"How often have I gone in for yarns?" T'an Ch'un said. "Now that our worthy senior," continuing, she laughed, "has got this nice granddaughter, she has banished from her mind all thought of a grandson like you!"
"Never mind," answered Pao-yü smiling. "It's only right that girls should be more doated upon. But to-morrow is the sixteenth, so we should have a meeting."
"That girl Lin Tai-yü is no sooner out of bed," T'an Ch'un remarked, "than cousin Secunda falls ill again. Everything is, in fact, up and down!"
"Our cousin Secunda," Pao-yü explained, "doesn't also go in very much for verses, so, what would it matter if she were left out?"
"It would be well to wait a few days," T'an Ch'un urged, "until the new comers have had time to see enough of us to become intimate. We can then invite them to join us. Won't this be better? Our senior sister-in-law and cousin Pao have now no mind for poetry. Besides, Hsiang-yün has not arrived. P'in Erh is just over her sickness. The members are not all therefore in a fit state, so wouldn't it be preferable if we waited until that girl Yün came? The new arrivals will also have a chance of becoming friendly. P'in Erh will likewise recover entirely. Our senior sister-in-law and cousin Pao will have time to compose their minds; and Hsiang Ling to improve in her verses. We shall then be able to convene a full meeting; and won't it be better? You and I must now go over to our worthy ancestor's, on the other side, and hear what's up. But, barring cousin Pao-ch'ai's cousin,—for we needn't take her into account, as it's sure to have been decided that she should live in our home,—if the other three are not to stay here with us, we should entreat our grandmother to let them as well take up their quarters in the garden. And if we succeed in adding a few more to our number, won't it be more fun for us?"
Pao-yü at these words was so much the more gratified that his very eyebrows distended, and his eyes laughed. "You've got your wits about you!" he speedily exclaimed. "My mind is ever so dull! I've vainly given way to a fit of joy. But to think of these contingencies was beyond me!"
So saying the two cousins repaired together to their grandmother's suite of apartments; where, in point of fact, Madame Wang had already gone through the ceremony of recognizing Hsüeh Pao-ch'in as her godchild. Dowager lady Chia's fascination for her, however, was so much out of the common run that she did not tell her to take up her quarters in the garden. Of a night, she therefore slept with old lady Chia in the same rooms; while Hsüeh K'o put up in Hsüeh P'an's study.
"Your niece needn't either return home," dowager lady Chia observed to Madame Hsing. "Let her spend a few days in the garden and see the place before she goes."
Madame Hsing's brother and sister-in-law were, indeed, in straitened circumstances at home. So much so that they had, on their present visit to the capital, actually to rely upon such accommodation as Madame Hsing could procure for them and upon such help towards their travelling expenses as she could afford to give them. When she consequently heard her proposal, Madame Hsing was, of course, only too glad to comply with her wishes, and readily she handed Hsing Chou-yen to the charge of lady Feng. But lady Feng, bethinking herself of the number of young ladies already in the garden, of their divergent dispositions and, above all things, of the inconvenience of starting a separate household, deemed it advisable to send her to live along with Ying Ch'un; for in the event, (she thought), of Hsing Chou-yen meeting afterwards with any contrarieties, she herself would be clear of all responsibility, even though Madame Hsing came to hear about them. Deducting, therefore any period, spent by Hsing Chou-yen on a visit home, lady Feng allowed Hsing Chou-yen as well, if she extended her stay in the garden of Broad Vista for any time over a month, an amount equal to that allotted to Ying Ch'un.
Lady Feng weighed with unprejudiced eye Hsing Chou-yen's temperament and deportment. She found in her not the least resemblance to Madame Hsing, or even to her father and mother; but thought her a most genial and love-inspiring girl. This consideration actuated lady Feng (not to deal harshly with her), but to pity her instead for the poverty, in which they were placed at home, and for the hard lot she had to bear, and to treat her with far more regard than she did any of the other young ladies. Madame Hsing, however, did not lavish much attention on her.