Ch'ing Weng went on to heap abuse on the head of the young-maids. "Where have they gone? Have they bored into the sand?" she ejaculated. "They see well enough that I'm ill, so they make bold and runaway. But by and bye when I recover, I shall take one by one of you and flay your skin off for you."
Ting Erh, a young maid, was struck with dismay, and ran up to her with hasty step. "Miss," she inquired, "what's up with you?"
"Is it likely that the rest are all dead and gone, and that there only remains but you?" Ch'ing Wen exclaimed.
But while she spoke, she saw Chui Erh also slowly enter the room.
"Look at this vixen!" Ch'ing Wen shouted. "If I don't ask for her, she won't come. Had there been any monthly allowances issued and fruits distributed here, you would have been the first to run in! But approach a bit! Am I tigress to gobble you up?"
Chui Erh was under the necessity of advancing a few steps nearer to her. But, all of a sudden, Ch'ing Wen stooped forward, and with a dash clutching her hand, she took a long pin from the side of her pillow, and pricked it at random all over.
"What's the use of such paws?" she railed at her. "They don't ply a needle, and they don't touch any thread! All you're good for is to prig things to stuff that mouth of yours with! The skin of your phiz is shallow and those paws of yours are light! But with the shame you bring upon yourself before the world, isn't it right that I should prick you, and make mincemeat of you?"
Chui Erh shouted so wildly from pain that She Yueh stepped forward and immediately drew them apart. She then pressed Ch'ing Wen, until she induced her to lie down.
"You're just perspiring," she remarked, "and here you are once more bent upon killing yourself. Wait until you are yourself again! Won't you then be able to give her as many blows as you may like? What's the use of kicking up all this fuss just now?"
Ch'ing Wen bade a servant tell nurse Sung to come in. "Our master Secundus, Mr. Pao-yü, recently asked me to tell you," she remarked on her arrival, "that Chui Erh is very lazy. He himself gives her orders to her very face, but she is ever ready to raise objections and not to budge. Even when Hsi Jen bids her do things, she vilifies her behind her back. She must absolutely therefore be packed off to-day. And if Mr. Pao himself lays the matter to-morrow before Madame Wang, things will be square."