The married women and maids assented and approached several steps.
"Go into the garden," old lady Chia smilingly said, "and call our Pao-yü here, so that these four housekeeping dames should see how he compares with their own Pao-yü."
The married women, upon hearing her orders, promptly went off. After a while, they entered the room pressing round Pao-yü. The moment the four dames caught sight of him, they speedily rose to their feet. "He has given us such a start!" they exclaimed smilingly. "Had we not come into your worthy mansion, and perchance, met him, elsewhere, we would have taken him for our own Pao-yü, and followed him as far as the capital."
While speaking they came forward and took hold of his hands and assailed him with questions.
Pao-yü however also put on a smile and inquired after their healths.
"How do his looks compare with those of your young gentleman?" dowager lady Chia asked as she smiled.
"The way the four dames ejaculated just now," Li Wan and her companions explained, "was sufficient to show how much they resemble in looks."
"How could there ever he such a coincidence?" old lady Chia laughed. "Yet, the children of wealthy families are so delicately nurtured that unless their faces are so deformed as to make them downright ugly, they're all equally handsome, as far as general appearances go. So there's nothing strange in this!"
"As we gaze at his features," the quartet added, with smiling faces, "we find him the very image of him; and from what we gather from your venerable ladyship, he's also like him in waywardness. But, as far as we can judge, this young gentleman's disposition is ever so much better than that of ours."
"What makes you think so?" old lady Chia precipitately inquired.