"'The rules observed in the world,' the adage says, 'must be impartial,'" Pao-yü smiled. "But while my two cousins are handling those antique and rare gems, here am I with this coarse object!"
"Is this a coarse thing?" Miao Yü exclaimed. "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!"
"'Do in the country as country people do,' the proverb says," Pao-yü laughingly rejoined. "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!"
This sentiment highly delighted Miao Yü. So much so, that producing another capacious cup, carved out of a whole bamboo root, which with its nine curves and ten rings, with twenty knots in each ring, resembled a coiled dragon, "Here," she said with a face beaming with smiles, "there only remains this one! Can you manage this large cup?"
"I can!" Pao-yü vehemently replied, with high glee.
"Albeit you have the stomach to tackle all it holds," Miao Yü laughed, "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?"
At these words, Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yü and Pao-yü simultaneously indulged in laughter. But Miao-yü seized the teapot, and poured well-nigh a whole cupful of tea into the big cup. Pao-yü tasted some carefully, and found it, in real truth, so exceptionally soft and pure that he extolled it with incessant praise.
"If you've had any tea this time," Miao-Yü pursued with a serious expression about her face, "it's thanks to these two young ladies; for had you come alone, I wouldn't have given you any."
"I'm well aware of this," Pao-yü laughingly rejoined, "so I too will receive no favour from your hands, but simply express my thanks to these two cousins of mine, and have done!"
"What you say makes your meaning clear enough!" Miao-yü said, when she heard his reply.