"I daren't do it again," Tai-yü smiled and adjusted her hair; adding with another laugh: "I may have peculiar scents, but have you any 'warm' scents?"
Pao-yü at this question, could not for a time unfold its meaning: "What 'warm' scent?" he therefore asked.
Tai-yü nodded her head and smiled deridingly. "How stupid! what a fool!" she sighed; "you have jade, and another person has gold to match with you, and if some one has 'cold' scent, haven't you any 'warm' scent as a set-off?"
Pao-yü at this stage alone understood the import of her remark.
"A short while back you craved for mercy," Pao-yü observed smilingly, "and here you are now going on talking worse than ever;" and as he spoke he again put out his hands.
"Dear cousin," Tai-yü speedily implored with a smirk, "I won't venture to do it again."
"As for letting you off," Pao-yü remarked laughing, "I'll readily let you off, but do allow me to take your sleeve and smell it!" and while uttering these words, he hastily pulled the sleeve, and pressing it against his face, kept on smelling it incessantly, whereupon Tai-yü drew her hand away and urged: "You must be going now!"
"Though you may wish me to go, I can't," Pao-yü smiled, "so let us now lie down with all propriety and have a chat," laying himself down again, as he spoke, while Tai-yü likewise reclined, and covered her face with her handkerchief. Pao-yü in a rambling way gave vent to a lot of nonsense, which Tai-yü did not heed, and Pao-yü went on to inquire: "How old she was when she came to the capital? what sights and antiquities she saw on the journey? what relics and curiosities there were at Yang Chou? what were the local customs and the habits of the people?"
Tai-yü made no reply; and Pao-yü fearing lest she should go to sleep, and get ill, readily set to work to beguile her to keep awake. "Ai yah!" he exclaimed, "at Yang Chou, where your official residence is, has occurred a remarkable affair; have you heard about it?"
Tai-yü perceiving that he spoke in earnest, that his words were correct and his face serious, imagined that what he referred to was a true story, and she therefore inquired what it was?