{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Our watering-pot is spoilt, so go to Miss Lin's over there and find one for us to use.", "pos": 3837}
{"speaker": "Chia Huan", "text": "Chin Ch'uan! you're in the way of the rays of the lamp.", "pos": 5879}
{"speaker": "Ts'ai Hsia", "text": "Keep quiet a bit! what's the use of making people dislike you?", "pos": 6235}
{"speaker": "Chia Huan", "text": "I know myself how matters stand, so don't you try and befool me! Now that you are on intimate terms with Pao-yü, you don't pay much heed to me. I've also seen through it myself.", "pos": 6300}
{"speaker": "Ts'ai Hsiao", "text": "You heartless fellow! You're like the dog, that bit Lü T'ung-pin. You have no idea of what's right and what's wrong!", "pos": 6608}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "My child, you've again had too much to drink; your face is scalding hot, and if you still keep on rubbing and scraping it, why, you'll by and bye stir up the fumes of wine! Don't you yet go and lie down quietly over there for a little!", "pos": 7433}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear girl! do also heed me a little;", "pos": 8076}
{"speaker": "Ts'ai Hsia", "text": "If you go on in this way. I'll shout out at once.", "pos": 8274}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Ai ya!", "pos": 8821}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Master Tertius, are you still such a trickster! I'll tell you what, you'll never turn to any good account! Yet dame Chao should ever correct and admonish him.", "pos": 9416}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "You bring up, such a black-hearted offspring like this, and don't you, after all, advise and reprove him? Time and again I paid no notice whatever to what happened, and you and he have become more audacious, and have gone from worse to worse!", "pos": 9692}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It's rather sore, but it's nothing to speak of. Tomorrow when my old grandmother asks about it, I can simply explain that I scalded it myself; that will be quite enough to tell her.", "pos": 10713}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "If you say that you scalded it yourself, why, she'll also call people to task for not looking out; and a fit of rage will, beyond doubt, be the outcome of it all.", "pos": 10912}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "whether it was very painful?", "pos": 12137}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It isn't very sore, if I look after it for a day or two, it will get all right.", "pos": 12168}
{"speaker": "Ma", "text": "I can guarantee that he'll get all right, for this is simply a sadden and fleeting accident! Venerable ancestor. Venerable Buddha! how could you ever be aware of the existence of the portentous passage in that Buddhistic classic, 'to the effect that a son of every person, who holds the dignity of prince, duke or high functionary, has no sooner come into the world and reached a certain age than numerous evil spirits at once secretly haunt him, and pinch him, when they find an opportunity; or dig their nails into him; or knock his bowl of rice down, during, meal-time; or give him a shove and send him over, while he is quietly seated.' So this is the reason why the majority of the sons and grandsons of those distinguished families do not grow up to attain manhood.", "pos": 13022}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Is there any Buddhistic spell, by means of which to check their influence or not?", "pos": 13933}
{"speaker": "Ma", "text": "This is an easy job! all one need do is to perform several meritorious deeds on his account so as to counteract the consequences of retribution and everything will then be put right. That canon further explains: 'that in the western part of the world there is a mighty Buddha, whose glory illumines all things, and whose special charge is to cast his lustre on the evil spirits in dark places; that if any benevolent man or virtuous woman offers him oblations with sincerity of heart, he is able to so successfully perpetuate the peace and quiet of their sons and grandsons that these will no more meet with any calamities arising from being possessed by malevolent demons.'", "pos": 14017}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "But what, I wonder, could be offered to this god?", "pos": 14727}
{"speaker": "Ma", "text": "Nothing of any great value. Exclusive of offerings of scented candles, several catties of scented oil can be added, each day, to keep the lantern of the Great Sea alight. This 'Great Sea' lantern is the visible embodiment and Buddhistic representation of this divinity, so day and night we don't venture to let it go out!", "pos": 14809}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "For a whole day and a whole night, how much oil is needed, so that I too should accomplish a good action?", "pos": 15167}
{"speaker": "Ma", "text": "There is really no limit as to quantity. It rests upon the goodwill of the donor. In my quarters, for instance, I have several lanterns, the gifts of the consorts of princes and the spouses of high officials living in various localities. The consort of the mansion of the Prince of Nan Au has been prompted in her beneficence by a liberal spirit; she allows each day forty-eight catties of oil, and a catty of wick; so that her 'Great Sea' lamp is only a trifle smaller than a water-jar. The spouse of the marquis of Chin Hsiang comes next, with no more than twenty catties a day. Besides these, there are several other families; some giving ten catties; some eight catties; some three; some five; subject to no fixed rule; and of course I feel bound to keep the lanterns alight on their behalf. There's still another thing. If it be on account of father or mother or seniors, any excessive donation would not matter. But were you, venerable ancestor, to bestow too much in your offering for Pao-yü, our young master won't, I fear, be equal to the gift; and instead of being benefited, his happiness will be snapped. If you therefore want to make a liberal gift seven catties will do; if a small one, then five catties will even be sufficient.", "pos": 15302}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Well, in that case, let us fix upon five catties a day, and every month come and receive payment of the whole lump sum!", "pos": 16696}
{"speaker": "Ma", "text": "O-mi-to-fu! Oh merciful, and mighty P'u Sa!", "pos": 16849}
{"speaker": "Ma", "text": "It just happens, that I have no facings for shoes, so my lady do give me a few odd cuttings of silk and satin, of no matter what colour, to make myself a pair of shoes with.", "pos": 17669}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "Look, whether there be still among them any pieces good for anything. But anything that's worth anything doesn't find its way in here. If you don't despise what's worthless, you're at liberty to select any two pieces and to take them away, and have done. The other day. I sent a servant over with five hundred cash; have you presented any offerings before the god of medicine or not?", "pos": 17898}
{"speaker": "Ma, the Taoist matron", "text": "I've offered them long ago for you,", "pos": 18419}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "O-mi-to-fu! were I a little better off, I'd also come often and offer gifts; but though my will be boundless, my means are insufficient!", "pos": 18488}
{"speaker": "Ma, the Taoist matron", "text": "Don't trouble your mind on this score. By and bye, when Mr. Huan has grown up into a man and obtained some official post or other, will there be then any fear of your not being able to afford such offerings as you might like to make?", "pos": 18663}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "Enough, enough! Don't again refer to such contingencies! the present is a fair criterion. For up to whom in this house can my son and I come? Pao-yü is still a mere child; but he is such that he wins people's love. Those big people may be partial to him, and love him a good deal, I've nothing to say to it; but I can't eat humble pie to this sort of mistress!", "pos": 18973}
{"speaker": "Ma, the Taoist matron", "text": "It's your lady Secunda, Lien, eh?", "pos": 19481}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "Dreadful! Dreadful! But speaking of this sort of mistress, I'm not so much as a human being, if she doesn't manage to shift over into her mother's home the whole of this family estate.", "pos": 19742}
{"speaker": "Ma, the Taoist matron", "text": "Need you tell me this! Haven't I, forsooth, discovered it all for myself? Yet it's fortunate that you don't trouble your minds about her; for it's far better that you should let her have her own way.", "pos": 19967}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "My dear woman. Not let her have her own way! why, is it likely that any one would have the courage to tell her anything?", "pos": 20262}
{"speaker": "Ma, the Taoist matron", "text": "I don't mean to utter any words that may bring upon me retribution, but you people haven't got the wits. But it's no matter of surprise. Yet if you daren't openly do anything, why, you could stealthily have devised some plan. And do you still tarry up to this day?", "pos": 20407}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "What plan could I stealthily devise? I've got the will right enough, but I'm not a person gifted with this sort of gumption. So were you to impart to me some way or other, I would reward you most liberally.", "pos": 20807}
{"speaker": "Ma, the Taoist matron", "text": "O-mi-to-fu! desist at once from asking me! How can I know anything about such matters, contrary as they are to what is right?", "pos": 21091}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "There you are again! You're one ever most ready to succour those in distress, and to help those in danger, and is it likely that you'll quietly look on, while some one comes and compasses my death as well as that of my son? Are you, pray, fearful lest I shouldn't give you any reward?", "pos": 21247}
{"speaker": "Ma, the Taoist matron", "text": "You're right enough in what you say, of my being unable to bear the sight of yourself and son receiving insult from a third party; but as for your mention of rewards, why, what's there of yours that I still covet?", "pos": 21612}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "How is it, that an intelligent person like you should have become so dense? If, indeed, the spell prove efficacious, and we exterminate them both, is there any apprehension that this family estate won't be ours? and when that time comes, won't you get all you may wish?", "pos": 21893}
{"speaker": "Ma, the Taoist matron", "text": "When everything, shall have been settled satisfactorily, and when there'll be, what's more, no proof at all, will you still pay any heed to me?", "pos": 22264}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "What's there hard about this? I've saved several taels from my own pin-money, and have besides a good number of clothes and head-ornaments. So you can first take several of these away with you. And I'll further write an I.O.U., and entrust it to you, and when that time does come, I'll pay you in full.", "pos": 22426}
{"speaker": "Ma, the Taoist matron", "text": "That will do!", "pos": 22753}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "Take these, in advance for presents in your temple.", "pos": 23142}
{"speaker": "Ma, the Taoist matron", "text": "When I get home. I'll have recourse to some art, which will, beyond doubt, prove efficacious.", "pos": 23940}
{"speaker": "The girl", "text": "What! my dame, are you in here! Why, our lady is waiting for you!", "pos": 24169}
{"speaker": "Li Kung-ts'ai", "text": "Now, are not these two more!", "pos": 25505}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "We are a full company to-day, but who has issued the cards and invited us here?", "pos": 25536}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "The other day. I sent servants with a present of two caddies of tea for you, Miss Lin; was it, after all, good?", "pos": 25636}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I had just forgotten all about it, many thanks for your kind attention!", "pos": 25774}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I tasted it. I did not think it anything good. But I don't know how others, who've had any of it, find it.", "pos": 25866}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Its flavour, is good; the only thing is, it has no colour.", "pos": 25994}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "It's tribute tea from the Laos Kingdom. When I tried it, I didn't either find it anything very fine. It's not up to what we ordinarily drink.", "pos": 26070}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "To my taste, it's all right. But what your palates are like, I can't make out.", "pos": 26237}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "As you say it's good, you're quite at liberty to take all I have for your use.", "pos": 26335}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I've got a great deal more of it over there,", "pos": 26436}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I'll tell a servant-girl to go and fetch it,", "pos": 26503}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "No need. I'll send it over with some one. I also have a favour to ask of you to-morrow, so I may as well tell the servant to bring it along at the same time.", "pos": 26566}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You just mark this. I've had to-day a little tea from her place, and she at once begins making a tool of me!", "pos": 26802}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Since you've had some of our tea, how is it that you have not yet become a wife in our household?", "pos": 26929}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Our sister-in-law Secunda's jibes are first-rate!", "pos": 27260}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "What jibes! they're purely and simply the prattle of a mean mouth and vile tongue! They're enough to evoke people's displeasure!", "pos": 27346}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Were you, to become a wife in my family, what is there that you would lack? Look here! Is not this human being worthy of you? Is not his station in life good enough for you? Are not our stock and estate sufficient for you? and in what slight degree can he make you lose caste?", "pos": 27545}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Here's P'in Erh in a huff! Don't you yet come back? when you've gone, there will really be no fun!", "pos": 27964}
{"speaker": "servant-girl", "text": "Your maternal uncle's wife has come, and she requests you, ladies and young ladies, to come out and see her.", "pos": 28522}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "As for me, I can't go out. But whatever you do, pray, don't ask aunt to come in here. Cousin Lin, do stay on a while; I've got something to tell you.", "pos": 28802}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There's some one, who wants to speak to you.", "pos": 29057}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Ai-ya! How my head is sore!", "pos": 29435}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "It should be! O-mi-to-fu.", "pos": 29485}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "My son. My flesh,", "pos": 30318}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "The destiny, of our son and daughter is entirely dependent upon the will of Heaven, and no human strength can prevail. The malady of these two persons would not be healed, even were every kind of treatment tried, and as I feel confident that it is the design of heaven that things should be as they are, all we can do is to allow it to carry out its purpose.", "pos": 33586}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "From this day forward. I may no longer abide in your house, so you had better send me off at once!", "pos": 34814}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "You shouldn't, venerable lady, indulge in excessive grief. This young man has been long ago of no good; so wouldn't it be as well to dress him up and let him go back a moment sooner from this world. You'll also be thus sparing him considerable suffering. But, if you persist, in not reconciling yourself to the separation and this breath of his is not cut off, he will lie there and suffer without any respite….", "pos": 35056}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "You rotten-tongued, good-for-nothing hag! What makes you fancy him of no good! You wish him dead and gone; but what benefit will you then derive? Don't give way to any dreams; for, if he does die, I'll just exact your lives from you! It's all because you've been continuously at him, inciting and urging him to read and write, that his spirit has become so intimidated that, at the sight of his father, he behaves just like a rat trying to get out of the way of a cat! And is not all this the result of the bullying of such a mean herd of women as yourselves! Could you now drive him to death, your wishes would immediately be fulfilled; but which of you will I let off?", "pos": 35561}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Who is it, who gave orders to make the coffins? Bring at once the coffin-makers and beat them to death!", "pos": 36774}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Ave! Buddha able to unravel retribution and dispel grievances! Should any human being lie in sickness, and his family be solicitous on his account; or should any one have met with evil spirits and come across any baleful evils, we have the means to effect a cure.", "pos": 37094}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "On what hill, do you cultivate the principles of reason?", "pos": 38157}
{"speaker": "bonze", "text": "Worthy official! you must not ask too many questions! It's because we've learnt that there are inmates of your honourable mansion in a poor state of health that we come with the express design of working a cure.", "pos": 38245}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "There are, two of our members, who have been possessed of evil spirits. But, is there, I wonder, any remedy by means of which they could he healed?", "pos": 38479}
{"speaker": "Taoist priest", "text": "In your family, you have ready at hand a precious thing, the like of which is rare to find in the world. It possesses the virtue of alleviating the ailment, so why need you inquire about remedies?", "pos": 38653}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "It's true, that my son brought along with him, at the time of his birth, a piece of jade, on the surface of which was inscribed that it had the virtue of dispelling evil influences, but we haven't seen any efficacy in it.", "pos": 38934}
{"speaker": "bonze", "text": "There is, worthy officer, something in it which you do not understand. That precious jade was, in its primitive state, efficacious, but consequent upon its having been polluted by music, lewdness, property and gain it has lost its spiritual properties. But produce now that valuable thing and wait till I have taken it into my hands and pronounced incantations over it, when it will become as full of efficacy as of old!", "pos": 39186}
{"speaker": "Buddhist priest", "text": "Since our parting, at the foot of the Ch'ing Keng peak, about thirteen years have elapsed. How time flies in the mortal world! Thine earthly destiny has not yet been determined. Alas, alas! how admirable were the qualities thou did'st possess in those days! By Heaven unrestrained, without constraint from Earth, No joys lived in thy heart, but sorrows none as well; Yet when perception, through refinement, thou did'st reach, Thou went'st among mankind to trouble to give rise. How sad the lot which thou of late hast had to hear! Powder prints and rouge stains thy precious lustre dim. House bars both day and night encage thee like a duck. Deep wilt thou sleep, but from thy dream at length thou'lt wake, Thy debt of vengeance, once discharged, thou wilt depart. This object, has already resumed its efficacy; but you shouldn't do anything to desecrate it. Hang it on the post of the door in his bed-room, and with the exception of his own relatives, you must not let any outside female pollute it. After the expiry of thirty-three days, he will, I can guarantee, be all right.", "pos": 39824}
{"speaker": "Hsi Ch'un", "text": "Sister Pao, what are you laughing for?", "pos": 41625}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I laugh, because the 'Thus-Come' Joss has more to do than any human being. He's got to see to the conversion of all mankind, and to take care of the ailments, to which all flesh is heir; for he restores every one of them at once to health; and he has as well to control people's marriages so as to bring them about through his aid; and what do you say, has he ample to do or not? Now, isn't this enough to make one laugh, eh?", "pos": 41688}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Ts'ui! none of you are good people. Instead of following the example of worthy persons, you try to rival the mean mouth of that hussey Feng.", "pos": 42157}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Sister, are you in the room or not?", "pos": 44346}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Yes, I am; come in!", "pos": 44640}
{"speaker": "Chia Hui", "text": "How lucky I've been! I was a little time back in the court washing a few things, when Pao-yü cried out that some tea should be sent over to Miss Lin, and sister Hua handed it to me to go on the errand. By a strange coincidence our old lady had presented some money to Miss Lin and she was engaged at the moment in distributing it among their servant-girls. As soon therefore as she saw me get there, Miss Lin forthwith grasped two handfuls of cash and gave them to me; how many there are I don't know, but do keep them for me! How are you, after all, feeling of late in your mind? I'll tell you what; you should really go and stay at home for a couple of days. And were you to ask a doctor round and to have a few doses of medicine you'll get all right at once!", "pos": 44778}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "What are you talking about? What shall I go home for, when there's neither rhyme nor reason for it!", "pos": 45727}
{"speaker": "Chia Hui", "text": "Miss Lin, I remember, is naturally of a weak physique, and has constantly to take medicines, so were you to ask her for some and bring them over and take them, it would come to the same thing.", "pos": 45851}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Nonsense! are medicines also to be recklessly taken ?", "pos": 46064}
{"speaker": "Chia Hui", "text": "You can't so on for ever like this, you're besides loth to eat and loth to drink, and what will you be like in the long run?", "pos": 46143}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "What's there to fear? won't it anyhow be better to die a little earlier? It would be a riddance!", "pos": 46292}
{"speaker": "Chia Hui", "text": "Why do you deliberately come out with all this talk?", "pos": 46414}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "How could you ever know anything of the secrets of my heart?", "pos": 46488}
{"speaker": "Chia Hui", "text": "I don't think it strange on your part, for it is really difficult to abide in this place! Yesterday, for instance, our dowager lady remarked that the servants in attendance had had, during all the days that Pao-yü was ill, a good deal to put up with, and that now that he has recovered, incense should be burnt everywhere, and the vows fulfilled; and she expressed a wish that those in his service should, one and all, be rewarded according to their grade. I and several others can be safely looked upon as young in years, and unworthy to presume so high; so I don't feel in any way aggrieved; but how is it that one like you couldn't be included in the number? My heart is much annoyed at it! Had there been any fear that Hsi Jen would have got ten times more, I could not even then have felt sore against her, for she really deserves it! I'll just tell you an honest truth; who else is there like her? Not to speak of the diligence and carefulness she has displayed all along, even had she not been so diligent and careful, she couldn't have been set aside! But what is provoking is that that lot, like Ch'ing Wen and Ch'i Hsia, should have been included in the upper class. Yet it's because every one places such reliance on the fine reputation of their father and mother that they exalt them. Now, do tell me, is this sufficient to anger one or not?", "pos": 46625}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "It won't do to be angry with them! You may erect a shed a thousand li long, but there is no entertainment from which the guests will not disperse! And who is it that will tarry here for a whole lifetime? In another three years or five years every single one of us will have gone her own way; and who will, when that time comes, worry her mind about any one else?", "pos": 48006}
{"speaker": "Chia Hui", "text": "What you say is true. And yet, Pao-yü even yesterday explained how the rooms should be arranged by and bye; and how the clothes should be made, just as if he was bound to hang on to dear life for several hundreds of years.", "pos": 48650}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You are asked,", "pos": 49138}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "to trace these two designs!", "pos": 49165}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Whose are they, after all? Couldn't you wait even so much as to conclude what you had to say, but flew off at once? Who is steaming bread and waiting for you? Or are you afraid, forsooth, lest it should get cold?", "pos": 49299}
{"speaker": "young servant-girl", "text": "They belong to sister Ch'i,", "pos": 49565}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Where did I, put that brand-new pencil the other day? How is it I can't remember where it is? Of course! the other evening Ying Erh took it away. Fetch it for me,", "pos": 49945}
{"speaker": "Chia Hui", "text": "Sister Hua, is waiting for me to get a box for her, so you had better go for it yourself!", "pos": 50307}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "What! she's waiting for you, and are you still squatting here chatting leisurely? Hadn't it been that I asked you to go and fetch it, she too wouldn't have been waiting for you; you most perverse vixen! Nurse Li, where are you, old dame, bound for? How is it you're coming this way?", "pos": 50420}
{"speaker": "Nurse Li", "text": "Tell me, has he deliberately again gone and fallen in love with that Mr. something or other like Yun (cloud), or Yü (rain)? They now insist upon my bringing him inside, but if they get wind of it by and bye in the upper rooms, it won't again be a nice thing.", "pos": 51125}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Are you, old lady, taking things in such real earnest that you readily believe them and want to go and ask him in here?", "pos": 51398}
{"speaker": "Nurse Li", "text": "What can I do?", "pos": 51550}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Why, that fellow, will, if he has any idea of decency, do the right thing and not come.", "pos": 51586}
{"speaker": "Nurse Li", "text": "Besides, he's not a fool! so why shouldn't he come in?", "pos": 51707}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Well, if he is to come, it will devolve upon you, worthy dame, to lead him along with you; for were you by and bye to let him penetrate inside all alone and knock recklessly about, why, it won't do at all.", "pos": 51784}
{"speaker": "Nurse Li", "text": "Have I got all that leisure, to trudge along with him? I'll simply tell him to come; and later on I can despatch a young servant-girl or some old woman to bring him in, and have done.", "pos": 52015}
{"speaker": "servant-girl", "text": "Sister Hung, what are you doing in here?", "pos": 52515}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Where are you off too?", "pos": 52652}
{"speaker": "Chui Erh", "text": "I've been told to bring in master Secundus, Mr. Yün,", "pos": 52695}
{"speaker": "Chia Yün", "text": "I thought it strange, that it should be called the I Hung court; but are these, in fact, the four characters inscribed on the tablet! Come in at once! How is it that I've forgotten you these two or three months?", "pos": 54155}
{"speaker": "servant-girls", "text": "Master Secundus, please take a seat in the inner room.", "pos": 55015}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Ever since the moon in which I came across you, and told you to come into the library, I've had, who would have thought it, endless things to continuously attend to, so that I forgot all about you.", "pos": 55715}
{"speaker": "Chia Yün", "text": "It's I, indeed, who lacked good fortune! particularly so, as it again happened that you, uncle, fell ill. But are you quite right once more?", "pos": 55944}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "All right! I heard that you've been put to much trouble and inconvenience on a good number of days!", "pos": 56122}
{"speaker": "Chia Yün", "text": "Had I even had any trouble to bear, it would have been my duty to bear it. But your complete recovery, uncle, is really a blessing to our whole family.", "pos": 56243}
{"speaker": "Chia Yün", "text": "Sister, how is it that you are pouring tea for me? I came here to pay uncle a visit; what's more I'm no stranger, so let me pour it with my own hands!", "pos": 57161}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Just you sit down and finish! will you also behave in this fashion with servant-girls?", "pos": 57325}
{"speaker": "Chia Yün", "text": "In spite of what you say; they are young ladies attached to your rooms, uncle, and how could I presume to be disorderly in my conduct?", "pos": 57435}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "To-morrow, if you have nothing to do, do come over!", "pos": 58287}
{"speaker": "Chia Yün", "text": "Of what standing are your father and mother? How many years have you been in uncle Pao's apartments? How much money do you get a month? In all how many girls are there in uncle Pao's rooms? The one, who was a while back talking to you, is called Hsiao Hung, isn't she?", "pos": 58749}
{"speaker": "Chui Erh", "text": "Yes, her name is Hsiao Hung! but why do you ask about her?", "pos": 59140}
{"speaker": "Chia Yün", "text": "She inquired of you just now about some handkerchief or other, well, I've picked one up.", "pos": 59229}
{"speaker": "Chui Erh", "text": "Many are the times, that she has asked me whether I had seen her handkerchief; but have I got all that leisure to worry my mind about such things? She spoke to me about it again to-day; and she suggested that I should find it for her, and that she would also recompense me. This she told me when we were just now at the entrance of the Heng Wu court, and you too, Mr. Secundus, overheard her, so that I'm not lying. But, dear Mr. Secundus, since you've picked it up, give it to me. Do! And I'll see what she will give me as a reward.", "pos": 59386}
{"speaker": "Chia Yün", "text": "As for giving it to you, I'll do so; but in the event of your obtaining any present from her, you mustn't impose upon me.", "pos": 60630}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "What are you about to go to sleep again. Would it not do your languid spirits good if you went out for a bit of a stroll?", "pos": 61185}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I would like to go out, but I can't reconcile myself to the separation from you!", "pos": 61377}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Get up at once!", "pos": 61473}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Where can I go? I'm quite surfeited with everything.", "pos": 61562}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Once out you'll be all right, but if you simply give way to this languor, you'll be more than ever sick of everything at heart.", "pos": 61637}
{"speaker": "Chia Lan", "text": "Uncle Secundus, are you at home? I imagined you had gone out of doors!", "pos": 62527}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You are up to mischief again, eh? They've done nothing to you, and why shoot at them with your arrows?", "pos": 62613}
{"speaker": "Chia Lan", "text": "I had no studies to attend to just now, so, being free with nothing to do. I was practising riding and archery.", "pos": 62737}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Shut up! When are you not engaged in practising?", "pos": 62882}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Day after day my feelings slumber drowsily!", "pos": 63523}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Why is it, that your feelings day after day slumber drowsily?", "pos": 63740}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Is Miss asleep?", "pos": 64260}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "If so, we'll ask her over, when she wakes up.", "pos": 64289}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Who's asleep?", "pos": 64420}
{"speaker": "matrons", "text": "We thought you were fast asleep, Miss. Your young mistress, has awoke; come in and wait on her!", "pos": 64449}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "When people are asleep, what do you walk in for?", "pos": 64844}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What were you saying a short while back?", "pos": 65118}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I wasn't saying anything,", "pos": 65161}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What a lie you're trying to ram down my throat! I heard all. Tzu Chüan! pour me a cup of your good tea!", "pos": 65205}
{"speaker": "Tzu Chüan", "text": "Where's the good tea to be had? If you want good tea, you'd better wait till Hsi Jen comes.", "pos": 65441}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Don't heed him! Just go first and draw me some water.", "pos": 65557}
{"speaker": "Tzu Chüan", "text": "He's a visitor, and, of course, I should first pour him a cup of tea, and then go and draw the water.", "pos": 65634}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear girl. If I could only share the same bridal curtain with your lovable young mistress, would I ever be able (to treat you as a servant) by making you fold the covers and make the beds.", "pos": 65812}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "What are you saying?", "pos": 66074}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What, did I say anything?", "pos": 66115}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You've recently, got into a new way. Whatever slang you happen to hear outside you come and tell me. And whenever you read any improper book, you poke your fun at me. What! have I become a laughing-stock for gentlemen!", "pos": 66183}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear cousin. I do deserve death; but don't go and tell any one! If again I venture to utter such kind of language, may blisters grow on my mouth and may my tongue waste away!", "pos": 66578}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Go back at once, and put on your clothes as master wants to see you.", "pos": 66838}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Do you perchance know what he wants me for?", "pos": 67227}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "Master, hurry out at once! You must, of course, go and see him. When you get there, you are sure to find out what it's all about.", "pos": 67290}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Hadn't I said that my uncle wanted you? Would you ever have rushed out with such alacrity? Don't punish the young servant, for it is simply I who begged him go.", "pos": 67739}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I don't mind your playing your larks on me; but why, did you mention my father? Were I to go and tell my aunt, your mother, to see to the rights and the wrongs of the case, how would you like it?", "pos": 68300}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "My dear cousin, the primary idea I had in view was to ask you to come out a moment sooner and I forgot to respectfully shun the expression. But by and bye, when you wish to chaff me, just you likewise allude to my father, and we'll thus be square.", "pos": 68513}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Ai-ya! You do more than ever deserve death!! You ruffian! what are you still kneeling for?", "pos": 68797}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Had it been for anything else. I wouldn't have made bold to disturb you; but it's simply in connection with my birthday which is to-morrow, the third day of the fifth moon. Ch'eng Jih-hsing, who is in that curio shop of ours, unexpectedly brought along, goodness knows where he fished them from, fresh lotus so thick and so long, so mealy and so crisp; melons of this size; and a Siamese porpoise, that long and that big, smoked with cedar, such as is sent as tribute from the kingdom of Siam. Are not these four presents, pray, rare delicacies? The porpoise is not only expensive, but difficult to get, and that kind of lotus and melon must have cost him no end of trouble to grow! I lost no time in presenting some to my mother, and at once sent some to your old grandmother, and my aunt. But a good many of them still remain now; and were I to eat them all alone, it would, I fear, be more than I deserve; so I concluded, after thinking right and left, that there was, besides myself, only you good enough to partake of some. That is why I specially invite you to taste them. But, as luck would have it, a young singing-boy has also come, so what do you say to you and I having a jolly day of it?", "pos": 69022}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My birthday presents have not as yet been sent round, and here I come, ahead of them, to trespass on your hospitality.", "pos": 70971}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Just so! but when you come to-morrow to congratulate me we'll consider what novel kind of present you can give me.", "pos": 71140}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've got nothing that I can give you. As far as money, clothes, eatables and other such articles go, they are not really mine: all I can call my own are such pages of characters that I may write, or pictures that I may draw.", "pos": 71280}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Your reference to pictures, reminds me of a book I saw yesterday, containing immodest drawings; they were, truly, beautifully done. On the front page there figured also a whole lot of characters. But I didn't carefully look at them; I simply noticed the name of the person, who had executed them. It was, in fact, something or other like Keng Huang. The pictures were, actually, exceedingly good!", "pos": 71526}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Of pictures drawn from past years to the present, I have, seen a good many, but I've never come across any Keng Huang. Did you see correctly that it read Keng Huang?", "pos": 72027}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "How could I not have seen correctly?", "pos": 72439}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Were they possibly these two characters? These are, in point of fact, not very dissimilar from what Keng Huang look like?", "pos": 72589}
{"speaker": "The Company", "text": "They must, we fancy, have been these two characters! Your eyes, Sir, may, there's no saying, have suddenly grown dim!", "pos": 72817}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Who could have said, whether they were T'ang Yin or Kuo Yin, (candied silver or fruit silver).", "pos": 72984}
{"speaker": "The Company", "text": "Ask him in at once,", "pos": 73306}
{"speaker": "Feng Tzu-ying", "text": "That's right! You don't go out of doors, but remain at home and go in for high fun!", "pos": 73593}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü and Hsüeh P'an", "text": "We haven't, seen you for ever so long. Is your venerable father strong and hale?", "pos": 73746}
{"speaker": "Tzu-ying", "text": "My father, is, thanks to you, strong and hale; but my mother recently contracted a sudden chill and has been unwell for a couple of days.", "pos": 73846}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "With whom have you again been boxing, that you've hung up this sign board?", "pos": 74063}
{"speaker": "Feng Tzu-ying", "text": "Since the occasion, on which I wounded lieutenant-colonel Ch'ou's son, I've borne the lesson in mind, and never lost my temper. So how is it you say that I've again been boxing? This thing on my face was caused, when I was out shooting the other day on the T'ieh Wang hills, by a flap from the wing of the falcon.", "pos": 74166}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "When was that?", "pos": 74507}
{"speaker": "Tzu-ying", "text": "I started, on the 28th of the third moon and came back only the day before yesterday.", "pos": 74538}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It isn't to be wondered at then, that when I went the other day, on the third and fourth, to a banquet at friend Shen's house, I didn't see you there. Yet I meant to have inquired about you; but I don't know how it slipped from my memory. Did you go alone, or did your venerable father accompany you?", "pos": 74648}
{"speaker": "Tzu-ying", "text": "Of course, my father went, so I had no help but to go. For is it likely, forsooth, that I've gone mad from lack of anything to do! Don't we, a goodly number as we are, derive enough pleasure from our wine-bouts and plays that I should go in quest of such kind of fatiguing recreation! But in this instance a great piece of good fortune turned up in evil fortune!", "pos": 74970}
{"speaker": "The Company", "text": "Come along, and join the banquet; you can then quietly recount to us all your experiences.", "pos": 75423}
{"speaker": "Feng Tzu-ying", "text": "According to etiquette. I should join you in drinking a few cups; but to-day I have still a very urgent matter to see my father about on my return so that I truly cannot accept your invitation. This is, indeed, strange! When have you and I had, during all these years, to have recourse to such proceedings! I really am unable to comply with your wishes. But if you do insist upon making me have a drink, well, then bring a large cup and I'll take two cups full and finish.", "pos": 75611}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "But do, after all, finish this thing about a piece of good fortune in the midst of misfortune before you go.", "pos": 76489}
{"speaker": "Feng Tzu-ying", "text": "To tell you this to-day, will be no great fun. But for this purpose I intend standing a special entertainment, and inviting you all to come and have a long chat; and, in the second place, I've also got a favour to ask of you.", "pos": 76616}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "What you've said, has put us more than ever on pins and needles. We cannot brook any delay. Who knows when you will ask us round; so better tell us, and thus avoid keeping people in suspense!", "pos": 76954}
{"speaker": "Feng Tzu-ying", "text": "The latest, in ten days; the earliest in eight.", "pos": 77163}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "People, wait for you with lacerated heart and anxious mind, and there you go and make merry; yet you could very well, after all, have sent some one with a message.", "pos": 77754}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Didn't I purpose sending a message? Of course, I did! But I failed to do so, as on the arrival of friend Feng, I got so mixed up that the intention vanished entirely from my mind.", "pos": 77937}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Have you tasted any of our new things?", "pos": 78201}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Cousin, you must have certainly tasted what you've got in your house long before us.", "pos": 78279}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Yesterday, my brother did actually make it a point to ask me to have some; but I had none; I told him to keep them and send them to others, so confident am I that with my mean lot and scanty blessings I little deserve to touch such dainties.", "pos": 78421}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "You're always running over and seating yourself here, whether you've got good reason for doing so or not; and there's no sleep for us at the third watch, the middle of the night though it be. They've all gone to sleep; you'd better come to-morrow.", "pos": 80077}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "It's I! don't you yet open the gate?", "pos": 80839}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "It's no matter who you may be; Mr. Secundus has given orders that no one at all should be allowed to come in.", "pos": 80998}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "It must, in fact, be because Pao-yü is angry with me for having explained to him the true reasons. But why did I ever go and tell you? You should, however, have made inquiries before you lost your temper to such an extent with me as to refuse to let me in to-day; but is it likely that we shall not by and bye meet face to face again?", "pos": 82201}
{"speaker": "Ying Ch'un", "text": "How is it, that I don't see cousin Liu? What a lazy girl! Is she forsooth fast asleep even at this late hour of the day?", "pos": 88343}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Wait all of you here, and I'll go and shake her up and bring her. you will find them all in there; you had better go and join them. As for me, I'm going to fetch Miss Lin, but I'll be back soon.", "pos": 88502}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Look at this handkerchief,", "pos": 91360}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "If it's really the one you've lost, well then keep it; but if it isn't you must return it to Mr. Yün.", "pos": 91404}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "To be sure it is my own,", "pos": 91508}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "bring it along and give it to me.", "pos": 91559}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What reward will you give me?", "pos": 91595}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Is it likely that I've searched all for nothing!", "pos": 91646}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I've long ago promised to recompense you, and of course I won't play you false,", "pos": 91697}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I found it and brought it round,", "pos": 91804}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "and you naturally will recompense me; but won't you give anything to the person who picked it up?", "pos": 91861}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Don't talk nonsense,", "pos": 91961}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "he belongs to a family of gentlemen, and anything of ours he may pick up it's his bounden duty to restore to us. What reward could you have me give him?", "pos": 92007}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "If you don't reward him,", "pos": 92162}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "what will I be able to tell him? Besides, he enjoined me time after time that if there was to be no recompense, I was not to give it to you.", "pos": 92218}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Never mind!", "pos": 92383}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "take this thing of mine and present it to him and have done! But do you mean to let the cat out of the bag with any one else? You should take some oath.", "pos": 92425}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "If I tell any one,", "pos": 92580}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "may an ulcer grow on my mouth, and may I, in course of time, die an unnatural death!", "pos": 92625}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Ai-ya!", "pos": 92712}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "our minds are merely bent upon talking, but some one might come and quietly listen from outside; wouldn't it be as well to push all the venetians open. Any one seeing us in here will then imagine that we are simply chatting about nonsense. Besides, should they approach, we shall be able to observe them, and at once stop our conversation!", "pos": 92746}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "P'in Erh, I see where you're hiding! Where have you been hiding Miss Lin?", "pos": 94239}
{"speaker": "Chui Erh", "text": "Who has seen anything of Miss Lin,", "pos": 94681}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I was just now, on that side of the pool, and discerned Miss Lin squatting down over there and playing with the water. I meant to have gently given her a start, but scarcely had I walked up to her, when she saw me, and, with a detour towards the East, she at once vanished from sight. So mayn't she be concealing herself in there? she's certain to have got again into that cave in the hill, and come across a snake, which must have bitten her and put an end to her.", "pos": 94737}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Dreadful! Miss Lin was squatting in here and must for a certainty have overheard what we said before she left.", "pos": 95732}
{"speaker": "Chui Erh", "text": "Even supposing she did overhear what we said, why should she meddle in what does not concern her? Every one should mind her own business.", "pos": 95998}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Had it been Miss Pao, it would not have mattered, but Miss Lin delights in telling mean things of people and is, besides, so petty-minded. Should she have heard and anything perchance comes to light, what will we do? my lady, what is it that you want?", "pos": 96176}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "My own waiting-maid, hasn't followed me in here to-day; and as I've just this moment bethought myself of something and would like to send some one on an errand, I wonder whether you're fit to undertake the charge and deliver a message faithfully.", "pos": 97031}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Don't hesitate in entrusting me with any message you may have to send. I'll readily go and deliver it. Should I not do so faithfully, and blunder in fulfilling your business, my lady, you may visit me with any punishment your ladyship may please, and I'll have nothing to say.", "pos": 97292}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What young lady's servant are you. Tell me, so that when she comes back, after I've sent you out, and looks for you, I may be able to tell her about you.", "pos": 97606}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "I'm attached to our Master Secundus,' Mr. Pao's rooms,", "pos": 97782}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Ai-ya! Are you really in Pao-yü's rooms! How strange! Yet it comes to the same thing. Well, if he asks for you, I'll tell him where you are. Go now to our house and tell your sister P'ing that she'll find on the table in the outer apartment and under the stand with the plate from the Ju kiln, a bundle of silver; that it contains the one hundred and twenty taels for the embroiderers' wages; and that when Chang Ts'ai's wife comes, the money should be handed to her to take away, after having been weighed in her presence and been given to her to tally. Another thing too I want. In the inner apartment and at the head of the bed you'll find a small purse, bring it along to me.", "pos": 97860}
{"speaker": "Ssu Ch'i", "text": "Sister, do you know where our lady Secunda is gone to? I didn't notice,", "pos": 98862}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Young ladies, do you perchance have any idea where our lady Secunda is gone to now?", "pos": 99190}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Go into your senior lady's court and look for her!", "pos": 99307}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Are you gone clean off your head? You don't water the flowers, nor feed the birds or prepare the tea stove, but gad about outside!", "pos": 99702}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Yesterday. Mr. Secundus told me that there was no need for me to water the flowers to-day; that it was enough if they were watered every other day. As for the birds, you're still in the arms of Morpheus, sister, when I give them their food.", "pos": 99852}
{"speaker": "Pi Hen", "text": "And what about the tea-stove?", "pos": 100117}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "To-day, is not my turn on duty, so don't ask me whether there be any tea or not!", "pos": 100168}
{"speaker": "Ch'i Hsia", "text": "Do you listen to that mouth of hers! but don't you girls speak to her; let her stroll about and have done!", "pos": 100274}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "You'd better all go and ask whether I've been gadding about or not. Our lady Secunda has just bidden me go and deliver a message, and fetch something.", "pos": 100402}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "How funny! Lo, she climbs up a high branch and doesn't condescend to look at any one of us! All she told her must have been just some word or two, who knows! But is it likely that our lady has the least notion of her name or surname that she rides such a high horse, and behaves in this manner! What credit is it in having been sent on a trifling errand like this! Will we, by and bye, pray, hear anything more about you? If you've got any gumption, you'd better skedaddle out of this garden this very day. For, mind, it's only if you manage to hold your lofty perch for any length of time that you can be thought something of!", "pos": 100764}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Sister P'ing says, that as soon as your ladyship left the house, she put the money by, and that when Chang Ts'ai's wife went in a little time to fetch it, she had it weighed in her presence, after which she gave it to her to take away. Sister P'ing bade me come and tell your ladyship, that Wang Erh came just now to crave your orders, as to who are the parties from whom he has to go and (collect interest on money due) and sister P'ing explained to him what your wishes were and sent him off.", "pos": 101806}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "How could she tell him where I wanted him to go?", "pos": 102412}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Sister P'ing says, that our lady presents her compliments to your ladyship (widow Li) here-(To lady Feng) that our master Secundus has in fact not come home, and that albeit a delay of (a day) or two will take place (in the collection of the money), your ladyship should, she begs, set your mind at ease. (To Li Wan). That when lady Quinta is somewhat better, our lady will let lady Quinta know and come along with her to see your ladyship. (To lady Feng). That lady Quinta sent a servant the day before yesterday to come over and say that our lady, your worthy maternal aunt, had despatched a letter to inquire after your ladyship's health; that she also wished to ask you, my lady, her worthy niece in here, for a couple of 'long-life-great-efficacy-full-of-every-virtue' pills; and that if you have any, they should, when our lady bids a servant come over, be simply given her to bring to our lady here, and that any one bound to-morrow for that side could then deliver them on her way to her ladyship, your aunt yonder, to take along with her.", "pos": 102482}
{"speaker": "widow Li", "text": "Ai-yo-yo! It's impossible for me to make out what you're driving at! What a heap of ladyships and misters!", "pos": 103556}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "It's not to be wondered at that you can't make them out. Why, her remarks refer to four or five distinct families. My dear girl, what a trouble you've been put to! But you speak decently, and unlike the others who keep on buzz-buzz-buzz, like mosquitoes! You're not aware, sister-in-law, that I actually dread uttering a word to any of the girls outside the few servant-girls and matrons in my own immediate service; for they invariably spin out, what could be condensed in a single phrase, into a long interminable yarn, and they munch and chew their words; and sticking to a peculiar drawl, they groan and moan; so much so, that they exasperate me till I fly into a regular rage. Yet how are they to know that our P'ing Erh too was once like them. But when I asked her: 'must you forsooth imitate the humming of a mosquito, in order to be accounted a handsome girl?' and spoke to her, on several occasions, she at length improved considerably.", "pos": 103720}
{"speaker": "Li Kung-ts'ai", "text": "What a good thing it would be, if they could all be as smart as you are.", "pos": 104761}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "This girl is first-rate! she just now delivered two messages. They didn't, I admit, amount to much, yet to listen to her, she spoke to the point. To-morrow, come and wait on me, and I'll acknowledge you as my daughter; and the moment you come under my control, you'll readily improve.", "pos": 104861}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "At this news, Hsiao Hung spurted out laughing aloud.", "pos": 105232}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What are you laughing for? You must say to yourself that I am young in years and that how much older can I be than yourself to become your mother; but are you under the influence of a spring dream? Go and ask all those people older than yourself. They would be only too ready to call me mother. But snapping my fingers at them, I to-day exalt you.", "pos": 105286}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "I wasn't laughing about that. I was amused by the mistake your ladyship made about our generations. Why, my mother claims to be your daughter, my lady, and are you now going to recognise me too as your daughter?", "pos": 105657}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Who's your mother?", "pos": 105914}
{"speaker": "Li Kung-ts'ai", "text": "Don't you actually know her? She's Lin Chih-hsiao's child.", "pos": 105956}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What! is she really his daughter? Why Lin Chih-hsiao and his wife, couldn't either of them utter a sound if even they were pricked with an awl. I've always maintained that they're a well-suited couple; as the one is as deaf as a post, and the other as dumb as a mute. But who would ever have expected them to have such a clever girl! By how much are you in your teens?", "pos": 106099}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "I'm seventeen,", "pos": 106523}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What is your name?", "pos": 106559}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "My name was once Hung Yü. But as it was a duplicate of that of Master Secundus, Mr. Pao-yü, I'm now simply called Hsiao Hung.", "pos": 106623}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "It's most disgusting! Those bearing the name Yü would seem to be very cheap; for your name is Yü, and so is also mine Yü. Sister-in-law, I never let you know anything about it, but I mentioned to her mother that Lai Ta's wife has at present her hands quite full, and that she hasn't either any notion as to who is who in this mansion. 'You had better,' (I said), 'carefully select a couple of girls for my service.' She assented unreservedly, but she put it off and never chose any. On the contrary, she sent this girl to some other place. But is it likely that she wouldn't have been well off with me?", "pos": 106854}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Here you are again full of suspicion! She came in here long before you ever breathed a word to her! So how could you bear a grudge against her mother?", "pos": 107496}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Well, in that case, I'll speak to Pao-yü to-morrow, and induce him to find another one, and to allow this girl to come along with me. I wonder, however, whether she herself is willing or not?", "pos": 107686}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Whether willing or not, such as we couldn't really presume to raise our voices and object. We should feel it our privilege to serve such a one as your ladyship, and learn a little how to discriminate when people raise or drop their eyebrows and eyes (with pleasure or displeasure), and reap as well some experience in such matters as go out or come in, whether high or low, great and small.", "pos": 107913}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear cousin, did you lodge a complaint against me yesterday? I've been on pins and needles the whole night long.", "pos": 109083}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Put the room in order, and lower one of the gauze window-frames. And when you've seen the swallows come back, drop the curtain; keep it down then by placing the lion on it, and after you have burnt the incense, mind you cover the censer.", "pos": 109251}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Brother Pao, are you all right. It's just three days that I haven't seen anything of you?", "pos": 110646}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Are you sister quite well? The other day, I asked news of you of our senior sister-in-law.", "pos": 110750}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Brother Pao, come over here; I want to tell you something. I heard vaguely something or other about father sending for you to go out.", "pos": 110883}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I presume that some one must have heard wrong, for he never sent for me.", "pos": 111360}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "I've again managed to save during the last few months, fully ten tiaos, so take them and bring me, when at any time you stroll out of doors, either some fine writings or some ingenious knicknack.", "pos": 111435}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Much as I have roamed inside and outside the city walls, and seen grand establishments and large temples, I've never come across anything novel or pretty. One simply sees articles made of gold, jade, copper and porcelain, as well as such curios for which we could find no place here. Besides these, there are satins, eatables, and wearing apparel.", "pos": 111672}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Who cares for such baubles! How could they come up to what you purchased the last time; that wee basket, made of willow twigs, that scent-box, scooped out of a root of real bamboo, that portable stove fashioned of glutinous clay; these things were, oh, so very nice! I was as fond of them as I don't know what; but, who'd have thought it, they fell in love with them and bundled them all off, just as if they were precious things.", "pos": 112041}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Is it things of this kind that you really want? Why, these are worth nothing! Were you to take a hundred cash and give them to the servant-boys, they could, I'm sure, bring two cart-loads of them.", "pos": 112498}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "What do the servant-boys know? Those you chose for me were plain yet not commonplace. Neither were they of coarse make. So were you to procure me as many as you can get of them, I'll work you a pair of slippers like those I gave you last time, and spend twice as much trouble over them as I did over that pair you have. Now, what do you say to this bargain?", "pos": 112715}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Your reference to this reminds me of an old incident. One day I had them on, and by a strange coincidence, I met father, whose fancy they did not take, and he inquired who had worked them. But how could I muster up courage to allude to the three words: my sister Tertia, so I answered that my maternal aunt had given them to me on the recent occasion of my birthday. When father heard that they had been given to me by my aunt, he could not very well say anything. But after a while, 'why uselessly waste,' he observed, 'human labour, and throw away silks to make things of this sort!' On my return, I told Hsi Jen about it. 'Never mind,' said Hsi Jen; but Mrs. Chao got angry. 'Her own brother,' she murmured indignantly, 'wears slipshod shoes and socks in holes, and there's no one to look after him, and does she go and work all these things!'", "pos": 113115}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Now tell me, aren't these words utter rot! What am I that I have to make shoes? And is it likely that Huan Erh hasn't his own share of things! Clothes are clothes, and shoes and socks are shoes and socks; and how is it that any grudges arise in the room of a mere servant-girl and old matron? For whose benefit does she come out with all these things! I simply work a pair or part of a pair when I am at leisure, with time on my hands. And I can give them to any brother, elder or younger, I fancy; and who has a right to interfere with me? This is just another bit of blind anger!", "pos": 114020}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Yet you don't know what her motives may be. It's but natural that she should also cherish some expectations.", "pos": 114690}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Even you have grown dull! She does, of course, indulge in expectations, but they are actuated by some underhand and paltry notion! She may go on giving way to these ideas, but I, for my part, will only care for Mr. Chia Cheng and Madame Wang. I won't care a rap for any one else. In fact, I'll be nice with such of my sisters and brothers, as are nice to me; and won't even draw any distinction between those born of primary wives and those of secondary ones. Properly speaking, I shouldn't say these things about her, but she's narrow-minded to a degree, and unlike what she should be. There's besides another ridiculous thing. This took place the last time I gave you the money to get me those trifles. Well, two days after that, she saw me, and she began again to represent that she had no money and that she was hard up. Nevertheless, I did not worry my brain with her goings on. But as it happened, the servant-girls subsequently quitted the room, and she at once started finding fault with me. 'Why,' she asked, 'do I give you my savings to spend and don't, after all, let Huan Erh have them and enjoy them?' When I heard these reproaches, I felt both inclined to laugh, and also disposed to lose my temper; but I there and then skedaddled out of her quarters, and went over to our Madame Wang.", "pos": 114879}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Well, have you done spinning your yarns? If you have, come along! It's quite evident that you are brother and sister, for here you leave every one else and go and discuss your own private matters. Couldn't we too listen to a single sentence of what you have to say?", "pos": 116232}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'll join you in a moment,", "pos": 117349}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "When Tai-yü's flowerlike charms and moon-like beauty, by and bye likewise reach a time when they will vanish beyond any hope of recovery, won't my heart be lacerated and my feelings be mangled! And extending, since Tai-yü must at length some day revert to a state when it will be difficult to find her, this reasoning to other persons, like Pao-ch'ai, Hsiang Ling, Hsi Jen and the other girls, they too are equally liable to attain a state beyond the reach of human search. But when Pao-ch'ai and all the rest have ultimately reached that stage when no trace will be visible of them, where shall I myself be then? And when my own human form will have vanished and gone, whither I know not yet, to what person, I wonder, will this place, this garden and these plants, revert?", "pos": 123561}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Every one, laughs at me for labouring under a foolish mania, but is there likely another fool besides myself? Ts'ui! I was wondering who it was; but is it truly this ruthless-hearted and short-lived fellow!", "pos": 124915}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Stop a little! I know you don't care a rap for me; but I'll just make one single remark, and from this day forward we'll part company.", "pos": 125891}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Please tell me what it is,", "pos": 126183}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "If I pass two remarks will you listen to me; yes or no? Since this is what we've come to now, what was the use of what existed between us in days gone by?", "pos": 126258}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "what about days gone by, and what about now?", "pos": 126639}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Ai! when you got here in days gone by, wasn't I your playmate in all your romps and in all your fun? My heart may have been set upon anything, but if you wanted it you could take it away at once. I may have been fond of any eatable, but if I came to learn that you too fancied it, I there and then put away what could be put away, in a clean place, to wait, Miss, for your return. We had our meals at one table; we slept in one and the same bed; whatever the servant-girls could not remember, I reminded them of, for fear lest your temper, Miss, should get ruffled. I flattered myself that cousins, who have grown up together from their infancy, as you and I have, would have continued, through intimacy or friendship, either would have done, in peace and harmony until the end, so as to make it palpable that we are above the rest. But, contrary to all my expectations, now that you, Miss, have developed in body as well as in mind, you don't take the least heed of me. You lay hold instead of some cousin Pao or cousin Feng or other from here, there and everywhere and give them a place in your affections; while on the contrary you disregard me for three days at a stretch and decline to see anything of me for four! I have besides no brother or sister of the same mother as myself. It's true there are a couple of them, but these, are you not forsooth aware, are by another mother! You and I are only children, so I ventured to hope that you would have reciprocated my feelings. But, who'd have thought it, I've simply thrown away this heart of mine, and here I am with plenty of woes to bear, but with nowhere to go and utter them! I myself am aware, that I'm worth nothing now; but, however imperfect I may be, I could on no account presume to become guilty of any shortcoming with you cousin. Were I to ever commit the slightest fault, your task should be either to tender me advice and warn me not to do it again, or to blow me up a little, or give me a few whacks; and all this reproof I wouldn't take amiss. But no one would have ever anticipated that you wouldn't bother your head in the least about me, and that you would be the means of driving me to my wits' ends, and so much out of my mind and off my head, as to be quite at a loss how to act for the best. In fact, were death to come upon me, I would be a spirit driven to my grave by grievances. However much exalted bonzes and eminent Taoist priests might do penance, they wouldn't succeed in releasing my soul from suffering; for it would still be needful for you to clearly explain the facts, so that I might at last be able to come to life.", "pos": 126702}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Well, in that case, why did you not let a servant-girl open the door when I came over?", "pos": 129870}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What prompts you to say this? If I have done anything of the kind, may I die at once.", "pos": 130010}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Psha! it's not right that you-should recklessly broach the subject of living or dying at this early morn! If you say yea, it's yea; and nay, it's nay; what use is there to utter such oaths!", "pos": 130114}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I didn't really see you come over. Cousin Pao-ch'ai it was, who came and sat for a while and then left.", "pos": 130322}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Yes, your servant-girls must, I fancy, have been too lazy to budge, grumpy and in a cross-grained mood; this is probable enough.", "pos": 130490}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This is, I feel sure, the reason, so when I go back, I'll find out who it was, call them to task and put things right.", "pos": 130637}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Those girls of yours; should be given a lesson, but properly speaking it isn't for me to mention anything about it. Their present insult to me is a mere trifle; but were to-morrow some Miss Pao (precious) or some Miss Pei (jewel) or other to come, and were she to be subjected to insult, won't it be a grave matter?", "pos": 130777}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Miss, have you taken any of Dr. Pao's medicines? Do you feel any better?", "pos": 131469}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I simply feel so-so, but grandmother Chia recommended me to go on taking Dr. Wang's medicines.", "pos": 131591}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Mother, you've no idea that cousin Lin's is an internal derangement; it's because she was born with a delicate physique that she can't stand the slightest cold. All she need do is to take a couple of closes of some decoction to dispel the chill; yet it's preferable that she should have medicine in pills.", "pos": 131710}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "The other day, the doctor mentioned the name of some pills, but I've forgotten what it is.", "pos": 132039}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I know something about pills, he merely told her to take some pills or other called 'ginseng as-a-restorative-of-the-system.'", "pos": 132152}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "That isn't it,", "pos": 132297}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "The 'Eight-precious-wholesome-to-mother' pills, or the 'Left-angelica' or 'Right-angelica;' if these also aren't the ones, they must be the 'Eight-flavour Rehmannia-glutinosa' pills.", "pos": 132336}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "None of these, for I remember well that there were the two words chin kang (guardians in Buddhistic temples).", "pos": 132541}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've never before, heard of the existence of chin kang pills; but in the event of there being any chin kang pills, there must, for a certainty, be such a thing as P'u Sa (Buddha) powder.", "pos": 132677}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It must, I'm inclined to think, be the 'lord-of-heaven-strengthen-the-heart' pills!", "pos": 133015}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Yes, that's the name, why, now, I too have become muddle-headed.", "pos": 133118}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You're not muddled-headed, mother, it's the mention of Chin kangs and Buddhas which confused you.", "pos": 133208}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Stuff and nonsense! What you want again is your father to whip you!", "pos": 133322}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My father, wouldn't whip me for a thing like this.", "pos": 133418}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Well, this being their name, you had better tell some one to-morrow to buy you a few.", "pos": 133489}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "All these drugs, are of no earthly use. Were you, mother, to give me three hundred and sixty taels, I'll concoct a supply of pills for my cousin, which I can certify will make her feel quite herself again before she has finished a single supply.", "pos": 133600}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "What trash! What kind of medicine is there so costly!", "pos": 133871}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It's a positive fact. This prescription of mine is unlike all others. Besides, the very names of those drugs are quaint, and couldn't be enumerated in a moment; suffice it to mention the placenta of the first child; three hundred and sixty ginseng roots, shaped like human beings and studded with leaves; four fat tortoises; full-grown polygonum multiflorum; the core of the Pachyma cocos, found on the roots of a fir tree of a thousand years old; and other such species of medicines. They're not, I admit, out-of-the-way things; but they are the most excellent among that whole crowd of medicines; and were I to begin to give you a list of them, why, they'd take you all quite aback. The year before last, I at length let Hsüeh P'an have this recipe, after he had made ever so many entreaties during one or two years. When, however, he got the prescription, he had to search for another two or three years and to spend over and above a thousand taels before he succeeded in having it prepared. If you don't believe me, mother, you are at liberty to ask cousin Pao-ch'ai about it.", "pos": 133948}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I know nothing about it. Nor have I heard anything about it, so don't tell your mother to ask me any questions.", "pos": 135113}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Really. Pao-ch'ai is a good girl; she does not tell lies.", "pos": 135243}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What I stated just now, was the truth; yet you maintain that it was all lies.", "pos": 135451}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Brother Pao tells no lies, this is really a fact. Some time ago cousin Hsüeh P'an came over in person and asked me for pearls, and when I inquired of him what he wanted them for, he explained that they were intended to compound some medicine with; adding, in an aggrieved way, that it would have been better hadn't he taken it in hand for he never had any idea that it would involve such a lot of trouble! When I questioned him what the medicine was, he returned for answer that it was a prescription of brother Pao's; and he mentioned ever so many ingredients, which I don't even remember. 'Under other circumstances,' he went on to say, 'I would have purchased a few pearls, but what are absolutely wanted are such pearls as have been worn on the head; and that's why I come to ask you, cousin, for some. If, cousin, you've got no broken ornaments at hand, in the shape of flowers, why, those that you have on your head will do as well; and by and bye I'll choose a few good ones and give them to you, to wear.' I had no other course therefore than to snap a couple of twigs from some flowers I have, made of pearls, and to let him take them away. One also requires a piece of deep red gauze, three feet in length of the best quality; and the pearls must be triturated to powder in a mortar.", "pos": 135891}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "The thing is as clear as sunlight now. Mother, you should know that this is a mere makeshift, for really, according to the letter of the prescription, these pearls and precious stones should, properly speaking, consist of such as had been obtained from, some old grave and been worn as head-ornaments by some wealthy and honourable person of bygone days. But how could one go now on this account and dig up graves, and open tombs! Hence it is that such as are simply in use among living persons can equally well be substituted.", "pos": 137299}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "O-mi-to-fu! That will never do, and what an arduous job to uselessly saddle one's self with; for even though there be interred in some graves people, who've been dead for several hundreds of years, it wouldn't be a propitious thing were their corpses turned topsy-turvey now and the bones abstracted; just for the sake of preparing some medicine or other.", "pos": 137920}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Have you heard what was said or not? And is there, pray, any likelihood that cousin Secunda would also follow in my lead and tell lies?", "pos": 138384}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You just listen to him, aunt. All because cousin Pao-ch'ai would not accommodate him by lying, he appeals to me.", "pos": 138668}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Pao-yü has a great knack, of dealing contemptuously with you, his cousin.", "pos": 138799}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Mother, you are not aware how the case stands. When cousin Pao-ch'ai lived at home, she knew nothing whatever about my elder cousin Hsüeh P'an's affairs, and how much less now that she has taken up her quarters inside the garden? She, of course, knows less than ever about them! Yet, cousin Lin just now stealthily treated my statements as lies, and put me to the blush.", "pos": 138895}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Let's wait for master Secundus, Mr. Pao, to go along with us. He doesn't want anything to eat, he won't come with us, so I'll go ahead.", "pos": 139609}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'll have my repast with my mother to-day,", "pos": 139828}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Not at all, not at all. I'm going to fast to-day, so it's only right and proper that you should go and have your own.", "pos": 139886}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'll also fast with you then,", "pos": 140030}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "You, girls, had better have your meal, and let him have his own way!", "pos": 140226}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It's only right that you should go. Whether you have anything to eat or not, you should go over for a while to keep company to cousin Lin, as she will be quite distressed and out of spirits.", "pos": 140313}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Who cares about her! she'll get all right again after a time.", "pos": 140526}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Cousin Secundus, what's the use of the hurry-scurry you're in the whole day long! Even when you're having your meals, or your tea, you're in this sort of fussy helter-skelter!", "pos": 140863}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Make him hurry up and have his tea, so that he may go and look up his cousin Lin. He'll be up to all kinds of mischief if you keep him here!", "pos": 141101}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You come quite opportunely, walk in, walk in, and write a few characters for me. Forty rolls of deep red ornamented satin, forty rolls of satin with dragons; a hundred rolls of gauzes of every colour, of the finest quality; four gold necklaces….", "pos": 141738}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What's this? it is neither a bill; nor is it a list of presents, and in what style shall I write it?", "pos": 142201}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Just you go on writing, for, in fact, as long as I can make out what it means, it's all that is needed. I've still something more to tell you, but I wonder whether you will accede to it or not. There is in your rooms a servant-maid, Hsiao Hung by name, whom I would like to bring over into my service, and I'll select several girls to-morrow to wait on you; will this do?", "pos": 142355}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "The servants in my quarters, muster a large crowd, so that, cousin, you are at perfect liberty to send for any one of them, who might take your fancy; what's the need therefore of asking me about it?", "pos": 142890}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "If that be so. I'll tell some one at once to go and bring her over.", "pos": 143111}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Yes, she can go and fetch her,", "pos": 143215}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Come back. I've got something more to tell you.", "pos": 143321}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Our venerable senior has sent for me, if you have anything to tell me you must wait till my return.", "pos": 143392}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Have you had anything nice to eat with your mother?", "pos": 143666}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "There was really nothing nice. Yet I managed to have a bowl of rice more than usual. Where's cousin Lin?", "pos": 143741}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "You have attained more skill than ever; for there you can even cut out clothes!", "pos": 145119}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "This too is a mere falsehood, to hoodwink people with, nothing more.", "pos": 145234}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I'll tell you a joke, when I just now said that I did not know anything about that medicine, cousin Pao-yü felt displeased.", "pos": 145305}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Who cares! He'll get all right shortly.", "pos": 145460}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Our worthy grandmother wishes to play at dominoes, and there's no one there at present to have a game with her; so you'd better go and play with her.", "pos": 145524}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Have I come over now to play dominoes!", "pos": 145742}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "It would be well for you to go, for there's a tiger in here; and, look out, he might eat you up.", "pos": 145901}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You should also go for a stroll! It will be time enough by and bye to continue your cutting. Who has taught her how to cut out these things?", "pos": 146196}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "What does it matter who taught me how to cut? It's no business of yours, Mr. Secundus. O-mi-to-fu! it wouldn't matter to you if you found me dead on your return!", "pos": 146454}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "You are invited, to go to Mr. Feng's house. Our Master Secundus, Mr. Pao, is in the study waiting for his out-door clothes; so do go in, worthy dame, and deliver the message.", "pos": 147018}
{"speaker": "old woman", "text": "It would be better, if you did not echo your mother's absurdities! Our Master Secundus, Mr. Pao, now lives in the garden, and all the servants, who attend on him, stay in the garden; and do you again come and bring the message here?", "pos": 147573}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "You're quite right, in reproving me, for I've become quite idiotic.", "pos": 147866}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What you said the other day, about good fortune coming out of evil fortune has preyed so much upon my mind, both by day and night, that the moment I received your summons I hurried to come immediately.", "pos": 148982}
{"speaker": "Feng Tzu-ying", "text": "My worthy cousins. You're all far too credulous! It's a mere hoax that I made use of the other day. For so much did I fear that you would be sure to refuse if I openly asked you to a drinking bout, that I thought it fit to say what I did. But your attendance to-day, so soon after my invitation, makes it clear, little though one would have thought it, that you've all taken it as pure gospel truth.", "pos": 149220}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Do sing me, that novel ballad of your own composition; and I'll drink a whole jar full. Eh, will you?", "pos": 150101}
{"speaker": "Yün Erh", "text": "Lovers have I two. To set aside either I cannot bear. When my heart longs for thee to come, It also yearns for him. Both are in form handsome and fair. Their beauty to describe it would be hard. Just think, last night, when at a silent hour, we met in secret, by the trellis frame laden with roses white, One to his feelings stealthily was giving vent, When lo, the other caught us in the act, And laying hands on us; there we three stood like litigants before the bar. And I had, verily, no word in answer for myself to give. Well now, down with that whole jar!", "pos": 150285}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Why, it isn't worth a jarful. Favour us with some other good song!", "pos": 150903}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Listen to what I have to suggest. If you go on drinking in this reckless manner, we will easily get drunk and there will be no fun in it. I'll take the lead and swallow a large cupful and put in force a new penalty; and any one of you who doesn't comply with it, will be mulcted in ten large cupfuls, in quick succession!", "pos": 151008}
{"speaker": "Feng Tzu-ying", "text": "Quite right! quite right!", "pos": 151507}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "We will now, dilate on the four characters, 'sad, wounded, glad and joyful.' But while discoursing about young ladies, we'll have to illustrate the four states as well. At the end of this recitation, we'll have to drink the 'door cup' over the wine, to sing an original and seasonable ballad, while over the heel taps, to make allusion to some object on the table, and devise something with some old poetical lines or ancient scrolls, from the Four Books or the Five Classics, or with some set phrases.", "pos": 151599}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "I won't join you, so don't count me; this is, in fact, done in order to play tricks upon me.", "pos": 152220}
{"speaker": "Yün Erh", "text": "What are you in such a funk for? You're fortunate enough to be able to drink wine daily, and can't you, forsooth, even come up to me? Yet I mean to recite, by and bye, my own share. If you say what's right, well and good; if you don't, you will simply have to swallow several cups of wine as a forfeit, and is it likely you'll die from drunkenness? Are you, pray, going now to disregard this rule and to drink, instead, ten large cups; besides going down to pour the wine?", "pos": 152390}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "A girl is sad, When her spring-time of life is far advanced and she still occupies a vacant inner-room. A girl feels wounded in her heart, When she regrets having allowed her better half to go abroad and win a marquisdom. A girl is glad, When looking in the mirror, at the time of her morning toilette, she finds her colour fair. A girl is joyful, What time she sits on the frame of a gallows-swing, clad in a thin spring gown.", "pos": 153052}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "It isn't good, he must be fined. Because what he says is entirely unintelligible to me. So how can he not be fined?", "pos": 153614}
{"speaker": "Yün Erh", "text": "Just you quietly think of yours, for if by and bye you are not ready you'll also have to bear a fine.", "pos": 153830}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "When mutual thoughts arise, tears, blood-stained, endless drop, like lentiles sown broadcast. In spring, in ceaseless bloom nourish willows and flowers around the painted tower. Inside the gauze-lattice peaceful sleep flies, when, after dark, come wind and rain. Both new-born sorrows and long-standing griefs cannot from memory ever die! E'en jade-fine rice, and gold-like drinks they make hard to go down; they choke the throat. The lass has not the heart to desist gazing in the glass at her wan face. Nothing can from that knitted brow of hers those frowns dispel; For hard she finds it patient to abide till the clepsydra will have run its course. Alas! how fitly like the faint outline of a green hill which nought can screen; Or like a green-tinged stream, which ever ceaseless floweth onward far and wide!", "pos": 154012}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "There's no metre in them,", "pos": 154955}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "While the rain strikes the pear-blossom I firmly close the door,", "pos": 155057}
{"speaker": "Feng Tzu-ying", "text": "A maid is glad. When at her first confinement she gives birth to twins, both sons. A maid is joyful, When on the sly she to the garden creeps crickets to catch. A maid is sad, When her husband some sickness gets and lies in a bad state. A maiden is wounded at heart, When a fierce wind blows down the tower, where she makes her toilette. Thou art what one could aptly call a man. But thou'rt endowed with somewhat too much heart! How queer thou art, cross-grained and impish shrewd! A spirit too, thou couldst not be more shrewd. If all I say thou dost not think is true, In secret just a minute search pursue; For then thou'lt know if I love thee or not. The cock crows when the moon's rays shine upon the thatchèd inn.", "pos": 155208}
{"speaker": "Yün Erh", "text": "A girl is sad,", "pos": 156123}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "My dear child! your worthy Mr. Hsüeh still lives, and why do you give way to fears?", "pos": 156228}
{"speaker": "Yün Erh", "text": "When her mother beats and scolds her and never for an instant doth desist.", "pos": 156478}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "It was only the other day, that I saw your mother and that I told her that I would not have her beat you.", "pos": 156555}
{"speaker": "Yün Erh", "text": "A girl is glad. When her lover cannot brook to leave her and return home. A maiden is joyful, When hushing the pan-pipe and double pipe, a stringed instrument she thrums. T'is the third day of the third moon, the nutmegs bloom; A maggot, lo, works hard to pierce into a flower; But though it ceaseless bores it cannot penetrate. So crouching on the buds, it swing-like rocks itself. My precious pet, my own dear little darling, If I don't choose to open how can you steal in? the delicate peach-blossom,", "pos": 156933}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Is it for me to speak now? A maiden is sad…", "pos": 157665}
{"speaker": "Feng Tzu-ying", "text": "Sad for what? Go on and tell us at once!", "pos": 157821}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "A girl is sad. When she marries a spouse who is a libertine. What amuses you so? is it likely that what I say is not correct? If a girl marries a man, who chooses to forget all virtue, how can she not feel sore at heart? A girl is grieved…. When a huge monkey finds its way into the inner room.", "pos": 158055}
{"speaker": "Company", "text": "He must be mulcted, he must be mulcted. The first one could anyhow be overlooked; but this line is more unintelligible.", "pos": 158868}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "The rhyme is all right,", "pos": 159091}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "The master of the rules, approves it in every way, so what are you people fussing about?", "pos": 159130}
{"speaker": "Yün Erh", "text": "The two lines, that follow, are still more difficult, so you had better let me recite for you.", "pos": 159302}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Fiddlesticks! do you really fancy that I have no good ones! Just you listen to what I shall say. A girl is glad, When in the bridal room she lies, with flowery candles burning, and she is loth to rise at morn.", "pos": 159433}
{"speaker": "Company", "text": "How supremely excellent this line is!", "pos": 159720}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "A girl is joyful. During the consummation of wedlock.", "pos": 159777}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Dreadful! Dreadful! But quick sing your song and have done.", "pos": 159930}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "A mosquito buzzes heng, heng, heng!", "pos": 160019}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What kind of song is this?", "pos": 160090}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Two flies buzz weng, weng, weng.", "pos": 160166}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Enough,", "pos": 160201}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "that will do, that will do!", "pos": 160235}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Do you want to hear it or not? this is a new kind of song, called the 'Heng, heng air,' but if you people are not disposed to listen, let me off also from saying what I have to say over the heel-taps and I won't then sing.", "pos": 160265}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "We'll let you off! We'll let you off,", "pos": 160510}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "so don't be hindering others.", "pos": 160572}
{"speaker": "Chiang Yü-han", "text": "A maiden is sad. When her husband leaves home and never does return. A maiden is disconsolate, When she has no money to go and buy some olea frangrans oil. A maiden is glad, When the wick of the lantern forms two heads like twin flowers on one stem. A maiden is joyful, When true conjugal peace prevails between her and her mate. How I love thee with those seductive charms of thine, heaven-born! In truth thou'rt like a living fairy from the azure skies! The spring of life we now enjoy; we are yet young in years. Our union is, indeed, a happy match! But. lo! the milky way doth at its zenith soar; Hark to the drums which beat around in the watch towers; So raise the silver lamp and let us soft under the nuptial curtain steal. I know, few poetical quotations bearing on this sort of thing. By a stroke of good fortune, however, I yesterday conned a pair of antithetical scrolls; of these I can only remember just one line, but lucky enough for me the object it refers to figures as well on this festive board. When the perfume of flowers wafts (hsi jen) itself into a man, he knows the day is warm.", "pos": 160604}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "It's awful, awful! he should be fined, he should be made to pay a forfeit; there's no precious article whatever on this table; how is it then that you introduce precious things?", "pos": 162066}
{"speaker": "Chiang Yü-han", "text": "There was nothing about precious things!", "pos": 162276}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "What I are you still prevaricating? Well, repeat it again! If she isn't, what is she? And if you don't believe me, you ask him about it,", "pos": 162355}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Cousin, you should be fined heavily.", "pos": 162752}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "I should be! I should be!", "pos": 162806}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "If you have nothing to do, do let us go over to our place. I've got something more to ask you. It's this, there's in your worthy company some one called Ch'i Kuan, with a reputation extending at present throughout the world; but, unfortunately, I alone have not had the good luck of seeing him even once.", "pos": 163584}
{"speaker": "Chiang Yü-han", "text": "This is really, my own infant name.", "pos": 163891}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "How lucky! I'm in luck's way! In very truth your reputation is no idle report. But to-day is our first meeting, and what shall I do? This is a mere trifle. It does not deserve your acceptance, yet it will be a small souvenir of our acquaintance to-day.", "pos": 164054}
{"speaker": "Ch'i Kuan", "text": "I do not deserve, such a present. How am I worthy of such an honour! But never mind, I've also got about me here a strange thing, which I put on this morning; it is brand-new yet, and will, I hope, suffice to prove to you a little of the feeling of esteem which I entertain for you. This sash, is an article brought as tribute from the Queen of the Hsi Hsiang Kingdom. If you attach this round you in summer, your person will emit a fragrant perfume, and it will not perspire. It was given to me yesterday by the Prince of Pei Ching, and it is only to-day that I put it on. To any one else, I would certainly not be willing to present it. But, Mr. Secundus, please do unfasten the one you have on and give it to me to bind round me.", "pos": 164499}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Oh! I've caught you!", "pos": 165673}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "What do you leave your wine for and withdraw from the banquet. Be quick and produce those things, and let me see them!", "pos": 165789}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "There's nothing to see!", "pos": 165927}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I must have lost it this very moment,", "pos": 166429}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "As you have such a nice sash to fasten your trousers with, you'd better return that one of mine.", "pos": 166661}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'll give you another one instead.", "pos": 167135}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I felt sure; that you'd go again and do these things! Yet you shouldn't take my belongings and bestow them on that low-bred sort of people. Can it be that no consideration finds a place in your heart?", "pos": 167236}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I don't care for such things!", "pos": 168167}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Hung", "text": "Lady Secunda,", "pos": 168686}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "dispatched some one and fetched Hsiao Hung away. Her wish was to have waited for your return; but as I thought that it was of no consequence, I took upon myself to decide, and sent her off.", "pos": 168721}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "That's all right! I knew all about it, there was no need for her to wait.", "pos": 168913}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Yesterday, the Imperial Consort deputed the Eunuch Hsia to bring a hundred and twenty ounces of silver and to convey her commands that from the first to the third, there should be offered, in the Ch'ing Hsu temple, thanksgiving services to last for three days and that theatrical performances should be given, and oblations presented: and to tell our senior master, Mr. Chia Chen, to take all the gentlemen, and go and burn incense and worship Buddha. Besides this, she also sent presents for the dragon festival.", "pos": 169008}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What's the reason of this? How is it that Miss Lin's are not the same as mine, but that Miss Pao's instead are like my own? May not the message have been wrongly delivered? Of course, it's my duty to go over. Take these to your Miss Lin, and say that I got them, yesterday, and that she is at liberty to keep out of them any that take her fancy.", "pos": 170639}
{"speaker": "Tzu Chüan", "text": "Miss Lin says, that she also got some yesterday, and that you, Master Secundus, should keep yours.", "pos": 171575}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I told you, to select those you liked from my things; how is it you didn't choose any?", "pos": 172030}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I'm not gifted with such extreme good fortune, as to be able to accept them. I can't compete with Miss Pao, in connection with whom something or other about gold or about jade is mentioned. We are simply beings connected with the vegetable kingdom.", "pos": 172332}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "If beyond what people say about gold or jade, the idea of any such things ever crosses my mind, may the heavens annihilate me, and may the earth extinguish me, and may I for ten thousand generations never assume human form!", "pos": 172718}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "They're all to no use! Why utter such oaths, when there's no rhyme or reason! Who cares about any gold or any jade of yours!", "pos": 173088}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It would be difficult for me to tell you, to your face, all the secrets of my heart, but by and bye you'll surely come to know all about them! After the three—my old grandmother, my father and my mother—you, my cousin, hold the fourth place; and, if there be a fifth, I'm ready to swear another oath.", "pos": 173215}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You needn't swear any more. I'm well aware that I, your younger cousin, have a place in your heart; but the thing is that at the sight of your elder cousin, you at once forget all about your younger cousin.", "pos": 173536}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This comes again from over-suspicion! for I'm not at all disposed that way.", "pos": 173767}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Well, why did you yesterday appeal to me when that hussey Pao-ch'ai would not help you by telling a story? Had it been I, who had been guilty of any such thing, I don't know what you wouldn't have done again.", "pos": 173863}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "You can't resist, a single puff of wind; and why do you stand there and expose yourself to the very teeth of it?", "pos": 176876}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Wasn't I inside the room? But I came out to have a look as I heard a shriek in the heavens; it turned out, in fact, to be a stupid wild goose!", "pos": 177008}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "A stupid wild goose! Where is it, let me also see it!", "pos": 177198}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "As soon as I got out, it flew away with a 't'e-rh' sort of noise.", "pos": 177276}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Ai-yah! Who was it?", "pos": 177516}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I would not venture to do such a thing, it was a mere slip of my hand. As cousin Pao-ch'ai wished to see the silly wild goose, I was pointing it out to her, when the handkerchief inadvertently flew out of my grip.", "pos": 178082}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Never mind, it's too hot; besides, what plays haven't I seen? I don't mean to come.", "pos": 178727}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "It's cool enough over at their place. There are also two-storied buildings on either side; so we must all go! I'll send servants a few days before to drive all that herd of Taoist priests out, to sweep the upper stories, hang up curtains, and to keep out every single loafer from the interior of the temple; so it will be all right like that. I've already told our Madame Wang that if you people don't go, I mean to go all alone, as I've been again in very low spirits these last few days, and as when theatricals come off at home, it's out of the question for me to look on with any peace and quiet.", "pos": 178833}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Well, in that case. I'll go along with you.", "pos": 179514}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Venerable ancestor, were you also to go, it would be ever so much better; yet I won't feel quite at my ease!", "pos": 179617}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "To-morrow. I can stay in the two-storied building, situated on the principal site, while you can go to the one on the side. You can then likewise dispense with coming over to where I shall be to stand on any ceremonies. Will this suit you or not?", "pos": 179743}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "This is indeed, a proof of your regard for me, my worthy senior.", "pos": 180023}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "You too should go, so should your mother; for if you remain the whole day long at home, you will again sleep your head off.", "pos": 180155}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Are her spirits still so buoyant!", "pos": 180852}
{"speaker": "This one", "text": "I won't sit with you.", "pos": 184177}
{"speaker": "That one", "text": "You've crushed our mistress' bundle.", "pos": 184217}
{"speaker": "one nearer", "text": "You've broken my fan.", "pos": 184357}
{"speaker": "Chou Jui's wife", "text": "Girls, this is the street. The on-lookers will laugh at you!", "pos": 184540}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You boorish young bastard! where are you running to?", "pos": 186315}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Catch him, catch him! Beat him, beat him!", "pos": 186892}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Be quick and bring the lad here, but, mind, don't frighten him. Children of mean families invariably get into the way of being spoilt by over-indulgence. How ever could he have set eyes before upon such display as this! Were you to frighten him, he will really be much to be pitied; and won't his father and mother be exceedingly cut up? There's nothing to fear!", "pos": 187353}
{"speaker": "old lady", "text": "Poor boy! Brother Chen, take him away, and give him a few cash to buy himself fruit with; and do impress upon every one that they are not to bully him.", "pos": 188218}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Take him and give him several hundreds of cash and abstain from ill-treating him.", "pos": 188912}
{"speaker": "pages", "text": "Majordomo!", "pos": 189210}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Albeit this is a spacious place, we muster a good concourse to-day, so you'd better bring into this court those servants, who'll be of any use to you, and send over into that one those who won't. And choose a few from among those young pages to remain on duty, at the second gate and at the two side entrances, so as to ask for things and deliver messages. Do you understand me, yes or no? The young ladies and ladies have all come out of town to-day, and not a single outsider must be permitted to put his foot in here.", "pos": 189338}
{"speaker": "Lin Chih-hsiao", "text": "I understand,", "pos": 189880}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Now, you can go on your way. But how is it, I don't see anything of Jung Erh? Look at him. Look at him! I don't feel hot in here, and yet he must go in search of a cool place. Spit at him!", "pos": 189986}
{"speaker": "young page", "text": "Master doesn't feel hot here, and how is it that you, Sir, have been the first to go and get cool?", "pos": 190668}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "What are you standing there for? Don't you yet get on your horse and gallop home and tell your mother that our venerable senior is here with all the young ladies, and bid them come at once and wait upon them?", "pos": 191153}
{"speaker": "Chia Jung", "text": "Who knows what he has been up to the whole morning, that he now finds fault with me! Are your hands made fast, that you can't lead the horse round?", "pos": 191558}
{"speaker": "Taoist Chang", "text": "I'm not properly speaking, on the same footing as the others and should be in attendance inside, but as on account of the intense heat, the young ladies have come out of doors, I couldn't presume to take upon myself to intrude and ask what your orders, Sir, are. But the dowager lady may possibly inquire about me, or may like to visit any part of the temple, so I shall wait in here.", "pos": 192159}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Do you again make use of such language amongst ourselves? One word more, and I'll take that beard of yours, and outroot it! Don't you yet come along with me inside?", "pos": 193343}
{"speaker": "Taoist Chang", "text": "Hah, hah,", "pos": 193510}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Grandfather Chang, has come in to pay his respects.", "pos": 193661}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Raise him up!", "pos": 193726}
{"speaker": "Taoist Chang", "text": "Oh Buddha of unlimited years! Have you kept all right and in good health, throughout, venerable Senior? Have all the ladies and young ladies continued well? I haven't been for some time to your mansion to pay my obeisance, but you, my dowager lady, have improved more and more.", "pos": 193902}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Venerable Immortal Being! how are you; quite well?", "pos": 194202}
{"speaker": "Chang the Taoist", "text": "Thanks to the ten thousand blessings he has enjoyed from your hands, your servant too continues pretty strong and hale. In every other respect, I've, after all, been all right; but I have felt much concern about Mr. Pao-yü. Has he been all right all the time? The other day, on the 26th of the fourth moon, I celebrated the birthday of the 'Heaven-Pervading-Mighty-King;' few people came and everything went off right and proper. I told them to invite Mr. Pao to come for a stroll; but how was it they said that he wasn't at home?", "pos": 194279}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "It was indeed true that he was away from home,", "pos": 194840}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My respects to you, grandfather Chang,", "pos": 195117}
{"speaker": "The Taoist Chang", "text": "Mr. Pao, has grown fatter than ever.", "pos": 195283}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Outwardly, his looks, may be all right, but, inwardly, he is weak. In addition to this, his father presses him so much to study that he has again and again managed, all through this bullying, to make his child fall sick.", "pos": 195337}
{"speaker": "Chang the Taoist", "text": "The other day. I went to several places on a visit, and saw characters written by Mr. Pao and verses composed by him, all of which were exceedingly good; so how is it that his worthy father still feels displeased with him, and maintains that Mr. Pao is not very fond of his books? According to my humble idea, he knows quite enough. As I consider Mr. Pao's face, his bearing, his speech and his deportment,", "pos": 195589}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Quite so,", "pos": 196326}
{"speaker": "Chang the Taoist", "text": "What the former duke of Jung Kuo was like in appearance. The other day,", "pos": 196526}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Some time ago,", "pos": 197529}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Grandfather Chang, aren't you going to change the talisman of 'Recorded Name' of our daughter? The other day, lucky enough for you, you had again the great cheek to send some one to ask me for some satin of gosling-yellow colour. I gave it to you, for had I not, I was afraid lest your old face should have been made to feel uneasy.", "pos": 198246}
{"speaker": "Chang the Taoist", "text": "Hah, hah,", "pos": 198581}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "It would have been sufficient if you'd carried it in your hand! And why use a tray to lay it on?", "pos": 199406}
{"speaker": "Chang the Taoist", "text": "My hands aren't clean,", "pos": 199505}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "When you produced that tray just now,", "pos": 199649}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What a monkey!", "pos": 199988}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I've got nothing to do with any men whatever,", "pos": 200156}
{"speaker": "Chang the Taoist", "text": "I brought out,", "pos": 200436}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Well, since that be the case,", "pos": 200821}
{"speaker": "Chang the Taoist", "text": "Your venerable ladyship,", "pos": 201083}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Grandfather Chang has brought back the jade.", "pos": 202086}
{"speaker": "Chang the Taoist", "text": "The whole company,", "pos": 202212}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What nonsense you're talking!", "pos": 203072}
{"speaker": "Chang the Taoist", "text": "These are intended as a small token of their esteem,", "pos": 203290}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Venerable senior,", "pos": 203736}
{"speaker": "Chang the Taoist", "text": "Mr. Pao,", "pos": 204231}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Put them by!", "pos": 204718}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "The plays,", "pos": 205233}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Of what kind of old story does 'the record of the white snake,' treat?", "pos": 205386}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "The story about Han Kao-tsu,", "pos": 205483}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Has this been assigned the second place?", "pos": 205640}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "The Nan Ko dream is the third,", "pos": 205847}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Senior cousin, Shih Hsiang-yün,", "pos": 206851}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Is it indeed Yün-erh who has it?", "pos": 206983}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Now that she lives in our house,", "pos": 207043}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Cousin Pao-ch'ai,", "pos": 207148}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "As far as other matters are concerned,", "pos": 207306}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This is really a fine thing to play with; I'll keep it for you, and when we get back home, I'll pass a ribbon through it for you to wear.", "pos": 208345}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I don't care about it,", "pos": 208485}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Well,", "pos": 208559}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What do you people rush over here for again?", "pos": 208975}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "I came here for a turn, simply because I had nothing to do.", "pos": 209046}
{"speaker": "messenger", "text": "that some one had come from the house of general Feng.", "pos": 209187}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Ai-ya;", "pos": 209629}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This is no regular fasting,", "pos": 210707}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "By striking the wall, we've also stirred up dust,", "pos": 211044}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Just go and look at the plays,", "pos": 212531}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "If others don't understand me; it's anyhow excusable; but has she too begun to make fun of me?", "pos": 212818}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My friendship with you has been of no avail But, never mind, patience!", "pos": 213442}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Yes, your friendship with me has been of no avail, for how can I compare with those whose manifold qualities make them fit matches for you?", "pos": 213605}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Are you by telling me this, deliberately bent upon invoking imprecations upon me that I should be annihilated by heaven and extinguished by earth? It was, on account of this very conversation that I yesterday swore several oaths, and now would you really make me repeat another one? But were the heavens to annihilate me and the earth to extinguish me, what benefit would you derive?", "pos": 213827}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "If I entertain any deliberate intention to bring any harm upon you, may I too be destroyed by heaven and exterminated by earth! But what's the use of all this! I know very well that the allusion to marriage made yesterday by Chang, the Taoist, fills you with dread lest he might interfere with your choice. You are inwardly so irate that you come and treat me as your malignant influence.", "pos": 214614}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "that were others unable to read my feelings, it would anyhow be excusable; but is it likely that you cannot realise that in my heart and in my eyes there is no one else besides yourself. But as you were not able to do anything to dispel my annoyance, but made use, instead, of the language you did to laugh at me, and to gag my mouth, it's evident that though you hold, at every second and at every moment, a place in my heart, I don't, in fact, occupy a place in yours.", "pos": 216439}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "If, really, I hold a place in your heart, why do you, albeit what's said about gold and jade being a fit match, attach more importance to this perverse report and think nothing of what I say? Did you, when I so often broach the subject of this gold and jade, behave as if you, verily, had never heard anything about it, I would then have seen that you treat me with preference and that you don't harbour the least particle of a secret design. But how is it that the moment I allude to the topic of gold and jade, you at once lose all patience? This is proof enough that you are continuously pondering over that gold and jade, and that as soon as you hear me speak to you about them, you apprehend that I shall once more give way to conjectures, and intentionally pretend to be quite out of temper, with the deliberate idea of cajoling me!", "pos": 217025}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I don't care what you do, everything is well, so long as you act up to your feelings; and if you do, I shall be ever only too willing to even suffer immediate death for your sake. Whether you know this or not, doesn't matter; it's all the same. Yet were you to just do as my heart would have you, you'll afford me a clear proof that you and I are united by close ties and that you are no stranger to me!", "pos": 218099}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Just you mind your own business. If you will treat me well, I'll treat you well. And what need is there to put an end to yourself for my sake? Are you not aware that if you kill yourself, I'll also kill myself? But this demonstrates that you don't wish me to be near to you, and that you really want that I should be distant to you.", "pos": 218530}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What rubbishy trash! I'll smash you to atoms and put an end to the whole question!", "pos": 219628}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "What's the use of all this! and why, pray, do you batter that dumb thing about? Instead of smashing it, wouldn't it be better for you to come and smash me!", "pos": 220076}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'm smashing what belongs to me, and what has that to do with you people?", "pos": 220786}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "If you've had a tiff with your cousin, it isn't worth while flinging this down! Had you broken it, how would her heart and face have been able to bear the mortification?", "pos": 221164}
{"speaker": "Tzu Chüan", "text": "You may, of course, give way to displeasure, but you should, after all, take good care of yourself Miss. You had just taken the medicines and felt the better for them; and here you now begin vomitting again; and all because you've had a few words with our master Secundus. But should your complaint break out afresh how will Mr. Pao bear the blow?", "pos": 222108}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "If you don't care for anything else, you should at least have shown some regard for those tassels, strung on the jade, and not have wrangled with Miss Lin.", "pos": 224261}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I have, wasted my energies on them for nothing; for he doesn't prize them. He's certain to find others to string some more fine tassels for him.", "pos": 224740}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Is it worth while going on in this way! But this is all my fault for having blabbered just now what should have been left unsaid.", "pos": 224936}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Cut it, if you like! I will on no account wear it, so it doesn't matter a rap.", "pos": 225081}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "why is it, that you were not diligent in your attendance on them. They now start a quarrel, and don't you exert yourselves in the least to restrain them?", "pos": 226648}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "We should avail ourselves of this occasion, to go over and look at the plays, and as soon as the two young people come face to face, everything will be squared. In what part of my previous existence could an old sufferer like myself, have incurred such retribution that my destiny is to come across these two troublesome new-fledged foes! Why, not a single day goes by without their being instrumental in worrying my mind! The proverb is indeed correct which says: 'that people who are not enemies are not brought together!' But shortly my eyes shall be closed, this breath of mine shall be snapped, and those two enemies will be free to cause trouble even up to the very skies; for as my eyes will then loose their power of vision, and my heart will be void of concern, it will really be nothing to me. But I couldn't very well stifle this breath of life of mine!", "pos": 228469}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "You're a million times to blame, it's you who are entirely at fault! For when some time ago the pages in the establishment, wrangled with their sisters, or when husband and wife fell out, and you came to hear anything about it, you blew up the lads, and called them fools for not having the heart to show some regard to girls; and now here you go and follow their lead. But to-morrow is the fifth day of the moon, a great festival, and will you two still continue like this, as if you were very enemies? If so, our venerable mistress will be the more angry, and she certainly will be driven sick! I advise you therefore to do what's right by suppressing your spite and confessing your fault, so that we should all be on the same terms as hitherto. You here will then be all right, and so will she over there.", "pos": 230374}
{"speaker": "Tzu Chüan", "text": "As regards what happened the other day, you were, after all, Miss, a little too hasty; for if others don't understand that temperament of Pao-yü's, have you and I, surely, also no idea about it? Besides, haven't there been already one or two rows on account of that very jade?", "pos": 231944}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Ts'ui! Have you come, on behalf of others, to find fault with me? But how ever was I hasty?", "pos": 232242}
{"speaker": "Tzu Chüan", "text": "Why did you, take the scissors and cut that tassel when there was no good reason for it? So isn't Pao-yü less to blame than yourself, Miss? I've always found his behaviour towards you, Miss, without a fault. It's all that touchy disposition of yours, which makes you so often perverse, that induces him to act as he does. This sounds like Pao-yü's voice. I expect he's come to make his apologies.", "pos": 232356}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I won't have any one open the door,", "pos": 232930}
{"speaker": "Tzu Chüan", "text": "Here you are in the wrong again, Miss. How will it ever do to let him get a sunstroke and come to some harm on a day like this, and under such a scorching sun? that you would never again put your foot inside our door, Master Secundus. But here you are once more and quite unexpectedly!", "pos": 232997}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You have by dint of talking, made much ado of nothing; and why shouldn't I come, when there's no reason for me to keep away? Were I even to die, my spirit too will come a hundred times a day! But is cousin quite well?", "pos": 233458}
{"speaker": "Tzu Chüan", "text": "She is, physically all right; but, mentally, her resentment is not quite over.", "pos": 233696}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I understand. But resentment, for what? Cousin, are you quite well again? that you're not vexed with me. But had I not come, third parties would have been allowed to notice my absence, and it would have appeared to them as if we had had another quarrel. And had I to wait until they came to reconcile us, would we not by that time become perfect strangers? It would be better, supposing you wish to beat me or blow me up, that you should please yourself and do so now; but whatever you do, don't give me the cold shoulder! my dear cousin", "pos": 233798}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You needn't have come to chaff me! I couldn't presume henceforward to be on friendly terms with you, Master Secundus! You should treat me as if I were gone!", "pos": 235405}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Where are you off to?", "pos": 235609}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I'm going back home,", "pos": 235646}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'll go along with you then,", "pos": 235686}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "But if I die?", "pos": 235732}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Well, if you die. I'll become a bonze.", "pos": 235762}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You must, I presume, be bent upon dying? But what stuff and nonsense is this you're talking? You've got so many beloved elder and younger cousins in your family, and how many bodies will you have to go and become bonzes, when by and bye they all pass away! But to-morrow I'll tell them about this to judge for themselves what your motives are! Ai! can't you speak? Heug! you, this……", "pos": 235883}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You've completely lacerated my heart, and do you still cry? But let's go; I'll come along with you and see our venerable grandmother.", "pos": 238206}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Who wants to go hand in hand with you? Here we grow older day after day, but we're still so full of brazen-faced effrontery that we don't even know what right means?", "pos": 238372}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "They're all right! is over there, giving way to anger against heaven and earth. She would insist upon my coming to find out whether you were reconciled or not. 'There's no need for me to go and see,' I told her, 'they will before the expiry of three days, be friends again of their own accord.' Our venerable ancestor, however, called me to account, and maintained that I was lazy; so here I come! But my words have in very deed turned out true. I don't see why you two should always be wrangling! For three days you're on good terms and for two on bad. You become more and more like children. And here you are now hand in hand blubbering! But why did you again yesterday become like black-eyed fighting cocks? Don't you yet come with me to see your grandmother and make an old lady like her set her mind at ease a bit? What do you want them for again? I am here to wait on you! I said that it was superfluous for any one to trouble, as they were sure of themselves to become reconciled; but you, dear ancestor, so little believed it that you insisted upon my going to act the part of mediator. Yet when I got there, with the intention of inducing them to make it up, I found them, though one did not expect it, in each other's company, confessing their faults, and laughing and chatting. Just like a yellow eagle clutching the feet of a kite were those two hanging on to each other. So where was the necessity for any one to go?", "pos": 238620}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "On cousin Hsüeh P'an's birth-day. I happened again to be unwell, so not only did I not send him any presents, but I failed to go and knock my head before him. Yet cousin knows nothing about my having been ill, and it will seem to him that I had no wish to go, and that I brought forward excuses so as to avoid paying him a visit. If to-morrow you find any leisure, cousin, do therefore explain matters for me to him.", "pos": 240989}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "This is too much punctiliousness! Even had you insisted upon going, we wouldn't have been so arrogant as to let you put yourself to the trouble, and how much less when you were not feeling well? You two are cousins and are always to be found together the whole day; if you encourage such ideas, some estrangement will, after all, arise between you.", "pos": 241423}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Cousin, you know what to say; and so long as you're lenient with me all will be all right. But how is it, that you haven't gone over to see the theatricals?", "pos": 241794}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I couldn't stand the heat I looked on while two plays were being sung, but I found it so intensely hot, that I felt anxious to retire. But the visitors not having dispersed, I had to give as an excuse that I wasn't feeling up to the mark, and so came away at once.", "pos": 242004}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It's no wonder, that they compare you, cousin, to Yang Kuei-fei; for she too was fat and afraid of hot weather.", "pos": 242393}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I may resemble. Yang Kuei-fei, but there's not one of you young men, whether senior or junior, good enough to play the part of Yang Kuo-chung.", "pos": 242758}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Erh", "text": "It must be you, Miss Pao, who have put my fan away somewhere or other; dear mistress, do let me have it!", "pos": 243034}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "You'd better be mindful! With whom have I ever been up to jokes, that you come and suspect me? Have I hitherto laughed and smirked with you? There's that whole lot of girls, go and ask them about it!", "pos": 243141}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "what two plays did you hear? What I saw was: 'Li Kuei blows up Sung Chiang and subsequently again tenders his apologies'.", "pos": 244088}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "How is it, that with such wide knowledge of things new as well as old; and such general information as you possess, you aren't even up to the name of a play, and that you've come out with such a whole string of words. Why, the real name of the play is: 'Carrying a birch and begging for punishment'.", "pos": 244538}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Is it truly called: 'Carrying a birch and begging for punishment'? But you people know all things new and old so are able to understand the import of 'carrying a birch and begging for punishment.' As for me I've no idea whatever what 'carrying a birch and begging for punishment' implies.", "pos": 244851}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "On this broiling hot day, who still eats raw ginger? Since there's no one eating raw ginger, how is it that you are all so fiery in the face?", "pos": 245521}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Are you feeling so worn out!", "pos": 248411}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'll ask you of your mistress, and you and I will live together. If that won't do. I'll wait for your mistress to wake and appeal to her at once.", "pos": 249124}
{"speaker": "Chin Ch'uan-erh", "text": "What's the hurry? 'A gold hair-pin may fall into the well; but if it's yours it will remain yours only.' Is it possible that you don't even see the spirit of this proverb? But I'll tell you a smart thing. Just you go into the small court, on the east side, and you'll find for yourself what Mr. Chia Huau and Ts'ai Yun are up to!", "pos": 249429}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Let them be up to whatever they like. I shall simply stick to your side!", "pos": 249776}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "You mean wench! it's you, and the like of you, who corrupt these fine young fellows with all the nice things you teach them! Go and tell your mother, to fetch your elder sister away.", "pos": 249974}
{"speaker": "Chin Ch'uan-erh", "text": "I won't venture to do it again. If you, Madame, wish to flog me, or to scold me do so at once, and as much as you like but don't send me away. You will thus accomplish an act of heavenly grace! I've been in attendance on your ladyship for about ten years, and if you now drive me away, will I be able to look at any one in the face?", "pos": 250657}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Can it be possible, that this girl too is stupid? Can she also be following P'in Erh's example and come to inter flowers? Why if she's likewise really burying flowers, this can aptly be termed: 'Tung Shih tries to imitate a frown.' But not only is what she does not original, but it is despicable to boot. You needn't, try and copy Miss Lin's example. How fortunate, that I didn't make any reckless remark! It was all because of my inconsiderate talk on the last two occasions, that P'in Erh got angry with me, and that Pao-ch'ai felt hurt. And had I now given them offence also, I would have been in a still more awkward fix!", "pos": 252751}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "She too, must have been bent upon writing verses, or supplying some line or other, and at the sight now of the flowers, the idea must have suggested itself to her mind. Or it may very likely be that having spontaneously devised a couplet, she got suddenly elated and began, for fear it should slip from her memory, to trace it on the ground so as to tone the rhythm. Yet there's no saying. Let me see, however, what she's going to write next.", "pos": 255295}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This girl must, for a certainty, have something to say, or some unspeakable momentous secret that she goes on like this. But if outwardly she behaves in this wise, who knows what anguish she mayn't suffer at heart? And yet, with a frame to all appearances so very delicate, how could she ever resist much inward anxiety! Woe is me that I'm unable to transfer some part of her burden on to my own shoulders! It's pouring, and how can a frame like hers resist the brunt of such a squall. Leave off writing! See, it's pouring; you're wet through!", "pos": 256371}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Leave off writing.", "pos": 257486}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It's pouring!", "pos": 257505}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Many thanks, sister, for recalling me to my senses. Yet is there forsooth anything outside there to protect you from the rain? Ai-yah. This will never do,", "pos": 257913}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "who's it now knocking at the door? There's no one to go and open.", "pos": 259775}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It's I,", "pos": 259843}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "It's Miss Pao-ch'ai's tone of voice,", "pos": 259870}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Nonsense! What would Miss Pao-ch'ai come over to do at such an hour?", "pos": 259925}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Let me go, and see through the fissure in the door, and if we can open, we'll open; for we mustn't let her go back, wet through. How could I ever have known, that you had returned, Sir! Yet how is it that you've run back in this heavy rain? Ai-yah!", "pos": 260016}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You mean things! It's because I've always treated you so considerately that you don't respect me in the least! And you now go to the length of making a laughing-stock of me! Hallo! is it you who've come? Where did I kick you?", "pos": 261038}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Instead of kicking, don't you yet go and change your clothes?", "pos": 261951}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Up to the age I've reached, this is the first instance on which I've ever so thoroughly lost control over my temper as to strike any one; and, contrary to all my thoughts, it's you that happened to come in my way?", "pos": 262085}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I've been here from the very first, so in all things, whether large or small, good or bad, it has naturally fallen to my share to bear the brunt. But not to say another word about your assault on me, why, to-morrow you'll indulge your hand and start beating others!", "pos": 262405}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I did not strike you intentionally just now,", "pos": 262712}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Who ever said, that you did it intentionally! It has ever been the duty of that tribe of servant-girls to open and shut the doors, yet they've got into the way of being obstinate, and have long ago become such an abomination that people's teeth itch to revenge themselves on them. They don't know, besides, what fear means. So had you first assured yourself that it was they and given them a kick, a little intimidating would have done them good. But I'm at the bottom of the mischief that happened just now, for not calling those, upon whom it devolves, to come and open for you.", "pos": 262776}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Oh me! What are you up to?", "pos": 264456}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You groaned in your dreams, so I must have kicked you hard. Do let me see!", "pos": 264587}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "My head feels giddy. My throat foul and sweet; throw the light on the floor!", "pos": 264683}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Dreadful!", "pos": 264957}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "that the lives of young people, who expectorate blood, are uncertain, and that although they may live long, they are, after all, mere wrecks,", "pos": 265486}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What's it that preys on your mind?", "pos": 265948}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "There's no rhyme or reason for anything, so what can it be? My troubling you is of no matter, but were I to put ever so many people to inconvenience, they'll bear me a grudge for my impudence. Not a soul, it's clear enough, knows anything about it now, but were you to make such a bustle as to bring it to people's notice, you'll be in an awkward fix, and so will I. The proper thing, therefore, is for you to send a page to-morrow to request Dr. Wang to prepare some medicine for me. When I take this I shall be all right. And as neither any human being nor spirit will thus get wind of it, won't it be better?", "pos": 266050}
{"speaker": "Wang Chi-jen", "text": "It's simply a bruise; nothing more,", "pos": 267783}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You stupid thing! what a dunce! what next will you be up to by and bye? When, in a little time, you get married and have a home of your own, will you, forsooth, still go on in this happy-go-lucky careless sort of way?", "pos": 271215}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Master Secundus, your temper is of late dreadfully fiery, and time and again it leaks out on your very face! The other day you even beat Hsi Jen and here you are again now finding fault with us! If you feel disposed to kick or strike us, you are at liberty, Sir, to do so at your pleasure; but for a fan to slip on the ground is an everyday occurrence! How many of those crystal jars and cornelian bowls were smashed the other time, I don't remember, and yet you were not seen to fly into a tantrum; and now, for a fan do you distress yourself so? What's the use of it? If you dislike us, well pack us off and select some good girls to serve you, and we will quietly go away. Won't this be better?", "pos": 271464}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You needn't be in a hurry! There will be a day of parting by and bye.", "pos": 272286}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "what are you up to again? why, there's nothing to put your monkey up! I'm perfectly right in my assertion that when I'm away for any length of time, something is sure to happen.", "pos": 272505}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Sister, since you've got the gift of the gab, you should have come at once; you would then have spared your master his fit of anger. It's you who have from bygone days up to the present waited upon master; we've never had anything to do with attending on him; and it's because you've served him so faithfully that he repaid you yesterday with a kick on the stomach. But who knows what punishment mayn't be in store for us, who aren't fit to wait upon him decently!", "pos": 272739}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Dear sister, you had better be off for a stroll! it's really we, who are to blame!", "pos": 273497}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "I can't make out, who you may mean. But don't make me blush on your account! Even those devilish pranks of yours can't hoodwink me! How and why is it that you've started styling yourself as 'we?' Properly speaking, you haven't as yet so much as attained the designation of 'Miss!' You're simply no better than I am, and how is it then that you presume so high as to call yourself 'we.'", "pos": 273814}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'll actually raise her to-morrow to a higher status!", "pos": 274411}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "She's a stupid girl, what's the use of arguing with her? What's more, you've so far borne with them and overlooked ever, so many other things more grievous than this; and what are you up to to-day?", "pos": 274507}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "If I'm really a stupid girl, am I a fit person for you to hold converse with? Why, I'm purely and simply a slave-girl; that's all.", "pos": 274719}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Are you, after all, bickering with me, or with Master Secundus? If you bear me a grudge, you'd better then address your remarks to me alone; albeit it isn't right that you should kick up such a hullaballoo in the presence of Mr. Secundus. But if you have a spite against Mr. Secundus, you shouldn't be shouting so boisterously as to make thousands of people know all about it! I came in, a few minutes back, merely for the purpose of setting matters right, and of urging you to make up your quarrels so that we should all be on the safe side; and here I have the unlucky fate of being set upon by you, Miss! Yet you neither seem to be angry with me, nor with Mr. Secundus! But armed cap-à-pie as you appear to be, what is your ultimate design? I won't utter another word, but let you have your say!", "pos": 274898}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've guessed the secret of your heart, so I'll go and tell mother that as you've also attained a certain age, she should send you away. Will this please you, yes or no?", "pos": 275852}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Why should I go away? If even you be so prejudiced against me as to try and devise means to pack me off, you won't succeed.", "pos": 276126}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You're certainly bent upon going! I might as well therefore let mother know so as to bundle you off!", "pos": 276312}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Where are you off to?", "pos": 276564}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'm going to tell mother,", "pos": 276599}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "It's no use whatever! you may be in real earnest to go and tell her, but aren't you afraid of putting her to shame? If even she positively means to leave, you can very well wait until you two have got over this bad blood. And when everything is past and gone, it won't be any too late for you to explain, in the course of conversation, the whole case to our lady, your mother. But if you now go in hot haste and tell her, as if the matter were an urgent one, won't you be the means of making our mistress give way to suspicion?", "pos": 276644}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "is sure not to entertain any suspicions, as all I will explain to her is that she insists upon leaving.", "pos": 277222}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "When did I ever insist upon going? You fly into a rage, and then you have recourse to threats to intimidate me. But you're at liberty to go and say anything you like; for as I'll knock my brains out against the wall, I won't get alive out of this door.", "pos": 277328}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This is, indeed, strange! If you won't go, what's the good of all this fuss? I can't stand this bawling, so it will be a riddance if you would get out of the way!", "pos": 277604}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What would you have me do? This heart of mine has been rent to pieces, and no one has any idea about it!", "pos": 278525}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "On a grand holiday like this, how is it that you're snivelling away, and all for nothing? Is it likely that high words have resulted all through that 'dumpling' contest? You don't tell me, cousin Secundus, but I know all about it, even though I have asked no questions. My dear sister-in-law, just you tell me! It must surely be that you two have had a quarrel. Confide in me, your cousin, so that I might reconcile you.", "pos": 278971}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Miss Lin, what are you fussing about? I am simply one of our servant-girls; you're therefore rather erratic in your talk!", "pos": 279571}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "and yet I treat you like a sister-in-law.", "pos": 279801}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Why do you, give her this abusive epithet? But however much she may make allowance for this, can she, when there are so many others who tell idle tales on her account, put up with your coming and telling her all you've said?", "pos": 279845}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Miss Lin, you're not aware of the purpose of my heart. Unless my breath fails and I die, I shall continue in his service.", "pos": 280092}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "what will others do, I wonder? As for me, I shall be the first to die from crying.", "pos": 280277}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Were you to die. I shall become a bonze.", "pos": 280362}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "You'd better be a little more sober-minded! What's the good of coming out with all these things?", "pos": 280432}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Up to this, he's become a bonze twice. Henceforward, I'll try and remember how many times you make up your mind to become a Buddhist priest!", "pos": 280615}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Your disposition, has been more and more spoilt through indulgence. When you let the fan drop this morning, I simply made one or two remarks, and out you came with that long rigmarole. Had you gone for me it wouldn't have mattered; but you also dragged in Hsi Jen, who only interfered with every good intention of inducing us to make it up again. But, ponder now, ought you to have done it; yes or no?", "pos": 281994}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "With this intense heat, why do you pull me and toss me about? Should any people see you, what will they think? But this person of mine isn't meet to be seated in here.", "pos": 282411}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Since you yourself know that it isn't meet, why then were you sleeping here?", "pos": 282608}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "It was all right, during your absence; but the moment you come, it isn't meet for me to stay! Get up and let me go and have my bath. Hsi Jen and She Yüeh have both had theirs, so I'll call them here!", "pos": 282804}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've just had again a good deal of wine, so a wash will be good for me. And since you've not had your bath, you had better bring the water and let's both have it together.", "pos": 283022}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "No, no! I cannot presume to put you to any trouble, Sir. I still remember how when Pi Hen used to look after your bath you occupied fully two or three hours. What you were up to during that time we never knew. We could not very well walk in. When you had however done washing, and we entered your room, we found the floor so covered with water that the legs of the bed were soaking and the matting itself a regular pool. Nor could we make out what kind of washing you'd been having; and for days afterwards we had a laugh over it. But I've neither any time to get the water ready; nor do I see the need for you to have a wash along with me. Besides, to-day it's chilly, and as you've had a bath only a little while back, you can very well just now dispense with one. But I'll draw a basin of water for you to wash your face, and to shampoo your head with. Not long ago, Yüan Yang sent you a few fruits; they were put in that crystal bowl, so you'd better tell them to bring them to you to taste.", "pos": 283226}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Well, in that case. you needn't also have a bath. Just simply wash your hands, and bring the fruit and let's have some together.", "pos": 284262}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "I'm so shaky, that even fans slip out of my hands, and how could I fetch the fruit for you. Were I also to break the dish, it will be still more dreadful!", "pos": 284411}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "If you want to break it, break it! These things are only intended for general use. You like this thing; I fancy that; our respective tastes are not identical. The original use of that fan, for instance, was to fan one's self with; but if you chose to break it for fun, you were quite at liberty to do so. The only thing is, when you get angry don't make it the means of giving vent to your temper! Just like those salvers. They are really meant for serving things in. But if you fancy that kind of sound, then deliberately smash them, that will be all right. But don't, when you are in high dudgeon avail yourself of them to air your resentment! That's what one would call having a fancy for a thing!", "pos": 284588}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Since that be so, bring me your fan and let me tear it. What most takes my fancy is tearing!", "pos": 285351}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "How nice the noise is! Tear it again and make it sound a little more!", "pos": 285688}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Don't, be up to so much mischief!", "pos": 285824}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Open the fan-box, and choose one and take it away! What, are they such fine things!", "pos": 286202}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "In that case, fetch the fans and let her break as many as she can. Won't that be nice!", "pos": 286306}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Go and bring them at once!", "pos": 286416}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "I'm feeling tired. I'll therefore tear some more to-morrow again.", "pos": 286590}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "'that a thousand ounces of gold cannot purchase a single laugh'! What can a few fans cost?", "pos": 286769}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "I don't see why,", "pos": 288072}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "you wear all these things!'", "pos": 288121}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "It's entirely at aunt Secunda's bidding, that I put them on. Why, would any one of her own accord wear so many things!", "pos": 288150}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Aunt, you're not aware that what most delights her in the matter of dress is to don other people's clothes! Yes, I remember how, during her stay here in the third and fourth moons of last year, she used to wear cousin Pao's pelisses. She even put on his shoes, and attached his frontlets as well round her head. At a casual glance, she looked the very image of cousin Pao; what was superfluous was that pair of earrings of hers. As she stood at the back of that chair she so thoroughly took in our venerable ancestor that she kept on shouting: 'Pao-yü, come over! Mind the tassels suspended on that lamp; for if you shake the dust off, it may get into your eyes!' But all she did was to laugh; she did not budge; and it was only after every one found it hard to keep their countenance that our worthy senior also started laughing. 'You do look well in male habiliments!' she said to her.", "pos": 288299}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "What about that! why, she had scarcely been here with us a couple of days in the first moon of last year, when we sent and fetched her, that we had a fall of snow. You, venerable senior, and her maternal aunt had on that day, I remember so well, just returned from worshipping the images of our ancestors, and a brand-new deep red felt wrapper of yours, dear grandmother, had been lying over there, when suddenly it disappeared. But, lo, she it was who had put it on! Being, however, too large and too long for her, she took a couple of handkerchiefs, and fastened them round her waist. She was then trudging into the back court with the servant-girls to make snow men when she tripped and fell flat in front of the drain, and got covered all over with mud.", "pos": 289241}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Dame Chou, is your young lady always as fond of pranks as ever or not?", "pos": 290120}
{"speaker": "Ying Ch'un", "text": "Pranks are nothing. What I do detest is her fondness for tittle-tattle! I've never seen any one who, even when asleep, goes on chatter-chatter; now laughing, and now talking, as she does. Nor can I make out where she gets all those idle yarns of hers.", "pos": 290274}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "I think she's better of late. The other day some party or other came and they met; so she's to have a mother-in-law very soon; and can she still be comporting herself like that!", "pos": 290549}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Are you going to stay to-day, or going back home?", "pos": 290755}
{"speaker": "Nurse Chou", "text": "Your venerable ladyship has not seen what an amount of clothes we've brought. We mean, of course, to stay a couple of days.", "pos": 290858}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Is cousin Pao-yü not at home?", "pos": 290999}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "There she's again! She doesn't think of others. She only thinks of her cousin Pao-yü. They're both so fond of larks! This proves that she hasn't yet got rid of that spirit of mischief.", "pos": 291053}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "You're all now grown up, and you shouldn't allude to infant names.", "pos": 291284}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Cousin Yün, have you come? How is it that you wouldn't come the other day when some one was despatched to fetch you?", "pos": 291439}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "It's only a few minutes, since our venerable senior called that one to task, and now here he comes and refers to names and surnames!", "pos": 291571}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Your cousin Pao, has something good, which he has been waiting to give you.", "pos": 291726}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "What good thing is it?", "pos": 291827}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Do you believe what she says? But how many days is it that I have not seen you, and you've grown so much taller!", "pos": 291870}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Is cousin Hsi Jen all right?", "pos": 292015}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "She's all right. Many thanks for your kind thought of her.", "pos": 292067}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "I've brought something nice for her. What's this something nice?", "pos": 292147}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Wouldn't it have been better if you'd brought her a couple of those rings with streaked stones of the kind you sent the other day?", "pos": 292312}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Why, what's this?", "pos": 292445}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "what a girl she is! Had you, when sending that fellow the other day to bring ours, given him these also to bring along with him, wouldn't it have saved trouble? Instead of that, here you fussily bring them yourself to-day! I presumed that it was something out of the way again; but is it really only these things? In very truth, you're a mere dunce!", "pos": 292699}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "It's you who behave like a dunce now! I’ll speak out here and let every one judge for themselves who is the dunce. The servant, deputed to bring the things to you, had no need to open his mouth and say anything; for, as soon as they were brought in, it was of course evident, at a glance, that they were to be presented to you young ladies. But had he been the bearer of these things for them, I would have been under the necessity of explaining to him which was intended for this servant-girl, and which for that. Had the messenger had his wits about him, well and good; but had he been at all stupid he wouldn't have been able to remember so much as the names of the girls! He would have made an awful mess of it, and talked a lot of nonsense. So instead of being of any use he would have even muddled, hickledy-pickledy, your things. Had a female servant been despatched, it would have been all right. But as it happened, a servant-boy was again sent the other day, so how could he have mentioned the names of the waiting-girls? And by my bringing them in person to give them to them, doesn't it make things clearer? One is for sister Hsi Jen, one is for sister Yüan Yang. One for sister Chin Ch'uan-erh, and one for sister P'ing Erh. They are only for these four girls; but would the servant-boys too forsooth have remembered them so clearly!", "pos": 293051}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "She doesn't spare any one!", "pos": 294623}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "If she didn't know how to use her tongue, would she deserve to wear that unicorn of gold!", "pos": 294700}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "How is it, that these lotus flowers have not yet opened?", "pos": 296389}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "The proper season hasn't yet arrived,", "pos": 296469}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "resemble those in our pond; they are double flowers.", "pos": 296567}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "These here, are not however up to ours.", "pos": 296622}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "They have over there, a pomegranate tree, with four or five branches joined one to another, just like one storey raised above another storey. What trouble it must have cost them to rear!", "pos": 296687}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Flowers and plants, are precisely like the human race. With sufficient vitality, they grow up in a healthy condition.", "pos": 296897}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "I can't credit these words. If you maintain that they are like human beings, how is it that I haven't seen any person, with one head growing over another.", "pos": 297046}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "I tell you not to talk, but you will insist upon talking! How do you expect people to be able to answer every thing you say! All things, whether in heaven or on earth come into existence by the co-operation of the dual powers, the male and female. So all things, whether good or bad, novel or strange, and all those manifold changes and transformations arise entirely from the favourable or adverse influence exercised by the male and female powers. And though some things seldom seen by mankind might come to life, the principle at work is, after all, the same.", "pos": 297295}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "In the face of these arguments, everything, from old till now, from the very creation itself, embodies a certain proportion of the Yin and Yang principles.", "pos": 297873}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "You stupid thing! the more you talk, the more stuff and nonsense falls from your lips! What about everything embodying a certain proportion of the principles Yin and Yang! Besides, the two words Yin and Yang are really one word; for when the Yang principle is exhausted, it becomes the Yin; and when the Yin is exhausted, it becomes Yang. And it isn't that, at the exhaustion of the Yin, another Yang comes into existence; and that, at the exhaustion of the Yang, a second Yin arises.", "pos": 298051}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "This trash is sufficient to kill me! What are the Yin and Yang? Why, they are without substance or form! But pray, Miss, tell me what sort of things these Yin and Yang can be!", "pos": 298570}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "The Yin and Yang, are no more than spirits, but anything affected by their influence at once assumes form. The heavens, for instance, are Yang, and the earth is Yin; water is Yin and fire is Yang; the sun is Yang and the moon Yin.", "pos": 298771}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "Quite so! quite so! I've at length attained perception! It isn't strange then that people invariably call the sun 'T'ai-yang.' While astrologers keep on speaking of the moon as 'T'ai-yin-hsing,' or something like it. It must be on account of this principle.", "pos": 299028}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "O-mi-to-fu! you have at last understood!", "pos": 299345}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "All these things possess the Yin and Yang; that's all right. But is there any likelihood that all those mosquitoes, flees and worms, flowers, herbs, bricks and tiles have, in like manner, anything to do with the Yin and Yang?", "pos": 299410}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "How don't they! For example, even the leaves of that tree are distinguished by Yin and Yang. The side, which looks up and faces the sun, is called Yang; while that in the shade and looking downwards, is called Yin.", "pos": 299657}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "Is it really so! Now I know all about it! But which is Yang and which Yin in these fans we're holding.", "pos": 299898}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "This side, the front, is Yang, and that, the reverse, is Yin.", "pos": 300083}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "This, Miss, cannot likely also have any Yin and Yang!", "pos": 300524}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "The beasts of the field and the birds of the air, are, the cock birds, Yang, and the hen birds, Yin. The females of beasts are Yin; and the males, Yang; so how is there none?", "pos": 300600}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "Is this male, or is this female?", "pos": 300801}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Ts'ui! what about male and female! Here you are with your nonsense again.", "pos": 300855}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "Well, never mind about that. But how is it that all things have Yin and Yang, and that we human beings have no Yin and no Yang?", "pos": 300954}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "You low-bred thing! But it's better for us to proceed on our way, for the more questions you ask, the nicer they get.", "pos": 301136}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "What's there in this that you can't tell me? But I know all about it, so there's no need for you to keep me on pins and needles.", "pos": 301273}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "What do you know?", "pos": 301455}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "That you, Miss, are Yang, and that I'm Yin. What I say must be right for you to laugh in this way,", "pos": 301485}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Perfectly right, perfectly right!", "pos": 301743}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "People say, that masters are Yang, and that servant-girls are Yin; don't I even apprehend this primary principle?", "pos": 301802}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "You apprehend it thoroughly. Do you see that? What is it?", "pos": 301940}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "Let us find out whether it's Yin or Yang! It's a precious gem. You mayn't see it, Miss. Where can it be from? How very strange it is! I've never seen any one in here with anything of the kind.", "pos": 302300}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Give it to me and let me look at it,", "pos": 302717}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Lü", "text": "Yes, Miss, please look at it!", "pos": 302822}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What are you two, doing here in the sun? How is it you don't go and find Hsi Jen?", "pos": 303251}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "We were just going, so let us all go together.", "pos": 303408}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You should have come earlier. I've got something nice and was only waiting for you. Ai-ya! Have you perchance put that thing away?", "pos": 303886}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "What thing?", "pos": 304158}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "The unicorn. I got the other day.", "pos": 304190}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "You've daily worn it about you, and how is it you ask me?", "pos": 304246}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've lost it! Where can I go and look for it!", "pos": 304389}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "When did you too, get a unicorn?", "pos": 304598}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I got it the other day, after ever so much trouble; but I can't make out when I can have lost it! I've also become quite addle-headed.", "pos": 304656}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Fortunately, it's only a sort of a toy! Still, are you so careless? Just see, is it this or not?", "pos": 304812}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Lucky enough it was you who picked it up! But when did you find it?", "pos": 305568}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Fortunately it was only this! If you by and bye also lose your seal, will you likely banish it at once from your mind, and never make an effort to discover it?", "pos": 305682}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "After all, the loss of a seal is an ordinary occurrence. But had I lost this, I would have deserved to die.", "pos": 305881}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Miss Senior. I heard that you had occasion the other day to be highly pleased. Here you are again full of shame! But do you remember when we were living, about ten years back, in those warm rooms on the west side and you confided in me one evening, you didn't feel any shame then; and how is it you blush like this now?", "pos": 306075}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Do you still speak about that! You and I were then great friends. But when our mother subsequently died and I went home for a while, how is it you were at once sent to be with my cousin Secundus, and that now that I've come back you don't treat me as you did once?", "pos": 306538}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Are you yet harping on this! Why, at first, you used to coax me with a lot of endearing terms to comb your hair and to wash your face, to do this and that for you. But now that you've become a big girl, you assume the manner of a young mistress towards me, and as you put on these airs of a young mistress, how can I ever presume to be on a familiar footing with you?", "pos": 306845}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "O-mi-to-fu. What a false accusation! If I be guilty of anything of the kind, may I at once die! Just see what a broiling hot day this is, and yet as soon as I arrived I felt bound to come and look you up first. If you don't believe me, well, ask Lü Erh! And while at home, when did I not at every instant say something about you?", "pos": 307255}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen and Pao-yü", "text": "We were only joking, but you've taken everything again as gospel. What! are you still so impetuous in your temperament!", "pos": 307684}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "You don't say, that your words are hard things to swallow, but contrariwise, call people's temperaments impetuous!", "pos": 307819}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "When; you sent those to your cousin the other day, I got one also; and here you yourself bring me another to-day! It's clear enough therefore that you haven't forgotten me. This alone has been quite enough to test you. As for the ring itself, what is its worth? but it's a token of the sincerity of your heart!", "pos": 308099}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Who gave it to you?", "pos": 308439}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Miss Pao let me have it.", "pos": 308487}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "I was under the impression, that it was a present from cousin Lin. But is it really cousin Pao, that gave it to you! When I was at home, I day after day found myself reflecting that among all these cousins of mine, there wasn't one able to compare with cousin Pao, so excellent is she. How I do regret that we are not the offspring of one mother! For could I boast of such a sister of the same flesh and blood as myself, it wouldn't matter though I had lost both father and mother!", "pos": 308531}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Never mind! never mind! Why need you speak of these things!", "pos": 309108}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "If I do allude to this, what does it matter? I know that weak point of yours. You're in fear and trembling lest your cousin Lin should come to hear what I say, and get angry with me again for eulogising cousin Pao! Now isn't it this, eh!", "pos": 309191}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Ch'ih! Miss Yün, now that you've grown up to be a big girl you've become more than ever openhearted and outspoken.", "pos": 309459}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "When I contend; that it is difficult to say a word to any one of you I'm indeed perfectly correct!", "pos": 309632}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "My dear cousin, don't go on in that strain! You'll provoke me to displeasure. When you are with me all you are good for is to talk and talk away; but were you to catch a glimpse of cousin Lin, you would once more be quite at a loss to know what best to do!", "pos": 309750}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Now, enough of your jokes! I have a favour to crave of you.", "pos": 310048}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "What is it?", "pos": 310127}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I've got a pair of shoes, for which I've stuck the padding together; but I'm not feeling up to the mark these last few days, so I haven't been able to work at them. If you have any leisure, do finish them for me.", "pos": 310178}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "This is indeed strange! Putting aside all the skilful workers engaged in your household, you have besides some people for doing needlework and others for tailoring and cutting; and how is it you appeal to me to take your shoes in hand? Were you to ask any one of those men to execute your work, who could very well refuse to do it?", "pos": 310413}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Here you are in another stupid mood! Can it be that you don't know that our sewing in these quarters mayn't be done by these needleworkers.", "pos": 310776}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Since that be the case. I'll work them for you. There's however one thing. I'll readily attend to any of yours, but I will have nothing to do with any for other people.", "pos": 311035}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "There you are again! Who am I to venture to trouble you to make shoes for me? I'll tell you plainly, however, that they are not mine. But no matter whose they are, it is anyhow I who'll be the recipient of your favour; that is sufficient.", "pos": 311235}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "To speak the truth, you've put me to the trouble of working, I don't know how many things for you. The reason why I refuse on this occasion should be quite evident to you!", "pos": 311495}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I can't nevertheless make it out!", "pos": 311697}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "I heard the other day, that while the fan-case, I had worked, was being held and compared with that of some one else, it too was slashed away in a fit of high dudgeon. This reached my ears long ago, and do you still try to dupe me by asking me again now to make something more for you? Have I really become a slave to you people?", "pos": 311751}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "As to what occurred the other day. I positively had no idea that that thing was your handiwork.", "pos": 312140}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "He never knew that you'd done it. I deceived him by telling him that there had been of late some capital hands at needlework outside, who could execute any embroidery with surpassing beauty, and that I had asked them to bring a fan-case so as to try them and to see whether they could actually work well or not. He at once believed what I said. But as he produced the case and gave it to this one and that one to look at, he somehow or other, I don't know how, managed again to put some one's back up, and she cut it into two. On his return, however, he bade me hurry the men to make another; and when at length I explained to him that it had been worked by you, he felt, I can't tell you, what keen regret!", "pos": 312274}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "This is getting stranger and stranger! It wasn't worth the while for Miss Lin to lose her temper about it. But as she plies the scissors so admirably, why, you might as well tell her to finish the shoes for you.", "pos": 313008}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "She couldn't, for besides other things our venerable lady is still in fear and trembling lest she should tire herself in any way. The doctor likewise says that she will continue to enjoy good health, so long as she is carefully looked after; so who would wish to ask her to take them in hand? Last year she managed to just get through a scented bag, after a whole year's work. But here we've already reached the middle of the present year, and she hasn't yet taken up any needle or thread!", "pos": 313246}
{"speaker": "servant", "text": "that the gentleman who lived in the Hsing Lung Street had come. Our master, bids you, Mr. Secundus, come out and greet him.", "pos": 313823}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Why there's father, to sit with him; that should be enough; and must he, on every visit he pays, insist upon seeing me!", "pos": 314214}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "It is, of course, because you have such a knack for receiving and entertaining visitors that Mr. Chia Cheng will have you go out,", "pos": 314355}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Is it father's doing? Why, it's he himself who asks that I should be sent for to see him.", "pos": 314562}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "'When a host is courteous, visitors come often,' so it's surely because you possess certain qualities, which have won his regard, that he insists upon seeing you.", "pos": 314674}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "But I am not what one would call courteous. I am, of all coarse people, the coarsest. Besides, I do not choose to have any relations with such people as himself.", "pos": 314859}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Here's again that unchangeable temperament of yours! But you're a big fellow now, and you should at least, if you be loth to study and go and pass your examinations for a provincial graduate or a metropolitan graduate, have frequent intercourse with officers and ministers of state and discuss those varied attainments, which one acquires in an official career, so that you also may be able in time to have some idea about matters in general; and that when by and bye you've made friends, they may not see you spending the whole day long in doing nothing than loafing in our midst, up to every imaginable mischief.", "pos": 315042}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Miss, pray go and sit in some other girl's room, for mind one like myself may contaminate a person who knows so much of attainments and experience as you do.", "pos": 315681}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Miss, drop this at once! Last time Miss Pao too tendered him this advice, but without troubling himself as to whether people would feel uneasy or not, he simply came out with an ejaculation of 'hai,' and rushed out of the place. Miss Pao hadn't meanwhile concluded her say, so when she saw him fly, she got so full of shame that, flushing scarlet, she could neither open her lips, nor hold her own counsel. But lucky for him it was only Miss Pao. Had it been Miss Lin, there's no saying what row there may not have been again, and what tears may not have been shed! Yet the very mention of all she had to tell him is enough to make people look up to Miss Pao with respect. But after a time, she also betook herself away. I then felt very unhappy as I imagined that she was angry; but contrary to all my expectations, she was by and bye just the same as ever. She is, in very truth, long-suffering and indulgent! This other party contrariwise became quite distant to her, little though one would have thought it of him; and as Miss Pao perceived that he had lost his temper, and didn't choose to heed her, she subsequently made I don't know how many apologies to him.", "pos": 315882}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Did Miss Lin ever talk such trash! Had she ever talked such stuff and nonsense, I would have long ago become chilled towards her.", "pos": 317071}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen and Hsiang-yün", "text": "What you say is all trash!", "pos": 317223}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Hsiang-yün", "pos": 317263}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "In the foreign traditions and wild stories, introduced here of late by Pao-yü, literary persons and pretty girls are, for the most part, brought together in marriage, through the agency of some trifling but ingenious nick-nack. These people either have miniature ducks, or phoenixes, jade necklets or gold pendants, fine handkerchiefs or elegant sashes; and they have, through the instrumentality of such trivial objects, invariably succeeded in accomplishing the wishes they entertained throughout their lives.", "pos": 317564}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Cousin Lin has never indulged in such stuff and nonsense. Had she ever uttered any such trash, I would have become chilled even towards her!", "pos": 318701}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "because, he has, in the presence of so many witnesses, displayed such partiality as to speak in my praise, and has shown such affection and friendliness for me as to make no attempt whatever to shirk suspicion. for since,", "pos": 319142}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Cousin Lin, where are you off to? How is it that you're crying again? Who has once more hurt your feelings?", "pos": 320980}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Why should I be crying, when there is no reason to do so?", "pos": 321204}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Look here! The tears in your eyes are not dry yet and do you still tell me a fib?", "pos": 321279}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Are you again bent, upon compassing your own death! Then why do you knock your hands and kick your feet about in this wise?", "pos": 321529}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "While intent upon speaking, I forgot, all about propriety and gesticulated, yet quite inadvertently. But what care I whether I die or live!", "pos": 321667}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "To die would, after all be for you of no matter; but you'll leave behind some gold or other, and a unicorn too or other; and what would they do?", "pos": 321826}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Do you still give vent to such language? Why, it's really tantamount to invoking imprecations on me! What, are you yet angry with me!", "pos": 322093}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Now don't you distress your mind! I verily said what I shouldn't! Yet what is there in this to make your veins protrude, and to so provoke you as to bedew your whole face with perspiration?", "pos": 322421}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Do set your mind at ease!", "pos": 322841}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "What's there to make my mind uneasy? I can't make out what you're driving at; tell me what's this about making me easy or uneasy?", "pos": 322939}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Don't you truly fathom the depth of my words? Why, do you mean to say that I've throughout made such poor use of my love for you as not to be able to even divine your feelings? Well, if so, it's no wonder that you daily lose your temper on my account!", "pos": 323134}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I actually don't understand what you mean by easy or uneasy,", "pos": 323403}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear girl. Don't be making a fool of me! For if you can't make out these words, not only have I ever uselessly lavished affection upon you, but the regard, with which you have always treated me, has likewise been entirely of no avail! And it's mostly because you won't set your mind at ease that your whole frame is riddled with disease. Had you taken things easier a bit, this ailment of yours too wouldn't have grown worse from day to day!", "pos": 323486}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear cousin, do stop a bit! Let me tell you just one thing; after that, you may go.", "pos": 324967}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "What can you have to tell me? I know. all you have to say.", "pos": 325070}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "You left, without even taking a fan with you. Happily I noticed it, and so hurried to catch you up and bring it to you.", "pos": 325818}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear cousin. I couldn't hitherto muster enough courage to disclose the secrets of my heart; but on this occasion I shall make bold and give utterance to them. For you I'm quite ready to even pay the penalty of death. I have too for your sake brought ailments upon my whole frame. It's in here! But I haven't ventured to breathe it to any one. My only alternative has been to bear it patiently, in the hope that when you got all right, I might then perchance also recover. But whether I sleep, or whether I dream, I never, never forget you.", "pos": 326128}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Oh spirits, oh heaven, oh Buddha, he's compassing my death! what is it you're saying? May it be that you are possessed by some evil spirit! Don't you quick get yourself off?", "pos": 326808}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "What! are you dreaming away in a hot broiling sun like this?", "pos": 327915}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Those two birds, were having a fight, and such fun was it that I stopped to watch them.", "pos": 328061}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I just caught sight of him, as he went by. I meant to have called out and stopped him, but as he, of late, talks greater rubbish than ever, I didn't challenge him, but let him go past.", "pos": 328262}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Our master, sent for him to go out.", "pos": 328449}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Ai-yah! What does he want him for, on a scalding day like this? Might he not have thought of something and got so angry about it as to send for him to give him a lecture!", "pos": 328507}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "If it isn't this, some visitor must, I presume, have come and he wishes him to meet him.", "pos": 328752}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "With weather like this, even visitors afford no amusement! Why don't they, while this fiery temperature lasts, stay at home, where it's much cooler, instead of gadding about all over the place?", "pos": 328869}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Could you tell them so?", "pos": 329085}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "What was that girl Hsiang-yün doing in your quarters?", "pos": 329127}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "She only came to chat with us on irrelevant matters. But did you see the pair of shoes I was pasting the other day? Well, I meant to ask her to-morrow to finish them for me.", "pos": 329205}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "How is it, that you, who have so much gumption, don't ever show any respect for people's feelings? I've been of late keeping an eye on Miss Yün's manner, and, from what I can glean from the various rumours afloat, she can't be, in the slightest degree, her own mistress at home! In that family of theirs, so little can they stand the burden of any heavy expenses that they don't employ any needlework-people, and ordinary everyday things are mostly attended to by their ladies themselves. (If not), why is it that every time she has come to us on a visit, and she and I have had a chat, she at once broached the subject of their being in great difficulties at home, the moment she perceived that there was no one present? Yet, whenever I went on to ask her a few questions about their usual way of living, her very eyes grew red, while she made some indistinct reply; but as for speaking out, she wouldn't. But when I consider the circumstances in which she is placed, for she has certainly had the misfortune of being left, from her very infancy, without father and mother, the very sight of her is too much for me, and my heart begins to bleed within me.", "pos": 329546}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Quite so! Quite so! It isn't strange then if she let me have the ten butterfly knots I asked her to tie for me only after ever so many days, and if she said that they were coarsely done, but that I should make the best of them and use them elsewhere, and that if I wanted any nice ones, I should wait until by and bye when she came to stay here, when she would work some neatly for me. What you've told me now reminds me that, as she had found it difficult to find an excuse when we appealed to her, she must have had to slave away, who knows how much, till the third watch in the middle of the night. What a stupid thing I was! Had I known this sooner, I would never have told her a word about it.", "pos": 330719}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Last time; she told me that when she was at home she had ample to do, that she kept busy as late as the third watch, and that, if she did the slightest stitch of work for any other people, the various ladies, belonging to her family, did not like it.", "pos": 331495}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "But as it happens, that mulish-minded and perverse-tempered young master of ours won't allow the least bit of needlework, no matter whether small or large, to be made by those persons employed to do sewing in the household. And as for me, I have no time to turn my attention to all these things.", "pos": 331771}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Why mind him? Simply ask some one to do the work and finish.", "pos": 332090}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "How could one bamboozle him? Why, he'll promptly find out everything. Such a thing can't even be suggested. The only thing I can do is to quietly slave away, that's all.", "pos": 332174}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "You shouldn't work so hard. What do you say to my doing a few things for you?", "pos": 332365}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Are you in real earnest! Well, in that case, it is indeed a piece of good fortune for me! I'll come over myself in the evening. Where does the report come from, that Miss Chin Ch'uan-erh has gone, for no rhyme or reason, and committed suicide by jumping into the well? Which Chin Ch'uan-erh is it,", "pos": 332465}
{"speaker": "Old Matron", "text": "Where are two Chin Ch'uan-erhs to be found! It's the one in our Mistress,' Madame Wang's, apartments, who was the other day sent away for something or other, I don't know what. On her return home, she raised her groans to the skies and shed profuse tears, but none of them worried their minds about her, until, who'd have thought it, they could see nothing of her. A servant, however, went just now to draw water and he says that 'while he was getting it from the well in the south-east corner, he caught sight of a dead body, that he hurriedly called men to his help, and that when they fished it out, they unexpectedly found that it was she, but that though they bustled about trying to bring her round, everything proved of no avail'", "pos": 332990}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "This is odd!", "pos": 333756}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Where do you come from?", "pos": 334558}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I come from inside the garden,", "pos": 334603}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "As you come from the garden, did you see anything of your cousin Pao-yü?", "pos": 334656}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I saw him just now, go out, dressed up in his fineries. But where he is gone to, I don't know.", "pos": 334755}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Have you perchance heard of any strange occurrence? Why, Chin Ch'uan Erh jumped into the well and committed suicide.", "pos": 334873}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "How is it that she jumped into the well when there was nothing to make her do so? This is indeed a remarkable thing!", "pos": 335050}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "The fact is, that she spoilt something the other day, and in a sudden fit of temper, I gave her a slap and sent her away, simply meaning to be angry with her for a few days and then bring her in again. But, who could have ever imagined that she had such a resentful temperament as to go and drown herself in a well! And is not this all my fault?", "pos": 335191}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It's because you are such a kind-hearted person, aunt, that such ideas cross your mind! But she didn't jump into the well when she was in a tantrum; so what must have made her do so was that she had to go and live in the lower quarters. Or, she might have been standing in front of the well, and her foot slipped, and she fell into it. While in the upper rooms, she used to be kept under restraint, so when this time she found herself outside, she must, of course, have felt the wish to go strolling all over the place in search of fun. How could she have ever had such a fiery disposition? But even admitting that she had such a temper, she was, after all, a stupid girl to do as she did; and she doesn't deserve any pity.", "pos": 335564}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "In spite of what you say. I really feel unhappy at heart.", "pos": 336310}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "You shouldn't, aunt, distress your mind about it! Yet, if you feel very much exercised, just give her a few more taels than you would otherwise have done, and let her be buried. You'll thus carry out to the full the feelings of a mistress towards her servant.", "pos": 336421}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "I just now gave them fifty taels for her. I also meant to let them have some of your cousin's new clothes to enshroud her in. But, who'd have thought it, none of the girls had, strange coincidence, any newly-made articles of clothing; and there were only that couple of birthday suits of your cousin Lin's. But as your cousin Lin has ever been such a sensitive child and has always too suffered and ailed, I thought it would be unpropitious for her, if her clothes were also now handed to people to wrap their dead in, after she had been told that they were given her for her birthday. So I ordered a tailor to get a suit for her as soon as possible. Had it been any other servant-girl, I could have given her a few taels and have finished. But Chin Ch'uan-erh was, albeit a servant-maid, nearly as dear to me as if she had been a daughter of mine.", "pos": 336703}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Aunt! What earthly use is it of hurrying a tailor just now to prepare clothes for her? I have a couple of suits I made the other day and won't it save trouble were I to go and bring them for her? Besides, when she was alive, she used to wear my old clothes. And what's more our figures are much alike.", "pos": 337632}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "What you say is all very well, but can it be that it isn't distasteful to you?", "pos": 337970}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Compose your mind. I have never paid any heed to such things.", "pos": 338075}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Hallo!", "pos": 340417}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "Why are you, drooping your head in such a melancholy mood, and indulging in all these moans? When Yü-ts'un came just now and he asked to see you, you only put in your appearance after a long while. But though you did come, you were not in the least disposed to chat with anything like cheerfulness and animation; you behaved, as you ever do, like a regular fool. I detected then in your countenance a certain expression of some hidden hankering and sadness; and now again here you are groaning and sighing! Does all you have not suffice to please you? Are you still dissatisfied? You've no reason to be like this, so why is it that you go on in this way?", "pos": 340733}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "You come, Sir, at the instance of his royal highness, but what, I wonder, are the commands you have to give me? I hope you will explain them to your humble servant, worthy Sir, in order to enable him to carry them out effectively.", "pos": 343537}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "There's nothing to carry out,", "pos": 343827}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "All you, venerable Sir, have to do is to utter one single word and the whole thing will be effected. There is in our mansion a certain Ch'i Kuan, who plays the part of young ladies. He hitherto stayed quietly in the mansion; but for the last three or five days or so no one has seen him return home. Search has been instituted in every locality, yet his whereabouts cannot be discovered. But throughout these various inquiries, eight out of the ten tenths of the inhabitants of the city have, with one consent, asserted that he has of late been on very friendly terms with that honourable son of yours, who was born with the jade in his mouth. This report was told your servant and his colleagues, but as your worthy mansion is unlike such residences as we can take upon ourselves to enter and search with impunity, we felt under the necessity of laying the matter before our imperial master. 'Had it been any of the other actors,' his highness also says, 'I wouldn't have minded if even one hundred of them had disappeared; but this Ch'i Kuan has always been so ready with pat repartee, so respectful and trustworthy that he has thoroughly won my aged heart, and I could never do without him.' He entreats you, therefore, worthy Sir, to, in your turn, plead with your illustrious scion, and request him to let Ch'i Kuan go back, in order that the feelings, which prompt the Prince to make such earnest supplications, may, in the first place, be satisfied: and that, in the next, your mean servant and his associates may be spared the fatigue of toiling and searching.", "pos": 343868}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "What a regular scoundrel you are! It is enough that you won't read your books at home; but will you also go in for all these lawless and wrongful acts? That Ch'i Kuan is a person whose present honourable duties are to act as an attendant on his highness the Prince of Chung Shun, and how extremely heedless of propriety must you be to have enticed him, without good cause, to come away, and thus have now brought calamity upon me?", "pos": 345800}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I really don't know anything about the matter! To what do, after all, the two words Ch'i Kuan refer, I wonder! Still less, besides, am I aware what entice can imply!", "pos": 346366}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Young gentleman,", "pos": 346638}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "you shouldn't conceal anything! if he be either hidden in your home, or if you know his whereabouts, divulge the truth at once; so that less trouble should fall to our lot than otherwise would. And will we not then bear in mind your virtue, worthy scion!", "pos": 346718}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I positively don't know. There must, I fear, be some false rumour abroad; for I haven't so much as seen anything of him.", "pos": 346975}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "There's evidence at hand,", "pos": 347194}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "so if you compel me to speak out before your venerable father, won't you, young man, have to suffer the consequences? But as you assert that you don't know who this person is, how is it that that red sash has come to be attached to your waist?", "pos": 347235}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Sir, how is it that despite your acquaintance with all these minute details, you have no inkling of his having purchased a house? Are you ignorant of an essential point like this? I've heard people say that he's, at present, staying in the eastern suburbs at a distance of twenty li from the city walls; at some place or other called Tzu T'an Pao, and that he has bought there several acres of land and a few houses. So I presume he's to be found in that locality; but of course there's no saying.", "pos": 347855}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "According to your version,", "pos": 348389}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "he must for a certainty be there. I shall therefore go and look for him. If he's there, well and good; but if not, I shall come again and request you to give me further directions.", "pos": 348482}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "What are you running about for? These menials of yours do not mind you, but go who knows where, and let you roam about like a wild horse! Where are the attendants who wait on you at school?", "pos": 349457}
{"speaker": "Chia Huan", "text": "I wasn't running about just now But as I was passing by the side of that well, I caught sight, for in that well a servant-girl was drowned, of a human head that large, a body that swollen, floating about in really a frightful way and I therefore hastily rushed past.", "pos": 349804}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "There's been nothing up, so who has gone and jumped into the well? Never has there been anything of the kind in my house before! Ever since the time of our ancestors, servants have invariably been treated with clemency and consideration. But I expect that I must of late have become remiss in my domestic affairs, and that the managers must have arrogated to themselves the right of domineering and so been the cause of bringing about such calamities as violent deaths and disregard of life. Were these things to reach the ears of people outside, what will become of the reputation of our seniors? Call Chia Lien and Lai Ta here!", "pos": 350133}
{"speaker": "Chia Huan", "text": "Father, why need you be angry? Excluding the people in Madame Wang's rooms, this occurrence is entirely unknown to any of the rest; and I have heard my mother mention…. My mother, told me that when brother Pao-yü was, the other day, in Madame Wang's apartments, he seized her servant-maid Chin Ch'uan-erh with the intent of dishonouring her. That as he failed to carry out his design, he gave her a thrashing, which so exasperated Chin Ch'uan-erh that she threw herself into the well and committed suicide….", "pos": 351016}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "Bring Pao-yü here,", "pos": 351960}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "Bring Pao-yü! Bring Pao-yü! Fetch a big stick; bring a rope and tie him up; close all the doors! If any one does communicate anything about it in the inner rooms, why, I'll immediately beat him to death.", "pos": 353024}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Go in, at once and tell them that my father wishes to beat me to death. Be quick, be quick, for it's urgent, there's no time to be lost.", "pos": 354100}
{"speaker": "old nurse", "text": "If she wants to jump into the well, let her do so. What's there to make you fear, Master Secundus?", "pos": 354604}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Go out, and tell my page to come.", "pos": 354717}
{"speaker": "old nurse", "text": "What's there left unsettled? Everything has been finished long ago! A tip has also been given them; so how is it things are not settled?", "pos": 354817}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "Gag his mouth and positively beat him till he dies!", "pos": 355490}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "You people, had better ask him whether the tricks he has been up to deserve to be overlooked or not! It's you who have all along so thoroughly spoilt him as to make him reach this degree of depravity! And do you yet come to advise me to spare him? When by and bye you've incited him to commit parricide or regicide, you will at length, then, give up trying to dissuade me, eh?", "pos": 356611}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "Of course, of course, what you want to do to-day is to make me succumb to anger!", "pos": 358218}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Pao-yü does, I admit, merit to be beaten, but you should also, my lord, take good care of yourself! The weather, besides, is extremely hot, and our old lady is not feeling quite up to the mark. Were you to knock Pao-yü about and kill him, it would not matter much; but were perchance our venerable senior to suddenly fall ill, wouldn't it be a grave thing?", "pos": 358325}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "Better not talk about such things! By my bringing up such a degenerate child of retribution I have myself become unfilial! Whenever I've had to call him to account, there has always been a whole crowd of you to screen him; so isn't it as well for me to avail myself of to-day to put an end to his cur-like existence and thus prevent future misfortune?", "pos": 358706}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "My lord and master, it is your duty, of course, to keep your son in proper order, but you should also regard the relationship of husband and wife. I'm already a woman of fifty and I've only got this scapegrace. Was there any need for you to give him such a bitter lesson? I wouldn't presume to use any strong dissuasion; but having, on this occasion, gone so far as to harbour the design of killing him, isn't this a fixed purpose on your part to cut short my own existence? But as you are bent upon strangling him, be quick and first strangle me before you strangle him! It will be as well that we, mother and son, should die together, so that if even we go to hell, we may be able to rely upon each other!", "pos": 359252}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Chia Chu, if but you were alive, I would not care if even one hundred died!", "pos": 360869}
{"speaker": "servant-girl", "text": "Our dowager lady has come!", "pos": 361650}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "If you were to beat me to death and then despatch him, won't you be clear of us!", "pos": 361781}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "On a hot broiling day like this, what made you, mother, get so angry as to rush over in person? Had you anything to enjoin me, you could have sent for me, your son, and given me your orders.", "pos": 362172}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Are you really chiding me? It's I who should call you to task! But as the son, I've brought up, isn't worth a straw, to whom can I go and address a word?", "pos": 362447}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "The reason why, your son corrects his offspring is a desire to reflect lustre on his ancestors and splendour on his seniors; so how can I, your son, deserve the rebuke with which you greet me, mother?", "pos": 362802}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I made just one remark, and you couldn't stand it, and can Pao-yü likely put up with that death-working cane? You say that your object in correcting your son is to reflect lustre on your ancestors and splendour on your seniors, but in what manner did your father correct you in days gone by?", "pos": 363074}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "Mother; you shouldn't distress yourself! Your son did it in a sudden fit of rage, but from this time forth I won't touch him again.", "pos": 363474}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "But you shouldn't get into a huff with me! He's your son, so if you choose to flog him, you can naturally do so, but I cannot help thinking that you're sick and tired of me, your mother, of your wife and of your son, so wouldn't it be as well that we should get out of your way, the sooner the better, as we shall then be able to enjoy peace and quiet? Go and look after the chairs. I and your lady as well as Pao-yü will, without delay, return to Nanking. You needn't indulge in sorrow! Pao-yü is now young, and you cherish him fondly; but does it follow that when in years to come he becomes an official, he'll remember that you are his mother? You mustn't therefore at present lavish too much of your affection upon him, so that you may by and bye, spare yourself, at least, some displeasure.", "pos": 363679}
{"speaker": "Chia Cheng", "text": "Your remarks mother, cut the ground under your son's very feet.", "pos": 364751}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "You distinctly act in a way, sufficient to deprive me of any ground to stand upon, and then you, on the contrary, go and speak about yourself! But when we shall have gone back, your mind will be free of all trouble. We'll see then who'll interfere and dissuade you from beating people!", "pos": 364832}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You stupid things, won't you open your eyes and see! How ever could he be raised and made to walk in the state he's in! Don't you yet instantly run inside and fetch some rattan slings and a bench to carry him out of this on?", "pos": 365996}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "My flesh; My son, if you had died sooner, instead of Chu Erh, and left Chu Erh behind you, you would have saved your father these fits of anger, and even I would not have had to fruitlessly worry and fret for half of my existence! Were anything to happen now to make you forsake me, upon whom will you have me depend?", "pos": 366840}
{"speaker": "old lady", "text": "If your son isn't good, it is naturally for you to exercise control over him. But you shouldn't beat him to such a pitch! Don't you yet bundle yourself away? What are you dallying in here for? Is it likely, pray, that your heart is not yet satisfied, and that you wish to feast your eyes by seeing him die before you go?", "pos": 367552}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Why is it, that he was beaten just now without the least provocation; and that you didn't run over soon to tell me a word about it?", "pos": 368611}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "It happened, that I wasn't present. It was only after he had given him half the flogging that I heard what was going on, and lost no time in ascertaining what it was all about. It's on account of those affairs connected with Ch'i Kuan and that girl Chin Ch'uan.", "pos": 368758}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "How did these things come to master's knowledge?", "pos": 369063}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "As for that affair with Ch'i Kuan, it is very likely Mr. Hsüeh P'an who has let it out; for as he has ever been jealous, he may, in the absence of any other way of quenching his resentment, have instigated some one or other outside, who knows, to come and see master and add fuel to his anger. As for Chin Ch'uan-erh's affair it has presumably been told him by Master Tertius. This I heard from the lips of some person, who was in attendance upon master.", "pos": 369132}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "How was it that he beat you to such extremes?", "pos": 371017}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It was simply, about those trifles. But what's the use of your asking me about them? The lower part of my body is so very sore! Do look and see where I'm bruised! ai-ya.", "pos": 371087}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "My mother! how is it that he struck you with such a ruthless hand! Had you minded the least bit of my advice to you, things wouldn't have come to such a pass! Luckily, no harm was done to any tendon or bone; for had you been crippled by the thrashing you got, what could we do?", "pos": 371812}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "At night, take these medicines and dissolve them in wine and then apply them on him, and, when the fiery virus from that stagnant blood has been dispelled, he'll be all right again. Is he feeling any better now?", "pos": 372479}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Thanks! I'm feeling better,", "pos": 372806}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "If you had long ago listened to the least bit of the advice tendered to you by people things would not have reached this climax to-day. Not to speak of the pain experienced by our dear ancestor and aunt Wang, the sight of you in this state makes even us feel at heart….", "pos": 373125}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "How is it that he got angry, without rhyme or reason, and started beating him?", "pos": 374659}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Cousin Hsüeh, has never been like that; you people mustn't therefore give way to idle surmises!", "pos": 375090}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "He has been beaten to such a pitch, and yet, heedless of his own pains and aches, he's still so careful not to hurt people's feelings. But since you can be so considerate, why don't you take a little more care in greater concerns outside, so that your father should feel a little happier, and that you also should not have to suffer such bitter ordeals! But notwithstanding that the dread of my feeling hurt has prompted you to interrupt Hsi Jen in what she had to tell me, is it likely that I am blind to the fact that my brother has ever followed his fancies, allowed his passions to run riot, and never done a thing to exercise any check over himself? His temperament is such that he some time back created, all on account of that fellow Ch'in Chung, a rumpus that turned heaven and earth topsy-turvy; and, as a matter of course, he's now far worse than he was ever before! You people, shouldn't bear this one or that one a grudge. I can't help thinking that it's, after all, because of your usual readiness, cousin Pao-yü, to hobnob with that set that your father recently lost control over his temper. But assuming that my brother did speak in a careless manner and did casually allude to you cousin Pao-yü, it was with no design to instigate any one! In the first place, the remarks he made were really founded on actual facts; and secondly, he's not one to ever trouble himself about such petty trifles as trying to guard against animosities. Ever since your youth up, Miss Hsi, you've simply had before your eyes a person so punctilious as cousin Pao-yü, but have you ever had any experience of one like that brother of mine, who neither fears the powers in heaven or in earth, and who readily blurts out all he thinks?", "pos": 375433}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I'll come again to see you to-morrow, but take good care of yourself! I gave the medicines I brought just now to Hsi Jen; let her rub you with them at night and I feel sure you'll get all right.", "pos": 377910}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Miss, we've really put you to the trouble of coming. Some other day, when Mr. Secundus is well, I shall come in person to thank you.", "pos": 378243}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "What's there to thank me for? But mind, you advise him to carefully tend his health, and not to give way to idle thoughts and reckless ideas, and he'll recover. If there's anything he fancies to eat or to amuse himself with, come quietly over to me and fetch it for him. There will be no use to disturb either our old lady, or Madame Wang, or any of the others; for in the event of its reaching Mr. Chia Cheng's ear, nothing may, at the time, come of it; but if by and bye he finds it to be true, we'll, doubtless, suffer for it!", "pos": 378394}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You might as well go and comb your hair and perform your ablutions; come in, when I call you.", "pos": 379864}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Ai-yo. What do you once more come here for? The sun, it is true, has set; but the heat remaining on the ground hasn't yet gone, so you may, by coming over, get another sunstroke. Of course, I've had a thrashing but I don't feel any pains or aches. If I behave in this fashion, it's all put on to work upon their credulity, so that they may go and spread the reports outside in such a way as to reach my father's ear. Really it's all sham; so you mustn't treat it as a fact!", "pos": 381151}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You must after this turn over a new leaf.", "pos": 382113}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Compose your mind. Don't speak to me like this; for I am quite prepared to even lay down my life for all those persons!", "pos": 382200}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Our lady Secunda has arrived.", "pos": 382426}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I'm off, out by the back-court. I'll look you up again by and bye.", "pos": 382551}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This is indeed strange! How is it that you've deliberately started living in fear and trembling of her!", "pos": 382632}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Look at my eyes! Must those people amuse themselves again by poking fun at me?", "pos": 382853}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Are you better? If you fancy anything to eat, mind you send some one over to my place to fetch it for you.", "pos": 383186}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Aunts, you've come a little too late; Master Secundus is sleeping.", "pos": 383847}
{"speaker": "Chou Jui's wife, Wu Hsin-teng's wife and Cheng Hao-shih's wife", "text": "When Master Secundus awakes do send us word!", "pos": 384104}
{"speaker": "matron", "text": "Our mistress wants one of Master Secundus attendants to go and see her.", "pos": 384357}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Our lady wishes to see one of us, so be careful and remain in the room while I go. I'll be back soon.", "pos": 384589}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "It didn't matter whom you sent, any one would have done. But have you left him again? Who's there to wait on him?", "pos": 384941}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Master Secundus, just now fell into a sound sleep. Those four or five girls are all right now, they are well able to attend to their master, so please, Madame, dispel all anxious thoughts! I was afraid that your ladyship might have some orders to give, and that if I sent any of them, they might probably not hear distinctly, and thus occasion delay in what there was to be done.", "pos": 385132}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "There's nothing much to tell you. I only wish to ask how his pains and aches are getting on now?", "pos": 385529}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I applied on Mr. Secundus, the medicine, which Miss Pao-ch'ai brought over; and he's better than he was. He was so sore at one time that he couldn't lie comfortably; but the deep sleep, in which he is plunged now, is a clear sign of his having improved.", "pos": 385649}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Has he had anything to eat?", "pos": 385925}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Our dowager mistress sent him a bowl of soup, and of this he has had a few mouthfuls. He shouted and shouted that his mouth was parched and fancied a decoction of sour plums, but remembering that sour plums are astringent things, that he had been thrashed only a short time before, and that not having been allowed to groan, he must, of course, have been so hard pressed that fiery virus and heated blood must unavoidably have accumulated in the heart, and that were he to put anything of the kind within his lips, it might be driven into the cardiac regions and give rise to some serious illness; and what then would we do? I therefore reasoned with him for ever so long and at last succeeded in deterring him from touching any. So simply taking that syrup of roses, prepared with sugar, I mixed some with water and he had half a small cup of it. But he drank it with distaste; for, being surfeited with it, he found it neither scented nor sweet.", "pos": 385985}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Ai-yah! Why didn't you come earlier and tell me? Some one sent me the other day several bottles of scented water. I meant at one time to have given him some, but as I feared that it would be mere waste, I didn't let him have any. But since he is so sick and tired of that preparation of roses, that he turns up his nose at it, take those two bottles with you. If you just mix a teaspoonful of it in a cup of water, it will impart to it a very strong perfume.", "pos": 386956}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Let her only bring a couple of them, they'll be enough! If you give us more, it will be a useless waste! If it isn't enough, I can come and fetch a fresh supply. It will come to the same thing! What fine things these are! How many small bottles the like of this can there be?", "pos": 387579}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "They are of the kind sent to the palace. Didn't you notice that gosling-yellow slip? But mind, take good care of them for him; don't fritter them away! I've thought of something, that I want to ask you. I've heard a faint rumour, to the effect that Pao-yü got a thrashing on this occasion on account of something or other which Huan-Erh told my husband. Have you perchance heard what it was that he said? If you happen to learn anything about it, do confide in me, and I won't make any fuss and let people know that it was you who told me.", "pos": 388339}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I haven't heard anything of the kind. It was because Mr. Secundus forcibly detained an actor, and that people came and asked master to restore him to them that he got flogged.", "pos": 389102}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "It was also for this, but there's another reason besides.", "pos": 389300}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "As for the other reason, I honestly haven't the least idea about it. But I'll make bold to-day, and say something in your presence, Madame, about which I don't know whether I am right or wrong in speaking. According to what's proper….", "pos": 389408}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "You are at liberty to proceed,", "pos": 389744}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "If your ladyship will not get angry, I'll speak out,", "pos": 389796}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Why should I get angry? Proceed!", "pos": 389869}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "According to what's proper, our Mr. Secundus should receive our master's admonition, for if master doesn't hold him in check, there's no saying what he mightn't do in the future.", "pos": 389928}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "O-mi-to-fu! My dear child, you have also luckily understood the real state of things. What you told me is in perfect harmony with my own views! Is it likely that I don't know how to look after a son? In former days, when your elder master, Chu, was alive, how did I succeed in keeping him in order? And can it be that I don't, after all, now understand how to manage a son? But there's a why and a wherefore in it. The thought is ever present in my mind now, that I'm already a woman past fifty, that of my children there only remains this single one, that he too is developing a delicate physique, and that, what's more, our dear senior prizes him as much as she would a jewel, that were he kept under strict control, and anything perchance to happen to him, she might, an old lady as she is, sustain some harm from resentment, and that as the high as well as the low will then have no peace or quiet, won't things get in a bad way? So I feel prompted to spoil him by over-indulgence. Time and again I reason with him. Sometimes, I talk to him; sometimes, I advise him; sometimes, I cry with him. But though, for the time being, he's all right, he doesn't, later on, worry his mind in any way about what I say, until he positively gets into some other mess, when he settles down again. But should any harm befall him, through these floggings, upon whom will I depend by and bye?", "pos": 390213}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Mr. Secundus, is your ladyship's own child, so how could you not love him? Even we, who are mere servants, think it a piece of good fortune when we can wait on him for a time, and all parties can enjoy peace and quiet. But if he begins to behave in this manner, even peace and quiet will be completely out of the question for us. On what day, and at what hour, don't I advise Mr. Secundus; yet I can't manage to stir him up by any advice! But it happens that all that crew are ever ready to court his friendship, so it isn't to be wondered that he is what he is! The truth is that he thinks the advice we give him is not right and proper! As you have to-day, Madame, alluded to this subject, I've got something to tell you which has weighed heavy on my mind. I've been anxious to come and confide it to your ladyship and to solicit your guidance, but I've been in fear and dread lest you should give way to suspicion. For not only would then all my disclosures have been in vain, but I would have deprived myself of even a piece of ground wherein my remains could be laid.", "pos": 391856}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "My dear child, go on, speak out! When I recently heard one and all praise you secretly behind your back, I simply fancied that it was because you were careful in your attendance on Pao-yü; or possibly because you got on well with every one; all on account of minor considerations like these; (but I never thought it was on account of your good qualities). As it happens, what you told me just now concerns, in all its bearings, a great principle, and is in perfect accord with my ideas, so speak out freely, if you have aught to say! Only let no one else know anything about it, that is all that is needed.", "pos": 393017}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I've got nothing more to say. My sole idea was to solicit your advice, Madame, as to how to devise a plan to induce Mr. Secundus to move his quarters out of the garden by and bye, as things will get all right then.", "pos": 393647}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Is it likely, that Pao-yü has been up to any mischief with any one?", "pos": 393965}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Don't be too suspicious! It wasn't at anything of the kind that I was hinting. I merely expressed my humble opinion. Mr. Secundus is a young man now, and the young ladies inside are no more children. More than that, Miss Lin and Miss Pao may be two female maternal first cousins of his, but albeit his cousins, there is nevertheless the distinction of male and female between them; and day and night, as they are together, it isn't always convenient, when they have to rise and when they have to sit; so this cannot help making one give way to misgivings. Were, in fact, any outsider to see what's going on, it would not look like the propriety, which should exist in great families. The proverb appositely says that: 'when there's no trouble, one should make provision for the time of trouble.' How many concerns there are in the world, of which there's no making head or tail, mostly because what persons do without any design is construed by such designing people, as chance to have their notice attracted to it, as having been designedly accomplished, and go on talking and talking till, instead of mending matters, they make them worse! But if precautions be not taken beforehand, something improper will surely happen, for your ladyship is well aware of the temperament Mr. Secundus has shown all along! Besides, his great weakness is to fuss in our midst, so if no caution be exercised, and the slightest mistake be sooner or later committed, there'll be then no question of true or false: for when people are many one says one thing and another, and what is there that the mouths of that mean lot will shun with any sign of respect? Why, if their hearts be well disposed, they will maintain that he is far superior to Buddha himself. But if their hearts be badly disposed, they will at once knit a tissue of lies to show that he cannot even reach the standard of a beast! Now, if people by and bye speak well of Mr. Secundus, we'll all go on smoothly with our lives. But should he perchance give reason to any one to breathe the slightest disparaging remark, won't his body, needless for us to say, be smashed to pieces, his bones ground to powder, and the blame, which he might incur, be made ten thousand times more serious than it is? These things are all commonplace trifles; but won't Mr. Secundus' name and reputation be subsequently done for for life? Secondly, it's no easy thing for your ladyship to see anything of our master. A proverb also says: 'The perfect man makes provision beforehand;' so wouldn't it be better that we should, this very minute, adopt such steps as will enable us to guard against such things? Your ladyship has much to attend to, and you couldn't, of course, think of these things in a moment. And as for us, it would have been well and good, had they never suggested themselves to our minds; but since they have, we should be the more to blame did we not tell you anything about them, Madame. Of late, I have racked my mind, both day and night on this score; and though I couldn't very well confide to any one, my lamp alone knows everything!", "pos": 394051}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "My dear girl, it's you, who are gifted with enough foresight to be able to think of these things so thoroughly. Yet, did I not also think of them? But so busy have I been these several times that they slipped from my memory. What you've told me to-day, however, has brought me to my senses! It's, thanks to you, that the reputation of me, his mother, and of him, my son, is preserved intact! I really never had the faintest idea that you were so excellent! But you had better go now; I know of a way. Yet, just another word. After your remarks to me, I'll hand him over to your charge; please be careful of him. If you preserve him from harm, it will be tantamount to preserving me from harm, and I shall certainly not be ungrateful to you for it.", "pos": 397442}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Go, over to Miss Lin's and see what she's up to. Should she inquire about me, all you need tell her is that I'm all right.", "pos": 398883}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "What shall I go empty-handed for? If I were, at least, to give her a message, it would look as if I had gone for something.", "pos": 399019}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I have no message that you can give her,", "pos": 399168}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "If it can't be that. I might either take something over or fetch something. Otherwise, when I get there, what excuse will I be able to find?", "pos": 399225}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "These will do. Just tell her that I bade you take them to her.", "pos": 399521}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "This is strange! Will she accept these two half worn-out handkerchiefs! She'll besides get angry and say that you were making fun of her.", "pos": 399599}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Don't worry yourself about that; She will certainly know what I mean.", "pos": 399763}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "She's gone to sleep! It's Ch'ing Wen!", "pos": 400123}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "What are you up to?", "pos": 400390}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Mr. Secundus, sends you some handkerchiefs, Miss.", "pos": 400429}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "What can he have sent me handkerchiefs for? Who gave him these handkerchiefs? They must be fine ones, so tell him to keep them and give them to some one else; for I don't need such things at present.", "pos": 400560}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "They're not new. They are of an ordinary kind, and old.", "pos": 400826}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Leave them and go your way.", "pos": 401052}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "I hear,", "pos": 405473}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "that cousin Pao-yü has got into trouble; why is it?", "pos": 405506}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "You good-for-nothing spiteful fellow! It's all you who are at the bottom of this trouble; and do you still have the face to come and ply me with questions?", "pos": 405711}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "When did I stir up any trouble?", "pos": 405904}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Do you still go on shamming! Every one knows full well that it was you, who said those things, and do you yet prevaricate?", "pos": 405956}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Were every one, to assert that I had committed murder, would you believe even that?", "pos": 406101}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Your very sister is well aware that they were said by you. and is it likely that she would accuse you falsely, pray?", "pos": 406212}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Mother, you shouldn't be brawling with brother just now! If you wait quietly, we'll find out the plain and honest truth. Whether it's you, who said those things or not, it's of no consequence. The whole affair, besides, is a matter of the past, so what need is there for any arguments; they will only be making a mountain of a mole-hill! I have just one word of advice to give you; don't, from henceforward, be up to so much reckless mischief outside; and concern yourself a little less with other people's affairs! All you do is day after day to associate with your friends and foolishly gad about! You are a happy-go-lucky sort of creature! If nothing happens well and good; but should by and bye anything turn up, every one will, though it be none of your doing, imagine again that you are at the bottom of it! Not to speak of others, why I myself will be the first to suspect you!", "pos": 406355}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Who has, laid such a tissue of lies to my charge! I'd like to take the teeth of that felon and pull them out! It's clear as day that they shove me forward as a target; for now that Pao-yü has been flogged they find no means of making a display of their zeal. But, is Pao-yü forsooth the lord of the heavens that because he has had a thrashing from his father, the whole household should be fussing for days? The other time, he behaved improperly, and my uncle gave him two whacks. But our venerable ancestor came, after a time, somehow or other, I don't know how, to hear about it, and, maintaining that it was all due to Mr. Chia Chen, she called him before her, and gave him a good blowing up. And here to-day, they have gone further, and involved me. They may drag me in as much as they like, I don't fear a rap! But won't it be better for me to go into the garden, and take Pao-yü and give him a bit of my mind and kill him? I can then pay the penalty by laying down my life for his, and one and all will enjoy peace and quiet!", "pos": 407772}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "You murderous child of retribution! Whom would you go and beat? come first and assail me?", "pos": 409053}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "What are you up to, that you won't let me go where I please, and that you deliberately go on calumniating me? But every day that Pao-yü lives, the longer by that day I have to bear a false charge, so it's as well that we should both die that things be cleared up?", "pos": 409221}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Be patient a bit! Here's mamma in an awful state of despair. Not to mention that it should be for you to come and pacify her, you contrariwise kick up all this rumpus! Why, saying nothing about her who is your parent, were even a perfect stranger to advise you, it would be meant for your good! But the good counsel she gave you has stirred up your monkey instead.", "pos": 409545}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "From the way you're now speaking, it must be you, who said that it was I; no one else but you!", "pos": 409932}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "You simply know how to feel displeased with me for speaking, but you don't feel displeased with yourself for that reckless way of yours of looking ahead and not minding what is behind!", "pos": 410052}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "You now bear me a grudge, for looking to what is ahead and not to what is behind; but how is it you don't feel indignant with Pao-yü for stirring up strife and provoking trouble outside? Leaving aside everything else, I'll merely take that affair of Ch'i Kuan-erh's, which occurred the other day, and recount it to you as an instance. My friends and I came across this Ch'i Kuan-erh, ten times at least, but never has he made a single intimate remark to me, and how is it that, as soon as he met Pao-yü the other day, he at once produced his sash, and gave it to him, though he did not so much as know what his surname and name were? Now is it likely, forsooth, that this too was something that I started?", "pos": 410259}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Do you still refer to this? Wasn't it about this that he was beaten? This makes it clear enough that it's you who gave the thing out.", "pos": 410987}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Really, you're enough to exasperate one to death! Had you confined yourselves to saying that I had started the yarn, I wouldn't have lost my temper; but what irritates me is that such a fuss should be made for a single Pao-yü, as to subvert heaven and earth!", "pos": 411178}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Who fusses? You are the first to arm yourself to the teeth and start a row, and then you say that it's others who are up to mischief!", "pos": 411463}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Dear Sister! you needn't be flying into a huff with me! I've long ago divined your feelings. Mother told me some time back that for you with that gold trinket, must be selected some suitor provided with a jade one; as such a one will be a suitable match for you. And having treasured this in your mind, and seen that Pao-yü has that rubbishy thing of his, you naturally now seize every occasion to screen him….", "pos": 412119}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Mother, have you heard what brother says, what is it all about?", "pos": 412676}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Where she was off to?", "pos": 413687}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I'm going home,", "pos": 413711}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Sister, you should take care of yourself a bit. Were you even to cry so much as to fill two water jars with tears, you wouldn't heal the wounds inflicted by the cane.", "pos": 414025}
{"speaker": "Tzu Chüan", "text": "Miss, you had better go and take your medicine! The hot water too has got cold.", "pos": 416148}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "What do you, after all, mean by keeping on pressing me so? Whether I have it or not, what's that to you?", "pos": 416242}
{"speaker": "Tzu Chüan", "text": "Your cough, has recently got a trifle better, and won't you again take your medicine? This is, it's true, the fifth moon, and the weather is hot, but you should, nevertheless, take good care of yourself a bit! Here you've been at this early hour of the morning standing for ever so long in this damp place; so you should go back and have some rest!", "pos": 416368}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "In that lone nook some one saunters about, White dew coldly bespecks the verdant moss. Shuang Wen, had of course a poor fate; but she nevertheless had a widowed mother and a young brother; but in the unhappy destiny, to which I, Tai-yü, am at present doomed, I have neither a widowed mother nor a young brother. Are you bent upon compassing your own death! You've covered my head all over with dust again!", "pos": 417269}
{"speaker": "Parrot", "text": "Hsüeh Yen, quick, raise the portiere! Miss is come!", "pos": 418052}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Have his food and water been replenished?", "pos": 418189}
{"speaker": "Parrot", "text": "Here I am fain these flowers to inter, but humankind will laugh me as a fool. Who knows who will in years to come commit me to my grave.", "pos": 418385}
{"speaker": "Tzu Chüan", "text": "This is what you were repeating some time back, Miss. How did he ever manage to commit it to memory?", "pos": 418615}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Why do you run over at this early hour of the morning?", "pos": 419624}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "To see, whether you were all right or not, mother. Did he come again, I wonder, after I left yesterday and make any more trouble or not?", "pos": 419727}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "My child, don't feel aggrieved! Wait, and I'll call that child of wrath to order; for were anything to happen to you, from whom will I have anything to hope?", "pos": 420095}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "My dear sister, forgive me this time. The fact is that I took some wine yesterday; I came back late, as I met a few friends on the way. On my return home, I hadn't as yet got over the fumes, so I unintentionally talked a lot of nonsense. But I don't so much as remember anything about all I said. It isn't worth your while, however, losing your temper over such a thing!", "pos": 420483}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "You can well dispense with all this sham! I'm well aware that you so dislike us both, that you're anxious to devise some way of inducing us to part company with you, so that you may be at liberty.", "pos": 421080}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Sister, what makes you say so? once upon a time, you weren't so suspicious and given to uttering anything so perverse!", "pos": 421343}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "All you know, is to find fault with your sister's remarks as being perverse; but can it be that what you said last night was the proper thing to say? In very truth, you were drunk!", "pos": 421538}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "There's no need for you to get angry, mother! nor for you sister either; for from this day, I shan't any more make common cause with them nor drink wine or gad about. What do you say to that?", "pos": 421739}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "That's equal to an acknowledgment of your failings,", "pos": 421956}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Could you exercise such strength of will, why, the dragon too would lay eggs.", "pos": 422029}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "If I again go and gad about with them, and you, sister, come to hear of it, you can freely spit in my face and call me a beast and no human being. Do you agree to that? But why should you two be daily worried; and all through me alone? For you, mother, to be angry on my account is anyhow excusable; but for me to keep on worrying you, sister, makes me less then ever worthy of the name of a human being! If now that father is no more, I manage, instead of showing you plenty of filial piety, mamma, and you, sister, plenty of love, to provoke my mother to anger, and annoy my sister, why I can't compare myself to even a four-footed creature!", "pos": 422129}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "You've already, been the cause of quite enough trouble, and do you now provoke mother to have another cry?", "pos": 423141}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "When did I, make mother cry? But never mind; enough of this! let's drop the matter, and not allude to it any more! Call Hsiang Ling to come and give you a cup of tea, sister!", "pos": 423350}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I don't want any tea. I'll wait until mother has finished washing her hands and then go with her into the garden.", "pos": 423539}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Let me see your necklet, sister. I think it requires cleaning.", "pos": 423677}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It is so yellow and bright, and what's the use of cleaning it again?", "pos": 423766}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Sister, you must now add a few more clothes to your wardrobe, so tell me what colour and what design you like best.", "pos": 423859}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I haven't yet worn out all the clothes I have, and why should I have more made?", "pos": 424001}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'm considerably better; All I do, is to disturb you, aunt, and you, my cousin, but I don't deserve such attentions.", "pos": 424889}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Mind you tell me whatever may take your fancy!", "pos": 425092}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "If I do fancy anything. I shall certainly send to you, aunt, for it. There's nothing that I care for, though the soup made for me the other day, with young lotus leaves, and small lotus cores was, I thought, somewhat nice.", "pos": 425156}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "From what I hear, its flavour is nothing very grand. It involves, however, a good deal of trouble to concoct; and here you deliberately go and fancy this very thing.", "pos": 425543}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Go and get it ready!", "pos": 425779}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Venerable ancestor, don't you bother yourself about it! Let me try and remember who can have put the moulds away! Go and bid, the chief in the cook-house go and apply for them! Yes, I remember, they were handed up, but I can't recollect to whom they were given. Possibly they're in the tea-room.", "pos": 425852}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "In your mansion, everything has been amply provided for! Have you got all these things to prepare a plate of soup with! Hadn't you told me, and I happened to see them, I wouldn't have been able to make out what they were intended for!", "pos": 427229}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Aunt, how could you ever have divined that these were used last year for the imperial viands! They thought of a way by which they devised, somehow or other, I can't tell how, some dough shapes, which borrow a little of the pure fragrance of the new lotus leaves. But as all mainly depends upon the quality of the soup, they're not, after all, of much use! Yet who often goes in for such soup! It was made once only, and that at the time when the moulds were brought; and how is it that he has come to think of it to-day?", "pos": 427601}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "You are sharper than a monkey!", "pos": 428953}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "This is a mere bagatelle! Even I can afford to stand you such a small treat! Tell them in the cook-house, to please make an extra supply, and that they'll get the money from me.", "pos": 429148}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "During the few years that have gone by since I've come here, I've carefully noticed that sister-in-law Secunda, cannot, with all her acumen, outwit our venerable ancestor.", "pos": 429534}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "My dear child! I'm now quite an old woman, and how can there still remain any wit in me! When I was, long ago, of your manlike cousin Feng's age, I had far more wits about me than she has! Albeit she now avers that she can't reach our standard, she's good enough; and compared with your aunt Wang, why, she's infinitely superior. Your aunt, poor thing, won't speak much! She's like a block of wood; and when with her father and mother-in-law, she won't show herself off to advantage. But that girl Feng has a sharp tongue, so is it a wonder if people take to her.", "pos": 429708}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "From what you say, those who don't talk much are not loved.", "pos": 430324}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Those who don't speak much, possess the endearing quality of reserve. But among those, with glib tongues, there's also a certain despicable lot; thus it's better, in a word, not to have too much to say for one's self.", "pos": 430420}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Quite so, yet though senior sister-in-law Chia Chu doesn't, I must confess, talk much, you, venerable ancestor, treat her just as you do cousin Feng. But if you maintain that those alone, who can talk, are worthy of love, then among all these young ladies, sister Feng and cousin Lin are the only ones good enough to be loved.", "pos": 430669}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "With regard to the young ladies, it isn't that I have any wish to flatter your aunt Hsüeh in her presence, but it is a positive and incontestable fact that there isn't, beginning from the four girls in our household, a single one able to hold a candle to that girl Pao-ch'ai.", "pos": 431015}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Dear venerable senior! you're rather partial in your verdict.", "pos": 431367}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Our dear senior, has often told me in private how nice your daughter Pao-ch'ai is; so this is no lie.", "pos": 431443}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "you do have the happy knack of putting her on her mettle; but though she has often got things ready for you, you've, after all, not eaten very much of them.", "pos": 432629}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Aunt, don't make such statements! If our worthy senior hasn't eaten me up it's purely and simply because she dislikes human flesh as being sour. Did she not look down upon it as sour, why, she would long ago have gobbled me up!", "pos": 432788}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "the mouth of our mistress Secunda is enough to terrify people to death!", "pos": 433289}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You've been standing for so long, that you must be feeling tired.", "pos": 433406}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Here you've again forgotten! Avail yourself now that Miss Pao-ch'ai is in the court to tell her to kindly bid their Ying Erh come and plait a few girdles with twisted cords.", "pos": 433558}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "How lucky it is you've reminded me? Cousin Pao-ch'ai, when you've had your repast, do tell Ying Erh to come over. I would like to ask her to plait a few girdles for me. Has she got the time to spare?", "pos": 433766}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "How about no time? I'll tell her by and bye to come; it will be all right.", "pos": 434115}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "My dear child, do let her come and twist a few girdles for your cousin! And should you be in need of any one for anything, I have over at my place a whole number of servant-girls doing nothing! Out of them, you are at liberty to send for any you like to wait on you!", "pos": 434418}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "We'll send her to plait them! What can we want her for? she also daily idles her time way and is up to every mischief!", "pos": 434713}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "She can't carry it single-handed,", "pos": 438337}
{"speaker": "Yü Ch'uan-erh", "text": "Don't distress yourself! I know how to do it.", "pos": 438891}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "How is it, that you two drop in just the nick of time? Have you come together?", "pos": 439518}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Is your mother all right,", "pos": 440690}
{"speaker": "Yü Ch'uan-erh", "text": "all right,", "pos": 440926}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Who told you to bring these things over to me?", "pos": 441096}
{"speaker": "Yü Chuan-erh", "text": "The ladies,", "pos": 441145}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear girl, bring that soup and let me taste it!", "pos": 442064}
{"speaker": "Yü Ch'uan-erh", "text": "I've never been in the habit of feeding people. You'd better wait till the others return; you can have some then.", "pos": 442158}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I don't want you to feed me. It's because I can't move about that I appeal to you. Do let me have it! You'll then get back early and be able, when you've handed over the things, to have your meal. But were I to go on wasting your time, won't you feel upset from hunger? Should you be lazy to budge, well then, I'll endure the pain and get down and fetch it myself.", "pos": 442299}
{"speaker": "Yü Ch'uan-erh", "text": "Lie down! In what former existence did you commit such evil that your retribution in the present one is so apparent? Which of my eyes however can brook looking at you going on in that way?", "pos": 442926}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear girl; if you want to show temper, better do so here! When you see our venerable senior and madame, my mother, you should be a little more even-tempered, for if you still behave like this, you'll at once get a scolding!", "pos": 443216}
{"speaker": "Yü Ch'uan-erh", "text": "Eat away, eat away! There's no need for you to be so sweet-mouthed and honey-tongued with me. I don't put any faith in such talk!", "pos": 443462}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It isn't nice, it isn't nice!", "pos": 443685}
{"speaker": "Yü Ch'uan-erh", "text": "Omi-to-fu! If this isn't nice, what's nice?", "pos": 443745}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "There's no flavour about it at all. If you don't believe me taste it, and you'll find out for yourself. Well, it is nice!", "pos": 443819}
{"speaker": "Yü Ch'uan-erh", "text": "As, at one moment, you say you don't want any, and now you say it is nice, I won't give you any.", "pos": 444196}
{"speaker": "servants", "text": "Two nurses, have arrived from the household of Mr. Fu, Secundus, to present his compliments. They have now come to see you, Mr. Secundus.", "pos": 444671}
{"speaker": "Yü Ch'uan-erh", "text": "How did this happen! You yourself, have been scalded, and do you keep on asking about myself?", "pos": 447972}
{"speaker": "One", "text": "It isn't strange, if people say that this Pao-yü of theirs is handsome in appearance, but stupid as far as brains go. Nice enough a thing to look at but not to put to one's lips; rather idiotic in fact; for he burns his own hand, and then he asks some one else whether she's sore or not. Now, isn't this being a regular fool?", "pos": 449096}
{"speaker": "The other", "text": "The last time I came. I heard that many inmates of his family feel ill-will against him. In real truth he is a fool! For there he drips in the heavy downpour like a water fowl, and instead of running to shelter himself, he reminds other people of the rain, and urges them to get quick out of the wet. Now, tell me, isn't this ridiculous, eh? Time and again, when no one is present, he cries to himself, then laughs to himself. When he sees a swallow, he instantly talks to it; when he espies a fish, in the river, he forthwith speaks to it. At the sight of stars or the moon, if he doesn't groan and sigh, he mutters and mutters. Indeed, he hasn't the least bit of character; so much so, that he even puts up with the temper shown by those low-bred maids. If he takes a fancy to a thing, it's nice enough even though it be a bit of thread. But as for waste, what does he mind? A thing may be worth a thousand or ten thousand pieces of money, he doesn't worry his mind in the least about it.", "pos": 449442}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I was just now so bent upon talking, that I forgot all about you. I put you to the trouble of coming, not for anything else, but that you should also make me a few nets.", "pos": 450785}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "Nets! To put what in?", "pos": 450986}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Don't concern yourself about what they are for! Just make me a few of each kind!", "pos": 451071}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "Could this ever be done! If you want all that lot, why, they couldn't be finished in ten years time.", "pos": 451207}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear girl, work at them for me then whenever you are at leisure, and have nothing better to do.", "pos": 451323}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "How could you get through them all in a little time? First choose now therefore such as are most urgently needed and make a couple of them.", "pos": 451441}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "They are merely used for fans, scented pendants and handkerchiefs.", "pos": 451665}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Nets for handkerchiefs will do all right.", "pos": 451734}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "What's the colour of your handkerchief?", "pos": 451795}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It's a deep red one.", "pos": 451856}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "For a deep red one, a black net will do very nicely, or one of dark green. Both these agree with the colour.", "pos": 451896}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What goes well with brown?", "pos": 452029}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "Peach-red goes well with brown.", "pos": 452072}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "That will make them look gaudy! Yet with all their plainness, they should be somewhat gaudy.", "pos": 452122}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "Leek-green and willow-yellow are what are most to my taste,", "pos": 452236}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Yes, they'll also do! But make one of peach-red too and then one of leek-green.", "pos": 452316}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "Of what design?", "pos": 452417}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "How many kinds of designs are there?", "pos": 452454}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "There are 'the stick of incense,' 'stools upset towards heaven,' 'part of elephant's eyes,' 'squares,' 'chains,' 'plum blossom,' and 'willow leaves.", "pos": 452506}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What was the kind of design you made for Miss Tertia the other day?", "pos": 452676}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "It was the 'plum blossom with piled cores,'", "pos": 452763}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Yes, that's nice.", "pos": 452838}
{"speaker": "Girls", "text": "Go and have your meal,", "pos": 453044}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "and come back quick after you've had it.", "pos": 453083}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "There are visitors here, and how can I very well go?", "pos": 453126}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "It's only right and proper that you should go and have your food at once and then return.", "pos": 453269}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'm sixteen. What was your original surname?", "pos": 453707}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "It was Huang;", "pos": 453799}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "That's just the thing, for in real truth there's the 'Huang Ying-erh;' (oriole).", "pos": 453834}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "My name, at one time, consisted of two characters. I was called Chin Ying; but Miss Pao-ch'ai didn't like it, as it was difficult to pronounce, and only called me Ying Erh; so now I've come to be known under that name.", "pos": 453934}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "One can very well say that cousin Pao-ch'ai is fond of you! By and bye, when she gets married, she's sure to take you along with her. I've often told Hsi Jen, that I can't help wondering who'll shortly be the lucky ones to win your mistress and yourself.", "pos": 454177}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "You aren't aware, that our young mistress possesses several qualities not to be found in a single person in this world; her face is a second consideration.", "pos": 454532}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Where do her qualities lie? My dear girl, please tell me!", "pos": 454978}
{"speaker": "Ying Erh", "text": "If I tell you, you must, on no account, let her know anything about it again.", "pos": 455061}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This goes without saying,", "pos": 455158}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "How is it that everything is so quiet?", "pos": 455285}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Your idea is splendid, cousin. I'd forgotten all about it! The only thing is what colour will suit it best?", "pos": 455904}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It will never do to use mixed colours. Deep red will, on one hand, clash with the colour; while yellow is not pleasing to the eye; and black, on the other hand, is too sombre. But wait, I'll try and devise something. Bring that gold cord and use it with the black beaded cord; and if you twist one of each together, and make a net with them, it will look very pretty!", "pos": 456014}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "How very strange this is to-day! Why, a few minutes back, my mistress, your mother, sent some one to bring me two bowls of viands.", "pos": 456603}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "The supply, must have been so plentiful to-day, that they've sent some to every one of you.", "pos": 456758}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "It isn't that, for they were distinctly given to me by name. What's more, I wasn't bidden go and knock my head; so this is indeed remarkable!", "pos": 456878}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "If they're given to you, why, you had better go and eat them. What's there in this to fill you with conjectures?", "pos": 457043}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "There's never been anything like this before, so, it makes me feel uneasy.", "pos": 457175}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "If this, makes you feel uneasy, there will be by and bye other things to make you far more uneasy.", "pos": 457300}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I shall come and hold the cords, as soon as I've rinsed my hands.", "pos": 457809}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "If you can go about, our mistress desires you, Mr. Pao-yü, to cross over to-morrow and have a little distraction. Her ladyship really longs to see you. Were I able to walk. I would feel it my duty to go and pay my respects to your mistress! Anyhow, the pain is better than before, so request your lady to allay her solicitude. Take, half of the fruits, just received, to Miss Lin as a present. Request her to walk in at once!", "pos": 458406}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Should,", "pos": 459980}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "anything turn up henceforward connected with meeting guests, entertaining visitors and other such matters, and your master mean to send for Pao-yü, you can dispense with going to deliver the message. Just you tell him that I say that after the severe thrashing he has had, great care must be first taken of him during several months before he can be allowed to walk; and that, secondly, his constellation is unpropitious and that he could not see any outsider, while sacrifices are being offered to the stars; that I won't have him therefore put his foot beyond the second gate before the expiry of the eighth moon.", "pos": 460008}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "A pure and spotless maiden, has likewise gone and deliberately imitated those persons, whose aim is to fish for reputation and to seek praise; that set of government thieves and salaried devils. This result entirely arises from the fact that there have been people in former times, who have uselessly stirred up trouble and purposely fabricated stories with the primary object of enticing the filthy male creatures, who would spring up in future ages, to follow in their steps! And who would have thought it, I have had the misfortune of being born a masculine being! But, even those beautiful girls, in the female apartments, have been so contaminated by this practice that verily they show themselves ungrateful for the virtue of Heaven and Earth, in endowing them with perception, and in rearing them with so much comeliness.", "pos": 462224}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Can't your ladyship fathom even this? Why, their daughters must, I fancy, be servant-girls in Madame Wang's apartments! For her ladyship's rooms four elderly girls are at present allotted with a monthly allowance of one tael; the rest simply receiving several hundreds of cash each month; so now that Chin Ch'uan-erh is dead and gone, these people must, of course, be anxious to try their tricks and get this one-tael job!", "pos": 464112}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "That's it. Yes, that's it! You've really suggested the idea to my mind! From all appearances, these people are a most insatiable lot; for they make quite enough in the way of money! And as for any business that requires a little exertion, why they are never ready to bear a share of it! They make use of their girls as so many tools to shove their own duties upon. Yet one overlooks that. But must they too have designs upon this job? Never mind! These people cannot easily afford to spend upon me the money they do. But they bring this upon their own selves, so I'll keep every bit of thing they send. I've, after all, resolved how to act in the matter! Ever since, sister Chin Ch'uan-erh's death, there has been one servant less in your ladyship's service. But you may possibly have set your choice upon some girl; if so, do let me know who it is, so that I may be able to pay her her monthly wages.", "pos": 464633}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "I fancy, that the custom is that there should be four or five of them; but as long as there are enough to wait upon me, I don't mind, so we can really dispense with another.", "pos": 466079}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What you say is, properly speaking, perfectly correct, but it's an old established custom. There are still a couple to be found in other people's rooms and won't you, Madame, conform with the rule? Besides, the saving of a tael is a small matter.", "pos": 466271}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Never mind, just you bring over this allowance and pay it to me. And there will be no need to supply another girl. I'll hand over this tael to her younger sister, Yü Ch'uan-erh, and finish with it. Her elder sister came to an unpleasant end, after a long term of service with me; so if the younger sister, she leaves behind in my employ, receives a double share, it won't be any too excessive.", "pos": 466602}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I congratulate you, I congratulate you!", "pos": 467107}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "how much Mrs. Chao and Mrs. Chou are allowed monthly?", "pos": 467268}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "They have a fixed allowance, each of them draws two taels. But Mrs. Chao gets two taels for cousin Chia Huan, so hers amounts in all to four taels; besides these, four strings of cash.", "pos": 467324}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Are they paid in full month after month?", "pos": 467533}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "How are they not paid in full?", "pos": 467691}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "The other day. I heard a faint rumour that there was some one, who complained in an aggrieved way that she had got a string short. How and why is this?", "pos": 467724}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "The monthly allowances of the servant-girls, attached to the secondary wives, amounted originally to a tiao each, but ever since last year, it was decided, by those people outside, that the shares of each of those ladies' girls should be reduced by half, that is, each to five hundred cash; and, as each lady has a couple of servant-girls, they receive therefore a tiao short. But for this, they can't bear me a grudge. As far as I'm concerned, I would only be too glad to let them have it; but our people outside will again disallow it; so is it likely that I can authorise any increase, pray? In this matter of payments I merely receive the money, and I've nothing to do with how it comes and how it goes. I nevertheless recommended, on two or three occasions, that it would be better if these two shares were again raised to the old amount; but they said that there's only that much money, so that I can't very well volunteer any further suggestions! Now that the funds are paid into my hands, I give them to them every month, without any irregularity of even so much as a day. When payments hitherto were effected outside, what month were they not short of money? And did they ever, on any single instance, obtain their pay at the proper time and date? Eight of them, but there are at present only seven; the other one is Hsi Jen.", "pos": 467903}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Quite right. But your cousin Pao-yü hasn't any maid at one tael; for Hsi Jen is still a servant belonging to old lady Chia's household.", "pos": 469469}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Hsi Jen, is still our dear ancestor's servant; she's only lent to cousin Pao-yü; so that she still receives this tael in her capacity of maid to our worthy senior. Any proposal, therefore, that might now be made, that this tael should, as Hsi Jen is Pao-yü's servant, be curtailed, can, on no account, be entertained. Yet, were it suggested that another servant should be added to our senior's staff, then in this way one could reduce the tael she gets. But if this be not curtailed, it will be necessary to also add a servant in cousin Chia Huan's rooms, in order that there should be a fair apportionment. In fact, Ch'ing Wen, She Yüeh and the others, numbering seven senior maids, receive each a tiao a month; and Chiao Hui and the rest of the junior maids, eight in all, get each five hundred cash per mensem; and this was recommended by our venerable ancestor herself; so how can any one be angry and feel displeasure?", "pos": 469631}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Just listen, to that girl Feng's mouth! It rattles and rattles like a cart laden with walnuts, which has turned topsy-turvy! Yet, her accounts are, from what one can gather, clear enough, and her arguments full of reason.", "pos": 470577}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Aunt, was I likely, pray, wrong in what I said?", "pos": 470823}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Who ever said you were wrong? But were you to talk a little slower, wouldn't it be a saving of exertion for you?", "pos": 470903}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "You'd better, select a waiting-maid tomorrow and send her over to our worthy senior to fill up Hsi Jen's place. Then, discontinue that allowance, which Hsi Jen draws, and keep out of the sum of twenty taels, allotted to me monthly, two taels and a tiao, and give them to Hsi Jen. So henceforward what Mrs. Chao and Mrs. Chou will get, Hsi Jen will likewise get, with the only difference that the share granted to Hsi Jen, will be entirely apportioned out of my own allowance. Mind, therefore, there will be no necessity to touch the public funds!", "pos": 471246}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Aunt, have you heard her proposal? What have I all along maintained? Well, my words have actually come out true to-day!", "pos": 471889}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "This should have been accomplished long ago. For without, of course, making any allusion to her looks, her way of doing business is liberal; her speech and her relations with people are always prompted by an even temper, while inwardly she has plenty of singleness of heart and eagerness to hold her own. Indeed, such a girl is not easy to come across!", "pos": 472027}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "How could you people ever rightly estimate Hsi Jen's qualities? Why, she's a hundred times better than my own Pao-yü. How fortunate, in reality, Pao-yü is! Well would it be if he could have her wait upon him for the whole length of his life!", "pos": 472457}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "In that case, why, have her face shaved at once, and openly place her in his room as a secondary wife. Won't this be a good plan?", "pos": 472717}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "This won't do! For first and foremost he's of tender years. In the second place, my husband won't countenance any such thing! In the third, so long as Pao-yü sees that Hsi Jen is his waiting-maid, he may, in the event of anything occurring from his having been allowed to run wild, listen to any good counsel she might give him. But were she now to be made his secondary wife, Hsi Jen would not venture to tender him any extreme advice, even when it's necessary to do so. It's better, therefore, to let things stand as they are for the present, and talk about them again, after the lapse of another two or three years.", "pos": 472872}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "The draft in this passage is so cool, that I'll stop, and let it play on me a bit before I go on. You people, say that I've been talking to her all this while, but Madame Wang conjured up all that has occurred for the last two hundred years and questioned me about it; so could I very well not have anything to say in reply? But from this day forth, I shall do several mean things, and should even (Mrs. Chao and Mrs. Chou) go, out of any ill-will, and tell Madame Wang, I won't know what fear is for such stupid, glib-tongued, foul-mouthed creatures as they, who are bound not to see a good end! It isn't for them to indulge in those fanciful dreams of becoming primary wives, for there, will come soon a day when the whole lump sum of their allowance will be cut off! They grumble against us for having now reduced the perquisites of the servant-maids, but they don't consider whether they deserve to have so many as three girls to dance attendance on them!", "pos": 474152}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "You're really far too scrupulous. Are there still flies or mosquitos in here? and why do yet use that fly-flap for, to drive what away?", "pos": 476602}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Miss, you came upon me so unawares that you gave me quite a start! You don't know, Miss, that though there be no flies or mosquitoes there is, no one would believe it, a kind of small insect, which penetrates through the holes of this gauze; it is scarcely to be detected, but when one is asleep, it bites just like ants do!", "pos": 476920}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It isn't to be wondered at, for the back of these rooms adjoins the water; the whole place is also one mass of fragrant flowers, and the interior of this room is, too, full of their aroma. These insects grow mostly in the core of flowers, so no sooner do they scent the smell of any than they at once rush in. Ai-yah! what very beautiful work! For whom is this, that it's worth your while wasting so much labour on it? Does a big strapping fellow like this, still wear such things?", "pos": 477277}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "He would never wear any before, that's why such a nice one was specially worked for him, in order that when he was allowed to see it, he should not be able to do otherwise than use it. With the present hot weather, he goes to sleep anyhow, but as he has been coaxed to wear it, it doesn't matter if even he doesn't cover himself well at night. You say that I bestow much labour upon this, but you haven't yet seen the one he has on!", "pos": 478213}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It is a lucky thing, that you're gifted with such patience.", "pos": 478666}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I've done so much of it to-day, that my neck is quite sore from bending over it. My dear Miss, do sit here a little. I'll go out for a turn. I'll be back shortly.", "pos": 478759}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Come along! Hsi Jen, I remember, said that she would be going at noon to wash some clothes at the pond. I presume she's there already so let's go and join her.", "pos": 480761}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "How can, one ever believe what bonzes and Taoist priests say? What about a match between gold and jade? My impression is that it's to be a union between a shrub and a stone!", "pos": 481222}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Hasn't he yet woke up?", "pos": 481568}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I just came across,", "pos": 481650}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Miss Lin and Miss Shih. Did they happen to come in?", "pos": 481688}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I didn't see them come in. Did they tell you anything?", "pos": 481742}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "They simply came out with some of those jokes of theirs. What decent things could such as they have had to tell me?", "pos": 481901}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "They made insinuations to-day, which are anything but a joke! I was on the point of telling you them, when you rushed away in an awful hurry. It must be on account of what they hinted,", "pos": 482036}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'll see now, whether you'll go back home or not. On your return, after your last visit to your people, you stated that your brother wished to redeem you, adding that this place was no home for you, and that you didn't know what would become of you in the long run. You freely uttered all that language devoid of feeling and reason, and enough too to produce an estrangement between us, in order to frighten me; but I'd like to see who'll henceforward have the audacity to come and ask you to leave!", "pos": 483242}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "You shouldn't say such things! From henceforward I shall be our Madame Wang's servant, so that, if I choose to go I needn't even breathe a word to you. All I'll have to do will be to tell her, and then I shall be free to do as I like.", "pos": 483846}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "But supposing that I behaved improperly, and that you took your leave after letting mother know, you yourself will be placed in no nice fix, when people get wind that you left on account of my having been improper.", "pos": 484098}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "What no nice fix! Is it likely that I am bound to serve even highway robbers? Well, failing anything else, I can die; for human beings may live a hundred years, but they're bound, in the long run, to fall a victim to death! And when this breath shall have departed, and I shall have lost the sense of hearing and of seeing, all will then be well!", "pos": 484345}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Enough! enough! that will do. There's no necessity for you to utter language of this kind.", "pos": 484803}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What human being is there that can escape death? But the main thing is to come to a proper end! All that those abject male creatures excel in is, the civil officers, to sacrifice their lives by remonstrating with the Emperor; and, the military, to leave their bones on the battlefield. Both these deaths do confer, after life is extinct, the fame of great men upon them; but isn't it, in fact, better for them not to die? For as it is absolutely necessary that there should be a disorderly Emperor before they can afford any admonition, to what future fate do they thus expose their sovereign, if they rashly throw away their lives, with the sole aim of reaping a fair name for themselves? War too must supervene before they can fight; but if they go and recklessly lay down their lives, with the exclusive idea of gaining the reputation of intrepid warriors, to what destiny will they abandon their country by and bye? Hence it is that neither of these deaths can be looked upon as a legitimate death.", "pos": 485980}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Loyal ministers, and excellent generals simply die because it isn't in their power to do otherwise.", "pos": 486985}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Military officers, place such entire reliance upon brute force that they become lax in their stratagems and faulty in their plans. It's because they don't possess any inherent abilities that they lose their lives. Could one therefore, pray, say that they had no other alternative? Civil officials, on the other hand, can still less compare with military officers. They read a few passages from books, and commit them to memory; and, on the slightest mistake made by the Emperor, they're at once rash enough to remonstrate with him, prompted by the sole idea of attaining the fame of loyalty and devotion. But, as soon as their stupid notions have bubbled over, they forfeit their lives, and is it likely that it doesn't lie within their power to do otherwise? Why, they should also bear in mind that the Emperor receives his decrees from Heaven; and, that were he not a perfect man, Heaven itself would, on no account whatever, confer upon him a charge so extremely onerous. This makes it evident therefore that the whole pack and parcel of those officers, who are dead and gone, have invariably fallen victims to their endeavours to attain a high reputation, and that they had no knowledge whatever of the import of the great principle of right! Take me as an instance now. Were really mine the good fortune of departing life at a fit time, I'd avail myself of the present when all you girls are alive, to pass away. And could I get you to shed such profuse tears for me as to swell out into a stream large enough to raise my corpse and carry it to some secluded place, whither no bird even has ever wended its flight, and could I become invisible like the wind, and nevermore from this time, come into existence as a human being, I shall then have died at a proper season.", "pos": 487105}
{"speaker": "Ling Kuan", "text": "I'm hoarse. The Empress the other day called us into the palace; but I couldn't sing even then.", "pos": 490458}
{"speaker": "Pao Kuan", "text": "Wait a while, until Mr. Ch'iang Secundus comes; and when he asks her to sing, she is bound to sing.", "pos": 491149}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Where's brother Ch'iang gone to?", "pos": 491320}
{"speaker": "Pao Kuan", "text": "He's just gone out. Of course, Ling Kuan must have wanted something or other, and he's gone to devise ways and means to bring it to her.", "pos": 491365}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What kind of bird is that? Can it hold a flag in its beak, or do any tricks?", "pos": 491895}
{"speaker": "Chia Ch'iang", "text": "It's the 'jade-crested and gold-headed bird,'", "pos": 491990}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "How much did you give for it?", "pos": 492059}
{"speaker": "Chia Ch'iang", "text": "A tael and eight mace. Come and see this thing.", "pos": 492109}
{"speaker": "Ling Kuan", "text": "What's it?", "pos": 492520}
{"speaker": "Chia Ch'iang", "text": "I've bought a bird for you to amuse yourself with, so that you mayn't daily feel dull and have nothing to distract yourself with. But I'll first play with it and let you see.", "pos": 492558}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "How nice;", "pos": 492959}
{"speaker": "Ling Kuan", "text": "Isn't it enough, that your family entraps a fine lot of human beings like us and coops us up in this hole to study this stuff and nonsense, but do you also now go and get a bird, which likewise is, as it happens, up to this sort of thing? You distinctly fetch it to make fun of us, and mimick us, and do you still ask me whether I like it or not?", "pos": 493183}
{"speaker": "Chia Ch'iang", "text": "How ever could I have been such a fool to-day, as to go and throw away a tael or two to purchase this bird? I really did it in the hope that it would afford you amusement. I never for a moment entertained such thoughts as those you credit me with. But never mind; I'll let it go, and save you all this misery!", "pos": 493713}
{"speaker": "Ling Kuan", "text": "This bird, differs, it's true, from a human being; but it too has a mother and father in its nest, and could you have had the heart to bring it here to perform these silly pranks? In coughing to-day, I expectorated two mouthfuls of blood, and Madame Wang sent some one here to find you so as to tell you to ask the doctor round to minutely diagnose my complaint, and have you instead brought this to mock me with? But it so happens that I, who have not a soul to look after me, or to care for me, also have the fate to fall ill!", "pos": 494139}
{"speaker": "Chia Ch'iang", "text": "Yesterday evening. I asked the doctor about it. He said that it was nothing at all, that you should take a few doses of medicine, and that he would be coming again in a day or two to see how you were getting on. But who'd have thought it, you have again to-day expectorated blood. I'll go at once and invite him to come round.", "pos": 494725}
{"speaker": "Ling Kuan", "text": "Do you go off in a tantrum in this hot broiling sun? You may ask him to come, but I won't see him.", "pos": 495171}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I was very wrong in what I said yesterday evening. It's no matter of surprise that father says that I am so narrow-minded that I look at things through a tube and measure them with a clam-shell. I mentioned something last night about having nothing but tears, shed by all of you girls, to be buried in. But this was a mere delusion! So as I can't get the tears of the whole lot of you, each one of you can henceforward keep her own for herself, and have done.", "pos": 496103}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "You are verily somewhat cracked!", "pos": 496830}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Who, I wonder, will shed tears for me, at my burial?", "pos": 497108}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I just saw, my maternal aunt, who hearing that to-morrow is Miss Hsüeh's birthday, bade me come at my convenience to ask you whether you'll go or not, (and to tell you) to send some one ahead to let them know what you mean to do.", "pos": 497400}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I didn't go the other day, when it was Mr. Chia She's birthday, so I won't go now. If it is a matter of meeting any one, I won't go anywhere. On a hot day like this to again don my ceremonial dress! No, I won't go. Aunt is not likely to feel displeased with me!", "pos": 497661}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "What are you driving at? She couldn't be put on the same footing as our senior master! She lives close by here. Besides she's a relative. Why, if you don't go, won't you make her imagine things? Well, if you dread the heat, just get up at an early hour and go over and prostrate yourself before her, and come back again, after you've had a cup of tea. Won't this look well?", "pos": 497944}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You should, go as far as there for the sake of her, who drives the mosquitoes away from you.", "pos": 498432}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What about driving mosquitoes away? It shouldn't have been done! But how did I manage to go to sleep and show such utter discourtesy to her? I must go to-morrow!", "pos": 498597}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Should our venerable senior not think of me do often allude to me, so that she should depute some one to fetch me.", "pos": 500324}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It quite slipped from my mind. I meant to have gone and seen my cousin Tertia; is she better that you come?", "pos": 502958}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Mo", "text": "Miss is all right. She hasn't even had any medicine to-day. It's only a slight chill.", "pos": 503087}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My third cousin, is the one eminently polished; I'll go at once to-day and talk matters over with her.", "pos": 506059}
{"speaker": "matron", "text": "Mr. Yün, presents his compliments to you. He is waiting for you at the back gate. This is a note he bade me bring you.", "pos": 506473}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Has he come alone? Or has he any one else with him?", "pos": 507866}
{"speaker": "matron", "text": "He's got two flower pots as well,", "pos": 507932}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You go and tell him, that I've informed myself of the contents of his note, and that there are few who think of me as he does! If you also take the flowers and, put them in my room, it will be all right.", "pos": 507989}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "I'm not a boor, so when the idea casually crossed my mind, I wrote a few notes to try and see who would come. But who'd have thought that, as soon as I asked you, you would all come.", "pos": 508466}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It's unfortunately late. We should have started this society long ago.", "pos": 508672}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You can't call this late! so why give way to regret! The only thing is, you must form your society, without including me in the number; for I daren't be one of you.", "pos": 508774}
{"speaker": "Ying Ch'un", "text": "If you daren't, who can presume to do so?", "pos": 508962}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This is, a legitimate and great purpose; and we should all exert our energies. You shouldn't be modest, and I yielding; but every one of us, who thinks of anything, should freely express it for general discussion. So senior cousin Pao-ch'ai do make some suggestion; and you junior cousin Lin Tai-yü say something.", "pos": 509027}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "What are you in this hurry for? We are not all here yet.", "pos": 509363}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "It's an excellent proposal, this of starting a poetical society. I recommend myself as controller. Some time ago in spring, I thought of this, 'but,' I mused, 'I am unable to compose verses, so what's the use of making a mess of things?' This is why I dispelled the idea from my mind, and made no mention about it. But since it's your good pleasure, cousin Tertia, to start it, I'll help you to set it on foot.", "pos": 509543}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "As you've made up your minds, to initiate a poetical society, every one of us will be poets, so we should, as a first step, do away with those various appellations of cousin and uncle and aunt, and thus avoid everything that bears a semblance of vulgarity.", "pos": 509980}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "First rate, and why should we not fix upon some new designations by which to address ourselves? This will be a far more refined way! As for my own, I've selected that of the 'Old farmer of Tao Hsiang;' so let none of you encroach on it.", "pos": 510256}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "I'll then call myself the 'resident-scholar of the Ch'iu Shuang,' and have done,", "pos": 510515}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "'Resident-scholar or master' is, in fact, not to the point. It's clumsy, besides. The place here is full of dryandra and banana trees, and if one could possibly hit upon some name bearing upon the dryandra and banana, it would be preferable.", "pos": 510633}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "I've got one. I'll style myself 'the guest under the banana trees.'", "pos": 510897}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "How uncommon! It's a nice one! be quick and drag her away and stew some slices of her flesh, for people to eat with their wine. says: 'The banana leaves shelter the deer,' and as she styles herself the guest under the banana tree, is she not a deer? So be quick and make pieces of dried venison of her.", "pos": 510999}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Don't be in a hurry! You make use of specious language to abuse people; but I've thought of a fine and most apposite name for you! In days gone by, an imperial concubine, Nü Ying, sprinkled her tears on the bamboo, and they became spots, so from olden times to the present spotted bamboos have been known as the 'Hsiang imperial concubine bamboo.' Now she lives in the Hsiao Hsiang lodge, and has a weakness too for tears, so the bamboos over there will by and bye, I presume, likewise become transformed into speckled bamboos; every one therefore must henceforward call her the 'Hsiao Hsiang imperial concubine' and finish with it.", "pos": 511492}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "I've also, devised a suitable name for senior cousin, Hsüeh Pao-chai. It too is one of three characters.", "pos": 512392}
{"speaker": "the party", "text": "What's it?", "pos": 512515}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "I'll raise her to the rank of 'Princess of Heng Wu,' I wonder what you all think about this.", "pos": 512556}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "This title of honour, is most apposite.", "pos": 512670}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What about mine? You should try and think of one for me also!", "pos": 512735}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Your style has long ago been decided upon. It consists of three words: 'fussing for nothing!' It's most pat!", "pos": 512815}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "You should, after all, retain your old name of 'master of the flowers in the purple cave,' That will do very well.", "pos": 512946}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Those were some of the doings of my youth; why rake them up again?", "pos": 513083}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Your styles are very many, and what do you want to choose another for? All you've got to do is to make suitable reply when we call you whatever takes our fancy.", "pos": 513168}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I must however give you a name. There's a very vulgar name, but it's just the very thing for you. What is difficult to obtain in the world are riches and honours; what is not easy to combine with them is leisure. These two blessings cannot be enjoyed together, but, as it happens, you hold one along with the other, so that we might as well dub you the 'rich and honourable idler.'", "pos": 513354}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It won't do; it isn't suitable. It's better that you should call me, at random, whatever you like.", "pos": 513760}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "What names are to be chosen for Miss Secunda and Miss Quarta?", "pos": 513879}
{"speaker": "Ying Ch'un", "text": "We also don't excel in versifying; what's the use consequently of giving us names, all for no avail?", "pos": 513960}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "In spite of this, it would be well to likewise find something for you!", "pos": 514080}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "She lives in the Tzu Ling Chou, (purple caltrop Isle), so let us call her 'Ling Chou,' As for that girl Quarta, she lives in the On Hsiang Hsieh, (lotus fragrance pavilion); she should thus be called On Hsieh and have done!", "pos": 514174}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "These will do very well! But as far as age goes, I am the senior, and you should all defer to my wishes; but I feel certain that when I've told you what they are, you will unanimously agree to them. We are seven here to form the society, but neither I, nor Miss Secunda, nor Miss Quarta can write verses; so if you will exclude us three, we'll each share some special duties.", "pos": 514423}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Their names have already been chosen, and do you still keep on addressing them like this? Well, in that case, won't it be as well for them to have no names? But we must also decide upon some scale of fines, for future guidance, in the event of any mistakes. Well,", "pos": 514817}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "There will be ample time to fix upon a scale of fines after the society has been definitely established. There's plenty of room over in my place so let's hold our meetings there. I'm not, it is true, a good hand at verses, but if you poets won't treat me disdainfully as a rustic boor, and if you will allow me to play the hostess, I may certainly also gradually become more and more refined. As for conceding to me the presidentship of the society, it won't be enough, of course, for me alone to preside; it will be necessary to invite two others to serve as vice-presidents; you might then enlist Ling Chou and Ou Hsieh, both of whom are cultured persons. The one to choose the themes and assign the metre, the other to act as copyist and supervisor. We three cannot, however, definitely say that we won't write verses, for, if we come across any comparatively easy subject and metre, we too will indite a stanza if we feel so disposed. But you four will positively have to do so. If you agree to this, well, we can proceed with the society; but, if you don't fall in with my wishes, I can't presume to join you.", "pos": 515110}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Your proposals, may be right enough; but in my views they are ridiculous. For here I've had the trouble of initiating this idea of a society, and, instead of my having anything to say in the matter, I've been the means of making you three come and exercise control over me.", "pos": 516759}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Well then, let's go to the Tao Hsiang village.", "pos": 517060}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "You're always in a hurry! We're here to-day to simply deliberate. So wait until I've sent for you again.", "pos": 517129}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It would be well, that we should also decide every how many days we are to meet.", "pos": 517255}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "If we meet too often, there won't be fun in it. We should simply come together two or three times in a month.", "pos": 517362}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It will be ample if we meet twice or thrice a month. But when the dates have been settled neither wind nor rain should prevent us. Exclusive, however, of these two days, any one in high spirits and disposed to have an extra meeting can either ask us to go over to her place, or you can all come to us; either will do well enough! But won't it be more pleasant if no hard-and-fast dates were laid down?", "pos": 517495}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This suggestion is excellent,", "pos": 517918}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "This idea was primarily originated by me, and I should be the first to play the hostess, so that these good spirits of mine shouldn't all go for nothing.", "pos": 517970}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Well, after this remark, what do you say to your being the first to convene a meeting to-morrow?", "pos": 518149}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "To-morrow, is not as good as to-day; the best thing is to have it at once! You'd better therefore choose the subjects, while Ling Chou can fix the metre, and Ou Hsieh act as supervisor.", "pos": 518268}
{"speaker": "Ying Ch'un", "text": "According to my ideas, we shouldn't yield to the wishes of any single person in the choice of themes and the settlement of the rhythm. What would really be fair and right would be to draw lots.", "pos": 518479}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "When I came just now. I noticed them bring in two pots of white begonias, which were simply beautiful; and why should you not write some verses on them?", "pos": 518699}
{"speaker": "Ying Ch'un", "text": "Can we write verses, before we have as yet seen anything of the flowers?", "pos": 518872}
{"speaker": "Pao-chai", "text": "They're purely and simply white begonias, and is there again any need to see them before you put together your verses? Men of old merely indited poetical compositions to express their good cheer and conceal their sentiments; had they waited to write on things they had seen, why, the whole number of their works would not be in existence at present!", "pos": 518970}
{"speaker": "Ying Ch'un", "text": "In that case, let me fix the metre. Just utter, the first character that comes to your mouth.", "pos": 519343}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "door.", "pos": 519917}
{"speaker": "Ying Ch'un", "text": "The rhyme then will be the word 'door,' under the thirteenth character 'Yuan.' The final word of the first line is therefore 'door'.", "pos": 519925}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "p'en, hun, hen and hun,", "pos": 520382}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "The two characters pot and door, are not very easy to rhyme with.", "pos": 520438}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "have you finished?", "pos": 521510}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "As for finishing, I have finished, but they're worth nothing.", "pos": 521531}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Have you heard? they've all done!", "pos": 521687}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Don't concern yourself about me!", "pos": 521754}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Dreadful! There only remains an inch of the stick and I've only just composed four lines. The incense stick is nearly burnt out, and what do you keep squatting on that damp ground like that for? I can't be looking after you! Whether good or bad, I'll write mine out too and have done.", "pos": 521883}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "We'll now peruse the verses, and if by the time we've done, you haven't as yet handed up your papers, you'll have to be fined.", "pos": 522386}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Old farmer of Tao Hsiang, you're not, it is true, a good hand at writing verses, but you can read well, and, what's more, you're the fairest of the lot; so you'd better adjudge the good and bad, and we'll submit to your judgment.", "pos": 522536}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Of course!", "pos": 522787}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "After all, it's the Princess of Heng Wu, who expresses herself to the point. Princess of Heng Wu,", "pos": 524284}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Have you all done?", "pos": 525296}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "This stanza ranks above all! As regards beauty of thought and originality, this stanza certainly deserves credit, but as regards pregnancy and simplicity of language, it, after all, yields to that of Heng Wu.", "pos": 526492}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "This criticism is right. That of the Hsiao Hsiang consort must take second place.", "pos": 526793}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Yours, gentleman of I Hung, is the last of the lot. Do you agreeably submit to this verdict?", "pos": 526898}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My stanza, isn't really worth a straw. Your criticism is exceedingly fair. But, the two poems, written by Heng Wu and Hsiao Hsiang, have still to be discussed.", "pos": 527011}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "You should, fall in with my judgment; this is no business of any of you, so whoever says anything more will have to pay a penalty. I decide that from henceforward, we should hold meetings twice every month, on the second and sixteenth. In the selection of themes and the settlement of the rhymes, you'll all have then to do as I wish. But any person who may, during the intervals, feel so disposed, will be at perfect liberty to choose another day for an extra meeting. What will I care if there's a meeting every day of the moon? It will be no concern of mine, so long as when the second and sixteenth arrive, you do, as you're bound to, and come over to my place.", "pos": 527214}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "We should, as is but right, choose some name or other for our society.", "pos": 528000}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Were an ordinary one chosen, it wouldn't be nice, and anything too new-fangled, eccentric or strange won't also be quite the thing! As luck would have it, we've just started with the poems on the begonia, so let us call it the 'Begonia Poetical Society.' This title is, it's true, somewhat commonplace; but as it's positively based on fact, it shouldn't matter.", "pos": 528093}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "This silver, is a present for the boys, who carried the flowers; and these cash are for you to buy yourselves a cup of tea with. Are there, any servant-boys on duty outside the back gate?", "pos": 529466}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "There are four of them every day,", "pos": 530028}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "They're put there with the sole idea of attending to any orders that might be given them from inside. But, Miss, if you've anything to order them to do, we'll go and deliver your message.", "pos": 530093}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "What orders can I have to give them? Mr. Pao, our master Secundus, was purposing to send some one to-day to the young marquis' house to take something over to Miss Shih. But you come at an opportune moment so you might, on your way out, tell the servant-boys at the back gate to hire a carriage; and on its return you can come here and get the money. But don't let them rush recklessly against people in the front part of the compound! Where is the white cornelian tray with twisted threads gone to?", "pos": 530282}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "It was taken to Miss Tertia's with a present of lichees, and it hasn't as yet been returned.", "pos": 531372}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "There are plenty of articles, for sending over things on ordinary occasions; and do you deliberately go and carry this off?", "pos": 531483}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Didn't I maintain the same thing? But so well did this tray match with the fresh lichees it contained, that when I took it over, Miss T'an Ch'un herself noticed the fact.", "pos": 531629}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "How splendid,", "pos": 531824}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "and lo, putting even the tray by, she never had it brought over. But, look! hasn't the pair of beaded vases, which stood on the very top of that shelf, been fetched as yet?", "pos": 531849}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "The mention of these vases, reminds me again of a funny incident. Whenever our Mr. Pao-yü's filial piety is aroused, he shows himself filial over and above the highest degree! The other day, he espied the olea flowers in the park, and he plucked two twigs. His original idea was to place them in a vase for himself, but a sudden thought struck him.", "pos": 532024}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "These are flowers, which have newly opened in our garden, so how can I presume to be the first to enjoy them?", "pos": 532395}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "And actually taking down that pair of vases, he filled them with water with his own hands, put the flowers in, and, calling a servant to carry them, he in person took one of the vases into dowager lady Chia's, and then took the other to Madame Wang's. But, as it happens, even his attendants reap some benefit, when once his filial feelings are stirred up! As luck would have it, the one who carried the vases over on that day was myself. The sight of these flowers so enchanted our venerable lady that there was nothing that she wouldn't do.", "pos": 532518}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Pao-yü, is the one, after all, who shows me much attention. So much so, that he has even thought of bringing me a twig of flowers! And yet, the others bear me a grudge on account of the love that I lavish on him!", "pos": 533062}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "Our venerable mistress, you all know very well, has never had much to say to me. I have all along not been much of a favourite in the old lady's eyes. But on that occasion she verily directed some one to give me several hundreds of cash.", "pos": 533309}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I was to be pitied, for being born with a weak physique!", "pos": 533548}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "This was, indeed, an unforeseen piece of good luck! The several hundreds of cash are a mere trifle; but what's not easy to get is this sort of honour! After that, we went over into Madame Wang's. Madame Wang was, at the time, with our lady Secunda, Mrs. Chao, and a whole lot of people; turning the boxes topsy-turvey, trying to find some coloured clothes her ladyship had worn long ago in her youth, so as to give them to some one or other. Who it was, I don't know. But the moment she saw us, she did not even think of searching for any clothes, but got lost in admiration for the flowers. Our lady Secunda was also standing by, and she made sport of the matter. She extolled our master Pao, for his filial piety and for his knowledge of right and wrong; and what with what was true and what wasn't, she came out with two cart-loads of compliments. These things spoken in the presence of the whole company so added to Madame Wang's lustre and sealed every one's mouth, that her ladyship was more and more filled with gratification, and she gave me two ready-made clothes as a present. These too are of no consequence; one way or another, we get some every year; but nothing can come up to this sort of lucky chance!", "pos": 533622}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Psha! you are indeed a mean thing, who has seen nothing of the world! She gave the good ones to others and the refuse to you; and do you still pat on all this side?", "pos": 534842}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "No matter whether what she gave me was refuse or not, it's, after all, an act of bounty on the part of her ladyship.", "pos": 535059}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Had it been myself. I would at once have refused them! It wouldn't have mattered if she had given me what had been left by some one else; but we all stand on an equal footing in these rooms, and is there any one, forsooth, so much the more exalted or honorable than the other as to justify her taking what is good and bestowing it upon her and giving me what is left? I had rather not take them! I might have had to give offence to Madame Wang, but I wouldn't have put up with such a slight!", "pos": 535201}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "To whom did she give any in these rooms? I was unwell and went home for several days, so that I am not aware to whom any were given. Dear sister, do tell me who it is so that I may know.", "pos": 535717}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Were I to tell you, is it likely that you would return them at this hour to Madame Wang?", "pos": 535939}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "What nonsense. Ever since I've heard about it, I've been delighted and happy. No matter if she even bestowed upon me what remained from anything given to a dog in these rooms, I would have been thankful for her ladyship's kindness. I wouldn't have worried my mind with anything else!", "pos": 536053}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Doesn't she know how to jeer in fine style!", "pos": 536403}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "for weren't they given to that foreign spotted pug dog?", "pos": 536478}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "You lot of filthy-tongued creatures! when you've got nothing to do, you make me the scapegoat to crack your jokes, and poke your fun at! But what kind of death will, I wonder, each of you have!", "pos": 536536}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "Was it verily you, sister, who got them? I assure you I had no idea about it! I tender you my apologies.", "pos": 536751}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "You might be a little less domineering! The thing now is, who of you will go and fetch the tray.", "pos": 536890}
{"speaker": "Shih Yüeh", "text": "The vases too, must be got back when there's any time to spare; for there's nothing to say about our venerable mistress' quarters, but Madame Wang's apartments teem with people and many hands. The rest are all right; but Mrs. Chao and all that company will, when they see that the vase hails from these rooms, surely again foster evil designs, and they won't feel happy until they've done all they can to spoil it! Besides, Madame Wang doesn't trouble herself about such things. So had we not as well bring it over a moment sooner?", "pos": 537019}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "What you say is perfectly right, so you'd better let me go and fetch it.", "pos": 537628}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "I'll, after all, go for it. You can go and get that tray of yours!", "pos": 537719}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "You should let me once go for something! Whenever any lucky chance has turned up, you've invariably grabbed it; and can it be that you won't let me have a single turn?", "pos": 537807}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Altogether, that girl Ch'iu Wen got a few clothes just once; can such a lucky coincidence present itself again today that you too should find them engaged in searching for clothes?", "pos": 537999}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Albeit I mayn't come across any clothes, our Madame Wang may notice how diligent I am, and apportion me a couple of taels out of her public expenses; there's no saying. Don't you people, try and play your pranks with me; for is there anything that I don't twig?", "pos": 538210}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Just go first and wash, comb your hair and put on your out-of-door clothes, and then come back as I want to send you at once with a present to Miss Shih.", "pos": 538796}
{"speaker": "Nurse Sung", "text": "Miss, just give me what you have; and, if you have any message, tell it me; so that when I've tidied myself I may go straightway.", "pos": 538971}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "All these fresh fruits are newly plucked this year from our own garden, our Mr. Secundus sends them to Miss Shih to taste. The other day, too, she was quite taken with this cornelian tray so let her keep it for her use. In this silk bag she'll find the work, which she asked me some time ago to do for her. (Tell her) that she mustn't despise it for its coarseness, but make the best of it and turn it to some account. Present respects to her from our part and inquire after her health on behalf of Mr. Pao-yü; that will be all there's to say.", "pos": 539450}
{"speaker": "Nurse Sung", "text": "Has Mr. Pao, I wonder, anything more for me to tell her? Miss, do go and inquire, so that on my return, he mayn't again say that I forgot.", "pos": 540012}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "He was just now, over there in Miss Tertia's rooms, wasn't he?", "pos": 540177}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "They were all assembled there, deliberating about starting some poetical society or other, and they all wrote verses too. But I fancy he's got no message to give you; so you might as well start.", "pos": 540282}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I forgot all about her! I knew very well that I had something to attend to; but I couldn't remember what it was! Luckily, you've alluded to her! I was just meaning to ask her to come, for what fun will there be in this poetical society without her?", "pos": 541196}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Is this of any serious import? It's all, for the mere sake of recreation! She's not however able to go about at her own free will as you people do. Nor can she at home have her own way. When you therefore let her know, it won't again rest with her, however willing she may be to avail herself of your invitation. And if she can't come, she will long and crave to be with you all, so isn't it better that you shouldn't be the means of making her unhappy?", "pos": 541459}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Never mind! I'll tell our venerable senior to despatch some one to bring her over.", "pos": 541944}
{"speaker": "Nurse Sung", "text": "She also inquired, what you, master Secundus, were up to, and I told her that you had started some poetical club or other with the young ladies and that you were engaged in writing verses. Miss Shih wondered why it was, if you were writing verses, that you didn't even mention anything to her; and she was extremely distressed about it.", "pos": 542232}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "It's too late to-day, they'll go tomorrow, as soon as it's daylight.", "pos": 542796}
{"speaker": "Li Wan and the others", "text": "Don't, allow her to see them! First tell her the rhymes and number of feet; and, as she comes late, she should, as a first step, pay a penalty by conforming to the task we had to do. Should what she writes be good, then she can readily be admitted as a member of the society; but if not good, she should be further punished by being made to stand a treat; after which, we can decide what's to be done.", "pos": 543445}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "You've forgotten to ask me round, and I should, after all, fine you people! But produce the metre; for though I don't excel in versifying, I shall exert myself to do the best I can, so as to get rid of every slur. If you will admit me into the club, I shall be even willing to sweep the floors and burn the incense.", "pos": 543862}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "I have, stuck to the metre and written two stanzas. Whether they be good or bad, I cannot say; all I've kept in view was to simply comply with your wishes.", "pos": 544744}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "We thought our four stanzas,", "pos": 544993}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "had so thoroughly exhausted everything that could be imagined on the subject that another stanza was out of the question, and there you've devised a couple more! How could there be so much to say? These must be mere repetitions of our own sentiments.", "pos": 545039}
{"speaker": "They", "text": "This,", "pos": 546428}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "is not writing verses on the begonia for no purpose! We must really start a Begonia Society!", "pos": 546470}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "To-morrow, first fine me by making me stand a treat, and letting me be the first to convene a meeting; may I?", "pos": 546565}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This would be far better!", "pos": 546705}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "If you want, to hold a meeting, you have to pay the piper. And albeit it's for mere fun, you have to make every possible provision; for while consulting your own interests, you must guard against giving umbrage to people. In that case every one will afterwards be happy and contented. You count for nothing too in your own home; and the whole lump sum of those few tiaos, you draw each month, are not sufficient for your own wants, and do you now also wish to burden yourself with this useless sort of thing? Why, if your aunt gets wind of it, won't she be more incensed with you than ever! What's more, even though you might fork out all the money you can call your own to bear the outlay of this entertainment with, it won't be anything like enough, and can it possibly be, pray, that you would go home for the express purpose of requisitioning the necessary funds? Or will you perchance ask for some from in here? I have already fixed upon a plan in my mind. There's an assistant in our pawnshop from whose family farm come some splendid crabs. Some time back, he sent us a few as a present, and now, starting from our venerable senior and including the inmates of the upper quarters, most of them are quite in love with crabs. It was only the other day that my mother mentioned that she intended inviting our worthy ancestor into the garden to look at the olea flowers and partake of crabs, but she has had her hands so full that she hasn't as yet asked her round. So just you now drop the poetical meeting, and invite the whole crowd to a show; and if we wait until they go, won't we be able to indite as many poems as we like? But let me speak to my brother and ask him to let us have several baskets of the fattest and largest crabs he can get, and to also go to some shop and fetch several jars of luscious wine. And if we then lay out four or five tables with plates full of refreshments, won't we save trouble and all have a jolly time as well? The proposal I've made. is prompted entirely by my sincere feelings for you; so whatever you do don't be touchy and imagine that I look down upon you; for in that case we two will have been good friends all in vain. But if you won't give way to suspicion, I'll be able to tell them at once to go and get things ready.", "pos": 547245}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "My dear cousin, if you say these things it's you who treat me with suspicion; for no matter how foolish a person I may be, as not to even know what's good and bad, I'm still a human being! Did I not regard you, cousin, in the same light as my own very sister, I wouldn't last time have had any wish or inclination to disclose to you every bit of those troubles, which ordinarily fall to my share at home.", "pos": 549904}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "The themes for the verses, mustn't also be too out-of-the-way. Just search the works of old writers, and where will you find any eccentric and peculiar subjects, or any extra difficult metre! If the subject be too much out-of-the-way and the metre too difficult, one cannot get good verses. In a word, we are a mean lot and our verses are certain, I fear, to consist of mere repetitions. Nor is it advisable for us to aim at excessive originality. The first thing for us to do is to have our ideas clear, as our language will then not be commonplace. In fact, this sort of thing is no vital matter; spinning and needlework are, in a word, the legitimate duties of you and me. Yet, if we can at any time afford the leisure, it's only right and proper that we should take some book, that will benefit both body and mind, and read a few chapters out of it.", "pos": 551001}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "I'm now cogitating in my mind, that as the verses we wrote yesterday treated of begonias, we should, I think, compose on this occasion some on chrysanthemums, eh? What do you say?", "pos": 551916}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Chrysanthemums are in season. The only objection to them is that too many writers of old have made them the subject of their poems.", "pos": 552130}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "I also think so, so that, I fear, we shall only be following in their footsteps.", "pos": 552285}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I've hit upon something! If we take, for the present instance, the chrysanthemums as a secondary term, and man as the primary, we can, after all, select several themes. But they must all consist of two characters: the one, an empty word; the other, a full one. The full word might be chrysanthemums; while for the empty one, we might employ some word in general use. In this manner, we shall, on one hand, sing the chrysanthemum; and, on the other, compose verses on the theme. And as old writers have not written much in this style, it will be impossible for us to drift into the groove of their ideas. Thus in versifying on the scenery and in singing the objects, we will, in both respects, combine originality with liberality of thought.", "pos": 552432}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "This is all very well. The only thing is what kind of empty words will, I wonder, be best to use? Just you first think of one and let me see.", "pos": 553175}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Dream of chrysanthemums is good.", "pos": 553418}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "It's positively good! I've also got one: 'the Chrysanthemum shadow,' will that do?", "pos": 553453}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Well enough, the only objection is that people have written on it; yet if the themes are to be many, we might throw this in. I've got another one too!", "pos": 553559}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Be quick, and tell it!", "pos": 553734}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "What do you say to 'ask the Chrysanthemums?'", "pos": 553777}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Capital. I've thought of one also. It is, search for chrysanthemums; what's your idea about it? Ten don't form a set. We'd better complete them by raising their number to twelve; they'll then also be on the same footing as people's pictures and books.", "pos": 553886}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Well, since we've got so far, let's go one step further and copy them out in their proper order, putting those that are first, first; and those that come last, last.", "pos": 554673}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "It would be still better like that, as we'll be able to make up a 'chrysanthemum book.'", "pos": 554856}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "The first stanza should be: 'Longing for chrysanthemums,' and as one cannot get them by wishing, and has, in consequence, to search for them, the second should be 'searching for chrysanthemums.' After due search, one finds them, and plants them, so the third must be: 'planting chrysanthemums.' After they've been planted, they, blossom, and one faces them and enjoys them, so the fourth should be 'facing the chrysanthemums.' By facing them, one derives such excessive delight that one plucks them and brings them in and puts them in vases for one's own delectation, so the fifth must be 'placing chrysanthemums in vases.' If no verses are sung in their praise, after they've been placed in vases, it's tantamount to seeing no point of beauty in chrysanthemums, so the sixth must be 'sing about chrysanthemums.' After making them the burden of one's song, one can't help representing them in pictures. The seventh place should therefore be conceded to 'drawing chrysanthemums.' Seeing that in spite of all the labour bestowed on the drawing of chrysanthemums, the fine traits there may be about them are not yet, in fact, apparent, one impulsively tries to find them out by inquiries, so the eighth should be 'asking the chrysanthemums.' As any perception, which the chrysanthemums might display in fathoming the questions set would help to make the inquirer immoderately happy, the ninth must be 'pinning the chrysanthemums in the hair.' And as after everything has been accomplished, that comes within the sphere of man, there will remain still some chrysanthemums about which something could be written, two stanzas on the 'shadow of the chrysanthemums,' and the 'dream about chrysanthemums' must be tagged on as numbers ten and eleven. While the last section should be 'the withering of the chrysanthemums' so as to bring to a close the sentiments expressed in the foregoing subjects. In this wise the fine scenery and fine doings of the third part of autumn, will both alike be included in our themes. I do not, as a rule, like hard-and-fast rhymes. It's evident enough that we can have good verses without them, so what's the use of any rhymes to shackle us? Don't let us imitate that mean lot of people. Let's simply choose our subject and pay no notice to rhymes. Our main object is to see whether we cannot by chance hit upon some well-written lines for the sake of fun. It isn't to make this the means of subjecting people to perplexities.", "pos": 554971}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "What you say is perfectly right. In this manner our poetical composition will improve one step higher. But we only muster five members, and there are here twelve themes. Is it likely that each one of us will have to indite verses on all twelve?", "pos": 557652}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "That would be far too hard on the members! But let's copy out the themes clean, for lines with seven words will have to be written on every one, and stick them to-morrow on the wall for general perusal. Each member can write on the subject which may be most in his or her line. Those, with any ability, may choose all twelve. While those, with none, may only limit themselves to one stanza. Both will do. Those, however, who will show high mental capacity, combined with quickness, will be held the best. But any one, who shall have completed all twelve themes, won't be permitted to hasten and begin over again; we'll have to fine such a one, and finish.", "pos": 557922}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Yes, that will do,", "pos": 558602}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Which is the best spot?", "pos": 559800}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "We are ready to go wherever you may like, dear senior,", "pos": 559850}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "A collation has already been spread in the Lotus Fragrance Arbour. Besides, the two olea plants, on that hill, yonder, are now lovely in their full blossom, and the water of that stream is jade-like and pellucid, so if we sit in the pavilion in the middle of it, won't we enjoy an open and bright view? It will be refreshing too to our eyes to watch the pool.", "pos": 559941}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Quite right!", "pos": 560327}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Venerable ancestor, just walk boldly and with confident step; there's nothing to fear; it's the way of these bamboo bridges to go on creaking like this.", "pos": 560879}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "It was a capital idea, to bring tea here. What's more, the spot and the appurtenances are alike so spick and span!", "pos": 561576}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "These things were brought by cousin Pao-ch'ai, so I got them ready.", "pos": 561758}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This child is, I say, so scrupulously particular, that everything she does is thoroughly devised.", "pos": 561862}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Long ago, when I was young, we likewise had at home a pavilion like this called 'the Hall reclining on the russet clouds,' or some other such name. At that time, I was of the same age as the girls, and my wont was to go day after day and play with my sisters there. One day, I, unexpectedly, slipped and fell into the water, and I had a narrow escape from being drowned; for it was after great difficulty, that they managed to drag me out safe and sound. But my head was, after all, bumped about against the wooden nails; so much so, that this hole of the length of a finger, which you can see up to this day on my temple, comes from the bruises I sustained. All my people were in a funk that I'd be the worse for this ducking and continued in fear and trembling lest I should catch a chill. 'It was dreadful, dreadful!' they opined, but I managed, little though every one thought it, to keep in splendid health.", "pos": 562509}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Had you then not survived, who would now be enjoying these immense blessings! This makes it evident that no small amount of happiness and long life were in store for you, venerable ancestor, from your very youth up! It was by the agency of the spirits that this hole was knocked open so that they might fill it up with happiness and longevity! The old man Shou Hsing had, in fact, a hole in his head, which was so full of every kind of blessing conducive to happiness and long life that it bulged up ever so high!", "pos": 563557}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This monkey is given to dreadful tricks! She's always ready to make a scapegoat of me to evoke amusement. But would that I could take that glib mouth of yours and rend it in pieces.", "pos": 564223}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "It's because I feared that the cold might, when you by and bye have some crabs to eat, accumulate in your intestines, that I tried to induce you, dear senior, to have a laugh, so as to make you gay and merry. For one can, when in high spirits, indulge in a couple of them more with impunity.", "pos": 564432}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "By and bye. I'll make you follow me day and night, so that I may constantly be amused and feel my mind diverted; I won't let you go back to your home.", "pos": 564747}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "It's that weakness of yours for her, venerable senior, that has got her into the way of behaving in this manner, and, if you go on speaking to her as you do, she'll soon become ever so much the more unreasonable.", "pos": 564924}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I like her such as she is. Besides, she's truly no child, ignorant of the distinction between high and low. When we are at home, with no strangers present, we ladies should be on terms like these, and as long, in fact, as we don't overstep propriety, it's all right. If not, what would be the earthly use of making them behave like so many saints?", "pos": 565176}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You'd better, not bring in too many crabs at a time. Throw these again into the steaming-basket! Only serve ten; and when they're eaten, a fresh supply can be fetched!", "pos": 566164}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "They'll be sweeter were I to open them with my own hands, there's no need for any one to serve me.", "pos": 566540}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Make the wine as warm as possible and bring it in! Go, and fetch the powder, made of green beans, and scented with the leaves of chrysanthemums and the stamens of the olea fragrans; and keep it ready to rinse our hands with. You're not accustomed to entertaining, so go and have your share to eat. I'll attend to the people for you first, and, when they've gone, I'll have all I want.", "pos": 566755}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Lady Secunda, you're in here doing the honours, so may I go and have something to eat?", "pos": 567772}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You can all go, leave everything in my charge, and it will be all right.", "pos": 567896}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang and her companions", "text": "What has your ladyship come out again for? Do let us also enjoy a little peace and quiet!", "pos": 568420}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "This chit Yüan Yang is worse than ever! Here I'm slaving away for you, and, instead of feeling grateful to me, you bear me a grudge! But don't you yet quick pour me a cup of wine? Pour plenty of ginger and vinegar! You people, had better sit down and have something to eat, for I'm off now.", "pos": 568529}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "You brazen-faced thing, to eat what was intended for us!", "pos": 569309}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Don't be so captious with me! Are you aware that your master Secundus, Mr. Lien, has taken such a violent fancy to you that he means to speak to our old lady to let you be his secondary wife!", "pos": 569402}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Ts'ui! Are these really words to issue from the mouth of a lady! But if I don't daub your face all over with my filthy hands, I won't feel happy!", "pos": 569643}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "My dear child, do let me off this time!", "pos": 569900}
{"speaker": "Hu Po", "text": "Lo, that girl Yüan, wishes to smear her, and that hussey P'ing still spares her! Look here, she has scarcely had two crabs, and she has drunk a whole saucerful of vinegar!", "pos": 569942}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "I'll take you minx with that cajoling tongue of yours and….", "pos": 570344}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Ai-yah! You stupid wench! Have you by gorging lost your eyesight that you recklessly smudge your mistress' face?", "pos": 570748}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "O-mi-to-fu, this is a distinct retribution!", "pos": 571210}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Tell us, what it is so that we too should have a laugh.", "pos": 571445}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang and the other maids", "text": "Our lady Secunda, came to steal our crabs and eat them, and P'ing Erh got angry and daubed her mistress' face all over with yellow meat. So our mistress and that slave-girl are now having a scuffle over it.", "pos": 571518}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Do have pity on her, and let her have some of those small legs and entrails to eat, and have done!", "pos": 571890}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang and her companions", "text": "Mistress Secunda, you're at liberty to eat this whole tableful of legs!", "pos": 572072}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "There's plenty of wind here. Besides, you've just had crabs; so it would be prudent for you, venerable senior, to return home and rest. And if you feel in the humour, we can come again for a turn to-morrow.", "pos": 572818}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Quite true! I was afraid that if I left, now that you're all in exuberant spirits, I mightn't again be spoiling your fun, (so I didn't budge). But as the idea originates from yourselves do go as you please, (while I retire). But, don't allow your cousin Secundus, Pao-yü, and your cousin Lin to have too much to eat. You two girls, must not also have more than is good for you. Those things are, it's true, luscious, but they're not very wholesome; and if you eat immoderately of them, why, you'll get stomachaches.", "pos": 573027}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "There's no use of any regular spread out! When you are about to write verses, that big round table can be put in the centre and the wines and eatables laid on it. Neither will there be any need to ceremoniously have any fixed seats. Let those who may want anything to eat, go up to it and take what they like; and if we seat ourselves, scattered all over the place, won't it be far more convenient for us?", "pos": 573982}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Your idea is excellent!", "pos": 574411}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "This is all very well, but there are others to be studied besides ourselves!", "pos": 574457}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "They're full of originality,", "pos": 575178}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "we fear we couldn't write anything on them.", "pos": 575246}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Yes, quite right! I myself don't fancy hard and fast rhymes!", "pos": 575413}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You girls had better go on eating, and let me help myself; there'll be some fun in it then! I've eaten only a little bit of crab, and yet I feel my mouth slightly sore; so what would do for me now is a mouthful of very hot distilled spirit.", "pos": 577241}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "There's some distilled spirit. Take some of that wine, scented with acacia flowers, and warm a tankard of it. My dear cousin. I've already got four lines of the second theme so let me write on it!", "pos": 577654}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I managed, after ever so much difficulty, to put a stanza together, and are you now in such a hurry to deprive me of it?", "pos": 578297}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "If there's no one to write on 'Pinning the chrysanthemums' do let me have it! It has just been ruled, that it is on no account permissible to introduce any expressions, bearing reference to the inner chambers, so you'd better be on your guard! You too should get a style or other!", "pos": 578915}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "In our home, there exist, it is true, at present several halls and structures, but as I don't live in either, there'll be no fun in it were I to borrow the name of any one of them!", "pos": 579561}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Our venerable senior just said, that there was also in your home a water-pavilion called 'leaning on russet clouds hall,' and is it likely that it wasn't yours? But albeit it doesn't exist now-a-days, you were anyhow its mistress of old.", "pos": 579765}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "She's right!", "pos": 580038}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Let me now criticise them; I'll do so with all fairness! As I glance over the page. I find that each of you has some distinct admirable sentiments; but in order to be impartial in my criticism to-day, I must concede the first place to: 'Singing the chrysanthemums;' the second to: 'Asking the chrysanthemums;' and the third to: 'Dreaming of chrysanthemums.' The original nature of the themes makes the verses full of originality, and their conception still more original. But we must allow to the 'Hsiao Hsiang consort' the credit of being the best; next in order following: 'Pinning chrysanthemums in the hair,' 'Facing the chrysanthemums,' 'Putting the chrysanthemums, in vases,' 'Drawing the chrysanthemums,' and 'Longing for chrysanthemums,' as second best.", "pos": 589358}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Quite right! it's most just,", "pos": 590227}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "My verses are worth nothing! Their fault, after all, is that they are a little too minutely subtile.", "pos": 590270}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "They are subtile but good, for there's no artificialness or stiffness about them.", "pos": 590392}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "According to my views, the best line is: 'When cold holdeth the park and the sun's rays do slant, I long and yearn for you, old friends.' The metonomy: 'I fling my book aside and turn my gaze upon a twig of autumn.' is already admirable! She has dealt so exhaustively with 'putting chrysanthemums in a vase' that she has left nothing unsaid that could be said, and has had in consequence to turn her thought back and consider the time anterior to their being plucked and placed in vases. Her sentiments are profound!", "pos": 590495}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "What you say is certainly so, but that line of yours: 'Some scent I hold by the side of my mouth,….' beats that.", "pos": 591036}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "After all, we must admit that there's depth of thought in those of the 'Princess of Heng Wu' with: '…in autumn all trace of you is gone;' and '…my dreams then know something of you!' They really make the meaning implied by the words 'long for' stand out clearly.", "pos": 591181}
{"speaker": "Puo-ch'ai", "text": "Those passages of yours: 'Cold is the short hair on his temples and moistened….' and 'His flaxen turban is suffused with the sweet fragrance….;' likewise bring out the idea of 'pinning the chrysanthemums in the hair' so thoroughly that one couldn't get a loop hole for fault-finding.", "pos": 591469}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "'…who is meet with you to stay' and '…burst the last in bloom.' are questions so straight to the point set to the chrysanthemums, that they are quite at a loss what answer to give.", "pos": 591816}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Were what you say: 'I sit with head uncovered….' and '…clasping my knees, I hum my lays….' as if you couldn't, in fact, tear yourself away for even a moment from them, to come to the knowledge of the chrysanthemums, why, they would certainly be sick and tired of you.", "pos": 592012}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'm last again! Is it likely that: 'Who plants the flowers?…. …in autumn where do they go? With sandals waxed I come from distant shores;…. …and as on this cold day I can't exhaust my song;….' do not all forsooth amount to searching for chrysanthemums? And that 'Last night they got a shower…. And this morn … bedecked with frost,' don't both bear on planting them? But unfortunately they can't come up to these lines: 'Some scent I hold by the side of my mouth and turning to the moon I sing my sentiments.' 'In their pure and cool fragrance, clasping my knees I hum my lays.' '…short hair on his temples….' 'His flaxen turban…. …golden tinge is faint. …verdure is all past. …in autumn … all trace of you is gone. …my dreams then know something of you.' But to-morrow, if I have got nothing to do, I'll write twelve stanzas my self.", "pos": 592336}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Yours are also good, the only thing is that they aren't as full of original conception as those other lines, that's all.", "pos": 593211}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've already thought of a few; but will any of you again have the pluck to devise any?", "pos": 593665}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I could readily compose a hundred stanzas with such verses in no time,", "pos": 594548}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Your mental energies are now long ago exhausted, and instead of confessing your inability to devise any, you still go on heaping invective upon people!", "pos": 594661}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "As my compositions can't come up to yours. I'll burn it. Yours is capital, much better than the lines you wrote a little time back on the chrysanthemums, so keep it for the benefit of others.", "pos": 595898}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I've likewise succeeded, after much effort, in putting together a stanza. It cannot, of course, be worth much, but I'll put it down for fun's sake.", "pos": 596113}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Excellent! She abuses in fine style! But my lines should also be committed to the flames.", "pos": 596794}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "What is your mistress up to? How is it she hasn't come? But, she said, she hasn't anything good to eat, so she bade me, as she couldn't possibly run over, come and find out whether there be any more crabs or not; (if there be), she enjoined me to ask for a few to take to her to eat at home.", "pos": 598124}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "There are plenty!", "pos": 598509}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "I'll take a few more of the female ones,", "pos": 598654}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "I insist upon your sitting down. It's so evident that you've only got that woman Feng in your thoughts as you don't listen to any of my words! Tell her, that I've kept P'ing Erh here.", "pos": 598850}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Lady Secunda, says that you, lady Chu, and our young mistresses must not make fun of her for having asked for something to eat; and that in this box you'll find cakes made of water-lily powder, and rolls prepared with chicken fat, which your maternal aunt, on the other side, just sent for your ladyship and for you, young ladies, to taste. That she bids you, come over on duty, but your mind is so set upon pleasure that you loiter behind and don't go back. She advises you, however, not to have too many cups of wine. Were I even to have too much, what could she do to me?", "pos": 599437}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "What a pity it is, that a girl with such good looks as you should have so ordinary a fortune as to simply fall into that room as a menial! But wouldn't any one, who is not acquainted with actual facts, take you for a lady and a mistress?", "pos": 600198}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Don't rub me like that! It makes me feel quite ticklish.", "pos": 600593}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Ai-yo! What's this hard thing?", "pos": 600667}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "It's a key,", "pos": 600718}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "You've primed yourself with wine, my lady, and here you once more chaff me and make a laughing-stock of me.", "pos": 601279}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "This is really quite true. Whenever we've got nothing to do, and we talk matters over, (we're quite unanimous) that not one in a hundred could be picked out to equal you girls in here. The beauty is that each one of you possesses her own good qualities!", "pos": 601409}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "In every thing, whether large or small, a heavenly principle rules alike. Were there, for instance, no Yüan Yang in our venerable senior's apartments, how would it ever do? Commencing with Madame Wang herself, who is it who could muster sufficient courage to expostulate with the old lady? Yet she plainly has the pluck to put in her remonstrances with her; and, as it happens, our worthy ancestor lends a patient ear to only what she says and no one else. None of the others can remember what our old senior has in the way of clothes and head-ornaments, but she can remember everything; and, were she not there to look after things, there is no knowing how many would not be swindled away. That child besides is so straightforward at heart, that, despite all this, she often puts in a good word for others, and doesn't rely upon her influence to look down disdainfully upon any one!", "pos": 601685}
{"speaker": "Hsi Ch'un", "text": "It was only yesterday, that our dear ancestor said that she was ever so much better than the whole lot of us!", "pos": 602591}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "She's certainly splendid! How could we rise up to her standard?", "pos": 602738}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Ts'ai Hsia, who is in mother's rooms, is a good sort of girl!", "pos": 602843}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Of course she is! But she's good enough as far as external appearances go, but inwardly she's a sly one! Madame Wang is just like a joss; she does not give her mind to any sort of business; but this girl is up to everything; and it is she who in all manner of things reminds her mistress what there is to be done. She even knows everything, whether large or small, connected with Mr. Chia Cheng's staying at home or going out of doors; and when at any time Madame Wang forgets, she, from behind the scenes, prompts her how to act.", "pos": 602907}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Well, never mind about her! But were, no Hsi Jen in this young gentleman's quarters, just you imagine what a pitch things would reach! That vixen Feng may truly resemble the prince Pa of the Ch'u kingdom; and she may have two arms strong enough to raise a tripod weighing a thousand catties, but had she not this maid (P'ing Erh), would she be able to accomplish everything so thoroughly?", "pos": 603463}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "In days gone by, four servant-girls came along with her, but what with those who've died and those who've gone, only I remain like a solitary spirit.", "pos": 603933}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "You're, after all, the fortunate one! but our hussey Feng too is lucky in having you! Had I not also once, just remember, two girls, when your senior master Chu was alive? Am I not, you've seen for yourselves, a person to bear with people? But in such a surly frame of mind did I find them both day after day that, as soon as your senior master departed this life, I availed myself of their youth (to give them in marriage) and to pack both of them out of my place. But had either of them been good for anything and worthy to be kept, I would, in fact, have now had some one to give me a helping hand!", "pos": 604085}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Come into my room, and sit down and have another cup of tea.", "pos": 605200}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "I won't have any tea just now. I'll come some other time.", "pos": 605292}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "This month's allowances, haven't yet been issued, not even to our old mistress and Madame Wang; why is it?", "pos": 605457}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Drop these questions at once! They're sure, anyhow, to be issued in a couple of days.", "pos": 605769}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Why is it, that this gives you such a start?", "pos": 605857}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "This month's allowances, have long ago been obtained in advance by our mistress Secunda and given to people for their own purposes; and it's when the interest has been brought from here and there that the various sums will be lumped together and payment be effected. I confide this to you, but, mind, you mustn't go and tell any other person about it.", "pos": 605965}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Is it likely that she hasn't yet enough money for her own requirements? Or is it that she's still not satisfied? And what's the use of her still going on bothering herself in this way?", "pos": 606319}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Isn't it so! From just handling the funds for this particular item, she has, during these few years, so manipulated them as to turn up several hundreds of taels profit out of them. Nor does she spend that monthly allowance of hers for public expenses. But the moment she accumulates anything like eight or ten taels odd, she gives them out too. Thus the interest on her own money alone comes up to nearly a thousand taels a year.", "pos": 606524}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "You and your mistress take our money, and get interest on it; fooling us as if we were no better than idiots.", "pos": 606977}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Here you are again with your uncharitable words! Can it be that you haven't yet enough to meet your own expenses with?", "pos": 607120}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I am, it's true, not short of money, as I have nowhere to go and spend it; but the thing is that I'm making provision for that fellow of ours, (Pao-yü).", "pos": 607267}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "If you ever find yourself in any great straits and need money, you're at liberty to take first those few taels I've got over there to suit your own convenience with, and by and bye I can reduce them from what is due to you and we'll be square.", "pos": 607441}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I'm not in need of any just now. But should I not have enough, when I want some, I'll send some one to fetch them, and finish.", "pos": 607708}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Our lady, has something for you to do, and is waiting for you. What's up that it's so pressing? Our senior mistress detained me by force to have a chat, so I couldn't manage to get away. But here she time after time sends people after me in this manner!", "pos": 608121}
{"speaker": "maid", "text": "Whether you go or not is your own look out. It isn't worth your while getting angry with me! If you dare, go and tell these things to our mistress!", "pos": 608413}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Miss, how do you do? All at home, send you their compliments. I meant to have come earlier and paid my respects to my lady and to look you up, miss; but we've been very busy on the farm. We managed this year to reap, after great labour, a few more piculs of grain than usual. But melons, fruits and vegetables have also been plentiful. These things, you see here, are what we picked during the first crop; and as we didn't presume to sell them, we kept the best to present to our lady and the young ladies to taste. The young ladies must, of course, be surfeited with all the delicacies and fine things they daily get, but by having some of our wild greens to eat, they will show some regard for our poor attention. Many thanks for all the trouble you have taken!", "pos": 609349}
{"speaker": "Chou Jui's wife", "text": "There's a joyous air about your face to-day, Miss, and your eye-balls are all red,", "pos": 610330}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Naturally! I generally don't take any wine, but our senior mistress, and our young ladies caught hold of me and insisted upon pouring it down my throat. I had no alternative therefore but to swallow two cups full; so my face at once flushed crimson.", "pos": 610494}
{"speaker": "Chang Ts'ai's wife", "text": "I have a longing for wine, but there's no one to offer me any. But when any one by and by invites you, Miss, do take me along with you!", "pos": 610767}
{"speaker": "Chou Jui's wife", "text": "Early this morning, I caught a glimpse of those crabs. Only two or three of them would weigh a catty; so in those two or three huge hampers, there must have been, I presume, seventy to eighty catties! If some were intended for those above as well as for those below; they couldn't, nevertheless, I fear, have been enough.", "pos": 611012}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "How could every one have had any? Those simply with any name may have tasted a couple of them; but, as for the rest, some may have touched them with the tips of their hands, but many may even not have done as much.", "pos": 611363}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Crabs of this kind! cost this year five candareens a catty; ten catties for five mace; five times five make two taels five, and three times five make fifteen; and adding what was wanted for wines and eatables, the total must have come to something over twenty taels. O-mi-to-fu! why, this heap of money is ample for us country-people to live on through a whole year!", "pos": 611626}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "I expect you have seen our lady?", "pos": 611995}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Yes, I have seen her. She bade us wait. It's getting quite late. We must be going, or else we mayn't be in time to get out of the city gates; and then we'll be in a nice fix.", "pos": 612052}
{"speaker": "Chou Jui's wife", "text": "Quite right. I'll go and see what she's up to for you. Good fortune has, indeed, descended upon you, old dame! Why, you've won the consideration of those two ladies!", "pos": 612376}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "What about it?", "pos": 612673}
{"speaker": "Chou Jui's wife", "text": "Lady Secunda, was with our venerable lady, so I gently whispered to her: 'old goody Liu wishes to go home; it's getting late and she fears she mightn't be in time to go out of the gates!' 'It's such a long way off!' Our lady Secunda rejoined, 'and she had all the trouble and fatigue of carrying that load of things; so if it's too late, why, let her spend the night here and start on the morrow!' Now isn't this having enlisted our mistress' sympathies? But not to speak of this! Our old lady also happened to overhear what we said, and she inquired: 'who is old goody Liu?' Our lady Secunda forthwith told her all. 'I was just longing,' her venerable ladyship pursued, 'for some one well up in years to have a chat with; ask her in, and let me see her!' So isn't this coming in for consideration, when least unexpected?", "pos": 612778}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "With a figure like this of mine, how could I very well appear before her? My dear sister-in-law, do tell her that I've gone!", "pos": 613694}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Get on! Be quick! What does it matter? Our old lady has the highest regard for old people and the greatest pity for the needy! She's not one you could compare with those haughty and overbearing people! But I fancy you're a little too timid, so I'll accompany you as far as there, along with Mrs. Chou.", "pos": 613847}
{"speaker": "boy-servant", "text": "Miss! Miss!", "pos": 614491}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "What have you again got to say?", "pos": 614525}
{"speaker": "boy-servant", "text": "It's pretty late just now, and mother is ill and wants me to go and call the doctor, so I would, dear Miss, like to have half a day's leave; may I?", "pos": 614576}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Your doings are really fine! You've agreed among yourselves that each day one of you should apply for furlough; but instead of speaking to your lady, you come and bother me! The other day that Chu Erh went, Mr. Secundus happened not to want him, so I assented, though I also added that I was doing it as a favour; but here you too come to-day!", "pos": 614764}
{"speaker": "Chou Jui's wife", "text": "It's quite true that his mother is sick, so, Miss, do say yes to him also, and let him go!", "pos": 615133}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Be back as soon as it dawns to-morrow! Wait, I've got something for you to do, for you'll again sleep away, and only turn up after the sun has blazed away on your buttocks. As you go now, give a message to Wang Erh! Tell him that our lady bade you warn him that if he does not hand over the balance of the interest due by to-morrow, she won't have anything to do with him. So he'd better let her have it to meet her requirements and finish.", "pos": 615256}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "My obeisance to you, star of longevity!", "pos": 616680}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Venerable relative, how old are you this year?", "pos": 616968}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "I'm seventy-five this year,", "pos": 617088}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "So old and yet so hardy! Why she's older than myself by several years! When I reach that age, I wonder whether I shall be able to move!", "pos": 617132}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "We people have, to put up, from the moment we come into the world, with ever so many hardships; while your venerable ladyship enjoys, from your birth, every kind of blessing! Were we also like this, there'd be no one to carry on that farming work.", "pos": 617364}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Are your eyes and teeth still good?", "pos": 617614}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "They're both still all right. The left molars, however, have got rather shaky this year.", "pos": 617690}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "As for me, I'm quite an old fossil. I'm no good whatever. My eyesight is dim; my ears are deaf, my memory is gone. I can't even recollect any of you, old family connections. When therefore any of our relations come on a visit, I don't see them for fear lest I should be ridiculed. All I can manage to eat are a few mouthfuls of anything tender enough for my teeth; and I can just dose a bit or, when I feel in low spirits, I distract myself a little with these grandsons and grand-daughters of mine; that's all I'm good for.", "pos": 617806}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "This is indeed your venerable ladyship's good fortune! We couldn't enjoy anything of the kind, much though we may long for it.", "pos": 618363}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What good fortune! I'm a useless old thing, no more. I heard our lady Feng say a little while back, that you had brought a lot of squash and vegetables, and I told her to put them by at once. I had just been craving to have newly-grown melons and vegetables; but those one buys outside are not as luscious as those produced in your farms.", "pos": 618516}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "This is the rustic notion, to entirely subsist on fresh things! Yet, we long to have fish and meat for our fare, but we can't afford it.", "pos": 618984}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I've found a relative in you to-day, so you shouldn't go empty-handed! If you don't despise this place as too mean, do stay a day or two before you start! We've also got a garden here; and this garden produces fruits too; you can taste some of them to-morrow and take a few along with you home, in order to make it look like a visit to relatives.", "pos": 619148}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Our place here, isn't, it's true, as spacious as your threshing-floor; but as we've got two vacant rooms, you'd better put up in them for a couple of days, and choose some of your village news and old stories and recount them to our worthy senior.", "pos": 619686}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Now you, vixen Feng, don't raise a laugh at her expense! She's only a country woman; and will an old dame like her stand any chaff from you?", "pos": 619949}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "What with all the sowing we have to do in our fields and the vegetables we have to plant, have we ever in our village any leisure to sit with lazy hands from year to year and day to day; no matter whether it's spring, summer, autumn or winter, whether it blows or whether it rains? Yea, day after day all that we can do is to turn the bare road into a kind of pavilion to rest and cool ourselves on! But what strange things don't we see! Last winter, for instance, snow fell for several consecutive days, and it piled up on the ground three or four feet deep. One day, I got up early, but I hadn't as yet gone out of the door of our house when I heard outside the noise of firewood (being moved). I fancied that some one must have come to steal it, so I crept up to a hole in the window; but, lo, I discovered that it was no one from our own village.", "pos": 622443}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "It must have been, some wayfarers, who being smitten with the cold, took some of the firewood, they saw ready at hand, to go and make a fire and warm themselves with! That's highly probable!", "pos": 623326}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "It was no wayfarers at all, and that's what makes the story so strange. Who do you think it was, venerable star of longevity? It was really a most handsome girl of seventeen or eighteen, whose hair was combed as smooth as if oil had been poured over it. She was dressed in a deep red jacket, a white silk petticoat….", "pos": 623551}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It's nothing much,", "pos": 624011}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "don't frighten our old mistress!", "pos": 624046}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "The fire has been already extinguished, please, dear ancestor, repair into your rooms!", "pos": 624977}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What was that girl up to, taking the firewood in that heavy fall of snow? What, if she had got frostbitten and fallen ill?", "pos": 625226}
{"speaker": "grandmother Chia", "text": "It was the reference made recently to the firewood that was being abstracted, that brought about this fire; and do you still go on asking more about it? Leave this story alone, and tell us something else!", "pos": 625404}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "In our village, and on the eastern side of our farmstead, there lives an old dame, whose age is this year, over ninety. She goes in daily for fasting, and worshipping Buddha. Who'd have thought it, she so moved the pity of the goddess of mercy that she gave her this message in a dream: 'It was at one time ordained that you should have no posterity, but as you have proved so devout, I have now memorialised the Pearly Emperor to grant you a grandson!' The fact is, this old dame had one son. This son had had too an only son; but he died after they had with great difficulty managed to rear him to the age of seventeen or eighteen. And what tears didn't they shed for him! But, in course of time, another son was actually born to him. He is this year just thirteen or fourteen, resembles a very ball of flower, (so plump is he), and is clever and sharp to an exceptional degree! So this is indeed a clear proof that those spirits and gods do exist!", "pos": 625801}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Yesterday. We put cousin Shih to a lot of trouble and inconvenience, so, when we get back, we must consult about convening a meeting, and, while returning her entertainment, we can also invite our venerable ancestor to come and admire the chrysanthemums; what do you think of this?", "pos": 627104}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Our worthy senior, has intimated that she means to give a banquet to return cousin Shih's hospitality, and to ask us to do the honours. Let's wait therefore until we partake of grandmother's collation, before we issue our own invitations; there will be ample time then to do so.", "pos": 627425}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "The later it gets, the cooler the weather becomes, and our dear senior is not likely to enjoy herself.", "pos": 627723}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Grandmother, is also fond of rain and snow, so wouldn't it be as well to wait until the first fall, and then ask her to come and look at the snow. This will be better, won't it? And were we to recite our verses with snow about us, it will be ever so much more fun!", "pos": 627851}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "To hum verses in the snow, won't, in my idea, be half as nice as building up a heap of firewood and then stealing it, with the flakes playing about us. This will be by far more enjoyable!", "pos": 628134}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "The truth is, that there stands on the north bank of the ditch in our village a small ancestral hall, in which offerings are made, but not to spirits or gods. There was in former days some official or other…", "pos": 628711}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "No matter about names or surnames! There's no need for you to recall them to memory! Just mention the facts; they'll be enough.", "pos": 629005}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "This official, had no son. His offspring consisted of one young daughter, who went under the name of Jo Yü, (like Jade). She could read and write, and was doated upon by this official and his consort, just as if she were a precious jewel. But, unfortunately, when this young lady, Jo Yü, grew up to be seventeen, she contracted some disease and died.", "pos": 629158}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What happened after that?", "pos": 629615}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "So incessantly, did this official and his consort think of their child that they raised this ancestral hall, erected a clay image of their young daughter Jo Yü in it, and appointed some one to burn incense and trim the fires. But so many days and years have now elapsed that the people themselves are no more alive, the temple is in decay, and the image itself is become a spirit.", "pos": 629691}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It hasn't become a spirit. Human beings of this kind may, the rule is, die, yet they are not dead.", "pos": 630091}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "O-mi-to-fu! is it really so! Had you, sir, not enlightened us, we would have remained under the impression that she had become a spirit! But she repeatedly transforms herself into a human being, and there she roams about in every village, farmstead, inn and roadside. And the one I mentioned just now as having taken the firewood is that very girl! The villagers in our place are still consulting with the idea of breaking this clay image and razing the temple to the ground.", "pos": 630230}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Be quick and dissuade them! Were they to raze the temple to the ground, their crime won't be small.", "pos": 630736}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "It's lucky that you told me, Sir. When I get back to-morrow, I'll make them relinquish the idea and finish!", "pos": 630866}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Our venerable senior and my mother, are both charitable persons. In fact, all the inmates of our family, whether old or young, do, in like manner, delight in good deeds, and take pleasure in distributing alms. Their greatest relish is to repair temples, and to put up images to the spirits; so to-morrow, I'll make a subscription and collect a few donations for you, and you can then act as incense-burner. When sufficient money has been raised, this fane can be repaired, and another clay image put up; and month by month I'll give you incense and fire money to enable you to burn joss-sticks; won't this be A good thing for you?", "pos": 630999}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "In that case. I shall, thanks to that young lady's good fortune, have also a few cash to spend.", "pos": 631650}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Have you discovered the place?", "pos": 632886}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "Master, you didn't catch distinctly the directions given you, and you made me search in a nice way! The name of the place and the bearings can't be those you gave me, Sir; that is why I've had to hunt about the whole day long! I prosecuted my inquiries up to the very ditch on the north east side, before I eventually found a ruined temple.", "pos": 632944}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Old goody Liu, is a person well up in years, and she may at the moment have remembered wrong; it's very likely she did. But recount to me what you saw.", "pos": 633424}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "The door of that temple, really faces south, and is all in a tumble-down condition. I searched and searched till I was driven to utter despair. As soon, however, as I caught sight of it, 'that's right,' I shouted, and promptly walked in. But I at once discovered a clay figure, which gave me such a fearful start, that I scampered out again; for it looked as much alive as if it were a real living being.", "pos": 633604}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It can metamorphose itself into a human being, so, of course, it has more or less a life-like appearance.", "pos": 634060}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "Was it ever a girl? Why it was, in fact, no more than a green-faced and red-haired god of plagues.", "pos": 634183}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You are, in very truth, a useless fool! Haven't you even enough gumption for such a trifling job as this?", "pos": 634376}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "What book, I wonder, have you again been reading, master? Or you may, perhaps, have heard some one prattle a lot of trash and believed it as true! You send me on this sort of wild goose chase and make me go and knock my head about, and how can you ever say that I'm good for nothing?", "pos": 634496}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Don't be impatient! You can go again some other day, when you've got nothing to attend to, and institute further inquiries! If it turns out that she has hood-winked us, why, there will, naturally, be no such thing. But if, verily, there is, won't you also lay up for yourself a store of good deeds? I shall feel it my duty to reward you in a most handsome manner.", "pos": 634915}
{"speaker": "servant-lad", "text": "The young ladies in our venerable ladyship's apartments are standing at the threshold of the second gate and looking out for you, Mr. Secundus.", "pos": 635390}
{"speaker": "Hu Po", "text": "Be quick and go. They're waiting to speak to you.", "pos": 636048}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "I've got a plan to suggest,", "pos": 636310}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "As there are to be no outside guests, the eatables too should not be limited to any kind or number. A few of such dishes, as have ever been to the liking of any of us, should be fixed upon and prepared for the occasion. Neither should any banquet be spread, but a high teapoy can be placed in front of each, with one or two things to suit our particular tastes. Besides, a painted box with partitions and a decanter. Won't this be an original way?", "pos": 636368}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Capital! Go and tell the people in the cook house, to get ready to-morrow such dishes as we relish, and to put them in as many boxes as there will be people, and bring them over. We can have breakfast too in the garden.", "pos": 636818}
{"speaker": "Old goody Liu and Pan Erh", "text": "You're very busy, our senior lady!", "pos": 637569}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "I told you that you wouldn't manage to start yesterday, but you were in a hurry to get away.", "pos": 637617}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Your worthy old lady, wouldn't let me go. She wanted me to enjoy myself too for a day before I went.", "pos": 637729}
{"speaker": "Feng Erh", "text": "Our mistress Lien says, that she fears that the high teapoys which are out are not enough, and she thinks it would be as well to open the loft and take out those that are put away and use them for a day. Our lady should really have come and seen to it in person, but as she has something to tell Madame Wang, she begs your ladyship to open the place, and get a few servants to bring them out.", "pos": 637917}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Be careful with them. Don't be bustling about just as if you were being pursued by ghosts! Mind you don't break the tenons! old dame, go upstairs too and have a look!", "pos": 638777}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "come", "pos": 639170}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "I fancy, that our dowager lady will feel disposed (to go on the water), so you'd better also get the poles, oars and awnings for the boats and keep them in readiness. Dear venerable senior, you must be in good spirits to have come in here! Imagining that you hadn't as yet combed your hair, I just plucked a few chrysanthemums, meaning to send them to you.", "pos": 639730}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Come over here, and put on a few flowers.", "pos": 640782}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Let me deck you up!", "pos": 640941}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "I wonder, what blessings I have brought upon my head that such honours are conferred upon it to-day!", "pos": 641204}
{"speaker": "they all laughed", "text": "Don't you yet pull them away, and chuck them in her face! She has got you up in such a way as to make a regular old elf of you!", "pos": 641336}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "I'm an old hag, I admit, but when I was young, I too was pretty and fond of flowers and powder! But the best thing I can do now is to keep to such fineries as befit my advanced age!", "pos": 641486}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Is this garden nice or not?", "pos": 642016}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "We country-people, do invariably come, at the close of each year, into the city and buy pictures and stick them about. And frequently do we find ourselves in our leisure moments wondering how we too could manage to get into the pictures, and walk about the scenes they represent. I presumed that those pictures were purely and simply fictitious, for how could there be any such places in reality? But, contrary to my expectations, I found, as soon as I entered this garden to-day and had a look about it, that it was, after all, a hundred times better than these very pictures. But if only I could get some one to make me a sketch of this garden, to take home with me and let them see it, so that when we die we may have reaped some benefit!", "pos": 642105}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Look at that young granddaughter of mine! She's got the knack of drawing. So what do you say to my asking her to-morrow to make a picture for you?", "pos": 642943}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "My dear Miss! so young in years, and yet so pretty, and so accomplished too! Mightn't you be a spirit come to life!", "pos": 643218}
{"speaker": "Hu Po", "text": "Come up, old dame, and walk here! Mind the fresh moss is slippery and you might fall.", "pos": 643893}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "I don't mind it! We people are accustomed to walking (on such slippery things)! So, young ladies, please proceed. And do look after your embroidered shoes! Don't splash them with mud.", "pos": 643998}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "don't you yet raise her up, but stand by giggling?", "pos": 644496}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Just as my mouth was bragging. I got a whack on the lips!", "pos": 644654}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Have you perchance twisted your waist? Tell the servant-girls to pat it for you!", "pos": 644730}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "What an idea! am I so delicate? What day ever goes by without my tumbling down a couple of times? And if I had to be patted every time wouldn't it be dreadful!", "pos": 644839}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "We won't have any tea! so, miss, you needn't pour any.", "pos": 645270}
{"speaker": "the old dame", "text": "This must surely, be some young gentleman's study!", "pos": 645693}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "How is it I don't see Pao-yü?", "pos": 646099}
{"speaker": "the waiting-maids", "text": "He's in the boat, on the pond,", "pos": 646172}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Who also got the boats ready?", "pos": 646261}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "The loft was open just now so they were taken out, and as I thought that you might, venerable senior, feel inclined to have a row, I got everything ready.", "pos": 646314}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Your venerable ladyship, must be in capital spirits to-day to have come at this early hour!", "pos": 646791}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "It's only this very minute that I proposed that any one who came late, should be fined, and, who'd have thought it, here you, Mrs. Hsüeh, arrive late! This gauze, may have been nice enough when it was newly pasted, but after a time nothing remained of kingfisher green. In this court too there are no peach or apricot trees and these bamboos already are green in themselves, so were this shade of green gauze to be put up again, it would, instead of improving matters, not harmonise with the surroundings. I remember that we had at one time four or five kinds of coloured gauzes for sticking on windows, so give her some to-morrow to change that on there.", "pos": 646899}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "When I opened the store yesterday. I noticed that there were still in those boxes, made of large planks, several rolls of 'cicada wing' gauze of silvery red colour. There were also several rolls with designs of twigs of flowers of every kind, several with 'the rolling clouds and bats' pattern, and several with figures representing hundreds of butterflies, interspersed among flowers. The colours of all these were fresh, and the gauze supple. But I failed to see anything of the kind you speak of. Were two rolls taken (from those I referred to), and a couple of bed-covers of embroidered gauze made out of them, they would, I fancy, be a pretty sight!", "pos": 647793}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Pshaw! every one says that there's nothing you haven't gone through and nothing you haven't seen, and don't you even know what this gauze is? Will you again brag by and bye, after this?", "pos": 648478}
{"speaker": "they remarked", "text": "She may have gone through a good deal, but how can she ever presume to pit herself against an old lady like you? So why don't you, venerable senior, tell her what it is so that we too may be edified.", "pos": 648729}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "My dear ancestor, do tell me what it is like.", "pos": 648976}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "That gauze is older in years than any one of you. It isn't therefore to be wondered, if you make a mistake and take it for 'cicada wing' gauze. But it really bears some resemblance to it; so much so, indeed, that any one, not knowing the difference, would imagine it to be the 'cicada wing' gauze. Its true name, however, is 'soft smoke' silk.", "pos": 649124}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "This is also a nice sounding name. But up to the age I've reached, I have never heard of any such designation, in spite of the many hundreds of specimens of gauzes and silks, I've seen.", "pos": 649482}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "How long can you have lived? and how many kinds of things can you have met, that you indulge in this tall talk? Of this 'soft smoke' silk, there only exist four kinds of colours. The one is red-blue; the other is russet; the other pine-green; the other silvery-red; and it's because, when made into curtains or stuck on window-frames, it looks from far like smoke or mist, that it is called 'soft smoke' silk. The silvery-red is also called 'russet shadow' gauze. Among the gauzes used in the present day, in the palace above, there are none so supple and rich, light and closely-woven as this!", "pos": 649690}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Not to speak of that girl Feng not having seen it, why, even I have never so much as heard anything of it.", "pos": 650320}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Now isn't this the kind! At first, we simply had it stuck on the window frames, but we subsequently used it for covers and curtains, just for a trial, and really they were splendid! So you had better to-morrow try and find several rolls, and take some of the silvery-red one and have it fixed on the windows for her.", "pos": 650551}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "We couldn't, afford to make clothes of such stuff, much though we may long to do so; and won't it be a pity to use it for sticking on windows?", "pos": 651126}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "But it doesn't, after all, look well, when made into clothes,", "pos": 651287}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Look at this jacket of mine,", "pos": 651511}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This is also of first-rate quality! This is nowadays made in the palace for imperial use, but it can't possibly come up to this!", "pos": 651556}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "It's such thin stuff, and do you still say that it was made in the palace for imperial use? Why, it doesn't, in fact, compare favourably with even this, which is worn by officials!", "pos": 651728}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "You'd better search again! I believe there must be more of it! If there be, bring it all out, and give this old relative Liu a couple of rolls! Should there be any red-blue, I'll make a curtain to hang up. What remains can be matched with some lining, and cut into a few double waistcoats for the waiting-maids to wear. It would be sheer waste to keep these things, as they will be spoilt by the damp.", "pos": 651933}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Every one says, that big people live in big houses! When I saw yesterday your main apartments, dowager lady, with all those large boxes, immense presses, big tables, and spacious beds to match, they did, indeed, present an imposing sight! Those presses are larger than our whole house; yea loftier too! But strange to say there were ladders in the back court. 'They don't also,' I thought, 'go up to the house tops to sun things, so what can they keep those ladders in readiness for?' Well, after that, I remembered that they must be required for opening the presses to take out or put in things. And that without those ladders, how could one ever reach that height? But now that I've also seen these small rooms, more luxuriously got up than the large ones, and full of various articles, all so fascinating and hardly even known to me by name, I feel, the more I feast my eyes on them, the more unable to tear myself away from them.", "pos": 652562}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There are other things still better than this. I'll take you to see them all!", "pos": 653522}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "As they've got the boats ready, we may as well go and have a row in them!", "pos": 653763}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Ask our venerable senior, and let them lay it wherever she pleases.", "pos": 654238}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Miss Tertia, take the servants, and make them lay breakfast wherever you think best! We'll get into the boats from here.", "pos": 654395}
{"speaker": "Yuan Yang", "text": "We daily say that whenever the gentlemen outside have anything to drink or eat, they invariably have some one who can raise a laugh and whom they can chaff for fun's sake, so let's also to-day get a female family-companion.", "pos": 654843}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Let us too to-day, chaff her for a bit of fun!", "pos": 655280}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "You people, don't know even how to perform the least good act! But you're not small children any more, and are you still up to these pranks? Mind, our venerable ancestor might call you to task!", "pos": 655432}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "That has nothing whatever to do with you, senior lady, it's my own look out!", "pos": 655640}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Bring that small hard-wood table over, and let our relative Liu sit next to me here!", "pos": 656192}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "This is the custom which prevails in our household, and if you disregard it we'll have a laugh at your expense!", "pos": 656616}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Miss, set your mind at ease! These forks, are heavier than the very iron-lever over at my place. How ever can I move them about?", "pos": 657707}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Please (commence), uttered from the near side, where she sat.", "pos": 658676}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Old Liu, old Liu, your eating capacity is as big as that of a buffalo! You've gorged like an old sow and can't raise your head up!", "pos": 658805}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Even the chickens in this place are fine, the eggs they lay are small, but so dainty! How very pretty they are! Let me help myself to one!", "pos": 660431}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This must be the work of that vixen Feng! She has ever been up to tricks like a very imp, so be quick and disbelieve all her yarns!", "pos": 660950}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "They're one tael each, be quick, and taste them; they're not nice when they get cold!", "pos": 661216}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "A tael! and here it goes without a sound!", "pos": 661871}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Who has now brought out these chopsticks again? We haven't invited any strangers or spread any large banquet! It must be that vixen Feng who gave them out! But don't you yet change them!", "pos": 662030}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "They've taken away the gold ones, and here come silver ones! But, after all, they're not as handy as those we use!", "pos": 662582}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Should there be any poison in the viands, you can detect it, as soon as this silver is dipped into them!", "pos": 662724}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "If there's poison in such viands as these, why those of ours must be all arsenic! But though it be the death of me, I'll swallow every morsel!", "pos": 662853}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Putting everything else aside, what most takes my fancy is the way things are done in your mansion. It isn't to be wondered at that the adage has it that: 'propriety originates from great families.'", "pos": 663542}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Don't be too touchy, we all made fun of you just now.", "pos": 663757}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Old goody Liu, don't be angry! I tender you my apologies, venerable dame!", "pos": 663905}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "What are you saying, Miss? We've coaxed our dowager lady to get a little distraction; and what reason is there to be angry? From the very first moment you spoke to me, I knew at once that it was intended to afford merriment to you all! Had I been angry at heart, I wouldn't have gone so far as to say what I did!", "pos": 664004}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Why, don't you pour a cup of tea for the old dame?", "pos": 664390}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "That sister-in-law, gave me a cup a little while back. I've had it already. But you, Miss, must also have something to eat.", "pos": 664458}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Have your meal with us! You'll thus save another fuss by and bye.", "pos": 664661}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "From all I see, you people eat just a little and finish. It's lucky you don't feel the pangs of hunger! But it isn't astonishing if a whiff of wind can puff you over!", "pos": 664882}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "A good many eatables remained over to-day. Where are they all gone to?", "pos": 665071}
{"speaker": "matrons", "text": "They haven't as yet been apportioned! They're kept in here until they can be given in a lump to them to eat!", "pos": 665164}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "They can't get through so many things! You had as well therefore choose two bowls and send them over to that girl P'ing, in your mistress Secundus' rooms.", "pos": 665300}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "She has had her repast long ago. There's no need to give her any!", "pos": 665478}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "With what she can't eat, herself, she can feed the cats. Where's Su Yun gone to?", "pos": 665566}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "They're all in here having their meal together. What do you want her for again?", "pos": 665814}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Well, in that case, never mind,", "pos": 665914}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Hsi Jen isn't here, so tell some one to take her a few things!", "pos": 665968}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Have the partition boxes been filled with wine for by and bye?", "pos": 666132}
{"speaker": "matron", "text": "They'll be ready, I think, in a little while,", "pos": 666235}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Hurry them up a bit!", "pos": 666303}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "You may play with it, but you can't eat it.", "pos": 668134}
{"speaker": "Pan Erh", "text": "This is a green-cicada, this a grasshopper!", "pos": 668397}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "You mean scamp! What an awful rumpus you're kicking up! I simply brought you along with me to look at things; and lo, you put on airs;", "pos": 668501}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "The dryandra trees by the eaves of the covered passage are growing all right. The only thing is that their foliage is rather sparse. In whose house is there a wedding? This place must be very near the street!", "pos": 668897}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "How could one hear what's going on in the street? It's our twelve girls practising on their wind and string instruments!", "pos": 669268}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "As they're practising, why not ask them to come in here and practise? They'll be able to have a stroll also, while we, on our part, will derive some enjoyment. Let it be put, in the water-pavilion of the Lotus Fragrance Arbour, for (the music) will borrow the ripple of the stream and sound ever so much more pleasant to the ear. We can by and bye drink our wine in the Cho Chin Hall; we'll thus have ample room, and be able to listen from close! Let's get ahead! The young ladies don't like any one to come in here, for fear lest their quarters should get contaminated; so don't let us show ourselves disregardful of their wishes! The right thing would be to go and have our wine aboard one of those boats!", "pos": 669428}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "What's this that you're saying? Please do seat yourselves, venerable senior, and you, Mrs. Hsüeh, and Madame Wang! You can't be going yet?", "pos": 670613}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "These three girls of mine are really nice! There are only two mistresses that are simply dreadful. When we get drunk shortly, we'll go and sit in their rooms and have a lark!", "pos": 670768}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This isn't a joke, we're not on the river, it's true, but there are some very deep places about, so be quick and come in. Do it for my sake.", "pos": 671580}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What's there to be afraid of? Compose your mind, worthy ancestor.", "pos": 671736}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "All these broken lotus leaves are dreadful! Why don't you yet tell the servants to pull them off?", "pos": 672329}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "When was this garden left quiet during all the days of this year? Why, people have come, day after day, to visit it, so was there ever any time to tell the servants to come and clean it?", "pos": 672447}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I have the greatest abhorrence, for Li I's poetical works, but there's only this line in them which I like: 'Leave the dry lotus leaves so as to hear the patter of the rain.' and here you people deliberately mean again not to leave the dry lotus stay where they are.", "pos": 672656}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This is indeed a fine line! We mustn't hereafter let them pull them away!", "pos": 672951}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Are not these Miss Hsüeh's quarters. Eh?", "pos": 673460}
{"speaker": "Everybody", "text": "Yes, they are!", "pos": 673516}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This child, is too simple! If you've got nothing to lay about, why not ask your aunt for a few articles? I would never raise any objection. I never thought about them. Your things, of course, have been left at home, and have not been brought over.", "pos": 674454}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "She herself wouldn't have them. We really sent over a few, but she refused every one of them and returned them.", "pos": 674843}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "In her home also, she does not go in very much for such sort of things.", "pos": 674981}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "It will never do! It does, it's true, save trouble; but were some relative to come on a visit, she'll find things in an impossible way. In the second place, such simplicity in the apartments of young ladies of tender age is quite unpropitious! Why, if you young people go on in this way, we old fogies should go further and live in stables! You've all heard what is said in those books and plays about the dreadful luxury, with which young ladies' quarters are got up. And though these girls of ours could not presume to place themselves on the same footing as those young ladies, they shouldn't nevertheless exceed too much the bounds of what constitutes the right thing. If they have any objects ready at hand, why shouldn't they lay them out? And if they have any strong predilection for simplicity, a few things less will do quite as well. I've always had the greatest knack for titifying a room, but being an old woman now I haven't the ease and inclination to attend to such things! These girls are, however, learning how to do things very nicely. I was afraid that there would be an appearance of vulgarity in what they did, and that, even had they anything worth having, they'd so place them about as to spoil them; but from what I can see there's nothing vulgar about them. But let me now put things right for you, and I'll wager that everything will look grand as well as plain. I've got a couple of my own knicknacks, which I've managed to keep to this day, by not allowing Pao-yü to get a glimpse of them; for had he ever seen them, they too would have long ago disappeared! Fetch that marble pot with scenery on it, that gauze screen, and that tripod of transparent stone with black streaks, which you'll find in there, and lay out all three on this table. They'll be ample! Bring likewise those ink pictures and white silk curtains, and change these curtains.", "pos": 675107}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "All these articles have been put away in the eastern loft. In what boxes they've been put, I couldn't tell; I must therefore go and find them quietly and if I bring them over to-morrow, it will be time enough.", "pos": 677086}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "To-morrow or the day after will do very well; but don't forget, that's all. You'd better choose a few pieces to rehearse out of those you know best,", "pos": 677312}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Let's begin by drinking a couple of cups of wine. But we should also have a game of forfeits to-day, we'll have plenty of fun then.", "pos": 679502}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "You, venerable senior, must certainly have a good wine order to impose, but how could we ever comply with it? But if your aim be to intoxicate us, why, we'll all straightway drink one or two cups more than is good for us and finish!", "pos": 679636}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Here's Mrs. Hsüeh beginning to be modest again to-day! But I expect it's because she looks down upon me as being an old hag!", "pos": 679905}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "It isn't modesty! It's all a dread lest I shouldn't be able to observe the order and thus incur ridicule.", "pos": 680056}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "If you don't give the right answer, you'll only have to drink a cup or two more of wine, and should we get drunk, we can go to sleep; and who'll, pray laugh at us?", "pos": 680194}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "I'll agree to the order, but, dear senior, you must, after all, do the right thing and have a cup of wine to start it.", "pos": 680436}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This is quite natural!", "pos": 680572}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "If we are to play at forfeits, we'd better invite sister Yüan Yang to come and join us.", "pos": 680748}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "As you're to take a part in the game of forfeits, there's no reason why you should stand up. Bring over, a chair and place it at your Mistress Secunda's table.", "pos": 681164}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Drinking rules, resemble very much martial law; so irrespective of high or low, I alone will preside. Any one therefore who disobeys my words will have to suffer a penalty.", "pos": 681548}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang and the others", "text": "Of course, it should be so! so be quick and give out the rule!", "pos": 681737}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Don't, make fun of people in this way, for I'll go home.", "pos": 681949}
{"speaker": "one and all", "text": "This will never do!", "pos": 682020}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Spare me! spare me!", "pos": 682261}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Any one who says one word more, will be fined a whole decanter full. I'll now give out the set of dominoes. I'll begin from our venerable mistress and follow down in proper order until I come to old goody Liu, when I shall stop. So as to illustrate what I meant just now by giving out a set, I'll take these three dominoes and place them apart; you have to begin by saying something on the first, next, to allude to the second, and, after finishing with all three, to take the name of the whole set and match it with a line, no matter whether it be from some stanza or roundelay, song or idyl, set phrases or proverbs. But they must rhyme. And any one making a mistake will be mulcted in one cup.", "pos": 682315}
{"speaker": "they all", "text": "This rule is splendid; begin at once!", "pos": 683109}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "I've got a set, on the left, is the piece 'heaven,' (twelve dots).", "pos": 683169}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Above head stretches the blue heaven,", "pos": 683259}
{"speaker": "every one", "text": "Good!", "pos": 683323}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "In the centre is a five and six,", "pos": 683350}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "The fragrance of the plum blossom pierces the bones on the bridge \"Six,\"", "pos": 683403}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "There now remains, one piece, the six and one.", "pos": 683498}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "From among the fleecy clouds issues the wheel-like russet sun.", "pos": 683570}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "The whole combined, forms 'the devil with dishevelled hair.'", "pos": 683664}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This devil clasps the leg of the 'Chung Pa' devil,", "pos": 683748}
{"speaker": "they all", "text": "Capital!", "pos": 683891}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "I've got another set; the one on the left is a double five.", "pos": 683979}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Bud after bud of the plum bloom dances in the wind,", "pos": 684041}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "The one on the right is a ten spot,", "pos": 684115}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "In the tenth moon the plum bloom on the hills emits its fragrant smell,", "pos": 684172}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "The middle piece is the two and five, making the 'unlike seven;'", "pos": 684264}
{"speaker": "Miss Hsüeh", "text": "The 'spinning damsel' star meets the 'cow-herd' on the eve of the seventh day of the seventh moon,", "pos": 684351}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Together they form: 'Erh Lang strolls on the five mounds;'", "pos": 684469}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Mortals cannot be happy as immortals,", "pos": 684551}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "I've got another set! On the left, are distinctly the distant dots of the double ace.", "pos": 684679}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Both sun and moon are so suspended as to shine on heaven and earth,", "pos": 684800}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "On the right, are a couple of spots, far apart, which clearly form a one and one.", "pos": 684891}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "What time a lonesome flower falls to the ground, no sound is audible,", "pos": 684994}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "In the middle, there is the one and four,", "pos": 685087}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "The red apricot tree is planted by the sun, and leans against the clouds;", "pos": 685148}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Together they form the 'cherry fruit ripens for the ninth time,'", "pos": 685245}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "In the imperial garden it is pecked by birds.", "pos": 685328}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "I've got another set, the one on the left is a double three.", "pos": 685454}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "The swallows, pair by pair, chatter on the beams;", "pos": 685536}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "The right piece is a six,", "pos": 685608}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "The marsh flower is stretched by the breeze e'en to the length of a green sash,", "pos": 685653}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "The centre piece is a three and six, making a nine spot,", "pos": 685755}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "The three hills tower half beyond the azure skies;", "pos": 685833}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Lumped together they form: a 'chain-bound solitary boat,'", "pos": 685906}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Where there are wind and waves, there I feel sad;", "pos": 685985}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "On the left, there's a 'heaven.'", "pos": 686134}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "A morning fine and beauteous scenery, but, alas, what a day for me!", "pos": 686181}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "In the middle there's the 'colour of the embroidered screen, (ten spots, four and six), is beautiful,'", "pos": 686462}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Not e'en Hung Niang to the gauze window comes, any message to bring.", "pos": 686588}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "There now remains a two and six, eight in all,", "pos": 686677}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Twice see the jady throne when led in to perform the court ritual,", "pos": 686745}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Together they form 'a basket suitable for putting plucked flowers in,'", "pos": 686830}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "The fairy wand smells nice as on it hangs a peony.", "pos": 686924}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "On the left, there's a four and five, making a 'different-combined nine.'", "pos": 687071}
{"speaker": "Ying Ch'un", "text": "The peach blossoms bear heavy drops of rain;", "pos": 687159}
{"speaker": "The Company", "text": "She must be fined! She has made a mistake in the rhyme. Besides, it isn't right!", "pos": 687248}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "When we country-people have got nothing to do, a few of us too often come together and play this sort of game; but the answers we give are not so high-flown; yet, as I can't get out of it, I'll likewise make a try!", "pos": 687698}
{"speaker": "one and all", "text": "It's easy enough to say what there is, so just you go on and don't mind!", "pos": 687937}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "On the left, there's a double four, i.e. 'man.'", "pos": 688035}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "It's a peasant!", "pos": 688165}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Well-said! that's the way.", "pos": 688240}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "All we country-people know, is just what comes within our own rough-and-ready wits, so young ladies and ladies pray don't poke fun at me!", "pos": 688312}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "In the centre there's the three and four, green matched with red,", "pos": 688494}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "The large fire burnt the hairy caterpillar;", "pos": 688581}
{"speaker": "the party", "text": "This will do very well! go on with what is in your line.", "pos": 688651}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "On the right, there's a one and four, and is really pretty.", "pos": 688732}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "A turnip and a head of garlic.", "pos": 688827}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Altogether, it's a twig of flowers,", "pos": 688943}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "The flower dropped, and a huge melon formed. The flower dropped and a huge melon formed; To speak the truth to-day, my hands and my feet are so rough, and I've had so much wine that I must be careful; or else I might, by a slip of the hand, break the porcelain cups. If you have got any wooden cups, you'd better produce them. It wouldn't matter then if even they were to slip out of my hands and drop on the ground!", "pos": 689007}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Well, if you really want a wooden one, I'll fetch you one at once! But there's just one word I'd like to tell you beforehand. Wooden cups are not like porcelain ones. They go in sets; so you'll have to do the right thing and drink from every cup of the set.", "pos": 690227}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "I just now simply spoke in jest about those cups in order to induce them to laugh, but, who would have thought that she actually has some of the kind. I've often been to the large households of village gentry on a visit, and even been to banquets there and seen both gold cups and silver cups; but never have I beheld any wooden ones about! Ah, of course! They must, I expect, be the wooden bowls used by the young children. Their object must be to inveigle me to have a couple of bowlfuls more than is good for me! But I don't mind it. This wine is, verily, like honey, so if I drink a little more, it won't do me any harm. Fetch them! We'll talk about them by and bye.", "pos": 690499}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "I know those ten cups of yours, they're small. What's more, a while back you mentioned wooden ones, and if you have bamboo ones brought now, it won't look well; so we'd better get from our place that set of ten large cups, scooped out of whole blocks of aspen roots, and pour the contents of all ten of them down her throat?", "pos": 691530}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Yes, that would be much better,", "pos": 691873}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "It will be enough, if you give me that small one.", "pos": 692473}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There's no one, with the capacity to tackle these! Hence it is that not a soul can pluck up courage enough to use them! But as you, old dame, asked for them, and they were fished out, after ever so much trouble, you're bound to do the proper thing and drink out of each, one after the other.", "pos": 692567}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "I daren't! My dear lady, do let me off!", "pos": 692933}
{"speaker": "Dowager lady Chia, Mrs. Hsüeh and Madame Wang", "text": "To speak is to speak, and a joke is a joke, but she mayn't take too much, let her just empty this first cup, and have done.", "pos": 693213}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "O-mi-to-fu! I'll only have a small cupful, and put this huge fellow away, and take it home and drink at my leisure.", "pos": 693352}
{"speaker": "old lady Chia and Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Gently a bit! Mind you don't choke!", "pos": 693742}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Goody Liu! tell me the name of anything you fancy, and I'll bring it and feed you.", "pos": 693882}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "What names can I know? Everything is good!", "pos": 693987}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Bring some egg-plant and salt-fish for her!", "pos": 694058}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You people, daily feed on egg-plants; so taste these of ours and see whether they've been nicely prepared or not.", "pos": 694310}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Don't be making a fool of me! If egg-plants can have such flavour, we ourselves needn't sow any cereals, but confine ourselves to growing nothing but egg-plants!", "pos": 694440}
{"speaker": "one and all", "text": "They're really egg-plants! She's not pulling your leg!", "pos": 694640}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "If these be actually egg-plants. I've uselessly eaten them so long! But, my lady, do give me a few more; I'd like to taste the next mouthful carefully! There is, it's true, something about them of the flavour of egg-plant, yet they don't quite taste like egg-plants. But tell me how they're cooked, so that I may prepare them in the same way for myself.", "pos": 694748}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There's nothing hard about it! You take the newly cut egg-plants and pare the skin off. All you want then is some fresh meat. You hash it into fine mince, and fry it in chicken fat. Then you take some dry chicken meat, and mix it with mushrooms, new bamboo shoots, sweet mushrooms, dry beancurd paste, flavoured with five spices, and every kind of dry fruits, and you chop the whole lot into fine pieces. You then bake all these things in chicken broth, until it's absorbed, when you fry them, to finish, in sweet oil, and adding some oil, made of the grains of wine, you place them in a porcelain jar, and close it hermetically. At any time that you want any to eat, all you have to do is to take out some, and mix it with some roasted chicken, and there it is all ready.", "pos": 695273}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "My Buddha's ancestor! One wants about ten chickens to prepare this dish! It isn't strange then that it has this flavour!", "pos": 696133}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Haven't you yet had enough to satisfy you? If you haven't, well, then drink another cup.", "pos": 696368}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Dreadful! I shall be soon getting so drunk that it will be the very death of me. I was only looking at it as I admire pretty things like this! But what a trouble it must have cost to turn out!", "pos": 696479}
{"speaker": "Yuan Yang", "text": "Have you done with your wine? But, after all, what kind of wood is this cup made of?", "pos": 696709}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "It isn't to be wondered at, that you can't make it out Miss! How ever could you people, who live inside golden doors and embroidered apartments, know anything of wood! We have the whole day long the trees in the woods as our neighbours. When weary, we use them as our pillows and go to sleep on them. When exhausted, we sit with our backs leaning against them. When, in years of dearth, we feel the pangs of hunger, we also feed on them. Day after day, we see them with our eyes; day after day we listen to them with our ears; day after day, we talk of them with our mouths. I am therefore well able to tell whether any wood be good or bad, genuine or false. Do let me then see what it is! Such a family as yours, could on no account own mean things! Any wood that is easily procured, wouldn't even find a place in here. This feels so heavy, as I weigh it in my hands, that if it isn't aspen, it must, for a certainty, be yellow cedar.", "pos": 696829}
{"speaker": "Old Matron", "text": "The young ladies, have got to the Lotus Fragrance pavilion, and they request your commands, as to whether they should start with the rehearsal at once or tarry a while.", "pos": 698034}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I forgot all about them! Tell them to begin rehearsing at once!", "pos": 698217}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "With alacrity,", "pos": 699049}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Take over that decanter from her, and press your aunt into a seat. We shall all then feel at ease! Let's all have a couple of cups of wine! It's capital fun to-day! You two cousins! must also have a cup. Your cousin Lin can't take much wine, but even she mustn't be let off.", "pos": 699438}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Just you look at the way old goody Liu is going on!", "pos": 700472}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "In days of yore, every species of animal commenced to dance the moment the sounds of music broke forth. She's like a buffalo now.", "pos": 700526}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "We've all had our wine, so let's go and stroll about for a time; we can after that sit down again!", "pos": 700741}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What kind of tree is this? What kind of stone is this? What species of flower is that?", "pos": 701331}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Who'd ever have imagined it, not only are the human beings in the city grand, but even the birds are grand. Why, the moment these birds fly into your mansion, they also become beautiful things, and acquire the gift of speech as well!", "pos": 701513}
{"speaker": "The Company", "text": "What birds get transformed into beautiful things and become able to speak?", "pos": 701854}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Those perched on those gold stands, under the verandah, with green plumage and red beaks are parrots. I know them well enough! But those old black crows in the cages there have crests like phoenixes! They can talk too!", "pos": 701958}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "After the number of cups of wine I've had. I don't feel hungry. But never mind, bring the things here. We can nibble something at our leisure.", "pos": 702333}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What stuffing have they put in them?", "pos": 703025}
{"speaker": "the matrons", "text": "They're with crabs inside,", "pos": 703089}
{"speaker": "old mistress", "text": "These fat, greasy viands for such a time! Who'll ever eat these things?", "pos": 703206}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "The most ingenious girls in our village could not, even with a pair of scissors, cut out anything like this in paper! I would like to eat it, but I can't make up my mind to! I had better pack up a few and take them home and give them to them as specimens!", "pos": 703892}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "When you start for home. I'll give you a whole porcelain jar full of them; so you may as well eat these first, while they are hot!", "pos": 704197}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Buddha's hand Buddha's hand", "pos": 705224}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Really, it's those people, who devote themselves to an ascetic life and have nothing to do, who manage, by constant repairs, to make their places much nicer than those of others! We've just been filling ourselves with wines and meats, and with the josses you've got in here, we shall be guilty of profanity. We'd better therefore sit here! But give us some of that good tea of yours; and we'll get off so soon as we have had a cup of it. I don't care for 'Liu An' tea!", "pos": 706285}
{"speaker": "Miao Yü", "text": "I know it; but this is old 'Chün Mei,'", "pos": 707388}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What water is this?", "pos": 707496}
{"speaker": "Miao Yü", "text": "It's rain water collected last year;", "pos": 707542}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Just you taste this tea!", "pos": 707707}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "It's good, of course, but it's rather weak! It would be far better were it brewed a little stronger!", "pos": 707794}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Are you bent upon drinking your own private tea?", "pos": 708531}
{"speaker": "the two girls", "text": "Here you rush again to steal our tea. There's none for you!", "pos": 708593}
{"speaker": "Miao Yü", "text": "Don't put that 'Ch'eng' kiln tea-cup by! Go and put it outside!", "pos": 708844}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "'The rules observed in the world,' the adage says, 'must be impartial,' But while my two cousins are handling those antique and rare gems, here am I with this coarse object!", "pos": 710036}
{"speaker": "Miao Yü", "text": "Is this a coarse thing? Why, I'm making no outrageous statement when I say that I'm inclined to think that it is by no means certain that you could lay your hand upon any such coarse thing as this in your home!", "pos": 710228}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "'Do in the country as country people do,' the proverb says. So when one gets in a place like this of yours, one must naturally look down upon every thing in the way of gold, pearls, jade and precious stones, as coarse rubbish!", "pos": 710463}
{"speaker": "Miao Yü", "text": "Here, there only remains this one! Can you manage this large cup?", "pos": 710948}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I can!", "pos": 711060}
{"speaker": "Miao Yü", "text": "Albeit you have the stomach to tackle all it holds. I haven't got so much tea for you to waste! Have you not heard how that the first cup is the 'taste'-cup; the second 'the stupid-thing-for- quenching-one's-thirst,' and the third 'the drink-mule' cup? But were you now to go in for this huge cup, why what more wouldn't that be? If you've had any tea this time, it's thanks to these two young ladies; for had you come alone, I wouldn't have given you any.", "pos": 711112}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'm well aware of this, so I too will receive no favour from your hands, but simply express my thanks to these two cousins of mine, and have done!", "pos": 711959}
{"speaker": "Miao Yü", "text": "What you say makes your meaning clear enough!", "pos": 712138}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Is this rain water from last year?", "pos": 712226}
{"speaker": "Miao Yü", "text": "How is it, that a person like you can be such a boor as not to be able to discriminate water, when you taste it? This is snow collected from the plum blossom, five years back, when I was in the P'an Hsiang temple at Hsüan Mu. All I got was that flower jar, green as the devil's face, full, and as I couldn't make up my mind to part with it and drink it, I interred it in the ground, and only opened it this summer. I've had some of it once before, and this is the second time. But how is it you didn't detect it, when you put it to your lips? Has rain water, obtained a year back, ever got such a soft and pure flavour? and how possibly could it be drunk at all?", "pos": 712285}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "That cup, is, of course, dirty; but is it not a pity to put it away for no valid reason? To my idea it would be preferable, wouldn't it? to give it to that poor old woman; for were she to sell it, she could have the means of subsistence! What do you say, will it do?", "pos": 713320}
{"speaker": "Miao Yü", "text": "Yes, that will be all right! Lucky for her I've never drunk a drop out of that cup, for had I, I would rather have smashed it to atoms than have let her have it! If you want to give it to her, I don't mind a bit about it; but you yourself must hand it to her! Now, be quick and clear it away at once!", "pos": 713685}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Of course; quite so! How could you ever go and speak to her? Things would then come to a worse pass. You too would be contaminated! If you give it to me, it will be all right. Wait until we've gone out, and I'll call a few servant-boys and bid them carry several buckets of water from the stream and wash the floors; eh, shall I?", "pos": 714004}
{"speaker": "Miao Yü", "text": "Yes, that would be better! The only thing is that you must tell them to bring the water, and place it outside the entrance door by the foot of the wall; for they mustn't come in.", "pos": 714500}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This goes without saying! To-morrow, give this to goody Liu to take with her, when she starts on her way homewards!", "pos": 714699}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Should our old lady yonder send any message, mind you call me at once,", "pos": 716379}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Ai-yoh! What! Is there another big temple here! What are you laughing at? I can decipher the characters on this honorary gateway. Over at our place temples of this kind are exceedingly plentiful; and they've all got archways like this! These characters give the name of the temple. Can you make out from those characters what temple this is? Are'nt these, the four characters 'Pearly Emperor's Precious Hall?'", "pos": 717191}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It won't do in here!", "pos": 718166}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Here's another trellis with flat bean plants creeping on it!", "pos": 719498}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "The young ladies, have cast me adrift; they made me knock about, until I found my way in here. Do pictures really so bulge out!", "pos": 720378}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "I expect, you went to the trouble of coming to hunt for me, as you didn't see me turn up at home for several days, eh? But what young lady introduced you in here? How ignorant of the ways of the world you are! Seeing the nice flowers in this garden, you at once set to work, forgetful of all consequences, and loaded your pate with them! May it not be, my own self reflected in this glass! These have so far impeded my progress, and how am I to manage to get out?", "pos": 722115}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "I'll just have a little rest.", "pos": 723942}
{"speaker": "Pan Erh", "text": "May she not have fallen into the place?", "pos": 724427}
{"speaker": "one and all", "text": "Be quick and tell some one to go and have a look!", "pos": 724502}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "She was so drunk, that she's sure to have lost her way, and following this road, got into our back-rooms. Should she have crossed to the inner side of the hedge, she must have come to the door of the backhouse and got in. Nevertheless, the young maids, she must have come across, must know something about her. If she did not get inside the hedge, but continued in a south westerly direction, she's all right, if she made a detour and walked out. But if she hasn't done so, why, she'll have enough of roaming for a good long while! I had better therefore go and see what she's up to.", "pos": 724760}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Miss! I do deserve death! I have done what I shouldn't; but I haven't in any way soiled the bed.", "pos": 726451}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "It doesn't matter! I'm here to answer for this. Come along with me! Mind you say, that you were so drunk that you stretched on a boulder and had a snooze!", "pos": 727060}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "All right! I will! What young lady's room is this that it is so beautiful? It seemed to me just as if I had gone to the very heavenly palace.", "pos": 727485}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "This one? Why, it's our master Secundus', Mr. Pao's bedroom.", "pos": 727809}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "We must certainly start for home to-morrow, as soon as it is daylight. I've stayed here, it's true, only two or three days, but in these few days I have reaped experience in everything that I had not seen from old till now. It would be difficult to find any one as compassionate of the poor and considerate to the old as your venerable dame, your Madame Wang, your young ladies, and the girls too attached to the various rooms, have all shown themselves in their treatment of me! When I get home now, I shall have no other means of showing how grateful I am to you than by purchasing a lot of huge joss-sticks and saying daily prayers to Buddha on your behalf; and if he spares you all to enjoy a long life of a hundred years my wishes will be accomplished.", "pos": 729306}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Don't be so exultant! It's all on account of you that our old ancestor has fallen ill, by exposing herself to draughts and that she suffers from disturbed sleep; also that our Ta Chieh-erh has caught a chill and is laid up at home with fever.", "pos": 730078}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Her venerable ladyship, is a person advanced in years and not accustomed to any intense fatigue!", "pos": 730405}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "She has never before been in such high spirits as yesterday! As you were here, so anxious was she to let you see everything, that she trudged over the greater part of the garden. And Ta Chieh-erh was given a piece of cake by Madame Wang, when I came to hunt you up, and she ate it, who knows in what windy place, and began at once to get feverish.", "pos": 730516}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Ta Chieh-erh, hasn't, I fancy, often put her foot into the garden; and young people like her mustn't really go into strange places, for she's not like our children, who are able to use their legs! In what graveyards don't they ramble about! A puff of wind may, on the one hand, have struck her, it's not at all unlikely; or being, on the other, so chaste in body, and her eyes also so pure she may, it is to be feared, have come across some spirit or other. I can't help thinking therefore that you should consult some book of exorcisms on her behalf; for mind she may have run up against some evil influence.", "pos": 730888}
{"speaker": "Ts'ai Ming", "text": "Those who fall ill on the 25th day of the 8th moon have come across, in a due westerly quarter, of some flower spirit; they feel heavy, with no inclination for drink or food. Take seven sheets of white paper money, and, advancing forty steps due west, burn them and exorcise the spirit; recovery will follow at once!", "pos": 731757}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There's really no mistake about that! Are there not flower spirits in the garden? But what I dread is that our old lady mayn't have come across one too. It's verily people advanced in years like you, who've gone through many experiences! This Ta Chieh-erh of mine has often been inclined to ail, and it has quite puzzled me to make out how and why it was.", "pos": 732077}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "This isn't anything out of the way! Affluent and honourable people bring up their offspring to be delicate. So naturally, they are not able to endure the least hardship! Moreover, that young child of yours is so excessively cuddled that she can't stand it. Were you, therefore, my lady, to pamper her less from henceforth, she'll steadily improve.", "pos": 732788}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There's plenty of reason in that too! But it strikes me that she hasn't as yet got a name, so do give her one in order that she may borrow your long life! In the next place, you are country-people, and are, after all,—I don't expect you'll get angry when I mention it,—somewhat in poor circumstances. Were a person then as poor as you are to suggest a name for her, you may, I trust, have the effect of counteracting this influence for her.", "pos": 733156}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "I've no idea of the date of her birth!", "pos": 733708}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "She really was born on no propitious date! By a remarkable coincidence she came into the world on the seventh day of the seventh moon!", "pos": 733774}
{"speaker": "Old goody Lin", "text": "This is certainly splendid! You had better name her at once Ch'iao Chieh-erh (seventh moon and ingenuity). This is what's generally called: combating poison by poison and attacking fire by fire. If therefore your ladyship fixes upon this name of mine, she will, for a surety, attain a long life of a hundred years; and when she by and bye grows up to be a big girl, every one of you will be able to have a home and get a patrimony! Or if, at any time, there occur anything inauspicious and she has to face adversity, why it will inevitably change into prosperity; and if she comes across any evil fortune, it will turn into good fortune. And this will all arise from this one word, 'Ch'iao' (ingenuity.)", "pos": 733932}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "If she be preserved, to accomplish your good wishes, it will be such a good thing! As you and I are bound to be busy to-morrow, and won't, I fear, be able to spare any leisure moments, you'd better, if you have nothing to do now, get ready the presents for old goody Liu, so as to enable her to conveniently start at early dawn to-morrow.", "pos": 734788}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "How could I presume to be the cause of such reckless waste? I've already disturbed your peace and quiet for several days, and were I to also take your things away, I'd feel still less at ease in my heart!", "pos": 735195}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There's nothing much! They consist simply of a few ordinary things. But, whether good or bad, do take them along, so that the people in the same street as yourselves and your next-door neighbours may have some little excitement, and that it may look as if you had been on a visit to the city! Goody Liu, come over here and see!", "pos": 735426}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "This, is a roll of that green gauze you asked for yesterday. Besides this, our lady Feng gives you a piece of thick bluish-white gauze to use as lining. These are two pieces of pongee, which will do for wadded coats and jupes as well. In this bundle are two pieces of silk, for you to make clothes with, for the end of the year. This is a box containing various home-made cakes. Among them are some you've already tasted and some you haven't; so take them along, and put them in plates and invite your friends; they'll be ever so much better than any that you could buy! These two bags are those in which the melons and fruit were packed up yesterday. This one has been filled with two bushels of fine rice, grown in the imperial fields, the like of which for congee, it would not be easy to get. This one contains fruits from our garden and all kinds of dry fruits. In this packet, you'll find eight taels of silver. These various things are presents for you from our Mistress Secunda. Each of these packets contains fifty taels so that there are in all a hundred taels; they're the gift of Madame Wang. She bids you accept them so as to either carry on any trade, for which no big capital is required, or to purchase several acres of land, in order that you mayn't henceforward have any more to beg favours of relatives, or to depend upon friends. These two jackets, two jupes, four head bands, and a bundle of velvet and thread are what I give you, worthy dame, as my share. These clothes are, it is true, the worse for use, yet I haven't worn them very much. But if you disdain them, I won't be so presuming as to say anything.", "pos": 736109}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Miss! what are you saying? Could I ever disdain such nice gifts as these! Had I even the money, I couldn't buy them anywhere. The only thing is that I feel overpowered with shame. If I keep them, it won't be nice, and if I don't accept them, I shall be showing myself ungrateful for your kind attention.", "pos": 738118}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Don't utter all this irrelevant talk! You and I are friends; so compose your mind and take the things I gave you just now! Besides, I have, on my part, something to ask of you. When the close of the year comes, select a few of your cabbages, dipped in lime, and dried in the sun, as well as some lentils, flat beans, tomatoes and pumpkin strips, and various sorts of dry vegetables and bring them over. We're all, both high or low, fond of such things. These will be quite enough! We don't want anything else, so don't go to any useless trouble! Just you go to sleep, and I'll get the things ready for you and put them in here. As soon as the day breaks to-morrow, I'll send the servant-lads to hire a cart and pack them in; don't you therefore worry yourself in the least on that score!", "pos": 738436}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I'm an old woman! Am I not aged enough to be a mother to that fellow? and am I, pray, to still stand on any ceremonies with him? There's no need to drop the curtain; I'll see him as I am, and have done.", "pos": 740134}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "How are you noble doctor? What is the worthy surname of this noble doctor?", "pos": 741793}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen and his companions", "text": "His surname is Wang,", "pos": 741977}
{"speaker": "Dowager lady", "text": "There was once a certain Wang Chün-hsiao who filled the chair of President of the College of Imperial Physicians. He excelled in feeling the pulse.", "pos": 742011}
{"speaker": "Dr. Wang", "text": "That was, my grand uncle.", "pos": 742282}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Is it really so! We can then call ourselves old friends! Excuse me for the trouble I've put you to! Chen Erh, escort him outside, and do see that he has a cup of tea.", "pos": 742326}
{"speaker": "Dr. Wang", "text": "Your worthy senior, has nothing else the matter with her than a slight chill, which she must have inadvertently contracted. She needn't, after all, take any medicines; all she need do is to diet herself and keep warm a little; and she'll get all right. But I'll now write a prescription, in here. Should her venerable ladyship care to take any of the medicine, then prepare a dose, according to the prescription, and let her have it. But should she be loth to have any, well, never mind, it won't be of any consequence.", "pos": 743189}
{"speaker": "nurse", "text": "Mr. Wang,", "pos": 743878}
{"speaker": "Mr. Wang", "text": "do also have a look at our Chieh Erh!", "pos": 743900}
{"speaker": "Dr. Wang", "text": "Were I to express my views about Chieh Erh, you would again abuse me! If she's, however, kept quiet and allowed to go hungry for a couple of meals, she'll get over this. There's no necessity for her to take any decocted medicines. I'll just send her some pills, which you'll have to dissolve in a preparation of ginger, and give them to her before she goes to sleep; when she has had these, there will be nothing more the matter with her.", "pos": 744210}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "When you've got any leisure, do pay us another visit. Do be careful, and see dame Liu safely on her way out; for not being well I can't escort you myself.", "pos": 745375}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "These are, several articles of clothing, belonging to our old mistress; they were presented to her in years gone by, by members of our family on her birthdays and various festivals; her ladyship never wears anything made by people outside; yet to hoard these would be a downright pity! Indeed, she hasn't worn them even once. It was yesterday that she told me to get out two costumes and hand them to you to take along with you, either to give as presents, or to be worn by some one in your home; but don't make fun of us! In the box you'll find the flour-fruits, for which you asked. This bundle contains the medicines to which you alluded the other day. There are 'plum-blossom-spotted-tongue pills,' and 'purple-gold- ingot- pills,' also 'vivifying-blood-vessels-pills,' as well as 'driving-offspring and preserving-life pills;' each kind being rolled up in a sheet bearing the prescription; and the whole lot of them are packed up in here. While these two are purses for you to wear in the way of ornaments. Take the purses, but do leave these behind and give them to me.", "pos": 745796}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Miss, you're at perfect liberty to keep them!", "pos": 747300}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "I was only joking with you for fun! I've got a good many like these; keep them therefore and give them, at the close of the year, to your young children. This, our master Secundus, Mr. Pao, gives you.", "pos": 747489}
{"speaker": "old goody Liu", "text": "Whence could I begin enumerating the things I got! In what previous existence did I accomplish anything so meritorious as to bring to-day this heap of blessings upon me!", "pos": 747841}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "The clothes I gave you the other day, when I asked you to have a bath, were my own, and if you don't think them too mean, I've got a few more, which I would also like to let you have. You can dispense with going! They don't see any one just now! But I'll deliver the message for you by and bye! and call two servant-lads to come here, and help this old dame to take her things away!", "pos": 748094}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "P'in Erh! come with me; I've got a question to ask you. Kneel down! I want to examine you about something!", "pos": 749634}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Look here. this chit Pao has gone clean off her senses! What do you want to examine me about?", "pos": 749982}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "My dear, precious girl, my dear maiden, what utter trash fills your mouth! Just speak the honest and candid truth, and finish!", "pos": 750124}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "What did I say? You're bent upon picking out my faults! Speak out and let me hear what it's all about!", "pos": 750430}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Do you still pretend to be a fool? When we played yesterday that game of wine-forfeits, what did you say? I really couldn't make out any head or tail.", "pos": 750551}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "My dear cousin! I really wasn't conscious of what I was saying! It just blurted out of my mouth! But now that you've called me to task, I won't say such things again.", "pos": 751063}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I've no idea of what you were driving at. What I heard you recite sounds so thoroughly unfamiliar to me, that I beg you to enlighten me!", "pos": 751246}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Dear cousin, don't tell anyone else! I won't, in the future, breathe such things again.", "pos": 751418}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Whom do you take me for? I too am wayward; from my youth up, yea ever since I was seven or eight, I've been enough trouble to people! Our family was also what one would term literary. My grandfather's extreme delight was to be ever with a book in his hand. At one time, we numbered many members, and sisters and brothers all lived together; but we had a distaste for wholesome books. Among my brothers, some were partial to verses; others had a weakness for blank poetical compositions; and there were none of such works as the 'Western side-House,' and 'the Guitar,' even up to the hundred and one books of the 'Yüan' authors, which they hadn't managed to get. These books they stealthily read behind our backs; but we, on our part, devoured them, on the sly, without their knowing it. Subsequently, our father came to get wind of it; and some of us he beat, while others he scolded; burning some of the books, and throwing away others. It is therefore as well that we girls shouldn't know anything of letters. Men, who study books and don't understand the right principle, can't, moreover, reach the standard of those, who don't go in for books; so how much more such as ourselves? Even versifying, writing and the like pursuits aren't in the line of such as you and me. Indeed, neither are they within the portion of men. Men, who go in for study and fathom the right principles, should cooperate in the government of the empire, and should rule the nation; this would be a nobler purpose; but one doesn't now-a-days hear of the very existence of such persons! Hence, the study of books makes them worse than they ever were before. But it isn't the books that ruin them; the misfortune is that they make improper use of books! That is why study doesn't come up to ploughing and sowing and trading; as these pursuits exercise no serious pernicious influences. As far, however, as you and I go, we should devote our minds simply to matters connected with needlework and spinning; for we will then be fulfilling our legitimate duties. Yet, it so happens that we too know a few characters. But, as we can read, it behoves us to choose no other than wholesome works; for these will do us no harm! What are most to be shirked are those low books, as, when once they pervert the disposition, there remains no remedy whatever!", "pos": 751772}
{"speaker": "Su Yün", "text": "Our lady Lien, requests the presence of both of you, young ladies, to consult with you in an important matter. Miss Secunda, Miss Tertia, Miss Quarta, Miss Shih and Mr. Pao, our master Secundus, are there waiting for you.", "pos": 754379}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "What's up again?", "pos": 754615}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You and I will know what it is when we get there,", "pos": 754654}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "The society has barely been started, and here's one who wants to give us the slip; that girl Quarta wishes to apply for a whole year's leave.", "pos": 754905}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "It's that single remark of our worthy senior's yesterday that is at the bottom of it! For by bidding her execute some painting or other of the garden, she has put her in such high feather that she applies for leave!", "pos": 755065}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Don't be so hard upon our dear ancestor! It's entirely due to that allusion of grandmother Liu's.", "pos": 755301}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Quite so! It's all through that remark of hers! But of what branch of the family is she a grandmother? We should merely address her as the 'female locust;' that's all.", "pos": 755508}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "When any mortal language finds its way into that girl Feng's mouth, she knows how to turn it to the best account! What a fortunate thing it is that that vixen Feng has no idea of letters and can't boast of much culture! Her forte is simply such vulgar things as suffice to raise a laugh! Worse than her is that P'in Erh with that coarse tongue! She has recourse to the devices of the 'Ch'un Ch'iu'! By selecting, from the vulgar expressions used in low slang, the most noteworthy points, she eliminates what's commonplace, and makes, with the addition of a little elegance and finish, her style so much like that of the text that each sentence has a peculiar character of its own! The three words representing 'female locust' bring out clearly the various circumstances connected with yesterday! The wonder is that she has been so quick in devising them!", "pos": 755738}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Pray, let's consult as to how many days' leave to grant her! I gave her a month, but she thinks it too little. What do you say about it?", "pos": 756769}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Properly speaking, one year isn't much! The laying out of this garden occupied a whole year; and to paint a picture of it now will certainly need two years' time. She'll have to rub the ink, to moisten the pencils, to stretch the paper, to mix the pigments, and to…. If she goes on so leisurely to work, won't she require two years' time?", "pos": 756927}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Her innuendoes are full of zest! But what takes the cake is that last remark about leisurely going to work, for if she weren't to paint at all, how could she ever finish her task? Hence those jokes cracked yesterday were, sufficient, of course, to evoke laughter, but, on second thought, they're devoid of any fun! Just you carefully ponder over P'in Erh's words! Albeit they don't amount to much, you'll nevertheless find, when you come to reflect on them, that there's plenty of gusto about them. I've really had such a laugh over them that I can scarcely move!", "pos": 757484}
{"speaker": "Hsi Ch'un", "text": "It's the way that cousin Pao-ch'ai puffs her up, that makes her so much the more arrogant that she turns me also into a laughing-stock now!", "pos": 758082}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Let me ask you, are you only going to paint the garden, or will you insert us in it as well?", "pos": 758295}
{"speaker": "Hsi Ch'un", "text": "My original idea was to have simply painted the garden, but our worthy senior told me again yesterday that a mere picture of the grounds would resemble the plan of a house, and recommended that I should introduce some inmates too so as to make it look like what a painting should. I've neither the knack for the fine work necessary for towers and terraces, nor have I the skill to draw representations of human beings; but as I couldn't very well raise any objections, I find myself at present on the horns of a dilemma about it!", "pos": 758402}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Human beings are an easy matter! What beats you are insects.", "pos": 758957}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Here you are again with your trash! Will there be any need to also introduce insects in it? As far, however, as birds go, it may probably be advisable to introduce one or two kinds!", "pos": 759035}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "If any other insects are not put in the picture, it won't matter; but without yesterday's female locust in it, it will fall short of the original? Begin painting at once! I've even got the title all ready. The name I've chosen is, 'Picture of a locust brought in to have a good feed.'", "pos": 759239}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Is this, doing what you're told and showing us how to do needlework and teaching us manners? Why, instead of that, you press us to come here and have a good romp and a hearty laugh!", "pos": 761170}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Just you listen to her perverse talk. She takes the lead and kicks up a rumpus, and incites people to laugh, and then she throws the blame upon me! In real truth, she's a despicable thing! What I wish is that you should soon get some dreadful mother-in-law, and several crotchety and abominable older and younger sisters-in-law, and we'll see then whether you'll still be as perverse or not!", "pos": 761385}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Let us, give her a whole year's leave!", "pos": 761869}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I've got an impartial remark to make. Listen to me all of you! Albeit the girl, Ou, may have some idea about painting, all she can manage are just a few outline sketches, so that unless, now that she has to accomplish the picture of this garden, she can lay a claim to some ingenuity, will she ever be able to succeed in effecting a painting? This garden resembles a regular picture. The rockeries and trees, towers and pavilions, halls and houses are, as far as distances and density go, neither too numerous, nor too few. Such as it is, it is fitly laid out; but were you to put it on paper in strict compliance with the original, why, it will surely not elicit admiration. In a thing like this, it's necessary to pay due care to the various positions and distances on paper, whether they should be large or whether small; and to discriminate between main and secondary; adding what is needful to add, concealing and reducing what should be concealed and reduced, and exposing to view what should remain visible. As soon as a rough copy is executed, it should again be considered in all its details, for then alone will it assume the semblance of a picture. In the second place, all these towers, terraces and structures must be distinctly delineated; for with just a trifle of inattention, the railings will slant, the pillars will be topsy-turvy, doors and windows will recline in a horizontal position, steps will separate, leaving clefts between them, and even tables will be crowded into the walls, and flower-pots piled on portières; and won't it, instead of turning out into a picture, be a mere caricature? Thirdly, proper care must also be devoted, in the insertion of human beings, to density and height, to the creases of clothing, to jupes and sashes, to fingers, hands, and feet, as these are most important details; for if even one stroke be not thoroughly executed, then, if the hands be not swollen, the feet will be made to look as if they were lame. The colouring of faces and the drawing of the hair are minor points; but, in my own estimation, they really involve intense difficulty. Now a year's leave is, on one hand, too excessive, and a month's is, on the other, too little; so just give her half a year's leave. Depute, besides, cousin Pao-yü to lend her a hand in her task. Not that cousin Pao knows how to give any hints about painting; that in itself would be more of a drawback; but in order that, in the event of there being anything that she doesn't comprehend, or of anything perplexing her as to how best to insert it, cousin Pao may take the picture outside and make the necessary inquiries of those gentlemen, who excel in painting. Matters will thus be facilitated for her.", "pos": 761923}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This proposal is first-rate! The towers and terraces minutely executed by Chan Tzu-liang are so perfect, and the beauties painted by Ch'eng Jih-hsing so extremely fine that I'll go at once and ask them of them!", "pos": 764725}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I've always said that you fuss for nothing! I merely passed a cursory remark, and there you want to go immediately and ask for things. Do wait until we arrive at some decision in our deliberations, and then you can go! But let's consider now what would be best to use to paint the picture on?", "pos": 764954}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've got, in my quarters, some snow-white, wavy paper, which is both large in size, and proof against ink as well.", "pos": 765273}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I do maintain, that you are a perfectly useless creature! That snow-white, wavy paper is good for pictures consisting of characters and for outline drawings. Or else, those who have the knack of making landscapes, use it for depicting scenery of the southern Sung era, as it resists ink and is strong enough to bear coarse painting. But were you to employ this sort of paper to make a picture of this garden on, it will neither stand the colours, nor will it be easy to dry the painting by the fire. So not only won't it be suitable, but it will be a pity too to waste the paper. I'll tell you a way how to get out of this. When this garden was first laid out, some detailed plan was used, which although executed by a mere house-decorator, was perfect with regard to sites and bearings. You'd better therefore ask for it of your worthy mother, and apply as well to lady Feng for a piece of thick glazed lustring of the size of that paper, and hand them to the gentlemen outside, and request them to prepare a rough copy for you, with any alterations or additions as might be necessary to make so as to accord with the style of these grounds. All that will remain to be done will be to introduce a few human beings; no more. Then when you have to match the azure and green pigments as well as the ground gold and ground silver, you can get those people again to do so for you. But you'll also have to bring an extra portable stove, so as to have it handy for melting the glue, and for washing your pencils, after you've taken the glue off. You further require a large table, painted white and covered with a cloth. That lot of small dishes you have aren't sufficient; your pencils too are not enough. It will be well consequently for you to purchase a new set of each.", "pos": 765443}
{"speaker": "Hsi Ch'un", "text": "Do I own such a lot of painting materials! Why, I simply use any pencil that first comes under my hand to paint with; that's all. And as for pigments, I've only got four kinds, ochrey stone, 'Kuang' flower paint, rattan yellow and rouge. Besides these, all I have amount to a couple of pencils for applying colours; no more.", "pos": 767227}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Why didn't you say so earlier? I've still got some of these things remaining. But you don't need them, so were I to give you any, they'd lie uselessly about. I'll put them away for you now for a time, and, when you want them, I'll let you have some. You should, however, keep them for the exclusive purpose of painting fans; for were you to paint such big things with them it would be a pity! I'll draw out a list for you to-day to enable you to go and apply to our worthy senior for the items; as it isn't likely that you people can possibly know all that's required. I'll dictate them, and cousin Pao can write them down! Four pencils of the largest size, four of the third size; four of the second size; four pencils for applying colours on big ground; four on medium ground; four for small ground; ten claws of large southern crabs; ten claws of small crabs; ten pencils for painting side-hair and eyebrows; twenty for laying heavy colours; twenty for light colours; ten for painting faces; twenty willow-twigs; four ounces of 'arrow head' pearls; four ounces of southern ochre; four ounces of stone yellow; four ounces of dark green; four ounces of malachite; four ounces of tube-yellow; eight ounces of 'kuang' flower; four boxes of lead powder; ten sheets of rouge; two hundred sheets of thin red-gold leaves; two hundred sheets of lead; four ounces of smooth glue, from the two Kuang; and four ounces of pure alum. The glue and alum for sizing the lustring are not included, so don't bother yourselves about them, but just take the lustring and give it to them outside to size it with alum for you. You and I can scour and clarify all these pigments, and thus amuse ourselves, and prepare them for use as well. I feel sure you'll have an ample supply to last you a whole lifetime. But you must also get ready four sieves of fine lustring; a pair of coarse ones; four brush-pencils; four bowls, some large, some small; twenty large, coarse saucers; ten five-inch plates; twenty three-inch coarse, white plates; two stoves; four large and small earthenware pans; two new porcelain jars; four new water buckets; four one-foot-long bags, made of white cloth; two catties of light charcoal; one or two catties of willow-wood charcoal; a wooden box with three drawers; a yard of thick gauze, two ounces of fresh ginger; half a catty of soy;…", "pos": 767577}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "An iron kettle and an iron shovel,", "pos": 770252}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "To do what with them?", "pos": 770342}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You ask for fresh ginger, soy and all these condiments, so I indent for an iron kettle for you to cook the paints and eat them.", "pos": 770386}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "What do you, P'in Erh, know about these things? I am not certain in my mind that you won't put those coarse coloured plates straightway on the fire. But unless you take the precaution beforehand of rubbing the bottom with ginger juice, mixed with soy, and of warming them dry, they're bound to crack, the moment they experience the least heat.", "pos": 770600}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "It's really so, they exclaimed with one voice, after this explanation. Just see, we want to paint a picture, and she goes on indenting for a number of water jars and boxes! But, I presume, she's got so muddled, that she inserts a list of articles needed for her trousseau.", "pos": 770967}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Cousin Pao, don't you wring her mouth? Just ask her what disparaging things she said about you.", "pos": 771445}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Why need I ask? Is it likely, pray, that you can get ivory out of a cur's mouth?", "pos": 771559}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "My dear cousin, spare me! P'in Erh is young in years; all she knows is to talk at random; she has no idea of what's proper and what's improper. But you are my elder cousin, so teach me how to behave. If you, cousin, don't let me off, to whom can I go and address my entreaties?", "pos": 771847}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "She's right there. So much is she to be pitied that even we have been mollified; do spare her and finish!", "pos": 772248}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "It's you, after all, elder cousin. Had it been I, I wouldn't have let any one off.", "pos": 772698}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It is no wonder, that our dear ancestor doats on you and that every one loves you. Even I have to-day felt my heart warm towards you! But come here and let me put your hair up for you!", "pos": 772838}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "We've done with what there was to write, so you'd better tomorrow go and tell grandmother about the things. If there be any at home, well and good; but if not, get some money to buy them with. I'll then help you both in your preparations.", "pos": 773548}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Pray, may I ask, whether you're feeling nearly well again now?", "pos": 775466}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I'm quite all right to-day. I've tasted the young-pheasant soup you sent me a little time back and find it full of relish. I've also had two pieces of meat, so I feel quite comfortable within me.", "pos": 775560}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "These dainties were presented to you, dear ancestor, by that girl Feng. It only shows how sincere her filial piety is. She does not render futile the love, which you, venerable senior, ever lavish on her.", "pos": 775783}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "She's too kind to think of me! But should there be any more uncooked, let them fry a couple of pieces; and, if these be thoroughly immersed in wine, the congee will taste well with them. The soup is, it's true, good, but it shouldn't, properly speaking, be prepared with fine rice. I sent the servant for you, not for anything else, but for the birthday of that girl Feng, which falls on the second. I had made up my mind two years ago to celebrate her birthday in proper style, but when the time came, there happened to be again something important to attend to, and it went by without anything being done. But this year, the inmates are, on one hand, all here, and there won't, I fancy, be, on the other, anything to prevent us, so we should all do our best to enjoy ourselves thoroughly for a day.", "pos": 776059}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "I was thinking the same thing, and, since it's your good pleasure, venerable senior, why, shouldn't we deliberate at once and decide upon something?", "pos": 777125}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "To the best of my recollection, whenever in past years I've had any birthday celebrations for any one of us, no matter who it was, we have ever individually sent our respective presents; but this method is common and is also apt, I think, to look very much as if there were some disunion. But I'll now devise a new way; a way, which won't have the effect of creating any discord, and will be productive of good cheer.", "pos": 777311}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Let whatever way you may think best, dear ancestor, be adopted.", "pos": 777768}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "My idea is, that we too should follow the example of those poor families and raise a subscription among ourselves, and devote the whole of whatever we may collect to meet the outlay for the necessary preparations. What do you say, will this do or not?", "pos": 777864}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "This is a splendid idea! But what will, I wonder, be the way adopted for raising contributions?", "pos": 778156}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I'll give twenty taels!", "pos": 780717}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "I'll follow your lead, dear senior, and also subscribe twenty taels.", "pos": 780815}
{"speaker": "Mesdames Hsing and Wang", "text": "We don't presume to place ourselves on an equal footing with your ladyship. We, of course, come one degree lower; each of us therefore will contribute sixteen taels.", "pos": 780907}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu and Li Wan", "text": "We too naturally rank one step lower, so we'll each give twelve taels.", "pos": 781110}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "You're a widow, and have lost all your estate, so how could we drag you into all this outlay! I'll contribute for you!", "pos": 781217}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Don't be in such high feather dear senior, but just look to your accounts before you saddle yourself with this burden! You've already taken upon yourself two portions; and do you now also volunteer sixteen taels on behalf of my elder sister-in-law? You may willingly do so, while you speak in the abundance of your spirits, but when you, by and bye, come to ponder over what you've done, you'll feel sore at heart again! 'It's all that girl Feng that's driven me to spend the money,' you'll say in a little time; and you'll devise some ingenious way to inveigle me to fork out three or four times as much as your share and thus make up your deficit in an underhand way; while I will still be as much in the clouds as if I were in a dream!", "pos": 781406}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "According to you, what should be done?", "pos": 782220}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "My birthday hasn't yet come, and already now I've been the recipient of so much more than I deserve that I am quite unhappy. But if I don't contribute a single cash, I shall feel really ill at ease for the trouble I shall be giving such a lot of people. It would be as well, therefore, that I should bear this share of my senior sister-in-law; and, when the day comes, I can eat a few more things, and thus be able to enjoy some happiness.", "pos": 782300}
{"speaker": "Madame Hsing and the others", "text": "Quite right!", "pos": 782762}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There's something more I'd like to add. I think that it's fair enough that you, worthy ancestor, should, besides your own twenty taels, have to stand two shares as well, the one for cousin Liu, the other for cousin Pao-yü, and that Mrs. Hsüeh should, beyond her own twenty taels, likewise bear cousin Pao-ch'ai's portion. But it's somewhat unfair that the two ladies Mesdames Hsing and Wang should each only give sixteen taels, when their share is small, and when they don't subscribe anything for any one else. It's you, venerable senior, who'll be the sufferer by this arrangement.", "pos": 782877}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "It's this hussey Feng, who, after all, takes my side! What you say is quite right. Hadn't it been for you, I would again have been duped by them!", "pos": 783572}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Dear senior! Just hand over our two cousins to those two ladies and let each take one under her charge and finish. If you make each contribute one share, it will be square enough.", "pos": 783736}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This is perfectly fair. Let this suggestion be carried out!", "pos": 783937}
{"speaker": "Lai Ta's mother", "text": "This is such a subversion of right, that I'll put my back up on account of the two ladies. She's a son's wife, on the other side, and, in here, only a wife's brother's child; and yet she doesn't incline towards her mother-in-law and her aunt, but takes other people's part. This son's wife has therefore become a perfect stranger; and a close niece has, in fact, become a distant niece! If the junior ladies subscribe twelve taels each, we must, as a matter of course, also come one degree lower; eh?", "pos": 784067}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This won't do! You naturally should rank one degree lower, but you're all, I am well aware, wealthy people; and, in spite of your status being somewhat lower, your funds are more flourishing than theirs. It's only just then that you should be placed on the same standing as those people! The young ladies, should merely give something for the sake of appearances! If each one contributes a sum proportionate to her monthly allowance, it will be ample! Yüan Yang! a few of you should assemble in like manner, and consult as to what share you should take in the matter. So bring them along! Can it be, that you don't want any birthday celebrated for your mistress, that you don't range yourself also among them?", "pos": 784741}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "The other money I gave. I gave privately, and is extra. This is what I am publicly bound to contribute along with the lot.", "pos": 786012}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "That's a good child!", "pos": 786159}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Those above as well as those below have all alike given their share. But there are still those two secondary wives; are they to give anything or not? Do go and ask them! It's but right that we should go to the extreme length and include them. Otherwise, they'll imagine that we've looked down upon them!", "pos": 786213}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Just so! How is it that we forgot all about them? The only thing is, I fear, they've got no time to spare; yet, tell a servant-girl to go and ask them what they'll do!", "pos": 786564}
{"speaker": "servant-girl", "text": "Each of them, will likewise contribute two taels.", "pos": 786858}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Fetch a pen and inkslab, and let's calculate how much they amount to, all together.", "pos": 786975}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "I'll take you, you mean covetous creature, and … ! All these mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law have come forward and raised money to celebrate your birthday, and are you yet not satisfied that you must also drag in those two miserable beings! But what do you do it for?", "pos": 787123}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Try and talk less trash! We'll be leaving this place in a little time and then I'll square up accounts with you! But why ever are those two miserable? When they have money, they uselessly give it to other people; and isn't it better that we should get hold of it, and enjoy ourselves with it?", "pos": 787395}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "We couldn't possibly run through all this for a day's theatricals and banquet!", "pos": 787861}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "As no outside guests are to be invited, and the number of tables won't also be many, there will be enough to cover two or three days' outlay! First of all, there won't be anything to spend for theatricals, so we'll effect a saving on that item.", "pos": 787967}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Just call whatever troupe that girl Feng may say she likes best,", "pos": 788236}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "We've heard quite enough of the performances of that company of ours, let's therefore spend a little money and send for another, and see what they can do.", "pos": 788332}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I leave that to you, brother Chen's wife, in order that our girl Feng should have occasion to trouble her mind with as little as possible, and be able to enjoy a day's peace and quiet. It's only right that she should.", "pos": 788507}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Don't ask me! Do whatever will please our worthy ancestor.", "pos": 789135}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "What a fine thing you are to come across such a mighty piece of luck! I was wondering what had happened that she summoned us all! Why, was it simply on this account? Not to breathe a word about the money that I'll have to contribute, must I have trouble and annoyance to bear as well? How will you show me any thanks?", "pos": 789215}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Don't bring shame upon yourself! I didn't send for you; so why should I be thankful to you! If you funk the exertion, go at once and let our venerable senior know, and she'll depute some one else and have done.", "pos": 789553}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "You go on like this as you see her in such excellent spirits, that's why! It would be well, I advise you, to pull in a bit; for if you be too full of yourself, you'll get your due reward! Who brought it?", "pos": 789787}
{"speaker": "servant-girl", "text": "Nurse Lin,", "pos": 790265}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "Call her in,", "pos": 790320}
{"speaker": "Lin Chih-hsiao's wife", "text": "This is what's subscribed by us servants. and so I collected it and brought it over first. As for the contributions of our venerable mistress, and those of the ladies, they aren't ready yet.", "pos": 790617}
{"speaker": "waiting-maids", "text": "Our lady of the other mansion and Mrs. Hsüeh have sent over some one with their portions.", "pos": 790908}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "You mean wenches! All the gumption you've got is to simply bear in mind this sort of nonsense! In a fit of good cheer, your old mistress yesterday purposely expressed a wish to imitate those poor people, and raise a subscription. But you at once treasured it up in your memory, and, when the thing came to be canvassed by you, you treated it in real earnest! Don't you yet quick bundle yourselves out, and bring the money in! Be careful and give them some tea before you see them off. Whose shares are wanting?", "pos": 791000}
{"speaker": "Lin Chih-hsiao's wife", "text": "Those of our old lady, of Madame Wang, the young ladies, and of our girls below are still missing,", "pos": 791759}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "There's also that of your senior lady,", "pos": 791893}
{"speaker": "Lin Chih-hsiao's wife", "text": "You'd better hurry over, my lady, for as this money will be issued through our mistress Secunda, she'll nobble the whole of it.", "pos": 791953}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "Is it all there?", "pos": 792454}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Yes, it is, so you might as well take it away at once; for if it gets mislaid, I've nothing to do with it.", "pos": 792488}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "I'm somewhat distrustful, so I'd like to check it in your presence. I said that you were up to tricks! How is it that your elder sister-in-law's isn't here?", "pos": 792617}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There's all that money; and isn't it yet enough? If there's merely a portion short it shouldn't matter! Should the money prove insufficient, I can then look you up, and give it to you.", "pos": 792920}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "When the others were present yesterday, you were ready enough to act as any human being would; but here you're again to-day prevaricating with me! I won't, by any manner of means, agree to this proposal of yours! I'll simply go and ask for the money of our venerable senior.", "pos": 793127}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I see how dreadful you are! But when something turns up by and bye, I'll also be very punctilious; so don't you then bear me a grudge!", "pos": 793423}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "Well, never mind if you don't give your quota! Were it not that I consider the dutiful attentions you've all along shown me would I ever be ready to humour you? P'ing Erh, come here, take this share of yours and put it away! Should the money collected turn out to be below what's absolutely required, I'll make up the sum for you.", "pos": 793581}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "My lady, it would come to the same thing if you were to first spend what you want and to give me afterwards any balance that may remain of it.", "pos": 794040}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "Is your mistress alone to be allowed to do dishonest acts, and am I not to be free to bestow a favour? I want to see, where your mistress, who is so extremely careful, will run through all the money, we've raised! If she can't spend it, why she'll take it along with her in her coffin, and make use of it there.", "pos": 794230}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "There's no use for these! Your lot, ladies, is a pitiful one! How can you afford all this spare money! That hussey Feng is well aware of the fact. I'm here to answer for you!", "pos": 795216}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "This is, the proper day for our literary gathering, so don't forget it. If Pao-yü hasn't appeared, it must, I presume, be that his mind is so preoccupied with the fuss that's going on that he has lost sight of all pure and refined things. Go and see what he is up to! and be quick and tell him to come.", "pos": 796356}
{"speaker": "waiting-maid", "text": "Sister Hua says, that he went out of doors, soon after daylight this morning.", "pos": 796797}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "He can't have gone out!", "pos": 796953}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This girl is stupid, and doesn't know how to speak.", "pos": 796990}
{"speaker": "Ts'ui Mo", "text": "It's really true, that he has gone out of doors. He gave out that a friend of his was dead, and that he was going to pay a visit of condolence.", "pos": 797153}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "There's certainly nothing of the kind. But whatever there might have been to call him away, it wasn't right of him to go out on an occasion like the present one! Just call Hsi Jen here, and let me ask her!", "pos": 797316}
{"speaker": "Li Wan and the rest", "text": "No matter what he may have had to attend to to-day, he shouldn't have gone out! In the first place, it's your mistress Secunda's birthday, and our dowager lady is in such buoyant spirits that the various inmates, whether high or low, are coming from either mansion to join in the fun; and lo, he goes off! Secondly, this is the proper day as well for holding our first literary gathering, and he doesn't so as apply for leave, but stealthily sneaks away.", "pos": 797638}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "He said last night, that he had something very important to do this morning; that he was going as far as Prince Pei Ching's mansion, but that he would hurry back. I advised him not to go; but, of course, he wouldn't listen to me. When he got out of bed, at daybreak this morning, he asked for his plain clothes and put them on, so, I suppose, some lady of note belonging to the household of Prince Pei Ching must have departed this life; but who can tell?", "pos": 798151}
{"speaker": "Li Wan and her companions", "text": "If such be truly the case, it's quite right that he should have gone over for a while; but he should have taken care to be back in time !", "pos": 798626}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Let's write our verses,", "pos": 798857}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "and we can fine him on his return.", "pos": 798894}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "As I shall be going out of doors to-morrow at daybreak, you'd better get ready two horses and wait at the back door! No one else need follow as an escort! Tell Li Kuei that I've gone to the Pei mansion. In the event of any one wishing to start in search of me, bid him place every obstacle in the way, as all inquiries can well be dispensed with! Let him simply explain that I've been detained in the Pei mansion, but that I shall surely be back shortly.", "pos": 799417}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "Where are we off to?", "pos": 800543}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Where does this road lead to?", "pos": 800600}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "This is the main road leading out of the northern gate. Once out of it, everything is so dull and dreary that there's nothing worth seeing!", "pos": 800646}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I was just thinking that a dull and dreary place would be just the thing!", "pos": 800855}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Is there any place here, where incense is sold?", "pos": 801434}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "Incense! yes, there is; but what kind of incense it is I don't know.", "pos": 801496}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "All other incense is worth nothing. We should get sandalwood, conifer and cedar, these three.", "pos": 801587}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "These three sorts are very difficult to get. What do you want incense for? Master Secundus, I've often seen you wear a small purse, about your person, full of tiny pieces of incense; and why don't you see whether you've got it with you?", "pos": 801730}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "Don't think of such things! Where could they be procured in a deserted and lonely place like this? If you needed them, why didn't you speak somewhat sooner, and we could have brought them along with us? Would not this have been more convenient?", "pos": 802662}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You stupid thing! Had we been able to bring them along, we wouldn't have had to run in this way as if for life!", "pos": 802927}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "I've thought of something, but I wonder what you'll think about it, Master Secundus! You don't, I expect, only require these things; you'll need others too, I presume. But this isn't the place for them; so let's move on at once another couple of lis, when we'll get to the 'Water Spirit' monastery.", "pos": 803134}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Is the 'Water Spirit' monastery in this neighbourhood? Yes, that would be better; let's press forward. The nun in this 'Water Spirit' monastery, frequently comes on a visit to our house, so that when we now get there and ask her for the loan of a censer, she's certain to let us have it.", "pos": 803447}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "Not to mention that that's a place where our family burns incense, she could not dare to raise any objections, to any appeal from us for a loan, were she even in a temple quite unknown to us. There's only one thing, I've often been struck with the strong dislike you have for this 'Water Spirit' monastery, master, and how is that you're now, so delighted with the idea of going to it?", "pos": 803919}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've all along had the keenest contempt for those low-bred persons, who, without knowing why or wherefore, foolishly offer sacrifices to the spirits, and needlessly have temples erected. The reason of it all is, that those rich old gentlemen and unsophisticated wealthy women, who lived in past days, were only too ready, the moment they heard of the presence of a spirit anywhere, to take in hand the erection of temples to offer their sacrifices in, without even having the faintest notion whose spirits they were. This was because they readily credited as gospel-truth such rustic stories and idle tales as chanced to reach their ears. Take this place as an example. Offerings are presented in this 'Water Spirit' nunnery to the spirit of the 'Lo' stream; hence the name of 'Water Spirit' monastery has been given to it. But people really don't know that in past days, there was no such thing as a 'Lo' spirit! These are, indeed, no better than legendary yarns invented by Ts'ao Tzu-chien, and who would have thought it, this sort of stupid people have put up images of it, to which they offer oblations. It serves, however, my purpose to-day, so I'll borrow of her whatever I need to use.", "pos": 804328}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Take the censer, and go out into the back garden and find a clean spot!", "pos": 806695}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "What about, the platform round that well?", "pos": 806832}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "I, Pei Ming, have been in the service of Master Secundus for several years. Of the secrets of Mr. Secundus' heart there are none, which I have not known, save that with regard to this sacrifice to-day; the object of which, he has neither told me; nor have I had the presumption to ask. But thou, oh spirit! who art the recipient of these sacrificial offerings, must, I expect, unknown though thy surname and name be to me, be a most intelligent and supremely beautiful elder or younger sister, unique among mankind, without a peer even in heaven! As my Master Secundus cannot give vent to the sentiments, which fill his heart, allow me to pray on his behalf! Should thou possess spirituality, and holiness be thy share, do thou often come and look up our Mr. Secundus, for persistently do his thoughts dwell with thee! And there is no reason why thou should'st not come! But should'st thou be in the abode of the dead, grant that our Mr. Secundus too may, in his coming existence, be transformed into a girl, so that he may be able to amuse himself with you all! And will not this prove a source of pleasure to both sides?", "pos": 807399}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Don't talk such stuff and nonsense! Were any looker-on to overhear what you say, he'd jeer at you!", "pos": 808803}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "I've already, told the nun that you hadn't as yet had anything to eat, Master Secundus, and I bade her get a few things ready for you, so you must force yourself to take something. I know very well that a grand banquet will be spread in our mansion to-day, that exceptional bustle will prevail, and that you have, on account of this, Sir, come here to get out of the way. But as you're, after all, going to spend a whole day in peace and quiet in here, you should try and divert yourself as best you can. It won't, therefore, by any manner of means do for you to have nothing to eat.", "pos": 808994}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I won't be at the theatrical performance to have any wine, so what harm will there be in my having a drink here, as the fancy takes me?", "pos": 809591}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "Quite so! But there's another consideration. You and I have run over here; but there must be some whose minds are ill at ease. Were there no one uneasy about us, well, what would it matter if we got back into town as late as we possibly could? But if there be any solicitous on your account, it's but right, Master Secundus, that you should enter the city and return home. In the first place, our worthy old mistress and Madame Wang, will thus compose their minds; and secondly, you'll observe the proper formalities, if you succeed in doing nothing else. But even supposing that, when once you get home, you feel no inclination to look at the plays and have anything to drink, you can merely wait upon your father and mother, and acquit yourself of your filial piety! Well, if it's only a matter of fulfilling this obligation, and you don't care whether our old mistress and our lady, your mother, experience concern or not, why, the spirit itself, which has just been the recipient of your oblations, won't feel in a happy frame of mind! You'd better therefore, master, ponder and see what you think of my words!", "pos": 809748}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I see what you're driving at! You keep before your mind the thought that you're the only servant, who has followed me as an attendant out of town, and you give way to fear that you will, on your return, have to bear the consequences. You hence have recourse to these grandiloquent arguments to shove words of counsel down my throat! I've come here now with the sole object of satisfying certain rites, and then going to partake of the banquet and be a spectator of the plays; and I never mentioned one single word about any intention on my part not to go back to town for a whole day! I've, however, already accomplished the wish I fostered in my heart, so if we hurry back to town, so as to enable every one to set their solicitude at rest, won't the right principle be carried out to the full in one respect as well as another?", "pos": 810886}
{"speaker": "Pei Ming", "text": "Yes, that would be better! Master Secundus! be careful how you ride! That horse hasn't been ridden very much, so hold him in tight a bit.", "pos": 811735}
{"speaker": "old women", "text": "O-mi-to-fu! you've come! You've all but driven Miss Hua mad from despair! In the upper quarters, they're just seated at the feast, so be quick, Mr. Secundus, and go and join them.", "pos": 812705}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Where are they holding the banquet?", "pos": 813093}
{"speaker": "old women", "text": "They're in the newly erected large reception pavilion,", "pos": 813144}
{"speaker": "Yü Ch'uan-erh", "text": "Ai! the phoenix has alighted! go in at once! Hadn't you come for another minute, every one would have been quite upset!", "pos": 813679}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Just try and guess where I've been?", "pos": 813837}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Where have you been, that you come back at this hour? Don't you yet go and pay your congratulations to your cousin? Your cousin has no idea of what's right and what's wrong. Even though he may have had something pressing to do, why didn't he utter just one word, but stealthily bolted away on his own hook? Will this sort of thing ever do? But should you behave again in this fashion by and bye, I shall, when your father comes home, feel compelled to tell him to chastise you.", "pos": 814284}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Congratulations are a small matter? But, cousin Pao, you must, on no account, sneak away any more without breathing a word to any one, and not sending for some people to escort you, for carriages and horses throng the streets. First and foremost, you're the means of making people uneasy at heart; and, what's more, that isn't the way in which members of a family such as ours should go out of doors!", "pos": 814886}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Why, do you all listen to him and readily go wherever he pleases without even reporting a single word? But where did you really go? Did you have anything to eat? Or did you get any sort of fright, eh?", "pos": 815387}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "A beloved wife of the duke of Pei Ching departed this life, and I went to-day to express my condolences to him. I found him in such bitter anguish that I couldn't very well leave him and come back immediately. That's the reason why I tarried with him a little longer.", "pos": 815627}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "If hereafter you do again go out of doors slyly and on your own hook, without first telling me, I shall certainly bid your father give you a caning!", "pos": 815934}
{"speaker": "inmates", "text": "Venerable senior! you can well dispense with flying into a rage! He has already promised that he won't venture to go out again. Besides, he has come back without any misadventure, so we should all compose our minds and enjoy ourselves a bit!", "pos": 816337}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "This Wang Shih-p'eng, is very stupid! It would be quite immaterial where he offered his sacrifices, and why must he repair to the riverside? 'At the sight of an object,' the proverb has it, 'one thinks of a person. All waters under the heavens revert but to one source.' So had he baled a bowlful from any stream, and given way to his lamentations, while gazing on it, he could very well have satisfied his feelings.", "pos": 818188}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Do let that girl Feng have the seat of honour, and mind be careful in doing the honours for me, for she is subjected to endless trouble from one year's end to another!", "pos": 819871}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "Very well. I fancy, that little used as she is to filling the place of honour, she's bound, if she takes the high seat, to be so much at a loss how to behave, as to be loth even to have any wine!", "pos": 820102}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Well, if you can't succeed, wait and I'll come and offer it to her.", "pos": 820388}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Venerable ancestor! don't believe all they tell you! I've already had several cups!", "pos": 820524}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Quick, pull her out, and shove her into a chair, and let all of you drink by turns to her health! If she then doesn't drink, I'll come myself in real earnest and make her have some!", "pos": 820624}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "You've got from one year's end to another, the trouble and annoyance of conferring dutiful attentions upon our venerable senior, upon Madame Wang and upon myself, so, as I've nothing to-day, with which to prove my affection for you, have a sip, from my hand, my own dear, of this cup of wine I poured for you myself!", "pos": 821017}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "If you deliberately wish to present me a glass, fall on your knees and I'll drink at once!", "pos": 821350}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "What's this you say? And who are you, I wonder? But let me tell you this once for all and finish that though we've succeeded, after ever so many difficulties, in getting up this entertainment to-day, there's no saying whether we shall in the future be able to have anything more the like of this or not. Let's avail ourselves then of the present to put our capacity to the strain and drink a couple of cups!", "pos": 821464}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Dear sisters, do spare me! I'll drink some more to-morrow!", "pos": 822736}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Quite so! we're a mean lot. But now that we stand in the presence of your ladyship, do condescend to look upon us favourably! We've always enjoyed some little consideration, and do you put on the airs of a mistress on an occasion like the present, when there's such a crowd of people standing by? Really, I shouldn't have come. But, as you won't touch our wine, we might as well be quick and retire!", "pos": 822812}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Dear sister. I'll drink some and have done! Get the tips ready! I'm off to wash my face a bit.", "pos": 823345}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Call two boy-servants from among those on duty at the second gate, to bring a whip of twisted cords, and to take this young wench, who has no regard for her mistress, and beat her to shreds. I'm really no ghost! So you must have seen me! Don't you know what good manners mean and stand still? Why did you instead persist in running on?", "pos": 825016}
{"speaker": "maid", "text": "I truly did not see your ladyship coming. I was, besides, much concerned as there was no one in the rooms; that's why I was running on.", "pos": 825583}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "If there's no one in the rooms, who told you to come out again? And didn't you see me, together with P'ing Erh, at your heels, stretching out our necks and calling out to you about ten times? But the more we shouted, the faster you ran! You weren't far off from us either, so is it likely that you got deaf? And are you still bent upon bandying words with me?", "pos": 825764}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "My lady! be careful you'll be hurting your hand!", "pos": 826442}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Go on, pommel her, and ask her what made her run! and, if she doesn't tell you, just you take her mouth and tear it to pieces for her!", "pos": 826505}
{"speaker": "girl", "text": "Our Master Secundus, Mr. Lien, is at home, and he sent me here to watch your movements, my lady; bidding me go ahead, when I saw you leave the banquet, and convey the message to him. But, contrary to his hopes, your ladyship came back just now!", "pos": 826855}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What did he ask you to watch me for? Can it be, pray, that he dreaded to see me return home? There must be some other reason; so be quick and tell it to me and I shall henceforward treat you with regard. If you don't minutely confess all to me, I shall this very moment take a knife and pare off your flesh!", "pos": 827191}
{"speaker": "girl", "text": "I'll tell your ladyship everything, but you mustn't say that it was I who told you.", "pos": 827805}
{"speaker": "maid", "text": "Mr. Secundus himself arrived only a few minutes back. The moment, however, he came, he opened a bog, and, taking two pieces of silver, two hairpins, and a couple of rolls of silk, he bade me stealthily take them to Pao Erh's wife and tell her to come in. As soon as she put the things away, she hurried to our house, and Master Secundus ordered me to keep an eye on your ladyship; but of what happened after that, I've no idea whatever.", "pos": 828025}
{"speaker": "waiting-maid", "text": "I was just going to tell your ladyship, and here you come! What a strange coincidence!", "pos": 829039}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Tell me what?", "pos": 829142}
{"speaker": "girl", "text": "That Mr. Secundus is at home, and has done so and so.", "pos": 829179}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Ts'ui! What were you up to before? Now, that I've seen you, you come and try to clear yourself!", "pos": 829328}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "When that queen-of-hell sort of wife of yours dies, it will be a good riddance!", "pos": 829725}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "When she's gone, and I marry another, the like of her, what will I again do?", "pos": 829807}
{"speaker": "woman", "text": "When she's dead and gone, just raise P'ing Erh to the rank of primary wife. I think she'll turn out considerably better than she has.", "pos": 829908}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "At present, she won't even let me enjoy P'ing Erh's society! P'ing Erh herself is full of displeasure; yet she dares not speak. How is it that it has been my fate to bring upon myself the influence of this evil star?", "pos": 830065}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What a fine wench! You make a paramour of your mistress' husband, and then you wish to compass your master's wife's death, for P'ing Erh to transfer her quarters in here! You base hirelings! You're all of the same stamp, thoroughly jealous of me; you try to cajole me by your outward display!", "pos": 831171}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "You people, go and do a lot of shameful things, and then you also deliberately involve me; but why?", "pos": 831789}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "What a vixen! Are you likewise going to start knocking people about?", "pos": 832598}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Why do you implicate me, in things you say behind my back?", "pos": 832786}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You put your heads together to do me harm, and, when I overhear your designs, you people conspire to frighten me! But strangle me and have done.", "pos": 833466}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "There's no need for any one of you to commit suicide! I too am thoroughly exasperated, so I'll kill the whole lot of you and pay the penalty with my own life! We'll all then be free from further trouble!", "pos": 833723}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "What's the matter? There was nothing up just now, so why is all this row for?", "pos": 834102}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Venerable ancestor! help me! Mr. Chia Lien wishes to kill me.", "pos": 834847}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What's up?", "pos": 834928}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I was just going to my rooms to change my dress, when I unexpectedly found Mr. Chia Lien at home, talking with some one. Fancying that visitors had come, I was quite taken aback, and not presuming to enter, I remained outside the window and listened. It turned out, in fact, to be Pao Erh's wife holding council with him. She said that I was dreadful, and that she meant to poison me so as to get me out of the way and enable P'ing Erh to be promoted to be first wife. At this, I lost my temper. But not venturing, none the less, to have a row with him, I simply gave P'ing Erh two slaps; and then I asked him why he wished to do me harm. But so stricken did he get with shame that he tried there and then to despatch me.", "pos": 835021}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Dreadful! Bring here at once that low-bred offspring!", "pos": 835831}
{"speaker": "Mesdames Hsing and Wang", "text": "You mean thing! Your crime is more heinous, for our venerable senior is in here!", "pos": 836479}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "It's all because our worthy ancestor spoils her, that she behaved as she did and took upon herself to rate even me!", "pos": 836591}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I'm well aware, that you haven't the least consideration for any one of us. Tell some one to go and call his father here and we'll see whether he doesn't clear out. Why, what serious matter could it ever have been? But children of tender years are like greedy kittens, and how can one say for certain that they won't do such things? Human beings have, from their very infancy, to go through experiences of this kind! It's all my fault, however, for pressing you to have a little more wine than was good for you. But you've also gone and drunk the vinegar of jealousy! Compose your mind! To-morrow I'll send for him to apologise to you; but, you'd better to-day not go over, as you might put him to shame! I've always thought highly of that wench, and how is it that she's turned out to be secretly so bad?", "pos": 836994}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "P'ing Erh isn't to blame! It's lady Feng who makes people her tools to give vent to her spite! Husband and wife could not very well come to blows face to face, so they combined in using P'ing Erh as their scapegoat! What injuries haven't fallen to P'ing Erh's lot! And do you, venerable senior, still go on blowing her up?", "pos": 838253}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Is it really so! I always said that that girl wasn't anything like that artful shrew! Well, in that case, she is to be pitied, for she has had to bear the brunt of her anger, and all through no fault of hers! Go, and tell P'ing Erh all I enjoin you; 'that I know that she has been insulted and that to-morrow I'll send for her mistress to make amends, but that being her mistress' birthday to-day, I won't have her give rise to any reckless fuss'!", "pos": 838611}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "You are an intelligent person, and how considerately has your lady treated you all along! It was simply because she has had a little too much wine that she behaved as she did to-day! But had she not made you the means of giving vent to her spite, is it likely that she could very well have aired her grievances upon any one else? Besides, any one else would have laughed at her for acting in a sham way!", "pos": 839358}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I meant, to be the first to ask you, but as our senior lady, Chia Chu, and the young ladies invited you, I couldn't very well do so myself.", "pos": 840313}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Many thanks! How words ever commenced between us; when there was no provocation, I can't tell! But without rhyme or reason, I came in for a spell of resentment.", "pos": 840497}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Our lady Secunda has always been very good to you, so she must have done this in a sudden fit of exasperation!", "pos": 840696}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Our lady Secunda did not, after all, say anything to me. It was that wench that blew me up. And she deliberately made a laughing-stock of me. But that fool also of a master of ours struck me!", "pos": 840840}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear sister, don't wound your heart! I'm quite ready to express my apologies on behalf of that pair!", "pos": 841217}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "What business is that of yours?", "pos": 841353}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "We cousins, whether male or female, are all alike. So when they hurt any one's feelings, I apologise for them; it's only right that I should do so. What a pity; these new clothes too have been stained! But you'll find your sister Hua's costumes in here, and why don't you put one on, and take some hot wine and spurt it over yours and iron them out? You might also remake your coiffure.", "pos": 841405}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You must, dear girl, also apply a little cosmetic and powder, otherwise you'll look as if you were angry with lady Feng. It's her birthday, besides; and our old ancestor has sent some one again to come and cheer you up. This isn't lead powder. This is made of the seeds of red jasmine, well triturated, and compounded with suitable first class ingredients. The cosmetic one buys in the market isn't clean; Its colour is faint as well. But this is cosmetic of superior quality. The juice was squeezed out, strained clear, mixed with perfume of flowers and decocted. All you need do is to take some with that hair-pin and rub it on your lips, that will be enough; and if you dissolve some in a little water, and rub it on the palm of your hand, it will be ample for you to cover your whole face with.", "pos": 842772}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What was the matter?", "pos": 848016}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "I really had too much wine yesterday. I must have given you a fright, worthy ancestor, so I come to-day to receive condign punishment.", "pos": 848063}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "You mean fellow! You go and glut yourself with spirits, and, not to speak of your not going to stretch yourself like a corpse and sleep it off, you contrariwise start beating your wife! But that vixen Feng brags away the whole day long, as if she were a human being as valiant as any tyrant, and yet yesterday she got into such a funk that she presented a woeful sight! Had it not been for me, you would have done her bodily harm; and what would you feel like now? Don't lady Feng and P'ing Erh possess the charms of handsome women? And aren't you yet satisfied with them that you must, of a day, go slyly prowling and gallavanting about, dragging indiscriminately into your rooms frowsy and filthy people? Is it for the sake of this sort of wenches that you beat your wife and belabour the inmates of your quarters? You've nevertheless had the good fortune of starting in life as the scion of a great family; and do you, with eyes wide open, bring disgrace upon your own head? If you have any regard for me, well, then get up and I'll spare you! And if you make your apologies in a proper manner to your wife and take her home, I'll be satisfied. But if you don't, just you clear out of this, for I won't even presume to have any of your genuflexions!", "pos": 848251}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "After your advice, venerable senior. I couldn't be so bold as not to accede to your wishes! But this is shewing her more indulgence than ever!", "pos": 850308}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What nonsense! I am well aware that with her extreme decorum she couldn't hurt any one's susceptibilities. But should she, in the future, wrong you in any way, I shall, of course, take the law into my own hands and bid you make her submit to your authority and finish.", "pos": 850464}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "It was really my fault, so don't be angry, lady Secunda,", "pos": 850847}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Now, my girl Feng, you are not to lose your temper; for if you do, I'll lose mine too!", "pos": 850946}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "The injuries, to which you were subjected yesterday, Miss, were entirely due to my shortcoming. If your lady hurt your feelings, it was likewise all through me that the thing began. So I express my regret; but, besides this, I tender my apologies as well on behalf of your mistress.", "pos": 851430}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "I do deserve death, for provoking your ladyship to wrath on the day of your birthday! I've waited upon your ladyship for all these years, and you've never so much as given me a single fillip; and yet, you beat me yesterday. But I don't bear you any grudge, my lady, for it was that wench, who was at the bottom of it all. Nor do I wonder that your ladyship lost control over your temper.", "pos": 851985}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Escort those three home! If any one of them makes the least allusion to the subject, come at once and tell me of it; for without any regard as to who it may be, I shall take my staff and give him or her a sound flogging.", "pos": 852952}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "How is it, that I'm like a queen of hell, or like a 'Yakcha' demon? That courtesan swore at me and wished me dead; and did you too help her to curse me? If I'm not nice a thousand days, why, I must be nice on some one day! But if, poor me, I'm so bad as not even to compare with a disorderly woman, how can I have the face to come and spend my life with you here?", "pos": 853511}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "Aren't you yet gratified? Just reflect carefully who was most to blame yesterday! And yet, in the presence of so many people, it was I who, after all, fell to-day on my knees and made apologies as well. You came in for plenty of credit, and do you now go on jabber, jabber? Can it be that you'd like to make me kneel at your feet before you let matters rest? If you try and play the bully beyond bounds, it won't be a good thing for you!", "pos": 853931}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "She's all right again!", "pos": 854490}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "But I'm really quite at a loss what to do with this one.", "pos": 854533}
{"speaker": "married woman", "text": "Pao Erh's wife has committed suicide by hanging herself,", "pos": 854667}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Dead, eh? What a riddance! What's the use of making such a fuss about a mere trifle?", "pos": 854892}
{"speaker": "Lin Chih-hsiao's wife", "text": "Pao Erh's wife has hung herself, and her mother's relatives want to take legal proceedings.", "pos": 855099}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "That's all right! I myself was just thinking about lodging a complaint!", "pos": 855279}
{"speaker": "Lin Chih-hsiao's wife", "text": "I and the others tried to dissuade them. And by having recourse to intimidation as well as to promises of money, they, at last, agreed to our terms.", "pos": 855369}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I haven't got a cash. Had I even any money, I wouldn't let them have it; so just let them go and lodge any charge they fancy. You needn't either dissuade them or intimidate them. Let them go and complain as much as they like. But if they fail to establish a case against me, they'll, after all, be punished for trying to make the corpse the means of extorting money out of me!", "pos": 855555}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "I'll go out and see what they're up to!", "pos": 856123}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Mind, I won't have you give them any money!", "pos": 856185}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "By and bye, I'll choose a nice wife for you.", "pos": 857487}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I drank yesterday, a little more wine than was good for me, so don't bear me a grudge. Where did I strike you, let me see?", "pos": 858006}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "You didn't really strike me hard!", "pos": 858145}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "So many of you come to-day, that it looks as if you'd been asked to come by invitation.", "pos": 858770}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "We have, two objects in view, the one concerns me; the other cousin Quarta; but among these are, besides, certain things said by our venerable senior.", "pos": 858915}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What's up? Is it so urgent?", "pos": 859094}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Some time ago, we started a rhyming club; but the first meeting was not quite a success. Every one of us proved so soft-hearted! The rules therefore were set at naught. So I can't help thinking that we must enlist your services as president of the society and superintendent; for what is needed to make the thing turn out well is firmness and no favour. The next matter is: cousin Quarta explained to our worthy ancestor that the requisites for painting the picture of the garden were short of one thing and another, and she said: 'that there must still be,' she fancied, 'in the lower story of the back loft some articles, remaining over from previous years, and that we should go and look for them. That if there be any, they should be taken out, but that in the event of their being none, some one should be commissioned to go and purchase a supply of them.'", "pos": 859159}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I'm not up to doing anything wet or dry, (play on word 'shih,' verses), and would you have me, pray, come and gorge?", "pos": 860058}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "You may, it's possible, not be up to any of these things, but we don't expect you to do anything! All we want you for is to see whether there be among us any remiss or lazy, and to decide how they should be punished, that's all.", "pos": 860198}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You shouldn't try and play your tricks upon me! I can see through your little game! Is it that you wish me to act as president and superintendent? No! it's as clear as day that your object is that I should play the part of that copper merchant, who put in contributions in hard cash. You have, at every meeting you hold, to each take turn and pay the piper; but, as your funds are not sufficient, you've invented this plan to come and inveigle me into your club, in order to wheedle money out of me! This must be your little conspiracy!", "pos": 860451}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "You've guessed right! you're a creature with an intellect as transparent as crystal, and with wits as clear as glass!", "pos": 861047}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You've got the good fortune of being their elder sister-in-law, so the young ladies asked you to take them in hand, and teach them how to read, and make them learn good manners and needlework; and it's for you to guide and direct them in everything! But here they start a rhyming society, for which not much can be needed, and don't you concern yourself about them? We'll leave our worthy ancestor and our Madame Wang aside; they are old people, but you receive each moon an allowance of ten taels, which is twice as much as what any one of us gets. More, our worthy ancestor and Madame Wang maintain that being a widow, and having lost your home, you haven't, poor thing, enough to live upon, and that you have a young child as well to bring up; so they added with extreme liberality another ten taels to your original share. Your allowance therefore is on a par with that of our dear senior. But they likewise gave you a piece of land in the garden, and you also come in for the lion's share of rents, collected from various quarters, and of the annual allowances, apportioned at the close of each year. Yet, you and your son don't muster, masters and servants, ten persons in all. What you eat and what your wear comes, just as ever, out of the general public fund, so that, computing everything together, you get as much as four to five hundred taels. Were you then to contribute each year a hundred or two hundred taels, to help them to have some fun, how many years could this outlay continue? They'll very soon be getting married, and, are they likely then to still expect you to make any contributions? So loth are you, however, at present to fork out any cash that you've egged them on to come and worry me! I'm quite prepared to spend away until we've drained our chest dry! Don't I know that the money isn't mine?", "pos": 861217}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Just you listen to her. I simply made one single remark, and out she came with two cartloads of nonsensical trash! You're as rough a diamond as a leg made of clay! All you're good for is to work the small abacus, to divide a catty and to fraction an ounce, so finicking are you! A nice thing you are, and yet, you've been lucky enough to come to life as the child of a family of learned and high officials. You've also made such a splendid match; and do you still behave in the way you do? Had you been a son or daughter born in some poverty-stricken, humble and low household, there's no saying what a mean thing you wouldn't have been! Every one in this world has been gulled by you; and yesterday you went so far as to strike P'ing Erh! But it wasn't the proper thing for you to stretch out your hand on her! Was all that liquor, forsooth, poured down a cur's stomach? My monkey was up, and I meant to have taken upon myself to avenge P'ing Erh's grievance; but, after mature consideration, I thought to myself, 'her birthday is as slow to come round as a dog's tail grows to a point.' I also feared lest our venerable senior might be made to feel unhappy; so I did not come forward. Anyhow, my resentment isn't yet spent; and do you come to-day to try and irritate me? You aren't fit to even pick up shoes for P'ing Erh! You two should therefore change your respective places!", "pos": 863076}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Oh! I know everything! You don't at all come to look me up on account of verses or paintings, but simply to take revenge on P'ing Erh's behalf! I never had any idea that P'ing Erh had such a backer as yourself to bolster her up! Had I known it, I wouldn't have ventured to strike her, even though a spirit had been tugging my arm! Miss P'ing come over and let me tender my apologies to you, in the presence of your senior lady and the young ladies. Do bear with me for having proved so utterly wanting in virtue, after I had had a few drinks!", "pos": 864531}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "What do you say? As for me, I think it my bounden duty to vindicate your wrongs, before we let the matter drop!", "pos": 865161}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Your remarks, ladies, may be spoken in jest, but I am not worthy of such a fuss!", "pos": 865309}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "What about worthy and unworthy? I'm here for you! Quick, get the key, and let your mistress go and open the doors and hunt up the things!", "pos": 865412}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Dear sister-in-law, you'd better go along with them into the garden. I'm about to take the rice accounts in hand and square them up with them. Our senior lady, Madame Hsing, has also sent some one to call me; what she wants to tell me again, I can't make out; but I must need go over for a turn. There are, besides, all those extra clothes for you people to wear at the end of the year, and I must get them ready and give them to be made!", "pos": 865571}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "These matters are none of my business! First settle my concerns so as to enable me to retire to rest, and escape the bother of having all these girls at me!", "pos": 866043}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Dear sister-in-law, be good enough to give me a little time! You've ever been the one to love me best, and how is it that you have, on P'ing Erh's account, ceased to care for me? Time and again have you impressed on my mind that I should, despite my manifold duties, take good care of my health, and manage things in such a way as to find a little leisure for rest, and do you now contrariwise come to press the very life out of me? There's another thing besides. Should such clothes as will be required at the end of the year by any other persons be delayed, it won't matter; but, should those of the young ladies be behind time, let the responsibility rest upon your shoulders! And won't our old lady bear you a grudge, if you don't mind these small things? But as for me, I won't utter a single word against you, for, as I had rather bear the blame myself, I won't venture, to involve you!", "pos": 866232}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Listen to her! Hasn't she got the gift of the gab? But let me ask you. Will you, after all, assume the control of this rhyming society or not?", "pos": 867158}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What's this nonsense you're talking? Were I not to enter the society, and spend a little money, won't I be treated as a rebel in this garden of Broad Vista? And will I then still think of tarrying here to eat my head off? So soon as the day dawns to-morrow, I'll arrive at my post, dismount from my horse, and, after kneeling before the seals, my first act will be to give fifty taels for you to quietly cover the expenses of your meetings. Yet after a few days, I shall neither indite any verses, nor write any compositions, as I am simply a rustic boor, nothing more! But it will be just the same whether I assume the direction or not; for after you pocket my money, there's no fear of your not driving me out of the place! I'll now open the loft. Should there be any of the articles you want, you can tell the servants to bring them out for you to look at them! If any will serve your purpose, keep them and use them. If any be short, I'll bid a servant go and purchase them according to your list. I'll go at once and cut the satin for the painting. As for the plan, it isn't with Madame Wang; it's still over there, at Mr. Chia Chen's. I tell you all this so that you should avoid going over to Madame Wang's and getting into trouble! But I'll go and depute some one to fetch it. I'll direct also a servant to take the satin and give it to the gentlemen to size with alum; will this be all right?", "pos": 867320}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "This will be putting you to much trouble and inconvenience. But we must really act as you suggest. Well in that case, go home all of you, and, if after a time, she doesn't send the thing round, you can come again and bully her.", "pos": 868887}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "It's Pao-yü and he alone, who has given rise to all this fuss.", "pos": 869239}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "We did, in fact, come over, on account of Pao-yü, and we forgot, instead all about him! The first meeting was deferred through him; but we are too soft-hearted, so tell us what penalty to inflict on him!", "pos": 869366}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There's only one thing to do. Just punish him by making him sweep the floor of each of your rooms. This will do!", "pos": 869624}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Your verdict is faultless!", "pos": 869760}
{"speaker": "Nurse Lai", "text": "Venerable mother! do take a seat! I'm to be congratulated, but you, mistresses, are to be congratulated as well; for had it had not been for the bountiful grace displaced by you, mistresses, whence would this joy of mine have come? Your ladyship sent Ts'ai Ko again yesterday to bring me presents, but my grandson kotowed at the door, with his face turned towards the upper quarters.", "pos": 870058}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "When is he going to his post?", "pos": 870617}
{"speaker": "Nurse Lai", "text": "How can I interfere with them? Why, I let them have their own way and start when they like! The other day, they were at my house, and they prostrated themselves before me; but I could find no complimentary remark to make to him, so, 'Sir!' I said, 'putting aside that you're an official, you've lived in a reckless and dissolute way, for now thirty years. You should, it's true, have been people's bond-servant, but from the moment you came out of your mother's womb, your master graciously accorded you your liberty. Thanks, above, to the boundless blessings showered upon you by your lord, and, below, to the favour of your father and mother, you're like a noble scion and a gentleman, able to read and to write; and you have been carried about by maids, old matrons, and nurses, just as if you had been a very phoenix! But now that you've grown up and reached this age, do you have the faintest notion of what the two words 'bond-servant' imply? All you think of is to enjoy your benefits. But what hardships your grandfather and father had to bear, in slaving away for two or three generations, before they succeeded, after ever so many ups and downs, in raising up a thing like you, you don't at all know! From your very infancy, you ever ailed from this, or sickened for that, so that the money that was expended on your behalf, would suffice to fuse into a lifelike silver image of you! At the age of twenty, you again received the bounty of your master in the shape of a promise to purchase official status for you. But just mark, how many inmates of the principal branch and main offspring have to endure privation, and suffer the pangs of hunger! So beware you, who are the offshoot of a bond-servant, lest you snap your happiness! After enjoying so many good things for a decade, by the help of what spirits, and the agency of what devils have you, I wonder, managed to so successfully entreat your master as to induce him to bring you to the fore again and select you for office? Magistrates may be minor officials, but their functions are none the less onerous. In whatever district they obtain a post, they become the father and mother of that particular locality. If you therefore don't mind your business, and look after your duties in such a way as to acquit yourself of your loyal obligations, to prove your gratitude to the state and to show obedience and reverence to your lord, heaven, I fear, will not even bear with you!'", "pos": 870705}
{"speaker": "Li Wan and lady Feng", "text": "You're too full of misgivings! From what we can see of him, he's all right! Some years back, he paid us a visit or two; but it's many years now that he hasn't put his foot here. At the close of each year, and on birthdays, we've simply seen his name brought in, that's all. The other day, that he came to knock his head before our venerable senior and Madame Wang, we caught sight of him in her courtyard yonder; and, got up in the uniform of his new office, he looked so dignified, and stouter too than before. Now that he has got this post, you should be quite happy; instead of that you worry and fret about this and that! If he does get bad, why, he has his father and mother yet to take care of him, so all you need do is to be cheerful and content! When you've got time to spare, do get into a chair and come in and have a game of cards and a chat with our worthy senior; and who ever will have the face to hurt your feelings? Why, were you go to your home, you'd also have there houses and halls, and who is there who would not hold you in high respect? You're certainly, what one would call, a venerable old dame!", "pos": 873198}
{"speaker": "Nurse Lai", "text": "You could have asked any girl to do this for me; it wouldn't have mattered! But here I'm troubling you again! My lady you're not aware that young girls of this age must be in everything kept strictly in hand. In the event of any license, they're sure to find time to kick up trouble, and annoy their elders. Those, who know (how well they are supervised), will then say that children are always up to mischief. But those, who don't, will maintain that they take advantage of their wealthy position to despise people; to the detriment as well of their mistresses' reputation. How I regret that there's nothing that I can do with him. Time after time, have I had to send for his father; and he has been the better, after a scolding from him. I don't mind whether you feel angry with me for what I'm going to say, but if your father were to attempt now to exercise ever so little control over you, your venerable grandmother is sure to try and screen you. Yet, when in days gone by your worthy father was young, he used to be beaten by your grandfather. Who hasn't seen him do it? But did your father, in his youth resemble you, who have neither fear for God or man? There was also our senior master, on the other side, Mr. Chia She. He was, I admit, wild; but never such a crossgrained fellow as yourself; and yet he too had his daily dose of the whip. There was besides the father of your elder cousin Chen, of the eastern mansion. He had a disposition that flared up like a fire over which oil is poured. If anything was said, and he flew into a rage, why, talk about a son, it was really as if he tortured a robber. From all I can now see and hear, Mr. Chen keeps his son in check just as much as was the custom in old days among his ancestors; the only thing is that he abides by it in some respects, but not in others. Besides, he doesn't exercise the least restraint over his own self, so is it to be wondered at if all his cousins and nieces don't respect him? If you've got any sense about you, you'll only be too glad that I speak to you in this wise; but if you haven't, you mayn't be very well able to say anything openly to me, but you'll inwardly abuse me, who knows to what extent!", "pos": 874421}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "A wife, has come to fetch her mother-in-law!", "pos": 876861}
{"speaker": "Lai Ta's wife", "text": "I haven't come to fetch our old dame, but to inquire whether you, my lady and the young ladies, will confer upon us the honour of your company?", "pos": 876929}
{"speaker": "Nurse Lai", "text": "I've really grown quite idiotic! What, was right and proper for me to say, I didn't say, but I went on talking instead a lot of rot and rubbish! As our relatives and friends are presenting their congratulations to our grandson for having been selected to fill up that office of his, we find ourselves under the necessity of giving a banquet at home. But I was thinking that it wouldn't do, if we kept a feast going the whole day, and we invited this one, and not that one. Reflecting also that it was thanks to our master's vast bounty that we've come in for this unforeseen glory and splendour, I felt quite agreeable to do anything, even though it may entail the collapse of our household. I therefore advised his father to give banquets on three consecutive days. That he should, on the first, put up several tables, and a stage in our mean garden, and invite your venerable dowager lady, the senior ladies, junior ladies, and young ladies to come and have some distraction during the day, and that he should have several tables laid on the stage in the main pavilion outside, and request the senior and junior gentlemen to confer upon us the lustre of their presence. That for the second day, we should ask our relatives and friends; and that for the third, we should invite our companions from the two mansions. In this way, we'll have three days' excitement, and, by the boundless favour of our master, we'll have the benefit of enjoying the honour of your society.", "pos": 877158}
{"speaker": "Li Wan and lady Feng", "text": "When is it to be? As far as we are concerned, we'll feel it our duty to come. And we hope that our worthy senior may feel in the humour to go. But there's no saying for certain!", "pos": 878651}
{"speaker": "Lai Ta's wife", "text": "The day chosen is the fourteenth. Just come for the sake of our old mother-in-law!", "pos": 878875}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I can't tell about the others, but as for me I shall positively come. I must however tell you beforehand that I've no congratulatory presents to give you. Nor do I know anything about tips to players or others. As soon as I shall have done eating, I shall bolt, so don't laugh at me.", "pos": 878993}
{"speaker": "Lai Ta's wife", "text": "Fiddlesticks! Were your ladyship disposed, you could well afford to give us twenty and thirty thousand taels.", "pos": 879315}
{"speaker": "Nurse Lai", "text": "I'm off now to invite our venerable mistress. And if her ladyship also agrees to come, I shall deem it a greater honour than ever conferred upon me. Of course! I've got one more question to ask you, my lady. What did sister-in-law Chou's son do to incur blame, that he was packed off, and his services dispensed with?", "pos": 879452}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I was just about to tell your daughter-in-law, but with so many things to preoccupy me, it slipped from my memory! When you get home, sister-in-law Lai, explain to that old husband of yours that we won't have his, (Chou Jui's), son kept in either of the mansions; and that he can tell him to go about his own business!", "pos": 879984}
{"speaker": "Nurse Lai", "text": "What is it all about? Tell me and let me determine the right and wrong of the question.", "pos": 880517}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "The other day, that my birthday was celebrated, that young fellow of his got drunk, before the wine ever went round; and when the old dame, over there, sent presents, he didn't go outside to give a helping hand, but squatted down, instead, and upbraided people. Even the presents he wouldn't carry inside. And it was only after the two girls had come indoors that he eventually got the servant-lads and brought them in. Those lads were however careful enough in what they did, but as for him, he let the box, he held, slip from his hands, and bestrewed the whole courtyard with cakes. When every one had left, I deputed Ts'ai Ming to go and talk to him; but he then turned round and gave Ts'ai Ming a regular scolding. So what's the use of not bundling off a disorderly rascal like him, who neither shows any regard for discipline or heaven?", "pos": 880628}
{"speaker": "Nurse Lai", "text": "I was wondering what it could be! Was it really about this? My lady, listen to me! If he has done anything wrong, thrash him and scold him, until you make him mend his ways, and finish with it! But to drive him out of the place, will never, by any manner of means, do. He isn't, besides, to be treated like a child born in our household. He is at present employed as Madame Wang's attendant, so if you carry out your purpose of expelling him, her ladyship's face will be put to the blush. My idea is that you should, my lady, give him a lesson by letting him have several whacks with a cane so as to induce him to abstain from wine in the future. If you then retain him in your service as hitherto he'll be all right! If you don't do it for his mother's sake; do it at least for that of Madame Wang!", "pos": 881494}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Well, in that case, call him over to-morrow and give him forty blows; and don't let him after this touch any more wine!", "pos": 882402}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "The various doctors, who visit this place, may, it's true, be all very able practitioners; but you take their medicines and don't reap the least benefit! Wouldn't it be as well therefore to ask some other person of note to come and see you? And could he succeed in getting you all right, wouldn't it be nice? Here you year by year ail away throughout the whole length of spring and summer; but you're neither so old nor so young, so what will be the end of it? Besides, it can't go on for ever.", "pos": 885893}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "It's no use. I know well enough that there's no cure for this complaint of mine! Not to speak of when I'm unwell, why even when I'm not, my state is such that one can see very well that there's no hope!", "pos": 886425}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Quite so! An old writer says: 'Those who eat, live.' But what you've all along eaten hasn't been enough to strengthen your energies and physique. This isn't a good thing!", "pos": 886675}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Whether I'm to live or die is all destiny! Riches and honours are in the hands of heaven; and human strength cannot suffice to forcibly get even them! But my complaint this year seems to be far worse than in past years, instead of any better.", "pos": 886886}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It struck me, that in that prescription of yours I saw yesterday there was far too much ginseng and cinnamon. They are splendid tonics, of course, but too many heating things are not good. I think that the first urgent thing to do is to ease the liver and give tone to the stomach. When once the fire in the liver is reduced, it will not be able to overcome the stomach; and, when once the digestive organs are free of ailment, drink and food will be able to give nutriment to the human frame. As soon as you get out of bed, every morning, take one ounce of birds' nests, of superior quality, and five mace of sugar candy and prepare congee with them in a silver kettle. When once you get into the way of taking this decoction, you'll find it far more efficacious than medicines; for it possesses the highest virtue for invigorating the vagina and bracing up the physique.", "pos": 887200}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You've certainly always treated people with extreme consideration, but such a supremely suspicious person am I that I imagined that you inwardly concealed some evil design! Yet ever since the day on which you represented to me how unwholesome it was to read obscene books, and you gave me all that good advice, I've felt most grateful to you! I've hitherto, in fact, been mistaken in my opinion; and the truth of the matter is that I remained under this misconception up to the very present. But you must carefully consider that when my mother died, I hadn't even any sisters or brothers; and that up to this my fifteenth year there has never been a single person to admonish me as you did the other day. Little wonder is it if that girl Yün speaks well of you! Whenever, in former days, I heard her heap praise upon you, I felt uneasy in my mind, but, after my experiences of yesterday, I see how right she was. When you, for instance, began to tell me all those things, I didn't forgive you at the time, but, without worrying yourself in the least about it you went on, contrariwise, to tender me the advice you did. This makes it evident that I have laboured under a mistaken idea! Had I not made this discovery the other day, I wouldn't be speaking like this to your very face to-day. You told me a few minutes back to take bird's nest congee; but birds' nests are, I admit, easily procured; yet all on account of my sickly constitution and of the relapses I have every year of this complaint of mine, which amounts to nothing, doctors have had to be sent for, medicines, with ginseng and cinnamon, have had to be concocted, and I've given already such trouble as to turn heaven and earth topsy-turvey; so were I now to start again a new fad, by having some birds' nests congee or other prepared, our worthy senior, Madame Wang, and lady Feng, will, all three of them, have no objection to raise; but that posse of matrons and maids below will unavoidably despise me for my excessive fussiness! Just notice how every one in here ogles wildly like tigers their prey; and stealthily says one thing and another, simply because they see how fond our worthy ancestor is of both Pao-yü and lady Feng, and how much more won't they do these things with me? What's more, I'm not a pucker mistress. I've really come here as a mere refugee, for I had no one to sustain me and no one to depend upon. They already bear me considerable dislike; so much so, that I'm still quite at a loss whether I should stay or go; and why should I make them heap execrations upon me?", "pos": 888093}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I'm too in the same plight as yourself!", "pos": 890714}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "How can you compare yourself with me? You have a mother; and a brother as well! You've also got some business and land in here, and, at home, you can call houses' and fields your own. It's only therefore the ties of relationship, which make you stay here at all. Neither are you in anything whether large or small, in their debt for one single cash or even half a one; and when you want to go, you're at liberty to go. But I, have nothing whatever that I can call my own. Yet, in what I eat, wear, and use, I am, in every trifle, entirely on the same footing as the young ladies in their household, so how ever can that mean lot not despise me out and out?", "pos": 890756}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "The only extra expense they'll have to go to by and bye, will be to get one more trousseau, that's all. And for the present, it's too soon yet to worry yourself about that!", "pos": 891435}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "One treats you, as a decent sort of person, and confides in you the woes of one's heart, and, instead of sympathising with me, you make me the means of raising a laugh!", "pos": 891704}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Albeit I raise a laugh at your expense, what I say is none the less true! But compose your mind! I'll try every day that I'm here to cheer you up; so come to me with every grievance or trouble, for I shall, needless to say, dispel those that are within my power. Notwithstanding that I have a brother, you yourself know well enough what he's like! All I have is a mother, so I'm just a trifle better off than you! We can therefore well look upon ourselves as being in the same boat, and sympathise with each other. You have, besides, plenty of wits about you, so why need you give way to groans, as did Ssu Ma-niu? What you said just now is quite right; but, you should worry and fret about as little and not as much as you can. On my return home, to-morrow, I'll tell my mother; and, as I think there must be still some birds' nests in our house, we'll send you several ounces of them. You can then tell the servant-maids to prepare some for you at whatever time you want every day; and you'll thus be suiting your own convenience and be giving no trouble or annoyance to any one.", "pos": 891875}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "The things are, of themselves, of little account. What's difficult to find is one with as much feeling as yourself.", "pos": 893007}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "What's there in this worth speaking about? What grieves me is that I fail to be as nice as I should be with those I come across. But, I presume, you feel quite done up now, so I'll be off!", "pos": 893164}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Come in the evening again, and have a chat with me.", "pos": 893373}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Where does this fisherman come from?", "pos": 896569}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Are you better to-day? Have you had any medicines? How much rice have you had to eat to-day? You look better to-day,", "pos": 896623}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Above, you fight shy of the rain, but aren't these shoes and socks below afraid of rain? Yet they're quite clean!", "pos": 897482}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This suit is complete! I've got a pair of crab-wood clogs, I put on to come over; but I took them off under the eaves of the verandah.", "pos": 897617}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "With what grass are they plaited? It would be strange if you didn't, with this sort of things on, look like a very hedgehog!", "pos": 897937}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "These three articles are a gift from the Prince of Pei Ching. Ordinarily, when it rains, he too wears this kind of outfit at home. But if it has taken your fancy, I'll have a suit made for you. There's nothing peculiar about the other things, but this hat is funny! The crown at the top is movable; so if you want to wear a hat, during snowy weather in wintertime, you pull off the bamboo pegs, and remove the crown, and there you only have the circular brim. This is worn, when it snows, by men and women alike. I'll give you one therefore to wear in the wintry snowy months.", "pos": 898090}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I don't want it! Were I to wear this sort of thing, I'd look like one of those fisherwomen, one sees depicted in pictures or represented on the stage!", "pos": 898688}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Splendid! I've already committed them sufficiently to memory!", "pos": 899414}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I want to have a little rest, so please get away; come back again to-morrow.", "pos": 899654}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You should certainly retire to rest! My visit has upset you. I've quite tired you out this long while. Is there anything you fancy to eat? If there be, tell me, and I'll let our venerable ancestor know of it to-morrow as soon as it's day. Won't I explain things clearer than any of the old matrons could?", "pos": 899958}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Let me, think in the night. I'll let you know early to-morrow. But harken, it's raining harder than it did; so be off at once! Have you got any attendants, or no?", "pos": 900437}
{"speaker": "matrons", "text": "Yes! There are servants to wait on him. They're outside holding his umbrella and lighting the lanterns.", "pos": 900629}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Are they lighting lanterns with this weather?", "pos": 900765}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It won't hurt them! They're made of sheep's horn, so they don't mind the rain.", "pos": 900829}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "This, gives out more light than the others; and is just the thing for rainy weather.", "pos": 901172}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've also got one like it. But fearing lest they might slip, fall down and break it, I did not have it lighted and brought round.", "pos": 901271}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "What's of more account, harm to a lantern or to a human being? You're not besides accustomed to wearing clogs, so tell them to walk ahead with those lanterns. This one is as light and handy as it is light-giving; and is really adapted for rainy weather, so wouldn't it be well if you carried it yourself? You can send it over to me to-morrow! But, were it even to slip from your hand, it wouldn't matter much. How is it that you've also suddenly developed this money-grabbing sort of temperament? It's as bad as if you ripped your intestines to secrete pearls in.", "pos": 901421}
{"speaker": "old servant", "text": "These, are much better than what you can buy. Our young lady sends you word, miss, to first go on with these. When you've done with them, she'll let you have some more.", "pos": 902625}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Many thanks for the trouble you've taken!", "pos": 902808}
{"speaker": "old servant", "text": "I won't have any tea. I've got something else to attend to.", "pos": 902944}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I'm well aware that you've all got plenty in hand. But the weather being cool now and the nights long, it's more expedient than ever to establish two things: a night club and a gambling place.", "pos": 903032}
{"speaker": "old servant", "text": "I won't disguise the fact from you, miss, that I've managed this year to win plenty of money. Several servants have, under any circumstances, to do night duty; and, as any neglect in keeping watch wouldn't be the right thing, isn't it as well to have a night club, as one can sit on the look-out and dispel dullness as well? But it's again my turn to play the croupier to-day, so I must be getting along to the place, as the garden gate, will, by this time, be nearly closing!", "pos": 903272}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I've given you all this bother, and made you lose your chances of getting money, just to bring these things in the rain.", "pos": 903833}
{"speaker": "old servant", "text": "I've uselessly put you again, miss, to the expense of giving me a tip for wine,", "pos": 904096}
{"speaker": "Madame Hsing", "text": "I sent for you, not for anything else, but on account of something which places me on the horns of a dilemma. My husband has entrusted me with a job; and being quite at my wits' ends how to act, I'd like first to consult with you. My husband has taken quite a fancy to Yüan Yang, who is in our worthy senior's rooms; so much so, that he's desirous to get her into his quarters as a secondary wife. He has deputed me therefore to ask her of our venerable ancestor. I know that this is quite an ordinary matter. Yet I can't help fearing that our worthy senior may refuse to give her. But do you perchance see your way to bring this concern about?", "pos": 905943}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You shouldn't, I say, go and bang your head against a nail! Were our old ancestor separated from Yüan Yang, she wouldn't even touch her rice! How ever could she reconcile herself to part from her? Besides, our worthy senior has time and again said, in the course of a chat, 'that she can't see the earthly use of a man well up in years, as your lord and master is, having here one concubine, and there another? That cooping them up in his rooms, is a mere waste of human beings. That he neglects his constitution and doesn't husband it; and that he doesn't either attend diligently to his official duties, but spends his whole days in boozing with his young concubines. When your ladyship hears these nice doings of his, don't you feel enamoured with that fine gentleman of ours? Were he even to try, at this juncture, to beat a retreat, he couldn't, I fear, effectively do so. Yet, instead of (making an effort to turn tail), he wants to go and dig the tiger's nostrils with a blade of straw. Don't, my lady, be angry with me; but I daren't undertake the errand. It's clear as day that it will be a wild goose chase. What's more, it will do him no good; but will, contrariwise, heap disgrace upon his own head! Our Mr. Chia She is now so stricken in years, that in all his actions he unavoidably behaves somewhat as a dotard. It would be well therefore for your ladyship to advise him what to do. It isn't as if he were in the prime of life to be able to do all these things with impunity! He's got at present a whole array of brothers, nieces, sons, and grandsons; and should he still go on in this wild sort of way, how will he be able to face any of them?", "pos": 906687}
{"speaker": "Madame Hsing", "text": "There are endless wealthy families with three and four concubines, and is it in ours that such a thing won't do? But were I even to tender him as much advice as I can, it isn't at all likely that he'll abide by it! Even though that maid be one beloved by our venerable senior, it doesn't follow that she'll very well be able to give a rebuff to a hoary-bearded elderly son, and, erewhile, an official, were he to express a wish to have her as an inmate of his household! I sent for you for no other purpose than to deliberate with you, and here you take the initiative and enumerate a whole array of shortcomings. But is there any reason why I should commission you to go? Of course I'll go and speak to her! You make a bold statement that I don't give him any good counsel; but don't you yet know that with a disposition, such as his, he rushes, before I can very well open my lips to advise him, into a tantrum with me?", "pos": 908418}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "My lady, you're perfectly right in your remarks! But how long can I have lived, and what discrimination can I boast of? It seems to me that if a father and mother do not bestow, not a mere servant-girl like she is, but a living jewel of the size of her, on one like Mr. Chia She, to whom are they likely to give her? How can one give faith to words spoken behind one's back? So what a fool I was (in cramming what I heard down my throat)! Just take our Mr. Secundus, (my husband), as an instance. If ever he does anything to incur blame, Mr. Chia She and you, my lady, feel so wrath with him as to only wish you could lay hands upon him there and then and give him such a blow as would kill him downright, but the moment you set eyes on his face, your whole resentment vanishes, and lo, you again let him have, as of old, everything, and anything, much though both of you might relish it in your hearts! Our worthy ancestor will certainly therefore behave in the present instance, with equal liberality, towards Mr. Chia She! So if her ladyship feels in the humour to-day, she'll let him have her, I fancy, at once this very day, if he makes the proper advances. But I'll go ahead and coax our venerable senior; and, when your ladyship comes over, I'll find some pretence to get out of the way, and take along with me those too who may be present in her rooms, so as to make it convenient for you to broach the subject. If she gives her, so much the better. But if even she doesn't, it won't matter; for none of the inmates will have any idea what the object of your mission could have been.", "pos": 910441}
{"speaker": "Madame Hsing", "text": "My idea is, that I shouldn't start by mentioning anything to our venerable senior, for were she to say that she wouldn't give her, the matter would be simply quashed on the head. I can't help thinking that I should first and foremost quietly approach Yüan Yang on the subject. She will, of course, feel extremely ashamed, but when I explain everything minutely to her, she'll certainly have nothing to say against the proposal, and everything will be all right. I can then speak to our old senior; and, despite any desire on her part not to accede to our wishes, she won't be able to put the girl off, provided she herself be willing; for as the adage says: 'If a person wishes to go, it's no use trying to keep him.' Thus needless to say, the whole thing will be satisfactorily settled!", "pos": 912147}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You're really shrewd in your devices, my lady! This is perfect in every respect! For without taking Yüan Yang into account, what girl does not long to rise high, or hope to exalt herself, or think of pushing herself forward above the rest as to cast away the chances of becoming half a mistress, and prefer instead being a maid, and merely becoming by and bye the mate of some servant-lad?", "pos": 912953}
{"speaker": "Madame Hsing", "text": "Quite so! But let's put Yüan Yang aside. Who is there, even among the various elderly waiting-maids, who look after the house, who wouldn't be only too willing to step into these shoes? You'd better then go ahead. But, mind, don't let the cat out of the bag! I'll join you as soon as I can finish my evening meal.", "pos": 913379}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "has always been an extremely shrewd-minded girl; to such a degree, that there is notwithstanding all our arguments, no saying positively whether she'll accept or refuse. So were I to go ahead, and Madame Hsing to follow me by and bye, there won't be any occasion for her to grumble or complain, so long as she assents; but, if she doesn't, why, Madame Hsing, who is so suspicious a creature, will possibly imagine that I've been gassing with her, and been the means of making her put on side and assume high airs. When Madame Hsing finds then that my conjectures have turned out true again, her shame will be converted into anger, and she'll so vent her spite upon me that I shall, after all, be put in a false position. Would it not be better then that she and I should go together; for, if she says 'yes,' I'll be all right; and, if she replies 'no,' I'll be on the safe side; and no suspicion, of any kind, will fall upon me! As I was about to cross over here, our aunt yonder sent us two baskets of quails, and I gave orders that they should be fried, with the idea that they should be brought to your ladyship, in time for you to have some at your evening repast. Just as I was stepping inside the main entrance, I saw the servant-boys carrying your curricle; they said that it was your ladyship's vehicle, that it had cracked, and that they were taking it to be repaired. Wouldn't it be as well then that you should now come in my carriage, for it will be better for you and me to get there together? My lady, it would be well for you to look up our worthy senior, for were I to accompany you, and her ladyship to ask me what was the object of my visit, it would be rather awkward. The best way is for your ladyship to go first, and I'll join you, as soon as I divest myself of my fine clothes.", "pos": 913771}
{"speaker": "Madame Hsing", "text": "What are you up to? Let me see! How much nicer you embroider artificial flowers now!", "pos": 916321}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Madame, what do you come for at this impossible hour?", "pos": 917204}
{"speaker": "Madame Hsing", "text": "I've come, with the special purpose of presenting you my congratulations. You know well enough, that there's not a single reliable person with my husband; but much though we'd like to purchase some other girl we fear that such as might come out of a broker's household wouldn't be quite spotless and taintless. Nor would one be able to get any idea what her failings are, until after she has been purchased and brought home; when she too will be sure, in two or three days, to behave like an imp and play some monkey tricks! That's why we thought of choosing some home-born girl out of those which throng in our mansion, but then again we could find none decent enough; for if her looks were not at fault, her disposition was not proper; and if she possessed this quality, she lacked that one. Hence it is that after repeatedly choosing with dispassionate eye, during half a year, (he finds) that there's only you among that whole bevy of girls, who's worth anything; that in looks, behaviour and deportment, you're gentle, trustworthy, and perfection itself in every respect. His intention therefore is to ask your hand of our old lady and take you over and attach you to his quarters. You won't be treated as one newly-purchased, or newly-sought for outside; for the moment you put your foot into our house, you'll at once have your face shaved and be promoted to a secondary wife; so you'll thus attain as much dignity as honour. More, you're one who is anxious to excel; and, as the proverb says, 'gold will still be exchanged for gold.' My husband has, who'd have thought it, taken a fancy to you, so when you now enter our threshold, you'll fulfil the wish you've cherished all along with such high purpose and lofty aim, and stop the mouths of those persons, who are envious of your lot. Follow me therefore and let's go and lay the matter before our venerable ancestor. What's there in this to be ashamed? You needn't besides breathe a word! All you have to do is to follow me, that's all. Is it likely, pray, that you still hesitate? If you actually don't feel inclined to accept the offer, you're, in real truth, a foolish girl; for here you let go the chances of becoming the secondary consort of a master, and choose instead to continue a servant-girl. You'll be united, in two or three years, to no one higher than some young domestic, and remain as much a bond-servant as ever! If you come along with us, you know that my disposition too is gentle; that I'm not one of those persons, who don't show any regard for any one; that my husband will also treat you as well as he does every one else, and that when, in the course of a year or so, you give birth to a son or daughter, you'll be placed on the same footing as myself. And of all the servants at home, will any you may wish to employ not deign to move to execute your orders? If now that you have a chance of becoming a mistress, you don't choose to, why, you'll miss the opportunity, and then you may repent it, but it will be too late! How is it, that you, who've ever been so quick have now too begun to be so infirm of purpose? What is there that doesn't fall in with your wishes? Just tell me; and I can safely assure you that you'll have everything done to satisfy you. I suppose, that having a father and mother, you yourself don't wish to speak, for fear of being put to the blush, and that you want to wait until such time as they consult you about it, eh? This is quite right! But you'd better let me go and make the proposal to them and tell them to come and ascertain your wishes; and whatever your answer then may be just entrust it to them.", "pos": 917433}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "According to my views, success is not so certain. She and I have often secretly talked this matter over, and the arguments I heard her propound don't make it the least probable that she'll consent. But all we can say now is: 'We'll see!'", "pos": 922199}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Madame Hsing, is sure to come over here to consult with me. If she has assented, well and good; but, if she hasn't, she'll bring displeasure upon her own self, and won't she feel out of countenance, if all of you are present? So tell the others to fry several quails, and get anything nice, that goes well with them, and prepare it for our repast, while you can go and stroll about in some other spot, and return when you fancy she has gone.", "pos": 922455}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Should our old mistress, ask for me, just say that I was so unwell that I couldn't even have any breakfast; that I've gone into the garden for a stroll, but that I will be back at once.", "pos": 923388}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Here comes the new secondary wife!", "pos": 923833}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "How strange it is, that you've all colluded together to come, with one accord, and scheme against me! But wait until I've had it out with your mistress, and then I'll set things all right.", "pos": 923969}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "We've all ever been friends, that is: Hsi Jen, Hu Po, Su Yün, Tzu Chüan, Ts'ai Hsia, Yü Ch'uan, She Yüeh, Ts'ui Mo, Ts'ui Lü, who was in Miss Shih's service and is now gone, K'o Jen and Chin Ch'uan, now deceased, Hsi Hsüeh, who left, and you and I. Ever since our youth up, how many chats have the ten or dozen of us not had, and what have we not been up to together? But now that we've grown up, each of us has gone her own way! Yet, my heart is just what it was in days gone by. Whenever there's anything for me to say or do, I don't try to impose upon any of you; so just first treasure in your heart the secret I'm going to tell you, and don't mention it to our lady Secunda! Not to speak of our senior master wishing to make me his concubine, were even our lady to die this very moment, and he to send endless go-betweens, and countless betrothal presents, with the idea of wedding me and taking me over as his lawful primary wife, I wouldn't also go.", "pos": 924693}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "You most barefaced girl!", "pos": 925801}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It's well you're not afraid of your teeth falling when you utter such things!", "pos": 925843}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "What's up? Do tell me! Properly speaking, we shouldn't pass such judgments, but this senior master of ours is really a most licentious libertine. So much so, that whenever he comes across a girl with any good looks about her, he won't let her out of his grasp.", "pos": 926210}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Since you don't like to entertain his offer. I'll put you up to a plan.", "pos": 926666}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "What plan is it?", "pos": 926763}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Just simply tell our old mistress, this answer: that you've already been promised to our master Secundus, Mr. Lien. Our senior master then won't very well be able to be importunate.'", "pos": 926802}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Ts'ui! What a thing you are! Do you still make such suggestions? Didn't your mistress the other day utter this silly nonsense! Who'd have thought it, her words have now come true!", "pos": 927008}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "If you won't have either of them, my idea is that you should tell our old lady point blank and ask her to give out that she promised you long ago to our master, number two, Pao-yü. Our senior master will then banish this fad from his mind.", "pos": 927214}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "What dreadful vixens both of you are! You don't deserve a natural death! I find myself in a fix, and treat you as decent sort of persons and confide in you so that you should arrange matters for me; and not to say that you don't bother yourselves a rap about me, you take turn and turn about to poke fun at me! You're under the impression, in your own minds, that your fates are sealed, and that both of you are bound by and bye to become secondary wives; but I can't help thinking that affairs under the heavens don't so certainly fall in always with one's wishes and expectations! So you'd better now pull up a bit, and not be cheeky to such an excessive degree!", "pos": 927533}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Dear sister, don't be so touchy! We've been, ever since we were little mites, like very sisters! All we've done is to spontaneously indulge in a little fun in a spot where there's no one present. But tell us what you've decided to do, so that we too should know, and set our minds at ease.", "pos": 928313}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Decided what? All I know is that I won't go; that's finished.", "pos": 928618}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "You mightn't go, but it isn't likely that the matter will drop. You're well aware what sort of temperament that of our senior master's is. It's true that you're attached to our old mistress' rooms, and that he can't, just at present, presume to do the least thing to you; but can it be, forsooth, that you'll be with the old dame for your whole lifetime? You'll also have to leave to get married, and if you then fall into his hands, it won't go well with you.", "pos": 928727}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "I won't leave this place so long as my old lady lives! In the event of her ladyship departing this life, he'll have, under any circumstances, to also go into mourning for three years; for there's no such thing as starting by marrying a concubine, soon after a mother's death! And while he waits for three years to expire, can one say what may not happen? It will be time enough to talk about it when that date comes. But should I be driven to despair from being hard pressed, I'll cut my hair off and become a nun. If not, there's yet another thing: death! And as for a whole life time I shall not join myself to a man, what joy will not then be mine, for having managed to preserve my purity?", "pos": 929237}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh and Hsi Jen", "text": "In very truth, this vixen has no sense of shame! She has now more than ever spoken whatever came foremost to her lips!", "pos": 929956}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "What matters a moment's shame, when things have reached this juncture? But if you don't believe my words, well, you'll be able to see by and bye; then you'll feel convinced. Madame Hsing said a short while back that she was going to look up my father and mother, but I'd like to see whether she'll proceed to Nanking to find them.", "pos": 930110}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Your parents are in Nanking looking after the houses, and they can't come up; yet, in the long run, they can be found out. Your elder brother and your sister-in-law are besides in here at present. You, poor thing, are a child born in this establishment. You're not like us two, who are solitary creatures here.", "pos": 930465}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "What does it matter whether I be born here or not? 'You can lead a horse to a fountain, but you can't make him drink!' So if I don't listen to any proposals, is it likely, may I ask, that they'll kill my father and mother?", "pos": 930796}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "As they couldn't at once get at your parents, they've, for a certainty, told your sister-in-law.", "pos": 931158}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "All this wench is good for, is 'to rush about as if selling camels in the six states!' If she heard what I said, she won't feel flattered.", "pos": 931277}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang's sister-in-law", "text": "Where didn't I look for you? Have you, miss, run over here? Come along with me; I've got something to tell you! Young ladies, pray be seated; I've come in search of our girl to tell her something.", "pos": 931495}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen and P'ing Erh", "text": "What can it be that it's so pressing? We were engaged in guessing puns here, so let's find out this, before you go.", "pos": 931887}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "What do you want to tell me? Speak out!", "pos": 932031}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang's sister-in-law", "text": "Follow me! When we get over there, I'll tell you. It's really some good tidings!", "pos": 932095}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Is it perchance what Madame Hsing has told you?", "pos": 932207}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang's sister-in-law", "text": "Since you, miss, know what it's all about, what else remains for me to do? Be quick and come with me and I'll explain everything. Verily, it's a piece of happiness as large as the heavens!", "pos": 932274}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Be quick, and stop that filthy tongue of yours! It would be ever so much better, were you to bundle yourself away from this! What good tidings and what piece of happiness! Little wonder is it that you long and crave the whole day long to see other people's daughter turned into a secondary wife as one and all of your family would rely upon her to act contrary to reason and right! A whole household has been converted into secondary wives! But the sight fills you with such keen jealousy that you would like to also lay hold of me and throw me into the pit-fire! If any honours fall to my share, all of you outside will do everything disorderly and improper, and raise yourselves, in your own estimations, to the status of uncles (and aunts). But if I don't get any, and come to grief, you'll draw in your foul necks, and let me live or die as I please!", "pos": 932635}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang's sister-in-law", "text": "Whether you mean to accept the proposal, or not, you can anyhow speak nicely. It isn't worth the while dragging this one in and involving that one! The proverb adequately says: 'In the presence of a dwarf one mustn't speak of dwarfish things!' Here you've been heaping insult upon me, but I didn't presume to retaliate. These two young ladies have however given you no provocation whatever; and yet by referring, as you've done, in this way and that way to secondary wives how can people stand it peacefully?", "pos": 933716}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "You shouldn't speak so! She didn't allude to us; so don't be implicating others! Have you heard of any ladies or gentlemen who'd like to raise us to the rank of secondary wives? What's more, we two have neither father nor mother, nor brothers, within these doors, to avail themselves of our positions to act in a way contrary to right and reason! If she abuses people, let her do so; it isn't worth our while to be touchy!", "pos": 934251}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Seeing, that the abuse I've heaped upon her head has put her to such shame that she doesn't know where to go and screen her face, she tries to egg you two on! But you two have, fortunately, your wits about you! Though quite impatient, I never started arguing the question; she it was who chose to speak just now.", "pos": 934722}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "What were you hiding there for? We couldn't see anything of you.", "pos": 935325}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "I went, into Miss Quarta's rooms to see our Mr. Pao-yü, but, who'd have thought it, I got there a little too late, and they told me that he had gone home. But my suspicions were, however, aroused as I couldn't make out how it was that I hadn't come across him, and I was about to go and hunt him up in Miss Lin's apartments, when I met one of her servants who said that he hadn't been there either. Then just as I was surmising that he must have gone out of the garden, behold, you came, as luck would have it, from the opposite direction. But I dodged you, so you didn't see anything of me. Subsequently, she too appeared on the scene; but I got behind the boulder, from the back of these trees. I, however, saw that you two had come to have a chat. Strange to say, though you have four eyes between you, you never caught a glimpse of me.", "pos": 935424}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Four eyes never saw you, but your six eyes haven't as yet found me out!", "pos": 936390}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "You've made me have a good search. Where do you hail from?", "pos": 936635}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I was just leaving cousin Quarta's, when I noticed you coming along, just in front of me; and knowing well enough that you were bent upon finding me, I concealed myself to have a lark with you. I saw you then go by, with uplifted head, enter the court, walk out again, and ask every one you met on your way; but there I stood convulsed with laughter. I was only waiting to rush up to you and frighten you, when I afterwards realised that you too were prowling stealthily about, so I readily inferred that you also were playing a trick upon some one. Then when I put out my head and looked before me, I saw that it was these two girls, so I came behind you, by a circuitous way; and as soon as you left, I forthwith sneaked into your hiding place.", "pos": 936708}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Let's go and look behind there, we may possibly discover another couple; there's no saying.", "pos": 937475}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "There's no one else! This stone is cold! Let's go and sleep in our rooms. Won't it be better there?", "pos": 937603}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Her father, is called Chin Ts'ai. He and his wife are in Nanking; they have to look after our houses there, so they can't pay frequent visits to the capital. Her brother is the Wen-hsiang, who acts at present as our senior's accountant; but her sister-in-law too is employed in our worthy ancestor's yonder as head washerwoman.", "pos": 938637}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chin Wen-hsiang", "text": "It's no use, she gave me a scolding. Hsi Jen too helped her to rate me, and they told me a whole lot of improper words, which could not be breathed in a mistress' ears. It would thus be better to arrange with our master to purchase a girl and have done; for from all I see, neither can that mean vixen enjoy such great good fortune, nor we such vast propitious luck!", "pos": 939588}
{"speaker": "Madame Hsing", "text": "What's that again to do with Hsi Jen? How came they to know anything about it? Who else was present?", "pos": 940082}
{"speaker": "Chin's wife", "text": "There was Miss P'ing!", "pos": 940261}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Shouldn't you have given her a slap on the mouth? As soon as I ever put my foot outside the door, she starts gadding about; and I never see so much as her shadow, when I get home. She too is bound to have had a hand in telling you something or other!", "pos": 940310}
{"speaker": "Chin's wife", "text": "Miss P'ing wasn't present. Looking from a distance it seemed to me like her; but I couldn't see distinctly. It was a mere surmise on my part that it was she at all.", "pos": 940598}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Go and fetch her at once! Tell her that I've come home, and that Madame Hsing is also here and wants her to help her in her hurry.", "pos": 940790}
{"speaker": "Feng Erh", "text": "Miss Lin, despatched a messenger for her, and asked her in writing three and four times before she at last went. I advised her to get back so soon as your ladyship stepped inside the gate, but 'tell your mistress,' Miss Lin said, 'that I've put her to the inconvenience of coming round, as I've got something for her to do for me.' that I've put her to the inconvenience of coming round, as I've got something for her to do for me.", "pos": 940990}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What has she got to do, that she will trouble her day after day?", "pos": 941406}
{"speaker": "Chia She", "text": "There are other people in Nanking to look after our property, there's not only one family, so be quick and depute some one to go and summon Chin Ts'ai to come up to the capital.", "pos": 941734}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "Last night a letter arrived from Nanking, to the effect that Chin Ts'ai had been suffering from some phlegm-obstruction in the channels of the heart. So a coffin and money were allowed from the other mansion. Whether he be dead or alive now, I don't know. But even if alive, he must have lost all consciousness. It would therefore be a fruitless errand to send for him. His wife, on the other hand, is quite deaf.", "pos": 941944}
{"speaker": "Chia She", "text": "You stupid and unreasonable rascal! Is it you of all people, who are up to those things? Don't you yet bundle yourself off from my presence?", "pos": 942475}
{"speaker": "Chia She", "text": "I'll tell you what, bid your wife go and tell her that I say: 'that she must, like the goddess Ch'ang O herself who has from olden times shown a predilection for young people, only despise me for being advanced in years; that, as far as I can see, she must be hankering after some young men; that it must, most likely, be Pao-yü; but probably Lien Erh too! If she fosters these affections, warn her to at once set them at rest; for should she not come, when I'm ready to have her, who will by and bye venture to take her? This is the first thing. Should she imagine, in the next place, that because our venerable senior is fond of her, she may, in the future, be engaged to be married in the orthodox way, tell her to consider carefully that she won't very well be able to escape my grip, no matter in what family she may marry. That it's only in case of her dying or of her not wedding any one throughout her life that I shall submit to her decision. Under other circumstances, urge her to seize the first opportunity and change her mind, as she'll come in for many benefits.' that she must, like the goddess Ch'ang O herself who has from olden times shown a predilection for young people, only despise me for being advanced in years; that, as far as I can see, she must be hankering after some young men; that it must, most likely, be Pao-yü; but probably Lien Erh too! If she fosters these affections, warn her to at once set them at rest; for should she not come, when I'm ready to have her, who will by and bye venture to take her? This is the first thing. Should she imagine, in the next place, that because our venerable senior is fond of her, she may, in the future, be engaged to be married in the orthodox way, tell her to consider carefully that she won't very well be able to escape my grip, no matter in what family she may marry. That it's only in case of her dying or of her not wedding any one throughout her life that I shall submit to her decision. Under other circumstances, urge her to seize the first opportunity and change her mind, as she'll come in for many benefits.", "pos": 944346}
{"speaker": "Chin Wen-hsiang", "text": "Yes!", "pos": 945507}
{"speaker": "Chia She", "text": "Mind you don't humbug me! I shall to-morrow send again your mistress round to ask Yüan Yang. If you two have spoken to her, and she hasn't given a favorable answer, well, then, no blame will fall on you. But if she does assent, when she broaches the subject with her, look out for your heads!", "pos": 945523}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "I'm quite ready to go, but you people must take me before my old mistress first and let me tell her something about it.", "pos": 946239}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "As I would not accept his advances, our senior master has just now gone so far as to insinuate 'that I was violently attached to Pao-yü; or if that wasn't the case, my object was to gain time so as to espouse some one outside. That were I even to go up to the very heavens, I couldn't, during my lifetime, escape his clutches, and that he would, in the long run, wreak his vengeance on me.' I have obstinately made up my mind, so I may state in the presence of all of you here, that I'll, under no circumstances, marry, as long as I live, any man whatsoever, not to speak of his being a Pao-yü, (precious jade); but even a Pao Chin, (precious gold), a Pao Yin, (precious silver); a Pao T'ien Wang, (precious lord of heaven); or a Pao Huang Ti, (precious Emperor); and have done! Were even your venerable ladyship to press me to take such a step, I couldn't comply with your commands, though you may threaten to cut my throat with a sword. I'm quite prepared to wait upon your ladyship, till you depart this life; but go with my father, mother, or brother, I won't! I'll either commit suicide, or cut my hair off, and go and become a nun. If you fancy that I'm not in earnest, and that I'm temporarily using this language to put you off, may, as surely as heaven, earth, the spirits, the sun and moon look upon me, my throat be covered with boils! that I was violently attached to Pao-yü; or if that wasn't the case, my object was to gain time so as to espouse some one outside. That were I even to go up to the very heavens, I couldn't, during my lifetime, escape his clutches, and that he would, in the long run, wreak his vengeance on me.", "pos": 947233}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Of all the attendants I've had, there only remains this single one, upon whom I can depend, and now they want to conspire and carry her off! All you people really know is to impose upon me! Outwardly, you display filial devotion; but, secretly, you plot and scheme against me. If I have aught that's worth having, you come and dun me for it. If I have any one who's nice, you come and ask for her. What's left to me is this low waiting-maid, but as you see that she serves me faithfully, you naturally can't stand it, and you're doing your utmost to estrange her from me so as to be the better able to play your tricks upon me.", "pos": 949281}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "How does this matter concern Madame Wang, my mother? Venerable senior, just consider! This is a matter affecting her husband's eldest brother; and how could she, a junior sister-in-law, know anything about it?…", "pos": 951210}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I've really grown stupid from old age! Mrs. Hsüeh, don't make fun of me! This eldest sister of yours is most reverent to me; and so unlike that senior lady of mine, who only knows how to regard her lord and master and to simply do things for the mere sake of appearances when she deals with her mother-in-law. I've therefore done her a wrong!", "pos": 951541}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "yes. Dear senior, you're so full of prejudices, that you love your youngest son's wife more than any one of the others; but it's quite natural.", "pos": 951938}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I have no prejudices. Pao-yü. I unjustly found fault with your mother; but, how was it that even you didn't tell me anything, but that you looked on, while she was having her feelings trampled upon?", "pos": 952113}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Could I, have taken my mother's part, and run down my senior uncle and aunt? If my mother did not bear the whole blame, upon whom could she throw it? And had I admitted that it was I who was entirely at fault, you, venerable ancestor, wouldn't have believed me.", "pos": 952363}
{"speaker": "his grandmother", "text": "What you say is quite reasonable. So be quick and fall on your knees before your mother and tell her: 'mother, don't feel aggrieved! Our old lady is so advanced in years. Do it for Pao-yü's sake!'", "pos": 952644}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Get up, at once! This won't do at all! Is it likely, pray, that you would tender apologies to me on behalf of our venerable ancestor?", "pos": 953020}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Even that girl Feng didn't call me to my senses,", "pos": 953209}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I don't lay a word to your charge, worthy senior, and yet you brand me with reproach!", "pos": 953292}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This is indeed strange! But I'd like to listen to these charges.", "pos": 953453}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Who told you, dear senior, to look after your attendants so well, and lavish such care on them as to make them plump and fine as water onions? How ever can you therefore bear people a grudge, if they ask for her hand? I'm, lucky for you, your grandson's wife; for were I your grandson, I would long ere this have proposed to her. Would I have ever waited up to the present?", "pos": 953546}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Is this any fault of mine?", "pos": 953943}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Of course, it's your fault, venerable senior!", "pos": 953999}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Well, in that case, I too don't want her. Take her away, and have done!", "pos": 954080}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Wait until I go through this existence, and, in the life to come, I'll assume the form of a man and apply for her hand.", "pos": 954190}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Take her along, and give her to Lien-Erh to attach to his apartments; and we'll see whether that barefaced father-in-law of yours will still wish to have her or not.", "pos": 954335}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Lien-Erh is not a match for her! He's only a fit mate for such as myself and P'ing Erh. A pair of loutish bumpkins like us to have anything to do with such a one as herself!", "pos": 954532}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Our senior lady has come.", "pos": 954835}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I hear, that you had come to play the part of a go-between for your lord and master! You can very well observe the three obediences and four virtues, but this softness of yours is a work of supererogation! You people have also got now a whole lot of grandchildren and sons. Do you still live in fear and trembling lest he should put his monkey up? Rumour has it that you yet let that disposition of your husband's run riot!", "pos": 956562}
{"speaker": "Madame Hsing", "text": "I advised him time and again, but he wouldn't listen to me. How is it, venerable senior, that you don't yet know that he turns a deaf ear to me? That's why I had no choice in the matter!", "pos": 957057}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Would you go and kill any one, that he might instigate you to? But consider now. Your brother's wife is naturally a quiet sort of person, and is born with many ailments; but is there anything, whether large or small, that she doesn't go to the trouble of looking after? And notwithstanding that that daughter-in-law of yours lends her a helping hand, she is daily so busy that she 'no sooner puts down the pick than she has to take up the broom.' So busy, that I have myself now curtailed a hundred and one things. But whenever there's anything those two can't manage, there's Yüan Yang to come to their assistance. She is, it's true, a mere child, but nevertheless very careful; and knows how to concern herself about my affairs a bit; indenting for anything that need be indented, and availing herself of an opportunity to tell them to supply every requisite. Were Yüan Yang not the kind of girl she is, how could those two ladies not neglect a whole or part of those matters, both important as well as unimportant, connected with the inner and outer quarters? Would I not at present have to worry my own mind, instead of leaving things to others? Why, I'd daily have to rack my brain and go and ask them to give me whatever I might need! Of those girls, who've come to my quarters and those who've gone, there only remains this single one. She's, besides other respects, somewhat older in years, and has as well a slight conception of my ways of doing things, and of my tastes. In the second place, she has managed to win her mistresses' hearts, for she never tries to extort aught from me, or to dun this lady for clothes or that one for money. Hence it is that beginning from your sister-in-law and daughter-in-law down to the servants in the house, irrespective of old or young, there isn't a soul, who doesn't readily believe every single word she says in anything, no matter what it is! Not only do I thus have some one upon whom I can rely, but your young sister-in-law and your daughter-in-law are both as well spared much trouble. With a person such as this by me, should even my daughter-in-law and granddaughter-in-law not have the time to think of anything, I am not left without it; nor am I given occasion to get my temper ruffled. But were she now to go, what kind of creature would they hunt up again to press into my service? Were you even to bring me a person made of real pearls, she'd be of no use; if she doesn't know how to speak! I was just about to send some one to go and explain to your husband that 'I've got money in here enough to buy any girl he fancies,' and to tell him that 'he's at liberty to give for her purchase from eight to ten thousand taels; that, if he has set his heart upon this girl, he can't however have her; and that by leaving her behind to attend to me, during the few years to come, it will be just the same as if he tried to acquit himself of his filial duties by waiting upon me day and night,' so you come at a very opportune moment. Were you therefore to go yourself at once and deliver him my message, it will answer the purpose far better! Go, and ask Mrs. Hsüeh, and your young mistresses to come! We were in the middle of a chat full of zest, and how is it they've all dispersed?", "pos": 957263}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "I've only now returned, and what shall I go again for? Just tell her that I'm fast asleep!", "pos": 960770}
{"speaker": "waiting-maid", "text": "Dearest Mrs. Hsüeh! my worthy senior! our old mistress will get angry. If you, venerable lady, don't appear nothing will appease her; so do it for the love of us! Should you object to walking, why I'm quite ready to carry you on my back.", "pos": 960899}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "You little imp! What are you afraid of? All she'll do will be to scold you a little; and it will all be over soon!", "pos": 961167}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Let's have a game of cards! You, Mrs. Hsüeh, are not a good hand at them; so let's sit together, and see that lady Feng doesn't cheat us!", "pos": 961470}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Quite so. But it will be well if your venerable ladyship would look over my hand a bit! Are we four ladies to play, or are we to add one or two more persons to our number?", "pos": 961641}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Naturally only four!", "pos": 961837}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Were one more player let in, it would be merrier!", "pos": 961880}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Call Yüan Yang here, and make her take this lower seat; for as Mrs. Hsüeh's eyesight is rather dim, we'll charge her to look over our two hands a bit.", "pos": 961956}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You girls know how to read and write, and why don't you learn fortune-telling?", "pos": 962136}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "This is again strange! Instead of bracing up your energies now to rook some money out of our venerable senior, you turn your thoughts to fortune-telling!", "pos": 962286}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I was just wishing to consult the fates, as to how much I shall lose to-day. Can I ever dream of winning? Why, look here. We haven't commenced playing, and they have placed themselves in ambush on the left and right.", "pos": 962466}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "This card will, for a certainty, be snatched by Mrs. Hsüeh, yet if I don't play this one, I won't be able later to come out with what I want.", "pos": 963238}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "I haven't got any cards you want in my hand,", "pos": 963396}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I mean to see by and bye,", "pos": 963464}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "You're at liberty to see. But go on, play now! Let me look what card it is.", "pos": 963511}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I don't fancy this card. What I fear is that our dear senior will get a full hand. I've played wrong!", "pos": 963717}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "If you dare, take it back! Who told you to play the wrong card?", "pos": 963940}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Didn't I want to have my fortune told? I played this card of my own accord, so there's no one with whom I can find fault.", "pos": 964021}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "You should then beat your own lips and punish your own self; it's only fair; I'm not a niggard, fond of winning money, but it was my good luck!", "pos": 964167}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Don't we too think as much? Who's there stupid enough to say that your venerable ladyship's heart is set upon money?", "pos": 964385}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I've got my share. It isn't at all that you wish to win. It's your good luck that made you come out a winner! But as for me, I am really a mean creature; and, as I managed to lose, I count the money and put it away at once.", "pos": 964624}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Why is it you're so huffed, that you don't even shuffle for me?", "pos": 965063}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "Lady Feng won't let me have the money!", "pos": 965152}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "If she doesn't give the money, it will be a turning-point in her luck. Take that string of a thousand cash of hers, and bring it bodily over here!", "pos": 965234}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Let me have them, and I'll square all that's due, and finish.", "pos": 965558}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "In very truth, lady Feng, you're a miserly creature! It's simply for mere fun, nothing more!", "pos": 965657}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Aunt, look here! I couldn't tell you how much there is in that box that was won from me! This tiao will be wheedled by the cash in it, before we've played for half an hour! All we've got to do is to give them sufficient time to lure this string in as well; we needn't trouble to touch the cards. Your temper, worthy ancestor, will thus calm down. If you've also got any legitimate thing for me to do, you might bid me go and attend to it!", "pos": 965975}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "It's useless putting them in front of me! Place these too over there by our old lady and let them be wheedled in along with the others! It will thus save trouble, as there won't be any need to make two jobs of them, to the inconvenience of the cash already in the box.", "pos": 966741}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Be quick, and wrench that mouth of hers!", "pos": 967167}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "Where's your Madame Hsing? Mr. Chia She told me to ask her to go round.", "pos": 967426}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "She's been standing in there with our old mistress, for ever so long, and yet she isn't inclined to budge! Seize the earliest opportunity you can get to wash your hands clean of this business! Our old lady has had a good long fit of fuming and raging. Luckily, our lady Secunda cracked an endless stock of jokes, so she, at length, got a bit calmer!", "pos": 967515}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "I'll go over. All I have to do is to find out our venerable senior's wishes, as to whether she means to go to Lai Ta's house on the fourteenth, so that I might have time to get the chairs ready. As I'll be able to tell Madame Hsing to return, and have a share of the fun, won't it be well for me to go?", "pos": 967896}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "My idea is, that you shouldn't put your foot in there! Every one, even up to Madame Wang, and Pao-yü, have alike received a rap on the knuckles, and are you also going now to fill up the gap?", "pos": 968219}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "Everything is over long ago, and can it be that she'll cap the whole thing by blowing me up too? What's more, it's no concern of mine. In the next place, Mr. Chia She enjoined me that I was to go in person, and ask his wife round, so, if I at present depute some one else, and he comes to know about it, he really won't feel in a pleasant mood, and he'll take advantage of this pretext to give vent to his spite on me.", "pos": 968447}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Who is outside? It seemed to me as if some servant-boy had poked his head in.", "pos": 969578}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I also, indistinctly noticed the shadow of some one.", "pos": 969729}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "I wanted to ask, whether you, venerable senior, are going out on the fourteenth, so that the chairs may be got ready.", "pos": 969905}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "In that case, why didn't you come straight in; but behaved again in that mysterious way?", "pos": 970040}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "I saw that you were playing at cards, dear ancestor, and I didn't venture to come and disturb you. I therefore simply meant to call my wife out to find out from her.", "pos": 970161}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Is it anything so very urgent that you had to say it this very moment? Had you waited until she had gone home, couldn't you have asked her any amount of questions you may have liked? When have you been so full of zeal before? I'm puzzled to know whether it isn't as an eavesdropping spirit that you appear on the scene; nor can I say whether you don't come as a spy. But that impish way of yours gave me quite a start! What a low-bred fellow you are! Your wife will play at cards with me for a good long while more, so you'd better bundle yourself home, and conspire again with Chao Erh's wife how to do away with your better half.", "pos": 970374}
{"speaker": "Yüan Yang", "text": "It's Pao Erh's wife, and you, worthy senior, have dragged in again Chao Erh's wife.", "pos": 971073}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Yes! How could I remember whether he wasn't (pao) embracing her, or (pei) carrying her on his back. The bare mention of these things makes me lose all self-control and provokes me to anger! Ever since I crossed these doors as a great grandson's wife, I have never, during the whole of these fifty-four years, seen anything like these affairs, albeit it has been my share to go through great frights, great dangers, thousands of strange things and hundred and one remarkable occurrences! Don't you yet pack yourself off from my presence?", "pos": 971190}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "I gave you due warning in a gentle tone, but you wouldn't hear; you've, after all, rushed into the very meshes of the net!", "pos": 971951}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "My father, is at the bottom of all this trouble; and the whole blame now is shoved upon your shoulders as well as mine, mother.", "pos": 972207}
{"speaker": "Madame Hsing", "text": "I'll take you, you unfilial thing and… People lay down their lives for their fathers; and you are prompted by a few harmless remarks to murmur against heaven and grumble against earth! Won't you behave in a proper manner? He's in high dudgeon these last few days, so mind he doesn't give you a pounding!", "pos": 972359}
{"speaker": "Chia Lien", "text": "Mother, cross over at once, for he told me to come and ask you to go a long time ago.", "pos": 972689}
{"speaker": "Lai Shang-jung", "text": "Our Mr. Pao-yü told me again just now that although he saw you, as he walked in, he couldn't speak to you with so many people present, so he bade me ask you not to go, when the party breaks up, as he has something more to tell you. But as you insist upon taking your leave, you'd better wait until I call him out, and when you've seen each other, you can get away; I'll have nothing to say then. Go inside, and get hold of some old matron and tell her quietly to invite Mr. Pao-yü to come out. My dear sir. I hand him over to you. I'm going to entertain the guests!", "pos": 976964}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Have you been recently to Ch'in Ch'ung's grave?", "pos": 977919}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "How could I not go? The other day a few of us went out to give our falcons a fly; and we were yet at a distance of two li from his tomb, when remembering the heavy rains, we've had this summer, I gave way to fears lest his grave may not have been proof against them; so evading the notice of the party I went over and had a look. I found it again slightly damaged; but when I got back home, I speedily raised a few hundreds of cash, and issued early on the third day, and hired two men, who put it right.", "pos": 977989}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It isn't strange then! When the lotus blossomed last month in the pond of our garden of Broad Vista, I plucked ten of them and bade T'sai Ming go out of town and lay them as my offering on his grave. On his return, I also inquired of him: whether it had been damaged by the water or not; and he explained that not only had it not sustained any harm, but that it looked better than when last he'd seen it. Several of his friends, I argued, must have had it put in proper repair; and I felt it irksome that I should, day after day, be so caged at home as to be unable to be my own master in the least thing, and that if even I move, and any one comes to know of it, this one is sure to exhort me, if that one does not restrain me. I can thus afford to brag, but can't manage to act! And though I've got plenty of money, I'm not at liberty to spend any of it!", "pos": 978520}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "There's no use your worrying in a matter like this! I am outside, so all you need do is to inwardly foster the wish; that's all. But as the first of the tenth moon will shortly be upon us, I've already prepared the money necessary for going to the graves. You know well enough that I'm as poor as a rat; I've no hoardings at home; and when a few cash find their way into my pocket, I soon remain again quite empty-handed. But I'd better make the best of this opportunity, and keep the amount I have, in order that, when the time comes, I mayn't find myself without a cash.", "pos": 979399}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It's exactly about this that I meant to send Pei Ming to see you. But it isn't often that one can manage to find you at home. I'm well aware how uncertain your movements are; one day you are here, and another there; you've got no fixed resort.", "pos": 979998}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "There's no need sending any one to hunt me up! All that each of us need do in this matter is to acquit ourselves of what's right. But in a little while, I again purpose going away on a tour abroad, to return in three to five years' time.", "pos": 980260}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Why is this?", "pos": 980560}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "When my wish is on a fair way to be accomplished, you'll certainly hear everything. I must now leave you.", "pos": 980635}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "After all the difficulty we've had in meeting, wouldn't it be better were you and I to go away together in the evening?", "pos": 980754}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "That worthy cousin of yours, is as bad as ever, and were I to stay any longer, trouble would inevitably arise. So it's as well that I should clear out of his way.", "pos": 980895}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "In that case, it's only right, that you should retire. But if you really be bent upon going on a distant tour, you must absolutely tell me something beforehand. Don't, on any account, sneak away quietly!", "pos": 981125}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "I shall, of course, say good-bye to you. But you must not let any one know anything about it! Go in at once, there's no need to see me off!", "pos": 981401}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Who let young Liu-erh go?", "pos": 981767}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "My dear brother, where are you off to?", "pos": 982342}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "I'm going somewhere, but will be back soon,", "pos": 982397}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "As soon as you left, all the fun went. But pray sit a while! If you do so, it will be a proof of your regard for me! Don't flurry yourself. With such a senior brother as myself to stand by you, it will be as easy a job for you to become an official as to reap a fortune.", "pos": 982480}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "Is your friendship real, or is it only a sham?", "pos": 982926}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "My dear brother, what makes you ask me such a thing? If my friendship for you is a sham, may I die this moment, before your very eyes.", "pos": 983159}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "Well, if that be so, it isn't convenient in here, so sit down and wait a bit. I'll go ahead, but come out of this yourself by and bye, and follow me to my place, where we can drink the whole night long. I've also got there two first-rate young fellows who never go out of doors. But don't bring so much as a single follower with you, as you'll find, when you get there, plenty of people ready at hand to wait on you.", "pos": 983309}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Is it really so?", "pos": 983875}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "How is it, that when people treat you with a sincere heart, you don't, after all, believe them?", "pos": 983904}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "I'm no fool, and how could I not believe you? But since this be the case, how am I, who don't even know the way, to find your whereabouts if you are to go ahead of me?", "pos": 984025}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "My place is outside the northern gate. But can you tear yourself away from your home to spend the night outside the city walls?", "pos": 984227}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "As long as you're there, what will I want my home for?", "pos": 984382}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "If that be so. I'll wait for you on the bridge outside the northern gate. But let us meanwhile rejoin the banquet and have some wine. Come along, after you've seen me go; they won't notice us then.", "pos": 984458}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Yes!", "pos": 984681}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "I knew well enough, that you weren't one to break faith.", "pos": 986606}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "Quick, let's go ahead! Mind people might notice us and follow us. It won't then be nice! Get down! You must first take an oath, so that in the event of your changing your mind in the future, and telling anything to anyone, the oath might be accomplished.", "pos": 986686}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "You're quite right! If I ever in days to come, know any change in my feelings and breathe a word to any living soul, may heaven blast me and earth annihilate me!", "pos": 987381}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Both parties should really be agreeable. But if you were not disposed to accept my advances, you should have simply told me in a proper way. And why did you beguile me here to give me a beating?", "pos": 988354}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "I'll take you, you blind fellow, and show you who Mr. Liu is. You don't appeal to me with solicitous entreaties, but go on abusing me! To kill you would be of no use, so I'll merely give you a good lesson! Do you go on in this way? Why, I thought you were not afraid of beatings. Do you now know what stuff I'm made of?", "pos": 988635}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Oh, my ribs are broken! I know you're a proper sort of person! It's all because I made the mistake of listening to other people's gossip!", "pos": 989750}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "There's no need for you to drag in other people! Just confine yourself to those present!", "pos": 989904}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "There's nothing up at present! From what you say, you're a person full of propriety. So it's I who am at fault.", "pos": 990018}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "You'll have to speak a little milder, before I let you off.", "pos": 990152}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "My dear younger brother. Ai! My dear senior brother! Ai Yo! My dear Sir, do spare me, an eyeless beggar; and henceforth I'll look up to you with veneration; I'll fear you!", "pos": 990235}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "Drink two mouthfuls of that water!", "pos": 990646}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "That water is really too foul, and how could I put any of it in my mouth? I'll drink it, I'll drink it!", "pos": 990704}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "You filthy thing! Be quick and finish drinking; and I'll let you off.", "pos": 991212}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "Do please, lay up a store of meritorious acts for yourself and let me off! I couldn't take that were I even on the verge of death!", "pos": 991381}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-lien", "text": "This kind of stench will suffocate me!", "pos": 991526}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "That's a good sign!", "pos": 992962}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "for if the horse is there, the master must be there too!", "pos": 993015}
{"speaker": "Chia Jung", "text": "Uncle Hsüeh, you daily go in for lewd dalliance; but have you to-day come to dissipate in a reed-covered pit? The King of the dragons in this pit must have also fallen in love with your charms, and enticed you to become his son-in-law that you've come and gored yourself on his horns like this!", "pos": 993606}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "It's only through scrapes, that he'll get all right!", "pos": 994724}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It's nothing to make a fuss about. They were simply drinking together; and quarrels after a wine bout are ordinary things. And for one who's drunk to get a few whacks more or less is nothing uncommon! Besides, there's in our home neither regard for God nor discipline. Every one knows it. If it's purely out of love, mother, that you desire to give vent to your spite, it's an easy matter enough. Have a little patience for three or five days, until brother is all right and can go out. Mr. Chia Chen and Mr. Chia Lien over there are not people likely to let the affair drop without doing anything! They'll, for a certainty, stand a treat, and ask that fellow, and make him apologise and admit his wrong in the presence of the whole company, so that everything will be properly settled. But were you now, ma, to begin making much of this occurrence, and telling every one, it would, on the contrary, look as if you had, in your motherly partiality and fond love for him, indulged him to stir up a row and provoke people! He has, on this occasion, had unawares to eat humble pie, but will you, ma, put people to all this trouble and inconvenience and make use of the prestige enjoyed by your relatives to oppress an ordinary person?", "pos": 995730}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "My dear child, after listening to the advice proffered by her, you've, after all, been able to foresee all these things! As for me, that sudden fit of anger quite dazed me!", "pos": 996983}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "All will thus be square, for, as he's neither afraid of you, mother, nor gives an ear to people's exhortations, but gets wilder and wilder every day that goes by, he may, if he gets two or three lessons, turn over a new leaf.", "pos": 997181}
{"speaker": "Chang Te-hui", "text": "Stationery and perfumery have been so scarce this year, that prices will next year inevitably be high; so when next year comes, what I'll do will be to send up my elder and younger sons ahead of me to look after the pawnshop, and when I start on my way back, before the dragon festival, I'll purchase a stock of paper, scents and fans and bring them for sale. And though we'll have to reduce the duties, payable at the barriers, and other expenses, there will still remain for us a considerable percentage of profit.", "pos": 999211}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "With the dressing I've recently had. I cannot very well, at present, appear before any one. Were the fancy to take me to get out of the way for half a year or even a year, there isn't a place where I can safely retire. And to sham illness, day after day, isn't again quite the right thing! In addition to this, here I've reached this grown-up age, and yet I'm neither a civilian nor a soldier. It's true I call myself a merchant; but I've never in point of fact handled the scales or the abacus. Nor do I know anything about our territories, customs and manners, distances and routes. So wouldn't it be advisable that I should also get ready some of my capital, and go on a tour with Chang Te-hui for a year or so? Whether I earn any money or not, will be equally immaterial to me. More, I shall escape from all disgrace. It will, secondly, be a good thing for me to see a bit of country.", "pos": 999798}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "You have, to take proper care of me, so that I may be able to live in peace. Another thing is, that you can well dispense with all this buying and selling, for you are in no need of the few hundreds of taels, you may make.", "pos": 1001299}
{"speaker": "Hsüeh P'an", "text": "You daily tax me, with being ignorant of the world, with not knowing this, and not learning that, and now that I stir up my good resolution, with the idea of putting an end to all trifling, and that I wish to become a man, to do something for myself, and learn how to carry on business, you won't let me! But what would you have me do? Besides I'm not a girl that you should coop me up at home! And when is this likely to come to an end? Chang Te-hui is, moreover, a man well up in years; and he is an old friend of our family, so if I go with him, how ever will I be able to do anything that's wrong? Should I at any time be guilty of any impropriety, he will be sure to speak to me, and to exhort me. He even knows the prices of things and customs of trade; and as I shall, as a matter of course, consult him in everything, what advantage won't I enjoy? But if you refuse to let me go, I'll wait for a couple of days, and, without breathing a word to any one at home, I'll furtively make my preparations and start, and, when by next year I shall have made my fortune and come back, you'll at length know what stuff I'm made off!", "pos": 1001687}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "If brother, were in real earnest about gaining experience in some legitimate concerns, it would be well and good. But though he speaks, now that he is at home, in a plausible manner, the moment he gets abroad, his old mania will break out again, and it will be hard to exercise any check over him. Yet, it isn't worth the while distressing yourself too much about him! If he does actually mend his ways, it will be the happiness of our whole lives. But if he doesn't change, you won't, mother, be able to do anything more; for though, in part, it depends on human exertion, it, in part, depends upon the will of heaven! If you keep on giving way to fears that, with his lack of worldly experience, he can't be fit to go abroad and can't be up to any business, and you lock him up at home this year, why next year he'll be just the same! Such being the case, you'd better, ma,—since his arguments are right and specious enough,—make up your mind to sacrifice from eight hundred to a thousand taels and let him have them for a try. He'll, at all events, have one of his partners to lend him a helping hand, one who won't either think it a nice thing to play any of his tricks upon him. In the second place, there will be, when he's gone, no one to the left of him or to the right of him, to stand by him, and no one upon whom to rely, for when one goes abroad, who cares for any one else? Those who have, eat; and those who haven't starve. When he therefore casts his eyes about him and realises that there's no one to depend upon, he may, upon seeing this, be up to less mischief than were he to stay at home; but of course, there's no saying.", "pos": 1003003}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "What you say is, indeed, right and proper! And could one, by spending a small sum, make him learn something profitable, it will be well worth!", "pos": 1004750}
{"speaker": "Chang Te-hui", "text": "The fourteenth, is a propitious day to start. So, worthy friend, you'd better be quick and pack up your baggage, and hire a mule, for us to begin our long journey as soon as the day dawns on the fourteenth.", "pos": 1005441}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "you must come at night and sleep with me.", "pos": 1008193}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Since you've got all these people to keep you company, ma, wouldn't it be as well to tell sister Ling to come and be my companion? Our garden is besides quite empty and the nights are so long! And as I work away every night, won't it be better for me to have an extra person with me?", "pos": 1008237}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Quite so! I forgot that! I should have told her to go with you; it's but right. It was only the other day that I mentioned to your brother that: 'Wen Hsing too was young, and not fit to attend to everything that turns up, that Ying Erh could not alone do all the waiting, and that it was necessary to purchase another girl for your service.'", "pos": 1008545}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "If we buy one, we won't know what she's really like! If she gives us the slip, the money we may have spent on her will be a mere trifle, so long as she hasn't been up to any pranks! So let's quietly make inquiries, and, when we find one with well-known antecedents, we can purchase her, and, we'll be on the safe side then!", "pos": 1008910}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "I meant to have proposed to my lady, that, when master left, I should be your companion, miss; but I feared lest her ladyship should, with that suspicious mind of hers, have maintained that I was longing to come into the garden to romp. But who'd have thought it, it was you, after all, who spoke to her about it!", "pos": 1009483}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I am well aware, that you've been inwardly yearning for this garden, and that not for a day or two, but with the little time you can call your own, you would find it no fun, were you even able to run over once in a day, so long as you have to do it in a hurry-scurry! Seize therefore this opportunity of staying, better still, for a year; as I, on my side, will then have an extra companion; and you, on yours, will be able to accomplish your wishes.", "pos": 1009832}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "My dear miss! do let's make the best of this time, and teach me how to write verses!", "pos": 1010305}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I say, 'you no sooner, get the Lung state than you long for the Shu'! I advise you to wait a bit. This is the first day that you spend in here, and you should, first and foremost, go out of the garden by the eastern side gate and look up and salute every one in her respective quarters commencing from our old lady. But you needn't make it a point of telling them that you've moved into the garden. If anyone does allude to the reason why you've shifted your quarters, you can simply explain cursorily that I've brought you in as a companion, and then drop the subject. On your return by and bye into the garden, you can pay a visit to the apartments of each of the young ladies.", "pos": 1010427}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "I've brought her in to-day,", "pos": 1011368}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "to make a companion of her. She was just on the point of going to tell your lady about it!", "pos": 1011420}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "What is this that you're saying, Miss? I really am at a loss what reply to make to you!", "pos": 1011540}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It's the right thing! ' In a house, there's the master, and in a temple there's the chief priest.' It's true, it's no important concern, but something must, in fact, be mentioned, so that those, who sit up on night duty in the garden, may be aware that these two have been added to my rooms, and know when to close the gates and when to wait. When you get back therefore do mention it, so that I mayn't have to send some one to tell them.", "pos": 1011666}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "As you're moved in here, won't you go and pay your respects to your neighbours?", "pos": 1012173}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I had just this very moment told her to go and do so.", "pos": 1012282}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "You needn't however go to our house, our Mr. Secundus is laid up at home. Miss! have you heard our news?", "pos": 1012359}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I haven't heard any news. We've been daily so busy in getting my brother's things ready for his voyage abroad, that we know nothing whatever of any of your affairs in here. I haven't even seen anything of my female cousins these last two days.", "pos": 1012773}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Our master, Mr. Chia She, has beaten our Mr. Secundus to such a degree that he can't budge. But is it likely, miss, that you've heard nothing about it?", "pos": 1013042}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "This morning. I heard a vague report on the subject, but I didn't believe it could be true. I was just about to go and look up your mistress, when you unexpectedly arrived. But why did he beat him again?", "pos": 1013216}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "It's all on account of some Chia Yü-ts'un or other; a starved and half-dead boorish bastard, who went yonder quite unexpectedly. It isn't yet ten years, since we've known him, and he has been the cause of ever so much trouble! In the spring of this year, Mr. Chia She saw somewhere or other, I can't tell where, a lot of antique fans; so, when on his return home, he noticed that the fine fans stored away in the house, were all of no use, he at once directed servants to go everywhere and hunt up some like those he had seen. Who'd have anticipated it, they came across a reckless creature of retribution, dubbed by common consent the 'stone fool,' who though so poor as to not even have any rice to put to his mouth, happened to have at home twenty antique fans. But these he utterly refused to take out of his main door. Our Mr. Secundus had thus a precious lot of bother to ask ever so many favours of people. But when he got to see the man, he made endless appeals to him before he could get him to invite him to go and sit in his house; when producing the fans, he allowed him to have a short inspection of them. From what our Mr. Secundus says, it would be really difficult to get any the like of them. They're made entirely of spotted black bamboo, and the stags and jadelike clusters of bamboo on them are the genuine pictures, drawn by men of olden times. When he got back, he explained these things to Mr. Chia She, who readily asked him to buy them, and give the man his own price for them. The 'stone fool,' however, refused. Were I even to be dying from hunger, or perishing from frostbites, and so much as a thousand taels were offered me for each single fan, I wouldn't part with them. If you want the fans, you must first of all take my life.", "pos": 1013506}
{"speaker": "Chia She", "text": "How is it that other people can manage to get them?", "pos": 1016268}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "that to bring ruin upon a person in such a trivial matter could not be accounted ability.", "pos": 1016349}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "We understand that Mrs. Hsüeh has in here some medicine or other for applying on wounds, so do try, miss, and find a ball of it and let me have it!", "pos": 1016991}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Such being the case, do make, on your return, the usual inquiries for me, and I won't then need to go.", "pos": 1017306}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "Now, that I've come in here, do please teach me, at your leisure, how to write verses. It will be a bit of good luck for me if you do.", "pos": 1018026}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Since you're anxious to learn how to versify, you'd better acknowledge me as your tutor; for though I'm not a good hand at poetry, yet I know, after all, enough to be able to teach you.", "pos": 1018199}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "Of course you do! I'll readily treat you as my tutor. But you mustn't put yourself to any trouble!", "pos": 1018419}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Is there anything so difficult about this, as to make it necessary to go in for any study? Why, it's purely and simply a matter of openings, elucidations, embellishments and conclusions. The elucidations and embellishments, which come in the centre, should form two antithetical sentences, the even tones must pair with the uneven. Empty words must correspond with full words; and full words with empty words. In the event of any out-of-the-way lines, it won't matter if the even and uneven tones, and the empty and full words do not pair.", "pos": 1018555}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "Strange though it may appear. I often handle books with old poems, and read one or two stanzas, whenever I can steal the time; and some among these I find pair most skilfully, while others don't. I have also heard that the first, third and fifth lines are of no consequence; and that the second, fourth and sixth must be clearly distinguished. But I notice that there are in the poetical works of ancient writers both those which accord with the rules, as well as those whose second, fourth and sixth lines are not in compliance with any rule. Hence it is that my mind has daily been full of doubts. But after the hints you've given me, I really see that all these formulas are of no account, and that the main requirement is originality of diction.", "pos": 1019115}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Yes, that's just the principle that holds good. But diction is, after all, a last consideration. The first and foremost thing is the choice of proper sentiments; for when the sentiments are correct, there'll even be no need to polish the diction; it's certain to be elegant. This is called versifying without letting the diction affect the sentiments.", "pos": 1019889}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "What I admire, are the lines by old Lu Fang;", "pos": 1020262}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Their language is so clear that it's charming. You must on no account, read poetry of the kind. It's because you people don't know what verses mean that you, no sooner read any shallow lines like these, than they take your fancy. But when once you get into this sort of style, it's impossible to get out of it. Mark my words! If you are in earnest about learning, I've got here Wang Mo-chieh's complete collection; so you'd better take his one hundred stanzas, written in the pentameter rule of versification, and carefully study them, until you apprehend them thoroughly. Afterwards, look over the one hundred and twenty stanzas of Lao T'u, in the heptameter rule; and next read a hundred or two hundred of the heptameter four-lined stanzas by Li Ch'ing-lieu. When you have, as a first step, digested these three authors, and made them your foundation, you can take T'ao Yuan-ming, Ying, Liu, Hsieh, Yüan, Yü, Pao and other writers and go through them once. And with those sharp and quick wits of yours, I've no doubt but that you will become a regular poet before a year's time.", "pos": 1020472}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "Well, in that case, bring me the book, my dear miss, so that I may take it along. It will be a good thing if I can manage to read several stanzas at night.", "pos": 1021576}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Only peruse those marked with red circles They've all been selected by me. Read each one of them; and should there be any you can't fathom, ask your miss about them. Or when you come across me, I can explain them to you.", "pos": 1021908}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Of all these, how many stanzas can you recollect?", "pos": 1022781}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "I've read every one of those marked with a red circle,", "pos": 1022856}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Have you caught the ideas of any of them, yes or no?", "pos": 1022946}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "Yes, I've caught some! But whether rightly or not I don't know. Let me tell you.", "pos": 1023018}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You must really, minutely solicit people's opinions if you want to make any progress. But go on and let me hear you.", "pos": 1023123}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "From all I can see, the beauty of poetry lies in certain ideas, which though not quite expressible in words are, nevertheless, found, on reflection, to be absolutely correct. Some may have the semblance of being totally devoid of sense, but, on second thought, they'll truly be seen to be full of sense and feeling.", "pos": 1023272}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "There's a good deal of right in what you say. But I wonder how you arrived at this conclusion?", "pos": 1023612}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "I notice in that stanza on 'the borderland,' the antithetical couplet: In the vast desert reigns but upright mist. In the long river setteth the round sun. Consider now how ever can mist be upright? The sun is, of course, round. But the word 'upright' would seem to be devoid of common sense; and 'round' appears far too commonplace a word. But upon throwing the whole passage together, and pondering over it, one fancies having seen the scenery alluded to. Now were any one to suggest that two other characters should be substituted for these two, one would verily be hard pressed to find any other two as suitable. Besides this, there's also the couplet: When the sun sets, rivers and lakes are white; When the mist falls, the heavens and earth azure. Both 'white' and 'azure', apparently too lack any sense; but reflection will show that these two words are absolutely necessary to bring out thoroughly the aspect of the scenery. And in conning them over, one feels just as if one had an olive, weighing several thousands of catties, in one's mouth, so much relish does one derive from them. But there's this too: At the ferry stays the setting sun, O'er the mart hangs the lonesome mist. And how much trouble must these words 'stay,' and 'over, have caused the author in their conception! When the boats made fast, in the evening of a certain day of that year in which we came up to the capital, the banks were without a trace of human beings; and there were only just a few trees about; in the distance loomed the houses of several families engaged in preparing their evening meal, and the mist was, in fact, azure like jade, and connected like clouds. So, when I, as it happened, read this couplet last night, it actually seemed to me as if I had come again to that spot!", "pos": 1023728}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Seeing that you know so much, you can dispense with reading poetical works, for you're not far off from proficiency. To hear you expatiate on these two lines, makes it evident to my mind that you've even got at their secret meaning.", "pos": 1025677}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "You say, that the line: 'O'er (the mart) hangs the lonesome mist,' is good; but aren't you yet aware that this is only plagiarised from an ancient writer? But I'll show you the line I'm telling you of. You'll find it far plainer and clearer than this.", "pos": 1025951}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "Really, the word 'over' is educed from the two characters implying 'faint.'", "pos": 1026489}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You've already got it! There's no need of explaining anything more to you! Any further explanations will, in lieu of benefiting you, make you unlearn what you've learnt. Were you therefore to, at once, set to work, and versify, your lines are bound to be good.", "pos": 1026634}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "To-morrow. I'll stand an extra treat and invite you to join the society.", "pos": 1026909}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "Why make a fool of me, miss? It's merely that mania of mine that made me apply my mind to this subject at all; just for fun and no other reason.", "pos": 1027020}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un and Tai-yü", "text": "Who doesn't go in for these things for fun? Is it likely that we improvise verses in real earnest? Why, if any one treated our verses as genuine verses, and took them outside this garden, people would have such a hearty laugh at our expense that their very teeth would drop.", "pos": 1027239}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This is again self-violence and self-abasement! The other day, I was outside the garden, consulting with the gentlemen about paintings, and, when they came to hear that we had started a poetical society, they begged of me to let them have the rough copies to read. So I wrote out several stanzas, and gave them to them to look over, and who did not praise them with all sincerity? They even copied them and took them to have the blocks cut.", "pos": 1027530}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un and Tai-yü", "text": "Are you speaking the truth?", "pos": 1027993}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "If I'm telling a lie. I'm like that cockatoo on that frame!", "pos": 1028063}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü and T'an Ch'un", "text": "You verily do foolish things! But not to mention that they were doggerel lines, had they even been anything like what verses should be, our writings shouldn't have been hawked about outside.", "pos": 1028143}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What's there to fear? Hadn't the writings of women of old been handed outside the limits of the inner chambers, why, there would, at present, be no one with any idea of their very existence.", "pos": 1028402}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "Do choose some theme, and let me go and write on it. When I've done, I'll bring it for you to correct.", "pos": 1028817}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Last night, the moon was so magnificent, that I meant to improvise a stanza on it; but as I haven't done yet, go at once and write one using the fourteenth rhyme, 'han,' (cool). You're at liberty to make use of whatever words you fancy.", "pos": 1028962}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Why, do you bring such trouble upon yourself? It's that P'in Erh, who has led you on to it! But I'll settle accounts with her! You've all along been a thick-headed fool; but now that you've burdened yourself with all this, you've become a greater fool.", "pos": 1029611}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "Miss, don't confuse me.", "pos": 1029892}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "This isn't good! This isn't the way to do it! Don't fear of losing face, but take it and give it to her to peruse. We'll see what she says.", "pos": 1030057}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "There's a good deal of spirit in them, but the language is not elegant. It's because you've only read a few poetical works that you labour under restraint. Now put this stanza aside and write another. Pluck up your courage and go and work away.", "pos": 1030854}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "That girl must certainly be cracked! Last night she kept on muttering away straight up to the fifth watch, when she at last turned in. But shortly, daylight broke, and I heard her get up and comb her hair, all in a hurry, and rush after P'in Erh. In a while, however, she returned; and, after acting like an idiot the whole day, she managed to put together a stanza. But it wasn't after all, good, so she's, of course, now trying to devise another.", "pos": 1031753}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This indeed shows, that the earth is spiritual, that man is intelligent, and that heaven does not in the creation of human beings bestow on them natural gifts to no purpose. We've been sighing and lamenting that it was a pity that such a one as she, should, really, be so unpolished; but who could ever have anticipated that things would, in the long run, reach the present pass? This is a clear sign that heaven and earth are most equitable!", "pos": 1032225}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "If only, you could be as painstaking as she is, what a good thing it would be. And would you fail to attain success in anything you might take up?", "pos": 1032700}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Let's follow her there, and see whether her composition is any good.", "pos": 1033027}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What are they like?", "pos": 1033248}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "This is naturally a hard job for her! They're not yet as good as they should be. This stanza is far too forced; you must write another.", "pos": 1033309}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It doesn't sound like a song on the moon. Yet were, after the word 'moon', that of 'light' supplied, it would be better; for, just see, if each of these lines treated of the moonlight, they would be all right. But poetry primarily springs from nonsensical language. In a few days longer, you'll be able to do well.", "pos": 1034110}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Miss Ling, do have a rest!", "pos": 1035010}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "The character 'rest;' comes from lot N.° 15, under 'shan', (to correct); so it's the wrong rhyme.", "pos": 1035101}
{"speaker": "Pao-sh'ai", "text": "In very fact, she's under a poetical frenzy, and it's all P'in Erh who has incited her.", "pos": 1035297}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "The holy man says, that 'one must not be weary of exhorting people'; and if she comes, time and again, to ask me this and that how can I possibly not tell her?", "pos": 1035408}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Let's take her to Miss Quarta's rooms, and if we could coax her to look at the painting, and bring her to her senses, it will be well.", "pos": 1035599}
{"speaker": "They", "text": "Every one who can write verses is to be put here,", "pos": 1036385}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "so be quick and learn.", "pos": 1036448}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "She has racked her brains the whole night long. I wonder, however, whether she has succeeded in finishing her task. She must be tired now, so I won't disturb her.", "pos": 1037011}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "I've got it. It cannot be that this stanza too won't be worth anything.", "pos": 1037283}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "How sad and ridiculous! What have you got? With that firmness of purpose of yours, you could even become a spirit! But before you can learn how to write poetry, you'll be getting some illness.", "pos": 1037357}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "Just you look at this stanza! If it's all right, then I'll continue my studies; but if it isn't worth any thing, I'll banish at once from my mind all idea of going in for versification.", "pos": 1038991}
{"speaker": "The Young Ladies", "text": "This stanza is not only good, but it's original, it's charming. It bears out the proverb: 'In the world, there's nothing difficult; the only thing hard to get at is a human being with a will.' We'll certainly ask you to join our club.", "pos": 1039851}
{"speaker": "Matrons and Maids", "text": "Several young ladies and ladies have come, but we don't know any of them. So your ladyship and you, young ladies, had better come at once and see what relatives they are.", "pos": 1040459}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "What are you driving at? You might, after all, state distinctly whose relatives they are.", "pos": 1040660}
{"speaker": "Matrons and Maids", "text": "Your ladyship's two young sisters have come. There's also another young lady, who says she's miss Hsüeh's cousin, and a gentleman who pretends to be Mr. Hsüeh P'an's junior cousin. We are now off to ask Mrs. Hsüeh to meet them. But your ladyship and the young ladies might go in advance and greet them.", "pos": 1040770}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Has our Hsüeh K'o come along with his sisters?", "pos": 1041167}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "My aunt has probably also come to the capital. How is it they've all arrived together? This is indeed a strange thing!", "pos": 1041250}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Little wonder is it, if the snuff of the lamp crackled time and again; and if it formed and reformed into a head! It was, indeed, sure to come to this to-day!", "pos": 1042840}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Don't you yet hasten to go and see them? Who'd ever have fancied that cousin Pao-ch'ai's own cousin would be what he is? That cousin of hers is so unique in appearance and in deportment. He looks as if he were cousin Pao-ch'ai's uterine younger brother. But what's still more odd is, that you should have kept on saying the whole day long that cousin Pao-ch'ai is a very beautiful creature. You should now see her cousin, as well as the two girls of her senior sister-in-law. I couldn't adequately tell you what they're like. Good heavens! Good heavens! What subtle splendour and spiritual beauty must you possess to produce beings like them, so superior to other human creatures! How plain it is that I'm like a frog wallowing at the bottom of a well! I've throughout every hour of the day said to myself that nowhere could any girls be found to equal those at present in our home; but, as it happens, I haven't had far to look! Even in our own native sphere, one would appear to eclipse the other! Here I have now managed to add one more stratum to my store of learning! But can it possibly be that outside these few, there can be any more like them?", "pos": 1043945}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen and Girls", "text": "You'd better, be off at once and have a look at them. Our elder mistress' niece, Miss Pao's cousin, and our senior lady's two sisters resemble a bunch of four leeks so pretty are they!", "pos": 1045437}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Our poetical society is in a flourishing way,", "pos": 1045796}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It is. Here no sooner do we, in the exuberance of our spirits, start a poetical society, than the devils and gods bring through their agency, all these people in our midst! There's only one thing however. Have they, I wonder, ever learnt how to write poetry or not?", "pos": 1045858}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "I just now asked every one of them. Their ideas of themselves are modest, it's true, yet from all I can gather there's not one who can't versify. But should there even be any who can't, there's nothing hard about it. Just look at Hsiang Ling. Her case will show you the truth of what I say.", "pos": 1046143}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Of the whole lot. Miss Hsüeh's cousin carries the palm. What do you think about her, Miss Tertia?", "pos": 1046458}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "It's really so! In my own estimation, even her elder cousin and all this bevy of girls are not fit to hold a candle to her!", "pos": 1046579}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "This is indeed odd! Whence could one hunt up any better? We'd like to go and have a peep at her.", "pos": 1046775}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Our venerable senior, was at the very first sight of her so charmed with her that there's nothing she wouldn't do. She has already compelled our Madame Hsing to adopt her as a godchild. Our dear ancestor wishes to bring her up herself; this point was settled a little while back.", "pos": 1046888}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Is this a fact?", "pos": 1047221}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "How often have I gone in for yarns? Now that our worthy senior, has got this nice granddaughter, she has banished from her mind all thought of a grandson like you!", "pos": 1047260}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Never mind. It's only right that girls should be more doated upon. But to-morrow is the sixteenth, so we should have a meeting.", "pos": 1047472}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "That girl Lin Tai-yü is no sooner out of bed, than cousin Secunda falls ill again. Everything is, in fact, up and down!", "pos": 1047629}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Our cousin Secunda, doesn't also go in very much for verses, so, what would it matter if she were left out?", "pos": 1047774}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "It would be well to wait a few days, until the new comers have had time to see enough of us to become intimate. We can then invite them to join us. Won't this be better? Our senior sister-in-law and cousin Pao have now no mind for poetry. Besides, Hsiang-yün has not arrived. P'in Erh is just over her sickness. The members are not all therefore in a fit state, so wouldn't it be preferable if we waited until that girl Yün came? The new arrivals will also have a chance of becoming friendly. P'in Erh will likewise recover entirely. Our senior sister-in-law and cousin Pao will have time to compose their minds; and Hsiang Ling to improve in her verses. We shall then be able to convene a full meeting; and won't it be better? You and I must now go over to our worthy ancestor's, on the other side, and hear what's up. But, barring cousin Pao-ch'ai's cousin,—for we needn't take her into account, as it's sure to have been decided that she should live in our home,—if the other three are not to stay here with us, we should entreat our grandmother to let them as well take up their quarters in the garden. And if we succeed in adding a few more to our number, won't it be more fun for us?", "pos": 1047904}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You've got your wits about you! My mind is ever so dull! I've vainly given way to a fit of joy. But to think of these contingencies was beyond me!", "pos": 1049225}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "You really, kick up such a din, that it's quite unbearable! Fancy a girl doing nothing else than turning poetry into a legitimate thing for raising an argument! Why, were some literary persons to hear you, they would, instead of praising you, have a laugh at your expense, and say that you don't mind your own business. We hadn't yet got rid of Hsiang Ling with all her rubbish, and here we have a chatterbox like you thrown on us! But what is it that that mouth of yours keeps on jabbering? What about the bathos of Tu Kung-pu; and the unadorned refinement of Wei Su-chou? What also about Wen Pa-ch'a's elegant diction; and Li I-shan's abstruseness? A pack of silly fools that you are! Do you in any way behave like girls should?", "pos": 1054592}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "Where did you get this? It was snowing, so her venerable ladyship turned up this piece of clothing and gave it to me.", "pos": 1055665}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "No wonder, it looks so handsome! It's verily woven with peacock's feathers.", "pos": 1055900}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "What about peacock's feathers? It's made of the feathers plucked from the heads of wild ducks. This is a clear sign that our worthy ancestor is fond of you, for with all her love for Pao-yü, she hasn't given it to him to wear.", "pos": 1055995}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Truly does the proverb say: 'that every human being has his respective lot.' Nothing ever was further from my thoughts than that she would, at this juncture, drop on the scene! Come she may, but here she also gets our dear ancestor to lavish such love on her!", "pos": 1056245}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Unless you stay with our worthy senior, do come into the garden. You may romp and laugh and eat and drink as much as you like in these two places. But when you get over to Madame Hsing's rooms, talk and joke with her, if she be at home, to your heart's content; it won't matter if you tarry ever so long. But should she not be in, don't put your foot inside; for the inmates are many in those rooms and their hearts are evil. All they're up to is to do us harm.", "pos": 1056527}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Were one to say, that you're heartless, (it wouldn't do); for you've got a heart. But despite your having a heart, your tongue is, in fact, a little too outspoken! You should really to-day acknowledge this Ch'in Erh of ours as your own sister!", "pos": 1057102}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "This article of clothing, is only meet for her to wear. It wouldn't verily look well on any one else. Our old mistress, bade me tell you, Miss Pao-ch'ai, not to keep too strict a check over Miss Ch'in, for she's yet young; that you should let her do as she pleases, and that whatever she wants you should ask for, and not be afraid.", "pos": 1057368}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Even you couldn't tell whence this piece of good fortune hails from, she said. Be off now; for mind, we might hurt your feelings. I can never believe myself so inferior to you!", "pos": 1057930}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Cousin Pao, you may, it's true, be jesting, but what if there were any one to entertain such ideas in real earnest?", "pos": 1058216}
{"speaker": "Hu Po", "text": "If any one took things in earnest, why, she'd give offence to no one else but to him.", "pos": 1058371}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "He's not that sort of person!", "pos": 1058537}
{"speaker": "Hu Po", "text": "If it isn't he, it's she.", "pos": 1058645}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "That's still less likely, for my cousin is like her own sister; and she's far fonder of her than of me. How could she therefore take offence? Do you credit that nonsensical trash uttered by Yün-erh! Why what good ever comes out of that mouth of hers?", "pos": 1058801}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "These two, were never like this before! From all I can now see, they're, really, a hundred times far more friendly than any others are! Sister,", "pos": 1059710}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Albeit I've read the 'Record of the Western Side-room,' and understood a few passages of it, yet when I quoted some in order to make you laugh, you flew into a huff! But I now remember that there is, indeed, a passage, which is not intelligible to me; so let me quote it for you to explain it for me!", "pos": 1061131}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Recite it and let me hear it,", "pos": 1061559}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "In the 'Confusion' chapter, there's a line couched in most beautiful language. It's this: 'What time did Meng Kuang receive Liang Hung's candlestick?' (When did you and Pao-ch'ai get to be such friends?) These five characters simply bear on a stock story; but to the credit of the writer be it, the question contained in the three empty words representing, 'What time' is set so charmingly! When did she receive it? Do tell me!", "pos": 1061601}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "The question was originally nicely put. But though the writer sets it gracefully, you ask it likewise with equal grace!", "pos": 1062111}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "At one time, all you knew was to suspect that I (was in love with Pao-ch'ai); and have you now no faults to find?", "pos": 1062274}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Who ever could have imagined her such a really nice girl! I've all along thought her full of guile!", "pos": 1062410}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "To tell you the truth. I was just wondering when Meng Kuang had received Liang Hung's candlestick; and, lo, you, indeed, got it, when a mere child and through some reckless talk, (and your friendship was sealed). This is again bringing trouble upon yourself! Just see how much thinner you are this year than you were last; and don't you yet look after your health? You deliberately worry yourself every day of your life. And when you've had a good cry, you feel at last that you've acquitted yourself of the duties of the day.", "pos": 1062943}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Of late. I feel sore at heart. But my tears are scantier by far than they were in years gone by. With all the grief and anguish, which gnaw my heart, my tears won't fall plentifully.", "pos": 1063709}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This is because weeping has become a habit with you. But though you fancy to yourself that it is so, how can your tears have become scantier than they were?", "pos": 1063931}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Our senior mistress, lady Chia Chu,", "pos": 1064217}
{"speaker": "lady Chia Chu", "text": "has just sent a servant to say that, as it snows, arrangements should be made for inviting people to-morrow to write verses.", "pos": 1064268}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Just see here! Here comes Sun Hsing-che the 'monkey-walker!' Lo, like him, she holds a snow cloak, and purposely puts on the air of a young bewitching ape!", "pos": 1065990}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Look here, all of you! See what I wear inside!", "pos": 1066194}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Her weak point,", "pos": 1067109}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "is to get herself up to look like a young masher. But she does, there's no denying, cut a much handsomer figure like this, than when she's dressed up like a girl!", "pos": 1067153}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Lose no time, in deliberating about writing verses, for I'd like to hear who is to stand treat.", "pos": 1067318}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "According to my idea. I think that as the legitimate day, which was yesterday, has gone by, it would be too long to wait for another proper date. As luck would have it, it's snowing again to-day, so won't it be well to raise contributions among ourselves and have a meeting? We'll thus be able to give the visitors a greeting; and to get an opportunity of writing a few verses. But what are your views on the subject?", "pos": 1067437}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "This proposal is excellent! The only thing is that it's too late to-day; and if it clears up by to-morrow, there will be really no fun.", "pos": 1067877}
{"speaker": "party", "text": "It isn't likely, that this snowy weather will clear up. But even supposing it does, the snow which will fall during this night will be sufficient for our enjoyment.", "pos": 1068050}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "This place of mine is nice enough, it's true, yet it isn't up to the Lu Hsüeh Pavilion. I've already therefore despatched workmen to raise earthen couches, so that we should all be able to sit round the fire and compose our verses. Our venerable senior, I fancy, is not sure about caring to join us. Besides, this is only a small amusement between ourselves so if we just let that hussy Feng know something about it, it will be quite enough. A tael from each of you will be ample, but send your money to me here! As regards Hsiang Ling, Pao-ch'in, Li Wen, Li Ch'i and Chou-yen, the five of them, we needn't count them. Neither need we include the two girls of our number, who are ill; nor take into account the four girls who've asked for leave. If you will let me have your four shares, I'll undertake to see that five or six taels be made to suffice. I've long ago, settled them in my own mind, so tomorrow at the proper time you'll really know all about them.", "pos": 1068255}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "We were just remarking that what was lacking was a fisherman, and lo, now we've got everything that was wanted! The young ladies are coming after their breakfast; you're in too impatient a mood!", "pos": 1073067}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I feel peckish!", "pos": 1074062}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This is medicine for us, who are advanced in years. They're things that haven't seen the light! The pity is that you young people can't have any. There's some fresh venison to-day as an extra course, so you'd better wait and eat some of that! I'm well aware, that as you're up to something again to-day, you people have no mind even for your meal. Let them keep, that venison for their evening repast!", "pos": 1074292}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What an idea! We'll have enough with what remains of it.", "pos": 1075013}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "As there's fresh venison, wouldn't it be nice to ask for a haunch and take it into the garden and prepare it ourselves? We'll thus be able to sate our hunger, and have some fun as well.", "pos": 1075150}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Those two, can't get together! The moment they meet, how much trouble doesn't arise! They must surely have now gone to hatch their plans over that haunch of venison.", "pos": 1075726}
{"speaker": "Li", "text": "How is it, that that young fellow, with the jade, and that girl, with the golden unicorn round her neck, both of whom are so cleanly and tidy, and have besides ample to eat, are over there conferring about eating raw meat? There they are chatting, saying this and saying that; but I can't see how meat can be eaten raw!", "pos": 1076029}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "All this fuss, is the work of that girl Yün. I'm not far off again in my surmises.", "pos": 1076486}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "If you two are bent upon eating raw meat. I'll send you over to our old senior's; you can do so there. What will I care then if you have a whole deer raw and make yourselves ill over it? It won't be any business of mine. But it's snowing hard and it's bitterly cold, so be quick and go and write some verses for me and be off!", "pos": 1076652}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "We're doing nothing of the kind. We're going to eat some roasted meat.", "pos": 1076994}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Mind you don't cut your hands, for we won't have any crying!", "pos": 1077222}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Just smell that sweet fragrance. One can smell it even here! I'm also going to taste some.", "pos": 1078374}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "The guests are all assembled. Haven't you people had enough as yet?", "pos": 1078571}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Whenever. I eat this sort of thing, I feel a craving for wine. It's only after I've had some that I shall be able to rhyme. Were it not for this venison, I would to-day have positively been quite unfit for any poetry. You idiot, come and have a mouthful to taste.", "pos": 1078738}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "It's too filthy!", "pos": 1079153}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It's capital! Your cousin Lin is so very weak that she couldn't digest it, if she had any. Otherwise she too is very fond of this.", "pos": 1079250}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Miss Shih, won't let me go. So just return ahead of me.", "pos": 1079610}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You're having, such dainties to eat, and don't you tell me?", "pos": 1079814}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Where has this crowd of beggars turned up from? But never mind, never mind! Here's the Lu Hsüeh pavilion come in for this calamity to-day, and, as it happens, it's that chit Yün by whom it has been polluted! But I'll have a good cry for the Lu Hsüeh pavilion.", "pos": 1079940}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "What do you know? A genuine man of letters is naturally refined. But as for the whole lot of you, your poor and lofty notions are all a sham! You are most loathsome! We may now be frowzy and smelly, as we munch away lustily with our voracious appetites, but by and bye we'll prove as refined as scholars, as if we had cultured minds and polished tongues.", "pos": 1080267}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "If by and bye, the verses you compose are not worth anything, I'll tug out that meat you've eaten, and take some of these snow-buried weeds and stuff you up with. I'll thus put an end to this evil fortune!", "pos": 1080641}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I know where this bracelet has gone to; But just you all go and attend to your poetry. We too can well dispense with searching for it, and repair to the front. Before three days are out, I'll wager that it turns up. What verses are you writing to-day?", "pos": 1081306}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "I can't write verses very well, so all I'll do will be to devise three lines, and the one, who'll finish the task first, we'll have afterwards to pair them.", "pos": 1082654}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "We should, after all, make some distinction with regard to order.", "pos": 1082831}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Well, in that case. I'll also give a top line.", "pos": 1083578}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "The whole night long the northern wind was high;", "pos": 1084390}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "The whole night long the northern wind was high; and then she herself subjoined the antithetical couplet:", "pos": 1085121}
{"speaker": "Hsiang Ling", "text": "All o'er the ground is spread, alas, this bright, refulgent gem; But with an aim; for it is meant dry herbage to revive.", "pos": 1085386}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Without design the dying sprouts of grain it nutrifies. But in the villages the price of mellow wine doth rise.", "pos": 1085524}
{"speaker": "Li Ch'i", "text": "In a good year, grain in the house is plentiful. The bulrush moves and the ash issues from the tube.", "pos": 1085651}
{"speaker": "Li Wen", "text": "What time spring comes the handle of the Dipper turns. The bleaky hills have long ago their verdure lost.", "pos": 1085770}
{"speaker": "Chou-yen", "text": "On a frost-covered stream, no tide can ever rise. Easy the snow hangs on the sparse-leaved willow twigs.", "pos": 1085896}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Hard 'tis for snow to pile on broken plantain leaves. The coal, musk-scented, burns in the precious tripod.", "pos": 1086021}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "Th' embroidered sleeve enwraps the golden sable in its folds. The snow transcends the mirror by the window in lustre.", "pos": 1086148}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "The fragrant pepper clings unto the wall. The side wind still in whistling gusts doth blow.", "pos": 1086284}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "A quiet dream becomes a cheerless thing. Where is the fife with plum bloom painted on?", "pos": 1086390}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "In whose household is there a flute made of green jade? The fish fears lest the earth from its axis might drop.", "pos": 1086498}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "What time the dragon wages war, the clouds dispel. Back to the wild shore turns the man with single scull.", "pos": 1086798}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "The old man hums his lines, and with his whip he points at the 'Pa' bridge. Fur coats are, out of pity, on the troops at the frontiers bestowed.", "pos": 1086953}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "More cotton coats confer, for bear in memory th' imperial serfs! The rugged barbarous lands are (on account of snow) with dangers fraught.", "pos": 1087327}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "The twigs and branches live in fear of being tossed about. With what whiteness and feath'ry step the flakes of snow descend!", "pos": 1087546}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "The snow as nimbly falls as moves the waist of the 'Sui' man when brandishing the sword. The tender leaves of tea, so acrid to the taste, have just been newly brewed and tried.", "pos": 1087707}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "The fir is the sole tree which is decreed for ever to subsist. The wild goose follows in the mud the prints and traces of its steps.", "pos": 1088262}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "In the forest, the axe of the woodcutter may betimes be heard. With (snow) covered contours, a thousand peaks their heads jut in the air.", "pos": 1088431}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "The whole way tortuous winds like a coiled snake. The flowers have felt the cold and ceased to bud.", "pos": 1088614}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Could e'er the beauteous snow dread the nipping of frost? In the deep court the shivering birds are startled by its fall.", "pos": 1088821}
{"speaker": "Chou-yen", "text": "On the bare mountain wails the old man Hsiao. The snow covers the steps, both high and low.", "pos": 1089100}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "On the pond's surface, it allows itself to float. At the first blush of dawn with effulgence it shines.", "pos": 1089247}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "In confused flakes, it ceaseless falls the whole night long. Troth one forgets that it implies three feet of cold.", "pos": 1089393}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Its auspicious descent dispels the Emperor's grief. There lies one frozen-stiff, but who asks him a word?", "pos": 1089569}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "Glad is the proud wayfarer when he's pressed to drink. Snapped is the weaving belt in the heavenly machine.", "pos": 1089724}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "In the seaside market is lost a silk kerchief.", "pos": 1089879}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "With quiet silence, it enshrouds the raiséd kiosque.", "pos": 1090015}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "The utter poor clings to his pannier and his bowl.", "pos": 1090119}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "The water meant to brew the tea with gently bubbles up.", "pos": 1090252}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "When wine is boiled with leaves 'tis not easy to burn.", "pos": 1090425}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "The broom, with which the bonze sweepeth the hill, is sunk in snow.", "pos": 1090517}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "The young lad takes away the lute interred in snow.", "pos": 1090616}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "In the stone tower leisurely sleeps the stork.", "pos": 1090842}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Th' embroidered carpet warms the affectionate cat.", "pos": 1091004}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "Inside Selene's cave lo, roll the silvery waves.", "pos": 1091103}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Within the city walls at eve was hid a purple flag.", "pos": 1091188}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "The fragrance sweet, which penetrates into the plums, is good to eat.", "pos": 1091285}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "What a fine line! The drops from the bamboo are meet, when one is drunk, to mix with wine.", "pos": 1091374}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "Betimes, the hymeneal girdle it moistens.", "pos": 1091581}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Oft, it freezeth on the kingfisher shoes.", "pos": 1091658}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "No wind doth blow, but yet there is a rush.", "pos": 1091743}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "No rain lo falls, but still a patter's heard.", "pos": 1091834}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Do you also sometimes come to your wits' ends; and run to the end of your tether? I'd like to see what other stuff and nonsense you can come out with!", "pos": 1092204}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "If you've got any gumption about you, take the second rhymes under 'Hsiao' and exhaust them all, and I'll then bend the knee to you.", "pos": 1092462}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "It isn't as if I were writing verses, it's really as if I were fighting for very life.", "pos": 1092636}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It's for you to come out with something,", "pos": 1092766}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "They haven't as yet been brought to a proper close,", "pos": 1093062}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "That's enough, that will do!", "pos": 1093338}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This is mainly due,", "pos": 1093733}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Let's review them line by line as they come, but yet as if they formed one continuous poem. Here's Pao-yü last again!", "pos": 1093823}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I haven't, the fact is, the knack of pairing sentences. You'd better therefore make some allowance for me!", "pos": 1093972}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "There's no such thing as making allowances for you in meeting after meeting, that you should again after that give out the rhymes in a reckless manner, waste your time and not show yourself able to put two lines together. You must absolutely bear a penalty today. I just caught a glimpse of the red plum in the Lung Ts'ui monastery; and how charming it is! I meant to have plucked a twig to put in a vase, but so loathsome is the way in which Miao Yü goes on, that I won't have anything to do with her! But we'll punish him by making him, for the sake of fun, fetch a twig for us to put in water.", "pos": 1094113}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This penalty,", "pos": 1094740}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "is both excellent as well as pleasant.", "pos": 1094786}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "It's exceedingly cold outside, so have a glass of warm wine before you go. Now swallow the wine we give you. And if you don't bring any plum blossom, we'll inflict a double penalty.", "pos": 1094985}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Follow him carefully.", "pos": 1095454}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "There's no such need. Were any one to go with him, he'll contrariwise not get the flowers.", "pos": 1095568}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Yes! And when he comes back, we must recite verses on the red plum.", "pos": 1095698}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "I'll indite a stanza in advance,", "pos": 1095992}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "We'll on no account let you indite any more to-day. You beat every one of us hollow; so if we sit with idle hands, there won't be any fun. But by and bye we'll fine Pao-yü; and, as he says that he can't pair antithetical lines, we'll now make him compose a stanza himself.", "pos": 1096057}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "This is a capital idea! But I've got another proposal. As the lines just paired are not sufficient, won't it be well to pick out those who've put together the fewest distiches, and make them versify on the red plum blossom?", "pos": 1096353}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "An excellent proposal! The three girls Hsing Chou-yen, Li Wen and Li Ch'i, failed just now to do justice to their talents; besides they are visitors; and as Ch'in Erh, P'in Erh and Yün Erh got the best of us by a good deal, it's only right that none of us should compose any more, and that that trio should only do so.", "pos": 1096596}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Ch'i Erh, is also not a very good hand at verses, let therefore cousin Ch'in have a try!", "pos": 1096948}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Let the three words 'red plum blossom,' be used for rhymes; and let each person compose an heptameter stanza. Cousin Hsing to indite on the word 'red;' your elder cousin Li on 'plum;' and Ch'in Erh on 'blossom.'", "pos": 1097130}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "If you let Pao-yü off. I won't have it!", "pos": 1097366}
{"speaker": "Hsiung-yün", "text": "I've got a capital theme, so let's make him write some!", "pos": 1097429}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "What theme is it?", "pos": 1097518}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "If we made him, versify on: 'In search of Miao Yü to beg for red plum blossom,' won't it be full of fun?", "pos": 1097560}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "That will be full of zest,", "pos": 1097689}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Well, may you look at it now,", "pos": 1098110}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You've no idea what an amount of trouble it has cost me!", "pos": 1098157}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Dear senior cousin, dear junior cousin, let me use my own rhymes. Don't bind me down to any.", "pos": 1099002}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Go on as you like,", "pos": 1099115}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "This bough of plum blossom was, in fact, only two feet in height; but from the side projected a branch, crosswise, about two or three feet in length the small twigs and stalks on which resembled coiled dragons, or crouching earthworms; and were either single and trimmed pencil-like, or thick and bushy grove-like. Indeed, their appearance was as if the blossom spurted cosmetic. This fragrance put orchids to the blush. So every one present contributed her quota of praise.", "pos": 1099239}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Each of the three stanzas has its beauty. You two have daily made a fool of me, and are you now going to fool her also? Have you got yours ready?", "pos": 1102229}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'd got them, but the moment I read their three stanzas, I once more became so nervous that they quite slipped from my mind. But let me think again.", "pos": 1102470}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "I shall go on tattooing. Now mind if when the drumming ceases, you haven't accomplished your task, you'll have to bear another fine.", "pos": 1102759}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've already got them!", "pos": 1102894}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Recite them, and I'll write them down.", "pos": 1102979}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "The first tattoo is over,", "pos": 1103077}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'm ready. Go on writing. The wine bottle is not opened, the line is not put into shape.", "pos": 1103118}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "They begin very smoothly,", "pos": 1103302}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Be quick!", "pos": 1103355}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "To fairyland I speed to seek for spring, and the twelfth moon to find.", "pos": 1103419}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "It's rather good,", "pos": 1103526}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I will not beg the high god for a bottle of the (healing) dew. But pray Shuang O to give me some plum bloom beyond the rails.", "pos": 1103582}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "They're ingenious, that's all,", "pos": 1103770}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I come into the world and, in the cold, I pick out some red snow. I leave the dusty sphere and speed to pluck the fragrant purple clouds. I bring a jagged branch, but who in pity sings my shoulders thin? On my clothes still sticketh the moss from yon Buddhistic court.", "pos": 1103893}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Our venerable mistress has come.", "pos": 1104340}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "How comes it that she is in such good cheer?", "pos": 1104430}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I've given, your Madame Wang and that girl Feng the slip and come. What deep snow covers the ground! For me, I'm seated in this, so it doesn't matter; but you mustn't let those ladies trudge in the snow. What beautiful plum blossom! You well know how to make merry; but I too won't let you off! Just go on as before with your romping and joking, drinking and eating. As the days are so short, I did not venture to have a midday siesta. After therefore playing at dominoes for a time, I bethought myself of you people, and likewise came to join the fun. What's there in that dish? These won't hurt me, so cut off a piece of the leg and give it to me. Sit down again, and go on with your chatting and laughing. Let me hear you, and feel happy. Just you also seat yourself, and behave as if I were not here. If you do so, well and good. Otherwise, I shall take myself off at once. What were you playing at?", "pos": 1105131}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "We were writing verses,", "pos": 1107314}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Wouldn't it be well for those who are up to poetry, to devise a few puns for lanterns so that the whole lot of us should be able to have some fun in the first moon? It's damp in here; so don't you sit long, for mind you might be catching cold. Where it's nice and warm is in your cousin Quarta's over there, so let's all go and see how she is getting on with her painting, and whether it will be ready or not by the end of the year. This is dreadful! Why, she has really wasted more labour on it than would have been actually required to lay out this garden!", "pos": 1107366}
{"speaker": "Hsi Ch'un", "text": "The weather is so bitterly cold, that the glue, whose property is mainly to coagulate, cannot be moistened, so I feared that, were I to have gone on with the painting, it wouldn't be worth looking at; and I therefore put it away.", "pos": 1109578}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I must have it by the close of the year, so don't idle your time away. Produce it at once and go on painting for me, as quick as you can.", "pos": 1109853}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Venerable senior! You don't even so much as let any one know to-day, but sneak over stealthily. I've had a good hunt for you!", "pos": 1110209}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I was afraid, that you'd be feeling cold. That's why, I didn't allow any one to tell you. You're really as sharp as a spirit to have, at last, been able to trace my whereabouts! But according to strict etiquette, you shouldn't show filial piety to such a degree!", "pos": 1110420}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Is it out of any idea of filial piety that I came after you? Not at all! But when I got to your place, worthy senior, I found everything so quiet that not even the caw of a crow could be heard, and when I asked the young maids where you'd gone, they wouldn't let me come and search in the garden. So I began to give way to surmises. Suddenly also arrived two or three nuns; and then, at length, I jumped at the conclusion that these women must have come to bring their yearly prayers, or to ask for their annual or incense allowance, and that, with the amount of things you also, venerable ancestor, have to do for the end of the year, you had for certain got out of the way of your debts. Speedily therefore I inquired of the nuns what it was that brought them there, and, for a fact, there was no mistake in my surmises. So promptly issuing the annual allowances to them, I now come to report to you, worthy senior, that your creditors have gone, and that there's no need for you to skulk away. But I've had some tender pheasant prepared; so please come, and have your evening meal; for if you delay any longer, it will get quite stale.", "pos": 1110701}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Strange enough, two of us were missing! But she's waiting over there. She's also been after some plum-blossom. Just look, that human creature has been put there to match with the snow-covered hill! But with that costume, and the plum-blossom at the back of her, to what does she bear a resemblance? Is there in that picture any such costume? What's more the persons represented in it could never be so pretty! What other girl is that? My eyes, are getting dimmer and dimmer!", "pos": 1112605}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've just been again to the Lung Ts'ui monastery, and Miao Yü gave me for each of you a twig of plum blossom. I've already sent a servant to take them over.", "pos": 1113717}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "With all this snow. I haven't been over the whole day to see how you, venerable senior, were getting on. Your ladyship couldn't have been in a good sort of mood to-day, for you should have gone and seen the snow.", "pos": 1114249}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "How not in a good mood? I went and looked up these young ladies and had a romp with them for a time.", "pos": 1114480}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Last night. I was thinking of getting from our Madame Wang to-day the loan of the garden for the nonce and spreading two tables with our mean wine, and inviting you, worthy senior, to enjoy the snow; but as I saw that you were having a rest, and I heard, at an early hour, that Pao-yü had said that you were not in a joyful frame of mind, I did not, in consequence, presume to come and disturb you to-day. But had I known sooner the real state of affairs, I would have felt it my bounden duty to have asked you round.", "pos": 1114610}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This is, only the first fall of snow in the tenth moon. We'll have, after this, plenty of snowy days so there will be ample time to put your ladyship to wasteful expense.", "pos": 1115151}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Verily in that case, my filial intentions may well be looked upon as having been accomplished.", "pos": 1115367}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Mrs. Hsüeh, mind you don't forget it! But you might as well weigh fifty taels this very moment, and hand them over to me to keep, until the first fall of snow, when I can get everything ready for the banquet. In this way, you will neither have anything to bother you, aunt, nor will you have a chance of forgetting.", "pos": 1115495}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Well, since that be so, your ladyship had better give her fifty taels, and I'll share it with her; each one of us taking twenty-five taels; and on any day it might snow, I'll pretend I don't feel in proper trim and let it slip by. You'll have thus still less occasion to trouble yourself, and I and lady Feng will reap a substantial benefit.", "pos": 1115845}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "An excellent idea. This quite falls in with my views.", "pos": 1116257}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Pshaw! You barefaced thing! (You're like a snake, which) avails itself of the rod, with which it is being beaten, to crawl up (and do harm)! You don't try to convince us that it properly devolves upon us, as Mrs. Hsüeh is our guest and receives such poor treatment in our household, to invite her; for with what right could we subject her ladyship to any reckless outlay? but you have the impudence, of impressing upon our minds to insist upon the payment, in advance, of fifty taels! Are you really not thoroughly ashamed of yourself?", "pos": 1116364}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Oh, worthy senior, you're most sharp-sighted! You try to see whether Mrs. Hsüeh will be soft enough to produce fifty taels for you to share with me, but fancying now that it's of no avail, you turn round and begin to rate me by coming out with all these grand words! I won't however take any money from you, Mrs. Hsüeh. I'll, in fact, contribute some on your ladyship's account, and when I get the banquet ready and invite you, venerable ancestor, to come and partake of it, I'll also wrap fifty taels in a piece of paper, and dutifully present them to you, as a penalty for my officious interference in matters that don't concern me. Will this be all right or not?", "pos": 1116945}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Let's leave her alone, to proceed with her meditations; we can meanwhile have a chat among ourselves. Yesterday our worthy senior bade us devise a few lantern-conundrums, so when we got home, I and Ch'i Erh and Wen Erh did not turn in (but set to work). I composed a couple on the Four Books; but those two girls also managed to put together another pair of them.", "pos": 1121045}
{"speaker": "Li Ch'i", "text": "This refers to a passage in the Four Books.", "pos": 1121692}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "You should ponder over the meaning of the three words implying: 'handed down by ancestors',", "pos": 1121879}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "before you venture a guess.", "pos": 1121991}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Think again!", "pos": 1122021}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "It's: 'If, notwithstanding all that benevolence, there be no outward visible sign…'", "pos": 1122097}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Now find the name of the rush?", "pos": 1122292}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "This must certainly be the cat-tail rush! Can this not be right?", "pos": 1122343}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "You've succeeded in guessing it. Li Wen's is: 'Cold runs the stream along the stones;'", "pos": 1122446}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Can it be Shan T'ao?", "pos": 1122591}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "It is! Ch'i Erh's is the character 'Yung' (glow-worm). It refers to a single word,", "pos": 1122642}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "The meaning of this is certainly deep. I wonder whether it's the character, 'hua,' (flower) in the combination, 'hua ts'ao, (vegetation).", "pos": 1122826}
{"speaker": "Li Ch'i", "text": "That's just it!", "pos": 1122986}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "All these are, I admit, good, but they won't suit our venerable senior's taste. Won't it be better therefore to compose a few on some simple objects; some which all of us, whether polished or unpolished, may be able to enjoy?", "pos": 1123281}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "I've devised one on the 'Tien Chiang Ch'un' metre. But it's really on an ordinary object. So try and guess it. The creeks and valleys it leaves; Travelling the world, it performs. In truth how funny it is! But renown and gain are still vain; Ever hard behind it is its fate.", "pos": 1123620}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "All your guesses are wrong. I've got it! It must for a certainty be a performing monkey.", "pos": 1124219}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "That's really it!", "pos": 1124361}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Mrs. Hsüeh mentioned yesterday that you, cousin Ch'in, had seen much of the world, and that you had also gone about a good deal. It's for you therefore to try your hand at a few conundrums. What's more your poetry too is good. So why shouldn't you indite a few for us to guess?", "pos": 1124702}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "The relics of various places I've seen since my youth, are not few, so I've now selected ten places of historic interest, on which I've composed ten odes, treating of antiquities. The verses may possibly be coarse, but they bear upon things of the past, and secretly refer as well to ten commonplace articles. So, cousins, please try and guess them!", "pos": 1126191}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "The first eight stanzas, are founded upon the testimony of the historical works. But as for the last two stanzas, there's no knowing where they come from. Besides, we don't quite fathom their meaning. Wouldn't it be better then if two other stanzas were written?", "pos": 1130423}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "The lines composed by cousin Pao ch'in are indeed devised in a too pigheaded and fast-and-loose sort of way. The two stanzas are, I admit, not to be traced in the historical works, but though we've never read such outside traditions, and haven't any idea what lies at the bottom of them, have we not likely seen a couple of plays? What child of three years old hasn't some notion about them, and how much more such as we?", "pos": 1130734}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "What she says is perfectly correct,", "pos": 1131174}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "She has besides, been to these places herself. But though there be no mention anywhere of these two references, falsehoods have from old till now been propagated, and busybodies have, in fact, intentionally invented such relics of ancient times with a view of bamboozling people. That year, for instance, in which we travelled up here to the capital, we came across graves raised to Kuan, the sage, in three or four distinct places. Now the circumstances of the whole existence of Kuan the sage are established by actual proof, so how could there again in his case exist a lot of graves? This must arise from the esteem in which he is held by posterity for the way he acquitted himself of his duties during his lifetime. And it is presumably to this esteem that this fiction owes its origin. This is quite possible enough. Even in the 'Kuang Yü Chi', you will see that not only are numerous tombs of the sage Kuan spoken of, but that bygone persons of note are assigned tombs not few in number. But there are many more relics of antiquity, about which no testimony can be gathered. The matter treated in the two stanzas, now in point, is, of course, not borne out by any actual record; yet in every story, that is told, in every play, that is sung, and on the various slips as well used for fortune telling, it is invariably to be found. Old and young, men and women, do all understand it and speak of it, whether in proverbs or in their everyday talk. They don't resemble, besides, the ballads encountered in the 'Hsi Hsiang Chi,' and 'Mou Tan T'ing,' to justify us to fear that we might be setting eyes upon some corrupt text. They are quite harmless; so we'd better keep them! been to these places herself. But though there be no mention anywhere of these two references, falsehoods have from old till now been propagated, and busybodies have, in fact, intentionally invented such relics of ancient times with a view of bamboozling people. That year, for instance, in which we travelled up here to the capital, we came across graves raised to Kuan, the sage, in three or four distinct places. Now the circumstances of the whole existence of Kuan the sage are established by actual proof, so how could there again in his case exist a lot of graves? This must arise from the esteem in which he is held by posterity for the way he acquitted himself of his duties during his lifetime. And it is presumably to this esteem that this fiction owes its origin. This is quite possible enough. Even in the 'Kuang Yü Chi', you will see that not only are numerous tombs of the sage Kuan spoken of, but that bygone persons of note are assigned tombs not few in number. But there are many more relics of antiquity, about which no testimony can be gathered. The matter treated in the two stanzas, now in point, is, of course, not borne out by any actual record; yet in every story, that is told, in every play, that is sung, and on the various slips as well used for fortune telling, it is invariably to be found. Old and young, men and women, do all understand it and speak of it, whether in proverbs or in their everyday talk. They don't resemble, besides, the ballads encountered in the 'Hsi Hsiang Chi,' and 'Mou Tan T'ing,' to justify us to fear that we might be setting eyes upon some corrupt text. They are quite harmless; so we'd better keep them!", "pos": 1131234}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Send also, for one of the married-women, who are in attendance when we go out-of-doors, and let you two, together with a couple of young maids, follow Hsi Jen home. But despatch four cart attendants, well up in years, to look everywhere for a spacious curricle for you as well as her, and a small carriage for the maids.", "pos": 1134089}
{"speaker": "Chou Jui's wife", "text": "All right!", "pos": 1134447}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Hsi Jen, is a person not fond of any fuss, so tell her that it's I who have given the orders; and impress upon her that she must put on several nice, coloured clothes, and pack up a large valise full of wearing apparel. Her valise, must be a handsome one; and she must take a decent hand-stove. Bid her too first come and look me up here when she's about to start.", "pos": 1134561}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "These three articles of clothing, given to you by our dowager lady,", "pos": 1135657}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Our Madame Wang gave me this one with the grey squirrel. I've also got one with ermine. She says that when the end of the year draws nigh, she'll let me have one with long fur.", "pos": 1135911}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I've got one with long fur. I don't fancy it much as the fringe does not hang with grace. I was on the point of having it changed; but, never mind, I'll let you first use it; and, when at the close of the year, Madame Wang has one made for you, I can then have mine altered, and it will come to the same thing as if you were returning it like that to me.", "pos": 1136090}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "How could Madame Wang ever give a thought to such trifles as these? They are, in fact, matters of no consequence. Yet were I not to look after them, it would be a disgrace to all of us, and needless to say, I would myself get into some scrape. It's far better that I should dress you all properly, and so get a fair name and finish; for were each of you to cut the figure of a burnt cake, people would first and foremost ridicule me, by saying that in looking after the household I have, instead of doing good, been the means of making beggars of you!", "pos": 1137021}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Keep this felt one for yourself, and take this one along with you and tell some one to send it to that elderly girl, who while every one, in that heavy fall of snow yesterday, was rolled up in soft satin, if not in felt, and while about ten dark red dresses were reflected in the deep snow and presented such a fine sight, was the only one attired in those shabby old clothes. She seems more than ever to raise her shoulders and double her back. She is really to be pitied; so take this now and give it to her!", "pos": 1138600}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "She surreptitiously wishes to give my things away! I haven't got enough to spend upon myself and here I have you, better still, to instigate me to be more open-handed! If any one therefore has read my heart, it's she, but yet she only knows it in part. If your mother gets well, all right, but if anything happens to her, just stay over, and send some one to let me know so that I may specially despatch a servant to bring you your bedding. But whatever you do, don't, use their bedding, nor any of their things to comb your hair with. As for you people, continuing, she observed to Mrs. Chou Jui, you no doubt are aware of the customs, prevailing in this establishment, so that I can dispense with giving you any injunctions.", "pos": 1139133}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chou Jui", "text": "Yes, we know them all. As soon as we get there, we'll, of course, request their male inmates to retire out of the way. And in the event of our having to stay over, we'll naturally apply for one or two extra inner rooms.", "pos": 1140320}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Now,", "pos": 1142490}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "you're not to put on the airs of a young lady! I advise you to also move about a bit. When you're all clean gone. I shall have ample time to budge. But every day that you people are here, I shall try and enjoy peace and quiet.", "pos": 1142514}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "My dear girl. I'll make the bed, but drop the cover over that cheval-glass and put the catches right; you are so much taller than I.", "pos": 1142779}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Hai! one just sits down to warm one's self, and here you come and disturb one!", "pos": 1143000}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Warm yourselves. I've done all there was to be done.", "pos": 1143514}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "I can't manage, to get warm at all. It just also strikes me that the warming-pan hasn't yet been brought.", "pos": 1143582}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "You've had the trouble to think of it! But you've never wanted a chafing-dish before. It's so warm besides on that warming-frame of ours; not like the stove-couch in that room, which is so cold; so we can very well do without it to-day.", "pos": 1143721}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "If both of you are to sleep on that, there won't be a soul with me outside, and I shall be in an awful funk. Even you won't be able to have a wink of sleep during the whole night!", "pos": 1143981}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "As far as I'm concerned. I'm going to sleep in here. There's She Yüeh, so you'd better induce her to come and sleep outside.", "pos": 1144180}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Even I, have been disturbed, fast asleep though I was; and, lo, she keeps a look-out by his very side and doesn't as yet know anything about his cries! In very deed she is like a stiff corpse!", "pos": 1145080}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "He calls Hsi Jen, so what's that to do with me? What do you want?", "pos": 1145330}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I want some tea. Throw my pelisse over you; for mind it's cold!", "pos": 1145462}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "My dear girl, do give me also a sip.", "pos": 1146275}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "You put on more airs than ever,", "pos": 1146347}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "My dear girl; to-morrow night, you needn't budge; I'll wait on you the whole night long. What do you say to that?", "pos": 1146399}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Won't you two go to sleep, but keep on chatting? I'll go out for a time; I'll be back soon.", "pos": 1146682}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Are there any evil spirits waiting for you outside?", "pos": 1146796}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It's sure to be bright moonlight out of doors, so go, while we continue our chat.", "pos": 1146869}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Hallo! It's freezing; it's no joke!", "pos": 1147599}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Ch'ing Wen has come out.", "pos": 1148300}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "How could I ever frighten her to death? It's just your way; you're as great a coward as an old woman!", "pos": 1148381}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It isn't at all that you might do her harm by frightening her, but, in the first place, it wouldn't be good for you to get frost-bitten; and, in the second, you would take her so much off her guard that she won't be able to prevent herself from uttering a shout. So, in the event of rousing any of the others out of their sleep, they won't say that we are up to jokes, but maintain instead that just as Hsi Jen is gone, you two behave as if you'd come across ghosts or seen evil spirits. Come and tuck in the coverlets on this side! How cold your hand is! I told you to look out or you'd freeze! Come at once under the cover and warm yourself!", "pos": 1148500}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "I've had such a fright. Goodness me! I saw in the black shade, at the back of the boulders on that hill, some one squatting, and was about to scream, when it turned out to be nothing else than that big golden pheasant. As soon as it caught sight of a human being, it flew away. But it was only when it reached a moonlit place that I at last found out what it was. Had I been so heedless as to scream, I would have been the means of getting people out of their beds! Ch'ing Wen, you say, has gone out, but how is it I never caught a glimpse of her? She must certainly have gone to frighten me!", "pos": 1149707}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Isn't this she? Is she not here warming herself? Had I not been quick in shouting, she would verily have given you a fright.", "pos": 1150419}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "There was no need for me to go and frighten her. This hussy has frightened her own self.", "pos": 1150578}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Did you forsooth go out, in this smart dress of a circus-performer?", "pos": 1150772}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Why, of course, she went out like this!", "pos": 1150863}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "You wouldn't know, for the life of you, how to choose a felicitous day! There you go and stand about on a fruitless errand. Won't your skin get chapped from the frost?", "pos": 1150920}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "How about that? There you are; you've after all caught a chill!", "pos": 1151645}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Early this morning, she shouted that she wasn't feeling quite herself. Neither did she have the whole day a proper bowl of food. And now, not to speak of her taking so little care of herself, she is still bent upon playing larks upon people! But if she falls ill by and bye, we'll let her suffer what she will have brought upon herself.", "pos": 1151728}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Is your head hot?", "pos": 1152086}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "It's nothing at all! When did I get so delicate?", "pos": 1152120}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Don't let's talk! for, mind, we'll also induce them to start chattering. and don't make a fuss, for your mistress, my mother, may come to know of it, and bid you also shift to your house and nurse yourself. Your home might, of course, be all very nice, but it's in fact somewhat cold. So isn't it better here? Go and lie down in the inner rooms, and I'll give orders to some one to send for the doctor to come quietly by the back door and have a look at you. You'll then get all right again.", "pos": 1152492}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "In spite of what you say, you must really say something about it to our senior lady, Mrs. Chia Chu; otherwise the doctor will be coming unawares, and people will begin to ask questions; and what answer could one give them?", "pos": 1153233}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "if she gets all right, after taking a couple of doses of medicine, it will be well and good. But that in the event of not recovering, it would, really, be the right thing for her to go to her own home. That the season isn't healthy at present, and that if the other girls caught her complaint it would be a small thing; but that the good health of the young ladies is a vital matter.", "pos": 1154179}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Have I got such a dreadful epidemic, that she fears that I shall bring it upon others? I'll clear off at once from this place; for mind you don't get any headaches and hot heads during the course of your lives.", "pos": 1154705}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Don't lose your temper. This is a responsibility which falls upon her shoulders, so she is afraid lest Madame Wang might come to hear of it, and call her to task. She only made a harmless remark. But you've always been prone to anger, and now, as a matter of course your spleen is larger than ever.", "pos": 1155057}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Sir, don't go yet. Our young master is fretful and there may be, I fancy, something more to ask you.", "pos": 1157367}
{"speaker": "Doctor", "text": "Wasn't the one I saw just now a young lady, but a young man, eh? Yet the rooms were such as are occupied by ladies. The curtains were besides let down. So how could the patient I saw have ever been a young man?", "pos": 1157492}
{"speaker": "old nurse", "text": "My dear sir, it isn't strange that a servant-girl said just now that a new doctor had been sent for on this occasion, for you really know nothing about our family matters. That room is that of our young master, and that is a girl attached to the apartments; but she's really a servant-maid. How ever were those a young lady's rooms? Had a young lady fallen ill, would you ever have penetrated inside with such ease?", "pos": 1157744}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "He deserves to be hanged! He deserves death! Here he treats girls in the very same way as he would us men! How could this ever do? No matter what internal obstruction there may be, how could she ever stand citrus and sida? Who asked him to come? Bundle him off at once; and send for another, who knows what he's about.", "pos": 1158458}
{"speaker": "old nurse", "text": "Whether he uses the right medicines or not, we are not in a position to know. But we'll now tell a servant-lad to go and ask Dr. Wang round. It's easy enough! The only thing is that as this doctor wasn't sent for through the head manager's office his fee must be paid to him.", "pos": 1158797}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "How much must one give him?", "pos": 1159100}
{"speaker": "matron", "text": "Were one to give him too little, it wouldn't look nice. He should be given a tael. This would be quite the thing with such a household as ours.", "pos": 1159147}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "When Dr. Wang comes, how much is he given?", "pos": 1159314}
{"speaker": "matron", "text": "Whenever Dr. Wang and Dr. Chang come, no money is ever given them. At the four seasons of each year however presents are simply sent to them in a lump. This is a fixed annual custom. But this new doctor has come only this once so he should be given a tael.", "pos": 1159375}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "I can't make out where sister Hua put it;", "pos": 1159743}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've often seen her take money out of that lacquered press, ornamented with designs made with shells;", "pos": 1159806}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Which is the one tael mark?", "pos": 1160502}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It's amusing that you should appeal to me! You really behave as if you had only just come!", "pos": 1160559}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "This piece, must, I fancy, be a tael. But it would be better to let him have a little more. Don't let's give too little as those poor brats will have a laugh at our expense. They won't say that we know nothing about the steelyard; but that we are designedly mean.", "pos": 1161039}
{"speaker": "matron", "text": "This ingot, weighs five taels. Even if you cut half of it off, it will weigh a couple of taels, at least. But there are no sycee shears at hand, so, miss, put this piece aside and choose a smaller one.", "pos": 1161389}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Who'll go and fumble about again? If there's a little more, well, you take it and finish.", "pos": 1161659}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Be quick, and tell Pei Ming to go for another doctor. It will be all right.", "pos": 1161766}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "These are the medicines, suitable for girls! They should, it's true, be of a laxative nature, but never over and above what's needful. When I fell ill last year, I suffered from a chill, but I got such an obstruction in the viscera that I could neither take anything liquid or substantial, yet though he saw the state I was in, he said that I couldn't stand sida, ground gypsum, citrus and other such violent drugs. You and I resemble the newly-opened white begonia, Yün Erh sent me in autumn. And how could you resist medicines which are too much for me? We're like the lofty aspen trees, which grow in people's burial grounds. To look at, the branches and leaves are of luxuriant growth, but they are hollow at the core.", "pos": 1162516}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Do only aspen trees grow in waste burial grounds? Is it likely, pray, that there are no fir and cypress trees? What's more loathsome than any other is the aspen. For though a lofty tree, it only has a few leaves; and it makes quite a confused noise with the slightest puff of wind! If you therefore deliberately compare yourself to it, you'll also be ranging yourself too much among the common herd!", "pos": 1163273}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I daren't liken myself to fir or cypress; Even Confucius says: 'after the season waxes cold, one finds that the fir and cypress are the last to lose their foliage,' which makes it evident that these two things are of high excellence. Thus it's those only, who are devoid of every sense of shame, who foolishly liken themselves to trees of the kind!", "pos": 1163694}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "The right thing would be, that you should let them go and get it ready in the tea-room; for will it ever do to fill this room with the smell of medicines?", "pos": 1164292}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "The smell of medicines, is far nicer than that emitted by the whole lot of flowers. Fairies pick medicines and prepare medicines. Besides this, eminent men and cultured scholars gather medicines and concoct medicines; so that it constitutes a most excellent thing. I was just thinking that there's everything and anything in these rooms and that the only thing that we lack is the smell of medicines; but as luck would have it, everything is now complete.", "pos": 1164473}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "The days are now short as well as cold, so wouldn't it be advisable that my senior sister-in-law, Mrs. Chia Chu, should henceforward have her repasts in the garden, along with the young ladies? When the weather gets milder, it won't at all matter, if they have to run backward and forward.", "pos": 1165468}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "This is really a capital idea! It will be so convenient during windy and rainy weather. To inhale the chilly air after eating isn't good. And to come quite empty, and begin piling up a lot of things in a stomach full of cold air isn't quite safe. It would be as well therefore to select two cooks from among the women, who have, anyhow, to keep night duty in the large five-roomed house, inside the garden back entrance, and station them there for the special purpose of preparing the necessary viands for the girls. Fresh vegetables are subject to some rule of distribution, so they can be issued to them from the general manager's office. Or they might possibly require money or be in need of some things or other. And it will be all right if a few of those pheasants, deer, and every kind of game, be apportioned to them.", "pos": 1165774}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "The only thing I feared was that with the extra work that would again be thrown upon the cook-house, they mightn't have too much to do.", "pos": 1166689}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There'll be nothing much to do. The same apportionment will continue as ever. In here, something may be added; but in there something will be reduced. Should it even involve a little trouble, it will be a small matter. If the girls were exposed to the cold wind, every one else might stand it with impunity; but how could cousin Lin, first and foremost above all others, resist anything of the kind? In fact, brother Pao himself wouldn't be proof against it. What's more, none of the various young ladies can boast of a strong constitution.", "pos": 1166827}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Quite so! I meant the other day to have suggested this arrangement, but I saw that every one of you had so many urgent matters to attend to, (and I thought) that although you would not presume to bear me a grudge, were several duties now again superadded, you would unavoidably imagine that I only regarded those young grandsons and granddaughters of mine, and had no consideration for any of you, who have to look after the house. But since you make this suggestion yourself, it's all right. I've never before ventured to give utterance to the remarks that just fell from my lips, as first of all I was in fear and trembling lest I should have made that girl Feng more presumptuous than ever, and next, lest I should have incurred the displeasure of one and all of you. But since you're all here to-day, and every one of you knows what brothers' wives and husbands' sisters mean, is there (I ask) any one besides her as full of forethought?", "pos": 1167814}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "There are indeed but few like her! That of others is simply a conventional 'face' affection, but she is really fond of her husband's sisters and his young brother. In fact, she's as genuinely filial with you, venerable senior.", "pos": 1169218}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Albeit I'm fond of her. I can't, on the other hand, help distrusting that excessive shrewdness of hers, for it isn't a good thing.", "pos": 1169496}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "You're wrong there, worthy ancestor. People in the world as a rule maintain that 'too shrewd and clever a person can't, it is feared, live long.' Now what people of the world invariably say people of the world invariably believe. But of you alone, my dear senior, can no such thing be averred or believed. For there you are, ancestor mine, a hundred times sharper and cleverer than I; and how is it that you now enjoy both perfect happiness and longevity? But I presume that I shall by and bye excel you by a hundredfold, and die at length, after a life of a thousand years, when you venerable senior shall have departed from these mortal scenes!", "pos": 1169643}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "After every one is dead and gone, what pleasure will there be, if two antiquated elves, like you and I will be, remain behind?", "pos": 1170327}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "If the others have left, there's nothing strange about it, but are She Yüeh and Ch'iu Wen too so utterly devoid of feeling as to have each gone after her own business?", "pos": 1171109}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "As regards Ch'iu Wen. I told her to go and have her meal. And as for She Yüeh, P'ing Erh came just now and called her out of doors and there they are outside confabbing in a mysterious way! What the drift of their conversation can be I don't know. But they must be talking about my having fallen ill, and my not leaving this place to go home.", "pos": 1171299}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "P'ing Erh isn't that sort of person. Besides, she had no idea whatever about your illness, so that she couldn't have come specially to see how you were getting on. I fancy her object was to look up She Yüeh to hobnob with her, but finding unexpectedly that you were not up to the mark, she readily said that she had come on purpose to find what progress you were making. This was quite a natural thing for a person with so wily a disposition to say, for the sake of preserving harmony. But if you don't go home, it's none of her business. You two have all along been, irrespective of other things, on such good terms that she could by no means entertain any desire to injure the friendly relations which exist between you, all on account of something that doesn't concern her.", "pos": 1171668}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Your remarks are right enough, but I do suspect her, as why did she too start, all of a sudden, imposing upon me?", "pos": 1172465}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Wait, I'll walk out by the back door, and go to the foot of the window, and listen to what she's saying. I'll then come and tell you.", "pos": 1172604}
{"speaker": "She Yueh", "text": "How did you manage to get it?", "pos": 1172898}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "When I lost sight of it on that day that I washed my hands, our lady Secunda wouldn't let us make a fuss. But the moment she left the garden, she there and then sent word to the nurses, stationed in the various places, to institute careful search. Our suspicions, however, fell upon Miss Hsing's maid, who has ever also been poverty-stricken; surmising that a young girl of her age, who had never set eyes upon anything of the kind, may possibly have picked it up and taken it. But never did we positively believe that it could be some one from this place of yours! Happily, our lady Secunda wasn't in the room, when that nurse Sung who is with you here went over, and said, producing the bracelet, 'that the young maid, Chui Erh, had stolen it, and that she had detected her, and come to lay the matter before our lady Secunda. I promptly took over the bracelet from her; and recollecting how imperious and exacting Pao-yü is inclined to be, fond and devoted as he is to each and all of you; how the jade which was prigged the other year by a certain Liang Erh, is still, just as the matter has cooled down for the last couple of years, canvassed at times by some people eager to serve their own ends; how some one has now again turned up to purloin this gold trinket; how it was filched, to make matters worse, from a neighbour's house; how as luck would have it, she took this of all things; and how it happened to be his own servant to give him a slap on his mouth, I hastened to enjoin nurse Sung to, on no account whatever, let Pao-yü know anything about it, but simply pretend that nothing of the kind had transpired, and to make no mention of it to any single soul. In the second place,' (I said), 'our dowager lady and Madame Wang would get angry, if they came to hear anything. Thirdly, Hsi Jen as well as yourselves would not also cut a very good figure.' Hence it was that in telling our lady Secunda, I merely explained 'that on my way to our senior mistress,' the bracelet got unclasped, without my knowing it; that it fell among the roots of the grass; that there was no chance of seeing it while the snow was deep, but that when the snow completely disappeared to-day there it glistened, so yellow and bright, in the rays of the sun, in precisely the very place where it had dropped, and that I then picked it up.' Our lady Secunda at once credited my version. So here I come to let you all know so as to be henceforward a little on your guard with her, and not get her a job anywhere else. Wait until Hsi Jen's return, and then devise means to pack her off, and finish with her.", "pos": 1172967}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "This young vixen has seen things of this kind before, and how is it that she was so shallow-eyed?", "pos": 1175587}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "What could, after all, be the weight of this bracelet? It was once our lady Secunda's. She says that this is called the 'shrimp-feeler'-bracelet. But it's the pearl, which increases its weight. That minx Ch'ing Wen is as fiery as a piece of crackling charcoal, so were anything to be told her, she may, so little able is she to curb her temper, flare up suddenly into a huff, and beat or scold her, and kick up as much fuss as she ever has done before. That's why I simply tell you. Exercise due care, and it will be all right.", "pos": 1175710}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "She says, that you're so fond of having things all your own way that were you to hear anything of this business, now that you are ill, you would get worse, and that she only means to broach the subject with you, when you get quite yourself again.", "pos": 1176723}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "If you go on bawling like that, won't you show yourself ungrateful for the regard with which P'ing Erh has dealt with you and me? Better for us to show ourselves sensible of her kindness and by and bye pack the girl off, and finish. Your suggestion is all very good, but how could I suppress this resentment?", "pos": 1177204}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What's there to feel resentment about? Just you take good care of yourself; it's the best thing you can do.", "pos": 1177580}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Go, to our lady Secunda, and ask her for some. Tell her that I spoke to you about them. My cousin over there often uses some western plaster, which she applies to her temples when she's got a headache. It's called 'I-fo-na.' So try and get some of it!", "pos": 1179976}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "While you were lying sick, you looked like a mangy-headed devil! But with this stuff on now you present a fine sight! As for our lady Secunda she has been so much in the habit of sticking these things about her that they don't very much show off with her! Our lady Secunda said, 'that to-morrow is your maternal uncle's birthday, and that our mistress, your mother, asked her to tell you to go over. That whatever clothes you will put on to-morrow should be got ready to-night, so as to avoid any trouble in the morning.'", "pos": 1180727}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Anything that comes first to hand, will do well enough! There's no getting, the whole year round, at the end of all the fuss of birthdays!", "pos": 1181334}
{"speaker": "Hsiao Lo", "text": "Our two young ladies, are in Miss Lin's rooms; so I'm also now on my way thither.", "pos": 1181882}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "There comes some one else! There's no room for you to sit! What a fine picture of beautiful girls, in the winter chamber! It's a pity I come a trifle too late! This room is, at all events, so much warmer than any other, that I won't feel cold if I plant myself on this chair. What lovely flowers! The warmer the room gets, the stronger is the fragrance emitted by these flowers! How is it I never saw them yesterday?", "pos": 1182471}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "These are, from the two pots of narcissi, and two pots of allspice, sent to Miss Hsüeh Secunda by the wife of Lai Ta, the head butler in your household. Of these, she gave me a pot of narcissi; and to that girl Yün, a pot of allspice. I didn't at first mean to keep them, but I was afraid of showing no consideration for her kind attention. But if you want them, I'll, in my turn, present them to you. Will you have them; eh?", "pos": 1183243}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've got two pots of them in my rooms, but they're not up to these. How is it you're ready to let others have what cousin Ch'in has given you? This can on no account do!", "pos": 1183702}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "With me here, the medicine pot never leaves the fire, the whole day long. I'm only kept together by medicines. So how could I ever stand the smell of flowers bunging my nose? It makes me weaker than ever. Besides, if there's the least whiff of medicines in this room, it will, contrariwise, spoil the fragrance of these flowers. So isn't it better that you should have them carried away? These flowers will then breathe a purer atmosphere, and won't have any mixture of smells to annoy them.", "pos": 1183892}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've also got now some one ill in my place, and medicines are being decocted. How comes it you happen to know nothing about it?", "pos": 1184402}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "This is strange! I was really speaking quite thoughtlessly; for who ever knows what's going on in your apartments? But why do you, instead of getting here a little earlier to listen to old stories, come at this moment to bring trouble and vexation upon your own self?", "pos": 1184564}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Let's have a meeting to-morrow, for we've also got the themes. Let's sing the narcissus and allspice.", "pos": 1184873}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Never mind, drop that! I can't venture to write any more verses. Whenever I indite any, I'm mulcted. So I'd rather not be put to any great shame.", "pos": 1184992}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What's the matter? Why are you again making fun of me? I'm not afraid of any shame, but, lo, you screen your face.", "pos": 1185252}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "The next time. I convene a meeting, we'll have four themes for odes and four for songs; and each one of us will have to write four odes and four roundelays. The theme of the first ode will treat of the plan of the great extreme; the rhyme fixed being 'hsien,' (first), and the metre consisting of five words in each line. We'll have to exhaust every one of the rhymes under 'hsien,' and mind, not a single one may be left out.", "pos": 1185386}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "From what you say, it's evident that you're not in earnest, cousin, in setting the club on foot. It's clear enough that your object is to embarrass people. But as far as the verses go, we could forcibly turn out a few, just by higgledy-piggledy taking several passages from the 'Canon of Changes,' and inserting them in our own; but, after all, what fun will there be in that sort of thing? When I was eight years of age, I went with my father to the western seaboard to purchase foreign goods. Who'd have thought it, we came across a girl from the 'Chen Chen' kingdom. She was in her eighteenth year, and her features were just like those of the beauties one sees represented in foreign pictures. She had also yellow hair, hanging down, and arranged in endless plaits. Her whole head was ornamented with one mass of cornelian beads, amber, cats' eyes, and 'grandmother-green-stone.' On her person, she wore a chain armour plaited with gold, and a coat, which was up to the very sleeves, embroidered in foreign style. In a belt, she carried a Japanese sword, also inlaid with gold and studded with precious gems. In very truth, even in pictures, there is no one as beautiful as she. Some people said that she was thoroughly conversant with Chinese literature, and could explain the 'Five classics,' that she was able to write odes and devise roundelays, and so my father requested an interpreter to ask her to write something. She thereupon wrote an original stanza, which all, with one voice, praised for its remarkable beauty, and extolled for its extraordinary merits.", "pos": 1185866}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear cousin, produce what she wrote, and let's have a look at it.", "pos": 1187472}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'in", "text": "It's put away in Nanking; So how could I at present go and fetch it?", "pos": 1187568}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I've no luck, to see anything like this in the world.", "pos": 1187726}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Don't be humbugging us! I know well enough that you are not likely, on a visit like this, to have left any such things of yours at home. You must have brought them along. Yet here you are now again palming off a fib on us by saying that you haven't got them with you. You people may believe what she says, but I, for my part, don't.", "pos": 1187836}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Really P'in Erh you've got into the habit of talking like this! You're too shrewd by far.", "pos": 1188326}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Bring them along, and give us a chance of seeing something and learning something; it won't hurt them.", "pos": 1188439}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "There's a whole heap of trunks and baskets, which haven't been yet cleared away. And how could one tell in which particular one, they're packed up? Wait a few days, and when things will have been put straight a bit, we'll try and find them: and every one of us can then have a look at them; that will be all right. But if you happen to remember the lines, why not recite them for our benefit? I remember so far that her lines consisted of a stanza with five characters in each line. For a foreign girl, they're verily very well done. Don't begin for a while. Let me send for Yün Erh, so that she too might hear them. Go to my place, and tell her that a foreign beauty has come over, who's a splendid hand at poetry. 'You, who have poetry on the brain,' (say to her), 'are invited to come and see her,' and then lay hold of this verse-maniac of ours and bring her along.", "pos": 1188573}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "What foreign beauty has come?", "pos": 1189736}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "We heard your voices long before we caught a glimpse of your persons!", "pos": 1189853}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Be quick, out with it! Let's hear what it is! She does deserve credit, for she really is far superior to us, Chinese though we be.", "pos": 1190080}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Madame Wang, has sent a servant to inform you, Master Secundus, that 'you are to go at an early hour to-morrow morning to your maternal uncle's, and that you are to explain to him that her ladyship isn't feeling quite up to the mark, and that she cannot pay him a visit in person.'", "pos": 1190759}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Yes. Are you two going?", "pos": 1191168}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "We're not going. We simply went there yesterday to take our presents over but we left after a short chat.", "pos": 1191251}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "When is Hsi Jen, after all, coming back?", "pos": 1191516}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "She'll naturally come back after she has accompanied the funeral,", "pos": 1191570}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Off with you!", "pos": 1191807}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "We'll have another chat to-morrow. Now that the nights are longer than they were, you're sure to cough often and wake several times in the night; eh?", "pos": 1192049}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Last night. I was all right; I coughed only twice. But I only slept at the fourth watch for a couple of hours and then I couldn't close my eyes again.", "pos": 1192380}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I really have something very important to tell you. It only now crossed my mind. I think that the birds' nests sent to you by cousin Pao-chai….", "pos": 1192552}
{"speaker": "dame Chao", "text": "Miss, have you been all right these last few days?", "pos": 1192911}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "Many thanks, dame Chao, for the trouble of thinking of me, and for coming in person in this intense cold.", "pos": 1193188}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "You should awake. The only thing is that you haven't had enough sleep. If you go out and tell them to get the water for tea ready for him, while I wake him, it will be all right.", "pos": 1194015}
{"speaker": "She Yueh", "text": "Let's call him to get up and dress in his fine clothes. We can summon them in, after this fire-box has been removed. The old nurses told us not to allow him to stay in this room for fear the virus of the disease should pass on to him; so now if they see us bundled up together in one place, they're bound to kick up another row.", "pos": 1194269}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "That's my idea too,", "pos": 1194612}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "It's cloudy again, so I suppose it's going to snow. You'd better therefore wear a woollen overcoat!", "pos": 1195101}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What! is it snowing?", "pos": 1196244}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "The weather is dull, but it isn't snowing yet.", "pos": 1196293}
{"speaker": "grandmother", "text": "This, bird gold This is woven of the down of peacocks, caught in Russia, twisted into thread. The other day, I presented that one with the wild duck down to your young female cousin, so I now give you this one. Go and let your mother see it before you start,", "pos": 1196847}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My dear girl, do look at the coat I've got on. Is it nice or not? My mother, has seen what I've got on. But all she said was: 'what a pity!' and then she went on to enjoin me to be 'careful with it and not to spoil it.' what a pity! careful with it and not to spoil it.", "pos": 1197698}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "There only remains this single one, so if you spoil it you can't have another. Even did I want to have one made for you like it now, it would be out of the question. Don't, have too much wine and come back early.", "pos": 1198298}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Brother Chou and brother Ch'ien, let's go by this side-gate. It will save my having again to dismount, when we reach the entrance to my father's study.", "pos": 1199564}
{"speaker": "Chou Jui", "text": "Mr. Chia Cheng is not in his study. It has been daily under lock and key, so there will be no need for you, master, to get down from your horse.", "pos": 1199763}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Though it be locked up. I shall have to dismount all the same.", "pos": 1199946}
{"speaker": "Ch'ien Ch'i and Li Kuei", "text": "You're quite right in what you say, master; but pretend you're lazy and don't get down. In the event of our coming across Mr. Lai Ta and our number two Mr. Lin, they're sure, rather awkward though it be for them to say anything to their master, to tender you one or two words of advice, but throw the whole of the blame upon us. You can also tell them that we had not explained to you what was the right thing to do.", "pos": 1200028}
{"speaker": "head lad", "text": "My obeisance to you, sir.", "pos": 1201278}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "All he's good for, is to squeeze people's money. But he doesn't know how to prescribe a single dose of efficacious medicine for his patients.", "pos": 1202290}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "You have far too impatient a disposition! 'A disease,' the proverb has it, 'comes like a crumbling mountain, and goes like silk that is reeled.' Besides, they're not the divine pills of 'Lao Chün'. How ever could there be such efficacious medicines? The only thing for you to do is to quietly look after yourself for several days, and you're sure to get all right. But the more you work yourself into such a frenzy, the worse you get!", "pos": 1202447}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Weng", "text": "Where have they gone? Have they bored into the sand? They see well enough that I'm ill, so they make bold and runaway. But by and bye when I recover, I shall take one by one of you and flay your skin off for you.", "pos": 1203001}
{"speaker": "Ting Erh", "text": "Miss, what's up with you?", "pos": 1203317}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Is it likely that the rest are all dead and gone, and that there only remains but you? Look at this vixen! If I don't ask for her, she won't come. Had there been any monthly allowances issued and fruits distributed here, you would have been the first to run in! But approach a bit! Am I tigress to gobble you up? What's the use of such paws? They don't ply a needle, and they don't touch any thread! All you're good for is to prig things to stuff that mouth of yours with! The skin of your phiz is shallow and those paws of yours are light! But with the shame you bring upon yourself before the world, isn't it right that I should prick you, and make mincemeat of you?", "pos": 1203361}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "You're just perspiring, and here you are once more bent upon killing yourself. Wait until you are yourself again! Won't you then be able to give her as many blows as you may like? What's the use of kicking up all this fuss just now?", "pos": 1204574}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Our master Secundus, Mr. Pao-yü, recently asked me to tell you, that Chui Erh is very lazy. He himself gives her orders to her very face, but she is ever ready to raise objections and not to budge. Even when Hsi Jen bids her do things, she vilifies her behind her back. She must absolutely therefore be packed off to-day. And if Mr. Pao himself lays the matter to-morrow before Madame Wang, things will be square.", "pos": 1204879}
{"speaker": "Nurse Sung", "text": "What you suggest is well and good, it's true, but it's as well to wait until Miss Hua (flower) returns and hears about the things. We can then give her the sack.", "pos": 1205456}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Mr. Pao-yü urgently enjoined this to-day, so what about Miss Hua (flower) and Miss Ts'ao (grass)? We've, of course, gob rules of propriety here, so you just do as I tell you; and be quick and send for some one from her house to come and fetch her away!", "pos": 1205647}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Well, now let's drop this! Whether she goes soon or whether she goes late is one and the same thing; so let them take her away soon; we'll then be the sooner clear of her.", "pos": 1205924}
{"speaker": "mother of Chui Erh", "text": "Young ladies, what's up? If your niece doesn't behave as she ought to, why, call her to account. But why banish her from this place? You should, indeed, leave us a little face!", "pos": 1206311}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "As regards what you say, wait until Pao-yü comes, and then we can ask him. It's nothing to do with us.", "pos": 1206502}
{"speaker": "woman", "text": "Have I got the courage to ask him? In what matter doesn't he lend an ear to any settlement you, young ladies, may propose? He invariably agrees to all you say! But if you, young ladies, aren't agreeable, it's really of no avail. When you, for example, spoke just now,—it's true it was on the sly,—you called him straightway by his name, miss. This thing does very well with you, young ladies, but were we to do anything of the kind, we'd be looked upon as very savages!", "pos": 1206661}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Yes, I called him by his name, so you'd better go and report me to our old lady and Madame Wang. Tell them I'm a rustic and let them send me too off.", "pos": 1207250}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Sister-in-law, just you take her away; and if you've got aught to say, you can say it by and bye. Is this a place for you to bawl in and to try and explain what is right? Whom have you seen discourse upon the rules of propriety with us? Not to speak of you, sister-in-law, even Mrs. Lai Ta and Mrs. Lin treat us fairly well. And as for calling him by name, why, from days of yore to the very present, our dowager mistress has invariably bidden us do so. You yourselves are well aware of it. So much did she fear that it would be a difficult job to rear him that she deliberately wrote his infant name on slips of paper and had them stuck everywhere and anywhere with the design that one and all should call him by it. And this in order that it might exercise a good influence upon his bringing up. Even water-coolies and scavenger-coolies indiscriminately address him by his name; and how much more such as we? So late, in fact, as yesterday Mrs. Lin gave him but once the title of 'Sir,' and our old mistress called even her to task. This is one side of the question. In the next place, we all have to go and make frequent reports to our venerable dowager lady and Madame Wang, and don't we with them allude to him by name in what we have to say? Is it likely we'd also style him 'Sir?' What day is there that we don't utter the two words 'Pao-yü' two hundred times? And is it for you, sister-in-law, to come and pick out this fault? But in a day or so, when you've leisure to go to our old mistress' and Madame Wang's, you'll hear us call him by name in their very presence, and then you'll feel convinced. You've never, sister-in-law, had occasion to fulfil any honourable duties by our old lady and our lady. From one year's end to the other, all you do is to simply loaf outside the third door. So it's no matter of surprise, if you don't happen to know anything of the customs which prevail with us inside. But this isn't a place where you, sister-in-law, can linger for long. In another moment, there won't be any need for us to say anything; for some one will be coming to ask you what you want, and what excuse will you be able to plead? So take her away and let Mrs. Lin know about it; and commission her to come and find our Mr. Secundus and tell him all. There are in this establishment over a thousand inmates; one comes and another comes, so that though we know people and inquire their names, we can't nevertheless imprint them clearly on our minds.", "pos": 1207418}
{"speaker": "Nurse Sung", "text": "Is it likely, that a dame like you doesn't know what manners mean? Your daughter has been in these rooms for some time, so she should, when she is about to go, knock her head before the young ladies. She has no other means of showing her gratitude. Not that they care much about such things. Yet were she to simply knock her head, she would acquit herself of a duty, if nothing more. But how is it that she says I'm going, and off she forthwith rushes?", "pos": 1210268}
{"speaker": "woman", "text": "Hai!", "pos": 1211024}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "What's the reason of such behaviour?", "pos": 1211523}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "My old grandmother, was in such capital spirits that she gave me this coat to-day; but, who'd have thought it, I inadvertently burnt part of the back lapel. Fortunately however the evening was advanced so that neither she nor my mother noticed what had happened.", "pos": 1211591}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "This, must have been done by some spark from the hand-stove. It's of no consequence. Take this out on the sly, and let an experienced weaver patch it. It will be all right then. It should be ready by daybreak. And by no means let our old lady or Madame Wang know anything about it.", "pos": 1211994}
{"speaker": "matron", "text": "Not only, have weavers, first-class tailors, and embroiderers, but even those, who do women's work, been asked about it, and they all have no idea what this is made of. None of them therefore will venture to undertake the job.", "pos": 1212500}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "What's to be done? But it won't matter if you don't wear it to-morrow.", "pos": 1212746}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "To-morrow is the very day of the anniversary. Grandmother and my mother bade me put this on and go and pay my visit; and here I go and burn it, on the first day I wear it. Now isn't this enough to throw a damper over my good cheer?", "pos": 1212840}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Bring it here, and let me see it! You haven't been lucky in wearing this; but never mind! This is made, of gold thread, spun from peacock's feathers. So were we now to also take gold thread, twisted from the feathers of the peacock, and darn it closely, by imitating the woof, I think it will pass without detection.", "pos": 1213216}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "The peacock-feather-thread is ready at hand. But who's there, exclusive of you, able to join the threads?", "pos": 1213732}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "I'll, needless to say, do my level best to the very cost of my life and finish,", "pos": 1213871}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "How ever could this do? You're just slightly better, and how could you take up any needlework?", "pos": 1213971}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "You needn't go on in this chicken-hearted way! I know my own self well enough.", "pos": 1214097}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "This, isn't quite like them; but when it's patched up with it, it won't show very much.", "pos": 1214827}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "It will do very well. Could one also go and hunt up a Russian tailor?", "pos": 1214933}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Whether she would like a little hot water to drink.", "pos": 1215820}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "My junior ancestor! do go to bed and sleep! If you sit up for the other half of the night, your eyes will to-morrow look as if they had been scooped out, and what good will possibly come out of that?", "pos": 1216133}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "That will do! One couldn't detect it, unless one examined it carefully.", "pos": 1216615}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Really, it's quite the same thing.", "pos": 1216771}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "It's mended, it's true, but it does not, after all, look anything like it. Yet, I cannot stand the effort any more!", "pos": 1216965}
{"speaker": "Dr. Wang", "text": "Yesterday, she was much better, so how is it that to-day she is instead weaker, and has fallen off so much? She must surely have had too much in the way of drinking or eating! Or she must have fatigued herself. A complaint arising from outside sources is, indeed, a light thing. But it's no small matter if one doesn't take proper care of one's self, as she has done after perspiring.", "pos": 1218022}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "What's to be done? Should anything happen to her, it will all be through the evil consequences of my shortcomings!", "pos": 1218927}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Hai! Dear Mr. Secundus, go and mind your own business! Have I got such a dreadful disease?", "pos": 1219060}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "what a very hasty disposition (that girl Ch'ing Wen has!).", "pos": 1220954}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "Hsing Erh", "pos": 1223132}
{"speaker": "Hsing Erh", "text": "informs your ladyship that the pieces of gold in that bundle of the other day amount in all to one hundred and fifty-three taels, one mace and seven candareens; and that the ingots of pure metal and those not, contained in here, number all together two hundred and twenty.", "pos": 1223155}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Have we received, the bounty conferred (by His Majesty) for our spring sacrifices or not?", "pos": 1224042}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "I've sent Jung Erh to-day to go and receive it.", "pos": 1224166}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Albeit, our family can well do without those paltry taels, yet they are, whatever their amount may be, an imperial gift to us so take them over as soon as you can, and send them to our old lady, on the other side, to get ready the sacrifices to our ancestors. Above, we shall then receive the Emperor's bounty; below, we shall enjoy the goodwill of our progenitors. For no matter if we went so far as to spend ten thousand ounces of silver to present offerings to our forefathers with, they could not, in the long run, come up this gift in high repute. Added to this, we shall be the participators of grace and the recipients of blessings. Putting one or two households such as our own aside, what resources would those poverty-stricken families of hereditary officials have at their command wherewith to offer their sacrifices and celebrate the new year, if they could not rely upon this money? In very truth, therefore, the imperial favour is vast, and allproviding!", "pos": 1224234}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "Your arguments are quite correct!", "pos": 1225228}
{"speaker": "messenger", "text": "Our young master has arrived.", "pos": 1225393}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "How is it you've been away the whole day?", "pos": 1225599}
{"speaker": "Chia Jung", "text": "I didn't receive the money to-day from the Board of Rites. The issue was again made at the treasury of the Kuang Lu temple; so I had once more to trudge away to the Kuang Lu temple before I could get it. The various officials in the Kuang Lu temple bade me present their compliments to you, father. (They asked me to tell you) that they had not seen you for many days, and that they are really longing for your company.", "pos": 1225688}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "What an idea! Do they care to see me? Why, here's the end of the year drawing nigh again; so if they don't hanker after my presents, they must long and crave for my entertainments.", "pos": 1226124}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Go and ask your aunt Tertia, yonder, whether the day on which the new year wine is to be drunk has been fixed or not? If it has been determined upon, timely notice should be given in the library to draw out a proper list in order that when we again issue our invitations, there should be no chance of two entertainments coming off on the same day. Last year, not sufficient care was exercised, and several persons were invited to both mansions on the very same occasion. And people didn't say that we hadn't been careful enough, but that, as far as appearances went, the two households had made up their minds among themselves to show an empty attention, prompted by the fear of trouble.", "pos": 1227725}
{"speaker": "Chia Jung", "text": "he would attend to his injunctions", "pos": 1228482}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Go, and give it to Lai Sheng so that he may see its contents and invite the guests. But mind he doesn't fix anything else for the dates specified in here.", "pos": 1228686}
{"speaker": "Lad", "text": "Wu, the head-farmer in the Hei Shan village, had arrived.", "pos": 1229099}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "What does this old executioner come for to-day?", "pos": 1229159}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "For a farmer, it has several good points!", "pos": 1229979}
{"speaker": "Chia Jung", "text": "Pay no heed to the style, but to the good wishes.", "pos": 1230038}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Bring him in! You're still so hale!", "pos": 1231853}
{"speaker": "Wu Chin-hsiao", "text": "I don't deceive you, Sir, when I say that yours servants are so accustomed to walking, that had we not come, we wouldn't have felt exceedingly dull. Isn't the whole crowd of them keen upon coming to see what the world is like at the feet of the son of heaven? Yet they're, after all, so young in years, that there's the fear of their going astray on the way. But, in a few more years, I shall be able to appease my solicitude on their account.", "pos": 1232121}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "How many days have you been on the way?", "pos": 1232593}
{"speaker": "Wu Chin-hsiao", "text": "To reply to your question, Sir, so much snow has fallen this year that it's everywhere out of town four and five feet in depth. The other day, the weather suddenly turned mild, and with the thaw that set in, it became so very hard to make any progress that we wasted several days. Yet albeit we've been a month and two days in accomplishing the journey; it isn't anything excessive. But as I feared lest you, Sir, would be giving way to anxiety, didn't I hurry along to arrive in good time?", "pos": 1232655}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "How is it, I said, that he's come only to-day! But upon looking over the list just now it seemed to me that you, old fossil, had come again to make as much as fun of me, as if you were putting up a stage for a boxing-match.", "pos": 1233173}
{"speaker": "Wu Chin-hsiao", "text": "I must tell you, Sir, that the harvest this year hasn't really been good. Rain set in ever since the third moon, and there it went on incessantly straight up to the eighth moon. Indeed, the weather hasn't kept fine for five or six consecutive days. In the ninth moon, there came a storm of hail, each stone of which was about the size of a saucer. And over an area of the neighbouring two or three hundred li, the men and houses, animals and crops, which sustained injury, numbered over thousands and ten thousands. Hence it is that the things we've brought now are what they are. Your servant would not have the audacity to tell a lie.", "pos": 1233472}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "I had computed, that the very least you would have brought would have been five thousand taels. What's this enough for? There are only now eight or nine of you farmers, and from two localities reports have contrariwise reached us during the course of this very year of the occurrence of droughts; and do you people come again to try your larks with us? Why, verily these aren't sufficient to see the new year in with.", "pos": 1234158}
{"speaker": "Wu Chin-hsiao", "text": "And yet, your place can be looked upon as having fared well; for my brother, who's only over a hundred li away from where I am, has actually fallen in with a vastly different lot! He has at present eight farms of that mansion under his control, and these considerably larger than those of yours, Sir; and yet this year they too have only produced but a few things. So nothing beyond two or three thousand taels has been realised. What's more, they've had to borrow money.", "pos": 1234589}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Quite so! The state of things in my place here is passable. I've got no outside outlay. The main thing I have to mind is to make provision for a year's necessary expenses. If I launch out into luxuries, I have to suffer hardships, so I must try a little self-denial and manage to save something. It's the custom, besides, at the end of the year to send presents to people and invite others; but I'll thicken the skin of my face a bit, (and dispense with both), and have done. I'm not like the inmates in that mansion, who have, during the last few years, added so many items of expenditure, that it's, of course, a matter of impossibility for them to avoid loosening their purse strings. But they haven't, on the other hand, made any addition to their funds and landed property. During the course of the past year or two, they've had to make up many deficits. And if they don't appeal to you, to whom can they go?", "pos": 1235087}
{"speaker": "Wu Chin-hsiao", "text": "It's true, that in that mansion many items have been added, but money goes out and money comes in. And won't the Empress and His Majesty the Emperor bestow their favour?", "pos": 1236049}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Just you listen to his arguments! Aren't they ridiculous, eh?", "pos": 1236307}
{"speaker": "Chia Jung", "text": "Among your hills and seaboard can anything, be known with regard to this principle? Is it likely, pray, that the Empress will ever make over to us the Emperor's treasury? Why, even supposing she may at heart entertain any such wish, she herself cannot possibly adopt independent action. Of course, she does confer her benefits on them, but this is at stated times and fixed periods, and they merely consist of a few coloured satins, antiquities, and bric-a-brac. In fact, when she does bestow hard cash on them, it doesn't exceed a hundred ounces of silver. But did she even give them so much as a thousand and more taels, what would these suffice for? During which of the two last years have they not had to fork out several thousands of taels? In the first year, the imperial consort paid a visit to her parents; and just calculate how much they must have run through in laying out that park, and you'll then know how they stand! Why, if in another couple of years, the Empress comes and pays them a second visit, they'll be, I'm inclined to fancy, regular paupers.", "pos": 1236427}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "That's why, country people are such unsophisticated creatures, that though they behold what lies on the surface, they have no idea of what is inside hidden from view. They're just like a piece of yellow cedar made into a mallet for beating the sonorous stones with. The exterior looks well enough; but it's all bitter inside.", "pos": 1237514}
{"speaker": "Chia Jung", "text": "In very truth, that mansion is impoverished. The other day, I heard a consultation held on the sly between aunt Secunda and Yüan Yang. What they wanted was to filch our worthy senior's things and go and pawn them in order to raise money.", "pos": 1237869}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "This is just another devilish trick of that minx Feng! How ever could they have reached such straits? She's certain to have seen that expenses were great, and that heavy deficits had to be squared, so wishing again to curtail some item or other, who knows which, she devised this plan as a preparatory step, in order that when it came to be generally known, people should say that they had been reduced to such poverty. But from the result of the calculations I have arrived at in my mind, things haven't as yet attained this climax:", "pos": 1238191}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "How is it that you've come too? Who told you to come?", "pos": 1240154}
{"speaker": "Chia Ch'in", "text": "I heard, that you, senior Sir, had sent for us to appear before you here and receive our presents; so I didn't wait for the servants to go and tell me, but came straightway.", "pos": 1240282}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "These things, are intended for distribution among all those uncles and cousins who have nothing to do and who enjoy no source of income. Those two years you had no work, I gave you plenty of things too. But you're entrusted at present with some charge in the other mansion, and you exercise in the family temples control over the bonzes and taoist priests, so that you as well derive every month your share of an allowance. Irrespective of that, the allowances and money of the Buddhist priests pass through your hands. And do you still come to fetch things of this kind? You're far too greedy. Just you look at the fineries you wear. Why, they look like the habiliments of one who has money to spend, of a regular man of business. You said some time back that you had nothing which could bring you in any money, but how is it that you've got none again now? You really don't look as if you were in the same plight that you were in once upon a time.", "pos": 1240472}
{"speaker": "Chia Ch'in", "text": "I have in my home a goodly number of inmates, so my expenses are great.", "pos": 1241443}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Are you trying again to excuse yourself with me? Do you flatter yourself that I have no idea of your doings in the family temples? When you get there, you, of course, play the grand personnage and no one has the courage to run counter to your wishes. Then you've also got the handling of money. Besides you're far away from us, so you're arrogant and audacious. Night after night, you get bad characters together; you gamble for money; and you keep women and young boys. And though you now fling away money with such a high hand, do you still presume to come and receive gifts? But as you can't manage to filch anything to take along with you, it will do you good to get beans, with the pole used for carrying water. Wait until the new year is over, and then I'll certainly report you to your uncle Secundus.", "pos": 1241575}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "A servant, however, then announced", "pos": 1242499}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "that the Prince from the Pei mansion had sent a pair of scrolls and a purse.", "pos": 1242534}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "And just say, that I'm not at home.", "pos": 1242711}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "The evening meal has long ago been got ready for you, venerable ancestor. You've year by year shown no desire to honour us with your presence, but tarry a bit on this occasion and partake of some refreshment before you cross over. Is it likely, in fact, that we can't come up to that girl Feng?", "pos": 1253368}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Go on, worthy senior! Let's go home and eat our own. Don't heed what she says!", "pos": 1253683}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "In what bustle and confusion aren't you in over here, with all the sacrifices to our ancestors, and how could you stand all the trouble I'm putting you to? I've never, furthermore, had every year anything to eat with you; but you've always been in the way of sending me things. So isn't it as well that you should again let me have a few? And as I'll keep for the next day what I shan't be able to get through, won't I thus have a good deal more? Whatever you do, mind you depute some reliable persons to sit up at night and look after the incense fires; but they mustn't let their wits go wool-gathering.", "pos": 1253815}
{"speaker": "old nurse", "text": "the senior ladies had come to pay their respects.", "pos": 1256066}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I put you, to ever so much trouble and inconvenience from one year's end to another; so don't pay any obeisance.", "pos": 1256684}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Make allowances, for my old age. My bones are quite sore; so if I be a little out of order in my conduct bear with me, and let us entertain each other while I remain in a recumbent position.", "pos": 1263451}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Place it in the middle! These women have never known what good manners mean. Put the table down.", "pos": 1267635}
{"speaker": "Wen Pao", "text": "You go off with your monkey up; but, as luck would have it, this is the very day of the fifteenth of the first moon, and a family banquet is being given by the old lady in the Jung Kuo mansion, so wait and I'll jump on this horse and hurry in and ask for something to eat. I must look sharp!", "pos": 1268065}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh and the others", "text": "What a dreadful, impish child! Yet poor thing!", "pos": 1268423}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "This child is only just nine years of age,", "pos": 1268511}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "He has really made a clever hit! Tip him!", "pos": 1268578}
{"speaker": "married women", "text": "Dowager lady Chia, Mrs. Hsüeh, and the family relative, Mrs. Li, present Wen Pao this money to purchase something to eat with,", "pos": 1268945}
{"speaker": "Li and Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Gentlemen, please take your seats. What's the use of standing on such ceremonies?", "pos": 1270592}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "What's the use of your now following their lead again and falling on your knees? But since you behave like this, wouldn't it be well if you also went and poured wine all round?", "pos": 1271414}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Hold on a bit, and I'll go and do so.", "pos": 1271621}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "What about the young ladies?", "pos": 1271863}
{"speaker": "old lady Chia and the other ladies", "text": "You people had better be going. They'll, then, be more at their ease.", "pos": 1271921}
{"speaker": "grandmother Chia", "text": "Where are you off to? The crackers outside are dreadful. Mind, the lighted pieces of paper falling from above might burn you.", "pos": 1272362}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'm not going far. I'm merely going out of the room, and will be back at once.", "pos": 1272538}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "be careful and escort him. How is it, that I don't see anything of Hsi Jen? Is she too now putting on high and mighty airs that she only sends these juvenile girls here?", "pos": 1272676}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Her mother, died the other day; so being in deep mourning, she couldn't very well present herself.", "pos": 1273055}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "When one is in service, there should be no question of mourning or no mourning. Is it likely that, if she were still in my pay, she wouldn't at present be here? All these practices have quite become precedents!", "pos": 1273220}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Had she even not been in mourning to-night, she would have had to be in the garden and keep an eye over that pile of lanterns, candles, and fireworks, as they're most dangerous things. For as soon as any theatricals are set on foot in here, who doesn't surreptitiously sneak out from the garden to have a look? But as far as she goes, she's diligent, and careful of every place. Moreover, when the company disperses and brother Pao-yü retires to sleep, everything will be in perfect readiness. But, had she also come, that bevy of servants wouldn't again have cared a straw for anything; and on his return, after the party, the bedding would have been cold, the tea-water wouldn't have been ready, and he would have had to put up with every sort of discomfort. That's why I told her that there was no need for her to come. But should you, dear senior, wish her here, I'll send for her straightway and have done.", "pos": 1273490}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What you say, is perfectly right. You've made better arrangements than I could. Quick, don't send for her! But when did her mother die? How is it I know nothing about it?", "pos": 1274478}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Some time ago. Hsi Jen came in person and told you, worthy ancestor, and how is it you've forgotten it?", "pos": 1274674}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Yes. I remember now. My memory is really not of the best.", "pos": 1274801}
{"speaker": "Everybody", "text": "How could your venerable ladyship, recollect so many matters?", "pos": 1274962}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "the way she served me ever since her youth up; and how she waited upon Yün Erh also; how at last she was given to that prince of devils, and how she has slaved away with that imp for the last few years. She is, besides, not a slave-girl, born or bred in the place. Nor has she ever received any great benefits from our hands. When her mother died, I meant to have given her several taels for her burial; but it quite slipped from my mind.", "pos": 1275111}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Madame Wang presented her with forty taels; so that was all right.", "pos": 1275589}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Yes, never mind about that. Yuan Yang's mother also died, as it happens, the other day; but taking into consideration that both her parents lived in the south, I didn't let her return home to observe a period of mourning. But as both these girls are now in mourning, why not allow them to live together? They'll thus be able to keep each other company. Take a few fruits, eatables, and other such things, and give them to those two girls to eat.", "pos": 1275703}
{"speaker": "Hu Po", "text": "Would she likely wait until now? Why, she joined (Hsi Jen) long ago.", "pos": 1276199}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Have they all, forsooth, gone to sleep? Let's walk in gently, and give them a fright!", "pos": 1276870}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "How evident it is that worldly matters are very uncertain! Here you lived all alone in here, while your father and mother tarried abroad, and roamed year after year from east to west, without any fixed place of abode. I ever thought that you wouldn't have been able to be with them at their last moments; but, as it happened, (your mother) died in this place this year, and you could, after all, stand by her to the end.", "pos": 1277372}
{"speaker": "Hsi Jen", "text": "Quite so! Even I little expected to be able to see any of my parents' funeral. When I broke the news to our Madame Wang, she also gave me forty taels. This was really a kind attention on her part. I hadn't nevertheless presumed to indulge in any vain hopes.", "pos": 1277795}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Who would have fancied her also in here? But were I to enter, she'll bolt away in another tantrum! Better then that we should retrace our steps, and let them quietly have a chat together, eh? Hsi Jen was alone, and down in the mouth, so it's a fortunate thing that she joined her in such good time.", "pos": 1278218}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Stoop, and then loosen your clothes! Be careful that the wind doesn't blow on your stomach!", "pos": 1278738}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Who's there?", "pos": 1279124}
{"speaker": "Ch'ing Wen", "text": "Pao-yü is here. But mind, if you bawl and shout like that, you'll give him a start.", "pos": 1279154}
{"speaker": "The women", "text": "We had no idea, that we were coming, at a great festive time like this, to bring trouble upon ourselves! What a lot of hard work must day after day fall to your share, young ladies. We're taking over, some things to the two girls: Miss Chin and Miss Hua.", "pos": 1279291}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "They're still singing the 'Eight Worthies' outside, and how is it you're running again to Miss Chin's and Miss Hua's before the 'Trouble-first moon-box' has been gone through?", "pos": 1279695}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "Take the lid off, and let me see what there's inside. Those two dames are pleasant enough, and they know how to speak decently; but it's they who get quite worn out every day, and they contrariwise say that you've got ample to do daily. Now, doesn't this amount to bragging and boasting?", "pos": 1279915}
{"speaker": "She Yüeh", "text": "Those two women, are not bad. But such of them as don't know what good manners mean are ignorant to a degree of all propriety.", "pos": 1280628}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "You, who know what's what, should make allowances for that kind of rustic people. You should pity them; that's all.", "pos": 1280779}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "The older you grow, the denser you get! How could one ever use this icy-cold water?", "pos": 1281537}
{"speaker": "Young maid", "text": "Miss, look at the weather! I was afraid the water would get cold. It was really scalding; is it cold now? come over and pour some for me in here!", "pos": 1281636}
{"speaker": "matron", "text": "this is for our old mistress to brew tea with. I'll tell you what; you'd better go and fetch some yourself. Are you perchance afraid lest your feet might grow bigger by walking?", "pos": 1282011}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "I don't care whose it is. If you don't give me any, I shall certainly empty our old lady's teapot and wash my hands. That will do! With all your years, don't you yet know what's what? Who isn't aware that it's for our old mistress? But would one presume to ask for what shouldn't be asked for?", "pos": 1282191}
{"speaker": "matron", "text": "My eyes are so dim, that I didn't recognise this young lady.", "pos": 1282662}
{"speaker": "Sister-in-law Li and his aunt Hsüeh", "text": "He's only a youngster, so let him pour the wine! We must all drain this cup!", "pos": 1283289}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Fill the cups too of your female cousins, senior or junior. And you mayn't pour the wine anyhow. Each of you must swallow every drop of your drinks.", "pos": 1283589}
{"speaker": "Tai-yü", "text": "I am much obliged to you.", "pos": 1284155}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Pao-yü! you mustn't take any cold wine. Mind, your hand will tremble, and you won't be able to-morrow to write your characters or to draw the bow.", "pos": 1284269}
{"speaker": "Pao-yü", "text": "I'm not having any cold wine. I know you're not, but I simply warn you.", "pos": 1284431}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Those young people, are be to pitied! Let them too have some hot soup and warm viands. They then can go on again. Take of every kind of fruit, 'feast of lanterns' cakes, and other such dainties and give them a few. We don't care what they are; Any will do! Have you of late added any new stories to your stock?", "pos": 1285068}
{"speaker": "the two girls", "text": "It's about an old affair of the time of the Five Dynasties, which trod down the T'ang dynasty.", "pos": 1285886}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What's its title?", "pos": 1285983}
{"speaker": "One of the girls", "text": "It's called: 'A Feng seeks a Luan in marriage': (the male phoenix asks the female phoenix in marriage),", "pos": 1286027}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "The title is all very well, but why I wonder was it ever given to it. First tell us its general purport, and if it's interesting, you can continue.", "pos": 1286160}
{"speaker": "The girl", "text": "This story, treats of the time when the T'ang dynasty was extinguished. There lived then one of the gentry, who had originally been a denizen of Chin Ling. His name was Wang Chun. He had been minister under two reigns. He had, about this time, pleaded old age and returned to his home. He had about his knees only one son, called Wang Hsi-feng.", "pos": 1286341}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Now isn't this a duplicate of our girl Feng's name?", "pos": 1286762}
{"speaker": "A married woman", "text": "That's the name of your lady Secunda, so don't use it quite so heedlessly!", "pos": 1286902}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Go on with your story!", "pos": 1286991}
{"speaker": "The girl", "text": "We do deserve death! We weren't aware that it was our lady's worthy name.", "pos": 1287090}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Why should you be in such fear and trembling? Go on! There are many duplicate names and duplicate surnames.", "pos": 1287182}
{"speaker": "The girl", "text": "In a certain year, his honour old Mr. Wang saw his son Mr. Wang off for the capital to be in time for the examinations. One day, he was overtaken by a heavy shower of rain and he betook himself into a village for shelter. Who'd have thought it, there lived in this village, one of the gentry, of the name of Li, who had been an old friend of his honour old Mr. Wang, and he kept Mr. Wang junior to put up in his library. This Mr. Li had no son, but only a daughter. This young daughter's worthy name was Ch'u Luan. She could perform on the lute; she could play chess; and she had a knowledge of books and of painting. There was nothing that she did not understand.", "pos": 1287352}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "It's no wonder, that the story has been called: 'A Feng seeks a Luan in marriage,' '(a male phoenix seeks a female phoenix in marriage).' But you needn't proceed. I've already guessed the denouement. There's no doubt that Wang Hsi-feng asks for the hand of this Miss Ch'u Luan.", "pos": 1288067}
{"speaker": "the singing-girl", "text": "Your venerable ladyship must really have heard the story before,", "pos": 1288359}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "All these stories run invariably in one line. They're all about pretty girls and scholars. There's no fun in them. They abuse people's daughters in every possible way, and then they still term them nice pretty girls. They're so concocted that there's not even a semblance of truth in them. From the very first, they canvass the families of the gentry. If the paterfamilias isn't a president of a board; then he's made a minister. The heroine is bound to be as lovable as a gem. This young lady is sure to understand all about letters, and propriety. She knows every thing and is, in a word, a peerless beauty. At the sight of a handsome young man, she pays no heed as to whether he be relation or friend, but begins to entertain thoughts of the primary affair of her life, and forgets her parents and sets her books on one side. She behaves as neither devil nor thief would: so in what respect does she resemble a nice pretty girl? Were even her brain full of learning, she couldn't be accounted a nice pretty girl, after behaving in this manner! Just like a young fellow, whose mind is well stored with book-lore, and who goes and plays the robber! Now is it likely that the imperial laws would look upon him as a man of parts, and that they wouldn't bring against him some charge of robbery? From this it's evident that those, who fabricate these stories, contradict themselves. Besides, they may, it's true, say that the heroines belong to great families of official and literary status, that they're conversant with propriety and learning and that their honourable mothers too understand books and good manners, but great households like theirs must, in spite of the parents having pleaded old age and returned to their natives places, contain a great number of inmates; and the nurses, maids and attendants on these young ladies must also be many; and how is it then that, whenever these stories make reference to such matters, one only hears of young ladies with but a single close attendant? What can, think for yourselves, all the other people be up to? Indeed, what is said before doesn't accord with what comes afterwards. Isn't it so, eh?", "pos": 1288571}
{"speaker": "the party", "text": "These criticisms of yours, have laid bare every single discrepancy.", "pos": 1290802}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "They have however their reasons. Among the writers of these stories, there are some, who begrudge people's wealth and honours, or possibly those, who having solicited a favour (of the wealthy and honorable), and not obtained the object, upon which their wishes were set, have fabricated lies in order to disparage people. There is moreover a certain class of persons, who become so corrupted by the perusal of such tales that they are not satisfied until they themselves pounce upon some nice pretty girl. Hence is it that, for fun's sake, they devise all these yarns. But how could such as they ever know the principle which prevails in official and literary families? Not to speak of the various official and literary families spoken about in these anecdotes, take now our own immediate case as an instance. We're only such a middle class household, and yet we've got none of those occurrences; so don't let her go on spinning these endless yarns. We must on no account have any of these stories told us! Why, even the maids themselves don't understand any of this sort of language. I've been getting so old the last few years, that I felt unawares quite melancholy whenever the girls went to live far off, so my wont has been to have a few passages recounted to me; but as soon as they got back, I at once put a stop to these things.", "pos": 1290905}
{"speaker": "Sister-in-law' Li and Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "This is just the rule, which should exist in great families. Not even in our homes is any of this confused talk allowed to reach the ears of the young people.", "pos": 1292327}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Enough, that will do! The wine has got quite cold. My dear ancestor, do take a sip and moisten your throat with, before you begin again to dilate on falsehoods. What we've been having now can well be termed 'Record of a discussion on falsehoods.' It has had its origin in this reign, in this place, in this year, in this moon, on this day and at this very season. But, venerable senior, you've only got one mouth, so you couldn't very well simultaneously speak of two families. 'When two flowers open together,' the proverb says, 'one person can only speak of one.' But whether the stories be true or fictitious, don't let us say anything more about them. Let's have the footlights put in order, and look at the players. Dear senior, do let these two relatives have a glass of wine and see a couple of plays; and you can then start arguing about one dynasty after another. Eh, what do you say?", "pos": 1292546}
{"speaker": "Lady Secunda", "text": "what a sharp tongue you have! Were your ladyship to take to story-telling, we really would have nowhere to earn our rice.", "pos": 1293710}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "Don't be in such overflowing spirits. There are people outside; this isn't like any ordinary occasion.", "pos": 1293834}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There's only my senior brother-in-law Chen outside. And we've been like brother and sister from our youth up. We've romped and been up to every mischief to this age together. But all on account of my marriage, I've had of late years to stand on ever so many ceremonies. Why besides being like brother and sister from the time we were small kids, he's anyhow my senior brother-in-law, and I his junior sister-in-law. (One among) those twenty four dutiful sons, travestied himself in theatrical costume (to amuse his parents), but those fellows haven't sufficient spirit to come in some stage togs and try and make you have a laugh, dear ancestor. I've however succeeded, after ever so much exertion, in so diverting you as to induce you to eat a little more than you would, and in putting everybody in good humour; and I should be thanked by one and all of you; it's only right that I should. But can it be that you will, on the contrary, poke fun at me?", "pos": 1293961}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I've truly not had a hearty laugh the last few days, but thanks to the funny things she recounted just now, I've managed to get in somewhat better spirits in here. So I'll have another cup of wine. Pao-yü, come and present a cup to your sister-in-law!", "pos": 1294937}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There's no use for him to give me any wine, (I'll drink out of your cup,) so as to bring upon myself your longevity, venerable ancestor.", "pos": 1295291}
{"speaker": "a singing-girl", "text": "Venerable lady, you don't like the stories we tell; but may we thrum a song for you?", "pos": 1295921}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "You two, had better play a duet of the 'Chiang Chün ling' song: 'the general's command.' What watch of the night is it?", "pos": 1296033}
{"speaker": "the matrons", "text": "It's the third watch,", "pos": 1296346}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "No wonder it has got so chilly and damp!", "pos": 1296405}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "Venerable senior, wouldn't it be prudent for you to move on to the stove couch in the winter apartments? It would be as well. These two relatives are no strangers. And if we entertain them, it will be all right.", "pos": 1296598}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Well, in that case, why shouldn't the whole company adjourn inside? Wouldn't it be warmer for us all?", "pos": 1296824}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "I'm afraid there isn't enough sitting room for every one of us,", "pos": 1296968}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I've got a plan. We can now dispense with these tables. All we need are two or three, placed side by side; we can then sit in a group, and by bundling together it will be both sociable as well as warm.", "pos": 1297057}
{"speaker": "one and all", "text": "Yes, this will be nice!", "pos": 1297284}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "You must none of you stand on any ceremonies! If you just listen while I allot you your places, and sit down accordingly, it will be all right!", "pos": 1297623}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Brother Chen, take your cousins and be off! I'm also going to sleep in a little time. Bundle yourself away at once! You needn't come in. We've just sat down, and you'll make us get up again. Go and rest; be quick! To-morrow, there are to be some more grand doings!", "pos": 1298456}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "But Jung Erh should remain to replenish the cups, it's only fair that he should.", "pos": 1298985}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Quite so! I forgot all about him.", "pos": 1299081}
{"speaker": "Chia Chen", "text": "Yes!", "pos": 1299154}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I was just thinking, that it would be well, although you people are numerous enough to enjoy yourselves, to have a couple of great-grandchildren present at this banquet, so Jung Erh now makes the full complement. But Jung Erh sit near your wife, for she and you will then make the pair complete.", "pos": 1299590}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "In this propitious first moon, won't your teacher let you come out for a stroll? What are you singing now? The eight acts of the 'Eight worthies' recently sung here were so noisy, that they made my head ache; so you'd better let us have something more quiet. You must however bear in mind that Mrs. Hsüeh and Mrs. Li are both people, who give theatricals, and have heard I don't know how many fine plays. The young ladies here have seen better plays than our own girls; and they have heard more beautiful songs than they. These actresses, you see here now, formed once, despite their youth, part of a company belonging to renowned families, fond of plays; and though mere children, they excel any troupe composed of grown-up persons. So whatever we do, don't let us say anything disparaging about them. But we must now have something new. Tell Fang Kuan to sing us the 'Hsün Meng' ballad; and let only flutes and Pandean pipes be used. The other instruments can be dispensed with.", "pos": 1301460}
{"speaker": "Wen Kuan", "text": "Our acting couldn't, certainly, suit the taste of such people as Mrs. Hsüeh, Mrs. Li and the young ladies. Nevertheless, let them merely heed our enunciation, and listen to our voices; that's all.", "pos": 1302526}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Well said!", "pos": 1302725}
{"speaker": "Sister-in-law' Li and Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "What a sharp girl! But do you also try to imitate our old lady by pulling our leg?", "pos": 1302825}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "They're intended to afford us some ready-at-hand recreation. Besides, they don't go out to earn money. That's how it is they are not so much up to the times. Hui Ming sends a letter. You needn't, make your face up. Just sing this couple of plays so as to merely let both those ladies hear a kind of parody of them. But if you spare yourselves the least exertion, I shall be unhappy.", "pos": 1302937}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "I've verily seen several hundreds of companies, but never have I come across any that confined themselves to flutes.", "pos": 1303751}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "There are some. In fact, in that play acted just now called: 'Love in the western tower at Ch'u Ch'iang,' there's a good deal sung by young actors in unison with the flutes. But lengthy unison pieces of this description are indeed few. This too, however, is purely a matter of taste; there's nothing out of the way about it. When I was of her age, her grandfather kept a troupe of young actresses. There was among them one, who played the lute so efficiently that she performed the part when the lute is heard in the 'Hsi Hsiang Chi,' the piece on the lute in the 'Yü Ts'an Chi,' and that in the supplementary 'P'i Pa Chi,' on the Mongol flageolet with the eighteen notes, in every way as if she had been placed in the real circumstances herself. Yea, far better than this!", "pos": 1303891}
{"speaker": "the inmates", "text": "This is still rarer a thing!", "pos": 1304736}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "At the feast of lanterns, the moon is round.", "pos": 1304953}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Won't it be nice, to avail ourselves of the presence of the singing girls to pass plum blossom round and have the game of forfeits: 'Spring-happy eyebrow-corners-go-up,' eh?", "pos": 1305197}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "That's a fine game of forfeits! It just suits the time of the year. The one in whose hand it is when the drum stops, will have to drink a cup of wine, and to say something or other as well.", "pos": 1305384}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I'll tell you what. Who of us can pit herself against you, dear ancestor, who have ever ready at hand whatever you want to say? With the little use we are in this line, won't there be an absolute lack of fun in our contributions? My idea is that it would be nicer were something said that could be appreciated both by the refined as well as the unrefined. So won't it be preferable that the person, in whose hands the twig remains, when the drum stops, should crack some joke or other?", "pos": 1305920}
{"speaker": "They", "text": "It's only natural, that you venerable senior, should be the first to get exhilarated; for then, thanks to you, we shall also come in for some measure of good cheer.", "pos": 1307932}
{"speaker": "Dowager lady", "text": "To gulp down this wine is an easy job, but to crack jokes is somewhat difficult.", "pos": 1308124}
{"speaker": "the party", "text": "Your jokes, dear ancestor, are even wittier than those of lady Feng, so favour us with one, and let's have a laugh!", "pos": 1308230}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I've nothing out of the way to evoke laughter with. Yet all that remains for me to do is to thicken the skin of my antiquated phiz and come out with some joke. In a certain family,", "pos": 1308369}
{"speaker": "Sun Hsing-che", "text": "What are you up to? Is that the case? Well, it's lucky enough you came across me, for had you waited for the God of Hell, he wouldn't have known anything about it.", "pos": 1310291}
{"speaker": "Great saint", "text": "if you were to display some commiseration, we would be all right.", "pos": 1310729}
{"speaker": "Sun Hsing-che", "text": "There's no difficulty in the way. On the day on which you ten sisters-in-law came to life, I was, as luck would have it, on a visit to the King of Hell's place. So I (saw) him do something on the ground, and the junior sister-of-law of yours lap it up. But if you now wish to become smart and sharp-tongued, the remedy lies in water. If I too were therefore to do something, and you to drink it, the desired effect will be attained.", "pos": 1310821}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Splendid! But luckily we're all slow of tongue and dull of intellect, otherwise, we too must have had the water of monkeys to drink.", "pos": 1311333}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu and dame Lou", "text": "Who among us here has tasted any monkey's water. So don't sham ignorance of things!", "pos": 1311489}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Hsüeh", "text": "A joke must hit the point to be amusing,", "pos": 1311652}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Now we've caught her! drink your wine, be quick! And mind you tell something nice! But don't make us laugh so heartily as to get stomachaches. A certain household, was celebrating the first moon festival. The entire family was enjoying the sight of the lanterns, and drinking their wine. In real truth unusual excitement prevailed. There were great grandmothers, grandmothers, daughters-in-law, grandsons' wives, great grandsons, granddaughters, granddaughters-in-law, aunts' granddaughters, cousins' granddaughters; and ai-yo-yo, there was verily such a bustle and confusion!", "pos": 1312134}
{"speaker": "They", "text": "Listen to all this mean mouth says! We wonder what other ramifications she won't introduce!", "pos": 1312864}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Yu", "text": "I'll tear that mouth of yours to pieces.", "pos": 1313015}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "One does all one can to rack one's brain, and here you combine to do your utmost to confuse me! Well, if it is so, I won't go on.", "pos": 1313108}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Proceed with your story. What comes afterwards?", "pos": 1313254}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Well, after that, they all sat together and crammed the whole room. They primed themselves with wine throughout the hours of night and then they broke up. I'll tell you another. At the first moon festival, several persons carried a cracker as large as a room and went out of town to let it off. Over and above ten thousand persons were attracted, and they followed to see the sight. One among them was of an impatient disposition. He could not reconcile himself to wait; so stealthily he snatched a joss-stick and set fire to it. A sound of 'pu-ch'ih' was heard. The whole number of spectators laughed boisterously and withdrew. The persons, who carried the cracker, felt a grudge against the cracker-seller for not having made it tight, (and wondered) how it was that every one had left without hearing it go off.", "pos": 1313403}
{"speaker": "Hsiang-yün", "text": "Is it likely that the men themselves didn't hear the report?", "pos": 1314542}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "Why, the men themselves were deaf. How vexatious you are! Well, the next day was the sixteenth; so the festivities of the year were over, and the feast itself was past and gone. I see people busy putting things away, and fussing about still, so how can I make out what will be the end of it all? From what I can see, our worthy senior is also tired out; and we should, like when the cracker was let off in that story of the deaf people, be bundling ourselves off and finish!", "pos": 1314628}
{"speaker": "They", "text": "This thing, has really a mean tongue.", "pos": 1315748}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Yes, this vixen Feng has, in real truth, developed a meaner tongue than ever! But she alluded to crackers, so let's also let off a few fireworks so as to counteract the fumes of the wine.", "pos": 1315825}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I'm not afraid,", "pos": 1316740}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Nothing she likes so much as letting off huge crackers, and could she fear this sort of thing?", "pos": 1316777}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "We've got no one to care a rap for us. Wait till we break up, and we'll go and let some off in our garden. I can fire them far better than any of the young lads!", "pos": 1316980}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "The night is long, and somehow or other I feel peckish.", "pos": 1317968}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "There's some congee, prepared with duck's meat.", "pos": 1318048}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "I'd rather have plain things. There's also some congee made with non-glutinous rice and powder of dates. It's been cooked for the ladies who fast. If there's any of this, it will do very well,", "pos": 1318129}
{"speaker": "Madame Wang", "text": "I know all about their doings. When that girl Feng is well enough to go out, they have some little fear. But they're bound at present to consult again their own convenience. Yet you, dear child, are one in whom I can repose complete trust. Your brother and your female cousins are, on the one hand, young; and I can, on the other, afford no spare time; so do exert yourself on my behalf for a couple of days, and exercise proper supervision. And should anything unexpected turn up, just come and tell it to me. Don't wait until our old lady inquires about it, as I shall then find myself in a corner with nothing to say in my defence. If those servants aren't on their good behaviour, mind you blow them up; and if they don't listen to you, come and lay your complaint before me; for it will be best not to let anything assume a serious aspect.", "pos": 1323637}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Perfected philanthropy, published virtue!", "pos": 1325931}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "No sooner has one patrolling ogre come than they add three more cerberean sort of spring josses so that even at night we've got less time than ever to sip a cup of wine and indulge in a romp!", "pos": 1328681}
{"speaker": "Wu Hsin-teng's wife", "text": "Mrs. Chao's brother, Chao Kuo-chi, departed this life yesterday; the tidings have already been reported to our old mistress and our lady, who said that it was all right, and bade me tell you, Miss.", "pos": 1329273}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "What shall we do?", "pos": 1330743}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "The other day, that Hsi Jen's mother died, I heard that she was given forty taels. So now give her forty taels as well and have done!", "pos": 1330834}
{"speaker": "Wu Hsin-teng's wife", "text": "yes", "pos": 1331067}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Come back. Wait, don't get the money yet. I want to ask you something. Some of the old secondary wives, attached years back to our venerable senior's rooms, lived inside the establishment; others outside; there were these two distinctions between them. Now if any of them died at home, how much was allowed them? And how much was allotted to such as died outside? Tell us what was given in either case for our guidance.", "pos": 1331134}
{"speaker": "Wu Hsin-teng's wife", "text": "This is, nothing of any such great consequence. Whether much or little be allowed, who'll ever venture to raise a quarrel about it?", "pos": 1331804}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "This is all stuff and nonsense! My idea is that it would be better to give a hundred taels. For if we don't comply with what's right, we shall, not to speak of your ridiculing us, find it also a hard job by and bye to face your mistress Secunda.", "pos": 1331977}
{"speaker": "Wu Hsin-teng's wife", "text": "I'll go and look up the old accounts. I can't recollect anything about them just at this moment.", "pos": 1332293}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "You're quite an old hand in the management of affairs, and can't you remember, but come instead to perplex us? Whenever you've had anything of the kind to lay before your lady Secunda, have you also had to go first and look it up? But if this has been the practice, lady Feng can't be looked upon as being such a dreadful creature. One could very well call her lenient and kind. Yet don't you yet hurry to go and hunt them up and bring them to me to see? If we dilly-dally another day, they won't run you people down for your coarse-mindedness, but we will seem to have been driven to our wits' ends!", "pos": 1332392}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Give her twenty taels. Leave these accounts here for us to examine minutely.", "pos": 1334113}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "All the inmates of these rooms have trampled me under heel, but never mind! Yet, my child, just ponder, it is only fair that you should take my part.", "pos": 1334400}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "To whom are you alluding Mrs. Chao? I can't really make out what you're driving at. Who tramples you under foot? Speak out and I'll take up your cudgels.", "pos": 1334658}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "You're now trampling me down yourself, young lady. And to whom can I go and tell my grievance?", "pos": 1334845}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "I never would presume to do any such thing,", "pos": 1335017}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "Pray seat yourselves, both of you, and listen to what I have to say. I've had, like simmering oil, to consume away in these rooms to this advanced age. There's also your brother besides. Yet I can't compare myself now even to Hsi Jen, and what credit do I enjoy? But you haven't as well any face, so don't let's speak of myself.", "pos": 1335153}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "It was really on account of this, that I said that I didn't presume to disregard right and to violate propriety. These are old customs, enforced by the seniors of the family, and every one complies with them, and could I ever, pray, have changed them? These will hold good not only with Hsi Jen; but even when by and bye Huan-erh takes a concubine, the same course will naturally be adopted as in the case of Hsi Jen. This is no question for any large quarrels or small disputes, and no mention should be made about face or no face. She's our Madame Wang's servant-girl, and I've dealt with her according to a long-standing precedent. Those who say that I've taken suitable action will come in for our ancestors' bounty and our lady's bounty as well. But should any one uphold that I've adopted an unfair course, that person is devoid of all common sense and totally ignorant of what a blessing means. The only thing she can do is to foster as much resentment as she chooses. Our lady, Madame Wang, may even give a present of a house to any one; what credit is that to me? Again, she may not give a single cash, but even that won't imply any loss of face, as far as I am concerned. What I have to say is that as Madame Wang is away from home, you should quietly look after yourself a bit. What's the good of worrying and fretting? Our lady is extremely fond of me; and, if, at different times, a chilliness has sprung up on her part, it's because you, Mrs. Chao, have again and again been officious. Had I been a man and able to have gone abroad, I would long ago have run away and started some business. I would then have had something of my own to attend to. But, as it happens, I am a girl, so that I can't even recklessly utter so much as a single remark. Madame Wang is well aware of it in her heart. And it's now because she entertains a high opinion of me that she recently bade me assume the charge of domestic affairs. But before I've had time enough to do a single good act, here you come, Mrs. Chao, to lay down the law. If this reaches Madame Wang's ear, I fear I shall get into trouble. She won't let me exercise any control, and then I shall, in real earnest, come in for no face. But even you, Mrs. Chao, will then actually lose countenance.", "pos": 1335503}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "If Madame Wang loves you, there's still more reason why you should have drawn us into her favour. all you think about is to try and win Madame Wang's affections, and you forget all about us.", "pos": 1338135}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "How ever did I forget you? How would you have me drag you into favour? Go and ask every one of them, and you'll see what mistress is indifferent to any one, who exerts her energies and makes herself useful, and what worthy person requires being drawn into favour?", "pos": 1338371}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Mrs. Chao, don't lose your temper! Neither should you feel any ill-will against this young lady of yours. Had she even at heart every good intention to lend you a hand, how could she put it into words?", "pos": 1338728}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "This worthy senior dame, has also grown quite dense! Whom could I drag into favour? Why, in what family, do the young ladies give a lift to slave-girls? Their qualities as well as defects should all alike be well known to you people. And what have they got to do with me?", "pos": 1338946}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "Who tells you to give a lift to any one? Were it not that you looked after the house, I wouldn't have come to inquire anything of you. But anything you may suggest is right; so had you, now that your maternal uncle is dead, granted twenty or thirty taels in excess, is it likely that Madame Wang would not have given you her consent? It's evident that our Madame Wang is a good woman and that it's you people who are mean and stingy. Unfortunately, however, her ladyship has with all her bounty no opportunity of exercising it. You could, my dear girl, well set your mind at ease. You wouldn't, in this instance, have had to spend any of your own money; and at your marriage by and bye, I would still have borne in mind the exceptional regard you had shown the Chao family. But now that you've got your full plumage, you've forgotten your extraction, and chosen a lofty branch to fly to.", "pos": 1339300}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Who's my maternal uncle? My maternal uncle was at the end of the year promoted to be High Commissioner of the Nine Provinces! How can another maternal uncle have cropped up? It's because I've ever shown that reverence enjoined by the rites that other relatives have now more than ever turned up. If what you say be the case, how is it that every day that Huan-erh goes out, Chao Kuo-chi too stands up, and follows him to school? Why doesn't he put on the airs of an uncle? What's the reason that he doesn't? Who isn't aware of the fact that I'm born of a concubine? Would it require two or three months' time to trace my extraction? But the fact is you've come to kick up all this hullaballoo for fear lest people shouldn't be alive to the truth; and with the express design of making it public all over the place! But I wonder who of us two will make the other lose face? Luckily, I've got my wits about me; for had I been a stupid creature ignorant of good manners, I would long ago have lost all patience.", "pos": 1340360}
{"speaker": "Mrs. Chao", "text": "Is your lady any better? I was just thinking of going to look her up; but I could find no leisure!", "pos": 1341798}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "My lady says, that she apprehends, now that Mrs. Chao's brother is dead, that your ladyship and you, miss, are not aware of the existence of an old precedent. According to the ordinary practice no more need be given than twenty taels; but she now requests you, miss, to consider what would be best to do; if even you add a good deal more, it will do well enough.", "pos": 1342026}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "What's the use of another addition, when there's no valid reason for it? Who has again been twenty months in the womb? Or is it forsooth any one who's gone to the wars, and managed to escape with his life, carrying his master on his back? Your mistress is certainly very ingenious! She tells me to disregard the precedent, in order that she should pose as a benefactress! She wishes to take the money, which Madame Wang spurns, so as to reap the pleasure of conferring favours! Just you tell her that I could not presume to add or reduce anything, or even to adopt any reckless decision. Let her add what she wants and make a display of bounty. When she gets better and is able to come out, she can effect whatever additions she fancies.", "pos": 1342475}
{"speaker": "married woman", "text": "My lady and miss, may it please you to pay what has been spent in the family school for Mr. Chia Huan and Mr.. Chia Lan during the year.", "pos": 1344821}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "What are you in such a hurry for? You've got your eyes wide open, and must be able to see our young lady washing her face; instead of coming forward to wait on her, you start talking! Do you also behave in this blind sort of way in the presence of your lady Secunda? This young lady is, it's true, generous and lenient, but I'll go and report you to your mistress. I'll simply tell her that you people have no eye for Miss T'an Ch'un. But when you find yourselves in a mess, don't bear me any malice.", "pos": 1345024}
{"speaker": "woman", "text": "I've been rude,", "pos": 1345624}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "You've come just one step too late. You weren't in time to see something laughable! Even sister Wu, an old hand at business though she be, failed to look up clearly an old custom and came to play her tricks on us. But when we plied her with questions, she luckily had the face to admit that it had slipped from her memory. 'Do you,' I insinuated, 'also forget, when you've got anything to report to lady Secunda? and have you subsequently to go and hunt up all about it?' Your mistress can't, I fancy, be so patient as to wait while she goes and institutes proper search.", "pos": 1345834}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Were she to have behaved but once in this wise. I feel positive that a couple of the tendons of her legs would have long ago been snapped. But, Miss, don't credit all they say. It's because they see that our senior mistress is as sweet-tempered as a 'P'u-sa,' and that you, miss, are a modest young lady, that they, naturally, shirk their duties and come and take liberties with you. Your mind is set upon playing the giddy dogs, but when your mistress gets quite well again, we'll tell her all.", "pos": 1346443}
{"speaker": "married women", "text": "You're gifted with the greatest perspicacity, miss. The person who commits a fault must be the one to suffer. We don't in any way presume to treat any mistress with disdain. Our mistress at present is in delicate health, and if we intentionally provoke her, may we, when we die, have no place to have our corpses interred in.", "pos": 1347025}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "So long as you're aware of this, it's well and good. Miss, you know very well how busy our lady has been and how little she could afford the time to keep this tribe of people in order. Of course, they couldn't therefore, be prevented from becoming remiss. The adage has it: 'Lookers-on are clear of sight!' During all these years that you, have looked on dispassionately, there have possibly been instances on which, though additions or reductions should have been made, our lady Secunda has not been able to effect them, so, miss, do add or curtail whatever you may deem necessary, in order that, first, Madame Wang may be benefited, and that, secondly, you mayn't too render nugatory the kindness with which you ever deal towards our mistress.", "pos": 1347477}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai and Li Wan", "text": "What a dear girl! One really can't feel angry with that hussy Feng for being partial to her and fond of her. We didn't, at first, see how we could very well alter anything by any increase or reduction, but after what you've told us, we must hit upon one or two things and try and devise means to do something, with a view of not showing ourselves ungrateful of the advice you've tendered us.", "pos": 1348394}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "My heart was swelling with indignation, and I was about to go and give vent to my temper with her mistress, but now that she (P'ing Erh) has happened to come, she has, with a few words, quite dissuaded me from my purpose. For what things for Mr. Chia Huan and Mr. Chia Lau was the money expended during the year in the family school?", "pos": 1348807}
{"speaker": "woman", "text": "For cakes, they ate during the year at school; or for the purchase of paper and pens. Each one of them is allowed eight taels.", "pos": 1349305}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "The various expenses on behalf of the young men, are invariably paid in monthly instalments to the respective households. For cousin Chia Huan's, Mrs. Chao receives two taels. For Pao-yü's, Hsi Jen draws two taels from our venerable senior's suite of apartments. For cousin Chia Lan's, some one, in our senior lady's rooms, gets the proper allowance. So how is it that these extra eight taels have to be disbursed at school for each of these young fellows? Is it really for these eight taels that they go to school? But from this day forth I shall put a stop to this outlay. So P'ing Erh, when you get back, tell your mistress that I say that this item must absolutely be done away with.", "pos": 1349455}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "This should have been done away with long ago. Last year our lady expressed her intention to eliminate it, but with the endless things that claimed her attention about the fall of the year, she forgot all about it.", "pos": 1350165}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "If you've said all you had, you'd better be off and attend to your business. What's the use of your bustling about here?", "pos": 1350699}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "I've really got nothing to do. Our lady Secunda sent me first, to deliver a message; and next, because she feared that the servants in here weren't handy enough. The fact is, she bade me come and help the girls wait on you, my lady, and on you, miss.", "pos": 1350844}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Why don't you bring Mrs. Pao's meal so that she should have it along with us?", "pos": 1351127}
{"speaker": "waiting-maids", "text": "Go, and say that Miss Pao-ch'ai would like to have her repast just now in the hall along with the others, and tell them to send the eatables here.", "pos": 1351332}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Don't be deputing people to go on reckless errands! Those are dames, who manage important matters and look after the house, and do you send them to ask for eatables and inquire about tea? You haven't even the least notion about gradation. P'ing Erh is standing here, so tell her to go and give the message.", "pos": 1351560}
{"speaker": "married women", "text": "How could you, miss, be made to go and tell them? We've got some one here, who can do so! You've been standing so long, that you must feel quite tired. Do sit in this sunny place and have a little rest.", "pos": 1352027}
{"speaker": "matrons", "text": "It's cold on those stones, this is, as clean as it can be. So, miss, do make the best of it, and use it!", "pos": 1352456}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Many thanks,", "pos": 1352614}
{"speaker": "matron", "text": "This isn't the tea we ordinarily drink. This is really for entertaining the young ladies with. Miss, pray moisten your mouth with some.", "pos": 1352697}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "You're all too fond of trouble! The way you're going on won't do at all! She (T'an Ch'un) is only a young girl, so she is loth to show any severity, or display any temper. This is because she's full of respect. Yet you people look down on her and insult her. Should she, however, be actually provoked into any violent fit of anger, people will simply say that her behaviour was rather rough, and all will be over. But as for you, you'll get at once into endless trouble. Even though she might show herself somewhat wilful, Madame Wang treats her with considerable forbearance, and lady Secunda too hasn't the courage to meddle with her; and do you people have such arrogance as to look down on her? This is certainly just as if an egg were to go and bang itself against a stone!", "pos": 1353004}
{"speaker": "servants", "text": "When were we ever so audacious? This fuss is all the work of Mrs. Chao!", "pos": 1353785}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Never mind about that! My dear ladies, 'when a wall falls, every one gives it a shove.' That Mrs. Chao has always been rather topsy-turvey in her ways, and done things by halves; so whenever there has been any rumpus, you've invariably shoved the blame on to her shoulders. Never have you had any regard for any single person. Your designs are simply awful! Is it likely that all these years that I've been here, I haven't come to know of them? Had our lady Secunda mismanaged things just a little bit, she would have long ago been run down by every one of you, ladies! Even such as she is, you would, could you only get the least opportunity, be ready to place her in a fix! And how many, many times hasn't she been abused by you?", "pos": 1353900}
{"speaker": "servants", "text": "She's dreadful. You all live in fear and trembling of her. But we know well enough that no one could say that she too does not in the depths of her heart entertain some little dread for the lot of you. The other day, we said, in talking matters over, that things could not go on smoothly from beginning to end, and that some unpleasantness was bound to happen. Miss Tertia is, it's true, a mere girl, and you've always treated her with little consideration, but out of that company of senior and junior young ladies, she is the only soul whom our lady Secunda funks to some certain extent. And yet you people now won't look up to her.", "pos": 1354675}
{"speaker": "married women", "text": "Miss. Miss, do rest a little. They've had their meal served in there, so wait until things have been cleared away, before you go and deliver your message.", "pos": 1355447}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "I'm not like you people. How can I afford to wait? Have you too, come here to become something like those guardians posted outside the enclosing walls?", "pos": 1355611}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "What message have you got to deliver?", "pos": 1356083}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "I've got to ask when we can get Pao-yü's monthly allowance and our own too,", "pos": 1356147}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Is this any such pressing matter? Go back quick, and tell Hsi Jen that my advice is that no concern whatever should be brought to their notice to-day. That every single matter reported is bound to be objected to; and that even a hundred will just as surely be vetoed.", "pos": 1356240}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "Why is it?", "pos": 1356532}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh and the other servants", "text": "She's just bent, upon finding a few weighty concerns in order to establish, at the expense of any decent person who might chance to present herself, a precedent of some kind or other so as to fix upon a mode of action, which might help to put down expenses to their proper level, and afford a lesson to the whole household; and why are you people the first to come and bump your heads against the nails? If you went now and told them your errand, it would also reflect discredit upon our venerable old mistress and Madame Wang, were they to pounce upon one or two matters to make an example of you. But if they complied with one or two of your applications, others will again maintain 'that they are inclined to favour this one and show partiality to that one; that as you had your old mistress' and Madame Wang's authority to fall back upon, they were afraid and did not presume to provoke their displeasure; that they only avail themselves of soft-natured persons to make scapegoats of.' Just mark my words! She even means to raise objections in one or two matters connected with our lady Secunda, in order to be the better able to shut up people's mouths.", "pos": 1356684}
{"speaker": "Ch'iu Wen", "text": "It's lucky enough you were here, sister P'ing, otherwise, I would have had my nose well rubbed on the ground. I shall seize the earliest opportunity and give the lot of them a hint.", "pos": 1357942}
{"speaker": "The married women", "text": "Let's do our downright best to save trouble. Don't let us therefore harbour any evil design, for even dame Wu will, in that case, be placed in an awkward fix. And can we boast of any grand honours to expect to fare any better?", "pos": 1358876}
{"speaker": "Shih Shu", "text": "When we've had our rice, we'll come and relieve you. But don't go stealthily again and sit down!", "pos": 1359969}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "I've got something of moment, about which I would like to consult your mistress. Happily, I remembered it just now, so come back as soon as you've had your meal. Miss Pao-ch'ai is also here at present, so, after we four have deliberated together, you can carefully ask your lady whether action is to be taken accordingly or not.", "pos": 1360289}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "How is it, that you've been away such an age? What a fine, splendid girl Miss Tertia is! What I said was quite right! The only pity is that she should have had such a miserable lot as not to have been born of a primary wife.", "pos": 1360705}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "My lady, you're also talking a lot of trash! She, mayn't be Madame Wang's child, but is it likely that any one would be so bold as to point the finger of scorn at her, and not treat her like the others?", "pos": 1361063}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "How could you know everything? She is, of course, the offspring of a concubine, but as a mere girl, she can't be placed on the same footing as a man! By and bye, when any one aspires to her hand, the sort of supercilious parties, who now tread the world, will, as a first step, ask whether this young lady is the child of a No. 1 or No. 2 wife. And many of these won't have anything to say to her, as she is the child, of a No. 2. But really people haven't any idea that, not to speak of her as the offspring of a secondary wife, she would be, even as a mere servant-girl of ours, far superior than the very legitimate daughter of any family. Who, I wonder, will in the future be so devoid of good fortune as to break off the match; just because he may be inclined to pick and choose between a wife's child and a concubine's child? And who, I would like to know, will be that lucky fellow, who'll snatch her off without any regard to No. 1 and No. 2? You know well enough how many ways and means I've had all these years to devise in order to effect retrenchment, and how there isn't, I may safely aver, a single soul in the whole household, who doesn't detest me behind my back. But now that I'm astride on the tiger's back, (I must go on; for if I put my foot on the ground, I shall be devoured). It's true, my tactics have been more or less seen through, but there's no help for it; I can't very well become more open-handed in a moment! In the second place, much goes out at home, and little comes in; and the hundred and one, large and small, things, which turn up, are still managed with that munificence so characteristic of our old ancestors. But the funds, that come in throughout the year, fall short of the immense sums of past days. And if I try again to effect any savings people will laugh at me, our venerable senior and Madame Wang suffer wrongs, and the servants abhor me for my stinginess. Yet, if we don't seize the first opportunity to think of some plan for enforcing retrenchment, our means will, in the course of a few more years, be completely exhausted.", "pos": 1361306}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Quite so! By and bye, there will be three or four daughters and two or three more sons added; and our old mistress won't be able, singlehanded, to meet all this heavy outlay.", "pos": 1363467}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "I myself entertain fears on the same score. But, after all, there will be ample. For when Pao-yü and cousin Lin get married, there won't be any need to touch a cent of public money, as our old lady has her own private means, and she can well fork out some. Miss Secunda is the child of your senior master yonder, and she too needn't be taken into account. So there only remain three or four, for each of whom one need only spend, at the utmost, ten thousand taels. Cousin Huan will marry in the near future; and if an outlay of three thousand taels prove insufficient, we will be able, by curtailing the bandoline, used in those rooms for smoothing the hair with, make both ends meet. And should our worthy senior's end come about, provision for everything is already made. All that we'll have to do will be to spend some small sum for a few miscellaneous trifles; and three to five thousand taels will more than suffice. So with further economies at present, there will be plenty for all our successive needs. The only fear is lest anything occur at an unforeseen juncture; for then it will be dreadful! But don't let us give way to apprehensions with regard to the future! You'd better have your rice; and when you've done, be quick and go and hear what they mean to treat about in their deliberations. I must now turn this opportunity to the best account. I was only this very minute lamenting that I had no help at my disposal. There's Pao-yü, it's true, but he too is made of the same stuff as the rest of them in here. Were I even to get him under my thumb, it would be of no earthly use whatever. Senior lady is as good-natured as a joss; and she likewise is no good. Miss Secunda is worse than useless. Besides, she doesn't belong to this place. Miss Quarta is only a child. That young fellow Lan and Huan-erh are, more than any of the others, like frozen kittens with frizzled coats. They only wait to find some warm hole in a stove into which they may poke themselves! Really from one and the same womb have been created two human beings (T'an Ch'un and Chia Huan) so totally unlike each other as the heavens are distant from the earth. But when I think of all this, I feel quite angry! Again, that girl Lin and Miss Pao are both deserving enough, but as they also happen to be our connexions, they couldn't very well be put in charge of our family affairs. What's more, the one resembles a lantern, decorated with nice girls, apt to spoil so soon as it is blown by a puff of wind. The other has made up her mind not to open her month in anything that doesn't concern her. When she's questioned about anything, she simply shakes her head, and repeats thrice: 'I don't know,' so that it would be an extremely difficult job to go and ask her to lend a helping hand. There's only therefore Miss Tertia, who is as sharp of mind as of tongue. She's besides a straightforward creature in this household of ours and Madame Wang is attached to her as well. It's true that she outwardly makes no display of her feelings for her, but it's all that old thing Mrs. Chao, who has done the mischief, for, in her heart, she actually holds her as dear as she does Pao-yü. She's such a contrast to Huan-erh! He truly makes it hard for any one to care a rap for him. Could I have had my own way, I would long ere this have packed him out of the place. But since she (T'au Ch'un) has now got this idea into her mind, we must cooperate with her. For if we can afford each other a helping hand, I too won't be single-handed and alone. And as far as every right principle, eternal principle, and honesty of purpose go, we shall with such a person as a helpmate, be able to save ourselves considerable anxiety, and Madame Wang's interests will, on the other hand, derive every advantage. But, as far as unfairness and bad faith go, I've run the show with too malicious a hand, and I must turn tail and draw back from my old ways. When I review what I've done, I find that if I still push my tyrannical rule to the bitter end, people will hate me most relentlessly; so much so, that under their smiles they'll harbour daggers, and much though we two may then be able to boast of having four eyes and two heads between us, they'll compass our ruin, when they can at any moment find us off our guard. We should therefore make the best of this crisis, so that as soon as she takes the initiative and sets things in order, all that tribe of people may for a time lose sight of the bitter feelings they cherish against us, for the way we've dealt with them in the past. But there's another thing besides. I naturally know the great talents you possess, but I feel mistrust lest you should, by your own wits, not be able to bring things round. I enjoin these things then on you, now, for although a mere girl she has everything at her fingers' ends. The only thing is that she must try and be wary in speech. She's besides so much better read than I am that she's a harder nut to crack. Now the proverb says: 'in order to be able to catch the rebels, you must first catch their chief.' So if she's at present disposed to mature some plan and set to work to put it into practice, she'll certainly have to first and foremost make a start with me. In the event consequently of her raising objections to anything I've done, mind you don't begin any dispute with her. The more virulent she is in her censure of me, the more deferential you should be towards her. That's your best plan. And whatever you do, don't imagine that I'm afraid of any loss of face. But the moment you flare up with her, things won' go well……", "pos": 1363666}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "You're too much disposed to treat us as simpletons! I've already carried out your wishes, and do you now enjoin all these things on me?", "pos": 1369340}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "It's because. I feared lest you, who have your eyes and mouth so full of me, and only me, might be inclined to show no regard whatever for her, that's why. I couldn't, therefore, but tender you the advice I did. But since you've already done what I wanted you to do, you've shown yourself far sharper than I am. There's nothing in this to drive you into another tantrum, and to make that mouth of yours begin to chatter away so much about 'you and I,' 'you and I' !", "pos": 1369510}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "I've actually addressed you as 'you' ; but if you be displeased at it, isn't this a case of a slap on the mouth? You can very well give me another one, for is it likely that this phiz of mine hasn't as yet tasted any, pray?", "pos": 1369993}
{"speaker": "lady Feng", "text": "What a vixen you are! How many faults will you go on picking out, before you shut up? You see how ill I am, and yet you come to rub me the wrong way. Come and sit down; for you and I can at all events have our meal together when there is no one to break in upon us. It's only right that we should.", "pos": 1370241}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "What was exercising my mind, confines itself to this. I was computing that the head-oil, and rouge and powder, we use during the course of a month, are also a matter of a couple of taels; and I was thinking that what with the sum of two taels, already allotted us every month, and the extra monthly amount given as well to the maids, allowances are, with the addition again of that of eight taels for school expenses, we recently spoke about, piled to be sure one upon another. The thing is, it's true, a mere trifle, and the amount only a bagatelle, but it doesn't seem to be quite proper. But how is it that your mistress didn't take this into account?", "pos": 1372657}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "There's a why and a wherefore. All the things required by you, young ladies, must absolutely be subject to a fixed rule; for the different compradores have to lay in a stock of each every month; and to send them to us by the maids to take charge of; but purely and simply to keep in readiness for you to use. No such thing could ever be tolerated as that each of us should have to get money every day and try and hunt up some one to go and buy these articles for us! That's how it is that the compradores outside receive a lump sum, and that they send us, month by month, by the female servants the supplies allotted for the different rooms. As regards the two taels monthly allowed you, young ladies, they were not originally intended that you should purchase any such articles with, but that you should, if at any time the ladies in charge of the household affairs happened to be away from home or to have no leisure, be saved the trouble of having to go in search of the proper persons, in the event of your suddenly finding yourselves in need of money. This was done simply because it was feared that you would be subjected to inconvenience. But an unprejudiced glance about me now shows me that at least half of our young mistresses in the various quarters invariably purchase these things with ready money of their own; so I can't help suspecting that, if it isn't a question of the compradores shirking their duties, it must be that what they buy is all mere rubbish.", "pos": 1373358}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un and Li Wan", "text": "You must have kept a sharp lookout to have managed to detect these things! But as for shirking the purchases, they don't actually do so. It's simply that they're behind time by a good number of days. Yet when one puts on the screw with them, they get some articles from somewhere or other, who knows where? These are however only a sham; for, in reality, they aren't fit for use. But as they're now as ever obtained with cash down, a couple of taels could very well be given to the brothers or sons of some of the other people's nurses to purchase them with. They'll then be good for something! Were we however to employ any of the public domestics in the establishment, the things will be just as bad as ever. I wonder how they do manage to get such utter rot as they do?", "pos": 1374881}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "The purchases of the compradores may be what they are, but were anyone else to buy any better articles, the compradores themselves won't ever forgive them. Besides other things, they'll aver that they harbour evil designs, and that they wish to deprive them of their post. That's how it comes about that the servants would much rather give offence to you all inside, (by getting inferior things), and that they have no desire to hurt the feelings of the managers outside, (by purchasing anything of superior quality). But if you, young ladies, requisition the services of the nurses, these men won't have the arrogance to make any nonsensical remarks.", "pos": 1375669}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "This accounts for the unhappy state my heart is in. But as we're called upon to squander money right and left, and as the things purchased are half of them uselessly thrown away, wouldn't it, after all, be better for us to eliminate this monthly allowance to the compradores? This is the first thing. The next I'd like to ask you is this. When they went, during the new year festivities, to Lai Ta's house, you also went with them; and what do think of that small garden as compared with this of ours?", "pos": 1376343}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "It isn't half as big as ours. The trees and plants are likewise fewer by a good deal.", "pos": 1376870}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "When I was having a chat with their daughter, she said that, besides the flowers they wear, and the bamboo shoots, vegetables, fish and shrimps they eat from this garden of theirs, there's still enough every year for people to take over under contract, and that at the close of each year there's a surplus in full of two hundred taels. Ever since that day is it that I've become alive to the fact that even a broken lotus leaf, and a blade of withered grass are alike worth money.", "pos": 1376992}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "This is, in very truth, the way wealthy and well-to-do people talk! But notwithstanding your honourable position, young ladies, you really understand nothing about these concerns. Yet, haven't you, with all your book-lore, seen anything of the passage in the writing of Chu Fu-tzu: 'Throw not thyself away?'", "pos": 1377499}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "I've read it, it's true, but its object is simply to urge people to exert themselves; it's as much empty talk as any random arguments, and how could it be bodily treated as gospel?", "pos": 1377830}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Chu-tzu's work all as much empty talk as any random arguments? Why every sentence in it is founded on fact. You've only had the management of affairs in your hands for a couple of days, and already greed and ambition have so beclouded your mind that you've come to look upon Chu-tzu as full of fraud and falsehood. But when you by and bye go out into the world and see all those mighty concerns reeking with greed and corruption, you'll even go so far as to treat Confucius himself as a fraud!", "pos": 1378034}
{"speaker": "Pan Ch'un", "text": "Haven't you with all your culture read a book like that of Chi-tzu's? Chi-tzu said in bygone days 'that when one descends into the arena where gain and emoluments are to be got, and enters the world of planning and plotting, one makes light of the injunctions of Yao and Shun, and disregards the principles inculcated by Confucius and Mencius.'", "pos": 1378553}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "What about the next line?", "pos": 1378921}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "I now cut the text short, in order to adapt the sense to what I want to say. Would I recite the following sentence, and heap abuse upon my own self; is it likely I would; eh?", "pos": 1378996}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "There's nothing under the heavens that can't be turned to some use. And since everything can be utilised, everything must be worth money. But can it be that a person gifted with such intelligence as yours can have had no experience in such great matters and legitimate concerns as these?", "pos": 1379206}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "You send for a person, and you don't speak about what's right and proper, but you start an argument on learning.", "pos": 1379515}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Learning is right and proper. If we made no allusion to learning, we'd all soon enough drift among the rustic herd!", "pos": 1379662}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "This garden of ours, is only half as big as theirs, so if you double the income they derive, you will see that we ought to reap a net profit of four hundred taels a year. But were we also now to secure a contract for our surplus products, the money, we'd earn, would, of course, be a mere trifle and not one that a family like ours should hanker after. And were we to depute two special persons (to attend to the garden), the least permission given by them to any one to turn anything to improper uses, would, since there be so many things of intrinsic value, be tantamount to a reckless destruction of the gifts of heaven. So would it not be preferable to select several quiet, steady and experienced old matrons, out of those stationed in the grounds, and appoint them to put them in order and look after things? Neither will there be any need then to make them pay any rent, or give any taxes in kind. All we can ask them is to supply the household with whatever they can afford during the year. In the first place, the garden will, with special persons to look after the plants and trees, naturally so improve from year to year that there won't be any bustle or confusion, whenever the time draws nigh to utilise the grounds. Secondly, people won't venture to injure or uselessly waste anything. In the third place, the old matrons themselves will, by availing themselves of these small perquisites, not labour in the gardens year after year and day after day all for no good. Fourthly, it will in like manner be possible to effect a saving in the expenditure for gardeners, rockery-layers, sweepers and other necessary servants. And this excess can be utilised for making up other deficiencies. I don't see any reason why this shouldn't be practicable!", "pos": 1379967}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Excellent! 'Within three years, there will be no more famines and dearths.'", "pos": 1381921}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "What a first-rate plan! This, if actually adopted, will delight the heart of Madame Wang. Pecuniary economies are of themselves a paltry matter; but there will be then in the garden those to sweep the grounds, and those whose special charge will be to look after them. Besides, were the persons selected allowed to turn up an honest cash by selling part of the products, they will be so impelled by a sense of their responsibilities, and prompted by a desire of gain that there won't any longer be any who won't acquit themselves of their duties to the fullest measure.", "pos": 1382012}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "It remained for you, miss, to put these suggestions in words. Our mistress may have entertained the idea, but it is by no means certain that she thought it nice on her part to give utterance to it. For as you, young ladies, live at present in the garden, she could not possibly, unable as she is to supply such additional ornaments as will make it more showy, contrariwise depute people to exercise authority in it, and to keep it in order, with a view of effecting a reduction in expenses. Such a proposal could never have dropped from her lips.", "pos": 1382604}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Open that mouth of yours wide, and let me see of what stuff your teeth and tongue are made! Ever since you put your foot out of bed this morning you've jabbered away up to this very moment! And your song has all been in one strain. For neither have you been very complimentary to Miss Tertia, nor have you admitted that your mistress is, as far as wits go, so much below the mark as to be unable to effect suitable provision. Yet whenever Miss Tertia advanced any arguments, you've at once made use of endless words to join issue with her. This is because the plan devised by Miss Tertia was also hit upon by your lady Feng. But there must surely have been a reason why she couldn't carry it into execution. Again, as the young ladies have now their quarters in the garden, she couldn't, with any decency, direct any one to go and rule over it, for the mere sake of saving a few cash. Just consider this. If the garden is actually handed to people to make profit out of it, the parties interested will, of course, not even permit a single spray of flowers to be plucked, and not a single fruit to be taken away. With such as come within the category of senior young ladies, they won't naturally have the audacity to be particular; but they'll daily have endless rows with the junior girls. (Lady Feng) has, with her fears about the future and her misgivings about the present, shown herself neither too overbearing nor too servile. This mistress of theirs is not friendly disposed towards us, but when she hears of her various proposals, shame might induce her to turn over a new leaf.", "pos": 1383237}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Early this morning. I was very cross, but as soon as I heard of her (P'ing Erh's) arrival, I casually remembered that her mistress employed, during her time, such domestics as were up to all kinds of larks, and at the sight of her, I got more cross than ever. But, little though one would have thought it, she behaved from the moment she came, like a rat that tries to get out of the way of a cat. And as she had had to stand for ever so long, I pitied her very much; but she took up the thread of the conversation, and went on to spin that long yarn of hers. Yet, instead of mentioning that her mistress treats me with every consideration, she, on the contrary, observed: 'The kindness with which you have all along dealt with our lady miss, has not been to no purpose.' This remark therefore not only dispelled my anger, but filled me with so much shame that I began to feel sore at heart. And, when I came to think carefully over the matter, I failed to see how I, a mere girl, who had personally done so much mischief that not a soul cared a straw for me and not a soul took any interest in me, could possess any such good qualities as to treat any one kindly….", "pos": 1384840}
{"speaker": "Li Wan and her associates", "text": "Let's avail ourselves of this quiet day, to try and find out how we could increase our revenue and remove abuses, so as not to render futile the charge laid on us by Madame Wang. What use or purpose is it to allude to such trivial matters?", "pos": 1386470}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "I've already grasped your object. Miss, speak out; who do you consider fit? And as soon as the proper persons have been fixed upon, everything will be square enough.", "pos": 1386730}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "What you say is all very well, but it will be necessary to let your lady know something about it. It has never been the proper thing for us in here to scrape together any small profits. But as your mistress is full of gumption, I adopted the course I did. Had she been at all narrowminded, with many prejudices and many jealousies, I wouldn't have shown the least willingness in the matter. But, as it will look as if I were bent upon pulling her to pieces, how can I take action without consulting her?", "pos": 1386928}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "In that case. I'll go and tell her something about it. I said, that it would be perfectly useless for me to go. How ever could our lady not readily accede to an excellent proposal like this?", "pos": 1387457}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "If you confide that bamboo tree for twelve months to my care, it will again next year be a single tree, but besides the shoots, which will have been eaten at home, I shall be able, in the course of the year, to also pay in some money.", "pos": 1388256}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "Hand me over,", "pos": 1388493}
{"speaker": "Unknown", "text": "that portion of paddy field, and there will, during the year, be no need to touch any public funds on account of the various birds, large and small, which are kept for mere fun. Besides that, I shall be in a position to give in something more.", "pos": 1388531}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "Were there a hundred of you here, you wouldn't know what propriety means! Are there perchance no couple of housekeepers about to push themselves forward and see the doctor in?", "pos": 1388977}
{"speaker": "servant", "text": "There's dame Wu and dame T'an. The two are on duty at the south-west corner at the 'accumulated splendour' gate.", "pos": 1389190}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Such as are diligent at the outset, become remiss in the end; and those who have a glib tongue have an eye to gain.", "pos": 1389504}
{"speaker": "trio", "text": "This old mother Chu, is a trustworthy woman. What's more, this old dame and her sons have generation after generation done the sweeping of the bamboo groves. So let's now place the various bamboo trees under her control. This old mother T'ien was originally a farmer, and everything in the way of vegetables and rice, in and about the Tao Hsiang village, should, albeit they couldn't, planted as they are as a mere pastime, be treated in such earnest as to call for large works and extensive plantations, be entrusted to her care; for won't they fare better if she can be on the spot and tend them with extra diligence at the proper times and seasons?", "pos": 1389897}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "What a pity it is, that two places so spacious as the Heng Wu garden and the I Hung court bring no grit to the mill.", "pos": 1390572}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Things in the Heng Wu garden are in a worse state. Aren't the scented wares and scented herbs sold at present everywhere in perfumery shops, large fairs and great temples the very counterpart of these things here? So if you reckon up, you will find how much greater a return these articles will give than any other kind of product. As for the I Hung court, we needn't mention other things, but only take into account the roses that bud during the two seasons of spring and summer; to how many don't they amount in all? Besides these, we've got along the whole hedge, cinnamon roses and monthly roses, stock roses, honey-suckle and westeria. Were these various flowers dried and sold to the tea and medicine shops, they'd also fetch a good deal of money.", "pos": 1390725}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Quite so! The thing is that there's no one with any notion how to deal with scented herbs.", "pos": 1391510}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "There's Ying Erh who waits on Miss Pao-ch'ai. Her mother is well-versed in these things. It was only the other day that she plucked a few, and plaited them, after drying them well in the sun, into a flower-basket and a gourd, and gave them to me to play with. But miss can you have forgotten all about it?", "pos": 1391641}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "I was this very minute speaking in your praise, and do you come to chaff me?", "pos": 1391978}
{"speaker": "trio", "text": "What makes you say so?", "pos": 1392087}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "It will on no account do. You employ such a lot of people in here that they all lead a lazy life and have nothing to put a hand to, and were I also now to introduce some more, that tribe will look even upon me with utter contempt. But let me think of some one for you. There's in the I Hung court, an old dame Yeh; she's Pei Ming's mother. That woman is an honest old lady; and is furthermore on the best of terms with our Ying Erh's mother. So wouldn't it be well were this charge given to this dame Yeh? Should there even be anything that she doesn't know, there'll be no necessity for us to tell her. She can go straightway and consult with Ying Erh's mother. And if she can't attend to everything herself, it won't matter to whom she relegates some of her duties. These will be purely private favours. In the event too of any one making any mean insinuations, the blame won't fall on our shoulders. By adopting this course, you'll be managing things in such a way as to do extreme justice to all; and the trust itself will also be placed on a most satisfactory footing.", "pos": 1392154}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "Excellent!", "pos": 1393249}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "This may be well and good,", "pos": 1393310}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "That's nothing to do with us! It was only the other day that Ying Erh recognised dame Yeh as her adopted mother, and invited her to eat and drink with them, so that the two families are on the most intimate terms.", "pos": 1393440}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "Exclusive, of what fixed custom requires for home consumption during the four seasons, you are still at liberty to pluck whatever remains and have it taken away. As for the profits, we'll settle accounts at the close of the year. I've also bethought myself of something,", "pos": 1394400}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "that no accounts need be handed even inside. This one will have a surplus, that one a deficit, so that it will involve no end of trouble; wouldn't it be better therefore if we were to find out who of them would take over this or that particular kind and let them purvey the various things? These are for the exclusive use of the inmates of the garden; and I've already made an estimate of them for you. They amount to just a few sorts, and simply consist of head-oil, rouge, powder and scented paper; in all of which, the young ladies and maids are subject to a fixed rule. Then, besides these, there are the brooms, dust-baskets and poles, wanted in different localities, and the food for the large and small animals and birds, and the deer and rabbits. These are the only kinds of things required. And if they contract for them, there'll be little need for any one to go to the accountancy for money. But just calculate what a saving will thus be effected!", "pos": 1395820}
{"speaker": "P'ing Erh", "text": "All these items are, I admit, mere trifles,", "pos": 1396781}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "Again! it would be four hundred taels in one year; but eight hundred taels in two years; and with these, we could purchase a few more houses and let them; and in the way of poor, sandy land we could also add several acres to those we've already got. 'There will, of course, still remain a surplus; but as they will have ample trouble and inconvenience to put up with during the year, they should also be allowed some balance in hand so as to make up what's wanted for themselves. The main object is, of course, to increase profits and curtail expenses, yet we couldn't be stingy to any excessive degree. In fact, were we even able to make any further economy of over two or three hundred taels, it would never be the proper thing; should this involve a breach of the main principles of decorum. With this course duly put into practice, outside, the accountancy will issue in one year four or five hundred taels less, without even the semblance of any parsimony; while, inside, the matrons will obtain, on the other hand, some little thing to supply their wants with; the nurses, who have no means of subsistence, will likewise be placed in easy circumstances; and the plants and trees in the garden will year by year increase in strength and grow more abundantly. In this wise, you too will have such articles as will be fit for use. So that this plan will, to some extent, not constitute a breach of the high principles of propriety. And if ever we want to retrench a little more from where won't we be able to get money? But if the whole balance, if any, be put to the credit of the public fund, every one, inside as well as outside, will fill the streets with the din of murmurings! And won't this be then a slur upon the code of honour of a household such as yours? So were any charge to be entrusted to this one, out of the several tens of old nurses at present employed in the garden, and not to that one, the remainder will naturally resent such injustice. As I said a while back all that these women will have to provide among themselves amounts to a few articles, so they will unavoidably have ample means. Hence each should be told to contribute, beyond the articles that fall to her share during the year, a certain number of tiaos, whether she may or may not realise any balance, and then jointly lump these sums together, and distribute them among those nurses only on service in the garden. For although they may not have anything to do with the control of these things, they themselves will have to stay in the grounds, to keep an eye over the servants on duty, to shut the doors, to close the windows and to get up early and retire late. Whenever it rains in torrents or it snows hard and chairs have to be carried, for you, young ladies, to go out and come in; or boats have to be punted, and sledges drawn, these rough and arduous duties come alike within their sphere of work. They have to labour in the garden from one year's end to the other, and though, they earn something in those grounds, it's only right that they should able to get some small benefits in the discharge of their legitimate duties. But there's another most trivial point that I would broach with less reserve. If you only think of your ease, and don't share the profits with them, they will, of course, never presume to show their displeasure, but in their hearts they won't cherish you any good feeling. What they'll do will be to make public business a pretext to serve their own private ends with; they'll pluck more of your fruits than they should; and cut greater quantities of your flowers than they ought. And you people will have a grievance, but you won't have anywhere to go and confide it. But should they too reap some gain, they'll readily look after such things on your behalf as you won't have the time to attend to.", "pos": 1396967}
{"speaker": "Pao-ch'ai", "text": "you, miss, and you, our lady, can well compose your minds. With the interest both of you feel on our behalf, may heaven and earth not spare us, if we do not display a full amount of gratitude for all your kindnesses.", "pos": 1405019}
{"speaker": "Lin Chih-hsiao's wife", "text": "The family of the Chen mansion of Chiang Nan, arrived in the capital yesterday. To-day, they're going into the palace to offer their congratulations. But they've now sent messengers ahead to come and bring presents and pay their respects.", "pos": 1405325}
{"speaker": "T'an Ch'un", "text": "They consist,", "pos": 1405686}
{"speaker": "Li Wan", "text": "You must wait,", "pos": 1406524}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "This Chen family too, isn't like any other family; the highest tips should therefore be conferred upon the men. But as in a twinkle, they may also send some of their womankind to come and make their obeisance, silks should be got ready in anticipation. that four ladies of the Chen mansion had come to pay their respects.", "pos": 1406697}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "When did you enter the capital?", "pos": 1407626}
{"speaker": "The four women", "text": "We entered the capital yesterday. Our lady has taken our young lady today into the palace to pay their homage. That's why she bade us come and give you their compliments, and see how the young ladies are getting on.", "pos": 1407735}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "You hadn't paid a visit to the capital for ever so many years,", "pos": 1407970}
{"speaker": "The four women", "text": "Quite so! We received this year imperial orders, summoning us to the capital!", "pos": 1408163}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Has the whole family come?", "pos": 1408256}
{"speaker": "The four women", "text": "Our old mistress, our young master, the two young ladies and the other ladies haven't come up. Only our lady has come, together with Miss Tertia.", "pos": 1408306}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Is she engaged to any one?", "pos": 1408482}
{"speaker": "The four women", "text": "Not yet,", "pos": 1408532}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "The two families, that of your senior married lady and that of your lady Secunda are both on most intimate terms with ours,", "pos": 1408565}
{"speaker": "The four women", "text": "Yes, they are,", "pos": 1408726}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What kindness? These two families are really friends of long standing. In addition to this, they're old relatives. So what we do is our simple bounden duty. What's more in the favour of your two young ladies is, that they're not full of their own importance. That's how it is that we've come to be on such close terms.", "pos": 1408962}
{"speaker": "The four women", "text": "This is mainly due to your venerable ladyship's excessive humility,", "pos": 1409344}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Is that young gentleman of yours too with your old mistress?", "pos": 1409429}
{"speaker": "The four women", "text": "Yes, he has also come with our old mistress,", "pos": 1409526}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "How old is he? Does he go to school?", "pos": 1409598}
{"speaker": "The four women", "text": "He's thirteen this year. But all through those good looks of his, our old mistress cherishes him so fondly that from his youth up, he has been wayward to the extreme, and that he now daily plays the truant. But our master and mistress as well don't keep any great check over him.", "pos": 1409689}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Yet, he can't resemble that young fellow of ours. What's the name of your young gentleman?", "pos": 1410013}
{"speaker": "the quartet", "text": "As our old mistress treats him just like a real precious gem, and as his complexion is naturally so white, her ladyship calls him Pao-yü.", "pos": 1410131}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Here's another one with the name of Pao-yü!", "pos": 1410296}
{"speaker": "Li Wan and her companions", "text": "There have been, from old times to the present, very many among contemporaries and persons of different generations as well, who have borne duplicate names.", "pos": 1410433}
{"speaker": "four women", "text": "After the selection of this infant name, we all, both high or low, began to give way to surmises, as we could not make out in what relative's or friend's family there was a lad also called by the same name. But as we hadn't come to the capital for ten years or so, we couldn't remember.", "pos": 1410635}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "That young fellow is my grandson. Go into the garden, and call our Pao-yü here, so that these four housekeeping dames should see how he compares with their own Pao-yü.", "pos": 1410942}
{"speaker": "four dames", "text": "He has given us such a start! Had we not come into your worthy mansion, and perchance, met him, elsewhere, we would have taken him for our own Pao-yü, and followed him as far as the capital.", "pos": 1411474}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "How do his looks compare with those of your young gentleman?", "pos": 1411857}
{"speaker": "Li Wan and her companions", "text": "The way the four dames ejaculated just now, was sufficient to show how much they resemble in looks.", "pos": 1411959}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "How could there ever he such a coincidence? Yet, the children of wealthy families are so delicately nurtured that unless their faces are so deformed as to make them downright ugly, they're all equally handsome, as far as general appearances go. So there's nothing strange in this!", "pos": 1412100}
{"speaker": "quartet", "text": "As we gaze at his features, we find him the very image of him; and from what we gather from your venerable ladyship, he's also like him in waywardness. But, as far as we can judge, this young gentleman's disposition is ever so much better than that of ours.", "pos": 1412408}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "What makes you think so?", "pos": 1412709}
{"speaker": "four women", "text": "We saw it as soon as we took hold of the young gentleman's hands, and when he spoke to us. Had it been that fellow of ours, he would have simply called us fools. Not to speak of taking his hand in ours, why we daren't even slightly move any of his things. That's why, those who wait on him are invariably young girls.", "pos": 1412774}
{"speaker": "dowager lady Chia", "text": "Let's also send some one now,", "pos": 1413333}