Hardly had this remark dropped from her mouth, than she discerned some one else, clad in a deep red woollen cloak, appear to view at the back of Pao-ch'in. "What other girl is that?" dowager lady Chia asked.
"We girls are all here." they laughingly answered. "That's Pao-yü."
"My eyes," old lady Chia smiled, "are getting dimmer and dimmer!"
So saying, they drew near, and of course, they turned out to be Pao-yü and Pao-ch'in.
"I've just been again to the Lung Ts'ui monastery," Pao-yü smiled to Pao-ch'ai, Tai-yü and his other cousins, "and Miao Yü gave me for each of you a twig of plum blossom. I've already sent a servant to take them over."
"Many thanks for the trouble you've been put to," they, with one voice, replied.
But speaking the while, they sallied out of the garden gate, and repaired to their grandmother Chia's suite of apartments. Their meal over, they joined in a further chat and laugh, when unexpectedly they saw Mrs. Hsüeh also arrive.
"With all this snow," she observed, "I haven't been over the whole day to see how you, venerable senior, were getting on. Your ladyship couldn't have been in a good sort of mood to-day, for you should have gone and seen the snow."
"How not in a good mood?" old lady Chia exclaimed. "I went and looked up these young ladies and had a romp with them for a time."
"Last night," Mrs. Hsüeh smiled, "I was thinking of getting from our Madame Wang to-day the loan of the garden for the nonce and spreading two tables with our mean wine, and inviting you, worthy senior, to enjoy the snow; but as I saw that you were having a rest, and I heard, at an early hour, that Pao-yü had said that you were not in a joyful frame of mind, I did not, in consequence, presume to come and disturb you to-day. But had I known sooner the real state of affairs, I would have felt it my bounden duty to have asked you round."