第三十六回

第三十六回 绣鸳鸯梦兆绛芸轩 识分定情悟梨香院

话说贾母自王夫人处回来，见宝玉一日好似一日，心中自是欢喜。因怕将来贾政又叫他，遂命人将贾政的亲随小厮头儿唤来，吩咐他“以后倘有会人待客诸样的事，你老爷要叫宝玉，你不用上来传话，就回他说我说了：一则打重了，得着实将养几个月才走得；二则他的星宿不利[3]，祭了星不见外人，过了八月才许出二门。”那小厮头儿听了，领命而去。贾母又命李嬷嬷袭人等来，将此话说与宝玉，使他放心。

那宝玉本就懒与士大夫诸男人接谈，又最厌峨冠礼服贺吊往还等事，今日得了这句话，越发得了意，不但将亲戚朋友一概杜绝了，而且连家庭中晨昏定省亦发都随他的便了，日日只在园中游卧，不过每日一清早到贾母王夫人处走走就回来了，却每每甘心为诸丫鬟充役，竟也得十分闲消日月。或如宝钗辈有时见机导劝，反生起气来，只说“好好的一个清净洁白女儿，也学的钓名沽誉，入了国贼禄鬼〔二〕之流。这总是前人无故生事，立言竖辞，原为导后世的须眉浊物。不想我生不幸，亦且琼闺绣阁中亦染此风，真真有负天地钟灵毓秀[5]之德！”因此祸延古人，除四书外，竟将别的书焚了。众人见他如此疯颠，也都不向他说这些正经话了。独有林黛玉自幼不曾劝他去立身扬名等语，所以深敬黛玉。

闲言少述。如今且说王凤姐自见金钏死后，忽见几家仆人常来孝敬他些东西，又不时的来请安奉承，自己倒生了疑惑，不知何意。这日又见人来孝敬他东西，因晚间无人时笑问平儿道：“这几家人不大管我的事，为什么忽然这么和我贴近？”平儿冷笑道：“奶奶连这个都想不起来了？我猜他们的女儿都必是太太房里的丫头，如今太太房里有四个大的，一个月一两银子的分例，下剩的都是一个月几百钱。如今金钏儿死了，必定他们要弄这一两银子的巧宗儿呢。”凤姐听了，笑道：“是了，是了，倒是你提醒了。我看这些人也太不知足，钱也赚够了，苦事情又侵不着，弄个丫头搪塞着身子也就罢了，又还想这个。也罢了，他们几家的钱容易也不能花到我跟前，这是他们自寻的，送什么来，我就收什么，横竖我有主意。”凤姐儿安下这个心，所以自管迁延着，等那些人把东西送足了，然后乘空方回王夫人。

这日午间，薛姨妈母女两个与林黛玉等正在王夫人房里大家吃西瓜呢，凤姐儿得便回王夫人道：“自从玉钏儿的姐姐死了，太太跟前少着一个人。太太或看准了那个丫头好，就吩咐，下月好发放月钱的。”王夫人听了，想了一想，道：“依我说，什么是例，必定四个五个的，够使就罢了，竟可以免了罢。”凤姐笑道：“论理，太太说的也是。这原是旧例，别人屋里还有两个呢，太太倒不按例了。况且省下一两银子也有限。”王夫人听了，又想一想，道：“也罢，这个分例只管关了来，不用补人，就把这一两银子给他妹妹玉钏儿罢。他姐姐服侍了我一场，没个好结果，剩下他妹妹跟着我，吃个双分子也不为过逾了〔三〕。”凤姐答应着，回头找玉钏儿，笑道：“大喜，大喜。”玉钏儿过来磕了头。

王夫人问道：“正要问你，如今赵姨娘周姨娘的月例多少？”凤姐道：“那是定例，每人二两。赵姨娘有环兄弟的二两，共是四两，另外四串钱。”王夫人道：“可都按数给他们？”凤姐见问的奇怪，忙道：“怎么不按数给！”王夫人道：“前儿我恍惚听见有人抱怨，说短了一吊钱，是什么原故？”凤姐忙笑道：“姨娘们的丫头，月例原是人各一吊。从旧年他们外头商议的，姨娘们每位的丫头分例减半，人各五百钱，每位两个丫头，所以短了一吊钱。这也抱怨不着我，我倒乐得给他们呢，他们外头又扣着，难道我添上不成。这个事我不过是接手儿，怎么来，怎么去，由不得我作主。我倒说了两三回，仍旧添上这两分的。他们说只有这个项数，叫我也难再说了。如今我手里每月连日子都不错给他们呢。先时在外头关，那个月不打饥荒，何曾顺顺溜溜的得过一遭儿。”

王夫人听说，也就罢了，半日又问：“老太太屋里几个一两的？”凤姐道：“八个。如今只有七个，那一个是袭人。”王夫人道：“这就是了。你宝兄弟也并没有一两的丫头，袭人还算是老太太房里的人。”凤姐笑道：“袭人原是老太太的人，不过给了宝兄弟使。他这一两银子还在老太太的丫头分例上领。如今说因为袭人是宝玉的人，裁了这一两银子，断然使不得。若说再添一个人给老太太，这个还可以裁他的。若不裁他的，须得环兄弟屋里也添上一个才公道均匀了。就是晴雯麝月等七个大丫头，每月人各月钱一吊，佳蕙等八个小丫头，每月人各月钱五百，还是老太太的话，别人如何恼得气得呢。”薛姨妈笑道：“只听凤丫头的嘴，倒像倒了核桃车子的，只听他的帐也清楚，理也公道。”凤姐笑道：“姑妈，难道我说错了不成？”薛姨妈笑道：“说的何尝错，只是你慢些说岂不省力。”凤姐才要笑，忙又忍住了，听王夫人示下。

王夫人想了半日，向凤姐儿道：“明儿挑一个好丫头送去老太太使，补袭人，把袭人的一分裁了。把我每月的月例二十两银子里，拿出二两银子一吊钱来给袭人。以后凡事有赵姨娘周姨娘的，也有袭人的，只是袭人的这一分都从我的分例上匀出来，不必动官中的就是了。”凤姐一一的答应了，笑推薛姨妈道：“姑妈听见了，我素日说的话如何？今儿果然应了我的话。”薛姨妈道：“早就该如此。模样儿自然不用说的，他的那一种行事大方，说话见人和气里头带着刚硬要强，这个实在难得。”王夫人含泪说道：“你们那里知道袭人那孩子的好处？比我的宝玉强十倍！宝玉果然是有造化的，能够得他长长远远的服侍他一辈子，也就罢了。”凤姐道：“既这么样，就开了脸，明放他在屋里岂不好？”王夫人道：“那就不好了，一则都年轻，二则老爷也不许，三则那宝玉见袭人是个丫头，纵有放纵的事，倒能听他的劝，如今作了跟前人[7]，那袭人该劝的也不敢十分劝了。如今且浑着，等再过二三年再说。”

说毕半日，凤姐见无话，便转身出来。刚至廊檐上，只见有几个执事的媳妇子正等他回事呢，见他出来，都笑道：“奶奶今儿回什么事，这半天？可是要热着了。”凤姐把袖子挽了几挽，跐着那角门的门槛子，笑道：“这里过门风倒凉快，吹一吹再走。”又告诉众人道：“你们说我回了这半日的话，太太把二百年头里的事〔四〕都想起来问我，难道我不说罢。”又冷笑道：“我从今以后倒要干几样尅毒事了。抱怨给太太听，我也不怕。糊涂油蒙了心，烂了舌头，不得好死的下作东西，别作娘的春梦！明儿一裹脑子扣的日子还有呢。如今裁了丫头的钱，就抱怨了咱们。也不想一想是奴几[9]，也配使两三个丫头！”一面骂，一面方走了，自去挑人回贾母话去，不在话下。

却说王夫人等这里吃毕西瓜，又说了一回闲话，各自方散去。宝钗与黛玉等回至园中，宝钗因约黛玉往藕香榭去，黛玉回说立刻要洗澡，便各自散了。

宝钗独自行来，顺路进了怡红院，意欲寻宝玉谈讲以解午倦。不想一入院来，鸦雀无闻，一并连两只仙鹤在芭蕉下都睡着了。宝钗便顺着游廊来至房中，只见外间床上横三竖四，都是丫头们睡觉。转过十锦槅子，来至宝玉的房内。宝玉在床上睡着了，袭人坐在身旁，手里做针线，旁边放着一柄白犀麈[10]〔五〕。宝钗走近前来，悄悄的笑道：“你也过于小心了，这个屋里那里还有苍蝇蚊子，还拿蝇帚子赶什么？”袭人不防，猛抬头见是宝钗，忙放下针线，起身悄悄笑道：“姑娘来了，我倒也不防，唬了一跳。姑娘不知道，虽然没有苍蝇蚊子，谁知有一种小虫子，从这纱眼里钻进来，人也看不见，只睡着了，咬一口，就像蚂蚁夹的。”宝钗道：“怨不得。这屋子后头又近水，又都是香花儿，这屋子里头又香。这种虫子都是花心里长的，闻香就扑。”

说着，一面又瞧他手里的针线，原来是个白绫红里的兜肚，上面扎着鸳鸯戏莲的花样，红莲绿叶，五色鸳鸯。宝钗道：“嗳哟，好鲜亮活计！这是谁的，也值的费这么大工夫？”袭人向床上努嘴儿。宝钗笑道：“这么大了，还戴这个？”袭人笑道：“他原是不戴，所以特特的做的好了，叫他看见由不得不戴。如今天气热，睡觉都不留神，哄他戴上了，便是夜里纵盖不严些儿，也就不怕了。你说这一个就用了工夫，还没看见他身上现戴的那一个呢。”宝钗笑道：“也亏你奈烦。”袭人道：“今儿做的工夫大了，脖子低的怪酸的。”又笑道：“好姑娘，你略坐一坐，我出去走走就来。”说着便走了。宝钗只顾看着活计，便不留心，一蹲身，刚刚的也坐在袭人方才坐的所在，因又见那活计实在可爱，不由的拿起针来，替他代刺。

不想林黛玉因遇见史湘云约他来与袭人道喜，二人来至院中，见静悄悄的，湘云便转身先到厢房里去找袭人。林黛玉却来至窗外，隔着纱窗往里一看，只见宝玉穿着银红纱衫子，随便睡着在床上，宝钗坐在身旁做针线，旁边放着蝇帚子。

林黛玉见了这个景儿，连忙把身子一藏，手握着嘴不敢笑出来，招手儿叫湘云。湘云一见他这般景况，只当有什么新闻，忙也来一看，也要笑时，忽然想起宝钗素日待他厚道，便忙掩住口。知道林黛玉不让人，怕他言语之中取笑，便忙拉过他来道：“走罢。我想起袭人来，他说午间要到池子里去洗衣裳，想必去了，咱们那里找他去。”林黛玉心下明白，冷笑了两声，只得随他走了。

这里宝钗只刚做了两三个花瓣，忽见宝玉在梦中喊骂说：“和尚道士的话如何信得？什么是金玉姻缘，我偏说是木石姻缘！”薛宝钗听了这话，不觉怔了。忽见袭人走过来，笑道：“还没有醒呢。”宝钗摇头。袭人又笑道：“我才碰见林姑娘〔六〕史大姑娘，他们可曾进来？”宝钗道：“没见他们进来。”因向袭人笑道：“他们没告诉你什么话？”袭人笑道：“左不过是他们那些玩话，有什么正经说的。”宝钗笑道：“他们说的可不是玩话，我正要告诉你呢，你又忙忙的出去了。”

一句话未完，只见凤姐儿打发人来叫袭人。宝钗笑道：“就是为那话了。”袭人只得唤起两个丫鬟来，一同宝钗出怡红院，自往凤姐这里来。果然是告诉他这话，又叫他与王夫人叩头，且不必去见贾母，倒把袭人不好意思的。见过王夫人，急忙回来，宝玉已醒了，问起原故，袭人且含糊答应，至夜间人静，袭人方告诉。

宝玉喜不自禁，又向他笑道：“我可看你回家去不去了！那一回往家里走了一趟，回来就说你哥哥要赎你，又说在这里没着落，终久算什么，说了那么些无情无义的生分话唬我。从今以后，我可看谁来敢叫你去。”袭人听了，便冷笑道：“你倒别这么说。从此以后我是太太的人了，我要走连你也不必告诉，只回了太太就走。”宝玉笑道：“就便算我不好，你回了太太竟去了，叫别人听见说我不好，你去了你也没意思。”袭人笑道：“有什么没意思，难道作了强盗贼，我也跟着罢。再不然，还有一个死呢。人活百岁，横竖要死，这一口气不在，听不见看不见就罢了。”

宝玉听见这话，便忙握他的嘴，说道：“罢，罢，罢，不用说这些话了。”袭人深知宝玉性情古怪，听见奉承吉利话又厌虚而不实，听了这些尽情实话又生悲感，便悔自己说冒撞了，连忙笑着用话截开，只拣那宝玉素喜谈者问之。先问他春风秋月，再谈及粉淡脂莹，然后谈到女儿如何好，又谈到女儿死，袭人忙掩住口。

宝玉谈至浓快时，见他不说了，便笑道：“人谁不死，只要死的好。那些个须眉浊物，只知道文死谏，武死战，这二死是大丈夫死名死节。竟何如不死的好！必定有昏君他方谏，他只顾邀名，猛拚一死，将来弃君于何地！必定有刀兵他方战，猛拚一死，他只顾图汗马之名，将来弃国于何地！所以这皆非正死。”袭人道：“忠臣良将，出于不得已他才死。”宝玉道：“那武将不过仗血气之勇，疏谋少略，他自己无能，送了性命，这难道也是不得已！那文官更不可比武官了，他念两句书汙在〔七〕心里，若朝廷少有疵瑕，他就胡弹乱谏，只顾他邀忠烈之名，浊气一涌，即时拚死，这难道也是不得已！还要知道，那朝廷是受命于天，他不圣不仁，那天也断不把这万几重任与他了。可知那些死的都是沽名，并不知大义。比如我此时若果有造化，该死于此时的，趁你们在，我就死了，再能够你们哭我的眼泪流成大河，把我的尸首漂起来，送到那鸦雀不到的幽僻之处，随风化了，自此再不要托生为人，就是我死的得时了。”袭人忽见说出这些疯话来，忙说困了，不理他。那宝玉方合眼睡着，至次日也就丢开了。

一日，宝玉因各处游的烦腻，便想起《牡丹亭》曲来。自己看了两遍，犹不惬怀，因闻得梨香院的十二个女孩子中有小旦龄官最是唱的好，因着意出角门来找时，只见宝官玉官都在院内，见宝玉来了，都笑嘻嘻的让坐。宝玉因问“龄官独在那里？”众人都告诉他说：“在他房里呢。”

宝玉忙至他房内，只见龄官独自倒在枕上，见他进来，文风不动。宝玉素习与别的女孩子顽惯了的，只当龄官也同别人一样，因进前来身旁坐下，又陪笑央他起来唱“袅晴丝”一套[14]。不想龄官见他坐下，忙抬身起来躲避，正色说道：“嗓子哑了。前儿娘娘传进我们去，我还没有唱呢。”宝玉见他坐正了，再一细看，原来就是那日蔷薇花下划“蔷”字那一个。又见如此景况，从来未经过这番被人弃厌，自己便讪讪的红了脸，只得出来了。

宝官等不解何故，因问其所以。宝玉便说了，遂出来。宝官便说道：“只略等一等，蔷二爷来了叫他唱，是必唱的。”宝玉听了，心下纳闷，因问：“蔷哥儿那去了？”宝官道：“才出去了，一定还是龄官要什么，他去变弄去了。”宝玉听了，以为奇特，少站片时，果见贾蔷从外头来了，手里又提着个雀儿笼子，上面扎着个小戏台，并一个雀儿，兴兴头头的往里走着找龄官。见了宝玉，只得站住。宝玉问他：“是个什么雀儿，会衔旗串戏台？”贾蔷笑道：“是个玉顶金豆。”宝玉道：“多少钱买的？”贾蔷道：“一两八钱银子。”一面说，一面让宝玉坐，自己往龄官房里来。

宝玉此刻把听曲子的心都没了，且要看他和龄官是怎样。只见贾蔷进去笑道：“你起来，瞧这个顽意儿。”龄官起身问是什么，贾蔷道：“买了雀儿你顽，省得天天闷闷的无个开心。我先顽个你看。”说着，便拿些谷子哄的那个雀儿在戏台上乱串，衔鬼脸旗帜。众女孩子都笑道“有趣”，独龄官冷笑了两声，赌气仍睡去了。贾蔷还只管陪笑，问他好不好。龄官道：“你们家把好好的人弄了来，关在这牢坑里学这个劳什子〔八〕还不算，你这会子又弄个雀儿来，也偏生干这个。你分明是弄了他来打趣形容我们，还问我好不好。”贾蔷听了，不觉慌起来，连忙赌身立誓。又道：“今儿我那里的香脂油蒙了心！费一二两银子买他来，原说解闷，就没有想到这上头。罢，罢，放了生[16]，免免你的灾病。”说着，果然将雀儿放了，一顿把将笼子拆了。

龄官还说：“那雀儿虽不如人，他也有个老雀儿在窝里，你拿了他来弄这个劳什子也忍得！今儿我咳嗽出两口血来，太太叫大夫来瞧，不说替我细问问〔九〕，你且弄这个来取笑。偏生我这没人管没人理的，又偏病。”说着又哭起来。贾蔷忙道：“昨儿晚上我问了大夫，他说不相干。他说吃两剂药，后儿再瞧。谁知今儿又吐了。这会子请他去。”说着，便要请去。龄官又叫“站住，这会子大毒日头地下，你赌气自去请了来我也不瞧。”贾蔷听如此说，只得又站住。

宝玉见了这般景况，不觉痴了，这才领会了划“蔷”深意。自己站不住，便抽身走了。贾蔷一心都在龄官身上，也不顾送，倒是别的女孩子送了出来。

那宝玉一心裁夺盘算，痴痴的回至怡红院中，正值林黛玉和袭人坐着说话儿呢。宝玉一进来，就和袭人长叹，说道：“我昨晚上的话竟说错了，怪道老爷说我是‘管窥蠡测’。昨夜说你们的眼泪单葬我，这就错了。我竟不能全得了。从此后只是各人各得眼泪罢了。”袭人昨夜不过是些顽话，已经忘了，不想宝玉今又提起来，便笑道：“你可真真有些疯了。”宝玉默默不对，自此深悟人生情缘，各有分定，只是每每暗伤“不知将来葬我洒泪者为谁？”此皆宝玉心中所怀，也不可十分妄拟。

且说林黛玉当下见了宝玉如此形象，便知是又从那里着了魔来，也不便多问，因向他说道：“我才在舅母跟前听的明儿是薛姨妈的生日，叫我顺便来问你出去不出去。你打发人前头说一声去。”宝玉道：“上回连大老爷的生日我也没去，这会子我又去，倘或碰见了人呢？我一概都不去。这么怪热的，又穿衣裳，我不去姨妈也未必恼。”袭人忙道：“这是什么话？他比不得大老爷。这里又住的近，又是亲戚，你不去岂不叫他思量。你怕热，只清早起到那里磕个头，吃钟茶再来，岂不好看。”宝玉未说话，黛玉便先笑道：“你看着人家赶蚊子分上，也该去走走。”宝玉不解，忙问：“怎么赶蚊子？”袭人便将昨日睡觉无人作伴，宝姑娘坐了一坐的话说了出来。宝玉听了，忙说：“不该。我怎么睡着了，亵渎了他。”一面又说：“明日必去。”

正说着，忽见史湘云穿的齐齐整整的走来辞，说家里打发人来接他。宝玉林黛玉听说，忙站起来让坐。史湘云也不坐，宝林两个只得送他至前面。那史湘云只是眼泪汪汪的，见有他家人在跟前，又不敢十分委曲。少时薛宝钗赶来，愈觉缱绻难舍。还是宝钗心内明白，他家人若回去告诉了他婶娘，待他家去又恐受气，因此倒催他走了。众人送至二门前，宝玉还要往外送，倒是湘云拦住了。一时，回身又叫宝玉到跟前，悄悄的嘱道：“便是老太太想不起我来，你时常提着打发人接我去。”宝玉连连答应了。眼看着他上车去了，大家方才进来。要知端的，且听下回分解。

[1] 分定——命中注定的缘分。

〔一〕 “情悟梨香院”，原作“情语梨花院”，己卯本同。从梦稿、蒙府、戚序、甲辰、舒序本改。

[3] 星宿（xiù秀）不利——星宿：我国古代对星座的称呼。星相术士等用生辰八字，按天上星宿的运数，来推算人的禄命和吉凶祸福，凡遇不吉利的事情，认为是相应的星宿不吉利之故，就需祭星消灾。

〔二〕 “禄鬼”，原作“禄儿”，从梦稿、甲辰、舒序本改。

[5] 钟灵毓（yù玉）秀——旧时认为杰出有为的人才，是天地间灵秀之气聚集培育出来的。钟：聚。毓：养育。

〔三〕 “也不为过逾了”，原作“不为过于了”，点改为“也不为之过”。从甲辰本改。

[7] 跟前人——这里指被收作妾的丫鬟，义同前面的“房里人”。

〔四〕 “头里的事”，原无，从梦稿本补。

[9] 奴几——奴才辈。几：指排列、辈分。

[10] 白犀麈（zhǔ主）——一种用犀角装饰手柄的贵重拂尘。麈：似鹿而大，其尾辟尘。

〔五〕 “白犀麈”，原作“白犀尘”，旁添为“白犀拂尘”。己卯本情况全同。梦稿、蒙府、戚序、甲辰本均作“白犀拂尘”。此从舒序本改。

〔六〕 “林姑娘”，原作“林大姑娘”，从各本删。

〔七〕 “汙在”，底本覆改为“横在”，己卯本作“污在”，蒙府、戚序本作“窝在”，甲辰本作“记在”，舒序本作“安在”。从底本原文。

[14] “袅晴丝”一套——“袅晴丝”是《牡丹亭·惊梦》中第一支曲《步步娇》的首三字。“‘袅晴丝’一套”，代指《惊梦》一出的曲子。“晴丝”谐音“情思”。

〔八〕 “劳什子”，原作“牢什子”，馀各本作“牢什子”或“牢什古子”。本书此词多次出现，今据第三回统一。

[16] 放了生——释放鸟兽虫鱼等类小生物，佛家视为善举，认为可积阴德。

〔九〕 “叫大夫来瞧，不说替我细问问”，从“瞧”至“我”五字系旁添，己卯本同。

CHAPTER 36. Bao-chai visits Green Delights and hears strange words from a sleeper Bao-yu visits Pear-tree Court and learns hard facts from a performer

WHEN Grandmother Jia got back to her own apartment after lunching with Lady Wang, she was naturally very pleased to have seen Bao-yu making such rapid progress; but her pleasure soon gave way to worry when she began wondering what would happen when he was well enough for Jia Zheng to start asking for him again. To guard against that contingency she had Jia Zheng’s Head Boy brought before her to receive instructions direct from her own mouth.

‘In future,’ she told him, ‘whenever the Master is entertaining guests or seeing anybody and asks for Bao-yu, you are to say, straight away, without needing to see me about it, first of all that Master Bao was very seriously injured by his beating and will need several months’ complete rest before he can walk properly; and secondly that he has just made an offering to his star-guardian because of an unlucky conjunction in his horo-scope and isn’t allowed to see outsiders or go outside the inner gate until the beginning of the eighth month.’

She called Nannie Li and Aroma to her as soon as the Head Boy had gone and instructed them to tell Bao-yu this, so that no worries should retard the progress of his recovery.

Bao-yu had always hated meeting or making conversation with senior males of the scholar-official class and detested all occasions which involved dressing up, such as visits of congratulation and condolence and the various other formal exchanges to which members of that class devote so great a part of their time. His grandmother’s dispensation was therefore particularly gratifying to him, and he used it as an excuse for cutting himself off from all contact with visiting relations and friends. He even pleased himself about whether or not he made the customary morning and evening duty-calls on the senior members of the household. Each day was spent playing or resting in the Garden, and during the whole of the day, except for the brief period in the early morning when he went outside to visit his mother and grandmother, he was the willing captive of his maids and did for them whatever little services it pleased them to command. In such enjoyable indolence several weeks slipped agreeably by. From time to time, as opportunity presented itself, someone like Bao-chai would attempt to remonstrate with him; but her remonstrances would be indignantly rejected.

‘Why should a pure, sweet girl like you want to go imitating that ghastly crew of thievish, place-hunting career worms,’ he would say, ‘bothering her head about “fame” and “reputation” and all that sort of rubbish? All these notions you are parroting were dreamed up by meddlesome old men in days gone by for the express purpose of leading astray the whiskered idiots who came after them. I really think it’s too bad that I should have to live in an age when the minds of nice, sensible girls are contaminated by such idiocies. It’s a rank abuse of the intellectual gifts that you were born with!’

Hearing him talk so wildly, the remonstrators concluded that he was slightly mad, and eventually gave up trying to be serious with him. The exception was Dai-yu, who, ever since they were little children together, had never once spoken to him about the need to ‘get on in the world’ or ‘make a name for oneself’. This was one of the reasons why he so much respected her.

But to return to our narrative.

Some time after Golden’s death, Xi-feng began receiving presents and courtesy calls from various senior members of the domestic staff. Though she could not for the moment guess what lay behind these flattering attentions, her suspicions were aroused, and one day, in the course of which she had once more received presents from these people, she laughingly questioned Patience on the subject when they were alone together in the evening.

‘I’m surprised you haven’t guessed that!’ said Patience a little scornfully. ‘I think, if you were to look into it, you’d find that all of these people had daughters working for Her Ladyship. There are four senior maids on Her Ladyship’s establishment who each get one tael a month, the rest only get a few hundred cash each; and now that Golden’s dead, one of the tael-a-month places is vacant. I expect these people are trying to get it for their own daughters.’

‘Of course!’ said Xi-feng, much amused. ‘Of course! I’m sure you are right. Well, I do think it rather greedy of them. They earn quite good money as it is, they don’t have any really hard work to do, and they’ve got daughters to bring them in a little extra income. I think for them to want to get this plum for themselves as well is really a bit too much. I wouldn’t have thought they could afford to keep sending me presents like this. Still, that’s their concern! If they want to go on giving me presents, I shall go on taking them. But I shall still do what I was going to do anyway. It won’t make any difference to me.’

In pursuance of this policy she kept the servants waiting for a decision and watched the presents accumulate; then, when no more seemed to be forthcoming, she availed herself of the first opportunity to raise the matter with Lady Wang. This occurred one day about noon when Aunt Xue, Bao-chai and Dai-yu were in Lady Wang’s apartment sharing a water-melon with her. Xi-feng tackled Lady Wang while they sat eating the melon.

‘You’ve been short of a maid, Aunt, since Silver’s sister died,’ said Xi-feng. ‘Have you anyone in mind to replace her with? You might let us know if you have, so that we know what to do with next month’s allowance.’

Lady Wang thought for a bit.

‘Do I have to have four maids or five maids or whatever it is?’ she asked. ‘It seems to me that if the maids I’ve got are adequate, I might as well do without the other one.’

Xi-feng smiled.

‘In principle, of course, you are right, Aunt; but we have got fixed rules about these things, and when some people at the bottom of the scale are making a great fuss about keeping their number up, it wouldn’t do to have you cutting yours down. In any case, the saving would only be one tael a month: it would hardly be worth making.’

Lady Wang again reflected for some moments.

‘Very well,’ she said at last, ‘you can go on paying the allowance as before, but you needn’t find me another maid. Silver shall have it. Her sister gave me a lot of service before she was so unfortunate, poor child. I don’t think it would be excessive to give Silver a double allowance, for her sister’s sake.’

After promising to see that this was done, Xi-feng turned smilingly to Silver and congratulated her. Silver hurried forward and kotowed in gratitude to Lady Wang.

‘That reminds me,’ said Lady Wang: ‘what allowance do Aunt Zhao and Aunt Zhou get each month?’

‘The fixed amount is two taels each a month,’ said Xi-feng, but Aunt Zhao gets an additional two taels for Huan, so she really gets four taels. Then on top of that they each get two strings of cash a month for their maids.’

‘Do they get the full amount every month?’ said Lady Wang.

Xi-feng was somewhat taken aback.

‘Of course. Why not?’ she replied, a trifle sharply.

‘It’s just that I thought I heard someone the other day complaining that they were a string of cash short,’ said Lady Wang. ‘I wonder how that could have happened?’

Xi-feng smiled disarmingly.

‘The allowance for Aunt Zhao’s and Aunt Zhou’s maids used to be one string each a month, but last year Accounts reduced it by a half to five hundred cash. Aunt Zhao and Aunt Zhou are allowed two maids each, so that means they now get one string a month less than they used to. This is something completely outside my control. I’d be only too happy to pay them more if I could, but the cut was made by Accounts, and all I can do is to hand out what I am given. It’s not my decision. In fact, I’ve raised the matter once or twice with them and told them they ought to go back to the original payment, but all they’ll say is that that’s what’s been decided and nothing can be done about it. Actually, now that I do the paying, people do at least get their allowances on time. In the old days, when Accounts made the payments direct, we were always having trouble. Never a month went by without someone getting into debt because they hadn’t been paid on time.’

Another silence followed in which Lady Wang was evidently thinking.

‘How many of Lady Jia’s maids get one tael a month?’ she asked eventually.

‘Seven – well, eight really, if you count Aroma.’

‘Yes, I see,’ said Lady Wang. ‘Bao-yu wouldn’t have any tael-a-month maids of his own, of course. Aroma still counts as one of Lady Jia’s maids.’

‘Oh yes. Aroma is still Grandma’s maid,’ said Xi-feng. ‘Grandma lets Bao-yu employ her, but her pay still comes out of Grandma’s allowance. It would be quite out of the question to cut her pay simply because she’s working for Bao-yu. If you wanted to do that, you’d first have to find another maid for Grandma. And even then, of course, if you wanted her to be paid as a member of Bao-yu’s establishment, to make it fair you’d really need to give Huan another maid, too. Incidentally, the fact that Bao-yu’s senior maids like Skybright and Musk get a string of cash a month and the juniors like Melilot five hundred is due to Grandma’s own personal instructions; so I don’t think anyone is really in a position to make a fuss about that.’

Aunt Xue laughed.

‘Listening to Feng is like listening to a load of walnuts being emptied out of a cart – all those facts and figures! And everything accounted for – everything just and fair!’

‘I trust none of the facts and figures were wrong, Aunt,’ said Xi-feng.

‘No, no, nothing wrong with the facts and figures,’ said Aunt Xue pleasantly. ‘It’s just that you would save yourself some energy by taking them a little more slowly.’

Xi-feng seemed about to laugh, but checked herself to hear what her other aunt had to say. Lady Wang, however, deliberated for some little while longer before making her pronouncement.

‘Find someone to wait on Lady Jia in place of Aroma,’ she said eventually, ‘and stop paying Aroma out of Lady Jia’s allowance. Instead you can pay her two taels and a string of cash a month out of my personal allowance of twenty taels. And in future, whatever arrangements are made about Aunt Zhao’s and Aunt Zhou’s allowances, I want you to pay Aroma at exactly the same rate – only whatever it is, it’s all to come out of my personal allowance. I don’t want Accounts getting mixed up in this.’

Having promised to carry out these instructions, Xi-feng turned to Aunt Xue and nudged her playfully.

‘There you are! What did I tell you? It’s turned out exactly as I said.’

‘And so it should,’ said Aunt Xue warmly. ‘It should have been done long ago. She’s a lovely girl – and it isn’t only her looks I’m referring to, either. She has such a generous, open way of doing things, and she is so polite and friendly to talk to. There’s a strong little will there, though – plenty of determination underneath it all. Oh, I think she’s a real treasure.’

‘She is a dear, good child,’ said Lady Wang. ‘I don’t think the rest of you realize just how good she is. Ten times better than my Bao-yu, that’s quite certain. If Bao-yu can keep her with him always, he’ll be a very lucky boy.’

‘If you think that, Aunt,’ said Xi-feng, ‘why not have her plucked and painted and make her his chamber-wife openly?’

‘No, it wouldn’t do,’ said Lady Wang. ‘First of all he is too young; secondly Sir Zheng would never agree to it; and in the third place, even if we allow a certain amount of freedom between them, as long as he still thinks of her as his maid, there is some chance that he will listen to what she says, but once we make her his chamber-wife, she will feel less free to tell him what she thinks of him when he is being silly. No, I think for the moment at any rate we should leave it a little vague. We can make a more definite arrangement in two or three years’ time.’

After pausing long enough to ascertain that Lady Wang had nothing more to say, Xi-feng turned and went. A group of stewards’ wives were waiting for her under the eaves in the narrow alley-way at the back to report to her on various household matters. They smiled at her as she emerged, and one of them chaffed her about the length of her visit.

‘You’ve been a long time today, Madam. What can you have been talking about to keep you so long? I hope you haven’t overheated yourself with so much talking!’

Xi-feng stood in the doorway in a very unladylike attitude, one foot on the threshold, rolling her sleeves back and smiling at no one in particular.

‘There’s a nice little draught out here. I think I’ll stand here for a bit and cool off.’

She turned to the women.

‘Did you say I’ve been a long time? It’s hardly surprising. Today Her Ladyship has been asking about just about everything that’s happened here during the past two hundred years.’ Her voice lost its jocular tone and became suddenly harsher. ‘From now on if I ever feel like doing something really spiteful, I shall do it. Let her complain to Her Ladyship if she has a mind to, I don’t care. Stupid woman! Stupid, chicken-witted, evil-tongued, snivelling, misbegotten bitch! She ought to wake up. One of these days they’ll make a clean sweep and take the whole lot away – then she’ll have something to shout about! Complain about me, would she, because her maid’s allowance has been cut? Who the Holy Name does she think she is? She’s only a bit of bought goods herself. What’s the likes of her doing with maids to wait on her any way?’

Leaving the stewardesses to make what they would of this explosion, she strode off to look for someone suitable to take a message in to Grandmother Jia.

At which point we leave her.

After Aunt Xue and the two girls had finished their water-melon, they sat talking for a few minutes longer with Lady Wang before leaving, Aunt Xue to return to her own apartment, Bao-chai and Dai-yu to go back into the Garden. Bao-chai invited Dai-yu to accompany her to the Lotus Pavilion to pay a call on Xi-chun, but Dai-yu said she was going to have a bath, and presently parted company with Bao-chai, leaving her to continue on her way there alone. Bao-chai’s route took her past the House of Green Delights, and as she drew near it, she thought she would call in to chat for a while with Bao-yu and help him to dispel the sleepiness of the early afternoon.

The courtyard was silent as she entered it. Not a bird’s cheep was to be heard. Even the storks were asleep, hunched up in the shadow of the plantains. Keeping to the relative coolness of the covered walk, she made her way round to the house. In the outer room maids were lying about in all directions asleep. Slipping behind the tall mirror and through the elaborately carved partition, she passed into the inner room where Bao-yu lay inside his protective summer ‘cabinet’ of net. He, too, was fast asleep. Aroma sat at his bedside sewing, a white horse-hair fly-whisk with a handle of white rhinoceros-horn at her side. Bao-chai entered the ‘cabinet’ and laughed softly at Aroma.

‘Aren’t you being rather over-cautious?’ she whispered. ‘What’s the fly-whisk for? Surely no flies or mosquitoes can get in here?’

Aroma looked up, startled, hurriedly put down her sewing, and rose to her feet.

‘Oh, it’s Miss Bao! I wasn’t expecting you,’ she whispered. ‘You gave me quite a shock – no, we don’t get any flies or mosquitoes in here, but there’s a little tiny insect that finds its way through the holes in the netting. They’re so small, you don’t notice them; but when you’re asleep they can give you a nasty bite – a bit like an ant-bite.’

‘That’s not surprising,’ said Bao-chai. ‘You’ve got water behind you here, you see; you’ve also got a lot of sweet-smelling flowers outside; and indoors is perfumed as well. This kind of insect breeds in the insides of flowers and is attracted towards anything fragrant. That’s why you get them inside the house.’

While she was speaking, her eye fell on the sewing that Aroma had just put down. It was a pinafore of the kind children wear, with bib and apron in one. It was of white satin lined with red silk, and the pattern Aroma was embroidering on it was one of mandarin ducks disporting themselves in a background of lotuses. The ducks were in rainbow colours, and the lotuses had red flowers and green leaves.

‘Goodness, how beautiful!’ she exclaimed. ‘Who’s it for? It must be someone very special, to deserve work as fine as this.’

Aroma turned her head and shot her lips out in the direction of the figure sleeping on the bed.

‘Him? He’s too big to wear that sort of thing, surely?’

‘He wouldn’t wear them to start with. That’s why I try to make them so nicely – so that when he sees them he can’t resist putting them on. I try to get him to wear them in this hot weather, so that if he uncovers himself in his sleep, there’s no risk of his getting chilled. If you think there’s a lot of work in this one, you ought to see the one he’s wearing!’

‘I wonder you can have the patience,’ said Bao-chai.

‘I’ve done such a lot of work on it today,’ said Aroma, ‘my neck is quite stiff from bending over.’ She smiled at Bao-chai entreatingly: ‘Do us a favour, Miss: sit here a bit in my place, will you, while I go off and stretch my legs? I’ll be back directly.’

Saying this, she slipped quietly out, not waiting for a reply.

So intent was Bao-chai on the embroidery that she sank down almost without realizing what she was doing into the place that Aroma had just vacated. It really was a most beautiful piece of work; in fact, she found it irresistible, and taking up the needle, began sewing it where Aroma had left off.

Meanwhile Dai-yu, on her way back to have a bath, had run into Xiang-yun and agreed to the latter’s proposal that they should together call on Aroma to congratulate her on her promotion. They arrived in the courtyard of Green Delights to find everything plunged in silence. Xiang-yun went round to the side to see if Aroma was in any of the maids’ rooms. Dai-yu went up to the main building and peeped through the gauze window into Bao-yu’s bedroom. She saw Bao-yu, clothed in little else but a thin, rose-coloured shirt, sprawled out asleep on the bed and Bao-chai sitting beside him sewing, with a fly-whisk in readiness at her side.

For some moments she goggled incredulously at this touching domestic scene, then, fearful of disturbing it, she tore herself away to stifle her mounting giggles. When she had somewhat subdued them, she beckoned to Xiang-yun to come over and look. Wondering what extraordinary spectacle could have put her in such a state, Xiang-yun hurried over for a peep. She, too, found the scene inside a comical one and would have burst out laughing; but in her case it was the consideration that Bao-chai had always been so kind to her that caused her to control her mirth. And knowing how merciless Dai-yu could be with her witticisms, she took her by the hand and dragged her away, explaining as she did so that she had just remembered that Aroma had said something about going at noon to wash some clothes in the lake.

‘I’m sure that’s where she will be,’ she said to Dai-yu. ‘Let’s go and look for her there.’

Dai-yu was not in the least deceived, and showed as much by her sardonic laugh. But she followed her nonetheless.

Bao-chai meanwhile continued her sewing undisturbed. She had just completed her second, or maybe it was her third petal, when Bao-yu, who appeared to be dreaming, cried out angrily in his sleep.

‘Why should I believe what those old monks and Taoists say? I don’t believe in the marriage of gold and jade. I believe in the marriage of stone and flower.’

The words astounded her. She had still not recovered from the shock of hearing them when Aroma returned.

‘What, isn’t he awake yet?’

Bao-chai shook her head.

‘I just now ran into Miss Lin and Miss Shi,’ said Aroma. ‘I suppose they didn’t come in here, did they?’

‘Not that I know of,’ said Bao-chai. She glanced up at Aroma with a sly smile: ‘Did they tell you anything?’

Aroma coloured.

‘Oh, a lot of nonsense – as usual! They were only joking, though.’

‘They weren’t joking,’ said Bao-chai, ‘– not this time. I was going to tell you myself, but you went rushing off before I had a chance to.’

Just at that moment a maid arrived from Xi-feng summoning Aroma to go and see her.

‘There you are!’ said Bao-chai. ‘That’ll be what she wants to see you about.’

Aroma had to arouse two of the sleeping maids to take her place in the inner room; then she and Bao-chai left Green Delights together. They parted company outside, and Aroma went off to Xi-feng’s place on her own. When she got there she was, as Bao-chai had predicted, formally acquainted with the new arrangements concerning her pay and status that had just been made for her by Lady Wang. She was told that she should go over to Lady Wang’s to kotow her thanks, but that there was no need for her to see Grandmother Jia.

She found this interview with Xi-feng acutely embarrassing. By the time she got back from Lady Wang’s, Bao-yu was already awake. She answered him evasively when he asked her where she had been and waited for the silence and darkness of the night to tell him of her unofficial promotion to his bed. Bao-yu was delighted.

‘I hope there’ll be no more talk of leaving me now!’ he said, smiling broadly at her. ‘Do you remember the time when you got back from visiting your family and tried to frighten me with all that talk about your brother wanting to buy you out of service and how there was no future for you here and no point in your staying permanently, and all those other heartless, unkind things you said? I’d like to see anyone trying to take you away from me now!’

‘Huh!’ Aroma sniffed scornfully. ‘That’s not at all the way it is. I belong to Her Ladyship now. Now if I want to leave you, I don’t have to talk to you about it at all. All I have to do is have a word with Her Ladyship, and off I go!’

Bao-yu laughed.

‘Suppose I were at fault and you told Her Ladyship and asked her to let you go; don’t you think you’d feel just a tiny bit uncomfortable afterwards when it got about that you had left me because I wasn’t good enough for you?’

‘Why ever should I?’ said Aroma. ‘Of course, I wouldn’t go if it meant marrying a thief or a murderer. There’s always another way out. I could always take my own life. We all have to die some time or other; it’s just a question of when. All you’ve got to do is stop breathing, that’s all. After that you hear nothing, see nothing – it’s all over!’

‘Stop it, now! Stop it!’ said Bao-yu, covering her mouth with his hand. ‘You don’t have to say things like that.’

All too familiar with the peculiarities of this master who condemned flattering ‘auspicious’ talk as false and hollow, but was upset and morose if you told him the truth, Aroma regretted her blunder in having too openly spoken her mind. Smilingly she turned the conversation on to topics which experience taught her were agreeable to him: the beauties of Nature, the beauties of girls, girls. But somehow from there the conversation imperceptibly found its way round to the subject of girls dying. Suddenly realizing this, Aroma – it was she who was talking at the time – broke off in alarm. Bao-yu, who up to that point had been listening to her enthralled, laughed at her sudden silence.

‘We all have to die, as you said yourself just now. The problem is how to die well. Those whiskered idiots who take quite literally the old saw that “a scholar dies protesting and a soldier dies fighting” and get themselves killed off on the assumption that those are the only two ways in which a man of spirit can die gloriously, would do better to die in their beds. For when you come to think of it, the only real occasion for protesting is when one’s ruler is misguided, and the only real occasion for fighting is when one’s country is at war. If the scholar is so greedy for martyrdom that he throws away his life at the earliest opportunity, what is to become of the poor misguided ruler in the absence of good advisers? And if the soldier so hankers for a hero’s death that he gets himself killed off in the first encounter, what is to become of his country without soldiers to fight its battles –?’

‘But surely,’ Aroma interrupted, ‘those famous men in the olden days laid their lives down because they had to?’

‘Nonsense!’ said Bao-yu. ‘The soldiers among them lacked generalship; as a consequence, they had nothing but their physical courage to rely on. They threw their lives away out of sheer incompetence. Do you call that dying because they had to? And the scholars were even worse. On the strength of having read a couple of books and got up a text or two by heart, they began to cry stinking fish as soon as they found the smallest thing at Court not as they thought it should be, in the hope of winning themselves an imperishable reputation for honesty; then, if the Court didn’t immediately change its policy, they would work themselves into a passion and promptly get themselves killed. You won‘t, surely, say that they died because they had to? What you have to remember is that Emperors hold their power from Heaven, and it’s unthinkable that Heaven should lay the huge responsibility of empire on any but the worthiest shoulders. So you can see that all those death-with-honour characters you have so high an opinion of were thinking only of their own personal fame and glory. They weren’t really thinking of their loyal duty to their sovereign at all.

‘Now my idea of a glorious death would be to die now, while you are all around me; then your tears could combine to make a great river that my corpse could float away on, far, far away to some remote place that no bird has ever flown to, and gently decompose there until the wind had picked my bones clean, and after that never, never to be reborn again as a human being – that would be a really good death.’

‘I’m sleepy,’ said Aroma, unwilling to reply, for she had observed that his mad fit was on him again. And Bao-yu at once closed his eyes and fell fast asleep.

By next morning the subject appeared to have been quite forgotten.

A day arrived when Bao-yu seemed to have exhausted the Garden’s possibilities, and its charms were beginning to weary him. The Return of the Soul was very much on his mind at this time. He had read it through twice without in any way abating his appetite for more. Having recently been told that the best singer among the twelve little actresses of Pear Tree Court was the soubrette called Charmante, he resolved, for a change of scene, to go over there and look her up, so that he could ask her to sing him some of the arias from it.

The only girls he recognized when he arrived there were Trésor and Topaze, who greeted him with smiles and invited him to be seated. When he asked where Charmante was, the girls all answered him in chorus:

‘In her room.’

Bao-yu at once went to the room indicated. Charmante was in there on her own. She was lying stretched out on her bed, but made no attempt to get up when she saw him enter. Nothing daunted, he sat himself down beside her and, in the familiar way he habitually adopted with girls, smilingly requested her to sing the section from the Return that begins with the words

In these quiet courts the floating gossamer …

But Charmante did not respond in the expected manner. She rose up quickly and drew away from him when he sat down beside her; and in answer to his request to sing, she informed him, with a cold, unsmiling expression, that she was ‘not in voice’.

‘I strained my voice the other day at a command performance for Her Grace,’ she said. ‘I am still resting it.’

She was sitting opposite him as she said this, so that he had a full view of her face. He remembered now, as he studied it, where he had seen that face before. She was the girl he had seen scratching QIAN Gs on the ground that day under the rose pergola.

And now here she was behaving as if his very presence was distasteful to her. Never in his life before had he experienced such instant rejection. Reduced to mumbling incoherence by his embarrassment, he coloured, and – since there was obviously no point in staying – left the room.

Surprised to see him come out again so soon, the others asked him the reason. Trésor laughed when he told her what had happened.

‘Wait until Mr Qiang gets back,’ she said. ‘If he asks her to, she’ll sing for you.’

Bao-yu did not know quite what to make of this.

‘Qiang?’ he said. ‘Where is he, anyway?’

‘He went out only a few minutes ago,’ said Tréso. ‘I expect Charmante said she wanted something and he’s gone out to try and get it for her.’

Bao-yu seemed to find this of enormous interest and decided to stay a little longer and see what happened. Sure enough, Jia Qiang presently returned from his expedition. He was carrying a bird-cage with a bird inside. The cage had a miniature stage fastened to the top of it. Jia Qiang was on his way inside to look for Charmante, obviously feeling very pleased with himself, when he caught sight of Bao-yu and halted.

‘What’s that bird you’ve got there?’ Bao-yu asked him.

‘It’s a whitecap,’ said Jia Qiang, smiling proudly. ‘It can hold a flag in its beak and do a little turn on the stage.’

‘How much did you pay for it?’

‘One tael and sixteen pennyweights of silver.’

He invited Bao-yu to be seated while he went into Charmante’s room to show off his purchase; but Bao-yu, whose desire to hear Charmante sing was now quite forgotten in his eagerness to find out exactly how things lay between her and Jia Qiang, joined the girls as they clustered round the doorway to watch.

‘Look! Look what I’ve brought for you,’ said Jia Qiang, full of smiles.

‘What is it?’

Charmante had been lying down again, but sat up when he entered.

‘I’ve got a little bird to keep you company, to stop you getting so depressed. You watch! I’ll make him perform for you.’

He took a few grains from his pocket and coaxed the bird out on to the stage, where it picked up a diminutive mask and flag and hopped and pirouetted about like an actor playing the warrior’s part in a play. The girls all laughed delightedly and said it was ‘sweet’. All except Charmante. She merely gave a scornful ‘huh!’ or two and lay back on the bed again in disgust.

Jia Qiang smiled – almost beseechingly.

‘How do you like it?’

‘You and your family!’ said Charmante bitterly. ‘It isn’t enough to take decent girls from their homes and shut them up in this prison to learn beastly opera all day. Now you have to bring a bird along to do it as well. I suppose it’s to keep me reminded of my misery. And you have the audacity to ask me “do I like it?”!’

Her words appeared to make Jia Qiang quite frantic, for he uttered a string of the most violent and passionate oaths in reply.

‘I’m a stupid fool and I should have known better,’ he said. ‘I spent all that money on the thing because I thought it might cheer you up. It never occurred to me that you might take it like this. Well, let the thing go then! It’s an “act of merit” to free living creatures, so at least you’ll get some good from it. Either it will help you in the next life or free you from sickness in this one.’

With that he released the bird, which promptly flew away, and stamped on the cage until it was smashed to pieces.

‘Maybe birds aren’t as important as human beings,’ said Charmante, ‘but they have mothers and fathers just the same. Can’t you see how cruel it is to take them away from their nests and make them perform for people’s amusement? I coughed up two mouthfuls of blood today. Her Ladyship sent someone to look for you. She wanted you to get me a doctor so that we could find out what to do, but instead of a doctor you bring this thing back with you, to make a mock of me. It’s just my luck to fall ill when I’ve got no one to care for me or take any notice.’

She began to cry.

‘But I asked the doctor about you yesterday evening and he said it wasn’t serious,’ Jia Qiang protested. ‘He said you were to take a couple of doses of that medicine and he’d come and look at you again in two days’ time. I’d no idea that you’d been spitting blood. Well, I’d better go and get him straight away.’

He began to go, but Charmante called him back.

‘Stay where you are! Don’t go rushing off in this burning heat. You’re only going to fetch him because you’re in a temper, anyway. I wouldn’t see him now if he came!’

Hearing her say this, Jia Qiang halted.

Bao-yu had been watching this scene with open-mouthed fascination. At last he understood the real meaning of all those QIAN GS. There was obviously no place for him here, so he slipped away. Jia Qiang was so absorbed in his concern for Charmante that he did not even notice him go and it was left to the little actresses to see him out.

It was a reflective, self-critical Bao-yu who made his way back to Green Delights, so bemused that he scarcely noticed where he was going. When he arrived, Dai-yu and Aroma were sitting in conversation together. He looked at Aroma and sighed heavily.

‘What I told you the other night was wrong,’ he said. ‘I’m not surprised that Father tells me I have a “small capacity but a great self-conceit”. I mean, that stuff about all of you making a river of tears for me when I die: I realize now that it’s not possible. I realize now that we each have our own allotted share of tears and must be content with what we’ve got.’

Aroma was surprised to hear him bring this up again. She had assumed that what he said that night was in jest and must long since have been forgotten. She laughed.

‘You know, sometimes I think you really are a bit touched!’

Bao-yu was silent.

From the curious way in which he was behaving Dai-yu could see that something had got into him, but judged it not her business to inquire what. To change the subject she asked him about something of a more practical nature.

‘When I was with your Mother just now she told me that it is Mrs Xue’s birthday tomorrow. She told me to ask you whether you intend going or not. When you’ve decided, she’d like you to send someone round and let her know.’

‘Well, I didn’t go last time, when it was Uncle She’s birthday,’ said Bao-yu. ‘It will be a bit awkward if I go this time and run into someone from Uncle She’s. I think I’d better stop going to birthdays altogether. In any case, it’s terribly hot, and I should have to dress up for it. And I don’t think Auntie would really mind if I didn’t go.’

‘That’s no way to talk!’ said Aroma. ‘There’s no comparison whatever between Sir She and your Aunt Xue. You’re no distance away from her, for a start. And she is your Mother’s sister. I’m sure if you didn’t go she’d wonder what was the matter. If you’re afraid of the heat, why don’t you go first thing in the morning, when it’s still cool? All you need do is make your kotow and drink a cup of tea, and then you can come back again. Surely that would be more civil?’

‘Of course you must go!’ said Dai-yu, before he had time to reply. ‘Surely you owe a visit to the person who saved you from the mosquitoes?’

‘What mosquitoes?’ said Bao-yu, mystified. ‘What are you talking about?’

Aroma proceeded to tell him how Bao-chai had sat at his bedside with a fly-whisk beside her while he slept.

‘How frightful!’ Bao-yu was most upset. ‘However did I come to be asleep when she was there? And I’d got hardly anything on. How disgusting of me!’

After that there was no further question, of course. He would definitely be going over for his Aunt Xue’s birthday on the morrow.

While the three of them were talking, Xiang-yun came in wearing her going-out clothes and looking very dressed-up. Her uncle the Marquis’s people had arrived to fetch her, and she had come to say good-bye. Bao-yu and Dai-yu both rose and invited her to be seated, but she could not stay, so the two of them accompanied her through to the front.

Xiang-yun was struggling to hold back her tears, for she dared not show her distress openly in front of her uncle’s people. The arrival a few moments later of her dear Bao-chai, who had hurried over specially to see her off, made going back seem even more unbearable. Fortunately Bao-chai, always more perceptive than the others, realized that things would become even more difficult for Xiang-yun if the servants who had come to collect her were to tell her aunt when they got back that she had made a fuss, so she did all she could to hasten her departure.

The two girls and Bao-yu saw Xiang-yun as far as the inner gate. Bao-yu would have gone further, but Xiang-yun restrained him. Nevertheless, when she had gone a little way towards her carriage, she changed her mind and, turning back, called him to her so that she could whisper a parting request in his ear.

‘Remind Her Old Ladyship of me from time to time, will you, in case she forgets? Then perhaps she’ll send someone to invite me over again.’

Bao-yu gave vigorous assurances that he would do this for her, then, when they had seen her get into her carriage, they all turned and went in again.

As to what followed, that must be looked for in the following chapter.