"There's nothing so really pat," suggested the company smiling; "as 'the orchid-smell-laden breeze' and 'the dew-bedecked epidendrum!"
"These are indeed the only four characters," rejoined Chia Cheng, "that could be suitably used; but what's to be said as far as the scroll goes?"
"I've thought of a couplet," interposed one of the party, "which you'll all have to criticise, and put into ship-shape; its burden is this:
"The musk-like epidendrum smell enshrouds the court, where shines the
sun with oblique beams;
The iris fragrance is wafted over the isle illumined by the moon's
clear rays."
"As far as excellence is concerned, it's excellent," observed the whole party, "but the two words representing 'with oblique beams' are not felicitous."
And as some one quoted the line from an old poem:
The angelica fills the court with tears, what time the sun doth slant.
"Lugubrious, lugubrious!" expostulated the company with one voice.
Another person then interposed. "I also have a couplet, whose merits you, gentlemen, can weigh; it runs as follows:
"Along the three pathways doth float the Yü Hui scented breeze!
The radiant moon in the whole hall shines on the gold orchid!"