第二十九回

第二十九回 享福人福深还祷福 痴情女情重愈斟情

话说宝玉正自发怔，不想黛玉将手帕子甩了来，正碰在眼睛上，倒唬了一跳，问是谁。林黛玉摇着头儿笑道：“不敢，是我失了手。因为宝姐姐要看呆雁，我比给他看，不想失了手。”宝玉揉着眼睛，待要说什么，又不好说的。

一时，凤姐儿来了，因说起初一日在清虚观打醮的事来，遂约着宝钗、宝玉、黛玉等看戏去。宝钗笑道：“罢，罢，怪热的。什么没看过的戏，我就不去了。”凤姐儿道：“他们那里凉快，两边又有楼。咱们要去，我头几天打发人去，把那些道士都赶出去，把楼打扫干净，挂起帘子来，一个闲人不许放进庙去，才是好呢。我已经回了太太了。你们不去我去，这些日子也闷的很了。家里唱动戏，我又不得舒舒服服的看。”

贾母听说，笑道：“既这么着，我同你去。”凤姐听说，笑道：“老祖宗也去，敢情〔一〕好了！就只是我又不得受用了。”贾母道：“到明儿，我在正面楼上，你在旁边楼上，你也不用到我这边来立规矩，可好不好？”凤姐儿笑道：“这就是老祖宗疼我了。”贾母因又向宝钗道：“你也去，连你母亲也去。长天老日的，在家里也是睡觉。”宝钗只得答应着。

贾母又打发人去请了薛姨妈，顺路告诉王夫人，要带了他们姊妹去。王夫人因一则身上不好，二则预备着元春有人出来，早已回了不去的；听贾母如今这样说，笑道：“还是这么高兴。”因打发人去到园里告诉：“有要逛的，只管初一跟了老太太逛去。”这个话一传开了，别人都还可已，只是那些丫头们天天不得出门槛子，听了这话，谁不要去。便是各人的主子懒怠去，他也百般撺掇了去，因此李宫裁等都说去。贾母越发心中喜欢，早已吩咐人去打扫安置，都不必细说。

单表到了初一这一日，荣国府门前车辆纷纷，人马簇簇。那底下凡执事人等，闻得是贵妃作好事，贾母亲去拈香，正是初一日乃月之首日，况是端阳节间，因此凡动用的什物，一色都是齐全的，不同往日。

少时，贾母等出来。贾母坐一乘八人大轿。李氏、凤姐儿、薛姨妈每人一乘四人轿。宝钗、黛玉二人共坐一辆翠盖珠缨八宝车。迎春、探春、惜春三人共坐一辆朱轮华盖车〔二〕。然后贾母的丫头鸳鸯、鹦鹉、琥珀、珍珠，林黛玉的丫头紫鹃、雪雁、春纤，宝钗的丫头莺儿、文杏，迎春的丫头司棋、绣桔，探春的丫头待书、翠墨，惜春的丫头入画、彩屏，薛姨妈的丫头同喜、同贵，外带着香菱、香菱的丫头臻儿，李氏的丫头素云、碧月，凤姐儿的丫头平儿、丰儿、小红，并王夫人两个丫头也要跟了凤姐儿去的是金钏、彩云，奶子抱着大姐儿带着巧姐儿另在一车，还有两个丫头，一共又连上各房的老嬷嬷奶娘并跟出门的家人媳妇子，乌压压的占了一街的车。

贾母等已经坐轿去了多远，这门前尚未坐完。这个说“我不同你在一处”，那个说“你压了我们奶奶的包袱”，那边车上又说“蹭了我的花儿”，这边又说“碰折了我的扇子”，咭咭呱呱，说笑不绝。周瑞家的走来过去的说道：“姑娘们，这是街上，看人笑话。”说了两遍，方觉好了。前头的全副执事摆开，早已到了清虚观了。宝玉骑着马，在贾母轿前。街上人都站在两边。

将至观前，只听钟鸣鼓响，早有张法官[3]执香披衣，带领众道士在路旁迎接。贾母的轿刚至山门[4]以内，贾母在轿内因看见有守门大帅并千里眼、顺风耳、当方土地、本境城隍各位泥胎圣像，便命住轿。贾珍带领各子弟上来迎接。

凤姐儿知道鸳鸯等在后面，赶不上来搀贾母，自己下了轿，忙要上来搀。可巧有个十二三岁的小道士儿，拿着剪筒[5]，照管剪各处蜡花，正欲得便且藏出去，不想一头撞在凤姐儿怀里。凤姐便一扬手，照脸一下，把那小孩子打了一个筋斗，骂道：“野牛肏的，胡朝那里跑！”那小道士也不顾拾烛剪，爬起来往外还要跑。正值宝钗等下车，众婆娘媳妇正围随的风雨不透，但见一个小道士滚了出来，都喝声叫“拿，拿，拿！打，打，打！”

贾母听了忙问：“是怎么了？”贾珍忙出来问。凤姐上去搀住贾母，就回说：“一个小道士儿，剪灯花的，没躲出去，这会子混钻呢。”贾母听说，忙道：“快带了那孩子来，别唬着他。小门小户的孩子，都是娇生惯养的，那里见的这个势派。倘或唬着他，倒怪可怜见的，他老子娘岂不疼的慌？”说着，便叫贾珍去好生带了来。贾珍只得去拉了那孩子来。

那孩子还一手拿着蜡剪，跪在地下乱战。贾母命贾珍拉起来，叫他别怕。问他几岁了。那孩子通说不出话来。贾母还说“可怜见的”，又向贾珍道：“珍哥儿，带他去罢。给他些钱买果子吃，别叫人难为了他。”贾珍答应，领他去了。这里贾母带着众人，一层一层的瞻拜观玩。外面小厮们见贾母等进入二层山门，忽见贾珍领了一个小道士出来，叫人来带去，给他几百钱，不要难为了他。家人听说，忙上来领了下去。

贾珍站在阶矶上，因问：“管家在那里？”底下站的小厮们见问，都一齐喝声说：“叫管家！”登时林之孝一手扣着帽子跑了来，到贾珍跟前。贾珍道：“虽说这里地方大，今儿不承望来这么些人。你使的人，你就带了往你的那院里去；使不着的，打发到那院里去。把小幺儿们多挑几个在这二层门上同两边的角门上，伺候着要东西传话。你可知道不知道，今儿小姐奶奶们都出来，一个闲人也到不了这里。”林之孝忙答应“晓得”，又说了几个“是”。贾珍道：“去罢。”又问：“怎么不见蓉儿？”

一声未了，只见贾蓉从钟楼里跑了出来。贾珍道：“你瞧瞧他，我这里也还没敢说热，他倒乘凉去了！”喝命家人啐他。那小厮们都知道贾珍素日的性子，违拗不得，有个小厮便上来向贾蓉脸上啐了一口。贾珍又道：“问着他！”那小厮便问贾蓉道：“爷还不怕热，哥儿怎么先乘凉去了？”贾蓉垂着手，一声不敢说。那贾芸、贾萍、贾芹等听见了，不但他们慌了，亦且连贾璜、贾〔三〕、贾琼等也都忙了，一个一个从墙根下慢慢的溜上来。贾珍又向贾蓉道：“你站着作什么？还不骑了马跑到家里，告诉你娘母子去！老太太同姑娘们都来了，叫他们快来伺候。”

贾蓉听说，忙跑了出来，一叠声要马，一面抱怨道：“早都不知作什么的，这会子寻趁[7]我。”一面又骂小子：“捆着手呢？马也拉不来。”待要打发小子去，又恐后来对出来，说不得亲自走一趟，骑马去了。不在话下。

且说贾珍方要抽身进去，只见张道士站在旁边陪笑说道：“论理我不比别人，应该里头伺候。只因天气炎热，众位千金都出来了，法官不敢擅入，请爷的示下。恐老太太问，或要随喜那里，我只在这里伺候罢了。”贾珍知道，这张道士虽然是当日荣国府国公的替身[8]，曾经先皇御口亲呼为“大幻仙人”，如今现掌“道录司”[9]印，又是当今封为“终了真人”，现今王公藩镇都称他为“神仙”，所以不敢轻慢。二则他又常往两个府里去，凡夫人小姐都是见的。今见他如此说，便笑道：“咱们自己，你又说起这话来。再多说，我把你这胡子还[10]了呢！还不跟我进来。”那张道士呵呵大笑，跟了贾珍进来。

贾珍到贾母跟前，控身[11]陪笑说：“这张爷爷进来请安。”贾母听了，忙道：“搀他来。”贾珍忙去搀了过来。那张道士先哈哈笑道：“无量寿佛！老祖宗一向福寿安康？众位奶奶小姐纳福？一向没到府里请安，老太太气色越发好了。”贾母笑道：“老神仙，你好？”张道士笑道：“托老太太万福万寿，小道也还康健。别的倒罢，只记挂着哥儿，一向身上好？前日四月二十六日，我这里做遮天大王的圣诞，人也来的少，东西也很干净，我说请哥儿来逛逛，怎么说不在家？”贾母说道：“果真不在家。”一面回头叫宝玉。谁知宝玉解手去了才来，忙上前问：“张爷爷好？”张道士忙抱住问了好，又向贾母笑道：“哥儿越发发福了。”贾母道：“他外头好，里头弱。又搭着他老子逼着他念书，生生的把个孩子逼出病来了。”张道士道：“前日我在好几处看见哥儿写的字，作的诗，都好的了不得，怎么老爷还抱怨说哥儿不大喜欢念书呢？依小道看来，也就罢了。”又叹道：“我看见哥儿的这个形容身段，言谈举动，怎么就同当日国公爷一个稿子！”说着两眼流下泪来。贾母听说，也由不得满脸泪痕，说道：“正是呢，我养这些儿子孙子，也没一个像他爷爷的，就只这玉儿像他爷爷。”

那张道士又向贾珍道：“当日国公爷的模样儿，爷们一辈的不用说，自然没赶上，大约连大老爷、二老爷也记不清楚了。”说毕呵呵又一大笑，道：“前日在一个人家看见一位小姐，今年十五岁了，生的倒也好个模样儿。我想着哥儿也该寻亲事了。若论这个小姐模样儿，聪明智慧，根基家当，倒也配的过。但不知老太太怎么样，小道也不敢造次。等请了老太太的示下，才敢向人去说。”贾母道：“上回有和尚说了，这孩子命里不该早娶，等再大一大儿再定罢。你可如今打听着，不管他根基富贵，只要模样配的上就好，来告诉我。便是那家子穷，不过给他几两银子罢了。只是模样性格儿难得好的。”

说毕，只见凤姐儿笑道：“张爷爷，我们丫头的寄名符儿你也不换去。前儿亏你还有那么大脸，打发人和我要鹅黄缎子去！要不给你，又恐怕你那老脸上过不去。”张道士呵呵大笑道：“你瞧，我眼花了，也没看见奶奶在这里，也没道多谢。符早已有了，前日原要送去的，不指望娘娘来作好事，就混忘了，还在佛前镇着。待我取来。”说着跑到大殿上去，一时拿了一个茶盘，搭着大红蟒缎经袱子[12]，托出符来。大姐儿的奶子接了符。

张道士方欲抱过大姐儿来，只见凤姐笑道：“你就手里拿出来罢了，又用个盘子托着。”张道士道：“手里不干不净的，怎么拿，用盘子洁净些。”凤姐儿笑道：“你只顾拿出盘子来，倒唬我一跳。我不说你是为送符，倒像是和我们化布施来了。”众人听说，哄然一笑，连贾珍也撑不住笑了。贾母回头道：“猴儿猴儿，你不怕下割舌头地狱〔四〕！”凤姐儿笑道：“我们爷儿们不相干。他怎么常常的说我该积阴骘，迟了就短命呢！”

张道士也笑道：“我拿出盘子来一举两用，却不为化布施，倒要将哥儿的这玉请了下来，托出去给那些远来的道友并徒子徒孙们见识见识。”贾母道：“既这们着，你老人家老天拔地的跑什么，就带他去，瞧了，叫他进来，岂不省事？”张道士道：“老太太不知道，看看小道是八十多岁的人，托老太太的福倒也健壮；二则外面的人多，气味难闻，况是个暑热的天，哥儿受不惯，倘或哥儿受了腌气味，倒值多了。”贾母听说，便命宝玉摘下通灵玉来，放在盘内。那张道士兢兢业业的用蟒袱子垫着，捧了出去。

这里贾母与众人各处游玩了一回，方去上楼。只见贾珍回说：“张爷爷送了玉来了。”刚说着，只见张道士捧了盘子，走到跟前笑道：“众人托小道的福，见了哥儿的玉，实在可罕。都没什么敬贺之物，这是他们各人传道的法器〔五〕[15]，都愿意为敬贺之礼。哥儿便不希罕，只留着在房里顽耍赏人罢。”贾母听说，向盘内看时，只见也有金璜[16]，也有玉玦，或有事事如意，或有岁岁平安，皆是珠穿宝贯，玉琢金镂，共有三五十件。因说道：“你也胡闹。他们出家人是那里来的，何必这样，这不能收〔六〕。”张道士笑道：“这是他们一点敬心，小道也不能阻挡。老太太若不留下，岂不叫他们看着小道微薄，不像是门下出身[18]了。”

贾母听如此说，方命人接了。宝玉笑道：“老太太，张爷爷既这么说，又推辞不得，我要这个也无用，不如叫小子们捧了这个，跟着我出去散给穷人罢。”贾母笑道：“这倒说的是。”张道士又忙拦道：“哥儿虽要行好，但这些东西虽说不甚希奇，到底也是几件器皿。若给了乞丐，一则与他们无益，二则反倒遭塌了这些东西。要舍给穷人，何不就散钱与他们。”宝玉听说，便命收下，等晚间拿钱施舍罢了。说毕，张道士方退出去。

这里贾母与众人上了楼，在正面楼上归坐。凤姐等占了东楼。众丫头等在西楼，轮流伺候。贾珍一时来回：“神前拈了戏〔七〕[20]，头一本《白蛇记》[21]。”贾母问“《白蛇记》是什么故事？”贾珍道：“是汉高祖斩蛇方起首的故事。第二本是《满床笏》[22]。”贾母笑道：“这倒是第二本上？也罢了。神佛要这样，也只得罢了。”又问第三本，贾珍道：“第三本是《南柯梦》[23]。”贾母听了便不言语。贾珍退了下来，至外边预备着申表、焚钱粮[24]、开戏，不在话下。

且说宝玉在楼上，坐在贾母旁边，因叫个小丫头子捧着方才那一盘子贺物，将自己的玉戴上，用手翻弄寻拨，一件一件的挑与贾母看。贾母因看见有个赤金点翠的麒麟[25]，便伸手拿了起来，笑道：“这件东西好像我看见谁家的孩子也带着这么一个的。”宝钗笑道：“史大妹妹有一个，比这个小些。”贾母道：“原来是云儿有这个。”宝玉道：“他这么往我们家去住着，我也没看见。”探春笑道：“宝姐姐有心，不管什么他都记得。”林黛玉冷笑道：“他在别的上还有限，惟有这些人带的东西上越发留心。”宝钗听说，便回头装没听见。

宝玉听见史湘云有这件东西，自己便将那麒麟忙拿起来揣在怀里。一面心里又想到怕人看见他听见史湘云有了，他就留这件，因此手里揣着，却拿眼睛飘人。只见众人都倒不大理论，惟有林黛玉瞅着他点头儿，似有赞叹之意。宝玉不觉心里没好意思起来，又掏了出来，向黛玉笑道：“这个东西倒好顽，我替你留着，到了家穿上你带。”林黛玉将头一扭，说道：“我不希罕。”宝玉笑道：“你果然不希罕，我少不得就拿着。”说着又揣了起来。

刚要说话，只见贾珍贾蓉的妻子婆媳两个来了，彼此见过，贾母方说：“你们又来做什么，我不过没事来逛逛。”一句话没说了，只见人报：“冯将军家有人来了。”原来，冯紫英家听见贾府在庙里打醮，连忙预备了猪羊香烛茶银之类的东西送礼。凤姐儿听了，忙赶过正楼来，拍手笑道：“嗳呀！我就不防这个。只说咱们娘儿们来闲逛逛，人家只当咱们大摆斋坛[26]的来送礼。都是老太太闹的。这又不得预备赏封儿。”刚说了，只见冯家的两个管家娘子〔八〕上楼来了。冯家两个未去，接着赵侍郎也有礼来了。

于是，接二连三，都听见贾府打醮，女眷都在庙里，凡一应远亲近友、世家相与都来送礼。贾母才后悔起来，说：“又不是什么正经斋事，我们不过闲逛逛，就想不到这礼上，没的惊动了人。”因此虽看了一天戏，至下午便回来了，次日便懒怠去。凤姐又说：“打墙也是动土[28]，已经惊动了人，今儿乐得还去逛逛。”那贾母因昨日张道士提起宝玉说亲的事来，谁知宝玉一日心中不自在，回家来生气，嗔着张道士与他说了亲，口口声声说，从今以后不再见张道士了，别人也并不知为什么原故；二则林黛玉昨日回家又中了暑：因此二事，贾母便执意不去了。凤姐见不去，自己带了人去，也不在话下。

且说宝玉因见林黛玉又病了，心里放不下，饭也懒去吃，不时来问。林黛玉又怕他有个好歹，因说道：“你只管看你的戏去，在家里作什么？”宝玉因昨日张道士提亲，心中大不受用，今听见林黛玉如此说，心里因想着：“别人不知道我的心还可恕，连他也奚落起我来。”因此心中更比往日的烦恼加了百倍。若是别人跟前，断不能动这肝火，只是林黛玉说了这话，倒比往日别人说这话不同，由不得立刻沉下脸来，说道：“我白认得了你。罢了，罢了！”林黛玉听说，便冷笑了两声道：“我也知道〔九〕白认得了我，那里像人家有什么配的上呢。”宝玉听了，便向前来直问到脸上：“你这么说，是安心咒我天诛地灭？”林黛玉一时解不过这个话来。宝玉又道：“昨儿还为这个赌了几回咒，今儿你到底又准我一句。我便天诛地灭，你又有什么益处？”林黛玉一闻此言，方想起上日的话来。今日原是自己说错了，又是着急，又是羞愧，便颤颤兢兢的说道：“我要安心咒你，我也天诛地灭。何苦来！我知道，昨日张道士说亲，你怕阻了你的好姻缘，你心里生气，来拿我煞性子。”

原来那宝玉自幼生成有一种下流[30]痴病，况从幼时和黛玉耳鬓厮磨，心情相对；及如今稍明时事，又看了那些邪书僻传，凡远亲近友之家所见的那些闺英闱秀，皆未有稍及林黛玉者〔一○〕，所以早存了一段心事，只不好说出来，故每每或喜或怒，变尽法子暗中试探。那林黛玉偏生也是个有些痴病的，也每用假情试探。因你也将真心真意瞒了起来，只用假意，我也将真心真意瞒了起来，只用假意。如此两假相逢，终有一真。其间琐琐碎碎，难保不有口角之争。

即如此刻，宝玉的心内想的是：“别人不知我的心，还有可恕，难道你就不想我的心里眼里只有你！你不能为我烦恼，反来以这话奚落堵我。可见我心里一时一刻白有你，你竟心里没我。”心里这意思，只是口里说不出来。那林黛玉心里想着：“你心里自然有我，虽有‘金玉相对’之说，你岂是重这邪说不重我的。我便时常提这‘金玉’，你只管了然自若无闻的，方见得是待我重，而毫无此心了。如何我只一提‘金玉’的事，你就着急，可知你心里时时有‘金玉’，见我一提，你又怕我多心，故意着急，安心哄我。”

看来两个人原本是一个心，但都多生了枝叶，反弄成两个心了。那宝玉心中又想着：“我不管怎么样都好，只要你随意，我便立刻因你死了也情愿。你知也罢，不知也罢，只由我的心，可见你方和我近〔一一〕，不和我远。”那林黛玉心里又想着：“你只管你，你好我自好，你何必为我而自失。殊不知你失我自失。可见是你不叫我近你，有意叫我远你了。”如此看来，却都是求近之心，反弄成疏远之意。如此之话，皆他二人素习所存私心，也难备述。

如今只述他们外面的形容。那宝玉又听见他说“好姻缘”三个字，越发逆了己意，心里干噎，口里说不出话来，便赌气向颈上抓下通灵宝玉，咬牙恨命往地下一摔，道：“什么捞什骨子，我砸了你完事！”偏生那玉坚硬非常，摔了一下，竟文风没动。宝玉见没摔碎，便回身找东西来砸。林黛玉见他如此，早已哭起来，说道：“何苦来，你摔砸那哑巴物件。有砸他的，不如来砸我。”二人闹着，紫鹃雪雁等忙来解劝。后来见宝玉下死砸玉，忙上来夺，又夺不下来，见比往日闹的大了，少不得去叫袭人。袭人忙赶了来，才夺了下来。宝玉冷笑道：“我砸我的东西，与你们什么相干！”

袭人见他脸都气黄了，眼眉都变了，从来没气的这样，便拉着他的手，笑道：“你同妹妹拌嘴，不犯着砸他；倘或砸坏了，叫他心里脸上怎么过的去？”林黛玉一行哭着，一行听了这话说到自己心坎儿上来，可见宝玉连袭人不如，越发伤心大哭起来。心里一烦恼，方才吃的香薷饮[33]解暑汤便承受不住，“哇”的一声都吐了出来。紫鹃忙上来用手帕子接住，登时一口一口的把一块手帕子吐湿。雪雁忙上来捶。紫鹃道：“虽然生气，姑娘到底也该保重着些。才吃了药好些，这会子因和宝二爷拌嘴，又吐出来。倘或犯了病，宝二爷怎么过的去呢？”宝玉听了这话说到自己心坎儿上来，可见黛玉不如一紫鹃。

又见林黛玉脸红头胀，一行啼哭，一行气凑，一行是泪，一行是汗，不胜怯弱。宝玉见了这般，又自己后悔方才不该同他较证[34]，这会子他这样光景，我又替不了他。心里想着，也由不的滴下泪来了。袭人见他两个哭，由不得守着宝玉也心酸起来，又摸着宝玉的手冰凉，待要劝宝玉不哭罢，一则又恐宝玉有什么委曲闷在心里，二则又恐薄了林黛玉。不如大家一哭，就丢开手了，因此也流下泪来。紫鹃一面收拾了吐的药，一面拿扇子替林黛玉轻轻的扇着，见三个人都鸦雀无声，各人哭各人的，也由不得伤心起来，也拿手帕子擦泪。四个人都无言对泣。

一时，袭人勉强笑向宝玉道：“你不看别的，你看看这玉上穿的穗子，也不该同林姑娘拌嘴。”林黛玉听了，也不顾病，赶来夺过去，顺手抓起一把剪子来要剪。袭人紫鹃刚要夺，已经剪了几段。林黛玉哭道：“我也是白效力。他也不希罕，自有别人替他再穿好的去。”袭人忙接了玉道：“何苦来，这是我才多嘴的不是了。”宝玉向林黛玉道：“你只管剪，我横竖不带他，也没什么。”

只顾里头闹，谁知那些老婆子们见林黛玉大哭大吐，宝玉又砸玉，不知道要闹到什么田地，倘或连累了他们，便一齐往前头回贾母王夫人知道，好不干连了他们。那贾母王夫人见他们忙忙的作一件正经事来告诉，也都不知有了什么大祸，便一齐进园来瞧他兄妹。急的袭人抱怨紫鹃为什么惊动了老太太、太太；紫鹃又只当是袭人去告诉的，也抱怨袭人。那贾母、王夫人进来，见宝玉也无言，林黛玉也无话，问起来又没为什么事，便将这祸移到袭人紫鹃两个人身上，说“为什么你们不小心服侍，这会子闹起来都不管了”！因此将他二人连骂带说教训了一顿。二人都没话，只得听着。还是贾母带出宝玉去了，方才平服。

过了一日，至初三日，乃是薛蟠生日，家里摆酒唱戏，来请贾府诸人。宝玉因得罪了林黛玉，二人总未见面，心中正自后悔，无精打采的，那里还有心肠去看戏，因而推病不去。林黛玉不过前日中了些暑溽之气，本无甚大病，听见他不去，心里想：“他是好吃酒看戏的，今日反不去，自然是因为昨儿气着了。再不然，他见我不去，他也没心肠去。只是昨儿千不该万不该剪了那玉上的穗子。管定他再不带了，还得我穿了他才带。”因而心中十分后悔。

那贾母见他两个都生了气，只说趁今儿那边看戏，他两个见了也就完了，不想又都不去。老人家急的抱怨说：“我这老冤家是那世里的孽障，偏生遇见了这么两个不省事的小冤家，没有一天不叫我操心。真是俗语说的，‘不是冤家不聚头’。几时我闭了这眼，断了这口气，凭着这两个冤家闹上天去，我眼不见心不烦，也就罢了。偏又不这口气。”自己抱怨着也哭了。这话传入宝林二人耳内。原来他二人竟是从未听见过“不是冤家不聚头”的这句俗语，如今忽然得了这句话，好似参禅的一般，都低头细嚼这句话的滋味，都不觉潸然泣下。虽不曾会面，然一个在潇湘馆临风洒泪，一个在怡红院对月长吁，却不是人居两地，情发一心！

袭人因劝宝玉道：“千万不是，都是你的不是。往日家里小厮们和他们的姊妹拌嘴，或是两口子分争，你听见了，你还骂小厮们蠢，不能体贴女孩儿们的心。今儿你也这么着了。明儿初五，大节下，你们两个再这们仇人似的，老太太越发要生气，一定弄的大家不安生。依我劝，你正经下个气，陪个不是，大家还是照常一样，这么也好，那么也好。”那宝玉听见了不知依与不依，要知端详，且听下回分解。

〔一〕 “敢情”，原作“乾净”，戚序本作“赶情”，从戚序本，改“赶”作“敢”。

〔二〕 “华盖车”，原作“翠盖车”，从各本改。

[3] 法官——这里是对有职位的道士的尊称。

[4] 山门——佛寺的外门，后亦泛称佛寺的二道门为“山门”。一说：“山门”应是“三门”，指佛寺外面的三座门，象征“三解脱门”，“寺宇开三门者，谓空门、无相门、无作门，故谓三门。”林宽诗：“清龙寺里三门上，立为南山不为僧。”

[5] 剪筒——存纳蜡烬（蜡花）的用具。

〔三〕 “贾璜贾”，原作“贾琏贾”，“”点改为“瑞”。从蒙府、戚序本改。

[7] 寻趁——本意是寻找。这里是故意找碴儿的意思。

[8] 替身——旧时，王公贵族有寄名为僧、道的，本人不在寺、观，而由别人代替，这种代人为僧、道者，称为“替身”。

[9] 道录司——明洪武十三年设，清沿之。管理道教事务，发给道士“度牒”（取得道士资格的身份证明）。掌道录司印指任道录司长官。

[10] （xún寻，又读xián闲）——拔（毛发）。元杂剧《生金阁》：“你眼扎毛我都掉了你的。”

[11] 控身——躬身。“控”，原意为拉弓，弓弦拉开，其弯状如鞠躬。

[12] 经袱子——过去称包裹书卷的布、帛为“袱子”；僧道用以包裹经卷的叫“经袱子”。

〔四〕 “不怕下割舌头地狱”，原作“不怕割舌头下地狱”，从戚序本改。

〔五〕 “他们各人传道的法器”，原作“他们传道法器”，从梦稿、蒙府、戚序本改。

[15] 法器——道士传道诵经使用的器具。

[16] 金璜（huán黄）——璜，玉制的半璧形装饰品（璧：扁平圆形玉器，中有圆孔）。金璜：仿璜制成的金饰。

〔六〕 “这不能收”，原“这”点改为“断”，“能”点改为“可”。戚序本作“这断不收的”，甲辰本作“这断不能收”。今从底本原文。

[18] 门下出身——门下：门庭之下。张道士是荣国公的替身，故云。

〔七〕 “拈了戏”，原作“点了戏”，从各本改。

[20] 神前拈了戏——打醮演戏是给“神”看的，不能由人指定戏目，而要用抽签、拈阄一类的方式，由“神”选出要看的戏。

[21] 《白蛇记》——或指明代无名氏弋阳腔剧本。演刘邦斩白蛇起义的故事。

[22] 《满床笏》——清代传奇剧，一名《十醋记》，演唐郭子仪“七子八婿，富贵寿考”的故事。

[23] 《南柯梦》——明代汤显祖著传奇剧，名《南柯记》。演淳于棼梦至大槐安国，拜驸马，当太守，显赫一时，而终于失宠见逐的故事。

[24] 申表、焚钱粮——申表：向神明申奏表章。焚钱粮：又名“烧包袱”，用纸糊的口袋，内装金、银箔纸折叠成的元宝。祭神时与“申表”同时焚烧。

[25] 赤金点翠的麒麟——麒麟状的嵌有翠鸟羽毛的纯金佩饰。点翠是中国羽毛传统工艺之一，以翠鸟之蓝紫色羽毛巧妙地粘贴而成，色彩鲜艳，永不褪色。麒麟为传说中的瑞兽。

[26] 斋坛——道观内祭祷的场所。

〔八〕 “两个管家娘子”，原作“管家两个娘子”，从梦稿、蒙府、戚序、甲辰本改。

[28] 打墙也是动土——旧时迷信，盖房或筑墙都须先祭土神，然后“破土”，叫“动土”。这句意谓，反正要动手干，大干小干都一样。

〔九〕 “我也知道”，原无，从梦稿、蒙府、戚序本补。

[30] 下流——下品，不入流。与今说卑鄙下流义有别。

〔一○〕 “皆未有稍及林黛玉者”，原“未有”作“有未”，又旁改为“不能”，“稍”下有“有”字。从梦稿、蒙府、戚序、甲辰、舒序本改。

〔一一〕 “你方和我近”，梦稿、蒙府、戚序、舒序本并同。原“方”作“放”，又圈改为“只”。

[33] 香薷（rú如）饮——香薷：植物名，叶茎可入药。香薷饮：是由香薷、厚朴、扁豆制成的一种药剂。治伤暑感冒。

[34] 较证——认真；较真儿。

CHAPTER 29. In which the greatly blessed pray for yet greater blessings And the highly strung rise to new heights of passion

WE told in the last chapter how, as Bao-yu was standing lost in one of his trances, Dai-yu flicked her handkerchief at him and made him jump by inadvertently catching him in the eye with it.

‘Who did that?’ he asked.

Dai-yu laughingly shook her head.

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Bao-chai wanted to look at a gawping goose, and I accidently flicked you while I was showing her how it went.’

Bao-yu rubbed his eye. He appeared to be about to say something, but then thought better of it.

And so the matter passed.

Shortly after this incident Xi-feng arrived and began talking about the arrangements that had been made for the purification ceremonies, due to begin on the first of next month at the Taoist temple of the Lunar Goddess. She invited Bao-chai, Bao-yu and Dai-yu to go with her there to watch the plays.

‘Oh no!’ said Bao-chai. ‘It’s too hot. Even if they were to do something we haven’t seen before – which isn’t likely – I think I should still not want to go.’

‘But it’s cool there,’ said Xi-feng. ‘There are upstairs galleries on all three sides that you can watch from in the shade. And if we go, I shall send someone a day or two in advance to turn the Taoists out of that part of the temple and make it nice and clean for us and get them to put up blinds. And I’ll ask them not to let any other visitors in on that day. I’ve already told Lady Wang I’m going, so if you others won’t come with me, I shall go by myself. I’m so bored lately. And it’s such a business when we put on our own plays at home, that I can never enjoy them properly.’

‘All right then, I’ll come,’ said Grandmother Jia, who had been listening.

‘You’ll come, Grannie? Well that’s splendid, isn’t it! That means it will be just as bad for me as it would be if I were watching here at home.’

‘Now look here,’ said Grandmother Jia, ‘I shan’t want you to stand and wait on me. Let me take the gallery facing the stage and you can have one of the side galleries all to yourself; then you can sit down and enjoy yourself in comfort.’

Xi-feng was touched.

‘Do come!’ Grandmother Jia said to Bao-chai. ‘I’ll see that your mother comes too. The days are so long now, and there’s nothing to do at home except go to sleep.’

Bao-chai had to promise that she would go.

Grandmother Jia now sent someone to invite Aunt Xue. The messenger was to call in on the way at Lady Wang’s and ask her if the girls might go as well.

Lady Wang had already made it clear that she would not be going herself, partly because she was not feeling very well, and partly because she wanted to be at home in case any further messages arrived from Yuan-chun; but when she learned of Grandmother Jia’s enthusiasm, she had word carried into the Garden that not just the girls but anyone else who wanted to might go along with Grandmother Jia’s party on the first.

When this exciting news had been transmitted throughout the Garden, the maids – some of whom hardly set foot outside their own courtyards from one year’s end to the next – were all dying to go, and those whose mistresses showed a lethargic disinclination to accept employed a hundred different wiles to make sure that they did so. The result was that in the end all the Garden’s inhabitants said that they would be going. Grandmother Jia was quite elated and at once issued orders for the cleaning and preparation of the temple theatre.

But these are details with which we need not concern ourselves.

On the morning of the first sedans, carriages, horses and people filled all the roadway outside Rong-guo House. The stewards in charge knew that the occasion of this outing was a Pro Viventibus ordered by Her Grace the Imperial Concubine and that Her Old Ladyship was going in person to burn incense – quite apart from the fact that this was the first day of the month and the first day of the Summer Festival; consequently the turnout was as splendid as they could make it and far exceeded anything that had been seen on previous occasions.

Presently Grandmother Jia appeared, seated, in solitary splendour, in a large palanquin carried by eight bearers. Li Wan, Xi-feng and Aunt Xue followed, each in a palanquin with four bearers. After them came Bao-chai and Dai-yu sharing a carriage with a splendid turquoise-coloured canopy trimmed with pearls. The carriage after them, in which Ying-chun, Tan-chun and Xi-chun sat, had vermilion-painted wheels and was shaded with a large embroidered umbrella. After them rode Grandmother Jia’s maids, Faithful, Parrot, Amber and Pearl; after them Lin Dai-yu’s maids, Nightingale, Snowgoose and Delicate; then Bao-chai’s maids, Oriole and Apricot; then Ying-chun’s maids, Chess and Tangerine; then Tan-chun’s maids, Scribe and Ebony; then Xi-chun’s maids, Picture and Landscape; then Aunt Xue’s maids, Providence and Prosper, sharing a carriage with Caltrop and Caltrop’s own maid, Advent; then Li Wan’s maids, Candida and Casta; then Xi-feng’s own maids, Patience, Felicity and Crimson, with two of Lady Wang’s maids, Golden and Suncloud, whom Xi-feng had agreed to take with her, in the carriage behind. In the carriage after them sat another couple of maids and a nurse holding Xi-feng’s little girl. Yet more carriages followed carrying the nannies and old women from the various apartments and the women whose duty it was to act as duennas when the ladies of the household went out of doors. The street was packed with carriages as far as the eye could see in either direction, and Grandmother Jia’s palanquin was well on the way to the temple before the last passengers in the rear had finished taking their places. A confused hubbub of laughter and chatter rose from the line of carriages while they were doing so, punctuated by an occasional louder and more distinctly audible protest, such as:

‘I’m not sitting next to you!’

or,

‘You’re squashing the Mistress’s bundle!’

or,

‘Look, you’ve trodden on my spray!’

or,

‘You’ve ruined my fan, clumsy!’

Zhou Rui’s wife walked up and down calling for some order:

‘Girls! Girls! You’re out in the street now, where people can see you. A little behaviour, please!’

She had to do this several times before the clamour subsided somewhat.

The footmen and insignia-bearers at the front of the procession had now reached the temple, and as the files of their column opened out to range themselves on either side of the gateway, the onlookers lining the sides of the street were able to see Bao-yu on a splendidly caparisoned white horse riding at the head of the procession immediately in front of his grandmother’s great palanquin with its eight bearers. As Grandmother Jia and her party approached the temple, there was a crash of drums and cymbals from the roadside. It was the Taoists of the temple come out to welcome them, with old Abbot Zhang at their head, resplendent in cope and vestments and with a burning joss-stick in his hand.

The palanquin passed through the gateway and into the first courtyard. From her seat inside it Grandmother Jia could see the terrifying painted images of the temple guardians, one on each side of the inner gate, flanked by that equally ferocious pair, Thousand League Eye with his blue face and Favourable Wind Ear with his green one, and farther on, the benigner forms of the City God and the little Local Gods. She ordered the bearers to halt, and Cousin Zhen at the head of the younger male members of the clan came forward from the inner courtyard to meet her.

Xi-feng, whose palanquin was nearest to Grandmother Jia’s, realized that Faithful and the other maids were too far back in the procession to be able to reach the old lady in time to help her out, and hurried forward to perform this service herself. Unfortunately a little eleven- or twelve-year-old acolyte, who had been going round with a pair of snuffers trimming the wicks of the numerous candles that were burning everywhere and whom the arrival of the procession had caught unawares, chose this very moment to attempt a getaway and ran head-on into her. Out flew Xi-feng’s hand and dealt him a resounding smack on the face that sent him flying.

‘Clumsy brat!’ she shouted. ‘Look where you’re going!’

The little acolyte picked himself up and, leaving his snuffers where they had fallen, darted off in the direction of the gate. But by now Bao-chai and the other young ladies were getting down from their carriages and a phalanx of women-servants clustered all round them, making egress impossible. Seeing a little Taoist running towards them, the women began to scream and shout:

‘Catch him! Catch him! Hit him! Hit him!’

‘What is it?’ asked Grandmother Jia in alarm, hearing this hubbub behind her, and Cousin Zhen went forward to investigate.

‘It’s one of the young acolytes,’ said Xi-feng as she helped the old lady from her conveyance. ‘He was snuffing the candles and didn’t get away in time and now he’s rushing around trying to find a way out.’

‘Bring him to me, poor little thing!’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘And don’t frighten him. These children from poorer families have generally been rather spoiled. You can’t expect them to stand up to great occasions like this. It would be a shame to frighten the poor little thing out of his wits. Think how upset his mother and father would be. Go on!’ she said to Cousin Zhen. ‘Go and fetch him yourself.’

Cousin Zhen was obliged to retrieve the little Taoist in person and led him by the hand to Grandmother Jia. The boy knelt down in front of her, the snuffers – now restored to him – clutched in one hand, trembling like a leaf. Grandmother Jia asked Cousin Zhen to raise him to his feet.

‘Don’t be afraid,’ she told the boy. ‘How old are you?’

But the little boy’s mouth was hurting him too badly to speak.

‘Poor little thing!’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘You’d better take him away, Zhen. Give him some money to buy sweeties with and tell the others that they are not to grumble at him.’

Cousin Zhen had to promise, and led the boy away, while the old lady led her party inside to begin a systematic tour of the shrines.

The pages in the outer courtyard, who had a moment before witnessed Grandmother Jia and her train trooping through the gateway that led into the inner courtyard, were surprised to see Cousin Zhen now emerging from it again with a little Taoist in tow. They heard him say that the boy was to be taken out and given a few hundred cash and that he was to be treated kindly. A few of them came forward and led the child away in obedience to his instructions.

Still standing at the top of the steps to the inner gate, Cousin Zhen inquired what had become of the stewards.

‘Steward! Steward!’ shouted the pages in unison, and almost immediately Lin Zhi-xiao came running out from heaven knows where, adjusting his hat with one hand as he ran.

‘This is a big place,’ said Cousin Zhen when Lin Zhi-xiao was standing in front of him, ‘and we weren’t expecting so many here today. I want you to take all the people you need and stay here in this courtyard with them. Those you don’t need here can wait in the second courtyard. And pick some reliable boys to go on this gate and the two posterns to pass word through to those outside if those inside need anything. Do you understand? All the ladies are here today and I don’t want any outsiders to get in. Is that understood?’

‘Yessir!’ said Lin Zhi-xiao. ‘Sir!’

‘Well get on with it!’ said Cousin Zhen. ‘Where’s Rong got to?’

The words were scarcely out of his mouth when Jia Rong came bounding out of the bell-tower, buttoning his jacket as he ran.

‘Look at him!’ said Cousin Zhen irately. ‘Enjoying himself in the cool while I am roasting down here! Spit at him, someone.’

Long familiarity with Cousin Zhen’s temper had taught the boys that he would brook no opposition when roused. One of them obediently stepped forward and spat in Jia Rong’s face; then, as Cousin Zhen continued to glare at him, he rebuked Jia Rong for presuming to be cool while his father was still sweating outside in the sun. Jia Rong was obliged to stand with his arms hanging submissively at his sides throughout this public humiliation, not daring to utter a word.

The other members of Jia Rong’s generation who were present – Jia Yun, Jia Ping, Jia Qin and the rest – were greatly alarmed by this outburst; indeed, even the clansmen of Cousin Zhen’s own generation – the Jia Bins and Jia Huangs and Jia Qiongs – were to be seen putting their hats on and slinking out, one by one, from the shadow of the walls.

‘What are you standing here for?’ said Cousin Zhen to Jia Rong. ‘Why don’t you get on your horse and go back home and tell your mother and that new wife of yours that Her Old Ladyship is here with all the Rong-guo girls. Tell them they must come here at once to wait on her.’

Jia Rong ran outside and began bawling impatiently for his horse. ‘What on earth can have got into him that he should suddenly have picked on me like that?’ he muttered to himself resentfully; then, as his horse had still not arrived, he shouted angrily at the grooms:

‘Come on, bring that horse, damn you! Are your hands tied or something?’

He would have liked to send a boy in his place, but was afraid that if he did, his father would find out when he went back later to report; and so, when the horse arrived, he mounted and rode off home.

Cousin Zhen was about to turn and go in again when he discovered old Abbot Zhang at his elbow, smiling somewhat unnaturally.

‘Perhaps I don’t come in quite the same category as the others,’ said the old Taoist. ‘Perhaps I should be allowed inside to wait on Her Old Ladyship. However. In this inclement heat, and with so many young ladies about, I shouldn’t like to presume. I will do whatever you say. I did just wonder whether Her Old Ladyship might ask for me, or whether she might require a guide to take her round the shrines … However. Perhaps it would be best if I waited here.’

Cousin Zhen was aware that, though Abbot Zhang had started life a poor boy and entered the Taoist church as ‘proxy novice’ of Grandmother Jia’s late husband, a former Emperor had with his own Imperial lips conferred on him the title ‘Doctor Mysticus’, and he now held the seals of the Board of Commissioners of the Taoist Church, had been awarded the title ‘Doctor Serenissimus’ by the reigning sovereign, and was addressed as ‘Holiness’ by princes, dukes and governors of provinces. He was therefore not a man to be trifled with. Moreover he was constantly in and out of the two mansions and on familiar terms with most of the Jia ladies. Cousin Zhen at once became affable.

‘Oh, you’re one of the family, Papa Zhang, so let’s have no more of that kind of talk, or I’ll take you by that old beard of yours and give it a good pull. Come on, follow me!’

Abbot Zhang followed him inside, laughing delightedly.

Having found Grandmother Jia, Cousin Zhen ducked and smiled deferentially.

‘Papa Zhang has come to pay his respects, Grannie.’

‘Help him, then!’ said Grandmother Jia; and Cousin Zhen hurried back to where Abbot Zhang was waiting a few yards behind him and supported him by an elbow into her presence. The abbot prefaced his greeting with a good deal of jovial laughter.

‘Blessed Buddha of Boundless Life! And how has Your Old Ladyship been all this while? In rude good health, I trust? And Their Ladyships, and all the younger ladies? – also flourishing? It’s quite a while since I was at the mansion to call on Your Old Ladyship, but I declare you look more blooming than ever!’

‘And how are you, old Holy One?’ Grandmother Jia asked him with a pleased smile.

‘Thank Your Old Ladyship for asking. I still keep pretty fit. But never mind about that. What I want to know is, how’s our young hero been keeping, eh? We were celebrating the blessed Nativity of the Veiled King here on the twenty-sixth. Very select little gathering. Tasteful offerings. I thought our young friend might have enjoyed it; but when I sent round to invite him, they told me he was out.’

‘He really was out,’ said Grandmother Jia, and turned aside to summon the ‘young hero’; but Bao-yu had gone to the lavatory. He came hurrying forward presently.

‘Hallo, Papa Zhang! How are you?’

The old Taoist embraced him affectionately and returned his greeting.

‘He’s beginning to fill out,’ he said, addressing Grandmother Jia.

‘He looks well enough on the outside,’ said Grandmother Jia, ‘but underneath he’s delicate. And his Pa doesn’t improve matters by forcing him to study all the time. I’m afraid he’ll end up by making the child ill.’

‘Lately I’ve been seeing calligraphy and poems of his in all kinds of places,’ said Abbot Zhang, ‘– all quite remarkably good. I really can’t understand why Sir Zheng is concerned that the boy doesn’t study enough. If you ask me, I think he’s all right as he is.’ He sighed. ‘Of course, you know who this young man reminds me of, don’t you? Whether it’s his looks or the way he talks or the way he moves, to me he’s the spit and image of Old Sir Jia.’

The old man’s eyes grew moist, and Grandmother Jia herself showed a disposition to be tearful.

‘It’s quite true,’ she said. ‘None of our children or our children’s children turned out like him, except my Bao. Only my little Jade Boy is like his grandfather.’

‘Of course, your generation wouldn’t remember Old Sir Jia,’ Abbot Zhang said, turning to Cousin Zhen. ‘It’s before your time. In fact, I don’t suppose even Sir She and Sir Zheng can have a very clear recollection of what their father was like in his prime.’

He brightened as another topic occurred to him and once more quaked with laughter.

‘I saw a most attractive young lady when I was out visiting the other day. Fourteen this year. Seeing her put me in mind of our young friend here. It must be about time we started thinking about a match for him, surely? In looks, intelligence, breeding, background this girl was ideally suited. What does Your Old Ladyship feel? I didn’t want to rush matters. I thought I’d better first wait and see what Your Old Ladyship thought before saying anything to the family.’

‘A monk who once told the boy’s fortune said that he was not to marry young,’ said Grandmother Jia; ‘so I think we had better wait until he is a little older before we arrange anything definite. But do by all means go on inquiring for us. It doesn’t matter whether the family is wealthy or not; as long as the girl looks all right, you can let me know. Even if it’s a poor family, we can always help out over the expenses. Money is no problem. It’s looks and character that count.’

‘Now come on, Papa Zhang!’ said Xi-feng when this exchange had ended. ‘Where’s that new amulet for my little girl? You had the nerve to send someone round the other day for gosling satin, and of course, as we didn’t want to embarrass the old man by refusing, we had to send you some. So now what about that amulet?’

Abbot Zhang once more quaked with laughter.

‘Ho! ho! ho! You can tell how bad my eyes are getting; I didn’t even see you there, dear lady, or I should have thanked you for the satin. Yes, the amulet has been ready for some time. I was going to send it to you two days ago, but then Her Grace unexpectedly asked us for this Pro Viventibus and I stupidly forgot all about it. It’s still on the high altar being sanctified. I’ll go and get it for you.’

He went off, surprisingly nimbly, to the main hall of the temple and returned after a short while carrying the amulet on a little tea-tray, using a red satin book-wrap as a tray-cloth. Baby’s nurse took the amulet from him, and he was just about to receive the little girl from her arms when he caught sight of Xi-feng laughing at him mockingly.

‘Why didn’t you bring it in your hand?’ she asked him.

‘The hands get so sweaty in this weather,’ he said. ‘I thought a tray would be more hygienic.’

‘You gave me quite a fright when I saw you coming in with that tray,’ said Xi-feng. ‘I thought for one moment you were going to take up a collection!’

There was a loud burst of laughter from the assembled company. Even Cousin Zhen was unable to restrain himself.

‘Monkey! Monkey!’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘Aren’t you afraid of going to the Hell of Scoffers when you die and having your tongue cut out?’

‘Oh, Papa and I say what we like to each other,’ said Xi-feng. He’s always telling me I must “acquire merit” and threatening me with a short life if I don’t pay up quickly. That’s right, isn’t it Papa?’

‘As a matter of fact I did have an ulterior motive in bringing this tray,’ said Abbot Zhang, laughing, ‘but it wasn’t in order to make a collection, I assure you. I wanted to ask this young gentleman here if he would be so very kind as to lend me the famous jade for a few minutes. The tray is for carrying it outside on, so that my Taoist friends, some of whom have travelled long distances to be here, and my old students, and their students, all of whom are gathered here today, may have the privilege of examining it.’

‘My dear good man, in that case let the boy go with it round his neck and show it to them himself!’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘No need for all this running to and fro with trays – at your age, too!’

‘Most kind! Most considerate! – But Your Old Ladyship is deceived,’ said the abbot. ‘I may look my eighty years, but I’m still hale and hearty. No, the point is that with so many of them here today and the weather so hot, the smell is sure to be somewhat overpowering. Our young friend here is certainly not used to it. We shouldn’t want him to be overcome by the – ah – effluvia, should we?’

Hearing this, Grandmother Jia told Bao-yu to take off the Magic Jade and put it on the tray. Abbot Zhang draped the crimson cloth over his hands, grasped the tray between satin-covered thumbs and fingers, and, holding it like a sacred relic at eye level in front of him, conveyed it reverently from the courtyard.

Grandmother Jia and the others now continued their sight-seeing. They had finished with everything at ground level and were about to mount the stairs into the galleries when Cousin Zhen came up to report that Abbot Zhang had returned with the jade. He was followed by the smiling figure of the abbot, holding the tray in the same reverential manner as before.

‘Well, they’ve all seen the jade now,’ he said, ‘– and very grateful they were. They agreed that it really is a most remarkable object, and they regretted that they had nothing of value to show their appreciation with. Here you are! – this is the best they could do. These are all little Taoist trinkets they happened to have about them. Nothing very special, I’m afraid; but they’d like our young friend to keep them, either to amuse himself with or to give away to his friends.’

Grandmother Jia looked at the tray. It was covered with jewellery. There were golden crescents, jade thumb-rings and a lot of ‘motto’ jewellery – a tiny sceptre and persimmons with the rebus-meaning ‘success in all things’, a little quail and a vase with corn-stalks meaning ‘peace throughout the years’, and many other designs – all in gold- or jade-work, and much of it inlaid with pearls and precious stones. Altogether there must have been about forty pieces.

‘What have you been up to, you naughty old man?’ she said. ‘Those men are all poor priests – they can’t afford to give things like this away. You really shouldn’t have done this. We can’t possibly accept them.’

‘It was their own idea, I do assure you,’ said the abbot. ‘There was nothing I could do to stop them. If you refuse to take these things, I am afraid you will destroy my credit with these people. They will say that I cannot really have the connection with your honoured family that I have always claimed to have.’

After this Grandmother Jia could no longer decline. She told one of the servants to receive the tray.

‘We obviously can’t refuse, Grannie, after what Papa Zhang has just said,’ said Bao-yu; ‘but I really have no use for this stuff. Why not let one of the boys carry it outside for me and I’ll distribute it to the poor?’

‘I think that’s a very good idea,’ said Grandmother Jia.

But Abbot Zhang thought otherwise and hastily intervened:

‘I’m sure it does our young friend credit, this charitable impulse. However. Although these things are, as I said, of no especial value, they are – what shall I say – objects of virtù, and if you give them to the poor, in the first place the poor won’t have much use for them, and in the second place the objects themselves will get spoiled. If you want to give something to the poor, a largesse of money would, I suggest, be far more appropriate.’

‘Very well, look after this stuff for me, then,’ said Bao-yu to the servant, ‘and this evening you will distribute a largesse.’

This being now settled, Abbot Zhang withdrew, and Grandmother Jia and her party went up to the galleries. Grandmother Jia sat with Bao-yu and the girls in the gallery facing the stage and Xi-feng and Li Wan sat in the east gallery. The maids all sat in the west gallery and took it in turns to go off and wait on their mistresses.

Not long after they were all seated, Cousin Zhen came upstairs to say that the gods had now chosen which plays were to be performed – by which was meant, of course, that the names had been shaken from a pot in front of the altar, since this was the only way in which the will of the gods could be known. The first play selected was The White Serpent.

‘What’s the story?’ said Grandmother Jia.

Cousin Zhen explained that it was about the emperor Gao-zu, founder of the Han dynasty, who began his rise to greatness by decapitating a monstrous white snake.

The second choice was A Heap of Honours, which shows the sixtieth birthday party of the great Tang general Guo Zi-yi, attended by his seven sons and eight sons-in-law, all of whom held high office, the ‘heap of honours’ of the title being a reference to the table in his reception-hall piled high with their insignia.

‘It seems a bit conceited to have this second one played,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘Still, if that’s what the gods chose, I suppose we’d better have it. What’s the third one going to be?’

‘The South Branch,’ said Cousin Zhen.

Grandmother Jia was silent. She knew that The South Branch likens the world to an ant-heap and tells a tale of power and glory which turns out in the end to have been a dream.

Hearing no reply, Cousin Zhen went off downstairs again to see about the Offertory Scroll, which had to be ceremonially burnt in front of the holy images along with paper money and paper ingots before the theatrical performance could begin.

Our record omits any description of that ceremony and moves back to Bao-yu, who was sitting in the central gallery beside his grandmother, and who now called for a maid to bring the tray up so that he could put on his Magic Jade again. When he had done so, he began to pick over the other trinkets with which the tray was covered and to hand them one by one to Grandmother Jia for her inspection. Her attention was taken by a little red-gold kylin with kingfisher-feather inlay. She stretched out her hand to take it.

‘Now where have I seen something like this before?’ she said. ‘I feel certain I’ve seen some girl wearing an ornament like this.’

‘Cousin Shi’s got one,’ said Bao-chai. ‘It’s the same as this one only a little smaller.’

‘Funny!’ said Bao-yu. ‘All the times she’s been to our house, I don’t remember ever having seen it.’

‘Cousin Bao is observant,’ said Tan-chun. ‘No matter what it is, she remembers everything.’

‘Well, perhaps not quite everything,’ said Dai-yu wryly. ‘But she’s certainly very observant where things like this are concerned.’

Bao-chai turned her head away and pretended not to have heard.

Now that he knew the kylin on the tray was like one that Shi Xiang-yun wore, Bao-yu hurriedly picked it up and thrust it inside his jacket. But no sooner had he done so than it occurred to him that his action might be misconstrued; so instead of dropping it into his inside pocket, he continued to hold it there, at the same time glancing about him furtively to see if he had been observed. None of the others seemed to have noticed except Dai-yu, who was staring at him fixedly and nodding her head in mock approval

Bao-yu felt suddenly embarrassed. Drawing his hand out again with the ornament still in it, he returned her look and laughed sheepishly:

‘It’s rather nice, isn’t it? I thought I’d keep it for you,’ he said. ‘When we get home we can thread it on a ribbon and you’ll be able to wear it.’

Dai-yu tossed her head.

‘I don’t want it!’

‘If you don’t want it, I’ll keep it for myself, then,’ said Bao-yu, and popped it once more inside his jacket.

He was about to add something, but just at that moment Cousin Zhen’s wife, You-shi, and his new daughter-in-law, Hu-shi, arrived and came upstairs to pay their respects to Grandmother Jia.

‘Now why have you come here? You really shouldn’t have bothered,’ said Grandmother Jia. ‘We only came to amuse ourselves. It isn’t a formal visit.’

No sooner had she said this than it was announced that representatives from General Feng’s household had arrived. It appeared that Feng Zi-ying’s mother, hearing that the Jia ladies were having a Pro Viventibus performed at the Taoist temple, had immediately prepared an offering of pork, mutton, incense, tea and cakes and sent it post-haste to the temple with her compliments. Xi-feng, hearing the announcement, came hurrying round to the central gallery. She clapped her hands and laughed.

‘Dear oh dear! This is something I hadn’t bargained for. My idea was a quiet little outing for us girls; but here is everyone sending offerings and behaving as if we’d come here for a high mass or something. It’s all your fault, Grannie! And we haven’t even got any vails ready to give to the bearers.’

Even as she said this, two stewardesses from the Feng household were already mounting the stairs. And before they had gone, other messengers arrived with offerings from Vice-president Zhao’s lady. From then on it was a steady stream: friends, kinsmen, family connections, business associates – all who had heard that the Jia ladies were holding a Pro Viventibus sent their representatives along with offerings and complimentary messages. Grandmother Jia began to regret that she had ever come.

‘It isn’t as if we’d come here for the ceremony,’ she grumbled. ‘We only wanted to enjoy ourselves. But all we seem to have done is to have stirred up a lot of fuss.’

Consequently, although she stayed and watched the plays for that day, she returned home fairly early in the afternoon and next day professed herself too lacking in energy to go again. Xi-feng reacted differently. ‘In for a penny, in for a pound’ was her motto. They had already had the fuss; and since the players were there anyway, they might as well go again today and enjoy themselves in peace.

For Bao-yu the whole of the previous day had been spoilt by Abbot Zhang’s proposal to Grandmother Jia to arrange a match for him. He came home in a thoroughly bad temper and kept telling everyone that he would ‘never see Abbot Zhang again as long as he lived’. Not associating his ill-humour with the abbot’s proposal, the others were mystified.

Grandmother Jia’s unwillingness was further reinforced by the fact that Dai-yu, since her return home yesterday, had been suffering from mild sunstroke. What with one thing and another, the old lady declined absolutely to go again, and Xi-feng had to make up her own party and go by herself.

But Xi-feng’s play-going does not concern us.

Bao-yu, believing that Dai-yu’s sunstroke was serious and that she might even be in danger of her life, was so worried that he could not eat, and rushed round in the middle of the lunch-hour to see how she was. He found her neither as ill as he had feared nor as responsive as he might have hoped.

‘Why don’t you go and watch your plays?’ she asked him. ‘What are you mooning about at home for?’

Abbot Zhang’s recent attempt at match-making had profoundly distressed Bao-yu and he was shocked by her seeming indifference.

‘I can forgive the others for not understanding what has upset me,’ he thought; ‘but that she should want to trifle with me at a time like this …!’

The sense that she had failed him made the annoyance he now felt with her a hundred times greater than it had been on any previous occasion. Never could any other person have stirred him to such depths of atrabilious rage. Coming from other lips, her words would scarcely have touched him. Coming from hers, they put him in a passion. His face darkened.

‘It’s all along been a mistake, then,’ he said. ‘You’re not what I took you for.’

Dai-yu gave an unnatural little laugh.

‘Not what you took me for? That’s hardly surprising, is it? I haven’t got that little something which would have made me worthy of you.’

Bao-yu came right up to her and held his face close to hers:

‘You do realize, don’t you, that you are deliberately willing my death?’

Dai-yu could not for the moment understand what he was talking about.

‘I swore an oath to you yesterday,’ he went on. ‘I said that I hoped Heaven might strike me dead if this “gold and jade” business meant anything to me. Since you have now brought it up again, it’s clear to me that you want me to die. Though what you hope to gain by my death I find it hard to imagine.’

Dai-yu now remembered what had passed between them on the previous day. She knew that she was wrong to have spoken as she did, and felt both ashamed and a little frightened. Her shoulders started shaking and she began to cry.

‘May Heaven strike me dead if I ever willed your death!’ she said. ‘But I don’t see what you have to get so worked up about. It’s only because of what Abbot Zhang said about arranging a match for you. You’re afraid he might interfere with your precious “gold and jade” plans; and because you’re angry about that, you have to come along and take it out on me – That’s all it is, isn’t it?’

Bao-yu had from early childhood manifested a streak of morbid sensibility, which being brought up in close proximity with a nature so closely in harmony with his own had done little to improve. Now that he had reached an age when both his experience and the reading of forbidden books had taught him something about ‘worldly matters’, he had begun to take a rather more grown-up interest in girls. But although there were plenty of young ladies of outstanding beauty and breeding among the Jia family’s numerous acquaintance, none of them, in his view, could remotely compare with Dai-yu. For some time now his feeling for her had been a very special one; but precisely because of this same morbid sensibility, he had shrunk from telling her about it. Instead, whenever he was feeling particularly happy or particularly cross, he would invent all sorts of ways of probing her to find out if this feeling for her was reciprocated. It was unfortunate for him that Dai-yu herself possessed a similar streak of morbid sensibility and disguised her real feelings, as he did his, while attempting to discover what he felt about her.

Here was a situation, then, in which both parties concealed their real emotions and assumed counterfeit ones in an endeavour to find out what the real feelings of the other party were. And because

When false meets false the truth will oft-times out,

there was the constant possibility that the innumerable little frustrations that were engendered by all this concealment would eventually erupt into a quarrel.

Take the present instance. What Bao-yu was actually thinking at this moment was something like this:

‘In my eyes and in my thoughts there is no one else but you. I can forgive the others for not knowing this, but surely you ought to realize? If at a time like this you can’t share my anxiety – if you can think of nothing better to do than provoke me with that sort of silly talk, it shows that the concern I feel for you every waking minute of the day is wasted: that you just don’t care about me at all.’

This was what he thought; but of course he didn’t say it. On her side Dai-yu’s thoughts were somewhat as follows:

‘I know you must care for me a little bit, and I’m sure you don’t take this ridiculous “gold and jade” talk seriously. But if you cared only for me and had absolutely no inclination at all in another direction, then every time I mentioned “gold and jade” you would behave quite naturally and let it pass almost as if you hadn’t noticed. How is it, then, that when I do refer to it you get so excited? It shows that it must be on your mind. You pretend to be upset in order to allay my suspicions.’

Meanwhile a quite different thought was running through Bao-yu’s mind:

‘I would do anything – absolutely anything,’ he was thinking, ‘if only you would be nice to me. If you would be nice to me, I would gladly die for you this moment. It doesn’t really matter whether you know what I feel for you or not. Just be nice to me, then at least we shall be a little closer to each other, instead of so horribly far apart.’

At the same time Dai-yu was thinking:

‘Never mind me. Just be your own natural self. If you were all right, I should be all right too. All these manoeuvrings to try and anticipate my feelings don’t bring us any closer together; they merely draw us farther apart.’

The percipient reader will no doubt observe that these two young people were already of one mind, but that the complicated procedures by which they sought to draw together were in fact having precisely the opposite effect. Complacent reader! Permit us to remind you that your correct understanding of the situation is due solely to the fact that we have been revealing to you the secret, innermost thoughts of those two young persons, which neither of them had so far ever felt able to express.

Let us now return from the contemplation of inner thoughts to the recording of outward appearances.

When Dai-yu, far from saying something nice to him, once more made reference to the ‘gold and jade’, Bao-yu became so choked with rage that for a moment he was quite literally bereft of speech. Frenziedly snatching the ‘Magic Jade’ from his neck and holding it by the end of its silken cord he gritted his teeth and dashed it against the floor with all the strength in his body.

‘Beastly thing!’ he shouted. ‘I’ll smash you to pieces and put an end to this once and for all.’

But the jade, being exceptionally hard and resistant, was not the tiniest bit damaged. Seeing that he had not broken it, Bao-yu began to look around for something to smash it with. Dai-yu, still crying, saw what he was going to do.

‘Why smash a dumb, lifeless object?’ she said. ‘If you want to smash something, let it be me.’

The sound of their quarrelling brought Nightingale and Snowgoose hurrying in to keep the peace. They found Bao-yu apparently bent on destroying his jade and tried to wrest it from him. Failing to do so, and sensing that the quarrel was of more than usual dimensions, they went off to fetch Aroma. Aroma came back with them as fast as she could run and eventually succeeded in prising the jade from his hand. He glared at her scornfully.

‘It’s my own thing I’m smashing,’ he said. ‘What business is it of yours to interfere?’

Aroma saw that his face was white with anger and his eyes wild and dangerous. Never had she seen him in so terrible a rage. She took him gently by the hand:

‘You shouldn’t smash the jade just because of a disagreement with your cousin,’ she said. ‘What do you think she would feel like and what sort of position would it put her in if you really were to break it?’

Dai-yu heard these words through her sobs. They struck a responsive chord in her breast, and she wept all the harder to think that even Aroma seemed to understand her better than Bao-yu did. So much emotion was too much for her weak stomach. Suddenly there was a horrible retching noise and up came the tisane of elsholtzia leaves she had taken only a short while before. Nightingale quickly held out her handkerchief to receive it and, while Snowgoose rubbed and pounded her back, Dai-yu continued to retch up wave upon wave of watery vomit, until the whole handkerchief was soaked with it.

‘However cross you may be, Miss, you ought to have more regard for your health,’ said Nightingale. ‘You’d only just taken that medicine and you were beginning to feel a little bit better for it, and now because of your argument with Master Bao you’ve gone and brought it all up again. Suppose you were to be really ill as a consequence. How do you think Master Bao would feel?’

When Bao-yu heard these words they struck a responsive chord in his breast, and he reflected bitterly that even Nightingale seemed to understand him better than Dai-yu. But then he looked again at Dai-yu, who was sobbing and panting by turns, and whose red and swollen face was wet with perspiration and tears, and seeing how pitiably frail and ill she looked, his heart misgave him.

‘I shouldn’t have taken her up on that “gold and jade” business,’ he thought. ‘I’ve got her into this state and now there’s no way in which I can relieve her by sharing what she suffers.’ As he thought this, he, too, began to cry.

Now that Bao-yu and Dai-yu were both crying, Aroma instinctively drew towards her master to comfort him. A pang of pity for him passed through her and she squeezed his hand sympathetically. It was as cold as ice. She would have liked to tell him not to cry but hesitated, partly from the consideration that he might be suffering from some deep-concealed hurt which crying would do something to relieve, and partly from the fear that to do so in Dai-yu’s presence might seem presumptuous. Torn between a desire to speak and fear of the possible consequences of speaking, she did what girls of her type often do when faced with a difficult decision: she avoided the necessity of making one by bursting into tears.

As for Nightingale, who had disposed of the handkerchief of vomited tisane and was now gently fanning her mistress with her fan, seeing the other three all standing there as quiet as mice with the tears streaming down their faces, she was so affected by the sight that she too started crying and was obliged to have recourse to a second handkerchief.

There the four of them stood, then, facing each other; all of them crying; none of them saying a word. It was Aroma who broke the silence with a strained and nervous laugh.

‘You ought not to quarrel with Miss Lin,’ she said to Bao-yu, ‘if only for the sake of this pretty cord she made you.’

At these words Dai-yu, ill as she was, darted forward, grabbed the jade from Aroma’s hand, and snatching up a pair of scissors that were lying nearby, began feverishly cutting at its silken cord with them. Before Aroma and Nightingale could stop her, she had already cut it into several pieces.

‘It was a waste of time making it,’ she sobbed. ‘He doesn’t really care for it. And there’s someone else who’ll no doubt make him a better one!’

‘What a shame!’ said Aroma, retrieving the jade. ‘It’s all my silly fault. I should have kept my mouth shut.’

‘Go on! Cut away!’ said Bao-yu. ‘I shan’t be wearing the wretched thing again anyway, so it doesn’t matter.’

Preoccupied with the quarrel, the four of them had failed to notice several old women, who had been drawn by the sound of it to investigate. Apprehensive, when they saw Dai-yu hysterically weeping and vomiting and Bao-yu trying to smash his jade, of the dire consequences to be expected from a scene of such desperate passion, they had hurried off in a body to the front of the mansion to report the matter to Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang, hoping in this way to establish in advance that whatever the consequences might be, they were not responsible for them. From their precipitate entry and the grave tone of their announcement Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang assumed that some major catastrophe had befallen and hurried with them into the Garden to find out what it was.

Their arrival filled Aroma with alarm. ‘What did Nightingale want to go troubling Their Ladyships for?’ she thought crossly, supposing that the talebearer had been sent to them by Nightingale; while Nightingale for her part was angry with Aroma, thinking that the talebearer must have been one of Aroma’s minions.

Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang entered the room to find a silent Bao-yu and a silent Dai-yu, neither of whom, when questioned, would admit that anything at all was the matter. They therefore visited their wrath on the heads of the two unfortunate maids, insisting that it was entirely owing to their negligence that matters had got so much out of hand. Unable to defend themselves, the girls were obliged to endure a long and abusive dressing-down, after which Grandmother Jia concluded the affair by carrying Bao-yu off to her own apartment.

Next day, the third of the fifth month, was Xue Pan’s birthday and there was a family party with plays, to which the Jias were all invited. Bao-yu, who had still not seen Dai-yu since his outburst – which he now deeply regretted – was feeling far too dispirited to care about seeing plays, and declined to go on the ground that he was feeling unwell.

Dai-yu, though somewhat overcome on the day previous to this by the sultry weather, had by no means been seriously ill. Arguing that if she was not ill, it was impossible that he should be, she felt sure, when she heard of Bao-yu’s excuse, that it must be a false one.

‘He usually enjoys drinking and watching plays,’ she thought. ‘If he’s not going, it must be because he is still angry about yesterday; or if it isn’t that, it must be because he’s heard that I’m not going and doesn’t want to go without me. Oh! I should never have cut that cord! Now he won’t ever wear his jade again – unless I make him another cord to wear it on.’

So she, too, regretted the quarrel.

Grandmother Jia knew that Bao-yu and Dai-yu were angry with each other, but she had been assuming that they would see each other at the Xues’ party and make it up there. When neither of them turned up at it, she became seriously upset.

‘I’m a miserable old sinner,’ she grumbled. ‘It must be my punishment for something I did wrong in a past life to have to live with a pair of such obstinate, addle-headed little geese! I’m sure there isn’t a day goes by without their giving me some fresh cause for anxiety. It must be fate. That’s what it says in the proverb, after all:

’Tis Fate brings foes and lo‘es tegither.

I’ll be glad when I’ve drawn my last breath and closed my old eyes for the last time; then the two of them can snap and snarl at each other to their hearts’ content, for I shan’t be there to see it, and “what the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve”. The Lord knows, it’s not my wish to drag on this wearisome life any longer!’

Amidst these muttered grumblings the old lady began to cry.

In due course her words were transmitted to Bao-yu and Dai-yu. It happened that neither of them had ever heard the saying

‘Tis Fate brings foes and lo’es tegither,

and its impact on them, hearing it for the first time, was like that of a Zen ‘perception’: something to be meditated on with bowed head and savoured with a gush of tears. Though they had still not made it up since their quarrel, the difference between them had now vanished completely:

In Naiad’s House one to the wind made moan, In Green Delights one to the moon complained,

to parody the well-known lines. Or, in homelier verses:

Though each was in a different place, Their hearts in friendship beat as one.

On the second day after their quarrel Aroma deemed that the time was now ripe for urging a settlement.

‘Whatever the rights and wrongs of all this may be,’ she said to Bao-yu, ‘you are certainly the one who is most to blame. Whenever in the past you’ve heard about a quarrel between one of the pages and one of the girls, you’ve always said that the boy was a brute for not understanding the girl’s feelings better – yet here you are behaving in exactly the same way yourself! Tomorrow will be the Double Fifth. Her Old Ladyship will be really angry if the two of you are still at daggers drawn on the day of the festival, and that will make life difficult for all of us. Why not put your pride in your pocket and go and say you are sorry, so that we can all get back to normal again?’

But as to whether or not Bao-yu followed her advice, or, if he did so, what the effect of following it was – those questions will be dealt with in the following chapter.