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Pao-yue forthwith paid his respects to her, and "aunt" Hsueeh, taking him by the hand, drew him towards her and clasped him in her embrace. "With this cold weather," she smilingly urged, "it's too kind of you, my dear child, to think of coming to see me; come along on the stove-couch at once! Bring some tea," she continued, addressing the servants, "and make it as hot as it can be!"
But this Hsueeh P'an was, by nature, gifted with a fickle disposition; to-day, he would incline to the east, and to-morrow to the west, so that having recently obtained new friends, he put Hsiang Lin and Yue Ai aside. Chin Jung too was at one time an intimate friend of his, but ever since he had acquired the friendship of the two lads, Hsiang Lin and Yue Ai, he forthwith deposed Chin Jung.
Hsueeh had not at first been overcome by her feelings; but the moment his utterances reached her ear, she once more began to experience the anguish, which they stirred in her heart. Pao-ch'ai made an effort to force a smile. "You've already," she said, "been the cause of quite enough trouble, and do you now provoke mother to have another cry?" Hearing this, Hsueeh P'an promptly checked his tears.
"Well now," she cried, "down with that whole jar!" "Why, it isn't worth a jarful," smiled Hsueeh P'an at these words. "Favour us with some other good song!" "Listen to what I have to suggest," Pao-yue interposed, a smile on his lips. "If you go on drinking in this reckless manner, we will easily get drunk and there will be no fun in it.
While Pao-yue was yet speaking, Hsi Hsueeh volunteered to take the message, and went off at once; and Mrs. Chou herself took her leave without another word. Mrs. Chou's son-in-law was, in fact, Leng Tzu-hsing, the intimate friend of Yue-ts'un.
Contrary to her expectation Tai-yue was not at this time in her own room, but in Pao-yue's; where they were amusing themselves in trying to solve the "nine strung rings" puzzle. On entering Mrs. Chou put on a smile. "'Aunt' Hsueeh," she explained, "has told me to bring these flowers and present them to you to wear in your hair." "What flowers?" exclaimed Pao-yue.
"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.
"Capital!" they shouted. Old lady Chia drained a cup. Yuean Yang then went on to remark, "I've got another set; the one on the left is a double five." "Bud after bud of the plum bloom dances in the wind," Mrs. Hsueeh replied. "The one on the right is a ten spot," Yuean Yang pursued. "In the tenth moon the plum bloom on the hills emits its fragrant smell," Mrs. Hsueeh added.
"Pshaw!" laughed old lady Chia, "every one says that there's nothing you haven't gone through and nothing you haven't seen, and don't you even know what this gauze is? Will you again brag by and bye, after this?" Mrs. Hsueeh and all the others smiled. "She may have gone through a good deal," they remarked, "but how can she ever presume to pit herself against an old lady like you?
"You've always been delicate and unable to stand the cold," interposed "aunt" Hsueeh, "and is it not a kind attention on their part to have thought of you?" "You don't know, aunt, how it really stands," responded Tai-yue smilingly; "fortunately enough, it was sent to me here at your quarters; for had it been in any one else's house, wouldn't it have been a slight upon them?
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