"Is that young gentleman of yours too with your old mistress?" old lady
Chia went on to inquire.
"Yes, he has also come with our old mistress," the four women retorted.
"How old is he?" old lady Chia then asked. "Does he go to school?" she afterwards inquired.
"He's thirteen this year," the four women said by way of response. "But all through those good looks of his, our old mistress cherishes him so fondly that from his youth up, he has been wayward to the extreme, and that he now daily plays the truant. But our master and mistress as well don't keep any great check over him."
"Yet, he can't resemble that young fellow of ours," old lady Chia laughed. "What's the name of your young gentleman?"
"As our old mistress treats him just like a real precious gem," the quartet explained, "and as his complexion is naturally so white, her ladyship calls him Pao-yü."
"Here's another one with the name of Pao-yü!" old lady Chia laughingly said to Li Wan.
Li Wan and her companions hastily made a curtsey. "There have been, from old times to the present," they smiled, "very many among contemporaries and persons of different generations as well, who have borne duplicate names."
The four women also smiled. "After the selection of this infant name," they proceeded, "we all, both high or low, began to give way to surmises, as we could not make out in what relative's or friend's family there was a lad also called by the same name. But as we hadn't come to the capital for ten years or so, we couldn't remember."
"That young fellow is my grandson," dowager lady Chia remarked. "Hallo! some one come here!"