"How is it," Hsiang-yün asked, "that there was some one in the Lieh state called Lin Hsiang-ju, and that during the Han dynasty there lived again another person, whose name was Ssu Ma Hsiang-ju?"
"This matter of names is all well enough," Pao-yü rejoined with a smile. "But as it happens, his very appearance is the counterpart of mine. Such a thing could never be!"
"How is it," Hsiang-yün inquired, "that when the K'uang people saw
Confucius, they fancied it was Yang Huo?"
"Confucius and Yang Huo," Pao-yü smilingly argued, "may have been alike in looks, but they hadn't the same names. Lin and Ssu were again, notwithstanding their identical names, nothing like each other in appearances. But can it ever be possible that he and I should resemble each other in both respects?"
Hsiang-yün was at a loss what reply to make to his arguments. "You may," she consequently remarked smiling, "propound any rubbish you like, I'm not in the humour to enter into any discussion with you. Whether there be one or not is quite immaterial to me. It doesn't concern me at all."
Saying this, she lay herself down.
Pao-yü however began again to exercise his mind with further surmises. "If I say," he cogitated, "that there can't be one, there seems from all appearances to be one. And if I say that there is one, I haven't, on the other hand, seen him with my own eyes."
Sad and dejected he returned therefore to his quarters, and reclining on his couch, he silently communed with his own thoughts until he unconsciously became drowsy and fell fast asleep.
Finding himself (in his dream) in some garden or other, Pao-yü was seized with astonishment. "Besides our own garden of Broad Vista," he reflected, "is there another such garden?" But while indulging in these speculations, several girls, all of whom were waiting-maids, suddenly made their appearance from the opposite direction. Pao-yü was again filled with surprise. "Besides Yüan Yang, Hsi Jen and P'ing Erh," he pondered, "are there verily such maidens as these?"
"Pao-yü!" he heard that company of maids observe, with faces beaming with smiles, "how is it you find yourself in here?"