The Crab-Flower Club Read online

  ‘I’m afraid my knowledge of poetry is strictly limited. However, I happened to see a couplet on someone’s wall yesterday which has stuck in my mind; and as one line in it is about something I can see here, I shall use it to finish my turn with.’

  So saying, he drained the cup and then, picking up a spray of cassia, recited the following line:

  ‘The flowers’ aroma breathes of hotter days.’

  The others all accepted this as a satisfactory conclusion of the performance. Not so Xue Pan, however, who leaped to his feet and began protesting noisily:

  ‘Terrible! Pay the forfeit. Where’s the little doll? I can’t see any doll on the table.’

  ‘I didn’t say anything about a doll,’ said Jiang Yu-han. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘Come on, don’t try to wriggle out of it!’ said Xue Pan. ‘Say what you said just now again.’

  ‘The flowers’ aroma breathes of hotter days.’

  ‘There you are!’ said Xue Pan. ‘ “Aroma”. That’s the name of a little doll. Ask him if you don’t believe me.’ – He pointed to Bao-yu.

  Bao-yu looked embarrassed.

  ‘Cousin Xue, this time I think you do have to pay the forfeit.’

  ‘All right, all right!’ said Xue Pan. ‘I’ll drink.’

  And he picked up the wine in front of him and drained it at a gulp.

  Feng Zi-ying and Jiang Yu-han were still puzzled and asked him what this was all about. But it was Nuageuse who explained. Immediately Jiang Yu-han was on his feet apologizing. The others reassured him.

  ‘It’s not your fault. “Ignorance excuses all”,’ they said.

  Shortly after this Bao-yu had to take temporary leave of the company to ease his bladder and Jiang Yu-han followed him outside. As the two of them stood side by side under the eaves, Jiang Yu-han once more offered Bao-yu his apologies. Much taken with the actor’s winsome looks and gentleness of manner, Bao-yu impulsively took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

  ‘Do come round to our place some time when you are free,’ he said. ‘There’s something I want to ask you about. You have an actor in your company called “Bijou” whom everyone is talking about lately. I should so much like to meet him, but so far I haven’t had an opportunity.’

  ‘That’s me!’ said Jiang Yu-han. ‘ “Bijou” is my stage-name.’

  Bao-yu stamped with delight.

  ‘But this is wonderful! I must say, you fully deserve your reputation. Oh dear! What am I going to do about a First Meeting present?’

  He thought for a bit, then took a fan from his sleeve and broke off its jade pendant.

  ‘Here you are,’ he said, handing it to Bijou. ‘It’s not much of a present, I’m afraid, but it will do to remind you of our meeting.’

  Bijou smiled and accepted it ceremoniously:

  ‘I have done nothing to deserve this favour. It is too great an honour. Well, thank you. There’s rather an unusual thing I’m wearing – I put it on today for the first time, so it’s still fairly new: I wonder if you will allow me to give it to you as a token of my warm feelings towards you?’

  He opened up his gown, undid the crimson cummerbund with which his trousers were fastened, and handed it to Bao-yu.

  ‘It comes from the tribute sent by the Queen of the Madder Islands. It’s for wearing in summer. It makes you smell nice and it doesn’t show perspiration stains. I was given it yesterday by the Prince of Bei-jing, and today is the first time it’s ever been worn. I wouldn’t give a thing like this to anyone else, but I’d like you to have it. Will you take your own sash off, please, so that I can put it on instead?’

  Bao-yu received the crimson cummerbund with delight and quickly took off his own viridian-coloured sash to give to Bijou in exchange. They had just finished fastening the sashes on again when Xue Pan jumped out from behind and seized hold of them both.

  ‘What are you two up to, leaving the party and sneaking off like this?’ he said. ‘Come on, take ‘em out again and let’s have a look!’

  It was useless for them to protest that the situation was not what he imagined. Xue Pan continued to force his unwelcome attentions upon them until Feng Zi-ying came out and rescued them. After that they returned to the party and continued drinking until the evening.

  Back in his own apartment in the Garden, Bao-yu took off his outer clothes and relaxed with a cup of tea. While he did so, Aroma noticed that the pendant of his fan was missing and asked him what had become of it. Bao-yu told her that it had come off while he was riding, and she gave the matter no more thought. But later, when he was going to bed, she saw the magnificent blood-red sash round his waist and began to put two and two together.

  ‘Since you’ve got a better sash now,’ she said, ‘do you think I could have mine back, please?’

  Bao-yu remembered, too late, that the viridian sash had been Aroma’s and that he ought never to have given it away. He now very much regretted having done so, but instead of apologizing, attempted to pass it off with a laugh.

  ‘I’ll get you another,’ he told her lightly.

  Aroma shook her head and sighed.

  ‘I knew you still got up to these tricks,’ she said, ‘but at least you might refrain from giving my things to those disgusting creatures. I’m surprised you haven’t got more sense.’

  She was going to say more, but checked herself for fear of provoking an explosion while he was in his cups. And since there was nothing else she could do, she went to bed.

  She awoke at first daylight next morning to find Bao-yu smiling down at her:

  ‘We might have been burgled last night for all you’d have known about it – Look at your trousers!’

  Looking down, Aroma saw the sash that Bao-yu had been wearing yesterday tied round her own waist, and knew that he must have exchanged it for hers during the night. She tore it off impatiently.

  ‘I don’t want the horrible thing. The sooner you take it away the better.’

  Bao-yu was anxious that she should keep it, and after a great deal of coaxing she consented, very reluctantly, to tie it on again. But she took it off once and for all as soon as he was out of the room and threw it into an empty chest, having first found another one of her own to put on in its place.

  Bao-yu made no comment on the change when they were together again. He merely inquired whether anything had happened the day before, while he was out.

  ‘Mrs Lian sent someone round to fetch Crimson,’ said Aroma. ‘She wanted to wait for you; but it seemed to me that it wasn’t all that important, so I took it on myself to send her off straight away.’

  ‘Quite right,’ said Bao-yu. ‘I already knew about it. There was no need to wait till I got back.’

  Aroma continued:

  ‘Her Grace sent that Mr Xia of the Imperial Bedchamber yesterday with a hundred and twenty taels of silver to pay for a three-day Pro Viventibus by the Taoists of the Lunar Queen temple starting on the first of next month. There are to be plays performed as part of the Offering, and Mr Zhen and all the other gentlemen are to go there to burn incense. Oh, and Her Grace’s presents for the Double Fifth have arrived.’

  She ordered a little maid to get out Bao-yu’s share of the things sent. There were two Palace fans of exquisite workmanship, two strings of red musk-scented medicine-beads, two lengths of maidenhair chiffon and a grass-woven ‘lotus’ mat to lie on in the hot weather.

  ‘Did the others all get the same?’ he asked.

  ‘Her Old Ladyship’s presents were the same as yours with the addition of a perfume-sceptre and an agate head-rest, and Sir Zheng’s, Lady Wang’s and Mrs Xue’s were the same as Her Old Ladyship’s but without the head-rest; Miss Bao’s were exactly the same as yours; Miss Lin, Miss Ying-chun, Miss Tan-chun and Miss Xi-chun got only the fans and the beads; and Mrs Zhu and Mrs Lian both got two lengths of gauze, two lengths of chiffon, two perfume sachets and two moulded medicine-cakes.’

  ‘Funny!’ said Bao-yu. ‘I wonder why Miss Lin didn’t get the same as me and w
hy only Miss Bao’s and mine were the same. There must have been some mistake, surely?’

  ‘When they unpacked them yesterday, the separate lots were all labelled,’ said Aroma. ‘I don’t see how there could have been any mistake. Your share was in Her Old Ladyship’s room and I went round there to get it for you. Her Old Ladyship says she wants you to go to Court at four o’clock tomorrow morning to give thanks.’

  ‘Yes, of course,’ said Bao-yu inattentively, and gave Ripple instructions to take his presents round to Dai-yu:

  ‘Tell Miss Lin that I got these things yesterday and that if there’s anything there she fancies, I should like her to keep it.’

  Ripple went off with the presents. She was back in a very short time, however.

  ‘Miss Lin says she got some yesterday too, and will you please keep these for yourself.’

  Bao-yu told her to put them away. As soon as he had washed, he left to pay his morning call on Grandmother Jia; but just as he was going out he saw Dai-yu coming towards him and hurried forward to meet her.

  ‘Why didn’t you choose anything from the things I sent you?’

  Yesterday’s resentments were now quite forgotten; today Dai-yu had fresh matter to occupy her mind.

  ‘I’m not equal to the honour,’ she said. ‘You forget, I’m not in the gold and jade class like you and your Cousin Bao. I’m only a common little wall-flower!’

  The reference to gold and jade immediately aroused Bao-yu’s suspicions.

  ‘I don’t know what anyone else may have been saying on the subject,’ he said, ‘but if any such thought ever so much as crossed my mind, may Heaven strike me dead, and may I never be reborn as a human being!’

  Seeing him genuinely bewildered, Dai-yu smiled in what was meant to be a reassuring manner.

  ‘I wish you wouldn’t make these horrible oaths. It’s so disagreeable. Who cares about your silly old “gold and jade”, anyway?’

  ‘It’s hard to make you see what is in my heart,’ said Bao-yu. ‘One day perhaps you will know. But I can tell you this. My heart has room for four people only. Grannie and my parents are three of them and Cousin Dai is the fourth. I swear to you there isn’t a fifth.’

  ‘There’s no need for you to swear,’ said Dai-yu. ‘I know very well that Cousin Dai has a place in your heart. The trouble is that as soon as Cousin Chai comes along, Cousin Dai gets forgotten.’

  ‘You imagine these things,’ said Bao-yu. ‘It really isn’t as you say.’

  ‘Yesterday when Little Miss Bao wouldn’t tell lies for you, why did you turn to me and expect me to? How would you like it if I did that sort of thing to you?’

  Bao-chai happened to come along while they were still talking and the two of them moved aside to avoid her. Bao-chai saw this clearly, but pretended not to notice and hurried by with lowered eyes. She went and sat with Lady Wang for a while and from there went on to Grandmother Jia’s. Bao-yu was already at his grandmother’s when she got there.

  Bao-chai had on more than one occasion heard her mother telling Lady Wang and other people that the golden locket she wore had been given her by a monk, who had insisted that when she grew up the person she married must be someone who had ‘a jade to match the gold’. This was one of the reasons why she tended to keep aloof from Bao-yu. The slight embarrassment she always felt as a result of her mother’s chatter had yesterday been greatly intensified when Yuan-chun singled her out as the only girl to receive the same selection of presents as Bao-yu. She was relieved to think that Bao-yu, so wrapped up in Dai-yu that his thoughts were only of her, was unaware of her embarrassment.

  But now here was Bao-yu smiling at her with sudden interest.

  ‘Cousin Bao, may I have a look at your medicine-beads?’

  She happened to be wearing one of the little chaplets on her left wrist and began to pull it off now in obedience to his request. But Bao-chai was inclined to plumpness and perspired easily, and for a moment or two it would not come off. While she was struggling with it, Bao-yu had ample opportunity to observe her snow-white arm, and a feeling rather warmer than admiration was kindled inside him.

  ‘If that arm were growing on Cousin Lin’s body,’ he speculated, ‘I might hope one day to touch it. What a pity it’s hers! Now I shall never have that good fortune.’

  Suddenly he thought of the curious coincidence of the gold and jade talismans and their matching inscriptions, which Dai-yu’s remark had reminded him of. He looked again at Bao-chai –

  that face like the full moon’s argent bowl;

  those eyes like sloes;

  those lips whose carmine hue no Art contrived;

  and brows by none but Nature’s pencil lined.

  This was beauty of quite a different order from Dai-yu’s. Fascinated by it, he continued to stare at her with a somewhat dazed expression, so that when she handed him the chaplet, which she had now succeeded in getting off her wrist, he failed to take it from her.

  Seeing that he had gone off into one of his trances, Bao-chai threw down the chaplet in embarrassment and turned to go. But Dai-yu was standing on the threshold, biting a corner of her handkerchief, convulsed with silent laughter.

  ‘I thought you were so delicate,’ said Bao-chai. ‘What are you standing there in the draught for?’

  ‘I’ve been in the room all the time,’ said Dai-yu. ‘I just this moment went to have a look outside because I heard the sound of something in the sky. It was a gawping goose.’

  ‘Where?’ said Bao-chai. ‘Let me have a look.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Dai-yu, ‘as soon as I went outside he flew away with a whir-r-r—’

  She flicked her long handkerchief as she said this in the direction of Bao-yu’s face.

  ‘Ow!’ he exclaimed – She had flicked him in the eye.

  The extent of the damage will be examined in the following chapter.

  Chapter 29

  In which the greatly blessed pray for yet greater blessings

  And the highly strung rise to new heights of passion

  WE told in the last chapter how, as Bao-yu was standing lost in one of his trances, Dai-yu flicked her handkerchief at him and made him jump by inadvertently catching him in the eye with it.

  ‘Who did that?’ he asked.

  Dai-yu laughingly shook her head.

  ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Bao-chai wanted to look at a gawping goose, and I accidently flicked you while I was showing her how it went.’

  Bao-yu rubbed his eye. He appeared to be about to say something, but then thought better of it.

  And so the matter passed.

  Shortly after this incident Xi-feng arrived and began talking about the arrangements that had been made for the purification ceremonies, due to begin on the first of next month at the Taoist temple of the Lunar Goddess. She invited Bao-chai, Bao-yu and Dai-yu to go with her there to watch the plays.

  ‘Oh no!’ said Bao-chai. ‘It’s too hot. Even if they were to do something we haven’t seen before – which isn’t likely – I think I should still not want to go.’

  ‘But it’s cool there,’ said Xi-feng. ‘There are upstairs galleries on all three sides that you can watch from in the shade. And if we go, I shall send someone a day or two in advance to turn the Taoists out of that part of the temple and make it nice and clean for us and get them to put up blinds. And I’ll ask them not to let any other visitors in on that day. I’ve already told Lady Wang I’m going, so if you others won’t come with me, I shall go by myself. I’m so bored lately. And it’s such a business when we put on our own plays at home, that I can never enjoy them properly.’

  ‘All right then, I’ll come,’ said Grandmother Jia, who had been listening.

  ‘You’ll come, Grannie? Well that’s splendid, isn’t it! That means it will be just as bad for me as it would be if I were watching here at home.’

  ‘Now look here,’ said Grandmother Jia, ‘I shan’t want you to stand and wait on me. Let me take the gallery facing the stage and you can have one
of the side galleries all to yourself; then you can sit down and enjoy yourself in comfort.’

  Xi-feng was touched.

  ‘Do come!’ Grandmother Jia said to Bao-chai. ‘I’ll see that your mother comes too. The days are so long now, and there’s nothing to do at home except go to sleep.’

  Bao-chai had to promise that she would go.

  Grandmother Jia now sent someone to invite Aunt Xue. The messenger was to call in on the way at Lady Wang’s and ask her if the girls might go as well.

  Lady Wang had already made it clear that she would not be going herself, partly because she was not feeling very well, and partly because she wanted to be at home in case any further messages arrived from Yuan-chun; but when she learned of Grandmother Jia’s enthusiasm, she had word carried into the Garden that not just the girls but anyone else who wanted to might go along with Grandmother Jia’s party on the first.

  When this exciting news had been transmitted throughout the Garden, the maids – some of whom hardly set foot outside their own courtyards from one year’s end to the next – were all dying to go, and those whose mistresses showed a lethargic disinclination to accept employed a hundred different wiles to make sure that they did so. The result was that in the end all the Garden’s inhabitants said that they would be going. Grandmother Jia was quite elated and at once issued orders for the cleaning and preparation of the temple theatre.

  But these are details with which we need not concern ourselves.

  On the morning of the first sedans, carriages, horses and people filled all the roadway outside Rong-guo House. The stewards in charge knew that the occasion of this outing was a Pro Viventibus ordered by Her Grace the Imperial Concubine and that Her Old Ladyship was going in person to burn incense – quite apart from the fact that this was the first day of the month and the first day of the Summer Festival; consequently the turnout was as splendid as they could make it and far exceeded anything that had been seen on previous occasions.

  Presently Grandmother Jia appeared, seated, in solitary splendour, in a large palanquin carried by eight bearers. Li Wan, Xi-feng and Aunt Xue followed, each in a palanquin with four bearers. After them came Bao-chai and Dai-yu sharing a carriage with a splendid turquoise-coloured canopy trimmed with pearls. The carriage after them, in which Ying-chun, Tan-chun and Xi-chun sat, had vermilion-painted wheels and was shaded with a large embroidered umbrella. After them rode Grandmother Jia’s maids, Faithful, Parrot, Amber and Pearl; after them Lin Dai-yu’s maids, Nightingale, Snowgoose and Delicate; then Bao-chai’s maids, Oriole and Apricot; then Ying-chun’s maids, Chess and Tangerine; then Tan-chun’s maids, Scribe and Ebony; then Xi-chun’s maids, Picture and Landscape; then Aunt Xue’s maids, Providence and Prosper, sharing a carriage with Caltrop and Caltrop’s own maid, Advent; then Li Wan’s maids, Candida and Casta; then Xi-feng’s own maids, Patience, Felicity and Crimson, with two of Lady Wang’s maids, Golden and Suncloud, whom Xi-feng had agreed to take with her, in the carriage behind. In the carriage after them sat another couple of maids and a nurse holding Xi-feng’s little girl. Yet more carriages followed carrying the nannies and old women from the various apartments and the women whose duty it was to act as duennas when the ladies of the household went out of doors. The street was packed with carriages as far as the eye could see in either direction, and Grandmother Jia’s palanquin was well on the way to the temple before the last passengers in the rear had finished taking their places. A confused hubbub of laughter and chatter rose from the line of carriages while they were doing so, punctuated by an occasional louder and more distinctly audible protest, such as: