Hung Lou Meng - book 2 | Page 5

benefited, his happiness will be
snapped. If you therefore want to make a liberal gift seven catties will
do; if a small one, then five catties will even be sufficient."
"Well, in that case," responded dowager lady Chia, "let us fix upon five
catties a day, and every month come and receive payment of the whole
lump sum!"
"O-mi-to-fu!" exclaimed Ma, the Taoist matron, "Oh merciful, and
mighty P'u Sa!"
Dowager lady Chia then called the servants and impressed on their
minds that whenever Pao-yü went out of doors in the future, they
should give several strings of cash to the pages to bestow on charity
among the bonzes and Taoist priests, and the poor and needy they
might meet on the way.

These directions concluded, the Taoist matron trudged into the various
quarters, and paid her respects, and then strolled leisurely about.
Presently, she entered Mrs. Chao's apartments. After the two ladies had
exchanged salutations, Mrs. Chao bade a young servant-girl hand her
guest a cup of tea. While Mrs. Chao busied herself pasting shoes, Ma,
the Taoist matron, espied, piled up in a heap on the stove-couch, sundry
pieces of silks and satins. "It just happens," she consequently remarked,
"that I have no facings for shoes, so my lady do give me a few odd
cuttings of silk and satin, of no matter what colour, to make myself a
pair of shoes with."
Mrs. Chao heaved a sigh. "Look," she said, "whether there be still
among them any pieces good for anything. But anything that's worth
anything doesn't find its way in here. If you don't despise what's
worthless, you're at liberty to select any two pieces and to take them
away, and have done."
The Taoist matron, Ma, chose with alacrity several pieces and shoved
them in her breast.
"The other day," Mrs. Chao went on to inquire, "I sent a servant over
with five hundred cash; have you presented any offerings before the
god of medicine or not?"
"I've offered them long ago for you," the Taoist matron Ma rejoined.
"O-mi-to-fu!" ejaculated Mrs. Chao with a sigh, "were I a little better
off, I'd also come often and offer gifts; but though my will be boundless,
my means are insufficient!"
"Don't trouble your mind on this score," suggested Ma, the Taoist
matron. "By and bye, when Mr. Huan has grown up into a man and
obtained some official post or other, will there be then any fear of your
not being able to afford such offerings as you might like to make?"
At these words Mrs. Chao gave a smile. "Enough, enough!" she cried.
"Don't again refer to such contingencies! the present is a fair criterion.
For up to whom in this house can my son and I come? Pao-yü is still a

mere child; but he is such that he wins people's love. Those big people
may be partial to him, and love him a good deal, I've nothing to say to
it; but I can't eat humble pie to this sort of mistress!"
While uttering this remark, she stretched out her two fingers.
Ma, the Taoist matron, understood the meaning she desired to convey.
"It's your lady Secunda, Lien, eh?" she forthwith asked.
Mrs. Chao was filled with trepidation. Hastily waving her hand, she got
to her feet, raised the portiere, and peeped outside. Perceiving that there
was no one about, she at length retraced her footsteps. "Dreadful!" she
then said to the Taoist matron. "Dreadful! But speaking of this sort of
mistress, I'm not so much as a human being, if she doesn't manage to
shift over into her mother's home the whole of this family estate."
"Need you tell me this!" Ma, the Taoist matron, at these words,
remarked with a view to ascertain what she implied. "Haven't I,
forsooth, discovered it all for myself? Yet it's fortunate that you don't
trouble your minds about her; for it's far better that you should let her
have her own way."
"My dear woman," rejoined Mrs. Chao, "Not let her have her own way!
why, is it likely that any one would have the courage to tell her
anything?"
"I don't mean to utter any words that may bring upon me retribution,"
added Ma, the Taoist matron, "but you people haven't got the wits. But
it's no matter of surprise. Yet if you daren't openly do anything, why,
you could stealthily have devised some plan. And do you still tarry up
to this day?"
Mrs. Chao realised that there lurked something in her insinuation, and
she felt an inward secret joy. "What plan could I stealthily devise?" she
asked. "I've got the will right enough, but I'm not a person gifted with
this sort of gumption. So were you to impart to me some way or