiled.

Lin Tai-yu, the fact is, was well aware that now that Shih Hsiang-yun was staying in the mansion, Pao-yu too was certain to hasten to come and tell her all about the unicorn he had got, so she thought to herself: "In the foreign traditions and wild stories, introduced here of late by Pao-yu, literary persons and pretty girls are, for the most part, brought together in marriage, through the agency of some trifling but ingenious nick-nack. These people either have miniature ducks, or phoenixes, jade necklets or gold pendants, fine handkerchiefs or elegant sashes; and they have, through the instrumentality of such trivial objects, invariably succeeded in accomplishing the wishes they entertained throughout their lives." When she recently discovered, by some unforeseen way, that Pao-yu had likewise a unicorn she began to apprehend lest he should make this circ.u.mstance a pretext to create an estrangement with her, and indulge with Shih Hsiang-yun as well in various free and easy flirtations and fine doings. She therefore quietly crossed over to watch her opportunity and take such action as would enable her to get an insight into his and her sentiments. Contrary, however, to all her calculations, no sooner did she reach her destination, than she overheard Shih Hsiang-yun dilate on the topic of experience, and Pao-yu go on to observe: "Cousin Lin has never indulged in such stuff and nonsense. Had she ever uttered any such trash, I would have become chilled even towards her!" This language suddenly produced, in Lin Tai-yu's mind, both surprise as well as delight; sadness as well as regret. Delight, at having indeed been so correct in her perception that he whom she had ever considered in the light of a true friend had actually turned out to be a true friend. Surprise, "because," she said to herself: "he has, in the presence of so many witnesses, displayed such partiality as to speak in my praise, and has shown such affection and friendliness for me as to make no attempt whatever to shirk suspicion." Regret, "for since," (she pondered), "you are my intimate friend, you could certainly well look upon me too as your intimate friend; and if you and I be real friends, why need there be any more talk about gold and jade? But since there be that question of gold and jade, you and I should have such things in our possession. Yet, why should this Pao-ch'ai step in again between us?" Sad, "because," (she reflected), "my father and mother departed life at an early period; and because I have, in spite of the secret engraven on my heart and imprinted on my bones, not a soul to act as a mentor to me. Besides, of late, I continuously feel confusion creep over my mind, so my disease must already have gradually developed itself. The doctors further state that my breath is weak and my blood poor, and that they dread lest consumption should declare itself, so despite that sincere friendship I foster for you, I cannot, I fear, last for very long. You are, I admit, a true friend to me, but what can you do for my unfortunate destiny!"

Upon reaching this point in her reflections, she could not control her tears, and they rolled freely down her cheeks. So much so, that when about to enter and meet her cousins, she experienced such utter lack of zest, that, while drying her tears she turned round, and wended her steps back in the direction of her apartments.

Pao-yu, meanwhile, had hurriedly got into his new costume. Upon coming out of doors, he caught sight of Lin Tai-yu, walking quietly ahead of him engaged, to all appearances, in wiping tears from her eyes. With rapid stride, he overtook her.

"Cousin Lin," he smiled, "where are you off to? How is it that you're crying again? Who has once more hurt your feelings?"

Lin Tai-yu turned her head round to look; and seeing that it was Pao-yu, she at once forced a smile. "Why should I be crying," she replied, "when there is no reason to do so?"

"Look here!" observed Pao-yu smilingly. "The tears in your eyes are not dry yet and do you still tell me a fib?"

Saying this, he could not check an impulse to raise his arm and wipe her eyes, but Lin Tai-yu speedily withdrew several steps backwards. "Are you again bent," she said, "upon compa.s.sing your own death! Then why do you knock your hands and kick your feet about in this wise?"

"While intent upon speaking, I forgot," smiled Pao-yu, "all about propriety and gesticulated, yet quite inadvertently. But what care I whether I die or live!"

"To die would, after all" added Lin Tai-yu, "be for you of no matter; but you'll leave behind some gold or other, and a unicorn too or other; and what would they do?"

This insinuation was enough to plunge Pao-yu into a fresh fit of exasperation. Hastening up to her: "Do you still give vent to such language?" he asked. "Why, it's really tantamount to invoking imprecations on me! What, are you yet angry with me!"

This question recalled to Lin Tai-yu's mind the incidents of a few days back, and a pang of remorse immediately gnawed her heart for having been again so indiscreet in her speech. "Now don't you distress your mind!"

she observed hastily, smiling. "I verily said what I shouldn't! Yet what is there in this to make your veins protrude, and to so provoke you as to bedew your whole face with perspiration?"

While reasoning with him, she felt unable to repress herself, and, approaching him, she extended her hand, and wiped the perspiration from his face.