Nurse Li was both vexed and amused by the words she had just heard. "Really," she observed, "every remark this girl Lin utters is sharper than a razor! I didn't say anything much!"
Pao Ch'ai too could not suppress a smile, and as she pinched Tai-yue's cheek, she exclaimed, "Oh the tongue of this frowning girl! one can neither resent what it says, nor yet listen to it with any gratification!"
"Don't be afraid!" Mrs. Hsueeh went on to say, "don't be afraid; my son, you've come to see me, and although I've nothing good to give you, you mustn't, through fright, let the trifle you've taken lie heavy on your stomach, and thus make me uneasy; but just drink at your pleasure, and as much as you like, and let the blame fall on my shoulders. What's more, you can stay to dinner with me, and then go home; or if you do get tipsy, you can sleep with me, that's all."
She thereupon told the servants to heat some more wine. "I'll come," she continued, "and keep you company while you have two or three cups, after which we'll have something to eat!"
It was only after these assurances that Pao-yue's spirits began at length, once more to revive, and dame Li then directed the waiting-maids what to do. "You remain here," she enjoined, "and mind, be diligent while I go home and change; when I'll come back again. Don't allow him," she also whispered to "aunt" Hsueeh, "to have all his own way and drink too much."
Having said this, she betook herself back to her quarters; and during this while, though there were two or three nurses in attendance, they did not concern themselves with what was going on. As soon as they saw that nurse Li had left, they likewise all quietly slipped out, at the first opportunity they found, while there remained but two waiting-maids, who were only too glad to curry favour with Pao-yue. But fortunately "aunt" Hsueeh, by much coaxing and persuading, only let him have a few cups, and the wine being then promptly cleared away, pickled bamboo shoots and chicken-skin soup were prepared, of which Pao-yue drank with relish several bowls full, eating besides more than half a bowl of finest rice congee.
By this time, Hsueeh Pao Ch'ai and Lin Tai-yue had also finished their repast; and when Pao-yue had drunk a few cups of strong tea, Mrs. Hsueeh felt more easy in her mind. Hsueeh Yen and the others, three or four of them in all, had also had their meal, and came in to wait upon them.
"Are you now going or not?" inquired Tai-yue of Pao-yue.
Pao-yue looked askance with his drowsy eyes. "If you want to go," he observed, "I'll go with you."
Tai-yue hearing this, speedily rose. "We've been here nearly the whole day," she said, "and ought to be going back."
As she spoke the two of them bade good-bye, and the waiting-maids at once presented a hood to each of them.
Pao-yue readily lowered his head slightly and told a waiting-maid to put it on. The girl promptly took the hood, made of deep red cloth, and shaking it out of its folds, she put it on Pao-yue's head.
"That will do," hastily exclaimed Pao-yue. "You stupid thing! gently a bit; is it likely you've never seen any one put one on before? let me do it myself."
"Come over here, and I'll put it on for you," suggested Tai-yue, as she stood on the edge of the couch. Pao-yue eagerly approached her, and Tai-yue carefully kept the cap, to which his hair was bound, fast down, and taking the hood she rested its edge on the circlet round his forehead. She then raised the ball of crimson velvet, which was as large as a walnut, and put it in such a way that, as it waved tremulously, it should appear outside the hood. These arrangements completed she cast a look for a while at what she had done. "That's right now," she added, "throw your wrapper over you!"
When Pao-yue caught these words, he eventually took the wrapper and threw it over his shoulders.
"None of your nurses," hurriedly interposed aunt Hsueeh, "are yet come, so you had better wait a while."
"Why should we wait for them?" observed Pao-yue. "We have the waiting-maids to escort us, and surely they should be enough."
Mrs. Hsueeh finding it difficult to set her mind at ease deputed two married women to accompany the two cousins; and after they had both expressed (to these women) their regret at having troubled them, they came straightway to dowager lady Chia's suite of apartments.
Her venerable ladyship had not, as yet, had her evening repast. Hearing that they had been at Mrs. Hsueeh's, she was extremely pleased; but noticing that Pao-yue had had some wine, she gave orders that he should be taken to his room, and put to bed, and not be allowed to come out again.
"Do take good care of him," she therefore enjoined the servants, and when suddenly she bethought herself of Pao-yue's attendants, "How is it," she at once inquired of them all, "that I don't see nurse Li here?"
They did not venture to tell her the truth, that she had gone home, but simply explained that she had come in a few moments back, and that they thought she must have again gone out on some business or other.
"She's better off than your venerable ladyship," remarked Pao-yue, turning round and swaying from side to side. "Why then ask after her? Were I rid of her, I believe I might live a little longer."
While uttering these words, he reached the door of his bedroom, where he saw pen and ink laid out on the writing table.
"That's nice," exclaimed Ch'ing Wen, as she came to meet him with a smile on her face, "you tell me to prepare the ink for you, but though when you get up, you were full of the idea of writing, you only wrote three characters, when you discarded the pencil, and ran away, fooling me, by making me wait the whole day! Come now at once and exhaust all this ink before you're let off."
Pao-yue then remembered what had taken place in the morning. "Where are the three characters I wrote?" he consequently inquired, smiling.
"Why this man is tipsy," remarked Ch'ing Wen sneeringly. "As you were going to the other mansion, you told me to stick them over the door. I was afraid lest any one else should spoil them, as they were being pasted, so I climbed up a high ladder and was ever so long in putting them up myself; my hands are even now numb with cold."
"Oh I forgot all about it," replied Pao-yue grinning, "if your hands are cold, come and I'll rub them warm for you."
Promptly stretching out his hand, he took those of Ch'ing Wen in his, and the two of them looked at the three characters, which he recently had written, and which were pasted above the door. In a short while, Tai-yue came.
"My dear cousin," Pao-yue said to her smilingly, "tell me without any prevarication which of the three characters is the best written?"
Tai-yue raised her head and perceived the three characters: Red, Rue, Hall. "They're all well done," she rejoined, with a smirk, "How is it you've written them so well? By and bye you must also write a tablet for me."
"Are you again making fun of me?" asked Pao-yue smiling; "what about sister Hsi Jen?" he went on to inquire.
Ch'ing Wen pouted her lips, pointing towards the stove-couch in the inner room, and, on looking in, Pao-yue espied Hsi Jen fast asleep in her daily costume.
"Well," Pao-yue observed laughing, "there's no harm in it, but its rather early to sleep. When I was having my early meal, on the other side," he proceeded, speaking to Ch'ing Wen, "there was a small dish of dumplings, with bean-curd outside; and as I thought you would like to have some, I asked Mrs. Yu for them, telling her that I would keep them, and eat them in the evening; I told some one to bring them over, but have you perchance seen them?"
"Be quick and drop that subject," suggested Ch'ing Wen; "as soon as they were brought over, I at once knew they were intended for me; as I had just finished my meal, I put them by in there, but when nurse Li came she saw them. 'Pao-yue,' she said, 'is not likely to eat them, so I'll take them and give them to my grandson.' And forthwith she bade some one take them over to her home."