Pao-yü knew very well that she was on her way to his grandmother's, so speedily halting by the side of the pavilion, he waited for her to come up. The two cousins then left the garden together, and betook themselves to the front part of the mansion. Pao-ch'in was at the time in the inner apartments, combing her hair, washing her hands and face and changing her apparel. Shortly, the whole number of girls arrived. "I feel peckish!" Pao-yü shouted; and again and again he tried to hurry the meal. It was with great impatience that he waited until the eatables could be laid on the table.
One of the dishes consisted of kid, boiled in cow's milk. "This is medicine for us, who are advanced in years," old lady Chia observed. "They're things that haven't seen the light! The pity is that you young people can't have any. There's some fresh venison to-day as an extra course, so you'd better wait and eat some of that!"
One and all expressed their readiness to wait. Pao-yü however could not delay having something to eat. Seizing a cup of tea, he soaked a bowlful of rice, to which he added some meat from a pheasant's leg, and gobbled it down in a scramble.
"I'm well aware," dowager lady Chia said, "that as you're up to something again to-day, you people have no mind even for your meal. Let them keep," she therefore cried, "that venison for their evening repast!"
"What an idea!" lady Feng promptly put in. "We'll have enough with what remains of it."
Shih Hsiang-yün thereupon consulted with Pao-yü. "As there's fresh venison," she said, "wouldn't it be nice to ask for a haunch and take it into the garden and prepare it ourselves? We'll thus be able to sate our hunger, and have some fun as well."
At this proposal, Pao-yü actually asked lady Feng to let them have a haunch, and he bade a matron carry it into the garden.
Presently, they all got up from table. After a time, they entered the garden and came in a body to the Lu Hsüeh pavilion to hear Li Wan give out the themes, and fix upon the rhymes. But Hsiang-yün and Pao-yü were the only two of whom nothing was seen.
"Those two," Tai-yü observed, "can't get together! The moment they meet, how much trouble doesn't arise! They must surely have now gone to hatch their plans over that haunch of venison."
These words were still on her lips when she saw 'sister-in-law' Li coming also to see what the noise was all about. "How is it," she then inquired of Li Wan, "that that young fellow, with the jade, and that girl, with the golden unicorn round her neck, both of whom are so cleanly and tidy, and have besides ample to eat, are over there conferring about eating raw meat? There they are chatting, saying this and saying that; but I can't see how meat can be eaten raw!"