Wang Hsi-feng with earnest words upbraids Mrs. Chaos jealous notions. Lin Tai-yue uses specious language to make sport of Shih Hsiang-yuens querulous tone of voice. But to continue. Pao-yue was in Tai yues apartments relating about the rat-elves, when Pao-chai entered unannounced, and began to gibe Pao-yue, with trenchant irony: how that on the fifteenth of the first moon, he had shown ignorance of the allusion to the GREen wax; and the three of them then indulged in that room in mutual poignant satire, for the sake of fun. Pao-yue had been giving way to solicitude lest Tai-yue should, by being bent upon napping soon after her meal, be shortly getting an indigestion, or lest sleep should, at night, be completely dispelled, as neither of these things were conducive to the preservation of good health, when luckily Pao-chai walked in, and they chatted and laughed together; and when Lin Tai-yue at length lost all inclination to dose, he himself then felt composed in his mind. But suddenly they heard clamouring begin in his room, and after they had all lent an ear and listened, Lin Tai-yue was the first to smile and make a remark. Its your nurse having a row with Hsi Jen! she said. Hsi Jen treats her well enough, but that nurse of yours would also like to keep her well under her thumb; shes indeed an old dotard; and Pao-yue was anxious to go over at once, but Pao-chai laid hold of him and kept him back, suggesting: Its as well that you shouldnt wrangle with your nurse, for shes quite stupid from old age; and its but fair, on the contrary, that you should bear with her a little. |