This joke had scarcely been concluded than it evoked incessant laughter from dowager lady Chia and every one else. But while she was bandying words, P'ing Erh happened to bring her another string of cash prompted by the apprehension that her capital might not suffice to meet her wants.
"It's useless putting them in front of me!" lady Feng cried. "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."
Dowager lady Chia had a hearty laugh, so much so, that the cards, she held in her hand, flew all over the table; but pushing Yüan Yang. "Be quick," she shouted, "and wrench that mouth of hers!"
P'ing Erh placed the cash according to her mistress' directions. But after indulging too in laughter for a time, she retraced her footsteps. On reaching the entrance into the court, she met Chia Lien. "Where's your Madame Hsing?" he inquired. "Mr. Chia She told me to ask her to go round."
"She's been standing in there with our old mistress," P'ing Erh hastily laughed, "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!"
"I'll go over," Chia Lien said. "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?"
"My idea is," P'ing Erh suggested laughingly, "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?"
"Everything is over long ago," Chia Lien observed, "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."
These words over, he quickly marched off. And P'ing Erh was so impressed with the reasonableness of his arguments, that she followed in his track.
As soon as Chia Lien reached the reception hall, he trod with a light step. Then peeping in he saw Madame Hsing standing inside. Lady Feng, with her eagle eye, was the first to espy him. But she winked at him and dissuaded him from coming in, and next gave a wink to Madame Hsing. Madame Hsing could not conveniently get away at once, and she had to pour a cup of tea, and place it in front of dowager lady Chia. But old lady Chia jerked suddenly round, and took Chia Lien at such a disadvantage that he found it difficult to beat a retreat. "Who is outside?" exclaimed old lady Chia. "It seemed to me as if some servant-boy had poked his head in."