The Crab-Flower Club Read online

  ‘I can’t understand it,’ she said. ‘Someone’s just brought me these from Her Ladyship.’

  ‘Oh, I expect they had more than they wanted there, so she’s sent you this to share with the others,’ said Bao-yu.

  ‘No,’ said Aroma. ‘They said it was for me personally; but I’m not to go over and kotow for it. I don’t know what to make of it.’

  Bao-chai laughed.

  ‘If it’s for you to eat, I should go ahead and eat it! Never mind the whys and wherefores!’

  ‘But it’s never happened before,’ said Aroma. ‘I feel so embarrassed.’

  Bao-chai’s lips puckered up mockingly.

  ‘Embarrassed? Before very long you’re going to have much more than this to feel embarrassed about!’

  Aroma sensed something behind this remark. She knew Bao-chai too well to suppose that any such remark of hers would be made triflingly. Remembering what Lady Wang had seemed to hint at in her interview of the previous day, she dropped the subject.

  ‘I’ll have these now then,’ she said, holding the dishes out for Bao-yu to inspect, ‘and as soon as I’ve washed, I shall bring you your gold thread.’

  With that she hurried out again.

  When she returned later, after having lunched and washed her hands, bringing the gold thread for Oriole’s knotting, Bao-chai was no longer there, since she had been called away by Xue Pan’s messenger.

  Bao-yu once more lay back and watched Oriole knotting; but soon they were interrupted once more, this time by a couple of maids from Lady Xing’s. They brought two sorts of fruit and a message for him from their mistress.

  ‘Her Ladyship says are you able to walk? She says if you are, she’d like you to come over some time and amuse yourself. She says tell him I’m thinking of him.’

  ‘Tell her,’ Bao-yu replied politely, ‘that as soon as I can walk, I shall certainly be round to pay my respects. Tell her that the pain is a little better than it was and that she is not to worry.’

  Asking the two girls to be seated, he called Ripple to him and asked her to take half of the fruit they had brought and offer it to Dai-yu; but just as she was about to go, Dai-yu could be heard talking in the courtyard. He told Ripple to hurry outside and invite her in.

  For further details, please consult the following chapter.

  Chapter 36

  Bao-chai visits Green Delights and hears strange words from a sleeper

  Bao-yu visits Pear-tree Court and learns hard facts from a performer

  WHEN Grandmother Jia got back to her own apartment after lunching with Lady Wang, she was naturally very pleased to have seen Bao-yu making such rapid progress; but her pleasure soon gave way to worry when she began wondering what would happen when he was well enough for Jia Zheng to start asking for him again. To guard against that contingency she had Jia Zheng’s Head Boy brought before her to receive instructions direct from her own mouth.

  ‘In future,’ she told him, ‘whenever the Master is entertaining guests or seeing anybody and asks for Bao-yu, you are to say, straight away, without needing to see me about it, first of all that Master Bao was very seriously injured by his beating and will need several months’ complete rest before he can walk properly; and secondly that he has just made an offering to his star-guardian because of an unlucky conjunction in his horo-scope and isn’t allowed to see outsiders or go outside the inner gate until the beginning of the eighth month.’

  She called Nannie Li and Aroma to her as soon as the Head Boy had gone and instructed them to tell Bao-yu this, so that no worries should retard the progress of his recovery.

  Bao-yu had always hated meeting or making conversation with senior males of the scholar-official class and detested all occasions which involved dressing up, such as visits of congratulation and condolence and the various other formal exchanges to which members of that class devote so great a part of their time. His grandmother’s dispensation was therefore particularly gratifying to him, and he used it as an excuse for cutting himself off from all contact with visiting relations and friends. He even pleased himself about whether or not he made the customary morning and evening duty-calls on the senior members of the household. Each day was spent playing or resting in the Garden, and during the whole of the day, except for the brief period in the early morning when he went outside to visit his mother and grandmother, he was the willing captive of his maids and did for them whatever little services it pleased them to command. In such enjoyable indolence several weeks slipped agreeably by. From time to time, as opportunity presented itself, someone like Bao-chai would attempt to remonstrate with him; but her remonstrances would be indignantly rejected.

  ‘Why should a pure, sweet girl like you want to go imitating that ghastly crew of thievish, place-hunting career worms,’ he would say, ‘bothering her head about “fame” and “reputation” and all that sort of rubbish? All these notions you are parroting were dreamed up by meddlesome old men in days gone by for the express purpose of leading astray the whiskered idiots who came after them. I really think it’s too bad that I should have to live in an age when the minds of nice, sensible girls are contaminated by such idiocies. It’s a rank abuse of the intellectual gifts that you were born with!’

  Hearing him talk so wildly, the remonstrators concluded that he was slightly mad, and eventually gave up trying to be serious with him. The exception was Dai-yu, who, ever since they were little children together, had never once spoken to him about the need to ‘get on in the world’ or ‘make a name for oneself’. This was one of the reasons why he so much respected her.

  But to return to our narrative.

  Some time after Golden’s death, Xi-feng began receiving presents and courtesy calls from various senior members of the domestic staff. Though she could not for the moment guess what lay behind these flattering attentions, her suspicions were aroused, and one day, in the course of which she had once more received presents from these people, she laughingly questioned Patience on the subject when they were alone together in the evening.

  ‘I’m surprised you haven’t guessed that!’ said Patience a little scornfully. ‘I think, if you were to look into it, you’d find that all of these people had daughters working for Her Ladyship. There are four senior maids on Her Ladyship’s establishment who each get one tael a month, the rest only get a few hundred cash each; and now that Golden’s dead, one of the tael-a-month places is vacant. I expect these people are trying to get it for their own daughters.’

  ‘Of course!’ said Xi-feng, much amused. ‘Of course! I’m sure you are right. Well, I do think it rather greedy of them. They earn quite good money as it is, they don’t have any really hard work to do, and they’ve got daughters to bring them in a little extra income. I think for them to want to get this plum for themselves as well is really a bit too much. I wouldn’t have thought they could afford to keep sending me presents like this. Still, that’s their concern! If they want to go on giving me presents, I shall go on taking them. But I shall still do what I was going to do anyway. It won’t make any difference to me.’

  In pursuance of this policy she kept the servants waiting for a decision and watched the presents accumulate; then, when no more seemed to be forthcoming, she availed herself of the first opportunity to raise the matter with Lady Wang. This occurred one day about noon when Aunt Xue, Bao-chai and Dai-yu were in Lady Wang’s apartment sharing a water-melon with her. Xi-feng tackled Lady Wang while they sat eating the melon.

  ‘You’ve been short of a maid, Aunt, since Silver’s sister died,’ said Xi-feng. ‘Have you anyone in mind to replace her with? You might let us know if you have, so that we know what to do with next month’s allowance.’

  Lady Wang thought for a bit.

  ‘Do I have to have four maids or five maids or whatever it is?’ she asked. ‘It seems to me that if the maids I’ve got are adequate, I might as well do without the other one.’

  Xi-feng smiled.

  ‘In principle, of course, you are right, Au
nt; but we have got fixed rules about these things, and when some people at the bottom of the scale are making a great fuss about keeping their number up, it wouldn’t do to have you cutting yours down. In any case, the saving would only be one tael a month: it would hardly be worth making.’

  Lady Wang again reflected for some moments.

  ‘Very well,’ she said at last, ‘you can go on paying the allowance as before, but you needn’t find me another maid. Silver shall have it. Her sister gave me a lot of service before she was so unfortunate, poor child. I don’t think it would be excessive to give Silver a double allowance, for her sister’s sake.’

  After promising to see that this was done, Xi-feng turned smilingly to Silver and congratulated her. Silver hurried forward and kotowed in gratitude to Lady Wang.

  ‘That reminds me,’ said Lady Wang: ‘what allowance do Aunt Zhao and Aunt Zhou get each month?’

  ‘The fixed amount is two taels each a month,’ said Xi-feng, but Aunt Zhao gets an additional two taels for Huan, so she really gets four taels. Then on top of that they each get two strings of cash a month for their maids.’

  ‘Do they get the full amount every month?’ said Lady Wang.

  Xi-feng was somewhat taken aback.

  ‘Of course. Why not?’ she replied, a trifle sharply.

  ‘It’s just that I thought I heard someone the other day complaining that they were a string of cash short,’ said Lady Wang. ‘I wonder how that could have happened?’

  Xi-feng smiled disarmingly.

  ‘The allowance for Aunt Zhao’s and Aunt Zhou’s maids used to be one string each a month, but last year Accounts reduced it by a half to five hundred cash. Aunt Zhao and Aunt Zhou are allowed two maids each, so that means they now get one string a month less than they used to. This is something completely outside my control. I’d be only too happy to pay them more if I could, but the cut was made by Accounts, and all I can do is to hand out what I am given. It’s not my decision. In fact, I’ve raised the matter once or twice with them and told them they ought to go back to the original payment, but all they’ll say is that that’s what’s been decided and nothing can be done about it. Actually, now that I do the paying, people do at least get their allowances on time. In the old days, when Accounts made the payments direct, we were always having trouble. Never a month went by without someone getting into debt because they hadn’t been paid on time.’

  Another silence followed in which Lady Wang was evidently thinking.

  ‘How many of Lady Jia’s maids get one tael a month?’ she asked eventually.

  ‘Seven – well, eight really, if you count Aroma.’

  ‘Yes, I see,’ said Lady Wang. ‘Bao-yu wouldn’t have any tael-a-month maids of his own, of course. Aroma still counts as one of Lady Jia’s maids.’

  ‘Oh yes. Aroma is still Grandma’s maid,’ said Xi-feng. ‘Grandma lets Bao-yu employ her, but her pay still comes out of Grandma’s allowance. It would be quite out of the question to cut her pay simply because she’s working for Bao-yu. If you wanted to do that, you’d first have to find another maid for Grandma. And even then, of course, if you wanted her to be paid as a member of Bao-yu’s establishment, to make it fair you’d really need to give Huan another maid, too. Incidentally, the fact that Bao-yu’s senior maids like Skybright and Musk get a string of cash a month and the juniors like Melilot five hundred is due to Grandma’s own personal instructions; so I don’t think anyone is really in a position to make a fuss about that.’

  Aunt Xue laughed.

  ‘Listening to Feng is like listening to a load of walnuts being emptied out of a cart – all those facts and figures! And everything accounted for – everything just and fair!’

  ‘I trust none of the facts and figures were wrong, Aunt,’ said Xi-feng.

  ‘No, no, nothing wrong with the facts and figures,’ said Aunt Xue pleasantly. ‘It’s just that you would save yourself some energy by taking them a little more slowly.’

  Xi-feng seemed about to laugh, but checked herself to hear what her other aunt had to say. Lady Wang, however, deliberated for some little while longer before making her pronouncement.

  ‘Find someone to wait on Lady Jia in place of Aroma,’ she said eventually, ‘and stop paying Aroma out of Lady Jia’s allowance. Instead you can pay her two taels and a string of cash a month out of my personal allowance of twenty taels. And in future, whatever arrangements are made about Aunt Zhao’s and Aunt Zhou’s allowances, I want you to pay Aroma at exactly the same rate – only whatever it is, it’s all to come out of my personal allowance. I don’t want Accounts getting mixed up in this.’

  Having promised to carry out these instructions, Xi-feng turned to Aunt Xue and nudged her playfully.

  ‘There you are! What did I tell you? It’s turned out exactly as I said.’

  ‘And so it should,’ said Aunt Xue warmly. ‘It should have been done long ago. She’s a lovely girl – and it isn’t only her looks I’m referring to, either. She has such a generous, open way of doing things, and she is so polite and friendly to talk to. There’s a strong little will there, though – plenty of determination underneath it all. Oh, I think she’s a real treasure.’

  ‘She is a dear, good child,’ said Lady Wang. ‘I don’t think the rest of you realize just how good she is. Ten times better than my Bao-yu, that’s quite certain. If Bao-yu can keep her with him always, he’ll be a very lucky boy.’

  ‘If you think that, Aunt,’ said Xi-feng, ‘why not have her plucked and painted and make her his chamber-wife openly?’

  ‘No, it wouldn’t do,’ said Lady Wang. ‘First of all he is too young; secondly Sir Zheng would never agree to it; and in the third place, even if we allow a certain amount of freedom between them, as long as he still thinks of her as his maid, there is some chance that he will listen to what she says, but once we make her his chamber-wife, she will feel less free to tell him what she thinks of him when he is being silly. No, I think for the moment at any rate we should leave it a little vague. We can make a more definite arrangement in two or three years’ time.’

  After pausing long enough to ascertain that Lady Wang had nothing more to say, Xi-feng turned and went. A group of stewards’ wives were waiting for her under the eaves in the narrow alley-way at the back to report to her on various household matters. They smiled at her as she emerged, and one of them chaffed her about the length of her visit.

  ‘You’ve been a long time today, Madam. What can you have been talking about to keep you so long? I hope you haven’t overheated yourself with so much talking!’

  Xi-feng stood in the doorway in a very unladylike attitude, one foot on the threshold, rolling her sleeves back and smiling at no one in particular.

  ‘There’s a nice little draught out here. I think I’ll stand here for a bit and cool off.’

  She turned to the women.

  ‘Did you say I’ve been a long time? It’s hardly surprising. Today Her Ladyship has been asking about just about everything that’s happened here during the past two hundred years.’ Her voice lost its jocular tone and became suddenly harsher. ‘From now on if I ever feel like doing something really spiteful, I shall do it. Let her complain to Her Ladyship if she has a mind to, I don’t care. Stupid woman! Stupid, chicken-witted, evil-tongued, snivelling, misbegotten bitch! She ought to wake up. One of these days they’ll make a clean sweep and take the whole lot away – then she’ll have something to shout about! Complain about me, would she, because her maid’s allowance has been cut? Who the Holy Name does she think she is? She’s only a bit of bought goods herself. What’s the likes of her doing with maids to wait on her any way?’

  Leaving the stewardesses to make what they would of this explosion, she strode off to look for someone suitable to take a message in to Grandmother Jia.

  At which point we leave her.

  After Aunt Xue and the two girls had finished their water-melon, they sat talking for a few minutes longer with Lady Wang before leaving, Aunt Xue to return
to her own apartment, Bao-chai and Dai-yu to go back into the Garden. Bao-chai invited Dai-yu to accompany her to the Lotus Pavilion to pay a call on Xi-chun, but Dai-yu said she was going to have a bath, and presently parted company with Bao-chai, leaving her to continue on her way there alone. Bao-chai’s route took her past the House of Green Delights, and as she drew near it, she thought she would call in to chat for a while with Bao-yu and help him to dispel the sleepiness of the early afternoon.

  The courtyard was silent as she entered it. Not a bird’s cheep was to be heard. Even the storks were asleep, hunched up in the shadow of the plantains. Keeping to the relative coolness of the covered walk, she made her way round to the house. In the outer room maids were lying about in all directions asleep. Slipping behind the tall mirror and through the elaborately carved partition, she passed into the inner room where Bao-yu lay inside his protective summer ‘cabinet’ of net. He, too, was fast asleep. Aroma sat at his bedside sewing, a white horse-hair fly-whisk with a handle of white rhinoceros-horn at her side. Bao-chai entered the ‘cabinet’ and laughed softly at Aroma.

  ‘Aren’t you being rather over-cautious?’ she whispered. ‘What’s the fly-whisk for? Surely no flies or mosquitoes can get in here?’

  Aroma looked up, startled, hurriedly put down her sewing, and rose to her feet.

  ‘Oh, it’s Miss Bao! I wasn’t expecting you,’ she whispered. ‘You gave me quite a shock – no, we don’t get any flies or mosquitoes in here, but there’s a little tiny insect that finds its way through the holes in the netting. They’re so small, you don’t notice them; but when you’re asleep they can give you a nasty bite – a bit like an ant-bite.’

  ‘That’s not surprising,’ said Bao-chai. ‘You’ve got water behind you here, you see; you’ve also got a lot of sweet-smelling flowers outside; and indoors is perfumed as well. This kind of insect breeds in the insides of flowers and is attracted towards anything fragrant. That’s why you get them inside the house.’