第五十二回

第五十二回 俏平儿情掩虾须镯 勇晴雯病补雀金裘

贾母道：“正是这话了。上次我要说这话，我见你们的大事多，如今又添出这些事来，你们固然不敢抱怨，未免想着我只顾疼这些小孙子孙女儿们，就不体贴你们这当家人了。你既这么说出来，更好了。”因此时薛姨妈李婶都在座，邢夫人及尤氏婆媳也都过来请安，还未过去，贾母向王夫人等说道：“今儿我才说这话，素日我不说，一则怕逞了凤丫头的脸[1]，二则众人不服。今日你们都在这里，都是经过妯娌姑嫂的，还有他这样想的到的没有？”薛姨妈、李婶、尤氏等齐笑说：“真个少有。别人不过是礼上面子情儿，实在他是真疼小叔子小姑子。就是老太太跟前，也是真孝顺。”

贾母点头叹道：“我虽疼他，我又怕他太伶俐也不是好事。”凤姐儿忙笑道：“这话老祖宗说差了。世人都说太伶俐聪明，怕活不长。世人都说得，人人都信，独老祖宗不当说，不当信。老祖宗只有伶俐聪明过我十倍的，怎么如今这样福寿双全的？只怕我明儿还胜老祖宗一倍呢！我活一千岁后，等老祖宗归了西，我才死呢。”贾母笑道：“众人都死了，单剩下咱们两个老妖精，有什么意思。”说的众人都笑了。

宝玉因记挂着晴雯袭人等事，便先回园里来。到房中，药香〔一〕满屋，一人不见，只见晴雯独卧于炕上，脸面烧的飞红，又摸了一摸，只觉烫手。忙又向炉上将手烘暖，伸进被去摸了一摸身上，也是火烧。因说道：“别人去了也罢，麝月秋纹也这样无情，各自去了？”晴雯道：“秋纹是我撵了他去吃饭的，麝月是方才平儿来找他出去了。两人鬼鬼祟祟的，不知说什么。必是说我病了不出去。”宝玉道：“平儿不是那样人。况且他并不知你病特来瞧你，想来一定是找麝月来说话，偶然见你病了，随口说特瞧你的病，这也是人情乖觉取和的常事。便不出去，有不是，与他何干？你们素日又好，断不肯为这无干的事伤和气。”晴雯道：“这话也是，只是疑他为什么忽然又瞒起我来。”宝玉笑道：“让我从后门出去，到那窗根下听听他们说些什么，来告诉你。”说着，果然从后门出去，至窗下潜听。

只闻麝月悄问道：“你怎么就得了的？”平儿道：“那日〔二〕洗手时不见了，二奶奶就不许吵嚷，出了园子，即刻就传给园里各处的妈妈们小心查访。我们只疑惑邢姑娘的丫头，本来又穷，只怕小孩子家没见过，拿了起来也是〔三〕有的。再不料定是你们这里的。幸而二奶奶没有在屋里，你们这里的宋妈妈去了，拿着这支镯子，说是小丫头子坠儿偷起来的，被他看见，来回二奶奶的。我赶忙接了镯子，想了一想：宝玉是偏在你们身上留心用意、争胜要强的，那一年有一个良儿偷玉，刚冷了一二年，间还有人提起来趁愿，这会子又跑出一个偷金子的来了。而且更偷到街坊家去了。偏是他这样，偏是他的人打嘴。所以我倒忙叮咛宋妈，千万别告诉宝玉，只当没有这事，别和一个人提起。第二件，老太太、太太听了也生气。三则袭人和你们也不好看。所以我回二奶奶，只说：‘我往大奶奶那里去的，谁知镯子褪了口，丢在草根底下，雪深了没看见。今儿雪化尽了，黄澄澄的映着日头，还在那里呢，我就拣了起来。’二奶奶也就信了，所以我来告诉你们。你们以后防着他些，别使唤他到别处去。等袭人回来，你们商议着，变个法子打发出去就完了。”麝月道：“这小娼妇也见过些东西，怎么这么眼皮子浅。”平儿道：“究竟这镯子能多少重，原是二奶奶的，说这叫做‘虾须镯’，倒是这颗珠子还罢了。晴雯那蹄子是块爆炭，要告诉了他，他是忍不住的。一时气了，或打或骂，依旧嚷出来不好，所以单告诉你，留心就是了。”说着便作辞而去。

宝玉听了，又喜又气又叹。喜的是平儿竟能体贴自己；气的是坠儿小窃；叹的是坠儿那样一个伶俐人，作出这丑事来。因而回至房中，把平儿之话一长一短告诉了晴雯。又说：“他说你是个要强的，如今病着，听了这话越发要添病，等好了再告诉你。”晴雯听了，果然气的蛾眉倒蹙，凤眼圆睁，即时就叫坠儿。宝玉忙劝道：“你这一喊出来，岂不辜负了平儿待你我之心了。不如领他这个情，过后打发他就完了。”晴雯道：“虽如此说，只是这口气如何忍得！”宝玉道：“这有什么气的？你只养病就是了。”

晴雯服了药，至晚间又服二和，夜间虽有些汗，还未见效，仍是发烧，头疼鼻塞声重。次日，王太医又来诊视，另加减汤剂。虽然稍减了烧，仍是头疼。宝玉便命麝月：“取鼻烟来，给他嗅些，痛打几个嚏喷，就通了关窍。”麝月果真去取了一个金镶双扣金星玻璃的一个扁盒来，递与宝玉。宝玉便揭翻盒扇，里面有西洋珐琅的黄发赤身女子，两肋又有肉翅，里面盛着些真正汪恰洋烟[5]。晴雯只顾看画儿，宝玉道：“嗅些，走了气就不好了。”晴雯听说，忙用指甲挑了些嗅入鼻中，不怎样。便又多多挑了些嗅入。忽觉鼻中一股酸辣透入囟门，接连打了五六个嚏喷，眼泪鼻涕登时齐流。晴雯忙收了盒子，笑道：“了不得，好爽快！拿纸来。”早有小丫头子递过一搭子细纸，晴雯便一张一张的拿来擤鼻子。宝玉笑问：“如何？”晴雯笑道：“果觉通快些，只是太阳还疼。”

宝玉笑道：“越性尽用西洋药治一治，只怕就好了。”说着，便命麝月：“和二奶奶要去，就说我说了：姐姐那里常有那西洋贴头疼的膏子药，叫做‘依弗哪’，找寻一点儿。”麝月答应了，去了半日，果拿了半节来。便去找了一块红缎子角儿，铰了两块指顶大的圆式，将那药烤和了，用簪挺摊上。晴雯自拿着一面靶镜，贴在两太阳上。麝月笑道：“病的蓬头鬼一样，如今贴了这个，倒俏皮了。二奶奶贴惯了，倒不大显。”说毕，又向宝玉道：“二奶奶说了：明日是舅老爷生日，太太说了叫你去呢。明儿穿什么衣裳？今儿晚上好打点齐备了，省得明儿早起费手。”宝玉道：“什么顺手就是什么罢了。一年闹生日也闹不清。”说着，便起身出房，往惜春房中去看画。

刚到院门外边，忽见宝琴的小丫鬟名小螺者从那边过去，宝玉忙赶上问：“那去？”小螺笑道：“我们二位姑娘都在林姑娘房里呢，我如今也往那里去。”宝玉听了，转步也便同他往潇湘馆来。不但宝钗姊妹在此，且连邢岫烟也在那里，四人围坐在熏笼上叙家常。紫鹃倒坐在暖阁里，临窗作针黹。一见他来，都笑说：“又来了一个！可没了你的坐处了。”宝玉笑道：“好一幅‘冬闺集艳图’！可惜我迟来了一步。横竖这屋子比各屋子暖，这椅子坐着并不冷。”说着，便坐在黛玉常坐的搭着灰鼠椅搭的一张椅上。

因见暖阁之中有一玉石条盆，里面攒三聚五栽着一盆单瓣水仙，点着宣石[6]，便极口赞：“好花！这屋子越发暖，这花香的越清香。昨日未见。”黛玉因说道：“这是你家的大总管赖大婶子送薛二姑娘的，两盆腊梅，两盆水仙。他送了我一盆水仙，送了蕉丫头一盆腊梅。我原不要的，又恐辜负了他的心。你若要，我转送你如何？”宝玉道：“我屋里却有两盆，只是不及这个。琴妹妹送你的，如何又转送人，这个断使不得。”黛玉道：“我一日药吊子不离火，我竟是药培着呢，那里还搁的住花香来熏？越发弱了。况且这屋子里一股药香，反把这花香搅坏了。不如你抬了去，这花也清净了，没杂味来搅他。”宝玉笑道：“我屋里今儿也有病人煎药呢，你怎么知道的？”黛玉笑道：“这话奇了，我原是无心的话，谁知你屋里的事？你不早来听说古记[7]，这会子来了，自惊自怪的。”

宝玉笑道：“咱们明儿下一社又有了题目了，就咏水仙腊梅。”黛玉听了，笑道：“罢，罢！我再不敢作诗了，作一回，罚一回，没的怪羞的。”说着，便两手握起脸来。宝玉笑道：“何苦来！又奚落我作什么。我还不怕臊呢，你倒握起脸来了。”宝钗因笑道：“下次我邀一社，四个诗题，四个词题。每人四首诗，四阕词。头一个诗题〔四〕《咏〈太极图〉》[9]，限一先的韵，五言律，要把一先的韵都用尽了，一个不许剩。”

宝琴笑道：“这一说，可知是姐姐不是真心起社了，这分明难人。若论起来，也强扭的出来，不过颠来倒去弄些《易经》[10]上的话生填，究竟有何趣味。我八岁时节，跟我父亲到西海沿子上买洋货，谁知有个真真国〔五〕的女孩子，才十五岁，那脸面就和那西洋画上的美人一样，也披着黄头发，打着联垂，满头带的都是珊瑚、猫儿眼、祖母绿这些宝石；身上穿着金丝织的锁子甲洋锦袄袖；带着倭刀，也是镶金嵌宝的，实在画儿上的也没他好看。有人说他通中国的诗书，会讲五经，能作诗填词，因此我父亲央烦了一位通事官[12]，烦他写了一张字，就写的是他作的诗。”众人都称奇道异。宝玉忙笑道：“好妹妹，你拿出来我瞧瞧。”宝琴笑道：“在南京收着呢，此时那里去取来？”

宝玉听了，大失所望，便说：“没福得见这世面。”黛玉笑拉宝琴道：“你别哄我们。我知道你这一来，你的这些东西未必放在家里，自然都是要带了来的，这会子又扯谎说没带来。他们虽信，我是不信的。”宝琴便红了脸，低头微笑不语。宝钗笑道：“偏这个颦儿惯说这些白话[13]，把你就伶俐的。”黛玉道：“若带了来，就给我们见识见识也罢了。”宝钗笑道：“箱子笼子一大堆还没理清，知道在那个里头呢！等过日收拾清了，找出来大家再看就是了。”又向宝琴道：“你若记得，何不念念我们听听。”宝琴方答道：“记得是首五言律，外国的女子也就难为他了。”宝钗道：“你且别念，等把云儿叫了来，也叫他听听。”说着，便叫小螺来吩咐道：“你到我那里去，就说我们这里有一个外国美人来了，作的好诗，请你这‘诗疯子’来瞧去，再把我们‘诗呆子’也带来。”小螺笑着去了。

半日，只听湘云笑问：“那一个外国美人来了？”一头说，一头果和香菱来了。众人笑道：“人未见形，先已闻声。”宝琴等忙让坐，遂把方才的话重叙了一遍。湘云笑道：“快念来听听。”宝琴因念道：

昨夜朱楼梦，今宵水国吟。

岛云蒸大海，岚气接丛林。

月本无今古，情缘自浅深。[14]

汉南春历历，焉得不关心。[15]

众人听了，都道：“难为他！竟比我们中国人还强。”一语未了，只见麝月走来说：“太太打发人来告诉二爷，明儿一早往舅舅那里去，就说太太身上不大好，不得亲自来。”宝玉忙站起来答应道：“是。”因问宝钗宝琴可去。宝钗道：“我们不去，昨儿单送了礼去了。”大家说了一回方散。

宝玉因让诸姊妹先行，自己落后。黛玉便又叫住他问道：“袭人到底多早晚回来。”宝玉道：“自然等送了殡才来呢。”黛玉还有话说，又不曾出口，出了一回神，便说道：“你去罢。”宝玉也觉心里有许多话，只是口里不知要说什么，想了一想，也笑道：“明日再说罢。”一面下了阶矶，低头正欲迈步，复又忙回身问道：“如今的夜越发长了，你一夜咳嗽几遍？醒几次？”黛玉道：“昨儿夜里好了，只嗽了两遍，却只睡了四更一个更次，就再不能睡了。”宝玉又笑道：“正是有句要紧的话，这会子才想起来。”一面说，一面便挨过身来，悄悄道：“我想宝姐姐送你的燕窝——”一语未了，只见赵姨娘走了进来瞧黛玉，问：“姑娘这两天好？”黛玉便知他是从探春处来，从门前过，顺路的人情。黛玉忙陪笑让坐，说：“难得姨娘想着，怪冷的，亲身走来。”又忙命倒茶，一面又使眼色与宝玉。宝玉会意，便走了出来。

正值吃晚饭时，见了王夫人，王夫人又嘱他早去。宝玉回来，看晴雯吃了药。此夕宝玉便不命晴雯挪出暖阁来，自己便在晴雯外边。又命将熏笼抬至暖阁前，麝月便在熏笼上。一宿无话。

至次日，天未明时，晴雯便叫醒麝月道：“你也该醒了，只是睡不够！你出去叫人给他预备茶水，我叫醒他就是了。”麝月忙披衣起来道：“咱们叫起他来，穿好衣裳，抬过这火箱去，再叫他们进来。老嬷嬷们已经说过，不叫他在这屋里，怕过了病气。如今他们见咱们挤在一处，又该唠叨了。”晴雯道：“我也是这么说呢。”二人才叫时，宝玉已醒了，忙起身披衣。麝月先叫进小丫头子来，收拾妥当了，才命秋纹檀云等进来，一同服侍宝玉梳洗毕。麝月道：“天又阴阴的，只怕有雪，穿那一套毡的罢。”宝玉点头，即时换了衣裳。小丫头便用小茶盘捧了一盖碗建莲红枣儿汤来，宝玉喝了两口。麝月又捧过一小碟法制紫姜[16]来，宝玉噙了一块。又嘱咐了晴雯一回，便往贾母处来。

贾母犹未起来，知道宝玉出门，便开了房门，命宝玉进去。宝玉见贾母身后宝琴面向里也睡着未醒。贾母见宝玉身上穿着荔色哆罗呢的天马箭袖，大红猩猩毡盘金彩绣石青妆缎沿边的排穗褂子。贾母道：“下雪呢么？”宝玉道：“天阴着，还没下呢。”贾母便命鸳鸯来：“把昨儿那一件乌云豹的氅衣给他罢。”鸳鸯答应了，走去果取了一件来。

宝玉看时，金翠辉煌，碧彩闪灼，又不似宝琴所披之凫靥裘。只听贾母笑道：“这叫作‘雀金呢’，这是俄罗斯国拿孔雀毛拈了线织的。前儿把那一件野鸭子的给了你小妹妹，这件给你罢。”宝玉磕了一个头，便披在身上。贾母笑道：“你先给你娘瞧瞧去再去。”宝玉答应了，便出来，只见鸳鸯站在地下揉眼睛。因自那日鸳鸯发誓决绝之后，他总不和宝玉讲话。宝玉正自日夜不安，此时见他又要回避，宝玉便上来笑道：“好姐姐，你瞧瞧，我穿着这个好不好。”鸳鸯一摔手，便进贾母房中来了。宝玉只得到了王夫人房中，与王夫人看了，然后又回至园中，与晴雯麝月看过后，复回至贾母房中，回说：“太太看了，只说可惜了的，叫我仔细穿，别遭踏了他。”贾母道：“就剩下了这一件，你遭踏了也再没了。这会子特给你做这个也是没有的事。”说着又嘱咐他：“不许多吃酒，早些回来。”宝玉应了几个“是”。

老嬷嬷跟至厅上，只见宝玉的奶兄李贵和王荣、张若锦、赵亦华、钱启、周瑞六个人，带着茗烟、伴鹤、锄药、扫红四个小厮，背着衣包，抱着坐褥，笼着一匹雕鞍彩辔的白马，早已伺候多时了。老嬷嬷又吩咐了他六人些话，六个人忙答应了几个“是”，忙捧鞭坠镫。宝玉慢慢的上了马，李贵和王荣笼着嚼环，钱启周瑞二人在前引导，张若锦、赵亦华在两边紧贴宝玉后身。宝玉在马上笑道：“周哥，钱哥，咱们打这角门走罢，省得到了老爷的书房门口又下来。”周瑞侧身笑道：“老爷不在家，书房天天锁着的，爷可以不用下来罢了。”宝玉笑道：“虽锁着，也要下来的。”钱启李贵等〔六〕都笑道：“爷说的是。便托懒不下来，倘或遇见赖大爷林二爷，虽不好说爷，也劝两句。有的不是，都派在我们身上，又说我们不教爷礼了。”周瑞钱启便一直出角门来。

正说话时，顶头果见赖大进来。宝玉忙笼住马，意欲下来。赖大忙上来抱住腿。宝玉便在镫上站起来，笑携他的手，说了几句话。接着又见一个小厮带着二三十个拿扫帚簸箕的人进来，见了宝玉，都顺墙垂手立住，独那为首的小厮打千儿，请了一个安。宝玉不识名姓，只微笑点了点头儿。马已过去，那人方带人去了。于是出了角门，门外又有李贵等六人的小厮并几个马夫，早预备下十来匹马专候。一出了角门，李贵等都各上了马，前引傍围的一阵烟去了。不在话下。

这里晴雯吃了药，仍不见病退，急的乱骂大夫，说：“只会骗人的钱，一剂好药也不给人吃。”麝月笑劝他道：“你太性急了，俗语说：‘病来如山倒，病去如抽丝。’又不是老君的仙丹，那有这样灵药！你只静养几天，自然好了。你越急越着手。”晴雯又骂小丫头子们：“那里钻沙[18]去了！瞅我病了，都大胆子走了。明儿我好了，一个一个的才揭你们的皮呢！”唬的小丫头子篆儿忙进来问：“姑娘作什么。”晴雯道：“别人都死绝了，就剩了你不成？”

说着，只见坠儿也蹭了进来。晴雯道：“你瞧瞧这小蹄子，不问他还不来呢。这里又放月钱了，又散果子了，你该跑在头里了。你往前些，我不是老虎吃了你！”坠儿只得前凑。晴雯便冷不防欠身一把将他的手抓住，向枕边取了一丈青[19]，向他手上乱戳，口内骂道：“要这爪子作什么？拈不得针，拿不动线，只会偷嘴吃。眼皮子又浅，爪子又轻，打嘴现世的，不如戳烂了！”坠儿疼的乱哭乱喊。麝月忙拉开坠儿，按晴雯睡下，笑道：“才出了汗，又作死。等你好了，要打多少打不的？这会子闹什么！”晴雯便命人叫宋嬷嬷进来，说道：“宝二爷才告诉了我，叫我告诉你们，坠儿很懒，宝二爷当面使他，他拨嘴儿不动，连袭人使他，他背后骂他。今儿务必打发他出去，明儿宝二爷亲自回太太就是了。”宋嬷嬷听了，心下便知镯子事发，因笑道：“虽如此说，也等花姑娘回来知道了，再打发他。”晴雯道：“宝二爷今儿千叮咛万嘱咐的，什么‘花姑娘’‘草姑娘’，我们自然有道理。你只依我的话，快叫他家的人来领他出去。”麝月道：“这也罢了，早也去，晚也去，带了去早清净一日。”

宋嬷嬷听了，只得出去唤了他母亲来。打点了他的东西，又来见晴雯等，说道：“姑娘们怎么了，你侄女儿不好，你们教导他，怎么撵出去？也到底给我们留个脸儿。”晴雯道：“你这话只等宝玉来问他，与我们无干。”那媳妇冷笑道：“我有胆子问他去！他那一件事不是听姑娘们的调停？他纵依了，姑娘们不依，也未必中用。比如方才说话，虽是背地里，姑娘就直叫他的名字。在姑娘们就使得，在我们就成了野人了。”

晴雯听说，一发急红了脸，说道：“我叫了他的名字了，你在老太太跟前告我去，说我撒野，也撵出我去。”麝月忙道：“嫂子，你只管带了人出去，有话再说。这个地方岂有你叫喊讲礼的？你见谁和我们讲过礼？别说嫂子你，就是赖奶奶林大娘，也得担待我们三分。便是叫名字，从小儿直到如今，都是老太太吩咐过的，你们也知道的，恐怕难养活，巴巴的写了他的小名儿，各处贴着叫万人叫去，为的是好养活。连挑水、挑粪、花子都叫得，何况我们！连昨儿林大娘叫了一声‘爷’，老太太还说他呢，此是一件。二则，我们这些人常回老太太的话去，可不叫着名字回话，难道也称‘爷’？那一日不把宝玉两个字念二百遍，偏嫂子又来挑这个了！过一日嫂子闲了，在老太太、太太跟前，听听我们当着面儿叫他就知道了。嫂子原也不得在老太太、太太跟前当些体统差事，成年家只在三门外头混，怪不得不知我们里头的规矩。这里不是嫂子久站的，再一会，不用我们说话，就有人来问你了。有什么分证话，且带了他去，你回了林大娘，叫他来找二爷说话。家里上千的人，你也跑来，我也跑来，我们认人问姓，还认不清呢！”说着，便叫小丫头子：“拿了擦地的布来擦地！”

那媳妇听了，无言可对，亦不敢久立，赌气带了坠儿就走。宋妈妈忙道：“怪道你这嫂子不知规矩，你女儿在这屋里一场，临去时，也给姑娘们磕个头。没有别的谢礼——便有谢礼，他们也不希罕——不过磕个头，尽了心。怎么说走就走？”坠儿听了，只得翻身进来，给他两个磕了两个头，又找秋纹等。他们也不睬他。那媳妇嗐声叹气，不敢多言〔七〕，抱恨而去。

晴雯方才又闪了风，着了气，反觉更不好了，翻腾至掌灯，刚安静了些。只见宝玉回来，进门就嗐声跺脚。麝月忙问原故，宝玉道：“今儿老太太喜喜欢欢的给了这个褂子，谁知不防后襟子上烧了一块，幸而天晚了，老太太、太太都不理论。”一面说，一面脱下来。麝月瞧时，果见有指顶大的烧眼，说：“这必定是手炉里的火迸上了。这不值什么，赶着叫人悄悄的拿出去，叫个能干织补匠人织上就是了。”说着便用包袱包了，交与一个妈妈送出去。说：“赶天亮就有才好。千万别给老太太、太太知道。”

婆子去了半日，仍旧拿回来，说：“不但能干织补匠人，就连裁缝绣匠并作女工的问了，都不认得这是什么，都不敢揽。”麝月道：“这怎么样呢！明儿不穿也罢了。”宝玉道：“明儿是正日子，老太太、太太说了，还叫穿这个去呢。偏头一日就烧了，岂不扫兴。”晴雯听了半日，忍不住翻身说道：“拿来我瞧瞧罢。没那个福气穿就罢了。这会子又着急。”宝玉笑道：“这话倒说的是。”说着，便递与晴雯，又移过灯来，细看了一会。晴雯道：“这是孔雀金线织的，如今咱们也拿孔雀金线就像界线[21]似的界密了，只怕还可混得过去。”麝月笑道：“孔雀线现成的，但这里除了你，还有谁会界线？”晴雯道：“说不得，我挣命罢了。”宝玉忙道：“这如何使得！才好了些，如何做得活。”

晴雯道：“不用你蝎蝎螫螫的，我自知道。”一面说，一面坐起来，挽了一挽头发，披了衣裳，只觉头重身轻，满眼金星乱迸，实实撑不住。若不做，又怕宝玉着急，少不得狠命咬牙捱着。便命麝月只帮着拈线。晴雯先拿了一根比一比，笑道：“这虽不很像，若补上，也不很显。”宝玉道：“这就很好，那里又找俄罗斯国的裁缝去。”晴雯先将里子拆开，用茶杯口大的一个竹弓钉牢在背面，再将破口四边用金刀刮的散松松的，然后用针纫了两条，分出经纬，亦如界线之法，先界出地子后，依本衣之纹来回织补。补两针，又看看，织补两针，又端详端详。无奈头晕眼黑，气喘神虚，补不上三五针，便伏在枕上歇一会。

宝玉在旁，一时又问：“吃些滚水不吃？”一时又命：“歇一歇。”一时又拿一件灰鼠斗篷替他披在背上，一时又命拿个拐枕与他靠着。急的晴雯央道：“小祖宗！你只管睡罢。再熬上半夜，明儿把眼睛抠搂了，怎么处！”宝玉见他着急，只得胡乱睡下，仍睡不着。

一时只听自鸣钟已敲了四下，刚刚补完；又用小牙刷慢慢的剔出绒毛来。麝月道：“这就很好，若不留心，再看不出的。”宝玉忙要了瞧瞧，说道：“真真一样了。”晴雯已嗽了几阵，好容易补完了，说了一声：“补虽补了，到底不像，我也再不能了！”嗳哟了一声，便身不由主倒下了。要知端的，且听下回分解。

[1] 逞……脸——因受宠而骄纵。

〔一〕 “药香”，原作“兰香”，从各本改。

〔二〕 “那日”，原作“那日彼时”，从戚序、俄藏本删。

〔三〕 “也是”，原无，从蒙府、戚序本补。

[5] 汪恰洋烟——鼻烟的一种。脂砚斋注：“汪恰，西洋一等宝烟也。”

[6] 宣石——产于安徽宁国县（旧属宣城），石质坚硬，色泽洁白，多用于叠假山。见明代计成《园冶》卷三。

[7] 古记——值得凭吊纪念的旧时景物事迹叫“古记儿”，在这里义近故事、传说。

〔四〕 “诗题”，原作“词题”，从各本改。

[9] 《咏〈太极图〉》——《太极图》：北宋周敦颐绘制的对宇宙万物创成变化的图解。他的《太极图说》认为太极是宇宙本体，由太极的一动一静，产生阴阳五行和宇宙万物。由于《太极图说》形式上是推衍《易经》的，所以下文说《咏〈太极图〉》这样的诗题只能弄些《易经》上的话“颠来倒去生填”，窒息才情，束缚思想，不可能做出好诗来。

[10] 《易经》——简称《易》，也叫《周易》，儒家经典之一。文字简约，语义玄奥。约形成于殷周至战国或秦汉之际。

〔五〕 “真真国的”，底本点改为“真真国色”。各本均同底本原文。

[12] 通事官——翻译官。

[13] 白话——原义为无谓的话，这里指把话说白了，点破底蕴的大实话。

[14] “月本”两句——月亮本无古今之别，却因人的情怀不同而对月发生不同的感触。

[15] “汉南”两句——汉南：北周庾信《枯树赋》：“昔年移柳，依依汉南；今看摇落，凄怆江潭。树犹如此，人何以堪！”“汉南”本指汉水之南，这里作南国、故土、旧游之地的泛称。历历：历历在目，清晰可见。这句感慨流光易逝、人非物换，寄托诗人的乡关故园之思，飘零羁旅之叹。关心：关切、动心。

[16] 法制紫姜——用嫩姜制作的酱菜。法制：按传统方法制作，转为地道的、标准的之意。

〔六〕 “李贵等”，原作“李贵和”，“和”又点去。从各本改。下文“李贵等六人”同。

[18] 钻沙——贝甲类钻进沙里不易寻找，这里喻小丫头们都跑的找不见了。

[19] 一丈青——兼带挖耳杓的细长簪子，一头尖细，一头较粗，顶端作小杓，即“耳挖子”。

〔七〕 “不敢多言”（“多”旁添），从改。

[21] 界线——手工刺绣和织补工艺中所用的一种纵横线织法。

CHAPTER 52. Kind Patience conceals the theft of a Shrimp Whisker bracelet And brave Skybright repairs the hole in a Peacock Gold snowcape

‘QUITE SO,’ said Grandmother Jia in answer to Xi-feng’s advocacy of the separate kitchen. ‘I would have mentioned it myself, but you have so many burdens already and I didn’t want to add to them. I know, of course, that you wouldn’t have complained, but you might easily have got the impression that I only care about the younger ones and have no consideration for you busy people who are responsible for running the household. However, now that you have suggested it yourself, I am naturally delighted.’

It chanced that besides Aunt Xue and Mrs Li, Lady Xing and You-shi were also present on this occasion, having come over some time previously to make their morning calls and not yet gone back again. Grandmother Jia availed herself of their presence to sing Xi-feng’s praises.

‘I wouldn’t say this as a rule because I don’t want to make her conceited, and in any case the younger ones might not agree with me: but tell me now – as older married women you have all had a good deal to do with her – have you ever met anyone quite as thoughtful as Feng?’

Aunt Xue, Mrs Li and You-shi agreed that people with Xi-feng’s virtues were indeed extremely rare.

‘Other young married husband’s relations for form’s sake,’ they observed, ‘but she really does seem to care for the young people; and she is plainly devoted to you.’

Grandmother Jia nodded and sighed.

‘I’m very fond of her, but I’m afraid she’s a bit too sharp. It doesn’t do to be too sharp.’

Xi-feng laughed.

‘Now there you are quite wrong, Grannie. The saying is that sharp-witted people don’t live long. Everyone says that and everyone believes it, but you should be the last person to agree with them. Look how long-lived and lucky you are, and yet you are ten times more sharp-witted than me. By rights I should live twice as long as you, if there is any truth in the saying. I expect to live until I am at least a thousand. At all events I shan’t die until I have seen you go to heaven!’

‘It will be a very dull sort of world when all the rest are dead and only we two old harpies are left alive,’ said Grandmother Jia.

The others laughed.

Remembering Skybright, Bao-yu left before the others and hurried back to his apartment to see how she was. The air in it reeked of medicine. Skybright, lying on the kang, her face a dusky red now with the fever, appeared to be completely on her own. He felt her forehead and found it burning to the touch. Quickly warming his hands over the stove, he slipped one of them inside the bedclothes and felt her body. That too was fiery hot.

‘I should have thought Musk and Ripple might have stayed with you, if no one else,’ he said disgustedly. ‘I call that pretty heartless, leaving you on your own like this.’

‘Ripple’s not here because I made her go and have her lunch,’ said Skybright. ‘And Musk has only just this moment been called outside by Patience. They’re whispering together in the front about something or other – probably about the fact that I didn’t go home to get better.’

‘Patience isn’t that sort of person,’ said Bao-yu. ‘She wouldn’t have known that you were ill in any case, so she wouldn’t have come specially about you. Probably she came to talk to Musk about something else, but happening to find you ill, pretended she had come about you out of politeness. It’s the sort of social fib that anyone might tell under the circumstances. Even if you were in trouble for not going home, it’s got nothing to do with Patience; and as you have always been on good terms with her in the past, there’s no earthly reason why she should want to make unpleasantness between you now by interfering in something that doesn’t concern her.’

‘I expect you’re right,’ said Skybright. ‘But I don’t understand why she should want to hide things from me.’

‘I’ll go and find out what they’re talking about,’ said Bao-yu. ‘If I go out the back door and round the side, I shall be able to listen to them from outside the window.’

Going round to the front as he had said, he inclined his ear to the window and listened. He could hear Musk talking in a low voice to Patience inside:

‘How did you come to get it back again?’

‘It was when I was washing my hands in the Garden that day that I lost it,’ he heard Patience reply. ‘Mrs Lian made me keep quiet about it at the time, but as soon as we got back she sent word round to the nannies in the different apartments and told them to investigate. To tell the truth, we rather suspected Miss Xing’s maid. We thought being so poor and not used to seeing things like that lying around she might have been tempted. We never dreamed that it would turn out to be one of your people.

‘It was Trinket who stole it. She was seen by your Mamma Song. Fortunately, when Mamma Song came round with the bracelet to tell Mrs Lian, Mrs Lian was out, so I quickly took it from her and told her to keep quiet about it.

‘I couldn’t help thinking how considerate Bao-yu is to you girls and how proud of you all he is. It’s only two years since that girl Honesty stole the jade and there are some I could mention who are still gloating about it, and now here’s this girl stealing gold – not from him this time but from one of his neighbours, which is worse. I could just imagine the gloating there would be if that got around. It seemed so unjust that he, of all people, should be let down by his own girls in this way.

‘Anyway, I told Mamma Song that she was under no circumstances to let Bao-yu know about this. “In fact,” I said, “you’d better not tell anyone. Just behave as if nothing had happened.” Of course, it wasn’t only Bao-yu I was thinking about. I knew that Their Ladyships would be very angry if they got to hear of it and then it would be very unpleasant for Aroma and the rest of you.

‘The story I told Mrs Lian when she got back was that I’d been to see Mrs Zhu and picked the bracelet up on the way. I told her it must have slipped off into the grass that day while I was washing and got buried under the snow, which explains why nobody could find it. When the snow melted, there it was, shining in the sun for all to see. I think she believed me.

‘The reason I’m telling you this is so that you should be on your guard about that girl. Keep an eye on her and don’t send her on any errands. When Aroma gets back, have a word with her about it and see if you can’t cook up some excuse for dismissing her.’

‘Little wretch!’ said Musk. ‘It isn’t as if she hasn’t seen things like that before. How could she be so stupid?’

‘It wasn’t a particularly valuable bracelet,’ said Patience. ‘It’s one that Mrs Lian gave me. It’s what they call a “shrimp whisker” bracelet. I think the pearl on it might be quite valuable. That Skybright of yours is such a fire-brand that if I told her this, I’m sure she’d never be able to keep quiet about it. She’d blow up immediately and start hitting the girl or shouting at her, and then the whole thing would be out, in spite of all I had done to keep it dark. That’s why I’m telling you. I thought someone ought to be warned, so that you can keep an eye on her.’

With these words Patience took her leave.

Bao-yu had listened to what she said with conflicting emotions: pleasure at discovering that Patience understood him so well; anger that Trinket should be a thief; regret that so intelligent a person should be capable of so ugly an action. Going back to Skybright, he relayed to her everything he had just heard except what Patience had said about Skybright herself, which he emended somewhat for her benefit.

‘She said you’re such a worrier that if you were to hear this now, while you are ill, it would make you worse. She’s planning to tell you about it when you are better.’

Skybright’s reaction was as fiery as Patience had foreseen it would be. Her eyebrows flew up and her eyes became round with anger. She wanted to summon Trinket immediately.

‘Isn’t it rather a poor return for Patience’s considerateness immediately to start making an outcry about it?’ said Bao-yu, restraining her. ‘Why not accept what she has done in the spirit in which it was intended and get rid of Trinket later on?’

‘That’s all very well,’ said Skybright, ‘but I feel so angry. If I don’t get it off my chest now, I shall burst.’

‘What have you got to be angry about?’ said Bao-yu, amused. ‘You just concentrate on getting better.’

Skybright had already had one dose of her medicine. Towards evening she was given the second infusion. But although she perspired a bit during the night, it didn’t really seem to do much good. She still had a temperature, her head still ached, her nose was still blocked, and she was still just as hoarse. In the morning Dr Wang came again, and after taking her pulses, made a few alterations in the prescription; but although the revised dosage brought down her temperature a little, her head still ached as before.

‘Fetch the snuff,’ Bao-yu commanded. ‘If sniffing it can make her give a few good sneezes, it will clear her head.’

Musk went off to do his bidding and presently returned with a little oval box made of aventurine, edged and embellished with gold. Bao-yu took it from her and opened it. Inside the lid, in West Ocean enamel, was a picture of a naked, yellow-haired girl with wings of flesh. The box contained snuff of the very highest quality, which foreigners call uncia.

‘Sniff some,’ he told Skybright, who had taken the box and was gazing fascinatedly at the picture inside it. ‘If you leave it open too long, it will lose its fragrance and then it won’t be so good.’

Skybright took a little of the snuff with her finger-nail and sniffed it up her nose. Nothing happened, so she scooped up a really large amount and sniffed again. A tingling sensation passed through the root of her nose, right up inside her cranium and she began to sneeze: four, five, six times in succession. Immediately her eyes and nose began to stream. She shut the box hurriedly with a laugh.

‘Goodness, how it burns! Give me some paper.’

At once one of the younger maids handed her a wad of tissue. Skybright used sheet after sheet of it to blow her nose on.

‘How’s that?’ said Bao-yu.

‘Much clearer,’ she said. ‘But I still have this headache in the front of my head.’

‘Now that we’ve started using foreign medicine, we may as well go the whole hog,’ said Bao-yu. ‘I expect we’ll have you better again in no time. Musk, go to Mrs Lian’s and tell her I said please could she let me have some of that Western stuff she uses to make her headache plasters with. It’s called yi-fu-na.’

Musk went off, returning after a goodish while with half a tablet. She hunted out a scrap of red satin and cut out two little circles each about the size of a finger-tip from it; then, having melted the yi-fu-na to an ointment-like consistency over the stove, she spread a little of it on each of them with a hairpin. Skybright stuck them on herself, one over each temple, with the aid of a hand-mirror. Musk laughed.

‘You already looked like a banshee to start with, with your ill face and your hair all over the place. Now, with those two things on you, you really do look a sight! Funny: one hardly notices them on Mrs Lian. I suppose it’s because she wears them so often. – By the way,’ she said, turning to Bao-yu, ‘Mrs Lian asked me to tell you that tomorrow is your Uncle Wang’s birthday and Her Ladyship wants you to go. Tell me what clothes you’ll be wearing tomorrow so that I can get them ready now and not have to rush around in the morning.’

‘Oh, anything,’ said Bao-yu. ‘Whatever comes first to hand. Birthdays! It’s nothing but birthdays from one year’s end to the next.’

He got up and left the room, intending to go to Xi-chun’s place to see how she was getting on with the painting; but as he came out of the courtyard gate, he saw Bao-qin’s little maid Periwinkle hurrying across the pathway ahead of him and hurried forward to catch up with her.

‘Where are you going?’ he asked.

‘To Miss Lin’s,’ said Periwinkle. ‘Miss Xue and Miss Bao-qin are there already and I’m on my way to join them.’

Bao-yu changed his mind about going to see Xi-chun and accompanied Periwinkle to the Naiad’s House. He found not only Bao-chai and Bao-qin there but Xing Xiu-yan as well. Dai-yu and her three visitors were sitting on the clothes-warmer gossiping, while Nightingale sat in the closet-bed alcove by the window, sewing. The girls laughed when they saw him enter.

‘Another one? There’s nowhere for you to sit.’

‘What a charming picture!’ said Bao-yu. ‘ “A Bevy of Beauties Keeping Warm in Winter.” I should have come earlier. Still, your room is so warm, I shall be perfectly all right on this chair.’

He sat on the chair that Dai-yu normally occupied. On this occasion it was covered with a squirrel-skin rug. A marble jardinière in the closet-bed alcove where Nightingale was sitting caught his eye. It was full of single-petalled ‘water nymph’ narcissi growing in clumps of four or five flowers from each bulb.

‘What beautiful flowers!’ he said. ‘The warmth of the room makes their scent even richer. How is it I didn’t notice them yesterday?’

‘They were given to Qin by your Chief Steward Lai Da’s wife,’ said Dai-yu: ‘two pots of narcissi and two of winter-sweet to Cousin gave these ones to me and one of the two pots of winter-sweet to Cousin Yun. I didn’t really want them, but as she was kind enough to offer them to me, I thought it would be churlish not to accept. If you’d like them, I’d be very happy to pass them on to you.’

‘Thank you,’ said Bao-yu, ‘but I’ve got two pots of them already. Though mind you, they are not as good as these. In any case, if Cousin Qin gave them to you, you can’t possibly go handing them over to somebody else.’

‘There’s hardly a minute of the day when I haven’t got a medicine-skillet on the stove,’ said Dai-yu. ‘I seem practically to live on medicine nowadays. The smell of medicine is bad enough as it is, but this heavy flower-scent on top of it makes me feel quite faint. Besides, the smell of medicine spoils the smell of the flowers, which is a pity. Much better carry them off somewhere where they can regain their purity away from competing odours.’

‘I’ve got a sick person in my room today,’ said Bao-yu. ‘My room is full of medicine-smells too. How did you know?’

‘What an extraordinary question!’ said Dai-yu. ‘I know nothing about it. How should I know what goes on in your room? I don’t think you’ve been attending to a word I’ve been saying. You’re like someone who comes in half-way through a story and disturbs the rest of the audience by asking questions.’

‘At least we shan’t want for a theme at our next poetry meeting,’ said Bao-yu. ‘ “Narcissus” and “winter-sweet” will make splendid subjects.’

‘Oh no!’ wailed Dai-yu, burying her face in her hands. ‘What’s the point of having poetry meetings? Another meeting only means another lot of penalties. It’s so shaming.’

‘I suppose that’s meant for me,’ said Bao-yu, since I’m the one who’s always getting penalized. But if it doesn’t bother me, I don’t see what you have got to go burying your face in your hands about.’

‘I shall call the next meeting,’ said Bao-chai brightly. ‘There will be four themes for poems in Regular Verse and four for poems in other metres and everyone will have to do all eight of them. The first will be a three-hundred-line poem in pentasyllabics exhausting the rhyme “first”. It’s subject will be “On the Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate”.’

Bao-qin laughed.

‘One can see that it isn’t really poetry you’re interested in but in making things difficult for others. It could be done, of course, if one really wanted to do it – it would simply be a question of selecting bits from the Book of Changes and torturing them into some sort of verse – but what would be the point?

‘When I was eight I went with my father on one of his trips to buy foreign merchandise to one of the Western sea-ports and while we were there we saw a girl from the country of Ebenash. She was just like the foreign girls you see in paintings: long, yellow hair done into plaits, and her head was smothered in jewels: carnelians, cat’s-eyes and emeralds. She was wearing a corslet of golden chain-mail and a dress of West Ocean brocade and she had a Japanese sword at her side covered all over with jewels and gold. Actually she was more beautiful than the foreign girls you see in paintings. They said that she had a perfect understanding of our literature and could expound the Five Classics and write poems in Chinese. My father asked her through an interpreter if she would write something for us in Chinese characters and she wrote out one of her own poems for him.

The cousins were enthralled and Bao-yu eagerly begged her to show them the poem.

‘That’s not possible,’ said Bao-qin. ‘I left it behind in Nanking.’

Bao-yu was very disappointed.

‘Just my luck!’ he said. ‘And I was hoping to broaden my experience.’

‘Don’t be a tease!’ said Dai-yu, giving Bao-qin a tug. ‘You didn’t leave anything behind in Nanking. Look at all the luggage you brought with you! I think you’re making it up. The others can believe you if they like, but I don’t.

Bao-qin blushed and hung her head. She made no reply, but a little, secret smile was faintly discernible in her features.

‘How like you to say that, Frowner!’ said Bao-chai. ‘You really are too sharp.’

‘Well, if she’s brought it with her, she ought to let us have a look and satisfy our curiosity,’ said Dai-yu.

‘She’s got such a great pile of stuff,’ said Bao-chai, ‘she simply hasn’t had time to go through it all yet. How does she know which of all those trunks and boxes she put it in? Wait until she’s had time to sort her things out: no doubt she will come across the poem and let you see it then.’ She turned to Bao-qin. ‘Or perhaps you can remember it? If so, why don’t you recite it for us now?’

‘It was in Regular Pentameter,’ said Bao-qin. ‘I can remember that. For a foreigner it was really quite a good poem.’

‘Hold on!’ said Bao-chai. ‘If you are going to recite it, let me first send for Yun, so that she can hear it as well.’

She gave instructions to Periwinkle.

‘Go back to my room and tell Miss Shi that we’ve got a beautiful foreigner here who can write poems in Chinese. Tell her that as she’s so crazy about poetry, we thought she’d like to meet her. And tell her to bring that other poetry maniac with her when she comes.’

Periwinkle went off laughing to deliver the message. Presently Xiang-yun’s voice, loudly inquiring ‘Where’s this beautiful foreigner?’ could be heard outside, and a moment later she and Caltrop walked into the room.

‘Ere yet the shape was seen, the voice was heard’

said the others, laughing. When Xiang-yun and Caltrop were seated, Bao-qin repeated for their benefit what she had just been telling the others. Xiang-yun pressed her to recite the poem, and this she now proceeded to do:

The Land of Ebenash

Last night I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls; Tonight beside the watery waste I sing. The island’s cloud-cap drifts above the sea, And mists about its mountain forests cling. Our pasts and presents to the moon are one; Our lives and loves beyond our reckoning. Yet still my heart yearns for that distant South, Where time is lost in one eternal spring.

‘Fancy a foreigner being able to write that!’ said the cousins admiringly. ‘It’s better than we Chinese could do ourselves.’

While they were still enthusing over the poem, Musk arrived to report that someone had just been round with a message for Master Bao from Lady Wang.

‘Her Ladyship says, when you go to your Uncle Wang’s first thing tomorrow, will you tell them that she’s sorry she can’t go herself, but she’s not feeling very well?’

Bao-yu stood up, out of respect for his mother, to reply. He asked Bao-chai and Bao-qin if they would be going too. No, said Bao-chai, they had sent a present yesterday, and that was all they would be doing.

Conversation continued a little longer and then the company broke up. As Bao-yu politely insisted on the others going out before him, he would have been the last to leave, but just as he was about to do so, Dai-yu called him back.

‘Tell me,’ she said, ‘just how long will Aroma be away?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Bao-yu, ‘but she certainly won’t come back until after the funeral.’

Dai-yu evidently had something on her mind that she wanted to say but was finding difficulty in expressing. Whatever it was, she must have abandoned it, for, after reflecting for a few moments in silence, all she said was:

‘You’d better go.’

Bao-yu, too, had a feeling that there were a lot of things he ought to be asking her, but he could not for the moment recollect what any of them were. After trying unsuccessfully to remember, he left her with a cheerful ‘See you tomorrow’ and went down the steps outside, his head bent low as he continued ruminating. Just as he was about to set out across the forecourt, something occurred to him and he remounted the steps and went in again.

‘The nights are getting so much longer now. How many times do you cough in the night? Do you wake up very often?’

‘I’m much better at night than I was,’ said Dai-yu. ‘Last night I only coughed twice. But I still don’t sleep very well. Last night I only slept between about two and four in the morning. After that I couldn’t get back to sleep again.’

‘Ah, I knew there was something important I wanted to ask you about,’ said Bao-yu. ‘I’ve just remembered what it was.’ He drew closer to her ear and went on in a lower voice. ‘You know that bird’s nest that Cousin Bao sent you, –’

But before he could finish, Aunt Zhao called in to inquire if Dai-yu was feeling better. Dai-yu knew that she had dropped in on her way back from seeing Tan-chun, and that the kindness, if kindness it were, was of a somewhat tangential nature; nevertheless she begged her with eager politeness to be seated and thanked her warmly for the visit.

‘How kind of you to think of me, Mrs Zhao – and to come here yourself in such bitter weather!’

She ordered tea to be poured for her visitor, simultaneously darting a look at Bao-yu which he rightly interpreted as an order to make himself scarce. It was in any case time for his dinner, so he went to his mother’s place to have it. She made him go back early, bearing in mind that he must be up betimes next morning.

When he got back to his own room, Bao-yu found that Skybright had already taken her medicine. He judged it best to let her stay where she was in the closet-bed. He himself slept on the space outside the curtain which Musk had occupied the previous night. This time Musk slept on the clothes-warmer. He had it moved up beside the closet-bed before they went to bed, so that she could be near at hand during the night.

The night passed by without event.

Next day, before it was yet light, Skybright was calling on Musk to wake up.

‘Come on, Musk! You ought to be awake by now. Haven’t you slept enough yet? You go outside and tell the others to get his morning drink ready while I try waking him up.’

Musk hurriedly drew on a garment and got out of bed.

‘We’d better both wake him and wait till he’s dressed and the clothes-warmer has been carried back to its usual place before we let the others in,’ she said. ‘The old women have already said that he’s not to sleep in the same room as you in case he catches your sickness. We shall never hear the end of it, if they find out that we’ve been sleeping all crowded up together like this.’

‘Yes,’ said Skybright. ‘I was thinking that too.’

The two girls began calling Bao-yu. He must in fact have been awake already, for he got out of bed and began dressing immediately. Musk called in one of the junior maids to help her move the warmer back into place and fold up the bedding. Only when all traces of the previous night’s sleeping arrangements had been effaced were Ripple and Emerald called in to assist Bao-yu with his toilet.

‘It’s very overcast again,’ said Musk, when Bao-yu’s toilet had been completed. ‘It looks as if it will snow. You’d better put on your felt.’

Bao-yu nodded and changed the outer garment he had put on for a more substantial one. A junior maid came in carrying a little tea-tray on which was a covered cup containing a concoction of red dates and Fukien lotus-seeds. Bao-yu drank a few mouthfuls, took a piece of ginger from a saucerful of crystallized shapes held out to him by Musk and put it in his mouth to nibble, addressed a few brief admonitions to Skybright to look after herself while he was away, and went off to see his grandmother.

She had not yet risen when he arrived at her apartment, but the servants, knowing that he was going visiting and could not wait for her to get up, admitted him at once to her bedroom. He caught a glimpse of Bao-qin lying asleep behind her, her face turned inwards to the wall. The old lady observed that her grandson was wearing, over his formal dress of lychee-brown broadcloth, a dark-red felt cape embellished with roundels of gold thread and coloured silk embroidery. Its slate-blue satin border was fringed with tassels.

‘Is it snowing?’ she asked him.

‘Not yet,’ said Bao-yu, ‘but it looks as if it will.’

Grandmother Jia turned to Faithful:

‘Give him that peacock-feather cloak we were looking at yesterday.’

Faithful murmured a reply and went out of the room, returning presently with a magnificent snow-cape that gleamed and glittered with gold and green and bronzy-bluish lights. It was like Bao-qin’s mallard-cape and yet somehow different.

‘This is what they call “peacock gold”,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘It is made by the Russians. They twist the barbs of peacock-feathers into a kind of yarn and weave it from that. The other day I gave your cousin Bao-qin a cape like this made out of mallard feathers. Now I am giving this one to you.’

Bao-yu kotowed and put it on. Grandmother Jia smiled.

‘Go and show your mother.’

Bao-yu obediently hurried off to do so. On his way out he came upon Faithful, standing beside the kang in the outer room. She affected to be rubbing her eyes in order not to have to look at him. She had avoided speaking to him ever since the frightful scene nearly two months earlier when she had vowed never to marry, and Bao-yu was continually being made uncomfortable by her avoidance of him. Seeing her once more preparing to ignore him, he went up to her with a friendly smile in the hope of breaking her silence.

‘Faithful, see this! How do you think I look in it?’

But Faithful simply turned and fled, retreating into Grandmother Jia’s bedroom. Obliged to give up, he continued on his way to Lady Wang‘s. After his mother had seen the cape, he went into the Garden to show himself off to Musk and Skybright. After that he returned to his grandmother’s to report.

‘I showed it to Mother She said it seems almost a pity to wear it and I must be very, very careful not to spoil it.’

‘That was the only one I had left,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘If you do spoil it I haven’t got another one to give you. And there would be no question of getting another one made for you – not in these parts.’

She put on her admonitions-for-the-departing-grandchild voice:

‘Now don’t drink too much. And leave early.’

‘Yes, Grandma.’

Old women from his grandmother’s apartment accompanied him as far as the reception hall of the outer mansion. Below the steps outside it his foster-brother Li Gui, together with Wang Rong, Zhang Ruo-jin, Zhao Yi-hua, Qian Sheng and Zhou Rui and the pages Tealeaf, Storky, Ploughboy and Sweeper, had been waiting a long time in readiness. The pages were carrying clothing-bundles and blankets, and two of the older men were holding a splendidly caparisoned horse by the bridle. The old women issued a few words of admonition to the men, the men, after acknowledging them with a few perfunctory cries, handed Bao-yu his whip and held the stirrup for him to mount, and Bao-yu, mindful of the precious cape, got up slowly into the saddle. The little party then began to advance, Li Gui and Wang Rong, one on either side, holding the bridle-rings, Qian Sheng and Zhou Rui walking ahead, and Zhang Ruo-jin and Zhao Yi-hua following closely behind.

‘Zhou, Qian,’ Bao-yu called out from the saddle to the two in front, ‘let’s go out of the side gate, otherwise it will mean going past my father’s door and I shall have to get down.’

‘Since Sir Zheng went away, his door’s kept locked all the time,’ said Zhou Rui, turning a grinning face back to his young master. ‘You don’t need to get down.’

‘Even though it is locked, I still ought to get down,’ said Bao-yu.

‘Quite right, sir,’ said Li Gui and Qian Sheng approvingly. ‘If you was to get slack about dismounting and Mr Lai or Mr Lin was to see you, they’d be sure to have something to say about it. Even though they couldn’t very well tell you off, like enough they’d blame us for not teaching you manners.’

By now Zhou Rui and Qian Sheng were moving towards the side entrance. While the point of etiquette was still being discussed, they ran head-on into Lai Da himself, of whom they had just been speaking. Bao-yu at once reined to a halt and made as if to dismount, but Lai Da hurried up and prevented him by clinging to his leg. Bao-yu thereupon stood up in the stirrups and, taking him by the hand, addressed him graciously for some moments before continuing on his way. He had barely done so when thirty or forty pages armed with dustpans and brushes came trooping into the courtyard. Immediately they caught sight of Bao-yu, they lined up in a row along the wall and stood with their arms at their sides while one of their number, evidently the leader, stepped forward and, dropping to one knee in the Manchu salute, wished Bao-yu a good morning. Bao-yu did not know the page’s name, so he merely smiled and nodded. The whole troop remained motionless until the horse and its rider had passed by.

Bao-yu’s little party now issued out of the side gate, where ten horses were ready waiting for them: one for Li Gui and each of his fellows and one for each of the pages. All sprang at once into the saddle and were off down the street like a puff of smoke.

At this point our story leaves them and turns to other matters.

Back at Green Delights Skybright, exasperated to find, after another dose of her medicine, that the sickness still showed no disposition to depart, was holding forth loudly against the whole generation of doctors.

‘They’re all cheats,’ she said. ‘They take your money, but none of the medicine they give you is any good.’

‘Don’t be so impatient,’ said Musk soothingly. ‘Getting better is always a lengthy business. You know what they say: “Sickness comes like an avalanche but goes like reeling silk”. This stuff isn’t the Elixir of Life. You can’t expect it to cure you in a twinkling. You’ll be all right if you take things easy for a few days. Getting yourself worked up will only give the sickness a tighter grip on you.’

Skybright’s anger changed direction and vented itself now upon the junior maids.

‘Where have you lot all sneaked off to?’ she called out to them. ‘Very bold, aren’t you, now that you see me helpless? Just you wait till I’m better: I’ll have the hide off every one of you.’

Her outcry produced a solitary response. A little girl called Steadfast came hurrying in and inquired, ‘What is it, Miss?’

‘What’s happened to the others?’ said Skybright. ‘Are they all dead? Are you the only one left alive?’

While she was speaking, Trinket, too, came in – at a somewhat more ambling pace than the other girl.

‘Look at this little creature, now!’ said Skybright. ‘Why couldn’t she have come sooner? You’d have come running here fast enough if we’d been handing out monthly allowances or sharing out sweets, wouldn’t you? Then you’d have been the first to arrive. Come closer. I’m not a tiger. I won’t eat you.’

Trinket edged a few steps nearer. As she did so, Skybright suddenly raised herself from her lying position, snatched hold of her hand, and began jabbing at it violently with an enormous hairpin which she had been keeping concealed under her pillow.

‘What do you want this little claw for?’ she said. ‘It’s no good with a needle and thread. All it’s good for is picking and stealing. Shifty eyes and light fingers! A little claw like this can only bring you disgrace. Much better stab it! – and stab it! – and stab it! so that it can’t do any more thieving.’

Trinket was by now screaming with pain. Musk quickly dragged her away out of Skybright’s clutches and forced Sky-bright to lie down again in bed.

‘You’ve only just been sweating after the medicine,’ she said. ‘What’s the matter with you? Do you want to die? If you’ll just wait until you’re better, you can punish her as much as you like. Don’t start making a scene about it now!’

But Skybright insisted on calling in Mamma Song and dealing with the matter at once.

‘Master Bao has told me to tell you that he finds Trinket lazy,’ she said when Mamma Song arrived. ‘She answers him back and doesn’t do anything when he gives her orders, and even when Aroma tells her to do things she says rude things about her behind her back. Master Bao is most anxious that she should be dismissed immediately. He says he will speak to Her Ladyship about it himself when he sees her tomorrow.’

When Mamma Song heard this, she knew that the story of the bracelet must have leaked out.

‘That’s as may be,’ she said. ‘But oughtn’t we to wait until Miss Aroma comes back and tell her first?’

‘What I am giving you are Master Bao’s own orders,’ said Skybright. ‘He was most particular that she should be dismissed immediately. I don’t see that Miss Aroma – or Miss Sweetscents or Miss Smellypots, for that matter – has got anything to do with it. I know what I’m doing. Just do as I say. Go and get someone from her family to come here immediately and take her away.’

‘You might just as well,’ said Musk. ‘She’ll have to go sooner or later. Let them take her away now and get it over with.’

So Mamma Song had to go off and summon the girl’s mother from outside. When Trinket had finished getting her belongings together, her mother went in with her to see Musk and Skybright.

‘Now what’s all this about?’ she said. ‘If the girl’s done wrong, why can’t you just punish her for it? Why do you have to dismiss her? It doesn’t leave us much face, does it, if she’s dismissed?’

‘You’ll have to ask Bao-yu about that when he gets back,’ said Skybright. ‘It’s nothing to do with us.’

The woman sneered.

‘You know perfectly well that I wouldn’t dare. He always does what you young ladies want him to in any case. Even if I saw him and he agreed that she could stay, there’s no guaranteeing that she would if you young ladies weren’t agreeable. Take what you said just now. I know he’s not here it the moment, but even so. If I was to name his name as you did just now without a “master” or a “mister” to it, people would say I was a savage, but for you young ladies, seemingly, it’s quite all right.’

Skybright became red with anger.

‘I called him by his name, did I? Why don’t you go and report me to Their Ladyships? Tell them that I’m a savage and get me dismissed.’

‘I advise you to take that girl out of here and be on your way,’ said Musk. ‘If you have anything to say, you can say it later. You can’t stand here wrangling about it now. When have you ever seen other people bandying words with us? Even Mrs Lai and Mrs Lin show a bit of restraint when they talk to us. And as for this business of saying “Bao-yu” instead of “Master Bao”: everyone knows that it’s Her Old Ladyship’s particular wish that we should. Because he’s not strong and she’s afraid he might die young, she likes as many people as possible to use his name, to bring him luck. She even has it written in big characters and pasted up on walls outside to get people saying it. It would be funny if we couldn’t use his name when every water-carrier and dung-carrier and beggar in town can do so. As a matter of fact only yesterday Mrs Lin got told off by Her Old Ladyship for calling him “Master Bao”.

‘And for another thing, we senior maids are constantly having to take messages to Her Old Ladyship and Her Ladyship about him, and when we do, we always say “Bao-yu”, never “Master Bao”. Why, I should think we must each of us use his name a couple of hundred times every day. You certainly chose the wrong thing to find fault with when you picked on that one! If you don’t believe me, go round one of these days when you are free to Her Old Ladyship’s or Her Ladyship’s and you will hear us openly calling him “Bao-yu” to their faces. But of course, you don’t have any important business that would bring you in contact with Their Ladyships, do you? All your time is spent doing odd-jobs outside. One could hardly expect you to know the way things are done in here.

‘But I’m afraid we really can’t have you standing around here any longer. If you stay much longer, I’m afraid even though we don’t object someone else may come along and ask what you are doing here. If you want to appeal against the girl’s dismissal, you should get her out of here first and take it up with Mrs Lin afterwards and she will speak to Master Bao about it. With all the hundreds of people there are in this household we can’t have just anyone running in and out whenever they feel like it. We don’t even know the names of half of them.’

By way of emphasizing her point, Musk ordered one of the junior maids to fetch a floor-cloth and begin wiping the floor. At this Trinket’s mother, unable to find a reply and fearful of being caught staying too long, swept out angrily, taking her daughter with her. But Mamma Song was not letting them get away so easily.

‘You certainly don’t have much idea of manners, my good woman. After all the time she’s been here, your daughter could at least make the young ladies a kotow before she goes. She may have no other parting gift to give them – I don’t suppose they’d set much store by it if she had – but she might at least have the decency to make them a kotow. You can’t both just up and go.’

Trinket was obliged to come in again and kotow to the two inside. She also went round to do the same for Ripple and Emerald, but they refused to look at her. After that she departed with her mother, the latter indicating as they went, by many a sniff and sigh, the hatred that she dared not express more openly.

A consequence of this latest exposure to the cold and of the accompanying emotional upset was that Skybright was now feeling bad again. At lighting-up time, after tossing about feverishly all day, she was just beginning to settle down at last when Bao-yu returned in a great fret and began stamping and groaning almost as soon as he entered the room. Musk asked him what the matter was.

‘It’s this cloak that Grandmother gave me this morning. She was so pleased about it, and now – I don’t know how it happened – I’ve gone and got a burn in it behind the lapel. Fortunately it was fairly dark just now when I came back and neither Grandmother nor Mother noticed anything.’

He took it off for Musk to examine. It was only a little burn, about the size of a finger-print, but clearly visible.

‘It must have been caused by a spark from your hand-warmer,’ said Musk. ‘It’s nothing to worry about. We’ll send someone out on the quiet with it immediately to find a good invisible mender and get it mended for you.’

She wrapped it up and called in one of the old nannies to take it out for them.

‘Tell them it has to be ready by daylight tomorrow. And for heaven’s sake don’t let Her Old Ladyship or Her Ladyship find out about it!’

The woman was gone a very long time. When she at last returned, she was still carrying the bundle with the peacock cloak in it.

‘I’ve tried everywhere – invisible menders, tailors, embroiderers, seamstresses – and none of them will touch it. They all say they don’t know what the material is and don’t want to be responsible.’

‘Oh dear!’ said Musk. ‘What are we going to do now? Well, you just can’t wear it tomorrow, that’s all.’

‘But I must,’ said Bao-yu. ‘Tomorrow is his actual birthday. Grandmother and Mother have both said I must. Today was only the first day of the celebrations, not his actual birthday. Isn’t it just my luck to burn it the very first time I put it on?’

Skybright, who had listened to all this in silence, could contain herself no longer and sat up immediately in bed.

‘Come on, let me have a look. If you weren’t meant to wear it, you won’t wear it. No good making all this fuss about it now.’

‘There’s something in that,’ said Bao-yu laughing, and handed it to her. He brought the lamp over so that she could examine it more closely.

‘This is made of “peacock gold”,’ said Skybright. ‘If we could get hold of some of the thread and make a little darn with it, I think it would probably pass.’

‘We’ve got peacock gold thread,’ said Musk. ‘The trouble is that apart from you there’s no one else here who could do the darning.’

‘I shall just have to make the effort and do it then, shan’t I?’ said Skybright.

‘No, that’s out of the question,’ said Bao-yu. ‘You’ve only just started getting better. You’re not in a fit state to do sewing yet.’

‘Oh, don’t be such an old woman!’ said Skybright. ‘I know what I’m capable of.’

So saying, she sat up again in bed, knotted up her loosely flowing hair, and drew a jacket on over her shoulders. Her body felt abnormally light and she was almost overcome with dizziness. It really did seem as if the effort would be too much for her; but knowing what a state Bao-yu would be in if the snow-cape was not repaired, she gritted her teeth, and fighting back the weakness that threatened to engulf her, told Musk to pinch the yarn and thread a needle for her while she herself took a length of it and held it against the material.

‘It’s not really a very good match,’ she said, ‘but I don’t suppose it will show very much when it’s been darned.’

‘I’m sure it will do very nicely,’ said Bao-yu. ‘At all events, we’re not going to be able to find a Russian tailor to do it for us!’

Skybright began by opening up the seam of the lining underneath the burnt patch so that she could insert a cup-sized darning mushroom from inside. Having stretched the material out over the mushroom, she scraped away the charred parts and the surrounding nap with a razor until the threads were clearly exposed, then, with her needle and thread, she worked first across in one direction and then at right-angles in the other until she had filled the hole with a criss-cross darn. Using this as a foundation, she now began to weave the thread in and out with her needle so as to imitate the surrounding pattern. This was the most difficult and exhausting part of the work. After each couple of stitches she had to stop and examine what she had done, and after every four or five she had to lean back on the pillow and rest. Meanwhile Bao-yu fussed around her unceasingly, one moment asking her if she would like a ‘nice hot drink’, another moment suggesting that she should rest, one moment fetching a squirrel-skin cloak to put over her shoulders, the next moment a pillow for her back, until she became quite frantic and had to entreat him to leave her alone.

‘My dear little grandfather – please just go to bed! If you stay up any longer, you’ll have rings under your eyes in the morning, and that will never do!’

Bao-yu could see that he was exasperating her and made a pretence of settling down in his bed; but he could not get to sleep. After he had been lying awake for some time, he heard the chiming clock strike four. Skybright had just completed the mending and was finishing off the job by carefully teasing the nap out with a little toothbrush.

‘That’s wonderful,’ said Musk. ‘If you didn’t look at it carefully, you could never tell it was a darn.’

Bao-yu asked to see.

‘It’s perfect,’ he said. ‘It looks exactly the same as the rest.’

Skybright had been coughing a good deal during the final stages of her task and it had been all she could do to conclude it.

‘Anyway, it’s done,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t really look right, but I can’t do any more – Aiyo!’

With a cry of weariness she sank back, utterly exhausted, upon the bed.

If you wish to know the outcome, please read the chapter which follows.