"I've only now returned," she observed to the waiting-maid, "and what shall I go again for? Just tell her that I'm fast asleep!"
"Dearest Mrs. Hsüeh!" the waiting-maid pleaded, "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."
"You little imp!" Mrs. Hsüeh laughed. "What are you afraid of? All she'll do will be to scold you a little; and it will all be over soon!"
While replying, she felt that she had no course but to retrace her footsteps, in company with the waiting-maid.
Dowager lady Chia at once motioned her into a seat. "Let's have a game of cards!" she then smilingly proposed. "You, Mrs. Hsüeh, are not a good hand at them; so let's sit together, and see that lady Feng doesn't cheat us!"
"Quite so," laughed Mrs. Hsüeh. "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?"
"Naturally only four!" Madame Wang smiled.
"Were one more player let in," lady Feng interposed, "it would be merrier!"
"Call Yüan Yang here," old lady Chia suggested, "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."
"You girls know how to read and write," lady Feng remarked with a smile, addressing herself to T'an Ch'un, "and why don't you learn fortune-telling?"